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*Preparing the Way: Beginning of to Believing in the Gospel*
/Mark 1.1-15/
Pastor Oesterwind
*Introduction:* Mark writes in verse one, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” and in verse 15 he records the words of Jesus Christ: “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
The word /gospel/ provides an indicator of where the first unit of thought begins and ends in this Gospel.
It is a section devoted to the idea of /preparation/.
It is the beginning of the gospel as it appears in the entire portrait of Mark, beginning in chapter one and ending in chapter 16.
It is also the gospel in which mankind must believe.
The preparation ministry of John the Baptist, the response of the Jews, the baptism and temptation of Jesus Christ, and finally the proclamation of His Kingdom provide a parallel for our own lives.
Before the conversion of Paul, the Scriptures tell of his persecution efforts against those “who were of the Way” (Acts 9.2).
The early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as those who belonged to “the Way”.
These early believers probably had in mind the words Jesus said to his disciples just before His death: “I am the /way/, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Why the Way? “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the /way/ which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
So, in Mark we have the one true Way to eternal life.
It is a difficult way that is */the beginning of/* and the */believing in/* the Gospel.
*/Transition: The first concept in preparing the heart for the Way to Life begins with repentance.
/*
Repentance: Preparing the Way (1.1-4)
The Beginning of the Gospel (1.1)
*Mark 1:1 (NKJV) — 1* The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
*Explanation:* *Jesus* means “God is Salvation”.
*Christ* is Greek for the Hebrew word /Messiah/.
The verb form of Messiah means to anoint; therefore, Christ is the anointed One promised in the OT.
Jews awaited a King that would lead them, a King greater than David.
Jeremiah 23.5 promises that the days are coming when the LORD will raise to David a Branch of Righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
He will be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
But the verse states that He is Jesus Christ, */the Son of God/*.
As the Son of God, He is unique, the only begotten Son.
He is the only One of His kind.
He is the Son of God; He is God the Son.
There will be two separate occasions in which the Father acknowledges His Son in Mark (once in v. 11 after His baptism; a second time in 9.7 at His transfiguration).
Jesus is the eternal, co-equal, essential Son.
He is the second Person of the Triune Godhead.
In short, Jesus is God (John 1.1).
The word *gospel* simply means /good news/.
*The beginning of* the good news is that which is recorded from Mark 1 through Mark 16.
It is good news concerning Jesus Christ.
Recall that Mark writes many years after the ascension of Christ (the mid to late 60s of the first century).
Mark is saying that it all began with Jesus’ life and ministry, His death and resurrection.
This makes our own way to discipleship possible.
Apart from the work of the infinite God-Man, we would not know the way to eternal life.
The Baptism of Repentance (1.2-4)
*Mark 1:2–4 (NKJV) — 2* As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.
*3* The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’”
*4* John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
*Explanation:* Mark quotes from Isaiah 40.3 primarily.
John is the messenger that preceded Jesus.
He prepared the way of Jesus.
Isaiah referred to God in his text; Mark refers to Jesus.
Again, this is strong evidence to the fact that Jesus is God.
John is the voice crying in the wilderness.
He preached the appearing of God Himself in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Gospel is something that began way back in Genesis 3.15.
Jesus is the Seed of the woman.
Satan is the serpent that is mortally wounded by the life and work of Christ.
The Gospel is the completion of something God began in the history of Israel.
The way of Jesus is the way of God.
It is the only way of salvation that God has made possible.
It is the way of Jesus to the cross.
John prepared this way by baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Three concepts need explanation from verse four:
1.
*/What did the baptism of John mean? /* The terms baptizing and baptism in this verse are transliterations not translations.
The word baptize means to immerse.
So, John baptized by immersing people in the Jordan River.
But of course, the baptism was a picture of preparation.
Jews were accustomed to baptizing God-fearing non-Jews.
John was asking that Jews receive his baptism.
In other words, John is asking these Jews to humble themselves and re-enter God’s program or rejoin the people of God.
The baptism prepared them for what was to come in the ministry of Christ.
2.
*/What is meant by the baptism of repentance?/*
It was a repentance-baptism.
To repent means to change one’s mind which leads to a changing of one’s direction, the changing of one’s course in life.
We have to ask ourselves what would happen if one of these disciples of John had died before the life-work of Jesus Christ.
Would this repentance save them?
The answer is yes, certainly!
How?
It would save them because they responded by turning away from their self-trust and believing in what God had thus far revealed to them.
That is saving repentance!
3. */What is meant by remission of sins?/*
The word for sins in this verse means “missing the mark” – a mark God will hold us to meet fully and perfectly.
All of us fall short of this mark.
Therefore, we are guilty.
Remission carries the idea of a clearing or sending away of that guilt and sin.
It is the dismissal of sin.
The Bible teaches that “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103.12).
God “will not remember your sins” (Isa 43.25).
“He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7.19).
*Application:* The way to eternal life begins with an understanding of saving repentance.
While the disciples of John the Baptist did not have the whole story as Mark did or as you and I do, they responded to what they knew, and thus experienced saving repentance.
We have full knowledge of this doctrine.
This morning, the way of eternal life begins when you understand and acknowledge that you have been going the wrong way.
Many people believe that their way is right.
They keep the Golden Rule, they attend church, they have moral and upright families, they do this and they do that.
You see, that’s the problem.
They do it when Jesus has already done it!
You repent today by turning away from that old bankrupt way of doing and turning to the only Way, Truth, and Life.
Jesus paid it all and all to Him you owe! Saving repentance means you stop trusting in yourself and rely only on Jesus Christ for your eternal life!
This is important.
You cannot turn from individual sins in your life.
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