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A Voice crying in the wilderness
A Voice crying in the wilderness
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight! 4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were flocking to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 6 John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He was preaching: “Someone more powerful than I will come after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of His sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Evangellion!
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
I want you to think back to a time when something hung in the balance.
Back to when you awaited the arrival of news.
Maybe it was when you were waiting the arrival of a diagnosis.
Or the arrival of a baby.
Or the election of a political candidate,
Bad news is rarely shouted.
When we receive news that is less than pleasing in one of these areas, the news is often said in muted tones, with warnings going along with it.
Would you please sit down I need to tell you something difficult.
But when the glad thing happens, it is announced loudly, with joy.
Good news!
In our Bibles, the word for good news is gospel.
And the Greek word behind it is
εὐαγγέλιον - euangelion
In order to define a word, we ought to seek the origin of the word. Who said the word first? What did they mean by it? When we seek to define the word gospel, at the very core we can define this word as “good news”.
The origin of this word is “euangelion”, a Greek word meaning “good news”. We think of “gospel” as a Bible word, but this word was being used by Roman culture before Jesus of Nazareth was ever born.
Loud cries of “euangelion!” could be heard every time a messenger from Rome entered into your town to announce a new victory for the imperium. In fact, not long before Jesus of Nazareth was born, another little boy entered the world; Caesar Augustus.
Consider this announcement we find on the Prien Calendar inscription:
“Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings [εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him,”
The birth of a god. A man who will end war and “arrange all things”. Good news? If the tidings are true, good news indeed. It is in this cultural milieu that another little boy is born. The story of his life, death, and resurrection are recorded by 4 eye witnesses. Men we know as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Knowing how the Roman empire used the word “gospel”, it is shocking to see how Mark starts his eye witness account. Mark 1:1
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus Christ IS the gospel. How can a man be good news? Because it is in Jesus that we find the Word incarnate. The literal fusion of word and deed. Caesar Augustus announced a word that he would end war and arrange all things. But did he do it? History answers the question.
Matthew–Luke § 1. The Beginnings of the Gospels (Mark 1:1; Matthew 1:1; Luke 1:1–4)
With great flattery and closer to the time that Mark was written, a papyrus describes Nero as the “good god of the inhabited world, the beginning of all good things” (POxy 1021; c. 65 A.D.). Mark’s claim that the good news begins with Jesus Christ, the son of God, not with Augustus or his various descendants—all of whom were called “son of God”—would have been perceived as a bold challenge to Roman politics and religion.
A messenger would be sent ahead to announce the arrival of a king, or to proclaim this message.
Caesar Augustus had such messengers.
These messengers would bare the marks of Rome and it’s power.
They would carry official looking documents and wear official looking clothes.
They would communicate the authority of Rome through it’s splendor.
How is the king of the universe announced?
By a hobo.
What’s up with his whole shtick?
4 John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
He’s out in the wilderness, living off the land, baptizing people, and saying rough stuff to the leaders of the land.
What’s up with all this?
Why was he baptizing?
This idea of baptism is connected with Israel’s story.
John’s ministry is like a preview for the gospel. God’s people are going to be led on exodus through a wilderness again. But this time, instead of a baptism freeing us from a national oppressor like Egypt, we will be baptized to free us from a spiritual oppression of sin.
The word gospel didn’t just draw on the contemporary use by the Roman Empire,
but it was drawing on streams of prophecy and thought from the old.
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. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
9 Get yourself up to a high mountain, Zion, bringer of good news! Lift up your voice with strength, Jerusalem, bringer of good news! Lift it up; you must not fear! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 Look! The Lord Yahweh comes with strength, and his arm rules for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense in his presence. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arm, and he will carry them in his bosom; he will lead those who nurse.
John is preparing people now for repentance because repentance is what is required to make the paths straight.
“The time has arrived for God to become king, the only appropriate response is the radical change of heart known as ‘repentance’.” - N.T Wright
For the people that Jesus is gathering from all corners of the earth, there will be no wilderness wanderings.
There is a straight path to the promised land.
The good news gets started instantly in Mark.
Your sins are a problem.
So much so that to be a sinner is like being in a wilderness.
To be a human is to be wrecked by sin, and to be wrecked by sin is to be human.
Everyone on the planet is wandering in a spiritual wilderness,
Dark, cold, dangerous.
Or we could think of it like a cave,
imagine a deep cave that is a maze.
You’ve been led into the middle of the maze,
and the lights have gone out,
and you have the task of getting out.
Impossible task.
And in that wilderness, in that cave, you hear a voice calling out.
“Make way for the king!”
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.
The light is here.
The call of John the Baptist rings true today.
The king of glory is here.
The point of all of it is here.
Every human since Adam has been born in the shadowlands.
John the baptist is this prophetic type guy,
but his message isn’t prophecy.
It’s an announcement.
“Here is your God.”
He’s not giving a mysterious message,
he’s not playing his cards close to his chest.
And what we are going to see is that this is how Jesus starts his ministry.
Baptism
Sermon on the mount
Jesus is going to start his ministry by offering himself freely to those who will hear.
And what will you receive when you receive Christ?
His Spirit.
Imagine the scene,
crowds of people are gathering around John.
He’s baptizing them with water,
and as they come out of the water, what is he telling them?
He’s pointing away from himself.
There is someone coming who I am not even worthy to untie his shoes.
I’ve baptized you with water,
but he’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
What will this mean?
It means that hearts will be restored to where they were designed to be.
Which is with God.
I love the beauty of what the herald in Zion says,
John the baptists message:
10 Look! The Lord Yahweh comes with strength, and his arm rules for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense in his presence. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arm, and he will carry them in his bosom; he will lead those who nurse.
Those who belong to Yahweh will
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus is the mystery and the wisdom of God.