Collab Series: The Story of Jesus According to the Gospel of Mark: Mark 1:1–11

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. Hey, if you have a Bible, open

up to the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

So thankful to be here. It's an absolute gift.

I was back here in January. I'm so thankful for Pastor Casey

and Lisa. I don't know if you know this,

but their impact that they have had on so many people my age and

there's this whole generation of young pastors that are being

raised up right now and the impact that these two have made

on the group of us. I think all of my best friends

have been deeply impacted by your guys's ministry.

I mean, I was just with some of them at a camp last week.

And we're just talking about how thankful we are for you guys.

So absolute blessing to be here, Mark.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Chapter 1 is where we're going to be.

And before we dive, I wanted to give you a little bit of an

update because back in January, I came and Pastor Casey's been

walking with me for as a mentor for the past few years.

As my transition out of Calvary Chapel Vista back onto the

Central. Coast of church.

Plant, He's been one of my cheerleaders, coaches, mentors,

just in the corner saying go for it, get it done, God's with you.

And when we came and visited in January, we were taking that

step of faith. But I don't even think we had a

home yet. I think we were.

We moved into a home. Like the next week we found a

home and moved into a home the following week after.

We were here. Back in January and God has just

richly provided someone raised up to pay our rent for six

months and so the last six months have been paid for.

I live 2 miles away from the beach.

It's amazing. I'm a surfer, we're planting in

a beach surfing community and I've got a slide here.

May 18th we started a Bible study, so I've got some pictures

to show you. Kind of hard to see, but right

there. This is the.

Ocean, I mean, come on, come on. So that was the launch of our

beach Bible study on May 18th. We we prayed in our home for

about 10 weeks with a small group of people.

We started that beach Bible study had nothing but food that

we provided for people that tent and I just started teaching

through the book of Acts and we had about 30 adults and twenty

kids just show up on the beach. And if I had my way, I would

have not. Changed from that spot.

Because it was just amazing. But we we were serving dinner

and there was no public restrooms.

So by week 3 and some kids going in the bushes, we were like, all

right, we got to do something about this.

You know what I mean? So.

June 8th we moved. To a local park, still amazing

set up, but we wanted to do it right.

We, we rented the park from the city and the city got a little

bit weird with us about renting on a consecutive basis.

And that same week we called the school district to just kind of

put a no in that we wanted to move into a school possibly in

September 14th. And they just rolled out the red

carpet and said, why don't you come, Why don't you come and

just start on our lawn. So for the last, I think

probably around six weeks or since June 22nd, we've been here

at Shell Beach Elementary School.

You can kind of see in that picture, the beach is still just

a block, not even a block away. Our rent was 350 bucks for two

weeks. I mean, come on.

It's insane. Just the Lord's provided.

And so it's kind of hard to see, but my wife's here with a bunch

of kids. These are people standing and

reading the word. We've got some people doing

music now. We feed people for an hour.

The first hour. It's, it's a blessing.

I'm driving back today for, to be there with everyone because I

just love them so much. So thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for your support and really appreciate you guys.

Yeah, excited to see what God's going to do.

Since we're talking about stories, let's talk about the

story of Jesus from Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 1 is where we're going to be.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

If you have a Bible, you can open there.

I'm going to begin in verse one. We're going to read the verse,

verse 11 verses together, pray and dive into it.

Does that sound good? Bridgestown, are you with me?

All right, Mark chapter 1, beginning in verse one.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

This is God's word and it says the beginning of the Gospel of

Jesus Christ the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the

prophet. See, I am sending my messenger

ahead of you. He will prepare your way.

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord. Make his paths straight.

John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a

baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were

going out to him. They were baptized by him, the

Jordan River confessing their sins.

John wore a camel hair garment with a leather belt around his

waist. In a locust and wild honey, he

proclaimed, One who is more powerful than I am is coming

after me. I'm not worthy to stoop down and

untie the shop of his sandals. I baptize you with water.

But he will baptize. You with the Holy Spirit.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was

baptized in the Jordan by John. As soon as he came up out of the

water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit

descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven.

You are my beloved Son. With you I'm well pleased.

Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we take a moment to

pause and recognize that You are here among us.

For that You desire to be with Your people and we welcome you.

