We are in week two of our Advent series where we are going through the Advent story in each of the gospels and seeing the different emphasis each of the gospel writers put on each of their stories. Last week we looked at Matthew’s emphasis on Jesus as King and this week we are going to look at Mark’s emphasis on Jesus as Prophet. 

Mark is most likely the first gospel to be written and he is likely drawing from Peter’s first hand experience. For the first 20 or 30 years after Jesus resurrected, there was no need really to write this stuff down because so many people saw it. No one could really make crazy claims about Jesus because there were so many witnesses. If someone said that Jesus grew wings and shot lasers out of his eyes, that would not have been tolerated because so many first hand witnesses would have said, “No, I saw it. That is not what happened.” 

But, as one generation passed, it became clear that these first hand witnesses needed to record what had happened. So, Mark was the first to do so with Peter’s help. And it’s worth noting that many of the witnesses were still alive at this time and could attest to what the gospel writers recorded. 

I think the whole idea of a prophet and, specifically, Jesus as the Great Prophet is one of the least understood concepts in popular Advent theology. When we think about a prophet, we may think about someone who predicts the future like Nostradomos. We might think of an angry man in the Old Testament telling people they are going to be struck down by God. If you have a charismatic background, you might think about Benny Hinn or Creflo Dollar casting out spirits or healing the multitudes…that is if you give enough money. 

So, what is a prophet and why do we need one? A prophet in the Biblical sense, and specifically the Old Testament is someone who, first, speaks on behalf of God and, second, acts as a covenant prosecutor. God would send people to his people to call them back to the covenant that he had made with them and they would administer blessings if they repent and curses if they don’t. Every now and then, you have someone like Daniel who does say something about the future, but that isn’t primarily what they do. They bring a message from God to call his people back into the life giving relationship that he has established with us. 

So why would we need a prophet? Well, we live hard lives. Our relationships break, our jobs fail us, our bodies fail us, and on top of all of that, we fail God. We make decisions that draw us away from him and when we do that we are drawing ourselves away from the joy and satisfaction that he has intended for us. We are drawing ourselves away from the covenant blessings that he offers us. 

So, Mark, in his introduction, wants to highlight Jesus’ role as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets. The Great prophet who has taken on flesh to bring us the clearest and grandest word God has ever given his people. This morning, I want to look at Mark’s Advent story and see Jesus’ prophetic introduction, his prophetic anointing, and his prophetic ministry. 

1. His prophetic introduction

We see his prophetic introduction in three ways. First, we see it in the absence of a genealogy. Matthew went to such lengths to show Jesus’ genealogy (as we saw last week), but Mark doesn’t seem to give a rip about it. Why? Because Matthew is introducing Jesus the promised King and Kings which requires a genealogy. In that day, you didn’t become King because you did a great job in a television debate. You didn’t become King because you were more godly or even because you were more powerful. You were born into a kingly line and that is why Matthew included Jesus’ genealogy. 

But, how do you become a prophet? God chooses you. God raises you up. That’s it. So, Mark had no need of a genealogy to show that Jesus is the promised prophet greater than Moses that the people had been waiting for. Mark simply starts out by saying, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, athe Son of God.” - Mark 1:1. The Son of God. Mark immediately shows the divine aspects of Jesus. And then Mark moves into the second part of his prophetic introduction: Isaiah. 

Mark quotes the prophet Isaiah. 2 bAs it is written in Isaiah the prophet,2 c“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3  dthe voice of one crying in the wilderness: e‘Prepare3 the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”- Mark 1:2,3. He’s quoting Isaiah 40 and Mal 3 which symbolically pictures the approach of Jehovah for the purpose of leading the procession of Jews who will be returning joyfully to their homeland after long years of captivity. In the Syrian desert, between Babylonia and Palestine, the way must be prepared for the Lord’s coming. So, a herald cries out to the people. So who is that messenger? Who is preparing the way? Who is the voice crying out in the wilderness that makes the way of the long promised prophet clear? This is the third part of Jesus’ prophetic introduction. It’s John the Baptist. 

John was in the wilderness, just as Isaiah prophesied. He was dressed in rugged apparel which had come to symbolize the clothing of the office of prophet. He was living a life of protest against the indulgence and selfishness of society which screamed prophet. And the leather girdle around his waist…that would have screamed the prophet Elijah. That was his trademark. Everything about John the Baptist screamed prophet and what does he say? o“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 pI have baptized you with water, but qhe will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” - Mark 1:6-8 One is coming who is greater. 

