I’ll Tell You What…

Mark is different than the other Gospels in that it jumps directly into the ministry of John the Baptist as the “voice shouting in the wilderness” (v. 3, NLT) followed by Jesus’ pre-ministerial actions. Genealogies are skipped and the portrait of our Savior as a servant is developed. Not only is He the perfect servant but also the pattern servant that we should follow…

J. Sidlow Baxter says1 that there are four “prerequisites to all effective Christian service” contained in this first chapter.

1. A Preliminary Separation (v. 9) – Our Lord’s baptism was His initial, deliberate separation of Himself to His public Messianic ministry. This separation was twofold. There was (a) a separation from His former kind of life; (b) a separation to His new ministry of teaching and healing: and utter separation to God. That is also the first prerequisite for us.
2. A Preliminary Anointing (v. 10) – Our Lord (a) saw something, i.e. “the heavens opened”; (b) felt something – “the Spirit descending upon on Him.” That also is the prerequisite for us. We must know that the heavens “opened” to our praying, and the enduement with “power from on high.”
3. A Preliminary Assuring (v. 11) – Our Lord at Jordan received a preliminary assuring (a) as to sonship – “Thou art My beloved Son”; (b) as to character – “in whom I am well pleased.” That is the third prerequisite for us. We need the inwrought assurance of the Holy Spirit, and motives well-pleasing to God.
4. A Preliminary Testing (vv. 11, 12) – There are two things to note about this preliminary tempting of our Lord: (a) It was Divinely sanctioned, i.e. “The Spirit driveth Him”; (b) it was real temptation – “of Satan.” Strange though it may seem, even the entirely separated, Spirit-anointed, Heaven-attested Servant must undergo this preliminary testing, to settle it whether He will go only and utterly God’s way – or man’s.

Baxter finishes his comments by saying, “Let all who would serve the Lord of heaven, in this sinful world, observe carefully those four prerequisites. The question of all questions for the Christian is: Am I really willing to yield myself here and now to Christ for His will alone to be done through my life?”

Well? Are you?

———————————-

1 J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 1960) 225.