Mark 1:9-12

Why was Jesus baptized? Why did he undergo the period of temptation in the desert? We'll continue to be "amazed by Jesus" as Pastor Dan looks at these questions in Mark 1:9-13.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thank you worship team. You have your Bible. I invite you to open to the new Testament, the second book and the new Testament, the gospel of Mark. We began a study in the gospel of Mark last week, and I'll say again this week, the same thing that I said last week. If there was a series title for going through the gospel of Mark, if there was a theme that Mark wanted to communicate almost above everything else, it would be this amazed by Jesus over and over and over again. Mark uses some form of this phrase and they were amazed at him. Speaking of the ministry and the life of Jesus during his earthly years here. And again, I want to invite you. How long has it been since you have been amazed by Jesus? Do you need to be amazed a new by Jesus? I found myself this week as I was studying and praying, I found the lyrics of the old him came back to me. Uh, Charles Gideon him a little over a hundred years old and, and uh, maybe you know this, uh, I would speak these words, but they're meant to be sung and I don't have much of a singing voice. So if you know this, would you sing along with me? I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the NAZA Irene, and wonder how he could love me a sinner so unclean.

Speaker 2: 1:53

[inaudible]

Speaker 1: 1:53

marvelous. Hi, wonderful. And my song shall ever be[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 2:06

[inaudible] marvelous.

Speaker 1: 2:07

How wonderful is my Savior's love for me? How long has it been since you felt that, where you've looked at who Jesus is and you've been amazed by it, how long has it been since his love for you demonstrated in what he has done for you at the cross has overwhelmed you as wonderful as marvelous could it be that we are much like the people in the church of Ephesus that Jesus speaks to. And revelation to revelation two, four. And he looks and he sees all that they do and all the programs that they have and the knowledge that they have. And yet he says, I have this against you. You have left your first love. In other words, you have failed. You are no longer amazed by me. You were just caught up in routine. And what does he say? What is the answer to that? It's not over. If that's what we find, that it's been a long time since we've been amazed by Jesus. It's a long time since we've been overwhelmed by love for him and what he's done for us. No, he says in revelation two, five, repent. Turn back to that, repent and do the things you did at first. And that's what I pray, that this gospel of Mark is for all of us. It is a, it is a turning back. It is a Lord. I want to be amazed by you again. I want to see your love as, as overwhelming, as marvelous, as wonderful as it was when I first encountered you in a true saving way. And if you're here this morning and you've never experienced this, I prayed the Holy spirit can do what I cannot do. And that is as we go through the words of Mark, uh, anointed by the Holy spirit that he would overwhelm you with who Jesus really is. Well, all of that leading into our text for today. Last week we looked at the first eight verses of Mark chapter one this week, a slightly shorter section verses nine through 13. I'm reading this morning from the new American standard and it came about in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John and the Jordan and immediately coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opening and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens. You are my beloved son and you, I am well pleased. And immediately the spirit impelled him, drove him to go out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beasts and the angels were ministering to him. If you're here, if you were here last week, you see how last week's tax prepared us for what Mark gives us this week. Last week, Mark highlighted John the Baptist and what was the essence of John's message? He's coming, get prepared. He's coming. The powerful one, the mighty one is coming and now what does he tell us in verse nine he tells us he's come in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee if you want, if you're taking notes, here's here's a quick and short overall organization of really this section and what I'm going to do briefly today in verses nine and 10 what do we see? We see that Jesus is anointed by the Holy spirit for his ministry and mission, and verse 11 we see that Jesus is affirmed by God the father of who he is and what he's here to do, and in verses 12 and 13 we see that Jesus is approved by being tested in the wilderness and on all of this. Why is all of this together? Why is this? I think one unit, because Mark's purpose is to show that Jesus is here being prepared for his ministry and mission. What he has come to do, this is his final preparation. What happens in his baptism? What happens in his testing in the wilderness. So let's briefly go through that. First of all, Jesus is anointed by the spirit. Verse nine, he comes from Nazareth and Galilee. Mark mentions Nazareth as the hometown of Jesus several times in the gospel. At this point in, in history, it was a very small and significant insignificant town. Probably less than 500 people lived in Nazareth today. If you go, I had the blessing of being able to go to Israel for the first time. Uh, the summer of 2017 and our bus tour went to Nazareth and Nazareth is a big modern city, but there is this historic Nazareth village that you can visit and you can see life much like it was at Jesus's time. Very simple, very insignificant. He comes from this insignificant town and he comes to the Jordan river and is baptized by John. Now, don't read over that too quickly, like I generally do, going through the gospels. Okay, he was baptized. Let's