Please turn in your copy of God's Word to the Gospel of Mark, and chapter one, and we're gonna read from verse one through to verse eight. Mark, chapter one, beginning at verse one. We continue our series this morning of savoring the Savior in Mark's Gospel. And as we come to the reading and the preaching of God's Word, let me pray for us. Father, we pray that we would see Jesus this morning, and seeing Him, we would love Him, trust Him, and serve Him all the days of our life. And it's in His name we pray. Amen. Mark chapter one, verse one. 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 before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. I read an article this week in the Spectator magazine in the UK. It was the most read online article in the magazine in 2024. It was entitled, A Christian Revival is Underway in Britain. The author, Justin Brarley, argued that there is a resurgence of interest in Christianity in Britain and in the Western world, including the United States of America. He noted a number of well-known individuals, social media, podcasters, and pundits, and influencers, who have helped to fuel the interest. These are people who have either turned to Christianity for answers in the face of the decline of Western culture, or who have been converted to some branch of Christianity, or who are just going back to church to check it all out. You may have heard of some of their names. Tom Holland, Douglas Murray, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Louise Perry, Ayaan Irshi Ali. There were other names that Brarley didn't mention who have contributed to the renewed interest, especially over here in the United States. People like Tucker Carlson and Russell Brand have both been open about how they've been reading through the whole Bible in the last year or so. Candice Owens recently converted to Catholicism. Megan Kelly is openly wrestling with her Catholic upbringing. So you can see why Justin Brarley's article, A Christian Revival is Underway, was the most read article in The Spectator in 2024. Something is afoot. Something is going on. There's clearly a renewed interest in Christianity. Last year, the Bible was the most sold book in America. Seals were up 22% from 2023, and the increase was partly driven by first-time buyers. So is there a Christian revival underway? Are we on the verge of the third great awakening in America? Well, I think we should be hopeful. but hesitant, prayerful, but skeptical. And here's why. Notice who is driving the renewed interest. Podcasters and media, pundits, politicians and policy makers, social influencers and academic authors, but not preachers. not ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All true Christian revival begins and continues with heaven-sent, God-ordained preachers. It begins with ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings us to our passage in Mark's gospel this morning. It's a passage that concerns John the Baptist and the revival that he led in the wilderness by the river Jordan. Now, let's be honest, John the Baptist is one of those figures that we don't know quite what to do with. Either we're a wee bit embarrassed about the man who looks like a cross between Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear, You know, like Fred with his dress of camel's hair and leather belt, like Yogi with his diet of locusts and wild honey. Or we just ignore John the Baptist and treat him as a kind of irrelevant figure in the Bible storyline. I mean, when have you ever heard a gospel explanation that begins with, now let me tell you about a man called John the Baptist. And yet that is how Mark begins his gospel, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then he goes on to make a connection between the beginning and John the Baptist in verses two to eight. For Mark, if you want to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, you need to begin with John the Baptist. So who was John the Baptist? Mark assumes that his readers know who he's talking about because he gives no mention of his birth or origins. He just states in verse four, John appeared. He just sort of pops up in the Bible out of nowhere. So Mark didn't feel the need to explain about him. Maybe his reputation went before him. But there's also a sense in which Mark presents John as he does because it's not important who he is. As the prophet Isaiah said, he is just a voice in the wilderness. However, the other gospels do give us a bit more about this John, and it can be helpful to know a bit more about him to appreciate his significance here in Mark's gospel. According to the gospel of Luke, John the Baptist was the son of a priest who served in the temple in Jerusalem, a man called Zechariah. who was married to a woman called Elizabeth. His conception was miraculous because Elizabeth was barren, and she and Zechariah were well-advanced in years. They were past the age of having children. His miraculous conception makes sense then of what the angel tells his father, that his son would be, quote, great before the Lord. and that he would go before the Lord, quote, in the spirit and power of Elijah the prophet to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. In other words, John would make ready for the Lord a people prepared. As part of his unique calling, he would take the Nazirite vow of not drinking wine or strong drink, a sign of one's dedication to God, hence the description of his simple diet of locusts and wild honey. After John was born, he was circumcised and his father prophesied over