Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 6
October 9, 2018
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The doctrine of the "baptism" is that "repentance toward God" will result in "the forgiveness of sins".
Introduction: In our last study we considered, in some detail, Mark's presentation of John on history's stage as a fulfillment of ancient prophecy. This was Mark's initial attempt to make "faith" in "The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" possible. "Faith" not only requires "specific content", but also some form of "establishment" of that content as "divine truth". Mark's "specific content" is that the John who appeared on the stage of history was the prophesied forerunner to the coming Lord. Additionally, Mark's "establishment" effort centered upon the correlation between what the prophecies declared regarding the forerunner's task and what John actually did on history's stage. The very first of these issues is Mark's argument that this John's arrival was "in the wilderness".
Because John's arrival was "in the wilderness", it is necessary to answer the question, "Why did he carry out his ministry activities in this wilderness setting?" To answer this question, we must understand both what he "did" and where he "did" it as well as why he considered the wilderness the only appropriate setting.
- I. What Did He Do?
- A. Mark provides two "in-reverse-order" participles to answer this question.
- 1. Mark's "order" is "in reverse" in terms of John's actions: he says he was baptizing and preaching.
- 2. The actual "order" is, of necessity, first "preaching" and then "baptizing" because no one has any reason to submit to water baptism until after he/she understands, with some clarity, the message of the baptizer.
- B. Mark's reversing of the "order", however, is technically the accurate order in terms of the task.
- 1. The task is defined as "preparing the highway for the coming of the Lord".
- 2. The biblical "order" insists that the attitude shift involved must precede any "faith" that is to follow.
- a. Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 13 is that "now abide faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love", thus establishing the necessity of "love" over "faith".
- b. Jesus' question to the religious leaders in John 5:44 definitively establishes the fact that "faith follows values", not "values follow faith".
- 3. Mark's "preaching of a baptism", therefore, puts the willingness to receive and be immersed in a godly doctrine prior to the specifics of that doctrine.
- a. This "willingness to receive" is revealed by two major requirements.
- 1) In order to both "hear" the voice and "receive" its message, a person had to have some degree of interest in "the promise of the message": the forgiveness of sins.
- 2) In order to both "hear" the voice and "receive" its message, a person simply had to go out into the wilderness where John was because John was not going to come into the inhabited villages, towns, and cities to bring his message to men (he was the "voice of one crying in the wilderness").
- b. The priority of this "willingness to receive" is clarified by the activities of the "audience".
- 1) "...all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem..." went out to him.
- 2) When they entered into the spirit of his message, they sought his baptism in water and used the event to "confess their sins".
- II. Where He Did It.
- A. Mark says that he came upon the stage of history with his actions "in the wilderness".
- B. Luke 1:80 adds to that reality with the declaration that John was "in the wilderness till the day of his shewing unto Israel" (the Authorized Version translation being misleading as it translates the word used as "wilderness" in Mark 1:4 but "deserts" in Luke 1:80).
- III. Why God Considered the Wilderness to be a Necessary Setting For John's Words and Works.
- A. There is a very real connection between a person's "setting" and that person's "hearing of critical words".
- B. As mentioned above, John's audience had to be sufficiently interested in the promise of the preaching to "go out unto John in the wilderness".
- C. John's refusal to enter into the non-wilderness settings of Judea forced a "setting" upon the people (if you don't like the setting and, thus, refuse to go, you will not receive the promise).
- D. The heart of the reason for the setting.
- 1. Isaiah 40:4 details the characteristics of the setting as problematical to the task.
- a. Valleys that sink too low.
- b. Mountains and hills that rise too high.
- c. Crooked paths that need to be straightened.
- d. Rough places that need to be made smooth.
- 2. This "setting" imposes upon the person in it a sense of the magnitude of the task as "almost impossible".
- 3. This "setting" is immediately transferred by John out of the physical realm of illustrative demonstration into the relational realm of actual reality in respect to what is at stake: a real, personal, relationship between a "just" God and extraordinarily "sinful" people.
- a. The difference between "spiritualizing" and "literal" hermeneutics exists at this point: men cannot enter into the relational realm of "truth" apart from having a physical illustrational realm of "truth".
- b. "Spiritualizing" denies the "literal"; legitimate interpretation insists upon the "literal" as the gateway into true understanding beyond "physics".
- 4. God wants no one to be misled about the issues involved: His offer is so much more than the "ticket to heaven" concept that seems to rule the theological scene today.
