This morning, we begin a look at the Gospel of Mark. It seemed to me that a good way to get to know one another is to spend some time together looking at foundational things. It is kind of like spring-training or the first day of school: we don’t cover new things, we go back to the basics and re-learn elementary things.
The gospel of Mark is a good place to start. It is most generally thought to be the first of the gospels written. It is an action-oriented gospel; there are quite a number of times things happen “immediately” or “then” or some other sort of movement-oriented kind of description.
Mark also manifests a clear sense of awe when detailing Jesus’ encounters with others. It is that sense of awe that has drawn me to Mark at this time. It is my impression that the church in the United States has lost a bit of the wonder – whether it is because the Bible’s stories of Jesus seem too distant in time, whether we are too familiar with them, or whether there are just too many other things that dazzle our eyes or titillate our senses. Whatever the reason, I want us to spend some time walking through Marks’ gospel and marveling with him about the person for whom he is providing an introduction: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
I. The gospel of Mark is personal.
One of the things we need to consider is why the Gospel of Mark was written. Why did Mark set out to put down on parchment the things he did?
The simple answer: Mark wrote because he wanted his readers to believe in Jesus. He believed. He had been convicted of the truth of the gospel and he had committed his life to proclaiming Jesus. It was good news he wanted – needed – to share.
This is why modern criticism of the Bible falls flat some times. The complaint is that Mark is not an “objective” historical source. Objective? He never intended to be objective. He wanted to share what mattered most to him.
But objectivity is overrated. We do not proclaim the gospel or share our testimony because it is objectively true – it is: Jesus did rise from the dead – rather, we proclaim and bear witness because it matters to us personally.
Many people are afraid to talk about Jesus because they think they don’t know enough. Many people are afraid they will say the wrong thing; thus, they say nothing. Unfortunately, the Church has participated in promoting the fallacy that only experts should speak about Jesus. When we take Jesus out of the hands and hearts of the people of the church, the church dwindles and dies. When we encourage people to have eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive, and tongues to share, guess what? The church grows.
Said differently: you do not need a Masters in Divinity from an accredited seminary or a Ph.D. from a highly regarded academic institution to share your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Salvation in the name of Jesus Christ was good news for Mark. It is good news to me and it is good news to you. If ever you felt like you did not know enough to talk about Jesus, if ever you felt like you should not share Jesus because it might offend someone who believes differently, if ever you were afraid that someone would think you were a nut because you said the name “Jesus”; let me just take the time now to say to you, “You can do it.” Jesus Christ is good news to share.
The gospel is personal to me, too. I have been convicted of the truth of the gospel and want you – all of you here and any beyond who will come in contact with this message – to believe. To that end, let me share with you my statement of faith, so you hear this right up front:
I believe in the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is wholly deserving glory, honor and worship. God created and is sovereign over all. God's creation is good. Against God’s holiness, humans rebelled and sinned. The consequence of sin was and is death, brokenness and separation from God. Yet the miracle of God’s grace is that – even with the reality of our sinfulness – God demonstrated wondrous mercy, effecting a plan by which justice would be served and creation would be redeemed.
I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully God and fully human, and was the incarnation of God's love for the world. I believe Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary. He lived obediently fulfilling the promises of God, as made and foretold through the prophets. Though innocent, Jesus was arrested, tried, and convicted. He was crucified, bearing the cost of sin in his body —including my sins. On the third day, God raised him from the dead. The risen Jesus physically appeared to many believers. I believe Jesus ascended to the Father and will return victoriously as the king of the coming kingdom of heaven.
I believe the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Lordship of Jesus. The Holy Spirit convicts hearts; bringing people to repentance, discipleship and faithfulness. The Spirit moves and works among God's people to proclaim God's truth and loving kindness. The Spirit is our counselor, our helper, teaches us to pray, gives gifts for the common good, and intercedes on our behalf.
