Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” — “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 11:16-19 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”

"I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John's baptism was one of declaration and commitment: a proclamation that people needed sin to be washed away in their lives, and they needed to make a new commitment to live for God. This was the gospel of repentance. The washing was an outward cleansing that symbolically depicted an inward attitude of wanting to be right with God. This was a man-made effort to please God. This was the best men could do to show God they desired a changed life and they were sorry for their wayward ways. Of course an attitudinal change does not mean rightness with God. Sin is inherent in man. His wayward, self-centered attitude is part of his innate nature. Under the best of circumstances, human beings still have trouble facing the wildness within themselves. Man still has to wrestle with the fact that the consequences of sin is death: eternity without God's presence.

In Matthew 11, the Bible says the kingdom of God was taken by force in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God moved on the prophets of old and made them into men of God, men who were capable of carrying his glory and power to the people. By force of willpower these men changed their outward demeanor and their lifestyle to reveal God and his holiness to the people. As with John, their lives were ascetic, without the normal pleasures of the world--neither eating nor drinking. However, they were without the power to change their own internal nature and lacked the ability to redeem the nature of mankind. John brought a new message, saying, I baptize with water. I work on the "outside" by baptizing you with water, but there will come another who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will encompass your whole being. He will infiltrate your inward man with "fire," burning out the dross that separates you from God. He will make you holy from the inside out. You will no longer be known as children who follow God, but as children of God, for Jesus Christ will make you as He is through his baptism. "I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Matthew 11:11)

John represented the best of those individuals who tried to please God through force: their human effort, their willpower. John's lifestyle and demeanor were pleasing to God; yet, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. In other words, God's grace given to sinful man through the work of the cross is greater than any man's effort to please God through his own lifestyle and outward appearance or actions. God's grace, mercy, and holiness are given freely to anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as his savior. John could not die to sin and be resurrected into new life outside of Christ and his death and resurrection. However, each person who accepts Jesus as his/her savior, who has died to his/her sins through the death of Jesus, and who has been "born again" through his resurrection is a new creation. Each of us then becomes a container of his righteousness through the presence of the Holy Spirit within us: God abides within us and makes us holy from within. John prepared the way for Jesus by reminding them of their sinful ways and of their need for repentance, but Jesus alone was the only living being, the only begotten Son of God, who could put the people in right standing with God the Father.