Jesus Journey - Part 1 - Mark 1:1-13

We are going to start looking at the book of Mark, and I'm going to be joining you once a month to explore this passage. Each week— or each month, we'll go to a new passage and we'll explore more of the book of Mark, and we'll find Jesus there, and we'll find ourselves there, and we'll find what was going on then, and, and we'll find what's going on now. So, I think that I'm— I know I'm going to enjoy it. I was going to say I think I'm going to enjoy it. I know I'm going to enjoy it because I love studying the Bible when I have a reason. I know I should sit down every day and read the Bible, but if I don't have a reason, I don't do it. And knowing I should is not a reason for me. I'm a sanguine phlegmatic. Like, that's— I'm happy and I'm cool, man. So, when I have something to do, like this today. Man, I've been preparing this study for a month, getting excited about it, studying the book of Mark and saying, what is it actually saying here? And, and looking at it. So if you have your Bible in front of you, open it up to the book of Mark. If you don't have your Bible in front of you, go get one. But if you don't have one and you can't access one, you're looking at a screen right now. If it's a computer, you can probably open the Bible up next to to you next to this, or maybe if it's your phone, you can, you can use another device to open up the Bible. But it would be really good if you have the Bible open as well, because you'll have a different version than me, and that really makes a difference. And you also will have different thoughts than me, and that's what's so exciting about the Bible, is no two people come to the Bible and come away with the exact same conclusions. And in fact, no one person at two different times if they're, um, if they've had any life experience between the two times they've come to the Bible, they'll see different things, um, and you'll see different things than you've seen before. And I sure have in preparing this study for today. Um, this morning I joined the Kuroi Seventh-day Adventist Church, one of the Sabbath schools there. While I'm up here visiting, I just messaged them and the pastors and said, uh, if you have anything you need me to do, I'd love to participate. And he said, oh, we've got a Sabbath school lesson with no teacher on the 7th of October. Which, when I saw the 7th of October, I was like, oh, that's my birthday! So if you're watching this live right now, just go ahead and sing happy birthday to me out loud right now. I would love that. But I am in Area 51 for the next year, so if I act a bit strange and like there's alien powers that work within me, it's because I They are watching. No, I'm 51 now. So exploring the book of Mark together is something I'm really looking forward to. The book of Mark is— the reason why I want to explore the book of Mark is because it's the first gospel that was written. It's the shortest gospel because when Mark said things, he just said them. He just got to the point and he didn't feel like he needed to explain things or kind of qualify things. He just told the story. And this is a fascinating intro. The, the first 13 verses of the book of Mark are a fascinating intro because they tell us a lot about, um, the way Mark was writing, the why he was writing this, who he was writing to. They tell us a lot about the way he's going to write the rest of his book. So I've given you a bit of time. You should have your Bible open now, and you should be at Mark. I'm going to read through the passage And then I'm going to, um, pull bits apart, and then we'll come back and read through it again. And, uh, then, um, well, what I'm going to do, I'm going to read through it and then, then go back and read through it step by step and kind of pull things out of it. And then I have a little conclusion that I prepared for you. So here we go. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible, Mark 1, verses 1 to 13. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John wore a camel's hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, 'One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.' I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by John. As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. So before I started reading this at Sabbath school this morning, I said, uh, do you have any weird family members? Let's go around the circle and tell stories about them. Because John the Baptist, he was weird. Like that description— everyone else in the Bible, you get these descriptions of their character, of their— that what they stood for, you know, something, um, deep and meaningful about them. But John, it's like, dude, the thing about him, he, he wore a camel hair cloak and he ate weird stuff. He ate like stuff that grows in the desert. He liked it in the desert. And so he ate honey, wild honey, and locusts. And I've heard people try to say, well, locusts are like beans. Locusts are locusts, whatever it is, with honey. If it's beans and honey, I'm not into that. And if it's wild, like crickets, ew. But I don't know what John was eating in the desert, except that it says here it's locusts and honey. So he was Jesus's weird relative. And what I think we find really, really well in this passage is that Jesus is actually being— well, the story of Jesus is being set up by Mark for them to recognize that this isn't just the story of Jesus and we should know it, but it's the story of us. It's our backstory. And we all— that was one thing that was really interesting in the Sabbath class. Everyone had somebody where the whole family, they said everybody's weird. We all do. And so we all know that kind of feeling of having someone in our family who stands out and is a bit different. But have you ever thought about the question from the other angle for John the Baptist? He had a weird cousin too, didn't he? His cousin was born of a virgin, God from above. I don't know if John knew that fully or not, but— well, I guess he didn't because at the very end of his life he said, "Go and ask him if he really is who I thought he was." who we're waiting for, or if we should wait for someone else. So let's have a look now and go back through this passage. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's really interesting. Commentators ask the question, what is this actually the beginning of? Is it the beginning of the Book of Mark that he's talking about? This is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus. Or is it literally the beginning of the story of Jesus? Or one commentator suggested this is the beginning of the story of who Mark's writing to. He's writing to the early Christian church, and he's saying this is the beginning of our story, of your story. This is why we say we have the Holy Spirit flowing through us and why you have felt the Holy Spirit after you were baptized with water and then you were baptized with the Spirit. The reason why that's possible is because these two guys, because it started with John, and he was baptizing for the repentance of sin, and then it moved on to Jesus, and he will baptize— Mark said he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, which we know didn't happen until Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. So that transition between those two, John's baptism and Jesus's baptism, 3 and a half years, and it's the beginning of the early church. So, so So Mark is telling this story of, this is where we began, this is how we began, this is your story, this is who we are. So the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, and then he quotes Malachi. Did you know that? Says, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, and then says, see, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way. That's in Malachi. The next part of the quote, which it looks like it's just one quote, but it is, and that's from Isaiah. He then switches across to Isaiah. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. So why Isaiah? Why doesn't he say Malachi and Isaiah? Why doesn't he just say Malachi? Why does he give the whole quote in the way he writes it to Isaiah? Maybe he's not just talking about the quote. Maybe he's talking about their understanding of who they are, and that what Isaiah started, what Isaiah talked about, about the one who would come, the reed from the line of Jesse that would not break, the one who would lay down with the lambs and would make it possible for a lion to lay down with a lamb, and for children to reach into vipers' nests and not be bitten. Someone, a Messiah, who would bring ultimate peace on earth. The kingdom of God. He could be setting that up, and he wants you to think about that already. I think that's what he's doing. We'll see more of why I think that a little later in the, in the study. John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There's two words that are repeated many, many times in this short introduction. One of them is baptize. Baptize is there five times. 3 times it's talking about John's baptism, and then twice it's talking about Jesus and baptism. One is Jesus being baptized, the other one is Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit. But there's this real— and it's in the middle of the introduction, so it's kind of this real focus in on baptism has a lot to do with your identity as a follower of Jesus. Baptism is the way that you've said I need to be forgiven my sins. I've confessed my sins, and I want to be baptized so that I can declare to everyone. So it's your kind of like what John was doing. He was baptizing for the remission of sins. But it's also that baptism into the Holy Spirit where you're saying, now I'm part of something bigger than myself. I'm filled with the Spirit of Christ. He's gone to heaven, and he sent his Comforter to me to empower me to do, or all of us to do, his work. And then the other word is wilderness. It shows up in verse 3, a voice crying out in the wilderness. And then in verse 4, John came baptizing in the wilderness. And then when you get down to the end of the study for today, John 12, I mean Mark 12, it says immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days. Why all this wilderness? What happens in the wilderness? When you look at the Old Testament, which he's already said, look back, remember Isaiah? He talked about, and then he quotes Malachi and Isaiah. Then he says, wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, wilderness. Baptism was a new idea. Nobody was baptizing until John started doing it. But wilderness, that meant something to the people of God who became Christians from the Jewish background. The wilderness was where people met God. It's where God met his people. It's where God said his name. It's where God saved his people from certain death, parting the water so they could walk across, not just once but twice. It's, it's an amazing moment in time when all of us, all of us go through the wilderness, and none of us while we're in the wilderness go, oh, I'm so grateful that I'm in the wilderness. I just I love suffering. It just— no, nobody loves suffering. But when we're in the wilderness, what scripture shows us is it means good things are coming. It means that God— it's kind of like we get so busy, we get so caught in slavery like the Israelites, with that we don't have time to know our left from our right. We don't have time to plan our own days. We don't have time