Prepare the Way
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My garage is like a scene from Exodus....It’s like the red sea.
There are walls of junk on either side, and down the middle there is a narrow path carved into the walls of junk, just wide enough for me and a wheelie bin to get from the back door to the front door of the garage on bin day.
And every now and then there are a few more items that get chucked into the garage - cos there’s no room in the house. And these get carefully placed on top of the junk on either side in a buckaroo fashion - boxes teetering on top of bikes and scooters and bean bags and Christmas decorations, cos I need to keep that path down the middle. Cos if I don’t then I can’t get my wheelie bin out and I cant get rid of my rubbish.
Now, every now and then there is too much stuff or something falls into the path and I have to spend time moving them out of the way to make the path clear for the wheelie bin. You dearn’t let that path get cluttered otherwise every Monday evening it’s a nightmare.
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Maybe none of you know what I’m dealing with. Maybe some of you do. Maybe some of you have been there. That’s the problem when you’ve got little space and a load of stuff.
But this scenario is a fitting reminder to what our passage is about today.
Today we start a new series on the gospel of ’m not sure how long it’ll last. If it was only me doing it it might take us a few years. But I’m starting it right at the beginning and my garage is a fitting analogy to what’s going on in these first few verses.
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Mark’s gospel is quite possibly the first gospel to be written, with Matthew and Luke taking Mark’s words and adding extra detail to some of it. But Mark is straight in with what his gospel is all about in verse 1. There are no punches pulled - there’s no twist or subtle introduction. There’s not even a Christmas story. Mark simply blurts out...
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS, THE MESSIAH, WHO IS THE SON OF GOD.
I mean, Mark is telling everyone what’s going on - right from the start. This is a book about the good news about a man named Jesus, who is the anointed on - the Messiah talked about in the Old Testament - who just also happens to be the Son of God.
In other words - sit up and take notice - cos this is gonna change your life!
And he’s straight in with a prophecy from Malachi and Isaiah.... Specifically verse 3 from Isaiah...
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
And then Mark writes about John the baptist who is the one in the wilderness.
Now, here’s the interesting bit - John the baptist is the one preparing the way for the Lord, but his message, to those who are listening is what???
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”
So John prepares the way for the Lord and he asks us to do the same? So how do we do that? How do WE prepare the way of the Lord?
Well, let’s continue in the story.
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John
And what’s interesting about baptism is this…In Judaism there were many ceremonial cleansing rituals that people had to undergo. You may remember I talked a bit about that when talking about the shepherds before Christmas.
But their was a ceremonial washing - a one-time event - and it was the full immersion - or baptism that non-Jews had to go through when converting to Judaism. It was like a washing away of the old way of life - a cleansing, so to speak of non-Jewish ways in order to be clean to follow the Jewish law and customs.
That fits with what John is doing here. However, this baptism is a baptism of repentance - an immersion into repentance - an immersion into a new way of life - that’s what repentance is, a changing of your ways…a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and everyone was getting in on the action...
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.
Now, one commentator highlights the significance of this - cos to tell a Jew that they had to be baptised or to turn away from the old way of life - in the same way a non-Jew would be told if they wanted to convert to Judaism - would be really offensive.
It’s like saying to them that their heritage and tradition and religion isn’t enough. Cos to a Jew, if you were born into a Jewish family and didn’t reject the law then you would be saved. John’s saying - uh uh…you need this baptism of repentance too - you NEED to be immersed into a life of repentance and forgiveness.
I other words...
You need to come to God in the same way the non-Jews come - we’re all entering this on the same terms.
To compare that to our current situation, it’s very much like many churches in this country. Cos there are many people out there and perhaps even in here, who believe that if you are born into a christian family and go to church and so on, you would be saved.
But John is direct here - there needs to be a change of life - a repentance....a movement from the old way of life and an entrance into a new way of life. That’s the message John was proclaiming - that this baptism of repentance, this fully entering into repentance and a change of life IS what prepares the way for the Lord.
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Now I’ve interchanged baptism with immersion and fully entering for a reason, and I need to explain that for a second.