We ask that through the teaching of Your Word and the ministry of

Your Spirit that You would speak to us, that you'd make Your Word

come alive to us, That Your Word would be sharper than a living

double edged sword. That it would be living and

active and powerful and be the discern of our thoughts.

God, would Your words speak to us?

Would You encourage those that need encouragement?

Comfort those that need comfort. Lord, we desire to see you and

behold you. So would you be with us.

We ask you to be the sin of our attention.

In Jesus name your people said Amen, Amen, Amen.

Notice there in verse one in the beginning, the gospel of Jesus

Christ. First verse, Mark tells us that

he's telling us about the gospel, and then he goes on and

he tells this incredible story about the person of Jesus.

It's really interesting. According to Mark, the gospel is

not a statement, it's a story. Now I really love that we can

bring a summary of the gospel into a phrase like John 316.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,

that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have

everlasting life. Like boom, there's the gospel in

a statement. I love the simplicity of the

gospel. Being able to share that with a

Co worker or a neighbor or someone off the street or to

teach my kids and raise them up. The simplicity of a summary

statement like that. But Mark, as he sets out to

share the gospel, he's not just sharing a statement.

He goes and he shares a story, a story about a man named Jesus

who he claims is the son of God. And I find this interesting

because there's something really unique about stories.

Stories. Captivate our attention.

Stories draw us in. A good story will will bring us

into the story where we can hear and feel and see everything

that's going on. I'm going to give you an

example. I've got 3 little kids, 75 and

2, and over the course of this summer they have been baptized

in the Star Wars. Like Mega Trilogy now, because I

didn't even know there's nine of them.

It was amazing. I didn't know.

There's three more and then there's all Rogue and all this

stuff. They have just been eating it

up. It is all about Star Wars and

Legos and back home right now. But we've been so enamored in

the story of Star Wars that what do they do?

They go outside and you can see them like trying to use the

force on each other. They're picking up sticks and

they're using them as lightsabers.

Like there's something about a really well articulated,

compelling story that draws us in and it shapes the way that we

view and we think of the world. I mean, give you another

example. OK, not as fun as this one, but

when that whole there's this war going on and I ran while I was

watching all of the news things. I'm supposed to go on a long

trip in August and I got so pulled into this story.

I was looking at my wife. I'm like, I think we're going

into World War three. I can't go on the trip in

August. Like I was just so shaped by

this story that's being that I'm reading and consuming that it

was changing the way that I was viewing the world around me.

That's what stories do, though, and all the time we are being

shaped by. Stories.

The biggest story, I believe at least, is the story of our

cultural moment is a story that places you and I at the center

of the story. There's this cultural narrative

that people refer to as we are the center of the story.

And the story is that we need to optimize our entire existence,

optimize our health, optimize our body, optimize our career,

optimize everything about us. And this is the way in which

we're supposed to live. It's a story really, where

we're. Placed at the center of it,

there's stories from watching movies to cinema to to the news

feed, whatever we're consuming, there's these different

narratives that are shaping the way that we view ourselves in

the way that we view the way that we interact in the world

around us. So what does Mark do?

Mark tells us a better story. It's the story of Jesus.

It's the story that he refers to as the Gospel.

And he tells the gospel as a story to invite us into the

story that we, our imagination, might be captivated by the story

of Jesus, that the story of Jesus would be the story that

shapes the way that we view the world around us, that shapes the

way that we think it is a story also that we're invited.

Into. This is the gospel according to

Mark and who is at the center of this story, he says in the

beginning of the gospel? Jesus.

The Son of God. This story, the mega story, the

best story ever told, is a story about Jesus.

He is the center of the story and which all other stories.

Make sense as he's at the center.

This is a part of the gospel. So it's a story about Jesus, but

it's also a story about good news.

And So what we're going to look at today is, according to the

gospel of Mark, as he tells the story of the gospel, who is

Jesus and why did he come? Or you could say it this way,

what is the gospel? What did Jesus come to

accomplish? Are you with me?

We're going to dive into this story and my prayer is that as

we read the story of the gospel according to Mark, that our

minds would just be opened up to the amazement of who our God is.

So first, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus?

Mark tells us he's the Son of God.

It's the very first thing that he wants us to see.

And what's really interesting about the story of Mark and

we're going to. Kind of break this down

throughout our time is that the story of Mark is framed between

two incidences that answer the question, who is Jesus the son

of God between the baptism of Jesus and the.

