The Beginning of the Gospel | Pr. Collins Sakalunda

The first chapel of the term focused on the Gospel of Mark, specifically Mark 1:1–13, under the theme “Jesus, the Son of God, enters human history.” Pastor Collins Sakalunda explained that the gospel is not the beginning of a religion but God’s good news, and that this good news begins with a person—Jesus. Mark opens his gospel by showing that this message has a divine origin and that it inaugurates a new timeline in history. The gospel, as Mark presents it, is a royal proclamation; in his day the word gospel was used for imperial announcements, not good advice or simply a way to go to heaven. By using this language, Mark is intentionally confronting Rome and declaring that Jesus, not Caesar, is King, making the gospel a cosmic inversion. The subject of this message is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is both divine and the long-awaited Messiah, a truth that becomes clear as the gospel unfolds and reaches a turning point in Mark 8:29. If the Messiah is the Son of God, then God truly dwelt among us. Practically and ethically, this calls us to faith and intellectual submission, reminding us that if Jesus is truly the anointed King, then He is Lord over every part of life, including the academic institution, affirming that all truth is God’s truth.