The CROSSroads: Personal Lessons from Mark's Gospel by Rev. Mitch Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:34:17utc

Lesson Two: KEEPING IT SIMPLE (Mark 1:1-8)

All the people went out to him. (vs.5)

A British missonary by the name of Edwin Dennis, unlike Billy Graham, is an obscure figure who, but to the angels in heaven, has practically gone unnoticed in missionary circles. Raised a Devon (England) farmer it was not until Edwin was in his 40's that he traded in his plow to work in the harvest field among the Gambiano Indians in Columbia South America. Twenty Five years would go by before Edwin would return home for his first home assignment. You would never meet a more simple and uncomplicated man. His speaking is plain and unimpressive. Even in the modern environment of England he felt no shame in wearing his Gambiano "skirt".

There was something though about the man that drew the member of the congregation where I pastored in England to him. They call him "the legion" and he calls God "the boss". He has spent the entirety of his missionary career translating the Old Testament into the Gambiano language, and he is only on Genesis chapter six. I have no doubt this man will receive a great reward not for his accomplishments but for his simple but real love for the Lord Jesus Christ. When I think of a contemporary John the Baptist I can not help but think of Edwin Dennis.

John's life message was simple and singular. In many respects his life was not a complicated one. The epitaph on his tombstone would probably have read, "He simply wanted others to know about Jesus." This message was so magnetic that people came from everywhere to hear him. "All the people went out to him." (The original tells us the people kept coming to him) There was nothing about his appearance that drew the crowds; he wore the unattractive garments of a shepherd. He held to a simple diet, unconcerned by what people thought of him or said about him. It was what John said, his message, that emptied the towns and lined the shores of the Jordan with people.

There should be nothing complicated about being a Christian. May God spare us and protect us from discarding the simple message out of any concern for ourselves. We live with a tension in our modern day that perhaps did not exist back in John's day, that of the church battling against the world for the mind of people. To gain the world's interest the Church will often package the message of the gospel in wrappings that will appeal and attract the pagan, but sometimes in a way that undermines the message. Ronald Dunn in his book When Heaven is Silent puts a magnifying glass uncomfortably close to todays' church. In our attempt to win the world by impressing the world, we have abandoned the confrontational language of the cross for the wooing language of power, might, success and winning." No wonder, when people do respond, they do not deny themselves and die to the world because that is not being asked of them. Well, it was asked of John. "Repent and be baptized" was the simple call from this single-minded servant. The apostle Paul also lived with a simple rule in his presentation of the gospel. We would do well to follow his example.

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. . For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. (1 Cor. 2:1-5)

May we be known, also, for what we have to say about Jesus and nothing more.

If you are absolutely obedient to God, then there is no ambiguity in you and you are mere simplicity before God. . . . One thing there is which all Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise. That is simplicity. -Søren Aabye Kierkegaard