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Guest (Male): How is John the Baptist's ministry like the Holy Spirit's ministry? Pastor Thom Keller offers these insights.

Pastor Thom Keller: John here is preaching Jesus, not himself. You never hear John preaching anyone but Jesus. And in some ways, John is like a type of a picture of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit never exalts himself. The Holy Spirit never says, "Worship me." The Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus. Whenever you see the Holy Spirit doing anything, the Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus.

Guest (Male): Often men like to draw attention to themselves and their accomplishments. But you'll never go wrong pointing people to Jesus, for he's the true Savior and Messiah. Great day to have you along for Study the Word with Thom Keller, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

We begin a new series today based in the Gospel of Mark. It's a fast-paced and action-packed book, drawing the right kind of attention not to Mark but to Jesus. We'll begin with some important background by way of introduction. Here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: We're in Mark chapter 1. It says, "Here begins the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God." The first three Gospels are known as the synoptic Gospels. That means to see together.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all very similar in their view of the Bible. In fact, that's why they're called synoptic—that they really look at the Gospel through almost the same eyes. Mark focuses on the deeds of Jesus more than on the words of Jesus. It's a book of action, much more on the deeds of Jesus. We'll see that as we work our way through this. So this Gospel portrays Christ in action.

In fact, the word "immediately" is used over 40 times in the Gospel of Mark. As you read through it on your own, just take note of how many times it says "and immediately" or "straightway" or "right away." It's a Gospel of immediacy, of action. Church tradition makes Peter the main source of Mark's Gospel. The Apostle Peter, in all probability, is where Mark got his information. There's a lot of reasons for that, but we won't go into that now, why they say that.

And also, this Mark was not a disciple. If you look at Mark 3, verse 16, that's where it lists the 12 disciples. Mark was not a disciple. The early church in Jerusalem met in the home of Mark's mother. This is the same Mark who traveled with Paul. And if you go back to Acts 15, you find that Paul and Mark had a splitting of the ways. Paul had a somewhat of a disagreement, so much so that Paul decided not to take him on a trip with him.

They later reconciled that, because in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul says this when he's in prison: "Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is a most helpful servant to me." So that's who wrote this. He was not an apostle. He was not one of the disciples. He was a close traveling companion, no doubt, with Peter, and he got most of his information from Peter. Most also believe that this Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, was the first of the four Gospels written and that it was written in Rome.

Which is interesting. Again, the word "gospel" means good news. And it's interesting that Mark was the first to write this good news and he in all probability was in Rome when he wrote it. Rome desperately needed good news. Seneca said of that time that Rome was a cesspool of iniquity. Juvenal said, "a filthy sewer." That's what was said about Rome at this time of history. So they desperately needed the good news.

It was written about 50 AD, which would have been around 17 years after Jesus's death and resurrection. One of the reasons that they take it that it was written in Rome was it has more Latin words than any of the other Gospels. Also, Mark has 661 verses. Matthew reproduces 606 of those 661 verses. Now, there are a lot more verses in Matthew, but it's interesting that out of 661 verses, 606 are reproduced in Matthew. And 320 of the verses from Mark are reproduced in Luke.

So it really is a common view. And again, they believe that the writers of Matthew and Luke used Mark as a check on what they had written and almost even as an outline, and then added to that what they had seen and known. When Bible translators go in different parts of the world, especially where there's no knowledge of Old Testament or New Testament history, they will usually start translating with the book of Mark.

And the reason is that it was written to people who were not familiar with Old Testament Jewish tradition and law. In the other Gospels, it's assumed that you know something about the Old Testament, and Mark does not, because again, it was written in Rome. Verse 1, some translations say Jesus Christ, "This is a good news about Jesus the Messiah" or "Jesus Christ." Christ, the word "Christ" actually means Messiah, which means His Anointed.

For it really to be accurate when we get to this, when you read "Jesus Christ," some people think of it like a first and last name. If you're new to the faith, you may have thought that. It's like Bill Smith, Jesus Christ. And really, a fairer way to do Jesus Christ, the name would be to say Jesus the Christ. Because Christ means the Anointed One, the one who is promised of God, the one who is coming, the coming Savior.

