‘THERE COMES ONE AFTER ME’ – Mark 1:1-11
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 24, 2014 under 2014 |
Message preached Sunday, August 24, 2014 from Mark 1:1-11
Theme: The story of John the Baptist’s bold introduction of Jesus sets the tone for how we are to think of our Lord’s ministry in this world.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, we begin a brand new study—a study of the Gospel of Mark. And I believe it is a profoundly timely one.
As I was making plans to prepare to begin preaching from it this week, I was advised that I needed to change my plans. It had been—as we all know—a very difficult couple of weeks. We’ve seen on the news that there had been a couple of very noteworthy and tragic suicides. People everywhere are talking about the nature of life and death. And then, news has been unfolding of the terrible persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Middle East. Unspeakable evil is being done to innocent lives—even to children. And then just last week—here locally—a startling murder was committed in what appears to have been broad daylight; and someone that some of us in this church family knows personally has been suddenly taken from us.
It feels as if the world is falling apart; and I was told that I needed to alter my plans regarding my preaching. I was told that I needed to, instead, speak directly to the tragic and distressing issues that we are all dealing with. I was told that I need to tell the people of God what He wanted them do, and how to respond, and where their hope should be in such times. And of course, I agree that I should minister to those things. But I felt the strong leading of God that I should not alter my plan in doing so. I believe that there is nothing we need to do more, in such dark times such as these, then to take a long and careful look at the life and ministry of Jesus. There is no greater source of hope for us to cling to—and to proclaim to this world—than that which is to be found in His ministry for us.
And so, today, we begin to do the greatest and most effective thing we can do in a dark world such as ours. We shine the spotlight on Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind.
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I’d like to begin by telling you just a little about this wonderful Gospel—the Gospel of Mark. Most scholars believe that it was the very first of the four Gospels written. And in some ways, it is the most exciting and fast-paced of them all. In just sixteen chapters, it’s the shortest of the four. But as small as it is, it ends up telling us more about the miracles and works of Jesus than any of the others. It’s a Gospel account in which the writer’s favorite word seems to be “immediately”. Some have called it the “Go” Gospel.
The human author has been recognized—from even the most ancient times of the church—to be John Mark; or as he is more commonly known, simply Mark. He was the young man that the apostle Paul and Silas had taken with them on one of their missionary journeys; but who got scared and left the ministry right in the middle of the work. As a missionary, we might say that he was a failure. But even the apostle Paul testified later that he had grown to be ‘useful’ to him for ministry. Do you remember the rather strange story that we find later on in this very Gospel?—the one about the young man wrapped in a linen cloth who was present at the time of Jesus’ arrest, and who escaped from the hands of the soldiers and fled away in the night naked? The early church fathers tell us that that was the very Mark who wrote this Gospel account. Those ancient church teachers also tell us—several times in their writings—that Mark wrote his Gospel according to the remembrances and preaching of the apostle Peter.
Personally, I love it that God led Mark to write this Gospel and included it in Scripture for us; because it reminds me that God can use anyone—even failures; and is able to give them a second chance in His cause.
Now; think about the other of the four Gospel accounts—Matthew, Luke and John. Each of the Gospels paints a unique picture of the Lord Jesus that highlights something important for us to know about Him. Matthew’s Gospel was written for Jewish people, and it highlights Jesus as the King of the Jews. It begins by telling us about His royal pedigree; and it draws much from various Old Testament passages to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus is their long expected King. Luke’s Gospel was written to the Greek-speaking Gentile people of the world; and it highlights Jesus as the Son of Man. It begins by telling us the story of His conception and birth into the human family, and describes many of Jesus’ personal interactions and relationships with people. John’s majestic Gospel is the Gospel that presents Jesus to us as the divine Son of God. It begins at the beginning of time itself, and tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It tells us much about Jesus’ relationship with the Heavenly Father.
But Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus the humble Servant. It begins in a way that is different from all the others. It doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ birth or background or eternal per-existence. It begins with action. It was written for Roman readers; and the Romans were a people of action. It starts off with a bang—taking us right into the very beginning of His earthly ministry, and then going through a fast-paced tour of His earthly ministry to its very end.
