Pointing the Way

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The Essential Jesus Philip De Courcy

Pointing the Way Mark 1:1-8 Well, let’s get into God’s Word, which is the centerpiece of our worship service. We started a series on Mark’s gospel entitled “The Essential Jesus.” We spent two weeks on verse one. Just introducing it, we looked at the author, the background, the audience, the theology. Last week, the week before, we addressed the whole issue of the trustworthiness of the gospels. We’ve got The Da Vinci Code; we’ve got those who are saying that the gospels are not a true record of the life of Jesus Christ. There are alternative gospels; there are alternative messages. Hopefully we put some of that to rest. So we’re really going to get into the book this morning. Let’s make a start with verses one through eight. We’re going to look at the ministry of John the Baptist – a message I’ve entitled “Pointing the Way.” Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word, as we see them do in Nehemiah chapter 8. This is God’s Word! We don’t worship the Bible; we worship God. But we believe all of it is inspired by Him, and as it speaks, He speaks and therefore we honor His Word. Let’s read it together: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the 1    

remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” So reads God’s Word. Pointing the way, Mark chapter 1 verses 1-8. Some years ago I enjoyed a trip to Austria to speak at a missionary conference with EBM (Evangelical Baptist Missions). They’re centered in Indianapolis in Indiana. I was pastoring at Emanuel Baptist in Ohio. It was a memorable trip and it was a profitable trip. There are few privileges greater than going to speak to a conference of missionaries – spiritual storm troopers and frontline soldiers for Jesus Christ. While I was there, I had lunch with a man by the name of Paul Jackson. He was the president of EBM at the time. I’m not sure if that’s still the case, but while we were talking, he said something that a friend had shared with him, and it was very memorable. Later when I went to my hotel room I wrote it down. Here’s what his friend said to Paul Jackson: “Paul, I have never stepped off a plane onto the soil of a foreign country, but I have found that God got there first.” That’s an interesting statement. It’s a good thought! The God of the Bible is a go-ahead God. God is never behind the times. God is never swamped by circumstances or surprised by life. He’s always ahead, not behind. He always leads; He never lags. He’s one step ahead of our best thoughts; He is two steps ahead of our best plan. God’s always prepared for what’s next. As Corrie Ten Boom once said, “There’s no panic in heaven, just plans.” Or as Adrian Rogers

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used to famously say, “The Trinity never meets in an emergency session.” God knows what is coming next and He is prepared for it! That truth is played out for us… fleshed out for us here in Mark chapter 1 verses 1-8, which are the first unit of thought in Mark’s gospel. We’re introduced to a messenger, a figure, a forerunner by the name of John the Baptist. He is the long promised one who would be sent ahead of Jesus Christ to introduce Him to the world. John the Baptist’s ministry was to point the way to Jesus. And so we see as Mark begins his gospel, that God knew what He needed to do next. I want us to look at this unit of thought, these opening eight verses. Look at John the Baptist in his ministry and learn some things. We’re going to look at four things: the moment, the ministry, the message and the messenger. So let’s jump right in! Keep your Bible open, follow along, write some notes and go home as good Bereans and see if these things are so, and let God’s Word shape your life this week in the light of the ministry of John the Baptist. THE MOMENT Number one: the moment. Let’s look at verses 1-3: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face.’” The beginning of the gospel and the emergence of Jesus’ ministry is marked by the emergence of John the Baptist ministry – a ministry that had long been planned and long promised by God. “As it is written by the prophets.” The moment. It was a moment of prophetic fulfillment. Mark begins his gospel with an appeal to the Scriptures. He wants us to know that what’s about to unfold and transpire has long been promised and prophesied by God. He references two verses in the Old Testament. Write them down, look them up and you’ll see 3    

