Bill's Bible Blog

PREPARATION: What are two things you would like to take away from your study of the Gospel of Mark? 1. I’d like to grow in having a devotional attitude as I study the Bible and 2. I’d like to have an attitude of worship toward God that would balance my long-time scholarly/academic/intellectual approach.

Write down a one-sentence prayer for what you would like for the Holy Spirit to change in you as we journey through Mark the next few weeks?My prayer for God to change me during this study is embodied in the classic hymn, Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me:

https://youtu.be/2DtJgaGRav4?feature=shared The Isle of Man Methodist Church

THE STORY Mark 1:1-13, New International Version, annotated. John the Baptist Prepares the Way 1 The beginning of the good news (gospel, evangelon) about Jesus the Messiah, [the Christ=Annointed One] (the Son of God, not in earliest manuscripts).2 As it is written In the Prophets:

And in Isaiah,

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to see and hear him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 

6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. Cross reference:

7 And this was his message: “After me comes One more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy (and neither are we) to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with/in water, but he will baptize you with/in the Holy Spirit.” Cross references:

The Baptism of Jesus 9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 

10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven open up and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove.

11 And a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. (Voice = God the Father. Must have been an important event, because the entire Trinity was present!)

SUMMARY: After reading these opening verses to Mark’s gospel, what were the expectations for Jesus? What kinds of things did the people anticipate from Him?

1. The ‘good news’ about Jesus. We started with the point that this isn’t just personal good news like ‘Honey, I got a raise / promotion at work.’ Or, ‘Congratulations you’re going to gave a baby!’ Or, ‘The lab test was negative for cancer.’ These are all examples of PERSONAL good news. It is good, it might even be GREAT news, but it is meaningful only to you and your family.

The good news in Mark is transcendent, it is worldwide. It doesn’t affect just a few people, it is for everyone, everywhere, for all times, for all peoples and for all life situations. I think the readers already knew the basics about WHO Jesus was. They wanted to know more about Him, where He came from, what He did, what He said, where He went–they wanted MORE, and here was the beginning of that ‘more.’

Woo-hoo baby! Strap in, because Uncle Mark is going to take you on the ride of your life! There is a great contemporary song that captures a lot of what a Christian life truly lived can be like, Steven Curtis Chapman, The Great Adventure.

2. The Christ, the Annointed One of/from God is someone who was sent from God with a unique anointing of God’s power, sent for a very special purpose, with a special message. Sent to us, with a message from God for us. If you ever wanted God to speak to you. If you ever wanted God to do something about the mess in the world, this is it. Pay attention. Expect some answers. Expect some solutions.

3. God first sent a special, prophesied messenger to the people of the Bible, to the Jews, God’s chosen people, to prepare the way for the arrival of His Annointed One. This Annointed One was so important that God sent a herald to announce He was coming. ‘Get ready, everyone! The One who God has promised will soon be here. He will fix everything that’s wrong. He will make all things right, all things whole. Get ready, you don’t want to miss this!’

As a result of John the Baptist’s proclamations up and down the Jordan River, there was a sense of excited anticipation in Israel. The Messiah was coming from God, get ready!

4. ‘…and John was calling everyone to repent of their sins, proclaim4ing a baptism for the forgiveness of sins…’ So how do you prepare for the Messiah? The Jews knew that God was holy and the very first step to approaching Him was to be forgiven your sins through animal sacrifice. The Annointed One from God would be like God, so it only made sense that He was holy too. If you wanted to receive Him, if you wanted Him to receive you, you had to be clean.

Now, John didn’t mean you needed a bath on the outside. The Jewish ceremonial washing was just a sign of one’s spiritual cleansing. You needed to be clean on the inside. The straight path that John mentioned was not work on the roads. It was to prepare a straight path for the Messiah to reach your heart. Clean out the sinful thoughts, words and actions from your life, then you’ll be ready to receive Him…and He you.

You have to be holy to approach God the Father. You had to be holy to receive His Son. And then there is God’s Holy Spirit (it’s in the name.) So what we’re talking about here is HOLY HOLY, HOLY. That is God’s expectation of us, because that is who God is.

5. John the Baptist was a big deal in Israel. He was the first true prophet from God in 400 years. (There had been many self-proclaimed false prophets.) John was so popular with the masses that when he began calling the religious rulers sinners too, the rulers were afraid to arrest him because of popular acclaim.

Then John said something absolutely astounding. He said that the One who was coming was even greater, so great that John was not worthy enough to even untie His sandals.

Now, in those days, when someone entered a home, the lowest servant was stationed at the door with a pitcher of water, a basin and a towel. His job was to untie and remove the dirty, nasty sandals after the person had been walking the dirt roads of the time, stepping in mud sometimes, and definitely stepping in what the animals left behind. The servant then washed off anything that might have splashed up on the bare feet inside the sandals so they wouldn’t track anything inside, because they sat around on the floor and who would want to sit in some of that? Then the servant also washed and dried the sandals for when they left.

This was a sometimes nasty job assigned to the lowliest of the low, and John said, he was not even good enough to do that for God’s Annointed when He comes! What must the people have thought when John made that statement? I’m guessing there was a tremendous amount of interest and curiosity. If John, the great prophet of God, as they saw him, was saying, the Coming One is so much greater that John is lower than the lowliest servant, what kind of a Person might the Annointed One be?

6. A thundering voice from heaven, a hole ripped in the sky, a bright, powerful figure flashing out of that hole, shrinking to the size of a dove before it fell on this Nazarene who was just baptized… what in the world was happening? Is this the One? Who is he?

The people were primed to receive the Messiah and the stories about what happened at this baptism must have flashed up and down the country as fast as telephone or radio could have carried them. But these questions remained unanswered because whoever it was, He was whisked away, He fell off the radar, He disappeared for parts unknown.

Without confirmation, the people must have wondered, did something unusual, something special really happen? Was this the Messiah or should we look for someone else? I’m sure this was part of God’s plan, but the why is not clear to me.

SUMMARY: So, the question was, after reading verses 1 to 11, what might be expected from Jesus, what might one anticipate from Him after this introduction by Mark?

I think the expectations were for something great, for Someone great. Greater than anything they had ever known, heard of or seen. Something/Someone so great they had to be totally ready. So great that there were more questions and speculations than there was real knowledge. So great that it might totally blow you away. Maybe too great to comprehend, too great to withstand. Maybe it was some kind of GOD greatness?