Mark 1:1–15 — The Time Has Come

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This message is the first in a new series on the Gospel of Mark.

It is from Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 15, and it is entitled, "The Time Has Come."

Mark 1:1–15

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, May 4th, 2025.

Well, let me just start by welcoming you to the Gospel of Mark.

And in this message, I really want to start by introducing you to the Gospel of Mark and kind of

giving you a little bit of information on who wrote it, where it came from, and also some

themes that we're going to see throughout the entire Gospel. So we're going to spend many,

many weeks in the Gospel of Mark. We're actually going to spend the rest of 2025 in this book,

taking it apart one bit at a time, always in context. And so I think one of the benefits of

having some understanding about the book itself and some of those themes is that you start to see

those themes come out and you start to, I think, understand the letter in context with itself

if you know a little bit about where it came from, who it was written to, that kind of contextual

information. So that's actually where we're going to start today. Mark is often overlooked as a Gospel.

It's very short. It's very light on dialogue. It's very heavy on action. It still has dialogue,

but it does just kind of seem to move from one thing to the next. Mark is driving at something,

and he doesn't let up until the very end in chapter 16. It was originally thought to be

a derivative work, which means a work coming off of something else. And it didn't receive a lot of

the emphasis that the other three did, Matthew, Luke, and John. The three other Gospels were actually

received a lot more focus from the early church than Mark did. Matthew was known for its narrative

and discourse. Luke was known for his history and his attention to detail. Luke starts his Gospel

by saying, "It's so that you can have confidence in what you believe." And then John is known for

his theology, where he gets into a lot deeper theology specifically in his Gospel than the other

two do. So for those reasons, the early church actually focused a lot more on Matthew in particular,

but the other two, and not as much on Mark. And so I think in the last probably 100 years,

a lot more interest has been on Mark for a variety of reasons. One is just the style of Mark. So to

kind of understand Mark's style, I want us to start by looking at who wrote it and also when it was

written. Because those things help us to understand why Mark is saying some of the things that he's

saying. It was potentially written during the first real persecution of Christianity under,

this would have been under Nero, around 65 AD. It was probably written to Roman Christians,

who would have had a little less familiarity with the Jewish background and also kind of the local

geography, the setting of the Gospel, would have been a little less familiar to them. And so what

you see as a result is fewer Old Testament references. If you compare it to Matthew, Matthew

was just packed with Old Testament references because he's trying to show this is the Messiah

that all of the Old Testament points to. Mark instead sticks with a lot of Isaiah, because

he was one of the major prophets. He was very well known, even to the point where he was known

outside of Jewish culture. And then he's also going to focus in on the Exodus narrative,

because that would have been well known history of the Jews. So those two, Isaiah and Exodus,

is kind of where he's going to end up landing a lot. So you'll see a lot of comparisons that he's

making with Exodus and a lot of references to Isaiah. The way that he spoke or the way that he

wrote it is interesting, because it was written in like an everyday spoken Greek. He actually writes

with a very limited vocabulary using really everyday language to explain these extraordinary

events. And so all of that makes this actually very accessible, even to us today. And we know that

it was most likely written by Mark, also known as John Mark, who would have had multiple connections

to the church. So this is kind of fun. When we look at John Mark, we know that it was his mom,

her name was Mary, in whose house the early church used to meet. That would have been Acts 1212.

