Tonight it is our privilege and I'm very excited to begin a new series with you in the gospel according to Mark The plan is to spend a little bit of time in the gospel this semester Looking ahead to Easter and April and arriving even at some passages concerning the sufferings death and resurrection of Jesus from this same Gospel tonight We begin in Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 13 as we consider the life and the teachings of Jesus now look if you're paying attention These days there are lots of things being said many things being written that call into question whether or not the story of Jesus is believable And even if it's believable, how is it beneficial? Is it any good and we want to consider the believability and how it's beneficial tonight from Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 So let me invite you to hear God's word the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way the voice of one crying out in the wilderness Prepare the way of the Lord make his past right John appeared Baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem We're going out to him and we're being baptized by him in the River Jordan confessing their sins now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey And he preached saying after me comes he who sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and when he came up out of the water Immediately he saw the heavens opening 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 amen This is God's word and may he write it on our hearts tonight More begins by describing the gospel of Jesus Christ and we have to start there and ask the question What does gospel mean gospel means good news? It's an announcement of an event that's designed to bring us joy That's what it is.
It marks says there's a beginning to it in other words. It's not just some theory It's not a philosophy. It's not just a theology It's not some big idea that has always eternally existed but it is a beginning it has a narrative because it's about an event About God becoming man For us now as I've said many times sometimes to you Christians that always Give the impression others that there's good news news that brings joy in Christianity and one of the reasons We don't is because we get fixated on ourselves We think about well How am I doing as a Christian how well am I believing how much have I believe have I believed right and what kind of fruit Am I bearing has it changed me in the right ways and and the more we look at ourselves the more on the one hand frustrated we get We can even just fair because there are days when we stink at being Christians following Jesus There are days we wake up and there's a sheet of ice on our heart and we're just cold towards Jesus now That's all you're thinking about you'll despair eventually you'll think this isn't working for me I've got to chuck the faith. I'm not a good Christian.
Maybe God isn't interested in me on the other hand It leads to pride we stay arrogance We sometimes look around at ourselves and others and we think I'm doing pretty well compared to those people over there or compared to my past and it can lead to arrogant self-righteousness as we look at our selves Only the Bible would have us look away from ourselves and rest in the finished accomplishment of Jesus there We will find joy there. It will be good news. You know if a husband and wife can on an airplane in northwest Arkansas to fly with Lana It's possible that the wife gets on the plane and she is white knuckle She has a fear of flying as she hears the rattle that the engines cause in the fuselage she begins to wonder are we gonna make it? I don't know if we're gonna make it sissing ever gonna get off the ground what happens if we're what happens if there's what happens that she is pouring sweat with anxiety meanwhile her husband Who's a expert on flying an expert on airplanes and he knows the physics of how you get a many many thousand-ton?
Thing to fly in the air. He's happy as a lot. He's confident. He's poised.
He tries to reassure her now Let me ask you this question Which of them makes it to Atlanta? Well, if the plane is integrity in the pilot can do his job They both make it to Atlanta because the issue is not how well you believe the plane can fly The issue is the integrity of the plane and the competence of the pilot and somebody's in the Christian life issue is not how well You believe how much you have confidence But whether Jesus can do what he promises you in saving you in other words It's the content of your belief what you believe in who you rest on Matters more than your faith and you will not have joy if you're just looking at you But God has designed the news to be joyful to you as you look at him now the question is is it believable? It's a believable that God became man to bring lost mankind back to God and if it is how does it help us? And so from this text I want you to see three ways It's believable Mark actually gathers his witnesses to try to give you enough testimony to overcome your questions And so we want to consider is it believable three ways?
He tries to persuade you in the first place he tries to persuade you from the Old Testament notice in verses two and three Mark says to you this is this is about Jesus and then he says as it's written in Isaiah the prophet and he begins to give you a Prophecy in other words mark begins here with thousands of years of Old Testament prophetic tests And he says let me show you how how these are fulfilled in Jesus. You can trust that God is doing what God has promised here mark actually takes prophecy from Al-Kai chapter three verse one and United to Isaiah chapter 40 verse three both prophets Malachi 400 years Isaiah 700 years before Jesus he puts them together and we have to pause there and say you're reading with The eye of an English major you're already a little bit troubled because he said this is Isaiah the prophet And then he quotes Malachi But before you get all up in the arms and question whether or not there must be some mistake in the Bible I can't trust it you have to understand That this is their citation system when they want to quote multiple prophets They take the major profit and they name him and then they just quote all the prophecies They want in other words There's no MLA or terabian or whatever the style of Footnoting is required of you in a modern English university system, right? And it would be frankly chronological arrogance meaning over the history of time for us at this late day to look back on them and look Down our nose at them and say well, they just don't do things right Okay, take my look I take Isaiah and he says what this is fulfilled in Jesus prophecy Mark tells you is an extraordinary Witness to the truthfulness of Christianity They're all kinds of prophetic texts about Jesus being of Abraham a descendant of Abraham that he will be a particular tribe Called Judah that he will be the son of a family the family of David that he'll be born of a virgin in a small town called Bethlehem We look at that at Christmas and that he will die by crucifixion Though the word crucifixion isn't used the Bible predicts that this man will come and he will suffer and he'll hang on a tree And his flesh will be exposed he'll be beaten and destroyed and people will look up at it and see They're all these prophetic texts which are designed to bolster your confidence that this really happened and you can believe This is a reason to believe not just because Jesus does good things for us, but because it is actually true Now I realize even in saying that that you have our culture whether your heart said it or your peers are saying our culture says Well to speak of truth in that way It's just arrogant and I would say you won't would be if it was simply coming from me And I was trying to manipulate you into believing what I believe just because I believe it But it's not arrogant if it's Jesus who said I am the way in the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father But through me and you and I simply receive from him the truth Because he's the King of truth then it's not arrogant to believe Because you're just obeying the Lord of the universe in believing so John says to you look This is believable thousands of years of prophecy. It's reliable now look in the prophecy.
