We come now to the gospel of Mark. Open your Bible, if you will, to the first
chapter of Mark...the first chapter of Mark. And we are going to read for you the opening
eight verses, and then we're going to look at them this morning. Mark chapter 1 and verse 1. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold, I send My messenger
ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying 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 baptized you with water, but He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit.'" Thus does Mark begin his history of the Lord
Jesus Christ, drawn from his time spent with the beloved Apostle Peter who was the human
source of his information. Of course, superintended and guided by the
Holy Spirit so that when he wrote, he wrote under divine inspiration. The key word that I want you to look at is
in verse 1, it is the word "gospel." The word "gospel," of course, is very familiar
to us. Sometimes when we use the word "gospel" we
actually mean a book, like the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, or
the gospel of John. But in the New Testament, the gospel is never
a reference to one of those four books. The word "gospel" in the New Testament always
refers to the message of salvation. And that's its usage here. How are we to understand then in the context
in which Mark is writing,, the usage of this word? How would first century people view its significance? There is here given no definition of the word
"gospel." The Greek word, euangelion is the word "gospel"
that appears in our English Bible. But what did the word euangelion mean to those
who would read or hear this book read? Is it a word that is so inimitably Christian
that we invented it? Is the word "gospel" our word? Is euangelion distinctively a New Testament
word? Well the answer to that question is no. It's a very old word and it was a very familiar
word both to Jews and to Gentiles long in usage and rather specific in its meaning. Yes, the word euangelion means good news,
joyous message, glad tidings. But it had a more technical usage both in
the minds of the Jews and the Gentiles as well. And remember now, Mark is writing from Rome
to Roman Christians and Roman non-Christians, primarily then a Gentile audience. It's important then to consider how they would
understand this word since he doesn't define it for them. But let's, first of all, wonder how the Jews
would understand it. There certainly were Jews among the Christians. There were certainly Jews among the non-Christians
who would read and have read and continue to read this book. So what does gospel mean to them? How does it connect to them? Well, it is used in the Greek version of the
Old Testament called the Septuagint, the Old Testament written originally in Hebrew but
there is a Greek version of it in which the word euangelion is the best translation of
the Old Testament word. For that, I would take you back to listen
carefully to Isaiah chapter 40...Isaiah chapter 40. This is a very important chapter, by the way,
Isaiah 40, because it looks forward to the coming of Messiah in the far-distant future. It also looks forward in the near future to
the children of Israel being released from captivity and going back to their land. That is why chapter 40 begins, "Comfort, O
comfort My people, speak kindly to Jerusalem, call out to her, her warfare has ended, her
iniquity has been removed. She has received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sins. Her punishment is over, it's time for restoration." That's what Isaiah is saying and that looks
in the near future from Isaiah's vantage point to the return of the Babylonian captivity
and from the far viewpoint to the future coming of Messiah. Dropping down to verse 9 in that chapter,
we read this, "Get yourself up on a high mountain, there's an announcement coming. Find the highest point to make the announcement
so you can be heard by most people. O Zion, bearer of good news." There is the word in the Septuagint euangelion,
good news. "Lift up your voice mightily. O Jerusalem, bearer of good news, lift it
up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, 'Here is your
God. Behold the Lord God will come with might,
with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense
before Him.'" It is announcing the good news of the arrival
of God. That is its usage. It refers to the ascent of God to rule, the
Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. When you're talking about good news, you're
talking about, this is the best news possible. Remember now, these are people who are captive. They are being told there is coming a restoration. The punishment and chastisement is over. You're going back and the Lord is going to
ascend again into His throne and He is going to rule over you. In the forty-second chapter...or the fifty-second
chapter of Isaiah, we find a similar usage of this in the same context. Verse 7, Isaiah 52, "How lovely on the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news. Again this is the same good news who announces
peace, who brings news of happiness, who announces salvation. And what is going to bring happiness and peace
and salvation? Say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" So while the word euangelion might have some
