Jul 28, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #5

Jesus, Our Perfect Substitute Shows Us The Way to Fight (Part 1 of 2)
Mark 1:9-13 (Matthew 3:13-15)

As many of you know, I am a photographer by day. That is how I earn a paycheck. I’ve been in the field of photography in one way or another since 1995.

While I am far from the best at what I do, I am often annoyed by false modesty so I’ll just admit that I am at least professionally adequate as a picture taker.

And here’s the thing, the way I became a good photographer was by studying great photographers and working to take what I could glean from their work and from their style and try to copy *the angles, and *the lighting and to look for *the same kind of truthful moments with the people I shot pictures of.

And listen, I did pretty well in my photo classes, but I understood that classes are many times only good for information. It is the act of DOING the work that helps me find the connection between good ideas and good pictures.

I can take a class on the history of portrait photography or a class in photojournalism in the 20th century and get a lot of information. But, if I don’t personally flesh out the information by finding a few really great shooters and then going out to trying to do similar work, then I’m just going to be a fan of the work, or worse a critic.

That’s me in photography, but it’s true for all of us to one degree or another. It’s true in the way you became good at what you do in your profession or in a hobby. Unless you are among a very select few, head knowledge did not just immediately translate into master craftsmanship or superb leadership or even great parenting.

If you track back in your history, you will find a person or people that you wanted to be like, and then you got your hands dirty in the work of that chosen field or even that particular lifestyle.

You may have gone into mentoring relationships with people you knew who worked hand in hand with you. You may have looked at the work of people that you didn’t know and just tried to copy their style until your own style developed. Or if you are like me it was kind of a mixture of the two.

But, you might be asking, Ken what’s this got to do with God or the Bible? It has everything to do with it and we’re going to walk through some verses tonight and I’ll show you how it ties together.

You see just as I followed in the footsteps of great photographers to be a successful photographer; we also need to follow Jesus in order to become more like Him – in order to co-labor with the Spirit in our sanctification.

And listen I don’t want to give everything away early, but let me ask you a question. How do we – sinners - enemies of God - in these fragile skin and bone suits – how can we follow the God of the Universe - the God who created the heavens and the earth and everything found in it and everything else that is still yet to be seen? How do we identify with Him in order to be more like Him?

Here’s the big idea.
We are able to identify with Him because He first identified with us. Before Christ came from Heaven, God was still so completely other so beyond our grasp that we humans just couldn’t wrap our minds around Who He was on the same level as we do now.

But, when HE took on skin and bones, when He became fully God AND fully man in what we call the incarnation, the veil was lifted from our eyes and what had been words from prophets became something tangible, relatable and REAL to the point that we could SEE Him.

Please open you bibles to Mark 1. We’ll start by reading Mark 1:9-13. But first, let’s pray…

Okay, I promised that we would get back to this text, we just skimmed it last week. And like I said then, these couple of verses open up a couple of really big questions. They are questions that have awesome – life changing answers and those questions and answers provided the direction for my message tonight.

The questions: If you have your own Bible, or a note pad you might want to jot down the questions – First, why did Jesus need to be baptized? Second, why did the Holy Spirit drive Jesus out to be tempted by Satan? And finally what can this passage show me in my own life?

Why did Jesus need to be baptized? To answer that, we need to dig a little deeper into Mark 1:9-11. When we started going through Mark, I told you that it was the fastest paced of the four Gospels and that is cool, it’s action packed, but I am going to occasionally look into the other accounts to help us see a more complete picture of Jesus.

It’s like when a really big news event happens. A news team will not only give you one perspective, instead you will get layers of information that you can use to see a more robust picture.

So in this passage of Mark we saw the news brief, and we are going to turn to Matthew and Luke tonight for the rest of the story. So turn to Matthew 3:13-15 so we can see more into the Baptism.

In verse 14, John the Baptist had the same question we had. He’s like, no wait a minute; this is a baptism of repentance, to be cleansed of sin and to turn back to God.
So, why does Jesus need a baptism of repentance if He’s sinless and why would He need to prepare himself for the coming of the King, if He is the King?
Jesus answers to John’s satisfaction in verse 15:

Okay what we are going to see here and in the coming passage about the temptations in the wilderness is the idea of the substitutionary atonement being introduced in Jesus’ earthly ministry.

And I could spend an hour trying to explain this concept, but we don’t have the time and I might butcher it. Plus, the Apostle Paul explains it, as clearly and correctly as it can be explained, so I don’t have to re-invent the wheel here.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul wrote:

So we are here with all of our sin.
Jesus came to us. The Word became Flesh and lived a sinless life.
Then the substitution, or The Great Exchange:
Jesus went to the cross and suffered for our sin, He took our sin and in the place of our sin in our lives, He covered us in His Righteousness.

We get that, right? We talk about it all the time around here. Now let’s really look at the Baptism. We see the Baptism of repentance of sin being administered to our sin-less savior. What gives there? If He sinned, He couldn’t be our substitute and if He really was sinless He didn’t NEED the baptism.