I would say that the best way to summarize this wonderful Gospel is to remember the key verse. I would suggest that that verse is Mark 10:45; where Jesus said of Himself, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus the Humble Servant who died for our sins; and in the words of that verse, you find the two main divisions of this Gospel. Chapters 1 to 10 tell us about Jesus as the Servant of man; and Chapters 11 to 16 tell us about Jesus as the Ransom for sinners.
And I’d like to tell you how I hope to approach this study. I do not plan to spend a lot of time drawing from the other Gospels to help correlate what Mark says with them—unless, of course, it is very necessary to do so. Instead, I plan to just let Mark’s simple Gospel speak for itself; and to just let the story unfold as Mark has given it to us.
So; let’s begin just as Mark begins—by getting right into the story. In the first eleven verses, Mark introduces us to the ministry of Jesus. And interestingly enough, he doesn’t begin by telling us about Jesus Himself, but rather by telling us about the remarkable ministry of someone else—someone that God sent to prepare the way for His coming.
Mark writes;
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets:
“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.”
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’”
John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:1-11).
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Now; when you read each of the Gospels, you’ll find that what is said at the beginning of them is meant to be carried in your thoughts throughout all the rest of your reading of that Gospel. Each of the miracles Jesus performed, or the remarkable things He taught, are meant to be understood and explained in the light of what is told us at the beginning. And I believe that’s also true of the Gospel of Mark. The story of John the Baptist’s bold introduction of Jesus sets the tone for how we are to think about all that is told to us of His ministry in this world in the rest of this Gospel.
And if you’ll look at the first three verses, you’ll see that one of the first ways that Mark wants us to think of Jesus’ ministry; that . . .
1. IT IS THE FULFILLMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT PROMISES.
The Gospel begins with this ‘title’, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (v. 1). And then, Mark tells us; “As it is written in the Prophets . . .” (v. 2). In other words, Mark takes us back to the promises of God in the prophecies of Old Testament Scripture.
Now; if you are using the translation I am using this morning, it tells us that Mark is looking back to what is written in “the prophets”. But if you are using a different version, you’ll find that it says that Mark is looking specifically to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. So, which is it? The reference to Isaiah is what is found in the most reliable texts of the Greek New Testament. But what’s interesting is that Mark doesn’t then go on to quote Isaiah first. Instead, he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Malachi. In verse 2, he quotes from Malachi 3:1 and writes, ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.” And in verse 3, he quotes from Isaiah 40:3 and writes, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’”
If Mark truly did say that he was quoting from ‘Isaiah’, then he was probably summarizing both prophecies under the common name of that prophet, since Isaiah was the greater of the two. And do you know what both of these two Old Testament prophecies have in common? They are both promises from God—given several centuries in advance—concerning the coming of John the Baptist. The coming of Jesus our Savior the main theme of both of those prophecies; but they tell us that it would be John’s ministry to come before our Savior and serve as His herald—announcing His appearance to the world, and calling people to prepare their hearts to receive Him rightly. Just as the roads and highways of the ancient world would be carefully prepared—smoothed and straightened out to receive a coming king, so also John came to ‘make straight paths’ for the feet of the Savior. Except instead of literal roads, he prepared human hearts.
When you think about it, this was a wonderful work of God’s grace toward humanity. Malachi wrote around 450 years before Jesus’ earthly ministry began; and Isaiah around 750 years before Jesus came. In all that time, God did not forget His plan or ignore His promise. When the time was right in the divine purpose of God, the promise was fulfilled and Jesus came into the world. But God didn’t simply thrust the promised Savior into the world scene all of a sudden and unexpectedly. The promise sat for several centuries waiting fulfillment while the world—as it were—sat in silent slumber. But when the right time came, God fulfilled His promise. And He made the fulfillment of the promise abundantly clear to the world through the ministry of this remarkable man John.
And do you know what I believe this is meant to tell us about Jesus’ ministry as our Servant and as our Redeemer? It is meant to show us that Jesus’ a ministry was one that had its roots in the sovereign purpose of God—crafted before time began, and fulfilled in exact accordance with His promises in Scripture. Did you know that when the apostle Paul once explained the Gospel that he preached to the Corinthians, he also stressed it as the fulfillment of Scripture? In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, he wrote;
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures . . . (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; our message to the world is not a message about a series of events that simply ‘happened’ on their own. Absolutely essential to the message of the gospel of Jesus that we proclaim to the world is that His coming is “according to the Scriptures”. You can check those Scriptures out for yourself and see!
