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Mark 1 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

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Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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read along episode in this podcast feed.
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If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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now. When you're ready, let's dive
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into God's word together. As we move into the book of
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Mark, we're met with a fast start.
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In just the first chapter of Mark we see John the Baptist
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preaching Jesus being baptized, Jesus calling several of his
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disciples, Jesus casting out demons including one
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particularly detailed account of a demon possessed man in the
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synagogue, Jesus healing many sick with various diseases
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including Peter's mother-in-law, Jesus preaching the Gospel, and
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finally Jesus healing a leper who spread the news so widely
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that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city.
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Wow. Remember, it took until Matthew
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chapter 4 to see Jesus tempted in the wilderness.
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Mark had us there by verse 13 of chapter 1.
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In fact, this account is so to the point that we see the author
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use the word immediately no less than 10 times in the 1st chapter
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of this gospel. 10 times. So why the speed?
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Why move so quickly? The Holy Spirit through Mark the
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human author, wants us to realize that Jesus was a man,
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the God man to be precise, on a mission.
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He had a goal. He was under orders from God the
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Father, and from day one he was bent toward accomplishing the
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mission the Father had given him.
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We know as readers on this side of Jesus life that ultimately
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that mission was Jesus death and resurrection, His purchasing of
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a people for himself by his blood.
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But leading up to that time that played out primarily through
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Jesus proclamation of God's salvation plan.
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We see that in verse 14 and 15 which say now after John had
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been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
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gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the
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Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the
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gospel. Jesus came preaching telling
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this good news that if we would repent and believe the gospel,
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we can have forgiveness and even eternal life with God.
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This was Christ's priority and he wasted no time going about
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it. Again, in verse 38, in the midst
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of a host of healings and casting out many demons, Jesus
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tells his disciples, let us go somewhere else, to the towns
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nearby, so that I'm a preach there also.
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For that is what I came for. That is what he came for.
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He was healing. He was entering into physical
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brokenness and undoing the result of sin and individual
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lives. But that was not the main point.
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No, that was just a pointer, A signpost for his message, his
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call to repent and believe. And so throughout the book of
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Mark and even throughout the other Gospels, keep this in
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mind. Jesus healing ministry and his
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many miracles are amazing displays of his power.
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But the real weight, the real drive of his ministry is not the
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miracles, but the message. And in that message is the real
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power. Romans 116 says, For I am not
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ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
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to everyone who believes, to the Jew 1st, and also to the Greek,
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the gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who
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believes. That is the main point.