Well, here’s the deal. Not only did He avoid doing all of the things that God told us NOT to do, but He also submitted to everything that God told us that we SHOULD do.

He lived the life we should have lived in EVERY way. Remember what we learned in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5:17

Jesus didn’t come and say, that’s not necessary, to John the Baptist. Remember John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament era prophets. He was speaking for God and telling all to come and be baptized.

So, in order to take on our sin in this cosmic exchange – in order to identify with sinners at the beginning of His ministry – Jesus took part in sinner’s baptism.

Now we’ll see the same principle at work to answer our next question. Why did the Holy Spirit drive Jesus out to be tempted by Satan?

I think it is easy to answer this once we’ve had the talk about the Baptism. Jesus was further identifying with us.

You see, if God had not allowed Jesus to be tempted by Satan - And if the Holy Spirit had not have led Jesus into the battle, then it would be so easy to write Jesus off as some aloof, teacher, who simply didn’t understand our struggles.

We see this same principle at work between some people in the world today. Do you want to know one reason that recovery groups and 12-step programs work? It is because people talk to people who can relate to the other person’s struggle.

If one former drunk or addict tells the newer struggler that they can defeat their particular vice, then they have some credibility.

When I was in the Army, I had an incredible enslavement to alcohol and I remember my 1st Sgt. – a non-drinker - telling me that I should just put the bottle down. It was so easy for me o write him off because he didn’t get the stranglehold that it had on me.

But here’s the deal, family. Jesus is not some unsympathetic 1st. Sgt., and He’s not some fundamentalist who’s great at sniping from his perch of self-righteousness, and He’s not even some well meaning counselor who has no life experience with the temptations that grab hold of you in your weakest moments.
No! He is none of those clowns. He is the glorious God of the Universe who — in an act of deep love for you — came to Earth and laid aside His perfect righteousness and took on the weight of your sin and mine, your struggles and mine your guilt and mine, your punishment and mine and took that from us.

He identified with us so that we might identify with Him! Amen?!

The writer of Hebrews said it like this in Hebrews 4:15-16

Listen, if you are in Christ, you have the right and really the duty to approach the throne of grace in prayer. And there, you will find the power and provision of God. And listen we are almost done for tonight, but let me show you how this plays out in two ways.

The writer of Hebrews says in verse 16 that when we “approach the throne of grace with confidence,” that we will “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Listen, I’m talking to you right now, not the person next to you. Not the person that you care most about and not the person that you wish would just drop off the earth. No, I’m talking to you IF you are in Christ.

This is a promise to YOU. Receive what is given to you. It is not freely given it was given at the cost of God’s Son on the cross. But it is paid for in full for you IF you are a Christian.

The promise that I want you to take hold of tonight and this week is that because of Christ, you will receive mercy and find grace from God the Father through the Holy Spirit. And that grace and mercy is given to help us in our time of need.

You might be in a time of need where you need to be enveloped in His mercy and grace because you did succumb to THAT temptation again and because of it you are back into that cycle of guilt and shame and regret and self-loathing. If that is you, remember I’m talking to you – If that is you, receive the grace and take possession of His mercy. Do it now.

And maybe that isn’t you tonight. Maybe your time of need is more in line with the text. Maybe you have been walking close to the Lord and He has been keeping you out of harms way for a season. Praise God!

But also know that as you walk closer and closer with the Lord and you become more and more effective in the Kingdom Mission, you also get a bigger and bigger target on your back.

So if you are not being tempted right now, or if you are starting to feel the pressures of the old temptations or if you are being caught off guard with new temptations than I plead with you. Don’t drift. Don’t stay silent. Don’t wish it away. Don’t ignore it.

No! grab hold of the promise that God has for you, to cover you in His mercy and grace in this time of need.

If you are in the trial of temptation, if you are feeling that fire, remember what James wrote in James 1:2-4:

We were going to go farther tonight. This passage and the corresponding passages in the other Gospels about Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness give us some real practical guidelines for how to actually live out what I’m calling you to. There’s no time tonight, but we will get there next week, unless Jesus comes back before then. If He does, next week’s message will be unnecessary.

Let me say this. If you are struggling in a time of need right now, tonight and you can’t fathom waiting another week for some practical application, then get with me and I’ll give you the preview and I can pray with you and we can help you by God’s grace and mercy in this time of need.

If that is you, don’t leave without talking to me or someone else. We can’t make you do anything. But you’d be foolish to think that you have to carry all of that weight alone. Amen?

Let’s pray…
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Jul 15, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #4

Baptism in the Water ~ Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Mark 1:8-15


How is everyone? Prayer Requests? Praise Reports?
Let’s Pray…

Okay, please turn in your bibles to Mark Chapter 1. Tonight we are going to tackle a big issue in the Church, the issue of Baptism.

And the main way I want to discuss it from the text is to ask, what is the difference between baptism in the water by John the Baptist and Baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus?

