Hi, my name is Mercy Lopez, and I'm a sophomore at American Canyon High School, and today I'm gonna read Mark 1, 1 through 8. The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Thanks, mercy. Love having our students read our scripture for the day. In fact, if you're a student and you're here, probably not because it's early. That starts tonight at five o'clock. So if you are a grandparent or a parent of a student or you know somebody, you can tell them tonight is the night we're kicking into the this next year, and it's on Sunday night, so it doesn't mess with practices or homework or all that other fun stuff. And for those of you guys who are 49ers fans, the game will be over. Uh so that'll be all right and get them here, and we're gonna feed them, which is great. Um, man, it's good to be with you, fam. Uh, happy new year. I wasn't here last week, I was with a group of 36 in Italy. It was the worst. Um, we did a pilgrimage, we saw amazing sights, and I get to be here to kick off Mark. Last week we had Dr. Joe Grana here that kind of gave you a brief overview about how Mark was the first gospel uh of the four gospels that was written, and it was kind of became a template. A lot of it was actually the disciples' Peter's voice. Mark was a scribe for him, and then the same as really John Mark. Um, John Mark then was an evangelist that was moving around. He did some work with Paul and also with Barnabas, and he ended up taking this gospel down um south into Africa into Alexandria. And uh, I get to kick off this verse by verse. We teach the Bible here, we go verse by verse. So I'm gonna start in verse one today. We're gonna get through eight verses today. Congratulations. We are cranking. Um, and um, just to show you, actually, literally, just a couple days ago, uh, got to see the Basilica of St. Mark. This is what the outside looked like. Very ornate. This is actually where his relics are. Uh, legend has it. This is the inside. It looks a little bit different than our church. Um, they do things different there. Um, but it was a beautiful experience. And I thought, man, uh how what what timing uh as I get to come here and kick off Mark, the gospel according to Mark. So it's gonna be a fun journey journey. This is the beginning. You're here from the very beginning. So just want to encourage you and challenge you. You can make it all the way to the end. You can say you to verse by verse. But have you ever noticed how like every beginning, uh, especially in life, doesn't look like the final product? Like your first apartment had folding chairs for a dining set. That was me. I know that. Your first job was mostly Googling like how to look busy, right? Your first relationship, um, let's just say it was a beautiful crash test for emotional airbags and proof that God can still make holy things out of awkward starts. Beginning, beginnings, they just never feel holy in real time. They feel like folding chairs, wobbly, uh, underdecorated, and slightly embarrassing. But that's, I'm telling you, that's exactly where God loves to start in the mundane moments that turn into miracles. And here we are together in the second Sunday of the new year. Some of you standing in fresh hope, uh, some of you dragging old battles, some of us standing in our own kind of new beginning, uh, new gym membership, new planners, new promises. And some just thankful for caffeine. I get it. And others of you walked back into church for the first time in a long time, maybe wondering if God still starts things in people who've hit restart more times than they can count. But here's the good news God starts stories in people who thought that they were done writing. And that's exactly how Mark opens his gospel. Says this in verse one. The good news, right here. In the beginning of the begin about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. Now look at this. There's no warm-up music, there's no nativity scene, there is no backstory. Just boom. The good news starts here. Mark starts off writing this thing like a guy who's double fisting caffeine espresso shots. He's urgent, he's direct, he's unfiltered. Notice he doesn't give us a baby in a manger. Uh, he gives us a man on a mission right off the bat. And in the ancient world, gospel, what does the gospel mean? Good news, this wasn't a church word. This was imperial propaganda. This was Rome's word for a victory announcement, like when Caesar won a battle or had a son. Heralds ran through the empire shouting, good news, the empire expands. And Mark steals this word and actually flips it. He's saying the real good news isn't that Caesar reigns, it's that Jesus does. And that's treason to Rome, but in reality, that's liberation for us. It's rebellion wrapped in a headline, not Caesar, but Christ reigns. And here's the best part: this gospel didn't just stay in Rome's orbit, it traveled south, not just north. And while Rome boasted about empire, Alexandria in Northern Africa and Egypt whispered eternity. Uh, the earliest believers in northern Africa heard Mark's words not as Western theology, but as resistance literature. Uh, it was this type of subversive hope, a dangerous announcement that another kingdom has actually come and shown up on the scene. And I think we forget sometimes that Christianity didn't start as like this European religion. It started East. And within one generation, it was being lived, preached, and copied across the African coast. In Mark's gospel, the first one that was written, it was uh it found its home actually in 43 AD in places like Alexandria, Cyrene, Carthage, long before it ever reached London, Paris, or Rome's cathedrals. That means that when we together gather here today and open up Mark's gospel, that we're reading a story that's already global, it's already multicultural, and it's already expanding across languages and landscapes. That before the gospel is translated into English for us, it was already sung in Egyptian, uh, Bieber, Nubian, and Greek. It was preached under desert