The Two Johns, Joseph, and Jesus: the Message of John the Baptist

The two Johns, Joseph, and Jesus: The message of John the Baptist Mark 1:2-11

I. Some of my Friends

Today, I want to introduce you to some good friends of mine. Some of these men I have known most of my life, some I have met only recently. A couple of Johans, a Joseph, and a Yeshua.

Now Yeshua I have known for over 30 years. Very good friend and he walks with me and he talks with me… I have a lot I could tell you about this man, but I am going to let these other friends tell you about him.

Not too long after meeting Yeshua, I met the two Johns. I still haven’t gotten to know them as well as I have my good friend Jesus, probably because I only read things that they wrote and said and never got to know them personally. Still, I feel like I know them pretty well and my guess is most of you do too.

But perhaps I have the privilege of introducing you to someone I met for the first time about 10 years ago. His name is Yosef Ben Matityahu (we might say Joseph son of Matthias). He was a historian who wrote sometime not too long after the two Johns died. He wrote about the antiquities of the Jews, the wars and the destruction of Jerusalem. I really didn’t start reading his stuff until seminary but I am so glad I have gotten to know him. You may have heard of him by his Roman Citizen name Titus Flavius or more likely by the name Josephus.

I want to introduce you to each of my friends today. Actually, I already introduced you last week to one of these friends—one of the Johns. His name was John Mark and he wants to introduce you to another John.

In fact, let me just let him do this. In fact, let’s do it together. Since it is John Marks words which are inspired Scripture, we would do well to give him the preeminent place this morning. Please turn with me to Mark 1:1. The second book of the NT, found on page 707 in your pew bible.

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So I have introduced you to John Mark who is writing about another John dubbed the Baptist. Now John the Baptist may have the distinct privilege of being the best known person in all of Judea. He was extremely popular. In fact, this historian Josephus, talks more about John the Baptist then he does about Jesus. Very popular.

II. Why was John so popular?

A. Great clothes? 2

And that is one of the main questions I want to answer this morning. Why is he so popular? Who is John the Baptist? If you ask a question like that there are several things you want to know. If you are a guy asking about a girl, one thing you are most concerned with is what does she look like. Now we are talking about a man and I have to be honest, his looks don’t matter much to me. But they mattered a lot to John Mark; in fact, they mattered a lot to each of the gospel writers.

I want to skip the first few verses and give you a brief description of this man. Look at verse 6. Now remember, this is perhaps the most popular man in all of Israel, and as I describe him you will understand why. He wore a 3 piece suit, his hair styled by the top stylists, he spoke in a rich English accent and ate caviar and grey poupon.

That would be a popular person, wouldn’t it? But verse 6 says he wore camels hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And by the way, verse 4 says he lives in the wild. If this isn’t a picture of a homeless guy, I don’t know what is. So why in the world does it say in verse 5 that the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him? Okay, maybe the farmers good old country boys might be curious about this locust eating guy, but Jerusalem? That just doesn’t make sense.

And if you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense that Mark would even mention the way he dresses or what he eats. I mean, who really cares? The Bible in general is very sparse when it comes to physical description. After all, God looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart. So why is Mark giving us this detail?

I think he is giving us this detail because this is an important reason why everyone is going out into the wilderness to see this man. He is not a sideshow freak, or simply a curiosity. They KNOW HIM!

B. Was it his timing that made him so popular?

Remember, everyone in Jerusalem is waiting. The Pharisees, the saducees, the scribes, the carpenters, the farmers, the shepherds, the children. Everyone is waiting for something. They are waiting for the great day of the Lord.

And they know their history. And they know a guy who lived in the wilderness and wore camels hair and a leather belt. When they hear about this new guy their mind automatically drifts to that prophet—the great prophet Elijah. He was described in the same way in I Kings 1:8. They know they are supposed to think of Elijah, just like if someone came in with a stovepipe hat and beard we would know it was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln or if they were wearing all leather and a coonskin hat we might recognize Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett.

C. Was it his message that made him so popular?

But not only did he remind them of Elijah in his physical appearance, his message also reminded them of Elijah. He has one basic message with two central parts. 3

The most obvious message is the one that comes from every prophet. It’s the message you would expect to hear from a prophet. This first message is simply REPENT!

This is John the Baptist the sermon giver, and from the looks of John in all of the gospels he wasn’t one who cared about hurting peoples feelings. I mean, if you tell people to repent, you are telling them they are sinners.

You wouldn’t think people would want to hear the message of repent. That is not a happy, popular message.

I can kinda picture the scene:

This mess of a man standing by the edge of the Jordan river and hundreds and hundreds of people sitting on the beach or the grass and listening to him. His message is simple and excoriating. He warns them of judgment, speaks to their individual sins, names names, calls for social justice and repentance. It is not a happy message.

