"Jesus Our Righteousness" - Mark 1:9-13

All right, if you've got a Bible, we're going to be in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

If you haven't figured it out yet, we usually just start where we left off.

So if you don't have a Bible, there's Bibles on the tables right there.

And it is on page 928, 928.

So last week we started the Gospel of Mark and it begins in the beginning.

Of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Remember we said Mark takes no time getting right into the story.

It's not like Matthew and Luke where there's a birth story and there's a lot

of backstory and all those things.

Mark's writing primarily to Romans.

In a lot of ways, he's writing primarily to people that think like us.

Americans tend to think like Mark writes, which is just like,

hey, give me the high points, man.

It's like when you listen to somebody tell a story and they're like,

so it was three o'clock on Tuesday. And you're like, I don't care.

I just want to know what happened.

That's really what Mark is doing here. He's saying, Hey, I'm going to give you, thank you.

All right. He's really going to give me the high points, really going to give me what I need.

So he begins that way, begins the same, really the same way that Genesis does.

Genesis says in the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth.

And Mark begins as if to say, this is a new beginning. This is a new creation.

There's a new thing taking place.

Now we were introduced to John.

John's baptizing in the wilderness. If you remember, his message is essentially repent and believe.

Repent, meaning turn from where you're going, turn from the way that you're

going and follow the Lord, come to the Lord.

Remember his message is confess your sins, right?

Confess where you've fallen short, repent, turn and follow the Lord.

That's the whole message.

And John ends up getting quite the following. And so just kind of put yourself

in their shoes. You're a first century person.

You can decide exactly who you want to be.

This is your moment. You can be 6'5". Okay, you can do whatever you want.

Just put yourself there. And you're walking around the streets and you hear people talking.

Hey, have you heard about this crazy guy named John? He's eating locusts and honey.

He's dressed in weird clothes. and he's down there and he's talking about repenting

and believing that you gotta go check this guy out.

And so you start going out there and you start listening to John's message and

you start going, okay, this guy's saying some things that I seem to really want to be a part of.

I know there's things in my life that shouldn't be the way that they are.

And he's saying that God's calling me to confess those sins and to turn my life

and give them to the Lord.

And so you decide one day you're gonna go down there and you're like, you know what?

I'm gonna respond to that message. I'm going to get in the water with John.

He's going to baptize me.

And the whole time you've been listening to John, though, he keeps talking about

this other guy, right? Which is really weird for public speakers.

Usually when you're a public speaker, you kind of talk about yourself a lot.

But John keeps saying things like, hey, there's a guy that's going to come that

I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals,

which is John saying, I'm not even worthy to do the lowest of the low slave job.

Remember, we said last week that Jewish slaves, if you were a Jew and you had

a servant or slave in your house, they weren't even allowed to untie your sandals.

That was reserved for the lowest of low.

And John's saying, hey, there's going to be a guy that shows up that I can't even untie his sandals.

And that guy is not going to baptize you with water.

He's not going to immerse you in water. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

So you can imagine people have been hearing John say this for a while now,

and they're probably showing up partly because they're like,

listen, And I don't want to miss whoever that guy is.

All right. If you've ever been in a situation where somebody tells you about

someone a couple of times, like I got this friend and you got to meet him.

You got to meet him. He does this. He does that. He's awesome.

And for after a while, you're like, okay, I really want to meet this friend.

Well, this is what we see in Mark chapter one, verse nine.

This man that John's been talking about shows, of course, we know him as Jesus.

But if you were a person in the crowd, we don't really know that John gives them his name.

He just keeps saying, this man is going to come and he's so incredible.

He's so wonderful. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

You can imagine the kind of person that these people have worked up in their mind.

What kind of person could this be to baptize us in the Holy Spirit?

This guy who we think is the greatest preacher that we've ever seen to this

point, he can't even untie his sandals.

It's like Billy Graham is going to descend from the mountains,

whoever your favorite preacher is.

This is what we see in verse nine. Again, lots of details that are skipped.

I would encourage you to go read like Matthew three gives a lot of details on what's going on here.

Mark says in verse nine, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Now, again, we missed some of the details and I'll give you some here in just a second.

But you've been waiting for this guy to show up and all of a sudden he shows

up and you find out he's from Nazareth.

I always hesitate to give an example because inevitably someone will be from

a town that I use, but we'll say Nazareth is Canada.

Is everybody offended if Canada is bad? I don't know.

Again, I've used examples before, and so I was like, that's where I'm from.

I'm like, all right, sorry. But Nazareth has a reputation.

In the Gospel of John, when they find out Jesus is from Nazareth,

the remark is, does anything good come from Nazareth?

