The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. Mark opens his gospel with the words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And as we noted two weeks ago when we started our study of Mark, this is the Spirit-inspired title of the book. The good news about Jesus is the subject. It is the theme of all that follows. Everything contained in this book is about Him. And so it's a little surprising to read the next passage and find that Mark begins this story not with Jesus, but with a man he identifies only by the name of John. But this makes sense when you come to realize who John was. Notably, Jesus said of John elsewhere, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater. And we could cite several reasons why John was great. For one, he was great because he lived an uncompromising life in a world of wickedness and hypocrisy. He preached fearlessly and faithfully despite opposition that would eventually imprison him and cost him his life. Another reason he was great was because of his unmatched humility. Through his ministry, he reached the multitudes and he attracted a following Yet he humbly accepted that his life existed only to magnify the One who would come after him. But the main reason Jesus called him great was because of his unique calling. No one has ever had a ministry like his. John's ministry was the hinge of the history of salvation. He was the last of the prophets under the Old Covenant and the first to see the One who would mediate the New Covenant. His significance spans both Testaments. He was prophesied about in the Old Testament, but his story is told in the New Testament. He was the forerunner of Christ. His ministry grew in popularity only to fade into obscurity when Jesus' ministry began. And so it's fitting that Mark begins the story of Jesus with the story of John. Let's begin reading in verse 1, though our study will focus on the verses that follow. 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 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. This passage focuses on the man that we know as John the Baptist. That's not the name that Mark uses very often. He's only called John the Baptist twice in this Gospel. But it's an appropriate name and one that Jesus also calls Him in the other Gospels. But John did far more than baptize people. He was the messenger of the Lord. And I don't mean that he was merely a spokesman for the Lord or even a prophet, though he was both. I mean he was a man who was appointed by God for a special role in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. So he's an important person in Scripture that we need to know. And in this passage, we learn of the unique calling of John as the messenger of the Lord. I want to show you three aspects of John's unique calling. Three aspects of John's unique calling. First, I want you to see the mission of John. The mission of John is given in verses 2 and 3. 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. Now that phrase that begins verse 2, as it is written, is often used in the New Testament to introduce references in the Old Testament. And that's how Mark uses it here. He references two prophecies in the Old Testament in order to introduce John the Baptist as the messenger of the Lord. Verse 2 comes from Malachi. Verse 3 comes from Isaiah. Mark has joined these prophecies together in order to show us that they were fulfilled by the ministry of John the Baptist. Now you may wonder why Mark introduces these prophecies with the words, it is written in Isaiah, the prophet, when he quotes from both Isaiah and Malachi. Why doesn't he mention Malachi too? It can't be that Mark made a mistake, as some liberal scholars allege. After all, he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is no mistake. This is intentional. Why did he do it? Well, he was following the conventions of his day. This was a common practice among Jewish teachers, especially when the texts were well known to Jews. They could combine passages without the need to cite each one. There's also likely another reason Mark specifically cited Isaiah. As Mark expounds these prophecies and ties them to John the Baptist, it becomes clear that Isaiah's prophecy is more of the focus, while Mount Kai's prophecy is more of the context. And so Isaiah is cited because his prophecy is more prominent for purposes of this story about John the Baptist. Regardless, the passages are related. And Mark wants us to see the connection. The prophecy in v. 2 promises that God would send a messenger. The prophecy in v. 3 indicates what His message would be. So you have the messenger in v. 2 and the message in v. 3. And both of these prophecies are rich in meaning, and we could spend the rest of our time mining their depths, but let's look only briefly at each of them in turn. The reference in verse 2 comes from Malachi 3.1, but it's not an exact quote. Instead, it's what some have called an interpretive reference. The difference between Malachi's original prophecy and Mark's reference is important. Mark reveals the full meaning of the prophecy now that it has been fulfilled. And I want you to see this for yourself. So hold your place in Mark and turn over to Malachi 3, verse 1, to see it for yourself. It's an easy book to find. Just two books to the left. The last book of the Old Testament. Malachi 3, verse 1. in this original passage. The Lord says that He is coming and announces that He will send a messenger to prepare the way before Him. He says, behold, I send My messenger and He will prepare the way before Me. Now note those words. Before Me. God says the messenger will be sent to prepare God's way. He says the messenger will go before Me in order to announce My coming. Now in those days, traveling kings would send out messengers before them announcing their coming and the messengers would call the people of the land to make preparations. And so here in Malachi, the Lord portrays Himself as a king who will send such a messenger before the Lord's coming. But look at how Mark, go back to Mark, look at how Mark interprets that prophecy now that it's been fulfilled. Again, Mark 1, verse 2. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. Now the picture remains the same. God promised to send a messenger to prepare the way before the king's arrival. But here, who is the king whose way is prepared? Notice Mark writes, who will prepare your way? Who's you? Who does that refer to? You'd think he'd quote Malachi exactly and write, who will prepare my way? But he doesn't do that. Why not? Well, the answer is that when Mark wrote this, he knew the prophecy had been fulfilled. The Lord as King did come, but in a way the Jews didn't anticipate. It wasn't God the Father who came, but God the Son. The King who came in fulfillment of this prophecy is Jesus. Jesus came. So Mark references this prophecy as he does, knowing full well that he's not quoting it exactly in order to interpret it for us. It's subtle, but it's powerful. Perhaps to clarify the meaning of this verse for you, let me substitute names for all the pronouns. Verse 2 would then read, Behold, I, God the Father, send my messenger, John the Baptist, before your face, Jesus. John the Baptist will prepare your way, Jesus." This is God the Father speaking to His Son about what would occur. In other words, God is announcing to King Jesus that He will send before Him John the Baptist as the messenger. Now, the only way that Mark can interpret this prophecy in this way is if Jesus really is God. If Jesus isn't God, then Mark has written blasphemy. Because he's attributed a prophecy about God to someone who isn't. But if Jesus is God. And what Mark has written is astonishing. Because it means that the verse in Malachi was even then. A prophecy that Jesus. Who is God? The God-Man would come. A prophecy written hundreds of years before He actually did come. Now in verse 3, Mark combines the two prophecies so that we read them in concert together. According to this verse, John the Baptist would be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. This prophecy comes from Isaiah 40 verse 3, which was originally given to the Jews in Babylonian exile in order to comfort them. God promised that He would bless them in the future because they were His covenant people, and therefore they should prepare the way of the Lord's arrival. Now certainly this meant that they should repent of their sins and trust in the Lord. That's why they were exiled in the first place. Because of their faithlessness and disobedience, they were led into exile into the Babylonian Empire. But unfortunately, 700 years later, many of the Jews were still walking in disobedience and failing to trust God. And so John came with this same message. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. All the Gospels quote this prophecy in reference to John's ministry. His mission was to herald the coming of the Lord. Even John himself understood that this prophecy was written about him. He's quoted in John 1.23 saying, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said. Now what does this mean? Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight His paths. Once again, in those days, before kings came to a land, the roads were inspected and prepared in order to give the king a level, straight path to travel. Whatever hindrances were in the way, the people had a duty to remove before he arrived. Likewise, in a spiritual sense, the people of Israel needed to prepare themselves for the arrival of their king. So God appointed John in this unique role as the last of the prophets heralding the arrival of Christ. All this shows us that John's mission was to prepare the people of Israel. Now that leads us, secondly, to the ministry of John. from the mission of John to the ministry of John. And we find his ministry in v. 4. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is what John came to do. The mission that he was given, he fulfilled through his ministry. And Mark emphasizes this by connecting his mission and his ministry in one sentence. The sentence begins in v. 2, as it is written, and continues in v. 4, John appeared. It's one sentence. It's one idea. As it is written, John appeared. That's the flow of thought. Just as the prophecies foretold, John came to prepare the people through his ministry. Mark introduces John rather abruptly. It can barely be called an introduction. John appeared. Mark gives no attention to how John was born, or who he was related to, or what he was doing beforehand. Just John appeared. For Mark's purpose, that's all you need to know. John came on the scene just as it was written that he would. He came at the God-appointed time to fulfill his mission. Now how would John do that? How would he fulfill his mission? How would he prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Again, the answer is given in the verse. He appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The way He fulfilled His mission was through the ministry of preaching and baptism. John went out preaching. He preached that all must repent of their sins in preparation for