SPEAKER_00: Well, do turn with me tonight to the Gospel according to Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Our reading this evening will be verses one through to eight.
SPEAKER_00: And tonight begins the start of a new journey, a journey through the Gospel according to Mark.
SPEAKER_00: It's an absolute delight to enter into this book.
SPEAKER_00: It's been my privilege in previous years to have preached through the Gospel of Luke in my previous pastoral post to preach through John here, but I never had worked through Mark, and I'm really looking forward to us diving into this book together as a church family.
SPEAKER_00: It only has sixteen chapters, so I encourage you to read and read ahead and really get to know the beautiful flow of narrative in this glorious gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let's hear the reading of God's word, and then we'll commit our time to the Lord in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter one, beginning in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
SPEAKER_00: John came baptizing in the wilderness, and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him, and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
SPEAKER_00: And he preached, saying, There comes one after me, who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
SPEAKER_00: I indeed baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That ends the reading of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Please join me in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and almighty Lord, we thank you for the songs of praise that we've been able to offer unto your name this evening.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that as we consider your sacred scriptures now, that you help us to draw near to you.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a greater understanding of your dear Son.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to behold him in all his beauty and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to serve him with faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There are some announcements that will change your day.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you didn't have lunch and you find out what's for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: Your day has just been changed for good when you hear about what that meal is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: There are announcements that will even change the course of a nation.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it can be a political announcement or even announcement of a war or some calamity.
SPEAKER_00: But there is an announcement that has gone beyond changing someone's day and even the course of a nation.
SPEAKER_00: It's an announcement that has changed the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that announcement is found in the opening words of Mark chapter 1 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the opening line.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here we have an announcement immediately brought to the ears of the listener.
SPEAKER_00: Mark wastes no time at all.
SPEAKER_00: He announces the greatest announcement the world could ever hear.
SPEAKER_00: It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, our English translations read smoothly, but if you were to read this in the original Greek, literally it would say, beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The word beginning is right there at the start.
SPEAKER_00: And that's led a number of scholars to say that Mark, who is writing this gospel account, would draw our minds back to the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, which begins with the words, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's been suggested by some that what Mark might be doing here is just as Genesis chapter one shows us the beginning of creation, Mark one is showing us the beginning of the inauguration of the new creation.
SPEAKER_00: The new creation has been inaugurated by the arrival of the King, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And this new creation begins by means of the salvation that He and He alone brings.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the point that I want you to see at the beginning of this announcement is that John is announcing the glory of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Mark, rather, is announcing the beginning of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The word gospel simply means good news.
SPEAKER_00: And when he uses the word gospel here, he's not using it as the title of the book as we tend to use it.
SPEAKER_00: We call this the gospel according to Mark.
SPEAKER_00: But here he's using it to make the announcement of the greatest news.
SPEAKER_00: The word gospel simply means good news, and it was a term that was used in the ancient world to refer to a political announcement, a great announcement of the arrival of a king.
SPEAKER_00: And Mark here is to give us the presentation of the arrival of the king, but this is no ordinary king.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to see that the true king is the Lord Jesus and he is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest news that anyone could hear.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Gospel of Mark is an absolutely fascinating gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, in his kindness and goodness, has blessed his people with four Gospel accounts.
SPEAKER_00: And these four Gospels are the doorway into the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_00: We need to remember what the purpose of the Gospels are, but in order to appreciate that, let's paint that against the backdrop of the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The whole Bible is about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament predicts Christ, the Gospels pre present Christ, the book of Acts preaches Christ, the epistles explain Christ, and the book of Revelation expects Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But in these four preachings of Christ, these four proclamations of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord in his kindness has given us four: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_00: And what these four accounts do is they present to us the life and ministry of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And they write differently.
SPEAKER_00: They write with different points of focus, yet they all have a unifying message.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew writes primarily for a Jewish audience.
SPEAKER_00: He begins with a genealogy that shows that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a descendant of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And then he moves immediately into the birth narratives.
SPEAKER_00: He frequently uses the word fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Luke begins with a highly organized introduction showing a sophisticated process of research and history as being evaluated in the presentation of these things concerning Jesus, showing that Luke is part one of a two-volume set, Acts being the sequel.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, Luke moves right into the infancy narratives as well.