that there is a composite here from Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1. “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” That’s God addressing Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ figure. God is saying: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.” And with it we have another quote from Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3: He’ll be like “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight His paths.’” God had called John the Baptist from ancient times to lay a red carpet for the coming of Christ. In fact, when we read, “it is written,” it’s in the perfect tense in the Greek, and that simply means an idea where you have a past action with present results. So it would kind of read like this: these things have been written for hundreds of years previously, and now those promises are yielding their results. So Mark wants us to get this. There’s a moment! This is a significant time! This is a significant transition! Matthew links his gospel to the past through the genealogy, and Mark links his gospel to the past through a reference to the forerunner who would precede the coming Messiah. So even though as we saw in our introduction, Mark is writing to a Gentile audience and doesn’t deal a lot with Jewish custom or law, he nevertheless doesn’t want them to forget or overlook the fact that the gospel he’s introducing to them is one that is rooted in Jewish life and Hebrew literature. The point is that the coming of Jesus and the emergence of John the Baptist before Jesus is not an isolated moment. It’s not a serendipitous moment in time. It’s planned; it’s promised. There’s nothing contrived, nothing covert about Jesus coming into this world. It has been foretold throughout the Old Testament. God has been working across the centuries and now the moment has arrived! And before Jesus appears in public and

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He is baptized by John and He’s tested by Satan and He is endorsed by the Father, there is a forerunner that Malachi talked about and Isaiah talked about. So what’s the point? Well, the point is that when you get to this moment, realize that there’s a lot of stuff that lies behind it. It’s easy to look at life sometimes and history as a kind of mosaic or a kaleidoscope of disjointed moments. But in God’s mind, all the dots connect; all the lines can be tied together as God prepares the world for the coming of His Son. There has been 400 years of silence. God hasn’t spoken through a prophet in 400 years. And if my study is correct, an angel hasn’t appeared to one of God’s servants for 500 years. Last time that happened was Zechariah. But now we’re at a moment, and a prophet emerges. John the Baptist is born the son of a priest but he carries out the ministry of a prophet. And an angel appears to the shepherds and to Joseph and talks about the One who would be called Jesus, saving His people from their sins, the One who would be born in the city of David, who is the Savior of the world. God is breaking His silence. It’s a powerful moment at the beginning of the gospel. What do we read in Galatians 4 verse 4? “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son.” God was preparing the world for Jesus’ birth; God was preparing the world for His public ministry. When I was a boy, one of my favorite TV shows was The A Team. I loved Mr. T. I loved everything about that show. And you know that at some point in the show when they’ve accomplished their mission, and Mr. T. and Murdock and Hannibal have done their job, the leader of the group, John Hannibal Smith always says what? “I love it when a plan comes together!” And Mark is saying that to us here. I love it when a plan comes together! “It is written!” You see this guy, you know, dressed like a cave man… the prophets spoke of him. This a moment long 5    

promised, long prophesied! And you know what?

You and I can take

encouragement from that! God has had a plan throughout history. Amidst the twists and the turns of history, God has progressively and perfectly been working out His plan. Ephesians 1 verse 1 tells us that: “God is working out everything according to His will.” There’s a time and a purpose to everything under the sun and we would be reminded of this. God was silent for 400 years, but not still. Silent, but not still. Silent, but not still! If we paint in the background both for the birth of Jesus and now His public ministry, we’ll know that there was a Jewish dispersion that went on during those silent years in the inter-testamental time. And if you read the book of Acts, you’ll find that the apostles go throughout the Roman Empire and the first place they go to is where? The synagogue. They use that, and often many of the Jews came to Christ and the synagogue becomes the launching pad even for Gentile ministries within those cities. God was silent, but not still. The world at this point is under Roman domination. There’s an upside to that. You have the universality of the Greek language, which makes it easier for the ambassadors of Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel. God was silent, but not still. You have the Pax Romana, there was peace in the kingdom and the empire at that time. The Romans built roads and transportation. Communication was better. There was law and order.

Those are some of the up sides (although

certainly some downsides to the Roman domination), but those were upsides and certainly God would use all of that. His servants would travel those roads in safety.