I believe Scripture is the authentic, inspired word of God. It reveals God’s glory and sovereign purpose. Scripture is the authoritative rule of faith and practice. It is the unique witness to God's plan of salvation revealed in Jesus Christ. It is useful in teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness for the glory of God.
I believe I have been saved by the grace of God. By my own rebellion and sinfulness, I deserve death. Through Christ's atoning work and resurrection, I am justified before God, adopted as a child of God, a brother of Christ, a co-heir of the kingdom of heaven and am promised life everlasting in communion with God. It is blessed good news.
There are two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s supper. In baptism, I was joined to Christ in his death and thereby am assured of being joined with him in his resurrection. My baptism was a sign of, and sealed me in, God’s covenant of grace. By celebrating the Lord’s Supper, I obey the Lord’s command to remember. I am spiritually nourished, united with brothers and sisters in the Church, and bear witness to what God has done. My faith is exercised, sealing in my heart the assurance of God’s promise that I participate in his covenant of grace.
In my work, I serve in the church in order to glorify God. I seek to be faithful and obedient to God's will as I find it revealed in Scripture. Because God first received me by grace, I am able to treat others gracefully. To God be all the glory.
My hope as we go through the gospel of Mark is that you also will be inspired to prayerfully discern why you believe, in whom you believe, and what hope you have because you believe.
II. The gospel of Mark was intended to encourage believers.
Certainly, the gospel of Mark was written because he wanted to communicate something to his readers about Jesus. But that begs the questions, who is this Jesus that it was so important to communicate something about him; and, to whom was it so important to that he write? We will take up the second question first: to whom was it so important that he write?
You see, Mark wrote to and for real believers who were living day-to-day lives just like you and me. He knew many of them by name. By tradition – and we have no good reason to doubt it now – Mark was close to the Apostle Peter. He was with Peter in Rome. He had been with Peter for a good period of time. As a result, he was familiar with the believers in Rome. Many scholars believe that Mark wrote the gospel to and for them.
The believers in Rome were struggling to understand what was the significance of Jesus in those day-to-day lives. Does receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior mean anything? At the time the gospel was written – most likely some time between 65 and 70 A.D. – Christians in Rome were experiencing direct, personal persecution. This was during the time of Nero’s reign; the time when most of Rome burned in a fire. Whether deliberately set by Nero in an act of madness or whether it was simply a wildfire that raged out of control while Nero inhibited efforts to fight it, the emperor ultimately looked for a scapegoat on whom to blame the destruction. He chose the Christians.
Tacitus, who was a historian about a generation later, described it this way:
First, Nero had self-acknowledged Christians arrested. Then, on their information, large numbers of others were condemned – not so much for [their participation in starting the fires] as for their anti-social tendencies. Their deaths were made farcical. Dressed in wild animals’ skins, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, or made into torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for daylight.
In other words, people were asked, “Are you a Christian?” The consequence for saying yes was severe. Mark knew some of these people. He knew their struggles. He knew their hardships. He knew their pain. He knew their suffering. The question the gospel seems to be addressing is, “Is Jesus worth it?” or, in other words, “who is this that I should be willing to die for him?”
The question the persecuted Christians in Rome were asking is pertinent to us today. “Who is this that I should be willing to die for him?” That is a stark way of phrasing it, but that is the question we face. “Who is this Jesus? What is it about him that I am willing to forego my own safety, forego my own security, forego my own desires, to seek and follow after him?
Those are the questions that Mark sought to answer with his writing. His answer is very personal and very direct. His opening line is, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
To believers in Rome, remembering that Jesus incurred the judgment for sin, was victorious over death, and is alive was good news. It was gospel. To believers in Carson City, knowing the Jesus incurred the judgment for sin, was victorious over death, and is alive is good news. It is gospel.
