Mark Chapter 1

Intro

Students!

I hope you guys had a GREAT Christmas!

I know my was pretty exciting, and slightly hectic!

But man I’m so glad to be back with you all and starting a brand new series!

For the next 16 weeks we are going to be walking through the book of Mark!

This is the shortest Gospel in the Bible

The gospels incase you don’t know are the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books provide accounts of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Mark is the shortest book of the three, and it is often known as the book of action

In the book of Mark he uses a verb euthys which is translated “Immediately, at once, right away” — Mark uses this verb 42 times

Mark doesn’t spend much time on dialogue but instead focuses on what Jesus did

So I’m super excited to go through the book! This is the first time we’ve ever done something like this as a Ministry!

And btw, with the Mark journaling Bibles — I encourage you to really take advantage of them! Rather you want to take notes from my messages, study through Mark yourself, or just simply read it these are powerful!

You can choose to keep them here so you don’t forget them if you want — or if you are studious/responsible definitely take them home with you!

But man we are going to jump right in to the text!

Lets not waste much time — kinda the theme of Mark haha

1. Prepare the Path

Mark 1:1–3 ESV

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”

The author — Mark (very creative book name I know) starts off by giving us a prophecy from the book of Isaiah

This prophecy is telling us that a messenger will come and prepare the way for the Lord

That this messenger will come from the wilderness

And that all those who hear should make their paths straight

Mark B. John the Baptist Prepares the Way for the Sacrificial Servant (1:2–8)

The figure of speech, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him, refers to the custom of sending an officer before a monarch who was to make a royal journey. This person was to level and smooth out any ruts in the road so the monarch’s journey would be smoother

That John the Baptist — who is the one that is being sent — is meant to prepare the way for Jesus

He is coming to prepare those around him for the coming Messiah

This leads to the first point from Mark 1

Prepare the Path for Jesus

John the Baptist came to prepare the pathway for Jesus — to make the people ready for His arrival

The same is true for us and our life

How are you living?

Are you living in a manner that is preparing people for Jesus?

The idea of preparing the path has the notion of someone going before a king to make sure the road is smooth — does this represent how you are living your life?

Are you preparing the way for Jesus?

To prepare the path we must:

Care

Do you care about the people you are trying to reach?

If you don’t you’ll never have a heart for them

You’ll never do anything about it

We must have a deep care for them

Pray

Once you care you need to pray for them

While you can do a lot of good — Jesus is the one that changes people and we must pray for them

Share

Then we must share the Gospel with them

John the Baptist prepared the people for Jesus’ arrival

We must do the same

2. Proclaim Repentance

Mark 1:4–5 ESV

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

In verse 4 we see that John came out of the wilderness proclaiming that the people need to repent

That they need to turn from their sins

The Gospel of Matthew gives light on the message that JTB preached:

Matthew 3:7–10 ESV

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

JTB is looking at the religious leaders — the Jews — the people that claim to follow God and is warning them that they must repent and be prepared for the coming arrive

“The ax is at the base of the tree”

How scary is that — you only put an ax at the base of a tree when you are about to chop it down and that is what JTB is telling the religious leaders

— when Jesus comes there is no more excuses

So REPENT!

The Greek word used in the book of Mark for confessing their sins is word exomologeo which means “I admit openly”

This is a rare word which only occurs 9 times in the New Testament and only once in the book of Mark

This word shows the intensity to which the people were repenting from their sins

Which leads us to our next point

Proclaim Repentance

Just like JTB we must proclaim repentance

We must people people to repent and turn from their sins

When we are preparing the pathway for Jesus we must call them to repentance

To do this it means we first must repent ourselves

There is an old leadership principle that says you cannot take someone somewhere you haven’t gone before

The same is true here — you cannot call someone to repent and flee from their sins if you yourself are still addicted to the things you watch on your phone

You cannot call someone to change if you yourself are still a habitual liar!

We must repent and turn to Jesus first! Then out of that repentance we urge others to do the same

Think about it this way:

I played sports all my life

One thing about playing sports is — almost everyone wants to give you advice about how to be better, do better, or whatever

For me that always annoyed me

I had a lot of parents that would tell me how to field a ground ball better, or how to shoot a double leg takedown easier

Why did it annoy me?

Because they had never done it!

Why would I listen to someone about how to shoot a double leg when they never stepped foot an a wrestling mat a day in their life

The same thing is true when we are calling people to repent and turn to God!

If we have not repented — there is no way we can expect others to repent

We must first repent and seek Jesus, and then call others to repent!

There is no other way!

We must call people to repent

3. Point to Jesus

Mark 1:6–8 ESV

6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The last verses I want to look at today give us a snapshot of what JTB looked like

He was dressed in camel’s hair and wore a leather belt and ate locust and honey

For us that doesn’t mean much — other than we would think he’s probably crazy

For the people back then this would be an immediate sign of a prophet

All through the Old Testament prophets were seen wearing the bear minimum — they weren’t flashy — they were just seeking God

The locust and honey, while nasty for us, was a typical diet of someone who lived in the desert

But especially JTB would have reminded the Jews of the prophet Elijah — they were dressed the same — from the same area — and calling for repentance just the same

So naturally when you get compared to the prophet Elijah — who was one of the most famous prophets in the OT, and also who many Jews believed would come back before the Messiah — you start to make a name for yourself

People come and recognize you and prop you up to which JTB responds by saying:

“someone else is coming who is greater, I am not worthy to touch his nasty feet. I do nothing but get you wet, he will save your life.”

At the height of his popularity JTB says — I’m not the guy

I’M NOT HIM

Him is coming, but he’s not me

Think about that!

He stopped and deflected the glory

That leads to the last thing

Point to Jesus

Just like John the Baptist — we must point people to Jesus and not ourself!

John’s entire mission was to prepare the way for Jesus and then get out of the way

Let me repeat that

Show people Jesus and then move!

That must be our mission

To show people Jesus and then get out of the way

JTB understood his role and place

He said he isn’t worthy to touch the sandal of Jesus

Mark B. John the Baptist Prepares the Way for the Sacrificial Servant (1:2–8)

To remove the sandals and wash the feet was the job of a slave. John was saying that he was not even worthy of the office of slave when compared to the One coming after him

This must be our attitude!

We must realize who we are in relation to Jesus and always point people back to Him

The problem is we get in the way

Unlike JTB we start to drink the Kool-Aid thinking we are the stuff

We start to get praised and we let that go to our head!

We start seeking out glory — even though we attach Jesus’ name to it

We cannot do that

We must always always ALWAYS point back to Jesus

We must always deflect the glory

We are not Him

Conclusion

Students school is starting back and I want to make sure you take John the Baptist’s example to heart!

Make sure you are preparing the way!

Make sure you proclaiming repentance — and repenting yourself

Make sure you are pointing to Jesus!

There is nothing more important that you can do than these things!

Discussion Questions

What questions do you have from the message?

What was one thing that stuck out to you?

What does the phrase "Prepare the way for the Lord" mean in the context of John the Baptist's mission?

How can you personally apply the message of 'preparing the way for Jesus' in your daily life?

Why does John the Baptist emphasize that he is not worthy to untie Jesus' sandals? What should that tell us about our relationship to Jesus?

How does your own repentance make you more effective in sharing the message of Jesus with others?

What specific steps can you take this week to make a path for Jesus in your school or community?