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For the most part, there was even an element of religious freedom within aspects of the Roman Empire, which benefited the early Christians for a time. Then you had the emptiness that marks the Greek world. Pagan religion was empty and vain. That’s why when you get to Athens and follow Paul, he comes to that monument, the unknown God, and he says, “Let me tell you about Him!” And they say, “Yes, tell us about Him because there’s got to be someone else, something else.” And then you have also the formalism of Judaism. They drew near with their lips; their hearts were far from them. It was all outward; it wasn’t satisfying. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was far from them. Perfect time for John the Baptist to emerge and say, “There’s One coming after me mightier than me!” God was silent, but not still. And you know, if you go from the macro to the micro, you’ve got to give God time and give God your trust when you’re in that in-between time. Four hundred years of silence, the people of God are waiting. The prophets, according to First Peter 1 verse 12, wrote of things that they wouldn’t live to enjoy. And I’m sure there were even times when the prophets thought, “Is that the one?” It’s not an easy place to be – waiting for God to fulfill His promise, waiting for God to do what He said He would do. And, some of you are there; you’re in the in-between time – between the promise and the fulfillment. There’s someone you want to see saved. There’s a prayer you want to see answered. There’s a situation you want to see changed. Whatever that is, give God time and give God your trust because God is working all things after the council of His own will and make no mistake about it – He may be silent, but He’s not still. He’s working all things together for good. 7    

That great New England pulpiteer, Phillip Brooks was found one day in his study marching up and down his church study room like a lion crossing its cage. He was evidently anxious and uptight and one of the deacons came in and said, “Pastor, what’s up?” to which he replied, “I’ll tell you what’s up! I’m in a hurry, but God’s not.” You’ve been there and I’ve been there, pacing up and down. God seems silent, but He’s not still. We’re going to need patience; we must be willing to wait upon the Lord and be of good courage. Know that we don’t need to faint because we’ll “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Be patient! Give God your trust and give God time. In fact, I’m going a little bit off script here, but as I thought about this whole issue, I was reminded of a very insightful truth and thought that Joni Erickson Tada shares in her book A Lifetime of Wisdom. Get the book! She’s written many good books. Here’s one of her later books, and the purpose of the book is that she reflects on forty years in a wheelchair. And as she reflects on the wisdom that God has taught her, she calls them “rubies,” and they are rubies hard won, and she’s willing to sell them to you for $13.99. It’s worth it! Here’s one of them on the chapter on waiting. “Here’s another ruby hard won, the wisdom of the Lord, given to me after four decades in a wheelchair. Don’t wait to live; you have to keep living while you’re waiting.” That’s good. That is a ruby hard won. Not easy to cultivate that. “Don’t wait to live; keep living while you’re waiting.” In fact, it made me think about something Donald Barnhouse said. He tells the story of the philosopher Cervantes. Here’s what the philosopher says: “The road is always better than the inn… There is a road, a lone traveler and, at the edge of the horizon, an inn toward which the traveler is hurrying as fast as he can, oblivious of where he is and what there is to see about him. He has a goal to reach

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and to reach that goal he misses the profits and blessings possible to him on the journey.” And then the great Presbyterian preacher adds this: “It is the way we hurry through life. We set up goals like inns and hurry and struggle and toil to get them achieved. We hurry to get the home paid off, the retirement account stocked, the children to grow up and retirement to come. But all the while as we hurry down the road to achieve these goals and to get to these inns, we’re missing life. We never learn how to live. In our haste to live life and acquire personal gain, we pass life itself and the profits of enjoying its splendor. We miss the blessings of God on the road, failing to see those things that might help us, the beauty we pass, and the very purpose of our existence. We need the endurance of patience as we live a well lived life.” That’s good. It’s not all just about the inns. It takes you a while to get to the inn. Sometimes God doesn’t answer prayer right away. Sometimes He doesn’t solve that problem. Sometimes He doesn’t heal that disease. So are you going to wait until you live the life you planned for yourself? Or are you going to live while you wait? Are you going to enjoy the road on the journey to the inn? That’s good stuff. THE MINISTRY The moment. Now, the ministry. The ministry – the ministry was of one of what? Well, go to verses 2 and 3: “‘I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’ ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’” There’s the ministry that will take place at this moment; it’s a pioneering, preparatory ministry. Just write that down. John the Baptist’s ministry was preparatory and pioneering. It was his 9    

