Please open your Bible with me to the gospel according to Mark chapter one. I'll be reading this evening verses one through eight. Mark one, one through eight. Here now, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. Mark chapter one, verses one through eight. 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 path 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 grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God abides forever and ever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray your blessing upon the preaching of your holy word this evening. We pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit upon all that we consider this evening. I pray that you would Make your word go forth with divine power, encouraging, building up, exhorting, comforting the hearts of your people. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. The last time we looked at the Gospel of Mark, we looked at the first verse, just the first verse as an introduction of the gospel. the good news of, or the good news which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the good news about a person. And Mark makes no qualms about who that person is. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But right at the beginning of his gospel, he introduces us to another character. John, the one baptizing in the wilderness, is an important but often misunderstood figure. How do we understand his role? What is the significance of his message, his prophecy, and his ministry, and what can we, you and I, take away from that today? What Mark is doing still here in the beginning of his gospel, really through the first 15 verses in his prologue, is giving us a theological framework for the rest of his book. He's beginning to flesh out the answer for us even here in the prologue of a recurring question in the rest of the gospel, who is Jesus? Who is this person that is the gospel according to verse one? And he's pressing us to answer that question for ourselves. Who do you understand this person to be? What is the significance that he plays in your heart and your life? And what is your response to him? And John the Baptist, this forerunner of Jesus, is the first ever preacher of the good news and the implications of that good news and the claim that that good news makes upon your life and mine. This is really the gospel of Jesus Christ according to John the Baptist. I want to look at four different aspects of John the Baptist's message from this text. The first thing is this. This was a long anticipated message. As soon as Mark introduces his book, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, he takes the reader immediately back into the Old Testament. Verses two and three are a combination of probably three different Old Testament texts put together, which form the beginning of Mark's testimony of the good news about Jesus Christ. The beginning of the gospel literally, just as it has been written in Isaiah the prophet. That's how he begins. Right off the bat, Mark takes the gospel back to its Old Testament foundations and roots. And then he proceeds to quote a combination of Malachi 3.1, a snippet of Exodus 23.20, and then Isaiah 40.3. It is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, whose way is being prepared here at the beginning of Mark's gospel, and his way, the way of Jehovah, will be prepared by a messenger divinely authorized and fulfilling divinely ordained purposes. In Malachi chapter three, the beginning here, who will prepare your way, that's quoted in verse two, God is the speaker. I'm sending a messenger who will prepare my way The messenger is going to prepare the way for someone, and that someone, says the Lord, is me. I am coming, and someone is going to prepare the way before me. And then Mark elaborates further in verse three by quoting Isaiah chapter 40, verse three, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Here is the divinely sent, divinely authorized herald that will prepare the way for the Lord God Almighty to visit his people. And by arranging, even the way Mark arranges these Old Testament quotes in this way, he changes really the before my way to prepare the way before your way in verse 2. You have the idea beginning even here at the outset of Mark's gospel, the idea beginning to come into focus that this person is God who is coming and yet distinct from and alongside God. as well. John would put it like this, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So right at the outset, Mark is making it clear that this Jesus Christ, the son of God, is the fulfillment of Old Testament promises and the expectation that God himself would visit his people. By rooting the beginning of the gospel in these Old Testament prophecies and by the way he, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, artfully puts these Old Testament quotations together, the reader cannot escape from the conclusion that Jesus, the one who is coming, who will be revealed in verse nine, is God Almighty visiting his people. We need to note here the way that Mark attributes this in verse two, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, and then he goes on to quote Malachi and Exodus and Isaiah all together. Sometimes that's been used to accuse this of not being, of this being an inaccuracy. It's something that the New Testament writers did. It's something that ancient writers often did. They would combine quotes together and attribute them all under the same umbrella. What Mark is doing here is he wants us to understand The Malachi quote, in light of the Isaiah quote. These texts, the product of different Old Testament writers, centuries apart, but one divine author, we must denote. They shed light on one another, and they all together shed light on the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the coming one. The unfolding plan of salvation and in turn the coming of Jesus Christ and this unfolding plan of salvation shed light on those Old Testament texts and make it such that this is the only way we can properly understand our Old Testament. It's only when Malachi 3 One who will prepare my way is understood in light of Isaiah 40, that