The Gospel of Mark | New Beginnings (April 8th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Alright, what if you would grab a copy of God's word if you have one and uh get it turned over to uh the Gospel of Mark?

The Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Now, have you ever felt like, you know, man, I I just I just need uh I just need a fresh start.

You ever felt like that before?

And I and I mean like legitimately, like you're not just trying to, you know, selfishly get out from underneath something that God would have you, you know, persevere through and stick with.

It's not just it's not just your flesh talking here, but but like, no, actually, I legitimately need uh a fresh start.

And maybe for you it's it's been maybe in the form of like a career move or something like that.

Right?

And for you it's again, it's like the company is just sort of going downhill, and you're like, I I I need to get off of this, right?

I need to get out of this sinking ship and and and find something else.

Or or maybe for you it's been you know uh a relationship that's gone you know real real toxic and it was a friendship or it was something like that, and you're like, man, we need a fresh start, we need to get together in the room, me and this person, and and we need to work this thing out, and we need to get back to you know a better place.

Or or maybe for you it's what is it, it's April, of course, and you know the weather's still not great, and it still feels like winter, and for you it's like, man, I've been sick, which you know, for what feels like five, six straight months.

You know, and for you, the fresh start is just like in the form of kind of general, you know, just general health.

You know, that's what I want.

Right.

Well, sometimes in life, you know, a fresh start is it's necessary, isn't it?

It really is.

Uh, you know, it's it's a new chapter for you, it's uh it's a new beginning, right?

That's exactly what I need.

You know, Mark uh verse one, if you're there, it kind of opens up with this.

Look at this first verse here with me.

It says, uh, the beginning, okay, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

You know, understand that this is this is so much more than just saying, you know, this is the beginning of this book.

Okay, it's a lot more than that.

Okay, rather, it's it's about an entirely new beginning for for all of mankind.

Okay, the the stage is now set.

God is God is here now, right?

And and it's time to throw down.

That's the way that this book kind of starts off.

Satan, sin, death, you're all being put on notice.

Christ has arrived on the scene, and he is ushering in a new beginning, a new day, a new dawn.

The hope of the world has come.

And for us, you know, as as you and I, just kind of everyday life, you know, we groan and you know, we kind of grind under the various pressures of the day, you know, the burden of sin and you know, the ultimate lack of real fulfillment that enters and sort of seeps into our life and gnaws away at our soul as we sort of push God into the background and into the periphery of of life and we insist on other less important things occupying the foreground and our attention.

Right?

Jesus' coming is the fresh start, right?

That's the new beginning that we so badly need.

Right?

And that is what, in many ways, the book of Mark, and certainly this passage we're gonna look at here today, the first part of chapter one, is really all about.

And so we're gonna get into this and go through these verses here.

Before we do that, let's just commit our time to the Lord.

Would you join me as we pray?

God, we thank you.

Lord, for giving us your word.

Lord, it's it's it's awesome.

It is good.

Lord, I pray that as we go through these verses here today, Lord, I pray that we would be filled with just really a great sense, a high view of your word, Lord.

God, we get into so many tr so much trouble as as individuals, as Christ followers, as the church when we stop seeing your word for as awesome as it really is.

And so, God, I pray that this would always be a hallmark of our church, but you know, even you know, beyond all of that, beyond, you know, our gathering here today, which is so crucial and so important, Lord, I pray this would be a hallmark of our lives.

Lord, I pray that your word, the Bible, would be foundational.

And so, Lord, I pray that as we talk about these awesome verses, Lord, and look at this new beginning that you brought for all mankind, Lord, I pray that we would realize that that's what you would have for us.

Lord, it's a new beginning for us.

It's salvation, it's you know, it's it's it's you working and moving in our lives to change us, to make us new in so many different ways.

And so, God, help us to find encouragement and anchor our souls to this today.

Lord, lead us, we pray, in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, hopefully by now, you know, it's pretty obvious that we're starting a new series.

All right, we're in the book of Book of Mark, of course, the Gospel of Mark.

And so the way that this is gonna kind of work out for us is we are gonna be spending, this is kind of like Mark part one, if you will.

And so we're gonna be spending the next 10 or so weeks uh going through the first half of this book, really, in about in 10 messages.

And so we'll be going, uh we'll be spending the bulk of our time in Mark, in the first part of Mark, between now and uh the beginning of the summer.

We'll have a different series in the summer, and then we'll get back into uh Mark part two at some point, maybe in the fall or even uh or into early next year, sort of working some of those details out uh still.

And so um we're gonna get into all of that for sure.

