jeff ronk - author Teaching notes: Mark 1:2-15

Teaching notes: Mark 1:2-15 (Mark's Snappy intro)

the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God


Mark 1:1-15

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“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.’”

4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And 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. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7 And 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.”

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”


Snappy Intro

Mark starts off running: he skips Christmas and heads right for Easter. as Jon mentioned in his intro, Mark moves. it is a book of action. observe how often he uses the word "immediately". there are very few extended teaching sections- no sermon on the mount, no extended upper room discourse as in John, no long section of parables as in Luke. the teaching that Jesus does in Mark is largely precipitated by questions related to his actions. (this is a broad generalization). in it's organization, the book generally follows a geographical outline- Jesus moves from Galilee, south to Jerusalem. in addition to this geographical change, the focus of his ministry becomes the disciples rather than the crowds. (broadly, this is true of the other synoptic gospels- that is, Matthew, and Luke)


Mark 1:1-13 (15?) is his own snappy intro. Mark starts by putting Jesus into the context of prophetic fulfillment; he also begins to set up some expectations about who Jesus is- "this Jesus- there's something different about him." Mark provides some supernatural witnesses to who Jesus is. this intro is a teaser: he throws out some expectations that will be fleshed out through the rest of the book.


so, with these thoughts in mind, here's the breakdown for the intro:


1:1-1:8    the coming of John 

1:9-11     Jesus is baptized

1:12-13   Jesus tempted in the wilderness

1:15-16   Jesus begins his ministry


we will hit each of these in turn.


the coming of John

who is this guy John?

Jesus is Baptized

What's going on here?
Why? he did not need to repent did he? a couple of suggestions:
nonetheless, Mark doesn't really explain.
Mark records that following his baptism, there is a voice from heaven that speaks directly to Jesus: in the best James Earl Jones Voice: Jesus- it's your father-...
This is the first example of supernatural attestation to Jesus' person/ministry.

Jesus is tempted in the desert:

What is going on here? Does this ring a bell? (see Hebrews 2:17,18 and 4:14-16)
Jesus is led/driven into the wilderness (a recurring theme in this intro: observe several occurrences of the word): he is without food for 40 days- (cf Mt 4:1-11, and Lk 4:1-13). here he is tempted by Satan. "make these stones bread", "if you are the son of God, then throw yourself down- God said the angels would protect you", "worship me and all these kingdoms will be yours"... each time Jesus answers with scripture: that's a pretty good plug for knowing your bible. (even Deuteronomy- where Jesus pulls all his responses from.) as an aside- Luke 4:13 is striking: it says that after Satan had finished tempting Jesus, he left Jesus until an opportune time: this time in the desert was not the only time that Jesus experienced temptation.

Jesus begins his earthly ministry

Following Jesus' baptism and temptation, he starts his ministry. this is the same order as in the other synoptics.
John has been taken into custody: why? he has been fulfilling his role as prophet in calling the people to righteousness, including Herod. among the many parallels between John and Elijah, is this story: Elijah- calls out the King, his wife gets upset: in the case of Herod, it's Herodias: from wikipedia:"Antipas divorced his first wife, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabatea, in favour of Herodias, who had formerly been married to his brother. According to the New Testament Gospels, it was John the Baptist's condemnation of this arrangement that led Antipas to have him arrested; John was subsequently put to death."  Herodias' daughter danced at a party that Herod was throwing, he liked it so much that he offered her up to half the kingdom. (must have been hawt) She asks her mom what she should ask for, Herodias says "the head of JTB on a platter." to save face, Herod reluctantly complies.

After John is put into prison (but before his death) Jesus comes into Galilee and begins to preach: the message?
this is a fitting bookend to the intro in verse 1: "beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"

Conclusions/Applications:

the unifying theme here is one of both prophetic and divine proof of Jesus' claims. his message is going to seem outrageous and it requires some 3rd party validation. throughout this gospel, mark is going to provide evidence of the truth of Jesus' message through the miraculous, and through supernatural testimony. Jesus' claims for himself are somewhat subtle, they required close attention and observation. However, there are other louder witnesses to the fact that there is something different about this guy Jesus: the prophetic call and preparation of John, god himself testifies from heaven, his temptation, his miracles, even the demons. all this is somewhat veiled in the beginning, but will be revealed as we go through the book. John's ministry, the baptism of Jesus and his temptation in the wilderness are all evidences in support of the claims that he will be making: they provide validation for his message; this is Mark's snappy intro.

as mark starts of with placing Jesus in the context of prophetic fulfillment, it is important to remember that we are also living for the fulfillment of God's prophetic promises. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah: we too are waiting for Elijah (this is part of the duel fulfillment motif- there is often staged fulfillment to prophetic fulfillment), we too are waiting for the coming of the Messiah- the return of Jesus, when he comes to take his people home and judge the world. we should be living in anticipation of the coming of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. he will come in consolation to those who belong to him and in judgement of those that have rejected him.

Jesus' main mission: repent and be saved: it was to call his people back to himself, and to provide a way for sins to be once and all forgiven: it is fitting that we follow up Hebrews with a gospel. we will get a better picture of the person, Jesus and better understand his work and his call to us. the warnings of Hebrews are all based on the work of the Son of Man- Jesus, the messiah, who "poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Is 53:12

temptation and knowing the bible/truth:



random notes:

there is an interesting contrast between the expectations of the prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi: 
this mirrors johns message pretty nicely.

why does Jesus veil his messiahship? Israel is a tinderbox at this time- there is intense political expectation of/for the messiah-  they were waiting and ready for a political savior! at one point they attempt to forcibly make him king: open proclamation of himself as messiah would eclipse his real purpose: saving from people from their sin. after his death, no problem: he was gone and his ultimate purpose could be openly proclaimed with out distraction from the message.