The Beginning of the Gospel

I am excited that we are back and I hope you all had a great Christmas vacation and I am even more excited to begin our series in the Gospel of Mark. Usually when I sit down and start to plan out a series, I try to have whatever book of the Bible that we are in done either by Christmas break or by the time the school year ends but when it comes to this book that we are about to do, I didn’t want to put any limitations or time restraints on this book. We are going to follow as the Lord leads us and I am open to however long that will take. We will certainly be in this book for the remainder of the school year and there is a very real possibility that we are still in this book by the time 2024 ends but we are going to take it and run with it. We’ll take it slow today to get back into the swing of things and more so than anything, I really want to lay the foundation as to what this book is and how we got it. The Gospel of Mark is a pretty unique Gospel in a number of ways. It was the first Gospel account to be written that we know to be considered a Holy Spirit inspired work. It may not have been the first book of the New Testament written but it certainly appears to be the first Gospel that was written so when you look at Matthew and Luke, they take and expand on much of what Mark has passed down to us. Not only is it the first Gospel to be written, it is also the shortest of the four Gospels coming in at only 16 chapters. On top of that, I believe that Mark is also the most action-oriented of the four Gospels. As you are going to see over the next few weeks and months, especially in the first half of the Gospel, Mark just goes miracle after miracle, event after event, one place to the next. In fact, Mark’s favorite word early on in this book is the word “immediately” which stresses the rapid nature of not just Mark’s writing but Christ’s ministry. If Mark was a movie, it would be like a Michael Bay movie. I’m not sure if you have ever watched his movies like the Transformers movies but Bay is known for just rapid cuts, quick pacing, moving the plot along as quickly as possible to get to the next exciting scene.

Background of Mark

Before we dive too deeply into our verses, I want us to know more about this book. The first question we need to answer is who wrote the book of Mark and I’m sure most of you would say, “Some guy named Mark.” But who is Mark exactly? Mark plays a greater role in Scripture than we might realize and he shows up several times in the book of Acts and in the writings of Peter and Paul. Mark also goes by the name John Mark and he is the cousin of Barnabas who was Paul’s first missionary partner in the book of Acts. You might remember that if you were here when we did Acts last year. In Acts 12 after Peter’s miraculous escape from prison, he goes to the house of a woman named Mary who was the mother of Mark and Peter gives them a message that he had escaped from prison. One chapter later Mark goes with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey but within just a few short verses, Mark leaves them and returns to Jerusalem. By the time of Paul and Barnabas’s second missionary journey, Barnabas wants to bring Mark with them again but Paul is totally against that idea and this causes Paul and Barnabas to split into two missionary teams instead of one with Paul taking Silas and Barnabas taking Mark. At some point there is a reconciliation between Paul and Mark and we can see this in Paul’s letters. In Colossians 4, it appears that Mark is actually with Paul while he is imprisoned in Rome and in 2 Timothy 4, Paul asks Timothy to bring Mark with him because he is helpful to Paul’s work and this is a great encouragement for us that are younger in the faith that have gone through periods of discouragement. Mark was not ready for the task in Acts 13 but by the end of Paul’s life, Mark was one of the key men to minister to him. It goes to show us that God is always in the business of preparing the man for the moment and the moment for the man. You may not be ready right now to do something but if that thing is from God, you will get to it according to His timing, you just need to be faithful with what you have. Not only is Mark helpful to Paul, he is also incredibly close to the Apostle Peter. At the end of 1 Peter 5, Peter refers to Mark as his son and this is not to say that Peter was Mark’s dad but it shows just how closely these two men worked together and loved each other. How closely did these two work together? Well it has been said by some that while Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, he received his information largely from Peter while Peter was impriosned in Rome and that is part of the reason why Peter is so frequently singled out in Mark. One of the reasons why Mark may move so quickly through his Gospel is because Peter is nearing the end of his life and Peter is just giving him as much information as accurately and quickly as he can. That goes into another question that we need to have answered of why was this book written? To put it quickly, this gospel was written as a way to encourage early Christians that were being persecuted by the Romans and it was written to put on paper what it was that the followers of Christ were preaching. Mark’s Gospel was written predominantly to a Roman or Gentile audience and this was important for the believers that were called to endure within the Roman empire. That’s a bit of the background as to who wrote this book and why it was written, let’s open up in prayer and then we will read Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1–8 NASB95