job to move things out of the way and to give people a clear vision of Jesus Christ. That was it. It’s quite simple. We don’t need to drill down into it. John’s ministry was a set up for the coming of Christ. In fact, this idea of “my messenger” – “the voice crying in the wilderness” – has an antecedent in the culture. It was the messenger/ambassador that would be sent ahead of the king. He would go into a city or into a region and he would prepare the way for the king. He’d get things ready. Sometimes that would mean that roads would be fixed, buildings would be repaired, and people would be made ready for the reception of the king in regards to how they ought to address him and how they ought to behave themselves in the court of the king. There’s a running joke in Britain that wherever the queen goes, she smells fresh paint. And that’s kind of what we’ve got here. “Prepare the way of the Lord.” In fact, I worked in industry before I got into the pastorate. As you know, for several years I was an anti-terrorist police officer in Belfast. But before that, I was an engineer in an aerospace company called Shorts. Once in a while we won what was called the “Queen’s Industry Award” for industry, and we won it on several occasions for our aerospace technology and stuff like that. And so, mostly the queen would send a nephew, a cousin, you know, someone removed from her, to congratulate us. But one year when I was working for the company, we had the visit of Prince Philip, the queen’s husband. And it was quite a “to do” as you can imagine. For years we’d wanted this fixed and that painted, and by golly, it all got done… not because of us, but Prince Philip was coming! They shelled out brandnew overalls – blue, beautiful overalls with “Shorts” on the back of them, and as soon as he left, they took them back off us again. Ha! That was it. He was coming, we were actually told, and “This is how you address Prince Philip, should he

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condescend to talk to you.” And that’s kind of it. Everything was getting ready for the prince to come to the factory. And that’s what John’s ministry was – getting Israel ready for the arrival of the “Prince of princes” and the “King of kings.” What’s the role of a forerunner? Clear the way; prepare the way; get out of the way! That’s challenging, isn’t it? That was his ministry. That was God’s call on John’s life, and it lasted one year, and then he was out of the way. You know how that happened… with the flash of a sword, his head was severed from his neck because he’d offended Herod, and in a drunken state, Herod had played into the hands of his wicked daughter. Clear the way; prepare the way; get out of the way. What about that for a mission statement in life? Do you aspire to that? “Yeah, I’m happy to clear the way; prepare the way; and get out of the way.” But that’s what God called this man to. When God calls us to that kind of ministry, God calls us to make things better for others. God calls us sometimes to serve without fulfillment like the prophets, and to some degree, John. So much of his life was limited. His time was limited. His message was limited. His geography was limited. His freedom was limited. He ends up in prison and his life is cut short. But that’s okay! When you’re a forerunner, it’s all about preparing the way, clearing the way and getting out of the way. You’re expendable. It’s okay to be a link in a chain of God-given reactions. I thought about that. Is that not the role of parents? Every parent is called to a John the Baptist ministry – to prepare the way of the Lord, to get those things out of the way, so that their child might have a clear view of Jesus Christ, and so that their child might have a clear run at life. Parents, in that sense, have an expendable ministry. They give themselves so that their children might do better than they do. 11    

I saw that in my own father. My own father was a factory worker. He worked in a cigarette company for a good part of his life, until the Lord opened a door to get out of there, which he was always looking for. But, he was an unskilled man. He left school when he was fourteen. His generation never went to any seminars about job fulfillment, by the way. At fourteen, he went out and did what needed to be done to “bring the bacon home” to his parents, and then to my mum and our family. He stood at a dirty old machine all day long. It wasn’t very inspiring, but he did it, so that his children would be taken care of. In God’s goodness, when I left school, I joined that aerospace company called Shorts, and I became a skilled worker. I did a four-year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. On my third year, I won “the apprentice of the year.” I don’t tell you that to draw attention to myself. I tell you that to tell you this about my father. My dad is not one to communicate. He is kind of hard. He’s old school; he doesn’t have a feminine side. Neither do I. Ask my wife… she’s my feminine side. But my mum told me in the kitchen one day, “You know, your dad is so proud of you, and he’s so proud that you’ve done better than he’s ever done.” Wow, pretty humbling because my dad’s a hero to me! A blue-collar man, union man, hard worker, faithful to his company, faithful to his community. “I’m glad for Philip. He’s doing better than I ever did. He’s a skilled worker. He got an apprenticeship in one of the premier engineering companies in our city.” Is that not John the Baptist kind of ministry? Prepare the way, clear the way and get out of the way… for your children. Is that not the ministry of every church planter and missionary and a pastor maybe in a transition ministry… where they’ve got to do that hard work and set the church up for future days? You study the history of any great church or any 12    

