The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Introduction

This morning, we’re going to be starting a new sermon series through a part of the Bible that closely follows the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. We’ll be working through the gospel of Mark – gospel, meaning good news. This man, Mark, who wrote about Jesus’s life – he recognized that there was something incredibly good, and wonderful, and life-giving about the person and work of Jesus. And whether you’ve known about Jesus for decades, or whether he’s still somewhat unfamiliar to you, my expectation and prayer is that our journey through this part of the Bible will draw you closer to Christ, and deepen your trust in Him.

But before we jump in, it’s helpful to understand something of the context of who wrote this part of the Bible and who it was originally written to.

First off, when we talk about who the author of the Bible is, I want to be clear in emphasizing that God himself is really and truly the primary, guiding author of everything in this book. And yet we can also speak in a meaningful way about the human authors God has worked through to transmit His inerrant, authoritative Word to us.

And in this case, the human author here is Mark – also referred to in other parts of the Bible as John Mark. John Mark wasn’t one of Jesus’s twelve apostles. He wasn’t in the inner circle of Jesus’s followers. And yet there’s reason to believe that young Jewish man, John Mark, came into contact with Jesus on multiple occasions, and was associated with the broader number of Jesus’s followers. Later on in the New Testament, we also see that John Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on missionary journeys (Acts 13:5; Acts 15:37-39), and that he eventually came under the mentorship of the apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:13). So as Mark was writing here, he wrote about Jesus knowledgably. Mark had firsthand exposure to Jesus, and would have had even deeper insights through his close contact with Peter.

All this being said, we don’t know with certainty whether there was a specific group that Mark was writing to. Since Mark uses some Latin loanwords in his gospel – which is unique to his writing – and since he takes time to explain Jewish phrases and customs, many scholars have concluded that Mark was addressing his writing to non-Jews in or around Rome. This may be true – but it may be just as likely that Mark was writing more broadly than that – that he was seeking to write his gospel in a way that would showcase the importance of Jesus to as many people as possible. He likely realized that many of his readers would have a hard time seeing how a crucified man, two thousand miles away, had any sort of significance for how they should live their lives. So Mark wanted to make sure that people who were far away from the events of Jesus’s life would be brought near to behold the uniqueness of Christ’s power and authority. He wanted the people from Rome, from Jerusalem, from our church in Mount Pleasant, and from everywhere to know the true, historical Jesus – and why Jesus’s identity matters. We’ll dig deeper into all this in a moment.

But before I read our text, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

Introduction 2.0

I’m sure you’ve found over the years, that people communicate in a number of different ways. Some people speak very seldom – they use very few words to say what they want to say. Other people are more verbose. You might ask a rather simple yes or no question, and somehow these people have the gift of figuring out a way to say yes in the form of a 10-minute speech. You’ve probably noticed, too, that some people use quaint old sayings a lot when they talk, or they speak with colorful illustrations to get their ideas across. Other people seem to rely a lot on their hand movements and gestures when they’re speaking – almost to the point that if you tied their hands behind their back, they might become mute. And then, I’m sure you’ve seen, there are some people who communicate very indirectly. They say, “Maybe so” when they really mean yes. Or they say, “It would be wonderful if we could have a clean house at some point.” And what they really mean is “Honey, would you please drop everything and get started with helping to clean the house?” On the flipside of that, though, you’d find people like Mark. People who speak very directly, people who want to make their main point clear right away.

Over the course of this series through Mark, you’ll see that he doesn’t waste words. His account of Jesus’s life is shorter than the other three accounts that are in the New Testament – shorter than Matthew, Luke, and John. On several occasions, he speaks very briefly and efficiently – he introduces us to key information very quickly, and then he moves on. But at other times, he slows down for emphasis, and gives us more details. And Mark does this because, again and again, he wants us to slow down and soak in the unmatched significance of Jesus.

My guess is that many of us have trouble slowing down sometimes. You may be busy with work, busy with house chores, busy with kids or grandkids – your mind may just feel distracted with tiredness or some sort of trial you’re facing. And it can be hard for us slow down, and to let Jesus’s significance sink in, and affect us. But Mark wants to get our attention here, and he wants us to see Jesus as he is.

