"A Radical Life!" (Mark 1:2b-8)

"A Radical Life!"

Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #2)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

January 23, 2011

When you finish this life and stand before the Judge, what will He say to you about the way you lived your life? Will you be found as a person who played it safe and remained comfortable in serving your own purposes? Or will you be found as a person who lived a radical life as a person who took the epic journey of being a disciple of Jesus Christ? This life of a disciple is the epic journey that requires you to know Jesus Christ intimately (His person, character, and teachings) and to trust Him in all things by submitting to His Lordship and following His example.

For a message entitled "A Radical Life!", God's word from Mark 1:2b-8, "BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY; ³ THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.'" ⁴John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. ⁶John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. ⁷And he was preaching, and saying, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. ⁸ "I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." [prayer]

John the Baptist lived a radical life for God. And because of this he got the highest praise possible from the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus stated of John the Baptist, "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!" (Matthew 11:11). This is a living testimony of a man that must be taken seriously! Why? Because for us Christians, the aim of our lives is to live in such a way as to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant" from our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, when we stand before Him (Matthew 25:23).

Check out this video featuring Francis Chan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_uwWPE6lQ&feature=related

What does it mean life to live a radical life for God? At the top of your sermon notes insert I wrote down a definition of 'radical Christianity' found on Wikipedia. "Radical is derived from the Latin word radix meaning 'root', referring to the need for perpetual re-orientation towards the roots truths of Christian Discipleship." A radical is someone who desires to return to the root, the founding principles and character of a movement. For us Christians who desire to live radical lives for God, this means we must return to Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son of God, and His person and teachings.

We must continually (perpetually) re-orient our mind, body, and soul towards the root truths of Christian discipleship by daily studying the teachings and person of Jesus Christ through the Gospel narratives. This is why we are studying the Gospel of Mark together in this time of corporate celebration and mutual edification! My prayer for our faith community is that we will learn what it means to build our lives on no one other than Jesus Christ; hence, return to the founder of Christianity and live radical lives! Our focus and ambition is Jesus!

As we approach our Scripture lesson this morning, what can we learn from the story of John the Baptist who lived in such a way to receive the highest praise from the Master? What do we learn from watching and listening to him about what it means to live a radical life for God?

I will highlight three points, the first teaching point grounded in Mark 1:2b-5 is, "A Radical Life Calls people back to the way of God!"

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). The radical life is a life that has entered through the narrow gate and has found the way of God! In John 14:6, Jesus declares Himself to be 'the way'! Mark knows this truth about Jesus Christ and he is calling people to nothing less than a radical life of entering into the way!

That is why he starts his gospel narrative with two prophetic utterances in verses 2 and 3. The first is from Malachi 3:1 and you need to understand that from its original context this quote is a promise from God to His chosen people who have left the way of God that He was sending the Purifier to purify them as gold and silver and to make them white as snow.

God speaks to His chosen people in Malachi 3:1 stating, "'Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the LORD of hosts."

Mark then follows this with Isaiah 40:3, "A voice is calling, 'Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley'" (Isaiah 40:3-4).

God uses the prophets (who are real people in real history with real faith) to communicate that there will come a day when He will send forth the Messiah to make a straight and level path (Isaiah 35:8-10; 40:3-10) back to God through purification and cleansing!

This is the prophecy of God's redemption of His people through the Messiah, who would be preceded by the messenger, the prophet of God who is John the Baptist.

This is a call to repentance where the chosen people of God must once again return to the wilderness and be purified of their rebellion and sins (there is an allusion to the Exodus wanderings that is inferred in this passage that I encourage you to explore!). The Purifier is coming and no sinner can stand in the way of God without being consumed by God's refining fires! The impurities must be removed and the crimson stains must be washed white as snow! (Read Malachi 3:1-4)

When Mark records in verse 4 that John the Baptist's ministry was one of calling the Jewish people (God's chosen people through the Covenant of Abraham) to a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" you need to realize that this is unheard of in Jewish tradition. And the reality of verse 5 is even more shocking: "all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." In first century Judaism, Jewish leaders didn't require Jewish people to be baptized. As Christians, it would be easy for us to read our concept of the normality of baptism into this story, but that is not the case. The only people who were baptized were converts—people of non-Jewish ancestry who were converting to Judaism as a symbolic way of saying they were being washed clean from their former life apart from God as Gentiles (non-Jews).

John the Baptist's ministry and message is revolutionary because he is essentially telling the Jewish people (the children of Abraham) that their ancestral heritage was not enough to make them right in the eyes of God.

They have to repent of their sins just like a Gentile. Something major was happening in the way God was relating to His people as God's messenger came to prepare the way for the LORD! That is why the Gospel of Luke 3:8, an expanded account of John the Baptist's ministry, records him preaching these words to the Jewish people, "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham."

God is confronting His people (including you and me today!) with our own self-righteousness and spiritual pride! John the Baptist, the last of the Old Covenant prophets, takes his place in a long line of messengers to declare the same timeless message from God, "Return to Me!" (Malachi 3:7).

A Radical Life calls people to repentance—to turn 180 degrees from their life in the world, back to the way of God! God is saying through John the Baptist to the Jewish people in approx. 27 AD), and the Holy Spirit to us today, that you cannot rest on your family tree any longer, nor can you rest in your traditions and rituals.

Brothers and sisters, God is saying that 'the way' is not found in temple theology (church attendance), in a sacrificial system (tithes or donations), or in following a religious system (the Law or good works) because the way to God is only through the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is the way (John 14:6)! You find rest only in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ!

