Why are there four gospels? Mark 1-2

Having read through the Gospel of Matthew first and now Mark there is a stark contrast in style. If Matthew is a marathon, Mark is a 100 yard sprint. Matthew plots through and details how Christ is fulfilling the Old Testament prophets. And whereas Mark starts with the prophet Isaiah, he is absent on the large descriptive parts of his story, telling us just enough to get us to the end of the story. If Matthew is about history, Mark is about action. Notice how fast he moves from one scene to the other. It is like he is telling us the story of Christ from Post-It Notes he has stuck-up all over his small office. But whereas the style of the two may be foreign to each other their theme is the same: Christ came to save the lost and preach glad tidings of great joy (Mark 1:7,8 & 2:38 compared with Matthew 4:23). This is a great lesson on how we view Christ's story differently and may tell it in completely different genres, only to be brought together by the fundamental theme of Jesus; that He is here to save us. Big Idea: Each of us may differ on how we tell the Story, but the Story still is the same and we must tell it.   When we read Luke and John we will see two more "versions" of the story ... with the same central themes.