Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Mark 1:1-13

Theme: God has acted for His people by sending His Son as His agent.

The four Gospels in the New Testament obviously resemble each other in many ways.

But each gospel also has its point of departure from the others.

Matthew, for instance, begins his story with an account of the ancestry, conception, birth, and naming of Jesus.

Luke begins with a narrative of the conception and birth of John the Baptist.

John, in his gospel, takes us into the distant past of eternity, and reminds us that the Word was with God before the beginning of the world, and that the Word was indeed God Himself.

Mark, on the other hand, plunges right into the heart of the story.

He opens very simply, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark covers in one-third of a chapter — fifteen verses — what Matthew takes four and one-half chapters and 81 verses to explain.

Luke is even more wordy, taking four and one-half chapters and 182 verses to cover the same material.

Mark begins his Gospel revealing Jesus as the King of a new kingdom.

In that day when a King arrived on the scene, he was always preceded by herald.

This is how Mark begins his gospel.

Even here, Mark is brief ... naming John, but never telling us anything about this herald preaching in the wilderness.

If Mark is writing his Gospel for a Roman audience, this opening scene would have struck a chord.

Caesars didn’t go anywhere without fanfare.

That a herald is heralding sends a message — someone important is right behind.

In the passage before us, I want you to see three key elements as God presents his only begotten son to the world.

The three keywords awards you to remember all are: fulfillment, announcement, and endorsement.

I. GOD FULFILLED THE WORDS OF HIS PROPHETS vv.

1-3

“THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

(Mark 1:1–3, KJV)

1. the Gospel of Mark opens with an old and powerful dream: the promise that God would act again in history to save the Jewish people

a. it contains two terms that were guaranteed to rekindle this ancient hope: good news and Christ

b. but the beginning of the Gospel does not began with the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

c. the “good news” begins with the prophets of God, and their proclamation of a Messiah

2. the God of the universe does not play cosmic hide and seek with us

a. he wants to be known, and he wants us to hear him

b. and so he has spoken to us, and he has spoken very clearly

A. GOD HAS SPOKEN IN UNIQUE WAYS AT DIFFERENT TIMES

“GOD, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” (Hebrews 1:1, KJV)

1. God is not some heavenly hermit seeking to remain aloof and isolated from the crowd

a.

He activity seeks our recognition and our worship and so He reveals Himself to us

b. the sweeping affirmation of Hebrews 1:1 is that God has spoken to us at sundry times and in divers manners

2. the phrase at sundry times literally means in many portions

a. God did not reveal all things about Himself or the full details about His redemptive plan all at once

1) He gave it out in portions –

a) sometimes in small bits such at Genesis 3:14-15

b) sometimes in large doses such as Isaiah 53

2) you might say it was revelation on the installment plan

b. theologians call this progressive revelation

1) bit by bit, attribute by attribute, statute by statute, prophecy by prophecy, supernatural act by supernatural act God revealed His character and His redemptive plan to the Jewish people

4. not only has God spoken at sundry times, He spoke in divers manners

a. that means that God spoke in many different ways

1) God spoke through audible voice

2) God spoke through dreams and visions

3) God spoke through angels

4) God spoke through natural wonders and through supernatural displays of power

5. in spite of the time involved, and the diversity of authors, and the various kinds of literature, the Bible’s message is remarkable consistent

a. it progressively takes us from God’s initial promise of a redeemer in Genesis, chapter three, to the fulfilment of that promise in the Gospels

6. God has spoken in unique ways and at different times

B. HE SPOKE PRIMARILY THROUGH HIS PROPHETS

1. every other major world religion is man’s attempt to discover God

a. weather it’s Buddha sitting under a tree waiting for enlightenment or the modern Wiccan looking for god in a tree or rock, by himself man is incapable of identifying, comprehending, or understanding God

2. the Bible, on the other hand, is the story of God bursting into man’s world, and showing, and telling man what He is like

a. ultimately, God promises to send His people a Deliverer, a Messiah who will establish His kingdom and redeem His people

b.

He revealed this through the word of the Old Testament writers

1) Mark quotes two Old Testament Prophets for us – Malachi and Isaiah

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

(Malachi 3:1, KJV)

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

(Isaiah 40:3, KJV 1900)

3. here is a clear reference to a herald that will precede a King

a. that herald’s name is John and his ministry was prophesied 700 years before it actually took place

b. at his conception an angel confirms to Zacharias — John’s father — that his son would play a key role in the redemption of God’s people

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord To prepare his ways; 77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people By the remission of their sins, 78 Through the tender mercy of our God; Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, 79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.

80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.”

(Luke 1:76–80, KJV)

1) and, according to Luke 1:17, he would come in the power of Elijah

2) in fact, Mal.

4:5 prophesies that the prophet Elijah would return and prepare the hearts of the people to receive the Messiah

3) in Matt.

17:10-13, Jesus — referring to John the Baptist — tells his disciples that Elijah has returned and Israel did not recognize him

c. vs. 4 makes the logical connection between the prophesies of Malachi and Isaiah and the Baptist’s ministry

1) it reads, And so John came ...

2) I will send my messenger ahead of you ... and so John came

3) he will prepare your way ... and so John came

4) a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord ... and so John came

5) make straight paths for him ... and so John came

c.

Mark tells us that his message was the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ

4. God Fulfilled the Words of His Prophets

II.

GOD ANNOUNCED HIS ACTION THROUGH THE HERALD IN THE WILDERNESS

“John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; 7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”

(Mark 1:4–8, KJV)

1. just within the last 10 years, archeologists think they have located the area where John most likely baptized

a. in John 1:26-28 were told that John the Baptists’ ministry was in Bethany beyond the Jordan

b.

I give you that tid-bit of information to tell you that even today it is still a wilderness

1) even though the Jordan River flows through it, it is a parched and dreary place rimmed by barren desert mountains

2) it is a stark place

2. yet the people of Jerusalem and Judea left their cities, towns, and villages and trekked through this howling wilderness to listen to a man preach