So as Mark introduces us to this new beginning of good news, he points us to three things about this unique person from history – three unique things about Jesus. First, he points us to the person of Jesus; second, to the preparation for Jesus, and then third, to the proclamation concerning Jesus. These will be my three main points as we work through the text this morning.

The Person of Jesus Christ

So first, the person of Jesus Christ. In verse 1 – again, Mark is very direct, here – he immediately spells out what he’s writing about. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” I imagine that many of us probably don’t give much attention to these words, because they just seem to be a few simple words of introduction. Some of these words and phrases are rather common in the Bible, and they probably don’t strike us as being all that important.

But in Mark’s mind, verse 1 here is critically important. Even before he gives any background, or any kinds of qualifications, he gets right to the point. He tells us that he’s explaining the origin of incredibly good news – the beginning of the gospel – and that this good news is focused upon a specific person, Jesus. Jesus, who is introduced to us as both the Chosen King of the Jews – the Christ – and as the Son of God. Mark is making a bold claim here. And it’s intended to grab our attention. If Jesus really is who Mark says he is, then it has implications for the whole human race, for what we believe, what we love, and how we live.

So let’s just briefly break down this first verse to better appreciate what Mark is saying about the person of Jesus Christ. Of course, the first thing you’ll see is that this verse starts with “the beginning.” The word beginning here, in Greek, is the word “arche.” Interestingly enough, this word arche also appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, at the very start of the Bible, in Genesis 1, verse 1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” With this simple little word, Mark seems to be drawing a connection between God’s work to bring about the beginning of the world, and Jesus’s work to bring about a new beginning.

And Mark specifically says here that he’s talking about the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I’ve already mentioned earlier, the word gospel refers to good news. But specifically, it refers to the happy report that’s sent out when something great has been accomplished or acquired. This is how the word was used historically: to describe the good news of a military victory, or the good news of someone being enthroned, or achieving some other milestone. So what Mark is saying here, is that Christ has accomplished something. A victory has been won, someone has ascended to the throne – and because of what Jesus has accomplished, there is now a new message that must go out – fantastic good news that you and I need to be aware of. Mark doesn’t come right out and say what Jesus has accomplished, here in verse 1 – but he prepares his readers to be on the lookout, to figure out what this good news is.

And what’s really interesting about this gospel-good news of Jesus, is that Mark writes about this good news differently than the rest of the Greek-speaking world spoke about good news. Because when the Greeks spoke about good news, they would use the word in its plural form. And this reflected their understanding that the good news they were passing along was one piece of good news among many pieces of news that were equally good. But Mark only ever uses the word gospel in its singular form. The other New Testament writers do the same thing. The good news of what Christ has accomplished is not just one happy report among many – but it is the good report, the one and done good news that impacts the whole world. There are no other CNN or Fox News headlines that have been or ever will be more good, or more newsworthy.

And Mark is firmly asserting that this good news concerns a particular person. It’s the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It’s not about me, or my accomplishments. It’s not about you. It’s not about Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant, MI. Instead, Mark declares that the reason for our celebration is bound up in Jesus, and Mark explains the significance of who Jesus is by introducing him to us with two titles – as the Christ, and as the Son of God.

The word Christ (which means “anointed one” or “chosen one”) really only would have made sense to a Jewish audience, or at least to people who were familiar with Jewish religion. Because the Christ (or the Messiah) referred to a promised king of the Jews who would be sent by God to make all things right. So for every devout Jew who was waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises – this statement would have drawn them in to Mark’s gospel right away.

But then Mark also describes Jesus with a second phrase. And interestingly, this phrase – referring to Jesus as the Son of God – this would’ve caught the attention of just about everyone in the Roman Empire. And this is because this title, “the son of God,” was a title that had been claimed, and was being claimed, by a number of Roman emperors in that time period. Several Roman emperors were worshiped as gods or sons of god – and practically, this meant that that these persons were viewed as divine, and deserving of worship and divine rights.