And Mark stresses this at the very beginning of his Gospel account—not only about Jesus’ ministry, but also about the one that God sent to announce it to the world.
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Now; look with me at what Mark says about John’s ministry. We’re told in verses 4-5, “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” And I’d like to suggest that this teaches a second thing that Mark would want us to think about the ministry of the Son of God in this world; and that is that . . .
2. IT IS TO BE GREETED WITH HUMBLE REPENTANCE.
First, note that John’s message was a call to people to be baptized with “a baptism of repentance for the remission [or “the forgiveness”] of sins”. And we need to understand this carefully. Many people have misinterpreted this to mean that sins become forgiven by being baptized. But that’s a terrible error. Our sins are not taken away by anything we can do—and certainly not by a mere ceremony in a church. Rather, our sins are taken away only by Jesus having died on the cross for them, and by our simple faith in what He has done for us. “In Him,” the Bible tells us, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). The waters of baptism are not intended to wash our sins away. Rather, our sins are taken away only because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us; and baptism is simply a public expression that we have placed our trust in Him for our forgiveness.
You see; baptism can best be thought of as a once-for-all-time “decisive event”—something we go through that indicates that a dramatic change has permanently occurred. Before a ‘baptism’ in this sense, we are one thing; and after it, we are another. Today in a church, since Jesus has already come and died for us, baptism is a public declaration that we have placed our faith in Jesus and His cross alone for our forgiveness; and that we now stand as forgiven before God as followers of Jesus from this day forward. But in the time of John, since Jesus had not yet been revealed to the world, baptism was a public declaration of trust in the coming Savior. People came to John for baptism as a way of saying, “I look ahead with the eyes of faith, and place my trust in God’s promised salvation; and I identify myself with the coming Savior for my forgiveness.”
And I would suggest to you that that’s one of the ways Mark’s Gospel invites us to think about Jesus’ ministry. It is a ministry that is to be greeted by us with genuine, heartfelt repentance. We don’t repent and become baptized in order to be forgiven; but rather, we repent and are baptized because we have trusted Jesus and have already been forgiven. But true repentance is an essential response to that true forgiveness.
I believe this is shown in another thing we should note in these verses. And that is that John baptized in “the wilderness”; and that people had to come out to him from the populated areas of Judea and from the city of Jerusalem. John didn’t simply pack-up a portable “baptism” kit and go from town to town—announcing baptisms as if he were a traveling baptizer. He didn’t do it all for them. The people had to leave the place of their worldly activities and interests, and come away in a decisive act—to come apart from the crowd, as it were; and go out to the wilderness where John was.
I believe this illustrates that, if we would respond to the ministry of the Lord Jesus as we should, then we need to become a distinct people. We need to separate ourselves from the ways and values and priorities of the sinful world around us, and live a devoted life to Him. To be a disciple of Jesus is to leave the ways of this world behind, take up our cross, and follow Him. It’s as the apostle Paul once wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians;
Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 6:17-7:1).
So; one of the lessons we learn from Mark’s introduction is that if we would respond to the story of Jesus’ earthly ministry as we should, we need to greet it with genuine repentance from sin. Jesus comes into the world not to leave us in our sins, but to save us from them!
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Now; Mark goes into some detail in this passage in telling us about this remarkable man John the Baptist—the one who heralded the coming of Jesus to the world. John was truly one of the greatest personalities that ever walked the earth. Jesus said of him that, of men born of women, no one was greater than John. His preaching and his dynamism were so great that people even wondered for a while if he was the promised Messiah!
And yet, his greatness as a man was only a backdrop to display to us the even greater ministry of Jesus that he came to announce. And this is where Mark shows us yet another thing we need to consider when thinking of Jesus’ earthly ministry; that . . .