him, saying that he would be the prophet of the Most High God, who would go before the Lord to prepare his ways. So in short, John the Baptist was a prophet priest from the tribe of Levi who was set apart for God to pave the way for God's coming to his people. And his birth and circumcision, after his birth and circumcision, sorry, we don't read anything more about him until he pops up in biblical history nearly 30 years later. After years and decades of anonymity and obscurity in the Judean wilderness, John appears on the public scene and is thrust into popularity. Verse five, and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Scholars reckon that the population of Jerusalem at this time was somewhere between 25,000 and 80,000 people. They also reckon the population of Judea was one million to two and a half million people. Now, notice the description of who went out to John at the River Jordan. All the country of Judea and all Jerusalem. Now I don't think the all means every single person. It's more like all kinds of people from Jerusalem and Judea went out to him. And yet it was still multitudes as we read in the other gospels. Some scholars suggest John's ministry reached between half a million and a million people. So it wasn't tens of thousands. It was hundreds of thousands of people were going out to John. And here's the most amazing fact of all. His ministry only lasted six months. Then he lost his head, literally, chopped off by King Herod. In other words, John was a mighty man of God who did a mighty work of God in a mighty short time. Just six months. Which means if we're interested in seeing a genuine Christian revival in our day, then John the Baptist is a pretty good place to start. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, Billy Graham, take a seat. If we want true Christian revival, we will need ministers in the mold of John the Baptist. And here's why, for three simple reasons. Because number one, John was a paver. He was a paver. John paved the way for God to come to his people. The beginning of the gospel begins with a paver, a preparer. That's what John was, someone who prepared the way for God's coming. Verses two and three. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In the ancient world, when a king was going to visit his people, he would send a herald ahead, a forerunner, who would announce his imminent arrival. A bit like today, whenever the president of the United States goes somewhere, people in his team go ahead of him to prepare the way. Well, so too, when God said he would come and visit his people in the person of his son, Jesus, he sent a messenger ahead of him to prepare his way. That messenger was John the Baptist, who began his ministry in the wilderness by the River Jordan, telling people to get ready for God's coming. The language of prepare the way is really a reference to people's hearts. When the angel spoke to Zechariah, John's father, he said that John would make ready for the Lord a people prepared. A people prepared. And how would he prepare the people for God's arrival? by getting their hearts in the right place, by telling them to repent of their sin so that they could receive God when he came to them in Jesus. This was John's first role, to be a way maker, a way preparer, a paver, making inroads into people's hearts, making them ready to meet God. It's what a minister's job is as well, getting people ready to meet God. Prophets like John the Baptist prepared people for God's first coming in Jesus, and ministers prepare people for God's second coming in Jesus. In essence, it's the same kind of preparation, to prepare people to meet God as he comes again in Jesus to judge the living and the dead. John the Baptist knew that God's coming entailed judgment. In the gospel of Matthew chapter three, he warned, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. God's winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. John preached about the coming judgment of God for those who did not repent of their sin and put their trust in God's King, Jesus. And a minister's job is exactly the same. He is to preach about the coming judgment of God on all those who do not repent of their sin and put their trust in God's King, Jesus. The minister, like John the Baptist, is a paver, preparing people to meet God. In Northern Ireland, where I grew up, there was quite a Christian presence, so much so that it was not uncommon to see Bible verses, not just on billboards and church notice boards, but also on trees and telegraph poles when you were out driving in the countryside. They were usually Bible verses in the King James. And one of them that I remember seeing so often was Amos 4, verse 12, prepare to meet thy God. What was a bit disconcerting is that the sign had been put on a sharp bend on the road. But everyone got the point pretty quickly. Prepare to meet thy God. Well, that's what John the Baptist was saying in his day. It's what ministers in the mold of John the Baptist are to say in our day. Prepare to meet your God. Get ready to meet your maker. So let me ask you this morning since I'm standing here as a paver in the pulpit and you're a punter in the pew, are you ready to meet God? If you were to die this week and you were to meet God and he was to say to you, why should I let you into my heaven? Are you ready to give him an answer? Boys and girls, may I ask you, if you were to meet God this week and he said to you, why should I let you into my heaven? Do you have an answer? This is the role of the Christian minister, to get