Mark 1:4-11 | Identity Declared

2 weeks back, while I was on vacation I got called into the church at 7:45 am because some delivery guys were here who needed to deliver and set up some bookshelves for our offices.

I wasn’t particularly excited about coming in on my vacation and determined to just get in and get out. I didn’t really want to talk to these guys, I just wanted them to do their business and let me get back to my family.

God had different plans though. At one point, while I was minding my own business and just kind of trying to ignore the 2 guys putting a bookshelf together in my office, one of them asked me if we sang Church music here. I told him that we did and then proceeded to have an argument with Jesus in my head.

Clearly, this fella has just opened the door for a gospel conversation, but I’m letting Jesus know, I don’t want to get into to. I’m on vacation, I just want to go back home to my bed and be with my family.

But you know how arguments go with Jesus, I’ve yet to win one.

So after I told him that we do sing Church music here, I thought I’m just going to cut straight to it and ask him.

“So are you a Christian then” I asked?

“No I’m a Muslim” he says.

“Really. Tell me more.”

And then we spent the next 45 minutes discussing the question I’d like to begin examining with you all this morning and throughout the next six weeks as we start a new series I’m calling Man of Mystery.

This delivery man named Muhammad Ahmin and I went back and forth on the question of: who is Jesus.

Mr. Ahmin was convinced that him and I served the same God and that we were brothers because as he said he believed that Jesus was a prophet, and while I could agree with him that we were brothers because we are both human beings created in the image of God, I had to correct him that we did not believe the same things about Jesus.

He looked a little perplexed at me and so I asked him what he did with Jesus’ claims to be God in the flesh!

And I recounted to him a quote from the great C.S. Lewis that I’ve used a lot over the years in conversations like these.

Lewis says that a man who claims to be God is 1 of three things. He’s either a liar, he’s a lunatic, or He is indeed the LORD of the universe.

What do you make Mr. Ahmin of a man who claims to be God? I asked. Do you know who Jesus claimed to be? Wouldn’t you agree that we can’t say Jesus was just a good person or a prophet alone? If He claimed to be God, wouldn’t you agree that he’s either a liar or a crazy person or what if He was who He claimed to be!

This Church is a question each and every person much answer in their lives and it’s precisely the question we’re going to seek to answer from God’s word as we move from the season of Advent on the Church calendar on to what is known as Epiphany.

If you’ll remember we’re following the Church calendar this year at Crossroads, preaching through the Revised Common Lectionary in an attempt to breathe a fresh wind of God’s word into some good old traditions! As such, we find our selves in the season of Epiphany on the Church calendar this morning.

Epiphany, According to the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary

is a term that comes from a Greek word which means “appearance” or “manifestation.”

Essentially, this season is said to focus on the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles which begins with the visit from the Magi to Jesus (Matt. 2:1–12) as well as the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. You can think of the season of Epiphany as the time that the glory and identity of Jesus is being revealed. Who was He? What did He do? And consequently how should we respond based on those answers.

These are the exact questions I’d like to answer in this series using several texts primarily from the gospel of Mark.

Mark is a great gospel to use because the primary goal he has in the writing is to answer the 2 questions: who was Jesus and what should our response to Him be.

We’ll see as we read a long over the next few weeks Mark is in a hurry to help his readers learn who Jesus is and how they should respond to Him. And as Mark hurries through Jesus’ life and ministry, quickly we will discover that this Messiah whom the world had been waiting for, He is a man of mystery.

In a lot of ways He is just as powerful, perhaps more powerful than people had first thought, but He chooses to use His power in ways that are even more foreign and mysterious than anyone would ever think to imagine. Rather than using his power and majesty for selfish gain or political ends, He instead takes the path of suffering and death in service and submission to His father’s will, beginning with His baptism as we will see in a moment. Time and time again, we’ll see Jesus’ power displayed only then to see him downplay things and differ to the Father’s will rather than His own to navigate the way forward in his life and ministry.

Which before I move on, is a point of application we can’t just skip over.

Church Jesus Christ, the most powerful and glorious person to ever walk this earth, when confronted with the pathway forward in life, even He did not choose his own truth or his own way forward! He did not decide for Himself what he should do or determine for himself what he thought was acceptable to himself or God based upon his own happiness! No, Christ allowed God to be God, and to fulfill all righteousness He obeyed His Father’s will!