Last week we looked at John the Baptist and talked about how he wanted to make it clear to everyone that he wasn’t the big deal.

Does everybody remember the key verse that we went to in John 3:30? We repeated it like 20 times so we would remember it.
He must increase, and I must decrease.

That’s incredibly important. Remember, the gospel is all about Jesus. Are we all tracking on that point?

Tonight we are going to see another key distinction that John the Baptist is going to make.
Last week he made difference between his status and Jesus’ status clear. This week we are going to see how John the Baptist also makes a clear distinction between the baptism that he offers compared to the baptism that Jesus came to give us.

And what I want to emphasize is that this is a seismic shift in the way people interacted with God and how God interacts with us It is a shift that happens right here in that point of history that we are going to read about tonight. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Please stand and let’s go to the text. Mark 1:8…

Just to set it up, after John the Baptist says that he is not worthy to even untie the sandals of the messiah – Jesus, he adds this in verse 8:

Now that’s the key to where we are going tonight – we are going to try to answer what the difference is between what John was doing and what Jesus came to do – but let’s keep reading because I think you need to see another piece in the context of this Gospel to really grasp verse 8. At least I had to see it, let’s continue…


Now tune in here:


Let’s pray…Please be seated

We read all of that because I am going to tie verse 8 to verses 14-15 tonight. In the weeks to come we’ll tackle all of that middle section, alright? In the next few weeks we’ll answer why did Jesus need to be baptized. And later we’ll answer why the Spirit sent him out to be tempted by Satan. Those are big questions with awesome answers. But tonight I want you to zero in on vv. 8, 14-15. Now let me set up verse 8, by talking about something that recently happened.

I was talking to a dear friend the other day, a person that has recently gotten connected to a church and has been excited about the energy of the church, has been encouraged by the preaching, has been happy to be a part of SOMETHING important.

And then my friend said something to the effect of, “It is a wonderful place, Ken. But I am not going to join them during communion because there are still some people that I won’t forgive, so I don’t think it is right to take the bread or the cup.”

To which I said, that’s the right answer. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, Paul says:

Listen, when we take communion here, we are quick to say that any Christian from any denomination is welcome at the table, but again we also make it clear that if there is sin in your life, you need to give that over to God, confess and repent before you eat that bread or drink that juice.

But here’s the thing. There’s a deeper issue at hand. You might be asking me, what's communion got to do with baptism? This is how it ties into tonight’s Scripture passage.

My friend prefaced or started their statement about not joining at the Lord’s Supper like this, “I’ve been sprinkled at a Methodist church and I’ve been baptized at another church, but I won’t forgive, so I won’t join in communion.”

With the statement of “I WON’T forgive,” I have to wonder if the baptism was done in an unworthy manner. As Perry Noble and many other pastors like to point out, if you get baptized before you have come to faith, you are just a wet sinner.

You can dunk yourself as many times as you want, without faith, it doesn’t accomplish anything of eternal value.

With that all in mind, we’re going to explore and distinguish A difference between John’s baptism with water and Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit.
I’m careful when I say “A” difference and not “the” difference between the two forms of baptism. There may be more to it than this.

But we are going to explore one difference, based on the text.
I’m going in the direction that we’re going tonight because of the historical context of this passage and because I think that my friend’s idea of baptism is similar to many in the church today, so we need to address it.

Let’s keep going and I’ll show you what I mean. John said:

Then Jesus comes and gets baptized, we get a glimpse of the Trinity, and Jesus is sent out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Again, we’ll get to all of that in the next few weeks. But for now, look and see, after all that, and…


Now we’re really going to get rolling. You might be wondering, what is this big difference? Jesus just said, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

And if you were to look in the Gospel of Matthew, which is more in-depth than Mark’s gospel, we see that John the Baptist said almost the same words as he called people to be baptized.
Matthew 3:1-2:

I said earlier tonight, that in this small section of Scripture, we see seismic shift in the way people interacted with God and how God interacts with us. But, if you look at John the Baptist and you look at Jesus, they both were telling people that the Kingdom of God was near and told the people to repent.

And John said there was a difference in the baptisms, but what is it, what is the difference.

I think one of the main differences is that, while both told their people to repent and that the Kingdom of God was near, Jesus didn’t stop there. He told the people Repent, AND believe the Good News.

And listen. Believing was always required. I'm not saying faith wasn't an issue before Jesus came on the scene. We’re told that it is by faith that Abraham was declared righteous. If you read Hebrews 11 you see that believing was the most important thing. So, why am I making such a big deal out of it here?

Why am I trying to say that this is such a big deal that Jesus says “believe the good news” and John the Baptist doesn’t?

I think it is because Jesus wasn’t just saying believe the Good News will happen…someday. It was more like, look. LOOK! I’m Here!
Jesus was telling those who had ears to hear. The time has come, now believe it!

Before Jesus came it was action heavy, but with Jesus things are getting flipped all around.
In John 6:28-29 this crowd said to Jesus,

And so when I say that there was a seismic shift in history - seen in this small passage of Mark - am I making that up?

