Mark 1:9-15

Mark 1:9–15 CSB

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.” 12 Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. 14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

V. 9-11

We see here an interesting comparison about the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comparing that to a dove. That’s interesting...

My wife hates birds, I mean really, if you bring her a bird to carry… NOPE! She hates them. She doesn’t like them because in her mind they poop all over everything… which isn’t far from the truth. Especially when you have trees around your house and especially when those birds begin to nest in those trees. They begin to poop everywhere!

There is another place in scripture where we have heard language likening the Spirit of God to that of a bird...

Genesis 1:2 CSB

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

“In the sacred writings of Judaism there is only one place where the Spirit of God is likened to a dove, and that is in the targums, the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that the Jews of Mark’s time read.

It says that the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters… The Hebrew verb here means “flutter”. To capture this the image the rabbis translated this into “the Spirit of God fluttered above the face of the waters like a dove, and God spoke: Let there be light.””

NOW THIS TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD.... AND ALSO THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD...

“There are three parties active in the creation of the world: God, God’s Spirit, and God’s Word, through which He creates.

God the Father

God the Holy Spirit

God the Son, Jesus Christ. God’s Word. John 1 tells us that the Word became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ.

The same three parties are present at Jesus’ baptism: the Father, who is the voice; the Son, who is the Word; and the Spirit fluttering like a dove.

Mark is deliberately pointing us back to the creation, to the very beginning of history.

Just as the original creation of the world was a project of the triune God, Mark says, so the redemption of the world, the rescue and renewal of all things that is beginning now with the arrival of the King, is also a project of the triune God.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

THAT THE TRINITY WAS APART OF BOTH OF THESE EVENTS?

We can often take the reality that the trinity exist and kind of dismiss it as something that I don’t fully understand, so therefore i’m not going to pursue any more understanding of it. It’s just weird… God being three but being one.

When it reality, the Trinity offers us in our lives something beautiful that we can apply to our lives.

Jesus the King: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God The Dance of Reality

When Jesus comes out of the water, the Father envelops him and covers him with words of love: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Meanwhile the Spirit covers him with power. This is what has been happening in the interior life of the Trinity from all eternity. Mark is giving us a glimpse into the very heart of reality, the meaning of life, the essence of the universe. According to the Bible, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit glorify one another. Jesus says in his prayer recorded in John’s Gospel: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world began” (John 17:4–5). Each person of the Trinity glorifies the other.

Dayton… what’s the point of us learning about the trinity?

Answer:

Our view’s of God ultimately have different implications.

Consider a self-centered life.

A self-centered person wants to be the center around which every other person orbits. I might help people, I might have friends, I might even fall in love as long as there’s no compromise of my individual interest or whatever meets my needs. I might even give to the poor, as long as it makes me feel good about myself and doesn’t hinder my lifestyle too much.

I might even worship Jesus if it helps me! If it adds to MY LIFE and MY experience. This is called something in the theological world… MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM (MTD)

MTD: is a term that was first introduced in the 2005 book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by the sociologist Christian Smith[1] with Melinda Lundquist Denton.[2] The term is used to describe what they consider to be the common beliefs among U.S. youths.[3][4][5] The book is the result of the research project the National Study of Youth and Religion.[6]The authors' study found that many young people believe in several moral statutes not exclusive to any of the major world religions. It is not a new religion or theology as such, but identified as a set of commonly held spiritual beliefs. It is this combination of beliefs that they label moralistic therapeutic deism:

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

1. A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

These points of belief were compiled from interviews with approximately 3,000 teenagers.[8]

Imagine a dance where everyone said, you have to orbit around me! It would be a horrible dance.

The TRINITY IS DIFFERENT.

Instead of self-centeredness… in the Trinity we have a mutually self-giving love.

If this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about.

This world is about being in relationships where we are constantly giving up of ourselves for the benefit of others. “No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for his friend.

God did not create us to get Joy… HE HAD IT IN HIMSELF. He created us to give it!

Tim Keller says that God created us to enter into this divine dance with the Trinity.

This understanding of the Trinity really does reinforce what Jesus says about being great… to be great you must be a servant… no slave! To be first you must make yourself last.

V. 12-13

Jesus the King: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God (Dancing into Battle)

Mark weaves his account into the shared history of his readers by drawing parallels between the Hebrew Scriptures and the life of Jesus.

In Genesis: The Spirit moves over the face of the waters, God speaks the world into being, humanity is created, and history is launched. What’s the very next thing that happens? Satan tempts the first human beings, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden.

And you also see this 40 years/days as a theme that goes on through scripture…

The Gospel according to Mark (God’s Son Meets God’s Adversary (1:12–13))

Israel was in the wilderness forty years (Deut 8:2), Moses was on Mt. Sinai forty days and nights (Exod 34:28), and Elijah was led for forty days and nights to Mt. Horeb (1 Kgs 19:8).

In each instance the wilderness was a proving ground, a test of faithfulness, and a promise of deliverance.

The same contrasts are present in Jesus’ temptation, for in the wilderness Jesus is both tempted by Satan and attended by angels.

Jesus the King: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God Dancing into Battle

The Bible says that in the world, there are very real forces of evil, and these forces are tremendously complex and intelligent. Satan, the chief of these forces, is tempting us away from the dance. That’s what we see with Adam in the Garden of Eden, and again with Jesus in the wilderness.

Notice that this is right on the heals of the baptism. There is no time to wait in the glory of baptism before, before Jesus is thrown into the wilderness to begin His pursuit of ministry.

Jesus is appointed the wilderness by the Spirit.

“The Spirit that empowers the Son for ministry not tests him to determine whether He will use this divine Sonship for His own advantage or submit Himself in obedience to God.”

Jesus the King: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God (Dancing into Battle)

Though Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus’s temptation is, Matthew’s Gospel does. His account (in Matthew 4:1–11) basically says that Satan tempts Jesus to step out of orbit around the Father and the Spirit, and around us. To make sure everyone else centers on him, and to protect himself.

The Gospel according to Mark God’s Son Meets God’s Adversary (1:12–13)

The temptation establishes the free, sovereign agency of Jesus, who, like all human agents, must choose to make God’s will his own. The significance of that choice can be realized only in the context of an alternative and opposite choice posed by God’s adversary. Hence Jesus must be “tempted by Satan.”

Things we can learn from this passage about Jesus and apply to your lives as teenagers…

1. Satan is real as well as the forces of evil. These forces of evil will not have mercy on you because you just came to know Christ, are on summer break, because you may be stressful, or because you know Jesus. This things mean that the enemy will come and attack you because you are at your weakest.

2. The temptation will be to step out of orbit with God, and to make our lives to be all about ourselves.

3. Thank you Lord for the choice of following Him or not. It’s because of our free will that we are able to truly love Him. It’s because of the free will of Jesus, that He was able to be the Savior we needed for our salvation. He chose to make God’s will His own will, so that we can also choose to make God’s will ours.

4. Jesus Triumphed . Much to the help from God’s Spirit.

V. 14-15

Jesus comes out of the wilderness to begin His earthly ministry and telling people about the coming age of the Kingdom of God.

Mark 1:14 –15 is a sort of summary statement of Mark’s whole Gospel. Here we see that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” God has done this by bringing history to a climax (“the time is fulfilled”), yet at the same time people are called to respond in a certain way (“repent and believe”).