But Mark’s gospel flies directly in the face of the Roman Imperial Cult, and the worship of so-called divine emperors. Because he insists that the true son of God, isn’t Augustus Caesar, or Nero, or any other Roman political figure – but that the Son of God is none other than Jesus.

At the end of the day, if we don’t walk away with anything else, Mark wants to make sure that it’s clear in our minds who Jesus is. What his rank is. What his authority is. He’s God. And by virtue of Jesus being God, this means that he’s king. All things were made for him, and exist for him. All power is his. All knowledge is his. All dominion is his. Your life isn’t actually yours – it’s intended for him. Have you taken the time to really consider what it means for Jesus to be God?

Because that’s who He is. This is why Mark introduces us to him as the Son of God. This serves as his main thesis, the great claim he’s seeking to establish, the main argument he’s setting out to make. People throughout the Roman empire need to consider – are they ultimately going to serve themselves, or serve an earthly emperor, or will they fall on their face before Jesus, the Son of God, and live for him? Mark wants us to know that God has come down from heaven and has accomplished a great victory. And by doing this, he has brought into being the best good news that human history has ever known – and it must affect the way we live. Mark is convinced of this, and he wants us to be convinced, too. So he spends the rest of this book showcasing us the person of Jesus.

The Preparation for Jesus Christ

But one of the key things Mark wants us recognize early on, here, is that Jesus’s coming had been announced in advance. This brings us to my second main point, which Mark brings up in verses two and three: the preparation for Jesus Christ.

Mark wants to make sure we see that Jesus’s arrival had been supernaturally predicted hundreds and hundreds of years beforehand. I’m pretty sure that all the advance notice my parents had before my arrival into the world was something like eight or nine months. And my guess is that your births were all rather standard, too. I don’t imagine that there were any prophets or special messengers who spoke about the circumstances of your arrival centuries in advance. And yet Jesus is different from us. We can’t even put him in the same category as renowned cultural heroes, like George Washington, or Thomas Edison, or Albert Einstein – because Jesus is in his own league. No one else has been heralded by heavenly messages like Jesus.

And Mark introduces us to a couple of these prophetic messages in verses two and three. The quote that we see here is actually made up of two parts. The first part is in verse 2: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.” These words are slightly paraphrased, but these words are drawn from Malachi 3 (possibly from Exodus 23:20, as well, but the Malachi connection is a bit stronger). And then in verse 3 of our text, we there’s a second part of prophecy that Mark quotes – this time, from Isaiah 40: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

Now rather than splitting up his quote to attribute one part to Malachi, and another part to Isaiah, you’ll see that Mark simply attributes everything to Isaiah, who was considered by the Jews to be the greater of the two prophets. It would seem that this was a common practice at the time. So Mark wasn’t being dishonest, or confused here. Again, he was just being a direct communicator, and helping us to get to the main point: the prophets of God had predicted that a messenger would come to prepare the way for the LORD – for God himself.

But in the context here, we see that the messenger isn’t Jesus. The messenger is the person coming before Jesus – a man named John, who we’ll speak about in just a minute when we look at verses four through eight. But first, do you realize what this means about Jesus? If John is coming to prepare the way for the LORD – for the LORD God of the Old Testament – and John is laying out the red carpet for Jesus, then Mark’s point here is that Jesus himself must be the Lord. He’s making a clear argument for the divinity of Jesus. He’s putting rebar into the concrete to reinforce his statement that Jesus is the Son of God, worthy of allegiance, and worship, and everything.

So God made preparations for Jesus’s arrival through the predictions of his prophets, and also through the sending of a specific messenger. So let’s turn our attention to this messenger, now, in verses four through eight. And we’ll see how he prepares the way for the LORD in the proclamation he makes concerning Jesus Christ. This is will be third and final point – the proclamation concerning Jesus Christ.

The Proclamation concerning Jesus Christ

John – the one who’s doing the proclaiming here – he’s introduced to us at the very beginning of verse 4. Mark simply tells us that John appeared. He appeared as the messenger. He showed up in fulfillment of the prophecies made by Malachi and Isaiah. That’s what Mark’s saying here.

