Who Was John the Baptist? (Mark 1:2-8)

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Speaker 2 00:01:09 All right. It says, it began just as the prophet Isaiah had written. Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare the way he's a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins. In turn to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confess their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist for food. He ate locust and wild honey. John announced someone is coming soon, who is greater than I am so much greater that I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

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Speaker 1 00:02:59 And, and even as we kind of dive into the context 2000 years ago and even before that, I think it's always important for us as we read and study the Bible, to think about how it relates to us today. And that's a question we'll come back to here at the end. You know, what is God doing in your life to prepare you to encounter Jesus? Whether you maybe need to have a fresh encounter with Jesus, or, or maybe you're listening to this today and you don't know Jesus, you're still trying to figure out who he is. You're giving him a chance in your life. And so that's a great question we'll come back to, but let's start with this Ross. When, when, when Mark references the wilderness, whenever we see that in the New Testament here, or even in the Old Testament in the Bible, what are we talking about there? What is the wilderness?

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Speaker 1 00:05:04 Lives. Right? It's about, it's about difficulty, isn't it? Because the, the Israelites, Eric weren't supposed to be in the wilderness for 40 years. Mm-hmm. , they, the journey wasn't supposed to take so long, it shouldn't have taken so long. Right. It

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Speaker 1 00:05:20 Yeah. But the reason they were stuck there, well, there are a couple of reasons. One is because of their disobedience. And, and number two, it's because, and I think this is true for us today too. It's because God still had some things to do for them to, to sort of maybe what we would call today, spiritual formation. He needed to work some spiritual formation in their life. And it, and he needed to, he decided to do it in the wilderness in the place that was maybe not so comfortable for them.

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Speaker 2 00:06:50 Right. And they've, they've, they've wa they've watered it down. It, it's become diluted. It's, it's had so many different things added to the Jewish faith and the Jewish religion. Um, but they would've known that a voice crying in the wilderness or shouting in the wilderness was a prophecy that actually comes from Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. And, and so Mark here starts out, what's interesting, we talked about last week that this is written to the Gentiles, and he doesn't do a lot of quoting of the Old Testament like Matthew does, because Matthew is really trying to show, uh, the Jewish people that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecies. Well, mark decides to actually start the book out with the, the fulfillment of a prophecy, because it's still important. I would say that even Gentiles know the Old Testament, have you ever heard this is a thing that has driven me insane, but there are some people out there that believe that the Old Testament isn't relevant anymore for Christianity.

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Speaker 2 00:08:50 They couldn't follow, they didn't have the power to do it. They wanted to go back to, to Egypt, or they wanted to just live in sin. And that is a big reason why they were stuck out there for 40 years. And so that sets the scene for the forerunner, John the Baptist coming in, because he's got a message, he's got a message about their sin and calling them back to repentance, which we'll get at later in this, this message. But that's really the scene of the first two verses where we're talking about a voice crying in the wilderness. This is John the Baptist. So for us, I would say, you know, the application is, is, you know, what's the wilderness in our lives? I mean, we all have disobedience and sin to the Lord that is still in us. And, and even though, you know, in this setting, the, the Israelites, the Pharisees, they, they thought they had made it to the Promised Land, and they were past this discipline of God. Yet, you know, John the Baptist is here to tell 'em there's still wilderness stuck in your hearts, and there's still wilderness stuck in all of our hearts. We all want to disobey and, and go against God. That's what we call sin, going and trusting in our own opinions and ideas and feelings, rather than trusting and acting on God's truth. Where or what is our wilderness and where do we need someone, a forerunner to come into our lives, to remind us that we need to prepare away for

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Speaker 1 00:10:54 And it's not always, when I think about clear clearing a path, it's not always, in fact, it's almost never pleasant. It's, it's violent. It can be violent, it can be painful. Right? You think about, uh, you know, bringing a hatchet through when you're clearing a path. A member, years ago we did this, we, we, we did a community outreach thing and we had to clear this mile stretch of a, of a path. And I mean, the, we had shovels and pickaxes and, and, you know, sharp blades, and we were hacking stuff up as we were clearing a path. And maybe someone listening right now is thinking back on their life on the last year maybe, or the last few years, and say, man, I thought all this stuff in my life was bad. But maybe what it was is God was preparing away. Maybe he was, maybe he was starting to do some surgery on me to make me ready for what God wants to do next in my life.

