Mark 1:1-8 | Meet Johnny B

Good Morning. And welcome. If this is your first time with us, we’re glad you’re here. We are in an advent series for the month of December and this is our 2nd message in that series. The series is called Coming Soon and the hope is that we follow the trajectory of Advent following a script that’s similar to the way a movie works.

Last week, we looked a movie trailer of sorts to stoke our hearts in anticipation for the climax of our story which is the birth of Christ at Christmas and also his eventual return at the end.

This morning, we’re moving past the trailer and you can think of today as the scrolling script right at the beginning of a star wars movie. I realize not everyone in here is a star wars fan, which what’s wrong with you. Those are classic movies. I realize we’re not all into star wars, but the scrolling script at the beginning of those movies is known to pretty much everyone. Right?

All star wars movies start with that yellow scrolling script… A long time ago In a galaxy far, far away.... and then the text crawls off into the distant stars explaining the context to setup the movie and help us know what to expect as the movie moves forward. It keys us into any important historical data and political happenings as well as any important characters who we may need to keep our eyes peeled for.

Well, the text in Mark which we’ll be looking at here in a few moments serves this function in our series on Advent. If last week was the movie trailer, this morning’s text is the setup.

We’re told of important historical and political prophecies and well as important characters to keep be on the look out for.

So here’s what I want to do with you, I want to read the text in full and then work through it together and make some comments along the way.

So open your Bibles to Mark 1 and we’ll read the 1st 8 verse. As you’re getting there, I want you to know the big idea we’ll be working towards.

It’s at the top of your bulletin in the notes section. The big idea is this: know your place and boldly proclaim Jesus’ baptism of repentance as you wait for His return.

As we read you’ll see that Mark does clue us in on some historical and political intrigue, but a long with that, we’re going to meet an important supporting cast member in Jesus’ movie of His first coming at Christmas. A man named John the Baptist (not to be cofused with the musician John Batiste ). We’ll call him Johnny B! And Johnny B shows us through his example how to wait with anticipation and action for the coming of Christ.

So with all that said, let’s read the text together.

Mark 1:1–8 (NIV)

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Alright, Mark starts out his gospel in a very similar way to how God started the story of creation in Genesis. The very first words of the whole Bible start like this: In the beginning.

I believe Mark, inspired by the Holy Spirit is choosing his words very carefully here. He wants us to know that something similar to what happened in Genesis, is happening here in the story of Jesus. God is doing a new thing which we would all be wise to pay attention to.

And what exactly is this new thing?

Well, again think about this text in terms of a movie set up or the star wars crawling script at the beginning of one of their movies. There is a lot packed into verse 1 and 2 from a historical and political stand point.

God is doing a new thing, Mark says. This is the beginning of the good news or as the ESV correctly translates it, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which is just a loaded statement. Again Mark is choosing his words very carefully inpsired by the Holy Spirit. To many of us who’ve grown up in or around Church these words sort of just bounce off of us don’t they. Yeah, yeah, ok, we know all this. Even if you haven’t grown up around Church, this sentence isn’t really that inspiring or insightful is it. Even if you know nothing of Christianity or the Church, I’m guessing you’ve at least heard the name Jesus Christ. Maybe in some not so religous or respectable ways, but we’re all at least familiar with this name, but you may or may not know the story behind it.

Well, let’s just take a minute here together. Let’s slow down and take a couple of these words that Mark relays to us to get a better glimpse into what Mark is saying and how it would’ve landed on his first hearers of his words.

The beginning he says. Again this calls to mind Genesis. Mark is saying listen up, pay attention. God is doing a new thing! This is the beginning of the gospel.

Again for us today, this word has a whole other meaning and significance placed upon it because of 2000 years of Church and Christian history, but what did it mean at the time of Mark’s writing.

Gospel, the Greek word, εὐαγγέλιον, does in fact mean good news, but it’s a word that was reserved for Kingly announcements or divine announcements. The word had a lot of policital and historical baggage attached to it.

