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