Introduction
Christmas
is a season of good news and many of the carols we sing proclaim the message of
good news. A number of them even have phrases expressing that this is good
news. For example, In the song, "While Shepherds watched their flocks by
night" we sing, "Glad tidings of great joy I bring…" In the
song, "Christians, Awake, Salute the Happy Morn" we sing,
"Behold, I bring good tidings of a Savior's birth…" "Good
Christian Friends, Rejoice" has the phrase, "News! News! Jesus Christ
is born today." And in "O Little Town of Bethlehem" we sing,
"The great glad tidings tell…" That is one of the things that makes
Christmas such a great celebration because all of us would much rather hear
good news than bad news.
A few
months ago, Cynthia Frazer reminded us that as Christians we have a message of
good news. She mentioned that she has had opportunities to present the gospel
to women in the prison system and she indicated that those she works with know
that they are sinners. She mentioned that they don't need to be told that, but they
do need to be told that there is good news.
This
morning, I would like to begin a series of messages on the Gospel of Mark. As
we begin this series, we notice that one of the first words in the book is
“good news.” Although not all of the message of Mark is good news, yet the
overall message of the book is not a bad news story, but a good news story. In
fact, “good news” is a word that appears often in Mark and so forms a
significant theme of the book. The text we will look at today is Mark 1:1-15 and it is the word
“good news” which begins and ends this section. The second word in the first
verse is “good news” and the last word in verse 15 is “good news.” We like good
news stories and this is certainly one of the greatest, so today we will look
at the good news which Mark speaks about. We will think about how this good
news began and also about how this good news is about Jesus. On this final
Sunday in Advent, just two days before Christmas, it is a good thing to look at
Jesus and to think about the meaning of His coming.
I. The Story of Jesus’ Coming
What is the beginning of the good
news? How did it all start? Each gospel tells a slightly different story and
emphasizes different aspects of the story. How does Mark answer this question
as he mentions that he is about to tell us about the beginning of the good
news?
A. It Is Rooted in Prophecy
The good news about Jesus is rooted
in prophecy. Why does Mark start his gospel with the prophecy about the
messenger who will prepare the way for Jesus’ coming? In doing so, he roots the
beginning of the good news in all that God has spoken before about His coming
one. Over the last few weeks, we have looked at some of those passages and
there are many more. This tells us that the message about Jesus is not a
message which was concocted on a whim at the last moment. Do you remember when
we first heard that IKEA was coming to Winnipeg
B. John the Baptist Prepared the Way
The prophecy is about John the
Baptist, who was the cousin of Jesus, but more importantly was the one God had
chosen to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.
John stands in the tradition of the
Old Testament prophets. It says in the text that John “wore clothing made of
camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist.” In Zechariah13:4 it refers to prophets and indicates that one
indicator of a prophet is that they are people who wear "a hairy
mantle." In 2 Kings 1 :8Malachi 4:5 , 6 , prophesied about when it
says, “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful
day of the Lord comes. He will
turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the
children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a
curse.”
The good news about Jesus begins
with a time of preparation in which John the Baptist called people to repent of
their sins. Upon repentance, he also baptized them. Many have speculated on the
meaning of this baptism. There were religious groups in Israel at the time, particularly in the area of Qumran , who practiced baptism as a rite of initiation. On
the other hand, if you wanted to go into the temple area, it was required to
first of all go into a mikveh, or ritual bath, in order to wash and be free of
defilement before going into God’s presence. John’s baptism may have been
related to these two types of baptism, but was more likely something unique to
John as a symbol of the cleansing of the heart which repentance implied.
People came from all over Judea and
Jerusalem Jerusalem
and the Jordan River is about 30 or 40 km,
through difficult terrain, and at a time when all travel was by foot, we
realize that this was an important event and people made a significant effort
to go to him. Through John's preaching, God prepared the people to have hearts
and ears that were open to the message of the one who was coming.
C. Jesus’ Baptism Introduced Him
As John was thus engaged, Jesus
also came to be baptized. John had been preaching repentance, but he had also
been pointing beyond himself to the one who would come. Now Jesus came, but in
Mark it is not John who points to Jesus and says, “Here he is!” In the gospel
of Mark, Jesus came to be baptized and there are no comments by John as there are
in Matthew 3:15 . He
simply baptized Him as he had done for the many others who came. We wonder
about this because we know that Jesus had no sins to repent of, yet Mark
doesn't even enter into that debate.