stars, not just cathedral domes. And so when Mark declares that in the beginning there's this good news, he's not just writing a verse, he's literally lighting a fuse. It's the start of a wildfire that would burn through centuries and continents. Rome said Caesar reigns. Mark, right off the bat, says Jesus reigns, and the new church would say, Amen. That we see from Jerusalem to Africa to the Bay. It's the same story, the same spirit, and the same invitation. So I just want to give you a few big ideas as we walk through our text today. In fact, here's big idea number one the story of Jesus isn't good advice, it's good news that redefines history and roots itself in every nation. Mark doesn't just begin with what you should do, it begins with what God already did. And that shift, this is so important, from striving to receiving is the foundation of Christian joy. You don't start the story. You and I actually get to step into the one that's already been placed in motion. And the first believers, they celebrated this very thing that grace in caves while Rome celebrated glory in palaces, and they weren't waiting for permission to rejoice. They had found a savior who didn't actually need a throne to be king. And what happened was is joy became their rebellion. I really think that that's a word for a new year crowd like this one, because we love resets, we love resolutions, we love rebrands, but Mark opens with this reminder God doesn't need your rebrand, he offers all of us rebirth, and you don't achieve the good news, you receive it. And then Mark quotes Isaiah, verse two and three. He says, as it's written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. So enter here, John the Baptist. This is the original wilderness influencer, right? No filters, no brand kit. He's just got camel hair and crunchy protein snacks. We'll read about that a second. Yet beneath this weird was wait. Like John stood as the echo of Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3. This voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight for him. Here's the deal, friends. God always uses voice from the margins to prepare the main stage. And that's not random that he does this. This is prophetic. We see this over and over and over again. And here's what's fascinating: Mark skips the comfortable settings, like the palace, the synagogue, or what we call the church. God's story literally launches right off the bat in the wilderness, not in the temple, not on some stage, not on social media, but in the middle of nowhere. Because I'm telling you, God has a habit of beginning great things in forgotten places. And so if you're sitting here today at Northgate feeling like your faith is cracked, or your prayers are just echoing, or your purpose feels blurry, congratulations. You are in God's favorite starting place. The wilderness is not where God abandons you, it's where he rebuilds you. Which leads me to idea number two. Before God moves in power, he prepares hearts through repentance, the road work that makes room for the king to arrive. So John preached, repent, the kingdom of heaven has come near. It says in verse 4, John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So repentance, think of it this way, is like road construction. In the ancient world, what would happen is when a king traveled, uh, crews went ahead of them to like level hills to fill potholes. So the royal chariot had like a smooth uh trip. And John's saying, God's about to show up, fix your road, right? Repentance isn't this punishment, it's actually just an alignment. And for us, what that means is dealing with the stuff that keeps us from intimacy with Jesus. Like he's clearing the debris that blocks intimacy, like pride, noise, cynicism, uh, comparison. Those can become these spiritual potholes for us. But I say feel empowered, friends, because every turn back to God, it's right here. Every turn back to God is a protest. There it is, against the empires that tangle your heart. Now I get it. I think most of us hear the word repent, and we have this picture that goes with it that's full of like guilt and gloom or sacklos or tears, maybe some dramatic organ music. Uh, but the Greek word here, repent, it's actually pronounced metanoia, literally means to change your mind. Have you ever changed your mind about something? Have you ever changed your mind about something you thought? You thought, right? It's a it's a mental U-turn, like a shift of direction, this internal map update that when your GPS is recalculating, repentance says, Okay, Holy Spirit, I'll trust your route this time. And it's less about punishment and more about the posture in which we have. And that's exactly how the earliest Christians lived it. Even in ancient uh times, believers in Egypt and uh Libya practiced daily confession, not to earn favor, but to literally stay free, because they believe that repentance was this rhythm of joy, not the opposite of it. Because guilt says, you know this, you're stuck, right? Guilt says, You're stuck, you're never gonna get unstuck. But grace says you can turn. There's actually a path out. Then verse 5 says, the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. This is to John, confessing their sins, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. So that's wild if you just grasp this whole scene. Like nobody goes out to the desert unless Coachella is happening, right? Why? Because there's no shade, there's no air conditioning, there's no Chick-fil-A or In N Out, right? Yet people left their cities and comfort zones to hear this scruffy prophet shout, turn around. Why? Because when God starts stirring hearts, I'm telling you, convenience stops mattering. When your soul's thirsty enough, even the desert looks like a destination. And so notice what Mark adds. They confessed their sins and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Now, I don't want you to miss the symbolism here. Uh, the Jordan River was where Israel crossed into the promised land. And so now