III. Jesus identifies with you and with me
So that is the big picture. Now let me point you to the rest of our verses this morning. This is where the Gospel begins to really take shape. Mark begins to tell us about Jesus, the real person, as he goes to the wilderness to John the Baptist. Yes, he is fulfilling prophecy, Yes, he understands the ceremonial and Upper Story significance of what he is doing. But more importantly, as Mark tells us, Jesus actually does it. Jesus walks as you and I walk. He approached John as you and I would approach. He went into the water – he got wet.
Why is this important?
First, it shows that Jesus is more than an idea, a concept, a metaphor. Ideas, concepts and metaphors don’t get wet.
Second, it shows that Jesus was not simply a spirit appearing to be flesh. He was actually flesh and blood.
Third, it shows how Jesus -- Emmanuel, God with us, as Matthew would put it – bound himself to humanity. Jesus’ walking into the water for the purpose of baptism demonstrates, shows, manifests, how he joined with humanity for the purpose of incurring God’s judgment for sin.
Again, Jesus walking into the water for the purpose of having John baptize him demonstrates that he joins you and joins me to incur God’s judgment for our sin.
The reason I am pausing on this is because there is a trend and a tendency in the world and in the church today to separate Jesus from humanity. There is the notion that Jesus was somehow like a comic book superhero; that he has powers and is not fully human.
In San Diego this weekend, ComicCon is happening. Before I lived there, I was unaware of this event. Thousands upon thousands of people descend on the San Diego Convention Center in costumes and make-up, reveling in superheroes and comic book characters. They celebrate imaginary worlds and pretend to have supernatural powers. The casts of movies and shows will appear at panels in large halls where fans will have waited up to 24 hours in line just to see them. Though it is cast as entertainment, there is a large contingent for whom this is much more important: it is a way of trying to establish an identity, to find a community, and to create for themselves a meaning for their lives.
There is a ComicCon effect on our culture’s perception of Jesus. He was a great teacher, or messenger from God, or even God himself – but that he either was not fully human or not fully divine. Thus, his life and death did not address the human condition beyond showing us a “better way.” We can follow Jesus, but Jesus only came to make our lives better like other superheroes.
Brothers and sisters in Christ: the good news of the gospel is that Jesus was Emmanuel (God with us) and that God raised this Jesus Christ from the dead. Really. It is not fiction and it is not imaginary. Mark starts with the Baptism of Jesus to tell believers that Jesus took on real flesh, just like them, He was fully human. Their sufferings, he knows. Their temptations, he knows. Their hurts and sorrows, he knows.
Who is this? This is Jesus Christ, Son of God, fully human, fully divine.
For Mark, Jesus’ baptism is a profoundly important action to begin the ministry of reconciliation. God sent this Jesus, who is baptized in water like you and like me, for us. And Mark is consistent with the rest of Scripture in this witness. Paul would say later, “God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…” John would write, “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Isaiah said hundreds of years earlier, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Isaiah was testifying about Jesus.
You see, as Jesus rose from the water – previewing his resurrection from the dead – he then sees the heavens open, and he hears the voice from heaven declare his identity, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit descending like a dove is a sign and promise that judgment will not be the end, that death will not have the last word, that reconciliation through judgment will take place.
That’s amazing. That’s wonderful. That’s awesome. That’s who this Jesus is.
IV. Conclusion
Mark sets out to share the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He does so – not because he’s the staff reporter on the religion beat – but because he wants to share the amazement, wonder, and awe he has seen in his own life. He wants believers to be encouraged in their everyday life. So, objective? Nah. Accurate? Absolutely.
Two final things:
If this is new to you this morning and God is convicting your heart and calling you to a personal relationship with this living, risen Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to come talk and pray with me after the service.
If this is not new to you this morning, I am asking you – during the final hymn – would you pray that God put on your heart one person who needs to hear the gospel? That’s it for this week, just pray that God put on your heart the name of one person whom you know who needs to hear the gospel.
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.”
Who is this?
“And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Heidelberg Catechism Question 29:
Q: Why is the Son of God called JESUS, which means SAVIOR?
A: Because he saves us from our sins, and because salvation is to be sought or found in no other.