WEBVTT 00:00:00.460 --> 00:00:02.950 I'm going to invite you this morning to turn to the book of Mark. 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:05.160 We're going to start a new series together. 00:00:06.380 --> 00:00:12.660 If you brought a Bible with you, if you don't have a Bible, take a Bible in the back seat in front of you and make it your own. 00:00:13.020 --> 00:00:15.190 I want to encourage you throughout this series to take notes. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.400 Especially if you brought your own Bible or you like to do it on your phone or whatever. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.720 We're going to dive deep into God's Word. 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:26.860 And there's really two goals I want to walk away with in this, especially today. 00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:34.280 I can tell you my overall goal for this summer is just for us to draw closer to Jesus and enjoy the presence of Jesus in our lives and what the 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.040 truth of who he is and walking with that. 00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:41.060 And so I just want to spend the summer in a lighthearted way, enjoying Jesus in that way. 00:00:42.440 --> 00:00:46.520 To do that, to kind of get the lighthearted mood today, we invite you to the beach with us. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:48.280 I don't know what that's about. 00:00:48.620 --> 00:00:51.760 If you didn't go on vacation this week like some people, the first week of June. 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:53.780 We bring it to you today. 00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:56.560 Well this is actually the set for our Vacation Bible School. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.300 Our kids are going to sing a song at the very end of that and look forward to that. 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:07.880 But in the meantime we're going to dive into Mark's gospel and what I really want to get across to us over the course of the summer 00:01:07.880 --> 00:01:13.580 through this series, one is the beauty of God's Word and the other is the supremacy of Christ in our lives. 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.220 And I think Mark does this in a wonderful way. 00:01:17.220 --> 00:01:19.310 Mark's gospel is the shortest of all the gospels. 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:20.900 It was the first gospel written. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:25.860 And Mark uses this term "immediately." He says the word immediately a lot because he's a guy of action. 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:29.740 He just wants to cut right to the chase and share with you some things about the Lord. 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:32.260 This book is broken down really right in the middle. 00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:34.140 If you look at the book of Mark,16 chapters. 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:41.660 The first eight really establishes the superiority of Christ and his identity and who he is, of why you would want to trust in him. 00:01:42.100 --> 00:01:45.980 And the last half of the book calls us to die for Christ, to give our lives to him. 00:01:46.460 --> 00:01:50.100 And so Mark makes that case in the beginning of the book, calls us to die with Jesus. 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:52.160 And in the end we see Jesus giving his own life. 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:54.750 And Mark sets it out beautifully. 00:01:54.900 --> 00:02:00.860 And the first few verses, 1 to 15 is kind of the prologue to Mark. 00:02:01.220 --> 00:02:04.040 And he lays down the gauntlet of all that. 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:04.340 Mark us. 00:02:04.380 --> 00:02:07.830 So I'm going to give you just a few minutes to turn to the book of Mark so we can go through this together. 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:11.160 And while you get there, I'm going to introduce you to a couple. 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:14.470 This is Weston and Dera Schnitz. 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:20.000 I've already come up with nicknames for these guys, but that's the Western schnitzel right there. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.400 I miss the Weinersnitchel up the road, so he's now going to take the title of Western snitzel. 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:29.320 Weston and Dara recently graduated from Bible college in Wyoming. 00:02:29.320 --> 00:02:30.830 They'd been serving in a church in Texas. 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:32.420 They feel the Lord leading them to Utah. 00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:37.180 They want to join our Alpine Bible Church family and just serve here and however the church could use them. 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:39.710 Just want to follow the Lord's leading in their lives. 00:02:39.860 --> 00:02:42.840 And so the reason I want to share them with you is one, you can pray for them. 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:48.700 And two, we've had people move here off and on as a church family, especially for the purpose of ministry. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:56.400 And when we get some younger guys that's getting established in life, one of the things we want to help them with, they're going to be looking for a job and a 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:57.180 place to stay. 00:02:57.500 --> 00:03:04.700 In the meantime, if anyone would to temporarily house them while they land on their feet, they're looking for somewhere for about eight to 10 weeks for them to be able to be housed. 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:06.560 My wife and I would love to do that. 00:03:06.600 --> 00:03:11.340 We've already offered our home to someone during that same time, but there'll be here at the end of August. 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:18.280 And so if you are interested in that or even have a place for them to possibly consider for employment, please let me know. 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:25.380 And in the meantime, you can be praying for Weston and Dara as they make that transition here over the next couple of months from Texas to 00:03:25.380 --> 00:03:25.920 Utah. 00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:27.200 They're actually not from Texas. 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:32.140 Weston's from Washington and Dera is from Grand Junction. 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:48.320 But let me jump back into the book of Mark for us. 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:55.400 You read the New Testament as it unfolds for us. 00:03:56.660 --> 00:04:01.640 Mark is the first of the Gospel writers to share about Jesus' ministry. 00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:03.240 There's four gospels we know that are written. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:05.680 It's not the first book of the new Testament probably written. 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:07.920 That's likely James or Galatians. 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:13.760 But Mark is one of the early written manuscripts of the Bible, the very first gospel that we have. 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:21.420 One of the reasons that we know it's the first gospel is because Matthew and Luke sort of follow the literary outline of Mark as those two books are 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:21.740 written. 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:28.620 Reason you have four gospels is because each gospel writer writes from a different perspective to a different audience. 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:34.500 Mark's writing his book to the Roman culture, which is why he emphasizes the word immediately a lot. 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:37.020 The Roman culture was considered people of action. 