Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, turn with me in your bibles this morning to the gospel of Mark.

We began last week our study of the Gospel of Mark, and we learned that the word Amazed is the central theme of this book, the word or some variation of it is found many times throughout the book.

When we look at what Mark contains what we notice about the man writing is that Mark was a man starstruck by the awesome power and majesty of Jesus Christ the King.

I think that as we move forward through history people are becoming more and more complacent in their view of God.

If you were to describe the way most Christians in our world today view Jesus Christ who is thier Savior Amazed would not be the word i think we would use to describe them.

Perhaps we have lost the wonder of the gospel, perhaps we have grown to comfortable hearing these stories because we have heard them all before.

But when we take an honest look at our world, the world and even the church is just not amazed by Jesus anymore.

When you view the landscape you see church members who fall away from the faith so easily, it almost seems as though they are looking for an excuse, you see people who have fixed their eyes on certain leaders but when they are gone or the movement is over, there is nothing much left but the shell of a once vibrant faith, and we wonder what in the world is happening.

For too long we have focused on everything except the glories of Jesus.

The church today in America is much like the multitude in desiring to have the miracles, and blessings of Jesus while having not much care as to who He really is.

In you will see that multitudes followed after Him wanting to see the miracels wanting to be a part of the excitement, and yet as Jesus spoke and taught them hard truths, he looks up and the multitude is gone because by in large we struggle with hearing the word of god if it is not wrapped in a message of what benefits us to follow Jesus.

Amrk does not care about what he recieved as he walks with Jesus for his 3 1/2 year ministry, but stands amazed because he realizes that the creator of the universe has stepped out of eternity and into humanity in order to save mankind from thier sin.

Shouldn’t that leave us breathless?

shouldn’t the thought of that cause us to be so overwhelmed with emotion that we cannot control ourselves?

That perfection put on imperfection, to come and save us redeem us, and have a relationship with us..... that alone should be enough to serve him.

This morning we come to another event that happened in the life of Jesus and on the surface it seem pretty cool, but to understand it in totality is something to behold.

this is perhaps one of the most important events to see the significance of.

Let’s read:

In the first verse you will remember that mark says this book as “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Then from 2-8 he describes the ministry of JTB who was the forerunner and announcer of the Son of God.

Now finally in (9) he begins the actual history of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He starts this history not with Jesus bloodline or ancestry, not with angelic praise, there were shepherds no wise men in Mark.

He says nothing about Joseph or Mary nothing about Jesus’ childhood nothing about his youth, nothing about his adulthood, and as I pointed out last time there are no OT prophecies in the opening of Mark accept for one which refers to JTB, but there are none that refer to Jesus Christ.

Mark jumps into the history of Jesus at our Lords first public event.

His first public appearance is Baptism, according to our Lord is about 30 years of age at this time.

So John skips over all the previous 30 years he begins the story with the public ministry of the Lord.

By the time the Lord arrived for his baptism, JTB had been preaching for about 6 months.

he had been moving up and down the Jordan valley from the North to the South baptizing all the people who were flooding in from Jerusalem to come to Him.

He was preaching repentance and the confession of sin, for heart cleansing, and he was doing this as a symbol, but he says while his baptism was ok there was one coming who would bring with him a different kind of baptism, JOHN SAID IT IS GOOD FOR YOU TO REPENT AND COME AND BE BAPTIZED BY ME, BUT THERE IS ONE COMING WHO WILL WASH YOU CLEAN FROM THE INSIDE OUT.

John’s message was a message of Judgment, a message of wrath, fiery judgment and he warned the people that they had to escape that judgement and the only way to escape was to repent and confess their sins.

So John was a fiery guy, he was calling people to prepare for the Messiah and to prepare to go into His kingdom and not be judged by Him.

One summer day among the crowds that are pouring out to John, is Jesus.

This is the only time in the NT where we see Jesus and John together.

JTB has been preaching repentance for about 6 months, he is well known in the land of Israel.

Everybody knows that his baptism is a baptism of repentance to escape judgement.

When Jesus arrives John still has 6 more months to go.

It will be another 6 months that John will be preaching this same message, after the baptism of Jesus at the end of about a year, he is arrested by King Herod he is incarcerated for a period of a year, and then because of the evil within his wife.

Herod has John the Baptist head chopped off.

So this is the meeting of the two, and this meeting is huge!

The reason why this event is so monumentally important is because of what it is.

it is the coronation, the crowing of the new King, remember that’s the goal is to show that Jesus Christ is the King!

The New King who is coming who will declare a new era for the world.

Well this is His crowning ceremony.

Let me try to paint a clear picture for you, this baptism business that JTB was doing, was extremely odd.

Remember there were only Jews in this region with ceremonial washings but it was only thier hands that they washed and maybe even thier feet but there were no ceremonial rituals of immersion into water.

That is why they call him the baptizer because that will make him unique, because nobody did this.

So he is doing something very different and unique, but for John to baptize Jesus WAS STRANGE.