On into verse 2, it says in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, God said, "Look, I'm sending my messenger before you. He will prepare the way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare a pathway for the Lord's coming." John the Baptist was prophesied. That's from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40, verse 3. And it's interesting to note that this was the first prophetic voice in Israel for over 300 years.

It had been 300 years since the people had heard from God. The prophets were gone. And there was a real sense of seeking, wanting to hear from God. 300 years is a long time in Israel's history for there to be no voice from God. He says, "Prepare the pathway, make the road straight." Roads in these days were, of course, just gravel and mud. And in the rainy seasons, they would get rutted and wash out and gully out.

And when a king would come, when it was announced that a king was coming into a community, the people within that jurisdiction would go out and they would straighten out the roads. They would fill in the ruts and they would make it smooth so that the king's arrival would not be greeted by a bumpy ride. And that's really what this is referring to, that they're to prepare the road, prepare for his coming.

Let's go into verse 4. This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and was preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had turned from their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the wilderness to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

His clothes were woven from camel hair, and he wore a leather belt. His food was locusts and wild honey. He announced, "Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am. So much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Now, the word "baptize" here means to immerse. John didn't sprinkle people. He put them in the river and they went down and under.

The Jewish tradition of ceremonial cleansing at this time for a Jew, a practicing Jew, was sprinkling. The only one that received baptism up until this point within the Jewish culture was a Gentile who converted to Judaism. If you were born a Jew, in all probability, you never would have been baptized. You never would have been completely immersed. Because again, by this time, the feeling was that if you were born a Jew, you were guaranteed to go to heaven.

No question. If you were a Jew, you were in. If you were a Gentile—the Jews in Jesus's day said that Gentiles were the torches that would light hell. There wasn't a lot of love lost as far as Jews had for Gentiles. So when a Gentile converted, they felt it really they needed to be cleansed, and so they went completely under the water. So when John the Baptist comes and says, "You must be baptized," and he's speaking to Jews, the thought that they would have to be completely immersed put them in almost the same category as a Gentile, as a vile sinner.

It was a radical message that they needed to be fully immersed. And his was a baptism of confession and repentance. And again, the confession is to admit to God, the same thing we need to do—to confess to God that we've sinned and to then repent. And repent doesn't just mean to turn. It doesn't just mean that we confess that we've sinned and then we turn away from that sin. It means that we turn away from it and walk away from it.

If we just turn our backs on the sin but don't walk a different way, we really haven't repented. The wilderness where John would have lived is an incredibly hot, desolate, dry spot. So it says that people came all the way from Judea to hear him preach. And he baptized in the Jordan River. We were over and saw the Jordan River. My guess is where we were, it was maybe 50 feet across.

It's not a very ferocious river. In fact, it's not a whole lot more than the Quittie, if you get right down to it. When you picture the Jordan, if you picture a roaring river, it really isn't. It's very calm. And the Jews didn't think a lot of the Jordan River. A Jew was even prohibited from going into the Jordan River because it was considered to be so dirty. So John was baptizing in the Jordan River.

And he wore camel hair, a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. I actually thought of getting a one-gallon jug and bringing it with honey and sticking locusts in it, because it would be a real visual. You hear that and you think that doesn't sound good, but if you'd see it, locusts and honey, can you picture honey-nut Cheerios with locusts? But that's what he ate. That's probably why nobody lived with him. Nobody wanted that diet.

And in verse 7, it's obvious here, in verse 7 it says, "Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am. So much so that I'm not worthy to be his slave." And John here is preaching Jesus, not himself. You never hear John preaching anyone but Jesus. And in some ways, John is like a type of a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never exalts himself. The Holy Spirit never says, "Worship me."

The Holy Spirit is always like this to Jesus, always. He's always pointing to Jesus. Whenever you see the Holy Spirit doing anything, the Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus. That's his whole purpose, is to point to Jesus. And it's the same role that John the Baptist has. Some of your translations say instead of "I'm not worthy to be his slave," which is a right rendering, it's a right meaning, but some of your translations say "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and to loosen."