And he doesn’t labor long to defend this claim – because he gives a number of details in the text that identify John as this long-awaited messenger. For one thing, Mark points out in verse 4 that John ministered in the wilderness. And that’s one of the unique details in Isaiah’s prophecy. He speaks of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” Keep in mind here, people don’t go to the wilderness to gather a following, or to speak to crowds. People go to cities, to populated places. And yet John’s ministry is different. He’s in the wilderness. It’s bizarre. And it confirms that he was the special messenger that Isaiah was speaking about.

But in addition to this, the broader context of the Malachi prophecy links this coming messenger with a former prophet of God who was quite prominent, named Elijah. Malachi 4:5 says that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord. And Mark describes John to us as something like a second Elijah – as a rugged man covered with an animal hide. This wasn’t normal clothing in those days. But this is same kind of description given for Elijah back in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings 1, verse 8. So again, John fits the bill as the predicted messenger.

But perhaps the most relevant thing about John, that sets him apart as the messenger and forerunner of the Lord Jesus, is that his whole ministry is about preparing for someone else. There had been true prophets, previously, who had called people to follow God. That wasn’t so unusual. And then there had been false prophets in the past who had called people to follow them, or to follow idols – manmade religions. That wasn’t unusual either, even though it certainly wasn’t a good thing.

But you have to understand that John’s ministry was strange. He was proclaiming a different type of message, saying, “Someone is arriving soon – very soon after me. And that someone is better than me – more important than me. That’s the person you need to be ready to follow.” Do you know anybody who speaks like that? It’s not normal. But this historical figure, John the Baptist – he spoke this way, because he was preparing the way for the LORD. He was the hand-selected messenger of God. He was the real thing. And Mark wants his readers to recognize here, if John really was the messenger predicted by Isaiah, then Jesus must really be the Son of God.

And we can’t push this away – John was a very public figure. It’s in the text here, in verse 5 – all the country of Judea and Jerusalem were going out to him. Massive numbers of people knew about John in those days. And they travelled out into the desolate places to hear his teaching, and to be washed with water, in the symbolic purification of baptism. In fact, John was considered to be such a significant historical figure, that the Jewish historian Josephus, who had no sympathy for Christianity whatsoever – he acknowledges the ministry John the Baptist. And the legitimacy of John’s messenger status is intended to shake us awake, and to prepare us to bow before the Lordship of Jesus.

But we need to accept here, that God’s plan unfolds in a way that’s very different from how most people would expect. Because even though the Glorious God of heaven himself is indeed coming to his people – and even though you’d maybe expect his messenger to be socially influential and rich, well-dressed, or gifted with supernatural powers – notice how the messenger of the Lord appears. What we see in John the Baptist, is a poorly-dressed man, who performs no miracles, and who wanders around in the wilderness. It doesn’t seem to fit. The way God works here doesn’t line up with our expectations. And yet John is doing us a service here. Because he’s preparing us to realize that the coming of the LORD may look different from what we think it should. Jesus may not look like the king we’d expect to see, or seem like the king we would ask for. And yet, Jesus is precisely the king we need.

And so John proclaims Jesus here. Let’s see what John was doing to prepare the way for Jesus. In our remaining time together, I’ll point out three things that John proclaimed in connection with Jesus Christ.

First, John proclaimed Jesus’s greatness in forgiving sin. This is ultimately what John was doing through his baptism ministry. Verse 4 tells us that John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Now, this word baptism referred to ceremonial washings. The same word is used in Hebrews 9:10 to describe the purification rituals of the Old Testament. So John was telling people, “come and be washed.” And you need to understand, by calling people to seek purification like this, John was essentially telling people, “You’re dirty. You’re guilty – because you’ve broken heaven’s law, you’ve ignored God, and you’ve wandered away to live for someone or something else. You’re dirty with sin and unfit for God’s presence.” That’s what John was saying here.

