GOSPEL OF MARK: GOD’S SERVANT IN ACTION
PREPARING WAY FOR JESUS CHRIST
A. Mark 1:2-8 (READ)
1. As you are probably aware, President Trump was in Indianapolis on April 26th to speak at the NRA
Convention.
a. You might have been one of the thousands of motorists caught in the SLOW MOVING TRAFFIC
because of all the DETOURS resulting from the Interstates being closed entering DOWN TOWN.
b. This happens everywhere the PRESIDENT goes to VISIT.
2. I came across an interesting ARTICLE about how the Secret Service PREPARES WAY for the
President’s VISIT. Here are some of the many things they do:
a. The Secret Service scopes out the President’s destination months ahead of time.
COMMENT:
They meet with local LAW ENFORCEMENT agencies to work out the LOGISTICS of the trip. They request a MOTORCADE ROUTE through town. They also identify nearby TRAUMA HOSPITALS and SAFE LOCATIONS in the event that the President is ATTACKED or in case of other EMERGENCIES.
b. They identify people they need to watch.
COMMENT:
Specifically, they look for the most SERIOUS category of possible THREATS, especially from those whom have already THREATENED President in some way. Agents actually CONTACT these people, and WARN them that they are being WATCHED closely during the President’s VISIT.
c. They bring in bomb-sniffing dogs.
COMMENT:
Days before the President arrives, Secret Service agents bring in the dogs to check every STOP on the President’s ROUTE. They CLEAR nearby STREETS of all PARKED CARS, to ensure that no one PLANTS a CAR BOMB near the President’s location. And, of course, they thoroughly check out every VENUE where the PRESIDENT will be staying and speaking.
d. They CLEAR AIRSPACE at the AIRPORT during the President’s ARRIVAL.
COMMENT:
One interesting tidbit that I did not know is that even though the President flies in on Airforce One, there is also a second plane flown in kept at a secret location.
e. They never leave the President alone.
COMMENT:
An ARMED PROTECTIVE DETAIL accompanies the President wherever he GOES, including the RESTROOM, the DOCTOR’S OFFICE, or any other LOCATION.
f. There are DOZENS of Secret Service Agents and MULTIPLE law enforcement personnel involved in the PREPARATION and PROTECTION of the President when he goes on LOCATION.
B. Mark, quoting from the prophets Malachi and Isaiah, tells us that God used only ONE man to PREPARE
WAY for the Son of God.
1. Now, frankly, John the Baptizer was a very strange PUBLIC RELATIONS man.
ILLUSTRATION:
If a well-known PREACHER today was organizing a series of EVANGELISTIC campaigns in different cities across the country (much like the days of the Billy Graham Crusades) and sent someone AHEAD to PREPARE WAY for him, more than likely he would send a GOOD LOOKING, SMARTLY DRESSED, SMOOTH TALKING person who would in no way EMBARRASS him. He would want to make a good FIRST IMPRESSION.
2. God didn’t do it that way. Instead, He chose an unrefined HERMIT who lived in the WILDERNESS
to be Jesus’ FRONTRUNNER.
a. John wouldn’t have made the “BEST DRESSED” list: “He was clothed with Camel’s Hair and a
leather belt around his waist.”
b. He was committed to ORGANIC FOOD: “Dining on LOCUST and WILD HONEY” (try
finding that on the MENU at Red Lobster).
c. He was a RADICAL teacher: “Telling people that they should REPENT of their SINS. And if
they were BRAVE enough to respond, he would DUNK them in WATER.”
d. He wasn’t much a DIPLOMAT: Luke 3:7- “John said to the crowd coming out to be baptized by
him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?’” (RESPONDED)
COMMENT:
How TACTLESS can you be? What if, during the INVITATION SONG, someone came forward to be BAPTIZED and I said, “You SNAKE! Who WARNED you to FLEE from the PUNISHMENT of God?” (After witnessing that, people would just LINE UP to be BAPTIZED, wouldn’t they?)
3. Despite all that, Jesus would say of the ONE who came to PREPARE WAY for His MINISTRY:
“…among those born of women, there is no one greater than John the Baptist…”- Luke 7:28a.
MESSAGE:
I. JOHN THE BAPTIST: THE MAN
A. After quoting the PROPHETS about God sending His messenger to PREPARE WAY for the coming
of His Son, Mark simply writes “And so John came...”- v. 4. “HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!”