That's how people think of Nazareth. So he's already got a strike against him.

This Jesus guy shows up and he's like, where are you from? They're like,

from Nazareth. And they're like, and you can't untie his sandals?

This guy's from Nazareth.

What's that matter? Not only that, he's going to end up baptizing this guy.

And now they're thinking, well, you said this guy was incredible.

You said this guy was wonderful, that he was awesome, that you can't even untie his sandals.

And now you're baptizing him. And we've all been baptized for what?

Sins. You're telling us that this baptism is for the repentance of sins,

that I'm confessing my sins and I'm turning to the Lord.

So if this guy is so great, why is he getting baptized?

These would be great questions. They are good questions.

One of the reasons I want to start this way is when we think of Jesus,

especially because we live in East Texas, we think of something immediately.

We have a picture in our brains of who that is and what he's like.

If you grew up in church like me, we had flannel boards.

No? We're our flannel board Christians, right? We're better,

okay? We're better for it.

But every time, you know, you always had a little Jesus figure,

and I can still see it clear as day, right? He's wearing like the white robes,

and he's kind of got like a glow about him.

If you're younger than me, you think of like Jesus as a tomato and veggie tails,

which is probably not good, but neither here nor there.

If you're older than me, maybe they drew it on a board. I don't know.

But we have these caricatures of Jesus.

What I want you to do as we read Mark is to think this is written to a first century person.

They don't know who Jesus is.

A lot of people, when they read Mark, which is probably the first gospel written,

there's a really good chance.

They're reading about this for the first time. They're introducing themselves

to Jesus, and they're trying to reconcile these ideas.

It begins with the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And then eight verses later, we see this Jesus, this son of God,

this spotless lamb come to take away the sins of the world, being baptized.

And it looks a lot like a baptism for all these sinners.

So what's going on? What's going on here? Again, if you were reading this for

the first time, that would be a question for you.

Why is he getting baptized? What does Jesus have to do with baptism? Good question.

So that's a good place to start. Why is Jesus getting baptized?

Again, verse nine, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was

baptized by John in the Jordan.

We see recorded in Matthew chapter three that John rightfully rebuffs Jesus when he comes down.

Jesus comes down, he says, hey, I need you to baptize him.

And John's like, Jesus, let me give you a theological lesson.

Which is insane for John to say, right?

It's as if John's talking to the son of God and he's gonna go,

I think your theology's a little off.

It's like a college kid in seminary. I know, cause I were one.

And there's a 60 year old guy they're teaching Old Testament.

He says something, you raise your hand. You're like, I think you're wrong.

And it's like, there's no chance. There's no, like, this is so dumb,

right? Every person thinks that they can correct everyone.

And John is no different. And he's like, Jesus, you don't get it. Why would I baptize you?

I know who you are. I know what you've come to do. I know what you represent.

And I can't baptize you. And it's great.

Jesus' answer is great. You know what Jesus does? He doesn't chastise John.

He doesn't give him a theological lesson. He doesn't pull him aside and make

everything make sense to him. You know what he says?

He says to John, just do it, John.

The Greek is literally suffer it today. John, just suffer it, buddy.

This needs to happen. But he says something very interesting when he says that.

He doesn't just say, John, suffer it.

He says, suffer it so that righteousness, so that all righteousness will be

fulfilled, that all righteousness will be fulfilled.

That's a really important statement. That's a really important statement,

because if you asked most of us, what did Jesus come to do?

We'll probably rightfully tell you he came to what? Die for my sins.

Children's ministry is going well, right? We got these, and that's not wrong.

That's not a wrong answer, but it's a half answer.

It's a half answer because it's not just that you need your sins paid for.

It's not just that you need your sins forgiven.

It's not just that you've done wrong things and he needs to get rid of those wrong things.

You need to lose the sins that you have, but you need to be given a righteousness

that you don't have, right?

If all Jesus needed to do was to die for your sins, Well, he just could have

floated down out of the clouds like a parachuter at a football game as an adult,

gone to the cross, died for our sins and gone right back up and been like,

man, you're good. Don't worry about it. Sins paid for.

But there's a righteousness, the Bible says, without which we will not see the Lord.

You need righteousness. You need a life lived on your behalf.

And this is what Jesus has come to do.

He hasn't just come to pay for your sins. He's come to give you a righteousness.

Think of it this way. He's come to give you a life that you will be able to

present before the Father to say, my life was perfect.

I lived perfectly, God. I did everything right. I never got angry.

I never disobeyed my parents.

I never lied. I never got upset. I never said something in anger or did something

mean to somebody. I never cheated.

I never coveted. I never did anything wrong.