SPEAKER_00: We've got the Gospel of John, which actually takes us back into eternity past, where it begins by telling us in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that He is the maker and creator of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Each book is presented so differently, but Mark Mark is a gospel of urgency.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gospel of confrontation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gospel that brings us immediately into the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He begins by making the announcement of the gospel and then goes straight into the ministry of John the Baptist, and we must see Jesus immediately.
SPEAKER_00: No birth narratives, no backstory, but straight into it.
SPEAKER_00: It's fascinating as you read through the Gospel of Mark that of the four Gospels, it's the most brief.
SPEAKER_00: It's only got 16 chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And as you read from chapter 1 through to 16, you'll note a recurring phrase.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word immediately.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like when you're reading through it, the author wants you to move through this quite quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Forty-two times he uses the word immediately.
SPEAKER_00: But as you read Mark, you'll notice that it not only has this fast-paced feel, as I said, it's confrontive.
SPEAKER_00: It hits you hard, it creates a sense of urgency.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with any of the disciples, it might remind you of one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Which disciple was the one who was most confrontive?
SPEAKER_00: The one who was the most fast-paced?
SPEAKER_00: The one who was quick to speak, the man of action, it was the Apostle Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And it's absolutely fascinating that when you study the life of John Mark, who wrote this, we learn that Mark was a ministry companion of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: But at a time of his ministry, it got rather intense.
SPEAKER_00: And as they came home from a ministry trip, it was spoiled by the fact that Mark had abandoned Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It was a time of pressure, a time of difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: And as they all had reassembled and Paul got ready for another ministry trip, Paul refused to bring Mark with him, for Mark had abandoned him.
SPEAKER_00: This led to a rift between Paul and Barnabas, as Barnabas saw the need for Mark, but Paul saw it would be far too risky, thus creating two different mission teams.
SPEAKER_00: But we learn, as we read through the narratives, as we go into the epistles, that as John Mark received the encouragement of Barnabas, he evidently received encouragement from the Apostle Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We know this because over in One Peter, Mark is referred to as his son, son in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He was like a spiritual child to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I suppose Peter knew his fair share of failure.
SPEAKER_00: Peter knew what it was to do the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Peter knew what it was to display great weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter comes alongside this young disciple and pours into him.
SPEAKER_00: And this has resulted in some of the early church fathers, the likes of Papias, who've noted that Mark is writing down the life and ministry of Jesus from the perspective of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: It's been reiterated by others like Irenaeus and others in the early church, who also confirm the fact that they see Peter as the one who is the primary voice behind Mark as he writes these things down.
SPEAKER_00: It's led some to almost nickname this as the Gospel of Mark from Peter's perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't know entirely what's going on in the background, but it's certainly understood that Mark was highly influenced by the Apostle Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And when you read the language of the Gospel of Mark, fascinatingly, it carries some very similar features to a sermon Peter preaches in the book of Acts in Acts 10.
SPEAKER_00: He even begins one of his sermons immediately with the announcement of the Gospel by referring to the ministry of John the Baptist, just the same way this book begins.
SPEAKER_00: And also, when you read through the Gospel of Mark, right at the center of the book is its high point.
SPEAKER_00: Over in chapter 8, verses 31, I think, to 34, you have that episode where the Lord Jesus asks his disciples the very simple question, Who do men say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: They give the answers.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus asks them point blank, but who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: To which Peter responds, You are the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So this beautiful gospel account presents to us the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it does so in a rapid, confronting, fast-paced manner.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see in the message that we're going to consider this evening is three profound truths that announce the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: But before we look at those three truths, I want you to note that this is the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a loaded title for the one that this is announcing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The name Jesus is the name that the angel said was to be given to the Son of God when he would be born.
SPEAKER_00: The name Jesus means the Lord saves.
SPEAKER_00: This name reveals his mission.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us what he's come into the world to do.
SPEAKER_00: But he's also given the title Christ, which reveals that he is the Messiah, the promised one.
SPEAKER_00: He has been anointed by God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the prophet, the priest, and the king.
SPEAKER_00: But he's the Son of God, the Divine Son of God, the eternal second member of the Holy Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: He has come into this world in human flesh to rescue sinners from their sin, to carry out the mission of God in this world to the glory and honor of God's name.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Or how does John Mark, I keep saying John, but his name is John Mark, so that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: How does Mark present the beginning of this glorious gospel message of the Lord Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He does it by giving us three important truths that we need to note and follow as we work through this opening narrative.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice in verses two to three that he begins by giving us a promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's a promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: And from Mark's perspective, and with the purpose that he has in mind in this gospel account, this is the beginning of the good news.