For instance, there is a document floating around the internet about the announcement of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. You can look it up it’s called the Priene Calendar Inscription. It’s making the case for why the Calendar should be built around Caesar Augustus’ birthday, which it was. The month August is named after him. Any ways, but found within this inscription is an announcement of “good news” or “good tidings.” that have been put into effect because of how great and godly Emperor Augustus is!

Mark’s hearers knew the significance of this word. Roman culture used it to announce the good news that a new King or ruler brought because of their rule. This word was also used in the Old Testament to signify something similar. It was used to proclaim the good news and glad tidings that were brought or or would be brought to bear because of God’s in-breaking Kingly rule and with it, his vindication of His people and vengeance against those who rebelled against Him.

All that to say, this word has huge historical and political ramifications. To paraphrase Mark, He writes, Pay attention! Heads up people. I’m about to drop some amazing news! In Jesus, God is bribing good news and glad tidings. He’s initiating a new rule that’s going to change everything. This is the beginning of that gospel! The gospel of Jesus Christ as in the ESV or Jesus the Messiah as in the NIV which is on the screen.

Here again, this is lost on us. We know this name. Jesus Christ, Jesus Messiah. First and last name of the most iconic and famous person in the history of the world. But do you know what Christ means? Do you know what Messiah means? It means the Lord’s Anointed One. The chosen one who will bring about all of God’s promises for salvation and the redemption and thriving of humanity!

Again, Christ or the Greek Christos is not a last night, it’s a title. God’s King. God’s anointed one. Jesus who is Messiah. Savior. King.

Mark is saying. People of the World. Hear ye! Hear Ye! I bring good news, God has sent His King. He’s here! His ruling, not just over Rome or this Empire but over all that is! God is on His throne and His name is Jesus!

Church, imagine with me living under corrupt rule of government, being over taxed and your culture under constant act from political leaders and the prevailing culture of the day. You don’t have to image that hard to you. But even as rough as it’s getting for Christians today, it was way worse for Christians and Jews under Rome. We may get canceled or shouted down on social media, we may loose jobs because of our faith, but we don’t have it as bad as the Jews or Christians in the days of Rome. When they got canceled for their faith, they got crucified, literally.

Now imagine, you’re living under that oppressive regime of government where it’s illegal to practice your religion openly and where there is literally a threat not just of being canceled but of being crucified for practicing your faith, imagine that you’re hearing these words for the first time.

Hear ye, Hear ye! I bring glad tidings, good news that God is doing a new thing! Here the beginning of the rule of King Jesus, the son of God!

This statement in the Roman world is traitorous Church!

Again the Priene Inscription tells us what Rome wanted everyone to believe about their leader. Hear the good news brought about by the god Caesar Augustus it says. There is no god but Caesar. Only he is responsible for the peace and prosperity of the land it says. Worship him. Serve him. Pay tax and homage only to him. Building your calendars and days around him! Follow him alone and all will be well in not just the land but in the entire world!

It’s in this historical and political context, that Mark says, God is doing a new thing. He has a new anointed one. His son, has come to rule and reign on Heaven and on Earth. Get ready Mark says, watch and wait to see what this new rule and reign will look like, the rule and reign not of Caesar Augustus but the true Son of God, Jesus Christ, God’s Anointed King!

And to back up this statement, Mark refers to Old Testament prophesies. He says, watch, wait, listen up! God is doing a new thing with a new King just as He promised He would! It’s all happening according to His plan! As was written by the prophet Isaiah! Then Mark quotes from most likely a collection of Old Testament quotations brought together because of their common theme, and attaches to them for purposes of recognition the best-known author, who is Isaiah. He quotes from Micah 3:1, Exodus 23:20, and Isaiah 40:3 in verse 2 and 3.

2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”

Mark wants everyone to know this good news is historical. God’s new rule, His anointed one is coming just as He promised He would into human history.

And if this is historical fact, as it is, that means church that this good news may be ignored or abused but because it’s historical evidence, it can never be erased!