I realize there are many things in culture right now encouraging you and I to live our own truth for the sake of our own happiness. We are encouraged everyday to follow our hearts and be true to ourselves, and one thing I want you to see this morning is that they way of Jesus could not be more counter cultural then than!

Jesus was the only person who had the right and ability to make decisions for himself about how to live and what was acceptable in terms of lifestyle choices and identity, but even He did not go down that path. He had the power of Almighty God and the ability to live his own truth in a way unique to Him alone and yet, He did not do so! Even Jesus, God in flesh, submitted his life, his lifestyle, his sexuality, his identity to God the Father. Even Jesus, God in the flesh, chose to submit Himself to the Father’s will, and before you just let me gloss over that without truly thinking about it, please turn that over in your mind for a second.

Jesus, God, chose to submit to the Father’s will, which included a suffering worse than losing a child, a suffering worse than loving a wayward child, a suffering worse than being called names, or receiving a cancer diagnosis, or getting passed over for a promotion or fired. Jesus chose to submit to the Father’s will which not only included torture and crucifixion but much worse than even those, he submitted to the Father’s will which included God forsaking him and dispensing the full weight of His infinite wrath upon Him. Which I realize we don’t have the faculties to really comprehend, so I suppose go in your mind to the darkest place you’ve ever been, when you’ve never felt more alone or more forgotten by loved ones, or more overlooked or abandoned by God, and multiply that feeling times 100 billion. That is the level of obedience that Jesus Christ put into practice by submitting to His Father’s will!

And as a cultural, we’re not willing to submit to Him our calendars or our viewing habits or our spending habits or our sexuality?

I’ll repeat to you the words of John the Baptist that we’ll read in a minute and call you and me to the baptism of Jesus, which is a baptism of repentance, a turning from sin, for the forgiveness of sin!

Repent, dear friends, turn from sin in submission to the Father’s will and His good designs and be saved! Submit to the Father’s Words, to His Way in faith like Jesus and because Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, you and I will too!

Now I’m getting a little bit a head of myself, so lets actually look at the text.

While we could begin with the arrival of the magi acknowledging the splendor of the toddler Jesus. Which is remarkable by the way. 3 star gazers… Jack Horkeimer and 2 of his buddies (google it). Pagan Magicians notice that the creator of the universe put his calling card in the sky and they go to give him thousands of dollars in gifts and worship him! Talk about a welcome fit for a King! We could start there as we begin to look into the identity of Jesus this man of mystery, but Mark instead invites us to skip past that to a mysterious and heavenly declaration as to who this child was when God Himself makes Jesus’ identity known at His baptism in the dessert!

Let’s read it together.

Mark 1:4–13 (NIV)

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

“12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”

If you were with us over the past few weeks this passage will be familiar and I’m going to skip over most of the stuff regarding John the Baptist because we just covered it. Other than to point out that John’s and Jesus’ gospel is one of repentance. As we already discussed. That means we let God declare his designs, his will, his ways, He’s the author of marriage and gender and sexuality and right and wrong and our job is not the redefinition of those things, but it’s in faith and trust to submit to what He says and turn from sin when we realize we’ve stepped into sin in one manner or another.

Now, in the season of Advent we spent a decent amount of time unpacking the expectations that existed around the coming of the Messiah. And most people expected an earthly or political ruler! And the arrival of Jesus was some ways what people would’ve expected, especially the angelic announcement, in a lot of other ways it was quite unexpected and mysterious. Who expected a baby? Who expected a baby born in a barn to poor parents in some obscure village like Deshler or Malinta or Florida or honestly like Napoleon or Liberty Center?

Indeed there were lots of expectations surrounding the Messiah, some of which were met and others which were quite mysterious even to His own Mother. Luke records several things that happen as Jesus is a baby and a growing child that we’re simply told that Marry pondered and treasured in her heart! Things that were unexpected and mysterious even to His mom.

For instance while they are in a barn! Shepherds show up reporting that angels just announced the birth of their son! Imagine that for a second…. You think maybe you would’ve thought something like, o really! God couldn’t be bothered to find us some room in the Inn, but he could send the host of Heaven out to sing a telegram about his birth! That’s not Marry’s response, however. She doesn’t grumble or complain. She ponders these mysteries and treasures them in her heart. And all these mysterious happenings around Jesus continue to raise the expectations!