people ready to meet their God, to meet their maker. And that's what you won't hear in all the chitter-chatter on Twitter and podcasts with this renewed interest in Christianity. You won't hear much talk about getting ready to meet God in the final judgment. about getting ready to meet God when he comes again in Jesus. Folk are more interested in what Christianity can offer them in the present, what principles or values it gives them for life now and for our society. There's next to no talk about getting ready to meet God on the future day of judgment. Now don't get me wrong, Christianity is about the present and how to live now, but it's also as much about the future and how to get ready for then, when God will come again in Jesus to judge the living and the dead. If we're going to see true Christian revival in our day, then we need ministers in the mold of John the Baptist. We need pavers of people's hearts to get them ready to meet God. That's what John was, a paver. He was something else as well. He was, second, a preacher. Verses four to five, John was a preacher. Verse four, John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The outward memorable characteristic of John's ministry was his baptizing. Verse five tells us that, and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan. This baptism took the form of a washing, a cleansing in the river Jordan. But it would be a mistake to think that baptism was the defining characteristic of John's ministry. It was certainly the outward, memorable characteristic, but it was not the inward, essential characteristic. That was John's preaching. Because people were only baptized by John after they'd heard a sermon by John. Preaching was the defining mark of John's ministry. John the preacher would be just as accurate as John the Baptist. Mark tells us in verse 4 what he preached. A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In a word, John preached repentance, which should not be confused with regret or remorse. People feel regret or remorse when they get caught. But in biblical terms, repentance is different. Repentance is a complete, whole-souled turning away from sin in mind, heart, life, and actions. The word turning really gets to the heart of repentance. Boys and girls, you can understand repentance like this. It means your life is going in one direction, And then you do a complete about-turn, and you go in the opposite direction. It's a U-turn. Do you know, like, you see the signs on the road when your parents are trying to turn the car around that says they're not allowed to do a U-turn here? And they still do sometimes. That's what repentance means. It's a complete U-turn in mind, heart, and action. And as I said, it is a whole-souled turning. It's not just saying sorry for sin. It's being sorrowful for sin. Which means we really need God to do the work of repentance in us because feeling sorrow for sin is not natural to us. We love sin. As the Puritans used to say, repentance is not a flower that grows in nature's garden. Repentance is not a flower that grows in nature's garden. That is, repentance is a work of God's saving grace. It comes down from heaven, not up from the heart. The fact then that John had so many people repent at his preaching, hundreds of thousands, means that his preaching was God-anointed preaching, which is what the church and the world by extension needs today. We need God-anointed preaching that makes inroads into the heart of sinners and paves the way for God and Jesus to come and dwell there as king. We need God-anointed preachers of repentance, That's how Mark summarizes John's preaching. But we mustn't think that his preaching on repentance was generic. In Mark chapter six, when we read of how John called out King Herod and his wife Herodias for their adulterous marriage. John's preaching on repentance was rather specific. Herod had taken the wife of his brother Philip and had married her. It was an act of adultery. And so John called it what it was, adultery. He did the same with others. The Pharisees and Sadducees were full of religious hypocrisy and pride. They thought that their descendancy from Abraham would save them from God's coming judgment. And John told them that God's ax was laid to the root of the tree of their hypocritical pride and ancestry, which bore no good fruit. John told ordinary people they needed to stop being stingy with their tunics and share more. John told tax collectors they needed to stop stealing. He told Roman soldiers they needed to stop extorting money out of people by their threats and false accusations. John's preaching on repentance was not generic. It was specific. It was pointed. He called people to repent of specific sins. And given who he preached this repentance to, we can see that he didn't fear any man in doing so. As he preached, John didn't fear kings or soldiers, religious leaders or tax collectors or large crowds that could turn on him. He feared no one. In the words of Jesus, he was not a reed shaken by the wind. What a compliment. He didn't blow with the wind and he didn't blow in the wind. He preached repentance with a backbone. And what happened as a result? A revival broke out of epic proportions. Hundreds of thousands of people repented and were baptized in just six months. That's how John paved the way for God's first coming in Jesus. He preached repentance. It's how ministers are to pave the way for God's second coming in Jesus. They are to preach repentance. Because true repentance will only come when God-anointed ministers preach