What Mark does emphasize is the
introduction of Jesus. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus happened when God
Himself introduced Jesus. God says, in Mark 1:11 , “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am
well pleased.” From this point on the story is about Jesus. The story has
always been about Jesus, and even the prophecies and the preparatory work of
John, all focus on Jesus. With God’s words, we are introduced to Jesus and the
story about Jesus actually begins.
D. Jesus’ Temptation Prepared Him
Following this powerful experience
of introduction and affirmation, Jesus was sent out into the wilderness. There
are some important things to think about as we read about Jesus in the
wilderness.
Why did Jesus go into the
wilderness? It is helpful to notice that many of those who served God had spent
time in the wilderness. Moses fled to the wilderness and spent time there
before he went to Egypt to
be the deliverer of Israel I Kings 19:8
& 15 tell us,
Elijah also spent time in the wilderness which prepared him for service. In a
similar way, Jesus had to go to the wilderness and begin there in the place of
nothingness and emptiness in order to go out in the strength of God.
In the wilderness, Jesus
experienced the tempting work of Satan. It is in this experience of temptation
in the wilderness that Jesus experienced the depths of what it means to be
human. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that he
was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” It was in the
beginning that Jesus had to thus fully experience humanity and also thus prove
Himself.
The mention of wild beasts is
interesting. Cole says, “The desert was to the Hebrew, a gloomy place of
terror, the abode of devils and unclean beasts.” Lane says, “Jesus confronts
the horror, the loneliness and the danger with which the wilderness is fraught
when he meets the wild beasts.” So the wild beasts represent the danger of the
wilderness, but while experiencing both the temptation and the danger, God’s
presence was also there through the angels who attended Him.
A place of wilderness, temptation
and danger is where Jesus was prepared for the work to which God had called
him. He experienced the power of temptation, the power of loss, the power of
unknown danger and He experienced the strength of God’s presence with Him and
care for Him.
E.
Jesus Ministry
The final scene in the beginning of
the gospel of Jesus Christ is the actual beginning of His ministry. The
ministry of Jesus did not begin until John the Baptist was out of the way. This
note by Mark is quite deliberate. It was a matter of proper timing. John did
his work. As soon as it was done and Jesus was ready, John was moved out of the
way and Jesus began His work.
Jesus returned to Galilee
and it was there, in his home area where his work actually began. The ministry
of Jesus included proclaiming the good news. This good news included the
message that “the time had come.” It announced that God’s kingdom was near. As
we continue in our study of Mark over the next number of months, we will learn
more about this kingdom
of God
The message which Jesus preached
was a message of repentance, which continues the message of John the Baptist,
but the new message that was added was that the time of God’s coming kingdom is
near and so there is also a call for faith in the good news when it says that
he invited them “to believe the good news.”
As I mentioned earlier, “good news”
is the bracket in which this first section is held. The message of Mark begins by
mentioning the good news about Jesus Christ. Then the good news is introduced
and as the introduction concludes we are told that this good news is being
proclaimed.
II. The Meaning of Jesus’ Coming
Although not a birth narrative,
Mark does introduce the beginning of Jesus' coming into this world. But this is
not merely a narrative of events that mark the beginning of his work. It is
also a narrative that explains much about the meaning of His coming. How
appropriate in this Christmas season to think about that meaning!
A. The Greatest Of All Has Come
The first explicit statement, about
who Jesus is, comes in verse 7 where John the Baptist makes the statement
“After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am
not worthy to stoop down and untie.” A few moments ago I suggested that John
stood solidly in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. This puts him in
pretty significant company – right up there with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel –
who were highly respected people in Israel
Lane suggests that removing sandals
was the most menial of tasks “from which even the Hebrew slave was released.”
Only foreign slaves were considered low enough to do this task. So when John,
who stands in the company of all the great prophets, indicates that he was not
even low enough to untie Jesus' sandals, it is wonderful picture language which
helps us understand just how great Jesus is. John alerts us to this truth about
the greatness of Jesus. This message is a great part of the Christmas story,
that Jesus is God who came down to earth. The meaning of Jesus' coming is that
God Himself, the greatest one of all, the one who has no equal, who alone
reigns for all eternity has come into this world. That is the good news of
Jesus Christ – the greatest of all, God Himself has come.
