Two Journeys

Jesus spoke at Capernaum, showing His authority through his words, judgment, and power. The right response is fear and amazement leading to faith.

 Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter one. We're looking at the text you just heard Chris read, verses 21 through 28. Immediately from the beginning of this amazing book, the Gospel of Mark, we have the theme, the thesis, the central idea of the Gospel of Mark. Mark 1:1, "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God," so the word gospel means good news. The good news is that Jesus is the Christ and that the Messiah, the Christ, is the Son of God or God the Son. How wonderful it is that God, centuries before Jesus was born, promised the Messiah, a king to rule in David's lineage, and that he would rule not just the Jewish nation, but the whole world.

That's the best good news that there has ever been. Why is that? Well, it's because Jesus himself is so good, because Jesus is so good, and his kingdom is good. Jesus is pure and righteous and holy and kind and wise, and that's exactly the kind of king that we need. It's the kind of king we need in the world today and we will always need for all eternity. The infinite majesty of his person is established in this title, the Son of God, that Jesus is not merely the son of David, the descendant of David. He is that, but he is also God's only begotten son. And behind this is the idea of a kingdom, the kingdom of God, that God, the creator of the universe, is a king with rights to rule over that universe. And he has that right to rule over us completely and totally, so the central call of the Bible is exactly what Jesus said as he began his public ministry.

Look again at verse 15, Mark 1:15. "The time has come," he said, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news." Because the kingdom of God is drawing near, every sinner is commanded by God to repent of their sins and believe the gospel, the good news, and thereby enter the kingdom of God and submit gladly to the king. So already in this very early stage of the Gospel of Mark, we have five proofs that Jesus is rightful king of the world and, therefore, king of our lives.

First, we had a divine forerunner, John the Baptist, who ran ahead of the king and proclaimed his way like a herald. Secondly, a divine coronation ceremony in which Almighty God himself anointed him directly with the descending Holy Spirit, not merely symbolically as the Jewish kings were with oil symbolizing the coming of the Spirit, but the Spirit himself descended on Jesus. And he was announced, proclaimed to the world, and specifically to Jesus, but also to the world. "You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased." And then thirdly, a sound defeat of Jesus' enemy, the central enemy, Satan, in direct spiritual warfare, resisting all of the temptations that Satan threw at him over a 40-day period in the desert. And then fourth, the clear proclamation of the message that I just proclaimed to you a moment ago. As he begins his public ministry after John is put in prison, "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe," that proclamation. And then fifthly, he's beginning to assemble his warriors who will join along with him, the apostles. They're not designated that yet, but they will be. And he walks along the Sea of Galilee and assembles them together, Simon and Andrew, James and John, saying, "Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."

Now in this passage that we're studying today, Jesus moves out to build his kingdom and calls people to enter it and to submit to his reign. Now, essential to this is that we sinners would recognize his authority and that it is his God-given right to rule over us, to give us commands that we must obey. We tend to, sinners, to be very hostile to authority, to be suspicious of authority, and we want to fight against it. Jesus seeks to win us, to yield to his authority. And throughout the gospel of Mark, we're going to see more and more evidences and persuasions of why we should submit to Jesus as our king.

 Now it begins with Jesus' teaching, with his words, the authority of Jesus' words. Look at verses 21 and 22. "They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. And the people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as their teachers of the law." So the context of this preaching ministry is a synagogue in Capernaum. As a continuation of the previous passage, Jesus had walked along the Sea of Galilee, called these four disciples, future apostles, to follow him, Peter and Andrew, brothers, James and John, brothers, two sets of brothers. They were fishing along the sea and Jesus called them to follow him. And instantly they dropped their nets and followed him. They went with him, then, to Capernaum.

Now, Capernaum was a prosperous fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. The sea itself was a freshwater lake, 7 miles wide, 13 miles long. Now, the word Capernaum literally means village of Nahum, village of Nahum. Perhaps it was the hometown of the Old Testament prophet Nahum. The town was on a Roman road called the Via Maris. Historians tell us that Capernaum had a sea wall, eight feet high, with a promenade that sat upon it about a half-mile long. Fishing piers were built out on that, on that sea wall, and they extended over a hundred feet out into the Sea of Galilee. That would be a perfect place for fishing ships to come in and unload their catches of fish.

Capernaum would become the base of Jesus' operations in that region for the beginning of his ministry after he had been evicted from his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus would do a river of miracles in Capernaum, a river of miracles, one after the other. There never has been, never will be, a wonder-worker like Jesus. But later, he would condemn the city of Capernaum for failing to repent, for failing to enter the kingdom as they should have done. And he would condemn them in Matthew 11:21 through 24, also with Chorazin, the city of Chorazin and Bethsaida. "Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you'll go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you, Capernaum, had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day, but I tell you it'll be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you, Capernaum."

To whom much is given, much is required, and the people of Capernaum were given much. They were given ample evidence of the greatness of Jesus Christ by these miracles that he did. Now, Mark tells us on the Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue. Synagogue was the center of Jewish religious life in every community. The word literally means a gathering, where they were gathered together, an assembly, a place where the Jews would meet, especially on the Sabbath, and they would read the Scriptures and they would pray and worship. Keep in mind that the common people did not have individual copies of the Scripture, and so they would come to hear the word of God read, what we know now as the Old Testament. Of course, the New Testament didn't exist yet. And so they would assemble together and they would read scripture. Furthermore, every qualified Jewish man in the synagogue had the right to comment on the scripture, on the passage that was read, to say something, a word of exhortation. And Jesus began to teach in that setting.

Now, Mark is a very efficient and a very economical writer. It's the shortest of the Gospels, and he doesn't give us any sampling of Jesus' teaching here. He focuses instead on the reaction of the people who heard him. They were stunned, absolutely stunned. Now the stunned reactions of the people who heard Jesus' teaching were very common, actually. Later in his ministry, Jesus' enemies sent some temple police to go arrest Jesus. And the temple police went to arrest him, and after a time, they came back empty-handed. And so Jesus' enemy said, "Where is he?" And they said, "No one ever spoke like this man." Oh, they were blown away, John 7:46. And so it was also in this synagogue in Capernaum, the people were amazed. The Greek word implies they were stunned, blown away. They'd never heard anything like it. And what amazed them was the overwhelming sense of authority with which Jesus taught.

He was not like their teachers of the law. Now, the teachers of the law, sometimes in some translations called scribes, were responsible for the constant copying of the Hebrew scriptures. Remember, again, they didn't have printing presses. They didn't have ways to mass-produce literature as we have today, and so every copy of the Scripture was handwritten, very costly. So these scribes, these teachers of law, worked all day long, copying literally letter by letter, the Hebrew scrolls, so there would be another copy of the Law of Moses, the Writings, and the Prophets. Now they were experts, so they believed, in what the Word taught and so they were responsible for teaching the people. Scribes were often honored with the title "rabbi," and they loved this. They loved to be greeted in the marketplaces and have people be deferential to them and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at the banquets.

However, their teaching style was far removed from the words of Scripture, long since removed, many steps removed. They would zero in on what previous rabbis centuries before had taught about this or that. And then how subsequent rabbis, then, commented on what the earlier rabbis said. And they would go over all the debates and wranglings of the Jewish people over this or that scripture and how this or that rabbi had resolved that particular wrangling. And they would go over the minutia of the law. Some of these scribes were mystical or allegorical in the way that they taught. Their position in Jewish society was secure because no one could challenge them. They had absolute teaching authority, the position of teaching. Very few people, however, the common people, even understood what they were talking about. Just didn't make a lot of sense to them. And they themselves were merely parroting what some other human teachers had said.

And in their traditionalism, they got further and further from the true Word of God. Jesus leveled all that, blew it all away. He razed that structure to the ground by the way he taught. He didn't cite any previous rabbis at all. He didn't cite any other human authority. He gave no allegiance to the high priest, didn't say anything about the school of instruction, biblical instruction in Jerusalem. He didn't refer to any of that. Instead, he spoke with direct, unquestionable, personal authority concerning the Word of God. Now, Matthew gives us a sampling of this. So in the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew, he says, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool,' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

And then a few moments later, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." Amazing. "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you," and then teaching clearly about the dangers of hell, teaching that the love of God does not merely check your external performance and behavior, but actually probes the inner workings of your heart, not only the external danger of the physical act of murder, but the eternal danger of anger, which is the root of murder. Not just the physical danger of actual physical adultery, but the eternal danger to your soul of lust, probing the heart.

Keep in mind, Jesus' handling of the law was perfectly right. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense because the tenth commandment was a commandment against covetousness, coveting. And where do you covet, except it in the heart, in the inside the heart? Coveting leads to actions, it's true, but the law was against a heart disposition, a heart sin. Jesus just extended that to all of it. God is not looking merely at the external appearance, but he's looking at the heart. And keep in mind also, that he was the first to unfold the infinite danger that hangs over all sinners of hell, of eternal conscious torment.

As I said in the book of Job, there is no clear doctrine of hell in the Old Testament. Doctrine of the grave, but beyond that, fires of hell, eternal conscious torment, it was Jesus that opened that up for us, the threat of hell. And perhaps the greatest, most shocking assertion of all are the things he said about himself and how he related to the Word of God, the Old Testament. When he had taught in Nazareth, the scroll of Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled it. And he found a specific place that related to the ministry he was about to begin, Isaiah 61. Luke 4:18 and 19 teaches this. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind and to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And after rolling the scroll of Isaiah back up, he sat down in the customary physical position of a teacher and said these stunning words, "Today in your hearing this scripture is fulfilled." Fulfilled. It's a messianic prophecy. Jesus overtly claimed to be the one about whom Isaiah wrote. It's a staggering claim, a staggering level of authority. Our salvation, our salvation depends on hearing Jesus' words properly, understanding the authority with which he speaks to our souls. Those threats against anger, those threats against lust are threats against us. He is the judge who will sit on our final court trial, on our souls, and evaluate us. His legal opinion on the state of your soul matters because he is the king. And Jesus said in John 5:24 and 25, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life." The salvation of your soul depends on hearing Jesus speak the truth and believing that it's coming straight from God through Jesus. 

 Secondly, the authority of Jesus' judgment. Suddenly in the middle of this authoritative teaching that Jesus was doing, a demon raised its ugly head, revealed its presence. Verses 23, 24, "Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.'" Mark says, "immediately." He just says that a lot or, "just then." It's just a shocking moment, right in the middle. It's the sound of Jesus' voice and the purity of his word that forced this demon up and out to reveal himself. And the demon's reaction, we're going to see this again and again in the gospel of Mark, the terror with which demons greeted Jesus, they're overtly terrorized by him.

So, we get to this hidden power of demons. Many times in Mark's Gospel, we're going to come across the issue of demon possession. There is not a single clear example of demon possession in the Old Testament. There are some moments here and there, but it's not overt. There are only two mentioned in the book of Acts. It's not addressed in the Epistles. The activity of demons is huge in the book of Revelation, but it's especially centered in the Gospels during the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus encountered demons, it seems, every day, every single day. And he drove out demons, and driving out demons was one of the central displays of the power of his kingdom. It proved his authority, more on that in a moment. Seems like demons preferred to stay hidden, to do their work invisibly, subtly, even so it is today. But when Jesus came into the world, he brought the blinding light of his glory and of his truth. And it burned within the evil darkness that the demons had crafted, spiritual darkness. And suddenly they come skittering out and running like cockroaches in a darkened kitchen.

