41 Preaching and Teaching/ Mark 1:1-13: Who is Jesus?

What is your confession: Urgency:Immediately)

Subject: Why should we live with urgency for Jesus?

Complement: The one who saves us from sin, the one who is worthy to be lived for, the Son of God.

What is your confession of Jesus?

When I think of confession the three images that pop up are a person confessing before a priest, a person confessing their love for another person or a person confessing they got caught for something illegal.

What is your confession of Jesus?

Here was my confession of Jesus growing up:

He was a man who I was supposed to believe but he had no real impact on my life and if I did enough good he would be happy with me. And if I worked hard enough I would be a Christian.

If you would have asked me are you a Christian i would have said yes even thought I did not know what that meant.

But I had a really small Jesus and I did not really know what I believed about him.

He was kind of like a little yoda, where I could stick him in my pocket and pull him out for good luck. I would pray to him before games.

As a result he had no impact on my life and I did not liv e with any passion or urgency for him.

But then as a freshman in college I heard the good news of the gospel that this Jesus whom I had made so small, loved me so much even when I was a sinner, that he literally left heaven, came to earth and eventually defeated death, it was then that I trusted Jesus and began a relationship with him.

My life was changed

I was on a mission, I wanted to tell everyone about him.

I wanted to spend time with him all the time.

There would be times in college where I would just read my Bible for hours, their was this new passion I had.

Our confession is directly connected to our passion.

Today I want us to have a fresh confession of who Jesus.

Background of Mark:

There are four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All of them write about the same person but they are all different people writing to different audiences. So if Bill and I wrote a autobiography about Hakeem Olajuwon it would be completely different. But in being different they could both be true because different things are going to stick out. So in the gospel you see this play out.

Mark was writing to Christ followers in Rome who were getting persecuted and even killed for being Christians.

In the book his disciples get it wrong, religious people get it wrong, and sometime people who we think should get it wrong get it wrong get it right.

Who Jesus is = such a big issue for our culture.

And if we can’t get it right in the church how do we expect our culture to get it right.

Our culture says these things about Jesus.

Great Teacher

Good Person

Someone you pray to when a touch decision needs to be made

Good luck charm

Others think he was a prophet

Some thing he is a liar

Much of our culture does not even want to talk about Jesu.

You can talk about God, and people don’t necessarily get upset, but mention Jesus, and people want to stop the conversation. Why don’t the names of Buddha, Muhammad, or Confucius offend people the way the name of Jesus does?

McDowell, Josh D.. More Than a Carpenter . Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Church we need a fresh confession of who Jesus really is.

Today people think all kinds of things about Jesus.

As a new church we want to have a great view of who Jesus really is. We have to get this right because if we get this right everything else will fall into place.

Contrast to a small view of Jesus.

Small picture of Yoda

Mark is providing the blueprint here of who Jesus is that will not be understood until the end by a Roman Prisoner.

But in these first 14 verses we see who Jesus really is through three different confessions: Mark’s, John the Baptist, and God the Father. After these verses we are going to see a lot of people disagree and miss out on who he is until the end of the book.

Three different people tell us an ultimate truth about Jesus.

If we want to have a great view of who Jesus is we must embrace these three confessions.

1. The first confession we must embrace (Mark): Jesus is the one who saves us from sin (1).

Do you really believe that Jesus is the one who saves us from sin.

I know we have heard that before but do you really believe this.

I looked up the most famous people in America in 2023 Q4:

One of those people was Leonardo DeCaprio. He is a great actor, one of my favorite movies is blood diamond. In this movie a father get’s seperated from his son and the Father is trying to get his son back Leonardo plays a mercenary who gets caught in the middle of this drama and ends up doing the right thing. Great actor. But he cannot save me from my sin.

Will Smith

Michelle Obama

Leonardo DeCaprio

Bill Gates

Joe Biden

Hillary Clinton

Queen Elizabeth 2

Adam Sandler

Morgan Freeman

You have probably heard of most of those names but these people can not help you in any significant way, Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins.