It was even offensive, it was even embarrassing to believers, even after the NT was written people were confused as to why Jesus the Son of God would need to be dunked under water by a mere man.

After all this was a baptism of REPENTANCE well repenting is what you do after you have sinned, but we know that Jesus never sinned not even one time, so why would Jesus need to be baptized?

This was embarrassing to the early believers to think of the fact that Jesus might need to repent, that Jesus might have to confess some sins, that Jesus might somehow need to get his life right, so He didnt fall under divine judgement?

This story was so strange and so bizarre that we are left scratching our heads.

Whats the big deal here Jesus ?

This is hard to understand, not just for us, not just for early Christians, not just for scholars to understand it was hard for JTB to understand.

Matthew 3:13

Matthew 3:

JTB didn’t want to do this, it didnt make sense to him.

Now did John know who Jesus was?

Of course he did they were cousins, we don’t know if they ever hung out as teenagers or children, the Bible doesnt tell us.

But Elizabeth, the mother of JTB, and Mary the mother of Jesus were related.

You remember they both met, and they were both miraculously pregnant.

JTB was born first and then JEsus later, and they both knew the importance of the other ones pregnancy and birth.

The Bible even tells us that as soon as the Holy spirit had hovered over Mary and she became pregnant that MAry went to see her sister and as Mary entered having Jesus in her womb that JTB lept within the stomach of Elizabeth, so I am sure that they had to have gotten together at some point as they were growing up.

I mean Elizabeth would have known that Mary’s baby was going to be the Holy child.

Can yo imagine how those conversations went?

I mean you talk about somebody who could make you feel like you were failing at parenting think about the conversations Mary and Elizabeth probably had?

“So hey Elizabeth hows your kid?”

Elizabeth says: “He is stinking wierd, he actually lives away from us even though he is still just a young boy, he moved out into the desert, he came home to visit and all he will eat is bus and honey and he dresses like a caveman wearing camel hair, he is strange...

Elizabeth says how is yours?

Mary says...... PERFECT, never does anything wrong and he actually teaches us the Bible and he is only 7!!!

So Jesus comes out to the Jordan to his relative and to the greatest prophet to ever live, and he comes desiring to be baptized but JTB doesnt wanna do itbecause he knows Jesus has nothing to repent of.

John lived his whole life out in the desert, and Jesus lived his whole life in Nazareth.

Jesus shows up to be baptized.

Jesus wasn’t just walking around and saw baptisms going on and said hey, yeah i need to be baptized… no HE CAME FOR THAT PURPOSE!

Why would Jesus want to be baptized?

What John is saying is this: “I am a sinner, I NEED TO BE BAPTIZED BY YOU!

He says I have been preaching that YOU WERE GOING TO COME AND CHANGE US FROM THE INSIDE OUT YOU DONT NEED TO GO THROUGH THIS HUMILIATING RITUAL WE DO!

Now this reaction to Jesus is totally opposite of the way he treated the religious Pharisees and Saducees

Matthew 3;

He says EVEN THOUGH YOURE RELIGIOUS, EVEN THOUGH YOU THINK YOU HAVE IT ALL DOWN PAT, YOU NEED TO REPENT AND IT NEEDS TO BE TRUE REPENTENCE WHICH BEARS FRUIT!

INTERESTING****

90% of what we call repentance today is nothing more than people coming and saying I am sorry to God.

Did you know that?

People here a convicting sermon and they come and they tell God thier sorry and they ask God for help but they do not take action.

This is something I came to understand early in my Christian life.

Repentance without a change of direction and action, is not TRUE REPENTANCE.

YES GOD IS THE ONE WHO CHANGES US FROM THE INSIDE OUT, YES HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN GIVE YOU STRENGTH TO OVERCOME THE TEMPTATIONS AND THE TRIALS THAT PLAGUE YOUR LIFE.

BUT REPENTANCE IS A CHANGE OF DIRECTION!

IT IS TAKING WHATEVER STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO REMOVE A THING FROM YOUR LIFE AND TRUSTING GOD FOR THE STRENGTH TO DO IT!

(washing rituals)

(confession Catholic)

GOD’S NOT INTERESTED IN US JUST BEING SORRY FOR OUR SIN!!! HE WANTS US TO EXERCIZE FAITH BY TURNING AWAY FROM IT!

(Bible reading)

(Lust)

So when Jesus comes on the scene JTB is like uhuh i aint baptizing you!

You need to baptize me, but when these religious pharisees show up he calls them snakes and he tells them they need true repentance!

John

As Jesus is walking up to John, John proclaims this and can you imagine how he must have felt when Jesus came to be baptized in a baptism of repentance?

I came baptizing, I knew who he was but i didn’t know what he looked like.

This is an indication that Jesus and John hadnt seen each other for a very long time.

John is saying JESUS YOU NEED NO REPENTANCE , THIS IS A BAPTISM FOR SINNERS YOUR NOT IN THAT CATEGORY!!