Crucifixion of Jesus. Both of these instances, the

baptism happening in Mark chapter one, we don't get a

Bethlehem story. We don't get told about Mary and

Joseph. We don't get told about anything

about any of that. We are brought right into the

baptism story and then Mark into his gospel with the crucifixion

in both the beginning, at the end, we see that there's a

tearing that happens. There's a confession that Jesus

is the Son of God and there's an activity of the Holy Spirit

that's going on. We're going to look at that as

we break this down, But who is Jesus?

Mark wants to take us directly to the baptism to answer this

question. So let's read again in verses 9

through 11. It says in those days Jesus came

from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John and the Jordan,

and he came up out of the water immediately.

He saw the heavens being torn. Everyone say torn being torn

open the spirit to sitting on him like a dove, and a voice

came from heaven. You are my beloved son.

With you I am well. Please.

In those. Days.

The days in which Jesus was baptized in those days, it's a

reference to the days of John the Baptist.

He's the first character that Mark introduced.

This is a story about Jesus, the son of God.

But in order to understand Jesus the son of God, he first wants

us to see his cousin. This interesting character named

John the Baptist like a scene at the beginning of the movie that

sets the context and foreshadows the end of the movie.

You know that like those scenes where you're watching a movie,

in the very first scene, as the the screen opens in the first

scene, it gives you a picture of what's going to happen at the

end of the scene. That's what we're seeing here

with this scene with John the Baptist.

Mark is instantly foreshadowing us what's happening.

And according to Mark, John the Baptist is the one prophesied

about in Malachi chapter 3 and Isaiah chapter 40.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

Notice there in verse 2, he says as it's written in Isaiah the

prophet, see, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you.

He'll prepare your way, a voice of one crying out in the

wilderness. He wants us to see John the

Baptist as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, the

forerunner to the Messiah. This is like Mark acting like a

narrator, narrator outside the story itself.

And then he's plunging us into the scene and he gives us a

description of this character of John the Baptist.

And what's really interesting is that the gospel writers rarely

give us descriptions of characters.

They rarely give us descriptions of characters.

We don't really have a description of what.

Jesus looked like, or Matthew the tax collector, or Saul.

We don't have a lot of descriptions of characters, but

he, as he's answering this question, who is Jesus?

He wants us to see John the Baptist.

And then he gives a very unique description because this is what

stories do. Stories invite us in to see

what's going on. And he tells us that John the

Baptist is the one who wears camel hair, a leather belt, and

eats locusts in wild honey. The image of John is so

descriptive. I mean, you can almost smell

this guy, right? Like, locust wild honey doesn't

sound like he's had a bath in a while.

Like, this guy is an absolute character.

But what's really interesting is that the description in which

Mark gives of John the Baptist is almost identical to the

prophet Elijah's description and 2nd Kings chapter one verse 8.

There we're told that Elijah wore quote a garment of hair

with a leather belt around his waist.

I mean it's almost verbatim. So what Mark wants us to do is

as we are entering into the scene asking the question who is

Jesus and what is Jesus all about?

He wants us 1st to see John the Baptist, but he wants us to see

John the Baptist as a fulfillment of this prophet

named Elijah. I mean, this is remarkable.

When Mark shows us John, he wants us to see the prophet

Elijah because the prophet Elijah, or one like him is

supposed to be the. Forerunner to the Messiah, the

Son of God. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5 we

Malachi 4:5

read this. Behold, I will send you Elijah

the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

So who's Jesus? Well, Mark is trying to enter

into a story that's already being told.

There's a story that's already being told in the Jewish

scriptures in which the Jewish people of that time were very

familiar with that story. And the story of that time was

the story where everything was pointed to this Messiah figure

that would come. They believed this messianic

figure would be sent by God and they were awaiting his coming.

And according to their story and according to their scriptures,

there would be one who would be a forerunner, that when you see

a prophet like Elijah, you'll know that the Messiah has come.

And so Mark is saying, look your story.

He's entering into their story to show that Elijah character.

You've been looking for the forerunner.

Well, John the Baptist, the same description of Elijah is him,

the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Hey, it's here, it's coming, it's upon us, it's happening.

