Good News
Good News of Jesus Christ
Introduction:
I hope you’re continuing to observe your “bad news break…putting a little space between yourself and the constant bombardment of all the bad news about all the bad things that are in the world. The reason I’ve encouraged you to take this break is so that you can start this year filling your life with Good News…good news of hope, and of the possibility of good choices and a good life…good news that can fill your heart & mind…life-changing, outlook-shifting, good news.
We learned about the Good News of the Kingdom of God…it’s the euaggelion, the glad tidings that announces the victory of the King! We also discovered that the Gospel of the Kingdom is socially, economically, & politically charged! It’s socially charged in that it calls for a new social reality in which all are one and all are equal. It’s economically charged in that it calls for a new economy based on generosity, on caring, and willingly sharing. It’s politically charged in that it recognizes only one Lordship, that of Jesus Christ; obedience to Jesus, His words, His ways, and His cause must trump all other obedience and obligation.
But as much as the proclamation of that Kingdom is Good News, you and I have to willingly embrace that Kingdom. We do so initially through the process of repentance, and then water baptism in the name of our King; Jesus Christ. Yet, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ve also got to refuse to allow the thinking of the age to determine our worldview. We have to make a deliberate choice to live within the borders of God’s Kingdom, and stop expecting secular culture to adopt the values of a spiritual society!
Then Bro. Hughes spoke to you about the Good News of God’s Peace, and shared the euaggelion that declares God’s shalom…peace that denotes the absence of hostility and conflict. You learned that God’s Peace also declares God’s goodness…goodness that denotes the absence of evil, hatred, sickness, & death! He told you that God’s Peace announces God’s salvation…that He will deliver His people. And finally you learned that God’s Peace announces God’s Rule…that He reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! But in order for the euaggelion of God’s Peace to have any effect in your life, you’ve got to live your life in obedience & submission to King Jesus.
Now, if you’re thinking that I’ve reviewed these messages out of order, or that I’ve skipped something, you’re absolutely correct. ? But those of you where were here for the message on the Good News of Jesus Christ will remember that we didn’t actually finish examining our text; we just stopped. Today, we’re going to finish looking at The Good News of Jesus Christ.
We’re going to stand now and read our text for this message, found in Mark chapter 1, verses 1-3. It’s shown up here on the screen in the English Standard Version…why don’t you join me and let’s read this together. (Thanks!)
I. Mark
These first verses of Mark are incredibly significant. Mark is the shortest account of the life of Christ in the New Testament, and is kind of abrupt in tone. Mark isn’t a book of flourishes and fancy phrases; it’s spare, it’s direct, to the point, and every verse has purpose. Each item he records has significance. When reading Mark, you can’t afford to sort of graze, skipping the well-known bits to get to the really interesting stuff…which is Christians think they can do, since they’re so familiar with the story.
But if you do that with Mark, you’ll miss things that are really important for you to know. Reading Mark effectively means slowing down, and being deliberate about your examination of what he’s written. If there’s a detail, it’s an important detail. If there’s an event recorded, it matters. If a name is mentioned, well, it’s not just a mention. And if Mark quotes a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures, you need to locate the source and read it in its context…because those references in Mark are like blinking neon signs saying, “Important stuff! Read here! You need to know this!”
And that’s exactly how Mark opens his story…providing us in three, short verses with major “news items” that most of us typically rush through. And in these major news items he tells us very important things about the work of Jesus Christ.
II. Part One
If you weren’t here for the first part of this message, I encourage you to go to our website at www.therefugeattleboro.com, click on the Sunday Series tab, and listen to it. In that message you’ll hear that verse one is Mark’s way of saying,
“This is the start of the most important story of the most important Person who’s ever walked the planet! I’m declaring the glad tidings of the victory of God as Messiah, and his name is Jesus. So pay attention, because the stuff I’m about to say really, really matters if you want to understand what Jesus was about.”
