Mark Chapter 1

Mark 1:1-8 - “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way” - “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’

“And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

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

“John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message:

“After me comes the One more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Who is this Mark who wrote this Gospel account? He was not one of the 12 apostles.

He did go on some of the missionary journeys but apparently had a little problem in Acts 15:36-38 it says:

“Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’

“Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.”

Desertion is very serious and it usually happens when the going gets tough.

Oddly enough some commentators believe that Mark writes about himself in his own gospel without identifying himself.

Mark writes this about an event which took place in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was being arrested

Mark 14:51-52 says

“A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.”

Not exactly the kind of person you would expect to write a book that would end up in the Holy Bible a deserting streaker!

Aren’t you glad that the Lord forgives our desertions and our in advertent streaking episodes?

Aren’t you glad that He can grow us up into maturity in Christ so that we can be useful in the kingdom of God?

The Lord transformed Mark so much that He was able to use Mark to write an account of the works of Christ for all the world to read!

The Lord can make the same changes in all of us! PTL!!

Now, here’s the thing. If the Lord forgives, forgets and edifies or builds us up after we’ve been a complete failure shouldn’t we be forgiving each other, forgetting the offense and building up each other when we fail each other.

Who should I forgive? (expound)

Paul forgave Mark reconciled with him and commended him to others.

Now Mark doesn’t mess around with a lot of teaching or convincing but pretty much just action. The word immediately is found 39 times in the gospel of Mark in the NASB and 42 times in the YLT.

Mark 1:1-3

“The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way” - “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”

Mark immediately declares that

- Jesus is the Messiah,

- that Jesus is the Son of God,

- that there were ancient prophecies written about someone

coming before the Messiah to prepare the way for Him.

You know how it goes:

- If a big movie is coming out - commercials for months

- When President Reagan came to Endicott, NY

- in the papers, on radio and TV for months

- much advance work to put things in place

- an acquaintance tried to go to the end of the airport

runway to photograph Air Force One arriving - he was

escorted away …

- it was BIG NEWS!

The coming of the Messiah, the Son of God had been announced for hundreds of years and now He had arrived and His advance PR man was on the ground.

Who was this “voice of one calling in the wilderness?”

John the Baptist!

Mark 1:4

“And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Baptism was not strange to the Jews and Israelites

Water had been seen as a symbol of spiritual cleansing for hundreds of years