The Beginning of the End
Have you ever played that game where someone says a word and you think of the first word that comes to your mind?
We’re going to play it now, so please find a partner … and when I call out a word I want you to share with the person next to you the first word or image that comes into your head …
Blue …. Apple …. Beach
Word associations tell us something about our experience of the world and our view of the world. The opening of Mark’s gospel, “the beginning of the good news” is absolutely full of word associations with the Old Testament …
So here’s a little bible quiz, I want you to try now with your partners. When I say a word from Mark chapter 1, I want you to see if you can think of what the immediate associations would be from the Old Testament …
Ready? (if you don’t know, just guess)
1. Beginning
- Gen 1.1 - “in the beginning” … this word marks a new era, a new time period, a new creation
- John makes this association in his gospel too where he writes, ‘in the beginning was the Word” (John 1.1)
2. Wilderness
- A place where the people were tested until they were brought into the promised land
- A place where the prophets hung out to speak with God
- Isaiah 40:3-4 – the one who would prepare the way for the Lord, would be from the wilderness … John is therefore the fulfilment of that prophecy
3. Leather belt
- “John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist ..” (v6)
- John is dressed like Elijah – “a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist” (2 Kings 1:8)
- Mark’s way of telling us he was believed to be the appearance of the prophet Elijah, who the prophet Malachi said would precede the end times and the day of judgement … “I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” (Mal 4:5)
- Jesus confirms in Mark 9:13, that John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy and was return of Elijah
4. Jordan River
- Israel passed through the Jordan River to enter the promised land (Joshua 3)
- This also associates John with Elijah, who parted the river Jordan with his mantle (2 Kings 2:8)
In just eight verses, Mark makes at least ten (that I can count) very clear associations with Old Testament promises. His main point is, wake up people, we are living in the end times … the day of judgement is approaching fast!
The End of the World has Begun
There are three signs he gives:
1. Elijah has come – John the Baptist – who is calling people to repentance. His baptism in the Jordan River tells us that he was getting the people ready to pass into the promised land, to come into God’s presence … to live in his kingdom as a holy people again.
Mark writes, “And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were being baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (v5)
It’s a picture of massive crowds of people rushing to get baptised by the Baptist. Does that strike you as weird? I wouldn’t have thought going to repent of your sins would be all that popular as an afternoon activity … but it tells us that the people really believed that John was the return of Elijah, that he was a sign that the judgement day was coming … that the end of the world was nearing … and they felt an urgency to be cleansed and get right before God
2. The Lord has come to his people – no birth narrative in Mark’s gospel, but Jesus is introduced as one more powerful than the prophet John – “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals” – and as the one who will baptise his people with the Holy Spirit – a task that only God himself could do …
3. The Holy Spirit will be poured out … John says, “I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit” (v8)
This was the main evidence that the end time had begun …. Because the prophets had foretold that in the end time there would be an outpouring of God’s Spirit
Ez 36:26-27 – “I will put my spirit within you …”
Isaiah 32:15 – a spirit from on high will be poured out
Joel 2:28 – “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh ..”
Let me ask you, do you know someone who has heard the gospel and yet does not believe? Perhaps a family member or friend? Perhaps you have children who you raised as Christians who today want nothing to do with the Church.
I have a number of friends and family members who actually know the gospel: they have heard that Jesus died to save us from our sins, so that we can be with God in his kingdom. They know the teaching that if they reject him, he will reject them on the judgement day … and yet they do not believe it. Do you know someone like that?
What does it take for someone to see this world as fading away and to believe that God is ushering in a new kingdom? How do we communicate that people have a choice to make about Jesus and it is the most important choice they can make in their lives?
3 Signs
The opening of Mark’s gospel tells us of three signs that the end times have begun and that the judgement day is approaching … and in these I can see three different ways that people come to faith:
1. A call to repentance – the Baptist (representing Elijah) calls people to repentance … many people are first convicted of the truth of the gospel by the reality of sin in their lives, and their need for God’s grace … this tends to be especially true for people who have really lived ‘on the dark side of life ‘ … it was true for John Newton, for example.
2. The Lord has come to his people – for some people, hearing about what Jesus taught and did and about his death and resurrection, is enough to believe that he is the Son of God, and that he came to reconcile us to the Father … for some, teaching the bible is enough to open their hearts … this was true for me, for example
3. Baptism in the Holy Spirit – for some, it is the experience of the work of the Holy Spirit that first turns their hearts to accept Jesus as Lord … it might be seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a church community, the transformation they witness in the life of a loved one, or it may be a direct experience of healing or spiritual manifestation.
Some people will be slow to be convicted of the reality of sin … because they are essentially ‘good people’ … who live responsible and generous lives … for these people the idea of needing to be forgiven by God seems confusing, untrue and even a form of ‘religious guilt’ designed to brainwash us.
Some people will never be moved to believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ simply by being taught the gospel … if their hearts are particularly hardened … they may say things like, ‘that’s fine for you to believe, but it doesn’t sit right for me’ … it seems too exclusive to them, the idea that only people who believe one particular way can be saved …
And so trying to explain the Christian faith … or argue that it makes rational sense … goes round and round in circles with these people and goes nowhere …
But if we really do believe that the end times have begun … that Jesus is going to return and judge the world … and that the bible is the word of God … then we have to believe that the primary sign of this is our baptism in the Holy Spirit …
And we have to be a church that moves in the Holy Spirit, prays to the Holy Spirit, asks the Holy Spirit to speak into a person’s heart, trusts the Holy Spirit to work miracles in people’s lives …
If we only speak the gospel … if we only teach the reality of sin, Jesus’ death and resurrection … our evangelism will always be limited … we won’t reach those friends and family members who already understand this teaching …
We have to be careful, as Paul says, not to quench the Holy Spirit, but to invite him to work freely among us … because we can teach, we can call people to repentance and we can baptise them with water (as we have today) … But there is one far greater than us, one whose sandals we are not worthy to untie’ …
… and he came and baptised us in the Holy Spirit.
I have a close relative who I have been praying will come to faith for some time now. We talk about the scripture quite often and it goes nowhere. The Lord showed me that if I wanted to reach this person, I would have to let go of my intellectual arguments and my spiritual pride, and simply let her see my heart, my love of God and my need for God in my life … and that I have to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to use me the way he wants to use me …
The other day we were sitting in a café together and she was sharing with me about a struggle she is going through in her life … and the Holy Spirit prompted me to speak into her life how beautifully, wonderfully and uniquely she has been made … I could see her heart softening in front of me … and I offered to pray with her … and we asked God to speak to her … and he did … and her heart opened to the possibility that the God described in the scriptures is real …
So let’s start praying for the people we know who don’t believe, in the firm faith that the Holy Spirit will act, he will convict … because he is one of the signs that God has come into the world to save us and he will soon return to judge us …