Preparing for His Arrival

Introduction

Last Sunday we looked at the subject, “Anticipating His Arrival” from Matthew 1:1-18. For thousands of years the Jews waited for the Messiah and about 4,000 years after the first promise was given in Genesis 3, God became a man and stepped into His creation as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, a couple of thousand years later, we anticipate His second coming. This time He will not arrive as a tiny babe in Bethlehem, but as a conquering King. We wait, and we remember, that even though God’s timetable is not ours, He always fulfills His promises in His perfect time.

Today’s message will not focus on human beings anticipating His coming, but rather what God was doing in preparing for Christ’s coming. Join me this morning in Mark 1 as we read vv. 1-3 and see that...

God Had Spent Centuries Preparing for His Arrival (vv. 1-3)

Mark begin his Gospel by quoting a text from the OT prophet Isaiah. Keep in mind this quote is from several hundred years before Mark ever wrote His Gospel. However, he begins his book by reminding us that God had spent centuries preparing the world for the arrival of the Messiah. Note Mark’s quote in

Mark 1:2–3 ESV

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”

The phrase “I send” comes from the Greek word that means “to send out.” The idea here is to “send away towards a goal or a purpose.” What was that goal? The goal was to “Prepare the way of the Lord” and to “make his paths straight.” This person’s responsibility was to “build or make ready.” The idea is to “make suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose for some use, event, or other purpose.”

Whoever this person would be, they would have an enormous job. For hundreds and hundreds of years God was preparing the world for this person as well as the Messiah. And when the fulness of time was come…when the timing was just right, John the Baptist was born to prepare the way for the Messiah’s public ministry!

Galatians 4:4 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

We also need to be reminded that just because we may not see what God is doing at any given moment, it doesn’t mean that God is not working and moving behind the scenes.

In the middle of a pandemic and in the middle of an election year we can be confident that nothing has taken God by surprise and He is still sovereign and still on the throne! We can trust Him and what He is doing behind the scenes even when we cannot see.

As someone said:

When you cannot see His hand you can trust His heart!

Just a few months after John’s birth Jesus was born, and just a short period after John began his public ministry to prepare the way of the Lord, Jesus arrived on the scene. However, before Jesus’ arrival, John had a message…Notice vv. 4-6...

John’s Message of Preparation was Repentance (vv. 4-6)

John’s ministry is associated with baptism and a message of repentance. These two went hand-in-hand. In these days, according to the Faithlife Study Bible, baptism was “often about ritual cleansing…By contrast, John’s baptism stressed transformation—a turning from sin—and thus marked a turning point in a person’s life.”

Eckhard Shnabel said:

John preached baptism.; that is, the necessity for Jews to be immersed in the Jordan river in preparation for the coming of the One who would immerse them in the Holy Spirit (1:7-8).

Baptism was the outward symbol of the inward repentance that had taken place. Ministry Pass does a great job at answer the question, “What is repentance?”:

On the surface, it means to change your mind. But it isn’t like changing your mind about what presents to buy for Christmas or what parties to attend. It is a changing of the mind that takes place after the fact, and the desire to make the change comes from a conviction on a mental and even emotional level that what you have done was wrong. So John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus— getting people ready for an encounter with Jesus, by encouraging them to change their minds about whether or not they have sinned and need a Savior. (Ministry Pass)

Did you get that? They had to change their minds about whether or not being a Jew was enough. They had to change their minds about their own self-righteousness and realize that without faith in God and the Messiah that He was going to send they would all likewise perish!

What was the result of the inward change of heart toward God and His provision for their sin? The result was FORGIVENESS! O what a wonderful word this is! The Bible Knowledge Commentary notes:

“Forgiveness” means “the removal or cancellation of an obligation or barrier of guilt.” It refers to God’s gracious act whereby “sins” as a debt are cancelled, based on Christ’s sacrificial death. Forgiveness was not conveyed by the outward rite of baptism, but baptism was a visible witness that one had repented and as a result had received God’s gracious forgiveness of sins.

What a blessing it is to know that all of our sins and crimes against a holy and righteous God…all of the debt that our sins have incurred over our entire lifetime can be cancelled, because of Christ’s payment in full on the cross. The barrier that our sins had built between us and God was removed and we can now come boldly into His presence through the shed blood of Jesus!