So we know that he grew up in a house church. We know that he became a companion of Barnabas and

Paul on their missionary travels. And at some point, left that journey early, and then came back

later, which caused this disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. If you remember this, Paul and Barnabas

disagree over whether he should come back on as a companion or not. Barnabas says, yes, Paul says,

no, they split in Acts 15. And he becomes a companion of Barnabas. And so that's what we know

from Scripture. And then we have really reliable accounts from the early early church. So like

within 30 years of Mark being written, there are pretty reliable accounts that John Mark later

served as like an interpreter, and potentially a scribe for the apostle Peter in the years before

his death. So to kind of paint a picture of John Mark, who we're going to be listening to for a

long time, right? He grew up in a house church. He traveled with the apostles for years. He failed

at ministry at least once, and had probably heard all of Peter's stories at least 10 times,

which is likely the source material for the Gospel according to Mark, which he probably

wrote sometime around, perhaps even shortly after Peter's execution, all these stories that he's

heard from Peter, all of the accounts that Peter has given him, he's going to use that as the source

material for writing. So we have, again, first hand knowledge coming from Peter that Mark is writing

down. So what we're left with is an extremely reliable, motivated, and to the point account of

the Gospel, written to the Gentile church who is enduring persecution. It was probably

the first Gospel that was written down. And it's kind of written like a graphic novel almost of

the Gospel account in comparison with the other three. I'm not saying that there's pictures.

I'm saying it's almost laid out like a play telling the story through action and interaction,

almost more like a ballet or a stage production and less like a monologue or a speech. And so it

is very useful to a primarily Gentile church nearly 2000 years later, that's us, and very useful to

a group of people who want to hit the ground running when it comes to sharing the Gospel of Jesus

and making disciples in Council Bluffs, Iowa and beyond. So I'm very excited to get into the Gospel

of Mark. One final note before we dig into this first passage is to look at kind of the theme.

We know that Mark wrote this with a theme in mind because he keeps coming back to it. And there's

a few of them. But the overarching theme is that Jesus is the Son of God with all authority on

heaven and earth. And he came as the suffering servant for us. So we have this contrast of Jesus.

Yes, he is the Son of God. He does have all authority, but he did come as the suffering

servant and he understands suffering. So this will be really good news, I think to those of us

who feel like our world is out of control, those of us struggling with things that feel impossible.

It's good news to know that Jesus has all authority. This will also be good news to those of us dealing

with suffering because Jesus came to suffer. He came to be tempted and stand faithful. And

ultimately he came to suffer on our behalf. He understands our suffering and he stands with us

in it and also offers us abundant life that goes beyond just the suffering. And so with that

introduction to the book, let's go ahead and get into today's passage with Mark chapter 1 verses 1

Mark 1:1–15

through 15. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 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 paths 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." In those days, Jesus came

from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water

immediately, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased."

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days

being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying,

"The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel."

So as the curtains part on the opening act, Mark opens with this topic statement in which

he wastes no time stating what he's going to get at through the entire account. The introduction

fits the pattern of an announcement or a proclamation, the kind that you might find on

a royal messenger, right? Somebody marking the arrival of royalty. He begins with though the

gospel. This is a reference to the singular good news, which is what the gospel means. So when we

talk about the gospel, we want to understand that there is only one gospel message and it begins

and ends with Jesus. I started by talking about the four accounts of the gospel message, right?

Which became known as the four gospels of which Mark is one. But here where Mark says the gospel,

he means the good news. Then he includes both the name Jesus and the title Christ, telling us

a lot about what role Jesus came to fulfill. The word Christ is not Jesus last name, but rather

it's a title that means anointed one or Messiah in Greek. So when Mark says Jesus Christ, he is

making already a bold declaration that Jesus is the promised Messiah who fulfills all of God's

promises to his people. Finally, we're still in verse one. He clearly states the identity of Jesus

as the Son of God. So this title, Son of God, I already mentioned as part of the theme of Mark,

but this title would have been recognizable to Jew and Greek alike that this was in fact God

himself. Keep an eye out for all the places that Mark will identify Jesus as God in this gospel.

I'll keep pointing them out as we go. So like if you're using multicolored pencils or highlighters

in your Bible, pick a color and highlight all of these as we go. So in a one sentence introduction,

Mark has showed his hand already. He showed his hand and he's saying that Jesus is God,

that he is the one who will save us. He's the Messiah, and that's good news. This is the gospel,

the good news of Jesus. What Mark is going to do with the rest of these opening 15 verses

is to support that statement. So this verse one stands alone. He's making the topic statement.