But as we get into it, um just a couple of things about this book to kind of help us get our bearings straight and help us understand where this is all coming from uh here.

Um Mark is widely held as the first gospel account uh ever written.

Uh it was written by uh Mark, as you might imagine, or or John Mark, as he's sometimes referred to.

You'll see that in the in the New Testament as as well.

And it was written around kind of the mid-50s to mid-60s, somewhere in there AD, of course.

And so we're talking, you know, 25 to 35 years um after uh after the resurrection.

And so uh who is Mark?

Well, Mark was Mark was actually uh an interpreter uh for uh the disciple, the apostle Peter, and so he wrote this account as we're gonna get into it here, uh, based on uh really on Peter's account of his time that he spent uh with Jesus himself.

Now, Mark, he writes this really to a primarily Gentile audience.

Now, I would just imagine that that's probably the most of us.

Most of us would be Gentiles, we would be non-Jewish.

Now, we might have uh some Jewish brothers and sisters in here for sure, which would be cool and which is great, uh, but this was written mostly uh to a context who didn't really understand necessarily uh as deeply the the culture of uh the Jews.

They didn't understand the traditions, and we know that because he doesn't get into a whole lot of that uh in this book, and and the little bit that he does get into, he tends to uh explain.

All right?

Now, the dominating theme that we see woven through this entire uh book here is is really what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

What it means to follow him.

Now, that those are just some touch points here for us.

Just to kind of again get our bearings straight.

We will, as we go along now, over the bun next bunch of weeks, we will probably unpack more of those things that I just mentioned.

But again, that's just to sort of whet our appetite there and give us some understanding as we go.

All right, well, here's the first thing as we uh as we get into it here, and this is uh in our uh in your notes.

Hopefully, you've got a copy of those.

You can write notes, you can jot these things down, they can help you in your own personal study uh this week.

We're into that kind of thing here.

But here's the first thing Jesus came to usher in a new beginning.

All right, new beginning when the timing was just right.

Okay?

Now take a look at verse one here with me as we walk through the first seven verses here.

Uh this is what it says.

It says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We looked at that.

And then it says this, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, and then you see here, probably in your version of God's word, there's sort of this indented section here of a few verses, and this is what it says.

It says, Behold, I send my I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way.

Now, if you've done any study or you've looked at this, you might be thinking, well, hold on, hang on a second, isn't that Malachi?

Right?

I don't know if you've caught that or not, maybe not, but it actually comes from that first part there, comes from Malachi uh 3 verse 1.

You might be like, well, hold on a second, like he did.

Didn't he just say this was Isaiah?

Like what's going on there?

Well, he, you know, it's in actually some of the earlier manuscripts, it just says, uh, this is what the prophets say.

Okay, it doesn't even actually name uh Isaiah in some of those, uh, some of those early texts, but but the reason why it would say Isaiah is because uh the rest of what's being written, and certainly the bulk of this indented section here, uh, is Isaiah.

Okay, he was a more much more prominent uh prophet, and so that's why uh he gets the credit here from uh from Mark.

Okay, and so this next little part here, this comes from Isaiah 40, verse 3, but take a look at it here.

Isaiah 40:3

It says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Hey, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

All right, now both of these references, the the Malachi 3, 1 and the Isaiah 40, verse 3, both of those are about who?

Isaiah 40:3

Yeah, they're about John the Baptist, right?

I heard somebody say it.

John, John the Baptist.

Okay, the the Malachi reference, it was written uh 500 years before John the Baptist showed up on the scene, and the Isaiah reference uh was written 700 years before John emerged.

Okay, so prophecy from long ago.

Let's put it that way.

Okay, now keep going here, verse 4.

Look how it says this.

Now John appeared.

And now, one of the things you need to understand about Mark, okay, and and this gospel that we're reading is that it's very fast-paced.

Okay, and some of the other gospels that you'll see, you know, Matthew and Luke, they spend a lot of time and and really get into the into the weeds and a lot of detail and they expound things.

And Mark, he's you know, he just kind of keeps us engaged and from moving from one thing to the next thing.

Okay, he keeps it moving along fast.

So you got a bunch of prophecy about John the Baptist coming and and making straight the paths of the Lord 500 years ago, 700 years ago, and then all of a sudden, whoa, here's John, here he is.

All right, verse 4 again.

John appeared, a baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance, a for the forgiveness of sins.

And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now, John, John's a pretty unique dude.

Okay, you notice this?

Have you read this before?

Okay, it says this he was he was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and and ate locusts and wild honey.

Okay, like hipsters in the room are like, nice, right?

Like, nice look, man.

Right?

