Mark 1:4-11 Returning Thankfully (Donovan) – Bible study
Sermon Luke 17:11-19 Returning Thankfully
Richard Niell Donovan
We long for a prophet, don’t we! When I say that we long for a prophet, I’m not talking about someone who can tell us what tomorrow’s newspaper will say. It would be wonderful to know what tomorrow will bringso we could get ready. It would be nice to know which direction the stock market will moveso we could make some money. It would be nice to know whether the sky really will fallso we could get out of the way.
But when I say that we long for a prophet, that sort of future-telling is not what I mean. What we long for is someone who really understands what’s going onand what we should dosomeone who will stand up and tell us the truth. That’s what I mean by a prophetsomeone who really understands, and will tell us in no uncertain termssomeone who will lead us rightly.
A prophet of that stripe needs the strength of a thousand, because prophets dispense with the niceties and go straight for the gut. They won’t tell this person one thing and the other person something elsetrying to be everyone’s friend. They won’t sugarcoat the truth. Prophets feed us bitter pills, if that’s what we need. They are spiritual surgeons, willing to cut through the outer layers to get to the core of our beingto help us get rid of the stuff that is threatening to kill us.
Prophets soon find themselves under fire, because they are always goring someone’s ox. A good prophet must have the spiritual strength to take on the high and mightythe monied interestspeople who use their power to elect friends and destroy enemies.
And frankly, we common folk often reject prophets too, because prophets are never willing to let us just keep on keeping on. They call us to change, and we really don’t want to change.
Not many of us have what it takes to be a prophetand I don’t know that God expects all of us to be prophets. If God wanted all of us to be prophets, he would have put the fire in our bellies and the words in our mouths. God didn’t do that. God didn’t equip everyone to be a prophet, so I must conclude that God doesn’t expect all of us to be prophets.
But God did put in our hearts the longing to hear a prophetthe longing to hear someone who can help us to understand what’s going on and what we should do. We long for someone who will stand up and tell the truthsomeone with passion and conviction and couragesomeone who is willing to risk everything to put the world on the right track.
John the Baptist was a prophetthe first real prophet in Israel’s living memory. People who had been longing for a prophet all their lives suddenly found one.
John didn’t make it easy for them. He could have held revival meetings in synagoguesone week here and another week therebut he didn’t. He could have set up shop in the templebut he didn’t. He could have set up a soapbox on a busy Jerusalem cornerbut he didn’t.
John went into the wildernessthe desert wildernessa place where water is scarce and slithery creatures plentiful. The wilderness had special meaning for Israel. Israel became a nation in the wilderness. It was in the wilderness that they learned to obey God. They had to relearn that lesson over and over again, because they were so inclined not to obey Godbut God used the wilderness to shape Israel and to save them.
So John went into the wilderness, where there was no pulpitno pewsand no people. John went there to preacha crazy idea, reallybut somehow people learned that there was a prophet in the wilderness, and so they went in droves to hear him.
When they got there, they heard John preach a very simple sermon. The Gospel of Mark tells us that John preached “the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins” (v. 4). Let me repeat that. John preached, “the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John’s sermon had three points:
The first point was REPENTANCE. I’m aware that when we say, “the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” repentance is the second of threebut it’s really number one. When people repented, their repentance led them to the baptismal watersso repentance is where they had to start.
Most people think that repentance is feeling guiltybut it’s much more than that. The New Testament was written originally in Greek, and the Greek word is metanoia (pronounced met-AN-oy-ah). Metanoia involved changing one’s mindchanging one’s heart. That’s where it all real change begins, isn’t itchanging our mindchanging our heart. Once we decide to quit believing lies and start believing truth, we will begin to move in a new direction.
That’s where the guilt comes inbut it’s a by-product of repentance and not the main thing. Changing our mindschanging the direction of our livesthat’s what repentance is all about. Once we quit living by lies and start living by the truth, we are likely to say, “What was I thinking! Why was I screwing up my lifeand everyone else’s! Why was I doing things that hurt other people!” That’s the point that we start to feel guiltywhen our new understanding makes it clear how much misery we have caused.
