Welcome to Fellowship! We're glad you're here! Please fill out our CONNECT CARD.

Join us as we eat breakfast, sing to the King, have a short devotion, and then go to our community and LOVE LOUD! We will cook food for 1st responders, clean yards, visit nursing homes, pray for folks, and share the love of Jesus. Then we come back for lunch at Fellowship and share how the day impacted us and others.

REGISTER: https://fellowshipchurch-fl.subspla.sh/9xpzbxh

Check our website for upcoming events and over lots of past teachings on many different topics.

Help us forward the mission of Fellowship to share Jesus with young and old, with people across the street and people across the ocean. GIVE ONLINE or at the Giving Boxes at each exit.

John the Baptist came preparing the way for Yahweh—but when Yahweh arrived, He was fully human, standing among sinners and stepping into the waters of baptism. Join us as we discover what Mark reveals about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and how His arrival calls us to turn from sin, trust the Son, and tell the good news.

Most scholars believe Mark to be the first of our four Gospels written.

WHO is MARK & why do we believe he wrote it?

One of our earliest pieces of evidence comes from Papias, a Christian leader who lived in the late 1st & early 2nd centuries - very close to the generation of the apostles.

4th-century church historian Eusebius preserved what Papias wrote about Mark:

“Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not indeed in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ.”

“The Gospel”—the GOOD NEWS—becomes one of Mark’s characteristic words. Although Mark is the shortest Gospel, it uses the Greek noun for “gospel” more than Matthew, Luke, and John combined. Further, the Greek term for “gospel” or “good news” is a term quite frequently used with the birth or major success of a Roman emperor.

JESUS CHRIST

Christ is NOT the last name of Jesus, it is a TITLE referring to God’s anointed - from the Greek translation of the Hebrew term “messiah”.

SON OF GOD

Calling an emperor a god or a son of a god was the norm during this time.

• Inscription about the Roman Emperor Octavian (aka “Augustus Caesar” - Emperor at the brith of Jesus) dates from 9 BC says: “Because providence has ordered our life in a divine way … and since the Emperor through his epiphany has exceeded the hopes of former good news (ευαγγελια), surpassing not only the benefactors who came before him, but also leaving no hope that anyone in the future will surpass him, and since the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of his good news [may it therefore be decreed that].…”

Mark is likely writing to people living in the Roman world who knew what it meant to hear Caesar presented as divine. Augustus called himself Divi Filius—“son of a god.” Rome announced “good news” about its emperors and celebrated Caesar as a savior.

A statue base honoring Augustus reads:

“Divine Augustus Caesar, son of a god, imperator of land and sea, the benefactor and savior of the whole world.”

Mark opens his Gospel saying: “You want GOOD NEWS? Let me tell you the real GOOD NEWS. You want to know the true SON OF GOD? His name isn't Caesar. His name is JESUS.” Jesus does what Caesar could never do. Jesus heals, forgives sins, delivers from evil, and says that the Son of Man came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). 

This is a combination from both Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3-5.

The 1st messenger is preparing the way for “the Messenger of the covenant”, Who also is referred to as the Lord (Hebrew Adon). 

Who is this voice in the wilderness preparing the way for? Yahweh! He’s making a highway for our God.

What comes after this messenger’s voice will reveal the glory of Yahweh!

This messenger was to be…the prophet Elijah, who lived around 850 BC and was taken to heaven while alive.

They were baptized by John—and that was highly unusual. Jewish people were familiar with ceremonial immersion in a mikveh, but those washings were normally self-administered and repeated whenever ritual cleansing was necessary (e.g. before entering the temple courtyard).

But John’s baptism was different. He called Jewish people to submit to a baptism of repentance, preparing for God’s coming kingdom. Being Jewish was not enough: everyone needed repentance, cleansing, and readiness for what God was about to do.

Repentance is a genuine desire to TURN from sin and RETURN to God’s Presence. John’s baptism of Jewish people was super significant as this PROPHET tells the people to PREPARE themselves for Yahweh’s visitation. And the people showed up in droves, confessing their sins. 

John’s father was a priest, but rather than wear priestly clothes, John lived as a in the wilderness, wearing strange clothes

and eating strange things. Camel’s hair could be woven into a thick, rough cloth that was essentially waterproof, along with a leather belt (reminiscent of the OT prophet Elijah - 2 Kings 1:8). Locusts and wild honey were staple foods for those living in the desert. Yahweh allowed His people to eat locusts during their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land (Lev 11:21-22).

John the Baptist would have been seen as having a ministry similar to the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, as Jesus later affirms (Mt 11:14, 17:9-13). 

John wanted everyone to know that the ONE he spoke of was MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than he was. John was the herald, but the One coming was the King. John was the messenger; the One coming was the message. John felt UNWORTHY to even untie His sandals - the job of a servant. John baptized on the OUTSIDE - with water. The One coming would baptize on the INSIDE…with the Holy Spirit.

Mark’s Gospel makes this story short and sweet, but we know that John the Baptist wasn’t quick to baptize Jesus.

If John wasn’t worthy to remove his sandals as a servant would (Mt 3:11), then he certainly wasn’t worthy to baptize Jesus, and that’s what he recognizes when he says, “I need to be baptized by you.”

So, why did Jesus need to be baptized?

To fulfill all righteousness.

• Jesus is obeying the Father’s will, even willing to go to the cross.
• Jesus validates the ministry of John the Baptist. John is not a rogue rabbi. John is a great prophet, whom God had sent to prepare the way of the Lord!
• Jesus was identifying with sinners. Rather than standing far away from sinful people, he was right in the midst of them, The Savior was standing, walking, and living among those He came to save.
• Jesus wasn’t baptized because He needed to repent and be forgiven. Jesus was about to begin the journey that would end up with Him doing all it took to fulfill all righteousness - what baptism later became a picture of - Jesus DYING - being BURIED - and RISING from the dead! (Rm 6:3-4, Col 2:11-13, 1 Pet 3:18-22)
• Leon Morris: Jesus might well have been up there in front standing with John and calling on sinners to repent. Instead he was down there with the sinners, affirming his solidarity with them, making himself one with them in the process of the salvation that he would in due course accomplish.

The heavens being torn open is biblical language referring to communication & interaction between God and His people (Is 64:1, Ezek 1:1, Jn 1:51, Acts 7:56).

John saw the Spirit of God was descending like a dove, resting on Jesus. Just as kings were anointed with oil - a symbol of the presence of God’s Spirit, it now becomes obvious to the Baptizer that Jesus is the anointed, Spirit-led, Messiah-King who John has come to announce.

Here we see the Trinity of the ONE TRUE GOD revealed - Father speaking from heaven, Son being baptized, & Spirit empowering the Son.

You are my beloved Son. From this one phrase we learn both the identity of Jesus and the mission of Jesus as this reminds us of 2 Old Testament messianic passages, Ps 2:7 and Is 42:1.

NOBODY standing on the banks of the Jordan River, with the exception of God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit, knew what the baptism of Jesus would later come to represent throughout the ages - the DEATH, BURIAL, and RESURRECTION of Jesus

Turn from sin. Have you genuinely repented of sin - turned FROM sin and turned TO Jesus?

Trust the Son. We should be His humble servants, wanting to make much of Him, grateful for His forgiveness!

Tell the good news. We should SHARE that message with others, calling them to turn from sin and turn to Jesus, before it’s too late.