Mark 1:1-13

This is the sermon outline for Mark 1:1-15.

Outline:

Welcome, Intro

-Why Mark?

-Mark’s purpose (SLIDE)

-How Mark’s structure supports his purpose (SLIDE)

-Who is Jesus (ch. 1-8a)

-What does it mean for Jesus to be Messiah? (8b-10)

-How does Jesus become Messiah? (11-16)

-Marks’ invitation to follow

-What message do we follow?

-1:14-15 (SLIDE)

-What is Jesus' message? What is the GOSPEL?

-Repent and believe

-Communion

TEXT:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his pths straight! John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. As soon as he came up out of the water, 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. Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"

PRAY

Well good morning!

We've made it here, to this point. Since we weren’t able to meet last week I’m actually going to preach 2 full sermons today, to catch us up.

Last week I went to a church planting conference, and one of the speakers there talked about the different moves of God, throughout church history.

-and he laid out the various moves

-the Jesus movement, charismatics, emphasized the Spirit

-the Great Awakening with open air preaching, emphasized the personal testimony

-the Reformation (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli), emphasized the Word

-the anabaptist movement, emphasized unity and priesthood of all believers

The ONE THING they had in common, is that they wanted God.

-God shows up where He’s wanted.

-they didn’t rely on their pragmatism, their doctrine, buildings, stuff, connections, status,

-all they relied on was the Spirit of the Living God

-they wanted God to take what was dead and make it alive

-they wanted God in their own lives

-they wanted God in their homes

-they wanted God in their churches

-they wanted God in their communities

This is my prayer for AGC, not that…

-Isaiah 6 and his vision of the temple (glory of God filled the temple; the robe filled the temple)

-he first saw the glory of God,

-then grew overwhelmed

-then said "here I am! Send me!"

-and then we need to pursue it

-we don’t need to pursue anything else

-our labor is in vain if we are planting this church...

-just to have another something to go to on Sunday mornings

-if we think we can do it better than other people

-if we think that stuff, programs,

-we need to pursue GOD!

-and all these things will be added unto you

PRAY

if you haven’t already, turn in your copy of the Scriptures to the Gospel according to Mark

-were going to be taking only 7 weeks to cover the gospel of Mark, so it's going to feel VERY fast.

-we're going to be skipping chunks of Mark, in order to line up with Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday

-it's going to feel like a sprint, BUT I think that's good because the Gospel According to Mark is very fast-paced

-when you read it in one sitting, it's EXTREMELY fast

-one of Mark's favorite words is "immediately"

-very fast.

-BUT that doesn't mean it's just thrown together

-a danger is viewing Mark as a highlight reel of Jesus' life

-sometimes people read Mark, then they jump to Matthew or Luke or John in order to figure out "what happened"

but that's unfortunate! for two reasons

-first, Mark was the first Gospel account written

-earliest christians ONLY had this

-second, it doesn't give Mark enough credit

-Mark was intentional. Mark has a purpose

-Part of the process of reading God's Word well, and listening and responding to God’s Word well, is to understand the purpose

-to ask the questions that Mark is asking

-to see the point of what Mark is saying

-who is Jesus in the Gospel according to Mark?

-what’s the relationship between Jesus and his disciples in the Gospel according to Mark?

Illustration:

-movies have a purpose, whether it's to make you feel or believe a certain thing Specific illustration not just a general principal – The wizard of oz – there's no place like home.

-Mark is the same.

-It has a purpose.

-Its' purpose is to **show us who Jesus is, and invite us to follow Him.**

Slide

Purpose: Show us who Jesus is, and invite us to follow Him.

And so through the next 7 weeks, we're going to follow Mark as he continually shows us who Jesus is, and he invites us to respond in faith and follow Him.

we’re going to watch Mark show us who Jesus is

-he SHOWS us, because he doesn't TELL us except for one verse

talk mainly about this^

-only ONE time does Mark tell us explicitly, Mark 1:1

-we’re going to watch him paint a picture

-he’s going to show us what Jesus says, how he responds in certain situations, who Jesus heals, etc.