When I was a student at MIT, I lived in a fraternity in Boston. It was built in the Back Bay, which is landfill, friends, it's a bunch of landfill, and the cockroaches live there. We had to bomb that house three times a year. One night, I woke up with cockroaches running across my face. I knew that would get you. If you went down at night and turned on the light, there they'd be, and they'd run for cover. Amazingly, the demons run to Jesus, not away from him. But the demoniac of Gadara, you're going to see that, he comes from afar to Jesus. You know why? He knows he has nowhere to hide. You got to go deal with him. If you want something from him, you better go beg him because you can't get away from him. They understand who he is, and they're afraid of him.

And so when Jesus came, he turned on the light and they were revealed. So what are they? What are demons? Well, we addressed this at the end of the book of Job, sermons on behemoth and leviathan. Remember I said at the time, not a hundred percent certain the behemoth and leviathan represent demons and Satan, but I am a hundred percent certain that demons and Satan are an issue today and we need to understand their role in human suffering.

So, demons are fallen angels. Angels are spiritual beings, created similar to us in that they have intelligence, verbal skills, ability to evaluate God's work, and worship him. They just don't have the physical side of the bodies that we have. Revelation 12 makes it plain that Satan led some sort of a heavenly revolt against Almighty God, and it seems a third of the demons joined him in that heavenly revolt. As the dragon's tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and flung them to the earth, seems it's talking about angels that fell with him, and he lost his heavenly battle and was hurled to the earth. Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." And so the demons joined him. They are the Devil and his angels, his angels. Now, it seems some of them were locked immediately or some subsequent time later in a pit of some sort, a pit that they find torturous and that they're terrorized of it. They're held in that bottomless pit for future judgment, but that is not hell. That's not their final judgment. Demons have far greater power than human beings do. They have the ability to infiltrate human minds, to insinuate thoughts, mental temptations, and occasionally to take possession of people, to totally take over a human personality so that they violate their will. A person doesn't have a will in the matter anymore. That's what we're dealing with.

So in that synagogue in Capernaum, this demon inhabiting the body of a man cries out in terror, in rage to Jesus. Look at verse 24. "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God." Now, we're going to see many times in the Gospel of Mark, as well as other places in the New Testament, the demons have a very accurate theology. They get it right. The things they say is generally true, theologically.

As James said, "Demons believe that God is one," or that there is one God, "and they shudder." They get the doctrine right. Remember the demon possessed girl who walked along behind Paul and Silas in Philippi? Acts 16:17, "The demon possessed girl was crying out. 'These men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved.'" Every word of that's true. So it is with demonic statements about Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. They're factually true. That demon calls him Jesus of Nazareth. That's his hometown. It's his human name, his human location. He is fully human. But he also says, "I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God." Holy, sinless, you've never sinned. And you recently defeated our king Satan in a battle in the desert, and you still haven't sinned. You're holy. But you're not just a holy person, you are the Holy One of God.

Later, we're going to have this open demonic testimony in Mark 3:11, "Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, 'You are the son of God,'" accurate theology. So the demons speak the truth about Jesus and we're going to find again and again, they are terrified of him. Why are they terrified of him? First, they know who he is, and second, they know who they are. That's why they're terrified. Jesus is their mortal enemy. They're in open warfare against Almighty God. And beyond this, it seems in Revelation 12, along with Satan, they know that their time is short. They don't have much longer to do all this. Revelation 12:12, "They know that their end will be the lake of fire." That's their future punishment. And the lake of fire was crafted as a punishment for the Devil and his angels. But then since we humans, under Adam, joined Satan in his rebellion against God, we get the same punishment that was crafted for the Devil and his angels if we don't repent of our sins and flee to Christ.

And so Jesus will say in his judgment, in Matthew 25:41, "He will say to those on his left," the goats, the unbelievers, "'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" Those are demons. Furthermore, there was, at that time, an immediate possibility that Jesus would command those demons to be thrown into the pit to join other demons that are being tortured until their final damnation, that they'll lose their freedom to roam on the earth. 2 Peter 2:4, "God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment." So Tartarus, the pit, it's a pit. Doesn't come across, always, in the English translations, but there's a pit. Also Jude 6, "The angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home, these he has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day." So they've not been judged finally yet, but they've lost their freedom and they're being tortured. They're afraid of this.

So another time in Matthew 8:29, a demon cries out, "What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to us before the appointed time?" Are we going to lose our freedom? So the demons knew full well that Jesus is the judge of all the earth. It is his right and his power to condemn all demons, if he wants, to immediate torture. He is Lord of heaven and earth. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. That's who he is. And so the demon is terrified of Jesus' power to judge.

And let me just stop and say our salvation in part begins with a healthy fear of Jesus' power to condemn us to hell. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," Proverbs 9:10. John 5:27 that God has given the Son authority to judge "because he is the Son of Man." He has the right to judge your soul. He has that right. Matthew 25:31, 32, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels, the holy angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him," all of them, "and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

And then again, Revelation 20:11 through 15. "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were open. Another book was open, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

So it is right for us to fear that and flee to Christ. It is right for us to understand that Christ came to drink hell for us on the cross, that we might be set free from that terror ourselves. And all you have to do is repent of your sins and believe the good news, that your sins can be forgiven by simple faith and that you will be welcomed into the family of God. That's the gospel. Demons understood better than all of those unbelievers in Capernaum what kind of threat Jesus' power, as judge of all the earth, holds for them. The demons were in terror of him. And so we must flee to Christ.

 So thirdly, the authority of Jesus' power. Verses 25, 26, "'Be quiet,' said Jesus sternly. 'Come out of him.' The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek." Jesus has direct and immediate power over this and every demon. Again and again, we're going to see this. I love this phrase that came into my mind as I was memorizing Mark: effortless power over demons, effortless. There's never any struggle by Jesus. It's not hard. Doesn't matter how many of them there are, effortless. And Jesus gives this demon an instant command, "Be quiet." Though what the demon said about him was true, he wasn't going to be hired by the kingdom of God to proclaim biblical truth. He didn't need demonic messengers, doesn't want demonic messengers. He would commit to us, dear friends, the message of reconciliation, the ministry of reconciliation. He would entrust it to us and give us the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim freedom for captors and the advance of the kingdom of God. That's our job, not demons, so he tells him to be quiet.

And he didn't want these people in the synagogue to listen to another word from this demon because there is such a thing as the doctrine of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and the doctrines of demons." John 8:44, "When he lies," Satan lies, "he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies." So tells him to be quiet and then he gives the healing command for this poor man, "Come out of him."

Now, the account tells us nothing about this man. We don't know anything about him. Other accounts will have conversations. There'll be things that happen after the healing. Not this time, we don't know anything about this man, nothing, but the time had come for him to be set free from this demon. And then we see demonic obedience, "demonic obedience." I put little air quotes there. Find it interesting that in every case the demons instantly obey Jesus. As a matter of fact, we're going to find, in many cases, they're more obedient than people are. At the end of this chapter, a leper, he's going to heal a leper, and tell him not to tell anyone, but go to the priest. Remember? Remember this guy? We'll get to him, God willing, but he disobeyed. And he told everyone, spread the story everywhere. And what's the result? Jesus couldn't enter any town or village anymore because of the throngs.

The demon instantly obeys but he doesn't do it cleanly. You know what I'm saying? He doesn't do it cleanly. He makes the man writhe around in convulsions like an epileptic seizure. You're going to see this again in Mark 9:25 through 27 with the demon possessed boy. When that demon came out, he threw the boy on the ground and made him writhe around foaming at the mouth, dehumanizing him. So this is the demon's way of showing rebellion. He hates Jesus. He hates his absolute authority of power over him. He writhes and rages, but he has no choice but to obey. And so he comes out of the man with a shriek, howling in rage that he has to obey. Well, he has the right theology about Jesus, as do all the demons, but he hates him. That's the difference.

That's why James is saying it's not enough to have the right theology. Do you have a heart relationship with God through Christ? Do you love him? Do you yearn to please him? It's different than the demonic theology. The only reason he obeys is because he's forced to, because of terror of immediate judgment. Here is the awesome power of King Jesus. By Jesus the entire universe was made, by the word of his power. And by Jesus also, the entire universe is moment by moment sustained, by the word of his power. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, he will say, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me." All the angels, both the good ones and the evil ones, will fall down before his glorious throne. And all of human beings, both the redeemed and the condemned, will fall down before him and proclaim Jesus is Lord.

Finally, the only right response. How should we respond? Fear and amazement leading to faith. Verses 27, 28, "The people are all so amazed that they asked each other, 'What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.'" Verse 28, "News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." People are amazed, but they're amazed specifically at his authority. "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." They're focused on authority, so I organized this sermon on the issue of authority, on Jesus' authority, because that's what they're amazed at. You have heard that it was said, but I say to you. You have heard, but I say to you. And the fulfillment of the scripture, "Today in your hearing, this scripture is fulfilled." Also, as he says in John's Gospel, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me."

Wow. Can you imagine hearing that as a Jew in the first century? Moses wrote about me. It's true, though. So this teaching searched their hearts and their minds. It exposed their heart sins and made them realize their need for a savior. Then they see a demon so obviously far beyond their power to control, immediately in terror obey Jesus' word, so news about him spread widely. As a result of this stunning day in the synagogue, the word spread rapidly through all of Galilee, but it would not stop there. It would not stop there. The word's been spreading ever since. Amen? Was not going to stop in Galilee. God the Father said to God the Son in Isaiah 49 in verse 6, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

So what about you, dear friends? The people of Capernaum, as we said, as a whole did not repent and believe, though they saw all of those miracles. They did not cross over from death to life. Jesus said the people of Tyre and Sidon would've repented in sackcloth and ashes if they saw that ministry, if they heard his words. The question is, what about you? Have you repented of your sins, of your rebellion against God? Have you turned away from rebellion and wickedness and in faith, in the abandonment of faith, come to Christ and trusted in him? He spoke a word of woe to Capernaum because they didn't repent. Do you think you'll go up to the heavens? No, you're going to be cast down to the depths because you didn't repent and believe. So we have to combine the fear of the Lord's power to judge with this attraction, this amazement, at such a man, at the Son of God, and be drawn into a love relationship with Christ and find, in faith, the forgiveness of all of our sins.

Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the beauty of your Word. Thank you for the power that this gospel account shows Jesus' power over demons, Jesus' power to tell us the truth, Jesus' power and right to judge. We thank you that by his death on the cross and by his resurrection, we have everything we need for the full forgiveness of our sins. Lord, I pray that you would move us now by your spirit to turn away from wickedness, to turn away from evil and sin, and to find in Christ a loving Savior and the King of our lives. In his name we pray, amen.