And John wasn’t just speaking to the idol-worshippers, the drunkards, or the notorious bad guys of his day. He was speaking to everyone. To the Jewish priests, to the scribes, to the people who thought God was pleased with them because of all the religious activities they had performed. John was saying, you are not clean. No one is righteous. No one is pure. No one can come before God, unless he is washed.

But it wasn’t the physical water of baptism that would make people clean. That’s not what John was saying. The water was simply a symbol. For those who repented – who turned from their sin and trusted in God here – God was confirming in baptism that He, the God of heaven, would provide for their cleansing. God would bring them forgiveness, and a new beginning. And all these things would soon come through Jesus. Through Jesus – when we trust in Jesus – our dirt is washed away. Our guilt is blotted out. And he brings us to God as people without any more stains, no shame, no fear. That’s what John is pointing ahead to. That’s what he’s preparing people for, in baptism.

But the second thing John proclaimed was Jesus’s great power and status. We see this in verse 7. John says, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” It may seem like a strange comment, for John to be talking about sandal straps, here. But for Jews, feet were regarded as the dirtiest part of the body. Feet were regularly kicking up dust in the roads, or squelching through mud, or stepping in animal droppings – and so to touch someone’s feet, or to untie someone’s sandals after a long day out on the road – it would have been a humiliating task, reserved for the lowest of servants. And yet, John the Baptist here is saying that even a lowly task like untying dirty shoe laces would be a crown of honor (that’s) far higher than what John deserves.

I hope you see here, John really understands the greatness of the Lord Jesus. It’s a perspective that I think many Americans like you and I have a hard time grasping. I think that many of us – when we volunteer at church, or talk about Jesus with a friend, or something like this – we might imagine that we’ve just performed some sort of extraordinary service to God. That He must be feeling so honored to have people like us acting as his deputies.

But this is a human-focused way of thinking. And John’s way of thinking is rightly God focused. Even though John is something of a great figure in the Bible, a special messenger of the Lord who’s been predicted by prophets hundreds of years in advance, he recognizes that he has no greatness, compared to the infinite majesty and royalty of King Jesus. John doesn’t attempt to draw attention to his own credentials or accomplishments – he does nothing to try to convince people that he’s worth listening to. But John simply announces that the One who’s worthy of our love, our money, our schedules, our affections, our family priorities – the one who’s worthy of our everything – he’s coming. Or really, from our vantage point in human history – the Worthy One has come. And to be counted as a servant of the Lord Jesus is an honor. To be a useful instrument in his hand, even if he’s using us for even the most undesirable tasks, it’s an honor that’s greater than we deserve.

But there’s a third thing – one more thing here – that John proclaims about Jesus. He proclaims Jesus’s greatness in pouring out the Holy Spirit. In verse 8, John says, “I have baptized you with water, but he (referring to Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John is acknowledging that external baptism, itself, doesn’t have the power to change anything about the heart or soul of a person. But he points to the purifying application of the Holy Spirit – who brings new breath, new life, a new beginning. And John indicates that that’s what water baptism is pointing to – to the promised blessing of the Holy Spirit, and the holiness and purification that he works on our innermost being.

And, of course, John identifies that Jesus is the one who applies the Spirit to us. And since the Spirit of God isn’t a slave to the desires of men, or angels – since the Spirit is directed by the united divine will of God, and by no other forces – this again means that Jesus himself must be the divine Lord. Jesus’s decree to baptize is one and the same as the decree of God. And so we can affirm, along with the historical church, that God the Spirit proceeds from God the Father and also from God the Son – from Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Over and over again in these eight verses, it’s glaringly obvious that Jesus is not an ordinary man. And we shouldn’t forget this, or walk away unaffected.

So as we close, there are a few questions I want you to take home and consider. Feel free to jot these down. You can journal through these questions, or discuss them around the lunch table. Here are three questions to take home:

First, how was my heart encouraged by Jesus’s greatness today Second, how have I been forgetting, ignoring, or avoiding Jesus’s greatness in my life? Third, what is one practical way that Jesus’s greatness should change how I live this week?

I hope these questions are helpful. And let’s pray that the Lord blesses us as we continue to set our minds and hearts on Christ this week.