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:39.160 Using their hands, getting the job done. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.600 And so Mark writes more tailored to that particular culture at the time. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:48.500 And the reason we know Mark wrote the book of Mark is because church history tells us that. 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:56.420 Papias who was taught by the Apostle John, he lived into the first and second century, records that John 00:04:56.420 --> 00:05:01.790 Mark wrote the book of Mark, or the gospel of Mark under the authority of Peter, who was the Apostle. 00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:07.500 Eusebius, who was a church historian the first few centuries also records the same thing. 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:12.640 Peter talks about John Mark as his son, my son Mark. 00:05:12.760 --> 00:05:15.720 He refers to him in 1 Peter 5. 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.520 Peter was in Rome and we know John Mark was in Rome with him. 00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:21.460 It's likely where the book of Mark was written. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.660 And it would've been written before the 60's AD, and the reason we know that is because Luke came after that. 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:29.560 And Acts came after Luke. 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:31.740 Luke writes the book of Luke and Acts. 00:05:32.340 --> 00:05:36.260 And he ends the book of Acts, before Peter and Paul are martyred. 00:05:36.700 --> 00:05:38.180 And that happened in the early 60's. 00:05:38.900 --> 00:05:46.140 And so Mark would have had to been written before Luke and Acts and it was likely written in the mid to the latter 50's that the gospel 00:05:46.180 --> 00:05:46.600 was recorded. 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:50.380 Mark was a little bit of a wild man too. 00:05:50.520 --> 00:05:53.080 He only makes his presence in the gospel in one verse. 00:05:53.140 --> 00:06:00.450 It's taught that in the book of Acts, I think it's chapter 12 that Mark's home with his mother became a meeting place for the early disciples. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.280 He was likely around in Jerusalem. 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:07.820 That's where their meeting house was for the early disciples in Jerusalem. 00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:12.780 And it's thought to have recorded himself in the story of the gospel of Mark. 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:14.540 He just gives himself a couple of verses. 00:06:14.580 --> 00:06:17.170 He would have been a very young man at the time, but this is what he said. 00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:19.480 Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:26.740 He's about to be taken away by the soldiers and it says this, "A young man was following Jesus wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:27.600 and they seized him. 00:06:28.380 --> 00:06:33.200 But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escape naked." So there you go. 00:06:33.200 --> 00:06:39.380 Mark, I don't know why, "I'm going to share this story about me." Let me give you some wisdom. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:41.660 Don't walk around in a sheet at night like that. 00:06:42.010 --> 00:06:45.430 I don't know why he's doing that but there he is. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:47.860 Mark doesn't include his name there. 00:06:48.140 --> 00:06:55.140 If you read the stories in the New Testament, you'll find that the authors of books often, if they would include themselves in a 00:06:55.140 --> 00:06:57.150 story, they would not write their name in. 00:06:57.380 --> 00:07:01.160 The gospel of John, John refers to himself as the beloved. 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:02.920 He never calls himself by name in the book. 00:07:03.460 --> 00:07:10.820 Paul at one point describes a man who's caught up in the heaven or whether in body or out of body doesn't know and 00:07:10.820 --> 00:07:12.980 so Paul leaves it like we're to guess. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:16.200 We don't know who this person is, but most scholars say it is the apostle Paul. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.040 He's just not including his name there. 00:07:18.380 --> 00:07:19.360 And same thing with Mark. 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:21.170 It's believed that this is Mark in the story. 00:07:22.260 --> 00:07:25.060 They would have been around Jerusalem at the time Jesus was there. 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:29.890 But he follows the Apostle Peter and records the gospel of Mark under Peter's authority. 00:07:31.640 --> 00:07:36.580 When you read the book of Mark, it comes in a very prominent place in history. 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:39.640 Rome has conquered most of the known world. 00:07:39.640 --> 00:07:41.800 It's built the roads for traveling. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:48.990 It's the most accessible time for God's Word to go out into the world, for the gospel to reach the corners of the earth. 00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:56.300 And so Jesus' arrival during this Roman empire was at a prominent time in life where the gospel 00:07:56.320 --> 00:08:01.710 was most accessible to different people groups throughout the world than ever before in human history. 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:07.530 When Mark writes this book, God has been silent for over 400 years. 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:11.700 If you remember the book of Malakai we went through recently, it was the last book of the Old Testament. 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:13.940 God goes silent for 400 years. 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.720 And God breaks that silence here with the Gospels. 00:08:16.820 --> 00:08:23.000 Mark is about to give the pronouncement of who God is after 400 years of God not communicating with his people. 00:08:24.020 --> 00:08:28.980 In fact, Jewish historian Josephus from the first century talks about the succession of the prophets that have ended. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:36.500 The Apocrypha, which are the books written from the book of Malakai to the new Testament records about the silence from the prophets, that 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:38.990 God's prophetic word to the people. 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:44.560 And now you have Mark coming in to break the silence of God's pronouncement to the world. 00:08:45.540 --> 00:08:50.620 And he comes at an important point in history, as far as it relates to Jewish culture. 00:08:52.160 --> 00:08:58.560 When you study God's Word, it's important to understand exactly the context of the culture in which the text is written. 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:06.810 Because if we lack the understanding of why it was written in the century to the people that it was written to, then we run the risk of making improper 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:09.570 understanding and application to our lives today. 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:16.660 Before you can answer the question, what does a text mean to us today, you have to first answer the question what it meant to the original audience it was given too. 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:23.340 Because a text of scripture can not mean any more to us today than what it was intended to mean to the original audience that received it. 00:09:23.660 --> 00:09:28.610 If you add to that, then you'll pervert scripture and come up with a bad form of theology. 00:09:29.260 --> 00:09:36.480 And so it's important to get into the first century Jewish mentality during this time to understand what the context of scripture is saying to us, 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:38.740 so that we can make proper application to our lives. 00:09:39.260 --> 00:09:42.920 It's the understanding of the difference between the word isogesis and exegesis. 