to decide, I need to spend— we can say we need to spend more time with God, but Who has time for that? But when you go through suffering, when you're spending a week, 6 weeks in the hospital, when you're tied up on your couch basically because of a wound that you have or some illness that you're not able to get out and about as much as you have, and you're going through the wilderness experience, you have need and you notice God, the provider for our needs, as available. And you— I'm talking slow so you feel it— and you have time to say, Lord, help me. Lord, I need you. Or like Peter on the water, Lord, save me. So here we have this wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, wilderness. John was in the wilderness setting up with his own body the the idea that he was part of the journey, the suffering. He was part of the wilderness experience for Israel. And then we have Jesus who comes, and he comes into the wilderness to be baptized, because that's where John is. But then what happens? He goes into the wilderness. And it actually says the Holy Spirit, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. So I used to always visualize that like if somebody's driving somebody, they're pushing them, they're prodding them, get out into the wilderness. But now, having known what the wilderness is all about, and that it's going to meet God so that he can empower you to cross over. Well, maybe it was more like the Holy Spirit pulled up in his 4x4 and said, hop in, we're going to the wilderness. And he drove him to the wilderness because Jesus knew he needed to go there. And he went willingly, he walked. And he walked across the— I always visualize that he walks into the Jordan on one side, walks out on the other side and just keeps walking. And he walks into the wilderness and he spends that time being tempted by the devil and being provided for by the angels. But let's keep going with the passage that's before us. So he proclaimed— verse 7, or did I skip some? John baptizing in the wilderness, that's it. Then verse 5, the whole Judean countryside And all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him. Exaggeration. Yeah, there's exaggeration in the Bible to make a point. What's the point? Everybody knows about John. Everybody was going out to see him. Nobody— it wasn't everybody, but everybody was doing it. It was like the thing, and everybody knew about it. Was that a big story? Was that— it was kind of like, that's the one you go and see right now. That's, that's the, the big movie to go see. That's the big play to go see in the city. That's John the Baptist, have you heard about this guy? He's baptizing people. People have never even heard of baptism before. And now what's he doing? Yeah, he's taking people and he's saying, you're sinners, you need to be forgiven for your sin, which I thought we were supposed to go to the temple for that. But now he's saying if we just get in the water with him and say, yeah, I agree, I'm a sinner, I need to, I need to be forgiven, he will lower us into the water, kind of like dying, like we'll go to sleep in the water, like in the grave, and then he lifts us back out. Like, I don't know, I guess what Now we have the word resurrection, makes perfect sense. But back then, not a lot of people had stories in their backstory like we do as Christians of their God dying and coming back, going under and coming back up. But John the Baptist is out there doing this symbol that somehow— I don't know how he explained it to people, or if he just said, hey, we're just doing this for the repentance of sins. But Jesus comes out, and in the next verse, let's keep— so people are coming, it says, uh, were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Verse 6, his weird description: John wore a camel hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, one who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So he sets up the whole idea of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the early church. He's like, he's just, here it is, sweeping overview that they would not have understood at all. They just heard him say it. He probably didn't even know fully what he was predicting, what he was prophesying. In those days, it says, I don't know how many days John was out in the water of the Jordan River, but in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River. By John. We all know, we all know that happened, right? Why was John baptizing people? For the remission of sins. Was Jesus a sinner? No. Like the rest of the New Testament and prophecies in the Old Testament make that clear. So there's this new thing happening out there, this guy baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus comes out and accepts that baptism, and Mark tells us about it with no apology. That's what the commentaries call what the other gospels do right after they say that John was baptized— but John baptized Jesus. They say that Jesus leans into John's ear, or John says, no, no, no, I can't baptize you, you have to baptize me. And Jesus leans in and says, for the sake of prophecy, we need to let this happen. That's not in Mark. In Mark, there's no apology. One of the letters, I think it's the— they call it the Gospel of the Essenes, which is a— it's not in the Bible, but it's another thing that was written around the time of the early church that it says— it has this whole monologue that Jesus gives to the people that are watching while he's about to be baptized. I need you to know I am not a sinner, but I need to be baptized because of prophecy and because of what I'm about to do for all people and all mankind. I— that's probably a good reason why that's not in the Bible. But it's what people were doing