If you want to follow the Messiah, you've got to get ready to move!

Mark’s gospel has an urgency to it that’s hard to ignore. It's as if he is breathless, trying to get the information out as quickly as he can, as a response to the great persecution of Christians by Nero that was taking place when Mark wrote this book.  A few decades had passed since Jesus’ ministry, and with persecution intensifying, some believers were tempted to compromise, apologize, or simply give up on being a follower of the Messiah.

So, Mark needed to take the early Christians back to the basics. In his rapid-fire account, he pulls no punches in answering these important questions: Who is this Jesus? What does he expect of me? Is suffering a normal part of the Christian life? What will encourage and strengthen my trust in Jesus? These questions are not born of a lack of faith, but serve to strengthen and stabilize our relationship with the Savior.