ministry that has had an impact, and you’ll find that there is a line of John the Baptists somewhere in the footnotes of the history of that ministry, who cleared the way, prepared the way, and got out of the way. I think about the patriots and the founding fathers in our great nation, who wrote a revolutionary document called the Declaration of Independence and alongside it, the Bill of Rights with freedoms, and put the responsibility on the people, a government “of the people and by the people.” They were breaking from European monarchies; they were launching out on their new experiment. And you know what? Almost every signer of the Declaration of Independence never saw the light of day. Every one of them died at the hands of the British, to my knowledge, or at least most of them. Forerunners… pioneers, and every fourth of July you should remember them because you’re enjoying what you’re enjoying because of their sacrifice, and they wouldn’t want anybody to take it from you either. We could go on multiplying that. The medical scientist… years and years working in the laboratory trying to beat cancer. They die after decades of hard research and then some young guy fresh out of one our premier schools comes, takes that, builds on it and maybe connects the dots, and by golly, we’ve got a remedy to some strain of cancer. Some John the Baptist in the medical field led the way. It’s just challenging! I got really hooked on that thought for several hours in my study. Wow, that’s grinding and glorious ministry, and there’s very few people want it today in the church. The set-up ministry… making it happen even if you’re not there in the end to enjoy all the fruits. Doing it… and then getting out of the way so that others can do more on the basis of what you’ve done.

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I had a man in my church in Northern Ireland at Carr Baptist – Bobby Graham, painter, decorator. I loved Bobby and he loved his pastor. He’s one of those men that on the day I got to that church, he said, “I’m going to pray for you!” And he did, and I was the beneficiary of it. We called him Billy Graham because he loved souls, and Bobby Billy Graham would pray every Wednesday night for someone he’d talked to or some house he was working in, that the Lord would save that family. And then he always finished, always finished his prayers, “Lord, make me a link in the chain.” Lord, I just want to be a link in the chain! You’ve never heard of Bobby Graham, but I want you to think about Bobby Graham, because there’s an army of the anonymous like him in the church all across the world, who are happy to be links in the chain. They’ll never be in a pulpit. They’ll never write a book. But they’re the ones that prepare the way of the Lord. That’s what evangelism is, isn’t it? Some sow, some water and some reap. Bobby Graham was just happy to sow and to water, even if somebody else reaped. THE MESSAGE That’s the moment; that’s the ministry! Here’s the message. Not going to spend a lot of time on this because we’ll pick this theme up on regular intervals through Mark’s gospel – the theme of repentance. But John emerges at a particular moment though it had been written about by the prophets.

This isn’t a

serendipitous moment. Jesus’ and John’s ministry are not isolated moments in time. They’re part of God’s great sovereign and redemptive work. And he comes, and he’s expendable. He lays out the red carpet for Jesus, he gets things ready for Jesus, he prepares the way, clears the way, and as the text goes on to show us, then he gets out of the way.

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And his message is one of repentance.

Look at verse 4: “John came

baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” The word “preaching” here is the word “to herald.” John was indeed the herald, the town crier announcing, “Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! There’s One coming after me who is mightier than me, whose sandals I’m not willing to untie. I baptize you with water; He’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye!” And some did hear, and they were baptized by John in what the text calls the baptism of repentance. Now, I wish I had more time for this but I can’t; I’ve got to spend it somewhere else. But this is not Christian baptism. The great commission will come after this, where the disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ are told to go into all the world and preach the gospel and baptize in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is not Christian baptism; this is a pre-Christian baptism. It’s a baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. Oh, let’s be careful.

