Have you heard any good news lately? Or has most of it been sad? What is the best news you ever heard? Is it possible that there can be news that would change you life in time and even in eternity?
Listen in as Pastor Landis teaches a new series of lessons as we embark on a new study through the gospel of Mark. Grab a cup of tea and come along as we celebrate the greatest message the world has ever received.
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1 – 9 (NASB)
Isa 40:1 “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
Isa 40:2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD’S hand Double for all her sins.”
Isa 40:3 A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
Isa 40:4 “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
Isa 40:5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Isa 40:6 A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
Isa 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.
Isa 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
Isa 40:9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
New Testament Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1 – 8 (KJV)
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; Mark 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Mark 1:4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Mark 1:5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Mark 1:6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; Mark 1:7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. Mark 1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) God has chosen from a long time ago to issue His Word to the world through the ministry of angels and men who are called prophets such as John “the Baptizer” who was selected to be the fore-runner of the one to whom all the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms pointed: who is Jesus The Christ, the Son of the living God.
#2) The voices of the prophets have always been spurned and opposed in the cursed earth by unbelievers who desire to be religious in their own way but not in true righteousness which has always been revealed to men through a message / notice from God Himself or by His chosen prophets.
#3) The original New Testament prophecy of the birth of the Church, which took place on the day of Pentecost fifty days after the resurrection of Messiah, was dispensed through the preaching ministry of John the Baptizer, who retold, for example, what Jeremiah had proclaimed even before the captivity of Judah in 586 B.C.