Like basically, this guy got his his look from you know, his wardrobe uh from a from a thrift store, right?

And his food from I I kind of picture like nature's emporium, right?

Like locusts, right?

Like high, you know, high protein, um, all organic, I'm sure.

Right?

That's how John would have rolled.

Right, but then keep going.

Keep going, he says, and he preached, okay, he preached, saying, After me comes comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.

Okay, so John, okay, John also knew his role, right?

He he was uh he was a very humble guy, he wasn't looking for the spotlight to be on him, but at the same time, he was fierce.

Right?

He was, I mean, it would have been so cool to meet this guy, it's just so different and so you know, so unique for sure.

And and so we know this, we read this, and he's coming again to pave the way, to make straight the path for the coming Messiah.

Okay, and so he called, he got up in people's grill, right?

And he and he was like, you know, repent, right?

It's time to get your hearts ready here and confess your sin, and and he encouraged them to really display their repentance and their change of heart through through baptism.

Okay, so God used John to help, again, help people get ready for who was really coming, right?

For for Jesus.

Because as as unique as John the Baptist was, uh guess what?

Okay, Jesus was about to come and really upend things.

Right?

He was really about to come and stir the pot for people and for this nation and and of course the entire the entire world, right?

How people lived, how people thought and and and worshipped, and you know how they how they, of course, you know, their their cultural norms and what people valued in life, and and and certainly you know many people's misguided notions of of what it meant to know God and follow Him.

But again, Jesus came to do what?

Well, he came to usher in a new beginning, right?

A new dawn, a new day was coming.

Okay, but when did he do it?

Well, he did it when the timing was right.

He did it when the timing was right.

See, you see, the prophecies in in in Malachi and in Isaiah, again, written 500 and 700 years before John the Baptist was even born.

Okay, what does it show us?

What does that tell us there?

It's not just like a bunch of old words.

It tells us that God had a plan in place all along to come for us, right?

To come after his creation.

But again, it was only when when the stage had been set just right.

It was only when when when the timing was was perfect, right?

That that that point in history where where God decided in his wisdom and in his sovereignty and in his goodness and all of it, that he decided that that humanity was ready for salvation to come.

Now, as you and I, you know, as we might you know very often struggle with God's timing in certain things, don't we?

We struggle with that in our lives.

You know, we we want those prayers answered now, yesterday.

You know, we want that fresh start, we want that new beginning to begin immediately.

Lord, bring it on.

You know, and again, as much as we might again kind of grapple and struggle with that, the the concept of his perfect timing and and you know how he works these things out uh you know according to his sovereign plan and how he wants to do it, okay, the concept of all of that should be fairly fresh in our minds, I would think.

Because again, I already mentioned it earlier, but uh just seven days ago, you know, and a few more than that on Good Friday, we you know we gathered and and you know think about think about last Saturday.

Right?

The the the the day the day beforehand was was Good Friday.

And of course, that was the day that that Jesus died, and and and then there was Sunday, the day that he you know rose again and and defeated sin and all of that.

Think about that Saturday and what that would have what that would have been like.

But listen, that Saturday is the ultimate example of just because God is silent, it does not mean that he's not working.

Right?

Think about it.

Again, trying to imagine, trying to put yourself in the shoes of uh of the disciples on that day, you know, that would have been dark.

Right?

That would have that would have been hard.

It would have seemed for them that that all was lost.

And they're like, what is going on?

This is so this is so confusing, it would have been heartbreaking, it would have been absolutely demoralizing.

All they would have been thinking was it's over for us.

You know, we left our jobs, we left, we left our livelihood to to follow this man, our friend, this this incredible prophet, and and now he's dead.

They didn't see this coming.

But of course, we have the luxury of seeing all of this in the rear view mirror.

We know that that Christ would turn all of this over on its head come Sunday morning.

Listen, if you're in a, I don't know, if you're in a season right now of uh or when you you enter into a season uh of that waiting and you know, that wondering and wrestling with the Lord uh you know over his timing and and answering of prayers and and and things just working out, and your heart is just screaming, and you're sensing the urgency of you know the new beginning and the fresh start, and you know, in in any number of specific ways as we have them in this life.

Listen, remember these three things.

Remember these three things, they'll be on the screen for you.

Here's the first one.

Okay, silence doesn't mean that God doesn't care.

Okay, silence doesn't mean he doesn't care.

Write these down.

I think some of us know this, but when we go into a a period, a time where the Lord seems distant or we're crying out and it's guttural and it is hard, and they are gritty prayers, and we're like we need it now.

We have that sense.