broad meanings, its technical meaning was to describe the very best news possible which
was the ascent of a new king, the ascent of a sovereign to His throne over His people
to produce salvation and peace and happiness. That is the way the Jews would view it and
that is the way it is used there by Isaiah. Both passages consider then the return of
the Jews from Babylonian exile when they go back to their land and God again will dwell
in Zion, God again will ascend to His throne, a new temple will be built which is like God's
palace in which He dwells. And during the time of captivity, remember
the temple had been destroyed, as it were, God's palace had been turned to rubble, the
people had been carried away. God had dwelt with the exiles in Babylon,
according to the prophet Ezekiel. "But the day would come," says Isaiah, "when
the people will go back and God will go back with them and ascend to His throne." This will happen in the near future, and it
did in the great return of the Jews from Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the temple and
God again taking His place as the sovereign over His theocratic nation Israel. So it is a word of enthronement. It is the word of the good news of a sovereign
ruler taking His throne. And the imagery is of God, the God of Israel,
the only true God establishing His throne in Jerusalem and the near fulfillment that
happened in the return from Babylon and the far fulfillment, that is the Messianic promise,
that the King will come in the future and establish His kingdom in Israel and set up
His rule and His throne there. And that will happen when Jesus returns and
sets up His millennial Kingdom. So the word has reference to the arrival of
a king, the ascent of a king in Jewish usage. What about pagan usage? How would the Romans understand that word
since they didn't necessarily have any Jewish history? Well, let me read you an inscription. This is an inscription from the Roman world,
the date is 9 B.C. Okay? Before Christ. This is the inscription, "The providence which
has ordered the whole of our life....translated in to English, obviously....showing concern
and zeal has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving it to Augustus, by
filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men and by sending in
him, as it were, a Savior for us and those who come after us to make war to cease, to
create order everywhere, the birthday of the God Augustus is the beginning for the world
of the euangelion, of the gospel that has come to men through him." How interesting. They used the word euangelion on that occasion
in that inscription to describe the arrival of Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus is by the providence, it says,
the one who will bring to us the work of a benefactor, the work of a Savior, make war
cease, create order everywhere. It is the arrival of a god. The good news then is that Augustus Caesar
has arrived. That actual inscription was dedicated to him,
apparently, on his birthday. And then it is a technical term again to refer
to the ascendency of the triumph of an emperor. So the Jews and the pagans would both see
that word as signifying the arrival of a new monarch and that would signify the arrival
of a new era, and the new era would be an era of order and peace and salvation and blessing. So Mark chooses a word that spreads itself
across Jew and Gentile and indeed he is about to write the history of a new king...a new
king. The good news is about to be told. At least this is the beginning of the good
news. The story is still being written for the King
has not fully taken His throne, which one day He will in an earthly way, and finally
in the New Heaven and the New Earth as an eternal King. But Mark will begin to tell the story of the
arrival and ascendency and establishment and enthronement of the new King who is far more
glorious than all other kings and His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the new King. This is the story of the new King who has
arrived who is about to inaugurate His Kingdom and bring a new era of salvation, blessing,
peace and order to the world. One historical writer says, "The parallel
between evangel or the gospel in the imperial cult and the Bible, is Caesar and Christ. The emperor on the throne and the despised
Rabbi on the cross confront each other. Both are gospel to men. They have much in common, but they belong
to two different worlds." So Mark begins his historical account of the
life of Jesus with language that would make his Roman readers know that the new and the
most glorious King has come and He sets Himself against all other Kings, including Caesar. He is the theme of this history. And this is only the beginning of his story. And what is His name? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus identified His human name, Jeshua, or
Jehoshua in Hebrew, basically Joshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation, Yehoshua(?), Yahweh is
salvation. That's His name, call Him Jesus for He will
save His people from their sins, Matthew 1:21. His title...His name is Jesus, His title is
Christ. That is not a name, that is not His last name. That's a title, royal title, the anointed
one. That's what Messiah means, Christ and Messiah,
