THE KING’S BUSINESS
446'
Holy Spirit (John 1:33; 3:34 R. V.). The silence of ages was broken; God was well- pleased that One was found fit and willing to take man’s place. He spoke aloud from the open heavens, He proclaimed Jesus to be, “My Son, the Beloved One,” and also proclaimed His own delight in Him. There can be no reasonable question of the his torical accuracy of this statement which is recorded not only in Mark, but in Matthew and Luke as well; so it is an unquestion able historic fact that God has spoken from the open heavens, proclaiming Jesus as His Son and whosoever denies that He is, gives This is a very short reading but it covers an exceedingly important event, which is given more fully in Matthew and Luke (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). The accounts in Matthew and Luke should be read in connection with this one in Mark. The brevity of Mark’s account is characteristic of the swift movement of action in the en tire Gospel. But Mark packs a great deal into very small compass. Mark alone tells us that Jesus was driven into the wilder ness by the Spirit, that a mighty impulse from the Spirit Himself, with whom He had just been baptized, drove Him forth into the wilderness where he was to be tempted. Matthew and Luke tell us that He was led by the Spirit, or “in the Spirit,” into and in the wilderness. And Mark alone tells us that He was “with the wild beasts,” but the wildest beast of all He met there was Satan, “the old serpent.” But led by the Spirit He was safe, and coming off vic torious, the angels ministered unto Him. It is a noticeable fact that in all three ac counts, the fierce temptations of Satan are said to have followed immediately upon the wonderful experience of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Some think that when they enter into a deeper and higher Christian ex perience that then temptation is over for ever. No, that is just the time when we may expect peculiar temptation. the lie to God. Friday, May 21. Mark 1:12, 13.
titudes (Luke 3:7). It was real and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon hinr (Luke 1:15). They were strangely and deeply moved and wished to renounce sin publicly by baptism. Many of his hearers belonged to the ruling religious and eccle siastical classes (Matt. 3:7). He himself lived in the utmost simplicity; he dressed like Elijah of old and was content with the wild food of the wilderness. There is. however, no reason why we should all fol low bis example in this (Matt. 11:18, 19). Thursday, May 20. Mark 1 :7-ll. John’s preaching created an immense im pression. The expectation that he was the long-expected Messiah ran high, but he told, them, No, a much greater than he was coming. His enormous popularity did not turn his head jn the least (cf* John 3 :28-30), and he did not seek to coin money out of his popularity. John’s description of this work of the Mightier One is marvelous, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” And now Jesus Himself, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, comes to John to be bap tized with water. He came all the way from Nazareth to Galilee for that purpose. Could anything make more plain the great importance of water baptism? Jesus was baptized with water to “fulfill all righteous ness” (Matt. 3:15). God commands water baptism as the form by which sinful men shall publicly confess that he is a sinner but now renounces sin. Jesus was not a sinner in His own character, but He took the sinner’s place and was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3), was “made to be sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21 R. V.). When He thus humbled Him self God gave Him a two-fold testimony; the visible dove and the audible voice (cf. Phil. 6:8, 9; Luke 9:31-35). The dove was not a sign to Jesus Himself alone but to John as well (John 1:33). This was our Lord’s own baptism with the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 3:21, 22 with Luke 4:1, 14, 18 and Acts 10:38), and indicated Him as the One who should baptize others with the
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