You and I need that kind of testimony in our lives. It's not just enough that

your sins are paid for. You need righteousness.

And Jesus says to John, which John clearly doesn't understand in full,

He says, John, I need you to suffer this for me so that I can fulfill all righteousness.

In other words, Jesus says, if I'm going to give my people a righteousness that

they can stand before God and present that I give to them, I need to do everything

that God asked them to do.

Jesus, when he is baptized, it's as if all those sins that have been plunged

under the water and by example, right? Baptism is an example.

By example, had been left under the water. That's what's going on in baptism, right?

It's a symbol that when you're plunged under the water, your sins are washed

away and you're raised to new life.

When Jesus is baptized, it's as if when he's plunged under the water,

all those sins that symbolically sit in the water are given to him.

You go down dirty and come up clean. He comes down clean and comes up dirty.

That's what's going on at Jesus' baptism. He's not doing anything for himself.

He's doing something for you and for me.

Maybe you've seen that show, Undercover Boss. Anybody? Yeah.

It's always great, right? It's funny. You watch that as like a kid or a teenager

and you're like, this is dumb.

And then now I watch it and I'm like, who's going to pay for that person's college?

Like that is just the sweetest thing, right? I never forget.

I was watching an episode.

I say an episode. It was probably a reel or a clip. But he had this,

met this guy that was working like 60 hours a week. He had like seven kids.

And the guy offered, he's like, listen, I'm going to buy your groceries.

For the next two years so your wife can go to college. I'm like,

paying for college would be far cheaper at this point. You should have done the college.

But we think of Jesus kind of like that, like undercover boss.

He shows up and they don't really know it's him.

And then at the end, he unveils himself and he's like, ah, here's salvation.

I think that's true again in example, but that pales in comparison to what's really going on here.

What's going on is Jesus is identifying with the people he's come to save.

He's identifying with the people he's come to save, right? The CEOs and CFOs

that are an undercover boss, they come and they work there for a couple of weeks.

They get to know what's going on. Maybe they fire a bad boss and give them a

new boss or they pay for some college or some groceries or buy them a car.

And those are incredible things.

But this is not a CEO.

This is the king and creator of the universe, who's not just come to walk among

us, but identifies with us, so much so that he's willing to take on our sins.

He never sins himself. He never does anything that deserves any righteous judgment from God.

He never does anything that would cause him to stumble or cause him to deserve something.

But yet in his baptism, it is a symbol of him saying, I will take those sins

that have been symbolically washed away from you, take them onto myself,

and I will go pay for them.

I will go pay for them at the cross.

And the Trinity is present at this baptism. In other words, they agree with what Jesus is doing.

Verse 10, and when he came up out of the water immediately, remember this word

immediately is Mark's go-to word. He says it 42 times in this gospel.

Immediately, he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

Verse 11, and a voice came from heaven.

You are my beloved son.

With you, I am well pleased.

Again, we get caught up a lot as Christians, even as non-Christians in the how.

Well, how did that work? What did that look like? What do you think the dove

looked like? Like, what do you think really happened?

What does the voice of God sound like? Do you think it's more like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Do you think it's more like Sylvester Stallone?

We get caught up in those kinds of conversations.

Think of it like Genesis 1 through 3. We get caught up in trying to figure out,

well, how did God's voice create these things?

And how did the waters separate? And how did the Spirit hover?

The Bible rarely cares to really tell you how. That's not its concern.

The Bible's concern is why. Why did this happen?

I think partly because if he told us how, we would still go,

well, that doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, we're not God. Take a breath. We're not God.

So why is this going on? Well, I told you that Mark starts with Genesis language,

the beginning, verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, here you see some new creation language again.

Jesus is baptized and the Spirit comes and hovers over him like a dove.

You see the same language in Genesis 1.

The Spirit hovers over the waters.

God speaks from heaven over creation. He creates that way. This time,

though, he's not creating a new thing.

He is proclaiming that a new thing has come.

Jesus is not created. Jesus is eternal.

And what God says over him is, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

He says this to the person of Jesus, right?

Theological term of the morning, the hypostatic union, is this idea that Jesus is both man and God.

Not 50% man and 50% God, right?

I like the way that the Council of Councils says he's truly God and truly man.

And you go, well, how does that work? And to that I say, I don't know, I don't know.

But he is both 100% man, 100% God.

He takes on human nature as a way to serve us.

And God says to the human person of Jesus, you are my son, you are my son.

This is God ripping open heaven. That phrase there, torn apart.

You'll see it again later in three years in Mark 15.

I'm kidding. I don't know how it's going to take, but you'll see it later in

Mark 15. It's the story of when Jesus is put on the cross and as he dies,

the curtain between where man is and where God dwells is ripped into. It's torn apart.