Now I realized we spent a lot of time on just 3 verses, but I wanted you all to see the hype and feel the anticipation that Mark’s readers would’ve heard and seen. God is doing a new thing. This is the start of something new. Historically speaking this is going to change everything. Politically speaking. Anyone of you frustrated with our political scene? This, gospel, this good news, it’s going to shake up all of it for the Good of God’s people! This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God!

Alright, now with all the text scrolling up and off the screen now, one might think that we would launch right into stories about Jesus, but that’s not what happens.

Meet Johnny B!

As Mark clues us into something that God is doing and raised our anticipation to see who this new King is and how He will come and what His rule and reign will be like, before he takes us to Him as the main character, we are next introduced to one of the supporting cast members. Johnny B! Wes is going to give us a bit more on the origin story of Johnny B next week so we’ll save that, but I want to look at John’s message this morning and see how he waited for Christ’s first coming so that we can learn from his example how we should wait with anticipation and action for Christ’s 2nd coming.

Mark records in vs. 4 and 5,

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

As John waited for this new King to bring about his new reign that brought with it good tidings for all, He didn’t hide out and hunker down, but rather he chose the path of proclamation! He came as a voice crying out in the wilderness.

Church do you feel like sometimes you’re in a wilderness? Like you’re in a strange land with foreign people and foreign concepts floating around. Do you feel like you live with animals, people who are more controlled by their most basic animal instincts than common decency and righteous morality? Me too. I feel it too.

How are we supposed to wait in such a wilderness with such beasts all around us! Are we supposed to attack them as they would attack us? Or are we supposed to run and hide. Are those the only 2 options we have? No! Let me suggest to you a third way this morning as we wait like John for the 2nd coming of our King. We can and should follow in the example of Johnny B! We are too use our voices, not to condemn our culture or to cancel our culture, but rather to call them to repentance for the forgiveness of sin! We are to call out to our culture to proclaim the pathway to salvation that comes through a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins!

You see, Church, too many Christians expect regenerate behavior to come out of unregenerate people. We expect unChristians to act like they are Christians, but friends, they can’t, they don’t know any better, just like we used to be, they are lost! Our Culture is lost friends. They are so lost. They don’t know where to find their idenity! They best they can do is try and find meaning in sexuality, they are looking for identity for purpose and meaning in sexual craziness and sadly it’s reaping death and destruction! Our culture today is preaching a baptism of tolerance and celebration rather than repentance and solemnity before a righteous God and it’s making us more depressed, more anxious and more suicidal than any culture before us! We are lost as a culture, but praise be to God He is searching for us! This is the beginning of good news concerning Jesus Christ the son of God who was promised! Jesus is here! He came to find those who are lost! To restore us! To give us a new and beautiful identity! To give us purpose and a reason to live, to love and to hope!

This is the message we proclaim as we wait Church and proclaim it boldy we must… as my good friend Yoda would say! Just like Johnny B.

I know much of what the Bible says, if we proclaim it as God wrote it, it will not be popular, nor will it make us popular, but Church let’s be bold like Johnny B! We don’t have to be unkind, but the truth of God needs proclaimed even if it’s not popular! We don’t have to be, we shouldn’t be unkind in our proclamation but it’s God’s truth, then buddy we can proclaim it boldly with conviction just like Johnny B!

And I love this next story Johnny! Herod Antipas was a Roman governor of sorts at the time John started His ministry and Herod was just a rotten, rotten dude. Some body say, How rotten was he?

Well on one occasion he was said to be vising his half brother Philip and at that visit. He wooed his sister-in-law to divorce Philip and marry him! He stole his brother’s wife, who by the way also happened to be His niece!

Right and everyone was like Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Can you even imagine, you have your family over for Christmas and then your wife runs off with your brother who is also her uncle!?

Jerry. Jerry. Jerry!

And while our culture might be like. Hey you know, we just gotta let them live their truth! How are we to judge!

Johnny B, he ain’t having it and he boldly proclaims the good news about repentance for sin and forgiveness that follows!