1. Although Mark was the first to record the GOSPEL of Jesus, we have to go to the other gospel writers to learn more specifics about this man named John who went around PREACHING and
BAPTIZING.
2. Luke’s gospel RECORDS the BIRTH of John.
a. We learn in Luke 1:9 that John’s father was “Zechariah, and he was a Priest.”
COMMENT:
While performing his priestly duties in the temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth would give birth to a SON in their OLD AGE-
Luke 1:11-17 (READ and COMMENT)
b. “Elizabeth, the mother of John, was a RELATIVE (probably a COUSIN) of Mary the mother of Jesus—making John and Jesus SECOND COUSINS- Luke 1:36.
B. As Zechariah was instructed by the angel Gabriel, he and Elizabeth reared their son as a “NAZARITE”-
Luke 1:15. (The word “NAZARITE” means “CONSECRATED”.)
1. A man or woman could take the Nazarite Vow consecrating his or her LIFE to the SERVICE of
God. According to instruction that God gave Moses, the Nazarite Vow consisted of three things:
a. “Abstaining from all products of the GRAPE, fresh or dried, including WINE or GRAPE JUICE” - Numbers 6:1-4. (Whether or not you HEARD it through the GRAPEVINE…
RAISINS were out!)
b. “Must let their HAIR grow long—no RAZOR could touch their head” - Numbers 6:5.
c. “Couldn’t go near a DEAD BODY, including that of a relative, to avoid defilement”- Num 6:6.
COMMENT:
“The prophet Samuel was a Nazarite, dedicated by his mother Hannah to serve God from birth”- 1 Samuel 1:11. “Samson was a Nazarite chosen by God from birth to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines”- Judges 13:4.
2. Although the Nazarite Vow could be temporary, like Samuel and Samson, JOHN was a Nazarite
for LIFE.
a. He had fully dedicated his LIFE to God waiting for the day that God would send him to
INTRODUCE Jesus to the WORLD.
b. Luke 1:80- “And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.”
C. When John the Baptist made his APPEARANCE; he was the same age as Jesus—30 years-old.
1. Undoubtedly, he was a strange looking character—long HAIR, strange APPAREL, weird DIET.
COMMENT:
The Pharisees would say of John that “he had a demon”- Luke 7:33. The people coming to be BAPTIZED by him thought he was a PROPHET, or ELIJAH, or even the CHRIST.
2. But John was quick to say that he was merely a MESSENGER—a SERVANT who had come to PREPARE WAY for the Messiah.
II. JOHN THE BAPTIST: HIS MISSION
A. As Mark INTRODUCES Jesus as the Son of God, he wants his READERS to understand that Christ’s FORERUNNER, although a bit STRANGE, was not some eccentric, unstable RECLUSE who just didn’t have it ALL TOGETHER. (Or as a preacher friend of mine would say, “A FRY short of a
HAPPY MEAL.”)
1. Right from the start, Mark points out that John is himself the FULFILLMENT of ancient prophecy.
a. As Malachi prophesied, “John is the messenger sent by God to prepare way for the coming
of the Messiah”- Malachi 3:1
b. And as the prophet Isaiah pointed out, “John is the voice calling from the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make a straight path for our God’”- Isaiah 40:3.
2. John’s MISSION was to get ISRAEL ready to RECEIVE Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
COMMENT:
For thousands of years the PROPHETS had foretold the COMING of the MESSIAH. Every JEW was taught that one day the God of Israel would come to EARTH, take on HUMAN FORM, and become their SAVIOR and REDEEMER. TODAY WAS THAT DAY!!
B. In PREPARING the WAY for the Messiah, John begins by PREPARING the HEARTS of the people
to RECEIVE Jesus as the Son of God.
1. Mark writes, “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins”- Mark 1:4.
COMMENT:
BAPTISM was not a PRACTICE prescribed in the Old Testament, however, being
IMMERSED in WATER was not something NEW with John the Baptizer.
There were ritual or ceremonial POOLS or BATHS called a “MIKVEH” in which people would IMMERSE themselves for the purpose of CEREMONIAL CLEANSING, especially before entering the TEMPLE COURTS. The MIKVEH is still USED today in Jewish culture. (THEY LOOK MUCH LIKE OUR BAPTISTERY.)
2. John gave the PRACTICE of BAPTISM a completely DIFFERENT meaning.
a. John’s BAPTISM had nothing to do with RITUAL or CEREMONY.