But then we come to John’s second pointBAPTISM. Once people changed their minds and began to follow the truth, John said, “Now you need to be baptized.” Their baptism acknowledged that they had become new peopleGodly people.
Up until that time, Jews baptized only Gentiles. Jews were the people of God, and they figured that they didn’t need any help. They used baptism to make Godly people out of Gentiles. Jews thought that they didn’t need baptism, because they were already part of the people of God.
But John baptized Jews, because even they too needed new hearts. They too needed to start listening to God. They too needed to change their minds and move in a new direction.
In the book of Romans, Paul spells out the meaning of Christian baptism. He says that when we were baptized, we were buried with Jesus into his deathso “that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Did you catch that? Baptism is burial with Jesusand resurrection to a new life. It makes us into a new peoplethe people of God.
Then we come to John’s third pointFORGIVENESS OF SINS. Once we get our heads screwed on the right directionand start living a new life with Christwe’re likely to worry that our report card has been indelibly stained. But our repentance and baptism usher in the forgiveness of our sins. God wipes our record clean. God gives us a fresh start.
We need that, don’t we! We need a fresh start. We need a fresh start, not just once, but almost every daybecause most of us with some regularity do or say something that we shouldn’tso we need God’s forgiveness day after day. But the God who forgave us yesterday will forgive us todayand will forgive us tomorrowand will also help us to walk the straight and narrow path that leads to life (Matthew 7:14).
John concluded his sermon with these words. He said:
“After me comes he who is mightier than I,
the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen.
I baptized you in water,
but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit” (vv. 7-8).
Listen to that once more. John said that Jesus “will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.” Later, at Pentecost, Peter preached:
“Repent, and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of sins,
AND YOU WILL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 2:38).
The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit. Peter was saying that, when we repent and are baptized, we receive two gifts. The first is the forgiveness of our sins. The second is the gift of the Holy SpiritGod’s Spirit living in us, guiding us, empowering us, helping us.
Then Mark concludes with the story of Jesus’ baptism. Mark’s was the first Gospel to be writtenand it’s the shortesta bare-bones account of Jesus’ life. Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism was like thatvery brief. He just says that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan (v. 9). Then he says:
“Immediately coming up from the water,
(Jesus) saw the heavens parting,
and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
A voice came out of the sky,
‘You are my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased’” (vv. 10-11).
We might ask why Jesus was baptized. He didn’t need to repent. He didn’t need to be forgiven. Why, then, was he baptized? It was to establish his identity as the Son of God. It was to give God the opportunity to say:
“You are my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.”
The question then is what this has to do with us? To answer, let me start at the endthe part where the voice from heaven says:
“You are my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.”
It is this beloved Son of God in whom we believewhom we followand who made it possible for us to become new peoplemembers of the household of faithmembers of the family of God.
Then let me go back to the beginningbrieflyI’ll keep this short.
REPENTANCE: Let’s practice repentance every day. Satan is out there, and we can be sure that he will try every day to get us to move in the wrong direction. So every day we are likely to have reason to repentand to ask Jesus to help us once again to move in the right direction.
BAPTISM: Let’s celebrate our baptism every day. Let’s remember that our baptism made us new peoplepeople of God. Then let’s remember to act like God’s peopleto love and to forgive as God loves and forgives.
FORGIVENESS: Forgiveness might be the hardest. How difficult it is to believe that God has actually forgiven us? Most of us have lots of little sinsbut many of us have done some pretty terrible things at some point in our lives. The hard thing is to believe that God has forgiven us for the terrible things. Let me assure you that he has.
You may at one time have dwelled in a pig sty, but at your baptism God cleaned you upand put a new robe on your shouldersand new shoes for your feetand a ring for your finger (see Luke 15). He brought you back into his home and made it your home. He welcomed you back into his family. He wiped your slate cleannever to be mentioned again.
Repent, be baptized, and receive God’s forgiveness. That’s the formula for a new life. Believe it! Live it!