A Voice in the Wilderness

Read Mark 1:1-8, “1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way; 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.’ ” 4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7 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. 8 “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.””

Last week we began a new study in the gospel of Mark and looked at verse 1 and saw that this is a title for the contents of this gospel

Mark is telling his readers that his gospel is about Jesus Christ

And who is Jesus Christ?

Mark says He is the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, God incarnate!

Now Mark proceeds to tell us about John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Christ and “A Voice in the Wilderness”

Mark doesn’t begin with the birth of Christ like Matthew and Luke

He doesn’t take us where the Apostle John does to the face-to-face relationship Jesus had with the Father

No he begins with...

The Prophecy of Isaiah (vv.2-3)

R.C. Sproul says, “…when John the Baptist appeared on the scene of Israel, when he came out of the desert and began to preach after hundreds of years of silence since the last Old Testament prophet, his appearance stirred more national interest than Jesus’ initial appearance...The people had thought God was finished with prophets, but suddenly a prophet emerged out of the wilderness”

More than 700 years after Isaiah’s prophecy, the voice of one calling in the wilderness appears

And all 4 gospel writers citing this prophecy ascribe that voice to John the Baptist

So as Mark begins his gospel, he begins by citing this prophecy as says “As it is written”

To begin with “As it is written” is to introduce this OT quote

Mark uses that same formula 4 other times in his gospel when introducing OT prophecy (7:6; 9:13; 14:21, 27)

As you examine verses 2-8 you quickly see that they form a closely knit unit setting forth the ministry of Christ’s forerunner (Hiebert)

Verses 2-4 are...one complete sentence (Hiebert)

It begins with the prophetic citation in vv.2-3

This forms the introduction

Then in verse 4 he gives the historical statement which completes the sentence (Hiebert)

The prophecy says: “2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY; 3 THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.’””

Some versions begin with “in the prophets” but the better Greek manuscripts read “Isaiah the prophet” (MacArthur)

Mark’s quote is from two OT passages (Mal.3:1; Isa.40:3)

He merges both together

Only the last two lines quoted are from Isaiah 40:3; the first two are from Malachi 3:1. (Stern)

The point of the whole quotation is that John’s preparatory ministry, in fulfillment of prophecy, authenticated Jesus’ messiahship and prepared for the beginning of His official ministry as the Messiah (Hiebert)

Malachi says the messenger in Malachi 4:5 is Elijah

But both Matthew and Mark identify this messenger as John the Baptist in Mat.11:10 and Mark 1:2.

Jesus also said in Matthew 11:14, “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.”

John would come, according to Luke 1:17, “...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.””

This answers how he would “prepare” and “make ready the way of the Lord”

These two prophecies foretold that before the Messiah would come, God would send a herald, and that herald’s responsibility would be to prepare the way for the coming Messiah (Sproul)

Just as earthly monarchs in the ancient world sent official messengers before them to prepare the way, announce their coming, and make the people ready to receive them (MacArthur), so does God

John the Baptist ran ahead to prepare everyone for the King’s arrival

Luke 1 records the birth of John the Baptist

Luke 1:7 says that Zacharias and Elizabeth “had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years”

But while Zacharias was doing his “priestly service before God” (v.8), he was in the temple preparing to “burn incense” (v.9) and “an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense” (v.11)

The angel identifies himself as Gabriel (v.19)

Verses 12-13 says “Zacharias was troubled (tarasso, “to cause great mental distress” LN, “to terrify” MCEDONTW) when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John”

Just a footnote - Elizabeth was “barren” which meant she “had no child” but now she will be pregnant and “bear a son”

Life begins at conception

Both Psalm 139:13 and 15 state that God forms you in your mother’s womb

So therefore abortion for any reason (life of mother, rape, incest) is murder

Since the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, there have been “over 63 million abortions…in the US since 1973” (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abortions-since-roe-v-wade)

My prayer is for this to stop but given the climate I don’t think it’s going to stop since the Democrats want to make it the law of the land

The angel proceeds to tell Zacharias what kind of man John will be

Verses 15-16 says, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God”

But because Zacharias didn’t believe the angel’s word about John, he is told that he will be “silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place” (v.20)

Looking at the Gospel of John, the Apostle John said John the Baptist’s was sent from God and He was not the Christ but was sent “as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light” (Jn.1:6-8)

So Mark repeats Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 and applies it to John the Baptist as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”

John the Baptist was literally “a voice of one shouting” (Hiebert)

The word “crying” is speaking of a loud cry or shout heard from a distance

It was a cry marked by intensity and emotion (Hiebert)

The call “to make His paths straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance (NETBREN)

The way of the Lord is the way of repentance (MacArthur)

It’s turning from sin to righteousness

It’s turning spiritual paths that are crooked into ones that are straight and holy (MacArthur)

We’ll say more about that in a moment

Applying verses 2-3 to John the Baptist, Mark now tells us about...