No, what I did was look through the rest of the Scriptures until I found an answer to my questions in the Word of God.

And just as a side note - that is what I want to urge you to do as a first step when you get to a troublesome text. Compare it with Scriptures. That is a key, a foundational tool in bible study. In college they have pounded this into us. They say, “Let Scripture interpret Scripture.”

In other words, if you get to a troublesome passage, start exploring the Word of God in prayer and say, “Okay, what more can we learn here?”

When studying this passage, I looked at all the other areas where we see John the Baptist and Jesus in the same proximity – whether that be other accounts of the baptism of Jesus, or Jesus sending a report back to John, when John was in prison – I just kept searching for all the connections and then I finally saw Jesus unpack the idea that we have to keep clear.

It’s the Big Idea for tonight: John was the last – THE LAST – of the old time prophets and Jesus was bringing in a completely new deal. In fact Jesus said it like this:

(Luke 16:16 ESV)

Here’s the deal. From Genesis on, we have seen history play out according to the design of our Sovereign Lord.

And everything. EVERYTHING points to His glory.

He created the heavens and earth and everything contained within. Pointing to His glory by demonstrating His awesome power, mind blowing creativity, and infinite love for us. He created this wonder of creation and then made us in His image so that we might take it all in, enjoy it, delight in it, experience it to it’s fullest and in all of that - praise Him and share fellowship with Him. It was a gift to demonstrate His glory.

Then the story continued and we see that before long we wrecked things in rebellion against Him. And at that moment He would have been able to show His Glory in the way of His perfect Justice by wiping the human race out. He promised death and His glory would have been revealed in our just punishment.

But instead He demonstrated His glory by showing us His perfect Mercy and Grace. All the while revealing more and more about Himself.

And we can go on for eternity talking about this, but we’ll hold off on that, let me hit a few highlights.

As God revealed His mercy from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac and on and on through the generations, He also began giving us a sketch of what his Master plan looked like.

And that’s what we see throughout the Old Testament. The promises of the prophets for a coming King who would make everything right. That was a line drawing of what was to come.
And the ceremonial laws and sacrificial systems for the Nation of Israel pointed out the serious and disgusting nature of humanity’s sin and the need for a substitute to take the punishment for our sin. That was a foreshadowing of something greater than the animal sacrifices.

And the Law – just look at the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 – they showed us God’s glory in his love for us by saying – This is how you are to live if you are to live according to your design. But even the law was only a one-dimensional picture.

Then Jesus came onto the scene. The God of the Universe with skin on, In Him we see the nature of God it it’s fullness.

It’s like everything before Christ was a coloring book that hadn’t been filled in. There was sketch, but no color.

Jesus said clearly, that He didn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.

So with all of that said, let’s look again at Baptism.
What’s the difference between the baptism in water by John the Baptist and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit from Jesus.

And actually I promised to give you A difference, not the difference.

So here it is: A difference that we MUST SEE is this: John’s form of baptism gave a person hope in a future promise.

Let me repeat that, John’s form of baptism gave a person hope in a future promise. Which is what we saw again and again throughout the Old Testament – Hope in a future Promise.

But that ended with John, or more truly it blossomed from the time of John when Jesus came onto the scene.

Instead of simply or only giving a hope in a future promise, Jesus’ form of baptism, baptism in the Holy Spirit gave hope for the future to be sure! But also: POWER in the present.

That’s what my friend didn’t understand about baptism in the Christian life. Yes we hope for the future, Yes we keep looking in hopeful anticipation for the return of the King, but if that is all we have, what more do we have than the Old Testament saints?

When John baptized the people, it was similar to the rest of the ceremonial Law. It was an act of repentance where the people cleansed themselves in anticipation of the Messiah.

And we have been given so much more!

When we come to faith and we are baptized – in that order – We join Christ in His death. What do I mean?

The first part of the baptism is a symbol that declares how we join Jesus in His death. When we are put under the water - it’s a burial.

It is not merely a cleansing like the baptism from John. We don’t look forward hoping that He will someday cleanse us. No! We acknowledge that the cleansing has already been accomplished in Him.

And when we rise up out of the water, it’s a symbol of us joining Christ in the Resurrection. Even though our physical bodies have not been resurrected yet, Paul says it is as good as done. Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection to come. And we can live by that power NOW!

We don’t have to wait for the Power. If we are believers we are in Christ and the Holy Spirit is IN us - NOW!

So we no longer have to rely on our strength, we can rely on God’s strength We have power Now.

We don’t have to seek revenge, we can allow God to be our vindicator. We have that power to forgive Now!

We don’t live in the weakness of those who say, I CAN’T succeed, I CAN’T endure, I CAN’T fight the temptations. We don’t live in the weakness or stubbornness that declares I CAN’T forgive, like my friend who won’t share in communion at their church.

