The Gospel Project® for Adults

Leader Guide CSB, Unit 19, Session 3

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Part 1. The herald prepares for the Son (Mark 1:1-6).

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight!
4 John came baptizing in the wilderness
and proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
5 The whole Judean countryside
and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him,
and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River,
confessing their sins.
6 John wore a camel-hair garment
with a leather belt around his waist
and ate locusts and wild honey.

Explain:

Verses 1-3 bold words fill in blanks in the Daily Discipleship Guide [DDG]):

God had prepared for all the details of Jesus’s coming,
including using John to prepare the world for Jesus’s arrival.

Discuss:

• How should the steady use of Old Testament prophecy
  in the story of Jesus’s birth encourage us?
• (it reminds us that God was doing exactly what He said He would do;
• God can be trusted because He was in charge of events
  that spanned hundreds of years;
• God isn’t merely interested in the big aspects of a story,
  He’s concerned with the details;
• God made promises about small things so when they came to pass,
  it was even greater evidence of His control over all)

Explain:

Verses 4-6 bold words fill in blanks in the DDG):

John’s practice of baptism,
connected with confession and repentance,
was a precursor to the work that Jesus would do
to make a way for the forgiveness of sins.

Discuss:

• How would John’s practice of baptism
  help people understand Jesus’s message?
• (he proclaimed that sins needed to be confessed
  and repented of before being forgiven;
• people needed to humble themselves to be baptized;
• people had to acknowledge sin and their need for cleansing)

Transition:

Like the prophets of old, John the Baptist came to prepare
the people’s heart for God’s message and mission.
He also was preparing them for God Himself come to earth
as the Christ—Jesus—who would be ready and willing
to sacrifice Himself to save the world.

THE WILDERNESS

The wilderness is an ambivalent term, having both negative
and positive connotations, depending on the context.
It is a place of refuge (1 Sam. 23:14)
and prayer (Luke 5:16),
as well as a place of temptation (Luke 4:1-2)
and wandering (Deut. 8:15).
Sometimes it is green (Joel 2:22)
and sometimes it is dried up (Jer. 23:10).
Evil and rebellion lurks in the wilderness, but so does delivery
and revelation.