Start With Yourself

Transcript

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[0:01] Thank you, Pam. And it's time for the sermon. Our sermon text is from Mark chapter 1, just the first eight verses of Mark. And it's a great sort of introduction to the beginning of the gospel of Mark. We're going to get into that. But here are just a few words about Mark and about Advent. Just to remind you, the word Advent comes from the Latin word advenir, which means to arrive. So Advent is a time of anticipation for the arrival or the coming of Jesus into the world. And as we will see, Advent isn't really about Christmas. It kind of leads up to Christmas, but Advent is about the coming of Jesus. At the end of time, at the beginning of his ministry, it's not just about him coming as a baby. On Christmas Eve, it's about, in Christmas Day, it's about him coming as a baby. But before that, there's all these other ways that Jesus comes. And so some of it's apocalyptic and some of it's about his ministry.

[0:56] And part of the preparation today is to prepare the way to our own hearts, to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. And John the Baptist does that. So this is actually more about John the Baptist today. He's that one that Isaiah spoke of, of the voice out in the wilderness, crying out and saying to people, prepare the way so that the Messiah can come. And this is how the gospel of Mark begins. Mark is different from the other gospels. It doesn't have a record of the birth of Jesus. Right? Luke does. Luke is the classic story of the birth of Jesus. Matthew has a story of the birth of Jesus, more or less. John, not so much. It's more of a genealogy. It's more of a sort of a cosmic, universal-wide description of the coming of Jesus, but not his birth per se. But Mark doesn't even touch on the childhood of Jesus. It starts when Jesus is an adult. It starts right about the time when Jesus begins his public ministry. But it starts really with the ministry of John the Baptist. And so, you know, it's a little bit of a different story. But it's a little bit deeper than the story you just read. Right. Right Right time but the opening act kind of warms up the crowd it gives them some exposure you know people oh they might be someday so maybe there was a time when Kansas

[2:28] was the opening act for Styx remember that in the 70s you guys remember that yes of course you do and so the opening act was kind of a lesser act and then the main course the main act was you know the big the big crowd-pleaser and then I think actually at one point Styx opened for Kansas because they kind of had swapped in prominence and now they're just you know the remnants of these bands are just playing at casinos all over America and it's really kind of sad right but the difference here actually in Mark so John is you could think of John as the warm-up act or the first act to Jesus the main act but it turns out that Mark or pardon me John the Baptist was more popular than Jesus was Jesus was an unknown person at this time before his ministry start John was incredibly popular as we'll see so this isn't like the the warm-up act that's less popular gives way to even more popular it's more like a very popular first act kind of goes into obscurity as he himself says and makes room or makes way for the next big act that's even bigger than him to come and so then eventually John the Baptist ends up on like you know basic cable show where it says where are they now what's this band doing now where's John the

[3:42] Baptist now well he's in prison he's wondering if Jesus is really the Messiah you know so John is preparing the way for Jesus and let's go to our reading that let's go to our reading we'll read mark 1 1 through 8 the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God as it is written in the prophet Isaiah see I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way the voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins now John was clothed with camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist in and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word.

[5:17] We ask that you add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Good to see you. Thanks for coming today. Good. Well, let's take a look at what's happening, all right? As we say, there's no story about the birth of Jesus in Mark.

[5:37] No birth story, no manger. But guess what? This actually is kind of hinting at it. There is a bit of a birth story here, and it actually is, in this opening sentence. It says, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And that phrase, actually, is an echo of a pronouncement about the birth of the Emperor Augustus in about 8 or 9 BC. It sounds exactly like it. And so, this sounds actually like a birth announcement for Jesus. But it's about the birth of his ministry. And this is what it, there was an inscription that was sent around, sort of a proclamation. And back then, when there was a proclamation about the news, about the royal house, the imperial house of Rome, that proclamation was called the good news. The euangelion, that's what that word means. Euangelion means good news or good message. And our word gospel is the same word. That's where we get our word gospel. So, the good news or the gospel was sent out from Rome around 9 BC, and it says this, since providence, which is providence, kind of was how the Romans thought of sort of this divine force in the world. Since providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus,

[7:00] whom she filled with virtue, that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things. And since the birth, the birthday of the God Augustus was the beginning, remember that? The beginning of the good news, the euangelion, for the world that came by reason of him. That was the announcement that accompanied the birth of Augustus, the new baby emperor, right? And do you notice that Mark's pronouncement is kind of like it, right? This is the beginning of the good news, the euangelion, the gospel of Jesus, the Messiah. So, we're starting to get there. We're starting to get some titles here, right? The good news, the beginning, right?