they're going back to the Jordan to start over again. And that's not nostalgia. This is literally renewal. This is all in the plan. God's saying, I'm leading you into a new kind of promise. And maybe that's some of you today. Maybe you're standing on the river bank of your own restart, ready to step back into obedience, back into expectancy, back into purpose. And you don't need a new location, you need a new surrender. And next, Mark gives us one of the biggest and strangest fashion statements, I think, in all of the Bible. It says, John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey. So he's basically saying, dude, look like a rejected extra from Naked and Frayed, Wilderness Edition, right? Think of it like that. Like the anti-influencer. Like not this curated feed, not a sponsorship deal, just like bugs and boldness. But I think we can learn that his simplicity gave his message weight. And when your life isn't cluttered with image management, your voice carries power. John didn't care about trending, he cared just about truth. And honestly, for some of us, maybe that's the call for our generation to care less about our feeds and to unclutter our souls, to remember that influence without integrity is just noise with good lighting. And faith without polish still can change the world. Which leads me to big idea number three. The wilderness isn't a place of abandonment, it's a place of preparation. Every single move of God starts there. In the desert, Moses in the Old Testament met God there. Israel became a nation there. David learned to worship there. And Jesus, we will see, will be tested there. The wilderness has always been God's classroom for humility, for courage, for dependence. A few years ago, I went on what I thought was going to be a short uh trail in the high Sierras. Um, and three miles in, not much water left, my granola bar was gone. I was pretty sure that I just walked into one of those like REI ads gone wrong, right? Because I wasn't smiling. There wasn't a soundtrack in the back of me hiking through in the sunset. It was just like a few squirrels judging me and a ton of bugs and just silence. And I was like, where am I at? What am I gonna do? But that's actually where I started hearing God. Again, and I love this because I do this all the time. I didn't have a computer in my pocket, you know, a phone, notifications, no, noise, just space. Where I didn't have to meet him in a crowd, and you can, but I met him in the quiet. And sometimes the wilderness isn't punishment, it's permission to just finally like stop and slow down and stop scrolling enough to actually hear something eternal. It actually occurs to me that God seems to prefer edges over centers. That He oftentimes doesn't start in the spotlight, he starts in the shadows. Literally, that's the Christmas story, right? That's everyone who's involved in the Christmas story. Because I think the shadows can actually train your soul to see light differently. And before you can steward a blessing, you have to learn to survive the bareness. Many of you have experienced this. There was um a season this last year in ministry for me that felt really dry, no big wins. I'd experienced a ton of loss, uh, grief, uh, betrayal, no emotional high, just sand. I felt like I was doing everything for God, but not much with him. And one morning, um, sitting right up back in my truck before another Sunday, I whispered, God, I have nothing left. And right there, in that stillness, I felt like he said, Good, now I can do something new. That's the wilderness. It's where God drains you of self so he can fill you with himself. So if you feel like life's GPS is just stuck on recalculating, maybe you're not lost, maybe you're just being located. And when everything comfortable disappears, you start to notice the voice that's just always there. God's pattern hasn't changed. Isolation precedes revelation. And when God pulls you into the desert, or you've just found yourself there, he's not punishing you. He will prepare you, he's pulling you away from applause so you can finally hear his applause. And sometimes it's the hardest thing for us to hear. Early believers, I think, understood this. Deeply in the ancient. They often met in caves or uh remote valleys to pray. They called the wilderness the mother of wisdom. It sounds poetic, but they meant it literally. Like when you lose everything extra, you finally discover what's eternal. When faith is stripped down to its essentials, it becomes strong enough to survive persecution. And that kind of faith still speaks to you and I today. Maybe that's why the church outlasted the empire that once tried to silence it. Caesar's monuments have crumbled. Yet Mark's gospel, even today, still sings. Because the wilderness taught believers to depend on something Rome could never control, which was the Spirit of God. And as uh at Northgate here, this faith community, we talk about uh representing Jesus well, but you can't represent him publicly until you have wrestled with him privately. And that wrestling often happens in the wilderness, like it or not. That's where God detoxes our ego, drains your self-importance, and teaches you the difference between performance and presence. If you're in your 20s and you feel stuck between dreams and bills, that's your wilderness. Welcome. If you're in your 40s and you feel like the middle of your story has no map, that's your wilderness. If you're in your 60s and you're wondering if your best years are behind you, that's your wilderness. And it's not wasted. This is where God builds depth in you so you don't collapse when a blessing actually shows up. It's where he builds roots that are deep enough to hold fruit that's heavy enough to bless others. It's where he teaches you that success without surrender is just noise with a halo. And you can't carry resurrection power until you've let something die. That's the wilderness way. And Mark's readers, I believe, understood that because they were persecuted, scattered, they