The Gospel of Jesus Christ

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang. Thank you for joining us.!

We'll be here with us next Sunday, April the 3rd. We've got regular schedule all day, but Jeffrey Williams, the NASA astronaut, will be here with us.

He is a believer who loves the Lord, who loves His Word, and ministers around the country teaching and preaching, able to do so in a very unique way and a unique perspective, as he has spent a number of days in space, and he'll be able to share with us about what he has learned about the Lord and about creation.

You're going to want to be here next Sunday morning as Jeffrey Williams preaches both morning services. The next Sunday night at 5, he'll be back teaching and able to also incorporate a number of slides and pictures that he has taken of God's creation from space.

Just a really unique perspective that you will not want to miss. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us to be able to have Jeffrey Williams here with us.

I'm very excited about him being here. You'll want to be here next Sunday morning and Sunday night for sure. The following week, April the 10th, two weeks from today, is Palm Sunday.

If you've been around here a while, you know what that means. If you're newer to our church, one of our traditions is on Palm Sunday, we combine into one service at 10. So if you get here at 9, you're going to be really, really early.

But if you get here a little bit before 10, you'll be in good shape. Now, just a reminder, though, when we combine, that's this service and our 1030 service all together. Now, we're going to bring in a bunch of extra chairs, so we'll have room.

But it really is a good idea on that day to get here a little early because it will be crowded. It'll be a really special day as our entire church gathers and worships together.

But it'll be full, so you'll want to try to get here a little bit early and wrestle a seat away from the 1030 people who sit where you're sitting right now. Then that night, April the 10th night, is our Family Matters dinner.

We do two of these a year in April and in October. Family Matters dinner is a night for us to be able to look back and see what God has done among us and give thanks as a congregation.

It's a time for us to look forward and see where the Lord is leading us. We'll have a free catered meal as a part of that. The only thing we do ask you to do is make sure you are signed up. Let us know how many are coming.

You can do that today right out here at the Ministry Connection table at this lobby. Let us know how many from your family will be here. We want you all to be here. It's a little bit of business meeting, a little bit of Thanksgiving service, a little bit of vision casting, a little bit of fellowship time, all those things.

And we'll all be down in the gym together, so make sure and sign up for that. And then, of course, three weeks from today is Easter Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 645 will be our sunrise service.

Let me give you a little FBC Mustang history for those of you who haven't been around the last 20 years, all right? We do a sunrise service every year, an outdoor sunrise service, about every 10 years.

It's always supposed to be outside, but it usually rains. Last year was the first time in seven years it did not rain on Easter Sunday.

We're going to meet outside again, weather permitting. If it rains on us, we'll move it indoors. We'll meet at 645 no matter what. Last year, I mean, imagine that, we didn't have rain, and we had the largest sunrise service we've ever had.

About 250 came at 645 in the morning. We'll gather when it's dark, just watch the sunrise together as we sing and study God's Word together.

It's different songs in the morning services, different sermon than the morning services. The service itself, about 45 minutes. So come and be a part of that on Easter Sunday at 645, and then we'll have regular worship at 9 and 1030 on that day.

So I just want you to make sure you're informed and make sure you're able to be a part of the life of our church. Well, this day today is special because it begins for us a new chapter in the life of our church as we begin a journey walking through the Gospel of Mark.

In the last 22 years, I've had the privilege of preaching every verse of Matthew and Luke and John. And for the first time, we will now embark on walking through the Gospel of Mark.

And very much look forward to these number of weeks as we just get to consider the life and the teaching and the miracles and the preaching and the person of Christ Sunday after Sunday.

These four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are given to us so we can understand who Jesus is. And we can know what His message is, the centrality and the exclusivity of salvation found in Christ.

None of the four Gospels are intended to be exhaustive. None of them even attempt to record every single thing He did or said or every miracle He performed.

They are put together through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit purposefully to help the audience understand the Gospel of Christ. And so, Matthew is written by a Jew to the Jews.

Luke is written by a Greek to the Greeks. John is written with a sense of majesty and the revelation of the signs of who Christ is.

And so, John begins with, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then you've got Mark. Mark is written to the Romans.

Slightly different perspective as he writes. He writes about the one who has come to serve. Mark writes, if you and I could just read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, just all in one setting, we would notice a unique writing style with Mark.

It's very quick. It's very direct. In fact, a number of the chapters begin with the word, and. It's just kind of like in chapter 1, Mark takes one deep breath and just gets as much out in that quick, rapid sentence as he possibly can.