go on from there. Really, what caught me this time is that very fact, Jesus, the son of God is baptized. Why would Jesus, the son of God be baptized? I think of what baptism is. Next Sunday, we have the privilege of seeing nine people who are going to undergo baptism. You'll hear their testimonies and though they're all different and they all have different unique stories, you will see a common thread in all of them. And the thread is this. They have all come to the place in life where they recognize they were living life in one way or another apart from God turned away from God and they recognize their eternal peril and being turned away from God. And they recognize that the only provision, the only way they could come into a right wreck relationship with, with God was through Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. And so they're there. They have done this, but they are to this next week as they are baptized, their baptism is a symbol. I have put my faith in Jesus as savior, taking away my sins. I have given, I've committed my life to Jesus as Lord as King, and I am committed to be part of his body, the church. Well, that's not what Jesus was doing here. In fact, that's not even what John's baptism was all about. Jesus hadn't died and risen again yet. So John's baptism was a baptism. We were told last week of repentance. People were coming and they were confessing their sins and they were committing themselves to live a Holy life. Well, let's measure that up with Jesus. Did he have any sins to confess? Absolutely not. Could he have lived and any holier of a life than he was living up until that moment? Absolutely not. He came as the perfect sinless one. He came as the perfect Holy one. Even John the Baptist knew that Jesus did not need his baptism of repentance. He initially resisted baptizing Jesus. We don't see this in Mark, but we see it in Matthew chapter three verse 14 John tries to prevent him from being baptized. John says to him, I have needed to be baptized by you, not the other way around, and yet you come to me to be baptized. Even John knew that his baptism of repentance and recommitment to holiness did not apply to Jesus. So why did Jesus seek to be baptized? Why did God and God's purposes direct Jesus the son to be baptized? I think Jesus gives us part of that answer or part of the answer in his response to John. Again in Matthew chapter three this time, verse 15 Jesus replied, let it happen. Now baptize me, John, he saying, it is proper for us to do this. And here's the key phrase to fulfill all righteousness and hearing this John relented. John consented and baptized him to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean? Righteousness to be in a right, perfectly right relationship with God, righteousness to be living in perfect harmony with God's will. And so Jesus is intention to fulfill all righteousness means that he has committed himself as the son of God. Now come down, taking on human form in his earthly life and ministry to fulfill every purpose of God. Everything that God laid out for him to do, to do everything that he wanted, that God the father wanted him to accomplish. And there's many aspects of that, but we get a hint, I think of one very significant one in Isaiah chapter 53 so much of what happened in Jesus is baptism and temptation hearkens back to Isaiah and the profits, and if you've read Isaiah, you may know Isaiah 53 it is what we think of as the suffering servant chapter in Isaiah 53 God is speaking through Isaiah and he's speaking about how he's going to send his Messiah to rescue us, to save us, but he's not going to send them as some great political leader. He's not going to send him as a conquering King. He's going to send him as a humble servant who will suffer for us and save us through his suffering. And Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53 12 as the suffering servant, he would be numbered with the transgressors. Let me make that really real for us. I am a transgressor. You are a transgressor. All of us. When we depart from God's loving rule over our lives and we try to live life our own way. Without God, we transgress, we go astray. We go outside the boundaries. We are transgressors and Jesus is saying, or God is saying of the Messiah when he comes, he will be counted with you. He will take his place alongside you. We the transgressors have Jesus coming in the flesh and identify him, identifying himself with us in our sinful this, although he was never sinful, he identifies, he has counted, he has numbered along with us. And in doing so, Isaiah says he can bear the sins of many of us. He can intercede for us the transgressors and save us. Jesus's baptism was the beginning of that, of identifying with you and me of being numbered with you and me of coming alongside you and me. And I find that amazing. I find that amazing when you really think about it, that God, the son, the second person of the Trinity, the God, second person of the Godhead who has spent all eternity and glory, we lay that aside and would come alongside me and my sinfulness and you and your sinfulness and be numbered with us so that he can go to the cross for you and for me. And that began at the beginning of his public ministry at his baptism where we also see something significant in verse 10 he is baptized and immediately coming up out of the, he saw the heavens opening. Now that he here is Jesus. Jesus is the one who sees this, although we can tell from other gospel accounts, he's not the only eye witness of this. In the gospel of John. John one 32 tells us that John the Baptist saw it because John the Baptist later testifies I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove on him. But either either way, whether it's Jesus seeing it or John seeing it, or even if there was other people who see it, what did he see? What does it mean that the heavens are opening? And why is that significant to you and me even today? Well, I