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:50.760 Isogesis is taking 21st century ideas and definitions of words and throwing it into the first century 00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:51.710 context. 00:09:52.260 --> 00:09:54.640 And you will end up with erroneous beliefs from that. 00:09:55.260 --> 00:10:01.980 Exegesis is first asking the question, how did the original audience understand this so that we can make the proper application to our lives? 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:09.840 And so I want you to know today, we like to make application here as a church, but in the beginning of this prologue, Mark does such a tremendous job 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:17.280 in just declaring who Jesus is, that I think it is more important for us to understand the significance of the statement theologically 00:10:17.300 --> 00:10:20.860 and how powerful it is before we make the application to our lives. 00:10:21.420 --> 00:10:25.600 So for the first few weeks, we're going to slow down, for the first two weeks, and look at the prologue. 00:10:26.260 --> 00:10:33.400 The first 15 verses of this book, and then we're going to slam on the gas and just carry on because Mark's showing us 00:10:33.400 --> 00:10:35.220 some significant statements about Jesus. 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.180 And when Mark gives this pronouncement, he's doing it to a culture that's becoming divided. 00:10:42.520 --> 00:10:49.740 Because Rome has conquered the known world, they're coming into the area of Jerusalem and they're placing Greek cultural influence on 00:10:49.740 --> 00:10:50.260 the people. 00:10:51.180 --> 00:10:53.980 And the Jewish people are responding in different ways to this. 00:10:53.980 --> 00:10:56.540 They really break up into three prominent groups. 00:10:57.100 --> 00:11:04.380 The first two are the larger groups, and the latter one is a smaller group, but these groups are leading the way in Jerusalem and 00:11:04.380 --> 00:11:05.340 among the Jewish people. 00:11:05.500 --> 00:11:06.280 The first is the Pharisees. 00:11:07.780 --> 00:11:14.900 The Pharisees, they see the influence of Greek culture coming in and they become more rigid and more legalistic in their practice. 00:11:14.920 --> 00:11:22.240 They hold to the law to such a degree that they're inventing laws on top of laws that burden the people and their religious 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.980 outlook becomes filled with such piety that it's not applicable to the common man. 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:30.240 It puts pressure on the people and it becomes a burden. 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.040 From the Pharisees, that tradition that grows zealots, like Peter who would fight. 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:37.290 They would lead revolts against Rome. 00:11:38.500 --> 00:11:41.480 On the other side of that spectrum, there were the liberals, the Sadducees. 00:11:42.100 --> 00:11:44.980 So you had the legalists and then you had the liberals, the Sadducees. 00:11:45.060 --> 00:11:48.580 The Sadducees were okay with Greek culture because it got them ahead in life. 00:11:49.300 --> 00:11:56.600 And so when Rome came in with their influence, they would use their authority and power to press the Greek culture and the Roman culture onto 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:57.100 the people. 00:11:58.140 --> 00:12:03.980 They had gotten so corrupt that God had elected a high priest to lead in the temple. 00:12:05.180 --> 00:12:08.760 But Rome took authority over that position and they started to sell it to the Sadducees. 00:12:09.060 --> 00:12:16.320 And the Sadducees would buy the position of high priest among the Jewish people so they have that place of prominence among 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:16.760 the people group. 00:12:18.040 --> 00:12:22.220 And the Essenes, the third people group, where the ones that just backed away from all of it. 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:25.980 They didn't like how things were going, so they actually went out into the desert. 00:12:26.060 --> 00:12:31.020 And they base it off a text of scripture, we're going to read a little bit, Isaiah 40:3. 00:12:31.020 --> 00:12:34.420 It declares that the Messiah, the Promised One, he's going to come from the desert. 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:36.330 And so the Essenes are like, forget this. 00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:39.480 We're going out into the middle of nowhere out in the desert where no one's going to touch us. 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:42.320 And we're just going to wait on the Messiah because that's where we know he's coming from. 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:50.160 Now, you're probably not not familiar with the term Essenes as much as Pharisees and Sadducees, if you've heard those terms, but you will be familiar with the Essenes 00:12:50.160 --> 00:12:51.780 because of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:55.540 The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by that culture of people. 00:12:56.060 --> 00:12:59.460 The ones that went out into the desert, hide in the caves, establish their own civilization. 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:01.020 They copied manuscripts of the Bible. 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:04.460 They memorize God's Word and they hit it and they preserved it and they kept it safe. 00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:07.080 And then the Essenes where those people groups. 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:14.180 In the 1940s into the early 50s there was a young shepherd boy traveling throughout the area of Israel who happened to come 00:13:14.380 --> 00:13:15.160 across the cave. 00:13:15.540 --> 00:13:18.120 He threw a rock into the cave, heard it break a pot. 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:24.480 He walked into that cave and found the dead sea scrolls there, which to date are the oldest manuscripts we have of the Bible. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:28.000 They predate Jesus coming to earth by almost 200 years. 00:13:29.060 --> 00:13:31.040 So that's an important people group. 00:13:31.040 --> 00:13:36.980 And that's the culture that Mark breaks into is the gospel being pronounced here. 00:13:37.020 --> 00:13:39.500 That God has been silent for 400 years. 00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:43.300 He now comes back to share it with God's people. 00:13:43.300 --> 00:13:50.520 This promise that he had given to us from Genesis 3, that the Lord would become flesh, God would become flesh and 00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:51.680 he would rescue us. 00:13:51.680 --> 00:13:52.460 He would save us. 00:13:52.520 --> 00:13:53.950 The Savior was coming. 00:13:54.020 --> 00:13:57.760 And so when Mark starts this off, you ask the question, "400 years, Mark? 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.840 400 years and God's people have been looking for this Messiah and nothing. 00:14:04.920 --> 00:14:05.980 How are you going to share this? 00:14:08.260 --> 00:14:14.340 What are you going to say?" When we read these first 11 verses. 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:19.900 In our context today, we could just pass by these words as if he's just sharing a story. 00:14:19.900 --> 00:14:26.940 But when Mark shares this to the culture of the first century, it was like dropping a spiritual 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:28.200 atomic bomb in their lives. 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:32.140 It was maybe in our culture today, the essence of the mic drop. 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:33.860 It was epic. 00:14:35.640 --> 00:14:41.330 And the way that it should've just dropped their jaws and what he's declaring over this was profound. 00:14:41.380 --> 00:14:48.380 And when you see it, not only are we going to talk about the genius of Jesus when you walk out today, you can be like, I'm kind of a genius on the first part 00:14:48.380 --> 00:14:49.600 of chapter one of Mark myself. 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:50.940 That's what I want. 