No we have the Power of the resurrection. We have the Holy Spirit, we are empowered by Christ to do the Will of the father – Our Father. We have the Power to believe Him and walk in that faith.

We are more than conquerors because we have not simply been baptized with water, but we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

We have gone public with a demonstration, an outward sign, an ordinance of the Church. That makes clear what God has done in our hearts.

He has made us new. So yes. We share in a hope for the future because we know that the Kingdom will come in all of its glory and we will soon be face to face with Jesus the returning King.

But! We also share in POWER right NOW to push the KINGDOM MISSION in our time and in our place. To push it boldly and without fear.

Now listen, this is something that excites me tremendously. I believe that you absolutely NEED Christ. We want you to receive what He has purchased for YOU at the cross. It starts with believing. If that is where you are tonight and you are ready to take hold of Christ as He takes hold of you and delivers you out of Hell and into the family of God than praise His name.

But once you are there, we don’t make you take a bunch of classes before you get baptized. The church that we see in the New Testament, the Christ followers didn’t make people recite a catechism before they baptized them. The person believed the good news, the repented of their sins and they were baptized that very day.

If you are there if you have believed, we see no reason why you shouldn’t be baptized tonight. And that’s how we roll. You come to one of us and tell us that you are in and you are ready to be baptized that you are ready to go public with your faith, we are blessed to usher you through this act of obedience.
(Acts 2:38-41; 8:12-13; 8:36-38; 16)
If this is you, get with me as soon as we are done here and we’ll make it happen. Amen?

And listen if you have been baptized, but it was simply a work that you did. If you only saw it as some sort of action something where you just were going through the motions, then I am calling you as the Word of God would instruct me to do, I am calling you to be baptized in faith, not merely repentance, but faith.

I’m calling you to a baptism that doesn’t just cleanse, but a baptism that symbolizes the truth that you have died to yourself and have been raised again in Christ.

And here’s where I’m getting that. We’re almost done, but turn with me to

Acts 19:1-5

Likewise, if you have merely been baptized in a baptism of repentance, if it was not a baptism of faith, with your heart set on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then don’t just be a wet sinner, fulfill Jesus’ will for you once and for all time.

Let’s pray…
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Jul 7, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #3

Responding to God’s Silence & Understanding Our Place in the Story of Redemption
Mark 1:6-7


How is everyone? Prayer Requests? Praise Reports?
Let’s Pray…

Okay, please turn in your bibles to Mark Chapter 1. Tonight we are going to start back where we left off last week. If you remember, we were talking about the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Two main points that we wanted to get at last week were the fact that the Jewish people had been waiting for 400 years to hear from God, and then finally a man appeared in the wilderness fulfilling the Old Testament promise.
Remember the text that said:


We also talked about the people who came out to be baptized and how they CONFESSED their sins to one another. And then I showed you in 1 John 1:8-9; Proverbs 28:13; and James 5:16 the reasons that confessing our sins is still something that needs to continue in our family life as believers today.

Let’s just camp in this part of the review for a couple of minutes and dream Gospel dreams.
Imagine the effects that we as the Church in the Grass could have for this neighborhood.

And just think the effects that we as the Christ followers from all the churches in this area could have for this city and for this county if we could stop being weighed down – if we could stop being shackled tight to the condemnation, guilt and shame of un-confessed sin.

If you haven’t already done it; if you are not developing confession and repentance as a part of your walk with God, then I am calling you to it again, confess your sins to one another.

Find a tight-lipped Christian brother or sister, who will listen and who will then speak the Gospel back into your life and help you, through Christ, to find freedom and escape the bondage of that sin, or those sins, that keep turning your heart away from God, Amen?

AND, start forming relationships where YOU can be the one who speaks Gospel into other’s lives as they come to you in confession.

Now we’re not going to be able to do this. We’re not going to be comfortable confessing to others and other people are not going to be comfortable confessing to us unless we start to make some Gospel-powered changes in our lives.

That means you and I are going to have to break down some walls and let people into our lives, you and I are going to have to build trust. You and I are going to have to become more transparent and less guarded.

You and I are going to have to depend on Christ for our protection and then walk boldly in our mission of reconciliation.

Be the person, that others can turn to.

Remember what I said last week. Mark’s account of the life of Jesus – his Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God – is a book where we see over and over – faith in action. For me to tell you some truths about Jesus and some facts about faith without calling you to live it out, to apply it to your life, is to pastor you poorly.

Confession is a two way street. It is part of living as the Church. It is part of BEING the Church in all the areas of our life instead of just going to A church, for A service, with A message.

God didn’t give us the Church for information downloads. He gave us the church as a place to be encouraged, and equipped in order to transform the world.

Don’t hinder the Gospel mission by neglecting the call to confession and repentance.

It is more important than I can tell you without yelling at you. It is a serious command of Scripture, and like I said last week. Confessing your sins may seem terrifying, but take it from me, it is worth it. Not only worth it for you, not only beneficial for you – beneficial for the people God has put YOU on earth to reach.

