A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Meeting Jesus - Mark 1:2-11
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Recall the moment you first met someone who changed your life forever; that's the weight of the encounter we explore as we open the Gospel of Mark and witness Jesus Christ's baptism by John the Baptist. The wilderness, often a place of desolation, here transforms into a stage for divine revelation. Through my own story of meeting the love of my life, we'll parallel the profound impact of first encounters, drawing near to the enigmatic figure of John the Baptist, his ascetic lifestyle, and the piercing call to repentance that paved the way for Jesus.
In the solitude of the wilderness, John the Baptist found a voice that echoed through the ages, compelling us to confront our own nature and the schism sin creates between us and the Divine. This episode takes you on a journey from the ancient prophecies to the Jordan River, where heaven itself was rent open at the baptism of Jesus—a symbol of barriers shattered, promising access to God. Reflections on sin, repentance, and the continuity between the Old and New Testament weave through the narrative, offering a timeless invitation to turn our hearts towards God and recognize our shared need for grace.
As we wrap up this soul-stirring examination, we're confronted with the reality that salvation is not just a distant theological concept, but a pressing, universal need. The call for humility and inward change underscores every word as we discuss the impact of Jesus' ministry and the centurion's profound recognition of Jesus as the Son of God. Join me in a prayerful entreaty for guidance as we seek to align our hearts with the redemptive journey Jesus laid before us, reminding ourselves that transformation is within reach for all who seek it earnestly.
Mark. Chapter 1 is where we're at, and we covered one verse last week. It is kind of a title for the book here. Mark says in verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And last week again we saw that of course, the main point of this book is the good news of what God has done for us. Mark presents Jesus as a servant. He's going to do more than that, but we're going to see that servanthood today as God becomes flesh, lives among us. We're going to meet Jesus for the first time in this gospel here this weekend.
Speaker 1:And you know, I course had to think of my own meetings here, my meeting of my wife. I don't know if you know this, where I met my wife. It was way back in youth group. I met my wife on a river trip, so you can picture that we're going to meet Jesus on the river here, jesus on the river here. I met my wife on a river trip and I knew of her before this point. Me and her brother were good friends, but yet on the river trip I don't know if this is a positive thing or what, but it's my thing. She braided my hair. That's exactly how I was smitten. I had hair at that point. That's something else you can picture. Long hair was the thing back then, whatever Reed. But you know, she came up behind me and braided my hair and I was smitten. But here's the sideline. I felt like she was totally out of my league. She hates it when I say that. I thought there is absolutely no way that this amazing girl is going to go for me. So we just became good friends for like years after that and one day, one day, I got the guts to say, hey, is there any chance you'd like me for more than just a friend? And what do you know? But you know, first, first meetings, right, first first meetings. We meet Jesus for the first time, and it's here a little different story, but it's on the river as John baptizes him. Now, this account here of the baptism of Jesus. It really is the first time that all four gospel writers Matthew, mark, luke and John they agree to present something. So this is the first time that they're all hitting the exact same thing. So obviously it's an important thing here.
Speaker 1:Now notice, we're introduced to Jesus through the ministry of another, john the Baptizer Right. Look at verse two as it is written in the prophets behold, I send my messenger before your face, who prepare your way. Before you the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Speaker 1:Now John picture. It was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and to loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. So we see Jesus first time here, and it's through the ministry of John the Baptist.