The Forerunner of Christ (vv.4-8)

Verse 4 begins with...

His Revealing (v.4a)

Mark says, “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness”

Notice first his name

He was not named after his father Zacharias

He was given the name John by the angel Gabriel to Zacharias in Luke 1:13.

John was a common name in the 1st century

It meant “the Lord is gracious”

It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Johanan

The name “baptist” is not his last name

It is a title and it literally means “the baptizer”

This distinguished him from others with the same name

Lenski says “While baptizing was distinctive of John and thus gave him an additional name, his work in general was that of a prophet, more specifically of a herald, sent of God to the nation.”

Mark says “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness”

According to Luke 1:80 this is where he also grew up

He spent the duration of his ministry along the Jordan River, about twenty miles south of the sea of Galilee (Jn.3:23)

For Mark to say to his audience that John “appeared in the wilderness,” was to constantly remind them of the exodus from Egypt and entrance into the Promised Land (MacArthur)

Mark also says what he did in the wilderness:

He was “preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins”

Let’s notice...

His Preaching (v.4b)

“Preaching” is the Greek word kerysso

It occurs over 60 times in the NT

It means “to proclaim as a herald” (Mounce)

As already noted, this is what Mark is saying with identifying John the Baptist with Jesus

In keeping with his calling, John preached to the multitudes who came to hear him in the wilderness, fervently pleading with them to repent

With the fiery voice of an impassioned prophet, he was crying out with shouts, groans, and pleas for sinners to forsake their sin and seek the Savior (MacArthur)

Listen to him in Matthew 3:2, where he called for the religious leaders to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

He was speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees

Since they were self-righteous he said in Matthew 3:7-12, “7...“You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 10 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.””

Martin Lloyd Jones asks, “What is preaching?” And answers, “Logic on fire! Eloquent reason!… Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire…” (Preaching and Preachers, 97)

This certainly described John the Baptist

Preaching has always been the means God uses to proclaim His Word

That was true of John the Baptist (Mk.1:4,7) and others and is true today!

For example the Bible says...

Jesus preached - Mk.1:14, “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God”

The Bible also says...

Jonah preached - Mat.12:41, “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

The disciples preached - Mk.3:14, “And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach”

Philip preached Acts 8:12, “12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.”

Men of Cyprus and Cyrene preached - Acts 11:20, “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”

Paul and Barnabas preached - Acts 13:32, “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers”

Peter preached - 1 Peter 1:25, “But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you.”

Many others preached - Acts 15:35, “But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also, the word of the Lord.”

Some had questionable motives but they still preached - Philippians 1:15-18, “15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice”

Elders in the church preach - 1 Timothy 5:17, “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.”

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-4, “1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

I think we are seeing a fulfillment of verses 3-4

We could mention many preachers who are doing this but this morning I only want to focus on one

He is very familiar, mainly because of his father

I’m referring to Andy Stanley, who is the son of Charles Stanley

In an interview with Ed Stetzer in 2009 regarding his book titled, Communicating for a Change, Stetzer asked Andy Stanley about preaching

The question was, “What do you think about preaching verse-by-verse messages through books of the Bible?”

Andy Stanley responded, “Guys that preach verse-by-verse through books of the Bible– that is just cheating. It’s cheating because that would be easy, first of all. That isn’t how you grow people. No one in the Scripture modeled that. There’s not one example of that.”

There are many problems with this statement

The 66 books that comprise the Bible are all in book form

We read them from start to finish

Preaching topics from them is fine but if I am to know the whole counsel of God then it would be better to preach all of it not just some of it

John MacArthur adds, “The only effective way of seeing the significance of a passage is in its context. Going through an entire book sets the passage in its context on its widest, deepest, and richest level. One other thought: neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament was written as a collection of verses to be thrown into the air and allowed to fall back wherever they might. Rather, each book has a reasonable, logical, inspired flow of thought going from point A to point Z, with all stops in between. Each was designed by the Holy Spirit so that you have the Holy Spirit communicating something powerfully and clearly in the whole letter: you dare not miss a single part!” (https://www.gty.org/library/Questions/QA83/Why-are-you-compelled-to-preach-verse-by-verse-through-books-of-the-Bible-unlike-other-notable-preachers-such-as-C-H-Spurgeon)

Believers grow as they are taught the word of God not the opinions of man

In 2014, Andy Stanley stood on a stage at Exponential, a church-planting conference and communicated to 5,000+ people that they should stop using the phrase “the Bible says” in their sermons. He said, “Don’t say the Bible says. Say the author’s name who wrote the book. Paul said…”

Why is he so bent on not saying “the Bible says”?

