In the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist bursts on the scene preaching a new message to prepare people for Jesus. Though he was out in the wilderness, crowds poured out to him from Jerusalem and all the country of Judea to hear this message.
John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 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; 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 1:4-7)
What was his message that everybody wanted to hear? If John the Baptist were to suddenly appear in our world, what would he say to us?
REPENT.
Repent means to turn around. John was preparing the Jewish people for the entrance of Jesus, God’s Savior, into the world. They were not spiritually ready because they had too much selfish sin in their life. They needed to turn.
The divine and proper preparation for the gospel of Jesus Christ is a true understanding about sin. Sin is serious business and it separates us from a relationship with God. Those who have never turned to Jesus for salvation, sin will eternally divide them from God. Those who have turned to Jesus for salvation still have a struggle with sin. If we aren’t careful, we will allow sin to pull us away from a close relationship with Jesus. I encourage you to away from the sin and selfishness that is destroying your relationships.
RECEIVE.
John’s message was not ‘You’re a sinner and need to repent.” His message was “The Christ is coming so you need to repent.” Repentance was a correct response to news of Christ. True repentance has two sides – turning away from sins and turning toward God. To be truly repentant, people must do both.
I’ve known people who have tried to turn from their sin because they hated it, but they did not turn to Christ. Instead, they turned to self-will, or a program, or some other man-made scheme to live a better life. That’s not enough. And yet, I’ve met people who have tried to turn to Christ, but they did not turn from their sin. They kept their love for sin and wanted to have Jesus too. You can’t have it both ways. We will never be perfect. But when we turn from sin to Christ it is a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior.
If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, please do so today! Your church can’t save your soul. Neither can a friend or relative or your good life. The only One who can save a soul is Jesus.
BAPTIZE.
The Greek word for baptize is baptizo and is not really translated. It is simply transliterated, that is, English letters are assigned to the Greek letters. It means to ‘dip something in a liquid.’ That is why Baptists baptize people all the way under water. Just as Jesus saves the whole soul, symbolically we dip the entire body in the water.
Just as John encouraged his followers to turn from their sin to the coming Christ, then show that decision by being baptized, we should do the same thing. The only difference is Jesus has already lived, died, rose again, and lives in Heaven. Because Jesus came, we should repent and believe in Him and then be baptized to prove and publicly demonstrate our decision. Baptism does not save us, but it shows we are saved. A person does not get baptized in order to have a relationship with God. A person gets baptized because they have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Baptism is the first step of obedience for a believer in Christ. That is why a believer should be baptized immediately after salvation. And that is why we do not baptize babies or young children before they believe. Repentance and belief precede baptism.
I would hope that if John the Baptist came back, we would heed his preaching and repent, believe and be baptized. Even if it’s not him, maybe just me telling you, you should still heed these words to be in a right relationship with Jesus: Repent, Believe & Be Baptized. (Maybe if I wore a camel’s hair coat and wore a leather girdle, more people would listen?)