SPEAKER_00: The good news begins with a promise of God, a promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we're going to see in verses four through to six the prophet of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: There is a promise of preparation, but then we have a prophet of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: There is one who has come to actually prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to see finally in verses seven to eight, the preeminent one, the one that the prophet announced.
SPEAKER_00: It is the one that the good news is all about.
SPEAKER_00: So let's begin first of all with the promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read to you verses two to three.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
SPEAKER_00: What we have here in verses two and three is an ancient promise.
SPEAKER_00: A promise that was written down over 400 years before the arrival of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus in this world.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that it was written in the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may have a translation that also says it was written in Isaiah the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: We have different manuscripts, and some manuscripts say prophets, and some say Isaiah the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And the quotation, Isaiah the prophet, has led some people to conclude that there is a problem or a contradiction going on in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look carefully, in verses two and three, we have this composite quotation.
SPEAKER_00: The composite quotation is drawing from Malachi chapter 3, verse 1, as verse 2, and Isaiah 40 in verse 3, and that's verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And some people have been troubled by the fact that why does my translation, why does some manuscripts say Isaiah the prophet said?
SPEAKER_00: But he goes on and quotes Malachi and Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we ought not to be troubled by that, because it was a common feature in ancient Jewish writings and even in some Greco-Roman writings that when you would quote it a number of sources, that you would often place them together as a composite and give the credit in the quote to the major source.
SPEAKER_00: And in the case of Isaiah and Malachi, Isaiah certainly is considered a major source.
SPEAKER_00: But there also seems to be something going on here because when you read the book Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, particularly beginning in chapter 40, with the announcement of somebody who is going to come and prepare the way for the Messiah, it's going to move into a great scene in which we have these specific prophecies concerning the arrival of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And Mark seems to be utilizing the book of Isaiah in a very strategic way.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems to be that he's wanting us to see that the one that Isaiah spoke of truly is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of God, he is the promised Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And this is probably why some manuscripts have actually included the words prophets to show that he is quoting from the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to fixate on the promise itself.
SPEAKER_00: What's the promise that Isaiah and Malachi were making?
SPEAKER_00: It's a promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what the Lord says.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord God here is speaking to the Messiah, to his son, and he's saying that my messenger will prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice in verse 3, in the quotation from Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
SPEAKER_00: Here we have a promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was the custom in the ancient world that when a king or an individual of great power and renown was about to come to a city or a town, that the pathway needed to be prepared.
SPEAKER_00: A messengers would be dispatched before the arrival of the king.
SPEAKER_00: And their duty and task was to simply clear the road.
SPEAKER_00: If there was any mess, if there were any obstacles, if there was anything in the way for the smooth arrival of the king into the town, their task was to clear the way completely and make the path smooth, to make it ready for the arrival of the king.
SPEAKER_00: For when the king arrives, it will be a smooth entry.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no obstacles, there will be no hurdles, there will be no potholes, there will be nothing that is going to get in the way of the beautiful, lovely arrival of the king.
SPEAKER_00: Or so it is with the arrival of the true king, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord had made a promise of preparation, and this promise of preparation was not going to be one that would remove physical obstacles, but it will be one that will prepare the way to remove spiritual obstacles.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that in just one moment of what they are and who this promised preparer is.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see in verses two to three, and what Mark wants us to see in his gospel, is that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the Son of God came into this world as a result of a promise.
SPEAKER_00: And the promise was written down in the prophets, it was determined before the foundation of the world, it was announced to Isaiah the prophet, it was announced to Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what's interesting about About this announcement by the time Malachi writes down his words in the book of Malachi, chapter 3, and verse 1, 400 years pass.
SPEAKER_00: 400 years pass and nothing happens.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's four hundred years of silence.
SPEAKER_01: People didn't hear from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't hear from the Lord's prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Did God forget his promise?
SPEAKER_00: Or what Mark wants us to know is the Lord didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And there ought to be an application in that for us.
SPEAKER_00: Is that when the Lord makes a promise, you won't always see the results.
SPEAKER_00: You won't always see things working out the way you would like them to work out.
SPEAKER_00: But God has not forgotten his promises.
SPEAKER_00: He will work them out his way in his time.
SPEAKER_00: While people were patiently waiting.
SPEAKER_00: When will be the one who will come and remove the obstacles?
