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The Good News of Jesus

10/12/2008 - Let the Journey Begin, Mark 1:1-13

This morning we're beginning an adventure together. We're going to do something we've never done before as a church community. We're going to take a journey with Jesus through an entire gospel together, the gospel of Mark. the good news of Jesus as told by Mark. And I'm looking forward to it. We're not going to do it all in one Sunday. In fact, it's going to take a bunch of Sundays to complete the journey which is why I've been hesitant over the years to bite off such a big chunk of Scripture. But that's okay we need to spend time with the hero of God's great story of redemption. And we may stop to catch our breath and take some breaks along the way, but I think it's time to get started. So if you have a Bible open to the gospel of Mark which is found on page 684 in the Bibles that we give out and I want to start with some words of introduction.

Mark is one of four gospels that we have in our New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And as we've learned the word gospel means "good news." Mark is the shortest gospel we have, sixteen chapters, and most scholars believe that it's the oldest gospel we have, written somewhere around 60 A.D., which could make it the most important book in the world because it's the very first written record we have of the life of Jesus.

Up until Mark was written, 25 or 30 years after Jesus lived, all we had were the stories and the parables and the teachings of Jesus that were passed around by word of mouth. But then God breathed these words that were captured by Mark and written down in his gospel. So it's a significant book of Scripture.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are often called the synoptic gospels. The word synoptic comes from two Greek words which mean "to see together." They're called the synoptic gospels because they contain a lot of the same events and teachings of Jesus often recorded in the same order, but they're all written from a different perspective and each one is written to a different audience. There is rich diversity among the gospel writers.

Matthew is Jewish and he wrote his gospel to a Jewish audience that was familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. And so he quotes the Old Testament over and over again, more than any other gospel writer. In fact, one of his favorite words is the word "fulfilled." He wants his Jewish readers to see that Jesus is the promised Messiah who fulfilled the words of the prophets.

Matthew uses the word "kingdom" more than any other gospel writer because he wants us to see that Jesus is the king who is bringing his kingdom to this world. And because he's a king his genealogy and lineage is very important. And so Matthew begins his gospel by tracing Jesus' family tree all the way back to King David and then even further to Abraham the father of the Jewish nation. In Matthew Jesus is the King.

The gospel of Luke, on the other hand, was written by a Gentile to the Gentiles. Luke's out to show that Jesus is the Son of Man who has totally identified himself with the human race and so he takes his genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam, the very first human being. Jesus is the second Adam who is going to make right everything the first Adam made wrong. Luke's favorite description of Jesus is the Son of Man.

John's gospel was the last gospel written. And many believe it was written to the church to show that Jesus was fully God because at the time the deity of Jesus was under attack. John's favorite description of Jesus is the Son of God. And so he starts all the way back at the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Different gospels, different audiences, different writers, different spins, but one Jesus and all true.

The gospel of Mark that we're going to be studying was written to a Roman audience and Mark's out to portray Jesus as a servant, the ultimate servant. At the time of Christ one out of every three people in the Roman Empire was a slave and birth records weren't kept for slaves because it wasn't important to know the family tree of a servant. And so the gospel of Mark contains no genealogy of Jesus. There's no birth narrative in Mark, no Christmas story, nothing about Jesus growing up, just his ministry.

The Romans were all about action and so Mark's gospel dives right into the action and moves quickly from one story to the next. It doesn't have all the parables that Matthew has or the long discourses that are found in John's gospel. Instead, it's one story after another. Jesus calms the storm, Jesus casts out a demon, Jesus heals a sick woman, Jesus raises a girl from the dead.

One of Mark's favorite words is "immediately." Immediately Jesus did this and immediately Jesus did that. It's non-stop action. He tells us that Jesus taught in a synagogue or in a house or from a boat or from village to village, but he often doesn't tell us what he taught. Instead, Mark wants to show us what Jesus did. For Mark, actions speak louder than words.