In fact, you'll notice the word immediately, over and over and over, all throughout the Gospel. He is just bullet points, just quick and direct, fast hitting as you go through the Gospel of Mark.

And when you get to the end of the life of Jesus in an earthly sense, as he is crucified on the cross, we'll read in the Gospels that they will put the charge against him in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

That's the emphasis for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And so, as we walk through this, of course, Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels.

And there are some places where he gives us a very unique perspective, and other places where he gives us just a summary or a highlight and doesn't give all the detail there.

And so, as we walk through this book together, we will need to incorporate some from the other Gospels to help us to understand in full what is going on. But I think you're going to enjoy, as we go through this Gospel, and we just every single Sunday consider our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We'll begin today in chapter 1, looking at verses 1 to 8. It says, The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written, Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

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 John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Let me give you three headings as we walk through the early parts of Mark's Gospel this morning.

Number one, I want you to notice that as he writes, there's a preparation to receive. There's a preparation to receive. John the Baptist is being used to prepare the people to receive Christ as Messiah.

You see it in verse 1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the emphasis. This is the whole point. This is what all of Scripture is pointing to, the revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah.

And it gives him in verse 1 this name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is his name.

It speaks of his person. It's a name that means Yahweh saves. Jesus is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word Yeshua, which is Joshua, transliterated into English as Jesus.

Christ is not his last name. It's not first name Jesus, last name Christ. Christ is his position. It's his title in a sense.

It means he's the Messiah. He's the anointed one. So we could say that Jesus is his person. Christ is his position. He's the Son of God.

That speaks of his power. Mark says this is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel. This is the good news. This is the point of the entire Gospel of Mark. That Christ himself is our Savior.

The Gospel. The good news that Jesus saves. That word for Gospel. Euangelion. Is a word in the Septuagint.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament. We see this exact same word in Isaiah 52 verse 7. How beautiful of the mountains are the feet of those who proclaim good news.

Those who proclaim the Gospel. Romans 1 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God to save.

The good news is that while we are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. The good news is that Jesus Christ is that Savior.

Verse 2 says, As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord.

Make his path straight. As you see repeated here, This concept of preparation. This is what John the Baptist is doing. He is preparing the people to receive Christ.

The first of verse 2 actually comes from Malachi 3.1. And the second part of it in verse 3 comes from Isaiah 40 verse 3. He says, I'm going to send a messenger.

And at the end of verse 3, That messenger is going to prepare the way of the Lord to make his path straight. Now, What does that language mean? Mark is quoting here from Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40 verse 3.

And he puts them together to say that John the Baptist is preparing people to receive Christ as Messiah. And what he's doing is making the path straight.

What does that mean? Well, In the ancient world, Before a king would ride into a town, He would send a messenger. And that messenger's job was to go and prepare the way.

And that messenger had at least two responsibilities given to him. One was to clear the roads, Clear the path. The king was going to ride through on the horse and on the chariot.

And what the messenger would do, The one that prepared the way, Would go first and make sure that the road was cleared out and smoothed out. And if there were rocks that would be a problem, He would remove them.

If there were limbs or debris in the way, He would clear the road out. If there were holes in the road, He would fill in those low places, So that the king could ride through on a smooth road.

And part of the responsibility of the messenger, Was to go literally prepare the way. Prepare the road. Remove the high things, Fill in the low things.

The second thing the messenger was supposed to do, Before the king would ride through town, Is he would go and tell the people the king is coming. The king is coming.

He's going to be in your city. Be aware of that. Schedule your time around that. Make it a priority. You're going to want to come and be here. You want to meet the king. The king wants to ride through and see you.

He was announcing that something grand and glorious was about to take place. That's what would happen when a king came into town. The scripture says that John the Baptist Is doing spiritually What the messenger would do physically for the visiting king.

John is preparing the way. He's the forerunner. He's not the Messiah himself.

He's preparing the way. He's preparing the people to receive and to welcome Christ as Messiah. A second thing we see here is In John's ministry, there is a proclamation to repent.

This is what he was proclaiming. A proclamation to repent. We see in verses 4 and 5, John appeared. This is, by the way, This is a great Example of Mark's writing style.

No big introduction. Not even really a transition. He gives this Old Testament prophecy And then just, boom!

John appeared. That's Mark. Mark's not messing around. Mark is trying to get quickly to the point. And the point is that John is here to do something specific.

And what he is doing is proclaiming people their need to repent. John appeared. And it says he was baptizing in the wilderness And proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, I want you to make note of three aspects Of what's going on as he preaches. First, the emphasis on repentance. Verse 4 says he is baptizing in the wilderness And proclaiming a baptism for repentance.

