The Message & Ministry of Jesus

Series: Mark: The Life of Jesus

 “Mark: The Message nad Minsitry of Jesus”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sun, February 9, 2020

Text: Mark 1:1-14

 

Hello friends, my name is Brad and I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge.  As we launch into a new teaching series this morning, I want to ask you to consider “where does your story begin?”  For me, If I were to tell you the story of my life, depending on what I wanted or needed you to know, I would start at a different location.

 

Part of my story begins in southern Alberta, with two young adults in love (my parents) who moved far away from family to get their lives and their future back on track.  But part of my story also begins in Northern BC in Peace River country where I grew up, where I first learned about God and where we experienced the good and the bad of small-town living.  Another part of my story begins in suburban Ontario where I spent all my teen years.  Making mistakes, struggling with peer pressure and struggling to figure out what I did and didn’t believe about God.  Part of my story also begins in Langley when I moved out in 1996 to go to college.  Depending on what you need to know, not all stories start at the very beginning.

 

This is also true about the life of Jesus.  In the Bible, in the New Testament, we have 4 separate accounts of the Life of Jesus. We call these the gospels.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they are written by four unique individuals to four unique audiences with 4 very different purposes.  And not all of them start at the very beginning of Jesus’ life.  Matthew and Luke’s accounts begin with the family history and the birth of Jesus.  John’s account takes a very different approach – it starts with a wide-angle camera shot of cosmic history “in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the word was god”. 

 

But shortest and the most straightforward account of the life of Jesus is the one recorded by MARK.  Mark has an energetic style and where he begins and how he ends are perhaps two of the most unique aspects of his work. 

But who is this Mark guy and how do we know we can trust that accuracy of what we are reading here about the life of Jesus?  Professor of New Testament Studies Mark Strauss notes that “early church tradition identified the author of the second Gospel as John Mark, cousin of Barnabas and son of Mary, a prominent woman in the church in Jerusalem… According to church tradition, Mark worked not only with Barnabas and the apostle Paul but also later, with Peter in Rome. The early church father, Papias, says that Mark became Peter’s interpreter and that his Gospel reflects Peter’s version of the life of Jesus”

 

Turn with me in your Bibles or on your phones to Mark 1:1 and we’ll begin our exploration together of the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.  He doesn’t start at the very beginning (a very good place to start), Mark starts with Jesus as an adult and breathless declares his thesis statement: He tells us up front what this is all about: This is the Good News, about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God”.  Intriguingly, this is the only time in the book that Mark puts his cards on the table and out and out says what he knows to be true.  The rest of the time, Mark is going to show us what Jesus does and says and allow us as readers to draw our own conclusions as to who Jesus is. 

 

But these three terms each need a bit of unpacking because we don’t use them in our everyday life like Mark’s early readers did.   Mark was likely writing to non-Jewish people, maybe the Christians in the city of Rome who saw Peter martyred for his conviction that Jesus was God.  Mark has to explain to his readers that his account is GOOD NEWS because it has a shocking ending (we’ll get there at Easter). 

 

The term “Good news” or “gospel” in the ancient world was reserved for royal communication.  Historians have uncovered inscriptions using the term to announce the birth of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus.  It was also used to announce ancient roman military victories. So right away, Mark is making a subversive, political statement.  He is saying that the truly good news is about Jesus & the victory that Jesus brings and that Jesus is owed the ultimate allegiance of humanity not a Roman emperor.

The good news is that God’s kingdom has come and is coming now. The oppressed are being liberated. Evil is being confronted and overthrown. You & I can enter it, we can receive it, we can participate in Good News.

 

Then Mark says that Jesus is the Messiah – that’s a term that may not be familiar to us.  In the first century, Jewish people were living under the political oppression of Roman empire. They had an ancient hope that a figure they called the Messiah would emerge, and would overthrow any and all oppressors a and reign as the Jewish king.  And Mark says right away “Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. But Jesus did not fulfill the role of Messiah in the way that the Jewish people expected Him to!  We are going to see as we go through this gospel that Jesus rescues those who are oppressed. Jesus confronts evil and the demonic, Jesus innated and invited people to live under the reign of God.  Everything Jesus did fulfills the ancient hopes and dreams of the Jewish Messiah figure. But Jesus doesn’t behave or conform to expectations – either the Jewish ones in the first century or our cultural expectations in the twenty-first century. 

