A voice in the Wilderness

Fall 07 Mark message 1, 1:1-8
A voice in the Wilderness



Have you ever thought that it seemed like God was not hearing you when you prayed? That God was silent?
Have you ever felt distant from Him? Have you ever felt like there was no hope- that God was not interested in rescuing you from your sin and foolishness? Did you ever wonder if God hears you, and if He will rescue you?

Have you ever felt like there is something wrong with the world? Something is just not right- in your heart, in the world, all over?
I saw the leaves this fall, they were beautiful, did you notice? And there is this one house in particular on our block, well, a block away, and its not well kept, and its falling apart, and the people who live there are not saints. They have no care for God. And yet I saw one day that their entire home, yard, car, their entire lives, were covered by leaves. Beautiful, colorful, magnificent colors. As if God were bestowing upon them a blessing that would certainly be missed, and was certainly not deserved, but that He could not help bestowing in His goodness. And they sat there, covered in this beauty, in utter rebellion. Perhaps even complaining about all the leaves. (I wonder how many times i have done something similar?) God’s judgment is just for such things. But it is not right, that this would be- that the world would not see His beauty and honor Him.
Then I had this beautiful tree outside my window while I worked. Full of oranges and yellows and even reds. And in one night the wind robbed me of that view. (I of course deserved this as much as the family down the street.) And it was such a reminder to me- all is not well here. Nothing good lasts. This is a place of fleeting pleasures.
There was something wrong with the world. something is incomplete.

We are so often let down and betrayed here. And sometimes we wonder, will God leave us too? Will he hear us? Will he answer? We know, and are often reminded, that it would be more than fair for him to leave us. It would be fair, since we have betrayed him, to simply be left all alone, with no hope. That would be fair, and we know that, and it causes us to fear even more. What if He never rescues us?

This is how the man we are going to look at tonight felt.
I want you to feel the weight of that. I want you to understand the weight of that silence from God. There was a time when people had not heard from God for 500 years. Can you imagine? After the OT closed, there was silence from God.


5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
Lk 1:5-7


Zechariah. A priest, and he has no children. Something is wrong. This priest, this man who was a blameless man- he had faith in God, he trusted God was good and would deliver him. Yet he knew something was wrong. They had no children, in that day it was a curse. He knew that the world was not right. He served the people as a priest in a time when the prophets had been silent for five hundred years. Can you imagine being a priest at that time- no word from God.
Not only that, but the people of God were overrun by Rome, owned by them. It was clear that they had been abandoned. They were left as prisoners.
The God who would deliver- where was he?
There were Pharisees and others who trusted in their own goodness- their jewishness, to save them. Most of the people did this. “We are the Jews, we will eventually be saved. we will certainly not be cast into hell.”
But there were those who knew what the Romans occupation was about. I believe Zechariah, being righteous, he knew. He knew that this was God's judgment. As was his wife's barrenness. The world was not right. He knew it. The world was broken. The world was lost. The Jews were judged by God- and the Jews were God’s people- the only way of salvation for anyone on earth- through the Jews. You realize this, right? The only way was to become a follower of the one true God, and that God was the God of Israel. And this people, the people of God, were captured. Imagine all the churches destroyed, all the bibles burned. That still does not give you the image. Imagine they dug up the body of Christ, and showed it to you- and he was still dead. This is a bit of the hopelessness that these people faced. All that was promised was gone. Now, it is a bit different in that they were told this would happen if they abandoned God- yet, the feeling is much the same. All is lost.
And yet Zechariah and others did not give up hope, they waited on God. He waited for Him to deliver.
I am sure that he cried out to God many times- as did many faithful Jews- to God to deliver. But there was silence. Can you imagine 500 years of silence from God?
They had transgressed. They had rebelled against God so bad. He had over and over come to them and blessed them, and they had don’t nothing but refuse the blessings.
4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘ I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
Ho 2:4-8

This is what they did. They took his good things, and thanked a false god for them, and then used them to worship other gods. they, in modern language, broke God's heart. They grieved him. And they made him jealous.
And Rome comes in, and captures them, and there they sit. Waiting. In silence.
And Zechariah is a priest during this time. He would go in to the temple, and offer sacrifices for the people, and for himself. I wonder how many times he wished he had some sacrifice he could bring to make God happy again. I wonder how many times he wished he had something to bring to make up for all the many sins of him and his people.
I wonder how many times you have felt that way- that you wished you had something to bring to God to make him smile upon you, to bring peace between you and him, to make everything ok- to break His silence.
I think this song says well what Zechariah felt-

(song- deliver us.)

But God would not leave it this way. There is hope at the end of that song- and there is always hope with God. God was preparing to do something new. Our God is a God of hope- of mercy. There was hope.