These are all participles. What that means is it gives us the understanding in the language That he kept on doing this. This wasn't just a one-day event.

We could read it like this. John appeared and he kept baptizing in the wilderness And he kept on proclaiming a baptism of repentance For the forgiveness of sins.

He is proclaiming his message here with great clarity And with authority and with urgency. And he keeps calling people to repent of their sin.

Now, I mentioned a moment ago that the name of Jesus itself means Yahweh saves. The name John means Yahweh is gracious. And so, just in the first four verses of the Gospel of Mark What you already have been given in just the two names that have been mentioned Is a clear picture of the true gospel of the Lord.

God is gracious And God saves. God saves and he saves by his grace.

God saves. The good news. The good news. The message of the Gospel is not that salvation is made possible for those who earn it. Or for those who deserve it.

Or for those who can outwork somebody else. That's the religion of the world. The euangelion. The gospel.

The good news of Jesus Christ. Is that God saves by his grace. He's proclaiming to repent.

But notice the second aspect of his proclamation about forgiveness. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

For the forgiveness of sins. And Mark gives us a little insight into what it looked like. People were coming from all around. Judea and Jerusalem.

And it's just this scene from all around of people coming and gathering. And in those early days of John the Baptist's ministry, there are all kinds of crowds around him.

In fact, you'll recall, John's Gospel tells us this. That John had these large crowds with him. And then when Jesus comes on the scene, a lot of people are leaving John the Baptist.

And they're going to follow Jesus. And John the Baptist inside circle says, we got a problem, John. We're losing our crowd. And John the Baptist says, no, no, no. He must increase.

John's whole purpose was not to elevate himself. He is going to decrease as he sets everyone's focus on Christ himself.

So people are coming from all around. Large groups are gathering there. And it says that they were being baptized by him in the river Jordan.

Now we might read this at first glance and not think much of it. But it's actually quite an interesting reality that Mark tells us here. We know from the Old Testament that Jews had a kind, a form of baptism in a sense.

They were ceremonial washings. They were done repeatedly, though. And we know that when Gentiles would convert into Judaism, they would go through a form of baptism.

Although that baptism was self-administered. It's different. What John is doing here is quite different.

This is John the Baptist, not the one who wrote the Gospel of John. That's John the disciple. This is John the Baptist, who was not a Baptist, by the way, in case you're confused on that.

It means the baptizer. He's the one that was baptizing. John the Baptist is here baptizing Jews.

This is not the ceremonial washings they were accustomed to. This is not the baptism of a Gentile converting into Judaism. This is John baptizing Jews.

This is different. This is strange. And the reason is because he's preaching about repentance.

He's not talking about ceremony. He's not talking about merely being religious. He's talking about the need for everyone, Jew or Gentile, to repent of their sin.

This is the same understanding as the book of Romans that tells us that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. That all of us must repent and seek Christ.

And so here is John the Baptist, and he's baptizing as he proclaims the need for repentance. Now, lest you think that John was just in this for numbers, or he just wanted everyone to hurry up and go through this ceremony so it would make him look good, Let me read for you from Matthew 3.

And in Matthew 3, verse 7, we get a little bit of extra insight into how this conversation went. How about that for a sales pitch?

He says, you snakes. I'm baptizing for repentance. Why are you here? Now, why does he say that? Because their motive was very clear.

While there are many there who are repenting and being baptized, there are others who are showing up just to try to add one more good work to their spiritual resume.

You want me to do this ceremonial thing? I'll do it. You want me to do this dietary thing? I'll do it. You want me to memorize this scripture? I'll do it. Here's somebody new. You want me to go through a baptism? I'll do it. Just do whatever so that they can feel even more justified in their own self-righteousness.

And John the Baptist says, if you're showing up here to try to magnify yourself, you're nothing more than a snake. Because that's what false teachers are.

They're slithery. They're deceptive. And they're deadly. You brood of vipers, who warned you to see the wrath to come?

Matthew 7, verse 8. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. In other words, what Matthew adds to the account Mark gives us here, is John the Baptist was not real seeker friendly.

John the Baptist was not real concerned with just what can I do to get everyone to like me. John the Baptist was ready to cut it straight.

And if you are using the gospel as a means to glorify yourself, John the Baptist says, you're nothing more than a snake.

And he tells them, what you must do is repent. And they were saying, but don't you know who we are?

Don't you know our heritage? Don't you know our ancestry? And John the Baptist says, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are from.

