Are You Ready for Some Good News?, Part 1

0:47 Turn, if you will, to Mark chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way. the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

1:49 And he was preaching and saying, After me one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I baptize you with water. but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens. You are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased.

2:34 immediately the spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beasts and the angels were ministering to him

3:21 Opening words are designed to command attention. Every once in a while, I have a chance to work with young preachers, and I always talk to them about the importance of introductions. People's time is important. Don't waste it. Get right into it. I can still hear the words of my mother. I could wrap up all of her counsel in four words. Get it said, son.

3:50 I remember the story of a pastor who was talking on the phone the previous week with a fellow pastor, and this other pastor on the other end of the line was so discouraged. And he said to him, the one listening, he said, I've got to tell you, I've decided that next Sunday I'm going to resign. He said, really? He said, how are you going to tell the people? First thing out of my mouth, I'm going to tell them, I've decided I am going to resign. Well, the pastor hearing that thought, what a great way for me to begin my sermon. So he's going to tell them about his pastor friend. So he began his sermon. I've decided I'm going to resign. And before he could tell the story, somebody said, it's about time. So you got to choose those opening words carefully.

4:44 People are listening from the very start. Paul O'Neill knew that, and he came up with what was called O'Neill's Law, which says, by the way, he's a former writer for Life magazine. He said, always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tagline. Don't you love that? Sink your thumbs into the windpipe. Dare him not to listen.

5:19 As I read writers like Charles Dickens, I think he never heard of O'Neill's Law, but he knew it. When he wrote The Tale of Two Cities, he began, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. You read that opening line and you've got to read on. Ernest Hemingway was another in The Old Man and the Sea. He began, he was an old man who fished alone. I've got to read more about this old man in the sea and you do as you read that if there is ever an opening sentence that commands attention it's the first sentence of the bible in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth you cannot stop with that sentence in the Hebrew it's even less words but in English it's enough to grab the attention and to hold us to the tagline. I wonder if Mark might have had the original words of Genesis in mind when he begins his gospel.

6:21 He is short and to the point. Twelve words, really only five in the Greek. Twelve simple words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark gets at it. doesn't waste our time. Now, if you compare it to Matthew's gospel, you immediately see the difference. Matthew starts with a lengthy genealogy of names you can hardly pronounce that all of this genealogy is leading to the person of Jesus, who is the son of Mary. When you go to Luke, you read a sentence that has 80 words in it before there is a period. 80 words that get you to the story, not so much of Jesus, but to the story of Elizabeth and of Zacharias and all that went into her pregnancy. And then you come to Mary and finally you come to Jesus. With John, 17 mystical words, some would call them baffling words that deal with the theological implications of the Son of God. But with Mark, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he puts it all together. I don't know if you remember the last time you flew, but all of us who have flown realize there's something exhilarating about the takeoff.

7:48 You finally get there, you get through security, you sit down in your seat, you snap the safety belt and you wait. And before you know it, the engines begin to roar. And the roaring of the engine tells you something great is coming. I love to watch little children who have never flown before. They're always asking, what's next, mom? What's next, mom? They hear this loud noise. And then before you know it, that pilot releases that brake and you're on your way down the runway and you're moving faster and faster and you're gaining momentum. And before you know it, your air and those wheels leave the runway. It's just terrific. It's just wonderful. Every time I fly, I think, is this great or what? You know, think of people that have never flown before. I don't know if you remember the story about Cassius Clay, but when he, well, that was back when he was called by his real name.

8:42 He was sitting up in first class, and the gal walked up to him and said, fasten your seatbelt. He said, Superman don't need no seatbelt. She said, Superman don't need no airplane. seat belt. You're on your way, you're flying, you're underway, you're airborne. And life seems to kind of get objective all of a sudden as you gain more and more altitude. Mark is on the runway only briefly and you're off and running, off and flying.

