PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Leader:
Today we look at the Gospel of Mark…it’s the shortest of the Gospels, and widely regarded to be the first one written. Mark says nothing about the birth of Jesus. There are no angels, no shepherds, no mention of Mary or Joseph, no star, and no manger. Mark begins right off the bat with the preaching of John the Baptist who calls people to repent. Like all the greats of history, Jesus doesn’t just arrive—He is announced—and who better than John to do that.
All:
2 Isaiah the prophet told us what would happen before He came:
Watch, I will send My messenger in front of You to prepare Your way and make it clear and straight. 3 You’ll hear him, a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Eternal One, a straight way in the wandering desert, a highway for our God.”
Leader:
4 That messenger was John the Baptist, who appeared in the desert near the Jordan River preaching that people should be ritually cleansed through baptism with water as a sign of both their changed hearts and God’s forgiveness of their sins. 5 People from across the countryside of Judea and from the city of Jerusalem came to him and confessed that they were deeply flawed and needed help, so he cleansed them with the waters of the Jordan.
John the Baptist:
Someone is coming who is a lot more powerful than I am—One whose sandals I’m not worthy to bend down and untie. 8 I’ve washed you here through baptism with water; but when He gets here, He will wash you in the Spirit of God.
Leader:
The Jordan River is the setting of some of the most memorable miracles in the Old Testament. On their journey through the wilderness to the promise land, the Israelites walked across the Jordan River on dry ground because God parted its waters. Elisha, one of the prophets of God, healed Naaman by telling him to bathe seven times in its waters. Partly because of miracles like these and partly because of a growing wilderness spirituality, many of the Jews in John’s day are out to hear him and be ritually baptized in the Jordan’s cool, cleansing waters. They are looking for God to intervene miraculously in their lives as He has done in the past. What they don’t know is that God is about to intervene, for at that time Jesus leaves Nazareth and heads south.
All:
9 It was in those days that Jesus left Nazareth (a village in the region of Galilee) and came down to the Jordan, and John cleansed Him through baptism there in the same way all the others were ritually cleansed. 10 But as Jesus was coming out of the waters, He looked up and saw the sky split open. The Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove, 11 and a voice echoed in the heavens.
Voice:
You are My Son, My beloved One, and I am very pleased with You.
Leader:
By calling us to prepare the way of the Lord through John the Baptist, Mark challenges us to change our hearts and lives and make ourselves ready to receive Jesus, along with everything that entails. He calls us to adopt hearts and lives characterized by a desire to follow Jesus, a willingness to suffer on account of him, and a hope in the glorious future life he has promised us.
(Awaiting the Already, pp. 13-14;
Mark 1:2-5, 7-11, The Voice)
Lighting of advent candles