I have been asked to go through the Book of Mark through this year and I have seven sundays to do it. I will probably take this book in to the next year because I doubt I will be able to go through the whole book in just seven sundays. Nonetheless, I am very excited to be starting our journey through the Book of Mark with all of you today and I think it is important to have some background information about this book before anything else.
You know, Mark had done something which no one had ever done before: he wrote a Gospel. He was, in Laurence Housman’s words,”The saint who first found grace to pen the life which was the Life of men.”
He is the first author out of the four gospel writers to pen down the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is from his gospel that the gospels of Matthew and Luke get quite a bit of their content from as well. Mark is also the shortest of the gospels and It is a very peculiar and unique book because it is very action packed and there is this one word that most of you already know that occurs over and over again - It is the word “Immediately” (euthys) - pronounced like you theus.
It has very few teaching sections- probably chapter 4, chapter 13, and a few teaching spots here and there, but mostly it’s an action oriented book meant to be read aloud and experienced by those who hear it.
Now, The first question that people tend to ask is, who is Mark and where did he get all this material from? He wasn’t one of the 12 disciples in the inner circle. What is his story? Well, Mark is short for John Mark. John being his hebrew name and Mark being his Roman name. He is mentioned about 9 times in the new testament. It records him as being a son of a prominent woman in church. It is in her house that the church gathered to pray when Peter was put in prison and later freed by the angels (Acts 12:12). He was a cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10). He also travelled for a time with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. We also know that there was a falling out of sorts when Paul thought it unwise to take Mark on the next journey because he abandoned them before. But we see that Barnabas wanted to bring Mark along, maybe because they were cousins and Paul took Silas and Barnabas took Mark and the two groups went their own ways. Eventually, they did mend their relationship. In 1 Peter 5:13, we see that he was called “my son” by Peter. It has been stated by theologians and historians that the Gospel of Mark gained all of its material from Peter.
The earliest statement we have regarding the origins of the gospel of Mark is from a church leader Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis around 130 AD:
“And the Elder said this also: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord, but not however in order.” ”
William L. Lane (1974), New International Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark (p.8. Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cambridge, U.K. Eerdmans
Oh by the way, the Elder mentioned here is the Apostle John. He testifies that Peter and Mark spent time with each other. In regards to the time the gospel of Mark was written, it was around AD 50 and it was written in Rome to gentile christians to remind them of the gospel and of that which they heard and know about Jesus.
We also notice that there is no genealogy because Gentiles did not care about the genealogy of the jews. The Romans spoke Latin and hence there are Latinisms all through Mark. When they refer to time, it’s Roman time. Aramaic terms are explained and defined because they would not know it, it is not their language.
This is in all honesty, Peter's gospel written by Mark.
So without further adieu, let’s look this afternoon to Mark 1: 1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”.
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The first thing we notice in verse 1 is the summary statement of the whole book. This is the beginning, this is the start. This is where Mark makes a wonderful proclamation. Here he says 'Listen, here is the commencement of this wondrous and glorious news which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' The word gospel used here is a word used in the Roman world to refer to a commencement of a new age or a new king or emperor that has come. Now christians use this word specifically and only for the REAL gospel, not of any other potentially good news, but THE good news about the real triumphant King.
Now keep in mind this letter is to be read out. People don’t have easy access to these documents and so they would be read out in church. The whole entire thing would be read by someone. No chapters, no verses. From start to finish. One of the commentaries says that the best way to read Mark is picture yourself walking with him as he recounts all these events one after another. It is like him telling you a story. He starts not like Matthew who recounts the genealogy of Jesus Christ or Luke who starts of with a couple Zechariah or Elizabeth or like John who starts from the very beginning talking about the Word. No, he starts after all of these events by talking about John the baptist, he starts off right where the action begins, the beginning of the ministry of John the baptist.
Now, I want to make a few observations about John - You see, First, John was a messenger of God.