with the story when they read that part. Jesus was baptized by John. They say, hold up, you can hear the brakes screeching. What do you mean Jesus was being baptized for the remission of sins? He's setting something up, isn't he? He's setting up a the process, the process that we go through, because we're all sinners. We have fallen short of the glory of God. But we come and we confess our sins, and we need that process. We need to confess our sins because in confessing there's ownership. In confessing there's a desire for change. And recognizing it is very important. So we come, we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Cleanses us. Baptizes us. He cleanses us. But what John's doing, he's setting up the baptism of water. And what Jesus is doing is he's saying, I'm being baptized so that you get the idea that baptism is where it all starts. When your heart is drawn to God, now you no longer have to bring a sacrifice to the temple. John's right. You can now be baptized for the remission of your sins, and those sins will be placed on me. And then I will give you the Holy Spirit. Spirit. It's a pretty cool setup, isn't it? Like, this is all right here in these first little, just few verses of this introduction. In those days, Jesus came and was baptized by John. As soon— this is verse 10— as soon as he came up out of the water— I'm in Sabbath school this morning, I went around the circle, I said, what stands out for you? We just, just read the very beginning, we read the 13 verses and said, what stands out for you? And one person said, um, that just what that must have been like for the crowd to, to have this sudden, like, this booming voice come out of the sky and, and Jesus have this dove come down and land on him. And because it says, as soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens. It's really interesting is all the way through the story so far it's in third person. Jesus did this, John did that, Jesus said this, John said that. Or, and then it gets to this verse and it switches to first person, which tells us something about what Mark's actually saying happened in those. It says, as soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Jesus saw that. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son. If it was for everyone to hear, they would have— it would have said, he is my beloved Son. But instead, it's like this private moment that between the Father and the Son, where he recognizes Jesus, where he says, "You are my Son. In you I am well pleased." Heaven torn open. That phrase, torn open, that word in Greek is only used one other time in the book of Mark, and it's when the temple curtain is torn open from top to bottom and God gets out of the box. It's this moment in time when when God is fully revealing himself to the world. And it happens twice, that word in Mark. One is when heaven's torn open so that Jesus knows we're in this together, we're on a mission now. And the second time so that all of us know that the Holy Spirit is available to all of us. And so this moment when he sees the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice saying, "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased." It's something that happens to all of us at our baptism, not in as bold of words as that, but when you're baptized, you are fully on the mission now. You're beginning your ministry with Christ. You're joining the kingdom of God and you're becoming a kingdom ambassador. Your allegiance. It's a really good word to replace the word faith. If you struggle to understand what does it mean to have faith, it's the same word, allegiance. Allegiance is, you know, a soldier marching because the king said march. A soldier, the way he dresses, the way he acts, the language he uses, what he says in the name of the king, and it says things, it's because he is allegiant. To his monarch. And we are now allegiant to Jesus. We're allegiant to God. And we claim him and name him as our reason for why we are who we are. And we live for him. So God's saying here, we're in this together now. And then finally in verse 12 and 13, immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. So the Spirit takes him into this time of suffering, this time of testing. It's what happens in the wilderness. You get tested, but you also are saved from that, the doom that could be. Many things die in the desert, but you're not going to die if you go through suffering. Even like, I don't know if you've seen The Chosen, but in the scene where James the younger, the one with the limp, says to Jesus, how can you send me out to heal people? When I am unhealed, when I'm broken. And Jesus says, did you want to be healed? He says, of course I want to be healed. And he said, do you believe that I can heal you? Of course I believe you can heal me. He said, so let me give you an option. There's two ways to see it. Basically, I can heal you, and then you go out just like everyone else, and you look just like everyone else, and you do the same miracles as everyone else, bringing healing in my name. 'Or you go out the way you are, believing I can heal you and knowing that I will heal you, but having yet to be healed, and you say, I believe I know the healer.' And he said, 'Which way do you want to do it?' And he— or no, he doesn't give them the choice, I think. He just says, 'So it's not if I'm going to heal you or not. It's only a matter of time. It's only a matter of time. And that's the desert experience. It's only a matter of time because we have been promised that he's coming back for us. And we've been promised that he has a life for us to lead until then. And even if we die now in that desert, on the other side is resurrection, there's eternal life, and there's the presence of being with the God who says he loves us so much, "You are my Son in whom I am well pleased." It's an epic introduction. I hope you feel that. I hope you get this idea that the book of Mark is not just some kind of, "Oh, here's what happened with the life of Jesus." Man, he spent time writing it and he thought about what he was writing. And there's something I want to show you in this last little bit where it says, And immediately, verse 12, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted. 40 days, that's a good— should remind us what the wilderness is, right? 