Are You Ready for Some Good News?, Part 1

Bill Maier (0:07)

When was the last time you heard something that was unshakably good? Good no matter what the headlines say, good no matter what you're walking through. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens the Gospel of Mark and lingers over a single sentence, just 12 words. But packed inside them is an announcement so good, it reaches all the way back before the world began and all the way into whatever you're facing right now.

It's news that can give you a song even on your darkest night. So are you ready for some good news?

Chuck Swindoll (0:48)

Turn, if you will, to Mark 1 Chapter 1, verse 1

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet. Behold, I sent my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying John. the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

And he was preaching and saying, After me one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him, and a voice came out of the heavens, saying, You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. Immediately the Spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him.

Bill Maier (3:03)

You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by going to insight.org/offer.

Chuck titled today's message, Are you ready for some good news?

Chuck Swindoll (3:21)

Opening words are designed to command attention. Every once in a while, I have a chance to work with young preachers, and I always talk to them about the importance of introductions. People's time is important. Don't waste it. Get right into it. I can still hear the words of my mother. I could wrap up all of her counsel in four words. Get it said, son.

I remember the story of a pastor who was talking on the phone the previous week with a fellow pastor, and this other pastor on the other end of the line was so discouraged. And he said to him, the one listening, he said, I've got to tell you, I've decided that next Sunday I'm going to resign. He said, really? He said, how are you going to tell the people? First thing out of my mouth, I'm going to tell them, I've decided I am going to resign. Well, the pastor hearing that thought, what a great way for me to begin my sermon. So he's going to tell them about his pastor friend. So he began his sermon, I've decided I'm going to resign. And before he could tell the story, somebody said, it's about time. So you've got to choose those opening words carefully. People are listening from the very start. Paul O'Neill knew that, and he came up with what was called O'Neill's Law, which says, by the way, he's a former writer for Life magazine. He said, always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tag line. Don't you love that? Sink your thumbs into the windpipe. Dare him not to listen.

As I read writers like Charles Dickens, I think, he never heard of O'Neill's Law, but he knew it. When he wrote The Tale of Two Cities, he began, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. You read that opening line and you've got to read on. Ernest Hemingway was another in The Old Man and the Sea. He began, he was an old man who fished alone. I've got to read more about this old man in the sea, and you do as you read that.