3. IT IS DECLARED TO BE GREAT IN AUTHORITY.
Mark tells us, “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey” (v. 6). John was a man of the wilderness. He didn’t dress in the garments of a refined preacher, but rather of a rustic prophet. In fact, did you know that the clothing that he wore is also told to us in Old Testament to have been the kind of garments that the great prophet Elijah wore? And he also ate the food of a rustic man of the wilderness. He ate locusts and wild honey. You try that sometime! If I had to eat that, I’d only have enough courage to eat one tiny little locust with a whole lot of wild honey! But in all of this, Mark was showing us that John was an outstanding prophet and a mighty spokesman for God—a man of simple means who was not caught-up in the things of this world. He was a powerful man who was separated unto God; and the whole world, it seems, was being drawn to him. They left the centers of the populated world in droves, and made their way out to the wilderness to him, and asked him to baptize them as a display that they had sought God for forgiveness and are preparing their hearts for Him.
And it’s then that John himself lets all those who came to him know that he himself was not to be the center of attention. Mark tells us, “And he preached, saying, ‘There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’” (v. 7). Imagine how the people must have responded to that! Someone ‘mightier’ than John? Could anyone possibly be? And yet, it was true! John could only baptize people through a public confession with the waters of the Jordan River. But this coming One would do even greater than that! He would baptize them—that is, lead them into life transformation and forever mark them as His own—by the Holy Spirit!
As the ministry of Jesus began to grow, John’s disciples once came to him and told him that all were going out to Jesus. But John told them;
“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:27-30).
If we would respond to the ministry of Jesus as we should, then we must accept it as having great authority—an even greater authority than that of the mighty John the Baptist!
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And that leads us to one more thing Mark would have us know about the ministry of Jesus; and that is that . . .
4. IT IS APPROVED AS PLEASING TO THE FATHER.
Mark tells us; “It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan” (v. 9). What a remarkable thing that was! To think that Jesus would come and stand before John—the sinless Son of God in the midst of sinners coming in repentance of sin to be baptized—and be baptized along with them! Do you know why He did that? It certainly wasn’t because He had any sin to repent of. He wasn’t being baptized in order to be identified with God’s promised forgiveness; because He had no sin to be forgiven. Rather, He came to be identified with sinners like us so that He could die for our sins and pay the penalty for them on our behalf. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” What love!
And here is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that we meet up with his favorite word “immediately”. Mark tells us, “And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove” (v. 10). A dove is recognized by everyone as a symbol of peace and humility. But in the Old Testament law, it is—above all else—recognized as a bird of sacrifice and as an offering for sin. And that’s what the Spirit of God identified Jesus as being for us.
And Mark goes on to tell us, “Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (v. 11). That’s the voice of the Father. All who were present heard that voice; and all saw the dove descending upon Him. The whole Trinity—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit— were manifest together in unity at Jesus’ baptism. And do you notice the approval the Father declared to the Son? Jesus was His beloved Son, in whom He is will pleased. If anyone truly sought truth, if anyone truly wanted to know the authorized and approved way to righteousness before God, then shouldn’t they consider that declaration from heaven? Shouldn’t they look to the One with whom the Father said He is well pleased?
I can’t help but make one more observation. Would it be too much of a stretch if those words from the Father, “in whom I am well pleased” were to be taken in a way that would motivate us to—ourselves—be found in Jesus? Couldn’t it be implied in this that the Father is declaring to the world the only ‘sphere’ of being in which a woman or man might become well-pleasing to Him? If the Father is telling us that, in Jesus His beloved Son, He is well pleased’; then ought we not do all we can to make sure we are “in Jesus” by faith?—that is, in the only place in the universe that the good pleasure of the Father can be found?
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Well; all of this helps us to see the ways that we should think about the ministry of Jesus as we begin our study of this Gospel. Can there be a greater message for this dark world to hear than this? Let’s think about it, then, as Mark encourages us to think about it.
Let’s recognize that the good news of Jesus Christ comes to us in full accord with the promises of Scripture; and thus accept and declare it as the fulfillment of God’s plan. Let’s greet it with humble repentance; coming to Jesus as sinners who leave their sins behind and who seek to live a truly separated life before Him—and inviting others to do the same. Let’s embrace it as coming to us in great authority; and cling to it and proclaim it to this world with all the boldness and confidence of a John the Baptist. And let’s declare it as the message about a Redeemer who is pleasing to the Father; and as the good news of hope for all sinners who long to be pleasing to the Father as well.