That's what's going on here. You've heard the phrase, all hell breaking loose.

This is like saying all heaven is breaking loose on the world.

And then what's to follow? You would think again, after this incredible moment,

this incredible moment where Jesus comes and God opens the heavens and the spirit

descends and God says, this is my son with whom I'm well pleased.

You gotta think everyone there is gonna grab Jesus and go, man,

we gotta get you on a pedestal right now.

You are so important. We gotta bring you into the town. You are the guy.

Everything's gonna work out for us now because you're here. And what does the scripture say?

Immediately, immediately, verse 12, the spirit immediately drove him out to

the wilderness. What a coronation.

What a coronation.

This makes no sense to us. When presidents are inaugurated, they don't get driven

out into the wilderness.

When there's new kings and queens and rulers inaugurated throughout the world,

they don't have this big ceremony.

Give them everything. Give them all this praise. And then now we're going to

need you to go to the wilderness for 40 days.

The truth is Jesus's ministry, right? He's probably around 30 at this time.

It's inaugurated at his baptism. In other words, this is a picture of God saying

he's about to start his ministry, right? He's about to start preaching.

He's about to start teaching, but it's not public yet.

You can imagine the people that were around that saw that take place are going

back into town and they're going, man, we were listening to John.

We got there to be baptized and this guy showed up and heaven's open, this whole thing.

And then people are going, well, where is this guy? I got to see him.

They're like, I don't know. He walked, he walked into the wilderness.

And you're like, why? It's like, couldn't tell you.

I really do want you to put yourself in these people's shoes.

It's so confusing. It's so confusing.

Yeah. John, this guy eating locusts and honey, Jesus comes down this,

go to the wilderness. And you know, people are listening to this and they're

going like, these people are so dumb, so dumb. Why would they think this is real?

Jesus is immediately drove out into the wilderness. It says in verse 13,

and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

He was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

Again, we don't get a ton of details here on what goes on in the wilderness.

We do in other gospels, right? We do in other gospels.

But the first thing I want you to see is Jesus is not let out there by his own

accord. It's the spirit that drives him out.

The spirit drives him out.

I think it's interesting. Oftentimes when we think of, you know,

coming to the Lord or asking someone to come to the Lord, what you see on TV,

what you read in a lot of books is, do you want to be an overcomer?

Do you want to live a victorious life?

Do you want things to go your way?

And yet the picture we have of our savior who we follow, his life is wilderness.

Life is wild beast. His life will eventually be his family thinking he's crazy. It's a true story.

Jesus is speaking and they go back and tell his family and his mom sends his

brothers to go get Jesus to be like, man, he's lost it.

He's embarrassing us. Would you go get him and bring him back?

His friends will end up betraying him. One of his closest disciples,

one of his 12 disciples, his closest confidants will be the one that betrays him to the Romans.

This is an incredible story of a man that is drawn to suffering.

He is drawn to the things that we try to avoid.

And the truth is he goes more willingly into our sins and into suffering,

into the cross than we ever come willingly to his forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

We push and we push and we push away from admitting our sins and confessing

our sins and being humble and contrite.

We push and push away from being the servant of many. We push and push away

from going low with people.

And yet Jesus does it willingly.

That's who Jesus is. The Spirit drives him out into the wilderness.

And in the other gospels, we see this picture of what Jesus does,

what Jesus is presented with.

It's an incredible thing for the Son of God to go out into the wilderness.

But I want you to see some of the similarities between the first Adam and Jesus,

who will be called the second Adam.

Maybe first and foremost, neither of them have an earthly father.

Adam is created. He's created by God. It's his creation.

Adam is created sinless. Now,

again, there is the huge difference between the first and second Adam.

The second Adam, Jesus Christ, comes as a man, but he is eternally God.

But the first Adam is created, but both of them have no sin in them.

Adam has no sin in him when he's made. God looks at Adam and at Eve and says,

this creation, the rest of my creation is good. This creation is very good.

That's about where the similarities end on this temptation because he places Adam in a garden.

And he gives Adam everything he could ever need, a place where he can work and never sweat,

a companion fit for him, a garden with no real wild beasts to worry about.

Everything about Adam's situation is perfect and yet everything about Jesus' situation is awful.

He doesn't go to a garden, he goes to a wilderness. He doesn't have much to

eat. he's fasting for 40 days.

And yet the picture that's about to be painted is the first Adam,

Satan comes to him and he cannot deal with that temptation.

He believes that God is hiding something from him. And this second Adam that

we're about to see in a worse situation with worse things in his life will deal

with the temptations that come his way.

I'm going to do this out of Luke 4. Again, you can do this out of Matthew 3.