What does he say is gonna happen? He says there's going to be a messenger who will go before Another one who is coming that's what he says. There's going to be a messenger crying out in the wilderness Who will precede and prepare for the coming of another? In other words, there's going to be a herald who arrives troubling loudly the king is coming That's the prophecy and who is it that he says is coming notice the language of Mark quoting Isaiah the one who's coming is who It's the Lord that this this person.
This is actually John the Baptist who's the herald will get to that a moment He's to prepare the way of the Lord and Isaiah. You understand that word Lord means yah way It means the God who keeps covenant with his people who enters into relationship with his people the one true living God That's who's coming and Mark says he's come. It's Jesus God became man and has arrived But you said to me while I'm not really persuaded by Old Testament prophetic text I mean I really know how I'm going to weigh my way around fulfilled prophecy and people talking about Nostradamus and all these other things You know maybe somebody manipulated all this well. I want to say to you.
Well, no, they didn't not really but if that's all we had I understand you scratching your head mark says there's more Consider his second witness in verses 4 through 8 as he says John has come in fulfillment of the prophecy And then he asked we should ask what does John say about Jesus Notice John appears and how do you know that he answers the prophecy of Isaiah? Well consider his lifestyle isn't it interesting in a book about Jesus that's going to tell us about the Lord of glory being crucified on a cross Mark begins and in four verses he goes off about this guy named John the Baptist who's wearing camels hair and eating wild locusts and honey I mean what what is that about? Well, his point is this that John answers the prophecy. He's a wilderness kind of guy That's who he is his matter of life is strange The larger question is this if John answers the prophecy and the Bible elsewhere says he is like the last great prophet of Old Testament History if he answers the prophecy what does John think about Jesus?
Well, look what John thinks about Jesus. Notice how he contrasts himself with Jesus He says one is coming and he is mightier than I He humbles himself in comparison to this one who's coming in fact He goes so far to say not only is he mightier than I but I am not fit to stoop down and even to do the lowest part of that Which a slave would do for the master? You know in Israel in that day if you were a disciple of a rabbi you would follow him around you might carry his books The one thing he would never have to do even if you were a slave of a master is To wash the feet unless you were the lowest slave of the household No disciple did this for his rabbi, but the lowest slave the newest slave the youngest slave the guy at the bottom of the totem pole That's the guy who stoops down on ties the sandal and washes the master's feet and John says you know what I am I'm not even fit to stoop down and begin to do the least part of that work And you see what John is then saying he's saying listen this one who is coming. He isn't just great He isn't like some super spiritual guru.
He isn't a superman, but he is not an altogether different kind of being I got not touch him. I should even bow before him. That's what John says John is saying Jesus is God become man and you say well look I still don't believe this thing I mean after all the early readers of this would have been really primitive people you know They're very gullible about this sort of thing, but we're we're well educated University educated Modern people this is too much for us to believe and I would remind you as Tim Keller says look those earliest people who heard this Had all kinds of barriers to believing that you and I don't even have the earliest believers were Jews Jews who believe that there was only one God and you didn't even write his name And for them to believe that in fact got to become man that that is who Jesus is is tougher for you and I to believe But still you say I want more there's not enough here for me. I got to serve on a jury trial one time I got to be the chairman or former of the jury and we're batting around the evidence right and there's a little bit of evidence But then there's all this other evidence and you just don't know we've got two witnesses Isn't there something else in fact if it's so monumental that God became man to bring mankind back to God wouldn't God himself Have something to say about it to us It's if it's that big well Just mark is here to meet you in the text because of the baptism Jesus comes up out of the water and God the Father speaks from heaven and what does he say?
He says this is my beloved son and with him I am well Please he affirms the eternal sonship of Jesus the special unique sonship of Jesus But then you're going to say to me you want to believe that God the Father affirmed this about Jesus But quite frankly time you just missed the vote on all of this because I just don't know if I can trust the book You were reading from about these things. How can I trust Mark wasn't it written 30 years after the death of Jesus and doesn't that Undermine its credibility. I look if you're not asking that question. You understand our culture is How do you answer that question?