Mark 10:45 is often viewed as the theme verse of the book, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Luke talks about all the research that he did to compile his gospel and John is more like a lecturer sharing the sermons and discourses of Jesus. But Mark is like a photographer. He's throwing down one snap shot after another of the things that Jesus did so that we might believe in him.

I love the description of Mark's gospel that Eugene Peterson gives in The Message, "Mark wastes no time in getting down to business - a single sentence introduction, and not a digression to be found from beginning to end. An event has taken place that radically changes the way we look at and experience the world, and he can't wait to tell us about it. There's an air of breathless excitement in nearly every sentence he writes. The sooner we get the message, the better off we'll be, for the message is good, incredibly good: God is here, and God is on our side …. He doesn't want us to waste a minute of these precious lives of ours ignorant of this most practical of all matters - that God is passionate to save us."

So that's a little bit about Mark's gospel. But who was Mark or John Mark as he's often called in Scripture? Well, John Mark is the poster child for all those of us who need a second chance in life. He was a young man when Jesus was alive and in the Book of Acts we read that his mother's name was Mary and that there was a church that met in their house. He had an uncle named Barnabas who was a good friend of the apostle Paul.

In fact, when Paul and Barnabas took their very first missionary journey to share the good news of Jesus in Asia Minor they invited Mark to join them. But halfway through the trip Mark turned back and went home. We don't why he went home whether he got sick or homesick or just couldn't hack it, but in Paul's mind he quit the team and Paul was done with him.

And so when it came time for Paul and Barnabas to take their second missionary trip together Barnabas was like, "Hey, let's take Mark along and give him a second chance!" But Paul was like, "What? Are you kidding me? There's no way we're taking that guy along after he bailed on us the first time!" And their disagreement got so heated that they split up. Paul took a guy named Silas and headed off on foot in one direction, while Barnabas took Mark and sailed off in another direction. And so while the evil one thought that this rift would put an end to the missionary movement, God ended up doubling it instead!

So Mark gets a second chance with Barnabas whose name means "Son of Encouragement" because he's always putting his arm around somebody and encouraging them in Scripture. Thank God for encouraging people in our lives. We all need them. But then later on in life he'll get a second chance with Paul. At the end of his life Mark is the one guy that Paul wants to be with before he dies in prison.

In 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul writes, Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

Paul and Mark had made their peace and been reconciled to one another. And God would use this man to record the first written account of Jesus' life. You see we're the ones who quit on ourselves, God doesn't quit on us. He didn't quit on Mark and he won't quit on you and he won't quit on me. But he can't work with us unless our hearts are soft and at some point Mark's heart and Paul's heart softened towards one another and their relationship was restored. So Mark is a reminder to me that God gives us all second chances and even more if we need them.

Now look at Mark 1:1, The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah. Like I said, Mark jumps right into the story with both feet, a one sentence introduction, and it's like let's get right to the good news about Jesus.

And then he quotes the prophets, Isaiah and Malachi, in verse 2, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"— ³ "a voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"

These words were written by Isaiah and Malachi over 400 years earlier. Four hundred years, that's a long time to wait for something! And every generation since wondered when Messiah would come, this great Liberator, this Deliverer, this Savior. Would he come in our lifetime? God knows we need one. Generations had come and gone and still no Messiah.

Did you ever one of those restless nights when you just couldn't sleep? And you tossed and you turned and looked at the clock and the night just seemed to drag on forever? But then, just before dawn, exhausted you fell asleep and then alarm rang. And you jumped up and wondered, "Where in the world am I?"

Well, that's the state of the nation Israel at this time in their history. They were in the midst of a long, dark night. God hadn't spoken in hundreds of years. They were under Roman occupation and they tossed and they turned and they couldn't rest and the night seemed to go on forever. And they wondered if the words of these prophets would ever come true.

And then the alarm rang. And it rang out in the voice of a nut named John the Baptist. Look at verse 4, And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John the Baptist appeared and let me tell you right now he wasn't Baptist at all. In fact, I'm not sure he could get into a Baptist church or any church for that matter. He was a weird looking dude who lived in the wilderness ever since he was a kid. Now when you think of the wilderness don't think of mountains and trees and streams. This is not Yelllowstone National Park. Instead, when you think of the wilderness, think desert.