the same thing, it means anointed one. It's a royal title. His human name is Jesus, His royal title is
Messiah, the anointed one, simply King. And His lineage, He is the Son of God, one
in nature with God, coeternal and coequal. And thus does Mark introduce us to the beginning
of the history of King Jesus...the beginning of the history of King Jesus,, the Son of
God, not the son of some other earthly monarch. In John 1:49, Nathaniel said to Jesus, "You
are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel." A new King with a radically new Kingdom, unlike
any other King and any other Kingdom. And one who sets Himself above all other kings
and all other kingdoms, one whom the Bible calls the King of kings. This is the beginning of the good news of
His ascent to His throne. He proves Himself to be the divine King, the
Son of God, by His words and His deeds in the first half of Mark's gospel. He proves Himself to be the Son of God and
the promised King in the second half by His death and resurrection. So at first it's His deeds and words that
prove who He is, and the back half it's His death and resurrection that prove who He is. And in the very middle, the very summit of
the book, Peter makes the confession, "You are the Christ," or better, "You are the King." You are exactly who You claim to be. And so, this is a book about the arrival of
the greatest King ever, the new King. The new King introducing a new Kingdom and
a new era for the world. And it's only the beginning of the story because
the story will go on through all of human history and finally be consummated in the
New Heaven and the New Earth when He will rule and reign forever and ever. So Mark establishes then what this book is
about in his opening sentence. Now, he establishes several truths about the
new Kingdom, let me give you five of them, okay? Truths about the new King. Number one, the promise of the new King...the
promise of the new King, verses 2 and 3. "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold
I send My messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."'" Those are prophecies attributed to Isaiah. It is the only Old Testament prophecy in Mark's
introduction. You will find through the book of Mark that
there are a number of prophecies. In fact, they're in bold type, or upper case
letters. So this is the only prophecy that's in Mark's
introduction. This is the only one that he uses in the beginning. What is notable about it is it isn't particularly
about the King, it's about the herald of the King. And Mark, remember, is writing to Gentiles. He's writing to Roman Christians. And, of course, Roman non-Christians who will
hear his history read. He is not primarily about the Jews, so he
doesn't front load his book with a lot of prophecy. He doesn't make efforts to connect the arrival
of Jesus with the Old Testament, say by giving genealogies like Matthew and Luke are so careful
to give. He doesn't give specific prophecies about
Jesus such as the virgin birth, Bethlehem, called out of Egypt, and there are a number
of prophecies that Matthew refers to and Luke refers to, none of those does Mark refer to
in the beginning of his history. It is simply enough to say He is the Son of
God. He is the Son of God. Mark knows, however, that if Gentiles are
to look at the story of this new King and see it as a sort of an authentic arrival of
a new King, then they will expect that there would be some kind of authoritative credible
herald who would announce t he arrival of the King because that's exactly the way it
was in their world. No king ever arrived and said, "Hey, I'm the
king and I'm here." The king always had a forerunner. The king always had an entourage. The king always had some coming before him
to prepare the way and make the people ready and then was appropriately introduced by someone
who bore authenticity and authority to make that introduction. So Mark, consistent with the Gentile approach
to how kings were announced, goes to the Old Testament for the only time in the beginning
of his gospel, not to find a prophecy about Jesus, but to find a prophecy about His herald,
to give authenticity to His herald. With all the Old Testament texts that connect
to Jesus Christ, Mark uses prophecy not about the new King at all, but about His forerunner,
the one who is to proclaim His arrival. This would be in the kind of official structure
of what people in the Gentile world would be used to. So, there is coming a messenger, that's identified
in verse 2. "I send My messenger." And he further identifies the messenger as
someone who would be a voice crying in the wilderness. This is from the ancient prophets. He's quoting from the ancient prophets. And he labels this from Isaiah the prophet. Certainly Isaiah was well-known to even Gentile
Christians because of his vast book, much of which was centered on the arrival of Messiah,
the servant of Jehovah as Isaiah identifies Him. So he draws prophecies out of Isaiah. By the way, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all
use...all use these prophecies to label John the Baptist as the fulfillment. John the Baptist is the fulfillment of these
prophecies and all four gospel writers indicate that. "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,"