We see that Verse 2 quotes from the old testament and it quotes from Isaiah, but in reality this quote is a combination from two prophets Malachi and Isaiah. The first part is from Malachi and the last part is from Isaiah but since Isaiah is the more recognized or has the larger portion of the writing prophets he gets referenced here. So let’s turn to the book of Malachi, the last book in the old testament:
Malachi 2:17 -
“You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
The complaint was, where is the God of Justice? I don’t see him. Is he coming? Here is what God says, Here is his response:
Malachi 3:1 -
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
The answer to their question is answered by stating he is coming and he says, before he comes I will send a messenger. He will prepare the way before me. God is the one who is going to come but before that happens the messenger must be sent and present. Now in Malachi 4:5, we see some details about this messenger.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”
So, they didn’t really understand if this was going to be Elijah himself because he was taken up in a chariot of fire or if it was somebody like him. They weren’t sure, but what they know is that there is a messenger coming and he is going to be an Elijah kinda guy.
So lets look at the next portion Isaiah 40:3-5 -
A voice cries in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
So now we see that the prophet states that the Lord God himself is going to be coming to his people. He is the One and Only King Eternal and before he comes the way has to be prepared! Roll out the red carpet, make sure everything is levelled and straight. No obstacles of any sorts. No hills, no valleys, no bumps on the path. We need to make a straight path.
So people had these prophecies and all they could do is wait for this messenger, for this person that would come and prepare the way of the Lord. All they had was this limited information about this messenger that he would be like Elijah and he would be in the wilderness and they are waiting for this messenger only because the messenger would introduce them to their only hope. That is what they are looking for.
Now Elijah is the most famous of all the prophets and we can see this in the Mount of transfiguration where we see Jesus, Moses and Elijah present. We see Moses representing the law and Elijah who represents the prophets. Now Elijah was this prophet who didn’t die and the one expectation was that he was going to come back and do you remember how in Mark 1:6, we have a description of John:
“Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.”
Now there is a reason that Mark mentions this here. This isn’t how people ate or dressed back in the day. This is as odd in that day as it is today. It isn’t just to describe how funny he looks and he isn’t making fun of him. He mentions this because this is what 2 Kings 1:8 says
“They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.””
So this is what is mentioned here about Elijah. So when the readers of Mark notice this, their ears would perk up. Wait, this might be it. This is the messenger we were looking for, for this long.
We see in Mark 9:13 - “But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.””
Jesus validates that John was the Elijah that was to come and when it states in this reference that they did whatever they pleased, This basically means that they killed him. This is what they did to John the Baptist. All the gospels clearly state to us that, John is the messenger, the new prophet. He is the voice in the wilderness. He is the one that has, if I could say so, the spirit of Elijah. The voice crying in the wilderness as we see in verse 2 is reinforced by the fact that in verse 4 it states that John was baptizing in the wilderness. Here Mark makes this connection for the readers - the messenger is in the wilderness and he then talks about John appearing in the wilderness. The readers would perk up and say 'isn’t this the one!'
So we see that John is the messenger of God and the second thing we notice is that he is baptizing people. Now no one really knows where he got this from. There is the usual ceremonial washings and well they would wash before worshipping, wash before eating but not this concept of baptizing before. There is some evidence that there were gentiles who would be baptized when they wanted to become proselytes. Now, we don’t know if John borrowed this practice from somewhere else or if this was something he just came up with by himself. This could make sense as to why he is called John the baptist. This is a unique reference and that is what he is known for. And now, baptism is usually a sign of cleansing, a new start, a visible sign of what John was preaching. John preached only one sermon every time. If you look at all the other gospels we could sum up all of his preaching in one word. REPENT! Nothing more or less. Repent for the forgiveness of your sins. If you were to come up to him one day and come back to him the next day it would be the same thing. REPENT! We can see more depth of what he preached when we refer to the gospel of Luke in chapter 3. This is what it states in verses 7-9. He doesn’t start with an introduction or any comedic statement. He goes right into it saying
““You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.””