Thousands of years of Jewish history and prophecy is feeding the legend of who this Messiah might be that will deliver his people and set them free!

Which is why it’s striking that right after Mark tells us he’s about to unpack the story of who God’s chosen Savior is; remember vs. 1 “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, who was prophesied about.” Mark tells us right there, this is the story about the legendary figure who God has been promising. The descendant of Israel’s greatest King, David!

All that expectation, all those ideals of a political savior and King, He’s here Mark says and then we jump forward to the beginning of his ministry and the first thing Mark tells us “At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee to be baptized by John.”

Church if you were going to make this stuff up, this is most certainly no how you would write this story! If you’re familiar with the Bible, you might recall one of Jesus’ disciples, Nathaniel upon hearing that Jesus’ home was Nazareth, his first response was, “Nazareth, can any thing good come from Nazareth.”

Important people come from important places, like New York City or Boston, or Harvard, important people don’t come from backwater, backwards, fly-over states! Can anything good come from Napoleon? Can anything good come from Nazareth!

This is quite mysterious! The King of the Jews, the King of all humanity, his home town is a hole in the wall! Who is this King!? Can he truly even be a King? From Nazareth… what good can come from that dump?

This is how we think, people. This is not just how the elites on the coasts think. It’s how we all think. We look down on people or we look up to people based upon things like where they grew up, who their family is, how much money they have and where they went to school. We all do it!

And here’s what I want you to see, I’ve got some good news for you this morning. The God of Heaven does not operate like we do!

If you’ve seen the chosen there is a line that they’ve made into a slogan on a t-shirt because the actor who plays Jesus and the disciples say it frequently. “Get used to different!”

Now that’s not a direct quote from scripture, but it does come from a theme that is found in Scripture and one which the Apostle Paul draws out into a sort of maxim of sorts in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 where he tells us that

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NIV)

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

Here’s my point, God does not use people because of their gifting or strengths! Nor does your past scare Him! It’s not about what we do! God does not choose to work through people because of where we went to school or how strong or put together we are. Nor does he refuse to work through people because of how weak or sin riddled their life or past is! God most often chooses to work through weak people who are willing to submit to his will! He chooses to use the most unlikely. He uses ones the world would right off because it shows off His grace, glory and power all the more!

The fact that Jesus was born in a barn and that his home town was the no-name Nazareth once again illustrates this truth! God embraces and works mightily through weakness! Which can we just all agree, is some pretty good stinking news! I don’t know about you… but as strong as I pretend to be, most days I feel pretty week… behind all the bravado and putting on a good face, aren’t we all just a bunch of weak little kids faking strength through out our lives!? God’s not scared off by our weakness, in fact Paul reminds us that He embraces those who are weak if we are willing to submit to His will!

And before we move on, let me take second to remind you what this means for our Church communities. Because God uses weak people, His Churches are full of them, this one included! We often say, we are not a perfect Church. And we’re not. If I haven’t disappointed you yet as your lead pastor, I will, because I’m not perfect. I’m weak! And so is everyone else sitting next to you! So while it’s important to pursue Christ-likeness and good doctrine and try our best to stick to the Scriptures, can I just remind everyone myself included that we aren’t always going to agree and we aren’t always going to see things eye-to-eye and we are going to disappoint one another and act less than mature at times than we should because we are weak, but we serve a God who can work through that weakness. So the next time you’re upset about something you see or about someone being weak, remember that God’s got grace for that, so we should too!

That fact that Jesus is from Nazareth is surprising and reminds us that God works through weakness in those who willingly submit, but not nearly as surprising as what we find Jesus doing out here in the dessert with John! Not only does He come from a no name place, but Jesus begins His ministry by receiving the baptism of John, which as John has just told us is a Baptism of repentance from sin!

What are we to make of this? If you grew up around Church, or even if you didn’t, most people think of Jesus as a sinless person. He was the best of us! Even my Muslim friend Ahmin was willing to concede that Jesus was one of the best humans to ever live! To him, he should be regarded at the very least as a great prophet!