This is what this good news is all about. And now with the next bunch of verses that we're going to

look at today, he's going to support that statement in three sections. He's going to show in verses

two through eight that Jesus was predicted. He's going to say, "This is the guy who was predicted.

Who are we waiting for? Who is the Messiah? This is the Messiah. This is who we were waiting for."

He's going to share in nine through 11 that he was declared by God.

And finally in verses 12 through 13, he's going to show that he was proven in his mission

through temptation. So he was predicted, he was declared, and he was also proven in the mission

that he began to carry out, doing so perfectly in the wilderness by facing 40 days of temptation

and not failing once. And then we have this closing at the end, verses 14 and 15, where Jesus goes out

and actually begins his ministry. So that's where we're headed today. We're going to start with verses

two through eight. The arrival foretold, this is the foretelling in verses two and three. Mark starts

with the passage from Isaiah, which he's going to do often because again, I mentioned it's very

well known. It's probably the best known of all the prophets at this time. This quoted passage

is actually a combination of a few passages from Exodus and Micah. And verse three is directly

from Isaiah chapter 40. So we'll actually get a little deeper into those passages during our study

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

in House Church this week. But he attributes the entirety of that to Isaiah because Isaiah was the

last to speak. And all three of these passages are pointing to the foretelling of Jesus. And so

he basically gives Isaiah the credit for that. More specifically though, they're also referring

to this prophesied person who will come preparing the way for Jesus, who very clearly is John the

Baptist. Mark sets us up with that. With this preparation, right, this ministry of preparation

verses four through six. John has this ministry of preparing for Jesus by going out into the

wilderness and calling people to repent and baptizing them. Why the wilderness? Why is that

important? The wilderness has long been this place of preparation and repentance for Israel.

It was a place where prophets have long found refuge and have long spoken out of the wilderness

calling people to turn to God. And that's exactly what John the Baptist is doing. Even down to his

clothes, he's fulfilling this role that he's playing. The people would have seen John's dress

and diet and heard his preaching to repent, and they would have made this connection.

Again, with Old Testament prophets like Elijah. By the way, there's a prophecy in Malachi four,

five through six, where God promises, "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and

awesome day of the Lord comes." Imagine then, with that verse from Malachi ringing in your ears,

that this guy shows up dressed a lot like Elijah, living in the desert and calling people to repent

because the great and awesome day of the Lord is coming, right? The connection is there.

So that's the role that John is playing. Jesus will later clarify that he actually

was fulfilling the role of Elijah. So this is the fulfillment of that prophecy in Malachi.

But why baptism? So John is baptizing people with water. Baptism would not have been

a foreign concept to them then. This ritual cleansing and washing would have been

pretty commonplace in that day. It wasn't like us taking a shower after working out in the garden,

which is what I did today. It's more about a ritual or a spiritual cleansing. But in that day,

that type of cleansing was really for two groups of people. It would have been the highest of the

high and the lowest of the low. So the religious elite would have had private baths.

That were ritual baths that they would be able to go in and out of and proclaim themselves clean.

And then you had the sick and the unclean people with leprosy, with other types of uncleanness,

that would have to go and wash in a ritual bath to come back into the community.

And then everybody else kind of, I mean, there was some use of these ritual pools called mikvahs,

where you could go and you could cleanse yourself. Often it was preparation for a holy day,

preparation for the Sabbath. But what John is saying is that this is for everyone.

This baptism that John is calling the people to is for everyone. He's saying you're all unclean.