In early 2015, Zondervan released a series of Bible study lessons by Andy Stanley titled Starting Point

You can see the first session on YouTube where Andy Stanley casts doubt upon the trustworthiness and reliability of the Bible in his opening statements

In fact, Andy Stanley went as far as to say, “We went off to college and discovered that even though it [the Bible] was sacred, it wasn’t scientific. Even though it was something to appreciate, it wasn’t necessarily something that was factual. Even though there were stories in here [the Bible] that were inspirational, they weren’t necessarily true.”

So he just said the Bible is not “scientific…factual” or “true”

If that’s your view, then you will not teach the Bible

You will teach your opinions

On Easter Sunday, Andy Stanley opened his sermon with a statement that was aimed mostly at the unbeliever. He said, “If you said to me one-on-one, ‘Andy, I’m not a Christian, I’m not a Jesus follower, but I’m going to let you take your best shot at convincing me to follow Jesus’ – Here’s what I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t try to defend the history of the church, because the church has done some really goofy things and there’s some really embarrassing (not just weekends of church history) seasons of church history. And, I wouldn’t try to defend a lot of things that Christians have said or the ways that Christians have treated you….and I wouldn’t try to convince you with the Bible.”(https://g3min.org/andy-stanleys-problem-with-the-bible/)

If we don’t use the Bible, which tells how to become a follower of Jesus Christ, then what is left?

John MacArthur says, “If preaching is to play its God-designed role in the church, it must be built upon the Word of God. In years past such a statement would have been obvious, even axiomatic. Stitzinger writes, "A study of the history of expository preaching makes it clear that such preaching is deeply rooted in the soil of Scripture." Unfortunately, that is no longer true, even in evangelical churches. Much preaching today emphasizes psychology, social commentary, and political rhetoric. Bible exposition takes a back seat to a misguided craving for "relevance." Mayhue observes, "As the '90s dawn, an irresistible urge for a focus in the pulpit on the relevant seemingly exists, with a resultant inattention to God's revelation." Lamentably, "there is a discernable trend in contemporary evangelicalism away from biblical preaching and a drift toward an experience-centered, pragmatic, topical approach in the pulpit."

The problem with such an approach to preaching is that preachers today have no authority for preaching their own notions and opinions; they must "preach the word"-the apostolic Word recorded in the Scriptures. Whenever preachers depart from the purpose and intent of a biblical portion, to that extent they lose their authority to preach. In short, the purpose of reading, explaining, and applying a portion of Scripture is to obey the command to "preach the Word." In no other way may we expect to experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our preaching. He did not spend thousands of years producing the Old and New Testaments (in a sense, the Bible is peculiarly His Book) only to ignore it! What He "moved" men to write He now motivates us to preach. He has not promised to bless our word; that promise extends only to His own (Isa. 55:10, 11). Since … there is no genuine preaching where the Spirit of God is not at work, … we may say that the fundamental purpose behind preaching from the Bible is simply that, in any genuine sense of the word, we may preach at all!

The loss of its biblical foundation is the primary reason for the decline of preaching in the contemporary church. And the decline of preaching is a major factor contributing to the church's weakness and worldliness. If the church is to regain its spiritual health, preaching must return to its proper biblical foundation” (Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, 253-54).

There are many reasons why we preach and teach God’s Word:

Preaching is the response of the preacher to the call of God

God tells the preacher what to preach

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, “1 solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

The word “Preach"is an imperative

Timothy was commanded to preach “the word”

Preaching the word is preaching “the entire written word of God, His complete revealed truth as contained in the Bible” (MacArthur)

Timothy understood that the Word was the same as Paul’s teachings is 2 Timothy 2:2:

He says, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Paul said to Timothy it is “sound doctrine” in 2 Tim. 1:13, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.”

It is the “glorious gospel of the blessed God” in 1 Timothy 1:11, “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”

It is the “faith and truth” 1 Timothy 2:7, “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

It is also called the “Scriptures” in 1 Timothy 4:13, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.”

Paul also referred to the “word” as “the sacred writings” and the “Scripture” in 2 Timothy 3:15-16, “15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

This is “the whole counsel of God” that Paul told the elders at Ephesus he preached (Acts 20:27)

There were other names given for the word:

The angel told the apostles in Acts 5:20, after releasing them from jail to “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.”

Paul referred to it in Acts 13:26, as “the message of this salvation”

In Romans 10:8 he calls it “the word of faith we are preaching”

Peter calls it “the utterances of God” in 1 Peter 4:11.

Paul also calls it “the word of life” in Philippians 2:16.

There’s more I want to say but I’ll have to save it until next time

CONCLUSION

Mark began his gospel stating that Jesus is the “Son of God”

Have you acknowledged that truth?

John the Baptist called for repentance and to come to Christ

Have you come to Christ?

John the Baptist’s call to repent is a call for us too

To receive Christ you must turn from your sin and believe what the Bible says about Jesus

Again Mark said He is “the son of God”

That title is a reference to Jesus’ deity

When you acknowledge Jesus is God, what’s left to do but repent and turn to Him

Will you turn to Him now?

I hope so

Let’s pray

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