The Beginning and The Baptism
The Beginning of Good News
There are moments in life that leave a mark.
Sometimes it is something beautiful—a conversation you never forgot, a person who believed in you when you weren’t sure you believed in yourself, a moment when you realized you were exactly where you were supposed to be.
Sometimes the marks come through difficult seasons. A loss. A failure. A wilderness season that changed the way you see the world.
And sometimes the most significant marks come from people who enter our lives and change the direction of our story.
That is where we are headed as we begin a new series through the Gospel of Mark called Marked by the Messiah.
Mark tells story after story of ordinary people who encounter an extraordinary Jesus. Fishermen. Tax collectors. Religious leaders. Outsiders. The sick. The broken. The skeptical. The desperate. People who were searching for answers and people who didn’t even know what they were looking for.
They encounter Jesus—and they are changed.
That raises an important question for all of us:
What kind of mark does Jesus leave on us when we encounter him?
Because following Jesus isn’t simply about learning information about Jesus. It is about being changed by Jesus.
The Waiting Is Over
Mark doesn’t waste any time getting started.
Matthew begins with a genealogy. Luke takes us into the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth. John goes all the way back before creation itself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
Mark? Mark begins with Jesus. “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1) And then everything starts moving.
John the Baptist appears in the wilderness. Jesus arrives. Jesus is baptized. Heaven is torn open. The Spirit descends. The Father speaks. Jesus is sent into the wilderness.
Thirteen verses.
Mark’s Gospel moves with urgency because Mark wants us to know something:
The Messiah has arrived.
The word translated “good news” is the Greek word euangelion. It was used for an announcement of something significant—a victory, the birth of a king, or the arrival of an emperor.
Mark takes that language and makes a startling announcement: the good news isn’t primarily a philosophy, a collection of principles, or even a religious system.
The good news is a person.
Jesus.
For generations, Israel had been waiting for the promised Messiah—the Anointed One who would bring God’s reign, restore what was broken, establish justice, and rescue God’s people.
And Mark essentially opens his Gospel by saying:
The waiting is over.
The Messiah has come.
You Don’t Just Add Jesus to Your Life
Before Jesus appears publicly, Mark introduces us to John the Baptist.
John is not exactly the kind of person you would expect to see leading a spiritual renewal movement. He lives in the wilderness, wears camel’s hair, eats locusts and wild honey, and preaches a simple message:
Repent.
To repent means to turn around. To change direction. To reorient your life.
And that is an important word for us as we begin this journey through Mark.
Because it is easy to think of faith as something we simply add to our lives.
Here is my life, Jesus. I’ve got work, family, relationships, ambitions, schedules, worries, plans and dreams. Could you just fit yourself somewhere in here and make everything work a little better?
But John’s invitation is different.
Repentance isn’t simply asking Jesus to improve the life we’ve already designed.
It is turning our lives toward Jesus.
It is saying, “I’ve been going my way. Now I want to go God’s way.”
That is a much bigger invitation.
And perhaps that is one of the first questions Mark asks us as we begin:
Am I asking Jesus to follow my direction, or am I willing to follow his?
Jesus Gets in the Water
Then Jesus arrives.
And Mark tells us something fascinating: Jesus’ first public act is baptism.
John’s baptism was connected with repentance and the forgiveness of sins. People were coming to confess their sins and turn toward God.
But Jesus had no sins to confess.
So why does he get in the water?
Perhaps one of the most beautiful answers is this:
Jesus identifies himself with us.
He doesn’t stand on the riverbank looking at all the sinners and say, “Those people need to get in there.”
He gets in the water with them.
From the very beginning, this is the kind of Messiah Mark introduces us to.
A God who moves toward people.
A God who doesn’t wait for broken humanity to somehow climb its way up to him.
God comes down to us.
And this will become one of the great themes of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus continually moves toward people—the sick, the grieving, the outsider, the sinner, the desperate, the confused, and the broken.
Jesus comes near.
That’s good news.
“You Are My Son, Whom I Love”
Then comes one of the most beautiful moments in the opening chapter.
As Jesus comes out of the water, Mark says that heaven is “torn open.”
Not simply opened. Torn open.
The Spirit descends upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven says:
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)
Notice when the Father says this.
Jesus hasn’t preached a sermon yet. He hasn’t healed anyone. He hasn’t called the disciples. He hasn’t performed a miracle. He hasn’t accomplished anything publicly.
And yet the Father says, “I love you. I am pleased with you.”
That matters because so many of us spend our lives trying to prove ourselves.
We want to be good enough. Successful enough. Useful enough. Spiritual enough. We want to know that we matter.