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:54.320 I want you to see the beauty of God's word and the supremacy of Christ in this. 00:14:54.400 --> 00:14:55.550 And this is what Mark says. 00:14:55.720 --> 00:15:02.840 He says, Mark 1:1, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Now, I'm going to let you know 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:09.960 the name that God gives to this person in the gospel "Jesus Christ, the Son of God," we're going to talk about that phrase next week, 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:12.460 because it's important and there's a lot of misunderstanding with it. 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:17.380 But when we talk about Jesus and scripture, oftentimes we think of names. 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:20.020 But when the Bible talks about Him, they are really titles. 00:15:20.740 --> 00:15:22.260 They're titles to describe who He is. 00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:24.580 Jesus Christ is more of a title than it is a name. 00:15:25.700 --> 00:15:27.880 But it's describing the identity of who Jesus is. 00:15:27.880 --> 00:15:31.260 But before we get to that next week, this is what Mark says about it. 00:15:32.020 --> 00:15:36.800 It's the "gospel," the beginning of the good news. 00:15:37.140 --> 00:15:44.460 And Mark chooses this word "gospel" to declare what Jesus is about to do in the epilogue that he shares in the first 15 verses because 00:15:44.460 --> 00:15:46.040 "the gospel" is rich with meaning. 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:49.160 That phrase in this culture is rich with meaning. 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:53.260 The word "gospel," it's not about trying to convince you. 00:15:53.260 --> 00:15:57.200 It's not about just arguing with you and showing why he's right. 00:15:57.500 --> 00:15:59.090 The word gospel is actually a declaration. 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:02.280 It's a statement of sharing news. 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:03.580 They didn't have newspapers at the time. 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:10.680 So people run through the streets and they would literally be heralds of this pronouncement, this gospel, this news that needs to 00:16:10.680 --> 00:16:11.230 be shared. 00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:17.040 A common place that the gospel would often be shared in a culture was when a king would go to battle. 00:16:18.700 --> 00:16:23.960 When a King would go to battle, the people of that land would want to know, did our king win or did he lose? 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:29.020 Because if he wins, we reap the rewards of that and live in freedom. 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:34.740 But if he lost, we're in bondage to another kingdom now and we're slaves to them. 00:16:35.040 --> 00:16:37.240 And so when a king would go to battle, the people would know. 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:38.860 They'd sit on edge waiting for the news. 00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:39.720 The king is fighting. 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:46.350 And when the king would win the battle, he would send a herald, he would send an apostle, or a messenger. 00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:49.520 One to go forth to proclaim the news of victory. 00:16:50.540 --> 00:16:51.960 The king has won. 00:16:53.060 --> 00:17:00.630 And what it's saying in Mark 1:1, "The beginning of the gospel," Mark is saying this is a pronounced but the victory cry of God's people. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:02.760 The King has won. 00:17:03.560 --> 00:17:07.650 Jesus has gone into battle and He has arisen victoriously. 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:09.490 This isn't a convincing. 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:11.579 This is a statement of what is. 00:17:12.140 --> 00:17:13.660 The King has won. 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:21.280 And so Mark shares this statement with us to give us an idea of exactly how he wants to break the silence of 400 years over God's 00:17:21.280 --> 00:17:21.880 people. 00:17:22.819 --> 00:17:26.500 And then he does something important that Jews would practice in this culture. 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:29.180 It's called keshers. 00:17:29.900 --> 00:17:33.920 The Jewish rabbis would teach in the form of what they called keshers or the stringing of pearls. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:35.760 And let me just show you this picture. 00:17:37.320 --> 00:17:45.540 When Mark gives his next statement in verse two, he gives a statement from three passages of the Bible called 00:17:45.540 --> 00:17:48.080 keshers or the stringing of pearls. 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:55.360 And what they would do is would take an Old Testament reference and they would allude to it to teach us how 00:17:55.360 --> 00:17:58.000 this thought develops throughout scripture. 00:17:59.220 --> 00:18:06.320 You know in your Bible today, you've got chapter 00:18:06.320 --> 00:18:13.380 divisions and verse references, and I can tell you this morning, "Turn to Mark 1," and just like a street address, you turn right there and you know 00:18:13.380 --> 00:18:13.920 where it's at. 00:18:15.580 --> 00:18:18.000 During Jesus' day, they didn't have chapter divisions. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:19.240 They didn't come to the 12th century. 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:22.180 Verse divisions didn't come until the 1500's. 00:18:23.300 --> 00:18:28.320 And so when you want it to make a reference to a passage of scripture, you would quote that section of scripture. 00:18:28.760 --> 00:18:32.760 And in the Jewish mind they were so familiar with God's Word, they memorized it. 00:18:33.560 --> 00:18:38.020 And so as soon as a rabbi would reference a point of scripture, they knew the background to the story. 00:18:38.040 --> 00:18:39.580 They knew exactly what he was saying. 00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:44.540 It would bring imagery to their mind, to the context of what the author was referring to. 00:18:45.580 --> 00:18:51.640 So these passages that Mark's just quoting from the Old Testament, he's not going all willy nilly and just saying, here's this and this and this verse. 00:18:52.380 --> 00:18:59.420 He's describing this to the Jewish people in such a way that when they would see this context of this passage, they would reference in their mind back to 00:18:59.420 --> 00:19:02.100 the story that was rich with history for the Jewish people. 00:19:03.340 --> 00:19:07.320 Because from this he's going to build on the teaching of the significance of who Christ is. 00:19:08.060 --> 00:19:14.400 He's showing us how all of the Bible ties together in the supremacy of Christ and the beauty of God's Word. 00:19:15.580 --> 00:19:22.080 And so he's going back to these passages of scripture for a very specific intentional reason. 00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:29.260 If you look in your New Testament, when you see Old Testament quotes alluded to, you often see they're in there in 00:19:29.260 --> 00:19:36.500 brackets or they're italicize or indented or something to get you to recognize there is a reason the author is going back to this particular 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:37.960 place in scripture. 00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:43.120 And so the Jews would develop these keshers, these ways of alluding to passages of scripture. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:47.680 Because the Jewish mentalit,y during this time, was one of learning and studying God's Word. 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:55.780 In fact, at the age of five about the time kids learn to read, they would start to study the traditions of the rabbis and Torah and memorizing large chunks of 00:19:55.780 --> 00:19:56.160 the Bible. 00:19:57.060 --> 00:20:01.780 By the time you were 13 you would have this celebration that was called, we know today is bar mitzvahs. 