Speaker 1:Now, point this out Baptizing is what he did. He was not after the denomination of the Baptist, although the great folk right, john, he had a ministry of baptism, we see here, and it's a unique ministry. It's what he did. Now, john had a unique ministry, but you guys know, john was a unique guy, right, we could talk more about his background and his birth, of course, but here we're given a pretty, pretty distinct picture of him with a camel hair robe, a leather belt around his waist, and then we see his diet. Here he ate locusts and wild honey, essentially grasshoppers. Now, I guess they're not the same, but they're related. I think this is what John ate. Now, john's okay in doing this, although we look at that and go, that's pretty crazy eating bugs. John was okay because Leviticus, chapter 11, said it was kosher. Locusts are on the menu if you want them. He ate them with honey, which makes them go down a little more easily. Right, he was a real survivalist. We could say he was living off the land, not dependent upon anyone else to provide for him. He just depended on the Lord. And we can picture him. He's a colorful guy, right, we can picture him there with his rough outfit, his leather belt, probably a big belt buckle, I'm guessing too. And there he was chowing down on grasshoppers, on locusts dipped in honey. He's got to have a beard. Now the Bible doesn't say anything that he had a beard, but in my story he's got to have a beard because the honey's dripping down his beard while he looks. In other gospels we read he looks at the religious leaders who come and he says you, brood of vipers, picture him, brood of vipers, little baby snakes who warned you to flee from the wrath, to come Chomp, grasshopper. And that's John the Baptist, a very colorful person. But we see here that more than just a colorful character in the gospel he fulfilled Bible prophecy.
Speaker 1:Mark starts right off in verse 2 and 3, some Bible prophecy. It's quotes from the book of Malachi and the book of Isaiah Malachi, chapter 3, is that first part. There Behold, I send my messenger before your face. Malachi, we'll see, was the last prophetic word before this just kind of gap of silence from God. It seems he really is the last word there in the Old Testament, malachi and this is the word that's given to Malachi that a messenger would come before the Messiah to prepare the way. Now Isaiah says the same thing. There in verse three we see a paraphrase of that. It's a voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.
Speaker 1:So John's ministry was preparation, preparing the way for the king. It was a baptism of repentance. Now check it out. This preparing the way for the king was a real thing. That would happen in those days, as a king would come into one of his towns. Imagine it would probably be a great parade. But before the parade of the king would come, they would prepare the way. They would straighten some of the curvy roads, they would flatten some of the hills so that there could be just a straight shot into the town for the king. A the way for Jesus to come to the people, but also for people to come to Jesus. And this is where it really comes down as we look at this. John was preparing the hearts of the people for the good news of what God would do for us. He was preparing their hearts. Notice a couple things here. Verse four John came baptizing in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:I think the setting is good for us to look at the wilderness. It's a deserted place. You know, we go west here in Texas. You can head past Dallas to the west and it starts to get deserted in some ways, doesn't it? That Western side of Texas is what I had in mind when I moved to Texas. This is what I thought it was going to look like. Was tumbleweeds and deserts, right? Just nobody. That's what I thought. You know. It's that 10 hours or so or more of Texas. That's just nothing right. This is the picture where John's at. He's in the wilderness, in a deserted place, and people do come to him, but a deserted place, solitude. Picture it, away from distractions. I think this is important to John's ministry. It's a good place to meet God.
Speaker 1:The wilderness we talked a little bit about this last week, but that's where I really came down to it in my relationship with the Lord was a deserted place For me. It was college, I was alone. Solitude. I didn't really have my friends with me, I didn't really have connections there, and in the quiet of that is where I really me and God just did business. I guess you could say, and God just really spoke to my heart and said are you really gonna do this? Is this really what you want, you and me, no one else. Is this what you want? Deserted places, just note this deserted places can be really good for us. Now. Deserted places can be dangerous and painful, I get it. A lot of us don't like to be alone because it's just how it makes us feel. I get it. We're made for fellowship, but some deserted times in our life can be really beneficial to our walks, just getting away.
Speaker 1:For me nowadays, a lot of times it's in the middle of the night. I've said this often In the middle of the night, when you wake up, you just can't sleep and you're not gonna wake anyone else up. It's just you, your thoughts and God. Right, you're just spending time talking to him at that point. Sometimes it's early in the morning. Those times where I've woken up early and can't get back to sleep. It all has to do with my sleeping patterns, doesn't it? You know, and it's just you and God. In the morning, sometimes it's driving errands right, I seem to drive errands back and forth around town and there's that time where you get where. It's you and your thoughts. Now, check it out. A lot of times in those moments, we like to fill it with something else. Nothing wrong with that A good podcast, you know, maybe some music or an audio book or something like that. But here's a challenge In those times where it's just you and your thoughts. Take some time to talk to God.
