Bible Class: A Voice Crying Out

Welcome

Good morning,

I want to thank all of you for coming early to join us this morning for Bible class. We have this great privilege to “Go Deeper” in our study of God’s word so that we can build our life upon the rock of his word. And if life teaches us one thing, it’s that when the storm comes, you better already be prepared: Bible class is meant to help prepare us with God’s word so that we can stand when the storm beats down on our life. So I’m glad you’ve all chosen to be here this morning.

Just in case you weren’t here last week, this class is designed to look at certain difficulties in the text, examine some theological applications, deal with apologetic issues, and study archaeological or historical settings. We’ll also provide an opportunity for you to share your insights, raise questions you might have, and discuss the things the Lord lays on your heart as you’re reading the text throughout the week. The purpose in this is to challenge and equip all of you to go deeper in your understanding of God’s word.

Again, this is our “Go Deeper” series where we’re going to look at some of the things I’ve had to take out of my morning sermon for the sake of time. And I say “some” because there’s at least two more 45-minute Bible classes worth of material that I took out of this class just whittle it down to a more manageable size: I say this to say that there is so much to God’s word that reveals the heart of God, illuminates his word, and enriches our lives.

So let’s jump in!

Structure: The Prologue

We’ll begin by talking about the prologue:

“What is a prologue”?

Class Answers > > >

Introduces a book by setting out its nature and purpose

France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 54). W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.

So one of the biggest mistakes we make in reading the Bible is to treat prologues as mere fluff or disconnected introductions. Prologues define the nature and purpose of the book or letter they introduce.

So you can imagine that defining the extent of the prologue can be challenging, and Mark’s gospel is no exception. There are three main views defining Mark’s prologue: early theologians suggested it covered verses 1-8, some suggest it covers verses 1-11, and most contemporary scholars suggest it covers verses 1-13. The question all centers around what range introduces the nature and purpose of Mark’s gospel?

What is clear to everyone is that Mark’s prologue is quite similar to the one in John’s gospel, where the first eighteen verses set the scene for what follows; Mark’s prologue similarly offers a theological framework against which the whole story can be better understood.

In examining his prologue, we find two key words that are scarcely used throughout the rest of his gospel and that deserve our attention:

(can anyone guess?)

πνεῦμα (pneuma: i.e. spirit; Spirit; breath; wind)

ἔρημος (eremos: i.e. wilderness; desert)

Πνεῦμα. Throughout the rest of Mark’s gospel after 1:13 there are only three references to the Holy Spirit (3:29; 12:36; 13:11), yet in just these opening verses alone, the Spirit is mentioned three times (1:8, 10, 12), appearing as one of the central figures in the launching of Jesus’ ministry.

This suggests that Mark wants to draw our attention to something of great importance about the role of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry from the outset.

What does Mark want us to see here?

Class Answers > > >

Mark’s emphasis on the role of the Spirit in Mark’s prologue is meant to draw our attention to the messianic significance of Jesus, both as the one who is himself empowered and directed by the Spirit, and also, as the one who dispenses the Spirit himself, a role which the Old Testament prophets reserved exclusively for Yahweh.

Ἔρημος. The wilderness is the key setting out of which the good news of salvation comes. First, we see “the voice crying out in the wilderness” in Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 40:3), so now we see John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness (Mark 1:4). Then we see Jesus’ baptism and the divine testimony taking place in the wilderness (Mark 1:9). And then the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12, 13). Strikingly, the noun ἡ ἔρημος occurs nowhere else in Mark’s gospel, suggesting that Mark wants us to draw the appropriate conclusions from this setting.

So let’s ask:

“What is the significance of the wilderness?”

Class Answers > > >

In Jewish thought, the wilderness was a place of hope and of new beginnings. It was in the wilderness that Yahweh had met with Israel and made them into his people when they came out of Egypt. The wilderness had been the honeymoon period between God and Israel before their relationship became strained, so to speak.

We see this from the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 2:2 CSB

2 “Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride— how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

So as the prophets looked back to the purity of Israel’s wilderness beginnings, the hope grew that in the wilderness God’s people would again find their true destiny. The voice in the wilderness (Is. 40:3–5) which introduces Isaiah’s great vision of restoration, is followed by the recurrent theme of a new Exodus, a new beginning in a wilderness transformed by the renewing power of Israel’s God (Is. 41:18–19; 43:19–21; 44:3–4, etc.).

So when Mark emphasizes the wilderness location from the outset in Mark’s prologue, it’s the setting of hope out of which the good news arises to fulfill God’s promises and bring salvation to humanity.

And in this way, the prologue functions rather like the first two chapters of the book of Job, giving the reader a heavenly perspective which is otherwise denied to the main characters of the story. I think it’s worth pointing out that the only other point in Mark’s gospel that offers a similar perspective is during the transfiguration, which, again, features the audible voice of God and takes place in a remote location, although the word “wilderness” is not use.

So the prominent use of the terms "Spirit” and “wilderness” in Mark’s prologue are the colors he uses to paint the power and hope for new beginnings in this scene; they offer the reader a glimpse behind the scenes before the drama begins.

Theological Setting

Mark’s prologue begins by bringing together two prophecies, one from Malachi and the other from Isaiah.

Let’s look at Malachi’s prophecy:

Malachi 3:1–2 CSB

1 “See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will be able to stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s bleach.

Discussion questions:

Click After Each Question For New Slide > > >

Who will the Lord’s messenger clear the way for?