So again, it says that Jesus was brought into the wilderness.

I just want you to see what Satan does.

2 in Luke 4 says, for 40 days being tempted by the devil, he ate nothing during

those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

That's interesting. The devil doesn't come at the beginning. He waits until the end.

He waits. He's like, I know you're 30 days hungry, but you know what would be

worse than that? 40 days hungry.

I know you're tired. I know you're worn down.

Again, Jesus is 100% truly man, and he is beaten down through this experience.

Verse 3, says, the devil said to him, if you are the son of God,

command this stone to become bread. See what the devil attacks.

See how he attacks Jesus, because it's how he attacks you and me.

He doesn't say to Jesus, aren't you hungry? Aren't you hungry?

Don't you want to eat something? Man, if I were you, I would want to eat something.

He attacks the words that were said to Jesus at his baptism.

When Jesus is baptized, what does the Father say? You are my son.

With you I am well pleased. And what does Satan say to him?

If you are the son of God.

This is much the same way that we're tempted. We think we're tempted simply

by the things in our life.

Simply that Satan baits hooks that we bite onto by pleasure,

by pride, by power, by money. We think that's really the issue.

The issue is those things are secondary.

What's primary is, will you trust the Lord?

Will you trust the Lord? Satan doesn't ask Jesus if he's hungry.

He asked Jesus, do you really believe that?

Do you really believe that you're the son of God?

Do you really believe that God's gonna take care of you?

Do you really believe that God's pleased with you in the same way that he would

tempt us to say, do you really believe that you are chosen and favored and bought by the Lord?

Do you really believe that if he takes care of the spare hose, he'll take care of you?

Do you really believe that you could love your enemies and things go well for you?

Do you really believe that you could always tell the truth and not get in some

strife? Do you really believe that?

Do you trust the word of the Lord? It's no different than what happens to Adam

and Eve in the garden. Satan hasn't changed.

He doesn't come to Adam and Eve and say, aren't you hungry? Of course they're not hungry.

Aren't you thirsty? Of course they're not thirsty. Don't you want something?

No, they don't want anything.

No, Satan's temptations are always first and foremost.

Do you trust the word of the Lord? Do you trust it?

Jesus' response is quoting Deuteronomy. He says, it is written,

man shall not live by bread alone.

So then that doesn't work. The devil takes him and shows him all the kingdoms of the world.

And as if to say, Satan's described this way in the Bible, he's the prince of

the power of the air, the prince of this world.

The kingdoms in some way, shape, or form have been given to him.

Now God has ultimate control over everything, but Satan has reign.

He has rule. He can do things. He can do what God allows him to do,

and God allows him some leash on this world.

And so he goes to Jesus and he says, listen, I'll give you all the authority and their glory.

It has been delivered to me. That's not a lie. And I give it to whom I will. Now that's a lie.

If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.

And Jesus says, as is written, you shall worship the Lord your God,

and him alone shall you serve.

Again, realize the tension that's happening here because it's the tension that's in your life.

The tension is not, will you do a good thing or will you do a bad thing?

The tension is, will you trust God's word or will you trust what someone else

says, whether it's Satan himself or a friend or a coworker, who will you trust?

Doesn't work. Verse nine in Luke chapter four, it says, and he took him to Jerusalem

and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son

of God, there it is again.

Do you trust what God said about you? If you are the son of God,

throw yourself down from here. And this is great.

Satan quotes scripture to Jesus.

He says, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you.

That's an incredible thing.

The devil knows the scriptures. He knows them better than you or me.

And he comes to the man, Jesus Christ, from Nazareth, a no-name town,

and asks him, do you really believe?

Do you really trust what God told you?

Jesus answers him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an

opportune time, an opportune time.

Again, Jesus is not simply being tempted by things.

And you and me are not simply tempted by things, by what we watch on a screen

or what pleasures we can have for ourselves or what power we can have for ourselves,

what wealth might bring to us.

Certainly those are things that when we see them, we want them.

Certainly those are things that can cause incredible strife in our life,

but we're much more likely to be tempted first and foremost by who do you trust? Who do you trust?

Whose word do you believe?

Man, Christ Jesus, heard God say to him, you are my son and you, I am well pleased.

And when Satan tempted him, he answered him in a way that says, I trust him.

I trust I'm hungry, I'm tired, I'm beat up.

We have no idea what kind of temptation Jesus felt.

We like to think if God knew what I was going through, he would be easier on me.

I have people tell me all the time, you just don't get it. You don't know what

it's like. You have no idea what my life is like. And listen,

the first thing I'll tell you is you're right.

