We Want Something Real
Suzy and I watched a show recently about the music of the 1990’s. It brought back lots of memories of high school and reminded us how far God has brought us in our sanctification. A couple things stood out to me. First, the way we dressed in the 90’s was awesome. Second, Canadian singer and songwriter Alanis Morissette said that her music really took off when she started writing songs that described her personal experiences and feelings. She said this was because people in the 1990’s were craving something real and authentic. She was right, I think. She sold over fifty million albums in the mid-nineties.
Jesus Is the Way
Our generation craves something real and authentic and genuine and true. But we aren’t the only ones. We all want to be a part of something true and real. Pretentious and shallow people are a huge turn off to all of us. We want something to anchor our lives in that won’t move, that won’t disappoint, that won’t lie to us. We long for sincerity. We long for an authentic life.
Many of us have looked to musicians or movies or money to find the way to an authentic life. Many of us have even tried religion as the way to a meaningful life. But none of these things have the power to give us what we’re looking for over the long haul. They may satisfy for a season, but we eventually realize that the love and life we’re looking for isn’t found in them. The way of the world will always leave us looking for another way.
This is because there’s only one true way to live, only one true way to an authentic, real, meaningful, and genuine life. It’s found in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said plainly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). If Jesus is the only way to life, then every other way will leave us wanting more. God sent Jesus to show us the way to life, the way to him. This is what the Gospel of Mark is about.
Who Wrote Mark and Why Did They Write?
Let’s quickly recap what we learned about Mark’s Gospel a couple weeks ago. We learned that John Mark wrote this Gospel around 65 AD to Christians in Rome who were experiencing persecution under the emperor Nero. John Mark wrote to Christians who were being eaten alive by wild dogs, crucified, and burned to death. Mark wrote to suffering Christians in order to remind them that Jesus also suffered and that following him would lead to suffering.
Another key characteristic of Mark’s Gospel is its brevity, or briefness. It moves along at breathtaking speed. The word “immediately” (euthus) is used forty-two times in Mark and only twelve in the rest of the New Testament. Mark seems to be in a hurry to give us the major facts about Jesus’ life and ministry. He leaves out the narratives of Jesus’ birth and most of his teaching. Mark is like an evangelistic tract that summarizes the work of Jesus. Mark’s style tells us that he’s writing in a moment of crisis. He’s not writing a dry history book or even a biography. He’s writing to people who’re afraid for their lives, reminding them who Jesus is and what he did, and why dying for him isn’t a bad thing and why it should even be expected.
We learned in verse one that Mark’s Gospel is about “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The “good news” is that, in the person of Jesus, God is announcing the arrival of his reign and rule. He is bringing his kingdom to the earth. In Jesus, God is saving his people and defeating his enemies.
Our text this morning will be 1:2-13. It can be divided into three sections: John prepares the way for Jesus (vv. 2-8), God affirms the identity of Jesus (vv. 9-11), and Satan attacks Jesus (vv. 12-13).
John Prepares the Way for Jesus
Notice in verse 1 that Mark doesn’t say that he’s presenting the “gospel of Jesus,” but the “gospel of Jesus Christ.” Mark’s Gospel will drive us relentlessly to Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”…Peter answered, “You are the Christ” (8:27-30).
Mark makes it clear at the outset that his Gospel is about Jesus, who is the Messiah. This is interesting because Mark is probably writing mostly to Roman Christians, not Jewish Christians. But even they need to understand that Jesus’ life and work cannot be understood apart from the Old Testament. Some popular preachers today have said that Christians need to unhook themselves from the Old Testament because it can be a stumbling block to unbelievers. Mark didn’t do that, and neither should we.
Although Mark is writing to mostly Gentile Christians, look how he begins our text (v. 2a). Mark uses Old Testament quotations sparingly because they wouldn’t carry much authority with a Gentile audience. But he begins his Gospel with a quote from the Old Testament. In fact, these verses are a summary of three Old Testament texts from Exodus, Isaiah, and Malachi.
These opening verses link the life and ministry of Jesus to the Old Testament. One commentator says, “Jesus is not an afterthought of God, as though an earlier plan of salvation had gone awry. Rather, Jesus stands in continuity with the work of God in Israel…The introductory tapestry of OT quotations…makes the person and ministry of Jesus nonunderstandable apart from (the Old Testament).”
Mark’s Gospel can only be understood as a completion of something that God started earlier. The Old Testament reveals God’s plan to save a people for himself from among all the peoples of the world. The New Testament tells us that he’s done it through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Thus, the whole Bible reveals the glory of what God has done in Christ. We Gentile Christians need to read and study and know and cherish the Old Testament because without it we won’t be able to know and cherish Jesus rightly.
These opening quotations from the Old Testament show us a key aspect of Jesus’ ministry. The word “way” or “path” is used three times. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a “way” to life or a “path” to walk in. This is why the earliest Christians were called “the Way” (Acts 9:2). The good news of Jesus points us away from philosophy and mysticism and religion with all of their rules and systems. The “way of the Lord” is a way to life. The gospel of Christ shows us the way of salvation made possible by God. Mark will later show us that the way of Christ is ultimately the way of the cross. The true and authentic life we’re all looking for is found in the giving up of our lives to follow the life of Another.
Mark tells us in these verses that God sent John the Baptist to “prepare the way of the Lord” (v. 3). The way he did this is found in verses 4-5. John prepared the way by preaching a baptism of repentance. In other words, he called Israel to turn from their sins and be baptized. We learn in other Gospels that this upset the Pharisees because they thought that Israelites, as the chosen people of God, had no need for cleansing. Baptism was for unclean Gentiles.