the significance of what Isaiah is predicting is made clear. Here is the voice in the wilderness. Here is the herald preparing the way. Here is the messenger sent from God himself, and he is preceding the coming of God himself. Not only is God coming, he's coming, says John, right now. And he's coming in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the long anticipated one, the one in whom all of the various untied strands of the Old Testament will now come together. As the prophecy of Malachi ends at the end of our Old Testament, 400 years prior to the coming of Jesus, you could almost insert the words on that blank white page in your Bible to be continued. David Garland writes this, long before the promise-filled preaching of John the baptizer, there was the promise-filled preaching of Isaiah, which shows that God had planned things out long before John appeared on the scene and was the one who initiated the action. The prophet's hope was not a pipe dream. Their prophecy still rings forth. and it will be fulfilled by God. John did not appear out of the blue. Jesus Christ did not appear out of the blue. This was the blueprint from the very beginning. The gospel is not the start of a new program. It is the beginning of the fulfillment of an old, old program. In fact, all of the Old Testament promises and plans and hopes and expectations. The plans have never changed. Jesus is the one to whom all of the Old Testament has been pointing toward and anxiously waiting for, is the one that Eve waited for, the one that Hannah hoped for, the one that was promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and to Judah, the one that God's people sang of as they lifted their voices in the Psalms, the one to whom all the bloody sacrifices of Moses pointed toward. And John is the messenger promised hundreds of years prior. God having been silent now for centuries, and now John comes on the scene. Look at verse four, John appeared. The voice crying in the wilderness, John appears. God is showing without question his sovereign plan and rule over all history to accomplish the great plan of redemption for his people. Here now, finally, is the sovereign, omnipotent covenant keeping God at work. Silent no more. This is meant to bolster the faith of God's people. He never forgot. You see in this long-anticipated message, the beauty, the majesty, and the sovereignty of God's mighty plan of salvation. The fullness of time has now come. God has sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those that were under the law, that we might be adopted as sons for you and for me. This was a long-anticipated message. Secondly, this was a preparatory message. Not only was it long-anticipated, It was a message of preparation that John preached. Here is this strange figure in the wilderness appearing. Here's the herald preparing the way. And Mark really has no interest in John apart from his connection to and his preparation for the coming one, the Lord Jesus. This is the messenger preparing the way because God is coming. What is the significance, though, of that language of preparing the way? From Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3, there's the talk of leveling the ground, rough places being made plain. This is imagery that was meant to call to mind the arrival of ancient kings on their chariots. Ancient roads could be pretty rough. and chariots did not have adequate shock absorbers. There's a spot on Coley Boyd Road when I turn toward our home, and they keep filling these nasty, jagged potholes with blacktop that eventually, in no time at all, wears away, and it will rattle your spine when you ride over these things. Ancient roads were much, much worse. And so when kings would make their royal entrances into another location for royal travel, they would very often send men ahead to repair the roadway that it might not be rough. They would prepare the way for the coming king, or for a particularly great or special king. They would even send men early ahead of time to build a brand new highway never before traveled. for the great king is coming our way. Perfectly smooth because no one has yet traveled on it and a great king is going to come. We need to prepare his way. Mark is telling us that the exact same thing is happening here, but on a much grander, in fact, a divine scale. Martin Lloyd Jones says it like this, someone is about to take a journey who has never taken that journey before. Moreover, it is a type of journey that has never been taken before. It is no less than this, that God, the eternal God, is sending his only begotten son out of heaven and down to this earth, into this world of time. That is the journey, and that is the person who is coming. This is the most staggering, the most momentous event that the world has ever known and will ever know. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and John is a herald preparing the way for the coming king. Mark's Old Testament quotes repeat the idea of this way of the Lord. In fact, in verses two and three, you have the word way or path used three times in those two verses. James Edwards explains it like this. From its outset, the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark directs its hearers not to metaphysics or mystics, not to ethical rules and systems, but to something practical and transforming, a way of salvation. This is going to come into focus in the second half of Mark's gospel much more clearly as he will repeatedly begin to use the phrase, on the way, to describe the Lord Jesus as he is headed, determinately headed to Jerusalem, to the cross. The way of God in the gospel of Mark is ultimately Jesus' heading to the bloody cross of Calvary. The path of the Lord in Mark's gospel is the path of the Son of God as he looks toward Jerusalem and heads toward the death of the cross, the one who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. There's atonement in mind when Mark uses this language of the way. The Eternal Son is going to atone for sins. That flips the ancient expectations of a coming king completely on their head. How is John preparing for this? How is this a preparatory message? It