You're right. I have no idea what your life is like. I have no clue what you've

been through. I have no clue what it felt like.

What I do know is that Jesus did. You think about if you've ever,

if you ever saw the power team, you know, talking about like the Christian power

team, they'd come out and rip phone books and like Ben Rebar.

And then at the end they would give like a devotional about God is strong and

so are you nobody watched this this must have been a very specific time in history,

where is Karis where is Karis that I need her yeah I you don't go no no no no no no no no no.

Power team used to do these things. And I think if you think about bending a

piece of rebar, you know, if you take a thin piece of rebar and you try and

bend it, it gets about a little past 45 degrees and it breaks.

And that's a lot like what we do, right? We feel the tension, right?

The temptation hits us and we begin to bend and eventually we break.

You know what would be worse than that?

If you could bend you the whole way, right? If you don't break and the pressure

continues to get put on you, the longer you don't break, guess what? The harder it gets.

Everyone who's a Christian knows this, that the longer you're a Christian and

the longer you live this life and the more devoted you want to be,

the harder it gets because that's more pressure and more temptation and more

knows and more I trust you's and more please Lord deliver me from this.

And the more and more it happens, eventually we tend to break.

And Jesus felt more pressure and more temptation than anyone on the planet has

ever felt. Why? Because he never broke.

He continued to have pressure put on him and he was twisted and turned and twisted

and turned for 40 days with no food in the wilderness with the wild beast. And he never breaks.

Jesus knows what you're tempted with. He knows exactly how you're tempted.

No, he did not have an iPhone, right?

He doesn't know. He doesn't know what's happening exactly in your life,

but he knows the temptation is the same. Who will you trust?

Who will you trust? And listen, I don't, again, I have no idea where you are.

Some of you better than others. I talk to some of you more than others,

but I could talk to you every day and I may not know exactly where you're at.

It's your choice to tell me everything or not.

I'm not saying you have to. What I'm saying is you know where you are.

You know where you're tempted. You know where Satan comes and says and picks

at your specific thing and ask you, Not, will you do this? But who do you trust?

Who do you trust?

Now, why, again, why does Jesus do that?

Why does Jesus go to the wilderness? Why is he tempted?

Why is that the start of his ministry? Why does that have to happen?

Well, he told John why it had to happen, to fulfill all righteousness.

You think, you sit today, I challenge you, you sit and you think of all the

times you broke under temptation.

There's a positive end to this, so stay with me. I'm not just trying to be,

like I said, like you just sit, let's pray.

You sit and seriously, you sit and you think about it.

Just think of the last week, the times you punted, the times you should have

made it and you know you didn't. You said something you shouldn't have said.

You said something about somebody behind closed doors you shouldn't have said.

You gossiped about something. You looked at something you shouldn't have.

You did something, and maybe you should have done something,

and you didn't do anything.

You treated someone poorly. How about this? You just, in your heart of hearts,

thought, I'm just better than them.

I'm just better than them. You know why they act that way and I act this way?

Because I'm better than them.

Those poor peasants will never understand what it's like to be me. That's pride.

Think of all the times that you were tempted and broke. This is what Jesus is

accomplishing in the wilderness for you.

He is obtaining for you a righteousness, a life, a perfect life lived on your

behalf so that when you trust in him, he doesn't just take your sins away, he gives you a new life.

The life that Jesus gives you is not just a new life. It's not a fresh start.

It's not a clean slate. It's the life that he lived he gives to you so that

when you stand before God, God doesn't just see an empty slate of no sins.

He sees a life of perfect obedience and righteousness lived out before God.

Not that you earned, but that Christ earned and gives to you freely.

Jesus identifies with you in your sin. He is not a sinner, but he identifies

with you. He comes and doesn't just walk the earth with you. He takes on your sins.

Again, consider your worst sins.

Consider the sins that when you sit up at night and you think about them,

whether they were last year, five years ago, or 10 years ago,

consider the worst things you've ever done.

Jesus looks at those sins and says, I will take those.

I will be baptized into those sins.

I will carry those sins my whole life and yet not sin, and I will walk to the cross and pay for them.

Not only will I pay for the sins you committed, I'll give you all of my righteousness.

That's an incredible thing that Mark's doing in four verses.

I think so much of the nice word here is nonsense that Christians get caught

up in is we waste all of our time talking about hows.

How's this work? How's this work? How's this happen? How's that going to go down?

Every conversation turns into like a revelation conversation.

What do you think that means? Do you think the grasshoppers are chin hook helicopters?

What do you think that means?

Who's coming? Where is it going? Why would Jesus do that? And we do all that.

You know why we do that? Because dealing with the why is so much harder.

Dealing with the Y forces us to say, I'm a sinner.

