Mark Sermon Manu Week 1

Intro/Welcome

Presidential Elections

NFL Seasons

And the Gospel

Pray

humility, power

Mark 1:1

Mark 1:1 (CSB)

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This is basically the title of the book

‘beginning’ is an interesting start but it really means that the whole gospel of mark is just the beginning.

See Acts 1:1

Acts 1:1 (CSB) 1 I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach

‘gospel’ — the announcement, the good news

Illustration: Presidential Election

Do you remember how you felt at the last presidential election?

It’s an exciting night

You see the votes counting up, you are anticipating a winner

You are waiting for that moment

The proclamation of the good news of the winner

This is what ‘gospel’ meant to the jews in that day

It was the long awaiting rescuer of God’s people.

it is the gospel of Jesus Christ

of Jesus the Messiah, the rescuer

who was none other than the Son of God himself.

According to the Scriptures (Mark 1:2-3)

Mark 1:2–3 (CSB)

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

Mark is quoting two separate prophets here:

Isaiah 40, and Mal 3.

He says Isaiah not malachi…what gives?

We he is doing here is quoting both the Greatest Prophet (Isaiah) and the last prophet (malachi)

Malachi 3:1 (CSB)

1 “See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.

Here is the long awaited promise of the Prophets

There is a forerunner to the messiah

He will prepare the way for the Lord.

That fore-runner is John the Baptizer.

So the people of God have been waiting for the messiah

and the question would be:

How will you recognize him?

There are many ways

But here is just one:

There would be a forerunner who would announce his coming

who would prepare the way

who would identify the messiah

And there are other examples in the NT

Simeon and Ann in the gospel of Luke both recognized Jesus as the messiah as a baby.

But this forerunner would be a prophet, one who speaks for God.

According to one strand of Jewish belief, prophecy had ceased with Malachi, whose book came to a close with the prediction of the return of Elijah to herald the Day of the Lord.

Malachi 4:5–6 (CSB)

5 Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

The people then were expecting someone like Elijah.

John’s Elijahan Attire

Have you ever wondered why John’s attire is specifically described?

Mark 1:6 (CSB)

6 John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

Do you know why that is?

Guess what Elijah wore.

2 Kings 1:8 (CSB)

8 They replied, “A hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It’s Elijah the Tishbite.”

It was reminiscent of Elijah

They shopped at the same store.

While John personally refrained from identifying himself with these specific expectations (Jn 1:20–23), it is clear that his dress, life-style, and message caused the people to identify him with this end-time prophet (Mt 14:5; Mk 11:32).

Jesus also saw John as this final “Elijah-like” prophet (Mt 11:7–15), who from Malachi’s prophecy was to be a forerunner to the coming of the Lord (Mal 3:1–4; 4:5, 6).

Look at what Jesus says about him in Matt 11:9-15, quoting the exact same passage from Mal

Jesus’ testimony of John

Matthew 11:7–15 (CSB)

“7 As these men were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John:

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

A reed swaying in the wind?

8 What then did you go out to see?

A man dressed in soft clothes? See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces.”

9 What then did you go out to see?

A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:

See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.

11 “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force.

13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you’re willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. 15 Let anyone who has ears listen.

So then, Jesus identifies John as the one mentioned Malachi 3:1

But notice what Mark doesn’t quote from Mal 3:1.

Mal 3:1

Malachi 3:1 (CSB)

1 “See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.

So who would come after this Elijah figure?

The Lord himself

He will personally come his Temple

He will bring the message of a new covenant.

We actually see the same thing in the Isaiah Quote.

Isaiah 40:3-5

Isaiah 40:3–5 (CSB)

3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 3:4–6 (CSB)

4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth, 6 and everyone will see the salvation of God.

Isaiah says, the ‘glory of the lord will appear”

Luke says “everyone will see the salvation of God”

So put them all together:

Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.

=

5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

=

everyone will see the salvation of God.

This person who came after John would be:

the Lord himself, the glory of the Lord and will bring salvation.

That is God’s Messiah.

Recognizing the Messiah

So do you recognize Jesus as the messiah, as the son of God?

as the one you’ve longed for

the rescuer of your soul

If you have confessed Jesus as your rescuer

do you continue to go to him for rescue?

Or did you think that was a one time thing

Galatians 3:1–4 (CSB)

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing?

As we saw last week, the first step is to Come to Jesus

then it is to commit to follow him

then it is to learn from him.

Learning to walk with Jesus.

We still need to be rescued from temptation, from our own bad choices, from the sinful proclivities of our flesh

Mark’s whole gospel is a gospel about Jesus Christ,

Jesus the Christ, the Son of God

Jesus the rescuer, and redeemer

God in the flesh.

