Identification, Affirmation, & Declaration (2)

Main Point:

Jesus, the Servant-King identified with sinful humanity, was affirmed by the Father as the eternal Son of God with the purpose to wage war against God’s enemies for the sake of God’s people.

Introduction

In typical Markan style, Mark is going to get right to the point and right into the narrative of Jesus’ ministry.

We’re exploring today two key events of Jesus’ life that took place right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at about the age of 30. We’re going to take a look at Jesus’ baptism and the temptation of Jesus by Satan.

Someone asked last week, if Mark is the shortest of all the gospels, why is it going to take almost two years to get through it? Well, today’s going to be a good example of why we need to take our time through this gospel. We’re only getting through five verses today and a lot is packed in here as we’ll see as we, by God’s grace and help unpack this text.

Now, at first glance, your first reaction to these two events, Jesus’ baptism and temptation, might be to think, “what is going on here?” Why are these two events the inaugural events to Jesus’ ministry? Why is Jesus getting baptized? What is happening with the Holy Spirit floating down like a dove and God’s voice speaking? Why is Jesus in a wilderness being tempted?

At first glance, this can seem murky. But as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s ways are not our ways.” His ways are higher. His thoughts are beyond us. Often, the way in which God operates is mysterious and unclear to us, we might even say at times, “that’s strange.”

I’m married to a very creative wife. Early on in our marriage she would have an idea for how to design or decorate our home and like any good and supportive husband, I would crinkle my nose and say, “That sounds crazy what you’re wanting to do.” I couldn’t see the vision, I couldn’t see in my mind the end result. But she did.

And so, every time I would begin to work on a project or design she had, at the beginning, I didn’t get it and would be saying in my mind, this is going to look dumb. But every time, as the project would get underway, as stages of it would get completed I would begin to see what she was seeing and when completed, it would look awesome.

And so now, we’re 17 years into our marriage and she’ll have ideas for what to do, and I’ll still in my mind, not be able to get what she’s thinking or seeing but I trust her and know, you know what, I know in the end this will make sense.

That’s what I believe is going to happen as we unpack the text today. Though it may not seem perfectly clear what God is doing and why Jesus’ ministry begins the way it does, I think with careful examination, it’ll become clear and in the end, we’ll see it as beautiful and life-changing.

Body

Here’s the main point I want us to see from the text today.

Jesus, the Servant-King identified with sinful humanity, was affirmed by the Father as the eternal Son of God with the purpose to wage war against God’s enemies for the sake of God’s people.

So, let’s get to work. Look at verse 9 again. It says,

Mark 1:9 “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”

This here is:

Jesus’ Identification.

Jesus’ baptism is an event so important that all four gospel writers include it in their writings. Mark mentions the word “baptize” six times in just the first nine verses of his gospel. And so, there’s something important here that is happening that Mark wants us to camp out on and understand.

And so, why was Jesus baptized?

It’s a good question and it’s one that even John the Baptist, who would baptize Jesus was asking. Though it’s not recorded here in Mark, we know from Matthew’s gospel, that John at first was opposed to Jesus getting baptized.

Matthew 3:13-14 “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?””

And so, if you’re struggling with why Jesus was baptized, you’re in good company because John didn’t understand it at first either.

Now, Jesus responds to John by saying,

Matthew 3:15 “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

I like how the CSB version translates it. It begins to make it a little clearer. It says,

Matthew 3:15, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then John allowed him to be baptized.”

So, it seems as though Jesus’ baptism had to take place to fulfill God’s plan of redemption. But still the question remains, “Why did Jesus need to be baptized?” “Why did he insist on it?” And “Why was Jesus’ response sufficient for John to consent to baptizing Jesus?”

To understand this we need to go back, way back all the way to Genesis 3. It’s here in Genesis 3 that the sin had just entered into God’s good world. Adam and Eve made the choice to reject God’s good order, his reign, his rule and rebel against him. Instead of submitting to his good rule over them and over all creation, they wanted to be their own god and run their own lives.