 

Then Mark says that Jesus is the Son of God.  Now you might say “hold on a minute, there, Brad.  I may give you that Jesus is a good moral teacher, his life is documented by reputable historians from the first century world, but I’m not willing to see Jesus as a Divine figure.  I believe in God but I don’t believe that Jesus was God.”  If that’s you or someone you know holds that perspective, Mark invites you, not into a philosophical argument. Mark invites you into the story.  Mark says “come and see.  Look with me at the life of this man and the impact of this Jesus on the people around Him. Mark is constantly answer the question “who is this man?” and by the end of the book Mark invites his readers to come to their own conclusions as to the answer to that. So you might be a skeptic and you might have questions and I want you to know that you are welcome on this journey with us.  Bring your questions and your confusion and let Mark tell the story of Jesus on Mark’s terms. This is the only time in the whole book Mark lays his cards on the table as to the identity of Jesus.  The rest of the time he lets his readers do the heavy lifting. So buckle up, lets go!

 

We’ll move more quickly though this next section. Mark wants us to know that the beginning of this story is not the birth of Jesus.  There’s a whole rich history here that strengths back centuries into the pages of the Old Testament prophets.  Isaiah says “It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” 

 

The Old Testament prophetic tradition held that prior to the arrival of Messiah, the Lord’s anointed one, that a messenger would arrive & shout out that God was coming.  God’s arrival on the scene was to be heralded. 

In April of 2018, like most people in the world, I found out about the birth of the newest member of the royal family by watching on social media an announcement made by a herald, a Town Crier.  They have a historical tradition of standing in the public squares of the UK announcing important news.  But there was only only problem with this announcement:  the man in question is not Buckingham Palace’s official town crier, nor was he asked to make any sort of proclamation regarding the latest addition to the royal family. This man is Tony Appleton, self-proclaimed “royalist crier,” who has taken it upon himself to announce, as loudly as he can, important news about the royal family. Although Prince William and Kate Middleton have never asked him to do so, Appleton has been making such announcements since 2013, when he showed up uninvited to announce the arrival of Prince George.  But the North American news loves a good announcement & fact checkers were asleep so Tony got his 5 min of fame.

But Mark wants us to see a strong connection here with Old Testament prophetic proclamation history.  So who is this messager?  His name is John the Baptiser.  He is actually a relative of Jesus. 

“This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness & preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins & turned to God to be forgiven.

 

It may surprise you to learn that water baptism by immersion wasn’t invented at the time of the Reformation, it was recaptured from a much early Jewish baptistic tradition. John’s preaching and his message resonated powerful with the people of his day: that upon the reignition that you were turning away from evil, repenting of the things you had done that were wrong and turning to God you entered the waters of baptism as a sign and symbol of your cleansed life. Mark says hyperbolically that 

 

All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see & hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.”   (again, this is a connection back to the OT prophetic wardrobe and diet).  But John’s message, like the message of a Town crier, official or unofficial, is not about himself;

“John announced: ‘Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!’” 

 

When I lived in Oakville, Ontario during me teen years I volunteered with community theatre groups.  I had wanted to try out for a role on stage but none of the plays we were doing needed a teen part. So I played the part of the stagehand.  Stagehands and stage mangers are the ones who work tirelessly behind the scenes in the work of preparation.  They set everything up so that the real show is effortless.  When you watch the Oscars tonight note how many categories are for the behind the scenes kind of stuff: best Sound mixing. Best hair and makeup artist. Best film editing. Best production design.  You see, the role of the stagehand is not to be on stage. It’s a role of preparation.  This is how John saw himself.

 

When asked about this directly, John said ‘You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him”.   Friends, I want us to park it here for a minute and talk about some personal application.  That is this: Just like we talked about when we talked about the massive diversity of gifts that God has given to the Church, God has also given each of you, each of us, a unique part to play.  And some of those parts are more stagehand part.  They are not the flashy, up front kind of roles.  What this can lead to in Christian community is people feeling that if they aren’t the ones leading a small group or leading everyone on the seat next to them on every airplane ride to Jesus, or praying of healing for people and seeing God do the miraculous, or the preacher type person that their role is less significant.  And friends, that is a outright LIE.  Every person here at Jericho matters.  Your contribution to the Kingdom of God matters.  Be it stacking a chair, sowing a seed by the way that you life a life of integrity, caring for or praying for a neighbour in a time of need or whatever your part that God has called you to play.  And I want to say to you Don’t be discouraged if God has given you the ministry of PREPARATION.  Sometimes we obsess over the up front roles, but John was called to a ministry of preparation.  John’s mission in life was that “He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30.  The ministry of preparation in all of its diverse forms, is beautiful and powerful and welcome here at Jericho.  So don’t get caught up in the up front nature of anyone’s service.  We all have a unique part to play in this.

 

Mark then shifts his lens quickly (get used to it – there are no smooth transitions in Mark, it moves too quickly for that!) to the arrival of Jesus on the scene.  No story of him as a baby like Matthew or Luke, just Jesus showing up to be baptised by John. Not because he needs to repent but because Jesus desires to model a life of obedience & submission to God.