Jesus spoke at Capernaum, showing His authority through His words, judgment, and power. In response, fear and amazement should lead to faith.

The post The Authority of the Son of God (Mark Sermon 5) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Luke's second book is a companion to his gospel, telling one story about Christ's works. The apostles, trained by Christ, will transform the world with their message.

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Mark 1:17 is a message from the Holy Spirit to us to move us, provoke us, challenge us, equip us to become fishers of men - evangelizing the lost.

 Well, take your Bible and turn to Mark chapter 1. And, today we're going to zero in on just one verse. It's not common for me to do this, to preach an entire sermon on one verse, but we're going to zero in on verse 17. Last week, we walked through the whole section that you just heard Dave read, but we're going to zero in on verse 17, in which Jesus says, "Come follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." And as I do, I want to give you my sense of the context. I've been here since October of 1998. So in my 22nd year, there is no church I would rather pastor than this church. It's a delight to be in this church. I love this church. This is a healthy church. There is such a joy that we all have of benefiting from one another's spiritual gifts, benefiting from the grace that's at work in each other's lives, to have that rich fellowship that we have, and to enjoy the excellent worship music that we just had. So good. And then the friendships that we make in our home fellowships, all of these things are a delight.

But, friends, we are surrounded every day, in this community, in this part of the world, by people who are perishing in their sins. And I believe that this church should do more about that than we're doing. I yearn to see more baptisms in this church, in which the people stand in this baptistery and they testify along this basic pattern. "I was lost. I met a member of this church, and now I'm here today, to testify to my faith in Christ." That basic pattern. I yearn to see lots of those. Don't you? I mean, aren't those times when we get those baptisms, aren't they incredible? The joy that's involved in being part of this eternal work that God is doing, that we actually are co-laborers with Almighty God in building an eternal kingdom, there is nothing like that. The joy is incredible.

And I want to be part of that. I want to be part of that joy, that the Father says he shows in the presence of angels over one sinner, whoever repents, he just throws a heavenly feast of joy. "Come celebrate with me because what was lost is now found." And he's actually committed to us the ministry and the message of reconciliation. We have an eternally consequential work to do. And I don't want us, at First Baptist Durham, I don't want us to be complacent. I don't want us to stay within that comfort zone, of being in a healthy church, surrounded by good Christian people and just being happy with that. And so there's a delight there, but there's also a fear for me, as a pastor, that we're going to have to give Christ an account for failure as well as for success. And I just don't want our church to fail. I don't want our church to have to give him an account for numerous gospel opportunities that he went ahead of us and prepared, and we missed it because we were self-focused.

So I want to zero in on this one text, "To follow me, come follow me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men." I consider this providential, that we're here now, in this time, in the history of our church, that we get to talk about this now. Now first, I want to give a clear caveat to all of you. Some of you just know the truth about me, but I know almost nothing about fishing. I mean, really, I think in my entire life, I've caught one fish. It was a sun fish in a little pond across the street in Massachusetts. It was not impressive. And no one took a picture of it. So I've never enjoyed, when it comes to fishing, either the process of fishing or the product of fishing. I mean, what do you get after all that work? You get a fish. It's just not impressive to me. I don't like seafood. I'm not going to eat it.

Now some of you, however, are hugely into fishing. So I'm a little intimidated by you. I'm going into uncharted waters, so to speak. Sorry about that. Some of you have been out in the open sea. You've done big game fishing—tuna, marlin, swordfish, something like that. Others of you do more of that freshwater fishing where you go out in those shiny sleek boats. And, you fish for freshwater bass or something like that. Others of you, now this is an art form, is that trout fishing with fly fishing, where you tie, you spend like six hours tying a knot that looks like a fly. And apparently, trout are incredibly intelligent. They can tell the difference, so you got to do a good job tying that fly. And then you just get this rhythm going with your wrists. And you kind of just lay the line down just on the surface of the water and the trout strikes and you land a trout. I know nothing about any of that, right? That's just not my area of expertise.

But the men that Jesus was calling, in the text that Dave just read, they were professional fishermen. It's what they did, all the time. Now their manner of fishing was using nets, and, apparently, they were kind of circular nets with weights that they would throw out into the Sea of Galilee. And the weights would sink down and someone would dive down and tie them off at the bottom, and then they'd pull up the nets. And this is how they were fishing. And so, he's using a language that they would've understood. he's using basically a daily life parable, perhaps. And he's inviting them into his training school to teach them how to do a different kind of fishing, a fishing with a far greater eternal consequence. "Come follow me and I'll make you to become fishers of men."

Now, just before Jesus left the surface of the Earth and went up to heaven, where he will stay until the second coming of Christ, just before he left, he gave in each of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—and then also in the book of Acts, a version of what's generally known as the Great Commission, commanding the church that he left behind to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded, and that he would be with them, empowering them and enabling them to be witnesses. All four Gospels and the book of Acts. So the questions in front of us, as we look at verse 17, for us to stand under this verse as though he's talking to us and we would hear him say, "Come follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." So how do we do that?

 And the first step is to follow Christ. "Come follow me," and Jesus said, "and I'll make you to become fishers of men." Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee, as we've said. Peter as Simon and his brother, Andrew, were casting their nets into the lake. Further on, you've got James and John. They're brothers there. All four of them professional fishermen. And Jesus wanted them to become fishers of men. Now essential to their training, as fishers of men, was first be with him. To "Come follow me, be with me." Everything that we're going to see in the Gospel of Mark, if God gives us time to continue through this whole incredible Gospel, 16 chapters, will help us and prepare us to be also what Jesus was, a fisher of men.

All of Jesus' healings show his overwhelming compassion for the miseries of our sinful human race. All of Jesus' teachings were, in some sense, ultimately focused on the salvation of souls from sin. All of Jesus' encounters give us some pattern that we can follow. He is our role model in saving souls. He is our mentor in saving souls. He's our teacher and our coach and our trainer and our commanding officer in saving souls. He is the general who leads from the front in saving souls. He is the shepherd who sends out his sheep as among ravenous wolves to save souls. And he's not the hireling that runs away at the sight of the wolf. But he goes out in front and he's willing to lay down his life for the sheep, that they would be so saved.

And so he's saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And he says, "I will make you to become fishers of men." Not all the translations keep the word become, but it's in there. It's in the Greek. It's in the ESV. And that is, it's a strong statement. "I will make you to become what you are not." So they have to first realize, first and foremost, their own deficiency. This is a key spiritual principle in the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." For us, just to be honest and say, "God, I'm not a fisher of men. I really am not. I'm not an evangelist. I don't really lead people to Christ. It's not something I'm doing, God. I'm just not winning lost people." He knows. So zero in on that word become, "I will make you become something you are not." He has that power to do that. And that was true of these four. Simon and Andrew, James and John were not fishers of men at that point.

And as the story unfolds, as the Gospels unfold, you see this more and more. They're really not on the same page with him. A clear example of this is in John chapter 4. Take a minute and go over to John 4, if you would. Put your finger here in Mark 1:17 and we'll come back to it. But, if you look at John chapter 4, Jesus is going up, after his Judean ministry, at the beginning of his ministry there, and it says he had to go through Samaria. Well, Jews did everything they could to not go through Samaria. Why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? Well, he had an evangelistic encounter there that had been set up by Almighty God with a Samaritan woman. The disciples separate from Jesus and go into the Samaritan village to buy food, buy provisions. Meanwhile, Jesus has this incredible conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. It's a paradigm example of evangelism. It's one of the greatest in the Bible. So, if you want to know how to become a fisher of men, look at Jesus' technique with the Samaritan woman.

He begins, first, he strikes up a conversation, and he starts talking to her. And she's shocked. She didn't expect him to say anything. It's kind of awkward. Jewish man, she's a Samaritan woman who didn't expect anything. And he spoke to her and asked her for a drink, and she's surprised. And then, Jesus says, in John 4:10, if you look at it, I've called this before, when it comes to being fisher of men, this is a lure with four hooks on it. All right? A lure with four hooks. It's one statement he makes. And it's very provocative, and it's very fascinating. So one basic lesson on evangelism is be interesting. Draw people in to conversation. And so he says to her this, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who speaks to you, you would've asked him and he would've given you living water." She's never heard anything like that in all her life. What in the world?

So she deconstructs it. And she ends up going through each of the four points in different ways in their ensuing conversation. First of all, "What is the gift of God? What does that mean? And who are you? What's so special about you? You don't look special. So why should I be so impressed with who it is that's speaking to me? And thirdly, why should I ask you for anything? You have nothing. You don't have a rope. You don't have a bucket. You don't have anything. So how could you give me anything? And finally, what in the world is living water?" And so she's drawn into this conversation. And by the time they get done, she is 100% convinced that he is the Messiah, the Promised One sent from God. And she leaves her water jar there and runs into the Samaritan village. And by a few things she says, the entire village comes out to meet Jesus.

Now meanwhile, the disciples. Oh, here we go. What were they doing? Well, they were buying food. Mission accomplished. Good job. They come back with food. And they say, "Alright, we're here. Let's eat." I wonder what those food buying opportunities were like for them. Like, "What are we doing here? We're in Samaria. We're buying food from Samaritans. Can we just get this done and get out of here?" But they come back and they say to Jesus, "Rabbi, eat something." And he says, "I have food to eat you know nothing about." And in my exegesis and understanding that statement, I stick in an extra word in there—"apparently." So it sounds like this to me, "I have food to eat that you apparently know nothing about."

Oh, could someone have brought him food? Oh, no. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work. That's my food." Then he said this, "Do you not say four months more and then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They're ripe for harvest. Even now the harvest is going on." And that woman brought that whole Samaritan village in, and they ended up believing in Christ.

Now, I've been convicted by that passage for a long time. I've thought, "How many such empty trips have I made to the supermarket, or my workplace setting or all kinds of things, where God had set up some evangelistic opportunities and I just missed it?" So when it says, "Follow me, and I'll make you become fishers of men," so go back to Mark 1:17, that word become, just be honest, be honest, and say, "Lord, would you make me be something I'm not? I am like the disciples. I don't care about souls. I want to be a fisher of men, but that's what I'm not."

Now, before we go on in this whole topic, I think, in order to be a fisher of men, you need to be certain first that Christ has landed you, that you have been caught by Christ's gospel, that you're a Christian, that your sins are forgiven, that you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can't be a fisher of men unless you yourself have been caught by Christ's Gospel. So be certain that you are born again. And then if you are, then you can come to him and say, "Would you make me like you are? Would you make me like yourself? Make me passionate for souls. Give me, Lord, the same passion for souls you have. Make me single-minded in this matter." Jesus was single-minded. He had to go through Samaria because there's a woman there, and through her, there's a whole village of Samaritans that he wants to save. That's the way Jesus was.

