The Preparation of Christ (Mark 1:9-13) Pastor Jon Pentecost

Friends, good evening.

It is a joy to be able to be here with you.

I bring greetings from the Saints at Capitol Hill Baptist.

I know that uh many of you are related by blood to many over there.

But more importantly, we are all tied together by the blood of the same Savior.

It's a joy to come and worship with you.

Andrew has been an encouragement to me in these early months of arriving to a new country, a new place, you know, making new friends in the ministry.

The last time that we had a coffee together afterwards, I said, you keep saying you're so encouraged after you meet with this guy.

And I said, Well, I think that's because I'm really encouraged.

Uh thankful for our friendship, brother, and I pray that both of our churches may grow in being known in Sydney and beyond for our love for all the saints of Jesus Christ.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more as we approach his word.

Lord God, you are a holy God.

And yet in your kindness you invite sinners like us to come into your presence.

Lord, we praise you for your merciful kindness to us that you have shown to us through your Son Jesus Christ.

Thank you for revealing him to us in your word.

Lord, as we approach your word, we ask that you would take these eternal truths and by your spirit bind and knit them to our hearts.

Change and transform us more and more in the likeness of Jesus.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.

I grew up loving the Lord of the Rings book series by J.R.

Tolkien.

And when I was finishing high school, which was not that long ago, movies came out based off of those books.

And one of the things that the movies changed that I still bothers me to this day is a thing that you'll notice really in any Hollywood movie today, which is that they don't understand the idea of any kind of hero other than a reluctant hero.

So in the movies, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, rightful king of Gondor, didn't become king because he wasn't yet willing to become king.

But what the books present is a king who knew that he was destined to reign, but who knew he must be prepared before he took up his kingship.

And that's what we see in our passage today, where Tolkien got the idea from.

Our Lord and King, born a king who knew he needed to be prepared to take up his kingship.

So now let's read in Mark.

Mark chapter 1, beginning there in verse 9.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And immediately, coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.

Then a voice came from heaven.

Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

A sentence that hopefully, if you write it down, will help you come back and understand the main thrust of this text, and also hopefully will help you keep me accountable that hopefully this sermon is also reflects the main idea of this text.

The main idea, which it may be helpful for you to write down, is something like this Jesus was prepared for his kingship by God.

Jesus was prepared for his kingship by God.

We'll look at this in two points.

First, in verses 9 through 11, we'll see that Jesus was proclaimed by God the Father.

Jesus was proclaimed by God the Father.

The immediate context you may recall from last week of this is John's ministry of preaching repentance and baptizing those who had confessed of their sins.

John's message of repentance was preparing the people of Israel to respond rightly to Jesus, the long rated Messiah, by teaching them and reminding them of their sin and their need to turn and repent.

And we see there in verse 8, just above our passage, John's own anticipation of Jesus.

I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John was expecting Jesus to come in power and baptize in the Spirit, and yet in our verse, in our passage, that's not what happened.

Jesus isn't the one who baptizes in verse 9 when he first appears.

He is the one baptized.

You know, over in Matthew's account, he tells us that John objected to this.

You shouldn't, I shouldn't be baptizing you.

And Jesus said it was necessary to fulfill all righteousness.

Jesus had come, but his public ministry had not begun yet.

That's in verse 14, that's next week.

Before he took up his public ministry, he had to be prepared for his public ministry.

And he was prepared by joining in the same activity that John was summoning all of God's people to.

There's no difference or division between them.

They are distinct persons, but what the Father wills, the Son wills.

There's never any disagreement among them.

So there's no need to obey because they are one.

But Jesus is not only God the Son, if we could ever say only God the Son, he also is a man.

And as a man, he had to learn obedience.

He had to learn to submit that human will that we all have that often bucks against God's commands, not just because we don't like them, but because they're inconvenient or costly.

And in this passage, we see Jesus go through these experiences, this one of baptism and then more, that echo the experience of the people of Israel throughout the Old Testament.

He passed through the waters, just like they passed through the Red Sea.

He sees heaven split apart and hears and sees gods of the signs of God the Father's favor and approval of him, just like Israel heard at Mount Sinai.

And then, as we'll look at in a few moments, just as they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness before beginning his ministry.

He's identifying with the people that he is leading.

As he passed through the waters of baptism, it's as though he was reliving the way that Israel passed through the waters of death when they crossed through the Red Sea that swept away Pharaoh's army.

Jesus, who never sinned, was baptized by John to identify with God's people, even though he had never sinned.

It was not a baptism of repentance for Jesus, but it was a baptism of identification.

John's baptism is different from what you celebrate here.