You must repent. Repent. It's a good word for us to consider this morning. We must repent.

Salvation won't come to us just because of our religious works either. Salvation won't come to us just because we go through some religious ceremony either.

We must repent. Now what's so interesting in the gospel of Mark here in these early verses is we see when you look at Mark 1 and put it side by side with Matthew 3, what you see is that John the Baptist is quite bold.

He's quite bold. He's telling religious leaders of the day they're a brood of vipers. He just tells it like it is. And yet, he's remarkably humble.

Because he's not there to get attention for himself. Everything about his ministry and about his preaching is about focusing the attention on the one who is to come, namely Jesus.

He is bold. And he is humble. And he tells them that they must repent.

And in his boldness, he proclaims to them that they need Christ. As another gospel writer tells us, what John would say here is, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's who Jesus is. Jesus has come, and he's come, that he may lay down his life as a ransom for our sins.

So, the next time you hear somebody ask the question, Is our salvation free? Before you're quick to blurt out, yes, you might clarify who we're talking about.

Is our salvation free for us? Of course. But it cost Christ everything.

Our sin had to be atoned. Not merely swept away, but paid in full.

Yes, our salvation is free for us. But it cost Christ everything. And notice also, as we think about this proclamation to repent, it's not only about repentance and forgiveness.

The third thing we see here is confession. At the end of verse 5, They were being baptized in the river and confessing their sins. This is a heart of repentance.

Not denying sin. Not hiding sin. Not covering sin. Not blaming someone else for their sin. But confessing their sin.

So, we see first, there is a preparation to receive. And second, there is a proclamation to repent. We see that right from the text.

And then third, verses 6 to 8, we see that John was preaching for response. He was preaching for response.

He was putting the truth of the gospel out and inviting people and calling people to respond and to believe the gospel. Now, he's a most unusual fellow here.

Look at verse 6. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. Mark kind of throws that in there.

This guy had quite the unique fashion and food. Strange dress, strange diet. He is bold and courageous.

And yet, to look at him, he is nothing remarkable. I think Mark includes this for a couple of reasons. One is this connects John the Baptist with Elijah from the Old Testament.

It's in the power and spirit of Elijah that John the Baptist comes. He is a Christian. But even his dress and his diet separate him from the false teachers of his day.

from those men who loved the externals. From those men who wanted people to notice and recognize all of their stuff and all of their accomplishments.

John the Baptist's life is a living protest against all of that. You look at what he eats, it's not the delicacies of the world.

You look at how he dresses, he's not dressing in a way that makes anybody admire him. His whole life, his whole message, everything about him is just a living protest against all the external things of the world that everybody seems to focus on.

And what Mark is telling us here about John the Baptist is that we can be bold in our proclamation of the gospel and still be humble in spirit.

In fact, we must be bold and humble in spirit. If we are not bold in our proclamation, then we will cower to the threats of the world.

But if we are bold and courageous in our preaching and have no humility in our life, then our very example contradicts the message we preach.

We must be bold in our proclamation and yet be humble in our life. And it seems like, it seems like there's a segment of our world who loves to esteem boldness but they have no place for humility.

Another segment that loves humility but they have no place for the truth. I mean, our culture in some ways loves it when somebody says something like, oh, I don't know the truth.

I could never tell you what absolute truth is. I can't know that. I know what I believe and I know what I think but that's just my truth.

I can't tell you what's your truth. The world loves that. And they crown that as an example of great humility. But there's no gospel there.

And then you've got other people who will be bold and courageous and won't back down and they will charge against anybody with the truth and with the gospel but their own heart is filled with pride.

And when your heart and mind is filled with pride and arrogance, you don't have any example of the transformation of what grace has done in your life. And so Mark is helping us see in the earliest words of his gospel that true gospel preaching absolutely includes a bold and courageous preaching for repentance and for response but also at the same moment must include humility and directing attention away from yourself and toward Christ.

And it says that in verse 7 as he preached he was saying after me so he's preparing the way someone's coming after him after me comes he who is mightier than I and now he's going to use an example that we can understand but in our culture really only in part.

He says after me comes he who is mightier than I the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

Now we get the picture John the Baptist is saying the one who's coming after me is so great and so mighty and so much better than me and greater than me I'm not even worthy to tie his shoes.

We get it but what he's actually saying here would carry so much impact to his readers because in that culture to untie someone's shoe was even far more of a menial task than what you and I would think it to be.

I mean I'm not planning on tying anybody's shoe today. It's never happened before on a Sunday. Never had somebody come up to me and say hey and put their foot in front of mine and oh sure let me lace that up for you.