Speaker 1:A lot of time in the wilderness of our lives is when God does his best work. Instead of filling our ears with more noise, just spend time with God and see what he has to say to you. John was out in the wilderness in a desolate place, and there people were just touched in their heart. He had this baptism of repentance. Now, john had a way of saying it like it was right. He wasn't afraid to point his little bony finger at people and say you're a brood of vipers. Right, that's good ministry. Right, to realize our sin. John was a little bit like the Holy Spirit in some ways. He brought this conviction, this realization of sin.
Speaker 1:Sin is a word we use a lot in church life, but it really just means missing the mark. It's this fact that none of us is perfect. In our sinfulness we're separated from God. It's sinfulness that separates us from a close relationship to God, and that's true BC and after too, isn't it when we're living in sin or we struggle with sin so many times it just separates us from that closeness with God. Well, john had this Holy Spirit-like ministry of pointing out sin and convicting people of it. The response was that he had a baptism of repentance. Now repentance, come back if you're fading off.
Speaker 1:Repentance is also a Bible word that we use a lot, and it means to turn from one direction to another. As God shows us sin in our life, ways that we fall short, attitudes that we have that aren't right, he says here's the good news you don't have to keep going that way, you don't have to hold on to that attitude. God would say to us I can change you, I can free you from that sin. And then in our hearts we turn away from it. That's hard too, because in a lot of ways we love our sin Right. We're not so sure if we want to lay our sin down. And yet God says turn away from your sin and turn to me. That's repentance. And so John had this ministry of conviction of sin and encouraging people to turn away from their sin and turn to God. It was a heart thing, check it out. It was a heart thing there in the wilderness, as people just had their hearts broken. And John had that ministry of pointing people away from sin and pointing them to God. Now check it out. We look at it again.
Speaker 1:John had a unique uniform. We could say the camel hair right, the leather belt, the strange diet, survivalist kind of diet. John had a unique personality but it wasn't just because he was eccentric Right. A lot of times, even in the church, we'll do kind of silly things just to kind of be different. You know, address a little differently. I told you the guy at Bible school that wore a robe to class his mother's bathrobe, it seemed and he looked very biblical and prophetic as he walked around. Well, that's OK in one sense, but it's just strange. It's being strange for the sake of being strange. We all did it back in that day, I'm sure. But John here had a purpose of why he dressed the way he did. It was to resemble an Old Testament character, elijah. Elijah was known for this thing of how he dressed, the rough clothes, the leather belt he even had. He was known for his kind of hairiness right. As people tried to figure out who Elijah was and point him out in a crowd, they go it's that hairy guy with the camel hair robe, going on and really, yeah, it's Elijah. So check it out, john's doing this. But it's not just to be different. It's to measure up to, in some ways, the prophecy of Malachi.
Speaker 1:Turn to the book of Malachi. It's pretty easy. It's the last book of the Old Testament. It's a minor prophet, but don't be scared, it's the last one in the Old Testament. So, right before Matthew, malachi, or, as some would say, malachi if you're Italian, malachi, chapter 4, verse 5. Last bit of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:And then things went quiet. This is what the prophet says, or God says through the prophet Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike earth with a curse. And then the message goes blank for a few hundred years. Right, this is the end of the Old Testament and this is why John was dressed the way he was. Elijah the prophet would come before God set up his kingdom. Now, if you went to go consider the Passover with us I guess that was last week you realize that at Passover they actually set a place for Elijah. They expect Elijah to come before the kingdom of God is established. And here John comes in the spirit of Elijah, so much like Elijah.
Speaker 1:You remember, the time of Elijah was a time of wickedness there in the northern kingdom. Ahab was king, jezebel was his queen, they worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. And Elijah came around and he said it like it was. He called out the prophets of Baal there on Mount Carmel and he told everybody how long will you waver between two opinions? If God is God, worship him. If Baal is God, worship him. And then, you remember, god proved Elijah's message by sending fire on the sacrifice there on the mountain. And it was a time like every time really. I mean, it was a time like Jesus' time, it was a time like our time. People just did wickedness and lived in idolatry and served other gods. And Elijah came and called him out. And John came and called him out and said you got to turn from the sin, flee from the wrath, to come.
