The King Is Here

The evening of May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama stepped to the podium and announced the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on US soil in our history.

That speech was gospel.

The word has been Christianized as this faith has spread over the globe.

But in its original, cultural context, the Greek word “Evangeleon” was used to describe “the announcement of a strategic or military victory”

To bring a “gospel” was simply to announce “WE WON”

This is helpful context for understanding why Mark, a spiritual son to the Apostle Peter set out write this narrative that we now call “The Gospel of Mark”

If the message of the Gospel is that we have won, the purpose of the narrative is to tell the story of how it happened.

Mark’s Gospel is the CNN special when they interview Hilary Clinton and Bill Daley and General James Mattis.

Written in Rome to the Christian community there around the year 67 AD, Mark pulls together the stories he’d gathered from Peter and others who witnessed it all firsthand to produce his account.

Mark was probably the first Gospel written. The other Gospels quote all but 31 verses of Mark.

Mark’s gospel is action packed…

While he includes some of Jesus’ teaching, Mark focuses on what Jesus DID.

The records more miracles than does any other Gospel.

The gospel first circulated among believers in and around Rome as a Narrative Performance:

A narrator would read while a group of actors played out the scenes

The original church would have engaged with this Mark as a performance of about 90 minutes to 2 hours followed by a discussion.

We will spend the next 8 to 10 weeks with Mark (engaging primarily through sermonic exposition). But, I encourage us to read it and re-read it. Come together to discuss it. Immerse ourselves in the experience of it.

Mark starts the gospel narrative where so many great stories have also commenced…at the beginning.

Now, I hate missing the beginning of a movie.

Good writers drop important themes at the beginning of the story

Sometimes if you miss the beginning, you can watch the rest of the movie and never really get the message that the writer is trying to communicate

In that same way, there is an important theme in the opening verses of Mark’s Gospel narrative that if we miss it, we will misinterpret the entire gospel message.

It is so important I want to say it plain, then preach it a little, and then say it again.

Here it is: THE ENTITY AT CENTER STAGE FOR ENTIRE DURATION OF THE GOSPEL DRAMA IS NOT YOU OR ME OR THE DEVIL…ITS JESUS

The gospel saves us…heals us…qualifies us for eternal life. But, the Gospel is not about us. The Gospel is about Jesus

So, the title of the sermon this morning is this, “The King Is Here”.

Let’s turn to the text, Mark 1:1-15

Mark 1:1–15 ESV

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 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,’ ” 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. 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.” 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.” The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 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. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The gospel narrative can be viewed as the narrative of a massive struggle for power.

In the cosmos (good vs evil)

In nature (survival of the fittest)

In Israel (who is God?)

Among the nations and governments (borders and dominion)

In the hearts of people (influence and worship)

In these verses, Mark moves Jesus quickly to center of this multifaceted narrative by showing to be the PROPHESIED, PROCLAIMED, AND PRESENT Messiah.

PRAYER

We Jesus As The Prophesied Messiah

3 allusions to OT Jewish Prophets

Isaiah is quoted

Malechai is quoted

John the Baptist is clothed like Elijah the Tishbite

Mark is not writing to a Jewish audience. So why all the Hebrew prophecy?

Rome at this time is the most modern, most powerful society in the history of the world.

Mark wants to highlight the fact that this gospel predates and thereby supersedes Rome.

This plan was in motion thousands of years before the first senate of the Roman Republic.

Rome might be the center of the known world, but Rome is not the center of the Gospel.

JESUS is the center of the Gospel.

We See Jesus As The Proclaimed Messiah

It is one thing to be the prophesied Messiah, it is another to be proclaimed.

There is an immediacy to proclamation

Prophecy says, “A Messiah will come someday”. Proclamation says “The Messiah will be here soon.”

Nobody reading or watching the performance of Mark’s gospel would have known Isaiah or Malachai or Elijah the Tishbite.

But, John the Baptizer was relatively current events.

Isaiah would have been as familiar to them as Marco Polo and Mansa Musa are to us. (They were both a big deal 700 years ago)

But, John the Baptist’s cultural influence would like Fidel Castro and Barbie and Motown (came on the scene 65 years ago)

Jesus is not just a messiah that some prophets spoke about 700 years ago.

Do you remember John…the cultural influencer…the crazy guy at the center of so much controversy in the Roman province of Judea?

Yeah, I remember John

Well, his whole shtick was preaching about the fact that Jesus was about to show up.

He was not only prophesied as coming among the ancients he was proclaimed in contemporary times imminent.

We See Jesus As The Present Messiah

I like the idea of prophesied Jesus and a proclaimed Jesus, but I tell it sometimes sends a chill down my spine when I read the first words of Mark chapter 1 verse 9 “In those days Jesus came…”

Mark uses these words to denote a shift in the narrative.

But, I guess what I like about it is that these same words denote a shift in my narrative:

I was a self righteous son of a gun

I was a charlatan and a secret sinner

I was celebrated and certain of my own success, that I could not see that I was sinking

BUT IN THOSE DAYS, JESUS CAME…

I don’t know if there’s anybody else in the room whose story turns at those same words…IN THOSE DAYS JESUS CAME

Maybe you were strung out on drugs

Maybe you were addicted to sex and money

Maybe you were broken, depressed, and confused

But in those days, Jesus came.

I’m so glad we have a show up savior!

Now Mark is careful not just give us Jesus as the divine Son of God

Prophesied and Proclaimed

Recognized from the heavens

The Spirit Descending like a dove

We have this image of Jesus and it is accurate, but before the audience can bask in the glory of the baptism experience, Jesus is literally picked up and thrown into the wilderness.

That word “drove” is literally “hurled”...

“Immediately the Spirit hurled him out into the wilderness”

He was tempted by the devil

And he was impacted by the elements

This is a decidedly human experience.

Mark gives this view of Jesus’ humanity so that by the time this Jesus shows up in Galilee to preach, He is in the eyes of the audience manifestly divine and at the same time manifestly human.

This God-Man, this Messiah comes the people of God to declare…it’s time…

The Kingdom is here…

The Gospel is the message of what Jesus has done. But, that Gospel has its foundation in WHO JESUS IS.

It’s not just the good news about Jesus Christ. The Good News Is Jesus Christ.

This is why our understanding of the Gospel must center Jesus.

The gospel is not just about Him. He is the essence of the gospel.

He is the one who obliterates the reign of sin and death and bondage and inaugurates the dominion of God’s Kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Before anyone of us can put our faith in what Jesus has done, we must first trust and believe in WHO HE IS.

The God-Man (fully human and fully divine)

The prophesied Messiah

The Proclaimed Imminent King

The Present, Active Savior of the World

That’s who He is. And He is the center of the Gospel.

Beloved, for the next several weeks, we will be students of this Gospel narrative. And for all eternity, we will be beneficiaries of the Gospel’s impact.

But, in all of our consideration, application, and even proclamation of this Gospel; we must Center Jesus

That’s why no sin is too great to be overcome by the Gospel. The Gospel does not center sin; The Gospel Jesus

That’s why you can’t be saved because of your commitment to social justice and equity. The Gospel does not center moral rectitude; The Gospel centers Jesus.

That’s why The Gospel cannot adjust itself to accommodate our preferences and personal perspectives. The Gospel does not center human identity; The Gospel centers Jesus.

If we start there with Mark then we will begin to see how truly powerful the Gospel really is

The Jesus-centered gospel changes lives…

not just one time, but over and over again as we are transformed into the image of that self-same Christ.

SING JESUS AT THE CENTER