-and over and over again Mark will be *showing* us who Jesus is

AND

He will invite us to follow him

-a lot of times we don’t think that stories/narrative in the Bible has practical implications, which is why 99% of sermons are from the letters of Paul because it’s more logical and “practical” which, by the way is a terrible way to view the holy scriptures as if they're self-help books,

-but we go to a narrative/gospel like Mark and MAYBE we see that there’s wisdom here for living a life of holiness and godliness, I’ll just read the gospel to figure out what Jesus did then I’ll just go to Paul to learn how to live.

-but what’s happening in the Gospel according to mark is that he shows us what it means to follow him

-he brings in characters that are confronted by Jesus, whether in a good way or a bad way, and then he shows us their response

-some respond in anger, bitterness, hardness of hearts

-some respond in absolute terror and fear

-and some, very few, but some respond in repentance and faith, and they are healed/saved by Jesus

-and by showing us those responses, he actually wants us to get frustrated with the lack of faith from the disciples or the stubbornness of the pharisees and he wants us to be shocked that no-named women are among the only characters that follow and believe Jesus fully, that a dirty Roman Centurion is the first person after the crucifixion that realizes Jesus is LORD

And the structure of the book of Mark helps solidify that point (the purpose statement of the book)

- The book is divided, not neatly, but roughly, into 3 sections: ch. 1-8a, 8b-10, and 11-16a

-those also follow the location of WHERE Jesus is: Galilee, "on the way" and Jerusalem.

Slide

slide of structure of book

-1-8a Who Is Jesus? (Galilee)

-8b-10 What does it mean to be Messiah? ("On the way")

-11-16 How Jesus becomes Messiah. (Jerusalem)

Ch. 1-8a Who is Jesus?

-Jesus is healing, casting out demons, and we are getting a picture of who Jesus is!

-“who is this guy?”

-forgives

-commands wind and waves

-carpenters son

-nazareth

-elijah moses john baptizer prophet ??

Ch. 8b-10 What does it mean to be Messiah?

-But a significant shift happens in the second section of this book, ch. 8b-10, where Jesus tells us what it means to be the Messiah

-because the messiah was a loaded term

-just like the word “president”

-Messiah/Christ = anointed one

-there were many Messiah’s who would start in the sticks, rally a crowd, and storm Jerusalem

-the reason they would do this is because the OT, the Hebrew Bible, they had biblical justification for their actions (they thought)

-here’s what I mean

-Mark 1:11

-if you noticed the voice from heaven

-Ps. 2:7

-”messiah”, an anointed one, who is equal to YHWH, that will rule the earth, conquer the evil nations, crush wicked kings and rulers, and establish his own kingdom on earth.

-this is the Messiah!

-this is misinterpreted in the 1st cent. Bc and AD to mean someone who will come on a horse with a sword who will crush Rome.

-BUT then in the second section Jesus tells his disciples 3 times what it actually means to be Messiah

-8:27-38; 9:30-37; 10:32-45

-three times

-he says that to be the Messiah means to suffer and die

-he says “the first half of the Messiah description, I fit, but the second half is the exact opposite of what I’m going to do”

-the true messiah is one that is so in love with and filled with compassion for his people that he is going to defeat the powers of sin and death by dying for sin.

-10:45!

Ch. 11-16 How Jesus becomes the Messiah

-then this sections SLOWS and Jesus shows how he becomes Messiah

-it is not by being lifted up on a throne, but a cross

-not by crowned with a gold crown but by being crowned with a crown of thorns

-not by getting praised but by getting mocked

-not by being surrounded

-it’s by dying for the sake of others

-it’s not by being served, it’s by serving and giving His life as a ransom for many

-and he invites us to follow him to the cross.

-he invites us to respond to that message

He wants us to ask: what are you going to do with this message?

which brings us back to the beginning

-what IS Jesus’ message?

-IOW, what IS the gospel? What is the gospel that JESUS preached? One theologian says that we must start with the gospel that Jesus preached, because if we don’t we will most likely end up with a gospel that Jesus did NOT preach.