I'm a sinner. I need Jesus to pay for my sins. I need Jesus to give me a righteousness I do not have.

You know what's a lot easier for me to talk about than that when I talk about

myself? A whole lot easier to say, you know how you should spend your money?

You know, you should really help people. You should really be giving.

Let me give you seven keys to a successful Christian life.

That's so easy. I'm not opposed to those things, okay?

I want you to have those things, but they're easy compared to saying you're

a sinner and you need a savior not only to pay for your sins,

but to give you a perfect life that you cannot live.

That's a lot harder to talk about, but it's the why.

It's why Jesus is doing this. It's why he's being tempted.

It's why he's being baptized, to give to his people something that they could never do for himself.

Unless you think, woe is me, I really need that, so does David,

so does Moses, so does Abraham,

so does Adam and Eve, so does your favorite pastor or preacher,

so does your grandma or grandpa that you love so much that you think is the best Christian ever.

They need their sins forgiven and a righteousness applied to their life that they do not have.

Church, we should remind ourselves often, we talked about this this morning

in the Bible study, we should remind ourselves often that the unbelievers that

we know in our life, this is what they need.

They don't need you to nitpick their life and tell them how bad they're being. They don't.

They need you to present to them a savior, not so that they can be better,

but so they can have a savior that says to them, I will take those sins.

I will give you a righteousness, but will you trust me in the wilderness that is this life?

Will you trust me when you're hungry, when you're thirsty, when you don't have

what you feel like you're supposed to have, when you feel like things are taken

away from you that you're supposed to have, when you feel like you want something

so bad that if you had that thing, man, everything would get better.

Will you trust Jesus in that moment?

This is what we say to our unbelievers, our unbelieving friends.

Not you should do better, but Christ has done better for you.

He has done for you what you cannot do for yourself.

And if they look at us and they say, well, you just sound like a holy roller, right?

Didn't Jesus sound like the most old school Baptist thing that you think that

you draw the caricature of this fundamental Baptist preacher that he just sits

up there and says all the time.

Well, God said this and God said that. Yeah, that's how Jesus answers Satan.

But again, when we're talking to our unbelieving friends, our job is not to

make them better people.

Our job is to present to them a savior that can save them.

And our job is to live our life in accordance with the savior that has saved us.

Mark is setting up for his gospel. Again, we're 13 verses in,

and this is already what Mark has given us.

So just again, some quick takeaways, and we'll close. Number one,

Jesus identifies with you.

He doesn't run from you. He doesn't run from your sin.

He doesn't wait for you to clean some of it up. And the same way that Jesus

comes in front of this crowd and Mark identifies.

As these people have been confessing their sins and getting baptized and repenting,

Jesus goes in front of them and he says, I'll take this on myself.

And it's no different than if he was looking you straight in the eye,

that he was one-on-one with you, he would look you dead in the eye and say, I'll take it.

All those sins, all those things you're ashamed of, all those things you wish

no one knew, all those things maybe no one does know that you've done in private,

that you wish you never would have done?

Jesus looks you in the eye and says, I will take those from you.

You say, well, Jesus, what are you going to give me back?

He says, I'll give you perfect righteousness.

I will give you a life that will be as though you have never done anything wrong in your entire life.

Jesus identifies with you. Number two, Jesus gives us a picture of how we identify with others.

Jesus doesn't show up and do all the things that these people are doing.

Jesus doesn't take on our sins by committing our sins.

He doesn't say, well, that person struggled with alcoholism,

so I'm going to go get drunk so I can experience that sin so that I can minister to that person.

No, but he gives us this picture of, again, walking amongst unbelievers and

making sure they know, hey, listen, I'm no better.

I'm no better. Listen, Jesus was better. He's the one person in the entire world

that could look at every single person he saw and look him in the eye,

point his finger in their chest and say, I'm better than you.

He could do that every single day. I'm better than you.

Jesus never does that. What does Jesus do? And I'll take it.

I'll take it. What are you taking on? Like, who are you reaching out to?

What places are you going that puts you in a position to tell unbelievers,

hey, I'll take some of the ridicule.

I'll take some of the shame. You can make fun of me if you're like I get it.

My life looks different than yours.

To just remind us that none of us are ever above the lowest task.

As Christians, we tend to think that we pay our dues and that as we're in church

long enough, as we serve long enough, as we get more knowledge,

if we become teachers, we become leaders, maybe we've given a lot of money to the church,

we start to think, because we're prideful, that some of these tasks are just below us.

Some of the things that God asks us to do, those are for the people that haven't

figured out what I've figured out yet. If there's anything Jesus teaches us

right here, it's no, that is not true.

