Anticipated

Today as we start a new year, we are starting a new series. In 2023, we will be walking through Mark and then Genesis. As we work our way through the Gospel of Mark, we will continually be bringing Mark’s theme to the surface: Who Is Jesus?anti

Mark puts on display the words of Jesus, the words of others about Jesus, Jesus’ actions, and people’s interactions with those actions. Mark is not a junior high history book or an exhaustive timeline. It is not focused on building content for Jesus trivia, nor is it some kind of diary hidden in a nightstand drawer. Mark is a process. We are meant to personally process who Jesus is and how that changes everything for us.

As usual, as we start a new series, I want to encourage us to go beyond just getting some facts and figures. Our goal is not just to get us to remember some Jesus information. Remembering, understanding, and applying are great, but they can be just done to you or told to you or said in front of you. They don’t necessarily leave an impact. Instead, the goal is to nudge us to the highest levels of learning: analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These things require each of us to jump into the learning game. They can not be done to you. So our goal in processing is to be life-transformational.

The Gospels were written to be processed and worked, not just to be text for speed reading. So over the next months, we will be dialoguing, processing, working on Mark’s purpose: Who is Jesus?

To start off this series, I am going to ask you to pull out your phones. It’s time to do a little google research.

Google search: Who is Jesus?

If you didn’t know anything about Jesus, what would stand out to you as you looked at the results? If you had unwavering belief in Jesus, what would stand out to you as you looked at the results? If you doubted Jesus' existence, what would stand out to you as you looked at the results? What stands out to you as you look at these results?

Mark’s first words are not about a baby in a manger. There are no wise men or shepherds, no baby, no sheep, no Bethlehem, no inn with no room. Instead, we fast forward to John the Baptist, a person preparing the way. Mark quotes words from Malachi:

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 3:1)

And from Isaiah:

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

The perspective at this time in history is that God has been silent. Between the Old Testament's last words and the New Testament's first words, there are 400 years of silence where God didn't say anything to Israel. The last words of the Old Testament in Malachi 4 ends this way:

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

400 hundred years later–it feels like forever–there is silence.

And here we are in the first words of Mark, and it appears that a Prophet has appeared. (In a general sense, a prophet is a person who speaks God’s truth to others.) And the crowds formed, checking out this strange guy in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem.

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The 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. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. (Mark 1:4-6)

The people in masses came out to the wilderness along the Jordan River and confessed their sins. John baptized them–a ceremonial cleansing. But John didn’t set himself up as a leader.

And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8)

“After me, the Messiah is coming. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Fast forwarding to the promised Holy Spirit, Jesus in John 14 comforted His disciples and said:

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:15-17a)

So, there is a guy out in the wilderness who is reminiscent of the prophets of ancient history. People are flocking to him and repenting of their sins. He declares that he is not “the one” but one is coming that is far, far greater, one who will immerse you in the Holy Spirit.

What nudges a person to a place of confessing sin / repentance?

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9-11)

Let’s stop and process the idea of water in the Bible for a moment. This will not be exhaustive, but I hope it nudges further study and helps us process right now. I am going to run through some rapid-fire water references and then I am going to ask us to process.

In Genesis 1, God hovered over the waters:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

Turn a couple pages from creation and the people radically drifted from God and evil filled the earth. God did a reset with a flood but provided a re-creation through Noah in an ark:

“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” (Genesis 6:17-18)

The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. God heard their cry and He empowered Moses. After the plagues, they escaped Egypt, but the Pharaoh had a turn of heart and chased them down so they were pinned between Pharaoh’s army and the water:

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.” (Exodus 14:10-16)

After wandering in the wilderness for a generation, Moses died and God allowed the Isrealites to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land:

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground. (Joshua 3:14-17)

Jonah, a reluctant prophet, ran from the call of God to preach to the people of Nineveh. He went the opposite direction of God’s call and was on a boat where everyone was about to die in a terrible storm. Jonah told them to throw him overboard because it was all his fault. And eventually they did. And in the water, swallowed by a fish, Jonah repented:

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.” (Jonah 2:1-3)

Hear the words from Isaiah:

But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:1-2)

The picture is there in Scriptures of water being an obstacle or a judgment or even death. But we also see water as the source of life:

The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” (Ezekiel 47:1-6)

The water is life, flowing from God, getting deeper and deeper and more and more impactful.

Let’s keep building this. Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples thought they were going to die in the boat (Mark 4). Jesus walked on the water and called Peter out of the boat (Matthew 14). After Jesus’ death, the disciples were back on the water, fishing, when the resurrected Jesus called out to them from the shore and Peter lept into the water to get to Him (John 21).

Water is a powerful symbol. It is an obstacle. It is dangerous. It is death. And also, it is life. It is from God. It is providential and essential. And God has control over it. He controls it, He overcomes it, He uses it, He gives it.

What insights do we get about God as we start to process the symbol of water?

In the text, Jesus is baptized by John:

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9-11)

Baptism is a ceremonial cleansing, a picture of being plunged into death but then being pulled back into new life. Paul processes the rescue we can receive through Jesus:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:1-4)

Mark is walking us in the process of understanding who Jesus is.

How does the picture of being plunged into death and pulled out to new life build perspective of who Jesus is?

In summary: John bursts onto the scene. He is baptizing people in the wilderness. People are confessing their sins. John says there is a greater one coming. Everything is about to change. John baptized with water; He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Water is this powerful symbol in scripture. It’s an obstacle and death, but it is also life and provision. Baptism is a picture of new life.

We are going to end with a moment of your sharing. The question is, how have you experienced new life in Christ? As we walk towards Mark’s objective of helping us process who Jesus is, we don’t just want information; we want it to make an impact on us. So we process. The story is not complete. We are in the midst of the process. Let’s celebrate the process. Maybe it is just starting or maybe you haven't even given it a thought. Maybe it has been years and years and it is important to recognize the process this morning.

How have you experienced new life in Christ?

How does “new life” inform you of who Jesus is?

Take It Deeper Questions

• Read Mark 1:1-13.
• If you were asked to write a bio introducing you to a new audience, what would it say and why?
• Why do you think the people flocked to John?
• Why do you think Jesus got baptized?
• What is new life in Christ? How is it a process as opposed to a destination? How have you experienced it? How would you like to grow in it?
• How does this portion of Mark build perspective as to who Jesus is?
  

Bible Reading Plan

• Mark 1
• Matthew 3
• Luke 3
• John 1