Christ's coming. Repentance means to turn away from sin and toward God. It's a change of the mind and the heart and the will. To be sure, genuine repentance is a work of God in a person, but it comes in response to the Word of God. John preached as a prophet of God, and his preaching exposed sin in the hearts of his hearers, and he called on them to forsake their sin and trust in God. Those who truly repent of their sins receive forgiveness of their sins. To be forgiven is to be released from the penalty of sin. The penalty of death. The penalty of eternal judgment. Sin can only be forgiven if there's repentance in a person's heart. So John cried out, Matthew 3, verse 2, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The people who heard John's preaching and repented of their sins were baptized by him. This was a public demonstration of their repentance. The basic meaning of the word baptize is to immerse. They were immersed in water to symbolize inward spiritual cleansing and the washing away of sins. Now, there is no command in the Old Testament law to be baptized. There are commands for ritual hand and foot washings. But Jews weren't required to be baptized in order to obey God's law. But when a non-Jew wanted to become a worshiper of the God of Israel, one of the steps in those days they put them through was a baptism. And it symbolized that they were dead to their own old way of life and that they had risen to a new life with God. For unrepentant Jews, it would have been intolerable and unimaginable to be baptized by John in the same manner as a non-Jew was baptized when they converted to Judaism. As one commentator writes, most Jewish people thought that if they were born into a Jewish family and did not reject God's law, they'd be saved, they'd be delivered. John told them instead that they had to come to God the same way that non-Jews did. So the fact that any Jew at all was being baptized by John indicates that they were truly repentant of their sins. An unrepentant Jew would never do this. They would never want to be associated with the Gentiles, the non-Jews, the nations. Now you would think that no one would come to John regardless since he preached, according to Mark, in the wilderness. Now it sounds like a nice forested area, but the word actually refers to a desolate, isolated area. Likely, John ministered in a remote, rugged area where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea. Matthew calls it the wilderness of Judea. That area wasn't forested. It was a desert. One commentator calls it a broken, rugged, barren, treeless, arid, and forbidding region. Yet despite this, people came from far and wide to hear John's preaching and be baptized by him. According to verse 5, 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. Masses of Jews and probably quite a number of non-Jews throughout Judea and even Jerusalem came out to John in the wilderness. It was at least a full day's journey from Jerusalem to the place where John was likely baptizing. It was a long way through difficult terrain. But they came. They came, they heard His message, they responded by confessing their sins, and they demonstrated their repentance through baptism one after another. The masses came. It was as if revival had spread across the land of Israel. There was a sense among faithful Jews that God was speaking again. After 400 years of silence, a prophet had arisen. His ministry was to proclaim the necessity of repentance in preparation of the coming of the Lord, and the crowds responded to him." And that leads us finally to the message of John. The mission, the ministry, and now the message of John. Mark describes John in verse 6. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. Jesus is never described by His garments and by His eating habits like this anywhere in the Gospels. Probably because He dressed normal, And so that Mark is describing the dress of John indicates that this wasn't the ordinary way that Jews dressed and the ordinary diet that they consumed. John didn't just minister in the desert. He lived there, as demonstrated by what he wore and what he ate. Garments of camel's hair and a leather belt were durable articles of clothing suitable for harsh climates such as that. Locusts and wild honey could be found in these areas and would be part of the diet of a desert dweller. But Mark doesn't provide these details to disparage John, but to distinguish him. As one person has said, everything about John told people that he was a prophet. His appearance resembled Elijah, the prophet of old. It can't be accidental that Mark describes him exactly as Elijah is described in 2 Kings 1 verse 8. Elijah wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist. And the resemblance between John and Elijah didn't end with their choice of clothing. Both of them warned Israel of their disobedience and called upon the people to turn away from their sins and embrace God. The similarities between John and Elijah were strikingly alike, leading the priests and Levites to question whether John was Elijah. These leaders knew the prophecy of Malachi 4, verses 5 and 6. Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. So Elijah is to come. But John insisted he wasn't Elijah. When he was asked by the Jewish leaders in John 1, verse 21, are you Elijah? He answered, I am not. But John was Elijah-like. In Luke 1, verses 16-17, The angel told John's father. He will turn many of the children of Israel, speaking about John the Baptist, he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the people, for the Lord, a people prepared. Now that's a direct reference to the prophecies in Malachi 3 and 4 that we've just read. And these were the words spoken to John the Baptist's father soon after John was conceived. So John wasn't Elijah, but he came in the spirit and power of Elijah. That is, he was sent from God with a similar kind of ministry. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 11, 14, if you're willing to accept it, John the Baptist is Elijah who is to come. You might remember that the disciples asked Jesus about this after Jesus was transfigured on the mountain and Moses and Elijah appeared with Him on that mountain. They asked in Mark 9, verse 11, why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come? And Jesus said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased. Elijah will come. But the one who came in the power and spirit of Elijah was rejected and killed. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but he was rejected by the Jews and he was killed by Herod. Therefore, another in the spirit and power of Elijah will come before Christ's second coming." Likely one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11. So John's ministry was in the same mold as one of the greatest prophets of old. And yet, according to verse 7, 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." This is a statement of profound humility. John was careful not to make much of himself. He wasn't impressed by his own success, even though throngs flocked to him as he preached. Untying the straps on a man's sandals was the work of a slave. It was a job that Jewish people were not supposed to do. It was so low and they felt beneath them. But John felt that he was even lower than a slave in comparison to the Lord, the One He came to announce. He wasn't even worthy to untie the Lord's sandals. In John's mind, his ministry was nothing compared to the surpassing value of the Lord's ministry. He said in v. 8, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. John's baptism with water was merely an outward sign of the cleansing of sin and a changed life. But Jesus' baptism with the Spirit would actually cause transformation from the inside out. and a true cleansing within. To be baptized or immersed with the Spirit means to be given new life from God, which is the fulfillment of the new covenant promised in the Old Testament. The Lord said in Isaiah 44.3, I will pour out My Spirit upon your offspring and My blessing on your descendants. And He said in Ezekiel 37.14, I will put My Spirit within you and you shall live. This occurred at the day of Pentecost when the Spirit began indwelling believers after Jesus ascended into heaven. And so, of course, Jesus' ministry is greater. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit, not merely with water. His ministry is greater, and that was John's ultimate message. His message was to praise the preeminence of the Lord. Everything that John taught was to point to the preeminence of the Lord. And so John the Baptist came. He came as the messenger of the Lord in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. His mission was to prepare the people of Israel. His ministry was to proclaim the necessity of repentance. His message was to praise the preeminence of the Lord. And so it turns out that this book begins with Jesus after all. Though Jesus isn't named in our passage, John's ministry was truly a ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though his ministry came before Jesus died and rose from the grave, John proclaimed the essence of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. The Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world. Just as God promised in the prophecies of the Old Testament. The Son of God came to deliver us from judgment. He died on the cross to take away our sins and grant us eternal life. Though everyone deserves judgment and everyone deserves To be sentenced to hell for all eternity, God has made a way for our sins to be forgiven. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will be saved on the day of judgment. If we trust in Christ alone, then we will turn from our sins and embrace Him as our Lord and Savior and have eternal life. That's the good news. that John would want you to know. If he were here right now, he would call out to you, repent and believe in Christ. This great Savior has a great salvation for you if you will only believe in Jesus. That's the good news. of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let's pray together. And so Father, we praise you even now for all that you've done in our lives, especially for granting us salvation through faith in Christ. Christ is everything to us. He came on our behalf. He died though we were not worthy. and He rose from the grave to conquer sin and Satan and death itself, and now sits at your right hand and intercedes for us day by day. We love all that Christ did, but more than that, we love Christ Himself. Father, we pray that For those in this room who have not come to saving faith, you would by your Spirit's power, even in these next few moments, save them. Overcome their rebellious heart and give them a heart of flesh. Take out that heart of stone and give them new affections and a new will and a new mind. trusting in your Savior and seeking to obey you. Lord, that can only be done by your power. Unless you save, no one is saved. And so bring your Spirit and do that fresh work once again in the hearts of those who don't believe in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.