@jchiatt

I’ve been going through Mark for the past two weeks. I thought I’d just share what I’ve been seeing! Please feel free to let me know your thoughts as well!

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, athe Son of God.1

2 bAs it is written in Isaiah the prophet,2

c“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

3 dthe voice of one crying in the wilderness:

e‘Prepare3 the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’” 

4 fJohn appeared, baptizing in gthe wilderness and proclaiming ha baptism of irepentance jfor the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, kconfessing their sins. 6 Now John was lclothed with camel’s hair and lwore a leather belt around his waist and ate mlocusts and nwild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, o“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 pI have baptized you with water, but qhe will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In the first three verses, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 are quoted, prophesying the proclaiming of Jesus by John the Baptist in the wilderness. If you read verses 4-8, it says John the Baptist was in the wilderness proclaiming the coming Messiah.

In verse 8, John the Baptist tells the congregation of people that he baptizes them with water, but that the one that is coming will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Baptizing with mere water does not cleanse one of sins, only faith in Christ and what He did for us count you as righteous before God (Eph. 2:8, John 14:6, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 Cor. 15:3-4). 

9 rIn those days Jesus scame from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he tsaw uthe heavens being torn open vand the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And wa voice came from heaven, x“You are my beloved Son;4 with you I am well pleased.”

Here, Jesus is baptized. There are some key things to remember here. Some will say that Jesus was baptized because you must do that to receive the Holy Spirit. If we assume that for even Jesus (or us) to receive the Holy Spirit we must be baptized, then we are saying that Jesus was baptized for the same reason that the people there were (the forgiveness of sins). That doctrine in itself implies that Jesus needed the cleansing of sin, implying that He was not always perfect, which contradicts the fact that He knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). To say that we do not receive the Holy Spirit until we are baptized contradicts a fundamental principle of the Gospel. Instead, we should consider here that John the Baptist was prophesied to prophesy the coming of Christ; to “prepare the way of the Lord” (verse 3). So Jesus was coming out of obedience in fulfilling the Scriptures and to declare the beginning of His ministry. We must remember that John the Baptist himself proclaims that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit (verse 8). Some will argue Gal. 3:27, where Paul says, “For as many of you as were baptized in Christ have put on Christ”. They say that for us to “put on Christ” we must be “baptized in Christ”. The truth is, if you look at the word for “baptism” (baptizo), it has three different definitions. 1 is “to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk)”. Another is “to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe”. The last is to “overwhelm”. Also the Greek word “bapto” means to “dip” (essentially), but in a way that is temporary. The word “baptizo” means to be immersed or overwhelmed in a permanent way. If we were “bapto”, then we could possibly infer that we can lose the Holy Spirit, thus losing our salvation; but instead we are “baptizo”, being permanently sealed (overwhelmed) with the Holy Spirit through our belief in the Gospel, not the submersion in mere water (Eph. 1:13). Jesus’ baptism was out of obedience to symbolize the coming baptism of the Holy Spirit (verse 8).

12 yThe Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 yAnd he was in the wilderness forty days, being ztempted by aSatan. And he was with the wild animals, and bthe angels were ministering to him.

Here it says that the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness, and that he was tempted by Satan and ministered to by angels for forty days. We know in other places (Matthew 4) more details about this time, including the details on His temptations and the fact that He fasted during this time. But here I just want to look at the fact that the Spirit drove Him out into the wilderness. The Spirit within us who are believers can lead us to places or away from places. In Acts 16:6 it says the Spirit forbid Paul to go preach the Gospel in Asia. We don’t really know why, but I believe a safe assumption is God was protecting Paul and those who were with him from something. We must always be open to hear where the Spirit may be telling us to go; whether that be the next phase of our life or a certain coffee shop or even a druglord’s house in the middle of the night. To close our ear to the Spirit is to close our ear to God and refuse to walk in the good works He has prepared for us to walk in (Eph. 2:10). Also, the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness. And upon reading Matthew 4, we know the Spirit drove Him to a forty day period where He fasted and was tempted by the enemy. Translated, the Spirit led Jesus to a hard and trying period of time. Instead of giving in to temptation and eating, throwing Himself off of a temple, or bowing down to Satan, He stood firm, proving His sinless nature (2 Cor. 5:21) and His steadfastness of faith (which leads to perfection and completeness) (James 1:2-4). Where has the Spirit led you? Recently the Spirit has led me to a place of trial. God is, at this moment, testing my steadfastness of faith. How are you responding to where the Spirit has led/is leading you? 

14 cNow after John was arrested, Jesus dcame into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, e“The time is fulfilled, and fthe kingdom of God is at hand; grepent and believe in the gospel.”

John the Baptist was then arrested. Afterwards, Jesus began His preaching of the Gospel, which was prophesied all throughout the Old Testament. Apart from Matthew 28:19, part of modeling Jesus’ life is preaching the Gospel. He Himself proclaimed the events that were taking place and the events that were to take place. 

16 hPassing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become ifishers of men.”5 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Here, Jesus calls His first disciples. He simply says to them, “Follow me”, and they immediately follow him. These guys left behind what they were working on at the time, their life, and even their family — they left behind everything and everyone— and followed Jesus. Do you have that kind of faithfulness and trust? Are you willing to drop everything — everyone and everything you know and love — in order to follow Jesus? What is He worth to you? It is with a bit of uncertainty that I say that I am willing to drop everything and everyone and am willing to endure anything and everything — a trashed reputation, torture, even death — for Jesus. I want that to be my heart. After all, He gave up and endured far worse than all of that for me; He took God’s wrath in my place and in all of mankind’s place. Can you imagine what the wrath of the Creator of the Universe must feel like? Especially that wrath multiplied times the number of all of mankind? I can’t.

Be back soon. Keep pressing on!

jc