Then in verse two he quoted the prophet Malachi, who prophesied about the ministry of Messiah the King…saying that he would judge the manipulation, the immorality, the corruption, the deceptiveness, and the exploitation of the age. But before he judges the world, Malachi said he would purify his own servants. He’ll refine them like gold and silver, turning up the heat in their circumstances until the impurities are dealt with. But that’s good news because it means that, like silver and gold, God sees you as having inherent value…as worth saving…and as precious enough to purify!
III. Part Two
Verse three: the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight
Here in verse three we see our second blinking neon sign! In this case, Mark is quoting from the 40th chapter of Isaiah, particularly from the segment containing verses 1-5. And once again, he’s alerting us to the work of Messiah the King.
So, notice this…the euaggelion comes to those living in the wilderness! There was no need to proclaim the good news of the God-Messiah to the rocks and the hills…the herald was running through the wilderness, bearing a message to all who lived in the rough country.
Something powerful is being told us here…something amazing about the content of the Good News of Jesus Christ. And I must confess that it’s something that’s caught my imagination and fired my spirit…so you’ll forgive me if I depart from my usual deliberate, semi-expositional, presentation and seem to lurch into ragged prose…but this…this is too powerful a thing to be discussed with cool detachment.
First, understand that the prophet is speaking in prophetic terms…looking ahead to the work of Messiah the God-King. And he’s using the preparations made for the travel of a mighty emperor as an illustration of that work. A proper road must be made; wide, smooth, flat, level, that best allows the Mighty One to travel in state with his entourage…a highway that allows the dignity and splendor of the Great King to be displayed to best advantage.
Next, know that “wilderness” didn’t necessarily refer to desert, but to those large, isolated tracts of land that were undeveloped, and sparsely populated. Wilderness was wild…wild in the sense that it was uncultivated, fit mostly for grazing cattle or sheep. Wilderness was wild in the sense that it was far from the life-centers of village, town, and city. It was wild in the sense that it was remote from the law, order, and civilized ways of the settled towns.
But the wilderness was no empty space, no unoccupied region. It was populated with those who had no place anywhere else. It was inhabited by…
The diseased who were thrown out
The disaffected who dropped out
The debtors who bailed out
The criminals who hid out
The unfaithful who ran out
The wilderness was a refuge for the persecuted, a haven for prophets, and a sanctuary for dissidents.
It was the dwelling of sheep & scorpions, the habitat of lizards & lions, the lodging of shepherds & rebels, the home of banished men of learning & dangerous men of violence.
The wilderness was peopled by…
religious fanatics, revolutionaries, and tax evaders…
by sheiks, robbers, and those too poor to live anywhere else…
by holy men, exiles, and the most sordid of sinners…
And all of them heard the call…all of them…
the outcasts of society, the off-scouring of society, the dregs of society…they all heard it.
the recluses, the untouchables, & the pariahs…they all heard it.
The scholars studying in their splendid isolation heard it.
The bandits hiding in their rocky strongholds heard it.
The merchants travelling in their armed caravans heard it.
All of them heard it…the cry that called all those of the wilderness to prepare the way of the LORD, and to make straight in the desert a highway for God!
They heard the call, and they came…
Out of their holds, their caves, their crags in the rock…
Out of their huts, their tents, and their lean-to’s…
From mountain cliff and desert valley…
From wadi and gully…from tell and oasis…
From all the wild places they came, each with what tools he had at hand…
with their sharpened sticks for digging…
with their flat rocks for scraping…
with their spades and shovels…
with their picks and their hammers…
they came and labored.
The brigand labored with the shepherd.
The scholar labored with the murderer.
The merchant labored with the poor man.
The sheik labored with the exile.
The holy man labored with the sinner.
Prophets carried bags of gravel.
Disgraced priests dug stones from the roadway.
Political dissidents poured water.
And men of learning pulled roots.
All of them heard the call, and as many as came found themselves shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm with the most unlikely of companions.
Out of this great noise of broken humanity was forged a great and mighty work.
Mountains pulled down!
Valleys filled in!
Crooked places made straight!
The uneven ground made level!
The rough places made smooth!
A great & wide roadway fit for a King…fit for THE King…was made!
Now He would come…
He would come to their world…
to their desert…
to their wilderness.