think the background of this is Israel's turning away from God in the old Testament, by the way, Israel, even though they were real historic people, and these are real historic accounts, their picture, you and me, they turned away again and again from the faithfulness and the loving kindness of God to pursue their own way in life, to go after the things that they think would give them life that they think would give them happiness just like you and I do. And what we see as we read through the prophets is the old Testament prophets warned again and again, they warn Israel that if they continue to turn away from God, at some point God would see speaking to them. His Holy spirit would no longer move the way they had seen it in history. And that's just what happened. As the old Testament comes to a close, the profits lament how the Holy spirit has now become absent from Israel. How they no longer hear God's voice speaking to them. That's why we have the end of the old Testament and we get a, we get a flavor of this, and Isaiah 64 when Isaiah expressing his adjunct Stover, he doesn't see any movement of the Holy spirit. He doesn't hear the voice of God speaking through the Holy spirit. He calls out to God, Oh that you would read the heavens that you would tear apart the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you kicked your Isaiah has is that God has drawn back into the heavens, almost like curtains closing between where God is an us on the earth and and Isaiah pleads or them tear that curtain apart. By the way, that image of tearing that curtain apart, there's one more time and the gospel of Mark where Mark uses this, this same picture of tearing apart and that isn't Mark 15 when when Jesus dies on the cross, what happens to the veil of the curtain in the temple? It is torn apart. Same word, same word. God began to answer Isaiah's prayer, but he did it here at the baptism of Jesus and when the Messiah, Jesus comes down and he is counted among us, he with us, his people through submitting to baptism. God opens the heavens and we don't know what that exactly look like, but that's the image of what happened. God is God is again opening the heavens. He is revealing his presence and his power to us again and he's doing it through Jesus. We look at Jesus and we see the presence and the power of God operating again. By the way, he does so with a visual image of Jesus being anointed, and I'll explain that in a minute, but that's the image of the dove and the Holy spirit in the second half of verse 10 the spirit like a dove descending upon him. Now don't take that to me and this is the first time Jesus is given the Holy spirit. There is a whole strand of heresy running through church history that believes that that Jesus was only a man and he didn't have the Holy spirit. He didn't become divine until his baptism. When the Holy spirit came upon him. Jesus had the Holy spirit from the very first moment when he was conceived. It says that the Holy spirit came upon Mary. Jesus has never been without the Holy spirit and all of his earthly life up until this moment and all the rest of his life there on earth. So if Jesus has always lived in the power of the spirit, if he's always had the Holy spirit, what is happening here? What is this anointing? What does Mark want you and me as we worship Jesus to understand about the relationship between Jesus, the son of God, and the Holy spirit of God? Well, again, what God was doing was in fulfillment of what he'd promised to do in the old Testament. There's many places, but let me give you two places where he's promised this. Isaiah 11 in Isaiah 11 God is again speaking about the Messiah. The savior is going to come and save us and he says this, and the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. What do we see happening at the baptism? I say 42 he speaks of this suffering servant, our savior that he would send. Behold my servant. I have put my spirit upon him. How clear a picture could we have then of the spirit descending like a dove at his baptism that God was fulfilling this what God was promising through Isaiah and what God was fulfilling at Jesus's baptism was his anointing to his ministry and his mission. Again, this is something not done today, I realize, but in the old Testament when a man became a priest, when a man became a King, he was anointed. And let me just give you one clear picture of this. David, probably the King. If we know any Kings from the old Testament, we know of David and we read of David's anointing when he first became King, and first Samuel 16 Samuel the prophet anointing David, we read. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him David in the midst of his brothers. And what happens when he's anointed? The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. It's a picture of that. That is an old Testament picture of what was happening at Jesus's baptism. God, the father is anointing Jesus the son, and in doing so, he is setting them apart. He's setting them apart as unique as as savior, as as King. He's he is. Jesus is given, not that he's not been not had the Holy spirit. He's given a new manifestation of the spirit, anointing him with power to meet the demands of his ministry and mission. He would face demands and his earthly life and what he did for us that no human being has ever faced, that no human being could stand before and God is anointing him with the power of the Holy spirit. Equipping him to face that and that's what we see as Jesus begins his public ministry. Luke records in chapter four that right after the testing and the desert, verse 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy spirit. He begins his public ministry in the power of the Holy spirit. And a few verses later he is in Nazareth, really his first time of public speaking in the synagogue and they ask him, do you want to read? Do you want to read from the old Testament scriptures? And what does he choose? He