(Part 2 of 2)
“Just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”
This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.
John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”-Mark 1:2-8
What makes the Good News good is Jesus! It is the revelation and introduction of Jesus init a person’s life. That never gets old! People being saved from the clutches of hell, never gets old. People’s lives being transformed never gets old.
In Mark 1, John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus. He is introducing him to a group of people who were not familiar with Him. He told them in vs.7-8 that there was one coming greater than he, so much greater he was not able to even stoop down and tie His sandals.
Later on after John is arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News:
“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”-Mark 1:14-15
Jesus picked up where John had left off. Then Jesus instructed the disciples to pick up where He left off. He instructed them in Luke 24:46-48:
“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.”-Luke 24:46-48
The good news was that Jesus, their Messiah, would suffer and die and be raised from the dead on the third day; also the forgiveness and repentance would be preached to all nations.
The message is still timely and good, we don’t have a message problem, we have a delivery problem. That is why Paul wrote this in Romans 10:13-15:
“For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”-Romans 10:13-15
Has the newness of the gospel worn off for you? Is it still not the best news ever for those who are lost and hurting? God has called each of us to carry the good news of Jesus to those around us. Our job isn’t to make the news, but to deliver it. Get it into the hands of those who have never heard it, but desperately need it.
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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