Okay, are there any questions about last week’s message? If you don’t want to ask a question in this format, I understand that. You can also come see me after the service or email me at church in the grass at gmail.com, or give me a call. Alright?

Let’s get into tonight’s passage.

I know I said I was going to talk about baptism tonight, but that is being pushed back for another week as I try to shorten my messages.

To start, please read Mark1:6-7:

Let’s pray…
Let’s look at the text again and we’ll unpack it as we go.


This is one of those verses in the Scripture where you will get as many theories as to the meaning as books that you read about it. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this text, except to say that a lot of very smart people have read a lot into this verse, some say that this hearkened back to the odd ways in which many Old Testament prophets dressed and acted. That could be true. I’m not discounting that.

Others have said, this is merely a historical point of interest. That John lived in a rocky, arid place and he wore tough material because lighter weight, softer material would have worn out too quickly.

And they say he ate the locusts and wild honey because there weren’t a lot of other options. It could be true that this is simply a historical tidbit of trivia.

Here’s the point that I want to make from the vantage what the Bible says in its time and place context.

The people were so hungry for a new encounter with the living God of the universe, that they were willing to leave the comforts of the city, listen to, and follow the instructions of some strange guy way out in the sticks.

Now, bringing that forward into your context and mine I want to say this. We all have dry seasons in our faith what old theologians called dark nights of the soul when God seems distant. Where we don’t feel the closeness that we once did. Just like the Nation of Israel felt when John appeared on the scene.

At times, I believe that is because God has simply withdrawn for a time of testing. We should know that our faith is more than a response to outside stimuli.

What I mean is, if we only feel close to God when we are getting our worship on, or when God is filling our life with worldly blessings, that is a problem.

If we have trouble seeing God in the midst of trials - If we turn back to the old, worldly solutions when problems arise in our relationships, or health, or finances, or reoccurring sin, then that is a place where God is showing us a need for surrender and it is an area where we are being sanctified.

But aside from that, or in addition to those times where God is cutting idols away from our hearts, there are other times when we will be in prayer and going to church and doing service for the Kingdom and we will still feel distant, like God is not there.

In that case, I would urge you to keep seeking Him. Be like the faithful Israelites that we see in Mark 1, keep anticipating the upcoming, renewed fellowship with God.

And, in that time of silence - In that time of anticipation - go to any length to find Him. By this I mean, take on a time of fasting, a renewed season of constantly and consistently getting on your face before the Lord in prayer, a time of searching the Scriptures, a season of remembering the blessings of God in your life - and again, a time confessing and repenting of sin. Don’t forget Proverbs 8:17, in which God tells us:

So many times when people talk to me about these dry seasons and I ask what they are doing, there’s just silence, as if the concept of pursuing God was not an option.

In a similar season as this, King David wrote (READ AND UNPACK AS YOU GO),

Don’t let these seasons of dryness – when they come or if you are in one now – don’t let the silence overtake you. Don’t let the silence hinder your pursuit of God.
Moving on. Amen? Seek diligently, without ceasing until you find Him.

Moving on To Mark 1:7

Like we said last week, the Gospel of Mark is all about Jesus, not about us. We are blessed to be a part of the story about Jesus. We are blessed to be a part of the history encompassing, eternally significant story about the Glory of God.

But we can’t ever forget that we are a small part, a piece in the puzzle, we are not the whole picture.

John understood this too. If you read the other Gospels
You will see that some people were really enamored with John the Baptist. He could draw a crowd, he seemed to say that big changes were coming, and the people wanted that message, the people had been waiting their whole lives for that message.

So, John could have leveraged his popularity for his own ends, but he said, No, I am here to point to Jesus. I pray that we will be the same way in our lives.

God has gifted you with talents and abilities, whether those be with music or photography, or with culinary giftings, or administrative abilities, or with incredible intellectual minds a passion to help children and other people in need.
And many times the world will say, leverage what you have. Use your talent and abilities and giftings to “make it” in this world – to make much of yourself.

Some worldly groups will say use some of that to help others, and that is right to a point if helping others includes pointing them to the gospel.

But we need to push past the world and past our self-interest and past our hunger for the applause of men and we need to do everything we do unto the Lord.

That is, do everything for Him while all the time acknowledging that we are only able to do what we do because of Him. As Larry Crabb says, we are instruments in the Redeemers hands.

And I’m not saying put on false humility and say, “Oh. No it’s nothing….”

No take the compliment and use it for a pointer to Christ. John the Baptist said it best in the Gospel of John 3:30:

In fact, say that one with me. After “Jesus Wept” this has to be one of the easiest verses to memorize.

Again:

Now, don’t just remember it, preach it to yourself when you want everything to point to you and how awesome you are or how deserving of recognition you are.

Believe me, when I get up and preach, this is something I have to tell myself all the time.