This is what Mark is telling us is he's beginning the story of

Jesus, that this anticipation in which all of them were waiting

for this great and awesome day of the Lord in which the Messiah

would come. It's happening right now and the

proof of. It is this smelly garment haired

dude John, it's going down. And this is exciting because the

day of the Lord, at least in the story in which.

They believed the day of the Lord was a day of judgement for

the wicked and vindication for the righteous.

I mean, pause and enter into the Jewish story for a moment.

They've had all these promises from God for centuries of an

eternal Kingdom, of a Messiah that would come, of freedom, of

liberation. And then all of their history is

them going into exile and slavery and being oppressed by

other groups. And so they're.

Craving the sense of justice, they are craving the awesome day

of the Lord in which the wicked will be judged and the righteous

will be vindicated. Their hope is in this great and

awesome day. This is the story in which they

everything that they were viewing in life.

Was centered around the. Story and within this story a

tearing also happens. Mark as he's telling the story

of Jesus, he wants us to see John the Baptist as Elijah and

then he tells the story of how Jesus enters into these waters

to be baptized and at his baptism the heavens are torn

open and he sees the spirit like a dove coming and descending

upon the person of Jesus. And the heavens being torn open

was also a fulfillment of prophecy.

The way in which he's telling the story.

It's a way in which no other gospels use this language.

No other gospel writers use the language of the heavens being

torn. But Mark is using this language

because it had to do with the great and awesome day of the

Lord in which Elijah was the forerunner of.

Are you following with me in Isaiah chapter 64?

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

This one will be on the screen behind me says oh, that you

would rend the heavens and come down.

That the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire

Kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil.

To make your name known to your adversaries, and that the

nations might tremble at your presence.

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came

down the mountains, quaked at your presence.

The heavens are being torn open. The language of being torn is a

violent ripping and tearing, like the fabric of heaven being

torn beyond repair. That's the idea.

It is a great and awesome day. The mountains are trembling.

The nations are in fear. This is an intense moment, and

it's marked by the Presence of God himself.

Notice that the mountains might quake at your presence.

The nations might tremble at your presence.

The mountains quaked at your presence when this tearing goes

down. It means that the presence of

God is among us. So Mark is telling the story of

Jesus. When you see John, I want you to

see Elijah. And as Jesus enters into these

waters here at his baptism, and the heavens are being torn, it

is a fulfillment. Declaring that this great and

awesome day is among us in the very presence of God is here.

One Bible scholar says this. The rendering of the heavens at

Jesus baptism is not a random miracle, but the explicit

fulfillment of Isaiah's cry. This moment marks the beginning

of the new Exodus, the great divine act of deliverance, and

he really summarizes that language to capture the Jewish

story being told. They were awaiting a great act

of deliverance because their people were under the bondage

and under the rulership of a different Kingdom called the

Kingdom of the Roman Empire. And they were expecting that

when this tearing would happen and the presence of God was

among them and the Messiah had come as the Son of God, that

they would be delivered from a great exodus in which they would

be delivered from the hands of their enemy, and that the

Messiah would come and rule and establish an eternal Kingdom

ruling with justice, peace, and righteousness.

This was their expectation. In many ways it's our

expectation too, right? We believe that.

Jesus is coming again. We look at the world around us.

We'd click on the news or school, scrolling through feeds,

and we see, man, this world is chaotic.

There's this sense of anticipation for the just ruler,

the benevolent king, to come and make all things right.

This desire is there. In US, and it was there at that

time, the story that the Jewish people had adopted, inspired

slightly from the scriptures but misinterpreted, was that this

Messiah would come and instantly would take down all their

enemies who they interpreted as the Roman Empire.

So as Mark is beginning to tell the story of Jesus and who is

Jesus, he's wanting them to see that he is the one of their

expectations, the one in which they were anticipating and

waiting for. This is him.

He is the Messiah. But a lot of.

Irony and tension develops right on the beginning of page one of

the story that this messianic figure that was going to come

and rule and bring justice and reign is being baptized in the

Jordan River. Why would the Messiah need to be

baptized? He's Jesus, the guy from

Nazareth, the No name town. All of this.

Language. Helps to see this great

messianic figure. But then they look at Jesus and

they're like. Are you serious?

Him. And it begins to even build

greater tension, tension when the voice of the Father echoes

from heaven even before. Well, yeah, the voice of the

Father echoing from heaven. He says this.