00:20:03.020 --> 00:20:05.060 Bar mitzvahs are ancient tradition of practice. 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:12.980 The word "bar" means "son of." And "mitzvah" means "the commands." And by the age of 13 it was expected that the young 00:20:12.980 --> 00:20:15.800 Jewish people would know God's Word. 00:20:16.860 --> 00:20:23.900 And so what they were taught and a teacher would reference these keshers and would string these beautiful pearls of further elaborating what God 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:27.920 wanted him to know and understand within the context of his word. 00:20:30.560 --> 00:20:34.200 Important to the Jewish people was the ancient texts. 00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:41.640 Now, Greek culture at the time, they would be considered information junkies. 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:45.740 I think our culture is a lot like Greek culture. 00:20:45.820 --> 00:20:49.060 We don't necessarily memorize things, but by God we got Google. 00:20:49.620 --> 00:20:51.830 And we use get information overload. 00:20:52.560 --> 00:20:53.740 And Greek culture was a lot like that. 00:20:54.320 --> 00:20:55.120 It was all about information. 00:20:55.740 --> 00:20:57.870 Not so much application, but the information. 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:00.840 The more knowledge you had, the more superior you were. 00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:08.440 And so they would pursue this information and you see in Acts 17 when Paul goes to Mars Hill, he argues 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:15.700 philosophy at Mars Hill, because there was this location where all the philosophers would get together and wax eloquently how brilliant they 00:21:15.700 --> 00:21:16.060 were. 00:21:16.780 --> 00:21:18.540 Not necessarily application but information. 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:25.400 But to the Jews, while they wouldn't be against learning, what was significant to them was the ancient. 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:30.940 They would go back to the pillars of who we are. 00:21:32.280 --> 00:21:34.250 The foundation of God's Word. 00:21:34.860 --> 00:21:36.020 That's where they built from. 00:21:37.120 --> 00:21:41.450 And so to remember the ancient was significant to them. 00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:45.480 To hold to and cherish the content of what God was saying. 00:21:46.560 --> 00:21:53.740 Because it was from the ancient that the teachers would build the foundation and string these with pearls, these keshers and showing them how this 00:21:53.740 --> 00:21:55.060 was significant to life. 00:21:56.440 --> 00:22:03.520 In our culture today we have phrases that when we say them, we know what we're alluding to and then can elaborate a little further 00:22:03.520 --> 00:22:04.020 upon. 00:22:04.020 --> 00:22:04.840 Let me, let me give you a few examples. 00:22:05.280 --> 00:22:12.580 Like if you heard today, "Best bang for your buck." And 00:22:12.600 --> 00:22:17.300 then you could talk about getting a deal, like I got a great deal on a mattress last week. 00:22:17.800 --> 00:22:19.840 Best bang for your buck. 00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:24.320 Or you talk about money, but you understand how you connect something and then create a thought off of that. 00:22:24.340 --> 00:22:25.750 Or how about this? 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:33.220 Let me tell you about, "The birds and the bees." You know what that means. 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:35.140 Or how about this? 00:22:35.760 --> 00:22:44.080 "Good riddance to bad company." "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." That 00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:49.420 is the description of the new England Patriots. 00:22:54.490 --> 00:22:56.280 I'm hungry for football season. 00:22:58.170 --> 00:23:02.240 But there's a way that we, in our culture, we can allude to things to build on things. 00:23:03.080 --> 00:23:07.680 And the Jewish mind, they would allude to things to build on the idea. 00:23:09.080 --> 00:23:13.620 And more than ever, I think the Jews are just reminded of how much they need the Messiah. 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:16.470 They need the Prince of Peace. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:20.860 They need the one who is to come to establish his kingdom. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:28.810 The Bible tells us in Genesis, Adam and Eve sin and peace is gone. 00:23:30.660 --> 00:23:35.820 And from Genesis 3, the restoration of Shalom, peace on earth. 00:23:36.840 --> 00:23:38.470 Our soul craves for it. 00:23:40.900 --> 00:23:48.060 At the end of the book of Revelation, the Bible tells us, God says he's with his people and there'll be no more pain, no more sorrow, no 00:23:48.060 --> 00:23:48.420 more suffering. 00:23:50.180 --> 00:23:50.920 That's done away with. 00:23:51.760 --> 00:23:55.080 In the middle of that story, as it's unfolding, we had peace. 00:23:55.280 --> 00:23:56.560 Sin came, we lose peace. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.120 God's restoring peace. 00:23:58.360 --> 00:24:02.880 In the middle of that, in Isaiah, the Bible tells us that when the Messiah comes, he is the Prince of Peace. 00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:13.120 I think the Jewish culture with the warring and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essenes and even just the general person in 00:24:13.120 --> 00:24:13.840 life. 00:24:13.860 --> 00:24:17.760 When you see death and how valuable life is, but how short it can be. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:21.040 There's peace. 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:24.880 And Mark gives this pronouncement. 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:34.630 He says, "I'm sharing the gospel." The good news of victory because the King has come and he's been victorious. 00:24:34.900 --> 00:24:40.360 And then he alludes back, it says to Isaiah the prophet, he actually alludes to three passages here, but Isaiah is the most prominent. 00:24:40.820 --> 00:24:41.310 It's at the bottom. 00:24:41.500 --> 00:24:49.020 But he says, "As it was written," in Isaiah the prophet, "behold, I send my messenger ahead of you." This 00:24:49.020 --> 00:24:51.360 thought, this kesher, he already shares this. 00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:55.940 It would just pop in the imagination in the Jewish people. 00:24:55.940 --> 00:24:59.260 That he's alluding back to Exodus 23:20. 00:25:01.260 --> 00:25:05.200 In Exodus 23, the book of Exodus is the book of exiting. 00:25:06.280 --> 00:25:10.880 The people of Israel called out by God as slaves under Egypt, under the Pharaoh. 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:13.440 Being set free. 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:15.960 They make this journey to Mount Sinai. 00:25:16.120 --> 00:25:17.130 And they don't have an identity. 00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:17.720 They were slaves. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:20.650 And God's calling them into the land of Canaan. 00:25:21.620 --> 00:25:22.600 That's inhabited by people. 00:25:23.560 --> 00:25:26.080 And they're looking at this thinking, how could God call this the promised land? 00:25:26.080 --> 00:25:26.670 We're going to be crushed. 00:25:29.380 --> 00:25:30.440 And then God gives them this promise. 00:25:32.080 --> 00:25:33.680 Behold I'm going to send an angel before you. 00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:36.330 He's the one that prepared the way. 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:38.980 He'll make sure that you're victorious. 00:25:40.840 --> 00:25:46.720 Now it's important to know in these two passages that the same word that we use for angel's is also the same exact word from messenger. 00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:49.500 So you can substitute those words interchangeably. 00:25:52.140 --> 00:25:59.580 But what Mark does, is he's the saying to Israel, "Do you remember how Jesus set you free, slaves? 00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:05.580 How Jesus called you to something new in him and a new identity in him? 00:26:08.180 --> 00:26:10.460 Now God's calling you to something new in him again. 