September 18, 2013
The Message the Messenger and the Multitude
Mark 1:1-8
I The Message 1:1
II The Messenger 1:2-4
III The Multitude 1:5-8
“Lights, Camera, Action!” These are the words you hear on a movie set when a scene is about to be filmed. And we’ve all heard these words at one time or another----but do any of us really know what their significance is----or why they are so much a part of the ritual and the vernacular of filmmaking, that they have become household words.
The words and their intent, makes sense, when you realize, that not one frame of film can be shot, without hours and hours of preparation to make sure that the scene is perfectly set.
And the two things that are crucial, for filming the scene, are the lights and the cameras.
The lights are important----- because too much light, could wash out the key features of the actor or overshadow a key prop that needs to be displayed. And too little light, might mean that you wouldn’t be able to see slight movements or the facial expressions of an actor that could be crucial to the overall effect of the film.
And, the cameras are important because they need to be in certain positions and at certain angles to catch the flow of the action. There might be as many as 6 or 7 cameras for just one scene. And since the director always wants to get the scene perfectly, on the first take, he coordinates the lights, and the position of the cameras, and tells the camera operator when to come in for a close up and when to back away for a wide-angle view, and the light engineers when to turn them up and when to turn them down.
Everybody has to be ready to do their jobs on command-----if they aren’t ready, then the scene will have to be taped over. That’s why, once the preparations are made and everything is set, the director will say, “Lights, camera, action” as a check-off of final preparation to start the scene. The director is basically saying, “Get ready-----this is for real----we’re only gonna do this once…”
Mark, is the director in his gospel account, and he, is shouting at the top of his lungs, “Lights, Camera, Action!!!!!
In this first chapter he is setting the stage, by positioning the lights, of Old Testament Prophecies from Isaiah and Malachi, and from the messenger who was part of the fulfillment of these prophecies, John the Baptist, in the right places.
John spread the message of the coming Messiah, and he prepared the people for it, by preaching about their need for repentance of sin, and by baptizing them, just like Isaiah and Malachi said that he would. The lights and the cameras were positioned in such a way, that when Jesus calmly appeared on the scene, everyone knew that He was the main player in the unfolding drama.
I The Message 1:1
Mark wasted no time in telling us the theme of his book. He’s too excited to keep it to himself….(It reminds me of my 10 year old neighbor Ethan, when he’s got something to tell me, and I’m not home------ he waits outside or up in his play room looking out the window until he sees my car-----and by the time I have stopped the car, he’ standing by my door waiting to blurt out his news with no preamble and no explanation----just the crux of whatever good news he has to tell me! Cause he knows, that I want him to hit me with the good stuff first, then after that, we can discuss the details….)
That’s the same way the readers Mark was writing to were-----the Christians in Rome and the multicultural audience that he was appealing to, were much more interested in the messenger, and what he had to say and what he needed them to do, than they were the ancestry of the man that the messenger was preaching about.
They were more interested in actions, than they were qualifications. And since Mark knew that he was going to present Jesus as a “servant, or slave” there was no need to give his lineage, because in a Roman’s mind slaves don’t have or need genealogies, they just needed to be good servants. That’s why he didn’t start with the lineage and ancestry of Jesus, like Matthew did, or with the birth of Jesus like Luke did, or with the beginning of creation like John did------He just blurted out Jesus’ identity, and then, throughout the rest of the book, went on to authenticate the truth of Who He was…
The Romans, were used to the king, traveling around visiting the different areas in his kingdom. And they were used to having messengers come ahead of him, to clear the road and even create roads, if they needed to---and they were used to being prepared, in every other way necessary, before the king’s arrival. Mark knew that, and was catering to it-----
******plus I think it was his nature to speak first and explain later, that’s why he gave them the crux of what they needed to hear right up front. He had good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God and he wanted them to know it…
So, right off the bat, Mark made it clear about Jesus’ uniqueness, by stating His full name and title----Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God---
*** Jesus was His personal name. It was a common Jewish name, the same as Joshua, which means “the salvation of Jehovah”.
***And Christ was an official title; it is the Greek equivalent of the Jewish term Messiah. It means “the anointed one” who is coming to save us from our sins. ***And Son of God, expresses the divine nature of the Lord.
