PONDERING... Are Your Preparing The Way For Jesus? (Mark 1:1-8)

Are Your Preparing The Way For Jesus? (AM Sermon Notes)

GIST: John prepared the way by proclaiming repentance and pointing to Jesus; we should do the same.

SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:1-8

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

   who will prepare your way,

3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

   ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

   make his paths straight,’”

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 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. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Last Sunday night, we began our study of the Gospel of Mark. I am equal parts excited and terrified every time I jump into a book-study like this. It’s exciting and daunting. However, like I said last Sunday night, I just want so desperately for us to see Jesus. By looking at a Gospel, which follows the ministry of Jesus here on earth, we’ll be doing just that. And, that’s basically what we talked about last time. We just looked at verse one. This is the gospel, the good news, of Jesus who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World, and is Himself God. It’s not strictly a biography, but a specific picture of this good news. Which we need to see.

We’re going to continue this morning with the next few verses. Immediately, we’ll notice Mark starts his account differently than Matthew and Luke. Instead of providing any background on Jesus’ birth, he starts straight with John the Baptist and then launches into Jesus’ ministry. This is most likely because he was writing for a Roman audience. They expected great men to have heralds of their coming. So Mark emphasizes this heralding in these first few verses (and what a heralding it is!)

Here’s our gist for today: John prepared the way by proclaiming repentance and pointing to Jesus; we should do the same. Let’s look at this heralding (which is actually kind of a hard word to say😀).

1. PROPHECY OF PREPARING (1-3)

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

   who will prepare your way,

3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

   ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

   make his paths straight,’”

Context: This didn’t just happen!  What we have here is actually two Old Testament quotes. One is from Malachi and the other from Isaiah. However, Mark is not misquoting Scripture when he just says “written in Isaiah”. This was a common practice. When referencing several prophetic writings, all of which were Scripture, only the name of the most recognizable or prominent prophet was typically given (or the last one quoted). That’s more of an aside, but in case you were curious when you looked at your footnotes, now you know😀 . The point here is really great. The entire Old Testament was pointing to Jesus’ coming. In fact, all of history has been funneling to moment. And now, it’s here. Jesus is coming. And His messenger is in the wilderness. The wilderness was a place the Israelites would have connected with both trials & meeting with God. When Moses took them out of Egypt, they traveled for 40 years in the wilderness where God met with them. When Elijah fled from Jezebel, he ran to the wilderness where God met with him. It’s been 400 years since the last words of the Old Testament were spoken, and here’s John the Baptist in the wilderness again preparing the way for Jesus.

2. PROCLAIMING REPENTANCE (4-6)

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

The Person: John the Baptizer. We get little snippets about John throughout the gospels, but Mark doesn’t give us any backstory here. He just jumps into John baptizing in the wilderness, and then gives us this description of his appearance and eating habits😀. There are two points to make here. First, his appearance and diet were reminiscent of Old Testament prophets. He’s dressed like an OT prophet (example 2 Kings 1:8), and eating what the prophet’s wilderness home provided. In fact, in Leviticus 11:22, locust are specifically mentioned as one of the permissible foods, so he’s just eating what is available to him in the desert--we don’t need to take this as a point of application😀. It is precisely these qualities though, that drew the crowds to him. Remember, it has been 400 years since God had spoken through a prophet like this. These people are still waiting for the Messiah, who they mistakenly think is going to lift the heavy hand of Rome. So we have this prophet in the wilderness speaking, and they want to listen. When they get there, they hear a message similar to all the Old Testament prophets: repent! But he’s also baptizing. That’s why he’s called John the Baptist, or baptizer; he wasn’t the founder of our denomination… Now, this would have been strange. Baptism like this wasn’t common. There are a few references to groups doing it around this time, but if they did it before John, it would have either been more of ceremonial cleansing or something done to Gentiles when they converted. John is calling these Israelites to repent and be baptized as a sign of that repentance. In the first place, this is how he is preparing the way for Jesus, by proclaiming repentance for forgiveness→ .

The Proclamation: Repentance for Forgiveness. People still needs to hear this! Let’s look at this proclamation for a second. He calls them to repentance. You want to be ready for the Messiah? Turn from your sin. He’s talking to an audience that would have thought doing all the right things was enough. If they could just obey the law perfectly, maybe they’d be fine. But it doesn’t work like that. I know I hit this same nail every week, but I need the reminder. We need to repent because we are sinners. This side of heaven, that will always be the case. It doesn’t matter how good you look on the outside, or how respected you are in the community--apart from Jesus your heart is corrupt and needs cleaned. Period. These people would never be ready for the Messiah until they came face-to-face with the depravity of their own natures--their sin--and turned to face Him. This isn’t really a turning back to God, because our nature is to go away from Him. This is facing Him for the first time, broken and amazed and not wanting to go back to where we were. We will never be ready for Jesus to change our lives until we come to that same point.

But I don’t want to skip the second part of this phrase, for forgiveness. This week I have felt convicted on this point. Sometimes I think I might emphasize repentance over forgiveness. This is probably because I don’t want to ever make forgiveness seem cheap, because it’s not. Forgiveness cost Jesus’ His life--He died to forgive you. But at the same time, He died to forgive you! I see so many people burdened under the weight and guilt of their sins. They’ve come face-to-face with their own depravity, but have stopped there. Oh, please don’t ever let this be the case. Are you a wretched and terrible sinner deserving of Hell? Of course you are! So am I. But is there forgiveness for that sin you won’t let go of? YES! Is there hope in this life? YES! You don’t have to be ashamed or carry that burden any more--BECAUSE JESUS DIED FOR YOU! That was the whole point. This message is so incredibly convicting, and so incredibly beautiful.

The Preaching: That’s the Next Point 😀  →

3. POINTING TO JESUS (7-8)

7 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. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The Preaching: Jesus Makes The Difference. I love this. He told them to repent and be forgiven, and then he made very clear who would do the forgiving. It wasn’t John. We see deep humility here. People were hearing this message and flooding to see him preach it, but he wasn’t the Messiah. He knew that, and made sure they did too. He says he’s not even worthy to perform the most menial of services for the One who is coming. We also see his priorities. Basically, he tells them: I’ll get you wet, but He’ll change your life. The Holy Spirit is of far greater importance than any outward sign of His work. John knew that he was just a messenger of Jesus--and these people needed Jesus, not the messenger. The same is true of our lives. We’re not the hope for the world. Jesus is. Proclaim Him--not self.

TAKEAWAYS

1. This wasn’t by chance. God’s plan to save us is eternal.
2. We need repentance, and we can be forgiven.
• Have you experienced this?
3. We should be preparing the way for Jesus, too.
• Are you talking about the need for life change (repentance) and the gift of forgiveness found only in Him?
• Are you pointing people to the ONE who is mightier than you? Don’t let them rely on you for salvation. Make very clear who does the forgiving and the saving.