And I'm calling all of you to repent. All of you need to repent. But also, all of you need

something else. Look at what he's saying about this baptism, right? In verses seven and eight,

he's not saying that it cleans them. It's just a symbol, just like baptism today. And what he's

calling them to do is repent and to prepare for someone greater. He says two things about this

person who's coming after him, for whom he is preparing the way. He says that this person is

so great that I'm not even worthy to do the lowest of the low things for him. So something to understand

about this, like untieing of the sandals and the washing of the feet. It was considered such a low

thing among the Jews that not even Jewish slaves were allowed to do this job. If they needed to

find somebody to do this job, it had to be a Gentile, right? One of those already dirty Gentiles.

That's who could do this because they didn't even want the Jewish slaves to be making themselves

unclean. It was so far beneath them. And John is saying, I'm not even worthy to do something so

great as that. He's also saying that this person who's coming after him is baptizing with the

Holy Spirit. That's important. Remember when I said John, or Mark is going to constantly be

referring to Jesus as God. He's going to be constantly showing that Jesus is God. This is

one of those places. Because who is the only person who is able to bestow the Holy Spirit of God?

God himself, not a prophet. God alone is able to bestow the Holy Spirit of God.

So far, Mark is a problematic gospel for anyone who wants to deny the divinity of Jesus. We're

only eight verses in, right? All of this foretelling has happened and it all points to Jesus. Jesus is

the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ. He is foretold to be God himself. Well, if all that

foretelling set the stage, in verses 9 and 11, we have an outright declaration from God the Father.

Let's look at verses 9 and 11. Let's read those again.

"In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the

Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son,

with you I am well pleased.'" The first thing I want you to notice about this is how much

Mark writes the experience of the scene, right? It's like we're standing there. And for good reason,

because this incredible thing happens, Jesus comes to be baptized and we see him come up out of the

water. We see the heavens torn open. We see the Spirit. We hear a voice. You can almost feel the

vibration of the crowd and your breath catching your chest, right? In this moment of baptism,

we see two things happen that contrast. First, Jesus is baptized. Why did Jesus need to be

baptized? He has no sin. He does not need to repent. John has already said, "I don't even

deserve to touch your feet." And yet, Jesus submits to John to be baptized.

Jesus is identifying with a sinful mankind, doing what they must do, but he does not do it

out of necessity, but by choice. Baptism with Jesus is a picture of death and resurrection,

and just as Jesus would later submit to suffering and death, he submits here to the symbol

of baptism. Again, not because he has to repent, but by choice. Then, just as at the resurrection,

he is recognized. We have him stooping low to fulfill what must be done, to be baptized and

identify with sinful humanity, though he has no sin himself. And then the heavens are torn open.

The Spirit comes down looking like a dove, and we hear this proclamation from God the Father,

which never happens, but it happens here. He says, "You are my beloved Son, and with you I am well

pleased." God never speaks from the torn open heavens, but he does hear. And why? It's to declare

the identity of his Son and his pleasure over him. The voice in the desert that was saying,

"He is coming," has now been replaced by a voice from heaven that says, "He is here."

And so we've witnessed this event, and classic Mark has shown us what he wants to show us,

and something remains. Jesus is driven out into the wilderness. It seems to come out of nowhere.

Why? Well, let's read verses 12 and 13. "This Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness,

and he was in the wilderness 40 days." It's important. "Being tempted by Satan, and he was with

the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him." So we have the baptism, the announcement,

and no party. We had all the buildup, and now none of the kingly reception, right? What we would

have expected to happen. Now all of these people are going to follow the king, and the king is going

to march into Jerusalem, and we're going to take things back from the Romans. But that's not what

Jesus came for. Jesus is the Son of God that there can be no doubt about. But he is also the

suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied would come. And if you were in doubt, he immediately

begins that work by enduring 40 days of temptation in the wilderness. Now again, why the wilderness?

We've talked about this is a place where prophets go. This is a place where God seems to speak out

of calling his people to repentance throughout history. I think it's helpful to understand what

the wilderness actually is like. The Judean wilderness is not like the Midwestern wilderness,

right? This is not like cornfields and some trees every now and then. It is barren, sandy,

rocky desert that gets scorching hot during the day and freezing cold at night. And to add to that,

Jesus doesn't take any food, and he's being tempted by the devil for 40 days. Why 40 days?

