The Gospel According to Mark

· Introduction: Well, here we are. It feels absolutely crazy to me. I remember when Michael and I were sitting in the Ham Fam first talking about this. Since then, it’s been lots of prayer, planning, preparation and excitement. I have to admit, I ran out of words starting with “P” right there.

o But, here we are! Nauvoo at Night. Over the next 12 weeks, we are going to be looking at WHO JESUS IS directly from the gospel of Mark. As we get started looking at Mark 1, I just want to encourage you that if you do not have a Bible, there are some available. We’d love to have you take one with you this week!

§ As we were planning this out, we prayed a lot about what to go through. We knew we wanted this to be centered around Jesus, but we looked at about 7 options before settling on walking through the Gospel of Mark.

· The reason for it in the end seemed obvious. Mark wastes no time in his gospel. I sometimes say that Mark wrote his gospel for people like me; those of us with ADHD.

He gets right to the message; that Jesus came to be our savior!! In the same way, we want our focus every week to be on THAT EXACT THING!

· BODY: As we dive into Mark 1:1-11, we notice right away that this does not begin with the story of Jesus’ birth! Instead, Mark begins his gospel with the baptism of Jesus.

If you want to learn more about Jesus’ birth, we’d love to have you take one of the Bibles in the back that I mentioned and you can learn more about His birth in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

o Mark begins by giving his thesis statement. He says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

§ Gospel simply means good news. What we will be talking about over these next 12 Wednesday nights truly is the EXCEEDINGLY GREAT NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD THAT WE CAN HAVE A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH!

o Mark is going to endeavor to prove this statement over the course of his gospel.

· Verses 2-3 set the stage for Jesus arrival saying, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,”

o These two prophecies come from the Old Testament. The first one about a messenger is from Malachi 3:1. Malachi was the final prophet before a 400 year period of silence.

o The second prophecy comes from Isaiah 40:3. This reinforces the purpose of John. See, John, who we’ll meet in just a minute, comes TO PREPARE THE WAY!

§ He’s the messenger that is promised in these two verses!

· In verses 4-5 we meet John. We read, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”

o John actually has his own pretty crazy background! He was born after an angel visited his dad who was a priest. John’s parents were far past child-bearing age and had never had a child.

o They had John though!

§ As John grew up, he moved to the wilderness where he preached that the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and put their faith in GOD!

· See, there was an epidemic in Israel. It was faith in the law of Moses! If they could just do a little more; just follow the law a little better; just do more good, then everything would be ok!

o They had lost sight of the purpose of the law, which was never for salvation; rather, it was always to point us to God!

· John came preaching that message and preparing the way. He wasn’t the way! He knew that! He just was happy and content to do his part!

o His part meant calling for repentance!

· Not only is John’s message different, so is his life! Mark describes him in verse 6 saying, “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

o John has a very unique appearance and diet! People must have thought he was ALMOST CRAZY!

§ Yet they were fascinated by his message! See, for well over 1000 years, the people of Israel had waited for a Messiah; THEIR SAVIOR!

· That’s what John is proclaiming! The people can’t wait!

· In verse 9 we meet Jesus. Mark writes, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately 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 am well pleased.”

o We see Jesus coming down from Nazareth, where he lives to the Jordan River. When Jesus comes down, he is baptized by John.

§ He is baptized and this is actually very important. Danny Akin argues in his commentary on Mark that by being baptized, Jesus declares the type of Messiah he would be.. In other words, it is made clear that HE IS GOD, by the Spirit’s announcing, and it shows how he is fully human.

This mystery, called the Hypostatic union, is that Jesus is fully God and fully man. It means that Jesus has the power to save us and also that HE TRULY WAS MAN, SO HE CAN BE OUR SUBSTITUTE!

· Listen to what the voice says after he’s baptized! It says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.

o The voice is heard by all! It is recorded in Matthew and Luke as saying the same thing.

· “YOU ARE MY BELOVED SON; WITH YOU I AM WELL PLEASED.” Don’t miss what is going on here! God is saying, “You are the promised Messiah, the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!”

o This baptism of Jesus is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. John Calvin argues that this statement is a further encouragement for us to TRUST JESUS AND TO FOLLOW HIM!

Tonight, as we begin to close our time looking at Mark, I just want to take a few minutes to apply this to our lives. We all have a need; the need to be loved!

o See, we are loved BECAUSE OF JESUS! In our natural states, we are sinful, that is, we do wrong in God’s eyes, and we are separated from God because of that!

§ But, through JESUS COMING TO EARTH, through his sinless life; his death on the cross and his resurrection, WE CAN BE RESTORED IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

§ That’s what I want to turn our attention to now.

· See, Jesus came with a mission. He came to earth and He lived a perfect life. He was without sin. As we will see over the next 11 weeks, Jesus taught and healed many and He genuinely lived!

o But he lived a PERFECTLY HOLY LIFE! HE LIVED A LIFE unlike any other!

o So why did He come to earth? He did it to SAVE US! HE DID IT TO BE OUR SUBSTITUTION AND TO TAKE THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN THAT WE ALL DESERVE!

§ What is that punishment? Simply put; that PUNISHMENT IS DEATH!

§ What we deserve for our sin is not just physical death, it is spiritual death and total separation from God!

· That’s the worst punishment we could ever experience!

· Yet, Jesus came to save us! He lived a perfect life, but was killed on the cross. As he died on the cross, he took the punishment for our sins.

o On the third day, He rose from the dead, DEFEATING DEATH and giving us the GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE!

o Our choice is simple. Either, we put our faith in Jesus, or we do not. Either we accept His gift, or we reject it!

§ My plea with us tonight is to accept this gift of salvation!

§ If you are here and your faith is in Jesus, let’s truly REJOICE for what GOD HAS DONE FOR US! What a wonderful gift!

o Additionally, believers, let’s rejoice for what God has done in us! Matthew Henry writes in his commentary on Mark 1 and says, “We may see heaven opened to us, when we perceive the Spirit descending and working upon us. God’s good work in us, is sure evidence of his good will towards us, and preparations for us.”

· All those things God is doing in our lives? That’s God’s favor on us! That’s God’s Spirit moving in our lives! Let’s give Him praise for that! Let’s REJOICE IN HIM!

Let me pray for us.