Herod! You should know better! This is wrong! It’s against God. It’s sin and you need to turn away from it and be saved by King Jesus!

And as you can imagine, this message of repentance, that sin is something that needs confessed not celebrated and that it’s something to turn away from rather than tolerate. Well this was not a popular message before Herod or his niece who happened to also be his wife and ex-sister-in-law. HA!

In fact, this boldly proclamation from Johnny B eventually got him locked up in jail and then beheaded! But he carried that message boldly and with convectional kindness up to the end Church!

As you and I wait for Jesus’ 2nd coming, may we wait like Johnny B, may God give us the boldness to be voices crying out in the wilderness the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, sin is to be repented and turned away from not relished in and tolerated!

Johnny B was bold in his proclamation and he was counter-cultural in his lifestyle!

vv. 6 tells us of his life-style.

6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

This dude looked different than his prevailing culture. In his dress. In his diet. In what he said and what he did. He looked different.

Do you. Do you live differently from how those who are not Christian live? This is how we’re called to wait Church. We’re called to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus which is about good news and glad tidings that come to us when we turn from sin to Jesus and we’re called to proclaim this not just in what we say, but also in how we live.

Church, does your calendar proclaim to the lost around you how much you value Jesus and being with His people? Or does a it preach a gospel of glad tidings that come from something other than Christ? Hobbies are great. Rest and Sabbath is important. Sports are great. Extra circulars are great. But can we just all agree, none of those things are God! And our calendars should reflect that reality! Honestly Church, our calendars will reflect his reality if we’ve encountered the living God in Jesus Christ!

The same can be said of our checkbooks. Do they reflect and proclaim to the world that Jesus and His Kingdom are the most important things to us or do they worship another god and proclaim a different gospel?

As Johnny B waited, he did so in anticipation and action with bold proclamation in his word and through his lifestyle.

And lastly, as Johnny B waited it pointed people beyond himself to the One who is greater than each of us!

Church is a world of sel-promotion, this is a toughy. We all love to be the center of attention. We come out as babies with this assumption. The world revolves around us. That has to be trained out of us. We have to be trained to think of others as more important than ourselves. To consider others’ interests before we think of our own.

As John waited He did so with anticipation and action that pointed people beyond himself to Jesus.

7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We do this by learning to deflect when someone complements us and reflect praise towards others in the name of Jesus!

For example: someone says to you,

“Wow, you’re really good at basketball or carpentry or singing.” Your response could be something like, “Thanks, I gotta give credit to my King. He gave me this gift.”

Or someone says, “Wow what a nice family, what a nice house.”

“Thanks, the Lord Jesus has been gracious to me. He’s a good King isn’t He!”

Or we can reflect praise when we pay a compliant to others. Wow, isn’t God so good for giving you this thing or that thing or this skill or whatever.

I realize this is a subtle thing, but it’s important and helpful. God deserves the praise Church.

Every good thing we have, whether we believe or not, it comes to is, it came to us from Jesus Christ! So we would all to well to help ourselves and others remember this truth by constantly and consistently pointing beyond ourselves to the only good and true Righteous King: Jesus who is the giver of every good and perfect thing in this world!

Doing this, pointing beyond ourselves, deflecting and refracting praise will helps us remember our place. Yes we are saved and yes King Jesus loves us, but He’s in charge and every good and perfect things comes to us from His hand. This will help us remember that truth. It will also help others see His goodness! And lastly it will keep us humble.

We’re not all that. We don’t have it all together! We’re are sick, but Jesus is our Doctor who can bring healing! While we may have sin in our life, if we turn from it, Jesus has forgiveness and salvation for us!

As we wait this advent season, let us learn to wait like Johnny B in anticipation and action, boldly proclaiming Jesus’ baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in our word and in our deed together! And as we experience the forgiveness that comes from this good news may the Lord Jesus help others to be found as we have been and learn to learn to live increasingly in His freedom!

Let’s pray.