Remember that occasion with Zacchaeus, where he is going along and Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector. And he's a short man, remember? And so he climbs up in the sycamore fig tree to get a better view of Jesus. And Jesus stops below the tree and looks up and says, "Come down, Zacchaeus, for I must eat at your house today." There's a must. There's an obligation. "We're going to have a meal together, Zacchaeus." And He ends up leading him to faith in Christ. He ends up saving him. And Jesus said, in Luke 19:9-10, he said, "Today, salvation has come to this house, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Is that why you have come to every place you come to, to seek and to save? You should. Every encounter, to seek and to save, to seek and to save. That's what Jesus came to do. Luke 19:10, purpose statement.

What about us? Do we have anything like the same passion for the lost? I truly believe the central lack in my heart, and it may be yours as well, is a lack of genuine love for and compassion for lost people in their lostness, a sense of brokenness over what is going on in their lives because of their sins, a sense of weeping over it and grieving over it. I naturally don't have that feeling. I would say that's true of all of us. Naturally, apart from Christ, we don't really care that sin is shredding the lives of the people around us. It's ruining them from the inside out. It's corrupting them. It's destroying their marriages. It's destroying their family life. It's destroying them through addictions, hidden addictions, or even open addictions. We don't care like we should. So, only as we follow Christ will we be fishers of men.

 Now, this parable, this analogy, what is simile, metaphor, whatever, "fisher of men," has its limitations. All parables have limitations. And this one does too. Ordinarily, it is disastrous for the fish to be caught. I mean, what happens to the fish? I mean, when the fishermen lands it, in some cases, they get a club and beat its brains in, and then they gut it and eat it. So, Jesus, is that what's going to happen to the fish we catch? No, actually, quite the opposite. They're already getting their brains bashed in, and they're getting gutted and eaten by sin. Jesus is coming to free them. He's coming to give them life and give it abundantly. These are fish who, in the end, will be delighted that they were caught. They're going to spend eternity celebrating that they were caught by the fisher of men. So it's just good for the fish to be caught.

 Now let's talk of about some basic fishing technique. Fundamentally, we need to understand what evangelism is. Evangelism is tied to the Greek word for the good news, euangelion, the good message, the good news. As Jesus said in Mark 1:15, "the good news of the kingdom." So what is the good news? Well, we, years ago, kind of outlined the gospel message in four main headings: God, Man, Christ, Response. If you're going to evangelize, you need to know the gospel. And these four headings are key. You got to say some things about God. You got to say some things about the human condition. You got to say some things about Christ. And you got to call the people to respond. That's what evangelism is.

So what are you going to say about God? Say that he's the Creator of all things, heaven and earth. He made all things. And as the Creator, he is a king. He rules over all things. This is his stuff because he made it. And as the king, he is able to be the law giver. He gives laws and rules by which his empire, his kingdom, should be run. And as the law giver, he is the judge. He evaluates his subjects to see whether they obey his laws or not. And the laws are the Ten Commandments, which we know. Or even easier, the two great commandments which, he has said, summarize all the law and the prophets. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." So that's the God section.

The man or humanity section is, we are created in the image of God to have a relationship with him, a love relationship with him, and be subjects of his kingdom. But we have violated the king's laws. We have broken the laws. And if you're going to evangelize, you need to know the law and do law work on the people and show them, so that they understand that they have sinned. For example, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' But if you're even angry in your heart, you're in danger of the fire of hell. And you've heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But if you even lusted at a person, you've committed adultery in your heart and you're in danger of the fire of hell."

So you do law work. Talk about the two commandments saying, "Do you love God with every fiber of your being? Do you love your neighbor the way you love yourself?" And, in the end, I've had people say this again and again, "Well, you're expecting people to be perfect." No, I'm not. God is. "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father's perfect." And wherein you're not, you have sinned and broken God's commandments. And that's our condition, we are under the judgment of God the King, and we couldn't save ourselves.

So thirdly, God sent his son, Jesus Christ. He was born of the Virgin. He was fully human, but he was also the Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so he’s fully God, fully man. He lived a sinless life. He did amazing miracles. He taught amazing teachings. But most of all, he came to die on the cross in our place. He took the wrath of God and the judgment of God that we deserve on himself. On the cross, he died in our place, the death we deserve to die, so that he could give us a perfect righteousness in which we could stand on judgment day and survive. So you got three points, God, man, Christ. Now you got to call them to respond.

And there is no better call than right there on the same page you're looking at, look at Mark 1:15. "The time is at hand. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel." That's what you're calling them to do. They got to turn from their sins, acknowledge that they're sinners, turn from it, and believe the good news, this gospel message. Alright. So that's what this fishing is, that you are sharing that message in the power of the Holy Spirit, and calling on people to repent and believe.

Now what fishing isn't, is you don't need to land the fish. You don't have that power. To use another analogy, as he said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." The landing of the fish into the boat or on the shore is that they're born again. They're made a new creature through the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not have that power. It's not your task. But our task is to proclaim this message, God, man, Christ, response, in the power of the Spirit and leave the results to God.

 Now let's talk a little about our fishing equipment, fishing tackle. And common to all fishing tackle, that fishing equipment, is force. There's a force that the tackle puts on the fish, to take it out of its watery surroundings, and land it, put it on the boat, put it on the shore. There's a force to all fishing tackle. Now the central text for me, on this concept of force on the fish, is in John 6:44. Don't turn there, just listen. Jesus said, in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day."

Now that word, "draws," is a forceful word. It's used for a drag net, that fishermen draw through the water. They're pulling it strong through the water. It's also used for drawing a sword out of a scabbard. There's a force being put. Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to me if the Father doesn't draw them, put a force on their souls." No one up and comes to Christ unaided. That never happens, ever. They have to be drawn by the invisible force of the Holy Spirit, of God through the Holy Spirit. He puts a force on their souls and he draws them. And we use the expression that they are coming to Christ. They're coming. It's not a geographical physical movement from point A to point Z. But they are coming spiritually to Christ. Jesus says that cannot happen unless the Father puts a force on you, draws you.

Now, that doctrine is commonly, by some theologians, called the doctrine of irresistible grace. Because again, in John 6:44, it says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day," meaning you'll be saved. So when the Father puts his force on you, you're going to get saved. No one can say no. Do you not see the good news of that? We are going to fish, and we're going to land fish. It's going to work. Satan is such a liar in this. He's saying, "Ah, it's not going to work. Nobody's going to come," and so many do not come. But we're going to land some fish. Because when the Father puts his force on somebody, Jesus is going to raise him up from the dead on the last day. They're going to get saved.

And so, I don't like the term irresistible grace. It gives the picture of people being dragged kicking and screaming into the kingdom. Now I know C. S. Lewis was the most reluctant convert in all England. That was his problem. But he was a convert and he was delighted to come to Christ in the end. No one gets dragged kicking and screaming to Christ. They all want to come. And so I prefer, instead, the term effectual calling. It's more, it's better, effectual calling. So when God puts his force on a soul, it is effective. It's effective. It's like when he says, "Let there be light," there's light. God is powerful.

Now, we have some fishing tackle, though, by which we can put force on people's souls and bring them to Christ. So I want to zero in on four in particular. I could have called them the line, like a fishing line, but I'm going with net. So either way, net or line is okay. But there are four: the net of truth, the net of love, the net of fear, and the net of delight, these four. These four are powerful on people.

First of all, the net of truth. By this I mean biblical truth, Scripture. First and foremost, the scriptures of the gospel. When Paul says in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." The gospel truths, in the Scripture, put a force on people. They can't shake the truths they've heard. It weighs on them, and they think about it.

Think about Stephen, who was a tremendous evangelist, in Acts chapter 6, and he's reasoning and debating with some opponents. And it says in Acts 6:9-10, "These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke." So there's a powerful logic and reasoning and truth to the Scriptures, and it's irresistible. It's powerful. Same thing with the Apostle Paul. In Acts 17, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to rise from the dead. And it was immediately effective. Some Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

So this is a powerful Word. The Scripture has converting power. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, under the power of the Holy Spirit, preached a whole bunch of Old Testament prophecies predicting the resurrection of Christ and all that, and making the gospel plain, by these scriptural truths. It says in Acts 2:37, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart," cut to the heart, "and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'"

The Scriptures can stick in someone's mind and they can't shake them. I heard a story, from the 18th century, of a man who was a hundred years old. He was a healthy hundred year old farmer, in Colonial New England, around the time of George Whitfield, around the time of the Great Awakening, maybe around the year 1770. But he, at age a hundred, had not trusted Christ, but he's still healthy. He was sitting out in a field, under a tree, and he was thinking about his childhood, long life in his childhood. He went back to his boyhood years in Dartmouth, England, before he sailed for the New World, before he sailed for America.

And at the age of 15, he had heard a sermon preached by an English Puritan pastor named John Flavel. And the text was 1 Corinthians 16:22, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord Jesus." One text. 85 years ago, and he's thinking about it and the sermon and the exposition. And Flavel, in that sermon, focused on the horror of dying apart from Christ, and facing the curse and the wrath of God. And sitting under that tree, 85 years later, this man, Luke Short, came to faith in Christ.

Now, I think it's best that they not wait 85 years. 85 years of not being a Christian is a long time to waste your life. But at least he came. I've been on the airplane, sharing the gospel. And I get done, and we're preparing to land. We're in that landing pattern. And we've had a good conversation, but the guy hasn't come to Christ yet. And I said to this man, I said, "I'm going to pray tonight, that you will not be able to sleep, and you'll be thinking about the scriptures we've talked about." Now I never find out. They never call that, "Oh, by the way, I wasn't able to sleep. And I came to Christ." Until heaven, I won't know. But I've prayed for that, "Keep them up, Lord. Keep them awake. Make them think about the scriptures that we've talked about." So that's the first, the force or the net of truth.

Secondly, the net of love, the net of love. Christian love is a powerful apologetic for the gospel. This world of sin is vicious in its wickedness, vicious. Titus 3:3-5 talks about this kind of viciousness. It says there, "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy," listen to this phrase, "being hated and hating one another," being hated and hating one another. "But, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us."

So, into this mass, this pit of viper world that Jesus came into, we were hating and hating each other, being hated and hating one another, and where we lived in malice and envy. And then the kindness and love of God appeared in Christ. Says in Hosea 11:4, "I led them with cords of human kindness." Think about that. Isn't that good for my fishing analogy? Cords of human kindness. So, wrap them up with cords of kindness and love, with ties of love. No one did this better than Jesus. No one ever loved the way this man loved. And his followers did the same. You remember Stephen at the end, when he's being stoned to death, and he's dying under their wrath and malice? Do you remember what he said? He said, "Lord, please do not hold this sin against them."

Now, if you're Saul of Tarsus in an unconverted state, and you watch that man die like that, that puts us, the Lord later said, goads into Saul's soul, pushing him to Christ. And so the church should be a community of love, first within ourselves, that we would be a loving community. You walk in here and you feel the love. You walk into a home fellowship and you feel that the people really actually love each other. Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you're my disciples, if you love one another." So that FBC would be a community of love, just because we love each other. But also, it has converting power. Because the people out there, they don't see love like this. They don't know what it's like to be loved like that. Tertullian, a Christian apologist, around the year AD 200, was talking about the effect of that love on lost people. And he said, "These unconverted Romans are watching us, and they're saying, 'Behold, how they love one another. Behold, how they love one another.'"