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

The Prologue of Verses 1-3

We’ll look at the first 3 verses and then we will look at John the Baptist but something of interest to point out to you is that verse 1 is actually the title of the Gospel of Mark. It serves the dual role of titling the book and also presenting to the reader exactly what will unfold in the book. For writing a book that was sent to a mostly Roman audience, it is interesting just how much Mark refers back to the Jewish Old Testament in these opening verses. The very first words of verse 1: The beginning echoes back to Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1 would do the same thing when John writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is certainly an intentional reference by Mark back to the opening words of Genesis 1 and it reminds the audience of 2 things: The first is that the same God that was present at creation is present now in the coming of Christ. Just as God began the work of creation so He also begins the work of salvation. The good news of the Gospel was not made good by human authors, instead it was given by God Himself. The second thing that it reminds the audience of is that the Lord creates new life in the redemption of His people just as easily as He creates the world. But there is something substantially different in the fact that Jesus has come to earth to redeem His people. It was Jonathan Edwards that said that creation is just a shadow of the greater work of redemption. As we go through verse 1 we see who it is that Mark is writing about: this is the good news, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ. The long awaited Messiah has come and not only is He the Christ, He is the Son of God! 1 verse in and Mark is already declaring that Jesus is no ordinary human, He is God in the flesh! If you have doubts as to who Jesus is, you don’t have to travel far in this book to see exactly who is. Look again at Mark 1:2–3 “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.’” What I want to draw your attention to is those first four words of verse 2: As it is written. Why are these words so important? Because it reminds us that the Gospel was not a new concept. Christ’s death on the cross was never plan B. God did not create the universe oblivious to this fact. No, before time began Jesus was already to be the Savior of the world and the Old Testament is filled with references to this reality. Tim Keller writes, “Mark roots Jesus as deeply as possible in the historic, ancient religion of Israel. Christianity, he implies, is not a completely new thing. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the biblical prophets longings and visions, and He is the one who will come to rule and renew the universe.” It also reminds us that God always keeps His promises and while we may often lose our patience with how quickly these promises come, we know from history that they always arrive exactly when they are supposed to. God is never early and never late. We can trust that as God kept every promise in regards to Christ’s first coming; He will keep every promise in regards to His second coming. Mark references the prophet Isaiah in verses 2 and 3 and there are actually 3 different prophecies that are eluded to in this passage. One is a reference to Exodus 23:20, one a reference to Malachi 3:1 and another is Isaiah 40:3. The reason why Mark refers to it solely as a prophecy of Isaiah is not necessarily important for our study tonight but the short of it is that the Exodus and Malachi references are used to better explain what Isaiah meant in Isaiah 40. Think of it like when I’m preaching from Mark 1:1 and I use Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 as a reference point to enhance what it is that Mark means in his chapter. I want to emphasize again that this is God’s work. Verse 2 says of God, “I send MY messenger.” This is God’s Gospel, this is God’s Work, this is God’s message. The focal point of these verses is not on the messenger that goes before the Lord, the focal point is the Lord! To quote Whitefield, while others may preach the Gospel better than I can, they can preach NO better Gospel. Notice in verse 3 that Mark references how the voice cries in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of THE LORD.” It is not a Lord that is coming, it is not a man of great authority that he is crying out in the wilderness for, it is the Lord God Himself! The one that comes into the world is more than just a prophet, more than just a priest, more than just a king, more than just a savior, though He is certainly all those things, He that has come into the world is God Himself. The entire purpose of the cry of the messenger is to point the audience’s attention away from the messenger and to the One that is coming. Can we say that our lives possess the same principle? Are we pointing away from ourselves and pointing to the One that was and is and is to come? Just as John and the prophets declared to the world that Christ was coming the first time, we stand on the other side of history where we must declare to the world that He is coming a second time. With the few minutes that we have left, let’s look now at John the Baptist and the message that he had and the ministry that he performed.

John’s Ministry and Message

Mark makes it clear in verse 4 that John the Baptist is the messenger and the voice that was prophesied of in verses 2 and 3. John doesn’t just come onto the scene with some encouraging words, a pep talk, or a soft message. John comes to do what real preaching is called to be. What was the message that John preached? Matthew 3:2 shows John’s message was: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then in Matthew 3:7-10 we read this:

Matthew 3:7–10 (NASB95)

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

“Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

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.

“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.