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Speaker 2 00:12:25 As we talked about last week, you know, Jesus is this new coming king, you know, come to be the Savior, the Messiah, um, to clear the road for this king to clear a path for this king. It reminds me of, if you think about, you know, when any politician or a president is gonna go visit a, a city or a town, or he is gonna go make a speech, uh, there's a lot of work that goes into that. He doesn't just show up. There are, there's a lot of planning that goes towards, like, you, you've got guys that are bomb sniffers with dogs going and, and going to the surrounding buildings around where he is gonna visit, or, or the place where he is going to give a speech. And they're clearing paths. They're clearing, they're taken away. Any threats for the dignitary, the person to come in to be able to make his speech.

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Speaker 3 00:14:40 Baptists do. Yeah. That's interesting. You know, Eric, when you mentioned the idea of the advanced team coming for a politician or celebrity, I think of all the hype that goes into that and all the like mm-hmm. hoop law. And I think, I think, uh, in today's world, John the Baptist is probably not your Hollywood, um, advanced man, you know, because he's coming out there, he's not, he's not pumping up a good, good vibe and good feeling, you know? Mm-hmm. He's calling it like it is. And yet, uh, in our culture today, we think, well, people wouldn't want to hang out with that. But people were thronging to him. They're flocking to him to hear this message.

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Speaker 1 00:16:02 Mine's with water, but he's gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So here, here's this, here's this guy who, he was a little, he was kind of like a, there were two sides to him on the one side, he was just wacko, maybe mm-hmm. . I don't know if I, I'm allowed to say that about John, someone in the Bible. He was a, he was a godly man. He was like a a he was like a modern day prophet for them. Right. And a lot of the prophets in the Old Testament were weird and ha were called to do weird things. So John was weird. He was very unique and wild and strange and crazy. But yet a lot of people like that are very narcissistic . Yeah. John the Baptist wasn't narcissistic. He was the opposite of that. He wasn't doing it to draw attention to himself. He was doing it to draw attention to Jesus. That's

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Speaker 3 00:18:05 Fashion prop. Yeah, they, I'm like, or to date it, Mor Beck says, I'm older than you. He's also not the, the preacher with the fine three piece tailored Italian suit and the, and the big hair, you know, slick back hair and stuff like that. So different generations have kind of different idea of like, oh, this is what makes me credible to the culture. You know? And

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Speaker 3 00:18:41 Know, . But you mean there's hasn't been a book called the John the Baptist Diet . I don't know. There probably has been, you know, wait, here's the, here's the diet book, locusts Wild Honey. Yeah. I don't know. Stuff that grows in the wilderness. I

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Speaker 2 00:18:55 For sure. Yeah. Yeah. But he,

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Speaker 1 00:18:58 Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 2 00:19:54 Um, and so believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins. That really doesn't work for a person who doesn't even see their sin or know their sin. Right. And so, John the Baptist, for me, you know, he's kind of inspiring that he's, he's willing to call out sin. And later in the book of Mark, actually, um, he does it to the point of persecution being arrested and Behe being beheaded. In, in Mark chapter six, it tells retells the story where, uh, king Herd, um, had him arrested because King Herd was, uh, sleeping with his, his brother's wife. Right. And so John the Baptist called out Herod, um, in front of everybody. And that made her angry. Made him angry. He gets him arrest. He, he gets him arrested and finally beheads him for that. And so this guy's inspiring because I think nowadays it seems like we're afraid of calling out certain sin.