But then, secondly, the love we show to them in particular. Christians have led the way in felt needs ministries, in establishing hospitals and clinics and benevolent ministries all over the world, in the pattern of Jesus, meeting temporal needs, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for orphans and widows. It's just something that Christians have done all along. In the early Roman era, they would go and find babies that had been exposed. They used to just leave them under bridges. And they would pick them up and raise them as their own.

All the way to the orphanages established by George Müller and Charles Spurgeon in Victorian England, 19th century England. Or even in that same era, William and Catherine Booth, who ministered to the poorest of London in the early days of the Salvation Army, Christians have displayed sacrificial love. What is God? What needs is God leading our church to meet here in Durham that we're presently not meeting? There are some that we are, but what are some new ministries that God might be laying on your heart, or your heart, or your heart, someone's heart, that could meet a felt need for the purpose of leading lost people to Christ? The nets of love.

Thirdly, the net of fear. The net of fear. "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." Fear of judgment, fear of wrath, leads people to Christ. They flee the wrath to come. They should be afraid. They should be more afraid of hell than they are. I think that we evangelists, we can fear death and hell on their behalf, because they're not afraid of it. Jesus talked more about hell than anyone that had ever lived before him. In Matthew 10:28, he said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Yes, I tell you, fear him.

I was watching the movie Free Solo, about Alex Honnold. Have you seen this movie, where he's climbing the Yosemite rock face with no equipment, just his hands? And he's hanging by fingertips on the side of that rock, thousands of feet up in the air. And I know, from what I've read, that he's an atheist. I know that he's lost, while he's hanging by his fingers by the side on the Yosemite wall. So, I was watching that differently than just a watcher of the movie. It's like, "Do you understand what you're hanging over?"

This image was first put in my mind by reading the historical circumstances of Jonathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," that he preached in Enfield, Connecticut, 1741. On the text, "In due time, their foot will slip." And he basically used the fact that the revival had passed Enfield by, and up to that point, most people hadn't been changed by it at all, to say, in a very kind of straight way, "It could be the gospels passing all of you by. And you're under the wrath of God, and you don't understand that you're basically walking on a rotten plank across the open pit of hell." And by the time he got done, the people were crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" They were in terror.

Now I know that it's not an easy ministry, that we would stimulate people to be afraid to die, stimulate people to be afraid of hell, but that's part of the job. That's part of the task. And it is one of the reasons it makes evangelism difficult to do. But you think about Pilgrim's Progress, and what was it that caused Christian to begin his pilgrimage? He realized, by reading in the book that he was reading, that he lived in a place called the City of Destruction and he didn't know it. And he knew that he has to get out of town. He's got to get out of the City of Destruction. So the net of fear.

And then, finally, the net of delight. Where did Christian flee to? Well, he fled to a place called the Celestial City. The Celestial City, heaven, is a beautiful place. You don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss it. And so the delights of heaven. One of his neighbors, Pliable, runs with him for a little while. I don't know if you remember this. And he says, "Well, tell me the beautiful place you're going. I've heard good things." He's like, "Well," Christian said, "there's an endless kingdom to be enjoyed and everlasting life to be given us, and that we may live in that kingdom forever. And there are crowns of glory to be given us, and garments that will make us shine like the sun in the sky. And there'll be no more crying nor sorrow, for he that is the owner of the place shall wipe all tears from our eyes." And Pliable says, "I'm in. I want to be part of that." It's the ultimate fear of missing out, friends. You don't want to miss this one.

But best of all, is the delight in being with Christ, being with Christ, just being with him. I remember, I was sharing the gospel with one individual, and we had been meeting multiple times, going carefully through the book of Romans. There was nothing more to say. We'd gotten through the whole thing. And I was talking to him about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And it ends, remember, they're sitting with Jesus and they're sharing a meal. And he's talking to them about the kingdom and all that. And then he breaks bread and disappears from their eyes. And they said, "Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the scriptures to us?" And this man that I'd been meeting with multiple times said to me, "I wish I had been there." I was like, "All right, stop. You can actually be there forever. What do you say?" "What do I do?" I said, "Ask Jesus to be your Savior." "Like how?" I said, "Ask him, now. Ask him, and he'll save you." And he did.

Delight. I want Christ. I want to be with Christ. And I want to be with him forever. And I want to be in that beautiful world. The net of delight. These are the four, these four powerful nets. John Bunyan himself, this is one of the great stories from church history, Bunyan himself was converted, in part, when he overheard the conversation of a couple of unnamed women. He was a tinker, which means he went from place to place, sharpening knives and repairing pots and pans. And he overheard some women. And this is what he said, "I thought they spoke as if joy did make them speak. And they spoke with such pleasantness of scripture language and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found a new world." They didn't even know he was listening. They were just so filled with joy at what their life was going to be like in heaven. He's like, "I'm on the outside looking in. I want in."

So do you see these four nets? The net of truth, Scripture truth. The net of love, of cords of human kindness, showing people hospitality, meeting felt needs, doing ministries, the net of love. And the net of fear, that they would understand what will happen if they do not trust Christ, that they're under the wrath of God, and judgment is coming soon and they don't know when. And then the net of delight, the delights of heaven, but especially the delight of being with Jesus. Use that fishing tackle.

 Now you may say, "Where are the fish? How am I going to find the fish?" Veteran fishermen among you will tell you, "Look, you can have the best equipment and you can be out there. You can go to the same place you’ve been before. You can have the expensive sonar thing that tells you definitely where the fish are, and you can still catch no fish." That happened twice to Peter. You know that? Peter went out and fished all night long and caught nothing. Twice. In Luke 5:5, "We’ve worked hard all night and haven't caught a thing." And then again in John 21:3, they went out, got into the boat, but that night, they caught nothing. Let me tell you something. Jesus knows where the fish are. And better than that, not only does he know where the fish are, he actually has secret power over their little fish brains, to make them make a strong left hand turn and swim into Peter's net. What in the world's going on with that? You remember what happened. He caught so many fish that the boat began to sink.

So they're swimming in the Sea of Galilee, just swimming, just living their fish lives. And then, suddenly, they turned and went right into the net. Jesus has the power to make the fish swim into these nets. He has that kind of power. Throughout church history, again and again, God, through the Holy Spirit has led his messengers to go to specific places and do specific ministries, because there are some unconverted people ready to come to Christ. In the Muslim world, you see this with dreams, where people have dreams, and they're told to go to a certain city and a man who will be wearing a red coat and have a certain hat. These kinds of things happen. And God sets up that occasion and they come to Christ.

But think about Philip. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in Acts 8, and the angel told him where to go, "Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he goes down there, and what does he find? An Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the book of Isaiah the prophet, but doesn't understand. "Can you explain it to me?" Oh my goodness. Oh, God, give me an opportunity like that. If I can't land that fish, something's wrong with me. "I'm reading Isaiah 53, is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?" "Oh, God," pray that, say, "God, would you give me this week somebody who wants me to explain Isaiah 53 to them?" But that was orchestrated by God. He set it up. He brought Philip to where of the fish were.

And along with this, dear friends, we need a single-minded devotion to fishing. Single-minded devotion. Paul said in Acts 20:24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, my only aim is to the finish race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Single-minded. My life is for this purpose. We're distracted by so many things. We're into so many things that have no eternal consequence. Ask God to make you a fisher of men.

George Whitfield, who's one of the greatest evangelists in history, speaking before thousands of people, he also was into individual personal evangelism too. And he said, "God forbid that I should travel in a carriage or anywhere else, with anyone for a quarter of an hour and not speak to them about Christ." God forbid. If he gives me 15 minutes with somebody, I'm going to talk to him. D. L. Moody, another traveling evangelist, spoke to thousands of people, made a personal commitment to not go to bed every day if he had not spoken, individually and personally, to somebody about Christ. Many times, he was just about to go to bed and forgot. And he got up and went out in the street and found somebody to talk to. D. L. Moody.

 So I'm going to finish by making to you a direct and urgent appeal. I'm going to ask you to hear, in this text today, Mark 1:17, Christ calling on all of us to make us become what we have not been up to this point, fishers of men. That you would realize we have a tremendous opportunity here. Estimates show us that the Triangle region of North Carolina will double in population over the next 25 years. It's already just growing. You can see it. You can see the condominiums that are going up, the houses that are being built. These are commercial developers that think that people are going to pour into this area. Many of them, most of them, will be lost, will be unchurched. It's opportunity for us. It's an opportunity.

And for us, I think it begins with the power of the Holy Spirit that comes on us, in answer to prayer. "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses." So I am calling on all of you, the elders are calling on all of you, to join us in prayer for four consecutive Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 to 7:30, or longer if the Holy Spirit wants us to stay longer. You'll know at the time. If you're there, you'll know we're supposed to stay. But for four weeks, to pray for evangelistic fruitfulness. It's going to start on February 23rd, and it's going to go through March 16th, from 6:30 to 7:30. We'll have childcare as we always do. That's a slot I usually teach the Bible in. We'll be right here in this sanctuary and we'll pray for an hour, for four weeks, for evangelistic fruit and power. Close with me in prayer.

Father, thank you for the time that we've had to study your word today. I pray that you would just do a supernatural work in us, to make us fishers of others, fishers of human beings, of people, that we can see the gospel work mightily in this Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. God, give us grace, give us fruit, give us power, give us a heart for the lost. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Just as the apostles are called to be fishers of men, so are we. This messages explores how to fish for and evangelize the lost.

The post Fishers of Men (Mark Sermon 4) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Andy gives a brief introduction and survey of the book of Acts.

The post Acts: Introduction appeared first on Two Journeys.

In Mark 1, we see Jesus begin to build his kingdom of light as he overcomes temptation, preaches the good news, and calls people to follow him.

We continue in our study of this incredible gospel of Mark. And for me, as a lover of history, it's fascinating to see how the greatest empires of the world got their start. How they were built. Alexander the Great was 21 years old when his father or Phillip of Macedon, died. And he immediately seized that moment by assassinating his two most powerful rivals, and then building a coalition of city-states into a massive Greek army, and then going east to topple the Persian empire. He moved out with such decisiveness and ruthlessness, and rapidity that the book of Daniel likens him to a leopard with four wings or to a beast that moves across the earth without even touching the ground. Ruthlessness and speed, Alexander the Great.

Then there's Julius Caesar, who used political cunning and strategic marriages to aristocratic women to angle himself and position himself so that he could become the head of a powerful army of Roman legions, then used his military genius to conquer Gaul, which is modern-day France in nine years. He trains his soldiers personally with meticulous care, the care of a skilled craftsman. And then he led from the front boldly and courageously. And again, we see the same thing, relentless ambition, ruthlessness, and power. 

Then there's Genghis Khan, much the same. Clever, ruthless, and treacherous, built together a band of waring tribes into a massive world-conquering force after his first battle against the Tatars. He slaughtered everyone who was taller than an axle wheel. This is the kind of ruthlessness with which these world conquers build their kingdom. 