or preferably, "As it has been written." The new King is not a new plan. The new King is not an afterthought. This is the plan that God was working out
in ancient times. The plan is one culminating in the arrival
of the new King, Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Gentile readers need to know that the
one who announced His arrival is the one prophesied by the ancient prophets, and by the notable
prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament. He is an official divinely commissioned herald
for the new King. And so he's the one being described in these
prophecies. Now just as a note, it says, "As it is written
in Isaiah the prophet," then you have a quote in verse 2 and a quote in verse 3. Verse 2 is actually Malachi 3:1 and verse
3 is Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3. This is not an uncommon thing to do, to refer
to only one of the Old Testament prophets, the more prominent one, the more notable one,
and tuck in another prophecy by another prophet since it all was the Word of God. These prophecies go together so perfectly
and both refer to the same person, so they may have been frequently used together. Malachi is the introductory one. Isaiah is the more important one. But both are general references. If you go back there and...this is something
you need to know that New Testament writers do, sometimes they quote exactly from the
Hebrew, sometimes they quote from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, sometimes they make
sort of a general reference to a text and sometimes it's an interpretive reference because,
remember now, the New Testament writers are inspired by God and so when they interpret
an Old Testament text, they interpret that in an inspired way. So they always give the true interpretation
of the text. Sometimes they directly quote it, sometimes
it's an interpretive quote. Here you have some interpretive quotation,
certainly in the case of Malachi 3:1. But let's look at Malachi 3:1 in the text
of Mark 1. Malachi 3:1 records, "Behold, I send My messenger..." And Malachi says, "Before me." Here you have an interpretation of that, "Behold,
I send my messenger ahead of You who will prepare Your way." Obviously you and your refers to the coming
King. But before the King comes, the head of Him
comes the messenger. So this is a prophecy that there will be one
who comes before the King comes whose job will be to prepare His way. I call prophets, this is a messenger. All prophets are proclaimers. He is a preacher. He will make a strong call for people to prepare
for the arrival of the new King. Malachi 3:1 is a direct reference to this
messenger, this herald of the coming new King. And then in Isaiah 40 and verse 3, we read
as recorded here in Mark 1:3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready
the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'" Now remember, I read you earlier right from
Isaiah chapter 40 the opening, and then down in verses 9 and 10, Isaiah prophesied the
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. He prophesied they would come back to Israel,
they would go through the wilderness and God will lead them. And when they arrived, God would be with them
and He would ascend to His throne and again He would rule over them. And so, in the near intention of that prophecy,
he was talking about the return from the Babylonian captivity in the ascendency of God to His
sovereign place over to reconstituted Israel. And that would require making ready the way
of the Lord. God would lead them back from captivity, would
make the path for them, make the road for them, and they would head back and God would
be with them. In the future sense, one would come who would
make the road ready for the new King...make the road ready for the new King. And this, of course, is here associated with
the forerunner of Jesus, namely John the Baptist. There would come one who would herald the
new King's arrival, call people to prepare for His glorious ascent to His throne and
the establishment of His Kingdom of salvation and blessing and peace. Now the Romans would get this. The Gentiles would get this. The Jews would get this. This is not an ordinary monarch. This is no typical King, however, because
of the nature of His person. First of all, He's not the son of some other
king, He is the Son of God. That sets Him apart from all others. He is God the Son. That is to say He is co-equal, co-existent,
co-eternal with God. So let's go from the promise of this new King
to the person of this new King and I want to show you something. We already know His name is Jesus, His title
is King, that's what Christ means, His heritage is the Son of God. But I want you to notice how deeply this is
in the text of these prophecies. Verse 2, from Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I send
My messenger," literally in the text of Malachi, "before Me." God says, "I send My messenger before Me." God is saying the King who is coming, the
King whom My messenger announces is Me. That is a very important statement. He is Me who will prepare My way. That is to say, the King who is coming is
one with God, the King who is coming is God. That's why John opens his gospel saying, "We
beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father." I send My messenger ahead of you who will