[7:50] But it's the son of God, not the son of the former emperor. So, this is actually, this could have gotten Mark in a lot of trouble, and perhaps it did, because he's actually borrowing this language about the birth of the emperor to say, here is one in the same vein, but even more powerful, because he's the son of God, and he's the Messiah, he's the long awaited, the hope of the Jews.

[8:17] And so, this is kind of subversive, right? He's using the language of the empire, but he's talking about a new king, a different king. And this is actually, as we'll find, this is the new king that in time, long time, there's a long timeline to this, will actually overthrow the old empire. Very interesting. Okay. And so, he's also the son of God, which means he has the power and the attributes of God. So, Mark goes on to draw on three passages from the Old Testament when he follows up on this idea about this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God. He speaks of a special messenger who will go ahead of the son of God and begin to tell the good news.

[9:06] And so, in Isaiah and a few other places in the Old Testament and this next section here, why don't we put it back on the screen there again. I think it might be the second slide or the first slide. One before that one.

[9:20] There we go. As it's written in the prophet Isaiah, so he's quoting Isaiah and a few other verses in the Old Testament, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you. And the question is, you can hide it now if you want. The question is, who is this person, right? Who's the person? Well, Mark answers it for us, right? That person is one of Jesus' contemporaries on the religious scene. The main act, he's playing five nights a week at Vegas, right? And his name is John the Baptist. And he's actually this person of intense interest. We need to know more about John the Baptist than we know. We wish we knew more. We think he might have been at least influenced by or sort of rubbed shoulders with the only other group of religious sort of people in the time of Jesus, Jewish people named the Essenes that had a colony down by the Dead Sea. They're not really mentioned in Scripture, but they are mentioned in other works. And then they have their own works. They have their own literature and Scripture. All of that was found in that collection of Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, 1948.

[10:29] And so we know a little bit about, these were people who would take a bath every day. They worked really hard. They ate really simple food. They washed themselves every day. They had a life, sort of a ritual, a holistic life together.

[10:42] And so you look at John, how he's dressed, what he eats, the practice of baptizing or washing people in the River Jordan. You begin to think, oh, was he one of, kind of influenced by that group? But we'd like to know more. All we know is that there he was, out at the River Jordan, which is a bit of a hike from Jerusalem. If you want to walk from Jerusalem to the River Jordan, you're in for a whole day of walking downhill because it's almost below sea level at that point, and parts of it are actually. And if you want to come back, you're not going to make it back in one day because it's quite a climb back up. If you have a donkey, you're lucky, you know, but most people didn't have that. So it was a lot of work to go out and see John the Baptist. Yet there he was preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins and repentance, and people were out there. So what did he eat? He ate, this is what I think has actually worked. It sounds horrible what he ate. Actually, the wild honey sounds okay, but the locusts, that doesn't sound so great. High protein, right? Good fats. It's really interesting. And plenty of calories.

[11:49] One multivitamin and you're done. You got it all. That's all you need. I don't know where he got the multivitamin, but I don't know where he got his vitamin C. I don't know if he ended up with scurvy or not, but he had enough. He had enough for his lifestyle. He's living out there wild, crazy man. He had to have had a crazy beard, you know. He had to have just kind of looked like a crazy guy out in the wilderness, but there he was. And I think he looked crazy, and it didn't matter because people still came. What was it? What was it that brought them out there? Now, he's popular. Like I said, he's the main act. And it's hard to tell if this is hyperbole or sort of an exaggeration, but Mark writes that all the people from Jerusalem, all, that's not some, it says all, okay? It says all the people from Jerusalem and many of the people from the surrounding county or Judea went out to meet him. Now, how did all the people meet him? How did all the people from Jerusalem go? I mean, some of the infirm people wouldn't be able to make the trip. It could be an exaggeration or it just could be a way of saying he was super popular. Like just about everybody had heard about this and either they went out there or somebody had told them about it.

[12:51] So there was a real revival going on. There was a real draw down to the, to take a walk all the way. He didn't come up to Jerusalem to preach. You know, you think, oh, he would have, that would be smart of him to come up. Then people, people made the trek down to hear him, down to be washed in the Jordan.