And this is only the beginning.

Have you heard this voice crying out in the wilderness?

it is crying for you

It’s calling you to the Lord

John’s Ministry

John’s whole ministry then was to prepare the way for Jesus

How did he do that?

he did that by pointing people to Jesus in three ways:

There are three things we see here:

He Preached the Gospel of Christ (messiah the rescuer)

He baptized

He magnified Jesus.

What I want us to see here is that these are the same three things we do.

In some way, John is a pattern for all those who would proclaim christ.

Jesus called him the Greatest of all men. (Matt 11)

why was he great?

becuase he fulfilled his calling in these three ways.

I want us to see that this is our calling as well.

#1 Preaching the Gospel

Mark 1:4 (CSB)

4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

What did John preach?

a ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’

Matthew’s gospel puts it this way:

Matthew 3:2 (CSB)

2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

Luke gives us a little more of his preaching

Luke 3:7–8 (CSB)

7 He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

Different kinds of people start asking “what do we do?”

to the crowds — to the ‘share with others’ (Luke 3:10-11.)

to the tax collectors — “don’t extort and be greedy” (Luke 3:12-13.)

to the soldiers — “be satisfied with your pay, don’t abuse your authority” (Luke 3:14)

“bear fruit in keeping with repentance”

that is truly repenting, changing your allegiance to God, results in a changed life.

but remember, John is preparing the way

Jesus comes with grace and truth

Jesus is the greater

#2 Baptizing

Now, we need to do a little work on the idea of ‘baptism’

Baptism

When John came preaching, it was the start of a new era, a new age.

The age was characterized by “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”

Something new was happening

What was that?

Well, The King has come — the Lord is bringing his kingdom with him.

Many of the miracles we’ll see in Mark are in one aspect the ‘inbreaking of the Kingdom of God’

A side on miracles: signs and wonders, but also the ordinary: hospitals, orphanages

these ordinary miracles are the fruit of repentace

John’s Baptism

And so this ‘baptism’ that John was doing

there wasn’t anything quite like it in the OT

There were some similar practices

Josephus describes John’s baptism as a symbolic purification of the body which followed the purification of the soul by righteousness (Ant. 18.5.2 §117).

The background to this baptism has been a matter of much debate.

Some have seen parallels to the ceremonial washings practiced by the Essenes and other Jewish groups. As an act of ceremonial cleansing, individuals would dip themselves into a mikveh, or immersion pool.

At Qumran, such washings, like John’s, represented a turning from sin to participate in the eschatological community of God (1QS 5:13–14).

Yet John’s baptism is different in that it appears to be a one-time event rather than a repeated ritual.

Others have pointed to the Jewish practice of proselyte (new convert) baptism, in which case John may be calling the apostate nation to become true Jews once again.

While this fits the message of John, it is unclear whether proselyte baptism was practiced by Jews in the first century.

John’s baptism is perhaps best viewed as his unique eschatological application of cleansing and initiatory rituals found in first-century Judaism.

but there was something different about John’s

and it was this “he was ushering in a new age”

Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins

Repentance means to “turn around”

to ‘change one’s mind”

— it is a turn of allegiance to come back under the rule of the King.

again “the kingdom of God is at hand”

This repentance is for the “forgiveness of sins.”

this baptism of repentance is for the forgiveness of sins.

It involved confession of sin

repentance from sin

and a baptism

Mark 1:5 (CSB)

5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

Evidently it was pretty popular

Crowds of people are coming to hear this prophet

The people were really drawn to him.

so much so that later on in Mark, Jesus asked the pharisees about John’s baptism when they were challenging his authority

Mark 11:30–32 (CSB)

30 Was John’s baptism from heaven or of human origin? Answer me.” 31 They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ ”—they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was truly a prophet.

So John is preaching the good news of a repentance for the forgiveness of sins and baptizing those who confess and repent.

The meaning of baptism

Yet, there is something more to this word baptism.

it literally means ‘to immerse’ — to submerge fully in something.

Look at Mark 1:8

Mark 1:8 (CSB)

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

John acknoweldges that his baptism is only symbolic

that someone greater is coming and he will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

he will immerse or submerge in the Holy Spirit

Perhaps even to ‘fill’

Almost like dunking an empty bucket

the bucket goes under the water line, it is submered and then filled.

Perhaps it is something like that.

In any case, Jesus is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and matthew and luke add “with fire”

Those who participated in John’s baptism were saying they had turned to God in preparation for the coming of His salvation. Christian baptism is different. It depicts the cleansing of God and the coming into new life that takes place when one turns to God in faith (Rm 6:1–11; 1 Pt 3:21. where the text is clear that baptism does not save but pictures what God has done in Christ and within the believer).