prepare your way. The messenger is me...the messenger is announcing
Me, announcing My arrival. And then, of course, Malachi 3 continues to
say this, "And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple." So it goes from before Me to the Lord will
suddenly come to His temple. And you remember, when the Lord arrived, the
first public thing He did was go to the temple and cleanse the temple. So He came suddenly to His temple. The one coming then is King. Coming as King, He ascends to His temple,
His palace, finds it a den of thieves and cleans it out. But who is He? It is Yahweh, it is God. It is God. You see it even further in the second Old
Testament promise, verse 3, from Isaiah 40 verse 3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness,"
that's the messenger, that's what he does. That's where he does it. What does he say? "Make ready the way of...whom?...the Lord,"
ha kurios, again Yahweh, God, the Son of God, God Himself, Yahweh the Lord. Of course, verse 8, "He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit." Who else could give the Holy Spirit but the
Lord Himself? The new King...the new King who is coming,
the new King is none other than God. The testimony of that reality is given at
His baptism. If you go down to verse 11, Jesus is being
baptized, "A voice came out of the heavens," this is the voice of the Father, "You are
My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." The world has never seen a King like this. God Himself will come to His people as God
Himself came to His people when they returned from the exile in captivity. God Himself will come to His people. God Himself, God the Son will be the new King. The good news is that God has come, God, the
God of the universe, has broken into history to provide salvation and blessing and peace
and His name is Jesus, King Jesus, Son of God. The new King is here. The new Kingdom is here. It's a new day for the whole world. It's a new day for human history. Salvation has arrived. This is the good news. In the Greek and Roman world, euangelion was
often used in the plural. Lots of good news. In the New Testament it's never used but in
the singular, there's only one good news, for there's no other salvation except that
in Christ. The new King is God come down to bring salvation,
peace, order and blessing. Then we meet the prophet of the new King. Verse 4, here's the messenger who is the voice
crying in the wilderness. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness...there's
the fulfillment of the prophecy. The word wilderness, the same word as desert. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness
preaching. John the Baptist. Why do you think they called him that? You say because he was a Baptist, he's the
first Baptist, he's the original Baptist. No, he is not the original Baptist. And that's not his last name either. Why would you call anybody John...actually
in the Greek it's John the baptizer. It should be John the Baptizer. Why would you call anybody John the Baptizer? Because that's the thing that's so distinguishing
about him. When you read through the New Testament, you
have a Mary and then the Mary is identified by some other name, right? Like we saw last time, Mary the mother of
John Mark, or Mary Magdalene, or Mary the mother of our Lord, or Mary the wife of Cleopas,
or you've got to have some way to identify what Mary you're talking about. Well you need some way to identify what John
you're talking about, too. John is a very common name in the Hebrew and
so it is John the Baptizer because that's what's most ininimitable about him and that
would set him apart from everybody else because nobody else did that. I don't want to get you to think that the
idea in Israel every church had a baptistry. There weren't any churches, first of all,
and there were any baptistries, the Jews didn't baptize. They had ceremonial cleansings, they had ceremonial
washings, and all of that. But they only had one baptism that they did
and it was a one-time symbolic event they did to a proselyte who came out of Gentilism
into Judaistic religion, wanted to become a worshiper of the true God and they put him
through a proselyte baptism, or her through a proselyte baptism, an emersion in water
to symbolize that they were being purified from their former life and entering in to
the clean religion, as it were, of Judaism. This is proselyte baptism. It wasn't a common thing. It wasn't an occurrence that happened all
the time. And that's why you could identify one as John
the Baptizer because that was so unusual. Furthermore he appears in the wilderness,
in the desert. In fact, in John 3:23 it places him about
20 or 30 miles south of the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan River and up and down that
river he went for the duration of his ministry, preaching out in the desert away from all
the cities and all the towns and all the people. He was in that wilderness basically his whole
life. According to Luke 1:80, spent his life in
the wilderness. He was a wilderness guy, he was a desert man. Now John the Baptist, there's a lot of wonderful
stories about him, true...given by Matthew, given by Luke. There's some things told by John. We could talk about the fact that he was miraculously