He was exactly like the prophets from back in the day. He had a very similar tone and message. For the people to hear the Word of God. To repent and turn away from their sins and return back to God. The people would come to John saying, “We have Abraham as our father”. We have this heritage and this lineage and its like us today saying 'we go to church, we have great missionaries as our forefathers, we sing songs and give tithes.' It's like us saying 'we are great church goers' and John the baptist saying 'God can make great church goers from these stones.' He preached a message that they needed to hear. It wasn’t nice on the ears. He wasn’t soft to them. He preached it the way it needed to be preached. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
Now all of these people came to him. He didn’t go into the cities or in the streets. The people came to him. He was stating that the judgement of God is at hand. The axe is already laid to the root of the trees. They came to the wilderness and what they heard were that they were phonies! They were not bearing fruits in keeping with repentance. Trees that do not bear fruit ought to be cut down and thrown into the fire. They were fake! They were religious and professional and wore a face. They were fooling themselves. They were to be pitied. This isn’t the most popular preaching but this is the preaching that God has used many times throughout scripture to bring revivals. It doesn’t start with preaching to those out in the world. It starts with preaching to people, like you and me in here. He is talking to basically church people. People who were Israelites, they were part of the covenant. They were under the impression that they were in. But you know what John said - they weren’t really in. This is what God often times want us to realize. Getting us to wake up and realize that we are dead spiritually. To realize that we don’t have anything going on spiritually. We may be coming to church and all of its meetings as often as we can, we pray, we sing and we have no idea what we believe. This is not making any difference in our lives. I understand that people outside of the church need to hear about repentance but guess what, most of the times, if you go home and read, the prophets and the messengers of God share this message to people who really think they don’t need it - people like You and people like me. It is very possible that some of you here are not converted and you are going through the motions. Is it possible that John the baptist could come here and start a message - You brood of vipers, snakes, fakes, white washed tombs, ritualistic on the outside and dead men's bones in the inside. True preaching calls you to repentance. This was Jesus’s preaching as well, not just John’s. People can easily say - well John was a bit eccentric, Jesus really spoke the truth. You know what, Jesus said the same thing. To repent. It is to give up your own way and to follow God. You tell God 'I am not good enough and I should be following your word. You have every right to judge me and I should throw myself at your mercy. I should be pursuing you more than anything in my life - more than my TV, my work, my pleasures', whatever it is that is taking you away from God.
Belonging to God is the fruit of repentance and faith and that is why John baptized. Now the next point I want to bring out is that John was a big thing back then.
Now the third thing we notice from verse 5 onwards is that he is famous, we see that people were coming from all parts. People from all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem. There would have been all sorts of people there. It is people from the countryside, from the city. They are all coming to hear John and to be baptized. Josephus, the Jewish historian in the times of John and Jesus had written more about John the baptist than of Jesus in his records. This shows how popular John the Baptist was. He had a really significant following. You may know the story where in the gospel where they ask about Jesus and his authority and he traps them by saying I will answer your question if you answer my question and he asks them, 'john’s baptism was it from God or was it from man?' Now he really got them here because the leaders didn’t like John and they definitely didn’t think his baptism was from God. But if they said it was from man, they knew they would be stoned by the people around them. They knew that the people all around had held him in high esteem and regard. We also see later in the gospels that John was executed by Herod and Herod was the leader and king in the region and he knew and respected John but Herodias his brother's wife, who is now his wife had a grudge against John because John preached the truth and didn’t shy away from telling her that what they were doing was wrong.
Mark 6:20 -
“For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.”
But we know how the rest of the story goes, Herod and his wife were at a banquet held by Herod, Herod is pleased with Herodias, offers her anything and she asks for the head of John the Baptist. You see John the Baptist was famous. He was well known and respected by the people, he was respected by the powerful and hated by the elite. Today, he would be the most popular person. People would have his sermons switched on wherever they went. Talk shows would want him to come in. He would have been the talk of the town. He was famous.
But now we come to the fourth and last observation and the most important of all the observations we have made about John. He was a famous man. He was a messenger of God. He was a baptizer and finally, He was a NOBODY at least compared to the somebody who was coming.
John was a big deal in one aspect, but compared to the one to come, he was a complete nobody. We started off Mark, reading “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. But so far through Mark, it sounds like it's the beginning of the gospel of John the Baptist, the messenger of God. So where is Jesus? Well, he is coming. We read this in verse 7 -
“And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I..”