And sometimes we carry that same mindset into our relationship with God.
Maybe if I pray enough. Maybe if I serve enough. Maybe if I stop making the same mistakes. Maybe if I get my life together. Maybe then God will finally be pleased with me.
But Jesus’ baptism reminds us of something profoundly important:
We don’t obey so God will love us. We obey because God already loves us. We don’t serve so God will accept us. We serve because God has already welcomed us.
The voice of the Father comes before the work of Jesus.
“You are my Son, whom I love.”
Before Jesus does anything, he is loved.
And that is a truth we desperately need to hear too.
From the Water to the Wilderness
But then Mark does something unexpected.
Immediately after Jesus hears the Father’s affirmation, the Spirit sends him into the wilderness.
From the water to the wilderness.
From blessing to testing.
From “You are my beloved Son” to forty days of temptation.
Sometimes we assume that if God is with us, life should become easier.
If we’re doing what God wants, surely we shouldn’t struggle this much.
If we’re following Jesus, why are we walking through this wilderness?
But Jesus’ story tells us otherwise.
The wilderness isn’t necessarily evidence that you’ve missed God.
Sometimes the wilderness is exactly where God is forming you.
The wilderness strips away distractions. It exposes what we depend upon. It forces us to confront the voices competing for our attention.
And notice the timing of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew’s account. God has just declared, “This is my Son.” Then the tempter comes with the question, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matthew 4:1–3).
The first attack isn’t simply against what Jesus will do.
It is against who Jesus is.
And isn’t that often where we struggle too?
God says, You are loved.
We wonder, Am I really?
God says, You are forgiven.
We think, Could that really be true for someone like me?
God says, You belong.
We hear another voice whisper, Do you really?
The wilderness has a way of making us question what we were certain of in the water.
That’s why we need to keep returning to the truth of who God is and what God has said.
We need God’s Word hidden in our hearts so that when the voices of fear, shame, doubt and insecurity become loud, they don’t get the final word.
What Kind Of Mark?
And this brings us back to the question at the heart of this series:
What kind of mark has Jesus left on you?
Think about the people we’re going to meet throughout Mark’s Gospel.
Peter encounters Jesus and his life changes.
Levi encounters Jesus and leaves his old life behind.
People who are sick encounter Jesus and discover compassion and healing.
People who are rejected encounter Jesus and discover welcome.
People who are ashamed encounter Jesus and discover grace.
People who are confused encounter Jesus and discover a different way of seeing the world.
Even those who reject Jesus are forced to wrestle with the question of who he really is.
Jesus doesn’t simply pass through people’s lives.
He leaves a mark.
And perhaps that is what makes this Gospel so compelling.
Mark isn’t simply asking us to admire Jesus from a distance.
He is inviting us to encounter him.
Maybe you’ve followed Jesus for decades.
Maybe you’ve grown up around church.
Maybe you’re just beginning to explore faith.
Maybe you have questions. Maybe you’re skeptical. Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe you’re carrying grief or regret. Maybe you aren’t even sure what brought you to this point.
Wherever you find yourself, Mark begins with the same announcement:
“The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”
This is good news because God has come near.
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
If you want to know whether God moves toward broken people, look at Jesus.
If you want to know whether God welcomes outsiders, look at Jesus.
If you want to know what God’s kingdom looks like, look at Jesus.
If you want to know whether God forgives, look at Jesus.
And if you want to know whether God loves you, look at Jesus.
A New Season, A New Beginning
Every new season gives us an opportunity to ask where we are going.
As we begin this journey through Mark, perhaps the invitation is not simply to learn more about Jesus.
Perhaps it is to encounter him again.
To allow him to challenge our assumptions.
To turn our lives toward him.
To receive again the voice of the Father reminding us that our identity is not ultimately found in what we accomplish.
To trust him when the path leads from the water into the wilderness.
And to become the kind of people who are visibly, unmistakably marked by the Messiah.
So here’s the challenge as we begin:
Come with an open heart.
Don’t just read Mark looking for information about Jesus. Read it looking for Jesus.
Ask yourself:
What is Jesus showing me about God?
What is Jesus asking me to surrender?
Where is he inviting me to turn around and follow him?
What voice am I listening to when I forget that I am loved?
And perhaps most importantly:
What mark is Jesus leaving on my life?
The beginning of Mark’s Gospel is the beginning of good news.
Not good advice.
Not another set of religious rules.
Good news.
The Messiah has come.
God has come near.
And when we encounter him, we don’t have to remain the same.
We can be marked by the Messiah.