Sometimes it can be easy for us in our in our mindset to start to doubt and to start to to question the Lord's love for us and and and think that He just doesn't maybe just doesn't care as much as I read or as much as I see him.

You know, he seems to care about this person or that person.

And their life situations we gotta remind ourselves constantly, don't we, about uh about the Lord's love for us and and and understand that he knows what we really need.

Just because we feel something emotionally or or even in a timeline period that we have in this life, because we think we see exactly when we need it, the Lord knows, the Lord knows better.

He knows what we what we really actually need.

And it's in those moments of God's silence that that he's working.

Right, he's doing something, he's he's building you up, he's building what?

He's building your endurance.

He's making you, you know, being able, he's being you're able to handle those difficult periods in life and go for longer and all of that.

He's strengthening your endurance, he's he's building up your trust in him.

Do you realize that if God just gave us everything that we wanted the second that we asked for it, do you realize we would be just that spoiled child throwing a fit in the mall?

Right?

You ever see a kid do that?

Right?

Our own kids, our kids have done that.

Right?

You've probably seen that too.

As a parent, it's like the worst move ever to be like, okay, I'll give you that.

Right?

Because you know the kid's just gonna, he's gonna milk that for all it's worth.

I think there's a bit of a parallel here in our in our own lives with the Lord.

We can be in some ways spiritually very immature and we want something and we scream out.

I remember, I remember in my walk, I've done it before.

I've I've like straight up yelled out loud at the Lord, give me that thing now.

All right, I've done it.

Have you ever done that?

Right?

The Lord, in those moments, the Lord's teaching us to trust him.

Listen, you don't, you think you know, you think you know what you need.

I know, I see it.

Just trust me in this.

What else is he building up?

He's building perseverance.

Persevere in this.

Are you gonna be the guy or the person who just, you know, you ask for something, oh I didn't get it, throw in the towel, I'm out.

Right?

That's not perseverance.

Keep coming after him.

Keep coming after him.

Do you really want him, or do you just want the comfort that that answered prayers bring?

Do you really want the Lord or do you just want the stuff that he gives you?

The Lord's digging, digging, digging for those things.

At the end of the day, he's making us strong.

Right?

That's what he's producing in the silence.

Okay, silence doesn't mean he doesn't care.

He very much does.

It's the opposite.

Here's the second thing anxiety isn't a viable option.

Okay, it's not a viable option.

But isn't it amazing how many of us have just gotten to the place where we've just accepted anxiety?

Right?

That's just part of life.

I'm supposed to be stressed and maxed out.

I'm supposed to have sleepless nights.

Yeah, welcome to real life, Pastor.

That's just the way it is.

You sure about that?

Okay, not according to the scriptures.

Right?

It's Matthew 6, it's Philippians, I believe it's chapter 4.

Right?

Do not be anxious.

Do not be anxious.

That's not like a suggestion, that's a command.

So think about it.

On some level, at some point, we get to the place where that actually becomes sin.

We're giving into anxiety.

And we're and we're doing that, and we're just going down that road.

And one of the things I've been so surprised about in my own life, and and even when talking with other Christ followers, is just how often you get talking about a conversation and you find out how anxious the person is, and sometimes you get into these scriptures and into these passages, and you know how about the Lord cares about things like birds and flowers, and if he cares about them so much, how much more so will he care about us as children?

And it's it's a little bit shocking how quickly our hearts, and I've heard this in so many conversations, where people are like, yeah, but yeah, but and then they go on to basically justify the anxiety that they've got.

Justify the lack of trust and the lack of the lack of faith.

You can do that if you want, but that's no that's leading nowhere good.

Understand, anxiety isn't a viable option.

Now, is getting to the place of uh of not being anxious about these things and and and the worry and the fear and the doubt that's all kind of you know crowds in together and all of that is getting to a place where that's that's in the rear view mirror, again, in the past, is that is that easy?

Of course not.

That's not easy.

But again, wrestle with the Lord on those things.

Okay, it's not a viable option.

Third thing.

Do everything you can to be ready, be ready for the answer.

Okay, again, it's very easy for us as believers, and I think it's a huge just a sign of our immaturity.

Now, the Lord understands that we're immature, and he's making us mature.

That's what the life, uh, a Christian life is all about.

But but sometimes we're like, you know, Lord, I need you, and and and I need this answer to prayer, and but then we're not really putting ourselves in the right position so that so that we grow and we develop and we become ready for the answer that we so long for.

And and in the silence, we withdraw from you know time spent with the Lord and his word.

We we back away from community, and and we it's all the excuses that start to come up.

And I shouldn't be in a small group anymore, and you know, wow, I'm sick, I should, I shouldn't come tonight.

