the Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (4)

“Jesus Starts”
Mark 1:4-13

1. Friday Sony Pictures released the film version of Dan Brown’s bestselling book (40 million copies in print), The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks.

2. though a work of fiction, Dan Brown has gone on record stating that he believes all the claims he inserts about Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene (to Charles Gibson on Good Morning America, 11/3/03).

3. many believe that The Da Vinci Code is a fictional distortion of 2 of the main pillars on which our Christian faith rests – the divinity of Christ & the inspiration of Scripture.

4. The Da Vinci Code presents us with a great opportunity to brush up on the core beliefs of our Christian faith. One place to start is the gospels – who is Jesus? what did he teach? what does he expect from us?

5. I have 4 words I want to explore today as we crack open Mark’s beginning section on the story of Jesus: language + dilemma + worldview + Trinity.

(1) language
1. these 10 verses introduce us to some vocabulary that we need to understand in order to understand Jesus & the Christian story:
* desert - 4
* baptism - 4
* repentance – 4
* forgiveness – 4
* sins – 4
* confession – 5
* (Holy) Spirit – 8, 12
* Jesus – 9, 10
* voice (God the Father) – 11
* temptation – 13
* Satan – 13
* angels – 14

2. biblical words count. Each word is an important puzzle piece in piecing together God’s revelation. If we don’t know this vocabulary, we won’t understand the Bible.

3. for example, let’s look at the word desert (1:3,4,12,13). Desert is a spiritually, theologically charged word in the Bible. Things happen in the desert – God shows up & lives are reborn.
* Jacob wrestled with the angel in the desert
* Moses met God at the burning bush in the desert
* the children of God wandered in the desert of Egypt for 40 yrs for their disobedience
* after his baptism the Spirit sent Jesus out into the desert for 40 days
* after his conversion Paul spent some time seeking God in the Arabian desert

4. literally, deserts are places of thorns, thirst, terrible loneliness & hunger. Survival is difficult in the desert.

5. figuratively, deserts are those life experiences where our wells run dry – health, finances, marriage, job, faith, relationships.

6. in the desert we are brought to the end of ourselves & learn that we desperately need God. Hope is found in our desert experiences:
* 1:3 the voice of help originates in the desert
* 1:4 new life is found in the desert
* 1:12 Jesus knows the desert well & can help us
* 1:13 God doesn’t abandon us in the desert
7. is this a desert time for you? Rejoice, be thankful. God is with you. Join God’s refining, changing, growing, rebirthing desert work in your life.

(2) dilemma
1. Mark uses a key Biblical word that alerts us to a problem – sins (1:4-5). Something is not right. This word & its real-life equivalent is a major clue.

2. Friday night I was at a Starbucks. A young guy came in with a backpack. He ordered a drink. While waiting for it he checked out the CD display. He chose 5. I watched him walk into the bathroom with those 5 CDs. 30 seconds later he walked out, picked up his drink & left. As I watched him run away from the store it hit me that he had stuffed the CDs & his backpack & made a run for it. I asked the barista if he bought any CDs & she said no.

3. something is wrong with that scene. It’s called sin – breaking trust with the laws of ethics & business.

4. solution – repentance, confession, baptism. Repentance speaks of a lifestyle change (I am no longer going to steal CDs). Confession speaks of naming & owning our sins (I have taken these CDs & owe Starbucks an apology & $60-$70). Baptism speaks of joining ourselves to someone who will remedy our sins (I am going to follow Christ & ask for his help to start buying my CDs).

5. for John it was a baptism of repentance, an incomplete solution. But with Jesus it is a baptism with the Holy Spirit – a baptism into Christ & his life-giving power over our sins.

6. outcome – forgiveness. John’s baptism pointed to Jesus. His life, death-cross-blood-sacrifice & resurrection paved the way to be forgiven. Things made right with God – guilt taken away.

