The Servant Is Here Series

I’m sure that most of us would love to sit down and talk with someone who was an actual eyewitness to the life of Jesus Christ. Someone who had seen with their eyes what Jesus did, heard with their ears what Jesus said, experienced the miracles that Jesus performed; someone who lived the stories that we have read and heard about.

Of course, all of the eyewitnesses are dead. But Mark is the next best thing. The Gospel of Mark is the written record of the eyewitness account of someone who was actually there and saw and experienced it all.

Dr. Paul S. Rees said, “The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement.” Mark gets right to the announcement in the very first verse of his Gospel. Mk. 1:1 – “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Mark’s announcement is that God is doing something new – that there is a new beginning. And this new beginning is based on the “gospel” – a term that means simply, “good news.” It was a term that could refer in a general way to good news of any kind. But to the Romans, it was a term that signified good news about the Emperor.

But notice that Mark specifies that this “good news” has to do with Jesus Christ. This Jesus came into the world as God’s Son and has died for our sins. The “good news” is that our sins can be forgiven, that we can belong to the family of God, and that we can be part of the kingdom of God. The Gospel is the best news of all!

The second witness is the witness of the prophets. Mk. 1:2-3 – “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 desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”

Although Mark only mentions the prophet Isaiah, he actually references three different Old Testament verses here. The first verse is Ex. 23:20. It contains God’s promise to send his messenger before the Israelites on their exodus through the desert to the Promised Land. The second verse is Is. 40:3 – “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’” The third verse is Mal. 3:1. “ ‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord

you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the

LORD Almighty.”

The focus is on the “messenger” who would “prepare the way.” In the ancient world, before a king would come to visit any area of his kingdom, messenger would be sent ahead of the visit to “prepare the way.” The process involved making sure the both the roads and the people were ready for the king’s visit.

Mark utilizes these verses from both the Law and the Prophets to show that both the messenger who would prepare the way and the king who was to come did not just show up out of the blue. They appear on the scene because it is part of the blueprint of God’s plan. The story chronicled by Mark is a story designed and directed by God.