40 years in the desert. 40, and then even in the flood, you know, 40 days and 40 nights it rained. Yeah, that wilderness experience, that was a very wet wilderness. But still, they were stranded in a boat that was— they were just floating on the only thing that was floating. Being tempted by Satan. That doesn't sound like a very pleasant experience. And in other gospels, it gives more detail of what that was like. But then he says this phrase: he was with the wild angels— the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. He was with the wild animals. Doesn't say he was attacked by the wild animals. He doesn't say he was scared of the wild animals. What would it say about you if you were with wild animals? What would it just say? He was with the wild animals. Does it sound like a Jesus was scared, or does it sound like Jesus was like Daniel? He was with the lions. He was protected from the lions by angels. Jesus was with the wild animals. In Isaiah, amazingly enough, if you follow this idea of being with the wild animals and, and also the idea of Jesus coming, and you look for a prophecy in the Old Testament I mean, in Isaiah, about him coming. Isaiah chapter 10, verses 1 to 10. I just want to read this to you, and I want you— sorry, it's chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 to 10. Have a listen to this. Now that you've looked so carefully at Mark, verse— chapters 1, verses 1 to 13, and you've heard the way that Mark's written this, and he's introduced it by saying Isaiah And then he does the— and he quotes a little bit from Isaiah, but then he does this whole thing, and then he just throws this, 'He was with the wild animals,' in at the end. It brings back this. And I went and looked it up because I was like, I wonder if this passage says anything more in context about Jesus. Have a look. Here's the wild animals. So chapter 11 of Isaiah, verses 1 to 10: Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse. We know that's Jesus. And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Church bears a lot of fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the dove landing on Jesus, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes. He will not execute justice by what he is ears hear. But he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed on the land. He will strike the land with discipline of his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips. Righteousness will be a belt around his loins, faithfulness will be a belt around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf, the young lion and the fatling will be together, and the child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, the lion will eat straw like an ox. An infant will play beside a cobra's pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake's den. None will harm or destroy another on my entire human mountain. For the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water. Did you hear echoes of Mark? Well, I guess it'd be the other way around. Did Mark hear echoes of Isaiah when he was writing his introduction? I think he did. And I think he wanted people, just in case, just in case you haven't compared this yet to Isaiah chapter 11, uh, he was with the wild animals. He was with wild animals and angels protected him. And so he's drawing in this wealth of kind of background knowledge and he's saying, this is us, this is who we are in Christ now. So to conclude, uh, I, I just want to read this little conclusion that I've written for you. Mark was written 30 to 40 years after Jesus baptized them with the Holy Spirit. The church was established The story of Jesus was spreading. The gospel was about living in Christ. And Mark was writing to remind local Christians of how it all started. A reminder of the story of our Jesus, the teacher, savior, preacher, God with us. The book of Mark is the first chapter in a much longer, larger, living gospel. The church. A story still being written today in your life and mine. We, like Mark, are gospel storytellers. The mission is the same: prepare the way for the Lord, make clear pathways for Jesus, walk with him into the lives of those around us. Tell them one more powerful than us is coming. Tell them he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And when he does, you will hear God's voice in your heart saying, "You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased." And heart by heart, person by person, the kingdom keeps growing on earth as it is in heaven. Let's bow our heads and have a prayer together. Dear Lord, I thank you for loving us. I thank you for just being with us and sending your son to be with us and show us through the way you loved him how much he loves us. And then in our lives, that how much we should love one another. Help us to put that into practice, Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Help us to love so much that people say, what's going on here? And then they realize that It's you that's going and growing through the world as your kingdom changes heart by heart, person by person. In your name, amen. Blessings. See you next time.