Sermon

The Place to Begin Mark 1:1-8

Brothers and sisters, today we're going to ask a very important and also very practical question: If faith is to begin, where should it start? In fact, the Gospel of Mark gives us the answer right at the very start of the book: Mark 1:1 "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

The Gospel of Mark is the most translated book in the world. It is also the shortest gospel. The author, Mark, seems to be very fascinated by 3 combinations:

1.   Jesus of Nazareth, the human Jesus vs the Son of God, the Divine One.

2.   The Ruler who manifests his ability to serve vs the Servant who knows how to rule.

3.   The King vs The Cross

Today, we can see at least two lights from God in the first 8 verses:

I. The Beginning of John’s Ministry 

Right at the very beginning, Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah.”  This is an amazing statement. Mark wastes no time establishing his subject's identity. He said very straightforwardly that Jesus is the “Christ” and the “Son of God.” The word “Christ” is a Greek word; in Hebrew, it is called “Messiah,” meaning “an anointed royal figure.” For the people of Israel, the Messiah is the king who would come and administer God’s rule on earth and rescue Israel from all its troubles. But Jesus is not just a king; he is the King.

That’s why Mark does not just call Jesus the “king,” he goes further, he calls Him: “Son of God.” This is an astonishing word that goes beyond the popular understanding of the Messiah at the time. By quoting Isaiah’s prophetic passage, Mark roots Jesus as deeply as possible in the historic religion of Israel. Jesus is the fulfilment of all the biblical prophets’ longings and visions (Malachi 3:1; Isa 40:3), and He is the one who will come to rule and renew the entire world. He will be the King for the whole universe.

Before a king arrived in those days, he was preceded by a herald announcing his coming. Today, our topic, the beginning of the gospel, the place to begin, is about the ministry of that herald for the King of the whole universe. This herald was called John the Baptist.

The ministry of John the Baptist was groundbreaking in his message. He was a messenger who went before to announce the good news about Jesus. John’s ministry was a sure stepping stone that led to the full Gospel of Jesus Christ; So, John’s ministry is to prepare the way for Jesus, the King.

Why would God consider that a step of preparation had to be made in people’s hearts before God and humans could come together? God does not just suddenly appear before the human being and expect us to receive Him. In that case, God would only frighten people to death. Some preparation had to be made. So, John the Baptist was sent as that preparer to go before the Lord and prepare the way for him.

And verses 4-5 tell us that John’s ministry started in the wilderness and on the Jordan River. The wilderness is really a desolate, forsaken, lonely spot -- even today. It is a parched, barren and dry place. John the Baptist began his ministry in such a wilderness, the worst possible place. But God chose the wilderness because it is a symbol. It is symbolic of where John's message was to fall upon the wilderness of mankind. The desert is really a picture of us, of our dry, empty, barren, weary, bored, and distraught lives.

One of my friends told me: a neighbour he had known for a long time, a very intelligent man who made a lot of money and had everything he wanted. But he came over one day, sat down at my friend's table, buried his face in his hands, and said, "God! But I'm bored!" Two weeks later, he took his own life. People may have everything that others have ever wanted, yet they are still not happy with what they have. That is the desert, that is where people live. And that is why John the Baptist appeared there. It is God's symbol to us of the hope that will spring up, even in the midst of the desert of our life experience.

But we then see in verse 5 that the people of Jerusalem and Judea left their cities. In other words, these people left their recreations and pleasures, came to this wilderness to listen to John’s preaching. They probably had to walk 40 kilometres to hear John the Baptist, but they still did so willingly. What’s the reason for that?

II. The Solution to the Problems

Obviously, John the Baptist spoke to a universal need in people’s lives. We don’t have to guess what it was, because it is still around. It is exactly the same need that grips people's hearts today. I believe those people were victims of a syndrome that every human being suffers from. The syndrome consists of 3 elements: Sin, Guilt, and Fear. These three things always go together.

What is sin? Well, basically and fundamentally, sin is self-centeredness. We commit sins because we think of ourselves as the centre of everything around us. That’s why we have to make an effort if we really want to empathise with other people’s situations.

That is the essence of sin: Self-Centeredness. And we are all victims of it. Every human being struggles with this, and we find ourselves always trapped inside of it. That is the curse that hangs over our whole human race. Originally, we were made by God to be vessels of God’s outgoing love, reaching out to everyone around us. But somehow that has become twisted, so that now, instead of reaching out, we reach in and we love ourselves first.

And sin always produces guilt. Guilt is a dislike of ourselves. We don’t like the fact that we hurt others -- and we know we do. We feel responsible because we see the damage our self-centeredness causes in other people's lives, and we feel guilty about it. That’s why psychologists say that the great problem humanity wrestles with is Self-Hatred. We hate ourselves. We don’t like ourselves. We lose our self-respect. That is guilt.

Guilt is always accompanied by fear, because fear is self-distrust. Fear is feeling unable to handle our lives anymore, being aware that there are forces and powers we cannot control, and those forces and powers will eventually confront us. We cannot handle them, and so we run away from them.