This is the state of the heart today of every human being. And yet, in Genesis 3 we also see God give this promise of one day bringing redemption and salvation to humanity through a deliverer, a redeemer, a Savior.

Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

God says there’s coming a day when this Redeemer, this Savior will come to make things right again and once again initiate God’s good rule on earth. And the way that God alludes to this happening is through suffering. This is what it means when he says that Satan will “bruise his heel.”

But at the same time we see that this Redeemer wins the battle. This is what is meant when God says, “He shall bruise your head.”

The word “bruise” here means to “grip hard” or “crush.” A crushed heel is painful for sure, but a crushed head is devastating, life ending. It’s game over.

Now, the rest of the Old Testament is all about pointing to this future deliverer. Who is he, when will he arrive?

And we touched on this briefly last week. There’s a couple passages that talk about the nearness of this Messiah. These passages say, when these things happen, he’s near.

So,

Isaiah 40:3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

And,

Malachi 3:1 ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

So, God, speaking through these prophets, Isaiah and Malachi is saying, in my plan of bringing redemption to humanity, there’s going to come a final voice who will speak and say, the Messiah is here.

This final voice is John the Baptist.

And the way in which God is going to redeem humanity is through this Messiah identifying with sinful humanity. And so, these two essential components are coming together at this moment in Mark 1.

John is saying, “He’s here!” And Jesus is coming to be baptized, not because he was sinful but because he needed to identify with sinful humanity. Jesus, the sinless Savior would bear the sins of sinful humanity on the cross.

It’s why year later, after the cross and resurrection the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian church,

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So, when John was at first hesitant to baptize Jesus we can start to see why Jesus was so insistent that this take place. This moment between both John and Jesus was fulfilling what God had set in motion all the way back in Genesis 3 and spoken about in Isaiah and Malachi.

John was being identified as the final voice speaking out before the Messiah and Jesus was identifying with sinful humanity.

This is so crucial because we need a substitute. All of us from birth are sinful and rebellious. It’s why no parent in human history has ever had to teach their kids how to do wrong. It comes naturally to them.

I remember with our first child, Maddox, thinking, “When will I know when it’s time to discipline him?” As an infant he just seemed so innocent and I was like, how will I know when he needs corrected and disciplined?

And then, that day happened. And it was clear as day. “Oh right now, that attitude, that action right there.” From that point forward I didn’t have any trouble identifying rebellious behavior.

And I’ve never once, and I don’t think Amy has either ever sat down with our kids and said, “Okay, here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to ask you to pick up your room in just a couple minutes. When I do, I actually don’t want you to do it. I want you to completely disregard every word that comes out of my mouth and instead, I want you to tell me no, I want you to whine and complain, do you know how to do that, let me show you, and then I want you to make more of a mess.”

No parent has ever had that conversation. No human being has ever been coached in how to be rebellious. It comes naturally to us.

So, because that is our default state, we cannot rescue ourselves. But we try don’t we? Humanity recognizes that there’s a problem. If it didn’t there wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands of “self-help” books that have been written.

And the best humanity can come up with is, “I know I’m the problem so I’ve got to be my own solution.” “I’m my worst enemy but I’m also my savior.” That’s the best we can do. And so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that we come up short.

And so, what humanity needed was a substitute. A Savior who would identify with sinful humanity without the sin and rebellion themselves. And that’s what we have in Christ.

But we also needed this Messiah, this substitute, this Redeemer to be affirmed.

And that’s what we see in verses 10 and 11.

Jesus’ Affirmation.

Mark 1:10-11 “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.””

There’s a couple very key things taking place right here.

We see here the Triune God at work in salvation.

So, we here hold to the belief that God is triune in nature. Meaning He is one God in three persons; Father, Son, and Spirit.

Here’s why this matters and why an attack against the triune nature of God is to be taken seriously. All three persons of the trinity are active in the work of redemption.

1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

Did you see all three persons of the trinity at work? God the Father calls sinners, sets the plan of redemption in motion. God the Son is the sacrifice, the one who makes us clean and purifies us from our sin through faith in his sinless life. God the Spirit seals us, sanctifies us, grows us and empowers us to persevere and endure to the end.

