Telling the Story

Intro

has anyone ever stole your thunder?

first promotion from PFC To SPC. SFC Harzman stole my thunder

Emissary - comes to announce a king or an army

Christmas - Angels, and Epiphany Magi

Important people or events are almost always preceded by s a messenger, someone to prepare the receivers

Look at the role of John the baptist preceeding Christ

Read scripture

Context

Mark gets right to ministry

no birth narrative

no childhood

right to brass tacks

Uses Isiah to show the prophesy of John preparing the way for Jesus.

John is a random outsider baptizing people in the wilderness.

John is baptizing in water and teaching repentance

Says the one who is coming

Is more powerful

John is not fit to tie his sandals

Jesus is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit

Jesus is then baptized

The spirit descends down on Christ

God declares you are my son, and I am pleased

Main points

We see two different people

John preparing the way for Jesus

Jesus preparing the people for the coming Kingdom

Both are being obedient to thier call

John as the prophet preceeding the messiah

Jesus being baptized into his role as God’s son and messiah

As we are baptized into the Spirit of God, and adopted in to the body of Christ, Gods people, God calls us to step into the roles of John and Jesus, preparing the way for Jesus to come again, and spread the news of the completion of the coming of Gods kingdom.

We step into the role of John when we are baptized into the body

1) Johns Role is to proclaim the coming King. He is preparing Israel to receive Gods promise.

2) John is baptizing with water. It was a call to repentance. A preperation to submitting ourselves to God for restoration.

3) We are called to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ.

Our calling is not to live into Johns baptism, but to live into Jesus’ baptism

1) john lived outside the world, and used anger to provoke the religious elite of the day.

2) we are called to live into the baptism of the spirit. We saw from Paul and acts in our earlier reading, paul tells the men Johns baptism was a call for repentance and preparation for the coming king. They were then filled with the spirit and changed

3) We are called to share the Gospel with Love, but we are shaped by the in filling of the spirit.

We prepare the way for Christ and Gods kingdom.

1) The Baptism of the Spirit shapes us to pave the way for Christ

holiness is christ in me. the spirit of God filling us shapes us to prepare the way by making us more christ like and helping us to love and care for others.

2) Adoption into the body shapes us to pave the way for Christ.

Our baptism, Entering in to the body of believers helps us find the support we need in a broken world to share the good news of the coming kindgom.

3) Obedience to our calling shapes us to pave the way for Christ.

All of this story, the story of telling of something to come requires the one bringing the message to submit to the one they are proclaiming. The angels who told of Jesus Birth, John telling of the messiah, or Jesus pouring himself out on the cross to do the will of the father, all require obedience, as does out calling to share the good news and preparing the way for Christ to return.

Conclusion

Many thought that John was tying to steal Jesus thunder. John knew though that he was simple called to prepare the way. Jesus was also called to prepare the way for Gods kingdom to take root in this world and begin the fulfullment of Gods promise of restoration.

while that has already come, it is not yet been fulfulled. So we are called to step into role of proclamer, that which through all we do, say, act and embody does not steal any thunder, but instead prepares creation for the return of the king and the establishment of the kingdom.