We need to be very careful, when reading the bible, cos there are some words in the Greek that translate into English - in fact most of them do. So Agape means love, for example.
But with the word ‘baptise’ while there IS an English equivalent, it is also a spiritual action or event - think of baptism as we know it - and so it’s left un-translated, which is very annoying. It more often than not means to immerse, but there are other meanings. But rather than translate the word ‘baptise’ to ‘immerse’ we leave it as baptise, because of the event that is associated with it.
So, when you see the word ‘baptise’ you’ve got to ask the question, is it talking about baptism in the sense of the ‘event’ (like John the baptist did) or does it mean to immerse or to FULLY ENTER INTO something?
Cos when it says in verse 4 that John preached a baptism of repentance, it COULD mean that when the people went into the water and came out again it was symbolic of repentance - of a new way of life… But it could ALSO mean that John was preaching that we must FULLY ENTER into repentance - that we must commit - 100% into a new way of life - to immerse ourselves into kingdom living, into living for Jesus.
Do you see what I’m getting at. Don’t AWAYS think water when you see the word ‘baptism’.
Cos look at verse 8. John says...
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
And so John even makes a distinction here between water and the Holy Spirit, so there’s probably no water involved in the baptism that Jesus brings.
So let’s look at it like this.... It’s like John is saying, “Listen, I’ve immersed you into water, but the one who comes after me will immerse you in something MUCH GREATER than water - the one who comes after me will immerse you in the Holy Spirit.”
And that’s what happens when we fully enter into a new way of life for Jesus - When we fully enter into that way of life, Jesus will fully cover us - immerse us, with the Holy Spirit - who enables and equips us to live for him.
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And then in verses 9-11 Jesus gives us an example to follow. Cos he didn’t need to be baptised, but his example is one to follow - that we need to fully enter into a new way of life for Jesus - a life of repentance…turning away from our old way of living and living for him.
And so Jews and non-Jews would be on the same page - a turning away of religious customs and laws, a turning away from ungodliness - and fully entering into a life with Jesus.
But here’s the thing - you can’t come to the river for baptismal cleansing if you didn’t think you needed cleansed.
In hospitals, there the alcohol gel pumps everywhere so that doctors, nurses, visitors - anyone, can cleanse their hands before coming in contact with patients. It stops the transmission of bugs and diseases from the visitor to the patient and from the patient to the visitor. Now, so often people don’t use the gel because they think their hands are clean.
So often Naomi doesn’t think she needs to wash her hands after using the toilet because her hands don’t look dirty.
The problem in both cases is that germs are invisible and we need to cleanse our hands from the germs. But because germs are invisible we don’t THINK are hands are dirty.
And when people DON’T cleanse their hands from their germs it’s often because they don’t THINK their hands are dirty.
So a Jew wouldn’t come to the waters to be baptised unless they KNEW they needed cleansed. And so in the same way, you don’t fully enter into a new way of life - you don’t have a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins unless you are AWARE that there is sin in your life.
And of course is a great reminder - ALL have sinned.
And so Jews wouldn’t want to be baptised because they didn’t think they were dirty. They were born into a Jewish family, they were circumcised - they were saved. And in the same way there are people in our churches who don’t think they need to fully enter into a new way of life. - a life of repentance for the forgiveness of sins - because they don’t think they’re sinners. They were born into the church, even baptised - so they think they’re saved - and they aren’t AWARE that they need to repent of sin .
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Coming to that realisation is the first step on the way to fully entering into this new life - and on Wednesday night I’ll be looking at that as we start our series on the sermon on the mount.
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And this is what prepares the way of the Lord.
You see, what happens in people’s lives is that the ‘path’ in their garage becomes cluttered. There are obstacles in the way and the path is not clear - the way of the Lord is NOT straight. And of course that’s a metaphor for sin.
You see it is our sin that gets in the way of the Lord - literally. John preached, ‘prepare the WAY’ - that’s exactly what we need to do - to get stuff out of THE WAY of our coming to God - to remove our SIN cos that’s what gets in the way. That’s why John preached a baptism of repentance - fully entering into a new way of life - turning away from all this stuff…clearing the path.