A child will be born


8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying,
Lk 1:8-24

And so Zechariah goes into the temple to do his priestly duties, and he encounters an angel. Gabriel himself. Amazingly, he doubts the words! Yet, and get this- it does not depend on Zechariah’s faith, but on God's plan. And God blesses them. And his wife becomes pregnant.
This is such a good picture for us! a blessing! something new! There is blessing on the horizon! something wonderful! What a wonderful way to bring this new news, this good news, but to bring new life into the world.
And the baby is born, and so they name the child, and Zechariah calls him “John”, and his mouth is opened and he speaks!
and Zechariah prophecies-

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Lk 1:67-80

Deliverance! redemption! a prophet!!! God will no longer be silent! He will now speak, after 500 years, he will break the silence!
What will he say? How exciting it would be! And it should be for you- God has broken the silence. He speaks.
This is what he prophesied he would do many years early in that same book of Hosea-

14 “ Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

Ho 2:14-20

God will allure his people. He will win them over. He will bring them into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her there.
Where will he bring her? the wilderness…


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 before your face,
who will prepare your way,
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mk 1:1-8


The voice of one crying in the wilderness!
This is it! This is the voice promised, the voice that will speak tenderly!
God has spoken to his people before in the wilderness. He always chooses the wilderness to speak to them to start something new. something wonderful.
He spoke to Moses in the wilderness.
He spoke to the people of Israel in the wilderness.
Why did John the Baptist preach in the wilderness? Because whenever God starts something new with his people, he speaks to them in the wilderness. This is the starting place. And something new has come.
John the Baptist was the last great prophet. Spoken of in the OT. He brings the first word of God after the silence!

Look at the last verse of your OT-

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Mal 4:5-6

sound familiar? it was what was spoken to Zechariah. This John is a prophet in the Spirit of Elijah.

look at what he wore. look at what is said of Elijah-
8 They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
2 Ki 1:8

the people were told one day they would hear a voice in the wilderness, a great prophet, and he would prepare the way for the Messiah, the savior.

3 A voice cries:
“ In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Is 40:3


A new hope, unmerited Favor
I want you to feel the desperation of this people, and the hope that is kindled when a prophet speaks. I want you to feel it, because i pray it will awaken in you the desperation we all should feel in this world.

I wonder if you feel desperate to hear from God, I wonder if you feel scared to think that perhaps God will not speak, that he will remain silent, you will not hear from Him, there will be no deliverance, no redemption for you.
You do not have to fear that. You do not have to wonder that. God has spoken. He has brought a prophet to deliver to you good news. What kind of news? What is the message?
You read it- Zechariah told us!


Doubt on our part?
The problem is we don’t believe it.
I have a cat named Emma. And when Emma, who is very scared of people, needs to go to the vet, we have trouble getting her there. She does like food a lot, and we can get food, and offer it to her. But, when I get the cat carrier out, and set it down, and then take out the cat treats, and set them before her, and call her over, and hold them out, what she does is very interesting. She comes over, and smells around, and looks at me, and most of the time, even though she loves food, she will not take it, or come close enough for me to grab her. The whole thing seems too suspicious to her. She doesn’t trust it.
I think the same thing is true with you. You are just like Emma in that God is holding out his hand, and offering good things, and you smell around it, and doubt the goodness of the one whose hand it is in, and walk away.
What God is offering is good, and it is something you like, just as much as emma likes food.
Look at what is offered again-

71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”


Knowledge of salvation- rescue from sins. The shadow of death that you sit under will be lifted!
Death will be defeated, sin will be defeated, all your fears will be removed, and God will smile upon you. You will be at peace with Him.
Your heart has longed for Him, he has designed the universe to make it so- He has left a witness of Himself to make you ache for Him-

16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Ac 14:16-17


26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, Ac 17:26-27

He has also placed where you live, what you would do, who your parents would be, and this very moment right now in his plan, that you would seek Him. That you would see that in your heart there is a need for something more.
The leaves fall off the trees, guys. The beauty all around you fades. The good we see and love dies.
This is all a blessing from Him, all a hinting to us that something more is needed, something more is wanted. All excitement here ends in disappointment. All hope placed in things here will not satisfy, and from trusting in these things around you you have to turn.

This is the message that John Brings- Repent. Do you know what it means? We will look much more at it next week, but I want you to see that you need to turn from trusting in things here to be your all in all, and turn to Him to be your all in all.
Don’t you miss Him? Doesn’t your heart ache after Him?

(miss him song)

Does that song mean anything to anyone here?
If so, the fact that God has spoken and revealed to you that He has not left you, that there is a way, that is good news.
This book is about that way. Mark tells the story of the new way, the new thing God has done to bring peace between you and God.
His hand is open to you, he offers redemption. Forgiveness. Have you looked into his hand and doubted?

Do you want Him?
I want you to understand something tonight- if you doubt his goodness is for you tonight, make sure you understand who sent John.
What do I mean?
You didn’t send for john to come preach to you. You were in the darkness. You were in the night. You were without hope. He- HE, the offended one, the one we rebelled against- He sent John. He sent hope.
And understand, you didn’t send for Jesus. No. you would have nailed him to the Cross to get rid of Him. You didn’t send for Him, he came for you.
And understand, you did not seek out the Name of God. You did not seek all your might until you found Him, and then, as a reward for your seeking, He gave you salvation. No. he sought you out. He found you.
And understand- you didn’t move your heart to come here tonight. Some of you may not be here for Him, you did not come here to find Him. Yet, even you, you who did not come here to hear about his goodness to you, He has given you a great gift- he has sought you out, and brought you here. Why? To tell you of His love for you, to whisper to you of His love. To let the leaves fall all over your rebellion, until you could resist it no longer.
Think of that with every leaf you see this fall. And think about how that goodness is neglected. With every pile of leaves you see, sitting uncared for, raked away, think of the goodness he has offered, that has been pushed aside like so much trash.
The truth is, you do not want Him, yet, He has sought you out. You could not have come to Him. You are crippled, and weak, and empty.
You are here tonight because He has carried you here.
And He will carry you further. Do you want that?
He will carry you to His table, and bless you there.

And what is the application?
Think about this. And love Him.