If that’s the case, why would Jesus need to be baptized! Why would the child born of a virgin, announced by angels, visited by Kings from the East with only gifts fit for a King, why would He need to be baptized!

Now we don’t read this here, but in Matthew, we get a bit more of the story. Johnny B, is thinking the same thing. Which is why Matthew records John as protesting at first and I want you to see what Jesus says in response to John’s protest.

Jesus shows up to get baptized and John is like, Cuz, I’m not even worthy to untie your sandals. I’m not baptizing you, you should baptize me! To which Jesus says, Matthew 3:15 “15 Jesus replied, Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.”

Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Translation, God the Father wanted Him to do it and that was enough reason for Jesus to do it. It was apart of God’s will that Jesus go through the same public identifying process that He would ask all His followers to go through as well!

Church, Baptism has never been a religious hoop through which one must pass to have their sins forgiven. It’s a declaration of identity and faith, a public announcement to the world and to the heavens about who is the King of your life! It’s an act of submission in faith! An outward action of a faith held internally! And while baptism in and of itself does not save you or anyone else, it does very much please the Father!

Think of it in terms of a wedding ceremony! The ceremony itself does nothing for a couple. Right, the state is the one who legally binds the couple. That’s why if you get married you have to go to the courthouse and get a marriage licence. That is the legal piece of paper that makes you married in the eyes of the government. The ceremony is the process of taking what has been declared in the courtroom, it’s taking that reality and publicizing it! And while you can get married without the ceremony, it’s more joyous to celebrate the legal truth with your family and friends! That’s what baptism is. It’s taking your faith, and the new identity you have because of it, public.

In baptism, God declares you His own because of your faith and trust to submit to His will above all else and to submit to Him alone!

Jesus shows us this! He was baptized because it pleased God and was apart of His plan. And in Jesus’ baptism God does for Jesus what He does for each of us, He publically identifies Him as a child in whom He is well pleased!

The heavens tear open, which I’m not entirely sure what that looked like, but the how is less important than the what! The heavens tear open and God speaks to Christ and to the crowd. This is my son with you I am well pleased! Then the Spirit descends on him, not like a rushing wind or a torrential flame of fire, but like a dove! Jesus is marked and the Spirit then begins to direct His actions.

At once we’re told that the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

It’s quite the introduction to the Messiah. Full of Mystery and majesty all at the same time.

But what does it mean for you and I? For one, God doesn’t say this is my prophet in whom I’m well pleased. He calls Him His son! That’s something that will get further developed as we work through Mark. What does that mean? Son as in family member as in member of the god-head, as in God with flesh on, yes. Jesus is God the son, the 2nd member of the Trinity. He is God in a different person and form from the Holy Spirit and the Father. That is something we must deal with! This pronouncement and many others throughout the scripture will not allow us to think of Jesus just as a good person, prophet or teacher. He was as Lewis said, 1 of 3 things a liar, a lunatic, or precisely who He claimed to be, the Lord and Savior of the Cosmos!

And if He was as God declared Him to be here how then should we respond to him.

For this too, Jesus shows us. We respond with the faith of submission to the Father and as we posses that faith individually and privately we should take that faith public by being baptized as a believer!

And then as we strive to put that faith into practice we always remember that it doesn’t matter where we’re from, what our strengths or weakness are, what our family thinks or what their reputation is, it doesn’t matter what our past is, all that matters is that we believe Jesus enough to take him at his word and learn to say as He said to the Father, not my will but your will be done Lord on earth and in me as it is in heaven!

And hear me, you won’t do this perfectly, you and I will fail, that’s not what we’re aiming for but it will inevitably happen and when it does remember that when you turn to God in faith who he sees is not you, nor your failures, no, through your faith he sees Jesus, the one for whom it is written the heavens tore open, and the spirit descended, the one for whom a voice from heaven declared this is my son in whom I’m well pleased! The one who submitted perfectly to the Fathers will so as to fulfill all righteousness. Loved one. Jesus did this for you so that when your fail to fulfill the righteous requirements of God, His actions and the faith you place in them will!

Because of Jesus’ obedience to the Father and to death, even death on the cross there is power in is presence, there is power in His blood, there is power in His name when to cry out to Him in faith.

Pray.