I'm gonna read the first eight verses of Mark chapter one. Please listen to the holy infallible word of God. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written on 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 wowed 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 with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we are. So thankful for the gospel, and we ask, O Lord, that you would be with us this morning, that our hearts would be renewed in such a triumphant message of good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he has come indeed, and he lifts our hearts unto thee. We ask, O God, that thou would enable us to see Lord Jesus Christ more fully this day, in Christ's name, amen. Whenever we take up a serious study of God's Holy Word, we must be very careful of those who wish to undermine the Holy Spirit as the genuine and the final author of each book in the Bible. As we hold to the Spirit's authorship, this does not mean that we are going to lay aside the unique characteristics and personality which the Holy Spirit used to record each book that is absolutely infallible and included in his infallible word. As we proceed, the literary skills and personal nuances of Mark's personality will emerge as the Holy Spirit blends blends with the humanity of Mark to produce an incredible evangelistic message about the gospel of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, we who are serious about the Holy Spirit's authorship must be careful of subtle and explicit proposals that end up attacking the integrity of God's sacred word. There are many angles for those attacks. One of those angles is to find examples of pagan culture influencing the author of a given book of study. For example, how much does Mark incorporate into his gospel, Roman as well as Greek and Hellenistic culture? Is Mark's gospel just Christian mythology blended into Roman and Greek culture? This is the viewpoint of some liberal theologians. Or, Does Mark incorporate elements from Greek and Roman culture in order to present a relevant, a relevant gospel for his day? This is a position that you will find in a lot of literature that comes from evangelical theologians. And you can sort of see the language in terms of the evangelical movement today, right there, explicitly in this statement, that is, the idea that we must be relevant to the culture that is around us. Or does Mark incorporate elements from Roman and Greek culture only to usually turn it back upon them, emphasizing the unique nature of biblical revelation? This has been the history of biblically orthodox view of looking at the scriptures. I hope it will be evident as we begin our continuing look at Mark's gospel this morning, that it is crucial to employ this orthodox approach as we look at the text in its cultural setting. Well, As we are about to go forward into the prophecy of Isaiah there in chapter 1 verse 2 of your text, let me bring out one more point with respect to chapter 1 verse 1, that first verse in Mark, and my introduction. We do not know Excuse me, we do know from Roman literature at this time, going back to my introduction that I just gave you, that going back to 9 BC, that the phrase, the beginning there in verse 1, was used as an inscription for an important historical event. It is also interesting in Roman culture that the inscription, the beginning, referenced good news. That is, news that was joyful, and more specifically, and this is important to note, a joyful event that had already taken place. important to note, had already taken place. For example, the beginning of a festival celebration, good news of a victory of the Roman forces over against an opponent, the victory that had already taken place. Well, Mark employs, he employs at the very beginning of his gospel, this recognizable inscription that would catch the eye of a Roman reader. Indeed, it does in that sense. Mark brings, however, an entirely different understanding than the Roman use of that inscription. Mark brings an entirely different revelatory meaning to the inscription. The key here is not celebrating something that has happened, but something that is about or is going to happen. We are not celebrating or looking to the past, that's what the Roman culture would do. No, but we are looking to an event that is about to happen. We are not celebrating the past, but something in the future. And what is about to happen? What is about to happen? You are about to see, encounter the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as an entirely new event. in situation shaping the entire fabric of human history. As we stated in our last message, Mark is testifying there in chapter 1, verse 1, that in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the final eschatological age of the new creation has been inaugurated. You are entering. You are entering. the beginning of the consummating age of our covenant Lord's redemption of His church. Mark's gospel fortifies the new beginning. History is moving forward, forward as the celebration of the good news that is found in the person and work of Christ and the content of the gospel message. Meditate on that. Are you truly part? Ask yourself this morning, Are you truly part of the present historical flow of Christ's gospel? Is that in your life? Do you find yourself participating in the truth of the gospel, the good news each day? Do you realize that as a believer in Christ, your life is part of the continuing declaration of the person and work of Christ's good news in history? Oh, I sense. I sense the anxiety, your anxiety at this point. Mark is telling the church, he's telling the believer that we live in the period of history of Christ's good news, but we see the triumph of evil and sin all over the place in the present world. Well, I ask you, are you going to focus on the evil and the sin that is presently exposed in the world and your own relationship, your own relationship with the wicked conditions of the world. Is that your focus in your life? If you do, your life will be trapped, will be trapped as a spectator in Christ's church. And you will be always whining about the things going on in the culture, like you are a spectator to your own redemption. So how does the church, how do I move from being a spectator to a participant in this present era that Mark says has begun. That is the good news found solely in Christ's redemption. Well, for those of you who are presently studying the Epistle of James, I cannot help but to direct your attention, our attention, to what he writes at the very beginning of his epistle. What does he say at the very beginning of his epistle as you go into his whole book? In chapter 1, verses 2 and 3, he says, count it all joy. When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James' exhortation at the beginning of his epistle is exact. Is exact. application of living out of participating in the present era of good news instituted exclusively in Christ's redemption. We, Christ Church, are being encouraged that in spite of all the effects of the fall that is all around us, we address those remnants of the fall with the festive, are you listening? With the festive, celebratory, joy of gospel life, in Christ. Is that your life of union with Christ in terms of complete delight in your own heart? Now, with this being said, now we are in the position to understand Why there is no birth narrative of Jesus in Mark's Gospel as you move from chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 1 verse 2 and 3. has set the theme of his entire gospel as well as the opening section of his gospel in the first verse. The beginning of the evangelistic good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God has arrived, has begun. Remember, Mark's gospel is written after the death and resurrection of Christ, and thus the vehicle of making known the person and work of Christ is through the proclamation of the good news. So where does Mark, through the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, begin the concrete proclamation and voice of the good news. Well, it's not with the birth narrative. It's not with the birth narrative. Rather, it is with the voice of one who is crying in the wilderness. a voice proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is the voice that is preparing the entire world for the evangelistic good news that is found in Christ. This voice is grounded in the prophetic word of God of the past, namely under the heading of Isaiah the prophet. The festive celebration of the arrival of good news in the new covenant is rooted in the supernatural revelation of the old covenant. In distinct contrast now, remember my introduction this morning, in distinct contrast to Roman culture, events in Israel's past have a supernatural continuity to the future, to the future as God's people live in the present. Mark. The evangelist is in the position to tie the past and the future together in the present life of the reader, your life, even now as you read it, through the vehicle that the Lord uses to declare His revelation, through the voice of proclamation. Through the vehicle of what? Through the vehicle of preaching. Mark in verses two and three integrates three Old Testament passages to make his point. Exodus 23.20, Malachi 3.1, and Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3. There is a continuity from the time of the Exodus to the close of the Old Testament, Malachi, of the voice of the Lord settling upon a special messenger, preparing the actual arrival of the Lord upon the face of the earth. Like we saw, if you recall, like we saw in our messages on Malachi 3-4, that person is John the Baptist. John is the messenger, the voice who will prepare the way for the coming of Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, who is both Thee, good news and the content of the good news. The Christ is here. But as Mark mentions Isaiah, and not the authors of Exodus 23, 20 and Malachi 3, 1. It is Isaiah who has special importance here for Mark. Mark's quotation from Isaiah 40, verse 3, here in Mark 1.3 really drives the evangelistic theme home at this point in his narrative. The voice of the messenger, the preaching of the Word of God will be a voice crying out, shouting, calling in a barren, desolate, bleak wilderness. The wilderness captures the exact disposition and place of the life of the Old Testament church. the people of God who wait for the promised land, the land of their inheritance in which they are surely the inheritance of their God. The final voice of the Old Testament economy of a wilderness people will cry out, it will shout, it will call through preaching. a preaching, a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sin in preparation of the coming of the Lord. Yes, the Lord who is coming is mightier than the Baptist. He who comes will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Now let's really get this. The way of the mightier one, who is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is the way, the pathway, the roadway of the Lord's righteousness. See what's going on here in the quotation of the text. what we're picking up on. His path is not crooked. It is not hampered by sin. It is straight and immediate. It is a straight and immediate narrow path to the glorious presence of our triune God. Christ will enter into that wilderness journey of the Old Testament economy to be baptized, looking ahead, verses 9 through 11. And he will enter that wilderness journey to be tempted by Satan, looking ahead, verses 12 and 13, only to emerge from the wilderness into the mainstay of public life, Galilee, to proclaim, to preach the gospel, the good news of God, verse 14. You see the flow of what's going on here. So let me ask you once again, why no birth narrative in Mark? Are you getting the message of Mark's gospel to you, the church? As we mentioned about the continuity of the canon of Scripture last week, as we go from the end of Matthew and the Great Commission to take the Gospel to all the nations, Mark focuses upon the vehicle by which the Gospel goes to all the nations. It is by means of the proclamation, the preaching of the gospel, the good news of Christ's redeeming message and work on the cross and his resurrection into all the world, as Mark himself is now living in Italy or in Rome. Mark. gets right to the point. He takes his reader right to the true revelatory message of preparation for the good news under the Old Testament wilderness. In doing so, Mark makes his way to declare that the old way of life, that Old Testament economy, is over. It's over. Because the New Testament church is under, is under, you are under the voice of Christ. who is the identity and the content of the festival, joyful celebration of gospel evangelism. So where are you this morning in your Christian life? In your walk? In Christ, are you still stuck in the wilderness? Are you still stuck in the Old Testament wilderness? Or have you moved heart, soul, and mind Have you moved triumphantly into the age of good news? solely fixated with hearts in yourselves upon Jesus, the one who makes your path of life immediately, immediately straight by His righteousness, taking you right out of the barren wilderness into joyful communion and fellowship with your Jesus. Is that what you're confessing? Is that your heart this morning? Does the joy, does the joy of good news in Jesus overflow your heart? Does it? Don't deceive yourself. Mark's not deceiving you. In his words, come to you through the spirit of the living God. Let's pray. our Lord and our God, how we rejoice concerning the triumph of grace. We ask, O Lord, that our hearts would be overflowing with the good news, that our lives would be the evidence that we are in the period of time in history in which the good news is here in our Savior, in Jesus Christ. Help us, O Lord, to walk in the faithfulness of the content of his message, because he is the good news. In Christ's name, amen.