I’m gonna pray now for the reading of our sermon text this morning before I read Mark chapter one. Join your hearts, the mind, and prayer as we ask his blessing upon the reading and preaching of his word. Let’s pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, what a privilege we have being in your presence, sensing your grace and love upon us in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would come to us as we continue to worship you now, not as speakers, But as hearers, as we listen to the voice of our Lord Jesus, as he speaks to us from his word, we pray, Lord, that we would be aware of his presence with us and of his authority and power and grace. We ask, Lord, that you would draw us to him as individuals and as a church family, and that we would kneel inwardly before him and love him always and love him more. We pray that we may know that great love of Jesus today and know with certainty that we are the ones that he loves. And we all, as your people, say together, amen. Amen.

Mark 1, we’re reading the first 13 verses this morning. Please give your full attention, this is the word of our God. Mark chapter one, starting at verse one. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and Jerusalem, and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

The word of the Lord. Amen and indeed, please be seated.

We begin our sermon series this morning from the Gospel of Mark, through the Gospel of Mark. Next we’ll have more of an introduction to the Gospel and focus on these opening verses once more, the first half of these opening verses. But this morning I wanted to take a broader look to set the stage, to set the theme, some of the themes of Mark in general. And from the second half of this first section, particularly verses nine to 13, this passage, for Mark’s gospel is the second half of the introduction to the gospel. In the first half, John is identified, he is the one announcing the coming of the Lord and baptizing. This is in those days that we see, when Jesus came and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And I’d like to point out, and I think we’ll see that in this short introduction, it’s full and rich, it’s signaling and it’s telling forth very much, very much rich material, many, many things. It’s not flat, it’s not anemic, it’s rich and full. And what’s important here as we look through this section is the background of the passage. And then the event itself, right? How it is the fulfillment and the culmination of all that rich and full background. And then what it means for us today, right? Why is it important for us? So what, if you will. But first it’ll help us to realize that the way things worked in the first century is not quite the same as it works for, they work for us now. And what I mean to that is Mark is writing to people at a time who were a listening people. The oral tradition, right, listening, was very important to them. They would learn from their time when they were little babies to speak and to listen in a certain way. And they had this hearing nature about them as a culture, as a people. Again, it was this listening, this oral nature of those living at this time. They were accustomed to listening. And part of that hearing nature was also that they had ingrained patterns of expectation, patterns and expectations as they listened that were the norm. We are used to and accustomed to things differently than them. Similar, but I mean, for us, we respond and we anticipate rhyming and meter and cadence in our culture and how we were raised, particularly regarding poetry. We anticipate what is to come based on the sounds of words and the rhythm of the lines. And so when we hear things like roses are red, violets are blue, we all know what the end of that is. We expect and know that what is coming is going to match and rhyme the rhythm and match the word blue. Sugar is sweet and so are you, or whatever it is. We anticipate it, right? We don’t need to hear the rest of it. We hear it, we anticipate it. And when it’s different than that, it draws our attention, right? And something’s not right. And even more, in these kinds of things, these anticipations, this familiarity, if we recognize the content, we anticipate the very words of what’s coming next in many instances, not just the rhythm and the rhyme. And all you children have probably heard this before. Listen to the next one. You’ll be able to finish it, I’m sure. Hickory dickory dock. You all know what’s coming next, right? The mouse ran up the clock. And so as silly as these, These things are, these examples, it shows the point that we are born and live at this time and we are conditioned to this type of thing, this rhyme and this rhythm and the anticipation even of the context. Something similar happens in Hebrew poetry, but it’s not quite the same for them. Not like we’re used to where it’s rhythm and rhyme. They were sensitive to the structure, of what is being spoken, what they’re anticipating, what is being said. And some of these structures were very complex, to be sure, but they were born and raised with this kind of thing. From the time they could hear, they were conscious. It was part of the fabric of who they were. And you have to understand for the person in this culture, the person raised in a Jewish home and in society and in the synagogue, they were ingrained with these kinds of things, they were ingrained with the story of the Messiah who was to come to fulfill all righteousness. And much more than a silly, well-known nursery rhyme, theirs involved the big picture of creation, the fall of man, the failure of Israel, and the promise of Messiah to come. This is all part of the very fabric of these people. We probably all encountered something like this in a movie or more felicitously in a book where we’re reading, we start to anticipate and comprehend and we see what’s going on and it clicks for us. We recognize what the author’s doing. Everything falls into place and we identify and are understanding what’s going on and we have this expectation, this anticipation of what’s going to happen. So with that in mind, let’s look at some of the signals that Mark has for us here, aware of these things, and let’s look at some of the background that would have jumped out to the hearers that first heard this in his culture, that would have been highlighted for them, that they would have recognized right away. And really, this should jump out more and more to us as we become familiar, intimately familiar with God’s word and his story. Again, there are familiar recurring themes in redemptive history and history as we go forward in scripture.