Are we learning here that baptism can lead to

forgiveness, that baptism effects forgiveness? Is there baptismal regeneration? Does baptism do that kind of thing in our life? No, and it’s not being taught here. The word “for” could be translated in the Greek “in reference to.” There was a baptism of repentance “in reference to” the remission of sins. And the reference to remission of sins is in reference to Jesus Christ, who will be baptized in suffering on the cross, who will pay for the sins of the nation, for the sins of the world. He will emerge from death. He will ascend and send the Holy Spirit who will baptize people, and they will become inwardly pure and live lives of holiness. And so John

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is getting them ready for the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. How does he get them ready? He calls them to repentance. I just want to underline that because there are those that teach today that there is salvation through baptism. There’s not! I disagree with the Roman Catholic Church that teaches when a child is baptized in the sacrament of baptism, their original sin is removed. That’s not true. I disagree with the Church of Christ that teaches that you must be baptized to be a Christian, to be a believer. They say that it’s part of the salvation act. No, it’s not! I disagree with Anglicanism. We saw this in Northern Ireland when we went about doing evangelism, that people would say, “Oh, I was baptized when I was a child and I entered the kingdom of heaven.” And we had to say them graciously, “No, you didn’t. You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven!” And that’s something that indeed doesn’t come through the water of any religious right of baptism. In fact, if you go to the New Testament, baptism is always preceded by faith. Jesus said, “Make disciples, then baptize.” On the day of Pentecost, they gladly received the Word and were baptized. In Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch said, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” and Philip said, “Then nothing hinders you to be baptized.” It’s belief, and then baptism… it’s believer’s baptism, and I think the form is immersion, but that’s another debate for another day. Faith precedes baptism and repentance precedes faith. And that’s what John’s baptism is about. He’s calling this nation to put their faith in the One who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is a baptism in reference to the forgiveness of sin that will come through the death of Jesus Christ on a cross. And if they’re to put their faith in this One who will make atonement

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for their sins, they’ve got to repent of their sin. You can’t be loving sin and loving Jesus all at the same time. And so repentance must precede faith. You see in Acts 3:19, Acts 5:31, Acts 20:21, when the early evangelists preached, they preached repentance.

In Luke 24:47, Jesus commissions the

disciples to go and preach repentance for the remission of sins. It’s the missing note in our preaching; it’s a missing note in our evangelism. I’m thankful for the writings of John McArthur on the need to repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ. He wrote his first book, The Gospel According to Jesus because as he traveled around the country he found people who said they were Christians but their lives completely contradicted it. They’d never broken from the world; they’d never broken that cycle of sin. And John said, “This doesn’t fit the biblical model.” It’s repentance! You must leave that, turn from that and turn to Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for Living Waters and Ray Comfort and E.Z. and Mark and the men who are involved in that ministry here in our church who preach the law. Because you’ve got to get people lost before you get them saved. They’ve got to sorrow over their sin before they enjoy the joy of forgiveness. Now listen to me: we’re not saved by our repenting. I don’t want to be misunderstood. I’m not teaching some kind of penance. You know, here’s what you’ve got to do before Jesus will accept you. But it’s one side of a doubled coin. To put your faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, don’t you have to recognize the awfulness of your sin, and what it cost God to pay for it on the cross? That’s repentance. And you want to turn away from that sin in heart and in mind say, “Lord I’m coming to you. Forgive my sin, and then by the power and baptism of Your Holy Spirit, help me to live a life that’s decreasingly marked by the domination of sin.” That’s the gospel! 17    

And John is saying he prepared the way; his was a baptism of repentance. We’re not saved by our repenting, but you cannot be saved without repentance. We read in Second Corinthians 7 verse 10 that repentance leads to salvation. Here’s a quote, and we’ll move on: “Repentance is the needle that pierces the cloth to make way for the thread of the gospel.” Jerry Vines, Southern Baptist preacher said that. I got a gospel of Mark commentary, and that stood out. That’s what’s going on here. Their baptism didn’t forgive them. There was a work going on in their heart. They were repentant. They knew the One mightier than John was coming – the Lamb that would take away the sin of the world, and they went to John to be baptized, an outward act that was demonstrating that they wanted to be cleansed. We want to be done with this sin, and so we repent of it and turn from it. Let Jesus come and cleanse us! THE MESSENGER Finally, the messenger! We could spend the whole message here, but I’m going to get moving through Mark’s gospel. So I’m going to hop, skip and jump over three thoughts and get to a final one in some kind of speedy time. The messenger, and this takes us from verse 6 through to verse 8. John the Baptist was the messenger – the divinely appointed, anointed messenger to prepare the way of the Lord. He was the last of the prophets of the Old Testament, so to speak. He’s more of an Old Testament man. He’s in the in-between time. God is breaking the silence. There’s a new covenant! It’s a new day! It’s a new beginning, and John’s announcing it. His Arena Do you notice his arena? We’ll just touch on this. His arena is the wilderness; it’s the Judean wilderness. It’s a rugged wasteland that skirts along the 18    

