Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8: John the Baptizer Prepares the Way


[1:1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.


[2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, [3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” 


[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 


(Mark 1:1-8 ESV)




What did it mean to the original audience?


v1 - Anyone seeking information about Jesus can find it here.  And just to clarify: this Jesus is the Son of God.


v2-3 - This is the fulfillment to the ancient prophecies.  This is the Messiah the Jews were waiting for, the Lord.  And John is the messenger, the one preparing the way.  For the Jews, this will perk the ears up, one way or the other.  For Romans or other Gentiles, it means that some ancient prophecies are being fulfilled, which should grab your attention, even if you haven't believed these ancient things up until now.


v4 - Jews needed to kill animals to be forgiven of sins.  Now John comes offering baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  That's got to be attractive!  Instead of buying and killing animals, you just get dunked?  Of course, baptism for Jews meant initiation into a way of life, so it was a life change (after all, it was a baptism of repentance; you get baptized because you are changing the course of your life).  But still, being washed with water to forgive sins?  Sweet!


the Jordan River has great meanings for Israel.  They crossed the Jordan to enter Israel, to enter into God's rest and promise.  So now they are entering into the Jordan to enter a time of peace, forgiveness of sins, rest, healing.  God was calling people back to Himself, and they were coming.


v7 - John is humble, the coming Messiah worthy of extreme honor.  John is baptizing the entire nation in repentance, yet he is not worthy to do the task of the lowliest servant to Jesus.  This is highly exalting Jesus, even before He has been revealed to the people.  He must increase, John must decrease.


v8 - Baptize with the Holy Spirit - fulfillment of OT prophecies.  This is Yahweh coming to be with His people!  Great news for Jews.  What would Gentiles have thought?  Clearly a divine blessing, a good thing. 



What does it mean for us, today? 


This same Gospel message calls us to repentance, to the forgiveness of sins.  It's not just a historical story about a guy who lived 2,000 years ago.  It calls us to repent of our sins, be baptized into new life in Him, and be baptized with the Holy Spirit, filled with divine power.  This is about life transformation. 


And we can have confidence in this message because it was prophesied from ancient times.  Jesus came in complete fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  Even in today's world of technology and skepticism, that has to make us take notice.  Jesus fulfilled prophecies that were hundreds and thousands of years old, and we can verify them historically.  If we're going to verify historical claims, this is the best way to do them.  Not just verifying that something happened, but verifying that it was predicted from ancient times and happened exactly to the letter. That makes this unique out of all history.  Thus we should believe it.


If we are baptized by the Holy Spirit, we should be living like it.  We should be living in the power of the Spirit, exercising the gifts of the Spirit, demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit, praying with the Spirit (Romans 8), worshiping God in spirit and in truth. 


Yet to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, we need to repent of our sins and be baptized (commit our lives to Jesus, responding to the call to initiate a new life in Him).  (This doesn't mean we have to be physically dunked in water before the Holy Spirit can descend; baptism is the outward sign of what's happened inside.  The inside piece needs to happen before the Holy Spirit fills us). 


This passage also should motivate us to model John in lessening ourselves and glorifying Jesus.  It's all about Jesus, and we should live like it is.  He is always mightier than us, always God, while we are always mortal humans.  We should be humble before God.  We are not worthy of Him, yet He loves us and has always loved us, and so He comes to us and gives us new life with Him.  This is why we love Him!


So this passage announces to us the arrival of a Messiah predicted from ancient times, who calls us to repent of our sins, be baptized into new life, recognize that we are humble before Him, and live in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is intense!




What does it call us to do? 


Renounce anything keeping us from doing what's above.  Repent of any sins we cling to.  Die to the old life and live in the new.  Truly live in the power of the Spirit, carrying out the mission of the Spirit, to preach the Gospel and bring the loving, fulfilling worship of Jesus to the entire world. 


If you haven't already, trust in Jesus!  Be baptized into new life in Him!  Repent of your sins, and open yourself up to this amazing new life!


For me, to realize that the power I have isn't mine, it isn't limited to my abilities.  I have the Spirit in me.  I can do anything through Him!  I am a vessel, a channel for His power.  The dead will rise, the sick be healed, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the oppressed will be liberated, the lost will be found, the dying will be saved.  All by the Spirit's power!  This is all about Jesus! 




What does this teach us about ourselves? 


John is weird.  Most of us aren't like this, devoting our lives exclusively to the Gospel.  Most of us cling to our own special little things, keeping parts of our lives back from God.  Our nature is to be "normal," not to be the fundamentalist freak but to try to retain some aspect of a life that our culture deems as "normal."  I won't say this is entirely bad, but it does mean that few of us are operating at the level John did, baptizing entire nations in repentance for sins. 


"Christianity is not a system that will be tried and found insufficient, but it will be a system that is left untried."  Something like that.  Few of us are willing to be this radical.  Is it any wonder, then, that few of us are operating in this power?  We give God only small pieces of our lives, so we shouldn't be surprised when God only does small things through us.


This passage also tells us that people want to be healed and forgiven.  They want this.  No one wants to live life feeling guilty or ashamed of all they have done.  They want to be clean, to be free, to be forgiven.  Many people recognize they are messing up their lives, and they want a new way.  They eagerly cling to a baptism into a new way of life, if it is preached clearly to them.  We don't have to wrestle people into wanting this; the desire is there.  They are made to worship Jesus.  But there is a lot we have to clear away, including misconceptions, lies, ignorance, the desire to be gods ourselves, emotional attachments to sinful things, etc.  That's where the battle lies.  When people see God truly, they want Him (providing that their sins aren't killing them, like Isaiah 6). 




What glory of God is this passage revealing? 


He really knows all of time, to be able to prophesy all these things through prophets centuries and millennia ahead of time.  This is a God who speaks, who lets us know what He is doing, and who announces His coming clearly, so that we cannot have any excuse for missing Him.


God really does care about our lives, both about us individually and about how we live our lives.  Otherwise He would never ask us to repent, to live life as He intended it to be lived.


It also means that God designed our lives for a purpose, for glory.  There are things God designed us to do, purposes for which He created us, and He calls us to repent of the things that are holding us back from them.  He calls us to give up everything that's keeping us back from Him, from the enjoying the life of pure love and joy that He offers freely.  This is a tremendously good God!


And God is coming to us.  Jesus doesn't leave us alone, trying to struggle our way to Him, having no choice but to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  He comes to us and does the work for us.  He meets us where we are and gives us new life in Him, empowering us with His Spirit.  He doesn't leave us to puzzle and philosophize and guess at who He is; instead, He reveals Himself to us through Scripture, through Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment.  Ultimately, He reveals Himself through coming down from Heaven and living as a flesh-and-blood human, who lives the perfect life, fulfilling the Law, and then attributing that life to us through His death and bodily Resurrection.  How awesome is that?