In fact, listen to the specifics of the repent message to the crowds according to Luke and Matthew: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

He does the same thing to Herod. He called Herod to account John Mark doesn’t speak of this but Luke and Matthew do. Even Josephus recounts this. I read this to remind you of the historicity of this story. I don’t want us to ever forget that this text is recording something that actually happened and is verified by the historians (not that we needed the verification)

Listen to Josephus as he speaks of Herod and John the Baptist: But to some of the Jews the destruction of Herod’s army seemed to be divine vengeance, and certainly a just vengeance, for his treatment of John, surnamed the Baptist. For Herod had put him to death, though he was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practise justice [dikaiosyneµ] towards their fellows and piety [eusebeia] towards God, and so doing to join in baptism. [[[In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God. They must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they had committed, but as a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already cleansed by right behaviour. When others too joined the crowds about him, because they were aroused to the highest degree by his sermons, Herod became alarmed. Eloquence that had so great an effect on mankind might lead to some form of sedition, for it looked as if they would be guided by John in everything that they did. Herod decided therefore that it would be much better to strike first and be rid of him before his work led to an uprising, than to wait for an upheaval, get involved in a difficult situation and see his mistake. Though John, because of Herod’s suspicions, was brought in chains to Machaerus, the stronghold that we have 4

previously mentioned, and there put to death, yet the verdict of the Jews was that the destruction visited upon Herod’s army was a vindication of John, since God saw fit to inflict such a blow on Herod (Ant. 18.116–119, LCL)]]]

So, we have corroboration from the non-biblical world that John called people to account for their sins.

You might ask where he gets this stuff from. Well, read the OT Prophets. This was their job. They were to call people to live righteous lives and that meant seriously offending some. Its a bit scary and its beautiful too.

But no matter what you might think about his words, this was incredibly exciting to the hearers. No one had talked like this in forever. No prophets in hundreds of years and one just appears suddenly out of nowhere. That’s how Mark portrays it. No information about John the Baptist except for his similarities to Elijah and his message. Nothing like the other gospels where we hear of Zechariah naming his son, and find that it is actually Jesus older cousin. He just appears on the scene with a huge message.

The same message that Elijah had. Repent, the day of the Lord is near.

III. From the Wilderness to Eden

The same message that many of the prophets had. Like Isaiah 40:1-5. Don’t turn there with me, but take a look at Mark 1:2 while I read Isaiah 40. Actually it’s a hodgepodge of Isaiah 40, Malachi 3, and Exodus 23

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; {3 Or A voice of one calling in the desert: "Prepare the way for the LORD} make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. {3 Hebrew; Septuagint make straight the paths of our God} 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

This is a prophetic call to prepare—and it contrasts two realities.

One is a desert or a wilderness. A rugged wasteland with mountains and overgrown obstacles. Basically the dessert is a place with animals and no worthwhile path and requires major work to navigate. This is the situation of the people of Isaiah’s time who have been at war and been exiled in Babylon. Isaiah speaks to call them home. 5

That home is the second reality. A new and coming reality. He calls them to get ready by making the paths straight. By making a highway in the desert. The mountains come down, the valleys brought up, crooked made straight, rough made smooth. This is the cry of Isaiah the prophet and the great hope for him in the future. The wilderness is to become a new Eden.

In fact, that has been the cry since the beginning of history. Since Adam was cursed to work hard against the ground outside of Eden in a wilderness like area, he was promised that some day he would reenter Eden.

The message of Isaiah, Malachi, Moses, and Elijah, is prepare yourself—its almost time. The time is at hand. The time is near. We are in a wilderness, but get ready, all of that is about to change. And if you want this to be a good change, you must repent.

And people hear it. See verse 5. All the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan river.

And everyone knew that Elijah meant the Day of the Lord. And the Day of the Lord meant judgment on Gods enemies. So John does this until they are duly convicted and then, they line up to be baptized. A later rabbi says if Israel repents for one day, then the son of David will come. This is the question for Mark—will Israel repent and usher in the son of David? It sure looks like they are doing that, but the judgment is still out. They are starting strong, but how will they finish? (I will talk about the baptism more next week when we meet Jesus himself.)

I want to concentrate on John’s message this week. His message was unapologetically strong and even offensive to some. But look what he offers—Forgiveness. Grace. A washing away of their sins.

So the message so far, Repent, confess, be baptized. Why? Its the why that makes Johns message so different than everyone else’s.

Actually, its not even the why, its more the when that makes his message so significant. There is an urgency to his message. He is quoting the prophets in calling people to prepare, but look at what makes this particular messenger’s message so different from the others in the past.

IV. The Real message

That’s verse 7. In fact verse seven is really THE message. Josephus has told us John the Baptists message was about repentance and confession and he was right. But John Marks specifies this even more in that John the Baptist is the messenger, the predecessor to the one who makes the popularity of John the Baptist look like nothing. If you think John the Baptist was something, Josephus, you must have missed John’s main message. His main message is to point you to someone else. John Mark is brief. He doesn’t center on all the justice and righteousness and fairness conversation. He wants you to see John the Baptist as a man with one message. “Jesus is here.” 6

“After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”

This is huge. He is saying, the time is near. Its about to happen. The Messiah, the one you have been waiting for is coming. And I am nothing in comparison. And then as if on cue, Jesus walks down into the water. We will talk about the baptism next week, but I want you to get the big picture here.