COMMENT:
Although John was a LEVITE and the son of a PRIEST, he was not part of the Jewish RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. He carried on his MINISTRY outside the TEMPLE and Jerusalem—the
“HOLY CITY”.
It was not EXTERNAL PURITY that concerned John, but INTERNAL PURITY—it was the HEART that mattered. John demanded the people to REPENT—to turn away from their SINS.
b. 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 Jordon River.”
ILLUSTRATION:
Over the three-plus DECADES that I have served as a PREACHER, I have BAPTIZED dozens of people. Most had truly COMMITTED their lives to Christ in FAITH—turning AWAY
from their SINS and LIVING for Jesus.
But, sadly, there were some (possibly many) who merely went through the MOTIONS—the RITUAL—of BAPTISM without any REAL CHANGE at all.
c. Peter wrote that “Baptism saves us, not the removal of dirt from the body, but an answer
of a conscience toward God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ”- 1 Peter 3:21.
COMMENT:
Peter said that “Baptism is not taking a BATH,” but that is exactly what BAPTISM has turned out to be for some people—they just took a BATH. No CHANGE, no REPENTANCE, no true COMMITMENT to Christ—EXTERNAL purity not INTERNAL purity.
C. As people gathered to be BAPTIZED, John makes sure they UNDERSTAND that he is only a
MESSENGER used by God to point them to the MESSIAH.
1. John said, “There is one coming after me more POWERFUL and MIGHTIER than I. I am not
even worthy to stoop down and untie his sandals”- v. 7.
a. In other words John is saying, “I am not even worthy to be Christ’s servant—to be His slave.”
COMMENT:
Here we see a continuous STREAM of people coming from all over Jerusalem and Judea to HEAR John PREACH and be BAPTIZED him. He’s a SUPERSTAR preacher—he started the MEGA-CHURCH. Yet, with such HUMILITY John says, “I am nothing. The one who comes after me—that is WHO you need to FOLLOW.”
b. The apostle John writes about the time when the disciples of John the Baptist became jealous that Jesus and the apostles were baptizing more people than the. “But John the Baptist reminded them that he was not the Christ and that Jesus must become greater, and he become
less”- John 3:30.
ILLUSTRATION:
John was so different from many PREACHERS today. There are those PREACHERS who just love the LIMELIGHT. They love to be FOLLOWED and ADMIRED and REVERED, and
even sometimes, WORSHIPPED.
We have all HEARD about certain MEGA-CHURCH PREACHERS whose PRIDE became their DOWNFALL. But not so with John the Baptizer. He came to PREPARE WAY for Jesus, not HIMSELF.
2. No wonder Jesus said, “…there is no other person greater than John the Baptist.”
D. Now, this is not the only time that Mark mentions John the Baptist.
1. In Mark 1:14 we see that John is in PRISON, but nothing more is said about that.
2. Then in Mark 6:14ff, we read where John had been executed, and then Mark goes into further detail as to why he was put in PRISON and then put to DEATH. (We will study that when we get to it.)
CONCLUSION:
A. 800 years before John the Baptist appeared in Israel, Isaiah had already PROPHESIED that he would come
to PREPARE WAY for the Son of God.
1. John BEGAN that MISSION, but it didn’t END with him.
a. We are to continue John’s MISSION to PREPARE the HEARTS of people to receive Jesus as their
Lord and Savior.
COMMENT:
Do you know SOMEONE who hasn’t yet received Christ and put Him on in BAPTISM? Have you been PRAYING for that person? Have you been TALKING to him or her about Jesus? Have you offered to PRAY with him or her? Does this person SEE Jesus living in you?
b. That’s really where it begins.
2. Despite John’s STRANGE appearance and sometimes BLUNT way of PREACHING to the people, they
still flocked to him because they saw one who truly LOVED God and CARED about their SOULS.
COMMENT:
I know that YOU and I LOVE God. But we do we genuinely CARE enough for the SOULS of those people around us who need to HEAR about Jesus? The CO-WORKER who is CHEATING on his WIFE? The NEIGHBOR who’s DRINKING has become a real PROBLEM? Your DAUGHTER who has WALKED AWAY from God?
B. There are so many in our LIVES who need Jesus Christ.
1. Let’s remove whatever obstacle that is in the WAY to help PREPARE their HEARTS to RECEIVE Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