Well? It actually having been written 30 years after the death of Jesus is an affirmation of its truthfulness in this way What we know is that for about 30 years after the death of Jesus there were plenty literally hundreds of eyewitnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus If you questioned the story that your neighbor told you you could travel to Jerusalem and meet them the apostle Paul tells us in first Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to the apostles and to Paul and at one time you appeared to 500 at once and so for a Long time there were eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus, but as they begin to die out God Embrace to us assures us that we will have a faithful account And so it is at that point that the apostles who witnessed the resurrection begin to write out their account You see how this helps us? Before the writing of the gospel of mark you couldn't say oh Jesus, you know He used to fly through the air like Superman I think there were just people around who would say Jesus never did that nobody ever saw him do that But now we have it written down for our benefit by faithful witnesses and we need their word And so mark says to you look I've gotten the Old Testament and thousands of years of prophetic history Evidently and it's the Lord who's coming to his people. I've got John the Baptist the greatest man in his day Saying I'm not worthy to touch him because he's bigger than man And now you've got God the Father and self speaking from heaven.
This is my beloved son Oh friends, you can believe that this happened. How does it help you? How is it beneficial to any of us? Let me just highlight three things number one.
It gives us confidence in God's mercy Why did he come because without his coming? We don't have that confidence that God will in fact be merciful to us Some of you will know the character Jason born from books and movies Even if you don't know that character, I think I can describe enough for you to for this illustration to be helpful Jason born has lost his memory Doesn't know who he is but he's got all these flashbacks of terrible things that he has done because the fact is he's been a trained Assassin and he spent his life murdering people There's a scene in a movie where he's seated on a bed and he's having these terrible flashbacks and the this girl next to him is showing him compassion And he pours out his heart to where he says to her I've apologized But nothing makes it better And you understand what he's saying he's saying look I've hurt people and simply saying I'm sorry hasn't made it better Listen being sorry that that we've hurt people people God created for us to love Doesn't take away the failure. It doesn't eradicate the sin simply admitting you've done wrong doesn't make it right as good as it is To own up to our failures However to know without a shadow of a doubt that whatever our evil deserves It has received to know with confidence that the justice that stands against us is fully satisfied By the death of a substitute in our place that brings release it brings to your conscience a sense that yes God is satisfied his wrath is turned away that Jesus has really put himself where I belong and taken my sin and taken it away That will heal your conscience that will build confidence in your life And it took God taking your place upon the cross as a man as a true human to make it So so the first thing is God becoming man to bring mankind back to God builds your confidence in his mercy secondly It is a resource in our sufferings. I talked about this at life at Christmas But friends when you are hurting it helps to sit down with someone and pour out your story and rather than have them say to you Well, it'll get better in time Well, here's a Bible verse for you and just go meditate on that and you know all will be well It helps for that kind of person to say to you know, I have been where you are I've actually experienced suffering like that I've even suffered more let me tell you about the greater ways I have lost and let me tell you how I got through it And let me tell you this my friend.
I will be with you as You go through it. There is friends no religion in the world that says God has been through any sorrow more intensely than you Except Christianity Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and he knew loneliness betrayal Injustice humiliation he knew abuse he knew the wrath of man. He knew the wrath of God. He went through death So that he can help you and you face suffering it's a resource in suffering But thirdly all of this is a perspective for us friends about he is right to rule us and here I'm following Tim Keller I'm what I think is a brilliant observation from this passage Jesus comes here the text is clear.
He's coming as a king He's Lord and we don't like that. We like Jesus the friend Jesus the lover but King to our ears sounds oppressive But notice the prophecy in this passage it says that one is coming who will prepare the way of the king and that word Way is the word highway or road ancient people knew what he was talking about When a king comes to visit you when he's gonna come to your city. What do you do? Yes first things up you make things nice You build a highway to honor and welcome the king and what does that require digging down through rock filling in valleys leveling the road And what does that mean in a culture without caterpillar and John Deere?
It means millions of slaves doing a lot of hard work to prepare the way of the king and so when you heard the king is coming if you're at the Bottom, you know, it's gonna be terrible slavery getting ready for this king But but you understand when this king came he came not enough in oppressive way He didn't come to a throne to dominate you oppressively when this king came he came to a cross To free you because he loves you Such a paradox a throat is a place of power the cross is a place of powerlessness Dying on a cross you know dying private You're publicly stripped naked and you die an agonizing death and mark says the greatness the kingliness of Jesus Is that when he got here? He didn't go to a throne, but he went to a cross for us to be punished for us So that by grace we could have a relationship with God So the kingship of Jesus is not slavery But it is delight and liberation. Can you see it? It's believable.
It's beautiful. It helps you and I would invite you to come this spring and Continue to hear the good news of God who became man for you. Let's pray Father and heaven bless you. Thank you that you did not spare your own son But gave him up for us all all oh Jesus be exalted in our eyes be high and lifted up in our estimation and do all These good things for us and to our souls.
So we ask you in your name, amen Let's stand and sing in Christ alone