Speaker 1:And so John came in fulfillment here to what Malachi says, in the spirit of Elijah. He even dressed like him. In the spirit of Elijah, he even dressed like him and he brought the good news in one sense, the good news not so much of what Jesus would do, although he would point to that, but the good news that even though you're a sinner, you don't have to live your life this way. Now check it out. That's good news. Even though you are a sinner and separated from God, you don't have to live your life like this. God can change you. So check it out. John brings this message and it's preparation for what Jesus would do. It's straightening the road and the curves of the road. It's providing a path for our hearts to come to Jesus. Repentance is what does it?
Speaker 1:Now here comes Jesus back in Mark, chapter one, verse nine. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. So this is not that spectacular of an appearance for Jesus in the book of Mark. It just came that Jesus came. He came from Nazareth. Nazareth was not a very spectacular town, it was kind of a despised town. But Jesus came with a humble reputation. Humility here was what Jesus was known for.
Speaker 1:And, notice, he was baptized by John in the Jordan. Now Matthew, chapter 3 shows us another part of this encounter Matthew, chapter three, verse 13, notices then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan and was baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying I need to be baptized by you and you're coming to me. So we see a little bit of this encounter in Matthew's gospel that Jesus came to John to be baptized and all at once John realized who Jesus was. He would say in another place behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And John realizes who Jesus is and he says why are you being baptized by me? I should be baptized by you, not this way. And Jesus there says I need to do it to fulfill all righteousness.
Speaker 1:Now a few things here. Jesus wasn't getting baptized because he had sin. That's one thing Jesus didn't have was sin Never sin. Sinless sacrifice all the way through his life and ministry never sin. He's perfect. So he wasn't coming to John like everybody else because he had sin. I want to wash this sin out of my life. It wasn't because baptism saves you. We know that right, that we're saved by what Jesus does and nothing else. That, of course the thief on the cross never got baptized. And yet Jesus said today you'll be with me in paradise. So baptism is not a righteous thing that Jesus had to do, but I think it was to fulfill his calling to represent perfect humanity, to relate to us humbly, and that's a beautiful thing that Jesus did. He came and related to who we are sinners, and he wasn't ashamed to do it. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:At this point nobody knows anything about Jesus. John knows a little bit because it's kind of been given to him. But at this point people look at Jesus and they don't see anything special about him. There was no halo around his head, you know what I mean. They just saw him as another person coming to be baptized. And that's how Jesus came Humbly, he came into our mess, he came into our sinful world and he just lived among us. He's humble human here, but he's also gracious God, and that's exactly what we see with him. He's humble human, but he's also gracious God.
Speaker 1:Notice the response here in verse 10. And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove, and the voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son, in whom I am well. So there's this thing that goes down the heavens part, the heavens are split open in some kind of way. I don't know what that looked like, but it took people back to the times when God would speak. Even in the Old Testament the heavens would part in some kind of way and a voice would come from heaven, just like it came here. You are my beloved son. There's this wonderful relationship going down here. The spirit is descending upon Jesus like a dove, not as a dove, it wasn't necessarily a dove, it wasn't necessarily a dove but like a dove the Spirit in some way descends on him. So before we leave here, notice, father, this is my beloved Son being baptized and the Spirit descending on him. We have all three persons of the Trinity in one place here and it comes as a response to Jesus' obedience.
Speaker 1:Now turn, if you would, to a parallel passage here. Turn to Mark, chapter 15. We went there last week and we're going there again right now or the week before last. Mark 15, verse 37. An interesting little bookend here for Mark Mark 15, 37. We see Jesus at the cross and notice Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Then verse 38,. Then the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out and when he breathed his last he said Truly this man was the Son of God. So interesting. Here we see similar things Now in the beginning of Jesus' ministry, there at his baptism, the sky is torn in two.
Speaker 1:There, at his baptism, the sky is torn in two. Interesting, that word for torn in two is the same word that's used here when we see the veil being torn in two. So in his baptism, the sky, the heavens open, they're torn in two. Here, the veil in the temple, that thing that separated us from a relationship with God, same way it's split, it's torn in two. At his baptism the voice of the Father says this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Here at the cross, when Jesus pays the price for our sin, his ultimate ministry, it's a centurion who says truly, this man was the son of God, one of the most profound things anyone could ever say. This centurion at the cross says that. So there's that declaration at the beginning of his ministry there and there's that separating of the veil at the end. Really interesting there that we see those parallels.