B. He Has Come With A Greater Message
John’s further statement is that
the meaning of this good news of Jesus has to do with a radical change in the
way humans relate to God and how they live. Although John had a significant
role as the one who prepared the way for Jesus, all John could do was call
people to repent and symbolize that repentance with baptism. John indicated
that the coming one, Jesus, would do something completely different. He would
baptize with the Holy Spirit.
All that John’s baptism could do
was to symbolize an outward cleansing based on confession. What the Spirit
baptism would do was to bring about a complete change of heart. The presence of
the Holy Spirit would symbolize the coming of God to not only forgive sins and
cleanse past sins, but to establish a new people who were empowered to walk
with God by His constant presence in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Previously God’s presence was in
the temple. When the tent of meeting was established during the wilderness
wanderings, God came into the tent and was present with the people. They could
go to the tent to meet with God, but he was not with them individually. When
the temple which Solomon built was dedicated, God came into the temple and
indwelt it. The people could meet with God in the temple, but not anywhere
else. They all had to travel to Jerusalem
C. God Has Come
As Jesus was baptized, we read that
“he saw the heavens torn apart.” What does that mean?
In Isaiah 64:1 the prophet
expresses a wish, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…” In
the midst of the devastation of Israel
Well, the
good news of Jesus is that God did tear open the heavens. The word of God to
Jesus and the wording Mark uses here is intended to help us understand that the
good news of Jesus Christ is the message that God has opened heaven and Jesus
has come down and, as John 1
says, “we have seen His glory.” It is often stated that Mark does not tell the
story of Jesus' birth, but in this statement we see that Mark does have a very
explicit Christmas story. God opened heaven and came down in the person of
Jesus.
D. God’s Beloved Son Has Come
God’s affirmation of Jesus, when he
says, "You are my Son, the beloved…" tells us a lot about who Jesus
is. There are some important Old Testament images that we are reminded of as we
hear this word spoken.
We are also reminded of what God
told Abraham when he said to him, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom
you love…” When we hear this very human story of Abraham being asked to
sacrifice his son whom he loved, it tears at our hearts. What was going through
Abraham’s mind as he walked the many miles to Mount Moriah
E. He Proclaims the Good News
The last thing we learn about the
meaning of the good news about Jesus is that it is a message which must be
received and proclaimed.
When Jesus proclaimed the good news,
He invited people to repent and believe. John had called for repentance, but
Jesus didn’t stop there. He continued to call for repentance, but also called
for faith. Today, the way into the kingdom is still the same. We must repent of
our sin. We need to agree with God about that which we know is true in us, that
we have sinned and rebelled against God. We also need to have faith and trust
that in Jesus, God has provided forgiveness and life.
The ministry of Jesus was a
ministry of proclamation. We read that He proclaimed the good news and we will
also see that He taught his disciples to proclaim the good news. After he left,
the task of proclamation was given to them and they continued both to teach the
good news and to teach others to proclaim the good news. Unfortunately,
sometimes we as Christians have latched on to the bad news and are known as
people who tell others that they are sinners. Even if we don't say it in words,
sometimes our "holier than thou" attitudes convey to others what we
think of them. It is not really necessary, or even our business to convey that
message. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin. Since Jesus came to
proclaim good news, we must also gladly and boldly declare God's Good News.
Conclusion
Christmas is exciting for so many
reasons, but do we really believe it when we say that "Jesus is the reason
for the season?" Is it really a time when we grow even more in our knowledge
of Him? Is it really a time when we declare our love for Him and live more
purposefully in that love?
I received a Christmas card from
someone once and one of the lines in it was, “And may it be that by the time
this New Year ends - you will know Jesus better than you ever have before!” We will
celebrate Christmas this week and as we do may we think about Jesus and come to
know Him better? Over the next few
months we will examine the gospel of Mark and we will have a chance to think
about Jesus. May it be an opportunity to build on our knowledge of and
relationship to Jesus. May we be able to say a year from now, "I do know
Him better than I did a year ago."
No comments:
Post a Comment