When I want to turn back to sins of the flesh, I have to remember, “No - He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Remember that key verse in Mark 8:34. which says the same idea. We are going to go back to this a lot in this series:

We must deny ourselves, we must kill the sin by the power of the Spirit, we must deny the old excuses of:
“That’s just the way I am.” Or,
“That’s not possible for me because of _______.”
Fill in your own blank and then deny that excuse.

The power that we are called to live by is completely flipped from the world’s idea of power.

The power of Christ, the power to change our families and our neighborhoods and our city and our own lives – that POWER can only be tapped into by a willing submission to our Lord.

Think back to the Gospel dreaming that I called you to earlier. It will always remain a dream if we don’t put our faith in action. I must call us to that until Jesus returns.

Let’s pray…
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Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #2

Confession
Mark 1:1-5

How’s everyone doing? Need prayer? Have praises?
All right, let’s get moving, we are going to try to get through Mark 1:1-5 (Pg 743) tonight, if we make it then praise God, if not, then God willing, you and I will be here again next week to pick back up where we left off.

Please stand with me as we read Mark 1:1-5.


Let’s pray…Please be seated

Tonight we will read and unpack and read and unpack. Starting in verse 1:


I love the introductions in the books of the Bible, I used to just fly past them but there’s gold to be found in every word. Not one passage, not one verse is wasted when it comes from the Spirit of God.

This is the gospel about whom? (It’s okay to answer me out loud) That’s right this book, this Gospel is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This may be even more important to us than it was to the first century readers who saw the first parchment.

Today, we want to know what Jesus can do for us. Can He be a good model for us? Can He save my marriage, my health, my bank account? Can He make my life easier and maybe pretend He doesn’t see the sin that I still turn back to?

I’ve been guilty in the past of reading the Bible and placing me into the “Hero” slot of every story. I have imagined myself as David slaying Goliath. I’ve imagined myself as the thief on the cross who honors Jesus. I like to see myself as the hero, as the good guy, as the one person who “gets it”.

I like to see these historical accounts and say, yes this is about how I would have dealt with those things, and how I can deal with today’s pressures and trials.

But Mark dashes all of that in the first sentence. From those ancient times, He screams out, “This isn’t about you, Ken! This is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

And furthermore, the very fact that Jesus came to earth is a testimony to the FACT that I am NOT the hero of the story and proof that YOU are NOT the hero of the story.

You and me and all of us in the history of humanity, back to Adam and Eve are the reason that Jesus had to come down from Heaven.

We are not David with a slingshot and faith, we are or have been – at best – the rest of the Israelite soldiers trembling in fear in our tents while David did battle. At worst, we have been more like Goliath, who blasphemed against the Lord and deserved a swift and sure death.

So, with that in mind, this Gospel that we are studying is about Jesus at its core. All of the Bible is about Him at its core.

The fact that He came is a testament to the fact that we are all sinners who were in desperate need for Jesus. He saw the need and laid aside His rights and came down for us, to rescue us.

As we will see in the weeks to come, this story is about the fact that He lived the sinless life that we haven’t been able to live (because we weren’t the heroes of the story) and eventually He died to take the legal punishment that our sinned earned us.

In the same transaction – while Jesus took on our sin and absorbed the wrath that was due to us, He — at the same time — covered us once and for all with His Righteousness.

The Apostle Paul said it like this:

It’s what theologians like to call the Great Exchange. It’s what this book and the entire Bible is about. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s read verses 2-4.


So, if you go home tonight and look through the four Gospel accounts you will see each writer starting their story of Jesus at a different point in time and in a different way.

Matthew starts be tracing Jesus’ family tree back to Father Abraham; Luke begins with John the Baptist’s parents; and John goes way back to the very beginning.

Each Gospel is written for a specific audience and in an intentional style to convey a message.

I heard one pastor call Mark “The Man’s Gospel.” If you can see Luke as the Epic or the multi-night miniseries, then Mark would be the action adventure.

You’ll see Mark writing more about Jesus’ actions than His words. And like we said last week it is fast paced and awesome – you should be reading this at home throughout the week. If you are unable to read, come and see me after the service tonight and we’ll help you out.

But we definitely want to have you devouring this Gospel – reading it and talking to one another about it and emailing me with questions — during your time outside the church as well as inside, okay?

Now, what we see in Mark’s gospel is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, it’s like we are eyewitnesses to the events. And, when you are watching something happen in front of you don’t already know all of the back story, right. And Mark knows that you and I might not be seeing all of the connections to the Old Testament and what is occurring here, so he’s going to repeatedly point us back to the Old Testament prophesies and then show us How they are being revealed.

So in verses 2 and 3 Mark points us back to Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1. The people who read this with a Jewish background would probably have recognized the references right away. We don’t always get it that’s why the Bible has the footnotes at the bottom of the pages.

So mark points us back to the Old Testament in verses 2 and 3 and then in 4 He unpacks it in the context of the event.


What we see next is that as this rough wilderness guy starts preaching and baptizing, the masses started to come out. Why, because they’d been waiting for this moment for their whole lives and really for several generations, back for 400 years.