conceived because his parents were too old and had been barren. That's a wonderful story. We could talk about the fact that he was filled
with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. We could talk about the fact that he was a
relative of Jesus, that Mary and Elizabeth got together when they both knew that God
had done a miracle of conception in them. We could talk about the fact that he was the
culmination of Old Testament prophetic history, the last prophet and t here hadn't been one
for 400 years. We could talk about the fact that Jesus said,
Matthew 11:11, "He's the greatest man that ever lived up until his time," because he
was given the greatest responsibility any man ever had to point to the Messiah, to announce
the new King. Mark leaves all that out. He leaves it all out. He just says this about him. Verse 6, "He was clothed with camel's hair
and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locusts and wild honey." Ah...you might find that a little bit strange. It really isn't. If you're out in the desert to start with,
locusts and wild honey would be a good way to sustain yourself because from what we understand,
there was plenty of that available. And if you lived out in the wilderness of
the desert your whole life, you wouldn't care about fashion. You'd basically care about staying warm because
it can be freezing cold out in that desert. He is a very familiar man, even in ancient
history, even Josephus, the Jewish historian, writes about him and says he was a good man
who commanded the Jews to exercise virtue and piety before God and come to Baptism. But the only thing Mark tells us about him
is his style. What is this about? He was clothed with camel's hair. That doesn't mean hide, that means camel's
hair woven. They would take camel's hair, they would make
thread out of it and then he would weave a garment out of it. It would be kind of a rough garment. It was a hairy garment. And then he had a leather belt around his
waist, that's a rough leather belt. And that's what it tells us about him. His life style, however, has a parallel. It says the same thing, by the way, in Matthew
3:4. But his life style has a parallel. What was he trying to do looking like that? Well, if...if you go back, you don't have
to turn to it, I'll read it to you, but if you go back to well Zechariah 13, it talks
about some false prophets and it associates in verse 4 false prophets who desire to deceive,
putting on a hairy robe. Now why would a false prophet who wanted to
deceive put on a hairy robe? Because, a hairy robe was associated with
a true prophet...a true prophet. When it says...when Jesus said, "Beware of
wolves who come in sheep's clothing," look, that isn't a wolf with a sheep hide over his
head. That's a...that's a false teacher in wool. Again, a hairy garment, as opposed to something
made out of linen or cotton. That's the garb of a prophet. And more notably than that, if you go back
to 2 Kings chapter 1, you meet Elijah the Tishbite, this is what it says about him. Verse 8, "He was a hairy man," that does not
comment on his bodily hair but on the garment that he wore. "He was a hairy man with a leather girdle
bound about his loins," this is Elijah the Tishbite. This guy set the fashion for prophets. If you wanted to be taken seriously as a prophet,
you found a hairy robe and a leather belt and you made sure that you conveyed that you
were a prophet in the way that you looked. And even false prophets would deign to put
on that hairy robe and that leather belt to appear as if they were prophets. Well John was a prophet. Not only was he a prophet, but he was a prophet
who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. That's right. He was one who came with an anointing from
God on his head. Listen to Luke 1:15, "He will be great in
the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while
yet in his mother's womb. He will turn many of the sons of Israel back
to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before
Him, before the King in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers
back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous so as to make
ready a people prepared for the Lord." You remember that in Malachi 3 there was the
promise that we just read that there is coming a messenger. A little more is said about that messenger
in Malachi 4:5. "I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet." John, it says, was come in the spirit and
power of Elijah. And Jesus said in Matthew 11:14, "If you are
willing to accept...meaning Me and My gospel....John himself is that Elijah." However, you remember, they didn't accept. They killed both John the Baptist and Jesus. So there's another time when Jesus will return,
and before His Second Coming there will be another in the spirit and power of Elijah. Did John understand that? Of course he understood that. The prophecy came to his parents before he
was ever born that he would minister in the spirit and power of Elijah. He identified with Elijah from the get go. That's why he wore what he wore. That's why he lived the way he lived. He lived against the grain of the culture. He even ministered near where Elijah did. Read 2 Kings chapter 2 verses 4 to 12. Now his diet was locusts. By the way, according to Leviticus 11:22 that