SPEAKER_00: When will this messenger come and prepare the way for the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: When will he come?
SPEAKER_01: Waited a hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years, four hundred years.
SPEAKER_01: And the silence was broken.
SPEAKER_00: But what's absolutely amazing here is that this promise of the preparation is concerning a messenger who is going to prepare the way for the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Notice it says in verse 3 that his task is to prepare the way of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that word Lord there in the New Testament is from the Greek term kurios, but this is a quotation from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Old Testament, this is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: So what this is telling us is that the Messiah who's coming is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the divine king.
SPEAKER_00: This is God Himself breaking into the world.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to come, He is going to arrive.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to break into the human experience.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest announcement that could ever be made.
SPEAKER_00: But what Mark wants us to know up front is this announcement of good news begins with a promise, a promise of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Promise that there will be one who will come, a messenger of God, who will remove the obstacles, he'll prepare the way, he will get everything ready so that when the king comes on the scene, all eyes are on him.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be no distractions, there'll be nothing to draw us away from him, but the spotlight will be on him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise of the preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Now we come to the prophet of the preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at verses four through to six.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet of the preparation.
SPEAKER_00: John came baptizing.
SPEAKER_00: He was known for two things.
SPEAKER_00: He baptized people, and he preached a sermon on the theme of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That's the man's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: The man had a very simple message.
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
SPEAKER_00: And those who repented, he would then baptize them in the waters.
SPEAKER_00: This is what gave him the name John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Now we understand that's not the beginning of the Baptist denomination.
SPEAKER_00: This is just simply describing the actions of a man who carried out this activity of baptizing people.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the same as Christian baptism as we understand it, but this is something very radical in the life of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't uncommon for Jewish people to see acts of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: The common act of baptism for the Jewish people was when there was an outsider of Israel who would proselytize and convert to Judaism, they would go through the waters of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And this public ceremony would show a renouncing of their old life and a cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: And this outward ritual would be a way of showing that they've received this sign and mark to show that they belong now to this covenant community.
SPEAKER_00: So it was not uncommon for the Jewish people to see outsiders, those who were outside of the house of Israel, go through the cleansing waters, cleansing themselves of the outside filth and becoming insiders.
SPEAKER_00: But for John to stand on the inside and to announce to the Jewish people, repent.
SPEAKER_00: We even read in the other gospel accounts that he said, Repent, you brood of vipers.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't hold back in his message.
SPEAKER_00: He preached against the immorality of the king.
SPEAKER_00: He did not hold back.
SPEAKER_00: He was a courageous, bold man of conviction.
SPEAKER_00: So this act of calling for baptism, a baptism of repentance, was absolutely radical and dramatic and confronting.
SPEAKER_00: When the scripture tells us that he preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, what John, the prophet, is preparing people for is the arrival of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: How does he prepare the way for the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: He removes the obstacles, and it's clear in his mind that the obstacle for everyone in this world is their sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's not their lack of information, it's not their lack of knowledge concerning the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest obstacle to the people receiving the king is simply this: they have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So John preached repentance to them.
SPEAKER_00: He announces that this is the great obstacle that is in the way.
SPEAKER_00: The king is coming, and we need to remove these obstacles from the road.
SPEAKER_00: We need to make the path straight.
SPEAKER_00: We need to take that which is crooked and make it straight.
SPEAKER_00: So he preached this message of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And when John preached repentance, we need to understand what repentance is.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance isn't a message designed to make people feel guilty and just simply sorrow and regret in what they've done.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for people to have a pity party about things of the past and to just simply sulk about that.
SPEAKER_00: The preaching of repentance is demanding a complete change.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical repentance, in the words of the Puritan Thomas Watson, has a number of ingredients.
SPEAKER_00: In his book, The Doctrine of Repentance, he mentions around six ingredients of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Among those ingredients, he mentions that there ought to be a sight of sin.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be able to see sin for what it is.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to recognize that that which we think and that which we do is ugly in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: It defies the beauty of his law.
SPEAKER_00: There ought to be a sorrow of sin.
SPEAKER_00: There ought to be a hatred of sin.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be revulsed by it.
SPEAKER_00: There ought to be a returning unto God, a coming unto him.
SPEAKER_00: And Watson goes on and gives a collection of six ingredients in total.
SPEAKER_00: And what he does there is he's showing, in contrast to an earlier chapter in that book, that there is a form of repentance that's a false repentance, a counterfeit repentance.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a true repentance.