We may speculate as to what exactly this Spirit Baptism is, but we can at least say this.

John’s baptism (like John’s whole ministry) was preporatory for Jesus’ ministry

John’s baptism was therefore prepartory for Jesus’ baptism.

The point being made here is that

John’s baptism was inferior — mere water

but Jesus’ baptism would be of the Spirit

One is physical and symbolic

The other is spiritual and transformative.

To be baptized by the Spirit is to be united to Christ.

Christ’s baptism of suffering

Christ himself, in speaking of his coming suffering says that he must undergo a baptism Mark 10:38, Luke 12:50.

and as we see next week, we will be baptized with water, again preparatory.

This baptism that Jesus undergoes is his death and resurrection.

it is an immersion into suffering and death — death on a cross

and it is his resurrection — the greatest surprise in the world.

This is why Paul makes this very comparison:

Romans 6:3–5 (CSB)

3 ... are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Therefore our ‘water baptism’ is merely symbolic of our spirit baptism — or our coming to faith in Christ and being transformed

given a new heart.

This is confirmed by Eze 36:25-27

Ezekiel 36:25–27 (CSB)

25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

Elsewhere in the NT also the Spirit is spoken of in terms of water, whether poured out or drunk (Jn. 7:37–39; Acts 2:33; 10:45; 1 Cor. 12:13; Tit. 3:5–6).

This baptism of the spirit then is the very core of the transformative work of the gospel that begins in conversion.

The Apostle John puts it this way:

John 1:29 (CSB)

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

This lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

literally will take sin upon himself

and will over time remove the presence of sin from the world

until the coming in full of the kingdom of God.

#3 Magnifying Jesus

The third way and perhaps most remarkable way is John’s magnification of Jesus

Mark 1:7–8 (CSB)

7 He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John is not all about himself

He is all about Jesus.

Many came and thought he was the messiah

but he said I am not. (John 1:20)

John’s ministry was to make the name of Jesus great.

He says:

Jesus is more powerful than I am

much more

He says Jesus is much more worthy than I am.

I am not even worthy to tie his shoes

A disciple was expected to do any service for his teacher that a slave would do for his master, except for untying his sandals. Such a task was so demeaning that it was beneath the dignity of a disciple. John regarded himself as less worthy than a slave in comparison to Jesus.

His baptism will be much more transformative

Jesus will do what only Jesus can do

I know my place

Jesus calls John the greatest person to ever live.

Matthew 11:11 (CSB)

11 “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

This is amazing

I mean, John has a following

He has a lot of people coming to him

Something many of us idolize.

John’s Disciples Dispute

One one occasion when John’s disciples realized that Jesus was more popular they came to him and here is what he said.

John 3:27–30 (CSB)

27 John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. (everything is from God, esp. his people)

28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ (he knows his role)

29 He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. (he loves Jesus and is filled with joy becuase of Him)

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

he must become greater and I must become lesser.

I love this!

what a picture!

oh that we would operate this way.

Jesus must become more popular and I must become less.

Jesus is greater

Danger of Celebrity Pastors

didn’t follow the message of john, only the man

Application

Jesus calls John the greatest person to ever live.

Matthew 11:11 (CSB)

11 “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John’s baptism wasn’t enough

We needed the baptism of Jesus — the transformative power of his suffering, death in our place for our sins

the power of his resurrection giving us a new heart, with the spirit of the living God inside of us

animating us to be the kind of person John was

on the same mission that John had.

You see you and I are now

voices crying in the wilderness

the wilderness of the world lost without the True God

crying out to all who would listen

We are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus

repentance and forgiveness of sins to all who would put their faith in Jesus.

We do this with our words and with our lives

we bear fruit in keeping with repentance — a life of repentance

It begins when we first confess and come to Jesus

it continues as we learn to walk with him

We then can be the kind of people who truly live out and proclaim that Jesus is great, he must be greater, and I must be less.

John came to prepare the way for Jesus

and he did

let me ask you:

who prepared the way for Christ in your life?

Who lived as a genuine joyful jesus follower?

Who showed you what repentance looks like?

Who led you to the lord?

Let me ask you this:

How can you help prepare the way for Jesus in other’s lives?

What does that look like?

Are you full of joy as john was as the friend of the groom

Christ is the Groom!

and he’s in love with his people

and he is pursuing them.

How can we prepare the way for the coming of the Lord for all those who don’t know him?

by how we live

by how we speak

by what we teach

Let’s Pray