I'm Pastor Mike Winger and this is Bible Thinker the program dedicated to thinking

biblically about everything.

So this is part two in our verse by verse study of the Gospel of Mark.

We're going to go all the way through the entire Gospel.

We're actually going to be in Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 8 today.

That's the section we're going to be covering, at least that's the plan, and I think I can stick to it.

Some days I'm not so sure, but today I think I can stick to it.

So we're looking, just to remind you guys, we're looking at contextual or historical insights.

We're looking at theological insights, we're looking

at a real biblical application into our lives, we just want a legitimate application of what

we're reading and not something we sort of forced to find a reason to apply it, you know?

And then number four, we're looking for apologetic related issues that come up in the text.

And I think we'll have some of all of that today as we go

through so here's here's what we're looking at we're looking at John the

Baptist that's how Mark's gospel starts. Mark's gospel starts with John the

Baptist and he is the forefront person in fact you'll see him in all

of the Gospels as a prominent person in each of them and I wonder if you've ever

considered what's up with John the Baptist. Like why? Why not just

have Jesus? Why is John the Baptist there? And it's actually profoundly important

that his presence is there. So we're going to go through it three times, Mark 1 through 8, three times

tonight. First time, I'm just going to read it. Because the reading of the scripture is something

that we maybe sometimes neglect,

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