whole-souled repentance for specific sins in the mold of John the Baptist. Christian revival will only come when God raises up preachers who will tell Joe Rogan and Megyn Kelly. to repent of their foul-mouthed F-bombs on their podcasts, despite their seeming openness to Christianity. Christian revival will only come when God raises up preachers who will call out presidents in the White House for their adulterous behavior, and who will call out pastors in God's house for their adulterous behavior. Christian revival will only come when God raises up preachers who will tell Russell Brand and Candace Owens to stop flirting with Catholicism and come to Christ to be saved. That they need the righteousness of Christ, not the rituals of the church. That they need the ancient gospel, not the ancient tradition, if they are to be right with God. Until we have such preachers, we are not going to see Christian revival. Now, of course, as I'm pointing the finger at these people, I'm aware that there are three pointing back at me. Do you see that, boys and girls? When you point the finger, there's always three pointing back at you. And that means that I need to ask myself this morning, What specific sins am I repenting of? We all need to ask ourselves this morning, what specific sins do we need to repent of? Because until we repent of our sins, we will remain in a spiritual wilderness. Do you remember where John did his work? In the wilderness by the River Jordan. Why the wilderness? Why did the people have to go out to him in the wilderness? Why didn't he go to them in the cities? Well, the wilderness was where Adam left off in his ministry after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. The wilderness was where Israel's forefathers had wandered because of their unbelief and disobedience. The wilderness was a symbol of spiritual rebellion and waywardness and wandering. We have to first see where sin takes us if we're ever going to turn around and leave the place where it has taken us. And sin only ever takes you into the wilderness. But the wilderness was also a positive reminder of the place where God in his grace came to meet with his people. In the tabernacle, in the sacrifices, it was the place from which he promised a new exodus. The wilderness was the place of forgiveness. And so it was for the crowds who came to John in the wilderness. As they repented of their sins, they were forgiven and received the symbol of that forgiveness in baptism in the Jordan River, the river through which Israel first passed to enter the promised land. For Israel, the Jordan River was the demarcation, the boundary line between death and life, between the wilderness and the paradise. The name Jordan means death, literally the descender. That's why the location of John's ministry was so symbolic. and strategic because through his preaching, a baptism of repentance, people were literally crossing from death to life in the Jordan. And that's what ministers in the mold of John the Baptist are to do in their preaching. Convict people of their sin and the spiritual wilderness that it leaves them in, and then help them to cross the Jordan into the promised land of forgiveness, which they can receive through repenting of their sin and then receiving the sign of that forgiveness and repentance in Christian baptism. This is what we need in our day. If we are going to see true Christian revival. Ministers in the mold of John the Baptist. Who are pavers of the heart. Who are preachers of sin. And finally, who are pointers to a savior. Which brings us to the third thing John was. John was a paver, John was a preacher, and John was a pointer. Verses six to eight. He pointed people. to Jesus. In verse 6 we read of his bizarre dress code and diet. It suited his calling as a desert preacher. It was rough and rugged like his rhetoric. It also embodied his calling as a prophet. Prophets often dressed in coarse clothing and their diet often reflected the Nazirite vow of total devotion to God. In this sense, John was a man wholly devoted to God, which is what every minister is meant to be. Thankfully, we don't follow the diet of John or the clerical garb, though maybe he would tell us it was the early form of the Genevan gown. But the dress and the diet and the dwelling place were symbolic of more than just devotion to God. They were also deliberate because by dressing and eating as he did, John looked like Elijah, the prophet of old, who himself wore a hairy coat and who ascended to heaven in a chariot at the River Jordan. There were other similarities to Elijah as well. Elijah called the nation of Israel to repentance for breaking God's covenant laws, just like John did. Elijah's life was hunted by an angry woman, Queen Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, just like John the Baptist's life was hunted by an angry woman, Herodias. the wife of King Herod because John had called out her marriage as adultery. She asked for John's head on a platter and she got it. Elijah passed on the baton of his ministry to the prophet Elisha at the Jordan. who went on to do greater works and have a greater ministry than Elijah. Just like John will pass the baton on to Jesus at the Jordan, and Jesus will go on to do mightier works like Elisha. In other words, John deliberately patterned his life on the prophet Elijah. who called people to repentance and then gave way to someone greater than him. And that is the distinctive element of John's preaching. Yes, he preached repentance, but really he preached the coming one. John's