Jesus Christ, the Son of God

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.”

Why are there four gospels?

Have you ever wondered why there are four gospels? Now, when I say gospels in this context, I’m referring to the books of the Bible Matthew Mark Luke and John, not the gospel of Jesus Christ—of which there is only one.

But why do we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? There are harmonies of the gospels out there that seek to interweave all four books together, and I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with that, but I think we can miss a lot if that’s what we think of when we come to Matthew Mark Luke and John. That is because each book has its own author, its own audience, and its own aim.

The gospel of John was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name, Jn 20:31.

The gospel of Luke was written that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Lk 1:4.

I believe the gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David.

Mark

Then we come to Mark. Where do we find what the book of Mark is about? We need not look further than the first verse.

Mark 1:1 ESV

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

Many commentators call this one verse Mark’s introductory and summary sentence. Mark, I believe is primarily concerned with answering the question: “Who is Jesus?” That is the same question that faces every single person in this room. And to be honest, it is one of, if not the most, important question you will ever answer. “Who is Jesus? And what do you do with him?”

We’re not given explicit information in the text about who wrote Mark, but the early church unanimously affirms that it is the same John Mark we see in Acts 12:12, and he also appears in some of Paul’s letters. Mark is also known to be Peter’s interpreter, and has taken down this account from Peter. If you pay attention to the text in later chapters, that also seems to make sense with how the text slows down and deals with Peter’s accounts.

So then let us dig into the text. It might not look like it, but there is a lot to cover here and I’m going to keep us on time.

Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Now, let’s pause there. If you grew up around Christians or in church, then we might be tempted to blast through this verse and onto the next, but this is Mark’s thesis statement. The beginning of all the gospels are so important to understanding them at large. Matthew, with his genealogy, Luke with is note of certainty to Theophilus, and John beginning with his logos theology—in the beginning was the word. Here in Mark, it is centered on Jesus—the Christ—who is the Son of God.

This is so important, because it should inform how we see the rest of the book. There is a very strong Christ and Son of God Christology in the book of mark. Now what do I mean by Christology? Christology is the study of the person, nature, and work of Christ. So who is Jesus? What is his nature? And what does he do? And like the most precious diamond—perfectly cut—has many facets, learning about Jesus in Mark is like looking at the facet of the designation “Christ” and the designation “Son of God.”

Christ

Christ is not Jesus’ last name, it is a title. It means anointed one, or messiah. So the title, like verse 2 and 3 of Mark, tie Jesus to the Old Testament, and we see Jesus as a fulfillment of Old Testament kingly figures, like David.

Son of God

On the Son of God, Douglas O’Donnell writes this, “the title ‘Son of God’ means that ‘Jesus is eternally Son of the Father, sharing in his divine nature,’” (3).

Mark uses this designation very seldomly—so when he uses it we should take note. He uses it here in Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” He uses it in Mark 3:11 “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”” and he uses it in Mark 15:39 “And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!””

There is a pitfall here, and how we handle it is of eternal significance. This past week, I had a very long conversation with some people who were arguing that Jesus is the literal son of the father and that they are not of the same substance—which led them to outright denying the trinity and the fact that there is one God. Some of you in here today might believe that—we’ve probably all struggled with it, or at least how to understand it conceptually. But I say that to say, it is so important to know what “the Son of God” means, and to get it right, because you will be challenged on it some day, or you will come across people who have questions. If you want to study more about these terms, these debates, I encourage you to read your Bible first and foremost. But we’re also beneficiaries of church history, so you should go study the first council of Nicea in 325 AD.

John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus

Mark 1:2–11 ESV

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.”

So remember, when we read this, it is important we remember verse 1, when we’re talking about Jesus, we’re talking about the Christ, the Son of God.

Another feature of the book of Mark is quick, and we get lots of snapshots very quickly. Depending on your translation, as you read through the book of Mark, you’ll notice the word “immediately” a lot.

The scene setting snapshot here is all of Judea and Jerusalem’s heart being prepared, and yearning for repentance.

So, then we come to Jesus’ baptism. Jesus’ baptism has perplexed me. The more I study it, the more glorious I see it. When faced with the question, “why did Jesus have to get baptized?” I always answered with Matt 3:15, to fulfill all righteousness.

Matthew 3:15 ESV

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

We see this passage from Isaiah 40, and then we jump straight into the confirmation of it. John the baptist is affirmed as the one who prepares the way, and Jesus is affirmed the Messiah. and really, if you go look at this passage in the original languages, the word for Lord, in Greek is Kurios, which is talking about God—but then you can go to the reference in Isaiah in Hebrew, and it is God’s name—YHWH—the same name God gave Moses. So in his baptism, Jesus is affirmed as both God and Messiah. If you need more places to go study that, go to John 8:58

John 8:58 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

and then go to Genesis 15, and note what God does and what Abraham does.

Through Jesus’ baptism, in my study, I was also led to a place I wasn’t expecting—the cross. I would say, “well Jesus was sinless, so why is he getting baptized?”

Sinclair Ferguson, an absolutely wonderful Scottish theologian says this: “Jesus’ water baptism inaugurated him into a ministry which reached its fulfillment later in his baptism in blood upon the cross (see Luke 12:50) What we have here is Jesus’ public acknowledgment that he had come to stand where sinners should stand, receive what they should deserve, and in return to them his gift of grace and fellowship with God.”

Could we not say the same about the cross? Jesus is sinless, so why does he have to die! He doesn’t have to pay for sin! Not his own, but he paid for ours. So we see John’s baptism point forward to the cross and the need of the Holy Spirit to change our heart. Here’s Christian baptism in Colossians 2:11-12

Colossians 2:11–12 ESV

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

So now baptism points back to the cross!

Temptation in the Wilderness

Then we come to the temptation in the wilderness—I’m telling you, Mark is fast paced! We’ve gotten a snapshot of the whole book in verse 1, prophecy and fulfillment in 2-11, then two verses for Jesus being tempted, then Jesus begins his ministry.

Mark 1:12–13 “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.”

We don’t get a zoomed in picture of this account like we do in Luke, but what is the point here? Jesus is victorious. If we were to look at the two words “wilderness” and “forty”, you would probably think of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years in the book of Numbers.

Jesus is victorious. Where the Israelites failed, Jesus succeeded.

Where we fail, Jesus succeeds. But not only that, he has paid for our failings.

You are not your own savior. We are called to grow in personal holiness, and we have to! This is not a should, this is a command. But do not make the mistake of thinking that you are saved on the basis of your keeping the commandments—because we have all broken them. We are all guilty.

But Jesus isn’t. And he got baptized even though he was sinless—which points us to the cross. Jesus did not deserve death on the cross, but you and I did. Yet Christ took on this penalty for us, as our substitute. He took what we deserve.

In the words of that great old hymn, (My faith has found a resting place)

I need no other argument,   I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died,     And that He died for me.

I can think of no better words to close with than the holy inspired words of God, verse 14 and 15 say, Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

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.”