Mark 1:5 “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” NIV
The signs of a contrite heart before God; that is the beauty of Mark 1:5 In all of its simplicity this little passage conveys a powerful truth. When the spirit of God is poured out on a region to bring transformation it occurs without manipulation or need for hype. John is laboring in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance and a turning with the whole heart to a life that is pleasing to God. He does not resort to advertising gimmicks. He does not adopt new marketing strategies to draw a crowd and build his ministry. Mark chooses an isolated place in the country side and begins to minister to the hearts of people. He begins to call the people recognize the difference between the way they are living and the way that God intended them to live. He calls them to turn!
No billboards, no commercials, just word of mouth and life altering ministry and yet the crowds of people were pouring out into the countryside to confess their sins and be baptized into a right relationship with God. The power of God is attractive. The truth of God is magnetic! If His presence is with us the people will follow. If we are ministering in the life of His Spirit He can draw any size crowd that He desires. John didn’t have to chase after the people. The people went out to him because where John was the people found God also. The work of the Holy Spirit moved the hearts of the people to burn with hope; hope that God had not forgotten them, hope that they could feel clean inside again. Sin violates the conscience and yet so many people live in its grasp, separated from the peace that comes from clean hands and a pure heart. The message of life that was flowing out from John brought the people to the place of wanting to be right with God, feeling the need for change. If a heart does not recognize its need there will be no change. John helped the people see their need and was positioned to prepare them to receive that change.
The response of the multitudes to the ministry of John was conviction! When a heart has true conviction before God there is lasting change and a readiness to learn, a true hunger. Paul speaks of the tenderness that touches a heart that has experienced true conviction in 2 Cor 7:10-11 where he says “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”
True conviction leaves the heart longing for change not just responding out of guilt or a sense of guilt or obligation. Change that grows out of conviction does not inwardly long for the things that have been let go of. Real repentance produces earnestness, longing for a pure heart and a consistency of concern that our actions are pleasing to God. One of the greatest signs of a growing hardness of heart is when we have lost a place of being concerned about whether our actions are pleasing to God. If you don’t care, there is nothing there. If your heart is not awake to the impact your actions have on your relationship with God then something is out of order in your heart. Ask God to renew your tenderness today. Ask Him to deliver you from the dullness of heart that yields to temptation and sinful behavior without a fight, without the pressure of God’s Spirit intervening to turn you away. Seek from Him the same restoration that David sought after failing in regard to Bathsheba where in Ps 51:10 he prayed “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” KJV
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