[13:08] And what, you know, the emphasis is that they came down because he had something to say that they wanted to hear. Even the Pharisees were curious about it. They went down more because they were suspicious. They wanted to know, you know, he's saying something super popular. Do we need to start saying that? Or is there something wrong with what he's saying so that we can kind of nip this in the bud because we don't want any rivals?

[13:34] Well, all he said was, repent. Repent. Repent. Which Victoria was talking about in the children's sermon. That Greek word for that is metanoia. It means to actually turn around. It doesn't just mean to say, I'm wrong. I'll try not to be wrong again. You know, that's not quite it. Metanoia is a turning away from something. It's to walk in the opposite direction. It's to change your life. It's to move in the other way. He's saying, turn around. Turn around from whatever direction you're going. Turn around and be washed. And you'll be cleansed. And that, he also said, there was one coming after him who was far more powerful than him and was going to be far more popular than him and who was going to do far greater things than them. And here's the, I think, really the beautiful part of it. He says, that one, I'm washing you with water here in the river. It's just plain old water. It's just H2O. But when he comes, he's going to cleanse you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Right? He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And that's a big deal. That's huge. John is saying, he's going to bring with him the power of God to work in your lives.

[14:51] So that's kind of the background. That tells the story. That's the narrative part of it. And we understand that he's popular. But as you read this, you might be asking yourself, well, why was that such a popular message?

[15:07] Nobody likes to be told to repent. That's a very unpopular message. In fact, if I were to preach to you repentance every week, the place would empty out before long, I think. Well, maybe not. I don't know. Some of you are masochists, perhaps. You love hearing that. You know what really sells? Just turn on the news. What really sells is if I tell you that you are good and that you are smart and the people you don't like are bad. And they're stupid. That sells. If I were to do that, right, you'd come back. If you were shallow, you would come back every week. This is cable news, right? This is our discourse in our country. This is social media.

[15:51] It incentivizes division in our country. It says, you are great. All the things you think are great. All your values are great. All your whatever is great. You are great. And then there's some people out there who really kind of disagree with you. And they're horrible. They're really, really bad people. And you're so much better than them. It's like tribalism, right? And it used to be tribalism was there's a tribe on the other side of the valley. And they're not, we don't want that. Now there's just tribes on the other side of the aisle. There's tribes on the other end of the spectrum, right? And if you really want to sell, you're going to say those people are horrible. And you're great. You get the point, right? That's what sells. That's what would have sold even in John's time. But for some reason, that wasn't selling, at least with John. Instead, John said, you're the problem. Whoa. You're the problem.

[16:45] Not those people. Not the other folks. You're not good. You may not be that smart. You need to turn around. Something's wrong with you. You need to turn around. You need to be washed. You need a new start. Okay. Now. The question I have is why was that more popular?

[17:11] Why was that more popular? Just think about that for a second. Why was that so popular? And what I think, and I'm not sure, but I think there was this sort of moment of clarity for the people of that time. Where they're like, we can't fight anymore. We're not going to win. What were they facing? They had an occupying army in their country that was oppressing them in all sorts of ways. You know, I said you could ride a donkey down to the Jordan, but you couldn't ride a horse. That was reserved for soldiers and aristocrats. You couldn't ride a horse anywhere. I mean, there's all these rules. They were taxing them right to the point of starvation. Like they were smart. The tax collectors were smart. Like if we tax you completely out of existence, we're not going to get any more taxes. So we're going to tax you just enough. So that you have just enough to survive one more year. And then we can take all of next year's harvest. Right? So it was like almost a science. They were kept at this low level. Okay? And you couldn't speak up for yourself. You couldn't say, oh, I think the Romans are bad because it would be bad for you if you did that. And you couldn't raise an army to fight the Romans because you knew what happened to the other countries that started wars against Rome.

[18:28] They were obliterated. Right? And, you know, right now we have economic cycles, recessions, depressions, boom times, bust times. Are we in a recession? I don't know. I can't tell. It's like, yes, no. I guess the job numbers are good. Yes, no. I don't know.

[18:46] It's beyond me. But we have recessions that last a month. Not a month. Like a year, two years. Then we kind of dig ourselves out. Then there's a boom time for two, three, four years. So back then there was a recession, recessions and recessions, depressions and recessions, lions and tigers and bears and all sorts of things. Recessions and depressions that lasted decades. The world economy was slow back then. There was not hope in sight. The people weren't like, oh, you know, next year I think the job numbers are going to come up. I think the orange juice stocks are going to come up in Florida or something like that. They didn't say that. They just looked at next year and they said it's going to be just as bad as this year. It's going to be rotten. We're barely going to eke it out this year. We're barely going to survive. And then some people actually didn't make it. And they were sold into indentured servitude. They had to sell their family. They had to sell their children. The dad had to go off and work in the mines and try to send money back to his family. My point is this.

