Prophetic Roots of John's Ministry

In this part of the sermon: He explains the connection between Mark 1:1 and 1:2-3, showing how John's ministry fulfills prophecy, then addresses the 'problem' of Mark attributing both Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah…

Martin uses the 'problem' of Mark's combined quotation from Malachi and Isaiah to illustrate how skeptics use such instances to discredit the Bible, contrasting it with an approach of faith.

the problem connected with these verses. And the Bible, does give us problems. Mark says, even as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet, but if you read Isaiah from chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 66, you will nowhere find the words of verse 2, behold I send my messenger before thy face who shall prepare thy way. You would have to read all the way over into the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, to chapter 3 and verse 1, and then you would find these words.

9:45 - 10:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So there is a problem in the text, I'm not ignorant of the problem, but approaching it in the bias of faith, but approaching it in the bias of faith, it is no stumbling block to my faith, and I trust it will not be to yo…

He commends Hendrickson's Commentary for those wishing to study the citation pattern in more detail, reinforcing the scholarly basis for his explanation.

Well, you see, when you approach the scriptures with the bias of unbelief, you can come to conclusions like that. But you see, if you approach the scriptures with the bias of faith, you need come to no such conclusion because there is a pattern of citing scripture references in the Bible itself that is very parallel to this in other places in which the biblical writers will cite one or more, sometimes two, sometimes three references, but only refer to one of the original authors of that reference, and generally, the major author. If they are quoting minor portions, a major prophet and a minor ...

11:58 - 13:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So there is a problem in the text, I'm not ignorant of the problem, but approaching it in the bias of faith, but approaching it in the bias of faith, it is no stumbling block to my faith, and I trust it will not be to yo…

Martin humorously quotes an author who notes Mark promises one quote from Isaiah but gives two (including Malachi), asking 'why should we complain?' to illustrate the generosity of God's word and the bias of faith.

But as one author has very humorously but accurately said, Mark promises us one quote from Isaiah, and he gives us two, one from Malachi as well, and he gives us two, one from Malachi as well, and he gives us two, one from Malachi as well, why should we complain? If someone promises us a quote from Isaiah, and adds to it a quote from Malachi, who are we to complain? Well, I say the bias of faith approaches a passage like that, for it's really the burden of Mark, is not the emphasis of Malachi's quotation, but the burden is the quotation from the prophet Isaiah, that's the part that he wishes t...

13:08 - 14:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the meaning of the prophecies in Mark 1:2-3, using the ancient Eastern imagery of a messenger preparing the way for a monarch, to illustrate John's role as a herald…

He uses the ancient Eastern custom of a monarch sending a messenger to prepare roads for his royal entourage as a vivid analogy for John the Baptist's role in preparing the way for Jesus Christ.

Now in those words, there is contained a graphic ancient Eastern imagery. And if you and I lived in Bible days, we would have understood it immediately. When a monarch decided to visit one of the cities in his kingdom, or one of the villages, among the many things he would do, would be to send a messenger, before him, to announce to that city or village to which he purposed to come, that the monarch was coming. And because he would come with all of his royal entourage, riding upon his chariot, those crude roads would have to have special preparation for his coming.

15:55 - 16:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Approach the scriptures with the conviction of the essential unity between the Old and New Testaments, never fragmenting them.

Martin uses the couplet 'The New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed' to illustrate the essential interpenetration and unity of the Old and New Testaments.

First of all, when we approach the scriptures, we must always approach them with the conviction of this, and the conviction of this, essential unity between the Old and the New Testament. We must never approach the scriptures as though the New Testament cancels the Old, or that the Old towers over the New. Many of you have heard that little couplet. The New is in the Old contained, and the, I'm sorry, the concealed and the Old, is in the New revealed.

27:26 - 28:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The people of God in Israel were in a state of religious decadence. They were held in the grip of formalism and lethargy and externalism. And if they were to have any appreciation for the ministry of Christ, They needed …

He describes John's 'funny dress and funny food' (camel's hair, leather girdle, locusts, wild honey) as initial attention-grabbers, but emphasizes that his true impact came from his 'stinging, conscience-smiting ministry' that called people 'generation of snakes, you vipers.'

And when you read the parallel accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist, you see what a stinging, conscience-smiting ministry he had. He didn't play games. He drew attention not merely by his funny dress and his funny food. He'd pull off the wings.

33:53 - 34:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until you are blasted from your pillows of complacency and self-contentment, Jesus Christ will mean nothing to you.

Martin uses the imagery of removing 'boulders of formalism and hypocrisy' and filling 'valleys of duties omitted' and leveling 'mountains of pride and arrogance' to describe the spiritual preparation John's ministry effected in people's hearts.

This man turned and said, You generation of snakes, you vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And John went after their convicts. consciences. And John knew what it was to take the word of God and apply it closely to the consciences of men. What was he doing? According to the very prophecies given before his conception and at his birth, he was preparing the people for the Lord. And what was that preparation? That preparation was not involving people in more anti-ritual. It wasn't telling them to go back to Jerusalem and do a little bit more at the temple and offer a few more s...

34:33 - 36:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until you are blasted from your pillows of complacency and self-contentment, Jesus Christ will mean nothing to you.

He describes how John's ministry 'rubbed raw' people's consciences, making them feel the 'stinging painful awareness that we are sinners,' thus preparing them to receive Jesus as the 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'

righteous, but sinners to repent, those that are well have no need of a doctor, have the Lord Jesus come directly without His. For runner without this voice crying in the wilderness. We saw this morning in our reading in Matthew 10, He had enough opposition as it was. But had He come directly on the human Inside we wonder if any would have heard his voice, but because John went before and in the power and spirit of Elijah preached so as to prick the consciences of men, to pull off the veneer, to lay bare, as it were, the open running sores of their sinfulness.

36:51 - 37:35 Read in full sermon