Sermon Tone Analysis

*“How to Get and Keep a Focus on Christ”*

Mark 1:1-13                                                                         Pastor Bruce Dick – BEFC

Pt. 2 in Gospel of Mark                                                                      March 18, 2007

            I have a small amount of experience with taking pictures with a zoom lens on a camera, but not a lot.

What I have found as I attempt to take pictures with a zoom lens is that you have to first begin most broadly and distantly and then zoom in on the object in the center of the frame.

But what I have also found is that if you BEGIN with the lens zoomed in all the way, it is almost impossible to find the target you wish to capture.

I remember last fall when Landon and I were at the Nebraska football game in Lincoln, NE; there was a helicopter flying near the stadium and he said to me, /“Dad, can you take a picture of that helicopter?”/  “/Sure,”/ I replied.

So I zoomed in with my little zoom but I couldn’t find that thing through the camera for the life of me.

I could open both eyes and with my normal eyesight see the helicopter, but I couldn’t find it with the camera.

I backed off on the zoom a wider angle and finally found the helicopter and then, once that was done, I could zoom in and take the picture Landon wanted.

I find that life is almost the same way.

Things are going past us at a dizzying speed – kids and school and their sports and music functions; our own work places and jobs with their complexities; keeping our marriage relationships communicating and at least relatively healthy, keeping gas in the car and trying to make it clean once in a while…on and on the list goes.

And like a camera trying to laser in on one thing, the only way we succeed, is to back off a bit, get the big picture and then begin to laser in more closely on the thing or things we want to focus in for that day or short period of time.

If you have that concept in your mind, you will grasp what we will be talking about this morning.

Our focus this morning is not on the kids or the job or the dog or the dirty vehicle, but on Jesus Christ.

Like everything else in this life, it is so very easy to lose that focus.

Jesus can (and often) becomes one of the many things that are part of our lives.

He’s an important part, but he kind of gets lost in the busyness of life, would you agree?

We don’t intend to forget about him – praying, reading, being part of church- but somehow it just happens.

What we want to encourage you this morning is to back up, get the big picture with the wide angle lens and then, once Jesus is in the picture, begin to zoom in on him.

As we begin to zoom in on him, we will find that all the other things in our wide angle vision begin to find their proper place, no longer all clamoring for front and center, but falling in line in the place that they belong.

That zooming in on Christ is how Mark begins his gospel account of Jesus Christ.

If you were here last week, you heard me talk about the two “failures” behind the writing of this gospel account – Peter and Mark.

* Peter*, the famous apostle who had a/ habit of revving his mouth while his brain was in neutral, was the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth/.

*Mark*, the young man who had the enormous privilege of knowing Jesus to some degree, traveled with both Peter and Paul, was the one who abandoned Paul and Barnabas, his cousin, shortly into their first missionary journey.

These two men collaborated to write the gospel with Mark’s name on it.

It is the shortest gospel and the one most filled with action rather than teaching, reflecting the influence of Peter.

As I said last week, it is a “man’s” gospel because of that.

It begins and ends very abruptly.

The word “immediately” occurs 36 times in this gospel; there’s a sense of urgency; time is short and we can’t mess around.

But here’s an important thing to remember – it is VERY focused.

It is focused totally on Jesus Christ, the son of God and son of man who came to serve rather than to be served.

I also want to remind you of *why this gospel* account was written; there was enormous persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, particularly in Rome.

And as the disciples are dying, one by one, these persecuted Christians need someone to write down Jesus’ story so they can have hope in the midst of their persecution.

They need to know over and over that Jesus suffered like them and in fact, died, as many of them did.

But Jesus didn’t die with fear; he died confident that he was totally honoring his father and providing the hope that would last the rest of time.

This gospel had enormous importance and impact in the early church.

So that is why it needed to be focused, and not just  focused on lots of good things, but on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And the first portion of this gospel that we begin with this morning, chapter 1, verses 1-13, is a prime evidence of that.

What Mark does with the first 13 VERSES of his gospel account is what takes Matthew 75 verses and Luke 183verses.

John has his own unique way of beginning.

But you might say that Mark’s beginning is the “cliff notes” version of Jesus’ story.

There is no background on Jesus’ birth, no mention of the shepherds, family, genealogy, no birth of John the Baptist or anything of his story of being born.

Mark and Peter have an obsession with simplicity and focus on one and only one thing – Jesus Christ.