[19:44] They were desperate people. They were out of options. They were sick and tired of the brokenness of their world. They didn't see a way forward without risking their lives and their limbs terribly. And they didn't think that even if they did risk their lives and their limbs that they would even succeed. They didn't think they could overthrow Rome.

[20:03] So they didn't have that much power. And so I said, I think what they did is said, the problem may be out there. It may be with them. But I have to work on me. I have to look at me. And so John's message started to resonate. It started to gain traction. It started to become popular. People said, yes, if I can work on myself, if I can turn around, if I can repent, if I can grow, then that's the only thing I can do. Right? And I think there comes a time in a country's life, even our country, and this could be about our country, right? There's a time that comes in our life together where we say this country is hopelessly corrupt and we can't take it anymore. I'm not talking about starting a revolution. Do not, you know, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying that that won't work. My point is that that won't work. And that, but that the corruption is first and foremost within us. We're corrupt.

[21:05] That's kind of heavy, heavy word there. It's kind of painful medicine to take. We're the corrupt ones. It's inside of us. We can't blame other people for it unless we first examine ourselves. And there's lots of people, there's a lot of problems with our country. There's a lot of disincentives, bad incentives for dividing. There's a lot of things that are dividing us, right?

[21:25] So it's not that John was so popular. He himself wasn't that popular. His message wasn't what people wanted to hear, but it was what people knew they needed to hear. That's the difference. They're like, somebody is finally telling the truth. You know, like sometimes there's a movie or a show and it's kind of about telling the truth and there's lies upon lies upon lies upon lies all throughout the show, right? But then finally kind of this is how stories work, right? At the end there's resolution of the conflict and the resolution of the conflict is that finally one person stands up and just starts telling the truth. It could have even been somebody who was lying before but finally has sort of a personal growth. Somebody in the story finally just starts telling the truth, right? Isn't that like great in that moment? Like you're actually like, finally! I mean, this could have happened in your personal life too. Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. Finally somebody tells the truth.

[22:26] Finally somebody says what needs to be said, right? And you just want to go up and hug that person, right? You want to be near them. You want to let that truth kind of flow over you and inspire you. And I think that's what was going on there. People are like, finally somebody is telling the truth. Yes, we know what all the problems are, but somebody is finally telling the truth. We need to turn around. We need to respond. We need to repent. We need to start over. We need to be cleansed. We need to be washed, right?

[22:55] So, that's my opinion. That's my thinking on why John was so popular. Because I can't think of any other good reason why he would have been so popular saying such an unpopular thing. Except it was the thing that had to be said that was yearned for even though they knew it was painful. That's what made him popular in a sense. That's what drew people out, a long trek out there by foot.

[23:20] So, Mark says that this is the beginning. We're almost done here. Mark says this is the beginning of the good news. And it's that the people had a moment of clarity and they were drawn to a message of changing themselves. And so, I think in Advent, there's no better time, right? We start with ourselves. If we want to prepare the way for Jesus, we have to prepare our own hearts. We have to work on ourselves.

[23:42] And we have to say, I can't do this anymore, right? I can't. My life has become unmanageable. This world has become unmanageable, right? I can't make this on my own. I need some other power to come in, right? And so, our response to the broken world is to start with our own responsibility for how broken it is, right? And our response is that we're thirsting for someone to tell the truth. Really, we are. And our response is that we're ready to turn away from the old life and go under the water and be cleansed, right? And that's not even the best news either. Is that there's one thing. There's one coming when all that's done. When all that is done, then there's one coming with even greater power who will bring the cleansing of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit to us.

[24:33] So, what does it look like for us to repent and to turn away and for us to prepare ourselves? And I think it would be, one, just very practical, right? Because we're very divided. As we stay connected with people in other tribes. You know who the other tribes are. You know who the tribe is in your life. It might be on the other side of the aisle. It could be somebody in your family. It could actually be a neighbor. You stay connected with people in other tribes. You can say, I don't always agree with you, but I value this relationship. This is an important relationship to me. You walk together with them. You don't have to agree with them, but you walk together with them.