00:26:13.160 --> 00:26:20.200 And from the ancient, I'm reminding you of this text because this is the Gospel of him who has come." And then he says this, "Who will 00:26:20.200 --> 00:26:25.370 prepare your way?" Now this is interesting because this quote comes from the book of Malachi. 00:26:26.260 --> 00:26:29.060 Malachi is the last book written in the Old Testament. 00:26:30.040 --> 00:26:37.060 And when the last two chapters are recorded in Malachi, one of the things that God tells us is that there will be a forerunner who would come the Herald 00:26:37.060 --> 00:26:42.540 or the apostle, the one that goes forth to pronounce the arrival of this victorious King. 00:26:44.100 --> 00:26:45.100 That's John the Baptist. 00:26:46.500 --> 00:26:51.240 And so when you read Malachi, it says the same thing that Exodus 23:20 says. 00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:53.360 "Behold, I'm going to send my messenger. 00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:59.930 And what God's doing in the book of Malachi, when he ends the Old Testament and he goes silent for 400 years. 00:27:00.860 --> 00:27:07.480 He's saying to us, I want you to think about Exodus chapter 23, when I brought you out of slavery to make you my people. 00:27:08.840 --> 00:27:16.580 Because when I come again and the forerunner comes before me to pronounce my arrival, it's going to be that same freedom, only 00:27:16.580 --> 00:27:17.000 greater. 00:27:18.700 --> 00:27:24.120 Israel's escape from slavery was just a picture of what God wants to do for all of his people. 00:27:25.740 --> 00:27:28.640 And in Malakai 3:1, he says the same thing. 00:27:28.840 --> 00:27:35.100 It's a kesher from Exodus 23:20 to Malachi 3:1 to Mark 1:2. 00:27:36.560 --> 00:27:38.990 "Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you. 00:27:39.560 --> 00:27:46.580 And he will clear the way before me." And then it says this in verse three, "The voice of one crying in the 00:27:46.580 --> 00:27:47.030 wilderness. 00:27:47.260 --> 00:27:48.480 Make ready the way of the Lord. 00:27:48.820 --> 00:27:54.720 Make his path straight." This passage comes from Isaiah 40:3. 00:27:55.620 --> 00:27:57.660 This was the theme verse for the Essenes. 00:27:58.280 --> 00:28:00.460 It's the reason they went into the wilderness. 00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:04.300 It's why some people believe that John the Baptist may have been in an Essenes himself. 00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:06.390 He lived a very simplistic life. 00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:13.360 And the beautiful camel hair that he wore and the delicious bugs that he ate living that lifestyle. 00:28:13.360 --> 00:28:14.820 It was a poor man's outfit. 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:20.260 In fact, in the book of 1 Kings 1:18, Elijah wore the same thing. 00:28:20.320 --> 00:28:24.920 That's why the Bible compares John the Baptist to Elijah as being that forerunner. 00:28:26.500 --> 00:28:33.000 But it says from the wilderness, this pronouncement would be made, this desert, the wilderness is the desert in Israel. 00:28:33.360 --> 00:28:34.540 He would say this to everyone. 00:28:34.620 --> 00:28:37.020 Make ready the way of the Lord and make his path straight. 00:28:38.540 --> 00:28:43.260 This statement was the pronouncement that you would give when a dignitary, a king would arrive into an area. 00:28:44.040 --> 00:28:47.600 The people of the village would want the king to have a smooth entry into the town. 00:28:47.740 --> 00:28:49.730 And so they would go through and they would fill the potholes. 00:28:49.860 --> 00:28:56.390 They would make the ground level, they would prepare it for his arrival, for the pronouncement, the goodness of this king and for him to be with his people. 00:28:56.460 --> 00:28:58.640 They wanted his journey to be good. 00:29:00.300 --> 00:29:07.160 And so what it's saying in the book of Mark 1:2 is that this one is coming ahead of you. 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:09.540 Just like you are set free as slaves. 00:29:09.540 --> 00:29:12.800 And so he's preparing the way and he's making his path straight. 00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:14.300 And then Mark goes on. 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:19.230 "Now all the country of Judea was going out to him. 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:21.960 And all the people of Jerusalem. 00:29:23.740 --> 00:29:30.880 And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan river confessing their sins." And this is what John said, "I 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:38.300 baptize you with water," but talking about Jesus, "he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." That's 00:29:38.300 --> 00:29:40.180 an important phrase to recognize in John. 00:29:41.560 --> 00:29:44.300 Because the Bible tells us Old Testament, New Testament. 00:29:44.360 --> 00:29:45.760 Or old covenant, new covenant. 00:29:46.080 --> 00:29:50.300 Jeremiah 31:31 Ezekiel 36:26. 00:29:50.300 --> 00:29:53.040 It's a promise of the new covenant. 00:29:54.580 --> 00:30:01.800 That God would free us from the curse of sin, the curse of the law, and would establish a new covenant for us by becoming a curse for us, 00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:04.400 by dying for our sins, that we could be set free in him. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:12.960 And so he's saying he will baptize us with the Spirit because the promise in Jeremiah 31:31 that when Jesus atones for our sin, that the Spirit of God, if 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:17.120 we trust in him by faith for that payment, the Spirit of God would indwell His people. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:23.200 And when John does this, he does this next to the Jordan river, which was no mistake. 00:30:24.580 --> 00:30:31.800 Because to the people of Israel, the Jordan had plenty of imagery and communicated to them newness 00:30:31.800 --> 00:30:32.640 of life. 00:30:34.380 --> 00:30:39.240 This is where Moses led the people of Israel when they escaped out of the bondage of Egypt. 00:30:40.560 --> 00:30:44.800 This was the place where Moses gave his final discourse to the people of Israel before he died. 00:30:46.320 --> 00:30:50.760 This was the same river that God parted so Joshua could walk with the people across the Jordan. 00:30:50.760 --> 00:30:57.820 And he established on the other side of the river a monument, recognizing how God led his people out of slavery into the freedom of the promised 00:30:57.820 --> 00:30:58.160 land. 00:30:59.120 --> 00:31:03.200 This was the place where Elijah did ministry, where he was caught up in a chariot of fire. 00:31:05.740 --> 00:31:12.760 And so what John the Baptist is doing in this passage of scripture, is creating within our mind 00:31:12.760 --> 00:31:18.460 this idea of newness of which this Messiah would do and bringing the new covenant for us. 00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:21.920 John was baptizing. 00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:27.880 Now, this baptizing John was doing is different than the baptism that we practice today. 00:31:28.620 --> 00:31:32.190 Because our baptism has everything to do with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. 00:31:32.460 --> 00:31:34.140 And Jesus hadn't died and been resurrected yet. 00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:41.280 But when John the Baptist is calling people to repentance and baptizing, he's calling them to a newness in life. 00:31:41.580 --> 00:31:48.680 To leave the legalistic practices and the sinfulness that's walking away from God and turn to what's going to be what Jesus says is new 00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:49.420 wine skin. 00:31:51.620 --> 00:31:52.910 To prepare the way for the King. 00:31:54.440 --> 00:32:01.700 The Essenes had a practice during the time that if anyone wanted to become a Jew practicing the way of the Essenes, they would have to go into the water and self 00:32:01.700 --> 00:32:02.150 baptize. 00:32:03.660 --> 00:32:08.260 The Gentile would walk into that water and they would baptize themselves three times and would submerge themselves under the water. 