9:15 He begins. Let's sort of unpack this first sentence. I mean, he would score high in the Writing 101 class. Right at the beginning, he starts with, well, beginning. In fact, allow me to be a little pedantic here. The little word, the, isn't even in the original text. Beginning. A beginning. Now, why would I say that? Why would I tell you that? It sounds like a detail you don't even need to know. Oh, you do need to know. I never give you a detail you don't need to know. Never. it starts with beginning by God's design there is no temporal sequence of events with the beginning of the gospel it never had a beginning

10:04 it's like John's gospel in the way it starts and R.K. and Halagos in beginning was the word in a beginning the word the isn't there either what's the big deal well if that V were there you could go back in history you could for Washington, and you could say he had his birthday, he began the life of Washington in 1732. He had the beginning. You go to Lincoln, you go, the beginning was in 1809, the beginning of Lincoln. But you go to the gospel, there's no the. It's a beginning that never had a beginning. So you move back in time to creation. You move beyond creation, back in time to eternity past. When there was no world, there was no matter, there was no person, there was no living thing. You move into the misty flats of eternity past.

11:02 And you find yourself now in your imagination sitting with the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. putting together a plan for this world and for the galaxies that they would call into being in a matter of time. There's no time. In this setting, the gospel is a part of a plan. And the plan for the Son of God to come as the Savior of the world is a part of that plan, neither of which has a beginning. just as the son of God is co-equal, co-eternal and co-existent with the father and the spirit. So the gospel co-equal goes all the way back. You see, our father knew before there was ever world, planet, earth, humanity, depravity, that we would need a redeemer.

12:04 So the gospel plan finds its origin, which really never has an origin, all the way back into the mind of the Godhead, a beginning which really never had a historical beginning. Next is the word gospel. Mark answers the question when with the word beginning. He now answers the question what with the word gospel. is the Greek word. It means good news. Good news. It's as if Mark is saying to us, are you ready for some good news? And who isn't? But this is good news that is eternal. This is news that will be good no matter how bad the times are. This is good when the economy falls to the bottom. This is good when you like the president or you don't like the president. This is good whether You don't agree with Congress.

13:05 This is good whether you're healthy or ill. This is good whether you're young or older. This is good when you're young in life. This is good when you're on your deathbed. This is good news. And the result is when you come to this good news that has been with us even beyond the beginning of time, you realize it's able to transform your entire perspective. It'll give you a song. It'll give you a song in the night. Weeping may endure through the night, but joy comes in the morning. Why? Because you realize there's good news. Good news.

13:46 For 33 consecutive years, my family and I went to a conference, really a family camp in Northern California named Mount Hermon, Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center. We began in 72, and we went all the way through for those 33 years. Didn't miss a year, sometime more than once, often with all our kids. And they started there when they were real little, and they grew up there. And the one who led the music during most of those camps is a man that I've loved for years. His name is Howie Stevenson.

14:22 And we would end the camp the same way, year after year. Still remember, thought about it as I was putting my thoughts together about this good news. We would always end it by singing a trio. Howie would sing and his wife Marilyn would sing and I would sing with them. When you're at a summer camp, they'll put up with anything. So we had the trio standing up front down at the campfire. I'll never forget, never forget it. Sing your way home at the close of the day. Sing your way home. Drive the shadows away. Smile every mile. For wherever you roam, it will brighten your road. It will lighten your load if you sing your way home. We sang that for 33, almost 33 years to groups, some of which had gone through a divorce, loss of a child or more than one, some through a tragedy, some through a heartbreaking loss of a business.

15:26 And almost without exception, when we'd have them join in with us, they would sing with us. How can brokenhearted people sing a song like that because of the good news? Don't ever let your life get so dark that it eclipses the good news. Don't ever let your situation become so bleak that it dries up the good news. this is good news thank you mark for remembering right away to tell us how good it is he's answered the when he's answered the what now the who and that's what makes it good news the sentence ends the beginning of the gospel of jesus christ the son of god and i ask after that how good is that the good news is that the father sees us in our need and knowing we cannot resolve the mess we've made of our lives he gives us the answer and part of the good news is that it is given to us one man writes it this way the good news is the story of a person It is not a convoluted mystery story where readers must piece together clues here and there, nor is it a boring pedestrian chronicle of dates and events and places without purpose or significance, nor is it a philosophy, some system of thought, like positive thinking or feel-good self-talk designed to lift your spirit.