To remove the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit would be detrimental to our redemption. And so, at Jesus’ baptism we’re seeing the triune God at work in the redemption of mankind.

Secondly,

We see God’s love for and affirmation of His Son.

This cannot be overlooked. No other prophet was spoken of like this by God. Abraham was a “friend” of God. Moses was a “servant” of God. Even David, wasn’t spoken of like this. David was a “man after God’s own heart” but it’s only Jesus that God declares his love for. It’s only Jesus that God calls His Son. “You are my beloved Son.”

This here is the affirmation of Jesus’ Sonship, His deity. Jesus is God in the flesh. And for the next 8 chapters Mark is going to unpack Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. He will forgive sins, he will heal the sick, cast out demons, and even raise people from the dead. His deity, His Sonship will be undeniable. He is the one the prophets foretold would come. He’s the Messiah, our Savior, our Redeemer. The one who will crush the head of the serpent that was promised in Genesis 3 but it would mean that Jesus’ “heel” would be crushed. The plan of God for humanity’s redemption would be accomplished through Jesus’ humiliation, through pain and suffering, and eventually a tortuous death on a cross.

And so, with all of this being unpacked in this moment of Jesus’ baptism, it should not then surprise us that Satan seeks to dismantle God’s plan of redemption by immediately tempting Jesus in the wilderness.

Let’s finish the text out this morning. Verse 12.

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.”

It’s here in the wilderness that we see,

Jesus’ Declaration.

Let me unpack really quick what I mean.

What Satan is trying to do was to reverse Genesis 3:15. He was the one trying to crush the head of Christ rather than the other way around.

Keep in mind that Jesus is in the deep wilderness. Mark doesn’t mention it but Matthew says that during these 40 days Jesus was fasting. Jesus was physically weak, he was tired, he was hungry. Mark alludes to the reality that Jesus was on Satan’s turf surrounded by threats and dangers. It’s here that Satan comes to try and get Jesus to give up with God’s plan. What was Satan’ goal? To try and get Jesus not to suffer. You can almost hear him say, “You don’t have to go through this pain.” “You don’t need to suffer for humanity. They had their chance and blew it.” “Let them deal with their consequences.” “You don’t owe them anything.”

But Jesus, dependent and empowered by the Spirit endures. He does not give in. And it’s here in the wilderness that Jesus declares war on Satan and sin and death.

This is why he came. He knew his purpose. He knew his mission. He was driven out of love for the glory of God in redeeming mankind and he was motivated out of love for humanity, for you and me.

1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”

Jesus was the one humanity had been waiting for. Remember, the entire Old Testament is pointing to this future redeemer and asking, who is he? When will he arrive? The fact that Mark mentions that Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days is no coincidence.

The entire nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Israel was God’s chosen people meant to reveal to the rest of the world the goodness and glory of God. And they failed. And for 40 years they grumbled and complained and failed to trust God and be empowered by the Spirit.

And so, the nation of Israel was not God’s redeemer for mankind. Even Moses who led them failed and fell short. And in Ex. 34 Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai in the presence of God, and yet he still failed. Elijah, the great prophet spent 40 days on Mount Horeb but yet Elijah was not the one who would save God’s people.

These 40 days in the wilderness were showing that not only was Jesus a new “Adam” who had represented humanity and failed but also a second Israel who would endure in the wilderness without sin. Jesus is the better Moses, the superior prophet.

He was the one we could look to and say, “This is him.” “This is the Messiah.” “This is the Son of God.”

Conclusion

The baptism and temptation of Christ is a call to us to ask, “Who are we looking to for salvation and redemption?”

Are you looking within yourself? Are you looking to culture to redeem you?

The baptism and temptation of Jesus also should make us pause and ask, “Where am I finding my identity, my safety, my security in life?”

Am I looking to Christ to be the answer or am I looking to the world to be the solution?

Listen, Jesus is not safe, but he is good and he is trustworthy. He endured suffering for you and me. He became the bearer of our sin for you and me. He died for you and me so that we could find life.

And so, we have a question that we all must answer. Who is Jesus and will you follow him?