-before you freak out, it's actually a more nuanced, complicated, detailed question that needs defining than you'd think

-if I were to ask you, you all might start in a different place and end in a different place!

-start with creation? With Adam? With Jesus birth? With Jesus’ public ministry? With Jesus’ death?

-end with the Lord returning? Resurrection of the body? Resurrection of Jesus? Ascension of Jesus?

“some people say the gospel is (fill in the blank)

-social justice for the poor widow and orphan

-liberation from oppressive powers and systems

-atonement for sins

-Jesus in my place

-Jesus’ life death and resurrection

There are a lot of articulations of the gospel,

but the questions isn’t “what do WE say the gospel is” the question is “what does Jesus say the gospel is.”

Thankfully for us, Mark tells us what Jesus’ gospel is:

v. 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”

Alright, let’s break this down

Fulfilled.

Another way to translate “fulfilled” is “complete” or “come to an end” or “reached its climax”. to fulfill something means that its’ purpose is over

Time.

What time?

-it’s the time of the old age

-evil age

-limited presence

-where the Spirit only fell on a few people

-pillar of cloud by day and fire by night

-temple

-travel miles to worship

-foreign rule, oppression, enslavement

-Moses wished for spirit (Numbers 11)

-waiting for God to move

-waiting for God to change something

-to speak

-to act

-to free his people

-for New Exodus

-for New Land

-for New Life

-for deliverer

time of darkness

time of hopelessness when the prince of the power of the air felt more like the king of the power of the air

time of SILENCE

that time has reached it end in Jesus

Kingdom of God has come near

-better translation

-RULE of God

-REIGN of God

-one pastor-theologian calls it the "range of his effective will"

-the sphere in which God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven

-King Henry - the order imposed upon a people and place by a monarch, for better or for worse

-the REIGN of God. new world order. the way things are (ought to be) under his will.

What Jesus is saying is that God’s effective will, his reign, his rule, his influence, his KINGDOM has come near and will continue to do so

-it's a kingdom where...

-God's people participate in God's love

-the last will be first and the first will be last

-forgiveness is the norm, grudges are not held and arguments not divisive

-where people are giving everything they have to each other in needs

-where no one is alone or lonely because they have a family and they are family in God

-where words are only edifying and encouraging and life-giving, not hurtful or deceitful

-where love of God and love of others is just natural to everyone

-where the needs of others are more important than the needs of yourself

-where there is no more tears or pain because the old things are gone and the new things have come and HE is making all things new

-where every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father

THAT’S the kingdom of God

And that’s the gospel.

-that’s the gospel that Jesus preaches, and that’s the gospel OF Jesus

But the elephant in the room is, "but that's not right now. I don't see that right now. That's good and all, but there's still tears and anxiety and pain and brokenness and lies and there still is a prince of the power of the air"

well that's why Jesus says "has come near" not "has come

-” has come near”

-not “has come fully”

Jesus starts it. Jesus brings it in

-already, not-yet.

-in and through his spirit, God with us, that we can become a people marked by love, and continue to bring the effective will of God in our lives and the lives of those around us.

-you see the gospel isn't necessarily about getting you into heaven it's more so about getting heaven into you

How we do that is simple, Jesus tells us this himself. (don’t you wish sermons were this short?)

Repent from the old age of putting your needs above another person's needs

-of using words to tear down and destroy rather than build up and encourage

-of using your resources for yourself, selfishly, rather than sacrificially giving to those in need

-of trying to build up your effective will rather than building up God’s effective will

And Believe

-that God is faithful

-that Jesus is faithful

-that Jesus is the messenger of this good news AND THE MESSAGE of this good news

-that Jesus is making all things new and that starts from within and it starts in the most unexpected areas and ways imaginable, it starts in the

READ THIS

This is the gospel. This is what we're about. That the time has been fulfilled, and Jesus in his self-giving act of dying on the cross defeated the powers of sin and darkness, made us right with God, cleansed us from our sins, and rose from the dead giving us his Spirit so that we can through repentance and belief be made new.

-Where do we/I need to repent?

-Where do we/I need to believe?

Communion