And my suggestion will be that we need today, desperately, to get and keep that focus.

Let me give you a mental “map” of where we are going today.

I basically want to tell the story as Mark does, explaining some things that are important for us to know that will enhance the picture that he is taking of Jesus and the setting for his story.

And when that story is done, then I’ll come back to some ways that we can practically get and keep our focus on Christ in a Christ-less world.

So let’s take a look at the first part of Mark’s Gospel.

Take your Bibles and turn to the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses 1-13.

Mark 1:1-13.

It is found on page *836*.

Mark 1:1-13.

Let’s stand as we read God’s word.

READ.

Here’s an overview of what’s happening in these first few verses.

In verses 1-8 we are focused on the ministry of John the Baptist.

Mark knows that he is the necessary setup to the arrival of Jesus, but he doesn’t tell us a whole lot because he doesn’t want John’s story to override Jesus’.

Second, we’ll see the baptism of Jesus.

What in the world was Jesus baptized for?

He didn’t need sins forgiven did he?

Then finally, in this last section of the story, we’ll see an abbreviated version of Jesus’ temptation.

Again, he uses 1 verse – ONE verse!

-  to tell this amazing story.

But again, Mark and Peter are obsessed that we keep the main thing the main thing.

So let’s begin with at the beginning – verse one.

The interesting thing about verse one is that this really is the title of the gospel we attribute to Mark.  “The Gospel According to Mark” was added much later.

But verse one is really the title:  /“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”/

This is His story.

This is only a beginning of Jesus Christ’s story; there is so much more to say, but in light of time and urgency, we’re just giving you the essential part of this story.

It is a “*gospel*,” which to the Romans meant “/joyful news about the emperor.”/

Whenever there was a new emperor, the “gospel” went out that good news was coming!

There would be someone sent through the land proclaiming the rise to the throne of a new emperor.

Mark is simply saying, /“I have a beginning of some incredible, great news to share with you, not of a Roman emperor but of a universe-ruler by the name of Jesus Christ.”/

And his good news is what will give hope to the hopeless and persecuted.

But look at the titles given to this gospel-bearer:  1) Jesus – “/Jehovah saves,/” a message of hope, 2) Christ – /“the anointed one,” /God of Israel, the Messiah, the long- awaited savior, 3) Son – /which emphasizes his nature or character/, 4) of God – /absolute deity./

Four Greek words that summed up not only who he was but why he came.

This wasn’t just “Bruce Dick, eldest son of Gerald;” that does identify who I am, but tells you nothing about my character or why I came.

But /“Jesus Christ, son of God,”/ is a sermon in a title!

With the title clearly presented, Mark quotes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.

Actually, part of this is from Malachi, but it was typical to just note the more prominent one.

Verses 2-3 are these prophesies.

I think that Mark uses these prophesies b~/c the Romans would understand the ideas behind what he is talking about.

We already know that the word “gospel” would have made sense to them, announcing the great news of a coming emperor.

There are other words in these prophesies.

*Messenger*:  someone would go in advance of the emperor’s visit to let them know he was coming.

*Crying:*  this is not just making an announcement; this has emotion and passion behind it; this messenger is shouting, speaking very passionately about the coming of this emperor-king-messiah.  *Prepare the way*:  they also understood this along with “/make his paths straight.”/

Let’s say that the president is coming to Devils Lake in the presidential limousine.

The preparations would be to be sure that every pothole and crack in the road between here and Washington, DC were filled.

If there were freeze bumps in the road; they would be fixed so that the president’s ride would be as smooth as possible.

The Romans would totally understand this language from Malachi and Isaiah.

What they didn’t know or understand that all of this was preparation for the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

His messenger was none other than John the Baptist.

He would be the one to, in a sense, prepare the “road” for Messiah’s coming.

He would be the one crying out with emotion and passion, not from the capital city but from the wilderness.

It is as if Mark is saying, /“Now Romans, the story I am about to tell you is an amazing story similar to what you see in your emperors and the announcement of his arrival, but the message and the messenger to tell the news will be unique in all of human history.”/

Into that backdrop comes none other than John the Baptist in verses 4-8.

Again, in typical Mark fashion, he just says, /“John appeared;/” no fluff; no background, no life story, he just appeared on the stage of history.

He did two things:  1) he was baptizing in the wilderness.

2) He was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.