But, we still have a problem. The prophet Malachi said that the prophet Elijah would come to introduce the Messiah and the disciples knew this. Look at Matthew 17 just after Jesus’ transfiguration. 10 And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say vthat first Elijah must come?” 11 He answered, “Elijah does come, and whe will restore all things. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but xdid to him whatever they pleased. ySo also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” 13 zThen the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. - Matthew 17:11-13

Elijah had come symbolically in the form of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a type of Elijah that would usher in the Messiah. This is why Mark is showing us all the similarities between John and Elijah. All that had been promised has happened. And what’s fascinating is that Jesus becomes not just the promised prophet, but the one to whom all prophets point. The Great Prophet is the fulfillment of all the prophets who had come before. That is Jesus’ prophetic introduction. Now we see his prophetic anointing. 

1. His prophetic anointing 

When I say anointing, of course, I don’t mean when he started to be God or when he started to be the messiah or even when he started to be a prophet. What I mean is the moment when he formally took on this public role. And this happens through his baptism and temptation. First, his baptism. It’s interesting how Mark records this. Jesus went out to the wilderness to meet John and his followers. Most of the followers came from Jerusalem, but Jesus came down from the north, from Galilee. 

What’s interesting and easily missed is that Jesus is not coming in with an entourage. He’s not coming in here like he does in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his life. He’s coming in here totally anonymously. He doesn’t look any different than anyone else. It seems like he gets into this line and goes into the water and comes out without anyone really noticing. Verse ten doesn’t say that everyone saw the dove and heard the voice, it just says that Jesus did. 

So you have Jesus being anointed into his prophetic ministry, but at this point only he knows about it. But that doesn’t lessen the importance of this event. The whole of the Trinity is working together here to anoint Jesus into his ministry. The Father affirms that this is his son. The Spirit falls on Jesus in a dramatic way. And all of this harkens to the prophet Elisha. You may remember that Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. The work of the Spirit is crucial to a prophets ministry. While the work of the Spirit is implicit in Elijah’s ministry, it is through Elisha, his successor, that the Holy Spirit’s presence and power is particularly emphasized. 

In Elisha’s context, Israel has rejected God and his covenant, but the Spirit empowers him to call the people to covenant faithfulness. Jesus is receiving a type of double portion at his baptism. A filling of the Spirit never known before. Everything here is supposed to draw your attention to the anointing of Jesus the promised prophet. And in so doing, Jesus is showing us what our initiation into the faith looks like. 

While Jesus had no sin to repent of, he’s foreshadowing the sin of all of us that he would take on himself. He’s also showing us the repentance and faith that brings the Spirit into our lives. This whole event is him speaking prophetically to us about how we covenant breakers can be brought into covenant faithfulness. It’s not about our obeying the law, but about repenting and putting our faith in the one who has fully obeyed the law on our behalf and then receiving his Spirit in our lives. 

So that’s the baptism, now the temptation. I could preach a whole sermon on the temptation, but my point in this sermon is to show how it points toward Jesus as the Great Prophet. Everything about Jesus' 40 day temptation would have screamed prophet! You have Moses on Mount Sinai with God fasting for 40 days, you have Elijah on the same mountain for forty days. You have the testing of Abraham with Isaac in the wilderness of Moriah. This is a prophet’s testing only more so because Jesus in the wilderness is being tempted by Satan himself. 

And right here, we see things are changing just by the reversal of the whole story of the Old Testament. The story of the Old Testament is that God’s people moved from the wilderness, through the Jordan, and into the promised land. Now you seem to have just the opposite. God’s people in both the baptism and the temptation are moving from the promised land, across the Jordan, and into the wilderness. This is no coincidence. We looked at Isaiah 40 verse three, but look at what verse 1 says. Comfort, comfort, my people. They are back in the land, but they don’t feel like it yet. They don’t get the comfort they seek by simply being back in Judea. It’s almost as if they haven’t really left exile. 

And that’s the point. What is being foreshadowed here is the new exodus Isaiah is prophesying. We can’t leave the wilderness of our spiritual exile until we see it and that is what Jesus is doing. He’s prophetically showing us where we are and who it is that we need. He has fully stepped into our story to redeem us of our sin. 

So the question at this point is simple. Do we see our need for a prophet yet? Do we see our need for someone to speak on behalf of God to us? Do we see that without him, we are still in our sin and still in our exile. And if that is the case, we are going to look to any other place we can to save us. We will look to our careers to save us, we will look to our kids to save us, we will look to our degrees to save us, we will look to our investment portfolios to save us, we will even look to our relationships to save us. We want them to comfort us in our spiritual exile, but none of them can do that. 

We need something, someone, else. And that is the last thing we see in this passage. Jesus’ prophetic ministry. 

1. His prophetic ministry

Jesus has been anointed and now we see him start his ministry. And it starts by John being arrested. It almost reads like an aside, but this again screams prophet because this is generally how prophets are treated and it is of course how Jesus himself will be treated. Jesus at this point goes back to Galilee and says, “The time is fulfilled.” What time is that? 