He says this is my beloved Son, who is Jesus According to the

mark, He's the Son of God. The Son language had to do with

that great and awesome day of the Lord.

Notice Psalm 2, it'll be on the screen verse 7 through 9.

This was a key verse that formed their hopes and expectations.

Verse 7 says I will tell of the decree.

The Lord said to me, you are my son today I begotten you ask me,

and I'll make the nation's your heritage and the end to the

earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod

of iron and dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel.

Gentle language or violent? I mean, this is an intense,

violent picture of the Son of God.

He's going to come and rule and reign.

And all of the people are like, yes, this is what they're

waiting for. But this great ruler, this great

Savior is coming to be baptized in the Jordan.

He's from Nazareth. And then the voice of the Father

says, this is my beloved Son and whom I'm well pleased.

That right there is an interesting phrase because in

Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 42, we read this, Behold my Servant,

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

whom I uphold, my chosen, and whom my soul delights, or who

I'm well pleased. I have put my spirit upon him.

He'll bring forth justice to the nation's.

Notice this tension here. Who is Jesus is the big

question. Mark's telling the story in such

a way for them to see that he's the Son of God, he's the

Messiah, he's the ruler, he's the king that has come and is

establishing his Kingdom. The great and awesome day of the

Lord is. Among them I mean the

description and the language. Is clear, but then he quotes

Isaiah chapter 42 of a servant in whom the father delights in a

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

servant who the Spirit of God will come upon will this servant

of Isaiah chapter 42. They were well aware that this

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

this servant was a suffering servant who will read of in

Isaiah chapter 53 of being a servant who will be.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

Crushed and mocked and beaten and dies.

And this would have been the bomb drop at the beginning of

the. Story Well, who in the world is?

Jesus said. Is he the Savior that's going to

rescue them or is he the servant that's going to suffer?

They had no framework for the servant to suffer.

They had no, they only saw this and were expecting this.

And when John is saying, Yep, Yep, that's the Messiah, and

look at him going to the Jordan River and he's the one who is

the servant in which the Father's delighted in.

It would have been like, what? How in the world does this all

work out? And the rest of the story?

Of the Gospel according to Mark is answering this question and

showing as we know, the King and the Savior is the servant.

They are one. But before we continue in this

story, we need to pause and recognize that in 2025, the

story in which we have been told is the story that's not too

different that the Jewish expectation had back then.

The story in which we're being told in 2025 is that we can

follow Jesus on our own terms, that we can customize the Jesus

that we desire to follow. And we see this.

So you go on your feed. My kind of joke is that you've

got, at least in some of the feeds I see on Facebook for some

reason, it's Facebook, right? How many still have a Facebook?

So many people don't have Facebook anymore.

Facebook the story is you can you can follow machine gun Jesus

wrapped in American flag. You can follow Jesus in a

rainbow flag. You can follow hippie Jesus, you

can follow the chosen Jesus. I kind of like the chosen

honestly, but. You can follow any Jesus you

want. You can follow the Catholic

Jesus. You can follow the Jesus that

only has the crown of thorns. The temptation that we have in

2025 is the temptation to form the Jesus in which we want to

follow. That's really a projection of

our own values and desires. Doctor George Barna of the Barna

Group did a study in 2020. It's one of the most revealing.

Studies it showed that 64% of the evangelical church is

synchronous. Synchronous is a word that means

that we, I'm saying we as evangelicals who believe in the

authority of Scripture and the supremacy of Christ and the

fulfillment and accomplishment of the cross and resurrection.

64% of evangelicals are synchronous, meaning they blend

Christian worldviews with other worldviews.

Say it another way. They blend the Christian story

with other stories. And when we do that, we're

actually not following the Jesus of the Bible because in that

world view and in that story, we are the one defining who Jesus

is, defining what Jesus is like. And this is what the story of

Mark shows us is that all of these people at that time had a

story in which they were convinced Jesus is like this.

And Jesus is demonstrating them who He really is.

The thing with Jesus, he is the King of kings, He is the Lord of

Lords, He is the Son of God. He is God in human flesh.

And we have no right to define who He is.

He defines and demonstrates who He is and He alone.

And if he is truly King, then we the only appropriate response is

to bow down and worship Him. See they had a very significant

in stone story and picture and desire of who they wanted the

king to be and what the Kingdom they wanted to live in.

