Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 8
October 23, 2018
Moss Bluff, Louisiana

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Thesis:   The impact of John's "coming" argues that he "qualifies" as a fulfillment of the "preparer" prophecies.

Introduction:   As we have moved along in our studies of Mark's record of the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have seen that it is Mark's intention to present John (known as The Baptizer) as the fulfillment of the Isaiah/Malachi thesis that God promised a "forerunner" of Messiah whose task was to "prepare" the road of the Lord as it relates to the sinful condition of the people of Israel. In this presentation, he focused on the particular issue of "preparation" called "repentance". We saw in our last study that "repentance" has a specific content mirrored in Isaiah's use of valleys, mountains, high obstacles to travel, and high ridges of mountainous territory that obstructed the construction of a "road" in the wilderness. It was Isaiah that linked the "height" issues of mountains, hills, etc. to the "pride of man". Thus, we concluded that the issues of repentance are the "pride" of living as though one does not need, or want, God's involvement in life and the "despair" of living as though God is unwilling to address one's needs because they are, for the most part, self-inflicted by sinful behavior. Thus, "repentance" means to change the "I do not need You and, even if I did, You would not help me" to "I need You and I believe You will supply my need".

This evening we are going to pursue Mark's argument that we can "believe" that John was a legitimate fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi. The part of that argument that we are going to look into is Mark's record of John's impact upon the people of the land of God's promises.

• I. The Willingness of Multitudes to Go Out into the Wilderness to Respond to John.
  • A. All of the "region" of Judea.
    • 1. Bullinger's "figures of speech".
      • a. A "metonomy of subject" where "Judea" is used as a figure used to denote the "inhabitants" of Judea, rather than the geographical area known as Judea.
      • b. A "synecdoche of the whole" where "all Judea" means "people from every part of Judea".
    • 2. Mark's "point": A very large group of people (some one, or more, from every part of Judea) went forth into the wilderness where John was preaching and baptizing.
      • a. This would have meant some had a significant distance to cover in order to get to where John was.
      • b. This, in turn, would have meant a significant level of motivation had to have developed in the minds/hearts of the people.
      • c. This argues that something supernatural was going on in Judea.
  • B. Including the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
    • 1. The Greek and the texts behind the different translations both have "issues".
    • 2. But the point of focusing upon Jerusalem is that Jerusalem was the city of the Great King for Whom the "road" was to be built.
    • 3. Thus, many of those who lived in the heart of the land and had the heavy weight of the theology dominated by the temple and its destructive leadership were motivated to go out to John on the weight of his proclamation of "the forgiveness of sins".
• II. The Willingness of the People to be Baptized by John.
  • A. This meant several things.
    • 1. First, and likely foremost, it meant there was a deep-seated rejection of the destructive theology of the leaders of the nation.
      • a. It is clear from texts such as Matthew 21:25 that "forgiveness" on the basis of "repentance" was rejected by the leadership which had developed the theology of Israel.
        • 1. This was rooted in a potent aversion to "Grace" with its removal of God's kindness to men from their behavior.
        • 2. It was also rooted in a potent "lust" for the "admiration" of men on the basis of the appearance of "godliness".
      • b. It is also clear that "forgiveness" was longed for on an "achievable" basis rather than the extremely ambiguous "penance" concept of "balancing out" evil by doing compensatory acts.
    • 2. Second, it meant that there was a fairly strong "belief" in the identity of John as a legitimate messenger of God.
      • a. He was a true Levite (Luke 1:5).
      • b. He was supernaturally conceived by a barren, post-menopausal mother (Luke 1:7, 18).
      • c. He was remarkable in his way of living, being filled by the Spirit of God from his mother's womb (Luke 1:15).
      • d. Jesus, Himself, said that John was "greater" than all who were born of a woman (Luke 7:28).
      • e. King Herod was so impressed by John that after he murdered him to please his "wife" that he considered Jesus a "resurrected John" (Mark 6:16).
      • f. It is clear from Matthew 21:26 that the religious leaders all recognized that John was held to be a prophet of the true God by those who went out to him.
        • 1) This is fundamental to the willingness to be "baptized" by John: baptism was a claim of "faith" in the message.
        • 2) "Faith" in the message assumes "faith in the identity of the messenger as from God".
        • 3) "Faith" in the message assumes a willingness to follow through on the actions to be taken.
      • g. It is, then, clear that Mark thought that such a large response on the part of the people of the land would be a valid basis for the fulfillment of the "preparation" thesis.
        • 1) That the people of the land had, historically, flocked to false prophets is undeniable so that the flocking to John did not, of itself, validate his identity as a prophet.
        • 2) But, if the ministry of John was a fulfillment of the "forerunner/preparer", a large response was a necessity.
        • 3) So, the response was not the only argument, but it was one of the arguments.
  • B. This makes the Jordan River a significant issue.
    • 1. The Jordan was deeply embedded in the Jewish consciousness as the line of demarcation of movement "out of" the wilderness and "into" the promised Kingdom of God.
    • 2. Baptism in the Jordan was highly suggestive of a recognition that becoming an heir of the promise(s) depends upon a "right relationship with God" and that "baptism" means that the doctrine embraced at its roots would produce that relationship.
• III. The Confession of Sins by the People.
  • A. The promise was "forgiveness".
  • B. The "confession" was an acknowledgement of the need for "forgiveness".
  • C. The verbal action of confessing some sins was simply an embracing of the offer.

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