chooses the scroll of Isaiah and where and Isaiah, but entire book, does he open it too? He opens it to chapter 61 and what does he read from the words of Isaiah? The spirit of the Lord has come upon me because he has anointed me. He's anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind to set free the oppressed. And if you know that story, he goes on to say, today that scripture has been fulfilled in me. And that's exactly what Jesus came to do now. And knowing where the power of the spirit he begins that public ministry, all the rest of the gospel of Mark preaching the good news to the poor, the materially poor and the spiritually poor like you and me. He in the power of the Holy spirit, he gives freedom to the captives, freedom from sin. He gives recovery from the sight to the blind, that the physically blind and the spiritually blind like you and me, he sets free the oppressed, the the actually enslaved, oppressed, and those who are oppressed, enslaved by sin like you and me, and he does this in the power of the Holy spirit. I'm amazed by Jesus in this, and I'm even more amazed if that wasn't enough to be amazed. I'm even more amazed that Jesus promises to anoint us with his Holy spirit. If you come to know Jesus as savior and Lord, you have to live the Christian life in your own power and just keep trying harder. No, he anoint you with his Holy spirit. He pours the Holy spirit into you. I realized sometimes we don't realize that. I realize sometimes we don't tap into that, but he has anointed us with power to live, for him, to follow him, to serve him, to glorify him. He has anointed us with the same power of the Holy spirit that he was anointed with. So in verses nine and 10 Jesus is anointed with the spirit. In verse 11 Jesus is affirmed by the father. That's the voice there that comes out of the heavens. You are my beloved son and you. I am well pleased. Again, I think this is an amazing image. Do you see the first person to the second person there? God, the father is speaking directly to God, the son. Yes, John over here is that maybe others witnessed it, but this is direct communication between the father and the son. I mean, rarely do we see a glimpse of the Trinity of the Godhead where we see that communication and we see that relationship between the father and the son. Well, what about that statement in you? I am well-pleased. What is it that God is affirming when he says to Jesus in you, I am well pleased. Well, first, I think God is affirming the truth of what Jesus said about himself. Jesus says in John eight 29 I always do the things that please the father, that please God during his entirely entire earthly life leading up to that moment and from that moment until his death, Jesus, in everything that he said that he did, every decision that he made, he did. He always did what? Please the father. He lived his whole earthly life for the glory of God. And by the way, that's what you and I are called to do. We as we are saved, we're not saved. Just then live the rest of our life. Fat, dumb and happy. We we are saved to glorify God. First Corinthians 10 31 in whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And that's why he anoints us with the spirit. That we can live a life that is glorifying to him. But I think there's more. I think that the father was also affirming what Jesus was ultimately on earth to do what God had foreshadowed through the prophet Isaiah. Again, back to chapter 53 the suffering servant chapter. The Lord was pleased to crush him and you I am well pleased. The Lord was pleased to crush his sir suffering servant. Now don't take that to mean that God, the father took some perverse pleasure in the humiliation and the suffering and the crucifixion of God, the son. It means that God was pleased with the son's commitment to walk as the suffering servant. He was pleased with Jesus. His decision, yes, I will come to earth. Yes, I will identify myself with them. Yes, I will suffer for them. Yes, I will go all the way to the cross. Well, I will die for their sins, for the sins of the world, and when I think about this again, I'm amazed again. Charles Gabriel's verse says it better than I can. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary. He suffered and died alone and in that God was well pleased and God says, I know that's what you're going to do. I know that is what you're committed to do and you I am well pleased. Jesus is anointed with the spirit. In verses nine and 10 Jesus is affirmed by the father and verse 11 and then in verses 12 through 13 Jesus is approved by testing in the wilderness. Immediately the spirit impelled him, drove him to go out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beast and the angels were ministering to him immediately. The spirit drives him out into the wilderness. There is a, there is no time of lingering in the glory of his baptism. There's no rest. There's no break. As soon as he had no is anointed with the spirit, Jesus feels that strong inner compulsion of the spirit to go further out into the isolation of the desert and face the adversary. He was in the wilderness 40 days. That's, that's not an accident that it was 40 days. That is the pattern we see again and again in the old Testament when when God tests a person, 40 is is is usually the the the period. He said, Moses, up on the Mount Sinai, the wilderness of Mount Sinai for 40 days. He sent a Ligeia through the wilderness to Mount Horab 40 days and realize it's not 40 days, but he took the nation of Israel 40 through the wilderness of Sinai to the promised land. Very significant what God was doing here and what happened in the wilderness in the wilderness. God allowed his adversary, that personal, supernatural opponent of God who seeks to subvert his will, who seeks to destroy God's creation that we know as the devil, as Satan, the adversary. God allows Satan to tempt Jesus. Now, Mark characteristically is very brief, not much