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart & the Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” 

In Isaiah 64, the heavens are split open and God’s awesome presence arrives, not merely to call people to repentance but also to bestow blessing and healing to the nations.  At Jesus’ baptism, note how all three members of the Triune God are present: God the Father speaks words of blessing and invitation over Jesus the Son, who walks in willing obedience, while  the Holy Spirit comes in power in the form of a dove.

 

What is most striking to me about this experience, however, is the fact that it occurs at the very start of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus hasn’t DONE anything yet.  He hasn’t’ healed a sick person. Hasn’t preached a sermon. Hasn’t turned any water into wine yet. Hasn’t called anyone to follow him. Hadn’t died on the cross or taken upon himself the sins of the world.  And yet, note the words of the Father: “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” 

Here’s what I want us to take away from this.  God speaks about Jesus identity and not his actions.  Jesus hasn’t done a THING yet and still, God says “you bring me great joy because of who you are, because of our relationship, not because of all the amazing things you do for Me.”

 

You see, sometimes, we get caught up in the lie that our value to God is predicated on what we DO for God.  And yet, if this wasn’t true for Jesus, it cannot be true for you and me.  The words spoken over Jesus that day are the same words God speaks over your life – you are my dearly loved son, you bring me great joy.  You are my dearly loved daughter. You bring me great joy. And friends, it is hard for us to believe and receive as activistic North Americans, but God’s love for you is not linked to your actions.  God’s love for you is linked to your identity as a child of God. As one made in God’s image. Beloved from before all eternity and certainly before you ever started doing anything awesome for team Jesus.

 

Henri Nouwen, renowned spiritual writer struggled often with this theme in his works. He wrote as much to remind himself as to encourage others that ““This is your permanent and unshakable identity: You are God's beloved.” - Henri Nouwen.  Not because of what you do, but because of who and whose you are. 

 

This truth becomes deeply important because right away (and we’ll see this term used 42 times in the gospel of Mark!), immediately after this declaration, Jesus is compelled into a dessert place where that sense of identity is assailed and where Satan tempts Him to give it up. 

The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.” Mark 1:12-13 (NLT)

 

Though we don’t get the full account here, we simply hear that God took care of Jesus in and through this dessert time.  Sometimes the church is good at telling only stories of victory.  You know the ones, how life was rough but joy came in the morning, how things were hard but in the end it all worked out.  But what about those stories that are told from the place of the desert? What about those stories that are still in process?  Throughout these months we are hearing stories from people who are coming into membership here at Jericho and so I want to invite Dave and Donna to share from where they are at.  And they are wrestling with the question: ‘“What does it look and feel like to be in a wilderness experience & find God there?”

 

Thanks for sharing.  Sometimes it can be hard to hear and live into the Good News when your lived experience feels anything but Good.  We are going to see as we move through Mark’s gospel that the arrival of the Kingdom of God doesn’t’ mean that all the problems of the world magically disappear.  We are going to see that the announcement of the Kingdom’s arrive means that you and I have a choice to make:  it’s here but we need to enter it.  To live into it.  To receive it. To accept it.  Mark closes this opening segment with the invitation that Jesus puts out “Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. ‘The time promised by God has come at last!’ He announced. ‘The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!’”. 

 

This is the core message of Jesus: “the time promised by God has come at last”. And friend, maybe today you are here and you have never been invited into this story that God continues to write.  The story of a Kingdom that is at hand, not just way back when, but here. Now.  The kingdom of God is close at hand. To you. To me. To us here today.  We too have the chose to enter into it.  And when we do, we find that King Jesus is at the very centre of it.  And Jesus invites us to experience that sense of being known and loved that the Father declared over His life.  The worship team is coming and I want to remind you that our prayer team is available at the back.  Today that is Meg, myself, David McFarland and Sylvia Nickel). If today, you are struggling in some area and need a reminder of God’s love for you spoken over you, we would be privileged to do that with you and for you.  Maybe today you came with a struggle or hurt, you want someone to stand with you in prayer for a need in your life.  That’s what we are here for.  Maybe today, you are hearing Good news and you want to respond.  I invite you to come and we will pray with you.  That Jesus would be not just an interesting historical figure, but One who is at the very centre of the universe holding all things together but also at the very centre of your life and this church, sustaining, stringing. Reminding you that you are loved. 

 

Let’s stand and sing together as we respond to God in worship. 

 

 

Benediction:

“You are one in whom Christ delights and dwells. You live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God. The kingdom is not in trouble and neither are you.” – James Bryan Smith.

 

Christians use the term 'gospel' or 'Good News' frequently. But what is the heart of the message of Jesus and how do we respond to it and to Him today?

Speaker: Brad Sumner

February 9, 2020
Mark 1:1-15

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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