Mark 1:5-8

Mark 1:5-8

It is truly clear that the ministry of John was effective for they flocked out to listen to him and to submit to his baptism. Why was it that John made an impact to all nations? It is for the following reasons:

1.     He was a man who lived with what he preached. It was not only through his words but the very life that he protests. There are three things that marked the reality of his protest against the contemporary life.

a.     The place where he stayed, the wilderness. It is said that between the center of Judaea and the Dead Sea lies one of the most dangerous and terrible deserts in the world. The desert is limestone. The rocks are blistering. John was a man from the desert and from its own solitudes and its desolations. He was a man who had given himself a chance to hear the voice of God.

b.     There were the clothes that John wore. They were from a garment woven from camel’s hair and leather belt about his waist.

c.      There was food he ate. John ate locusts and wild honey.

So John emerged and people listened to him. John was the message himself, and because of that people followed him and listened to what he preached.

2.     John’s message was effective because he told people what they knew in their hearts and minds and that in the depths of their souls they were longing for something.

a.     The Jews believed in the saying: “If Israel would only keep the law of God perfectly for one day the Kingdom of God would come.” When John preached about conversion and repentance he was confronting the hearts of everyone. His message was effective because he spoke to the conscience of every person.

b.     The people of Israel were well aware that for three hundred years the voice of a prophet had been silent. The people waited for someone to speak the voice of God, someone who would be a messenger. And that they heard that from John. They immediately recognized that he was the one. The people believed that John came from God and to hear him was to know he was the one.

3.     The message of John was very effective because he was a man of humility. He even gave a verdict to himself that he was not fit for the duty even of a slave. John asked nothing of himself but everything for the one he prepared the way for – it was for Christ.

4.     His message was effective because he pointed even someone beyond himself. He told the people that his baptism drenched them in water, but the one who was coming would drench them in the Holy Spirit. While water could cleanse a person’s body, the Holy Spirit cleanse not only the physical but the whole self and heart.

John’s motivation was clear. He was not to occupy the center stage, but to try to connect the people with the one who was greater and powerful than him. People listened and followed him because he pointed, not to himself, but to the one whom all people need.

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