Mark’s Missions Magnitude
Evangelism is the Focal Point
August 2023
Each presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether it is from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, is designed to be evangelistic. Some are written to the lost directly while others are written for the lost indirectly. Matthew and John are written to the lost directly so they can read the accounts and “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing [they] might have life through his name. ” (John 20:31) But Mark and Luke are written to believers in order to prepare them to bring the Gospel to the lost. Therefore, they were written to disciple believers to be evangelistic.
A Richter Scale is a numerical scale for reading the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of seismograph readings. The more powerful earthquakes typically have magnitudes between about 5.5 and 8.9. The most powerful earthquake recorded on the Richter scale was the 9.5-magnitude Valdivia Earthquake that struck Chile in 1960, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was felt across a 150,000 square mile area.
It is to prepare believers to carry the Gospel of Christ to the whole world that Mark writes succinctly and powerfully and then ends with the focal point to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) That is the magnitude of Mark’s Great Commission charge. Like an earthquake, the power of its influence was felt over all the known world wherein by Acts 17:6, 1,500 miles from the church in Jerusalem, in the city of Thessalonica, adversaries cried out: “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” The Great Commission message and method by which these missionaries shook the landscape is recorded in verse 1-3. Verse 1 says “they came…” Verse 2 says they reasoned. Verse 3 says they alleged. That is to say that they went into all the world, and they preached the gospel to every creature.
It’s been said that if the Great Commission is true, then it should be the focal point of every local church. Then the plans to carry it out can never be too big; they can only be too small. Let’s measure the magnitude of our missionary activity by the degree in which we carry out the Great Commission!
Pleading & Plodding!
GFF General Director