Even in the Garden of Eden, as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they felt guilty, and they hid themselves in fear. It has been the history of humanity ever since. Fear looms up, that uncertainty about the future, and we become fearful, timid people, afraid of what will happen next; we are afraid of being accepted or rejected; afraid of what people will do to us; and, finally, especially, afraid of what God is going to do to us. That is an inner torment.

Many of Tibet’s sites have become healing shrines to which people come from all over the world. Any day you go there, you can see people walking on their knees, crawling for blocks over dirty, rough pavement to get to that shrine. It is painful. Many people leave bloodstains on the pavement as they crawl along. Why would they do such a thing? Because the outward torture of bloody knees is NOT even half so brutal to bear as their inner torment of guilt and fear. Someone has told them that this will relieve their inner torment, which is why they do it.

If we think that is superstitious, nonsense, we need to look at some of the ways we do to free ourselves of guilt and fear. Some people try to feel better by giving away their money, while others try to do good things to make up for their past mistakes. Some people stay busy all the time to forget about their problems, and others hurt their bodies with religious practices to feel better inside. It's the same for Christians. We also make a lot of "spiritual pornography" for ourselves, and we are good at making excuses for it. But it's much more dangerous to use our knowledge of the Bible to make things look like they make perfect sense so that we can feel good about them. So, none of the above are solutions to the problems.

Mark tells us that John’s message provides the very solution to the problems, that is, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. It is the very message that went back to Jerusalem, and it was working, that people were finding relief. And the city began to stir, as word spread from mouth to mouth, until finally the people began to stream out into this desert place to find John the Baptist.

Then John announced this great word: that repentance is the way people come to God, and the result is the forgiveness of sins. So, the greatest blessing a person can experience in life is to have his sins forgiven. This is what those people were looking for: they found forgiveness of sins, a great relief, and it came through repentance. Repentance is the place where God meets human beings; Repentance is part of the ultimate ‘U-turn’ from darkness to light, from death to life.

John's message was like a great bulldozer, clearing a highway in the desert so that God could come to the isolated stranger in the midst of the wilderness. If someone is stuck in the desert without a road, you cannot drive out to help them. You must have a road. John the Baptist was God's bulldozer, building that road. Do you know how roads are built? Before constructing the road, builders must level all peaks, flatten all low areas, and straighten all crooked sections. That is what repentance does. It brings down all the high peaks of pride that we stand on; It takes those low, depressed areas of our life, where we beat, torture, and punish ourselves, and lifts them up; It takes the crooked places, where we have lied and deceived, and straightens them out. And it makes the rough places plain. John the Baptist preached this. His message was clear: no forgiveness without repentance and confession of sins.

Somehow, we have grown up with the idea that you forgive people only when they come and apologise to you. That is absolutely wrong! Very few acts of reconciliation would ever take place on that basis. No! True forgiveness has to start before the offender comes to you. And forgiveness means forgetting it —not holding it over the person's head and bringing it up now and then, but forgetting it. Why?? Because we ourselves have already been forgiven. That’s why, in Matthew 18:28b, Jesus told the story of the man who had been forgiven a tremendous debt, but then grabbed another man who owed him 10 dollars and said, "Pay me what you owe me!" Jesus says that is what we are like when we don’t forgive those who offend us. We have been forgiven a tremendous debt, and on that basis, we are to forgive others. So that is where it starts—the change of attitude in our hearts.

So, in verse 5, many people gathered to hear John’s message and responded by confessing their sins, repenting, and being baptised. Their baptism pictured the cleansing of their sins and the change from their old, sinful self to new lives.

John the Baptist's whole ministry was centred on preaching the uniqueness and authority of the Word. He was not a teacher or a theologian of the Temple or synagogue. He was a preacher who spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit. Right at the heart of John the Baptist’s ministry was his constant pointing to Christ. He showed that all true preaching should ultimately point to Christ. And we see his burning zeal for pointing to Jesus: in verse 7, John said, “After me comes the one more powerful than I,” and he continues: “the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” So, basically, John was saying that though I can take you to the place of outward cleansing, I cannot do much more, verse 8: “I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” So, John the Baptist could only point people towards God, but he could not take them beyond that.

Who can do that? The power of Jesus’ life, which is ONLY available through the Holy Spirit. From that time on, this is what God has made available to any man or woman who will start at the place of beginning -- the place of repentance.

Friends, have you ever repented? Have you ever changed your mind, stopped defending yourself, and tried to blame everything on others? And said, "No, Lord, it's not they, it is just me. This is the way I am --, and I need help."  That is the place God will meet you. God always meets His people at that point, washes away guilt and drives out our fear. That is where you and I will find forgiveness of sins.

But if you have never repented before, I urge you to do so now. God will meet you right there. In the quiet of your own heart, where God alone hears, you can say to Him, "Lord, I repent. Lord, let the Holy Spirit help me with that."

And God He will.

If you are in a desert area of your life and don’t know how to handle it, this is the place to begin. Repent, and God will meet you there, and wash it all away. He does not have a word of condemnation for you, but just a word of cleansing.