were underestimated, and they discovered what we keep forgetting. You don't need a throne to represent a king. You just need a wilderness that teaches you to listen. Now, John the Baptist says this in verse 7 and 8 After me comes one more powerful than I, the straps of whom sandals I am not worthy to untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So this is actually John the Baptist's mic drop moment. He's saying, uh, don't stop with me. Don't build a brand around repentance. The real story is still actually walking towards you. And early believers that heard this, they heard this as a commissioning because that same spirit, John promised, is a spirit who carried Mark's gospel across the Mediterranean. From the Jordan River to the Nile Delta, the wilderness of Judea and the markets of Alexandria, the Holy Spirit was the transportation system of the gospel. I mean, for us, it's just wild to think about. Before there were like mission agencies or flight routes or Instagram reels, the spirit had already gone viral, not through algorithms, through ordinary people like you and I who actually said yes. And the gospel then spread along trade routes, fishing docks, refugee trails, and handwritten scrolls. It didn't travel through wealth or comfort, it traveled through obedience. And God has always, always used the overlook to outrun the powerful. That's why uh theologians call Mark the secret gospel. Not because it was hidden, but because it spread quietly. It whispered its way through homes and carried and huts and carried by servants and mothers and teachers. And it was secret only to those who refused to see glory and humility. It was the gospel of scars, not swords. It was for some reason the one that only the bad characters could understand, but kept showing the good ones don't get it. And so it was this push, like we can't let this be. When John said he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, he wasn't describing a religion like a religious ceremony. What he was describing was this takeover, literally saying you're about to be immersed in power that you didn't earn. And this power was to be given away, not to just build you up. It's the same power that descended on Jesus in his baptism, that same power that filled believers in the upper room, the same power that sent Mark to Africa to give it away, that same power that fills living rooms in our communities and in your communities today. I mean, think about it. It's crazy to think about. That spirit that hovered over Jesus at the Jordan now hovers over your wilderness. Your dry place can become your holy place. Your confusion can actually become your calling. You may walk in weak, but you will walk out ready. And when you zoom out, Mark chapter one isn't just the beginning of a story. It's literally a blueprint for all beginnings that God still starts in the wilderness, that he begins with unlikely people, that he prefers folding chairs to thrones, and he still writes his best chapters with imperfect pens. Now, it is important to understand that when we say that the gospel of the mark is good news, that you and I actually remember that we're standing on shoulders. And why this matters today, I think, is because our generation needs to reclaim a global gospel, one that honors the roots of East and South, not just the West. It reminded us that the gospel was never about colonization, it was about liberation. It's not the story of one people claiming God. It's the story of God claiming all people. And at Northgate, that means we don't just read scripture for information, we read it actually as participation. We get to step into this 2,000-year-old story that started in the wilderness, crossed oceans, and now sits in your seat, Roger. This is your turn in the story. And like Mark, your verse, your voice might carry the gospel farther than you and even I ever imagined. So what does that mean for us? It means that repentance still clears the road. It means that wilderness still prepares the heart. It means that history still reminds us that faith thrives without empire. And it means that the same spirit still moves in local coffee shops, living rooms, and crowded commutes. And you might not be wearing camel hair or eating locusts, praise God for that, right? But you still have a voice in a wilderness, less. Your wilderness might look like anxiety, grief, spiritual numbness. But even there, God is beginning something. Because that's where good news always begins. Not when you're ready, but when you're desperate. And if you've been waiting for perfect circumstances to serve or to speak or to surrender, stop waiting. Mark's gospel literally starts mid-sitence for a reason. God doesn't wait for like this intro music and this big moment. He starts whenever you finally say yes. And so maybe your wilderness season isn't punishment. Maybe it's placement. Maybe God is setting you up to carry something that you can't grow anywhere else. And for your sake and for God's sake, remember the wilderness always, always, always points forward. It is not your permanent address. It is literally preparation ground. And every kingdom begins with one hidden moment of surrender in a desert. The good news didn't start in a palace, and neither will your next chapter. And when Mark carries this story, he was carrying revolution in seed form. What began as a whisper in the wilderness became a wildfire across continents. Two thousand years later, that same spirit still moves through deserts, spiritual, emotional, and cultural, calling us to prepare a way. So may your wilderness not be wasted. May it become your training ground for joy, your classroom for humility, and your altar for surrender. Because the king who once walked out of the Jordan still walks into dry places and calls them holy. And the story that started with folding share of faith and still does today. But here's the promise. If you bring God your beginning, I'm telling you, he will bring it to completion. Because he always does.