Now Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And it is true that his kingdom conquers all enemies and extends, and the end will extend to the ends of the earth and will last for all time. But his manner of building his empire is very different. Very different than what all of these world conquerors have done. Now, the power of Jesus Christ is absolute. There's no one in this room that has a full sense of the magnitude of Jesus' power. His omnipotence. No one could have stood before him. Demons knew it, and they trembled before him and instantly obeyed every one of his commands. Jesus controlled the weather. The winds and the waves obeyed his voice. His word commanded them. Jesus controlled nature. Fish swam into nets to prove his power. What army of mere mortals could have withstood him? 

He could not be killed unless he chose to lay down his life. He said plainly, "No one can take my life from me. But I lay it down freely." So what that means is if the Romans, who had the most powerful empire on earth at the time, had assembled all of their legions from around the world and met him in a plane of battle, he could have stood alone against them. Alone. And if he had willed and said, "Be dead," to all of them, they would have instantly dropped dead. That's the kind of power he had. But that's not how the prince of peace will to build his kingdom. Mark 1 shows the beginning of him moving out. Moving out to build an empire, a kingdom that will last for all eternity. We see a very different approach. The building of the only kingdom that will last forever and ever. A kingdom of love. A kingdom of peace. A kingdom of justice and righteousness. 

A kingdom where all of the subjects were at one point enemies of the king but now delight in the king and delight in each other. A kingdom illuminated by the glory of God and in which there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. So Mark 1, the text we're looking at today, gives us a sense of the beginning conquest if we could call it that way, of this perfect kingdom of light. First, Jesus fights Satan's temptations with the word of God and overcomes him. 

Secondly, Jesus goes out, moves out to Galilee, and commands sinners to enter his kingdom through the dual command of repent and believe. Repent and believe. And then he calls on servants to follow him, to leave their livelihood behind, their fishing, and follow him and become with him fishers of men, building the kingdom. These are the strategies, the beginnings of this incredible kingdom.

More than anything, we're going to see that Christ expands his kingdom by the irresistible force of attraction within people, the people it is conquering. It gives them a sense of God's glory. A fragrance of delight. A foretaste of pure goodness. A glimpse of perfect beauty. A yearning to be close to a perfectly good king. He advances the kingdom of God by revealing to all people how perfectly good the king of the kingdom of heaven really is. And enabling people to see it and savor it and search for it and yearn for it. Then resistance melts, and they drop the weapons of their former rebellion, and they run into the welcoming arms of a loving father.  Rather than being crushed by a cruel tyrant. By revealing God as the good news, former enemies become not just friends. Not just friends, but adopted sons and daughters who are secure in the family of God. That's how this King builds his kingdom. And we get to walk through the beginning stages of it today as we look at Mark 1:12 through 20.

And it starts with Christ taking on his bitterest foe, his enemy, Satan. Christ conquering Satan to inaugurate his kingdom. Look at verses 12 and 13, "At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert 40 days being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him." So at once or immediately, Mark likes that word immediately. Things are moving. And so once Jesus moves out, He's going. And so at once, immediately after his baptism, as soon as he is done being water baptized by John the Baptist, at once the Spirit moves him out into the desert. He is compelled by the Spirit. It's a strong word in the Greek. He's driven out into the desert. Driven out. Almost like cast out of society. It's similar to his reason for being water baptized. He had to identify with us as sinners. And so he is driven out to be tempted and to immerse himself in a world of temptation driven out by the Spirit. 

It's so beautiful how in Luke's gospel, he goes into the desert in the power of the Spirit, and he comes out of the desert in the power of the Spirit. Wouldn't all of you like to face all of your temptations the same way. Wouldn't you love to enter into your temptations, face your temptations and come out still empowered by the Spirit? How awesome would that be? And Jesus, that's what he did. Now we saw last time that the Kings of Israel were anointed with oil as representing the coming of the Spirit on them and how King Saul was changed into a different man and started moving out militarily to save Israel from their enemies. The same thing happened with David. David was anointed by Samuel with a horn of oil. And in 1 Samuel 16:13, it says, "From that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power." 

And then the very next chapter, 1 King 17, he has his famous battle, hand-to-hand combat with Goliath. Boldy went out and fought Goliath in the name of the Lord and the name of Almighty God, and the nation of Israel rallied behind David's bold military leadership, and they defeated the Philistines that day. That's how David built his kingdom when the Spirit came on him. Now Jesus' initial battle is similar in some ways to David and Goliath, but it's different. It's different. So in both cases, they go out as our champion representing us. Fighting a bitter foe, but our opponent is invisible. Our opponent is Satan and sin and death. And Jesus goes out as our champion and fights for us and defeats Satan's temptations.

"Our opponent is Satan and sin and death. And Jesus goes out as our champion and fights for us and defeats Satan's temptations."

He goes out in the desert, the site of the battle is the desert of Judea, a wasteland. It's a picture of austerity. There's nothing to eat, nothing to drink. There's nothing beautiful to look at. It's a wasteland. It's a picture of really austerity, the harsh treatment of the body even. And so, while Jesus spent most of his ministry eating and drinking, feasting even, and was criticized for it, no one fasted like Jesus. And so he had all of his appetites very much under control. And so, for 40 days, he ate and drank nothing like Moses. Now, Matthew says the end of that time, Mark implies perhaps throughout that time comes the temptation. So it could be that there's temptation all the way through, but it reached a crescendo at the end of the 40 days of fasting. Now Mark gives us no details about the actual temptations by Satan. Mark moves very, very quickly. Moves ahead. But it's okay for us from time to time to reach out to Matthew and Luke to those parallel passages and see what happened. 

And so Matthew and Luke give us the details of the temptations. And there were three main headings, main temptations in Matthew's gospel. It's first, the temptation to use his power, his wonder-working power to feed his stomach. Turn these stones into bread so that he'll use his power to take care of his own physical needs. And then secondly, he takes him to the highest point of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple, and says, "Cast your yourself down from here for God will command his angels concerning you, and they'll lift you up in their hands so that you'll not strike your foot against a stone." Quoting Psalm 91. Satan can quote scripture too. And Jesus answers that one as well. And he will not force God the Father to react to him. He's a servant of God, and He's going to do what God wants. He's not going to move out ahead of God, and then God has to scramble and catch him because He's thrown himself precipitously from the temple.

And then thirdly, the worst of all, the worst thing I think any creature has ever done, Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor in an instant and says, "All of these things are mine. They've been given to me, and I can give them to anyone I want to. So if you will bow down and worship me, it'll all be yours." As I said before, it's the worst thing any creature has ever said to God the creator. "Worship me, and I'll give you the world." 

Now, in all three cases, Jesus fought against these temptations by quoting scripture saying, "It is written." It is written. It is written. Quoting the book of Deuteronomy 6:18. Fights against him. Now, Mark doesn't give us any of those details. He just wants us to know Jesus was tempted. And as the author to Hebrews makes it very plain how important that temptation of Jesus is, it qualified him to be our mediator. It qualified him to be our great high priest. It qualified him to be our sacrifice. Our substitutionary atonement. So it says in Hebrews 4:15, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin." We have an undefeated warrior who's gone out ahead of us and shown us he has defeated all temptations. And by his Spirit, he lives within each of us. We're able by the power of that same Spirit to put to death all of the temptations that come to us as Christians. So Jesus is our warrior. And He's not unable to sympathize, he knows what it's like to be tempted. And then, as the author to Hebrews said earlier in Hebrews 2:18, "Because he himself suffered when he is tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." 

Now it's vital for us to understand these temptations and that Jesus conquered them. It also says, Mark tells us that the beast, the wild beast surrounded him. He doesn't specify what these beasts were. Isaiah 30:6 speaks of lions and lionesses and adders and darting snakes out in the desert. So we can imagine all of that. I don't know why he mentions it, except that I think it's the fulfillment of the dominion that man has over planet earth. And Jesus is the quintessential man, the son of man. And so, all of creation is subject to him. And he rules over it. 

It also says the angels came and attended him. And this is amazing because Jesus is the king of angels. They veil their faces before him in heaven when he is on his throne of heavenly glory, but in his incarnation, He's weaker than them. For he is for a little while made lower than the angels. So the angels are more powerful than him in this sense. He's weakened as he is from 40 days of fasting. And so the angels come and ministered him. You see the same thing at the end of Jesus' life in Gethsemane. When He's wrestling with the drinking of the cup of God's wrath. He's wrestling with whether he will drink that cup and go to the cross. And it's such an anguish to him. And he is knocked to the ground and sweating great drops of blood. And then God, again, dispatched angels to come and strengthen him and minister to him physically. And so angels here attended him in his moment of weakness. 

Now in all of this, the significance is Christ's sinlessness. Sinlessness. The fact that Jesus made it through all of these temptations, all of these battles with sin unscathed. He is our pure savior. Pure savior. He would not have been able to make atonement for our sins if he had stumbled and fallen. The author to Hebrews tells us he would have then had to atone for his own sins. But because he was sinless, he is able to be our substitute. He's able to die in our place on the cross as the spotless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 1 Peter 2:22 says, "He committed no sin, and there was no deceit found in his mouth." And two verses later, it says, 1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed." So those go together. His sinlessness enables him to be our substitute. Substitutionary atonement so he makes it through this battle with Satan pure and holy.

Secondly, we see Christ moving out in the beginning of his ministry, commanding sinners to enter his kingdom. Look at verse 14 and 15. "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come. He said, “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.'" So, John, the Baptist is removed from the scene. He was put in prison. We'll learn more details about this God willing in Mark 6, how that all came about. Why he was arrested. But he was providentially by God the father removed from the scene. One preacher I heard once summarized John the Baptist ministry in three phases. He came to prepare the way, he came to proclaim the way, and then he came to get out of the way. And so he says in John 4, "He must increase and I," or John three, "He must increase, and I must decrease." He was very famous. Very famous. 

And some of his disciples, early on, when Jesus started coming on the scene and started ministering, were concerned about John the Baptist market share. John 3. It's like, "Other people are going to him. We got to do something. We got to up our profile here a bit." It's like, "You don't understand who I am. The bride belongs to the bride groom. I'm just the friend of the bride groom is testifying. He must increase, and I must decrease." So that was John. So God removes him. And that's the time now Jesus moves out into Galilee to begin his public ministry. Goes up into the Northern area, the area that's saturated with Gentiles, intermarriage, all that kind of area, an area despised. He went and began his public ministry up there and to the next phase of his public ministry. 

Now the gospel of John gives us some sense of very early ministry that Jesus did in Judea around the time of his water baptism. And so he is there at the time of Passover, he cleanses the temple in John 2. He moves through Samaria, and he has to deal with the Samaritan woman and lead her. So that's all that ministry, I think, happens before this time here in Galilee. But now He's moving out, and Galilee is going to be his home base for the next phase of his ministry. And it says that He's proclaiming the good news of God. He begins by the simple act of preaching. Just by preaching. Though Jesus would do many astonishing miracles.

