Mark wrote this good news about Jesus
About this book
A man called Mark wrote this book. We don't know a lot about him but he was sometimes called John Mark, and we know that his mother had a house in Jerusalem. When Jesus went back to heaven, his followers sometimes had meetings in the house that belonged to Mark's mother. You can read about this in the book of Acts 12:12.
Mark had a cousin called Barnabas. Sometimes Mark went with him and another missionary, Paul, when they went to communities to tell people about Jesus. You can read about those trips in the books called Acts 13:5, Acts 15:36-39, Colossians 4:10, and 2 Timothy 4:11.
Mark wrote this book about 20 or 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Everything that Mark wrote in this book happened about 2,000 years ago, and most of them happened in the country we now call Israel.
When Jesus was living on earth, the people that lived in Israel were called Jews and they had 2 leaders. The main leader was a Roman man who was called See-zar (Caesar). He lived in a country called Rome that was a long way from Israel. See-zar sent some of his soldiers to make sure that the Jewish people followed Roman laws. The second leader was a Jewish man called King Herod. He was like a little boss over the Jewish people.
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God sent a man to get people ready for Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 3:1-12, in Luke 3:1-18 and in John 1:19-28
1 This story is good news. It is all about Jesus Christ, God's son.
2-3 A very long time before Jesus was born, there was a man who gave God's messages to people. His name was Isaiah and this is one of the messages that Isaiah wrote down.
“I will send a messenger to get everything ready for you.
That man will talk about you, so that people can listen to what you say.
That man will go out into the dry country, and he will call out and say to people,
‘The Lord is coming to this country, so get everything ready for him.’ ” +
The words that Isaiah wrote down came true
4-6 At the right time, God sent a man named John to get people ready to meet Jesus. John's clothes were made out of camel hair and his belt was made from animal skin. He ate grass-hoppers and bush honey.+
John went all over the Judean country talking to people. And this is what he said to them, “If you are really sorry for the wrong way you are living, God will forgive you. That means God will forget about all the wrong things you did and he will say that you are not guilty. And if you tell me that you are truly sorry, we will have a special washing ceremony called baptism.”
All the people in Jerusalem and other towns in Judea heard stories about John and so they went out into the dry country to find him. They listened to what John said and some of the people told John that they were really sorry for not living God's way. So John took them down into the Jordan River and he baptised them. From that time he was called John the Baptist.
7 And John told them this message, “A man is coming soon. He is more powerful than me. He is so important that I cannot even get down on my knees and touch his foot. 8 I baptised you, I washed you with water. But this new man will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”*
John baptised Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 3:13-17 and in Luke 3:21-22
9 At that time, Jesus was living in a town called Nazareth in Galilee. Galilee was in the north part of Israel. One day Jesus left his home and walked down south to where John was baptising people in the Jordan River. When he got there, Jesus went down into the water and John baptised him. 10 When Jesus came up out of the water, he looked up and saw right into heaven. It was like the sky split open and God's Holy Spirit came down onto Jesus like a pigeon. 11 And God said to Jesus, “You are my son. I love you very much, and I am very happy with you.”+
The Devil tested Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 4:1-11 and in Luke 4:1-13
12 Straight away, the Holy Spirit made Jesus go out into the dry country. 13 Jesus stayed out there for 40 days, and the Devil, the Cheeky One, tried to get Jesus to turn away from God, but Jesus didn't take any notice. There were wild animals in that place, but God's angels looked after Jesus.
Jesus went back to Galilee
And you can read this story in Matthew 4:12-22 and Luke 4:14-15
14 One day King Herod sent some men to arrest John and put him in jail. Then Jesus went back north to Galilee to tell people God's good news. 15 He said to them, “The time has come for God to do something new. Very soon God will show that he is the king over everything. So, believe this good news and turn back to God.”+
Jesus told some fishermen to leave their job and follow him
And you can read this story in Matthew 4:18-22 and in Luke 4:1-11
16 One day, Jesus was walking along next to the water of Lake Galilee and he saw 2 men throwing a net into the water to catch fish. The men were Simon and his brother Andrew.
17 Jesus said to them, “Come and follow me. You know how you catch fish and bring them into your boat, well, I will teach you how to bring people into God's family.” 18 Straight away, Simon and Andrew put down their nets and followed Jesus.