Let's think about some connections to Exodus because we know Mark likes to do that. Israel,

the nation, wandered for 40 years. And in that wandering, God led them, but were they faithful

to God? No, they failed to be perfectly faithful, even though God was perfectly faithful to them.

Later, we have Moses going up on this mountain for 40 days, right? He was standing with God,

receiving these instructions, being instructed as like the best teacher you could possibly imagine,

and yet he failed to be the perfect teacher. Moses failed to be the perfect leader,

but Jesus didn't. Jesus was going to do both of these things. He was going to be the perfectly

faithful servant and the fulfillment of all the law had failed to do. He was going to do what the

law could not, what Moses could not, he was going to make us righteous.

Towards the end of our passage today, this introduction to Mark leaves us with two verses,

verses 14 and 15, in which we see Jesus return to Galilee and begin his earthly ministry. And

then we hear Jesus speak for the first time in this gospel account. And he says, "The time is

fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand, repent and believe the gospel." And I don't know how else to end

this introduction to Mark, but to invite us to respond to that statement from Jesus himself.

First, think about what this would have meant to a group of persecuted Christians in the

capital city of an unfriendly empire. They were absolutely experiencing some doubts, asking,

"Are we sure Jesus was really the one foretold? This seems kind of out of control, we're being

persecuted. We still don't have a king that's protecting us here today. Now are we sure this

is the mission to endure persecution?" And Mark answers them with the resounding "Yes" and reminds

them how all of history pointed towards Jesus and that God confirmed him as such and that he

proved himself as the faithful son of God. I want to speak to a few of us today who might be in

different places. If you feel like the world is out of control, Jesus is on the throne and not even

death could keep him down. He fulfilled every prophecy throughout all of history and was

confirmed by the heavens themselves being ripped open and God speaking. I promise you that his plans

for you and the rest of history have not been derailed a fraction of an inch. He is and will

work out all things for his glory and are good because that's just who he is.

If you are trying to make sense of suffering, it is helpful to understand that Jesus came as the

suffering servant, that he did take on flesh, that he identified with us in the aches and the pains

and the loss and the tears of life, and he suffered in a way that we never could on the cross so that

we would never have to endure the separation from God. He understands suffering and he knows how to

grieve with us, but he is also bringing an end to suffering and one day all of it will be no more.

Finally, if you are struggling with things like temptation, with self-worth,

with some of the connected feelings of feeling like a failure because of

failing to resist temptation perfectly, I want to invite you to turn to Jesus

because he did suffer temptation in the desert, but he didn't do it to show us how to do it perfectly

so that we could do it perfectly. He did it because we never could and you want to know how I know that?

Nobody in human history leading all the way up to Jesus ever did it. He resisted temptation

perfectly, lived faithfully, and died and rose so that he could give us an invitation that nobody

else could, to repent and believe the good news that you can turn from your sin and receive

forgiveness and life in Jesus' name. So as we close, I want to call your attention just one

more time to verse 10 and 11 because it's so encouraging to me. "The heavens are torn open

and God the Father expresses his pleasure over Jesus. You are my Son with you I am well pleased."

Do you know the next time that we see that specific word used for the heavens being

torn open, "rent open" is near the end of Mark? It's where the curtain of the temple is being torn

from top to bottom. "When the moment comes that the separation between God and man is no more for

all who would put their faith in the sacrifice of the risen Jesus, the pleasure of God that we

saw on Jesus with the heavens torn open is now available to us through the finished work of

Christ. We are invited into the kingdom of God and experience the pleasure of God because of Jesus.

So church, the time is now to repent and believe the good news.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bloss Iowa and in homes

throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and

making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by

visiting ecclesia churches.org.

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