description as you can see, I, I love what Ray Stedman, pastor Ray Stedman says, though, really thinking through this, he says that throughout that 40 day period, the devil was at Jesus's side trying to break him with every means of attack at his disposal. Satan attack Jesus in his body, in his emotions, in his soul, Satan probed and assaulted and sifted Jesus. Satan bombarded Jesus with every thought and temptation that human beings are subject to. Imagine the worst temptation that you have ever faced. His temptation was far worse because you know what? We've we fail in temptations and so we never get to the place where we have experienced temptation, full strength, until it is exhausted. Jesus did. Jesus knew every way that you and I are tempted and he met that temptation at its full strength. And so when we read in Matthew and Luke about the final three tests, what we're seeing Steadman says, and I agree, is only the final test. This came at the end of the 40 days. This was the culmination of 40 days of tormenting and testing that Satan was allowed to do in Jesus's life in the desert. I guess I begs the question, why did God allow Satan to tempt Jesus? By the way, that's the truth there. Satan wasn't on his own able to tempt Jesus. Satan did only what God allowed him to do in the same is true of you and me. Satan can only tempt us. We can only be tempted by the world, by the flesh or the devil as God permits it as his hand allows it. What Satan intended as a temptation to get them to fall, to get them to fail. God used as a test. He was tested in the wilderness. God tested what did he test? He tested Jesus, his fitness for his mission. He tested Jesus, his commitment to his mission, the temptation of Jesus that he passed the test, that he was qualified for his work on the cross for us because it was only as a sinless sacrifice that he could actually take upon himself your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world. God allows us, as I've already said, God allows temptation in your life and my life as followers of Jesus and it's for the similar purposes. What Satan, what the world, what the flesh intend as a temptation to trip you up, to get you to fail. God uses as a form of testing to strengthen you and me to build our faith. Even when we fail in our temptations, which we do, God still uses that to strengthen our faith, to produce, to bring about greater faith in us and in the midst of our temptation. We know we can look to Jesus. We know we can look to Jesus because while his temptation did prove him to be sinless, he still experienced it all. He experienced every form of temptation that we did. It made him sensitive and compassionate to what you and I experience in the midst of temptation. Hebrews four 15 tells us we don't have a distant savior. We have a high priest, a merciful high priest who can sympathize with our weakness. Why? Because he has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Remember that the next time you're in the midst of temptation, the next time you fail in temptation, you have a merciful high priest who knows what you experience. Who knows what it's like? Who is there alongside you, identifying with you? So Mark chapter one verses nine through 13 they reveal God, the father preparing Jesus. God the father is preparing Jesus, the son by anointing him with the Holy spirit, for his public ministry and mission. God the father is preparing God the son by affirming him and God the father is preparing Jesus the son by testing him. He did all this to prepare him for what we're going to see in the rest of the gospel of Mark is his public ministry and mission culminating in his journey to the cross. We're at the cross. He dies in our place to pay the penalty for our sin so that we can be reconciled to God. Are you amazed by this? Jesus? Have you come to that place, that first time where you were amazed by Jesus, where you went beyond seeing him as some cultural figure, some historical figure, somebody you hear about in church now and then and you've come to see him up close and personal in his saving work for you as your savior and Lord if he come that place where you have seen him and your need for him, your need for him to come alongside you in your sin, will you be able to sing one day as again Charles Gabriel. Gabriel concludes his him when with the ransom, the saved in glory in heaven, his face I at last shall see and it will be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me. Is that something you know in your heart? You can do that for the first time today if that you're never come to that place, this amazing savior. Once you meet him, once you to receive him. If you've done that, do you need to be amazed at new? Do you need to come to that place where once again, you look at his love for you demonstrated in all that he did demonstrate it and how he has saved you and how he is present with you and do you need to come to that place where again, you say how marvelous, how wonderful. Let's pray. Father, I go to another gospel. John chapter one Jesus was in the world and the world did not recognize him. Jesus, that's us. We live in a world that does not recognize you as as son of God, as savior, as Lord, and Jesus may be there. There's some who like me at one point in my life, do not recognize you as son of God as savior and Lord. And I pray, Lord, as your spirit works through this glimpse that we're given a view in the gospel of Mark, that the rest of that promise in John would be real yet to all who received Jesus, receive them as son of God. Receive him as savior. Receive him as Lord. You give the right to become the children of God. Draw hearts to you today, Lord Jesus and Lord, for those of us who know you as savior and Lord, may we see you a new in a fresh way. May we be newly amazed? May we see you as the King, a terminal immortal, invisible, the only God deserving of all honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.