19 Jesus was still walking next to the water when he saw an old man named Zeb-ed-dee (Zebedee) and his 2 sons, James and John. They were in a boat getting their nets ready to go fishing. 20 Jesus called out to them and said, “Come and follow me.” So they left their father and the other workmen in the boat and they followed Jesus.
Jesus made a bad spirit go out of a man
And you can read this story in Luke 4:31-37
21 Jesus and his followers went to a town called Cap-per-ni-um (Capernaum). The next Saturday, on the day that the Jewish people had their rest day†, Jesus and his followers went to the Jewish meeting house‡. At that meeting, Jesus started to teach the people about God. 22 When the people heard him, it was like they were listening to God himself talking to them. Jesus said strong and straight words, and the people were amazed. The Jewish law teachers did not teach like that.+
23 Straight away, a man with a bad spirit in him shouted out, 24 “Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone. Why do you make trouble for all of us spirits? Are you going to finish us up? We know who you are. You are God's special man.”
25 Jesus growled at the bad spirit and said, “Be quiet. Come out of him.”
26 That bad spirit made the man shake like he was taking a fit, and the spirit made a loud noise as it came out of the man.
27 All the people were looking, and they were really shocked. They said to each other, “What's going on? This man is teaching us something new, and he has so much power. He tells the bad spirits to get out of people, and the spirits do what he tells them.”
28 Those people went out and told everyone what they saw and from that time all the people in Galilee knew about Jesus.
Jesus made a lot of sick people better
And you can read this story in Matthew 8:14-17 and in Luke 4:38-41
29 At the end of the meeting, Jesus, James, and John went to Simon and Andrew's house. 30 When they got there, someone told Jesus that Simon's mother-in-law was really sick and lying on her bed. 31 Jesus went to see her. He helped her stand up and straight away she was better. Then she went out and got food ready for them.
32-33 That night, all the people from the town came to Simon's house. They took all the sick people and people that had bad spirits in them to see Jesus. Then they waited outside the house. 34 Jesus made the sick people better and he sent a lot of bad spirits out of people. Those spirits knew that Jesus was God's son, and so Jesus told them to be quiet. He didn't want them to tell everyone who he was.
Jesus prayed
And you can read this story in Luke 4:42-44
35 The next day just before the sun came up, Jesus walked out of the town to a quiet place to pray by himself. 36 When Simon and the others got up, they looked everywhere for Jesus. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
38 But Jesus said, “Come on, let's go. I have to go to the other towns around here too and tell people my good news. That is why I came here.”
39 So Jesus went to all the Jewish meeting places in Galilee. He told people about God and sent many bad spirits out of people.+
A man had a bad skin sickness, but Jesus made him better
And you can read this story in Matthew 8:1-4 and in Luke 5:12-16
40 A man with a bad skin sickness walked up to Jesus. He got down on his knees and said, “I know that if you want to, you can make me better.”
41 Jesus was feeling really sorry for him and said, “I do want to make you better.” Then Jesus touched the man with his hand and said, “You are better now.” 42 Straight away, that skin sickness was gone.
43-44 Then Jesus spoke really straight to the man and said, “I do not want you to tell anyone what I did. I want you to go right now and show your skin to the Priest (Jewish ceremony man), so that he can see that you are better. Moses, that leader from a long time ago, gave us Jewish people a ceremony to say thank you to God, so go and do that ceremony. Then everyone will know that you are better.”+
45 But the man did not do what Jesus said. He went away and told everyone what Jesus did for him, and so people came from everywhere to see Jesus. So many people came to see him that he could not walk in the towns anymore. He tried to stay out in the dry country, but the people still found him.
+ 1:2-3 Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1 + 1:4-6 2 Kings 1:8 * 1:8 That means he will make you clean on the inside and make you right for God. God will put the Holy Spirit inside you. + 1:11 Genesis 22:2; Psalms 2:7; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Mark 9:7 + 1:15 Matthew 3:2 † 1:21 The Jewish rest day is called Sabbath. ‡ 1:21 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue) + 1:22 Matthew 7:28-29 + 1:39 Matthew 4:23; 9:35 + 1:43-44 Leviticus 14:1-32