If you did I would think you were kind of weird and odd but I mean I wouldn't be offended now that I say that I'm going to have 15 of you come do it. I'm not doing it but but we get the picture but in that culture this was reserved for those who felt as the lowest of the low.

This wasn't this wasn't just a menial task. This was this was almost unspeakably low. what John the Baptist is saying is not just he is greater than me he is saying he is all together above me.

So much so I'm not even worthy to do the lowest task for him that you can imagine.

this is how great the one who is coming after me is. And again what Mark absolutely wants you to see is that this man John the Baptist has the courage to look at the leaders and say you're nothing more than snakes.

I know your heart I know what you're about you are not repenting you're just trying to get one more notch in your belt you're nothing more than snakes and the man with that strong of courage is also in the same sermon saying Christ is so above me I'm not worthy to untie the sandal.

There is bold preaching and humility of spirit those of you who teach be bold in your proclamation of the gospel church when you share the gospel with others be bold and clear in the exclusivity of Christ but do not think more highly of yourself than you ought you must decrease he must increase and he says at the end of that section I have baptized you with water he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit this is what Christ is going to do that's interesting because Jesus himself will say of John the Baptist of those born of woman no one's been greater than he

I mean think about the position of John the Baptist he is not only the forerunner announcing the king is coming he's also the first prophet in 400 years to the people of God after the Old Testament ends and God gives his final prophetic word it's four centuries of silence and God raises up John the Baptist not only to say the king is coming but also as his first prophetic voice in 400 years and so Jesus says speaking of the position of John the Baptist that there's no one that's been better than him no one's had a more significant important ministry than how the father is using John the Baptist and yet the greatest among us is of no comparison to the greatness of the

Lord Jesus Christ and if John must repent and if the people in John's day must repent so we must repent John knew his place John knew his role and when people know their role it's a beautiful thing when people forget their place and try to take someone else's place chaos ensues imagine with me that this was a Saturday afternoon and we were gathered here for a wedding and we seated the grandparents and we seated the parents and the groomsmen have all come on stage and here come the bridesmaids one by one they come down until the very last bridesmaid the maid of honor maid of honor's job serve the bride help the bride make sure that details are taken care of if the bride needs something that day make sure the bride has it when the bride comes up the steps onto the platform make sure the train of the bride's dress looks right and it's where it's supposed to be make sure everything is perfect for the bride but suppose in that wedding if the maid of honor was coming down the aisle and she came down in a white dress with a long train and wanted everyone to look at her and came on stage and went stood right in the middle well that would be a disaster because the purpose of the maid of honor is not to have the focus on her it's to serve the one who is the focus the role of the preacher the role of the teacher is not to have everyone impressed or enamored with him it's to point people to

Jesus the role of the Christian doing evangelism is not to try to impress people with your knowledge and make them be amazed at you it's to point people away from you and unto Christ and what we see in these first eight verses is that the gospel is revealed to us in that Jesus saves Jesus and God is gracious as the name of John tells us and the response that we are looking for is not for people to be wowed by us but that they would confess their sin and repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ so let me ask you as we close this morning have you repented of your sin are there high places of pride in your life that need to be removed are there low places of despair that you need to turn to

Christ for hope and for help are you growing in Christ do you know the gospel do you believe the gospel and are you this day trusting in the person of the gospel the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ the focus today ultimately is not on a large group of students or a few musicians or any man the focus of this day and every day must be on Christ a Savior for those who would repent and turn from their sin and so my appeal to every one of you this morning is to do one of two things if you do not know

Christ as Savior my appeal to you this day is to repent and confess your sin and ask the Lord Jesus to save you and if you have done that my appeal to you is this very next week use your life and your words to tell somebody that Jesus saves to pray for the lost to be converted to plead with them to trust and to reveal to them the hope of the gospel let that be the response from each of us to repent and believe and to go and tell would you pray with me Lord we thank you today for your word and pray that your spirit would help us as we embark on this journey through

Mark's gospel Lord there is so much here for us I pray that you would help us to see it to understand it and to live it Lord for any this morning who may not know you as savior I pray that even this day they would call upon the name of your son Jesus Christ and be saved I pray even this moment that they would in their heart repent of their sin and turn to you and Lord for those who are believers may we do as John the Baptist did and use our lives and use our words to point away from ourselves and to the truth that salvation is found in the name of Jesus because you are a gracious God we ask it in Christ's name place for all he was there are going to be he was he was there can't he was there he was there he was he was there he was there he was here he was there he was

KAZing Thank you.