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Speaker 1 00:22:02 Yeah. You know, it's interesting that he didn't come to the synagogues, you know, the synagogues were where the, where the Jewish people would come to worship, and he didn't, he didn't go to the synagogues. I don't, I don't remember that he ever was invited to the synagogues

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Speaker 1 00:22:20 You know, so he's out in the wilderness preaching this message. People are coming out to him to hear the message. So he wasn't invited into these polite circles, which kind of makes sense. I I don't think he would've, he would've been the kind of guy that would probably fit in ep,

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Speaker 1 00:22:38 But that's not what he was called to do. Right. He was called to be out there to really, he was the beginning of this new movement, this new kind of raw movement of coming after God and, and stripping away your religion, stripping away the, the what another place in scripture says the form of religion that denies its power. Mm-hmm. . And that was Phar Aism, the Pharisees, the leaders of the Jewish synagogues. They, it was all about crossing their ts, dotting their eyes. It was all about the form of religion, the dress, the garb, the how it looks. But they were missing Jesus altogether. They were missing the God behind the Old Testament, the heart of God. They were missing all of that. And John the Baptist wasn't missing it.

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Speaker 2 00:24:27 I want to address Yeah. The fact that, you know, he wore a garment of hair or camel's hell hair and a belt of leather, you know, um, there's in the Old Testament, there's, there's another prophet named Elijah, um, in Second Kings chapter one, verse eight. You know, it says that he wore garment of hair with the belt of leather about his waist. And, and he said, it is Elijah the Tisch bite. And so, um, there's a lot to be said about this coming of John the Baptist. There's an, there's, it's alluded to that, uh, he might be, you know, coming in the spirit in a, in the power of Elijah. This was, again, a prophecy of someone coming to prepare the way John's coming was prophesied many, many times, um, in, in the Old Testament. And, and Jesus even confirms it. There's a lot, you guys should, if you, you should study more about that.

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Speaker 2 00:26:21 You know, the, the Pharisees were, were, uh, loved their place of honor at feast, and they wore these glorious robes and, and tassels. And, and John is, is not really buying any of that. And he's, he's basically saying, all you need is the Lord. You know, this, this is the thing that I think I even am guilty of. I think this really convicts me as I think about this world, this economy, this, this, the way that we live is, there's so many things out there that could get us distracted for why we're really here. John the Baptist is bold and courageous. He knows why he's really here, and he's not letting materialism and prosperity and religion get in the way. He's, he knows what his call is. He knows what he's called to do. And for some of us, you know, we hear the great commission all the time, and, you know, we come to church and we hear these great sermons about sharing the gospel and repentance and faith and boldness. But yet it seems like a lot of our time and our focus is stolen away by just worldly things, you know, and, and passion for things other than the Lord. And I'm not saying that we all need to sell all of our stuff and start wearing camel's hair. Right.

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Speaker 2 00:27:42 . Yeah. Maybe I wonder if they make like a, one of those mink coats out of camel

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Speaker 3 00:27:48 If they haven't, if we started doing that, they would, somebody would, right? Yeah.

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Speaker 1 00:28:14 Well, yeah. Let's talk about that for a second, because really, this, this all leads to his message. And r if you remember from last week, we talked about the fact that Mark, the gospel of Mark was written probably to a gentile crowd. It seems like all, as we read through the book of Mark, we see he's explaining a lot of things that he wouldn't have to explain if it was a Jewish audience. So because of that and some other things, we, we think that he was writing this a gentile. So that, that begs the question, why does he, why does he start off with John the Baptist? Like, why does he even introduce John the Baptist? If John the Baptist's message was just for Jewish people, just for Pharisees and religious Jews? Well, it's because the message isn't just for that. Mm-hmm. , e everyone can relate to needing to come back, need, you know, every generation and every culture, and every indiv, even even atheists, can relate to the message that he's speaking is that you, you've been following, you've been chasing the wrong stuff.

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Speaker 3 00:30:07 Yeah. The way I understand that word, um, it means a couple things that in the Hebrew language, the word itself just means the turn to do a 180. And then of course, that's, that's defined by the context, uh, of the Old Testament to describe how often what that really means is turn away from your, your godless pursuits, turn away from other things, idols, as you mentioned, idols that we, uh, follow today of, of wealth and comfort and so forth. And just to turn to God. And in the New Testament, it means a change of mind, not just a cognitively, but the mind being the whole center of our being. It means that, that who I am, my soul, you might say today that I, that I have a change of direction and pursuing myself, pursuing whatever else it is, and I'm pursuing God. And so, so for me, the, the simplest way to think about it is that, is it repentance? Is this fundamental decision to turn from my self-directed way of life, to turn to toward God and let him direct my life.

