1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 1:2 As it is written in the Prophets:"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,Who will prepare Your way before You." 1:3 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:'Prepare the way of the Lord;Make His paths straight.' " 1:4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 1:5 Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. (New King James Version)

When I came to San Diego seven and half years ago, I started a series of Bible studies. We studied the Old Testament from Genesis to Deuteronomy, chapter by chapter, at Wednesday and Thursday prayer meetings. It was difficult for us not to skip any chapters. Not all chapters of the Books of Moses were intereting to us. Some chapters of Leviticus and Numbers seemed "boring," but we never skipped them. We tried to find God's plan of salvation and His instruction for our daily life. Many of us became stronger Christians through such constant study of the Bible. I recently started another chapter-by-chapter Bible study of the Book of Joshua. I want to reach Ruth by the end of this year.

At the Sunday prayer meeting, we learned "Basic Bible Doctrines," Letter to Ephsians, and the Revelation of John through my original textbook. During Sunday worship services, I had already preached from Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Colossians. This year I am challenged to preach from the The gospel of Mark. We'll study Mark paragraph by paragraph. I'll try to interpret and explain the meaning of each verse in order to apply it to our daily lives. The ministry of the Word is not easy. I need your prayers and help.

This morning I'll present my first sermon from the Book of Mark. If you are interested in studying this book with me, please join our 9:15 worship service. We'll provide you a simultaneous English translation every Sunday. If you miss my message, go to our web site. You can listen to my Sunday sermon through the Internet.

What is The gospel?

Today's title is "The Beginning of the The gospel." Isn't that a suitable title for the first sermon of the new series? But I didn't invent this title. Mark did. Mark chose this title for his book. One of the characteristics of the The gospel of Mark is that he used short sentences, but a rich meaning was contained in his short sentences. We can see a rich meaning in the phrase, "the beginning of the gospel."

When he used these words, he must have used them consciously while thinking of the phrase in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." He tried to say that in Christ we have a new beginning equally matched to the creation of the world. Yes, we are the new creation of God in Christ. Mark tried to show the power of the gospel by using the same phrase as written in the first book of the Bible.

Don't misunderstand the gospel. It is not a story of Jesus' life. It's more than biography. The Greek word, "euangerion" means "good news." And this Greek word was popular among the people. Mark uesed this word as the word which had richer meaning more than the people used. It's more than good news. Actually, there is also "bad news" contained in the The gospel. In Romans 2:16 Paul said, "In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." In this passage he mentioned God's judgment. The gospel is not a collection of loverable words. The gospel also requires us to repent, to obey, and to make sacrifice. In Mark 8:35, Jesus told the disciples, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." In 2 Tim 1:8, Paul said to Timothy, "Share with me in the sufferings for the gospel." In Philippians 1:27, he also commands us, "Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel." The gospel is good news. But it contains serious tidings; everything is not sweet to our ears.

The gospel is the truth. (Gal 2:5) The gospel is the mystery. (Eph 6:19) The gospel is the light. (2 Cor 4:4; 2 Tim 2:8) The gospel brings us peace (Eph 6:15) and hope (Col 1:23). It is not just a newspaper headline. It is not a statement. It is God's dynamic saving power. "It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16) As Mark's title, "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ" indicates, God always begins new things when the gospel is preached. Most of us have already experienced the power of The gospel. We were born again through the gospel. And we hope that God may create new thing among us, in the San Diego Japanese Christian Church, when we listen to the gospel sincerely and we share the gospel with the people outside the church.

What is the theme of the gospel?

Let's move on to the next phrase. Mark describe the word "gospel" by the phrase; "of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Paul used "the gospel of God" six times, and "the gospel of Christ" ten times in his letters. When he said "the gospel of God," he meant that God revealed the gospel. He said about the "origin" of the gospel. When he said "the gospel of Christ," he spoke about the "content" of the gospel. "The gospel of Christ" means that the theme of the gospel is Christ. Mark also wanted to show that the theme or the center of the gospel is a person, Jesus Christ.