[25:07] And we need to look at the broken world and ask how we make it. How we make it more broken. What's my role in the brokenness of the world? And I can't say what that is. For each of us, it could be something different. But the Spirit will guide us as we're open to His leading, right? And it may even call us to some kind of activism. The Spirit may call us into an activism of some sort where we say, we're going to write a petition. We're going to vote. We're going to do something. The Spirit will guide you, all right?

[25:37] Now, I want to tell you this, a little bit of history. What was going to happen to the Roman Empire? How were they going to get rid of it, right? How did it get gotten rid of in a way, right? It's 325 A.D. You all know this, some of you guys, classic history, 325 A.D., Emperor Constantine, right?

[25:56] The Roman Empire was defeated, not by military might, but by love. It was love that ended the Roman Empire. Now, it didn't actually end there. It ended much later with the Visigoths came to Rome, the sack of Rome in 400 A.D. But by this point, in 325, Christians had gotten such a good reputation, as good citizens and as caring neighbors, they would take care of people who were dying of plague. Instead of running away like all the aristocrats did, they would go into a neighbor's house who had the plague, and they would minister to them, and they would catch the plague, and they would all die together. Sounds terrible. But the Romans were watching going, we thought these were horrible people.

[26:39] Turns out they're pretty good people. What's going on? Our expectations have been somewhat subverted. We didn't think that they were good people. They had a reputation as good citizens, as caring neighbors, as people of honesty and character, people of conviction. They would go into the arena with the lion who was about to eat them and say, yum. Not them, the lion said yum. And they ate them. But they didn't, some of them probably converted away from Christianity, but others went to their death praising God.

[27:17] There were other things. There were repeated attempts by the Roman Empire to destroy the church. They rightly understood that this was a rival. Even not a military rival, but a rival for the hearts of the people. And they made up lies about the Christians, and they crucified the Christians, and they fed them to animals. And the Christians would not worship Augustus or anyone else, any of his descendants or any of the other Roman emperors, as though they were God. Because they couldn't do that. That was idolatry to them. They reserved for themselves only the worship of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the true ruler, as Mark puts it, right? The real Son of God.

[27:58] So Christians, by the time Constantine, he converted to Christianity and he made an edict that Christianity should become the religion of the Roman Empire. Which on another topic was the terrible thing to happen. Because nothing but bad has come from that, probably. But it was because the Christians had such a good reputation and almost more than half of the empire had converted to Christianity. It took three centuries. It took a long time. The time horizon on this is long. This is for the patient people. This is for the people who can see beyond their own lifetime. It's like those people who built the cathedrals in Europe. And they worked on it for 30 years of their effective life. But they knew that it wouldn't be done for another 150 years after that. They knew that they died. But they were okay with that. I hope. They're like, I did my part. You know, that's how we have to look at this. So Christians had a good reputation.

[28:56] Now I ask you, do Christians have a good reputation like that these days? Are they thought of as honest? Full of character? Kind to their neighbor as Jenny's shaking her head like, me too. I'm like, it's miserable.

[29:13] It's miserable. The church is in disrepute. And it deserves it. It's a mess. So what did I say? Where do we start? Not with all those people. Start with ourselves. The church has to repent. We have to repent. We have to turn. We have to admit our faults. We have to point to the Savior. One who's coming next is more powerful than you can ever imagine. And he will bring the Holy Spirit. He will cleanse us with fire.

[29:47] The timeline is long. It may be three centuries. We don't know. We'll do our part. We'll put our few bricks into this cathedral. You know, we're faithful. I can't promise that this is going to turn around in a decade.

[30:04] I would be surprised if it did. If it did, that would be a mighty act of God. You know, and may it happen. But that's not what it looked like in the time of Jesus. There was a long, subversive, heart-change movement that brought about real change in the world. And it was built on the reputation, somewhat, of the followers of Jesus. The reputation that now is in tatters. So we have to rebuild that. That's our work. That's our turning. That's how we prepare the world for the coming of Jesus. Make straight the ways before him. The church is going to be here in the next three centuries. I know it in some form or another. It may look different. Even 20 years from now. But the Spirit's going to guide it. And the Spirit's going to bring it through darkness into a new light. Let's pray.

[30:50] Father, thank you again for your word. Put into our hearts to repent. Whatever we're doing to make this world worse, Lord, we come before you now. We want to turn away from that. Father, in your time, we pray, you bring your peace and goodness into this world. And you bring your Son into this world. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.