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Mark 1:1-8
Our Scripture this morning is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1 verses 1 through 8.I invite you to follow along as I read from God’s holy, inerrant, and inspired Word.
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,’ ”
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.
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.”1
This is the Word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer of Illumination:
Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we may hear your Word with joy.
Amen.
This morning, we begin a new series looking at the Gospel of Mark.
Maybe you’re wondering, “Why?”
Because the Gospel of Mark is all about who Jesus is.
We live in a time and place where people make Jesus whoever they want.
About ten years ago one of the most popular movies was Talladega Nights.
It’s a pretty ridiculous comedy about racecar driving.
There’s a scene where the main characters are praying over Thanksgiving dinner.
The man praying kept saying baby Jesus.
When he’s told that Jesus eventually grew up and became a man, he responds by saying you can pray to whatever Jesus you want.
So often that’s how we treat Jesus.
We treat him like he’s a character in a story that we can re-imagine.
Lion King is a re-imagined version of Hamlet.
A few years ago there was a popular show called Revenge.
That was a re-imagined version of The Count of Monte Cristo.
We do the same with Jesus.
We think we can re-imagine him and make Jesus whatever we want.
But the Gospel of Mark, along with the other gospels, tells us exactly who Jesus is.
He’s not a Jesus of our own making but the real, historic Jesus that we so desperately need.
Mark doesn’t give us a lot of what Jesus says; he gives us Jesus, who he is and what he does.
As we examine this passage, we’ll see that Jesus is the king and that there is a messenger preparing the way for the king.
Jesus, the King
Mark begins his gospel account with these words, “This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.
Straight to the point.
The other gospels have longer prologues.
Matthew’s prologue begins with a genealogy connecting Jesus to David and Abraham.
Luke’s begins with the birth announcements of John and Jesus before telling us of their births.
John’s gospel account begins with the creation of the world.
And yet here we have none of that.
It’s not that the genealogies, the birth narratives, and showing that Jesus existed before the foundations of the world aren’t important.
No they are.
They’re very important.
Mark is just a simple writer.
He’s straight to the point.
And the point is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
I have to confess, growing up I thought Christ was Jesus’ last name.
I thought, “My last name is Flick and Jesus’ last name is Christ”.
Maybe you think that; that Christ is Jesus’ last name.
I hate to burst your bubble but it’s not.
It’s actually a title.
Christ is the Greek version of the Hebrew word Messiah.
It means anointed.
Jesus, he is the anointed one.
He is anointed to do the Lord’s will.
It is the Lord’s will that he redeem his people.
That’s what his name means.
Jesus means “Yahweh saves”.
Jesus is anointed to show that God’s save people through him.
It’s not just that Jesus shows that God saves, he is God himself.
Mark says that he is “Son of God”.
We don’t recognize how radical that statement is.
We’re so accustomed to it that we don’t recognize the radical claim Mark is making.
In the ancient world, the great kings and emperors often styled themselves as the son of god.
Caesar Augustus did that.
We have coins he minted that said he was the son of god.
Other kings and emperors did that too.
The Egyptian Pharaoh’s styled themselves as the embodiment of the gods.
But it wasn’t just a title that anyone could claim.
Only the great kings and emperors could make that claim.
But on the other hand, you had the Jews.
To the Jews, God couldn’t, God wouldn’t become human.
And therefore it was blasphemy to call anyone the son of God.
Often modern people think they’re the first to have trouble accepting that Jesus was God.
The Jews had more barriers to it than we do.
But Mark is making it clear that Jesus is God.
It’s not just that Mark says Jesus is the son of God that lets us know that Jesus is divine.
The quote from Isaiah makes clear that Jesus is God.
We read, “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,’ ”
Maybe you’re wondering how that makes clear that Jesus is God.
It’s not particularly clear how it’s about God, at least in Mark’s use of the quote.
See what Isaiah says.
Isaiah writes:
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. 2
Notice the differences?
Isaiah is saying that it is the LORD our God who will come and comfort his people.
It is God that the messenger is preparing everyone for.
Mark has taken that quote and applied it to Jesus.
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