Disciple 1: Hope Announced
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Mark 1:1-11
N:
Opening
Opening
DON’T FORGET THE BUMPER!
Good morning, and welcome to February! Thanks praise band for leading us in praise and worship this morning, and I wanted to take another moment to thank the folks who are always behind the scenes, our audio/visual and tech guys. That role has gotten so much more demanding since we started streaming, and we all appreciate their faithfulness in running our sound, lights, screen, and stream every week.
OK, last Sunday was the final Sunday to give toward our church goal for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. I promised that this morning, I’d give you our total giving toward the goal, and that I believed you would be amazed. Remember that our goal as a church was $26,000. I’ve asked Tony to stay behind this morning for our drumroll… for this year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, Eastern Hills Baptist Church gave: $40,486.23! That’s amazing! That’s more than 150% of our goal! Thank you so much for your generosity in giving to support our SBC missionaries serving overseas!
This morning, we are beginning a new series that will take us through Easter. We’re calling it “Disciple,” and the focus will be on hope in the book of Mark. Mark was likely the first of the Gospels to be penned, and it seems to many Bible scholars (and to me) that Mark was writing his Gospel from the recollections of the Apostle Peter, and that Mark was used as part of at least Luke’s reference material for his Gospel. Mark’s Gospel is shorter, substantially more action-oriented, and really a quick read. We will read it as a church in its entirety after we finish with 2 Corinthians. As disciples, or followers, of the Lord Jesus, we are going to face crisis, misunderstanding, and persecution. Remembering who we are and who Jesus is brings us encouragement and peace, even in such a world as this.
This morning, we are going to start at the very beginning, because as Julie Andrews sang in the Sound of Music, “It’s a very good place to start.” In fact, the word “beginning” is the first word of Mark’s Gospel in Greek. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our focal passage this morning:
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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. 6 John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 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. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 10 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. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
PRAYER
As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” This is because a picture captures a moment in time and keeps it, telling a part of a story through the image it displays.
I’ve mentioned before that I have an Echo Show on my desk that in some ways acts as a digital picture frame, but one that knows what day it is and that shows me the pictures I have taken on this day in the past. When I was writing this introduction, my Show displayed a picture of this very room, of this very platform, reminding me that last year on that day, Abbie’s school drama club did their last public performance before COVID landed. It also reminded me that 5 years before that, I took my lovely wife out to see a movie on that day, as we took a selfie together as we walked out of the theater... another thing that’s been modified by COVID.
You see, the 1,000 words that a picture is worth aren’t just in the picture itself. They’re found in the fact that the picture is more than just that instant: there were moments before the picture was taken, and then moments that followed the picture being captured. Sure, pictures capture a moment in time, but the story extends beyond the edges of the frame. And somehow, that picture becomes the starting point for the story before, the story of, and the story after.
In many ways, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like this. Last week, as I closed our Heresies series, I said that we need to see the big picture of Scripture and how it all goes together. This morning, we are going to step back and look at the big picture that we find in these first 11 verses of Mark’s Gospel, by looking at some of the individual “snapshots” that Mark records here.
1) Jesus was always in view in the past.
1) Jesus was always in view in the past.
Many landscape photographers prefer to include people in their landscape photos. Doing so allows the person in the frame to become the focal point: their presence helps tell the story, creates a sense of drama or movement, draws the viewer in, or gives a sense of scale to the surroundings.
Jesus does something similar when we look back into the past. Throughout the Old Testament, Jesus was in the frame of the story. As we consider biblical history, He’s critical to our understanding of the past. The Gospel was always in view.
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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.
Mark begins his Gospel not with the nativity, like Matthew and Luke. He doesn’t begin with a long statement about Jesus’ divinity, like John does. Instead, he jumps into his Gospel with John the Baptist, who sets the stage for the arrival of the Messiah by doing two things: reminding the people of humanity’s biggest problem, and recalling to their minds the promise of the Messiah’s coming by his ministry.
In our world today, we have a lot of problems. I don’t need to go into a list. But our time is not unique, by any stretch of the imagination. Every time has problems. Know why? Because every time has people. Once the Fall happened in the Garden of Eden, the only two people felt shame and embarrassment with each other and before God. Shortly after we reached the level of FOUR people, one was killed and another became a murderer. It has continued on since then. Fallen people, in a fallen world, are going to have problems.
The time of John the Baptist was no different. And so John comes on the scene, reminding the people of mankind’s biggest problem: and it wasn’t a political problem or an economic problem or an emotional problem. It was a sin problem. And everyone had it then, and everyone has it now. None of us is perfect.
And even back at the time of mankind’s Fall into sin, the redemption that would come through the Messiah was in view. Speaking to the serpent who had deceived Eve, the Lord said:
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
The Offspring of the woman would have His “heel” struck by the serpent, but the serpent’s head would be struck, or crushed, in the process. Jesus was always in view.