The Jewish rabbi taught—the Jewish rabbi was the teacher—and the teaching of the rabbis was that a teacher could require almost anything from his followers. So if you were a student of a rabbi, that rabbi could ask you to do almost anything for him. Except there was one exception. The rabbi could not ask you to take off their sandals. The reason was, again, the roads were dirt, they were muddy, and it was a dirty job to take off sandals.

And it was something that a teacher would never ask a student to do. It's something that only a slave would have been asked to do. And John says, "Not only am I not eligible to be his student, not only am I not eligible to be his slave, I'm not even eligible to do for him what even a slave would do." That's how much greater he is than I am.

Verse 9, it says, "One day Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. When Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heaven split open and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven saying, 'You are my beloved Son and I am fully pleased with you.'"

Now, why was Jesus baptized? Was it because he was a sinner and he needed to confess and repent and be baptized? No. He never sinned. So he didn't need to be baptized for the sake of his sinfulness. But in Matthew 3, Jesus said that it was done to fulfill all righteousness. He said it was done in order to fulfill all righteousness, to model to us that it's the right thing to do.

Now, can a person be saved and still go to heaven without being baptized? What do you think? Absolutely, sure. Because you're not saved by baptism. You're saved by the shed blood of Jesus and your calling upon that to pay for your sins. Baptism doesn't add to your salvation. Nothing can add to your salvation. Because if anything could add to your salvation or needed to be added to your salvation, then you could make this statement: "What saved me was Jesus's shed blood plus X or Y or whatever."

And that's heresy. Nothing is needed to add to Jesus's salvation. It is total, full, final, and free. So why was he baptized? Well, baptism really involves more than just forgiveness of sin. It's really a person coming out and making a public declaration that I have decided to follow Jesus. I've decided that I want my life to be a life that is dedicated to God.

And in that regard, it really was what Jesus was saying. What he was saying, it was a public declaration that it is my desire to dedicate my entire life to serving God. Up until this time, as far as we know, he was a carpenter. From this point on, he went into three years of ministry, and this was the dividing point. This was where that public ministry really all began. It says here that the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove.

In Luke 3, it says that the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. So this isn't like they had a vision of a dove. The dove actually descended on him in a bodily form. It wasn't just some hologram that people seemed to appear over his head. It actually descended in a bodily form. The Holy Spirit is associated with a dove because a dove is gentle, non-threatening.

They do not resist. They do not fight back. A dove represents the gentle, faithful work of the Holy Spirit. It's a great picture of the Holy Spirit, and is one, by the way, that Calvary Chapel uses and a lot of other churches use. But that's why. The reason they use a dove is it represents the Holy Spirit. And here again, we see the Trinity. We have God the Father, we have Jesus, and we have the Holy Spirit.

In verse 11, he says, "You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you." Do you know that that's exactly how God sees you? Do you know when he sees if you are in Christ, if you've accepted Christ as your Savior, when he sees you, he says, "You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, and in you I am well pleased"? Do you know why he loves you? It's because you love his Son, Jesus. That's why.

That's why God loves you. And the Bible says that you, I, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. In the same way that God sees Jesus, that's how he sees you. Now, I know that's impossible to get your heads around because like you, I hope you realize like I do that I am a sinner in desperate straits. I mean, apart from Christ, I continue to sin. And I wish I didn't, but I do, I continue to sin.

But in a way that we don't understand, God continues to see us as perfected. Perfected in Christ. He sees us fully righteous. And when he sees you, that's what he says of you: "You are my beloved son, you're my beloved daughter. I'm fully pleased with you." And again, I've said this many times, but it's living in that love. It's living in the certainty of that positional truth that we have of how God views us—that is the key to everything.

It is the key to you learning to love others. It's a key to you learning to love God. Just living in that love, believing what he says about you, that he sees you perfected. When you wake up in the morning, that's a wonderful thing to think of. That as soon as you wake up, God is looking at you and he says, "You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter. In you I am well pleased."