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And so I ask you, on this new year, where resolutions are made and broken - what is in THE WAY of the Lord? What is stopping you from welcoming the Lord into your life? What’s stopping you from fully entering into a new way of life and being immersed in the promised Holy Spirit?
OR - what’s hindering your walk with the Lord? Is your path full of obstacles - is there sin in your life that you need to clear?
Mark wrote, from Isaiah - Prepare the way of the Lord - make his paths straight…Whatever it is, it’s hindering your walk with Jesus. Are you willing to remove it from the path and fully enter into this life with Jesus?
Are you willing to be baptised in Holy Spirit? Do you even WANT to be?
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John was blunt with his message. It was very much turn or burn, which used to be the message of many a gospel hall, and still is, I’m sure. We’ve tended to move so far away from that sort of preaching that it’s been kinda forgotten that it IS true.
Thankfully Jesus comes with a gospel of grace. Look at verse 10.
And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
Another commentator mentioned how a dove settles gracefully and peacefully - and that was Jesus’ message - one of grace and peace. And by the way, there was NO DOVE there.
I did a Google image search of ‘Jesus’ baptism’ and almost ALL of the images had Jesus, John and a bird. There was no bird present - there was no dove. The Spirit descended LIKE a dove. It was graceful and peaceful.
And that’s the difference between Jesus’ baptism and John’s baptism.
Because John baptised with water and it was a representation of a change of attitude.
Baptism by the Holy Spirit is an equipping - a supernatural equipping and enablement to make that change of life.
You see, we can prepare the way of the Lord by moving junk aside and balancing boxes on top of bikes and scooters. In other words, we can tackle certain sins... for a while, but they’ll come tumbling back in the path again and hinder our walk with God.
But when you fully enter into a new way of life with Jesus then it’s like the Holy Spirit comes in with a power-hose and does the job proper. We can only do so much - but fully entering into a new way of life with Jesus will give you the Holy Spirit who who will fully enter into YOU and will help you do the rest.
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And this message is for everyone. You might think I’m only talking to people who aren’t saved…I’m not. Cos Christians battle with sin on a daily basis - some more so than others. Let’s take this new year to examine our ‘paths’ and see if there is anything that will get in the way of you coming to the Lord, or that will get in the way of the Lord working through you.
Maybe it’s for the first time. Maybe you’ve been thinking that being born and brought up in the church is enough and you’ve come to a realisation that you need this baptism too - that you need to enter into this new way of life with Jesus too and get immersed with the Holy Spirit.
Maybe it’s not the first time, but you’ve noticed your relationship with God has waned - the Spirit’s power and enabling SEEMS like it’s afar off. Maybe you need to examine your paths and see what sin is getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord.
And it’s not just talking about the ‘big’ sins like adultery, lying or stealing or something like that. If that’s an issue, deal with it - fully enter into repentance.
Maybe it’s
But what about sins of omission, what about idolatry? Cos if you’re putting other things in front of God that’s as serious a sin as the others mentioned except that we so often don’t realise it’s an issue. Are you, for example, putting church before God, are you putting tradition before God - remember we talked about that a couple of weeks ago? Are you putting family, friends, facebook before God? Are you spending any time with God during the week, worshipping him, praying to him, learning from his word?
You see, since baptism means to fully enter - let’s make a promise to do that - let’s make a promise to fully enter into a new way of life for Jesus - but not just for the new year…let’s do it for life.
And the good news - the gospel is that if we fully enter into or if we become immersed into a new way of life for Jesus, we also will be immersed with the Holy Spirit who will come like a flood - baptising us in himself and empowering, equipping and enabling us to live this new way of life for Jesus.
I’m going to pray in a minute or two - but I would like to give some time for you to examine your lives - to examine your paths and bring anything that is getting in the way before the Lord. So in the silence confess whatever you need to confess and ask for a baptism of the Holy Spirit to enable you to fully enter into this new way of life for Jesus.
If you want it, ask for it - but you need to see what’s in the way of the Lord and you need to remove it.
Let’s pray.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, pour your Spirit on us like a flood.