We might have heard this so many times that it just flies by us, but if you were there when he was talking, you would be like, 'Really? No, that can’t be true. That’s a gross exaggeration? Come on you are John the Baptist, the mighty preacher, The Elijah look a like, the famous baptizer, the one person in all of Judea that has all of this fame and popularity' and then John says 'you don’t even know the whole story.' He says, 'I am not even worthy to stoop down and untie the straps of His sandals.' It was a lowly job back in the day for someone to remove someone else’s sandals, usually something reserved for Gentile slaves.
John the baptist says 'I am not worthy at all. I am nothing compared to the one who is to come. I can not even get on my knees or stoop down and untie his sandals.' We can read in John 3, John the baptist states,
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
There is a story in John 1 and he is a big deal to the people asking him, 'who are you?' They were thinking this actually might be the Christ, not the messenger. This is the Messiah! We have got to ask him. 'Who are you?' and what is his response in John 1:19-27 -
“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
He did everything to say 'I am not the Christ.' He understood that his role was to be the best man for the groom. His duty was in service to the one who was to come. A word for preachers, sunday school teachers, musicians, singers, bible study leader, people involved in some sort of ministry - we are not the groom. We are not the Christ. You are not the point. You are but the pointer. We are all the pointers to Christ. If we do not get that, we are not going to be mature followers of Christ. We are not going to be happy followers. Jesus is far superior than anyone of us here. Jesus is far superior than John the Baptist. There are many reasons why, but John gives us one BIG one. John baptizes with water, Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit of God. What's the difference?
One is external, one is internal.
Water is a symbol of cleansing, the Spirit can truly make you clean.
Water touches your skin. The Spirit touches your heart.
Water was a sign of washing and forgiveness, whereas the Holy Spirit is a manifestation of God’s very own presence. The baptism by the Holy Spirit mentioned here is another way of talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the life that every christian has. So everyone who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit are followers of Christ. The point is presence - the presence of God. It is probably hard for us to understand this but back in the day in the garden of Eden, God was there. Then on the way to the promise land, God is there with the Israelites as a pillar of fire and pillar of cloud and then he gives them the tabernacle and there is the ark and God descends there and the same with the temple that is built later on. God descends and his presence is there. The biggest and largest blessing for the Israelites is when the glory fills the temple and the biggest and largest curse for the Israelites is when the glory of God leaves the temple because all of that is a symbol of “God is with us”. God dwells with us. Now John states that there is one coming and he can give you God’s presence. He will be right there with you.
Anyone can baptize with water, but only God can baptize with the Holy Spirit. John can only preach about spiritual renewal - repentance and belief but he says 'the one who comes after me is the one who gives the very Holy Spirit of God.' Tell me, who has the ability to give the Holy Spirit of God, but God himself? Only God can manifest God’s presence. It isn’t something you can manipulate. The philistines tried that. Bring the ark and lets bring God along. It didn’t work. It doesn’t work like that. There isn’t a pool filled with the Holy Spirit that someone can just be dunked into, to receive the Spirit of God. Only the Holy One of Israel can pour out the Holy Spirit. Do you see what John is trying to say about Jesus who is to come? Do you remember how in Malachi, in the beginning it stated that the messenger will prepare the way before me. The person being referenced here is God! God is coming and in Isaiah, it says a voice cries:
“A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”"
The expectation was that the new Elijah would not just provide the way for another prophet or another mediator but THE MEDIATOR. After the messenger, Yahweh would come himself. So imagine their surprise when they saw a Jew, Jesus of Nazareth. A man from the north. Do we hear anything about Nazareth, about a man? We are expecting the LORD and John says 'that’s right. This is what you have been waiting for, not the best man of the wedding but the Groom.' Not the pointer but the point, not the messenger but the message, not one who baptizes with water but with the Holy Spirit of God. Now that is the story that Mark has begun. The greatest story ever told. The best news to ever hear. More important than any breaking news. More important than the State of the Union address. This story has literally changed the world and this is the story that can change your life again and again. This is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Son of God.