SPEAKER_00: A true repentance will involve the recognition of sin, a revulsion of it, and a returning to God and entering into a right pathway that honors him.
SPEAKER_00: It is to experience a radical change in which we turn from that which defies God and we come unto him humbly with open hands of humility, love, and delight.
SPEAKER_00: As John stood before the crowds of people who packed their life with religious activities, who spoke the right words, who said the right things, who perhaps went to the right places, John looked at them and said, You've sinned, repent, the king is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Have a heartfelt repentance, a true repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Feel your sin, see your sin, confess your sin, turn from your sin, cling to God, return to him, acknowledge the evil of your way.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the message our world needs to hear today.
SPEAKER_00: It's the message that we need to hear today.
SPEAKER_00: John was the prophet who prepared the way for the arrival of the King.
SPEAKER_00: And the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came by means of a promise of preparation, that there would be a messenger who will prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the gospel was then announced by the prophet himself, who declared, The King is coming, turn from your sin, turn from your sin and be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: This man, John the Baptist, we're told, had such an effect in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 says, Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
SPEAKER_00: This was a mammoth moment.
SPEAKER_00: This is absolutely remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: The crowds are hearing this simple sermon being preached.
SPEAKER_00: People are going into the waters of the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
SPEAKER_00: John's baptizing them one after another.
SPEAKER_00: Roman soldiers are even standing there, and he begins to address them in his sermon.
SPEAKER_00: John did not hold back.
SPEAKER_00: He took it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: He is preparing for the arrival of the king, but the preparation is repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at how he's described.
SPEAKER_00: Mark tells us that John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's going on there?
SPEAKER_00: John's not really trying to match the trends of the day.
SPEAKER_00: That was not what people were wearing.
SPEAKER_00: John's not trying to model some new diet.
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that people will even look at passages like this and think, you want to be a godly person, dress like John, eat like John?
SPEAKER_00: This is not a passage telling us about the honey and locust diet.
SPEAKER_00: What we've got going on here is this is supposed to have our minds drawn back to the Old Testament and say, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: This man who's standing there in the wilderness preparing the way for the Messiah looks like and sounds like someone else.
SPEAKER_00: We've studied Two Kings, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00: Who does this sound like?
SPEAKER_00: Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, through the prophet Malachi, said that Elijah's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And here we have this Elijah-like character.
SPEAKER_00: He's deliberately dressing like him.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the wilderness like Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: He's living this very simple life.
SPEAKER_00: But here, these this imagery is showing us that he is wearing the clothes of a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He is that promised messenger who would come.
SPEAKER_00: So here we have this incredible description with a powerful message of a man who is the prophet of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there is something absolutely remarkable about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: This is quite an impressive man who stands there boldly, daily, preaching a message of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: What courage and conviction that would take.
SPEAKER_00: As people walk past you and you're pointing out to them that you must turn from your sins, you must repent of your sins.
SPEAKER_00: This took so much courage.
SPEAKER_00: John truly was a remarkable and great man.
SPEAKER_00: But it's at this point of seeing how remarkable and great he is that brings us to the third part of this announcement of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But this really is the high point.
SPEAKER_00: What was the ultimate purpose of a promise of preparation, a prophet of preparation?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's seen in verses 7 to 8, and that is the preeminent one.
SPEAKER_00: We mustn't miss the fact that as impressive as John was, as big as the crowds were that gathered to him, as many people as we saw enter into those waters and receive that external sign to mark their repentance.
SPEAKER_00: We read in verse 7, and he preached, saying, There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
SPEAKER_01: Here John is expressing his deep humility.
SPEAKER_01: John truly was great.
SPEAKER_00: We know he's great because the Lord Jesus himself said that John the Baptist is the greatest of all the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: That's no small thing, is it?
SPEAKER_01: To have the Lord Jesus declare that that man, he was the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: When it came to the prophets, John the Baptist was goaded.
SPEAKER_00: He was the goat, the greatest of all time.
SPEAKER_00: There was no one like him.
SPEAKER_00: Unreal.
SPEAKER_00: Towered above the rest, stood on his own.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, what made him great was not what we think makes someone great.
SPEAKER_00: John wasn't great because of any of his own personal accomplishments or of his own assessment or of the things that the world declared.
SPEAKER_00: What made him great was the recognition that he understood that Jesus Christ is the preeminent one and he was faithful to the task that he was given.