preaching could be summarized not in one word, repentance, but in three words, the coming one, or in four words, the Lamb of God. John pointed people to Jesus. He was a voice in the wilderness crying out to people. He was also a finger by a river pointing out to people the one who was greater than him. In verses 7 and 8, John contrasts and then compares himself to Jesus as he points to him. Verse 7 gives us the contrast. Verse 8, the comparison. The contrast is that John is nothing compared to Jesus, who is coming after him. Verse 7. And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. Now just think about that first part of verse 7, mightier than I. Think about how mighty John was in his ministry. He didn't perform any miracles, but he did have multitudes, hundreds of thousands of people who followed him in just six months. He was also mighty because he feared no man and had all manner of men who wanted to hear him preach, from harlots to herods, from the lowly to the highly, from religious leaders to Roman soldiers. There wasn't anyone who didn't want to hear a sermon from John the Baptist. And then there was Jesus' own estimation of him. Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet. than John the Baptist. For Jesus, John was the goat of the Old Testament, the greatest of all time prophet. Why? Well, because he was the last of the prophets who got onto the stage with Jesus and introduced Jesus to the world. All the other prophets were backstage. John was on stage. That's why he was the greatest. He was a mighty man in his day. And yet look what he says in verse seven. After me comes he who is mightier than I. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. In the ancient world, disciples would do anything for their master, their teacher, except untie their sandals. It was the most demeaning of tasks. It was left for the slave in the house and the Gentile slave, not the Hebrew slave. But look at what John says of himself in the presence of Jesus. I'm not even worthy of doing the Gentile slave's job when it comes to being in the presence of the one who comes after me. And why? Because the one who came after him was God. Jesus, God's son. It's what the two quotes from Malachi and Isaiah indicate in verses two and three. John was to prepare the way for Jesus, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, Jesus, who will prepare your way, Jesus, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, of God himself. This is why Jesus is mightier than John, because John was a man and Jesus was God. And that's why John says, I'm nothing in comparison to him. For John, it was really Jesus who was the goat, the greatest of all time. In verse eight, John then provides a comparison as he points to Jesus' greater work of baptism. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So we can see from the contrast and the comparison that John was a preacher who pointed people to Jesus, the one greater than him. In John chapter three, John the Baptist said, I must decrease, he must increase. That was John's life motto. It's the motto of every minister, or at least it should be. I must decrease, Jesus must increase. That is what John the Baptist did. He pointed people to the one greater than him. It's what a minister is to do, to point people to the one far, far greater than him. John was a pointer. He was a paver, a preacher, and a pointer. And this is the kind of ministers we need today if we are going to see a Christian revival again. We need ministers in the mold of John the Baptist. If ever Joe Rogan invites me onto his podcast, what are the chances? You never know. I'm gonna tell him what America needs. John the Baptist preachers. Men who pave a way into people's hearts to make them ready for God's coming again in Jesus. Men who preach repentance for specific sins to bring people to repentance. And men who will point those same people to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is what is lacking in the chitter-chatter on Twitter and podcasts among those showing a renewed interest in Christianity. There is next to no talk of pointing people to Jesus in such a way that the show host and the listener are left saying, I am nothing. Jesus is everything. This is why if we're going to see a Christian revival, we need ministers in the mold of John the Baptist. We need ministers who will point out people's sin and then point them to the Savior who can take away that sin. One of the sayings I have heard here in America since I came to live here, and which brings a smile to my face every time is, so-and-so needs to have a come-to-Jesus moment. I love it. If I ever move back to the UK, I'm gonna take it with me and pretend I came up with it. It's a real cracker. A come-to-Jesus moment. Well, all those who have been promoting this renewed interest in Christianity, from Joe Rogan to Megyn Kelly, from Tucker Carlson to Jordan Peterson, what do they need? They all need a come to Jesus moment, which really means they need to get out of their studio and go to church. the kind of church where they will hear a minister call specific sins in their life, sin, and fear no one in calling that sin, sin, but who then will also point them to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. What do all those social influencers need? They need a come to Jesus moment. Friends, it's what we all need. We all need a come to Jesus moment. Father, would you show us our sin this morning and thus show us our savior who takes away our sin. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.