says he is proclaiming a baptism in verse 4 of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The primary thrust in Mark's gospel in particular, Luke tells us more about it, the primary thrust of John's message is a message of repentance. Israel, God is coming and you have a big problem. He was the prophet-like preacher, writes Larry Hurtado, calling Israel to repentance and to preparation for the coming day of God's manifestation of salvation and judgment. The nature of John's baptism, this is something that has been misunderstood by some in various ways. Some have tried to understand it like a particular Jewish sect that was discovered in a place called Qumran, which is where we found the Dead Sea Scrolls. They had these daily ritual washings every day to wash away their religious impurities. We know that that can't be what John was doing because he was administering this only once to those who received it. Some have, Thought this was what was known as proselyte or conversion baptism, where Gentiles would come and be washed in sort of a ceremony to become part of the Jewish people. But John was baptizing Jewish people. It was clearly not what he was doing here. This was something radically new. John's baptism was wholly unique. He was preparing the people for the coming one. The Lord Jesus calling them to repentance and administering a symbol of cleansing. It also sort of typified and signified the future cleansing that was going to come as a result of the work of the one whose way he was preparing. The result of the work of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was going to mean cleansing for God's people who turned in faith and repentance. And it's important, in fact, it's crucial to remember that there is no proper understanding of the Old Testament concept of forgiveness apart from the concept of an atonement for sin. Atonement was the key to any proper understanding of an Old Testament believer's concept of having their sins forgiven. So John, is calling people to repent of their sins unto the forgiveness of those sins in light of the one whose way he is ushering in. James Edwards says this, John's baptism was symbolic and provisional of a more permanent and powerful reality to come. Think about the way John's gospel tells us what John the Baptist referred to Jesus as he sees him coming in the distance. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away sin of the world. He's proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It's a preparatory message and baptism to be sure, but the reality is there will be cleansing, there will be forgiveness to come, there will be new life. John is announcing the arrival of the reality of the new age. Forgiveness of sins is real because of the work of the one who is coming right after me. God is coming. And the best news is forgiveness of sins is coming. Because otherwise, God showing up is bad news. Those who repent and turn to him, though, hear the best news. Forgiveness of sins is a reality. John is the forerunner of the person who is the good news of the forgiveness of sins. Can there be such a thing that my sins can truly be washed away and not simply discarded or swept under some rug? God can never do that. And gloriously, yes, the scriptures come back and affirm that there is true forgiveness of sins, but it is through the person and the work of this one who is coming. John, also baptizing in the wilderness on the very border of the land of promise, calling people to come away from those bare, empty, external practices that you have been partaking in. Come away from that empty trust in a bare performance of a ritual exercise. Come to the wilderness and prepare for the one who is coming after me, the one whom all those exercises were meant to be pointing toward. And in the wilderness here, when we quote Isaiah in verse three, the one crying in the wilderness, that's not an insignificant concept in the mind of an Old Testament Jewish person. Arte France says this, for the wilderness was a place of hope, of new beginnings. It was in the wilderness that Yahweh had met with Israel and made them into his people when they came out of Egypt. And later in the prophets, we will read of the similar idea where God will meet with his people in the wilderness. He speaks in Isaiah, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness. and speak tenderly to her. Calling the people to the wilderness is symbolic of fulfillment, of hope. The wilderness is where we're going to see the unfolding drama of this new beginning of the final fulfillment of the eternal plan of salvation in the wilderness. You and I, in 2018, we have been born, we were born in exile, born in depravity, as we heard expounded this morning so thoroughly. We were born in bondage. We were born in darkness. But God has, from before the foundation of the world, formulated a plan to bring us home. to rescue us from bondage, to bring us out of darkness, to save us from our sins, and to do away with them forever. And that plan that was formulated from before the foundation of the world to bring us home and to free us was Him coming Himself to deal with it. The only meaning, the only hope any human being could ever have in their life is in relation to this one, that John was preparing for. Jesus said in John 17, this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. If you want to know him, if you want to be delivered by him, if you want to be saved by him, then you have to turn from your own performance, your own righteousness, your own works, your own sins, and flee unto him in repentance and faith. Your background, your church attendance, your family connections, your religious performance will not save you. Only Jesus will save you. The glorious truth is this, that Jesus assures us, all that the Father gives to me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Take comfort in knowing that if you have come to him, If you have bowed the knee in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus, then this mighty Savior has you in his grip and he will never let you go. The third thing I want you to see from this message of John is that it's an urgent