There's all kinds of different reasons for that.

You know I get it.

Some of you like schedules change and stuff, and you've got, I just sense the emails that are coming this week, right?

But listen, sometimes our excuses are super lame and super immature.

And we back out of all of this, and we're like, why isn't the Lord answering me?

Because you're not ready for it.

You can't handle it, you're immature, you gotta grow.

Dig in, do everything you can to be ready.

Again, put yourself in those good positions.

Write those down, think through these things this week.

Pray, bring the Lord into all of this.

Where are the are is there an area here in these in this list of three things that I'm just I'm I'm weak in and I need to grow in?

You know, invest into your small group, ask some people some questions who know you and love you.

You know, what are you seeing in my life?

All right, let's keep going here.

Second thing.

Second thing, Jesus came to usher in new beginning in a colossal display of God's power.

Huge display of God's power.

Verse 8.

Okay, take a look.

It says this I have, this is John speaking, of course, I have baptized you with with water, but but he, speaking of Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

And so John's like, you know, my baptism is, you know, it's it's good and necessary, it's all of that, that's great, but but his baptism, what what Jesus is coming to do, it's gonna be, you know, far greater.

It's gonna blow mine out of the water.

Why?

Well, because the the Messiah is gonna baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

Okay, meaning, meaning salvation, and then beyond that, even in real power for living.

Right?

Real power from God is gonna be poured out on you into the lives of those who know and follow Christ.

Right?

That's what his baptism is gonna look like.

I mean, we say see all of this play out in Acts chapter 2, jot it down.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And it's the it's the day of Pentecost, and it's it's it's the first day that the Holy Spirit got poured into the lives of the believers, and every single person who gets saved has that as well.

The Holy Spirit resides in us, and now we've got power to actually live as Jesus commands us to and to carry out his commands and fulfill his mission.

Right, pretty awesome stuff.

You know, verse 9, take a look at this.

Okay, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee.

Again, you see the fast pace, right?

You know, now Jesus is here on the scene, he's arrived.

You know, there's no there's no genealogy about his birth and tracing that back to King David, you know, all of that like Matthew talks about, you know, there's you know, there's no birth narrative that we see in Luke and and all of that.

No, he just gets to it, right?

He keeps the story moving.

Okay?

And what does it say here?

It says, and and and Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And people often look at that and they wonder, like, why was Jesus baptized?

Right?

It's not like Jesus had any, you know, had any sin in his life.

It's not like he underwent some kind of transformation, you know, in his life like like you and I would.

It's not it's not an outward expression of the inward reality of salvation like it is for us when we've had baptism services, you know, here.

It's not about any of that.

So, you know, what was up with what was up with Jesus' baptism?

What was the point?

Well, listen, understand this.

It was it was the inauguration of his public ministry.

That's what it was.

Okay, it was really uh you know, you know, a very official and and very visual way, as as we'll see here, of passing the baton, all right, from the ministry of John the Baptist, who, again, for hundreds of years, centuries, people were expecting and waiting for.

And John the Baptist, uh John the Baptist was was this like great guy and this great person that people followed and and came out to in droves.

And and so it was a way for for the Lord to make it really clear that it's now moved from John to Jesus now.

That's what the that's what the baptism was.

Okay?

And as we see here in verse 10, it also served to show the unity uh of the Trinity in Christ's mission uh to save us from sin.

Okay, as well as it's it's it's we see the father's stamp of approval on his son.

Jesus isn't rogue from the other two members of the Trinity, just kind of doing his thing.

No, they were unified here, they were together on this.

They're coming for us.

Right?

New day, new beginning.

All right, now take a look at this, verse 10.

Right?

And when and when he came up out of the water, so this is Jesus, of course, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice, okay, and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son.

With you, I am well pleased.

I am well pleased.

Now, now I think it can be pretty easy for us, okay, to sort of read this and to sort of whip through it.

Right?

We we've read this, some of us have read the gospels over and over again, and so we kind of skim the surface of all of this, and sometimes I think we just we completely miss the magnitude of what's really going on here.

Right?

This is this is a huge deal.

Again, as as we read through this, one of the things I love about Mark and a lot of different sections in the Old Testament and the New Testament is his narrative.

Right?

So the whole thing is a story, and something that we should do as we read narrative anytime, and certainly as we're going through this series here, is just try and picture yourself at the scene.

Right?

Imagine the the sights and the sounds and the smells.

Live it, breathe it, right?

Breathe it all out.

Right, it's so good.

So just picture yourself.

First of all, you've got, what do you see there in the text in verse 10?