was the only insect you could eat. Good protein, good source of mineral. If you want to prepare some, here's how you
do it. You yank off the wings and the legs and then...depending
on your preference...you can roast the body, boil it, dry it, grind it up and bake it in
your bread with salt and it provided protein. And honey, wild honey, was everywhere and
it was sweet, and it was good. Do you notice this about John the Baptist? He didn't care to identify with the people. He cared to identify with the prophet. I think any preacher makes a bad mistake when
he tries to identify with the line of the people rather than the line of the prophets. You want to stand in the great tradition of
the prophet, you want to speak like a prophet, you want to act like a prophet, you want to
look like a prophet. Now what was his message? Let's go to number four, the preparation...the
preparation. What was he saying? What did they need to do? Back to verse 4. He was preaching a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins. That's what he was doing. In ancient times, the envoy of the arriving
king would go before him, remove all the obstacles in the path, sometimes they'd carve a path,
sometimes they'd build a road, sometimes they'd make a bridge, removing the obstacles. And then they would make sure the people were
ready to receive this new king. What was the way the people were to prepare
for the arrival of this king? A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins. They needed to have their sins forgiven. In order to have their sins forgiven, which
God would mercifully do, they needed to repent of their sins. And to demonstrate their repentance they would
be willing to undergo a baptism. The baptism didn't bring forgiveness of sin,
it only declared their intention. That's why John, as I said, was labeled the
baptizer. The Jews had ceremonial washings, no baptisms
except for proselyte baptism, so a Jew would be saying by doing that kind of one-time symbolic
baptism, "I'm no better than a Gentile. I am no better than a Gentile. I am no more ready to meet the new king. I am no more ready for God to ascend to His
throne. I am no more ready for God to establish His
Kingdom and make me a part of it than a Gentile." That is a huge admission for the Jews who
had been trained pretty much to resent and hate the Gentiles and think of them as outside
the covenant. He's calling the Jews to declare themselves
no better than Gentiles, to turn many of the hearts of the people toward righteousness
away from rebellion, as Luke 1 put it. And to mark that repentance, that deliberate
metanoia which means a turning, a genuine turning, they would need to bring forth the
fruit of repentance. Remember how John the Baptist said that? Matthew 3:8 records it, Luke 3:8 records it,
Luke says, "Bring forth fruits fitting for repentance." Prove it. The first step would be to be willing to undergo
a proselyte baptism and view yourself as if you were no better than a Gentile, radical,
radical repentance. And this was the message that came from God
to John, Luke 3:2, "The Word of the Lord came to him, and this is what he said..." This is not baptism in Jesus' name, we know
that because John the Baptist's followers were later baptized by Paul in Jesus' name,
according to Acts 19. Now you need to know one other thing about
the context of John's message. His preaching was judgment preaching. In Luke 3, you can read it yourself, he preached
judgment. He said things to the people, "You brood of
snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He said, "When the King gets here, He is going
to baptize you with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, He's going
to separate the wheat from the chaff and He's going to burn the chaff." He was a judgment preacher, fierce judgment
preacher. That's what drove the people to want to deal
with their sins, the fear that when the Messiah finally came, when the new King ascended to
His throne and established His Kingdom, they'd be on the outside looking in. And so he was a judgment preacher. Judgment was coming. But while God was a God of judgment, He was
also a God of grace and He offered forgiveness of sins for those who repented. Well everybody practically wanted to be a
part of the Messiah's Kingdom. They didn't want to get left out. They knew their own heart's sinfulness. So, according to verse 5, all the country
of Judea was going out to him, all the people of Jerusalem were being baptized by him in
the Jordan river, confessing their sins. This looks like a national revival. By making this pilgrimage, Mark Horne(?) writes
to the Jordan, "Those who believed John's message showed that they wanted to be visibly
separated from those under judgment when the Lord come. They wanted to be members of the future purified
Israel, undergoing John's baptism help them anticipate that they were not only God's covenant
people, but that they would remain in that covenant after God cast others out . In order to be assured that they would be
included in the future forgiven Israel whose iniquity would be removed, they needed to
repent and ask for personal forgiveness now," end quote. That's what they were doing. So they came, confessing, being baptized. However, this was...as good as it might have
