Mark 1:1-8 120422

One of my many quirks is that when I go to the movies, I always have to get there early.

It's not so that I can be first in line to get popcorn or Snowcaps. It's not so that I can get good parking. I get to the movies early because I want to make sure that I don't miss the coming attractions.

The coming attractions get me excited about what movies are coming out next. They give me something to look forward to when it comes to my entertainment calendar. They inform me of things that are coming, that I didn't even know were in the work

in the Gospel of Mark, we are going to see a type of "coming attraction" when it comes to the mission of John the Baptist. John's job was to announce and inform the world that something great is coming. To tell the world that there is something to look forward to, that maybe they didn't even know was coming.  

John was not the main event, but he had the important mission of announcing the main event---The coming of the Christ. The coming of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord's--Jesus. 

Now maybe like me you have been to some movies where the coming attractions were the best part of the movie you went to see. This was not the case with John the Baptist. John was great in his own right, but the coming attraction--Jesus, would change the whole world. The main event would give hope to the hopeless, vision to the blind, healing to the sick, comfort to the widow, and salvation to the lost.

This Christmas season, are you more excited about the previews than you are about the main event? 

Christmas music, Christmas lights, Christmas movies, Christmas parties, eggnog, gifts, and decorations are great, in that, they are previews to what is coming--Christmas. However, we need to be most excited about the main event--the remembrance of the day in which Jesus stepped down out of heaven in the form of a babe, fully God and fully man, to come and rescue the hopeless sinner.

Since we are starting a New Book, the Gospel of Mark, we are going to spend a good amount of time getting to know the context and background of this Book. This will be important as we can use this context to help inform and frame the rest of the Book; so, you don't want to miss this.

6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:6-8