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Speaker 1 00:32:04 I'm willing to go God's way now because it's interesting. He doesn't go back and read this, he doesn't actually use the name Jesus in there just yet. Not yet, because he, that, that it's not time for that just yet. So John the Baptist is saying, you need to have this attitude change toward God. Where, where you're saying, God, I recognize my way's wrong, my direction's wrong, my life, whatever that thing is that has taken the first place in my life, whether it's religion or money, or girls or whatever, relationships, whatever it is, I need this attitude change. And, and it's almost like you, you, you do this 180, and then you're just like, okay, what am I looking at now? Right. What's next? Mm-hmm. . But that's the heart change. And we see that sometimes in people just this hunger for they know that there's something different, that there's, they, there's something better that God offers. But a lot of times they don't even know what that thing is just yet. Right. Until somebody comes and introduces them to Jesus. Super

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Speaker 2 00:33:04 Yeah. And right here in this, this story, it shows that they're actually called to do something that shows their repentance, that shows their change, change apart. And this is why John the Baptist is called John the Baptist, because he's baptizing people. Now we're gonna talk a little bit more about baptism next week. What were you gonna say?

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Speaker 2 00:33:32 I guess the baptism Baptist got it right for this sermon.

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Speaker 2 00:33:35 Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, he's calling them to do something that's symbolic. We know that baptism isn't actually what cleanses you or what saves you, um, over and over again. And even in the Old Testament, there are symbolic things that actually point towards a heart change and a life change and a mind change. And, and it shows our faith in Jesus Christ. Um, you know, there's bringing up the wilderness again, uh, in the Old Testament, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but you know, there used to be in, in Leviticus, uh, there was a, there were, there was a sacrifice that required two goats. You know, there was one goat, um, that was sacrificed on the altar, and, and the blood was shed. And, and that was the taking away of the symbol, of taking away of the people's sins.

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Speaker 2 00:34:25 Yeah. . Yeah. And

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Speaker 2 00:34:29 . Yeah. And then there was the other goat. So that represents, you know, uh, Christ dying in our place. Right. What we deserve. That's the, you know, propitiation, that's the sacrifice. And then, but there was this other goat that represented taking our sins away. And what they would do is lay hands on this goat and send them out into the wilderness. And, and, and that represented the people sins was, was being taken away, forgotten, not remembered anymore. The Bible says that he casts our sins as far as the east is from the West. And so really is like a precursor to, to the gospel, um, and a symbolism of the gospel. That is what baptism is. It's, it's, it's, it's showing that we believe in what we say we're doing. And so, so there, there's an action to it. Faith is an action word. And so for these guys to come, it says, all of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John when they confessed their sins, he baptized 'em in the Jordan River.

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Speaker 2 00:36:20 And, and this would mean that they're drawing a line in the sand. And that's what a person does when they get baptized. They're, I've met a lot of people who've come out of another faith, right. And they got baptized in this faith, but it wasn't a true Christian faith. Um, but they are afraid now that they've been coming to a Christian Church and they're called to get baptized, but there's always this, this reservation, like, mine still counted, or I don't want to do that. And, and it's a spiritual thing. Yeah. It's because when they choose to get baptized in the Christian faith, they're drawing a line in the sand saying, I don't believe what I believed anymore. I've turned from my sins. I've turned from my, I've changed my mind, what I thought was truth, and now I'm symbolizing that I'm following the truth of the Bible in Christianity. That's what these people are doing symbolically. And, and they're, they're drawing, they're showing that they're, they're willing and ready to follow truth rather than the tradition and the religiosity that they grew up in. Um, and that's, that's what's beautiful about this

