Mark 1:1-3 "The Prophecy of Preparation"

Introduction:

Mark’s gospel doesn’t begin with a birth narrative. But it begins with a declaration of good news concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Maybe it is helpful for us to know that it is believed that the Apostle Peter is Mark’s primary source as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This was the belief of the second century church father, Papias. And even though Mark was present for some of the life and ministry of Jesus, he was not one of the original 12 disciples. Mark’s association with Peter gives it the stamp of Apostolic authority.

Mark spent a lot of time with Peter in Rome and this gospel is written primarily with a Gentile audience in mind.

While there is no birth narrative Mark anchors the beginning of his gospel back into the Old Testament prophets with Isaiah specifically being mentioned by name.

This is not necessarily a direct quote but one that emphasizes the prophetic content of Isaiah the prophet from Isaiah 40. And it is a prophetic declaration of the coming preparation for the Messiah and His coming Kingdom.

And the first act of preparation that we see in this declaration is the coming of a messenger. Look back at your text to verses 1-2:

I. The Messenger (1-2).

First thing we notice here is that there is a divine initiative behind the messenger. God is the One speaking before the presence of His Messiah in the hearing of the people of God through the means of His prophet.

The whole of the Godhead is present and involved in this eternal plan. And God is making that known to His people.

We know this because that which is written in the prophets is God’s word being revealed by direct revelation. And it is God who is doing the sending. God is the one who is dispatching the messenger on behalf of His Son and the Holy Spirit is making it known through the prophetic witness.

Now most of us already know that the messenger that is being referred to here is John the Baptist. And Lord willing we will talk more about him next Sunday. But for now it is enough for us to know that John the Baptist came by divine appointment to prepare the way for the coming of Messiah.

This divine initiative should not surprise us Christian because as we have seen over and over again He is the God of the covenant of the “I will”. He is the One who takes the initiative to bring about the outworking of His promises as a display of His covenant fidelity.

And God is initiating all of this for His ultimate glory through the revelation of Jesus Christ. And by Christ He will uphold His covenant to His people. This is why it is “good news” by the way. It is not ultimately our salvation that makes the news good but the reason the news is good is because the glory and righteousness of God will be fully vindicated and fulfilled.

And that is good news to our ears because the Lord will work salvation for His people. But this preparation was not just something that the Messengers would do but preparation was tied to the very message that John the Baptist would proclaim. Look back to your text to verse 3:

II. The Message (3).

John the Baptist came out of the wilderness proclaiming the message of preparation. The people were to engage in preparation too. They were to make the the Lord’s “paths straight.”

Now what in the world does this mean that they were to “make His paths straight”?

When I was a little boy my great-grandparents lived next door to us and the two houses were separated by a field. And regardless of what my father planted in that field we would trample down whatever was planted and there would be a dirt path right through the middle of the field between our house and theirs.

This message of making straight paths for Lord is Messianic Kingdom language out of the prophets. Here it is connecting to Isaiah 40:3–5 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Christian the implication is one similar to rolling out the red carpet in our current day. Where prominent people in public life are given special treatment upon their arrival. All the focus is one them upon their arrival. It is done for heads of state when they arrive as dignitaries or for celebrities at special award events.

But this arrival is distinctly different. A highway in the desert (denoting a spiritual waist land), every valley lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low, all the ground made level, and the rough places made smooth. In other words everything will be made in compliance to Him, not the other way around. Everything will comply to His authority instead of Him complying to the dominance of thee world and its system of rule.

Because He is the manifestation and revelation of the glory of the Lord and everyone will see it. It is rooted in the spoken and eternal decree of God.

You see Christian when Jesus came into the world in His incarnation it was to come and bring the world into compliance to Him and His supreme rule. But as you know not everyone got the memo. The divine intent behind the coming of Christ was never to bring the Kingdom into compliance to the world and the world systems of power.

This is because all of the nations are corrupt before Him. They are all tainted by the human condition even though some of them use slogans to give lip service to God at the heart of their power base is a corrupt and deceitful heart. Such nations and rulers attempt to use God to sway others using the appearance of allegiance to God but their hearts are far from Him.

Jesus didn’t come to bring His rule of the Kingdom to align with the kingdoms of men. He didn’t come to take sides He came to take over. All of the way before Him will be made into compliance to Him and His sovereign rule.

Christian we may know this about nations but it is far more difficult for us to admit in our own personal lives. Make no mistake, nations that practice such things are usually dominated by people who have the same approach to Christ and His Kingdom in their personal lives.

Christian when Christ comes into your lives it shouldn’t be surprising that the Holy Spirit begins to challenge the self-rule in your own life. Especially in those ares where we are attempting to make Christ compliant to our own ambitions that are contrary to His Kingdom rule.

We don’t usually like the idea of our King ruling us where we are compliant to Him instead of Him being compliant to us. But He exercises such rule in our lives for our own good as He brings about the sanctification of our hearts. This is not a heavy handed rule but it is our Lord showing us the depth of His love for us to keep us safe from the world and the system of dominance in the world because it is in the hearts of sinful men to make Him compliant to us.

Christian when the King of glory comes into our lives there is a path to be made in the dessert of the human heart. There are mountains to be made low and valleys to be lifted up to be in compliance to the Messiah of God. He does this for us out of His goodness and love for us in that He protects us and preserves us for Himself in the security of His Kingdom. The Old Testament prophet Malachi spoke of this in Malachi 3:1–4 :1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”

Conclusion:

It would be the fullness of the ministry of Messiah that would work the plan of redemption into one heart at a time. Hearts are brought into compliance by the work of the Spirit bringing about the application of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

He didn’t come to identify with us in our sin as to be a sinner too. But He came to take our sin upon Himself that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.

This is what made us fit for the Kingdom Christian. He has brought us into compliance with the standards of God and His Kingdom and He is still at work in us bringing about our sanctification on a daily basis. And His grace is sufficient to continue this work until the day of His appearing.

On that day all the nations will be brought into compliance and the final judgement will take place.

Unbeliever are you ready for that day? No one will escape. In goodness and in love He holds out the gospel to you again that you might believe unto salvation the gospel of Jesus Christ. That all things pertaining to your life will be brought into compliance to King Jesus, the Messiah of God. Believe the gospel!

Let’s Pray!