Speaker 1:But back to chapter one. We see that's all wonderful, of course, as Jesus is our savior. But we see here in chapter one, we all need him right. Verse five all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were baptized by him, john, there for repentance, confessing their sins. All Right, this seems to be a little bit of a hyperbole. Maybe Not every single person came to John in the wilderness, but all sorts of people came to him. Right, all sorts of people came. The rich came to him, the poor came to him. The well-known and totally anonymous came to him.
Speaker 1:The religious Now think about this. The religious and the irreligious, the people who knew the scriptures and the people who were just kind of doing their things, they all came out to John and they were sort of intrigued by this baptism of repentance. Matthew, chapter three listen to this. Matthew chapter three, verse seven, gives us a little more detail of this ministry. But when he saw, when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the baptism, he said to them brood of vipers I love that who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves we wrath to come. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up to Abraham from children, to Abraham from these stones. So picture it All sorts of people are coming to John to be baptized. They see their sin and they really want to turn towards God. The religious leaders, the Sadducees and the Pharisees they also come to John and they're not so responsive. Here John, I think, kind of says the things that are going on in their mind. They say to themselves well, we have Abraham as our father.
Speaker 1:Baptism was common in those days. They did it, but it wasn't the Jews that did it, it wasn't the religious people that did it, it was Gentiles. It was outsiders who wanted to come to Judaism, would wash themselves of their sins. They would wash themselves of their Gentile dirtiness, right, and so they would be baptized. And the Jews would look on and go very nice, you're entering Judaism and very good, you've washed yourself. We can hang out with you a little bit now, you know, but check it out. The Jews really didn't do that for themselves, so much they didn't need it. They were already clean. The religious folks come back. The religious folks here, they saw it and they go well, that's really nice for you, dirty Gentiles, but we don't really need to be cleaned from our sin. We have Abraham, we're already clean, we're on the inside. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:This is a dangerous place for every single one of us to think that we don't have sin, to think that we don't have sin, that we don't need a savior. And that's where John, I think, prepares the way most for Jesus to come. He says I don't care who you are, you need a savior. I don't care who you are, you need to be washed from your sins. And it's such a beautiful thing when we realize that, because I grew up thinking I really didn't have any sin I mean, I knew I wasn't perfect, but God's been on my side since the very beginning, I know it and I had this kind of proud religious leader type mentality where I just never came to that point and I said but I need a savior, like everyone needs a savior. And and so John put it all across the board for every single one of them, you need a savior.
Speaker 1:The humble human Jesus, who came into our dirtiness, right there down into the Jordan River, into the dirtiness of all those people who had been baptized before him, and he got out and he went to a cross and he paid the price for all that junk of our lives so that we wouldn't be separated from God but brought close to God, and that, of course, is the whole story. That's what God's done for us, but it doesn't become real in our lives until we realize our need, just like this here that we realize our need to be saved. So, god, I know it's not just tears that you're looking for, and I know it's not just a raised hand or anything like that, but it's our hearts. God, what you really want is for our hearts to be turned towards you. God, I feel like I can make a decision in my mind so many times, but, god, my heart is so hard to change. God, I just pray that you would change our hearts.
Speaker 1:Even today, god, as we have opportunities in our day and in our life, we find ourselves just alone in the wilderness, alone with our thoughts and alone with you. God, I pray that this week you would do great work in our hearts. God, if it's sin that we're struggling with and don't want to turn from God, you'd convict us. If it's attitudes and bitterness, god, you would give us the grace to lay those things down. God, if it's even just our own self-sufficiency that we can do this by ourselves, lord, that we would turn away from our pride and turn to you. God, we need you so much and God, you're so faithful and good, you're so kind to love us and forgive us. God, you deal with all of the mess of our life, but you want our hearts first. God, help us to turn to you, even this week, even now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.