"The gospel of Christ" is popular in the New Testament, but "the gospel of Jesus Christ" occurs only in Mark 1:1. Mark declared that the gospel is a confession of Jesus Christ. The combination "Jesus" and "Christ" itself is a confession. Jewish people believed in Christ. But they never accepted that Jesus is the Christ. "Jesus Christ" means that Jesus is the Christ. Mark also described Jesus Christ as "the Son of God." He tried to clarify this description. Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of God. This is the central message of the gospel. We are saved by confessing exactly the same as the first century Christian.

I'm sure that the most of you know the meaning of the fish shaped symbol. The first letter of the word "fish" represents "Jesus", second "Christ", third "God", forth "Son", and fifth word means "Savior." When Christians were being persecuted by the Roman emperors, they found other Christians using this symbol. One person draws a part of circle on the ground. If another person completes the circle in the shape of fish, they recognize each other as Christians who confess Jesus is the Christ, God's Son and the Savior.

Today there are many false gospels. They may teach us morals, positive thinking, or good management of your life, but they have no Christ in their teachings. Without Christ there is no gospel. We are saved only through the sincere confession of Jesus Christ. And only the gospel can bring us to the confession. Two years ago we studied the Letter to Colossians both in the English and Japanese Departments. And we established a theme, "Let Christ be in the center of your life" for that year. We still need to examine ourselves to determine if we put Him in the central part of the church and our life. Do we really confess Jesus as the Lord, the King, and the Master? Do we hold the same gospel that the first century Christians did?

When the gospel began?

Before concluding my sermon, I want to point out one more thing regarding "the beginning of the gospel." It is the question of when the gospel began. Mark started his gospel commencing with the public life of Jesus. Since John the Baptist took part in the debut of Jesus Christ, Mark began his gospel relating John's activities. Was the preaching of John the Baptist the beginning of the gospel? The answer is both "Yes" and "No." The gospel is what must be preached. Therefore when preaching the gospel, John the Baptist is the beginning. He began to preach the gospel. He himself belonged to the Old Testament era, but he also preached the coming age and a part of the gospel.

However, Mark described the activities of John by quoting from Isaiah and Malachi John was prophesied four hundred to seven hundred years before he appeared. This means that God has already planned His Son's ministry at that time, even from the beginning of the world. Our intellect cannot follow God's predestination. What we can say is that God never adapts stopgap measures, a hastily put-together report, or a last minute job. When He does something, He does it in a well prepared way. Therefore we can say that the gospel began before the foundation of the world. It existed in the heart of the Father from eternity. He warmed it in His heart, and it was preached at the proper time.

We also desire the same spirit. We have to preach the gospel. We should become the witnesses of Christ. We have a goal to reach 100 people with the gospel. If we feel these things are just our obligation as Christians or church members, nothing will happen. We have to understand the fullness of the gospel. We must hold a genuine gospel that proclaims Jesus is really the Christ, and God's Son. However nobody can become an effective witness for Christ simply by auiring understanding or possessing the truth. We need one more element. This is a passion; a burning heart that can reach out to lost people. Where can we get such passion or motivation? From the heart of the Father. When we are led to the presence of God by the Word of God, we will find how much he loves us. When our hearts are tuned to the heart of God, our hearts will resonate with the heart of God. We will be moved by God's love, and try to reach the people.

Reaching one hundred people is not a task that can be accomplished just by a sense of obligation. If so, one hundred would be a large number. However, when the love of God that seeks the lost souls is filled in our hearts, we find that more than one hundred people, even thousands of people are lost without Christ. We set the number one hundred as the goal of this fiscal year with the desire that at least one hundred people can be contacted and we can share the gospel among the thousands of lost people for the sake of God's love. Is every one motivated by God's love? If so, we can reach the goal. We can reach the goal not for our own, but for the unsaved of this world.

Prayer

Our Father, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to worship you as a whole church at the beginning of this new year. We also thank you for giving your Word to us. We learned about the dynamic power of the gospel, the theme of the gospel, and the origin of the gospel. It came from Your heart. So draw our hearts closer to your heart, and use us as your tools for reaching out to people with your gospel. Begin your saving work with us. Use us to further your work. Allow this moment to be a starting point towards knowing your gospel and the love behind it. From this time on make us the tool for preaching your gospel. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Preached at SDJCC, January 4, 1998)