Your dues have been paid by Christ Jesus. And if you have breath in your lungs,

there is no place too low for you to serve ever for any of us ever.

Takeaway. Are you trusting in yourself to deal with the temptations of this life?

Are you trusting in the one who has been tempted and never failed?

Here's what I mean by that.

When you're tempted, is your first response to burrow yourself up and go,

I'm going to beat this. I'm going to beat this?

Or is your first response to run to the Father and say, God,

I am not strong enough to withstand this very long. I am not.

But I have a Savior, your Son, Jesus Christ, who does know what it's like.

He does know what it's like to be tempted in every way and to never fail.

So God, would you give me a clearer picture of Him?

Would you help me see you for who you are? Would you help me see how much grace

and mercy I've been given so that I can withstand this temptation.

That is how Jesus withstands temptation.

You realize that? Jesus could do whatever he wants to do. Again,

Satan's just another created being to him.

Satan's not more powerful than him. Jesus can do whatever he wants.

Yet he takes on, again, identifies with us. And how does he defeat the devil?

He doesn't defeat the devil by punching him in the face, as funny as that shirt is.

He doesn't do that. He defeats the devil by saying, God told me that I am his beloved son.

He told me that. I trust him.

And that is how you and me are called first and foremost to deal with temptation,

to go to the words that God has told him.

Think of the things, have scriptures on hand that you can think about.

Think of all the things that God has said about you.

Think of all the promises that God has made to you, not the least of which is

Jesus saying, hey, I will never leave you or forsake you. I will be with you always.

Chosen you. I've loved you. I've adopted you into this family like my children.

I've given you a righteousness that's not your own. I have paid for your sins.

I have guaranteed that you will have an eternal life that will be better than

any garden I've ever built, that I will make every injustice that was ever done

to you, I will make it right one day.

Every time that you got the short end of the stick, every time that something

didn't go the way that it should have gone, God says, I will make those things right.

And what do we do? We spend all our time going, well, how are you going to do that?

How are you, you want me to trust you? Tell me how you're going to do that.

Instead of going, no, I know that I can trust you.

Because as we just sang this morning, I've seen, I've seen the father's glory

revealed in Jesus Christ.

That's how you fight temptation. But there's no point in fighting temptation

if you don't know Jesus Christ.

I'm not talking about you said a prayer, you walked an aisle.

I'm talking about, do you know him?

Do you know that he loves you? Do you know that he cares for you?

Do you know that he died for you? Do you know that he's given you a righteousness

that's not your own? Do you know that?

And if you don't, talk to someone, have the conversation, pray,

ask the Lord to reveal that to you.

That's my prayer for Trinity all the time is that we would be a place where

people can come and come to know the Lord.

Either come to know him for the first time or come to know him better.

That's all I wanna do. If we get everything else wrong, that's okay.

I can live with that. I can live with bad decisions.

I can live with rough Sundays. I can live with weird lessons and weird stuff.

I can deal with all that, but I never wanna be a place that people walk into

that when they walk out, they go, man, if I wanted to know the Lord better, I could do it there.

Lord has identified with you. Lord has taken your sins. He has given you a righteousness.

Let's go and do likewise. Let's pray.

Father, again, thank you for this morning.

God, thank you for the chance to open your word. God, thank you for patient listeners.

God, we know that we're going to be tempted, that we're going to be tempted

with what the world offers us.

God, I pray that this morning would be a reminder that the first thing that

we need to do when we're tempted,

is not to look within ourselves to try and find some hidden strength that we

may or may not have, but that we would first remind ourselves that we have a

Savior who has promised to be with us forever, who has dealt with every temptation and has won.

Strengthen us as we leave here to be a people that look clearly at your face,

see your glory through the Son, Jesus Christ.

And God, as the song says, the more that we behold you, the more you would satisfy

and the less that we would look to the world for those things, which only you can give.

The less we would look to the world to prove us right. The less we would look

to the world to say that we're important, to say that we're in charge,

say that we have status, to say that we matter here.

God, we don't want to be a church that simply exists so that people can say,

man, they really matter.

They made a huge difference. We want to be a church that exists,

that people look at and say, if you want to know about Jesus, you can go there.

So that we can not only tell of our believing friends and each and every one

of us every week, man, how good and gracious is Jesus Christ,

but so that we can go to our unbelieving friends, families, and neighbors,

and just people we meet throughout the week.

And tell them, man, let me tell you about this man named Jesus who took your sins.

Let me tell you about this man named Jesus who offers to you a righteousness that's not your own.

Let me tell you what he did in my life. Let me tell you what it's like for him

to be the king of your life. I pray that you'd make that a reality for us in here, I pray. Amen.