John’s message wasn’t a soft message. He called an ace an ace and a spade a spade. He wasn’t there to coddle the ears of those that came. He didn’t come to teach, he came to preach and believe me there is a huge difference between those two. Someone once asked Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “What is the difference between teaching and preaching?” And Lloyd-Jones answered, “If you have to ask me what the difference is between preaching and teaching is, it is obvious that you have never heard real preaching because when you have heard real preaching you will know what the difference is.” True biblical preaching preaches repentance, it preaches grace, it preaches forgiveness of sin from Christ alone. Preaching that exists solely to play to your strengths and to build your own abilities up is not preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why it is so important for you guys now at your age to be able to know what true Biblical preaching is. We need to preach repentance. You does not have true forgiveness of sin without true repentance. If you want to live a Christ-centered life, your entire life needs to do a 180. You simply cannot live your own sinful lifestyle anymore and claim to be a true follower of Christ. Matthew Henry wrote, “John told people that their must be a renovation of their hearts and a reformation of their lives, that they must forsake their sins and turn to God, and upon those terms and no other, their sins should be forgiven.” That truth has never changed. If you want to be a follower of Christ, your entire heart and your entire life must be made new. The bad as well as the good needs to be made new. True repentance always involves a changing of the sinful mind and heart to embracing the truth and life-saving message of Jesus Christ. Salvation does not happen outside of Him and His way. Moving on notice in verses 4 and 5 that John is ministering in the wilderness and it is here where multitudes are coming to him. Mark says that all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem are coming out to him and being baptized in the Jordan and this is just a way of stressing just how popular John and his ministry are becoming that droves of people are flocking to hear him. Notice too that John is in the wilderness. He isn’t a pastor at the big megachurch in Jerusalem. People aren’t walking into South Hill and going to New Hope to find him. He’s out by the Jordan preaching a message that today’s celebrity pastors would not dare preach. Big things happen in the wilderness in the Word of God. It is in the wilderness where Moses sees the burning bush, it’s in the wilderness where God makes his covenant with the people of Israel, and it is as if God is bringing these people back to the wilderness to hear John’s message to remind them of their covenant beginnings. One of the big reasons why John is so popular is because Israel has not had a prophet for 400 years. For 400 years God has been silent but now John arrives on the scene and he is described in verse 6 in almost the exact same way that the prophet Elijah is described in 2 Kings 1:8. John’s very clothing and lifestyle reinforces that this man was the Elijah who was to come that is mentioned in Malachi 4. The Lord says in Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” While John is not Elijah reincarnated, John comes in the spirit and power of Elijah. The people are coming to John and it says that they come to be baptized and to confess their sins. John’s preaching demands a response. All true preaching should demand a response to same form of action or inaction. This is why every sermon that you hear me preach has some sort of call to repent and place your faith in Christ. Believe it or not, every sermon that you hear me preach has some element of decision that you as the listener need to make. You either decide to respond positively or you decide to ignore it. Even right now there is a decision that you need to make when it comes to what we are going over tonight. Will you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Will you believe that Jesus really is who the Bible says that He is? Will you repent of your sin and confess that you need forgiveness and a Savior and will your life reflect that accordingly? John’s message in verses 7-8 should resonate deeply with all of us. Look again at Mark 1:7–8 “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. “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” What is it that John is saying here? John is saying, “Who am I but a messenger of the Lord? If you are impressed with me, a simple servant that is unworthy to even untie the sandal of the One that is coming, you won’t even be able to comprehend the greatness of the one that is on His way.” John knew when to get out of the way. John knew he wasn’t the star of the show. John says of Jesus in John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John’s words stress the greatness of the Lord our God and the humility that we as God’s servants should possess. J.C. Ryle said, “The principal work of every faithful minister of the Gospel is to set the Lord Jesus fully before his people, and to show them his fulness and his power to save.” If you want to make a lasting difference for the Kingdom of God, you must decrease and Christ must increase. If you want to live a life worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must stress that Christ alone is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. Now the question for us all is this: Christ came 2,000 years ago and walked among us. He lived a perfect life, He fulfilled the Law of God perfectly and His earthly reward for that was to die on a Roman cross in the place of sinful men. He was placed in a borrowed tomb and 3 days later, He rose in glory and He now sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf. All of this took place to fulfill what God said would happen. Everything that the Old Testament testified in regards to Jesus’s first coming has happened. God has proven Himself as trustworthy, He has proven that He is able to fulfill His promises to the uttermost. He’s also promised that Christ is going to come again for His people. He has promised that just as Christ ascended, He shall return in the very same way where every eye will see Him in His glory. We know this to be true because God has not failed to keep His promise. The question now for us is if that day were to be today, if Christ’s return was marked for January 10th, 2024 would we be ready? When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth? If He were to come today, I pray that He would find it in the hearts of every soul in this room but as much as I may want that, I cannot make it happen on my own. You have heard this day the voice of one crying in the wilderness and we know that the Lord is coming soon. Will you be ready? Are you ready now? Let’s pray.