Mark wanted his audience to know that Jesus was no ordinary servant nor was he just a good man----He was the Son of God, who had come to take away our sins.
In naming Jesus in this way, Mark was rooting Jesus, as deeply as possible, in the historic, ancient promises of God, to the children of Israel. He was letting the whole world know that Jesus was the fulfillment, of all biblical prophets longings and visions, and He was the one who will eventually come to rule and renew the entire universe.
This was “good news”! The long-announced Savior had come! When we experience the excitement of a big event, we naturally want to tell somebody. Telling the story can bring back the original thrill as we relive the experience. Reading Mark’s first words, gives us a sense of his excitement, and we can even picture ourselves in the crowd watching Jesus heal and teach. This helps to make it real to us and helps to remind us that Jesus came as much for us who live today, as He did for those people who lived over 2000 years ago.
II The Messenger 1:2-4
“The story is told about a preacher who was catching a bus one day to go into the city----and as he came on the bus, he paid the bus driver $1, but the fare was only 75 cents. The bus driver gave the pastor 35 cents in change, and the pastor made his way to his seat. Once he was seated, the pastor realized the 10 cent error in his favor. For a moment, he just sat thinking about the situation, but finally he got up and approached the bus driver, and let him know that he was given too much change. The bus driver then told him, “ I knew that I gave you too much. I did it on purpose. I was in your church last week and I heard you preach on honesty, I just wanted to see if you really practice what you preach.”
I wonder how many of us would have passed the test?
The world is watching, the neighbors are watching, our family is watching and the Lord is watching…..the truth is….the greatest good and the greatest evil to the Gospel isn’t what we say, it’s what we do with what we say…..Its a lot easier for us to tell people what we believe than it is for us to live out what we say. We can speak beautiful, lofty, truthful words about the Lord and His Gospel, but we have to be so careful, not to contradict those words by our behavior.
And John the Baptist passed the test!!!!! He was the real thing!!!! He came just like the scripture had foretold that he would----a voice crying out in the wilderness, warning and encouraging people to prepare the way for the Lord.
Mark wrote his Gospel to a multinational group of people living in Rome------but the promise of a Savior was first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. So Mark quickly quoted, from 2 Old Testament prophets, Malachi and Isaiah, (Isaiah emphasized the servanthood and salvation of the Messiah, and Malachi emphasized the judgement of the Messiah.) Mark did this so that he could show that the Messiah’s coming had been foretold long ago; and then, he introduced John the Baptist, as the messenger, who was a partial fulfillment to the prophecy, that he would go before the Messiah, preparing the way for him, and then, when Jesus appeared, John baptized him, and authenticated that the man Jesus, was the Messiah, and the fulfillment of the rest of the prophecy.
The figure of speech, “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him,” refers to the custom of sending an officer or an ambassador to smooth out any ruts in the road, or to even build roads, in some cases, so that a king’s journey would be smoother. And the people could clearly see that John fulfilled this prophecy------ John, was the foretold messenger----and there was no doubt, that he was who he said he was----He devoted his life to clearing the way for the Messiah. He didn’t know the Messiah, was his cousin Jesus, until the heavens opened up and God spoke (but we’ll talk about that next week.) But he cleared the way anyway, even though he didn’t have a clue to the Messiah’s identity.
John’s appearance in the wilderness was the most important event in the life of Israel for over 400 years-----because, it had been that long, since Israel had had a word from God.
The wilderness desert region where John began his ministry of baptism, is believed by scholars to have been situated between Judea and the Dead Sea. It’s known for its stark surroundings and its rugged terrain. In Hebrew, that area is known as Jeshimmon, which means “devastation.” John was not a city dweller; he was a man of the wilderness, and he performed his ministry in the wilderness to make a point.
The wilderness, in Israel’s history, symbolized rebellion and disobedience. The nation of Israel, after the deliverance of God and the Exodus from Egypt, disobeyed God by being afraid to go into the Promised Land. As a result, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, before they actually entered the Promised Land as God’s people. By coming to the wilderness to be baptized, the people were admitting their wandering from God and their rebellion toward God and their desire for a fresh start.
