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
Exodus 30:20-21
Whenever (Aaron and his sons) enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering to the LORD …
“… they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.”
A person who was healed from a defiling skin disease was instructed to do the following in Leviticus 14:8-9
“The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean.
“After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days. On the seventh day they must shave off all their hair; they must shave their head…
“their beard, their eyebrows and the rest of their hair. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean.”
We think of washing our hands before we eat as some sort of ritualistic punishment that mothers mete out to kids but the Pharisees actually saw it as a form of “hand baptism” to purify their hands and so not to defile the food they would touch.
So, when John was baptizing people it was no strange event for that time and place.
But, John was not placing the emphasis on the ritualistic cleansing by water as his baptism would only take place after repentance.
You, see, it says in Mark 1:5
“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.
They were confessing their sins as a sign of genuine repentance and then they were baptized.
Baptism by itself is nothing. Baptism as a sign to God and those around us is important. It says that I have repented of my sins and have placed my faith and trust in Him.
Christians who have not been baptized should be baptized.
Now, John was somewhat of a strange dude from our perspective.
Mark 1:6 says:
“John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.”
John was not born into a poor family but he lived like a poor person
- He lived in the desert
- He wore humble clothing
- He scavenged for food
Can you imagine talking to him? Hey John, I think there’s a locust leg between your teeth there …
While the Jews in fine wardrobes were preaching following literally thousands of laws John the Baptist in camel’s hair clothing was simply saying four things:
- confess your sin
- repent - sincerely turn away from your sin
- show that you are sincere by being baptized
- the Messiah is coming
Mark 1:7-8 says:
“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.”
John was saying
- the Messiah is coming
- I am not worthy to even be His lowliest servant
- I baptize with a symbolic baptism
- He will baptize you with a spiritual, inner cleansing baptism
“the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie”
I was trying to think of the modern parallel of being a “foot servant”
As it really has no meaning for us today living in an entirely different culture.
John is saying that Jesus is so great that he is not worthy of being Jesus’ foot washing slave.
Jesus takes it even one step further and acts as a foot slave to the disciples.
I was thinking along the lines of a couple with seven kids, the mom stays at home to raise the family, dad works, he comes home and mom is exhausted and he offers to wash the dishes every night for her.
Karenlee thought about the time when she and her friend had a house cleaning business. She said the most humbling thing she had ever done was to clean other people’s toilets.
That is humbling. In our culture John might have said “I am not worthy to even clean the Messiah’s toilet.”
Imagine Jesus today, meeting with a group of modern day spiritual giants. Someone comes into the room and says, “The bathroom is out of order and it is nasty, real nasty. We’ll just have to wait for the cleaning person to come in and fix it.”
Then Jesus gets up from the table, goes into the bathroom, clears the toilet and cleans up the mess.
How’s that for humility on the part of the Messiah.
What about you? What about me? Have we ever said, “I would never do that?”
You know the last part of that verse, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit?”
Do you want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? Filled to the brim and overflowing?
Proverbs 3:34 says,
“The Lord mocks proud mockers but is gracious to the humble.”
This is the One Mark was writing about. This is the One John the Baptist was announcing. The King of Kings who demonstrated the lowliest of humilities.
Do you want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
- confess your sins
- turn away from your sins
- humble yourself before the Lord
- trust Him as your Savior
This proclamation of John the Baptist can’t be left to him. We are to be the witnesses for the Lord. That’s why we’re here; not to live in the pursuit of happiness but to serve and enjoy Christ and to bring the Good News of salvation through Christ to a lost and dying world.
Think of a person right now who needs Jesus! You know who it is. Pray for them, show the love of Christ to them, witness to them until they come to Christ or until you die or until they die. Then, do it all over again!