So John calls people to deal with their problem by coming and confessing their sins and being baptized as an act of submission and cleansing before God. He understands that this baptism is symbolic: that the baptism is an act that displays that repentance has already occurred, or was occurring in that moment. He acknowledges in verses 7 & 8, which we will look at more closely in a moment, that his baptism is just with water, but that Messiah, more powerful that John, is coming and will baptize the repentant in the Holy Spirit: that they would be immersed in the very Person of God. What a promise of a restored relationship!
In this way, John was also a reminder to God’s people of what God had promised them in the prophets, according to verses 2 and 3.
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!
The quote from verse 2 is from Malachi, and verse 3, the critical part for Mark’s purposes, is from Isaiah, which is why Mark gives credit to Isaiah for the whole quote. John the Baptist actually used that same verse, Isaiah 40:3, when he referred to himself as recorded by the Apostle John:
23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Since Jesus was always in view as the resolution of humanity’s sin problem, He was also always in view in the Old Testament for God’s people, Israel. They would be the people through whom God would bring His Messiah in order to save mankind from their sins, thus blessing every nation through them. Even when they rebelled against the Lord, He did not abandon His plan of redeeming the world through His Messiah, born out of the people of Israel. Over and over again, the Old Testament prophets testified about Jesus, and throughout the time before the Gospels, many in Israel longed to see their Messiah come.
He was always in view for Israel.
When John said this, He was saying that Messiah was coming, that His arrival was immanent. That any day now, He would step onto the scene of history, beginning His ministry and mission. This is what the Gospels record.
2) Jesus is the focal point of the Gospels.
2) Jesus is the focal point of the Gospels.
It’s easy to tell who the subject of most pictures is. A portrait, a selfie, or a candid life photo all frame the people who are the subject of the photo right then, in that moment of time. There’s no mistaking it.
It’s easy to see that Jesus is the focal point of the Gospels. They are called Gospels precisely because of their subject matter: the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are completely and totally, unapologetically about Jesus and His ministry. It’s how Mark started his Gospel, and what John the Baptist’s focus was as well.
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
7 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. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 10 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. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
Everything that we read in the Gospels must be read in light of that focal point: the ministry of Jesus. But they aren’t merely biographies of a great man. They are the recording of the experiences of those who walked with Jesus, who heard what He taught, how He lived, the miraculous things that He did, the way that He died, and the fact that He rose again, so that those who hear would believe.
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
In this way, they are more than a biographies. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart said it this way:
“Four biographies could not stand side-by-side of equal value; these books stand side-by-side because at one and the same time they record the facts about Jesus, recall the teaching of Jesus, and bear witness to Jesus.” (How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth)
The Gospels also are not just legends written to make Jesus out to be greater than He was. I just finished reading the book Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace, and he makes a great case for the reliability of the Gospels, including a thorough defense against suggestions that the Gospels were written a century after the fact, that the apostles had formed some conspiracy to make Jesus seem like the Son of God, or that the Gospels had been corrupted and ruined over time. No, the Gospels are true images of what occurred in the past, and those images are all focused on Jesus.
So the message of Mark’s Gospel is that the promised Messiah, the Son of God, came as a man, lived a perfect life, died an unjust death, and rose again from the grave. Jesus didn’t do this for no reason. He did this because of the problem that we already addressed: that humanity needs a Savior, because we cannot be good enough to save ourselves. Because we all have that same problem of sin. And because God loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. This is where we find hope: we find it in Jesus. And the Gospels show us the truth of His life and ministry.
But it’s not enough for us to believe that the Gospels tell the true story of Jesus. It’s not enough for us to believe that Jesus is God as the Gospels reveal, not enough that we believe the miraculous things that Jesus did as the Gospel show. Rather, the message of the Gospels brings us to a point of response: We can surrender our rights to ourselves and give up our feeble attempts to justify ourselves, or we can be in rebellion against God and continue to live outside of His grace. Jesus said that He is the only way in John 14:6:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The message of the Gospel is that it’s only in Christ that we’re saved. We can’t just agree with the facts about Jesus, we are called to trust in the work that Jesus has done to save us, to submit to Him as Savior and as Lord. In short, we move from “Belief THAT” to “Belief IN.” And once we believe IN Jesus, He becomes the focal point of our lives, because we are His disciples.
3) Jesus defines His disciples’ focal point.
3) Jesus defines His disciples’ focal point.
In professional photography, there’s another person who is revealed in a photo, but who we don’t ordinarily see. It’s the person behind the camera, the one framing the shot, making the decisions about what the composition of the photo will be. Ultimately, the decisions that that individual makes will define the picture.
For those of us who claim to be disciples of Jesus, His followers, we are a testimony to who He is. From behind the camera of our lives, you could say, Jesus defines the focal point of where we look, what we do, how we act, what we say, and how we live, and that focal point must be according to His direction, His character, His leading, His life. And He leads His followers both individually, and collectively as the church.