But John’s message struck a chord with the people (v. 5). The people of Israel were moved by his preaching. And probably by his appearance as well (v. 6). John associates himself with the prophets of old, especially Elijah, who wore “a garment of hair and a leather belt around his waist” (1 Kgs. 1:8). Israel had not received any word from the Lord since Malachi, some four hundred years earlier. And Malachi’s prophecy ended by saying that the Lord would send Elijah before the Messiah comes (4:5). Mark is telling us that John the Baptist is the “one like Elijah” who comes before the Messiah.
Mark tells us why John came in verses 7-8. Matthew and Luke’s account emphasize John’s message of reform, but Mark focuses on John’s preaching of the one “who is mightier than I.” John says that he’s not even worthy to untie his sandals. During that time, everyone wore sandals and so everyone’s feet got filthy on the dusty roads. Gentile slaves would untie sandals and wash people’s feet in first century Israel. John is saying that he’s not worthy to do that for the One who comes after him.
John knew his role. He knew that he was nothing compared to Jesus. He didn’t want people getting excited about him. He wanted people getting excited about Jesus. About John, Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mt. 11:11). Jesus says that no one is greater than John. John says that no one is greater than Jesus. Who does your life say is great? Who does your life make much of?
God Affirms the Identity of Jesus
Joining Jesus on “the way” leads to two things, acceptance and attack, each hinted at in the next two sections of our text. In verses 9-11, we see God affirming the identity of Jesus. One day, among the throngs of people waiting to be baptized by John, a man no one has seen before catches John’s attention, and John yells out, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that John said, “‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’” (Mt. 3:14-15). Jesus wasn’t repenting of his sins like everyone else being baptized. He wasn’t baptized because he was a sinner, but because he wanted to identify with sinners. So he “fulfills all righteousness” by being baptized (v. 15).
Jesus, the perfect One, came to identify with imperfect people like us. The Most High God lowered himself, not just to the point of baptism, but to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that we might be raised up out of our graves of sin and death.
Jesus didn’t just identify with us. He made it possible for God to be pleased with us. The Father says in verse 11 that he loves and is pleased with the Son. By implication, God loves and is pleased with all who’re united to his Son through faith, those who’re “in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:17, 21, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come…For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
If you’re in Christ, the Father is pleased with you. He’s given you the righteousness of his Son. He sees Jesus when he looks at you, meaning that he loves you and is eternally pleased with you. This extraordinary grace sets us free from the bondage of making our own way in the world. In Christ, we find everything we need, so we don’t have to look anywhere else for authentic love and life and joy and peace. Those who join Jesus on “his way” experience the pleasure of God. The Psalmist says, “The Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation” (149:4). Everyone who humbly admits that their way is wrong and God’s way is right is accepted by God and enjoys the pleasure of God.
Satan Attacks Jesus
Joining Jesus on the way leads to acceptance and attack. Jesus is fully accepted by God, so everyone who’s with Jesus is also fully accepted by God. And Jesus is attacked by Satan, so it stands to reason that everyone who is with Jesus will also be attacked by Satan. Satan’s temptation of Jesus is found in Mark 1:12-13.
Before Jesus’ ministry could go public, the Spirit led him through a period of testing. Notice that it’s the Spirit who “drives Jesus out into the wilderness” to be tested (v. 12). The Lord is sovereign over every part of our lives, including times of testing and trial. God tempts no one, but he does ordain that our faith be tested by the Tempter.
Notice also that this happens before Jesus’ ministry begins. Many young men want to jump right into the ministry, right into preaching and teaching and missions and evangelism. That’s good and I pray for more young men to be called to the ministry here at Preston Highlands. But the Lord has his way of testing a man’s faith and fiber before he enters the ministry. Not even Jesus went into his public ministry unscathed. He battled the evil one in the desert for forty days before anyone ever heard him preach.
Young men, are you willing to enter a season of testing before you enter the ministry? I don’t know what this will look like for you. For me, I believe it was a year and a half mowing yards while I finished seminary so that God could expose the pride and arrogance in my heart. Testing reveals what’s in your heart and increases the tenacity of your commitment to God. Do you welcome the testing of the Lord? Or do you despise it?
Notice also that Mark mentions that Jesus was “with the wild animals” in verse 13. The other Gospel accounts don’t say anything about wild animals. Why would Mark say this? Probably to encourage his readers, who were being dressed up in wild animal skins and “torn to pieces by dogs,” that Jesus also faced wild beasts in the desert. And that the angels of God will minister to them just as they ministered to him as he faced the onslaught of the evil one.
Listen to how Dr. R. C. Sproul describes this, “The people who were hearing Mark’s gospel being read in the catacombs (of Rome) realized that very soon they might find themselves in a wilderness of suffering on the floor of the Colosseum for the sake of the gospel. But they knew that if they were led in chains to the arena, they had these gospel words, that their Savior had been here and done this – and He said He would never leave them or forsake them, because He was their Champion who had resisted all things with which Satan had tempted Him and stayed the course.”
The Way of Jesus Is the Way to Life
The only way to life is to give our lives to Jesus. The only true way to live is to die to ourselves. The authentic life is the one poured out for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Alanis Morissette was right. We are all looking for something real and authentic. But authentic life isn’t found in the cathartic experience of sharing our deepest feelings and hurts with the world through song. True life is found in Jesus Christ. True life is only found in the way of Jesus. As we walk in the way of Jesus, we’ll find acceptance and attack. Acceptance by the holy God who made us. And attack from the evil one who hates Jesus and those who follow him.
May we walk faithfully in Jesus’ way, rest in God’s acceptance, and be strong in the face of every test, knowing that our God will hold us fast, that he will never let us go.