And in 2025, our temptation is the same.

We have a pole to try to define Jesus as king, and then a pole

to define the ways of his Kingdom, meaning the ways in

which we live as followers of Jesus on this planet.

And the Gospel of Mark instantly puts this like explosion on that

reality. He.

He. Enters into this story, invites

us to enter into the story to show this tension of this Savior

King who's also the servant who's going to suffer, and

leaves us with this tension that Jesus is one who cannot be

defined by man and in which we cannot determine.

What his Kingdom is going to look like, This is my beloved

Son in whom I am well pleased. At the beginning or at the

middle of the Gospel of Mark, you can also see you've got the

baptism of Jesus, the transfigure of Jesus, and the

crucifixion of Jesus. And just for fun, that right

there is a framework for three parts in the book of Acts, or

it's sorry, the book of Mark and at the transfiguration of Jesus,

all from Mark one to the transfiguration in Mark 9, is

showing Jesus fulfilling all these messianic things.

He's healing the sick. He's cleansing the leper.

He's doing miracles. He's teaching these ways of the

Kingdom. He's demonstrating the Kingdom

for them. But all throughout the entirety

of the Gospel of Mark, the disciples are still confused.

They're like, who is this Jesus? And they begin, starting in Mark

9, He begins to tell them that he's going to suffer and die.

In fact, in Mark 8, before he takes him up on the Mount of

Transfiguration, he asked the disciples, he says, who do they

say that I am? The most important question that

all of us have to answer, who is Jesus?

And the disciples say some say Elijah, same say Jeremiah, some

say John the Baptist. And then he says to Peter, But

Pete, who do you say that I am? He says you're the Son of God,

you're the Christ. His flesh and blood did not

reveal this to you, but the. Spirit of the living God.

And then he tells him he's going to suffer and die.

And Peter has the audacity to say, no way, Jesus, you're not

going to do that. Even when he thought he had the

right articulation of who Jesus is and he was.

Saying the right things, his mind in the anticipation which

he expected Jesus to be the King, was different.

And so he takes. Him up a mountain.

The mountain Transfiguration, Peter, James and John.

And on that mountain Elijah shows up and Moses show up, all

of the law and the prophets, all of the Bible pointing to Jesus

and they're talking about his exodus, the exodus in which the

forerunner Elijah was supposed to talk about, but this exodus

that's coming us through his own death, they're talking about at

the mount of transfiguration. So it's a different type of

exodus. And then the voice from heaven

one more time. It happened at the baptism, then

it happens at the mountain, Transfiguration.

The voice of the Father says this is my beloved son.

Listen to him pause and enter into the story one more time.

Question What story is shaping you?

Who and what are you listening to?

Because who and what we listen to shape the story that we live

in and the story that we live out.

And so the Father says, listen to him.

And then things speed up pretty quickly into the crucifixion.

Crucifixion is really where we get to see who Jesus is and what

he's come to accomplish. Let's continue in the Gospel

according to Mark this story. 1 Early church Father Iranian says

this quote. For in his baptism, the heavens

were open in order that man might no longer be shut out from

God, but that the Spirit of God might descend upon us through

him. Notice this at the very

beginning. There is this echo, there is

this introduction at the baptism that a tearing was going on,

that the heavens were being open, that we might be able to

encounter and know Jesus, know God personally.

But the story doesn't end at the baptism.

It ends at the crucifixion. Let's read Mark chapter 15,

Mark 15:37–39

verses 37 through 39. Everything begins to be tied up

Jesus after he's mocked. He's beaten, He's scourge, He's

whipped. In fact, the Isaiah suffering

servant that we're left with in the baptism of Jesus at the

beginning and Mark chapter 1 as you open up Isaiah 53 and you

Mark 1 · chapter mention

won't open up Mark chapter 15 and you read them side by side,

Mark 15 · chapter mention

the parallels are incredible. It is very clear at the end that

Jesus is the suffering servant. He's scourged, he's whipped,

he's beaten, he's mocked a crown of thorns or plunge into his

head. I mean, the cat of nine tails in

which he was ripped, It's like that thing was so intense.

There was a ripping in his body, like taking a bite out of an

apple, and the chunk of apple comes off as he's being whipped.

Chunks of his body are being ripped and torn out of his back.