First, I want to consider the collective aspect. Jesus defines the church’s ongoing mission by His own life and ministry. When Christianity began, and the apostles needed to choose someone to replace Judas Iscariot, they defined the person who would fit the role as someone who had been a follower of Jesus since the public inauguration of His ministry: and that public inauguration was His baptism:
21 “Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us—from among these, it is necessary that one become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
And the reason that they were doing this was so that this one (who ended up being Matthias) would become a witness of Jesus’ resurrection, along with the other apostles. They collectively had a mission: to publicly testify to the truth of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. It was Jesus’ own ministry that defined their focus.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Church, if we belong to Jesus, then we are never NOT on mission. We are now the collective that is commanded and commissioned to share the truth of the Gospel with a world that is lost and bound for hell. Though we are not apostles, even now we stand upon the message that they proclaimed nearly 2000 years ago. And if we are in Christ, then we have been empowered to fulfill this ministry, because we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, just as the apostles were, and just as John promised that Jesus would do:
8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
If we are truly Jesus’ followers, then we are to do what Jesus Himself did, to share His mission, to live for His ministry. In short, the focal point of our ministry should be the same as the focal point of Jesus’ ministry: to seek and save the lost.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
We have a collective mission to fulfill, and we are called to work together to fulfill it. But also, just as Jesus is to define and to be the focal point of the life and ministry of the church, He is to be the focal point of our own spiritual journeys as well.
Jesus came to be baptized by John in the Jordan, just as so many others had. However, He had no need for repentance, as He had no sin. John even recognized this fact, as we see in Matthew’s account of this same event:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.
In Jesus’ baptism, He wasn’t coming as a display of individual repentance, but of personal identification. When He was baptized by John, even as it was the public inauguration of His ministry, He was also identifying with our humanity. Even though He is completely God, He is one of us as well. He experienced temptation, hunger, thirst, pain, exhaustion, sadness, frustration, even anger, just as we do, but without sin.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
So we can “hold fast to our confession” of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He understands our frailties and our weaknesses. He has identified with us in our humanity, and now, we have the promise of identifying with Him in His glory through the work that He is doing in our lives:
18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
We are in this constant state of regeneration, this work of being made to look more like Jesus from the inside out. John the Baptist had the perspective right when he said in John 3:30:
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
There’s hope for us, because Jesus isn’t finished with us. Truthfully, the work that He’s doing won’t be fully complete until heaven, when we are given our glorified bodies and see Him face to face. In the meantime, though, He is to be our focus and our example, our Master and Lord, as we submit to His ongoing regenerative work in our heart and lives. We are to become more and more like Him, where He becomes greater and greater, and we become less and less. That when people look at our lives, our focus is so fixed on Jesus that they mainly see Him, not us. Not that we become perfect in this life, but that we reflect His glory, as a mirror would.
Closing
Closing
The problem of sin that holds all of humanity. The messages of the prophets in the Old Testament and the primary purpose of Israel. The message of the Gospels. The founding and mission of the church, and our own individual spiritual journeys. Incredibly, all of these different things find their meaning, their focus, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When John the Baptist announced the arrival of Jesus, he was announcing the arrival of hope which tied together the past, the present, and the future.
Is Jesus the focal point of your personal spiritual journey? Have you moved from “Belief THAT” to “Belief IN?” You might agree with the reality of Jesus’ life and ministry, but if you have never surrendered your life to Christ in faith, trusting in what He has done to save you instead of your ability to save yourself, then according to the Bible, you’re lost. You don’t belong to Christ, and you’re bound for hell because of your sin. I’ve been on that same hopeless train. This morning, even right now, believe the Gospel and give up trying to go your own way in life: surrender yourself in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only One who can save you.
If this is you this morning, we want to be able to help you as you begin this spiritual journey with Jesus as your focal point. Please shoot me an email, or if you’re in the building, just stay in your seat and after most have exited the building, I’ll come and find you.
Our Christian life was not meant to be lived out as a solo endeavor. We’re meant to be in a community of believers who are walking the journey with us. And let me take a moment to say that this is such an exciting church to be a part of, and I’m seeing God at work all around us in lots of different ways. If you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where you can connect, grow, and serve with other believers, then I’d like to set an appointment to sit down and get to know you, go over our Statement of Faith, and answer any questions that you might have about church membership. Stay in your seats as most people leave, or if you live in the Albuquerque area, shoot me an email.
During our reflection time, prayerfully consider where in your life Jesus is not the focal point, asking the Lord to reveal that to you this morning. You can also use this time to worship God through giving online if you’d like, or if you’d like to give in person this morning, you can use the plates by the doors as you leave.
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading: today is 2 Cor 7. We will finish 2 Cor on Saturday, and then start the Gospel of Mark.
NMEC: February 21-22 at H-Town. Register at bcnm.com/nmec
Instructions
Benediction:
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.