And so, beginning at the beginning, we have with creation certain elements that are repeated throughout, right? So, we have the spirit hovering over the water, right? And creation concludes, it culminates in the bringing forth of Adam, whom Luke calls the son of God. And going forward, there’s Israel. guided and protected by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit emerges from the waters of the Red Sea, remember, and in Exodus 4.22, Israel is called God’s firstborn son. And in speaking of the care that God has for Israel, in his guiding them in Deuteronomy, it says this, speaking of this care, It says, he found them in a desert land and in a howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him and cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. The Lord alone guided him. No foreign God was with him. And so that word fluttered, right, like an eagle that shurs up its nest that flutters over its young, that word is the same word that’s used in Genesis 1 of the spirit hovering over the waters, fluttering over the waters, like a bird over the waters. And so these are the only times in Scripture where this word is used, right? And so we also know very well that both of these instances, There’s water, there’s a spirit described in bird-like activity, and the issuing forth, the emergence of God’s son. So you have water, the spirit, and then the emergence of God’s son, the son of God. And we know in both these instances that that son failed. Adam, God’s son, failed. Israel, God’s son, failed. We know also that these pointed to and foreshadowed another son of God. They all point to the true and faithful son of God. And we know from the prophets that God’s promises that though history is full of the failures of man, God himself would provide a way and bring forth a new creation and a new exodus for his people. And so these are some of the grand themes that we see in redemptive history. And so let’s now look at Mark more closely and see what we find there. Jesus comes and he’s baptized by John in the Jordan. Remember John’s baptism, he says, is a baptism for repentance and for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is baptized for the forgiveness of sins. That doesn’t quite sound right, right, if we misunderstand that. But he was baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Not his, of course, but for mine and for yours. and for all those who would believe in him. And in doing so, what does he do? He identifies fully with his people, and he shows that he will live and for, and he will identify with his people. In Matthew 3, we see that when Jesus goes to John to be baptized, John knows that he is the sinner there, and that he needs to be baptized, but Jesus says, baptize me. And he tells him what? It is fitting to fulfill all righteousness. And he does so in order to fulfill something that has beforehand been established. That’s the fitting to fulfill all righteousness. So Christ was fulfilling the role of the Messiah, the keeper of the covenant, the one who would bear the sins of Israel and fulfill the requirements of the law on behalf of the people of God. And also we see in this baptism, not what normally happens at a baptism. It’s never happened in a baptism in our church, to be sure. Jesus is baptized and what happens? There bursts forth these illusions and these signals to the whole sweep of redemptive history of which you and I are a part of, right? See in this narrative the signals. Jesus comes up from the water and the heavens are torn open and the Spirit comes down in the form of a dove. Then the declarative voice of the Father confirming Jesus as the true Son of God. Jesus ascends from the water and the Spirit descends on him, right? From the torn open heavens, right? And so think about what is before us here in the baptism. A son arising from the water, the descending of the Spirit, and the voice of God. Again, where have we seen this before? It’s a patterning in Scripture. We see it in the text of Mark, that the new creation is underway, that the new exodus has come. And the true son of the Father is satisfying his will, succeeding. So we recognize the signals of what’s going on. Remember, this is the very word of God. We see that creation, the hovering of the Spirit, the voice of God, culminating in the emergence of the Son of God from the waters. Creation culminates in what? In the bringing forth of Adam, God’s son. And then we go to Israel, the same thing. God’s Son is referred to, Israel is. Emerges from the waters of the Red Sea. And the Son is taken care of by the Lord in this bird-like activity, this fluttering, this hovering of the Spirit. The same one who was placed at the Red Sea crossing. And then see it is Christ who emerges from the water on whom the Spirit descends in the form of a dove. And as we saw from the beginning of the gospel, this is the proclamation of Isaiah the prophet