And then a rugged heavy cross. Not the smooth one around

Grandma's neck, but a rugged heavy.

Cross splinters against that rugged open back, ripped back,

and he carries this cross to a mount called Calvary.

And there at the end of Mark Chapter 15, The Suffering

Mark 15 · chapter mention

Servant. Utters a loud cry, and he

breathes his last. And the curtain of the temple

was torn, and two from top to bottom.

And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way

he breathed his last, he said truly, this man was the Son of

God. Notice the parallels here.

Between Mark One and Mark Chapter 15, in both instances,

Mark 15 · chapter mention

the beginning, at the end of the at the end of the story, the

gospel according to Mark, there's a tearing that happens,

there's a confession that happens, and there's the

activity of the Spirit that's happening.

First, there's the tearing. Look at these side by side of.

I've got this fun little graph thing for you in Mark chapter

one. We read immediately he saw the.

Heavens being torn open. The only time the gospel writers

use this now, on Mark 15, the curtain of the temple was torn

in two. Well, the temple was a place in

which the presence of God was supposed to dwell.

The temple and this veil that separated where everyone was,

some people were allowed to go in and then this temple was this

barrier that kept people from the presence of God in the Holy

of Holies. And there there's a tearing that

happens. Just as the heavens were being

torn open, this temple there veil is being torn, and it's

being torn from top to bottom, showing that through the death

of Jesus the Father is opening up access into the very presence

of God. What is Jesus all about is

access into the presence of God Himself, that we might know Him,

Not simply know about Him, but know him personally, intimately.

This is what's happening at Jesus's crucifixion.

But the. Framing goes even further.

Then we read in Mark chapter 1 verses 9 through 11, there at

Mark 1:9–11

the baptism that the Spirit or pneuma descended on him like a

dove. So the tearing happens, the

Spirit comes upon Jesus like a dove.

But then in Mark chapter 15, we read that Jesus uttered a loud

Mark 15 · chapter mention

cry and breathed his last. And this word here, it's hard to

see. It's ecnuo, the word for breath

in spirit is the same word pneuma nuo.

So the Spirit is coming upon Jesus in the baptism to empower

him for ministry, to empower him and anoint him as king.

But then at the crucifixion he is Eck.

No, he's ex exhaling the Spirit out into the world.

This is a demonstration of what was happening about to happen

through the resurrection in the birth of the church, in which

the Spirit came upon the people of God to empower them to live

the life in which God's called them to be.

Jesus is demonstrating on the cross and Mark is using specific

language to show us that it is only through the crucifixion of

Jesus that we now have personal and intimate access to the

presence of God and that the Spirit of God.

It's going from Jesus out into the world to empower and anoint.

US. For the life in which he's

called us to live. Yeah, it's cool.

It's good news. And then at both the baptism and

crucifixion, there's this confession that Jesus is the Son

of God. At the baptism it is the Father

saying this is my beloved son. At the crucifixion it is a Roman

centurion. Who has this confession and

declaration? Truly, this man was the Son of

God. What does?

This mean it means for us. The Father always knew,

obviously, but we really know who Jesus is.

The greatest demonstration, I believe, for us to understand

the identity and who Jesus is, what Jesus is like, is to look

at the cross. The cross is the greatest act

and the greatest source of revelation to answer the

question, who is Jesus? And that might sound a little

bit abstracting up here, but bring it down into the our

world. As we look at all these

different versions of Jesus out in the world, as we are trying

to make sense of what it means to follow Jesus and ask

ourselves the question, what is Jesus like?

It has. To be filtered through the cross

the cross is the ultimate demonstration of who Jesus is

because at the cross we see that the.

King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is also a servant who is

just washing the disciples feet a moment ago and who washes us

by his blood, in which our sins are put away and we're cleansed

and redeemed and restored and then empowered by the Spirit to

live the life in which God's called us to live.

Who is Jesus? How do we make sense of this

world living as a Christian in 2025 we look at the.

Cross. It is the greatest source of

direction, the greatest source of our salvation, obviously, but

also the source of our transformation.

What does it look like to be a Christian and follow after?

Jesus, he's a king who's in power.

But notice the story of power according to Jesus.

See, power is something all stories have in common, going

back to Star Wars, the light and the dark, the Force.