western shore of the Dead Sea and extends up towards Jerusalem. And John comes preaching the baptism of repentance within the wilderness, and all the city slickers go out to meet him. Interesting, isn’t it? All the city-dwellers go out to meet him in the wilderness. It would be interesting to look at the whole issue of the wilderness. We’ll maybe come back to it when we look at Jesus’ temptation. But here’s the point: just as the people of God emerged out of the wilderness under Joshua and entered the Promised Land, the people of God are now emerging out of a wilderness of spiritual dryness and deadness in Judaism, and a new Joshua has come. John the Baptist is announcing, “He’s going to lead you to a Promise Land!” His Attire The arena. Now, the attire. Well, we read here that he was dressed and clothed with camel hair and a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey. He came in the spirit of Elijah. You can read in Second Kings 1 verse 8 that Elijah was a hairy man and he wore clothes like this. John the Baptist didn’t shop at Joseph A. Banks. That’s for sure. I think he got his groceries from Whole Foods, but other than that, we’ve got this interesting kind of description of his attire. We’ve got the arena: the wilderness. We’ve got the attire. Now, what do we do with that? Well, we could do some things with it. I think that the main point is that John’s context and clothes were a protest. It seems that he willfully avoided the large centers of civilization, therefore indicating, as Edmond Hebert says, “His consciousness of and stern judgment upon the corruption of human society was marked in his attire and in his dress.” He kept his distance in the wilderness because the people and their leaders were at a distance from God. His life and his 19    

dress and his attire illustrated his message of repentance. He stood resolutely and radically as a signpost, pointing away from the godlessness, the self-indulgence, the materialism. Now if we’re not careful, you read that and you fall over into asceticism, which has happened in the church. And so you go on and join some religious sect and you wear drab cloths and you crawl on your knees on hard floors and you pray. That’s not the lesson we’re going to take from John because that’s not biblical. We’re never told to leave the world; we’re never told to dress in some unfashionable way. This was a prophet of God; this was an unusual ministry. But at least he’s saying, “I’m not a conformist,” and his life was a bit of a protest, reminding the people of God that change needed to happen. Jesus is going to bring that change, so come and be baptized in an act of repentance! Folks, when I say we need to live a life of protest, I’m not encouraging you to go in and fight with your workers, you know, and get in their face and you know, go about like a voice crying in the wilderness condemning everything. But in the choices you make, and the way you handle yourself, and the ethics you govern your life by, in the gospel you share of the exclusive nature of Jesus Christ as the only Savior… when you share that stuff, when you live like that, you are carrying the mantel of John the Baptist. Your life is a protest to a culture that’s wrapped up in sin and self. Do it. Don’t be frightened to be a non-conformist. Pray for the courage of a John the Baptist the next time you’re confronting a world that is without God and without hope and wants to squeeze you into its mold. His Attitude I’d love to say more, but here’s the point we’re going to close with. We’ve covered the arena, the attire, and now the attitude. The attitude is one of 20    

servanthood, right? “There’s One who comes after me, mightier than I, whose sandal straps I’m not worthy to stoop down and loose. I baptize with water; He will baptize with the Spirit.” John was not the center of his message; neither was he the center of his ministry. And that’s very challenging! He was happy to clear the way, prepare the way and get out of the way. His ministry lasted less than one year. People came out to see him. It’s said that all Jerusalem came out to see him. But when they came out to see him, he pointed them in the direction of Someone else they needed to see. That’s his attitude. He was part of a movement that was about something beyond him. You see it in this reference: “I’m not willing to deal with His sandal straps.” To go back into that time, if you and I went to see Uncle Bob or Aunt Sally, we went through the front door. If they had a servant, the first thing the servant would do would be to unlatch your sandals and wash your feet. That was the custom. Pretty menial task! It’s a servant’s task, and John is saying, “I’m not even worthy to do that. He is so magnificent and so glorious! One that is mightier than I! It’s not about me! It’s not about me. If I can just do anything to exalt Him, anything to bring attention to Him, I don’t care what it costs me.” You see the greatness of Christ also in that His work is going to be deeper and more spiritual and more inward than John’s. He’s baptizing a baptism of repentance, as his outward demonstration of something that’s going on in the heart, but Jesus, by the help of the Holy Spirit, will make that deeper and more lasting. So John is putting himself down and exalting the Lord Jesus. He was the voice; Jesus was the Word. He was the Herald; Jesus was the King. He was the shadow; Jesus was the reality. He was the burning and shining light; Jesus was the Son of Righteousness. Jesus was the bridegroom; John was the best man.