7. this formula of problem – solution – outcome will be repeated by Mark over & over again throughout his story of Jesus.

8. what about you? Have you identified the problem of sin in your life? Have you applied the solution? Are you experiencing the outcome of forgiveness in Jesus?

(3) worldview
1. lets look closely at Jesus’ baptism. What we find is a picture of heaven & earth meeting.

2. earth =
* Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee
* John the Baptist
* Jordon river
* water
* words

heaven =
* Spirit descending like a dove
* voice from heaven

3. how do we make sense of this? There are 3 basic ways to imagine God’s space & our space relating to one another.

1st – God’s space & ours are basically the same
1. God is everywhere & everywhere is God. God is everything & everything is God. This view is called Pantheism.

2nd – God’s space & our space are separated
1. God is in heaven – we are on earth – and never the 2 shall meet. God created the world & now has left it to run on its own. God does not intervene in our world. This is called Deism. Some of our founding fathers were Deists.

3rd – God’s space & our space overlap & interlock
1. this is the Christian view. We live in an open universe. God is present within our space & time but he’s not confined to our space & time.

2. we can’t understand the Bible, our Christian faith, prayer, healing, God’s protection UNLESS we understand that God’s world & our world overlap & interlock.

3. we see this most clearly in Jesus. Jesus is the intersection of heaven & earth. We will see this on every page of Mark’s gospel.

4. and when we say “yes” to Jesus as our Savior he brings God’s world to ours & our world to God. God’s life overlaps with our lives – our lives interlock with God’s life.

5. I want you to think about this this week. I want you to evaluate if this is how you actually live your life.

(4) Trinity
1. we have mention here of the 3 persons of the Trinity – God the Father Son & Holy Spirit. Christian Theology 101 teaches us that we worship 1 God displayed to us in 3 persons.

2. what does this mean? The triune relationships of the Father Son & Spirit cause us to marvel at…

1st – the unity of the triune God
1. the 3 persons of the Godhead live in perfect unity & harmony. They don’t fight. There’s no jealously between them. They all agree. Their minds & wills are united.

2nd – the diversity within the triune God
1. the Father Son Spirit have distinct roles:

2. Scripture presents God the Father as the grand architect & wise designer of creation, redemption & consummation

3. Jesus is presented as the Father’s Son who comes to earth to carry out God’s plan of salvation

4. the Spirit is presented as the Son’s presence on earth to continue Jesus’ work of salvation

3rd – the social relationality of the triune God
1. God is never “alone.” In other words, God has a “life together.” God is a community within himself. From all eternity God has existed as Father Son & Holy Spirit. God has never been lonely.

2. God is both a unity of Being & a community of Persons.

3. within the person of God (Father Son Spirit) is love, support, honor, communication & respect. The Father Son Spirit are in need of nothing but each other throughout all eternity

4th – the authority-submission structure that exists eternally in the 3 persons of the Godhead, each of whom is equally & fully God
1. Scripture teaches us that:
* the Father possesses the place of supreme authority
* the Son submits to the Father’s authority
* the Spirit submits to both the Father & the Son

2. all human authority structures outlined in Scripture flow from God’s own person. This is a positive & wholesome view of authority & submission that our culture has lost & needs to recover.

wrap up – desert experiences
1. at once the Spirit sent (Jesus) out into the desert, and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him (1:12-13).

2. after his baptism the Holy Spirit sent Jesus to the desert. There he encounters Satan, wild animals & angels.

3. in our spiritual lives what makes us think we will be any different? We will experience blessings (baptism). We will experience temptations (Satan). We will experience hardships (wild animals). And we will experience encouragement (angels).

4. God is with us in all circumstances. Where are you at today – blessings? temptations? hardships? encouragement? Has it been a week of wild beasts or angels? Satan at your heels or the affirming voice of God your Father?

5. be still and know that God is God. His world overlaps & interlocks with ours. That is our hope, peace & strength.