message. There's an urgent nature to this message. And one of the most shocking features of John's baptism in this preparatory sort of role is that he's calling the visible covenant people of God to repentance. Look at who's coming out to him. All the country of Judea, verse five, and all of Jerusalem were going out to him, were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. All of who? These are God's people. He's calling the covenant people to come out and confess their sins. Why? Because they're covenant breakers. Part of this preparatory role is John is calling apostate Israel, the covenant-breaking nation, to come out and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins in light of the one who is coming. John is unexpectedly, for Jews in that day, see, they thought the wrath of God was coming on their enemies. And he is turning that. The wrath of God is coming against you. It's a shocking thing. for an Old Testament Jew to have heard. God's wrath is coming at you, unrepentant covenant people, and it's coming immediately. John is an interesting figure for many ways. Mark gives a very detailed description. This is something unique to Mark. He's very brief in all of his things, but here he spends a good deal of space describing what John looked like, what he was wearing. He's got this sort of rustic, if you will, dress and diet, James Edwards writes this, this set him apart from the refined temple cult in Jerusalem and further identifies him with the desert region of the wilderness. Furthermore, this description is intended by Mark to be blatantly obvious to the readers of his gospel. It's like if you had someone dress up with a musket and a coonskin hat, we would all know who he was supposed to be. Daniel Boone. Or someone put on a stovepipe hat and a chinstrap beard. Abe Lincoln. These are recognizable figures. Well, John is dressed like a very recognizable Old Testament figure. This is Elijah's costume. John is dressed up in Elijah gear. And John's attire was a clue to all the crowds coming out to him in the wilderness, that the long-awaited Elijah figure has come. See there's been 400 years of God's silence. There have been no more prophets since the end of Malachi. Total silence. And yet Malachi chapter 4 ends ushering in that total silence. But it ends by predicting the coming of an Elijah figure. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Elijah was coming again, and Elijah was going to immediately precede the imminent coming day of the Lord. And John's message was just like Elijah. Elijah was a bit of a confrontational guy as well. He shows up completely out of the blue in 1st Kings 17, confronting Israel's kings and her people, calling on them to repent. And John is no different. He's a prophet just like Elijah. Sinclair Ferguson says this, the people had broken covenant with God. They were under his judgment and only by turning away from their sins and turning back to the Lord and his ways would they be ready when the long promised Messiah came. The tipping point of all of human history was right around the corner, says John. What is the only adequate response? Immediate repentance, turning to the Lord. There's an urgency here. There's a demand in the message of John. The coming of Christ demanded a response. Consider who this person was who was coming in salvation and judgment. There is a response demanded and that coming of Jesus demands a response from me and from you no less today than it did in John's day in the wilderness. Flee from the wrath to come. What was Jesus's first recorded words in this very Gospel of Mark? Look at verse 15. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe. in the gospel. The fact that Christ has come, the fact that you have heard of his coming, the fact that you know that he's coming again, this puts an urgent demand before you and before me. Will you bow the knee to King Jesus? The King before whose way John was preparing so long ago, who has come and brought real forgiveness. Will you bow the knee to him? He can bring you forgiveness. the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus forgiveness receives. This king calls on you to repent. He calls on me to repent, and he puts a claim on my entire life. And for the believer, he's brought you forgiveness. You know the calm of sins forgiven. Repentance is not a one-time affair, however. This is to be the marked quality of our lives. We are to live lives marked by repentance. This is a flavor, an aroma of our lives. Those who are constantly confessing and repenting and believing, presenting ourselves in the words of Paul as a living sacrifice. Lives marked by mourning over my own sins. Turning to the one who offers me forgiveness and cleansing. If you're an unbeliever, if you have not bowed the knee in repentance and faith in Jesus and this Jesus that John was preparing everyone for, this is the only thing in all of the world that actually matters. God has come to us in his son. And the one who came will either be your Lord or he will be your judge. The final thing in John's message that I want to note is that it is a transforming message. It was a long-anticipated message. It was a preparatory message. It was an urgent message, and it is a transforming message. Listen to how John speaks of Jesus in verse 7. After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. He's consumed by the glory and the honor of this mighty one coming after him. This anticipates Jesus in chapter three of Mark's gospel as he talks about being the stronger one who can bind the strong man and plunder his house, Satan himself. How does the Westminster Shorter Catechism describe Jesus as his office as a king? He subdues us to himself, he rules and defends us, and he restrains and conquers all of his and our enemies. John makes a comparison statement here to emphasize the glory of this one who is coming after him. He's so powerful, so mighty. How powerful is he? He's so great that I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his shoes. This is describing, really, in ancient imagery, the most menial, degrading task. in the ancient world for a servant. In fact, Jewish servants were