You know, he didn't yet know exactly all that was to come in Jesus, but his baptism is similar.

And here we see in the way that Jesus treated his baptism that baptism is not just a sign of repentance, but a sign of identifying with God's people.

Jesus was publicly baptized to publicly identify with the people who needed his salvation.

Jesus wanted to join himself publicly with those who were seeking God's forgiveness, not because he needed for forgiveness, but because a good king is among his people.

And now those who trust in Jesus are baptized publicly to identify ourselves with this same Jesus.

Friends, recognize when you baptize someone as a church, yes, that person is acting in obedience to the Lord, publicly showing their repentance and faith in Jesus and wanting to be known as a disciple of Jesus for all their days.

But also, you as a church are doing something.

You are affirming that person as a fellow disciple of Jesus.

You are publicly proclaiming that this person who has repented of their sins and clung to Jesus is now one of you, one of us.

Baptism is not just about individual obedience, but about this corporate, public identification with God's people.

And I express this, friends, because it's come to my attention recently, that it seems like in this country there are often people who have put their faith in Jesus, but for whatever reason have kind of put off baptism.

Friend, if that is you, if you've seen it as important, but maybe just not important quite yet, or something to get around to, you know, you don't really like the idea of being the center of attention or saying your testimony in public, or perhaps you know that your family will oppose you and persecute you once you're baptized.

Consider this.

Jesus Christ, who did not need to be forgiven, was baptized to identify with sinners like you.

Jesus, our Lord and Savior, valued showing publicly that he identifies with us.

So take heart.

Take courage.

Isn't it good to show publicly that you belong to Jesus?

I've been emphasizing the way that Jesus in these verses, as a man, was being prepared for ministry, his obedience, his walking in the footsteps of the nation of Israel as it was.

But notice carefully, while Jesus learned obedience, he did not earn sonship.

He learned obedience, but he did not earn sonship.

Look there in verse 11.

Then a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

This is not a revelation of a man finally adopted by God the Father because he has been faithful.

God the Father did not say, You have become my son.

He said, You are my son.

He did not say, I am now pleased with you.

He said, In you I am well pleased.

And this is a revelation of an eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

This is a public display of Father, Son, and the Spirit, as a dove coming down.

The Father spoke to the Son publicly, and the Spirit publicly and visibly descended like a dove to show the relationship that already existed.

If I were to say to you, I love my daughters, none of you are sitting there thinking, oh, he has just now begun to love his daughters.

You know I am telling you something that has been true for some time.

So likewise, this revelation of a public endorsement of the Son by the Father is publicizing a pre-existing relationship.

And friends, consider this remarkable truth.

In Mark's gospel, there are two times when God the Father speaks audibly from heaven, here and then over in chapter nine at the Transfiguration.

And both times, do you know what the Father says?

You are my son, my beloved son.

This is my son, whom I love.

The thing that the father wants the world to know about the Son is that the Father loves the Son.

He conveyed first and foremost in those public speakings his pleasure in the Son, how he treasures the Son.

Friends, God the Father rejoices in God the Son.

The Father always has, always is, and always will be fully pleased in the Son.

And like a proud human father who can't stop telling people about his children's achievements, it's as though the first thing the Father wants the world to know about the Son is that the Father loves him.

Friends, that is so important for us to understand.

The glorious goodness of heaven is defined by this relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

And it's also important to understand that because the Bible tells us over and over that when we turn from our sin and we trust in Jesus, we believe that his death has paid the penalty for our sins, we are not only forgiven, we are united with this Jesus who is the Son, which then affects how God the Father treats us.

We write this to make our joy complete.

This is how God views you, Christian.

He loves you.

He delights in you.

And if you just keep quiet and don't cause any bother, maybe you can still stay there for all of eternity.

No, you are his child.

We all know children try as they may, and some of you are doing a valiant job right now.

Children do not stay quiet.

Children do not stay out of the way.

And we love them.

This is how God the Father views us in Christ Jesus.

Not as inconvenience, but as children.

Beloved.

When you trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, you aren't just given clearance into heaven.

You aren't just given fire insurance.

You aren't just given approval.

You are adopted.

And friend, if you're here and you are not a Christian, you should know that this is also freely offered to you.

If you put your faith in Jesus, if you hope for forgiveness for all the wicked things that you have done and said and thought, and you hope for that forgiveness on the basis of what Christ has suffered for you, you will be forgiven by the God of the universe.

And not only that, you will be treated with this kind of love and affection, not just for a few months or years or decades, but forever.

If you're here not a Christian, you've got questions about that.

I know I would love to speak to you about that.

Pastor Andrew would love to speak to you about that.

Any member of this church would love to tell you more about that.