as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, right? His announcing of a new exodus of the people of God. And Mark here tells us and signals to us that this is the start and indeed the fulfillment of the very kingdom of God. The king is here, and his kingdom is here. That’s how we know that the kingdom has come, because the king is here, in inaugurated form, right? And so in verse 10, we read this, and when he came up out of the waters, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Mark gives us the signals here, of the fulfillment of the promised one, to come and to lead God’s people on that new exodus. And in verse 11, we read also of the declaration of that new sonship. You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Adam was God’s son. With Adam, God was not pleased. Israel was God’s son. With Israel, God was not pleased. But with Jesus, what? God is well pleased. He’s well pleased. He’s different from the rest. And then next we see in verses 12 and 13, that same spirit is sitting on him like a dove, does what? Immediately drove him out into the wilderness, just as God did with Israel, his firstborn son. Drove into the wilderness after the Red Sea crossing, you remember. He took them into the wilderness. And what characterized Israel in their time in the wilderness? What was indicative of them? What characterized them? Complaining, rebellion, idolatry. And it was Moses, remember, was on the mountain for 40 days, not eating, receiving the law, and Israel below is impatient and commits idolatry. Indeed, they commit adultery on their wedding night. They were to serve and worship God there in the wilderness, not give over to temptations of sin. And then we contrast that with the Son of God who did not fail, Christ. What characterized Jesus in the wilderness? We know what happened, Christ was obedient to his father. When tempted, he responded from scriptures, faithful to the father, faithful to his word. And I hope you can see the glorious themes, the grand themes going on here, God’s crafting of history, his preparing and his patterning of all history for the one who was to come. Many have said the Old Testament is God’s preparatory word, and then you have Jesus the word, and then the explanatory word that follows in the rest of the New Testament, right? That’s a good way to think of it. But I hope you see these patterning, this preparing. And that alone should cause us to burst forth in praise for God, for his love and his sovereignty, his mercy in Christ, right? Caring for all of these things. This is a big picture look at what’s going on. But in the end, It’s not just that this is a grand, beautiful, big picture look at what’s going on and that’s great and that God is sovereign and doing these things out there. At the end, so what for you and for me? Because the glory of all of these things that the Lord we see doing here is not that there is a God out there who does these things, but there is a God that is close and has called you in faith to love him and to be his child. That’s what the glory is. But I hope we’ve already seen and have anticipated a little of this answer already. The signals given here in this passage drawing in all redemptive history to bear on this event of Mark tells us about. These show before us two radically different worlds. Two radically different worlds. The old one marked by sin and death and the works of the flesh which issue forth in death. and the other marked by Christ’s reign, true life, righteousness, and the fruit of the Spirit, life. And this all comes to bear on you because which world you are a part of is a matter of life and death for you. In rendering obedience to the Father, Adam was the son of God who failed, Israel was the son of God who failed, but you see the contrast. Jesus Christ is the son of God who did not fail. And this, of course, is what’s going on again, forecasted by Isaiah in Isaiah 40, where he says, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare’s ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. You see the contrast. This is a declaration of what is to come that we see in Mark has come. God comforting his people. The proclamation of his comfort and the culmination in the coming of Christ. The second exodus for God’s people, for the people of God. Not the beginning of the story, but the culmination, right? All the expectation and the delay and the buildup to this started way back in the first chapters of Scripture, right? That conflict, you’ll recall, is set out in the failure of Adam, that seed conflict and the promise. Genesis 3.15. There in Hebrew it is very clear and I wanna point out to you so you will see it every time you read it. It says this, he, he shall crush his head. Right, the serpents. He, he shall crush his head. Right, that seed will be the victor. This he, this is the promise of God in the curse, he will crush his head. The son of God, this he, will not