Isaiah 9 is a very famous Advent passage. For unto us a child is born…But in the context of that prophecy is verse two. 2  3 iThe people kwho walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of ldeep darkness, on them has light shone. - Is 9:2 This is the time! This is the fulfillment! The kingdom of God has come. 

Then, Jesus calls his disciples. Why would Mark include this? I mean, it’s not like a lot of the prophets had followings. But again, I think he’s pointing to Moses and Elijah. In Numbers eleven, God says to Moses, “Gather for me oseventy men of the elders of Israel ,whom you know to be the elders of the people and pofficers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 qAnd I will come down and talk with you there. And rI will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and sthey shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. - Num 11:16,17

Then you have Elijah. Do you remember when Elijah thought he was the only faithful one left in Israel? And what did God say? No, there are still 7000 who have not bowed the knee to other gods. Even Jesus calling his disciples is a nod to Jesus’ prophetic ministry. 

And finally we have Jesus doing his ministry. This is the rest of the chapter. Jesus teaching with authority, Jesus healing an unclean spirit, Jesus healing many others, Jesus teaching a preaching, and Jesus healing a leper. Do you see what Mark is showing us in rapid fire? Jesus has the power to bless and curse. This is the role of a prophet. Prophets come speaking on behalf of God as covenant prosecutors to call people back into the covenant and they bestow blessings if they do and curses if they do not. 

But no prophet had ever displayed power and authority the way Jesus did. Even the unclean spirit acknowledged this saying, “I know who you are. The Holy One of God.” No prophet had ever been called God himself! That’s because all the prophets pointed toward Jesus, the Great Prophet. The prophet par excellence. He is the fulfillment of all that the prophets anticipated. This is what Isaiah was foreshadowing when he said, “sThe Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has tanointed me to bring good news to the poor;1 he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and uthe opening of the prison to those who are bound;2 2  vto proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, wand the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3  to grant to those who mourn in Zion— xto give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, ythe oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; zthat they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, athat he may be glorified.” - Is 61:1-3. 

This is what Moses was prophesying when he wrote, “15 f“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, fromyour brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the LORD your God atHoreb gon the day of the assembly, when you said, h‘Let me not hear again the voice of theLORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, i‘Theyare right in what they have spoken. 18 fI will raise up for them a prophet like you fromamong their brothers. jAnd I will put my words in his mouth, and khe shall speak to themall that I command him. 19 lAnd whoever will mnot listen to my words that he shall speakin my name, I myself will require it of him. - Deut 18:15-18. 

This is why the author of Hebrews says, “Therefore, holy brothers,1 you who share in ra heavenly calling, consider Jesus,sthe apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him whoappointed him, tjust as Moses also was faithful in all God’s2 house. 3 For Jesus has beencounted worthy of more glory than Moses… - Hebrews 3:1b-3

Then, in the transfiguration, who was it that appeared in glory with Jesus? Moses and Elijah! Attesting to Jesus’ status as the long promised prophet to come! This is what Mark wants us to see. And what does God say there? This is my beloved son. Listen to him. People wonder why Mark doesn’t elaborate on these stories. Why we don’t get more about the baptism, the temptation, the calling of the disciples, or the healings, but Mark isn’t concerned with this. He’s concerned with showing us Jesus’ divine role as the perfect prophet. 

Conclusion

Just put yourself in Mark’s shoes. There had been 400 years of no one speaking on behalf of God. Jerusalem was ravaged in the Macabee revolt. They were being taken over by the Romans and God was not speaking. In many ways the silence was harder than if God had spoken and cursed them. They had gone from 12 tribes to 2. They did not possess the land or bless the nations, the nations possessed them and oppressed them. There was no king in David’s line on the throne. Rome was ruling them. Everything felt like a curse. No one was speaking blessing. No one has a good word. It felt like exile all over again. 

Every other prophet spoke on behalf of God, but without God’s disposition. Jonah ran away, Jeremiah lamented that no one listened, and under Moses the people worshiped a golden calf. Now, you have Jesus. Jesus is not only speaking the word on behalf of God, he is God and is the word incarnate with the very disposition of God and he’s doing the kinds of things only God can do. 

Jesus is the ultimate covenant prosecutor because he came as God himself to announce to the world that our sin merits eternal punishment. Yet, he would take the punishment on himself on the cross and in doing so, he simultaneously pronounced covenant curses that we deserve on himself and covenant blessings that he earned on all who repented of their sin and put their faith in him. Jesus ushered in the New Covenant. Other prophets talked about the one to come, but Jesus is the one who came. This is why we read that in Jesus all the promises of God are yes and amen. 

Who better to tell us what God wants than God himself? And everything he tells us will lead to our satisfaction and joy in this life and the next. And Jesus is so near to you. Nearer than the Christmas trees. Nearer than the weird relatives. Nearer than the elf on the shelf. Jesus is powerful and he is near and he speaks the words of life to us. Will we listen?