PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Mark 1:1-8
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way for the Lord.’” (Mark 1:3)
Mark starts his biography of Jesus when His ministry begins, as an adult.
John the Baptist is the unusual fanfare that announces the coming Messiah.
To prepare for God’s coming, people need to repent.
This act of repentance was extreme: being baptized by a madman in the wilderness.
There is an important message in this.
For us to benefit from God’s help, we need to come to the end of ourselves.
We need to admit our desperate need, and humbly open ourselves to God.
When we do this, then God will unleash His Spirit on us.
And an inward, powerful transformation will result (not just a symbolic washing).
God does not want religious rituals or traditions, He wants sincere heart change.
God will meet us in the wilderness (symbol of brokenness and transformation).
If I really want to know Jesus, then I need to be willing to go there.
I sense the Lord challenging us to meet Him in humility, honesty and desperation.
That will mark the beginning of the good news in our lives too.
PRAYER
Lord, this IS good news. When I admit my desperate need for help, You will personally meet me there (through Jesus) and help me with real, life-changing power.
I kept thinking – what intrigued the people to come to the Jordan to listen to John. They did – they had to travel quite far and many were so convicted that they were baptized. Did the Pharisees doctrines and teaching of almost impossible adherence to laws that nobody could keep to look to John – who offered forgiveness – baptizing them – a baptism of repentance? Did his message ring true because they were so longing for the Messiah – thinking maybe that John was him – the second Elijah? Yet they came from all over to see John – a strange man and oddly dressed. And they were baptized – moved to repentance by John’s preaching/teaching. I too must listen to the call to repentance – to enter God’s presence by coming to Jesus in humility – as a sinner admitting my own unworthiness.
Spirit driven even before he was born.
SpiritLed into the wilderness.
SpiritLed to do His will.
A prophet proclaiming His Word, calling the people to repentance, a return to serving Him as the previous OT prophets did.
John pointed the people to Christ and the people were eager to hear him.
I too need to point others to Christ by the way I live for Jesus.
Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
Refrain:
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.