In the same way that John the Baptist confronted the mindset of the Jewish people who felt entitled to a relationship with God, how is the Holy Spirit confronting the contemporary Church and calling you back to living your life according to the way of God?

The radical life begins with the call back to the way of God, back to Jesus Christ, and we cannot lead others in what we have not yet experienced ourselves! Going to church is not enough! Being a good person is not enough! Listening to sermons is not enough! Helping out in the community is not enough! We are not able to call people back to the way if we have not experienced the extravagant love, the scandalous grace, the healing hand of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. We must be made new in Christ!

That is why we are a people called forth to fulfill the vision set by God through 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."

The radical life is the life of reconciliation that every single believer in Jesus Christ is mandated to live. The radical life is the living out of the Great Commission—the ministry of reconciliation with nothing less than the world as our ambition! How are you available (in word and deed) to the Holy spirit as someone who calls people back to the way of God?

The second teaching point grounded in Mark 1:4-6 is, "A Radical Life Embodies the message!"

After over 400 years of prophetic silence, God sent a man who would embody the message. God did not just send a man to proclaim a powerful message, God sent a man who was the message! As Jesus Christ stated of John the Baptist in Matthew 11:13-14, "For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come."

We see in verses 4-6 that John came from the wilderness, was dressed in itchy camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist (a reference to the dress of Elijah found in 2 Kings 1:8), who ate locusts and wild honey (the diet of the poorest of poor). He embodied the personhood of the great prophet Elijah and this was not lost on the Israelites who were eagerly waiting a prophet from God after 400 years of prophetic silence. This was the biggest news in generations and everyone went out to him and his message was heard and received (verse 5) because He was the message!

The people believed in the man of God and they received Him as the messenger who was to come as foretold by the ancient prophets! The radical life is impossible if you only speak the message and do not embody it!

Friends, you will know what I say is true from experience: if our lifestyles do not match the faith we say we hold, then we will live frustrated and powerless lives of failed ministry and missed opportunities for the Kingdom.

Our lives must be an embodiment of the new life given to us through Jesus' ministry of reconciliation. Listen to the rally cry of the radical life stated by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." The radical life is a life where Jesus Christ lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. His message is our message!

But here is the reality we must confront: There has been many a person who proclaims a powerful message which s/he denies with their life. Their life does not bear witness to the message they proclaim! What areas of your life contradict the message of Jesus Christ? If you hold it as true, is it evident in you?

This is hard to hear and even harder to teach because I will be judged by God in respect to the integrity of my teaching of His Word and the extent that my life embodies this very Word of God spoken to you today. I do not wish to be found wanting by God because I proclaimed a bold message on Sunday mornings, but my life was a pathetic whisper the rest of the week. That is unacceptable to me and I pray you will find it unacceptable as well (for me and for yourself as well)!

Let's hold one another to high standards by committing to life on life, person to person discipleship so that when we face the judgment seat of God we will be found as a people recognized by the Master (Matthew 7:21-23).

The third and final teaching point grounded in Mark 1:7-8 is, "A Radical Life Submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ!" John the Baptist called people back to the way of God. His message resonated as true in their hearts because they knew deep down their need to return to God. God confronted their entitlement mentality with a messenger who embodied the message of repentance! The people were confronted with a life that was completely submitted to the will of God and fulfilling his God-ordained purpose in life—to point to the King and His Kingdom! A life submitted to the Lordship of the Messiah!

Listen to this level of self-understanding that John the Baptist had in knowing who He was and was not, who Jesus Christ was, and His role in the Kingdom. From John 3:26-30, "And they came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.' John answered and said, 'A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.'"

You see in this ancient cultural context, the office of bridegroom's friend was a great position in a wedding. The friend of the bridegroom was the one who ceremonially handed the bride to her groom. Until he had done this, the groom's voice was not heard. As he handed the bride to her groom, the groom's voice was heard for the first time in the ceremony and the voice of the bridegroom's friend was never heard again.

John knew that his life was not about himself, but about God, about the King and His Kingdom; about handing the bride to the bridegroom! Think about it this way: How wrong would it be if the friend of the groom tried to take the bride's eyes off of her chosen groom? That is just wrong and we know it! It is just plain wrong for a friend to steal a friend's wife or fiancé. It is wrong for a preacher to take the people's eyes off of Jesus Christ and steal the glory of God for him or herself. It is wrong for the people of God to lose focus and build their church or their ministry rather than being focused on increasing the name of Jesus Christ and expanding His Kingdom! It is easy to justify our ambitions and deceive ourselves with good intentions, but the radical life submits all self-interest and all loyalties to the Lordship of Christ!

But Mark, for our benefit, records in Mark 1:7-8 John's uncompromising testimony of the One he has come to prepare the way for, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John the Baptist submits to the will of God and takes His place as a prophetic herald of the way of God. Because of his submission his ministry is anointed by the Holy Spirit with power and authority for the purpose of preparing the way of God—for all people to know Jesus Christ.

The radical life is only possible through submission to the Lordship of Christ; no submission, no anointing! And Lordship is only possible through an honest and sober assessment of who we are in relationship to God and our purpose in following the way of God—who is the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God!

The Gospel of Mark 8:34 records, "And [Jesus Christ] summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.'"

Listen to the invitation of the radical life as given by the source of life Himself, the root of Christianity, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "Follow Me" is the heart cry of Jesus Christ to you today and the radical life is simply the re-orientation of your life to the way of God perfectly demonstrated through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. What area(s) of your life have you not yet submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ (Luke 6:46)? How is the Holy Spirit inviting you to take deeper steps of discipleship today? Have you asked Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of your life (Romans 10:9-10)?

What will the Judge say to you at the end of your life?