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Speaker 3 00:37:59 Difference? Not exactly. The, the Christian baptism today builds on this, and it's the, it's sort of like the natural conclusion of this kinda thing. Because, because when these people came out to see John, he's preparing the way for the Messiah. They didn't really understand what the Messiah was going to do and be, and they didn't at the, those hearers were being baptized at that time, did not know that Jesus was gonna die in the cross for their sin and be raised from the dead on the third day. And so Christian baptism builds on this because it still symbolizes a turning. It still symbolizes. Now you notice that it says here that when they confess their sins, then he baptize them. So the confessing of the sin happens first and a recognition of spiritual need and a and a turning to God happens first. And that's true of Christian baptism as well. But what's added to this as the revelation of Jesus unfolds in the New Testament, what's added to this is it also becomes not just an identification with, with God and his purposes and and his will for his people, but it becomes an identification with Jesus himself. And so we're baptized into Christ and we're baptized in the name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit. So it builds on John's baptism.

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Speaker 2 00:39:30 Acts chapter 19, you know, Paul on his third missionary journey, in verse two it says, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? He asked them, no. They replied, we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And then it says, so then what baptism did you experience? He asked, they replied, the baptism of John Paul said, John's baptism called for repentance from sin. So that's exactly what you were saying. It was really a, a baptism of repentance. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus, as soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Paul laid his hands on him, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied and there were about 12 men and all. And so the baptism Yeah. Takes a new shape after Jesus comes. And and that's really what John's talking about right now. Um, he's looking forward to, you know what Jesus is going to do, he's gonna leave them. True believers will be in dwelt with the Holy Spirit.

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Speaker 3 00:41:24 We don't

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Speaker 3 00:41:31 Well, some of 'em, we do know this from other gospels, that some of 'em were followers of John the Baptist first. That's true. Before they connected with

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Speaker 3 00:41:47 No, not until you get in the Book of Acts, then you start seeing people baptized routinely, but they're typically, you know,

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Speaker 1 00:42:46 Right. So much greater that I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I'll baptize you with water. But he, he's talking about Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So all of this is about, is about Jesus. All of this is pointing to Jesus. And so maybe one of the reasons that Mark includes this at the very beginning of his gospel, you know, we said last week that, that this is the action gospel. It's short and to the point in clear, concise, compelling. Maybe Mark was just like, I gotta use John the Baptist in here because it's such a great intro. I mean, John the Baptist was, was like John Mark. He was, he was urgent. He had so much urgency. And so I'm sure John Mark, as he's writing this, is like, I gotta, I gotta use this story because he's such a good picture of the urgency that we should have to be, to have our hearts ready for what Jesus is gonna do.

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Speaker 2 00:44:07 You know, and one thing about the Holy Spirit and, and John the Baptist, the Bible does tell us that he was filled with the Spirit in his mother's womb. And so he's, he's, uh, unique in the sense that the Holy Spirit hadn't, uh, fallen on all people yet until, uh, acts, acts chapter one. And, and then when they believe they, they received the Holy Spirit. And then it, you know, it moves on from there. But John is filled with the Holy Spirit. He's preaching, he's preaching to these people about their sin. And, and really what he's saying is, is you guys are listening to me and, and I am, I, I'm spirit filled and I'm preaching, and you guys are coming to repent. But a day will come when God himself will convict you of your sin and you'll be able to repent. And that's when Jesus talks about, you know, that's one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is in John 16, verse eight says, when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and God's righteousness and coming judgment. And so I believe that that's why John the Baptist add that in there, adds that in there, is because he's saying that, you know, I'm calling you to repentance, but there will be a day when the Lord Himself is going to call you to repentance.

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Speaker 1 00:46:04 Mm-hmm. to be, to be repentant, to make you ready to receive the good news about Jesus, which is what Mark started the whole gospel with. This is the good news about Jesus. You know, John the Baptist was making people ready to receive the good news. And that's what the Holy Spirit does for us today. The Holy Spirit prepares our hearts, makes us ready to receive the good news about Jesus. Yeah. And if you wanna learn more about that, good news, we got some links down below. You know, maybe you're listening to this and you haven't responded in faith to Jesus. So we just encourage you to, to follow that thread. God if, if the Holy Spirit's working in your heart, um, there's, there are answers. And, and we'll put some links down below to help you to understand how to respond to Jesus in faith. And make sure to join us next time as we continue on in the gospel of Mark.