Mark (2)

Explaining of gospel. Not just a biography, Gospel is not just a genre of literature. Rather, it is a announcement of truth according to the Scriptures that tells people how they can be right with God. The gospel is good new about Jesus and what He accomplished so that when we trust in Him we can have forgiveness of our sin and confident of eternal life with Him. As Mark uses the word gospel he would be thinking about a passage like (Is. 52:7). which says…

Isaiah 52:7 ESV

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Transition: However, notice that the good news Mark is writing about is is a publication about person, who Mark identifies as Jesus, Christ the Son of God.

Explain Christ as messiah. The first century understanding. Mark is making a bold statement. He is saying that Jesus was the promised anointed One that God had promised would be the deliverer of Israel. And as we read Mark it is interesting how often Jesus tells those around Him to keep this truth a secret. Why? Couple reasons are that He recognizes it is not yet time for Him to die, because once the news gets out that is one of the reasons He is put on trial and put on a cross to die. Another reason was because Jesus is reforming their understanding of who the messiah would be. One of the key changes Mark is emphasizing about the messiah is that He will be a suffering servant. He will go to the cross.

Transition: Example of little hymn entitled “The Suffering Son of God.”

Explain Son of God as a proclamation of Jesus’ divine authority. When we read through the entire 16 chapters we see this specific identity emphasized several times. For example God Himself calls jesus his son at His baptism and on the mountain when Jesus is transfigured. Also, on occasion when Jesus is casting out demons, they also recognize him as the son of God. Jesus Himself alludes to the name, is put on trial for the name, and finally a centurion solider recognizes Jesus as the son of God when he observes Jesus on the cross. Jesus identity as the son of God proves to be book ends of this gospel.

Transition Point: Reason this is important for you and I is that we are not studying a dry and mundane record about some historic religious figure. No rather, we are being introduced to the the King of the kingdom of God. The messiah who all of us must answer to.

As it is written... (1:2-3)

The beginning point that Mark brings attention to is that Jesus is the fulfiller of what has been written by holy men of God known as prophets. He alludes to Isaiah the prophet, but also quotes from Malachi. Isaiah's prophecy was written around 700 years before Jesus came to earth. Mark begins by focusing attention on the one who would be the forerunner of the messiah. (Historic context of Isaiah was promoting the deliverance e of Israel from exile, redemption being announced because of god’s promises.)

The point that Mark is making is that Jesus’ identity as the Messiah is not a result of popular opinion. Its not a result of a guy who rally's up a following and then proclaims himself as the savior king. That tactic had been tried and failed. There certainly had been false messiahs. However, Mark is telling us that the Jesus that he is writing about is the fulfiller of what has been written. He is the true Messiah. Then, he connects what was foretold concerning the messiah to their current day context through John the Baptizer.

Transition: Before we move on to focus on the forerunner of Jesus, lets consider the importance of what we have just discovered. Perhaps your here today with mixed notions about who Jesus is. Perhaps your here and have trusted in Jesus , but find yourself being tossed about by waves of doubt. Perhaps, you are trusting in Jesus and have a strong desire to continue growing in an obedience to Him. Wherever you are in relationship to Christ today we can be confident that at very least He is not some figment of religious imagination. He is not a self proclaimed messiah who stood alone attempting to verify His own identity with scare tactics and crowd pleasers. Our confidence in Christ is not in mere ritualized speculation, but rather in the very written words of God. Since Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophetic writings about the messiah we can trust in Him as the authoritative son of God who takes away our sin.

Now , focus with me on the one responsible to prepare the way for Jesus…

John the Baptizer (4-8)

If you took the opportunity to use the reading and prayer guide this week you noticed that Matthew and Luke provide us with a lot more information about John the baptist. However, for our time we are going to focus on what Mark reveals. For example, we see that John was a man who knew his place and prepared the way....

Knew his place.

John was to be a the kind of prophet who pointed people to the Messiah. He wasn't to gain a following in order to lead people to himself, but rather to direct people to the one to come. He willingly humbled himself to the role that he was given and recognized his place. He took great strides to let the crowds know that he was unworthy of even taking care of the shoes of the One who was coming. John’s humility to serve his role was a character quality we we all do well to follow. We are all tempted to believe the lie that we are king or queen of our own domain. That the life we have been granted can be used up for our own glory. However, we aught to drink from John’s well and humble ourselves before God and know our role. Like the moon only reflects the light of the sun, so we should live in a way that reflects the light of Christ and leads people away from ourselves to the One True Messiah. John knew his place.. and so should we. He also fulfill his role to prepare the way. How did John go about doing that?

Prepared the way

He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What this means is that John was preparing people for the Messiah’s submersion of the Holy Spirit by calling them to repent and confess their sin and be submerged into water as an public demonstration of the forgiveness or washing away of that sin. This was preparing the crowds of people who came out the the Jordan river for the Messiah who would pay the ultimate sacrifice so their sins could be forgiven. It prepared them for the future day when God the Holy Spirit would regenerate their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh. All of the preaching and baptizing that John accomplished was in order to make people ready for the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus would forgive their sin, the Holy Spirit would submerge them into Christ like John was submerging them into water. We can summarize the preparation of John by saying that he fulfilled his ministry to prepare people for the first coming of Jesus Christ.

Transition: Two questions for us to consider in response to this truth.

Am I ready for Jesus’ return?

Am I preparing the way for Jesu’ return?

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