He would come to their world…
not just through their world!
He would bring His Great & Royal Presence
to those whom everyone else had rejected…
to those whom everyone else had refused.
As He came, they lined the roadway…
An honor guard of the bruised…
An army of the tattered…
An escort of the broken…
And they cheered Him as He rode by!
They cheered and their voices rose like thunder!
They cheered and the very rocks seemed to tremble!
They cheered until their throats were raw and their breath was gone…
for the Great King had called to them in their ruin…
and had given them a magnificent thing…
purpose.
He didn’t call
the mighty…
the noble…
the great…
He had called them…
the wilderness dwellers…
those who occupied the edges…
the people on the brink…
And they had done His Great Work for Him.
Where no one else could.
When no one else would.
This, Christian, is the euaggelion of Jesus Christ…
the glad tidings of the victory & power of our God-Messiah…
that the profane, the vile, & the disgraced…
the lowly, the despised, & the lonely…
the miserable, the wounded, the desperate…
and all others who would answer His call…
would be given
a place…
a purpose…
a hand…
in the great work of Eternity’s Great King.
Application:
I’m sure that many of you have already made the connections between this message and your life. But for those who have not, allow me to summarize for you with this;
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about far more than your salvation from sin. Obviously, Jesus came to die on the cross so that you could be delivered from the bondage of your sin, cleansed, and have eternal life. But the Gospel isn’t just about your salvation, your assurance, and your eternal life after death. The Gospel also addresses purpose…the cause that’ll serve as you’re life’s motivation…the labor in which you’ll invest your life’s energies.
Know that Jesus’ call extends to all, and that Jesus seems particularly interested in those others have no interest in. The broken, the weary, the sin-scarred, the corrupted, the abused, the poor, the lowly, the despairing, the rejected, the despised…those messed up, used up, and thrown out. So, the Spirit of God moved on the prophet Isaiah to portray Him as the Great King sending his messengers into the wilderness, calling the outcast & exiled inhabitants of those wild places into…service.
The call of Jesus is not to forgiveness. You’ll not find one place in the Gospels where Jesus ever invited anyone to come to Him and be forgiven…though He grants forgiveness and more. The call of Jesus is not to empowerment. You’ll not find one place in the Gospels where Jesus ever invited anyone to come to him and be empowered…though He grants empowerment and more. The call of Jesus is not to healing. You’ll not find one place in the Gospels where Jesus ever invited anyone to come to Him and be healed…though He grants healing and more.
The call of Jesus is the call to discipleship, and to the service that following Jesus always entails. What you’ll read in the Gospels is of Jesus calling people to follow Him so they might be “fishers of men”, so they might go out and tell others about Jesus, so they might share the grace shown to them with others in need of grace. The call of Jesus is the call to learn from Him, to learn of Him, and then to take that knowledge to others who don’t know Him. The call of Jesus has always been and ever will be the call to prepare the way so that His message can be heard, so that His Kingdom can expand.
For decades, even centuries now, we’ve had an upside-down focus. The focus of salvation has been us; our sins, our redemption, and our healing. It’s been about our cleansing, our conscience, and our new-life. Even though all those are certainly wrapped up in the idea of salvation…there is much more to this that what He does for you. And I can make a very strong Biblical case that what He does for you is simply the gateway to what He has called you to do for Him.
So the question comes down to, “What are you doing with your salvation?” Is there even any room in your life for service? Or have you plugged every moment of your life full of things that have absolutely nothing to do with God’s Kingdom, with God’s call? Every once in a while it may be good to remind yourself that salvation is for a purpose: to prepare the way of the Lord, to join in God’s great Kingdom Work. You are saved to join with others in removing obstacles and smoothing the way for the message of Jesus Christ to get to the hearts of those who don’t know Him.
Closing:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might glory in the His presence.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who glories, glory in the Lord."
So now all of us may have a place, and all of us may live with purpose. And all of us outcasts…we exiles…all of us broken, hunched, and soul-weary ones…we’re brought together and transformed by grace into a magnificent band…a great force focused on getting the Presence of the Great King to those who are without Him.