I've been to the wilderness of Judea and it looks like the landscape of the moon. There is nothing there. There are no trees, no grass, no water, just rocks and dirt and caves which is why John the Baptist eats bugs dipped in wild honey and wears a designer outfit made of camel's hair which is basically a burlap bag with a leather belt around his waist.

He's a strange looking guy on a mission to prepare the way for Jesus. He's the alarm clock sent by God to wake Israel up and shake them out their stupor. And so he pleads with them to turn from their sin, be baptized and get ready for the coming of the Messiah. One source I read said that in one year's time John baptized between 300,000 and 500,000 people. That's about 1,000 baptisms a day. This was unprecedented. Nothing like this had ever happened in Israel's long history.

In fact, baptism was not even a Jewish practice. Baptism was for Gentiles. If a Gentile wanted to become a Jew he had to do three things. He had to be circumcised, make a sacrifice for his sins, and be baptized as an outward act of cleansing. But now John is asking Jewish people to be baptized and cleansed from their sins. That never happened before.

So John is baptizing people by the thousands but he has no idea when the Messiah is going to appear. Until one day, out of the crowd steps Jesus.

Look at verse 9, At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Jesus comes from his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee where he'd been a carpenter all of his professional life and at the age of thirty responds to John's ministry. He wades into the water and John takes him under like everybody else and doesn't know he's any one special until he comes up out of the water and the thin curtain between heaven and earth is pulled back and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove and the voice of God the Father says, "That's my boy and I'm so proud of him!" This is one of the few passages in Scripture where we see all three members of the Trinity interacting, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it's beautiful.

The gospel of John tells us that John the Baptist wouldn't have known who Jesus was if it wasn't for the Spirit that descended on him like a dove. I love that because it tells us that Jesus was normal. He was approachable. He wasn't intimidating. He didn't strike fear into people's hearts. You could go up to him and talk with him and joke with him and be with him, just like you can now.

Jesus is baptized by John, not because there's sin in his life that needs to be confessed and forgiven. No. There isn't any sin in Jesus' life. Instead, Jesus is baptized by John because he's identifying himself with John's message that it's time to turn back to God.

And that's what baptism is to this day. It's our way of publicly identifying ourselves with Jesus and his message of forgiveness and salvation. It's the wedding ring we put on our finger that let's everyone know that we're married to Christ. We're the bride and he's the bridegroom.

So Jesus is baptized and at once or "immediately" we read in verse 12, the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Remember what we said about Jesus in the series that we did called The End of Evil. Jesus is doing what the nation of Israel failed to do. They passed through the waters of the Red Sea in their Exodus from Egypt and then they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness until a whole generation died off because of their lack of faith. Well Jesus, the true Israel, will succeed where they failed at every turn. Jesus passes through the waters of the Jordan and goes into the wilderness where he's tempted for 40 days, not 40 years, but he doesn't cave in. His faith stays strong.

And while he's in the desert going toe to toe with Satan and taking everything he can throw at him we read that he's hanging out with the wild animals and the angels which just maybe a picture of the new creation that Jesus will bring in some day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together. Jesus wasn't left to fight his battles alone and we're not either. He had the Spirit of God helping him and angels attending him and the words of his Father ringing in his ears, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

And let me close today by saying that that's exactly how God feels about all his children, about all those who believe in his Son the Messiah. You are his beloved son. You are his beloved daughter. And in Christ God is well pleased with you. There are some of us in this room who never had those words said to us by our earthly fathers. And there are some of us fathers in this room who need to say those words to our children because they are powerful. You are my son. You are my daughter whom I love. With you I am well pleased. We all need to hear those words.

And they are the words that God longs for us to hear because they are the words that get us through the trials and the temptations of this life. Life can beat us up pretty bad, but it can never separate us from the love of God. God is with us. God's angels are with us. God's Spirit is in us. And greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.