Right?

First of all, you see the heavens being, it says it's being torn open.

Okay, I'd say there's like, I don't know, some intensity in that.

Right?

It's it's like almost a it's a violent intensity.

That's what the picture is.

God is showing us here, what is he showing us?

The enormity of his supremacy, right?

His love for Jesus Christ, his love for his creation, his passion for us, all rolled into this.

There's an amazing, there's a colossal display of just sheer power.

That's what's going on in the baptism of Jesus.

Again, as you're reading the scriptures anywhere, but but particularly again here, because we're in Mark, listen, learn, learn to spot what's really going on.

Spend some time, soak it up.

Live in it, think carefully about all of these things.

Try and imagine what's what's really happening here in these kinds of moments.

Okay, now it's not over.

Not even close.

Keep going here, the rest of this.

It says, and the spirit, look at it carefully, the spirit descending on him in the form of an actual literal dove.

Doesn't say that, does it?

Okay, it doesn't say that.

It doesn't say that at all.

It says that the spirit descended on him, what?

Like a dove, right?

Like a dove.

Now, I don't know if you, you know, you were in Sunday school, you know, growing up, you know, particularly like in the I don't know, 70s, 80s, 90s.

You know, I was an 80s child for sure.

And I don't know if you ever saw like those just awful, you know, pictures, drawings of you know, depicting, you know, Christ's baptism and all of that, and and with the dove.

I mean, we've got a couple, a couple of pictures here.

Let's throw these up here.

Have you ever seen these before?

Right, you looked at these.

Like, I just like I just shiver, like a cold sweat just comes over me physically when I see these things as I'm reminded, you know, here of these of these pictures, and it's always like, oh, isn't that you know, isn't that kind of nice?

There's a dove there that flew in, and uh did it land on Jesus.

I don't like I don't know, but but but there it is.

You know?

Listen, I think you know where I'm going with this.

Pictures like this are are so lame.

Right?

They're so lame because because why?

Well, they take what is a powerful, awesome moment in the Bible here and and and misleads us.

Right?

It misleads us, and you know, we we're left thinking, and we grow up thinking that wow, there was like a dove there flying in, and there was like, you know, the sun was coming through the clouds just perfectly, and there's like a ray, you know, on him.

And and sometimes in some of these pictures, like Jesus, you know, he's not even wet.

Like, didn't he just come out of the water?

Like, what's what's going on here?

Okay, it leaves us thinking that it's just like about some bird, and we're confused by it.

And and again, we think it's kind of cheesy.

This is the attitude we come at.

Listen, this is just one example, but isn't it a one no wonder why you know people get so bored of the uh of the Bible?

They think it's lame.

They think they think it's cheese, and because in certain cases we've we've taken awesome situations, you know, the these great pictures of God's awesome power and reduced it down into this.

Okay, get rid of that picture.

I'm done with that.

Okay, but this is this is not the situation developing here.

That's not this is not how we read it.

Right?

It says the picture of is really it's it's like a dove, is what it says.

Now, now I'll be the first to say, I don't know exactly what this scene would have looked like.

Right?

Do any of us?

I don't know, but I'm uh you've got this wild picture of like heavens being torn open, right?

And and then there's a dove like a dove and the spirits you know descending on on the sun?

I mean, that would have been, I don't think any of us would have been like just eating popcorn, calmly taking it in.

This is wild.

Okay, and again, it's not even over.

Take a look at the rest of it, verse 11.

It says, and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

Okay, so so now what have you got on top of these other two things?

You've got the voice of God the Father Himself, okay, okay, speaking audibly.

Okay, that didn't just happen all the time.

It really didn't.

And here's what here's what else makes this so such a wild moment in history.

Okay, understand that that the last Old Testament prophet was Malachi.

We've already referred to him uh today.

Okay, he's the last prophet, it's the last book of the Old Testament.

And so there had been this 400-year period, this gap.

We call it the the intertestamental period between the the ending of the the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, between when when God last spoke to his people uh through a prophet.

To know what?

What's happening here, Mark 1?

Right now God's speaking and using powerfully, first of all, John the Baptist, but but now he is doing it himself.

Right?

He's speaking out loud, saying, This is this is my son.

I am pleased with him.

Listen, this was a huge deal.

A huge deal.

There's nothing stealthy or ninja-like about any of this approach.

Right?

God's not flying under the radar here and hoping no one notices.

This is like the the skies were ripping apart.

Voices booming.

This is power.

It was a new beginning.

That's what it was.

New beginning for all of mankind.

Carefully planned out point in history.

It's executed, it's ushered in by God Himself in statement form.