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:12.860 John the Baptist is practicing a similar baptism. 00:32:12.860 --> 00:32:19.380 I don't think it's exactly like the Essenes, but he's still calling them to something new because Jesus is bringing something new to this world through the new covenant. 00:32:22.900 --> 00:32:27.720 And then John tells us the significance of who Christ is. 00:32:30.660 --> 00:32:38.240 It said, "And he was preaching and saying, 'After me, one is coming who 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:39.220 is mightier I. 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:47.700 And I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of the sandals.''" What John is doing 00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:53.260 here and what Mark is doing by sharing John's pronouncement is he's elevating the significance of Christ. 00:32:55.260 --> 00:33:03.140 Because in John's culture and Mark's culture, the job of untying a shoe and 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:09.080 washing someone's feet belonged to the lowest slave in a household. 00:33:10.660 --> 00:33:17.840 So if a home had servants or slaves, whatever one was considered the low man on the totem pole, he was the one that had to deal with the feet and he's the one that had to untie 00:33:17.840 --> 00:33:20.200 the shoe and he's the one that had to wash the feet of the guests. 00:33:22.840 --> 00:33:31.840 And what Mark is saying is, out of the lowest position I can conceive of in my society, I'm 00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:34.640 still lower in light of who Christ is. 00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:45.040 What Mark's doing in this gospel for us is he's taking Exodus 23 all the way to the book of Malachi 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:46.750 and the book of Isaiah. 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:50.400 Literally the book of the laws and the book of the prophets. 00:33:52.020 --> 00:33:58.940 And he's showing us how all of scripture comes together in this significance and supremacy of who Christ is. 00:34:02.140 --> 00:34:09.440 And then as if to drive home the point he records for us, Jesus' 00:34:09.540 --> 00:34:10.290 baptism. 00:34:11.980 --> 00:34:14.360 I don't think Jesus is baptized because he's sinful. 00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:21.500 He couldn't atone for the sin of his people if he had sin in his own life, because the sacrifice of lamb had to be without 00:34:21.500 --> 00:34:22.699 spot or blemish. 00:34:23.719 --> 00:34:26.190 But Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptized, I think for several reasons. 00:34:26.239 --> 00:34:31.060 I'm going to elaborate a little bit more on next week, but he's identifying with John the Baptist's ministry. 00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:33.790 And he's being anointed for his own ministry. 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:42.760 And it says in this story that in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan immediately 00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:50.340 coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and 00:34:50.340 --> 00:34:51.889 a voice came out of the heavens. 00:34:51.980 --> 00:34:54.080 And this is what the father speaks about. 00:34:54.139 --> 00:34:56.520 Jesus, you are my beloved son in you. 00:34:56.520 --> 00:34:59.740 I am well pleased when a rabbi would start. 00:34:59.780 --> 00:35:06.920 His ministry typically happened at the age of 30 and he had to start his ministry by the affirmation of other leaders within Israel. 00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:11.980 Two to three witnesses had to declare that this person was ready and Jesus had his baptism. 00:35:12.540 --> 00:35:14.380 Why he's anointed for his ministry work. 00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:21.120 Here in this passage of scripture, he gets two or three witnesses to declare the authority of who he is and they're the greatest witnesses you could ever have. 00:35:21.740 --> 00:35:24.320 God the father in the spirit affirming Jesus. 00:35:25.560 --> 00:35:32.540 Now I'm not going to dive completely into the Trinity here, but I'm gonna give you a little taste of it because in this passage you see the Trinity at work. 00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:40.480 You see this happening multiple times in the Bible and one of the only reasons I want to point this out is because there's culturally a lot of confusion where we are over 00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:41.860 the idea of the Trinity. 00:35:42.300 --> 00:35:49.360 Because this is a common question I get asked if anyone brings up the Trinity: how is it Jesus is getting baptized but then the Father 00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:50.410 is talking? 00:35:51.340 --> 00:35:55.180 Is He a ventriloquist like trying to trick people, like he's down here, but the Fathers talking? 00:35:55.180 --> 00:35:57.080 And they can't figure out how that works. 00:35:57.220 --> 00:36:03.480 Well, if Christianity believed that Jesus and the Father were the same thing, we would all be guilty of heresy. 00:36:04.060 --> 00:36:05.640 Okay, that's heretical. 00:36:05.660 --> 00:36:08.520 It's been condemned in church history for centuries. 00:36:08.680 --> 00:36:12.900 We don't believe that Jesus and the father are the same person or the Spirit. 00:36:13.300 --> 00:36:14.520 We believe they're all distinct. 00:36:14.940 --> 00:36:17.610 And the place that you see that happening is here in scripture. 00:36:18.160 --> 00:36:20.000 So we talk about the Trinity, this is what we do. 00:36:20.040 --> 00:36:21.400 We just affirm what the Bible says. 00:36:21.720 --> 00:36:24.100 The Bible says there is only one God period. 00:36:24.100 --> 00:36:25.200 It's monotheistic. 00:36:25.200 --> 00:36:25.970 The end of story. 00:36:26.220 --> 00:36:28.320 There are multiple passages of scripture that say that. 00:36:28.540 --> 00:36:32.260 Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 44:6-8, Deuteronomy 6:4. 00:36:32.280 --> 00:36:33.940 There is only one God. 00:36:35.300 --> 00:36:37.400 All three persons are called God in scripture. 00:36:38.560 --> 00:36:39.700 Jesus is called God. 00:36:39.740 --> 00:36:40.900 The Spirit is called God. 00:36:40.900 --> 00:36:42.060 The Father is called God. 00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:46.500 And all of them carry the characteristics that make them equal as God in authority and position. 00:36:46.640 --> 00:36:48.580 So they are equal to one another. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:50.860 That's all we say. 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:51.900 That's what the Trinity is. 00:36:51.980 --> 00:36:56.580 When you read the Bible, it says there's one God, it calls all three God and it says all three are equal. 00:36:57.780 --> 00:36:58.120 That's it. 00:36:59.300 --> 00:37:03.180 And when you look at the story with Jesus, you can see how Jesus is distinct from the Father. 00:37:03.180 --> 00:37:04.440 They are not the same person. 00:37:04.980 --> 00:37:06.920 They're one being in three persons. 00:37:06.940 --> 00:37:11.050 That's why we call it a "tri-unity." It's a great word. 00:37:11.620 --> 00:37:13.220 Because it describes exactly what it is. 00:37:13.940 --> 00:37:15.730 The Father, Son, and Spirit equal. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.300 But yet distinct as one God. 00:37:20.660 --> 00:37:24.020 And so you see the tri-unity of God here at the baptism of Jesus. 00:37:24.320 --> 00:37:27.000 And then it says this is an important part of the passage. 00:37:27.020 --> 00:37:29.290 A voice came out of the heavens. 00:37:29.440 --> 00:37:36.020 "You are my beloved son and in you I am well-pleased." Again, in case the point wasn't driven home. 00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:38.500 Mark alludes to keshers. 00:37:40.060 --> 00:37:47.120 A tying of the Old Testament, the string of pearls to elaborate on exactly who Jesus is, to see how scripture comes together. 00:37:48.200 --> 00:37:55.200 And in this passage he references Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 42:1, and in the 00:37:55.200 --> 00:37:58.260 Jewish mind, this would just explode with imagery. 