Those of you who are fathers, I do think there is something in particular for us to learn from this passage.

As we see God the Father's display of affection for his son.

Because you know your role in your children's lives is to use your authority in such a way that teaches them true things about their Heavenly Father.

You are the clearest example they have of what authority is like, which means you are the one in your behavior who will most shape their perception of what God is like.

So let me ask you, fathers, does your speech to your children sound like this?

Are your children very aware of the fact that you love them?

Are you teaching your children by the way that you speak to them that God is a God who delights in them, who rejoices if they draw near to him, that he is a God eager to give them good things, eager to celebrate them?

Or are you teaching them that God might love them if they just obey quickly enough?

We see here the grand mystery of the incarnation revealed right at the start of Jesus' ministry.

He lives as a faithful man, obeying the Father, and he is affirmed by the Father, as only God the Son can be affirmed.

He is proclaimed by God the Father.

But then, secondly, we see in verses 12 and 13, Jesus is sent out by God the Spirit.

Jesus is sent out by God the Spirit, and immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

Again, just as Israel had spent forty years in the wilderness, Jesus spent forty days in the desert tempted by Satan.

And while he was out there, just like Israel had been out there exposed, just like Adam had been confronted by the garden before Israel, by the devil in the garden before Israel, Jesus was tempted.

But unlike Israel and unlike Adam, Jesus did not give in to the temptation.

You know, Matthew and Luke, they give us more details about the nature of this temptation, the conversation that the devil had with our Lord.

Mark is just content to summarize it for us at a high level and move on to make conversations.

Clear to us that Jesus walked through the same experiences as his people to identify with the people he's about to lead.

Friends, notice that these 40 days of hardship, of intense assault by the devil himself, did not happen because Jesus was outside of the Father's will.

The Father said in verse 11, In you I am well pleased.

And then immediately the Spirit of God drove him out into the wilderness.

This hardship was not a sign of the Father's displeasure, it was part of God's good plan.

As the eternal Son of God, Jesus has always been perfect.

But only in the incarnation did he become a perfect man.

Only by taking on our nature is he qualified to represent humanity before the judgment seat.

It is only by taking on our nature in its weakness and limitations that Jesus was equipped to care for us as a great high priest, as a ruler and king.

Loved, this was what's happening here.

As he faced temptation and resisted it, he learned compassion, suffering along with those who are tempted and struggling.

This is the kind of King and Lord you have, who identifies with his people, who cares for us, who understands the hardship that we face, and will help us live in holiness, even in the face of intense temptation.

But again, this also, to a lesser extent, applies to the hardship in our own lives.

As you suffer, as you endure hardship, as you are tempted, you better understand the challenges that come from suffering.

And you are better equipped to comfort others in their affliction.

Brothers and sisters, even as we might seek to steward our own suffering, to recognize that as we are comforted in our affliction, that means that we can comfort others, we cannot lose sight of the fact that our God, the God who reigns over all things, the God who is seated in his throne in the heavens and does all that he pleases, who cannot be moved, who cannot be tempted, has lived among us and became a man so that he might know what it is to be tempted, to know what it is to have his body fail him, to know what it is to be worn down and tired and hungry, to know what it is to have your flesh tell you that a shortcut is better than God's godliness than the godliness that God puts before us.

Our God has chosen to know that in order to lead us.

You've been spending time in Hebrews, and the author of Hebrews is a helper here.

When he points out that Jesus shares in our nature.

And because of that, he was able to free us from the one who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Dear Christian, Jesus was tempted.

He can help you as you are tempted.

Likewise, suffering and hardship in your life is not necessarily proof that God is displeased with you.

It may be a sign that you are exactly where you're supposed to be.

Do not believe the lie of the world that if your heart life is hard, then that must mean God is against you.

It wasn't true of Jesus.

And take heart.

Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, lived righteously in order to be prepared to serve as the King of the Kingdom of God.

And in this brief passage, we see how the full triune God was at work in the plan of redemption.

Christ came with the full approval, endorsement, and involvement of God the Father and God the Spirit.

In other words, God is wholeheartedly committed to your salvation.

Consider that and rejoice.

To live among us, to die in our place, to deal with our sin.

He is the King, wonderful and astonishing in his mercy and grace.

Look to Jesus, repent, and believe.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we praise you that you have been so gracious towards us.

Lord, even while we were dead in our sins, you were at work bringing about our salvation.

Lord God, we praise you that you in Christ involve us in your very family.

Lord, we praise you that in Christ you have given us a King who is one of us, who knows our weakness and our sorrows, and cares for us and helps us.

Lord, help us to love you more and more and more as we should.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.