Statement form.

That's some power.

And hey, as we, you know, again, we're just beginning this book, of course.

We're just getting into this.

Listen, remember the kind of clout that your God has.

Right?

Look at think about the kind of power.

You know, wherever you might be at on a on a personal level, where you're at in your life, the different difficulties and challenges, you know, and and all of that.

You know, maybe it's you know, some minor headaches that are kind of harassing you.

Maybe your your life just feels like an outright nightmare.

I'm not really sure, but listen, allow this, allow what we're reading here and studying to snap you back to attention and give you kind of uh, you know, the right perspective and the right understanding to what's to what's really going on and the kind of power that God has.

Listen, understand that Christ came to redeem you from sin, okay, from from spiritual ruin.

Okay, I'm not sure what he plans to do with with the rest of your rest of your problems, the rest of the difficulties that you're going through.

I'm not sure what he plans to do with mine either.

Okay, he might smooth some of those things out, he he might make some of those go away and and all of that, but listen, he might not.

Okay, he might not in his sovereignty.

Okay, but understand this.

Our biggest issue, our biggest problem has been taken care of.

It's been taken care of because God was powerful enough to do it.

Let's be quick to remind ourselves of that.

Again, and give ourselves a big picture mentality here and be aware of this constantly as the little things, and sometimes big things as well, tend to crowd us, the crowd all of that out and and and make us forget God's power and and and they get us spiraling, you know, mentally and emotionally and spiritually and all of that.

We've already experienced the new beginning that we need, most of all.

That's what Easter was.

That's what your salvation is.

Right?

It's redemption from sin, it's rescue from death, rescue from judgment, all of it.

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.

You've already had the new beginning.

Awesome.

Here's the last thing Jesus came to usher in a new beginning as one worthy of such an undertaking.

Okay, now Mark thrusts us into the next point of action in this passage.

Take a look at verse 12.

Okay, the Spirit immediately drove him, that's Jesus, out into the wilderness.

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

Okay, and he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Now, Matthew and Luke, uh, they spent a lot more time sort of you know expounding on the details of all of this here, but but the idea that we see in Mark is that you know Jesus doesn't spend a whole lot of time here just you know reveling in the celebration that was his his baptism.

Isn't it so cool here?

How Mark lets us know that he's like he just goes for it.

Right?

The word is is immediate here.

I mean immediately he jumps into what his mission was.

Right?

He's not wasting time here, he's he's all in, both feet, jumping into the deep end of the pool.

All right, he's he's immediately thrust into what?

Well, a confrontation with Satan.

That's a big part of what Jesus came to deal with.

Okay, and it says there the 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, and you know, you see angels ministering to him.

Okay, I think if we you know stop and kind of think about that, it kind of again it kind of reminds us of some of the things that happened, you know, in the Old Testament.

You know, we think about how the you know the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

We see that similar number there.

It's not days, but it's years, 40 years.

We see, you know, we're reminded of Moses on Mount Sinai.

He was there for 40 days and 40 nights.

You got Elijah in the wilderness for 40 days as he was going to Mount Horeb.

Okay, and in all of these situations and cases here, they these were all seen as testing grounds uh for these for these people, right, to prove faithfulness to the Lord, right?

Proving their faithfulness and an opportunity for God to just showcase his provision and his protection and his deliverance from all kinds of things.

Well, here in our passage, Jesus, he endures all that, all that Satan could throw at him, and and at no point, of course, does he give in to any of the temptation?

Right?

In no way does he sin.

Not once does he not does he start, does he not even start to go down that road.

He is resolute.

I am coming to fulfill the law, to live the righteous life, that my people could not get behind me, Satan.

It was his mentality uh right out of the gate.

You know, fast forwarding, of course, to you know, ahead to the cross, you know, we know, of course, that that that it was Christ's sinlessness, right?

His perfection, his unblemished righteousness that made him the only sacrifice worthy of appeasing God's wrath towards our sin.

He was perfect.

In his temptation, as we read it here in Mark Mark 1, we see that Jesus was up to the task.

And he was.

He was ready to take on this mission to give us a new beginning.

Yeah, it was it was a huge undertaking.

There's no question about it.

But understand this Jesus Christ is was worthy.

He was worthy.

Now, one of the things that's gonna play out, I said we would get to this today, but one of the things that that we're gonna see play out as as we work our way through Mark is is that Jesus is worthy of following.

He's worthy of surrendering our lives totally to in every single way imaginable.

He is he's good.

He is strong, he is wise, he's so gracious and and and patient with us as we continue to make mistakes and and stumble along.