00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:03.600 Psalm 2 was a Messianic kingship song. 00:38:04.720 --> 00:38:09.740 When Israel would anoint a new King, they would sing Psalm 2 over that king. 00:38:10.780 --> 00:38:17.920 But Israel knew as they would sing that song that psalm was also talking more deeply than just the king, because the 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:23.040 individual described there possess more power than any earthly king could possess. 00:38:23.040 --> 00:38:27.220 And so while they called it a kingship psalm, they also saw it as a Messianic psalm. 00:38:28.660 --> 00:38:33.960 And so when Psalm 2 is quoted at Jesus's baptism, they're declaring his kingship. 00:38:34.020 --> 00:38:41.500 But not only that, in Isaiah 42-53 this is referred to in the Jewish mind as the "Suffering Servant" 00:38:41.500 --> 00:38:42.360 section of scripture. 00:38:43.220 --> 00:38:49.170 You might even be familiar with Isaiah 53 which describes Jesus' death in detail on the cross. 00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:56.380 The Jews, when they read Isaiah 42 to Isaiah 53 they couldn't conceive how a Messiah would give his life. 00:38:57.060 --> 00:39:01.670 And so some Jews even started to interject some ideas here where they thought there must be two Messiah's. 00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:05.940 Because one, he could be a king and the other one he could be the servant that dies. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:09.550 But we can't conceive how the King would also be a suffering servant. 00:39:09.560 --> 00:39:12.800 And so they would teach about two Messiahs when they come to this passage of scripture. 00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:22.120 But what the father declares at Jesus' baptism is 00:39:22.160 --> 00:39:28.760 that the King has come to suffer for you and for me. 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:36.980 Mark in just these verses tied together the history of God's people. 00:39:39.060 --> 00:39:46.420 From Genesis 3, from the time we lost peace with God to 00:39:46.420 --> 00:39:54.180 now the arrival of the King, he is declaring this victory in 00:39:54.180 --> 00:39:54.740 our lives. 00:39:56.620 --> 00:40:00.790 So that we could see the significance of who Jesus is. 00:40:02.660 --> 00:40:09.860 And so just like the Jews in alluding to these keshers, if you just let your mind be captivated with 00:40:09.860 --> 00:40:17.320 what Mark is building on in our lives, you see the supremacy of Christ and the beauty of scripture leaving us to ask the question. 00:40:18.140 --> 00:40:25.440 Out of all religions in the world and of all of the teachings of religious teachers and the philosophies that exist, what book 00:40:25.980 --> 00:40:33.320 could even think about taking thousands of years of history and tying it all together like this and prophetically revealing itself in 00:40:33.320 --> 00:40:35.500 such detail like God's word can do? 00:40:36.720 --> 00:40:37.240 Nothing! 00:40:38.360 --> 00:40:39.020 Nothing. 00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:46.390 And when you look at these first 11 verses, how rich this text becomes, it's more than just saying a story. 00:40:47.560 --> 00:40:49.960 These keshers give such imagery to our lives. 00:40:50.240 --> 00:40:59.400 That what Mark is saying to us as people is that there was a time when you were a slave, but 00:40:59.460 --> 00:41:00.220 the King has won. 00:41:02.200 --> 00:41:04.620 The gospel has been declared. 00:41:05.900 --> 00:41:07.900 And the victory has come. 00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:14.360 And just as the prophets had said, the forerunner would come with the pronouncement of who he is. 00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:18.180 And he acknowledges before us how unworthy he is for his presence. 00:41:18.420 --> 00:41:28.140 But in that unworthiness, we're acknowledging from the King himself, that he would suffer for you 00:41:28.140 --> 00:41:30.540 and for me. 00:41:32.700 --> 00:41:37.560 Mark is screaming in these verses, do not miss this. 00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:46.040 It is incredible how the Bible just ties itself together over thousands of years and you see 00:41:46.040 --> 00:41:49.220 the supremacy of Christ in all of it. 00:41:52.140 --> 00:41:57.780 I know usually we get to the end of these things and we can just tie some great emotional story and all of it. 00:41:57.780 --> 00:41:59.700 But this is really what I want for us. 00:42:01.020 --> 00:42:05.180 I want our jaws to drop at the beauty of God's Word. 00:42:05.680 --> 00:42:10.120 Just how much you can glean from just a few verses of scripture. 00:42:11.340 --> 00:42:15.260 How you can plunge the depth of His Word. 00:42:15.380 --> 00:42:21.480 And I can tell you today and tomorrow when I go through these 11 verses with us, I'm still cutting out so much. 00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:24.390 We could spend all summer on these 11 verses. 00:42:24.520 --> 00:42:29.920 There is so much the understanding of this passage, but I don't want to do that because I know that not everybody gets joy out that. 00:42:30.120 --> 00:42:32.360 But I just want you to see the depth of what God's Word is. 00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:34.620 Because one day I'm going to lose my voice. 00:42:36.920 --> 00:42:37.860 One day, God may call me home. 00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:46.020 Or whoever stands behind this pulpit, the power of God's Word, rest in your hands. 00:42:47.660 --> 00:42:51.120 And wherever you are, you can plunge the depth of it and see the beauty of who God is. 00:42:53.120 --> 00:42:54.380 Because we need his peace. 00:42:56.700 --> 00:42:58.740 And this summer we need Jesus. 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:03.940 Just to use the freedom of whatever your summer is to draw near to Him. 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:05.920 Let me close with this story. 00:43:08.200 --> 00:43:15.200 Just like first century Jews, are looking for the Messiah, they missed him 00:43:15.200 --> 00:43:18.480 because they had some preconceived ideas of him. 00:43:20.370 --> 00:43:21.750 But they wanted the Messiah. 00:43:25.100 --> 00:43:27.060 I think today we still need the Messiah. 00:43:29.740 --> 00:43:30.280 You need his peace. 00:43:32.860 --> 00:43:35.560 We need to experience who he is in our lives. 00:43:37.780 --> 00:43:44.980 There's a story told right after the second World War where Billy Graham traveled to Germany and he's sitting there with 00:43:44.980 --> 00:43:47.180 the chancellor Konrad Adenauer. 00:43:47.900 --> 00:43:50.100 The one who's supposed to lead Germany after the war. 00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:58.580 And the story goes that Konrad Adenauer turns to Billy Graham and he asked him, do you really believe what you teach about Jesus? 00:44:00.220 --> 00:44:04.800 And Konrad Adenauer received the answer that Billy Graham should've told him, which is, yes, absolutely. 00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:11.920 I've spent my life telling people about Jesus, and then it says he turns from Billy Graham and he surveys the land of Germany that 00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:13.320 just lays desolate from war. 00:44:15.720 --> 00:44:21.750 And he says, apart from Jesus Christ, I know of no other hope for mankind. 00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:25.580 The Bible says this about Jesus. 00:44:26.120 --> 00:44:27.340 He is the way, the truth, and the life. 00:44:29.040 --> 00:44:31.780 There is no other way to the Father through him. 00:44:33.480 --> 00:44:37.960 The significance of who Christ is, the supremacy and purity of Jesus. 00:44:38.120 --> 00:44:45.220 I think the reason Christians might get bent out of shape when someone tries to transform the identity of Jesus, apart from what scripture says, has everything to do 00:44:45.220 --> 00:44:47.160 with the significance of who he is. 00:44:47.680 --> 00:44:49.620 And how important it is for us. 00:44:51.180 --> 00:44:58.340 This summer, just to dive into the depths of God's word and just say, Jesus, show yourself to me in 00:44:58.340 --> 00:44:58.930 these pages.