give in to Satan and fail. This he will not fail in the wilderness. This he will perfectly accomplish and complete the terms of the covenant and earn the blessing for his people. This he is what all of this has come to and what is announced at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. This is the he that we need, we need a he. And this he is Jesus Christ, it is the son of God, with all the signaling that Mark gives us. And after being called the son of God, the very next thing that happens is he’s led into the wilderness to battle against Satan. This he is God’s son and God’s champion. He’s victorious, not failing, not being ejected from the garden, not failing in the wilderness, not being ejected from the land. We need this he, and this he is Jesus Christ, God’s son, our Lord. And you see the grace and mercy of God in giving the climax at the beginning, right? Right in the beginning. The signaling and anticipation is catapulted past and beyond whatever the original hearers could have imagined, or what we could have imagined. This son of God, this he, this king is here and his kingdom is here. And praise God, he is good. He is a Satan-crushing king. This is why this is important. Because you belong to this son of God. Jesus is yours. If you are his, if you have faith in him, you placed your, you trusted him for your life, this he, Jesus, is yours. And apart from him and in yourself, we are just like failing Adam and just like failing Israel. And we look back at redemptive history, and we see the land littered with the failures of God’s people, us included. But in Christ is not failure, but redemption, accomplishment, satisfaction, fulfillment. Christ has secured your salvation, brothers and sisters, your salvation and your redemption. And his baptism marks the beginning of a new creation, with Christ having dominion over all of that creation. and therefore praise God and live after the image of Jesus Christ because he is your life, right? This is who you are. He is our peace and our life and in him we can live abundant love and in the abundance of his love and grace and confidence and that of the father who is passionately committed to his children of whom we are. So we can rest in him and know our identity and his forgiveness, right? Because of the work of Jesus Christ. It’s a glorious and beautiful thing.

And we also see in this glorious climactic introduction, as odd as that sounds, this signal and this tie-in to the end of Mark’s gospel. I don’t know if you’ve ever made this connection before, but there are only two places in Mark where we see a tearing, right, a tearing. It’s here in the introduction when we see the heavens are torn open, followed by a voice declaring this is the Son of God. And then we see it at the end, in the climax of Mark’s gospel, after the crucifixion and the death of our Lord. In Mark 15 it says this, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And then in verse 38 it says, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This is the second tearing of that curtain, of the veil, the barrier between God and man, the Holy of Holies from the rest of the court, the temple barrier from the presence of God. And this veil is torn in two and it is no longer. The Lord is present with his people. And through him we have free access to the Father, to our Father, through Jesus Christ. And what follows in this incident at the end, this incident of this tearing, in verse 39 it says, this voice declaring, right? Truly this man was the Son of God. And so we see these bookends to the Gospel of Mark. The tearing and the declaration of the Son of God. The tearing and the declaration of the Son of God. And so do you see the weight of this, what’s going on? Why this is glorious? It’s for the consolation of your souls and the moment-by-moment sustaining of your very life. This is why the introduction and at the announcement of even the birth of Christ, the fulfiller of all these signals of redemptive history, this is why it is there that we have those familiar first century Jews, for instance, in Luke’s gospel, What do they do at the coming of Christ? They burst forth with praise and thanksgiving and song. All the songs at the birth of Christ. Zechariah, Mary, Simeon, even the angels, singing. And we too, as the pattern of our life, are to praise God for keeping and fulfilling his promises and that we are included in this seed in that he, because he is our savior, our champion, he’s the one who cares for us and carries us, his people. And so let us praise Him, brothers and sisters, and thank Him that this introduction, this story is our story if we belong to Him. And let us go back into the world bearing the love of that one in whom are all the riches and treasures of wisdom and knowledge and all the rescue and life needed to save sinners like you and like me. And let us live for Him even as we praise Him with all of our lives.