John says someone is coming. And then he comes. If this were done dramatically, it would be this time that the chariots of fire music would be cued and they would pan out to Jesus from a distance as he walks in slow motion towards John. John will look up and see him coming and pronounce boldly (In Matthew and Luke) “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

He will come out of the water and the heaven itself will be torn open and the Spirit of God will descend, and God will pronounce his approval of his son and Jesus will begin his ministry of proclamation and healing, and conquering evil and say loudly, the time has come, the kingdom of God is here in my presence.

That is the message of John the Baptist. The King is here. The King is here. We do not wait for a King to come, people of God, People of Poolesville. He has come. He reigns and this fact demands a response. The response he calls us to is repentance, confession, baptism, and trust in the King who reigns.

If you haven’t already taken to heart what has been said, or need some more specifics for your personal life, I think there is much we can take home.

V. What does this all mean for me?

Perhaps: Everyone ought to be baptized and it should be by immersion? Everyone ought to be baptized by the HS? We should all dress funny and eat weird food? We should call people to social reform? If you really want to know God, you should do it in the middle of nature?

We need to be careful I think in applying to ourselves. Mark is not talking about us. He is not trying to tell us what can happen to us or what we should do.

He is interested in telling you one important thing; Jesus has come and he is more powerful than John and it is he upon which all creation has waited since the beginning of time. It is he who is announced from heaven, who is about to be tested by Satan, who is the long promised one, the messiah, the son of God, the bearer of the Spirit and the victor over Satan.

But I think this is for US. 7

Johns message might be summarized like this: Repent, live right, I am nothing, Jesus is everything and he is here

A. Repent

John speaks to YOU when he says repent. He calls you to turn from your “me-centeredness” and your living just so you don’t get caught. He calls some of you what you are, a brood of vipers and a wicked generation. He says you must turn from that. But notice, he doesn’t just proclaim their certain doom, he proclaims a certain salvation as well. If you turn, and you are baptized, and you live righteously there is a place in heaven for you.

Repent and believe is a message that should still be proclaimed.

“Repent!” goes out to everyone here. If you are not caring for your brother, or cheating, or living a lie, or hating, or speaking ill of others or any host of things, you must repent. Christian or non-Christian.

But there is a difference. Christians you come before a God who is your father and who holds you close and loves you no matter what.

If you are a non-Christian here, you come before a different God. You stand in the presence of a God who will come with a winnowing fork and separate his own from his enemies. You stand as an enemy. He can change all that today. If you repent of your sins and believe that Jesus is Lord and trust him for your salvation and commit to follow him forever then you move from being an enemy to being a friend of God.

Will you come?

B. Humility

John also shows great humility and I think calls us to the same I often wonder what symbol would best suit this generation of America: A flag, a cross, a missile, a TV antenna, a dollar sign, a test tube, an oil barrel, a bloated belly, a handgun, an automobile, a peace symbol. I think perhaps it should be a forefinger pointed into the air with the motto under it “We’re number one.” That’s who we are. A narcissistic group of people in love with ourselves.

And if anyone had the possibility of thinking themselves great it was John.

He was conceived by miraculous interference of the Holy Spirit, announced by Gabriel, filled with the HS in his mothers womb. This guy had droves of people coming to see him. Scholars suggest as many as 300,000 converts even though he had no advertising, stadiums, amplifiers or satellites. He was the most popular person alive at the time. 8

He is so popular that people ask him if he is the Christ. But he doesn’t allow them even to suggest that for a second. He immediately responds in the book of John that he is not. He doesn’t take any credit for himself.

He was born, prepared and successful enough to be number one and with his cry for people to repent he steps aside and lets the lamb of God take his rightful position.

Do you want to be second? Are you ready to submit? To sacrifice your radical NOW happiness for the ultimate joy of pointing to someone else?

C. Christ Centered

I hope you hear in my comments to live humble lives, something far more than low self esteem. I don’t want you just to think lowly of yourself, I want you to think highly of Christ. John’s message is not simply that he is nothing. It is that Jesus is everything.

John stoops in the dirt before his liege. He is not even worthy to touch his shoes. You cant think low enough thoughts about yourself. You are nothing, BUT, he esteems you. He cares for you and so you have worth. You are of great value to him and he calls to you with open arms. Come to me, all you who are weary and need rest. Come to me, all who think you can do it on your own, come to me those who are hurt, worn and scarred.

Oh that we had a John the Baptist Generation. We are in the days of Elijah, we are the ones declaring the word of the lord. We are the ones who see the fields white as harvest and we are the ones who must proclaim boldly, NOT ME, CHRIST. NOT MY NAME, BUT YOURS. My wants, my desires, my esteem are laid prostrate in the mud and your body, crucified for me is lifted high for all to see.

Will we generate an excitement about serving God? That will cause people to come rushing into the kingdom of God -John’s message was “The kingdom of God is at hand” -our message today is even clearer than that - Rom 10:8-10 The word is near to you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Final call to repent

Response song Come thou weary, worn…