Mark tells us from the beginning who this gospel is about, there are no surprises who the main character is-He is the Son of God. The anointed one.

Mark 1:1 (NASB95)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This is the only place where mark gives his opinion about Jesus in this gospel. Who is Mark, he was really close to Peter, who was the spokesmen for the Apostles. Mark also went on a mission trip with Paul and Barnabas and Paul basically kicked him out, but later knew he needed him. He is straight to the point of how he feels about Jesus.

The Bible talks about three beginnings

Undatable eternity past

Genesis 1:1

The beginning of the Gospel-This was the actual beginning of the greatest announcement ever. That God was going to redeem men and women to himself.

This is the summary statement of the book of Mark.

Don’t you love good news-God brings good news. Christianity is good. It’s not boring, it’s not religion. It is good.

The Name Jesus-Jehova is salvation

What we have to realize is that Mark is writing a historical account of who Jesus is. Even the religions that reject that Jesus is the messiah, the son of God still agree that he lived. There is indisputable evidence.

God’s perfect Rescue plan: It was all apart of his rescue plan but in order for there to be good news there has to be bad news.

a. Bad News-Why is this good news because man has been engulfed in sin since the day Adam and Eve sinned. We have been in trouble. Sin is all around us, our history as mankind is pretty nasty. We have sinned personally, we have been affected by others who sin against us and we can’t get away from us. Left to our own where do we turn.

We are hopeless and helpless apart from God!

Turn to your neighbor and tell them they are hopeless apart from God.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

b. Good News-The good news of the gospel is that even when we deserved judgement for our sins that the God of heaven stepped out and died on our behalf so that we would not have to experience the wrath of God. The implications are simple we cannot earn this good news we can only receive it with an open heart. What is so beautiful about Christianity is that it is all about Grace, what God has done on the behalf of sinners.

Do you agree with Mark’s confession of who Jesus is?

There is only one who can save from sin-Jesus meets all the criteria.

Maybe today you have never embraced Jesus as the one who saves us from sin?

Jesus offers it as a gift, that can only be recieved.

Right now we give you the opportunity to accept what Jesus did to forgive you for your sins.

2. The next confession we must embrace (John the baptist): he is the only one worthy to live for (2-8).

Mark 1:2–3 NASB95

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.’ ”

We have prophecy and history.

In the book of Matthew the author uses a lot of quotes from the OT.

The prophecy and history constitutes a confirmation of the messiahship of Jesus

As early as Genesis God promised a messiah

The early Christians believed the OT was God’s inspired and authoritative word.

Unlike Matthew who quoted the OT all the time this is the only OT quote. Two different people writing about the exact same God some will focus on different things.

One of the things that the OT propheciesed about was that their would be a forerunner to Jesus, someone who would come before him preparing the world.

Not only was Jesus promised the one who would tell of him was promised.

Why-Presidential elections.

v. 2-4-He authenticated Jesus messiahship and prepared him for the beginning of his official ministry.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

“The point of the whole quotation is that John’s preparatory ministry, in fulfillment of prophecy, authenticated Jesus’ Messiahship and prepared for the beginning of His official ministry as the Messiah.”

John had a substantial ministry-

Mark 1:4 (NASB95)

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The word Repent-is like doing an about face.

This repentance signified a lifestyle of turning to God.

Repentance is more than grief or regret for sin, it is a deep change of mind, an altered attitude toward sin which has its proper fruit in a deliberate change of conduct for the better.

This baptism was characterized by repentance. It does not mean that they were earning their forgiveness rather it means their lives were now going to be characterized by a life of repentance (turning to God).

Christian Baptism-If you are a believer in Jesus we get baptised not to earn our salvation but rather to show the world what Jesus has done for us.

His ministry fulfilled prophecy (2-4)

Made a profound impact on the hearers (5)

THE PEOPLE WERE EXCITED, THEY WRE LINING UP AT THE STREETS TO GET BAPTIZED this would be a good problem to have .

John’s impact was not just now it was eternal because if these people would turn to Jesus their lives would be changed forevermore.

His appearance described (6)-

Mark 1:5–6 NASB95

And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

There was a similar person in the OT named Elijah in the OT.

Locusts were eaten by the poor especially in times of famine, he was not living a life of luxury. John could have been cocky or fancy but instead he was doing what God called him to do.

John was going against the religion and establishment of his day.

John was a different cat but he knew he was sent by God and that Jesus was too and he also knew Jesus was greater than he.

Only one is worthy (7-8)

Mark 1:7–8 NASB95

And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John had all this success in ministry: and this was his confession.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Exposition)

Slaves did not have to untie their masters’ sandals, but John felt unworthy to do even this most menial task for Messiah. This emphasis on the humility of God’s servants persists through this Gospel.

I will do the lowliest task on the earth for this man: Why because he is worthy.

If you were on the presidential staff would you not do anything for the president.

And that is John’s posture towards Jesus.

Mark 1 suggests that the superiority of the coming one lay in His superior baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the Spirit was a well known feature of the prophecies concerning the messianic age (Isaiah 44:3; Joel 2:28-29). Visibly fulfilled at Pentecost, it was cited by Peter in his Pentecostal sermon as proof that jesus was the promised Messiah (Acts 2:32-33).

John 3:30 (NASB95)

“He must increase, but I must decrease.

Eyewitness of accounts

We also see the connection to the prophecy )Isaiah 40:3, Mal 3:1. The time is now (Lord and Messiah is here).

What do I need for this point

Illustration of someone who Lives a life of giving their life to Jesus.

Do you need to get baptized to show the world who you are?

Are you living for him right now?

3. The last confession we must embrace (The Father): he is my divine SON OF GOD (9-13).

Jesus has been the father’s son from all eternity, try to wrap your brain around that, there was neer a time where this was not true.

If someone believes in Jesus they become a child of Jesus, but Jesus has always been perfectly connected to his father.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Introduction

“In my view, the Markan evangelist presents Jesus as the true son of God and in doing so deliberately presents Jesus in opposition to Rome’s candidates for a suitable emperor, savior, and lord. All the features that made up the emperor cult and the various customs associated with the office and title of emperor in various ways find expression in NT Christology. Most of these features are paralleled in Mark; others are paralleled elsewhere in the NT.”

His Baptism proves his Uniqueness

Mark 1:9 (NASB95)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Jesus was not baptized because he needed to repent of personal sins. He was baptized because he was now identifying with mankind.

Jesus the Son of God was also the son of man, he is completely man and completely God.

Another reason he was baptized was he would have been completely misunderstood.

Mark 1:10 (NASB95)

Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him;

First word of immediately, will be used 42 times in this book.

The heavens opening shows a great power and we will see in the chapters coming Jesus use the power from heaven to do all kinds of miracles.

Mark 1:11 (NASB95)

and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

Illustration of when I had all of my kids I could not love them any more than I did in that moment. How I was watching Nate as a youngster play on this little goal, not only did I love him as much as I could of, it just brought so much joy to my heart.

Jesus has a special relationship to the father. He is God.

Jesus has God nature. Man begets man, ducks beget ducks, God begets God.

Christology-From the beginning of the Gospel with son Divine Sonship.

His Temptation proves his sinlessness

Mark 1:12–13 (NASB95)

Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.

And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Immediately is used in this book 41 times. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus was here his father did not keep him from hard things, but Jesus was sent directly into those things for testing.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

1:12 “Immediately” connects the temptation closely with the baptism. The same Spirit who came upon Jesus at His baptism now drove (Gr. ekballo) Him into the wilderness for testing.

In the Old Testament the Israelites associated inhabited land as God’s blessing and the wilderness as his cursing. it was in this very difficult situation that Jesus passed, he was tempted like you and me but never sinned.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

God allowed Satan to tempt Jesus for two reasons: to show that He would not draw away from the Father’s will, and to demonstrate His qualification for His mission. The name Satan is a transliteration of the Hebrew word satan, meaning “adversary.”

He passed the test.