exempt from having to do this. This was for outsider servants to do, is to take the shoes off of someone and take care of their nasty feet. And John says, this most menial, most degrading task, I'm not even worthy of doing. This is an all-consuming message for John, the baptizer. Humility and subordination are the order of the day when it comes to John's outlook of who this Jesus coming one is. What was John the Baptist all about? If you ask him in John chapter three, he would say, no, he must increase. I must decrease. All glory and honor belongs unto him. The greatness of John is really found in his unparalleled humility. Is it possible that we sometimes allow our own spiritual growth and maturity to become a subtle source of pride? That we see evidence of God's grace working in our lives, we find ourselves prone to wearing that growth like a badge of honor. We ought to look to John in this profound humility. and devotion to the mighty one for whom you and I are not even worthy to be his slaves. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to me? Who is Jesus to you? Is he simply my last resort in trouble? Is he simply my moral guide? Is he your coach or that dreadful bumper sticker, your co-pilot? Or is he the Lord of glory? The one who stooped and condescended to a level that we cannot even comprehend in order to rescue you from what you rightfully deserved. The one to whom all glory, laud, and honor belong. The one to whom you and I owe our allegiance and devotion and love and obedience. John was consumed with Christ. It's often said that someone is so heavenly minded, they're of no earthly good. John would correct that. The most heavenly-minded people are the most earthly good. Pointing people to the glories of Christ and the blessedness of eternal life with him, consumed with his greatness, Christ is the answer to the doom of humanity. John would have everyone know it. This is a statement here at the end of the passage of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John is contrasting, again, his own baptism. It was with water. It was symbolic. It was preparatory. But this is going to be a whole other thing. He is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This changes everything, John says, for the coming church. This changes everything for you, believer. There's a distinct claim to the deity and the divinity of Jesus as well. There's an abundance of Old Testament references that God is the one who will dispense and pour out His Holy Spirit. The blessings of the new covenant age, when the Spirit would be poured out on the church, will be fulfilled, of course, on the day of Pentecost. But the new age is dawning, says John. And this is the age in which we live. The church goes forth under the power of the Holy Spirit, Almighty God Himself. And the Christian is one in whom the same power that raised Jesus from the grave dwells within us. That's an astounding thing to say, and I would be afraid to say it if the Bible didn't say it. If you're a Christian, you are a spirit person. You're a Holy Spirit person. We cannot understand even John's call and anyone's call to repent and obey apart from the person and the work of Jesus and what he would do by pouring his spirit out on the church. How can you and I call anyone to repent? We can only do so on the basis of the one who came after John, the mighty one, mighty to save, the one who would send forth his spirit in fullness and power to build his church such that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. the person and the work of Jesus Christ. There's hope for change for me and for you because of the one for whom John was blazing this trail, because of what Jesus would accomplish. We don't have to wallow in our brokenness. We can repent and turn to the strong one. and have hope for real restoration, real change, real growth, and grace, and love, and trust, and obedience. Are our religious efforts connected to this person whom John was preparing for, or are they merely external behaviors? Are we being good just to be good because that's what we do? Is the aroma of our homes one of merely conservative ethics and morality and religious conformity? Or is the aroma of our home one of Christ and His glorious gospel promises to rescue and redeem sinners and change us? See, Mark, who writes this, was a failed disciple. In Acts, we can read about how he abandoned Paul on one of his missionary journeys. And it was such that when Barnabas later wanted to bring Mark back with them, Paul said, no way. You left me last time. I'm not dealing with it. Mark was a failure. And Barnabas showed mercy to him. And of course he was restored by God's grace. And here he is now proclaiming to us the glorious, powerful gospel of grace that changes failed and struggling believers, changes sinners, And he writes as a pastor now to a church who is going through a crucible of persecution, and he's shown us our great hope, the coming person of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? It is the covenant-keeping God visiting his people in order to keep his own covenant with them. How is the struggling Christian going to make it? How is the church going to make it? Because of the strong one. I love the ending of The chapter in Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian and hopeful show up in the delectable mountains, and there are the shepherd pastors there, and they show them, among many things, all of the dangers that beset them. And Christian says, we need to cry out to the strong one for strength. That's what Mark shows us of John the Baptist's message as well. We need to cry out to the strong one for strength. May God help us to look to the strong one for strength. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for the vivid picture of the gospel even in the very early stages of Mark's book. Thank you for revealing your word to us by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit through your servants of old. Help us to live in light of the truths of your gospel even as we go out into your week. Be with us now as we finish our worship together. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.