His preaching of the word of God would have the most significant and lasting impact on the souls he came to win. The miracles didn't convert anyone, but the ministry of the Word does. The ministry of the word transforms hearts because faith comes from hearing the word. And so Jesus preached. Everyone where he went, it was always his top priority to proclaim the word, to preach, to teach the word. That was central to him. The other things were just signs and displays of his power, but it was the preaching, the simple verbal proclamation of God's perfect Word, that transform souls and changes the world.

Now it is vital for every healthy church to realize this. And to not back away from what I'm doing right now. And what other teachers of the word do in different phases throughout the week. The simple, clear teaching of the word of God is foundational to the health of every church. The church is called on, 1 Timothy 3, to be the pillar and foundation of the truth. It's what we're called to do. It's what Jesus did. Preaching the word. Now you may wonder, what can such a simple act do much of what we're going to see in the gospel of Mark, you will have heard it before. You'll say it's milk. 

It's so simple, a child can understand. The problems of the world are complex. Complex. The most super geniuses, the Nobel prize winners, can't figure everything out. The economic issues, the international issues, the racial issues, the social issues, all of the complexities of the human condition.

And Jesus's strategy for transforming this world of mess and complexity is this, preach the word clearly. Preach the kingdom, the message of the kingdom. That's what we're called on to do. So churches need to resist the temptation to go after glitzy programs that are entertainment based or are fundamentally, all they do is meet felt needs. Or address hot button topics that are discussed on the news outlets all the time. That that's what the church needs to do. We need to be relevant and talk about all these things. Jesus gave us the role model. He is our role model for how to approach ministry. Preach the word, preach the kingdom. That's what he did now. 

Now, what does he say? He is proclaiming, the text says, the good news of God. So I was going to preach this sermon a week ago. This is where this sermon is different than what I would have preached a week ago. I spent a week meditating on this one phrase. This one phrase. The good news of God. The good news of God. You're like, "Pastor, you're a weird man. An entire week on the good news of God." But if you understand the significance of this, John Piper wrote a whole book entitled ‘God is the Gospel’. Gospel is good news. God is the Good News. And so we've got this interesting phrase, the good news of God. What is the of? It's one of those mysterious ofs. Is it the good news from God, or is it the good news about God? Well, how about both, friends? How about the good news that God sends that he himself is the good news? I think it's both.

He is the good news. So what does it mean, God is the gospel? God is the good news. All of the lesser blessings of the gospel, all of them get us to God, who is good. They get us into a relationship with a perfectly good God. So that includes the blessings of forgiveness of sins, of justification, by faith alone. The healing of our souls through regeneration, being born again, the healing of our bodies, the perfect healing of our bodies through bodily resurrection from the dead. All of these things make way for the real blessing. And that is, we get God when all is said and done. God is the outcome of this gospel. We get to be with him. And there's so many verses that give us indications. This is exactly what we get at the end of this Christian life. At the end of believing the gospel, what you get is a good God.

Psalm 73 may be one of my favorite, 25 and 26. There the psalmist says these incredible words, "Whom have I in heaven but you. And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and," listen, "my portion forever." God is what I get when I'm done with this life. Or again, Psalm 16:11, "You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with eternal pleasures, the fullness of joy, and eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Pleasures forevermore. God is the good news. 

Now John Piper asked a critical diagnostic question in his book God is the Gospel. “If you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth and all the food you ever liked and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed and all the natural beauties you ever saw and all the physical pleasures you ever tasted and no human conflict, and no natural’ disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there? Or if God were not there?” 

Wow. It's like, "I would hope, pastor, I would give the right answer to that one." But you can see all of those things are lesser blessings and displays of the goodness of God. They're not the true treasure. The true treasure is God. It's what God said to Abraham after he refused to enrich himself with the plunder of the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 14. And so God shows up and says to him, "Fear not Abram, I am your shield. I am your very great reward." I am what you get. And that's what all of the sons and daughters of Abraham get. The same.

So here's the good news. Here's the GOOD NEWS. We were members of a wicked, rebellious race, the human race, and under the curse of sin and death. And though we have individually sinned against him. And though we deserve his wrath. God is willing actually gladly willing to forgive all of that and pay for our sins himself through his son, through the blood of his son and welcome us into his beautiful, radiant happy kingdom for all eternity. That's the good news. The good news of God. And that's what Jesus came to proclaim. 

And it says the time is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled. Powerful statement. What does that mean? The time is fulfilled. Well, it means that God has a perfect timing for everything. Everything's been worked out. history has a purpose. It has an order to it. Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. There's a sequence. There's an A, then a B, then a C, then a D. There's a certain sequence.

God worked all of this out before the foundation of the world. Planned everything out. From eternity past. Everything. Even the lesser things like the rise and fall of empires. That's lesser? Yes, it's lesser. And then Galatians 4:4 says that "When the time had fully come, God sent his son born of a woman, born under the law." In the fullness of time, Jesus was born. And now the time has come for him to preach. The time has come for him to move out and build his kingdom. The time is at hand. It's fulfilled.

It's also a sense if I could put it this way of a limited-time offer. A limited-time offer. What does that mean? This is not going to go on forever. There is something called the day of salvation. The day of salvation is opened up now. A time when the kingdom is advancing by faith. And it's opened up now. And it says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "In the time," God says this, "in the time of my favor I heard you. And in the day of salvation, I helped you." I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. Or again, the author to Hebrew says in Hebrews 4:7, "Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts." 

So even now, I hope through my voice, through reading these words, you hear Christ calling on you to come into his kingdom. And if you came into this sermon or into this room today on the outside knowing yourself not to be a Christian, hear now Christ inviting you, holding his hands out to you, beckoning to you to enter the kingdom of God through repentance and faith. That's what's happening. The time is fulfilled for you. You don't know you're going to have another time. "So I'm interested in what the pastor's saying, but I'm not ready yet." You don't know that you'll have even tomorrow. So the time is at hand. "If today you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts." Enter the kingdom.

And what does he mean by the king of God has drawn near? Look, whether we believe in God as king or not, He's king. He's king. But the scripture reveals that when we are wicked when we are sinful, we are distant from him in some way. He is omnipresent. He is very near each of us, sustaining our very existence. But we are relationally distant from him. Says in Psalm 138:6, "The proud he knows from afar." It's a distance between us and God. Now, in Christ, God has come near to us. Very near. That's the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us. So the kingdom of God is drawing near. Now, in one sense, if you know what's really going on, that could really terrify you. 

June 5th, 1944, a day before D-day. If you're under the Nazi boot and you hate that wicked regime, the impending invasion by the allies the very next day would be nothing but good news. But if you're an ardent Nazi soldier, is it good news for you? Not at all. So is it a good thing that the kingdom of God is drawing near to us? Well, in our rebellion and our wickedness, if we harden our hearts, it's a terrifying thing. We don't know what we're dealing with. But that's not what's happening with Jesus' birth into the world. He didn't get born of the Virgin Mary and come and immerse himself in the human condition to destroy us. He could have done that like Sodom and Gomorrah from heaven. He didn't have to enter the world. The reason he did that was to save us. As it says in John 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him." And so in Jesus, the kingdom of God is drawing near in friendship and love and grace and a welcome and an invitation.

And what is the invitation? The invitation is to repent and believe the good news. Repent and believe the good news. Now, you may say, wait a minute, is that an invitation or is that a command? Well, the more I meditate on that, the more I realize all of God's invitations are commands, and all of his commands are invitations. There is a big wedding banquet, and the feast is being spread, and you have been invited to come. It's not optional. If you don't come, you're going to be destroyed. Whoever believes will be saved, but whoever rejects will be condemned. And so it is an invitation. That's true because, and we think of invitation as a beautiful thing because it's going to something we really want to go to. But it's also a command from the king. This is not an option. He is commanding us to repent and believe. These are the two commands. He's commanding all people everywhere to repent and believe this gospel.

God is the king of the universe. He made it. Everything that we see belongs to him because he created it. As the king, he also is the lawgiver. He makes laws. He makes laws by which we are to live our lives. The ten commandments. The two great commandments that summarize all of God's commandments. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That sums up all of God's law to the human race. And he has the right to command us, but not only He's the lawgiver, He's also the judge, and He's going to evaluate based on the law. Based on the law. And so he is calling on us to repent of our sins.

Now, what does that mean? This is not a minor thing. The word simply means to think differently. Or change your mind. But we know it's far more pervasive than that. It's not just have a different opinion. It's that your whole being was wrapped up in sin. Your whole being loved wickedness and hated righteousness. He's calling on you to have a massive transformation of your basic central being. That you would have, as the scripture says, your heart of stone transformed into a living heart of flesh.

That's what repent means. Some people liken it to a U-turn. You've been driving down one road, and you're turning, and now you're going down a different way. And that's fine, but I've never seen a U-turn that involved much more than the turning of the steering wheel. Alright? This is more profound than that. And this is something only God can work by his sovereign spirit. But he is calling on us to repent. And what that means is to think differently, and to realize He's calling on us to love what we used to hate and hate what we used to love to be transformed in every aspect of our lives. To think differently about our lives, about our money, about our time and about our relationships, about our bodies, about everything. Just repent of our sin and to be grieved over, to be broken over our sins, and to grieve and mourn and wail over them. And to yearn hunger and thirst for holiness and righteousness. That's what repentance is. 

And then, along with it comes a new way of living like Zacheus. You don't go on in your career as an exploiter of the people. That's done now. That's done. So you change. You bring forth fruit and keeping the repentance. That's what repent means. And the second command of the gospel is to believe the good news. This is the work of God to believe in the One he has sent. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God. To believe that he lived a sinless life, that he died on the cross, and that he rose again on the third day. And that if you trust in him, all your sins will be forgiven. Believe the good news. These two commands. These are the lasting abiding commands that we give. 

Next week I'm going to preach a whole sermon on one verse, God willing. Follow me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men. We are all called on to get involved in sharing this gospel, all of us. And there's just some people you are set up to meet and to interact with this week that I don't even know who they are.

But you are called on to be witnesses. And when you share the gospel when all is said and done, you've shared about God and what He's like, that He's a king, a creator, a lawgiver, a judge, and you've shared about the human condition and all of our wickedness in our sin and how God wants a relationship with us. And you've shared about Christ and who he is and all that. You are going to call on them to respond. And the centerpiece of that response will be these two commandments, repent and believe the gospel. That's the culmination of all of our gospel presentation. 

So then in the final phase of this section, Christ calls his servants to build his kingdom. Look at verses 16 through 20. "As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew. Casting a net into the lake for they're fishermen. 'Come follow me.' Jesus said, 'and I will make you to become fishers of men.' At once, they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with a hired man and followed him." 

So here, the king of the kingdom of heaven is moving out, and He's recruiting fellow warriors and fellow servants to join with him in the kingdom-building effort. These are men who we will later know as apostles. In Mark 3, we'll find out that they have this designation. Apostle means sent ones. They're the first four of the 12. The 12 apostles. And they would be eyewitnesses of Jesus' life. Eyewitnesses of his words and his works. Eyewitnesses of his death and of his resurrection. And Paul will say in Ephesians 2:20, "That of the church of Jesus Christ, this grand, glorious spiritual structure is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." What does that mean?

