King Jesus

Introduction:

Part 1 King Jesus and being like him

So right now before bed we are reading through 1 Samuel with our children and we just got to the moment when Saul offers a sacrifice to God it reads like this

1 Samuel 13:8–15 (ESV)

Saul’s Unlawful Sacrifice

8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 15 And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.

Saul was made king over Israel and he was given responsibilities and limitations on what he could do and what he could not. He choose to embrace pragmatism in the name of faithfulness instead of just being faithful. As a result the kingdom was taken away from him. Today we're going to look at the faithful King of Kings and how he was faithful in a way that Saul was not.

(READ THE TEXT)

Mark 1:12–20 (ESV)

The Temptation of Jesus

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Part of going through Mark is that we're going to study the God-man Jesus and get to know our true King. We are going to by the power of the Holy Spirit ask God to conform us to the image of Christ and ask God to help us be kings and queens in our own right so that we model our King of kings to our families, our friends, and our culture.

Let's set the stage. Last week we spoke about Jesus coming to John. John declares that he is not worthy to tie Jesus' shoe and that Jesus will baptize the people with the Holy Spirit.

Let's makes some observations about Jesus here.

V12 Jesus was obedient to the Holy Spirits prompting

V12 When he felt the Spirits prompting it was immediate obedience to what God is doing

As you can imagine I've been reading a few Biblical parenting books! One of the things that struck me was one author said "delayed obedience is disobedience." I can hear my parents counting to three, I can hear many parents threatening to count! Jesus followed his heavenly fathers direction without delay.

Christian we must do the same. If you’re a Christian parent or grandparent it's time we stop counting and start acting. It's no longer a time for threats or promise you don't intend to keep or follow through on. Obey Christ and do as the Holy Spirit is telling you without delay.

To the Christian Kids, don't make your parents count. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Unless the command is clearly sinful, obey your parents, your guardians.

Jesus is a great model for us all. Follow the prompting of the Spirit, obey his word. It isn't always simple but it is clear, if you're not sure ask the Spirit to make clear what to do and look to God's word.

Remember what God has said

Proverbs 1:7–9 (ESV)

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,

and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

That's wisdom for future Kings and Queen's right there! Also a future sermon series! So obey the Spirit, if your resisting God, repent and act!

V12/13 Jesus and the devil

Mark Doesn't make as much of this as Matthew or Luke does but you can see what is happening here. John says he is unfit to tie his shoe, then Jesus contends with the Devil and following Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God is at hand!

So what is Jesus doing? The King of Kings goes off to fight the king of this world in his arena.

Jesus does several things first he fasts for 40 days. If you know your Bible the Hebrew people were in the wilderness for 40 years after they left Egypt. This amount of time is no coincidence, it is meant to connect Jesus with Israel, as the King and the Messiah that they have been waiting for.

Moses (twice, Deut. 9:9, 18) and Elijah (1 Kin. 19:8) also fasted for that length of time.

MacArthur, John, Jr., ed. 1997. The MacArthur Study Bible. Electronic ed. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.

This was connecting Jesus to this Prophets as well. He does what the Greatest of them has done.

This detail emphasizes that the wilderness is a place of curse where the devil is master (Matt. 12:43; see Eph. 2:2). Jesus enters this domain and binds the strong man (see note 3:23–27). This scene recalls the testing of Adam. Although Adam was in a garden and not threatened by wild beasts, he fell to Satan’s tempting. In the wilderness, Jesus, the second Adam, begins His defeat of the devil and His work of redemption by passing the test of filial obedience in a hostile and corrupted environment.

Sproul, R. C., ed. 2015. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust.

So while Adam, in a friendly arena with sinless perfection was on his side, with friendly beasts failed, Christ our King succeeded. Satan tempted Jesus with everything and none of it had any effect on him. That is not so with Adam.