looked...pretty superficial, wasn't it? By the time it's all over, and the true believers
are gathered in Jerusalem after the ascension of Jesus, there's one hundred and twenty in
the Upper Room. And here, hyperbolic language, to be sure,
all the country of Judea was going out to him, all the people of Jerusalem, massive
constant steady stream day after day after day. Why the wilderness? Why the wilderness? William Lane(?) writes, and I think it's well
stated, "The summons to be baptized in the Jordan means that Israel must once more come
to the wilderness. As Israel long ago had been separated from
Egypt by a pilgrimage through the waters of the Red Sea, the nation is exhorted again
to exercise separation. The people are called to a second exodus in
preparation for a new covenant with God. As the people heed John's call and go out
to him in the desert, far more is involved than contrition and confession. They return to a place of judgment, the wilderness,
where the status of Israel as God's beloved Son must be reestablished in the exchange
of pride for humility. The willingness to return to the wilderness
signifies the acknowledgment of Israel's history as one of disobedience and rebellion, and
a desire to begin once more." Let's go back to the wilderness before we
ever came into the land and start all over again. Finally, Mark leaves the promise, the person,
the prophet, the preparation and focuses on the preeminence of the new King...the preeminence
of the new King. This is the sum of John's ministry. He was preaching, verse 7, and he was saying,
"After me one is coming who is mightier than I and I'm not fit to stoop down and untie
the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit." This is what is most true about the forerunner,
he points to Christ, he points to Christ, he points to Christ. Never points to himself. John 3:30, "I must decrease, He must increase." This is a model for any preacher. Don't identify with the people, identify with
the prophets. Don't look like the people, look like the
prophets. Maintain the dignity of that office, hand
it down. And don't point yourself, point to Christ. After me THE one, literally definite article,
after me THE one is coming who is mightier than I. How mighty is He? He's the Lord. He's Yahweh, He's Kurios, He's God the Son. He's the King...King Jesus. How far above me is He? Huh...here's the negative, "He is so much
mightier than I that I'm not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals." You know what? That was the lowest possible job that any
servant could have. That was it. That was the bottom. If you were the servant who untied your master's
sandals, you were the scum of the scum of the scum...dirty feet. Old quotes from Hebrew sources, "A Hebrew
slave must not wash the feet of his master nor put his shoes on." That's beneath the dignity of a Hebrew slave. Another one, "All services which a slave does
for his master, a pupil should do for his teacher with the exception of undoing his
shoes." John says I'm below the people who do that. I'm not even up to the level of those who
would untie His shoes, that's how low I am. Now that's the picture, but what's the reality? Verse 8, why am I so different? Why are we so infinitely separated? "Because I baptize you with water, but He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." All I can do is stick you in the water. He can transform you on the inside. This refers to the sole transforming work
of salvation, being born of the water and the Spirit. This is not some Pentecostal second baptism,
this is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit of Titus 3. This is the new covenant, purification, cleansing,
transformation, regeneration, new birth. John says I can't do that. Only God gives the Holy Spirit. So the new King? He will give you the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit comes salvation, sanctification,
service. So Mark begins the language...with the language
of good news. Good news means there's a new King who is
God Himself bringing a new Kingdom. It's a Kingdom of forgiveness, blessing. It comes to those who repent. It's the culmination of all past redemptive
history and the door to all future glory. The herald has come to announce His arrival
and the rest is His story which he picks up in verse 9. Father, we thank You for this marvelous book,
for its deep riches, encouragement to us. Thank You for the beauty of Scripture, the
magnificence of it, consistency of it, integrity of it, authenticity, inerrancy, purity, trustworthiness,
beyond that, the power of it to change lives. We pray that there would be some even this
morning who would say with Peter in the middle of Mark, "You're the King, You're the King,"
who would confess their sins, repent of their sins and come for forgiveness from the King
who died for them. Father, we thank You again for Your work in
our lives. We thank You that we are in Your Kingdom,
thank You that we're not on the outside looking in, that You led us to confession and repentance
and faith in the King, that we believe that Jesus is the King and believing we have salvation
and life in His name. Thank You for this gift and may You extend
it to many others who pray for Your glory. Amen.