Who will come to the temple?

Who is the messenger of the covenant they delighted in?

Who will be like the “refiner’s fire” and “launderer’s bleach”?

Now some of this might fit better in the next section, but I decided to leave it here:

Here Yahweh says first, “ ‘Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.’ ” The messenger is then identified as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 1:76); that his task is to “clear the way before Me” indicates that Yahweh himself will come. But then Yahweh’s declaration shifts grammatically to the third person: “ ‘And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of hosts.” In the first sentence the coming one is the speaker (first person, “Me”), who is the “LORD [Yahweh] of hosts.” In the second sentence the coming one is “the Lord,” ha-’adon. The name ’adon (compare ’adonai) is a common word for “master, lord”; but in the OT when it has the definite article, it refers to God. Thus the coming Lord in the second sentence is God. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that the temple belongs to him: it is “His temple.” This is clear: the Lord who is coming to his temple is Yahweh of hosts.

Cottrell, J. (2002). The faith once for all: Bible doctrine for today (pp. 232–233). College Press Pub.

Malachi’s prophecy itself draws on God’s word to Israel during the Exodus:

Exodus 23:20 CSB

20 “I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.

So Mark is bringing together passages that are rich in theological context. It’s God’s promise of a messenger “to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared” (Exod 23:20), i.e., through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

The angel God promised to Israel during her exodus was sent to precede God’s people as their guardian and guide into the land. And then Malachi draws on this to describe the messenger (ἄγγελος, same word used in Exodus for angel) who will prepare the way for the Lord’s coming like a “refiner’s fire” and a “fuller’s soap”.

Malachi then goes on to identify this messenger with Elijah the prophet:

Malachi 4:5 CSB

5 Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

And, it was clear that he was the forerunner of the LORD, this is why there were so many questions about whether or not John the Baptist was Elijah.

Mark then adds a second text to this matrix:

Isaiah 40:3 CSB

3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

Isiah’s prophecy looks forward to the coming of another messenger “in the desert”, who will go before the people of God in a kind of second Exodus to prepare for the revelation of God’s salvation in his Messiah.

John was a voice - shouting across the dreams of Herod’s and Caiaphas’ Judaism - which had given the people, again and again, the story of their freedom, but which had no idea what that freedom would look like when it came.

The setting for this prophecy is quite helpful: every year at Passover-time they recited the story of the Exodus from Egypt, telling over and over how God rescued Israel from Pharaoh, bringing them through the Red Sea, and away across the wilderness to their promised land. Along with the creation story, it’s the most important story in the whole Old Testament, and John the baptist’s hearers would have known it well. But instead of simply hearing the words and remembering the story, John was turning it into a drama and telling his hearers that they were the cast. They were to come through the water and be free. They were to leave behind "Egypt" — the world of sin in which they were living, the world of rebelling against the living God — and they were to turn around because they were, like Israel, going in the wrong direction. John’s prophetic voice was one that was screaming that it was time to turn round and go the right way (that’s what ‘repentance’ means). But not screaming in an angry tone, he was literally screaming out of a setting that symbolized hope. In other words, John’s voice was screaming for change because the hope they longed for had come in power to make the changes they needed!

Theological Applications

As time permits, let’s take some time to look at a few theological applications:

FIRST:

Let’s draw a key theological application from the theological setting we just examined:

Malachi 3:1 CSB

1 “See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.

Malachi foretells the Lord “suddenly coming to his temple”. In the Old Testament, the temple was the place where the Spirit of God would dwell. And the prophets foretold that God would one day pour out his Spirit again upon all humanity.

Look at Joel’s prophecy:

Joel 2:28–29 CSB

28 After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.

Joel 2:30–32 CSB

30 I will display wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and columns of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.

So this concept of God pouring out his Spirit upon humanity is one of the many theological bases for the apostle Peter’s teaching:

1 Peter 2:5 CSB

5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Likewise for the apostle Paul’s teaching:

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 CSB

16 Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.

Malachi wasn’t predicting that God would come to the temple in Jerusalem, though many in Jesus’ time certainly expected this to be the case, but that he would come to humanity and live within us.

SECOND:

Mark 1:4 CSB

4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John the baptist called for repentance in connection with the forgiveness of sins. Now I don’t want to get bogged down in the weeds asking whether repentance is the prerequisite for forgiveness or the result - I’m sure we all already have some well-developed thoughts on this point anyway - but, instead, I actually want to focus on a more elementary level (but vital) question:

“What is repentance”

Let Class Discuss > > >

Repentance

Literally means ‘turning back’. It is widely used in Old Testament and subsequent Jewish literature to indicate both a personal turning away from sin and Israel’s corporate turning away from idolatry and back to YHWH. Through both meanings, it is linked to the idea of ‘return from exile’; if Israel is to ‘return’ in all senses, it must ‘return’ to YHWH. This is at the heart of the summons of both John the Baptist and Jesus. In Paul’s writings it is mostly used for Gentiles turning away from idols to serve the true God; also for sinning Christians who need to return to Jesus.

Wright, T. (2004). Mark for Everyone (p. 238). Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

So we should notice that the wilderness setting for John’s preaching is particularly fitting for the Biblical view of repentance that sees it associated with the idea of returning from exile, which Israel inevitably did by traversing the wilderness under the provision, blessing, and protection of God. Just take a moment to recall in your minds their return from captivity in Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah: Israel was forced to return across the rugged terrain and faced many perils doing so, but God provided them protection along the way.

Share Your Insights