Jul 7, 2010

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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