And then it's out of that love that it makes us want to live a pleasing life. Love is a greater motivator than fear. What does God want us to do? He wants us to live a life that will bring about the blessings that he wants us to have in our lives. He wants to bless us. How do the blessings come about? The blessings come about by obedience. How does he motivate us to obedience?

He could motivate us to obedience by fear, that we're going to lose our salvation or that he's mad at us and we need to please him so he stops being angry. But that's not a good motivator. It is a motivator, but fear is the worst of all motivators. The greatest of all motivators is love. So instead, when I sin and I come to God and I confess it, and he's there with his arms wide open and says, "Thom, I love you."

Yeah, but God, I messed up real bad. I sinned. "Thom, I love you. You are my beloved child. In you I am well pleased." God, how can you say that with what I just did? And he says, "I will never turn away from you, never. I love you so much." See, that motivates us toward a life of righteous living because we don't want to disappoint him. We want to live a life that pleases him.

Verse 12, it says, "Immediately the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness. He was there for 40 days being tempted by Satan. He was out among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him." Here again, the word "immediately" is used. It's used over 40 times in the Gospel of Mark. The Spirit drove him to go into the wilderness. The Holy Spirit compelled him to go out into the wilderness.

And there, God allowed him to be tempted. God allows us to be tempted. It's to build character. If we're believers, it says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond anything that we can endure, but that with it he provide a way of escape. There's always a back door out of it if it gets too strong if we're believers. But the purpose of allowing the temptation is to build character, to strengthen us.

And again, as believers, God limits what Satan can do to us as he did Jesus here, as he did to Job. It says he went out in the wilderness for 40 days. 40 is the number of testing. Noah was in the ark for 40 days as it rained. Moses was a shepherd for 40 years in the wilderness. The children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. And Moses was on the mountain for 40 days.

40 is almost always used to indicate testing in the Bible. When you come across 40 days or 40 years in the Bible, it almost always is pointing to testing. And Jesus was tempted. Matthew and Luke specify the three specific temptations. Mark does not. Mark just says that he was tempted the entire time. So if you think that Satan just came to him with the three temptations, it was a lot more than that. He was tempted this entire time.

When you think about Jesus in the garden weeping and sweating drops of blood—remember that scene? He's in the garden praying and he drops great drops of blood as sweat come off of him. Did you ever wonder why he actually sweated that? What caused him to sweat like that? Did you think it was the fear of what was coming? Did you think it was the anticipation of the pain that he was going to suffer?

You know what Hebrews says about that? It says we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but in all points was tempted as we are, yet without sin. That Jesus was tempted in every single way as you have been or ever will be. There will not ever be a temptation that you can face that Jesus has not faced. And because of that, he can identify with you.

He can identify with that pull, with that temptation. He never gave in to it, but he can identify. And if you start thinking about the different kinds of sin, every single one he was faced with. We don't have an all-inclusive list of what Jesus faced with what he went up against, but we do know from Hebrews that he faced every one.

We also know from Hebrews that when he dripped those great drops of blood, it says this: "You have never yet struggled against sin and temptation until you sweat great drops of blood." Why did he sweat those great drops of blood? Because he was struggling against sin and temptation.

Guest (Male): Comforting reminder Pastor Thom Keller concludes with. Jesus our great high priest understands our struggles, so we can come to him. He not only understands, but he loves us as well. Today on Study the Word, we introduced our study of the Gospel of Mark. And we look forward to going through the book together with you in the weeks ahead.

You can hear this message again by going to ccleb.com. Visit ccleb.com and have a look under resources. There you'll find our teaching archives. Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862. And for those that support Study the Word this month with a gift of any amount, we'll say thanks by sending you a book by E.M. Bounds called "A Place Called Heaven."

Just think of it, Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you in heaven. With Scripture as his guide, E.M. Bounds shows us how much we have to look forward to. And thank you in advance for helping us remain a biblical voice on this station and many others like it. Call 717-507-7862, or write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046.

And if you'd like to join us for a worship service here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, turn to ccleb.com for our service times, church news, directions, and more information. And download our free app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Our study of Mark continues next time on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. And until then, let's keep studying the Word.