He's worthy of being followed.

And so, hey, I think the question for us, for you and I today is you know, what are the areas in our lives that you know that you're that we're holding back when it comes to following him flat out?

What are the areas where you're you know not letting the Lord in?

It's those places, you know, somewhere in your life, somewhere in your heart where think about it, what we're saying.

If we're not letting the Lord in, what are we what are we really saying?

We're saying, Lord, I don't think you're you are worthy.

I don't believe it.

Right?

For for you, maybe it's become you know life your way.

I'm gonna do this on my terms.

It's become fear instead of faith instead of trusting him.

It's it's comfort instead of sacrifice and and discipline and resolve to follow him and surrender and humility.

And and all of that, all those things which produce spiritual fruit and growth.

It's it's for maybe for you, it's it's just the world's mentality, what the world is chasing after and going after.

That's that's what I've been going after.

In what ways, again, are you showing by your actions and by the state of your heart that Christ is not worthy of being followed?

Hey, what is it?

Maybe for you it's uh it's like a dating relationship.

You know, and you're you know getting really close to dating somebody who at the end of the day is just it's not good.

He, she, not healthy.

The person doesn't love Jesus.

Listen, if you're a teenager right now, let me join in what your parents are thinking, have probably told you, and are praying like crazy for.

If you're thinking of dating somebody who doesn't know Jesus Christ and you love this person and it turns into something really serious, can I just tell you how much trouble you're putting yourself in?

Marriage to a believer who is sold out to Jesus Christ is hard enough.

It is.

Do not go down this road.

What does it matter?

And and I don't care, and I've seen other people do it, and they seem fine, so you know, life might I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do whatever I want.

Follow the Lord.

Even if it hurts you in the immediate, it is worth it in the long run.

Hey, in other what other ways have you shown him that he's not worthy of being followed?

Is it in your is it in your money?

Maybe it's for you, it's just it's kind of selfish spending.

Maybe it's it's it's just foolish spending.

Right?

I'm not I'm not smart with my budget.

I I don't I don't take care of these things.

It's stress every month.

And why am I doing this?

And you know, while you go out to eat all the time.

Okay, stop doing that.

Right?

It's because you're not willing to surrender your finances, and you need to be wise about this, and you're just trying to do it your own way.

Maybe maybe it's a lack of gratitude and generosity that rules and governs your heart, and and the Lord would have you just be more generous with people.

There's people around you in your situation, in your life, you could just be so blessed by by what uh by the money that the Lord has blessed you with.

Okay, maybe it's your your work life.

Maybe for you you're you're a workaholic and you you're giving into that and and you're not surrendering that to the Lord, and you never take days off, and and you go too hard, and you're kind of abandoning your family and some of your responsibilities, and and it's a lack of buying into the church and getting involved and investing in the community here and doing all of that because you're so busy and overly scheduled, and all of that, and I'm always at the office, and I'm always, you know, my phone's always on, it's emails, it's all of that.

Maybe you're at the other end of the spectrum and all of that, and it's laziness, and you're not working hard enough, and you're not providing, and you're not growing up, really, and you're wasting time.

And listen, you need to follow the Lord and work hard as unto the Lord.

Okay, you're showing that he's not worthy of being followed, at least you're showing that that's what you think.

Maybe it's a friendship, again, that's again not healthy.

Or maybe it's just your God time.

Yeah, yeah, I understand.

I've heard it a million times from different pastors that having a quality, consistent, regular, deep time in the Word of God is important, but I'm just kind of pushing it off to the side.

I'll get to it when I get to it.

I'm not carving out time, I never pray, I never make that a priority.

Listen, you're showing them he's not worthy in all these different ways.

You see how we do that?

I mean, these are just a couple of examples here.

Listen, he's he's worthy.

He's worthy of being followed, period.

Trust him.

Trust him today.

Surrender these areas of of fear and and and pride or immaturity or whatever it is.

He came to to usher in a new a new beginning for humanity by by granting us salvation, right?

That's the big picture.

If he's done that, if he's done that, if he's rescued from death, he's rescued from hell, your sins are no longer counted uh uh against you at all.

Listen, he's worthy of having your heart.

He's worthy of having all of it.

Listen, I want to pray for you because I understand that these are these are challenging things to think through.

And even as we're talking and you're being kind of you know pricked maybe by the Holy Spirit now, and you think, oh, that's an area I don't I don't really want to go there, and the temptation is going to be to over spiritualize it away or just ignore it and hope that feeling goes away, or whatever it might be.

Listen, I want to pray for you.

It is always worth it to follow the Lord.

He is worthy.

Let's pray.