Out of the desert

Bible passage: Mark 1:1-13

Have you ever had experience of the desert? (Portobello beach and the sand dunes at North Berwick don't count, I'm afraid!). What do you think the experience would be like physically, emotionally and also spiritually?

Throughout the history of God's dealings with His people in the Bible, the desert has been very significant in God's shaping of His people, calling his people to himself and in renewing his relationship with them.

Indeed, you could say that is often through these experiences in the desert, that the identity of the people of Israel as God's children was established. It was through the wilderness experiences that their dependence upon God was created and then restored when it had grown weak.

Are you able to think of equivalent times in your life when God has done this work in your life?

(Read Mark 1:1-3)
The 'good news' begins with an instant challenge in v3: 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' There has to be a preparation on our part in order that we may encounter Jesus so that it becomes 'good news' for us. What do you think this preparation involves for us?

(Read Mark 1:4-8)
The detail of the preparation that John came to initiate is revealed as an deep moral change, signified by the outward cleansing of water baptism. Ritual cleansing was not unknown before this, but John certainly took the need for inward cleansing to a new level through his ministry of baptism. How seriously do you take 'sin' in your life and your need for cleansing?

What do you think was the significance of the clothes he wore and the diet on which he survived? How much does an ascetic lifestyle speak, compared with a luxurious lifestyle, about the place of God in your life?

Look at the message which John preached (v7-8), what can we see here that tells us of John's humility; of his desire to give Jesus the glory and not seek his own; of the awareness of the limitations of the ministry that he was doing beside the Jordan? Are there any lessons we can learn from this that point us to the path of true servanthood and to glorify Jesus?

(Read Mark 1:9-11)
Why do you think that Jesus came to be baptised by John in the Jordan, when he had no need to repent for the forgiveness of his sins as he had none? Was he simply identifying in this act with the sinners he had come to save? Was he showing his endorsement of John's ministry? Was this a discovery and complete awareness of his own identity that came through this experience? Was this a public beginning of his own ministry, in the power of the Spirit, through his baptism?

Without implying that our baptism could be equivalent to that of Jesus in significance, nonetheless, how does this incident convey a sense of the power that there can be in baptism for us?

Notice the three things that God told Jesus, because they have implications for our sense of personal identity in Christ:

'You are my Son' The Father's endorsement of his Son must have helped Jesus. God says the same thing about us, if we believe in His Son, see (Galatians 3:26). How does that help you?

'whom I love.' If someone truly loves you, it brings a tremendous sense of security. This is what we can know, for the Lord promises us from Jeremiah 31:3: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.'

'with you I am well pleased.' We perhaps feel God could never say that of us, but God looks at us through Christ

(Romans 8:1 'there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.')

(Read Mark 1:12-13) Matthew and Luke give us details of Jesus' temptation - not Mark. He simply wants to indicate that being blessed by such an experience as the baptism leads immediately to conflict with Satan. Why are we always unprepared for this in our lives?