The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

These are my notes from a message by Pastor Russ Sukhia of Liberty Church PCA from his series on the gospel of Mark.  The text for today is Mark 1: 1-8.

Click here to listen to Pastor Russ’ message in its entirety.

Mark is a gospel of great action and speed.  Mark was not one of the 12 disciples; he probably was one of the 70 sent out.  He doesn’t begin the gospel with genealogies…he is anxious and begins with “the gospel of Jesus Christ”.

v1:  Jesus is the Hebrew name “Joshua”…meaning Jehovah Saves.  Christ means the anointed One; the Messiah.  He was God’s appointed One.  THE anointed One.  He was not just a prophet of God or a servant of God…but God’s only Son. This is an assertion of Christ’s divinity (see also John 5:18)

v2: Forerunner means one who prepares the way…in the same way today that the President would send an advance team before him to clear the way.  John was preparing the hearts of the people who would receive Christ; removing obstacles in people’s hearts.

vv4-5: John preached about repentance – and his baptism was about repentance.  John’s message, like Old Testament prophets before and like Christ after, was about deep heartfelt repentance.  Repentance is not merely regret or sorrow (like the regret Judas or the rich young ruler had), John was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.  The key to John’s power was that he was Spirit-filled (dunamis; dynamite; power) – this resulted in great boldness.  As a result of being Spirit-filled, there was a huge response from the masses and many repented and were baptized.

v6: Mark explains John’s clothing and diet.  This may seem odd because Mark doesn’t take time as the other gospel writers do to trace Jesus’ roots.  John was described like Elijah…a hairy man who ate whatever he could find in the wilderness and wore crude clothing.  John was a Nazarite from birth — his entire life was consecrated and devoted to the Lord…not just a period of time.

v7: John was pointing people to Christ – in effect John was saying, “Don’t mistake the herald for the King. I’m just preparing the way.”  He told people that Christ would do in reality what he could only do as a sign or shadow.

Consider the following from these passages:

1. The coming of both the Forerunner and Messiah were foreordained in Scripture hundreds of years before they occurred.  The unfolding of the redemption story is unveiled more and more in Old Testament, and then in its full glory in the New Testament.  Our redemption was worked out precisely as foretold in Scripture…according to God’s perfect timing.  Mark is the good news about Jesus Christ – not merely a man, but God incarnate…Emmanuel; “God With Us”
2. Christ calls John the greatest Old Testament prophet in Matt 11:7. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets.  Jesus said no one born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.  He was great in the sight of the Lord.  He was great because he was Spirit-filled – and we must seek to be filled by the Holy Spirit (in the same way the wind fills a sail).  We ought to have the Spirit not just present in our lives…but have the Holy Spirit dominate our lives.  If we are to have God dominate our lives, then we must “prepare the way” for Him…prepare our hearts.  We need to remove the obstacles and besetting sins that separate us from God.  We have a personal responsibility to do what God commands us — i.e., read His Word; pray; worship Him; serve Him.
3. We must repent!  Christians will always come up short on the bar of God’s justice, so we continually need to repent.
4. We should always seek to proclaim the good news of Christ…that our sins are borne by God Himself

Final Thought: Are we embracing this good news through repentance and faith?  If so, then we must share it.

To God Be The Glory!