Going back to any story in which we're looking at the Jewish

story was this great grand story of power in which the Messiah

would come and crush their enemies.

Jesus comes and he shows us a different story that's supposed

to shape us. That true power is not being the

Conqueror, but he's the one who's conquered.

But his death is a seed for resurrection life.

He shows us that true power is not through pride and pomp and

arrogance, but through humility and sacrifice and service.

This is the power in the way of the Kingdom in which we're

invited to live as followers of Jesus.

Who is Jesus? He is the servant King.

The greatest act and greatest demonstration of who he is is

there upon the cross. So what did he do and how are we

invited into the story? Because as we look at the story

according the Gospel according to Mark, which is a story of

Jesus, we see that the main character is Jesus himself.

But we are also invited into that story that Jesus is the

servant King who suffered, died and rose again for us.

But who invites us into that story to live as participants in

the story of the Kingdom? Not spectators, but participants

in this story. And he shows us why did Jesus

come? What did Jesus accomplish?

What is the gospel? And good news for us today is

that we've been by been invited into this Kingdom through the

person of Jesus. The veil has been torn.

We now have access in the presence of God.

Hebrews chapter, I believe it's 11.

Maybe it's not on there. Hebrews chapter something

Hebrews 11, maybe 19 says this. So, dear brothers, now we may

walk right into the very. Holy of Holies.

Where God is because the blood of Jesus.

This is the fresh new life giving away that Christ has

opened up for us by tearing the curtain, his human body to let

us into the holy presence of God.

So what is the gospel according to Mark?

A tearing has happened, a tearing of the heavens that's

opened up the way for us to know the power and presence of God,

but a tearing of the temple veil.

And then he, the author of Hebrew, says it's actually the

tearing of the body of Jesus, that now we can enter into a

throne of grace to find grace and mercy in our time of need.

Are you in need? Today.

Are you in need? Is there something going on in

your life relationally? Something going on in your life

financially, Something going on in your life with health?

Is there something going on in life for your future?

The story of Jesus is a story in which we're invited into to see

that he's the King of kings and the Lord of Lords who's ruling

over everything. And we're invited into his

throne to find mercy and grace and our time in need.

And we enter in through his body.

And which one's broken for? US as we take of that, that cup

in a moment and that body that's been broken in the cup of his

blood and we receive together, we've invited into this Kingdom

and this life in which he's the King of kings and Lord of Lords,

in which we can find mercy and grace in our time of need.

We've been invited to enter in. So we have a helper, we have a

Redeemer, we have a king. But then there's that spirit

dynamic that the same spirit that anointed Jesus had his

baptism, Mark wants to very uniquely tell us has been

ecnewed, has been exhaled out into the world.

And that's how we're invited into the story is that in Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, the Spirit of God comes down and fills and

empowers the church to be invited in as participants in

the Kingdom, to follow him wherever he leads, to be

empowered him, to be empowered by him, to live the life in

which he's called us. To live.

A life that's marked by humility, sacrifice, service.

Also resurrection power that comes from the person and power

of the Holy Spirit. Richard Balkham, Bible scholar,

says this. The point is not the Spirit left

Jesus, that the Spirit went forth from Jesus to continue his

work beyond the balance of his physical presence throughout the

world. Mark wants us to see the Spirit

as God's divine presence that came upon Jesus at his baptism.

But through Jesus's crucifixion, it's released into the world to

come upon us as a Spirit empowered church.

Another Bible scholar, Greg Beal, says the early church saw

the rending of the temple veil as a signal that Christ's death

had established his people as the true temple, the place where

God's Spirit would dwell permanently.

What does it mean to be a part of this Kingdom?

It means that we're formed by the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God will form us. And His power, and the greatest

demonstration and manifestation of the Spirits work among us.

Is a love for God and love for one another.

It's the Spirit producing character in Christ likeness in

us that we might bear the fruit of love and kindness and peace

and joy. Man, Bridgetown Church got that.

The joy of the Lord, the gentleness and long-suffering.

Are you in need of the Spirit today to overcome?

The addictions, the struggles, the darkness that you're facing,

are you in need of the Spirit today to form and shape you into

the person in which God has called you to be?

We now have access to the Spirit and the presence of God through

the person of Jesus. According to Mark, this is the

gospel. It's the story of all stories.

It's a story that we're invited into today through the person of

Jesus. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.