John the Baptist came on the scene and said, Look, we’ve been waiting for the real messiah, the real anointed one of God, the Man who would come and rescue us from our suffering and bondage – And the time is near. It’s happening and we’re the generation that gets to see it. Now, get ready for the Lord.

This cleansing before encountering God was not a new idea. In Exodus 19, before the Israelites saw God come down near them upon the mountain they were told to prepare themselves, cleanse themselves so that they would be ready.

And the idea of Baptism was not new. It brought back to mind the faithful submission to God as He leads us in His direction. In the Old Testament, as God delivered the Israelites out of slavery, he had them pass through the water – the Red Sea- into freedom. And when God allowed them to take possession of the Promised Land, He got them to it by leading them through the waters of the Jordan River.

Now the message is, God is finally going to deliver us from the REAL BONDAGE, the bondage of sin, so pass through the waters, prepare yourselves and consecrate yourselves for this day of deliverance FROM slavery and INTO freedom.

Again, they had been waiting for four centuries for this to finally happen. It had been 400 years without a prophetic word from God and here, finally was the last of the old-time prophets doing what prophets do yelling out for the people to turn back to God and prepare their hearts for Him.

Let’s read on…

We can’t skip verse 5. What did they do? They confessed their sins. Oh! That we would do this today!

Let me ask you, Christian, when is the last time you confessed your sins to a brother or sister in Christ? This is such an important, vital part of what the church is all about, but we don’t do it. Why not?

Some of us don’t confess our sins to one another because we are afraid of what others might think or do if we were to come clean. For all of our nice words and the love that we pretend to share, there is still a part of our heart that says, “Don’t share “that”. Don’t confess “that sin”.

That voice in your head says this is not a safe place. That voice says, they like you know, but if they knew about_______, then they would turn on you in a minute.

Others don’t confess because we are completely unaware of our sin. As if we had already been made perfect. Our pride says, So-and-So needs to confess their junk, but I’m good.

Listen, either way we are buying the lie, that we are either too filthy to be loved or too righteous to need anymore work.

Both are lies and both penetrate and destroy us from the inside out.

What do I mean? If you think you are too bad to be forgiven, loved or understood, then that is going to breed fear and crippling self-pity and self-condemnation. This causes serious physical and mental and emotional and relational and missional damage. You have seen it in others, you may have experienced it firsthand. You might be carrying that weight right now.

But, the opposite can be just as damaging especially to your relationships and your love and dependence toward God. When you buy the lie that you’ve got everything all together, you stop leaning into the grace and mercy of God and you become self-righteous and judgmental to everyone around you.

This is why we need confession to the Lord AND to one another. Again, let me throw some Scriptures your way in case you think I’m making this up.

To the self Righteous, 1 John 1:8-9 says

To us all, Proverbs 28:13 says

And then James 5:16, go there with me on page 899 and this is where we will stop for tonight. James is talking about our right response to God in our daily faith walk. Actually, let’s start in 13, so you can see it in context:

Listen, if you are physically, or emotionally or spiritually sick tonight, if you are wiped out by carrying around your sin for so long. We are begging you to simply put it down tonight. Take off your old nature and take on Christ. If you are already His then live in the freedom that He purchased for you.

There is now no longer any condemnation if you are in Christ. Live in the reality of forgiveness. Don’t put shackles back on. He has already bought your freedom.

And, if you are here tonight and you have never taken possession of the gift of salvation through faith in Christ by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit then we want to urge you to take Christ as your savior and Lord tonight.

It isn’t a special prayer that saves you, it isn’t filling out a special card or raising your hand or any hoops like that. Paul tells us that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead than we will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Please, no matter what camp you are in, see this as a safe place. Find one of us, get to know us and unload that garbage that has been weighing you down.

Listen. this is a concept that many 12-step programs understand better than we do in the church. There’s old clichés that you hear them say like you are as sick as your secrets.

You need to find freedom that comes through confession. I’m praying for that freedom for you as the word of God penetrates into the deepest areas of your heart. “That sin” that you have been clinging to and hiding away has got to go.

When will you let it go? I’m praying that you let it go tonight.

And one last note. We are ALL broken sinful people. One of the reasons that a lot of people don’t confess their sins to one another is because of the times when they have been betrayed. One person’s confession – if they confess to you – is NOT fuel for your gossip.

If they come to you, you need to be the sounding board, the prayer partner and the co-laborer, to bring your brother or sister to healing in Christ, got it?

Now this really is the last thing. As you go to confess, find yourself a tight-lipped friend. Don’t spill your guts to someone who talks about everyone else, because they will probably talk about you too. I’m not asking you to be foolish and make yourself into a victim. James 5 is written in the context of a loving Christian family interaction.

If you are not comfortable with anyone else, come to me. As a pastor, I am called to equip YOU for the ministry. Freeing you from the sin that hinders your ministry is part of that work set before me. Let us help you to be reconciled to God and to others.

Let’s pray…
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