Federal Headship

Will touch on this briefly but the doctrine here is called Federal Headship. Adam was the head, the king, the representative of all mankind. He was charged with keeping the garden and establishing dominion and obeying God and by his faith in what God had said as carried out in his action he would have eternal life. Adam failed and sinned by putting his faith in the words of the devil and obey him instead of his heavenly Father. We were all present in Adam he represented us and failed and that sin spreads to us.

He failed in perfection, and brought death down on all of us. God in his mercy had a plan to redeem a people to himself and make himself king and head of all people and so he sent Jesus.

Jesus was like Adam a man without sin. He was tempted, but unlike Adam he didn't fall for the devils temptations. Unlike Adam Jesus was born into a fallen world. He was born into a place of sin and anguish. He knew hunger, pain, and strife, yet didn’t give into Satan.

So we have a choice before us this day will we be in Christ, our federal head our king who paid for sins by the shedding of blood on the cross or will be like Adam, who went with the devil and made him his king?

So Jesus defeats the devil, in the devils home rink.

(Give the Gospel)

Application: Are you willing to be like our king? We had started our message today by reading about Saul who from a need to be practical instead of faithful transgressed the law of God, compared to Christ who was obedient to his father.

Are you being practical instead of faithful? Are you willing to take the road of ease instead of carry the cross of Christ? Jesus Went into the wilderness to fight the devil and demonstrate his kingliness for us. Are you willing to do the same?

As a Christian are you willing to stand up by the power of Christ against the obvious evils and walk in faith even if the shadow of death is about you?

The devil was defeated on Calvary his power is not as great as it once was, you have just to obey.

The next verse is a demonstration of obeying the king look at what John was willing to do

V14 Now after John was arrested,

John was arrested for the kingdom of God. This arrest brought God glory, sacrifice, for what’s true changes everything. John was obedient to his call to make straight the paths of the Lord What is God calling you to do?

Maybe it's to make straight the paths for your children or grandchildren.

Maybe it’s the suffering servant you serve and humble yourself. - I'm aware of a man who his wife had their baby and he cooked every meal and took care of cleaning the house after working a full day's work. He was willing to give because he knows that, it will serve Christ, his baby and love his wife.

Your work, your sacrifice, the second shift at home, sitting down and teaching the ways of Christ even when you're spent. Putting down your pleasures and distractions for Jesus.

Part 2 Responding to King Jesus v14-20

Jesus showing up always leads to a big change.

1) When Jesus is at hand, so is the kingdom of God.

a. John was arrested for the kingdom of God. This arrest brought God glory, sacrifice, for what’s true changes everything.

b. The gospel of God, as opposed to the gospel of anyone else.

c. The time is fulfilled.

a. The word for time here carries the idea of life changing moment. It’s not just a note but is something akin to a baby being born, a V-E, your graduation day. Something utterly life changing.

b. The idea of fulfilled means that it’s to the point of over flow, the cup is long sense filled now it’s to the most completeness ever.

d. The king from the kingdom had come to his people.

a. The Long wait was over, God was at hand, and the 400 years of silence is over

e. The king gave out two orders/commands Repent and believe.

a. The audience reading would have been gentiles.

b. Application: That is all we have to do today. This is the moment of salvation, the time has been fulfilled repent and believe. It is costly act, you have to give up yourself for God, but as will learn God will bring you to himself.

2) Jesus called men to himself, and this sets him apart from everyone else.

a. Jesus calls men to himself. This is something radical compared to what the people of that age had known. Ancient Jews had to go after Rabbi’s to become pupils, Jesus turns that on its head.

b. What is different about this call is that they left very lucrative positions for Jesus.

c. They dropped their nets and went.

d. The radical life change that Jesus was calling for Peter had done.

e. Peter told this to Mark and you see no regret in it at allg

f. Application: Will you drop your nets for Jesus? If you believe and you’re in Sin will you turn form it? If you don’t believe Jesus is coming to you right now.

3) Application : Jesus is a higher calling then everything.

a. His calling is higher than your job.

b. His calling is higher than your fame.

c. His calling is higher than your family or where you come from.

d. His calling is higher than your desires.