John’s preaching, about a baptisim of repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, was highly unusual for a Jew. Jews believed that only Gentile converts to Judaism, needed to be baptized. The baptism of Gentiles was a ritual washing from all the defilement of their past.
But John, was asking the Jews, to do something they’d never done before. For God, through John the Baptist, to call all of Israel to be baptized, meant that all of Israel was defiled and needed to be cleansed. This baptism by John was a baptism of repentance. ******Repentance means a turning away from something and a turning to a new direction.****** Israel was being asked to turn away from its disobedience and rebellion and to start again, by turning toward the coming Messiah. John assured the people that if they would repent, then they would be forgiven of their sins and would then experience the grace of God, through the Messiah.
God took this step, of sending John out before Jesus, because He knew that human hearts needed to be prepared, before God and man could come together. Jesus, who, we know was God, in human form, couldn’t just appear and expect to be received, so John was sent before Him to prepare the way, by preaching repentance and the softening of hearts.
(Today, people who don’t know Jesus, still have to be prepared to meet him. And as believers, we can be one of God’s means of preparation: 1) by explaining, that we all are in need of forgiveness, 2) by exemplifying the Lord’s teaching, by our behavior, 3) by being open and honest about the evidence of the Lord Jesus’ presence in our lives, and 4) by correcting any misconceptions that people may have about God, about the Holy Spirit, about Jesus, and about what it actually means to be a Christian. )
Repentance means doing an “about-face”-------a 180 degree turn----from the kind of self-centeredness that leads to wrong actions, like lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, taking revenge, abusing and indulging in sexual immorality and negative attitudes. A person who repents------ stops rebelling, and begins to follow God’s way of living, which He had laid out for us, in His word.
The first step in turning to God, is to admit that we know we are sinners---then, when we ask Him, God will receive us and He will help us live the way He wants us to. Only God can erase sin, and we have to remember, that as we come to Him as sinners, He doesn’t expect us to come to Him with our lives totally clean, if that were the case, there would be no need for us to come----and there would have been no need for Him to come. Once we come to Him, He spends the rest of our lives cleansing us and getting us ready for heaven. (that’s called sanctification)
John didn’t make any excuses for where he preached, what he wore or what he ate---and he knew that he couldn’t change a person’s heart----
he was a man of great humility and his single goal, was to preach the truth, so that people would be convicted of their sin, and then to baptize them, to signify, that they had repented of their sin, and this paved the way for Jesus to come and change their hearts, right where they were.
III The Multitude 1:5-8
John the Baptist was markedly different from the typical religious leaders of his day. Many of them were greedy, selfish, and puffed up with pride; and they were preoccupied with winning the praise of people. John, on the other hand, was concerned only with the praise of God. John separated himself from the evil and hypocrisy of his day. He lived differently from other people to show that his message was new. And John didn’t just preach God’s law, he lived it.
Do we practice what we preach? Could other people see what we believe by watching the way we live…(a man sat down to supper with his family and said grace, thanking God for the food, for the hands which prepared it, and for the source of life. But during the meal, he complained about the freshness of the bread, the bitterness of the coffee and the sharpness of the cheese. His young daughter questioned him, ”Daddy, do you think that God heard the grace today?
He answered her confidently, “of course!”
Then she asked, “and do you think God heard what you said about the coffee, the cheese and the bread? Not so confidently, he answered, “Why yes, I believe so.”
The little girl concluded, “Then which one do you think He believed, Daddy?”) It isn’t enough that we say what we believe, it is even more important that we practice it.
It is clear that the ministry of John was astoundingly effective, because people flocked to hear him, in the wilderness. And they publically confessed their repentance, by being baptized and joining the ever-swelling ranks of those who were watching for the coming Messiah.
It has been estimated that 300,000 people came out for John’s teaching and were baptized. His base of operations was along side the Jordan River, so that the baptismal waters were readily available. As it always is, in God’s economy, the timing was perfect----it was a sabbatical year, a time when people took time off from work, so that they were free from their responsibilities, and they were able to travel. People from all walks of life came----the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the sophisticated and the country bumpkins, the soldiers and civilians, men, women and children, the farmers and businessmen and the leaders and the common man----they all came.