We immerse ourselves in the water of baptism to show all the world that we’ve immersed ourselves into Christ. We’ve recognized and realized that we have sinned against a Holy and righteous God and those sins have separated us from Him. There is nothing we can do to remedy our sin problem so we throw ourselves on the grace and mercy of God and the work of Christ on the cross, where our sins and our Savior have been nailed and we trust in Him and Him alone to atone and pay for the sin debt that we could never pay and be reconciled to a holy God!

Have you made that commitment. Have you been immersed in Christ and His Spirit? Have YOU come to the end of YOURSELF and thrown yourself on the mercy and grace of God to redeem you and rescue you from sin’s penalty? If not, why not do so today!?

The last thing I want you to notice about this preparation is the fact that John made sure to REDIRECT everyone’s focus OFF of himself and ONTO the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice

Mark 1:7–8 ESV

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. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John’s Message of Preparation was a Message of Redirection (vv. 7-8)

John understood that his life and his mission was not about him, but it was about the Lord Jesus! John didn’t preach himself, he didn’t preach to impress with his oratory ability, John did not dress to impress…John simply told people to REPENT and get ready because of the ONE who was to come!

God help us to have more believers and more preachers like John!

John said AFTER me comes HE WHO IS MIGHTIER THAN ME!

As Rodney Cooper said:

“John made it clear that he was the servant of the coming Servant. John’s task was to prepare the way and get out of the way. John appeared as a powerful figure, but he made it clear that he would pale in comparison to the Messiah when He appeared.”

John even says that he is unworthy to untie the Lord’s sandals. In this day and time removing and carrying sandals was the work of slaves. John confesses that the Messiah is so amazing great and unbelievably awesome that he is not even worthy to serve as his slave!

Finally, John also lets the crowds know that there is even a greater baptism that is to come! “John’s baptism” wasn’t about John. John’s baptism was about preparing individuals for the Messiah and the greater baptism that was to come. It was about the immersion into Christ Himself, and the greater baptism was about Christ’s Spirit being immersed into His followers. It wasn’t a baptism of water, but a baptism of the Holy Spirit’s FIRE that would purify and purge us of sin. It was the NEW BIRTH and the NEW LIFE that the Spirit would bring!

Eckhard Shnabel said:

The term baptize (baptizō; see 1:4) refers to physical immersion in water in the first part of the sentence, and to metaphorical immersion in the Holy Spirit in the second part of the sentence. Metaphorical ‘immersion in the Holy Spirit’ means being overcome or overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. While John offers forgiveness of sins, symbolized in immersion in water, the One who is coming will grant the Holy Spirit.

Every single one of us, including myself, need to have the mentality of John demonstrated in

John 3:30 ESV

He must increase, but I must decrease.”

We need to REDIRECT people away from us and to the ONLY ONE that can change their lives. All of us enjoy the feeling of being appreciated, but that cannot be our MOTIVE as to WHY we do what we do. We must DO WHAT WE DO, SERVE HOW WE SERVE, GIVE HOW WE GIVE, LOVE HOW WE LOVE in order to bring honor, glory and praise to the ONE who laid it all down for us!

We need to REDIRECT men and women and boys and girls to the cross and the empty tomb!

As we close today there are several important things we can learn from this passage about John the Baptist:

Be Ready for the Second Coming of Christ

Jesus is coming again! Just as Christ fulfilled the prophecies concerning His first coming, He will fulfill those regarding His second coming. Every day that passes is another day closer to His return. Are you ready? Are your loved ones ready? Are you doing anything to warn them and prepare them for His coming?

Do not let the time that has passed lull you into complacency. Get ready and stay ready!

Live and Preach Repentance

There are times in our Christian life that we allow things to creep in. We need to constantly ask the Lord to search our hearts and show us any iniquity that we may be regarding there. We need to “confess our sins” knowing that He is “faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We need to share this message of repentance and faith with others. Ultimately all sin is against God. All sin is against God’s holiness and goodness. We need to call on people to REPENT, but we shouldn’t ask them to do something we aren’t doing ourselves!

Remember it’s Not About You, it’s all About Him!

Just as John’s life wasn’t about John, your life is not about you! You didn’t create yourself, God did. You don’t sustain yourself, God does! God has placed you on His planet, He lets you breath His air, He lets you drink His water, He lets you eat His food for one main purpose and one main purpose only:

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.