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And as we close, we need to cultivate that attitude. You could almost say, “Let this mind be in you that was in John the Baptist.” But then, the mind that was in John the Baptist was in the mind of the One he was proclaiming, who although He was God, equal with God, made Himself of no reputation. John is a fitting forerunner for the One who came and humbled Himself to death on a cross. And those who are His followers and those who are His forerunners model that servanthood. That’s the challenge, because we live in a culture of self, a culture of self. I was sharing with the marriage conference yesterday that I have a series of books on Keswick, conferences in England, and in one of them there is a series of messages by D.A. Carson on First Peter. In it, he tells of an interesting article in the New York Times. It was about the Blockbuster movie Titanic. According to the article, at the end of the modern movie Titanic, the first-class passengers act like third-class citizens. You know, the protocol of that day was that women and children were to be first. But if you look at the modern movie, Titanic, the firstclass passengers, the men are pushing their way forward and all kinds of mayhem and chaos unfolds, and you have some of the sailors pulling out their weapons and shooting over the heads of the men, pushing them back because it was all selfpreservation. They were pushing the women and children out of the way. They were taking their places on the lifeboats and there was a limited number. Now here’s the deal… I’m fascinated by everything Titanic. I’m a son of Belfast, and the Titanic was built in that city. When you visit that city, you’ll see the great shipyard Harland and Wolff where it was made. And when you’re there you need to buy yourself a T-shirt that says: “Titanic, Built by Irishmen – Sunk by an Englishman.” It’s a great T-shirt. Ha! But here’s the deal. When you read the real story, that is actually not how it happened on the Titanic. Except maybe for 22    

one exception, the men did not fight for their places on the life boats, because the custom of the day was women first and children first, and those men bravely let the women and the children go, and they went down to a watery death. But do you know what the New York Times article said? The reason the modern movie portrays them as villains is because the modern audience wouldn’t understand that selflessness.

That’s crazy.

This is a society of self.

They

wouldn’t understand why someone would give their place up on the boat for someone else. But ole John the Baptist, pointing to the One who emptied Himself, would remind us that God is calling us to that kind of ministry and that kind of attitude. Jesus said in Matthew 11:11: “No greater man has been born of a woman than My friend John.” What is true greatness? Have you got an idea of what greatness is? I’ll tell you, our society’s got all kinds of ideas. We celebrate the famous people who for the most part are only famous for being famous. Their lives are not really that great. Nothing to follow. Broken marriages, drug addiction, crazy politics. Nah, greatness is… here’s what greatness is: it’s to be measured by what we do, or are willing to do or have done to us, in relation to Jesus Christ and His glory. That’s greatness. That’s what John the Baptist exemplifies. What are you willing to do, what are you willing to have done to you, what are you willing to give, and what are you willing to lose in relation to Jesus Christ and His gospel? That’s the measure of true greatness! Let’s pray! Father, what a start to the book and the gospel of Mark. We’re looking forward, if Jesus tarries, to working our way through this gospel. And we’re here at the beginning of the gospel of the Son of Man and we marvel at this servant of yours, John the Baptist. He seems a little crazy, but he’s anything but it. 23    

He’s got his head screwed on. He understands what side is up. He understands what life’s about. It’s not about clothes and luxury and self-indulgence. It’s about service and sacrifice. It’s about doing what needs to be done for Jesus to be glorified. And in that loss is gain. Jesus loved John. No greater man born of a woman than John. What did you go out to see? A reed blowing in the wind? What did you go out to see? A prophet? I tell you… much more than a prophet. Lord, we want to be like You, but perhaps being like John will make us a bit more like You. We pray these things in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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