John’s lifestyle gave his sermons a cutting edge. He was anything but mainstream. The simplicity of his dress and diet made an immediate impact on everybody who came to hear him. He lived the life of a wilderness nomad. They saw a man who was clothed in camel’s hair, with a skinny leather thong, for a belt. It was the kind of clothing that the very poor would wear. His clothing was reminiscent of Elijah, and that was a similarity that John would have wanted the people to pick up on.
And, not only did John dress like Elijah, but he also understood that his ministry was one of reform and preparation, just like Elijah’s was. In fact, a popular belief of the day, which is still believed by orthodox Jews, is that Elijah will return from heaven to prepare the way for the Messiah. John was so similar to Elijah in dress and ministry, that a lot of people thought, at first, that he was Elijah. And like Elijah, John didn’t need to be wined and dined---he had a very simple diet of locusts, which were either grasshoppers, or beans from a carob tree, we aren’t sure which, and wild honey.
John, clothed like Elijah, raised his voice! A new day had come! The fiery desert prophet, who had suddenly appeared calling from the wilderness, must have been discussed from one end of the land to the other. Thoughts and questions must have been on everybody’s lips-----“have you heard him yet?” “did you know my mother in law, my husband, my granddaughter was baptized last month?” We’re going to hear him, this weekend.”
The ruling class, for the most part, dismissed John as a crackpot----they feared him, including Herod-----but the common people loved him----they believed, heart and soul, that John was a prophet of their living God.
John made it clear, that he was a servant, of the coming servant. And he made it clear that he was sent to prepare the people’s hearts, and then, to get out of the way….John was a powerful figure, but he made it clear to the people, that he would pale in comparison, when the Messiah appeared. He expressed his insignificance, by admitting, that he wasn’t even worthy to stoop down and untie the thongs of the sandals on the Messiah’s feet. (Sandals were made of leather soles fastened to the foot by straps passing through the toes. The roads in those days weren’t paved-----in dry weather they were dust and in wet weather, they were rivers of mud. To remove the sandals and wash the feet was the job of a slave.) John was making it clear that he wasn’t even worthy to be a slave, in comparison to the one who was coming after him.
John was a force to be reckoned with, but compared to the Messiah, he was nothing……
John was mighty, but the Messiah was almighty; Between John and Jesus, there was a great gulf------John was a mere man, but Jesus was the God-man---fully God and fully man; John was a voice, but Jesus was the Word; John called for repentance but Jesus provided rebirth; John was the messenger, but Jesus was the message; John was a cousin of Jesus and had a miraculous birth, but Jesus, had an immaculate birth, that transcends the comprehension of it, in any realm, with God Almighty as His Father. (John Phillips says, “no wonder John declared that he was not fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the One who was coming! 10,000 X 10,000 angels would gladly have given up the rule of 10,000 galaxies to do that, but they were no more worthy than John.”)
John made it clear that his ministry was only a temporary, symbolic, and preparatory undertaking. His baptism was with a created thing, water. John was administering an external rite that symbolized what each person had done on the inside---repented of the sin that had separated them from God, the Father.
John pointed out that when the Messiah got there, He would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit….
And that, was is the difference in the world, between the symbolic baptism with water and Jesus’ supernatural baptism with the Holy Spirit.
John showed people their natural hearts and Jesus gave people new hearts. John brought people to the river Jordan, and Jesus brought them to the river of life, for all eternity.
Being baptized with the Holy Spirit changes a person from the inside out----it secures purity of heart and life, it delivers believers from guilt and shame and the power of sin, and it brings us into fellowship and the right relationship with the Lord God.
(On one occasion, David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, brought some natives with him from the deep interior, to the coast. There the land suddenly ended. One of the astonished Africans said, “We followed the white father through the forests and across plains, up mountains and into deep valleys. The land went on and on. Then all of a sudden, it came to an end. “There is no more of me.” the land said. John said much the same thing here, “I have brought you to the water. There is no more of me, there is no more I can do. Here is the end of John, now you need Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
People listened to John, because he didn’t point to himself, he pointed to the only One who can supply all our needs.
We should have the same aim in life, that John had-----which was not to occupy the center of the stage ourselves, but to try and connect the people that we have a chance to influence, to a saving knowledge of the the Lord Jesus.
Any time we can do that, it’s a good day!
Go out and serve!!!!!!
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