Speaker: Nathan Guy

The gospel is not just a list of beliefs about something that happened 2,000 years ago. It’s the controlling narrative that makes sense of everything that’s ever happened, and everything that will happen. It is the constant flowing river underneath every commandment, every prophetic message, every story of conflict between good and evil, and every hope expressed to God by a people crying out for deliverance.

What do Moses, Jesus, and a servant compelled to go one mile have in common? The willingness to accept the task assigned. This is meekness.

What is the gospel? Every religion teaches about man chasing after God. The gospel says that God came chasing after us. I am not the primary agent; God is the primary agent. I am the problem. God is the solution. The gospel highlights not my worthiness, but my unworthiness. The gospel highlights Christ’s worthiness, and then it talks about how in Christ, through His Spirit, by His power, the most amazing things begin to happen.

There is a story to end all stories. One of a knight, a dragon, and a damsel in distress. This is the tale of the Dragon Slayer.

An empty tomb, witnesses, and fear. If the Gospel of Mark is “the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” then how does it end?

Without God’s presence, this world is a cold, dark, scary place, unsafe and unfit for image-bearers of God. But with God’s ever abiding presence, says Dallas Willard, “this present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.” He won’t forget you. He won’t abandon you. And Matthew’s genealogy gives us several reasons to hope that God is with us in the darkness, so we have no reason to fear.

A look at Mark’s depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus. We examine Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 to explore how Jesus fills the role of Suffering servant, and thus becomes the stand-in vessel to suffer God’s wrath and to inherit God’s blessings. And through it all, we come to realize God’s representative is God himself.

Technology has given us some incredible things. You can now Facetime with Grandma and send mail electronically that will get to its destination in a matter of milliseconds rather than days. But no matter what devices we employ, or commodity we consume, some things you just can’t phone in. Bodies sharing life together is what presence truly means. And it’s why He came. The first lesson in a 3-part series entitled “Christmas Presence.”

A look at Jesus’ arrest and trials in Mark 14-15.