BEHOLD YOUR STATESMAN

Mark 1:2-8

Theme: The Servant’s Arrival

Key verse: v.1

45 verses; 930 words

Grade level: 4.4

Outline:

1. The Forerunner of Jesus. vs.1-8

2. The Baptism of Jesus. vs.9-11

3. The Temptation of Jesus. vs.12-13

4. The Ministry of Jesus. vs.14-45

Here we learn of the MOTIVES of the Master’s man.

I. John the Baptist‘s Office Motivated Him. vs.2-3

He had a Scriptural calling. V.2

2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

The grossly corrupt Alexandrian Greek, and all the corrupt translations that follow it, changes “the prophets” in verse 2 to “Isaiah,” and then it quotes something that Isaiah never wrote.

Don’t you find it peculiar that the new “Bibles” manage to change the text right where it deals with some aspect of the Deity of Christ? Like in 1 Timothy 3:16 and 1 John 5:7 and Acts 4:27, 30 and Luke 23:42 and Luke 2:33 and John 1:18 and Daniel 3:25 and Acts 3:13, for example. The translators and revisers of the modern versions are being led—they are being led by the same spirit that usurped the title of Jesus Christ (the “morning star”—Rev. 22:16) in Isaiah 14:12 in an NIV.

A call in writing. Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1

A call to work.

He had a Scriptural cause. V.3

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Two things are commanded:

A word about His preparation.

A word about His paths.

II. John the Baptist‘s Occupation Motivated Him. vs.4-5

His ministry was about change. V.4

4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

John worked outside the temple.

John worked inside the nation.

His ministry was about confession. V.5

5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

They submitted to his location.

They submitted to his Lord.

III. John the Baptist‘s Orders Motivated Him . vs.6-8

What he was ordered to do. Vs.6-7

His wardrobe was different.

6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

Large grasshoppers were permitted to be eaten under the Mosaic Law (Lev. 11:22).

His words was different.

7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

What Jesus would do. V.8

8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

The baptism of fire has nothing to do with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and that is why the Holy Ghost had Mark leave it out of his Gospel: to show you the two are not the same. The baptism of fire turns out to be literal fire (see comments on Luke 3:16–17 in that Commentary). The cross-references are not only the parallel passages in Luke 3:16–17 and Matthew 3:11–12, they are Matthew 13:40–42; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9; Habakkuk 3:5; Zephaniah 3:8; Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 97:3, 21:8–9; Isaiah 66:15–16; and about a dozen more places.

Jesus was bringing about a new route.

Jesus was bringing about a new relationship.