17:12 That's not what will help you sing your way home. The good news is a person. Never forget it. Other religions revolve around these other things, a chronicle of events, convoluted mystery, a philosophy system of thought, but Christianity singles attention on the person of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Every message preached in an evangelical church

17:46 on the person of Christ. Never on the messenger, never on the building, never on a program, always the person of Jesus Christ. Now, with all of that as a background in that first sentence, he introduces the main characters of the story, and he does it very simply. I'm always fascinated when I come to a verse like 2 and 3. These two verses surprise me because Mark's writing to Gentiles. He's writing really to Romans. And they don't have a place in their life for Jewish prophets, especially ancient prophets. Couldn't care less about that. But Mark knows that you must go back to the prophets to realize it's there all of it began to be predicted. So he informs Gentile readers, Most of us, we who have no Jewish roots, find it interesting that an ancient prophet named Malachi in chapter 3, verse 1 would say what is written here in verse 2.

18:54 An ancient prophet like Isaiah, writing eight centuries before Jesus even came, writes not only of Jesus, but of the forerunner who would announce the coming of Jesus, namely John. So look at those two verses. Here we find the first main character, a prophet from ancient times. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. If you love Handel's Messiah, you already recognize this as the tenor recitative right at the beginning of that magnificent masterwork. This lyrical tenor begins with words just like this out of Isaiah. This is a reference to the writing of two prophets, Malachi and Isaiah.

19:55 And right on the heels of that, Mark spans the centuries and comes directly to the arrival of John. He's the second main character. He's what I'm calling here a preacher in the wilderness. John the baptizer. he's mentioned immediately at verse 4, John the Baptist. Now, let me encourage you to train yourself to read the word baptizer, okay? Or you'll think he's a Southern Baptist. You'll think it could have been John the Methodist or John the Presbyterian. It's not a denomination that Mark's writing about. It's the work of ministry that John did. He baptized. He did so much of it, he came to be known as simply the baptizer.

20:43 I want you to observe now how, well, unattractive John was. I just don't want that to be missed. I want you to put yourself in the first century. Think of yourself as a business person in the city of Jerusalem, a little sophisticated. And word begins to travel through people who come into your shop. about this strange person in the wilderness. We read John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness. Now we're sitting here in this comfortable place and we think we know wilderness. You ain't seen wilderness till you've seen the Judean wilderness. When you go to the Holy Land, make sure they take you far enough south

21:43 All you see is a rough, dry plain. My sister years ago gave me a book I just pulled out this week. It's dated 1964, and it's titled God's Wilderness. I open it. It's an archaeological work on the digs that have been done in the wilderness. And along with the digs, there's some interesting photos of the wilderness. You can't believe it. Interestingly, there isn't a sprig of green, dry, parched, gravel plain,

22:23 rough, uneven rocks in the distance, the beginning of mountains, also barren, and to another direction, a sea, dead sea. You go further south into the old Sinai Peninsula, all the way down to Mount Horeb, where God gave the law to his people. And it's as barren as you can imagine. Not an acacia tree, even two feet tall. Not even a scrub brush of green. Barren. That's where John was. You're in Jerusalem doing business and you hear about a man in the wilderness? You die in wilderness like that. But he's different.

23:17 Look at the message as strong, as uncompromising as his was. He's preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Sin. throw that word around the office one of these days and see the reaction you sin I like manager's question that he titled his book whatever happened to sin you won't hear it on the newscast you won't see it in the media sin yeah well what's he telling them. He's telling them they're sinners. He's telling them that they've fallen short of the standard of a holy creator who made them. Tell you something else interesting about John is it wasn't about John. Give me that kind of messenger. Lead me to that messenger.

24:18 So when I'm through listening to the message, I forget the messenger, but I can't forget his message. He said, let me tell you about the one I'm preaching. He's mightier than I. I am not fit having stooped down to untie.