SPEAKER_00: That is why he was declared great.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to say, He must increase, I must decrease.
SPEAKER_00: Do not put the attention on me, put the attention on him, he would say.
SPEAKER_00: John would go on to say that I am the best man at the wedding, but Christ, he is the bridegroom.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who gets the attention.
SPEAKER_00: My role as the best man, says John, is not to have any attention on me at all.
SPEAKER_00: My one task is to put all the attention on him, to show you his greatness, to show you show you his grandeur, and to remind you of your need, to turn from your sin and trust in him, believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: That humility is expressed beautifully in verse 7 that he is mightier than I, he's greater than me, he's more powerful than me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm convinced if you sat under the preaching of John, you would have said, There is a powerful man.
SPEAKER_00: There is a man of great gravity and gravitas.
SPEAKER_00: But John says, No.
SPEAKER_00: There is one who is coming that is mightier than me.
SPEAKER_00: Stop looking at me, he says.
SPEAKER_00: I am not worthy to stoop down and loose his sandal strap.
SPEAKER_00: In that ancient culture, the task of removing someone's sandal belonged to a lowly slave.
SPEAKER_00: John said, I'm not even worthy to loosen the sandal strap.
SPEAKER_00: I'm lower than the lowest of slaves compared to him.
SPEAKER_00: He is preeminent and supreme.
SPEAKER_00: The one that I am preparing the way for is most glorious, beautiful, and supreme.
SPEAKER_00: John goes on to describe why Christ is preeminent, why Christ is greater than him.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us specifically, he says, just look at what I do versus what he will do.
SPEAKER_00: I baptize you with water.
SPEAKER_00: I call for you to repent, and then I bring you into the water with me, and I baptize you with water.
SPEAKER_00: But the water doesn't actually do anything to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not actually washing away your sins, it's not actually transforming you, it's just simply an outward gesture, it's a symbolic act, it's a ritual that is indicating an internal change.
SPEAKER_00: But my water, the baptism process that I am giving you is not actually doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: I just baptize you with water.
SPEAKER_00: But when he comes, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings our minds immediately to the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 34, and Jeremiah 31.
SPEAKER_00: And what's going on in those two chapters, and we can even add to there, Joel 2, but what's going on in those two chapters is here we have the promise of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And in the promise of the new covenant, which we were reminded of this morning, which is the new covenant is that great ocean in which the rivers of all of God's covenants flow into.
SPEAKER_00: This glorious new covenant brings the promise of pouring out the Holy Spirit upon people, giving them a new heart, writing the law of God, not on stone tablets put into the Ark of the Covenant, but onto their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God cleansing them of their sins, making them new.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus, he is able to baptize you with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I can baptize you on the outside, he can baptize you from the inside, he can make you a whole new person.
SPEAKER_01: So John points us to him.
SPEAKER_00: And as Mark writes this, he would have us know and see that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is this the glorious Son of God who came into this world and assumed a human nature to become the only Savior of sinners came as a result of a promise of preparation that the Lord God had revealed to prophets.
SPEAKER_00: It was announced by a prophet who prepared the way by preaching repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel centers on the preeminent one Himself, namely the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: These opening eight verses remind us of who our Savior is.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest news there is in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I began by reminding you that sometimes there's news that will change your day.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's news that will change a nation, and then there's news that will change the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the news that changes the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the news that we base our life on.
SPEAKER_00: It is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to renew in your mind a fresh vision of the greatness of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Are you staring at his beauty?
SPEAKER_00: Are you enjoying what he and he alone accomplishes in the glory of the new covenant?
SPEAKER_00: Are you following your Savior?
SPEAKER_01: Are you looking to him or are you looking to others?
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself, stand on the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Repent of your sins and keep your eyes on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I look forward with you over the next number of months as we embark on this beautiful journey, as we're going to see action-packed story after story in the Gospel of Mark that are going to present to us the grandeur and greatness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And this Gospel calls for us to behold Him and to adore Him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and mighty God, we thank you for what you have revealed for us in these opening verses of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Please encourage us, enlarge in our vision of our Lord Jesus, help us to adore him all the more.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that as we go about every responsibility that we have this coming week, may our love for the Lord Jesus ever increase.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for allowing ourselves or anything to have the preeminence of thought, but help us to be like John and say, He is mightier than us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to draw near to him.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to decrease that he may increase.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.