Every Christian that followed, all those that followed for 20 centuries, based their faith on the eyewitness testimony of the 12 apostles, which they eventually wrote down for us in the new testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all of that is the eyewitness of the apostles. So that we could know who Jesus is and be saved. And so He's calling on them. This is what Robert Coleman calls the master plan of evangelism. This is Jesus' strategy. He's going to call out some men. He's going to spend time with them. He's going to eat with them. He's going to sleep with them. He's going to walk down the road with them. They're going to see him teach and interact. He's going to interact with all different kinds of people. With mighty powerful people. With downtrodden, oppressed people. He's going to operate with rich and poor. With those who love him and those who hate him. They're going to watch all of those interactions.

They're going to watch how he prays and how he deals with every circumstance. And they're going to drink in all of that training, and they're going to be shaped and molded and prepared. Then he is going to send them out. And that's his strategy for building his kingdom. He's going to send them out, and they're going to win some people. And they're going to disciple them and pour the word of God into them. And they'll be sent out. And it's going to multiply exponentially. That is the strategy that he has. And so He's got these four men that he calls. Peter and Andrew who are brothers. And they're there casting a net into the lake for their fishermen. And then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, also brothers. And they're in the boat preparing their nets.

Now you wonder, how in the world could these successful busy fishermen just be in the middle of their Workday, and Jesus walks along and says, "Follow me." And they drop everything and follow him? Now that's amazing. But God had been at work in these four men, preparing them. All four of them were disciples of John the Baptist first. They're already, their hearts are already moving in the direction of the kingdom of God. John was in prison now, they go back to their jobs, they go back to their work, but they're waiting for the next thing. And along comes the very one that John the Baptist had pointed to. The one he had spoken of earlier who was greater than I, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This one whose sandals, John said, "I'm not worthy to untie." Then, when Jesus shows up and he says, "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I have seen, and I testify that he is the son of God." They were ready. And then Jesus walked by, and they were ready to follow him.

God has prepared them, and they dropped their nets, and they drop everything, and they follow. And this is the king. He's not saying, "Would you guys think about a job change? Would you be interested? Maybe a career change here. Just give it some thought. Get back to me." He's not doing that. He's walking, and he says, "Follow me." And they do. Because He's the king, and he commands obedience, and they follow him. "And he appointed them that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach," it says in Mark 3:14. We'll talk about that in due time. Now next week, God willing, we're going to zero in on verse 17. This one verse. "Follow me," He says, "and I will make you to become fishers of men." We're going to zero in on that and talk about it, God willing, more next week. So as we finish, there's just a couple of lessons that I want us to focus on.

First, temptation. I've already spoken to you about this. You're going to be tempted even this very day. Jesus said, "Temptations are sure to come." He did say we should pray, "Lead us not into temptation," but you're going to be tempted. Isn't it marvelous to know that the captain of your faith has gone out before for you and has won every battle? And he knows what it's like to be tempted in every way that you're facing. All of the sins of the flesh, all the sins of the heart and of the mind, He's aware of all of it. He's been through it. He himself suffered when he was tempted. He knows what it's like, but he never sinned. He's undefeated in this battle. And if you're a Christian, you have the spirit of Jesus inside you. Stand your ground this week. Stand your ground in the Spirit of Christ. Stand your ground. And by the power of the Spirit of Christ, put to death, every temptation that comes your way. Follow him in a kingdom of holiness. That's what He's calling on us to do. 

Now, Isn't it beautiful to know that the holiness he won by a life of perfect obedience to the father, he gives you as a gift? And so to some degree, repent and believe is like, get undressed of all of your filthy nasty garments and put on a radiant garment of righteousness that I won for you already. That's what repent and believe means to me. But now that I believe I am called on to follow him in holiness and to put sin to death. Temptation. And fight by scripture. Memorize scriptures. If you're weak in a certain area, anxiety or lust, covetousness, memorize some scripture. Get ready to say, "It is written. It is written." Fight the way Jesus did. 

Secondly, kingdom of God. The good news of God. Immerse yourself in that. Immerse yourself just in the fact that God is good. God is good. It is really hard for sinners to believe how good God is. But he is. He loves us. He's a loving heavenly father. And you have only begun to taste of the goodness of God. You're going to spend eternity drinking of the fountain of God's goodness. So look forward to that. But understand we're talking about a kingdom. Jesus is going to metaphorically walk by you this week and say, "Follow me." And He's going to call on you to drop what you're doing and do something different. He's calling you. That's the kingdom. He's not asking. He's commanding. So look at every area of your life. Look at how you're spending your money. Look at how you're spending your time. Look at everything and say, "Am I living a kingdom life? Am I living as though God is the good news of the gospel? Am I living a kingdom life?"

And then finally next week we're going to talk about this, but I can't wait for next week. I believe that God may have orchestrated some evangelistic encounters that you are called on to do this week. It's not like, "Oh, gee, I didn't know we're supposed to do evangelism." Yes, you did. Yes, you did. So, get ready and say, "God make me a witness. Give me a chance at the workplace. Give me a chance at the coffee shop. Give me a chance to say something for Christ this week. And get me into a gospel conversation which I get to say repent and believe. Get me there, Lord. I want to be faithful." So next week we'll talk more about that. Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the incredible way that Jesus moves out to build the kingdom. Thank you for the things we've learned today in Mark 1: 12 through 20. Help us, prepare us, oh, Lord, to do the good works you have called on us to do. Give us a chance, oh Lord. We pray, all of us join our hearts together in praying for evangelistic fruit. Help us to be faithful. This is a dark time. We're surrounded by spiritual darkness and people whose lives are broken. Father help us to be witnesses. And Lord, we thank you for the beauty of Christ, the beauty of the kingdom he came to proclaim and to build. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

In Mark 1, we see Jesus begin to build his kingdom of light as he overcomes temptation, preaches the good news, and calls people to follow him.

The post Christ Begins to Build His Kingdom (Mark Sermon 3) appeared first on Two Journeys.

The Spirit as a dove at Jesus' baptism shows Jesus' purpose, his power that came from God, proclaims that he's God's son, and that God has pleasure in him.

Amen. Turn your Bibles to Mark Chapter 1, looking this morning in our continued study in the life of Christ from Mark's gospel, Mark 1:9 through 11. And as we come to this text, we come to contemplate just three verses in Mark's gospel. The simple record of Jesus' water baptism, baptism in water. But as we do, we come to the deepest, the most sublime, the most infinitely consequential topic in theology. It's the greatest, most incomprehensible theme that we could ever consider. The topic is love, which of course is the best feature in all existence. But it's not just any love that we're contemplating this morning. We are contemplating the greatest and the highest love there is. And that is the love of Almighty God, God the Father, for his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. And I say to you that we can only begin in this life to comprehend this love, to contemplate it. We're actually going to spend all eternity drinking at this infinite fountainhead and God the Father loves God the Son, the father loves the son. You already knew that. But the dimensions of that love, you have only begun to probe. You've only begun to probe. And so have I, not to the one-millionth part have you begun to understand how great is the love the father has for the son.

And as I was preparing the sermon and thinking about it even up until last night, late last night, I was thinking about the challenge in front of me, the challenge to elevate our thoughts on this topic from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the natural to the sublime. As I just said a moment ago, you already knew that the father loved his son, but you don't even begin to really comprehend how significant that is. So I was thinking and my mind was led to contemplate something I had read years ago written by C.S. Lewis. It's from his work Reflections on the Psalms. And in it, he was wrestling with why the Psalms and indeed the whole scripture is so filled with God at work in us trying to get us to praise him. It was a difficult topic for Lewis. It seems strange that God would so desire that we praise him. Why is this? Lewis found this problematic as though God had some kind of an ego problem and he needs us to come stroke his ego regularly because he's insecure in some sense and needs this constant stream of praise.

But as he was contemplating this, a breakthrough occurred in his thinking. This is what he wrote: "I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. The world rings with praise, lovers praising their beloved [like Romeo praising Juliet and vice versa], readers praising their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game - praise of weather, of wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars… Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it [such as] "Isn't she lovely or wasn't it glorious or don't you think that magnificent. The Psalmists, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what all men do when they speak of things they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us as regards the supremely valuable what we delight to do, indeed, we can't help doing about everything else that we value."

Well, what Lewis is expressing here is how the love of God for sinners like you and me has ultimately made manifest. God desires our greatest good. But what greater good is there in the universe than God himself? If, therefore, God is truly to love us, he must give us himself. Now, remember that Lewis said all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. Let me read some more of Lewis's writing on this. "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is; Or to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then they have to keep quiet about it because the people with you care for it no more than they do a tin can in a ditch; Or to hear a good joke and have no one to share it with."

So, the insight Lewis came to about praising God is that it's absurd to think that what we always do with anything we really love, namely to praise it, we wouldn't do with what we love the most, God himself. Now it is reasonable for love to express itself, to speak itself and to praise the loved one, to involve as many others as we can in that love. Now here's my new insight about all this. I'd read this years ago, but my insight that I want to add to this scripture today is that God is like that, too. God's like that. God loves his son. Oh, how he loves him. And we're going to talk in this sermon about why God loves him so much. But this love existed from eternity past; before there even was a creature, before there was anything created, the father and the son had a love relationship. And after God created the universe, he loved his son. And once Jesus was born into the world, God loved his son. And so God just wants to express that love, first and foremost, to his son directly but then also to the whole world, to the whole world. And so, in Mark's gospel, we get the direct expression from the father to the son. Look at verse 11, "You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased." But God also wants to express that to the whole world. He wants to bring the whole world into that love relationship. And so he also said at that amazing time in Matthew's gospel, Matthew 3:17. "This is my son whom I love; With him, I am well pleased."

I spent a lot of time working on that synoptic problem. Well, which was it? Did he say it to Jesus or did he say it to the onlookers? Well, I'm just going to go with both, being an inerrantist after all. And so he did both. Imagine a father saying to his son on the son's wedding day, just a private moment between the two of them. He looks him in the eye and he says, "I want you to know, I love you. And I'm so happy for you. Happy that today's your special day. I love you." And then at the wedding reception, him getting a microphone and saying to everyone there, "I want everyone to know, I want you all to know how much I love my son." My mind can expand to see that happening. So, I think both of those happened in Mark and in Matthew. He said it directly to Jesus, you are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased. But then he says it to the whole world. And when I say to the whole world, keep in mind, I'm speaking about the work of the Holy Spirit and letting us know about this. God is calling all the world to join him and his love for his son. He did it at that time. And then he had the Holy Spirit inspire the gospel of Matthew, and the gospel of Mark, and the gospel of Luke. And it happens that this whole exchange is recorded six times in the synoptic gospels, six times we have the same verbiage.

Do you get the sense that God wants the whole world to know that he loves his son and that he's well pleased with him? As Lewis said, “The world rings with praise.” People praising their lovers. People praising their favorite athletes, their favorite movies, their favorite books, their children, their friends, their heroes. But at the pinnacle of all of that hierarchy of lesser loves, way up at the top, comes this greatest love there is in the universe. The love of God the father for his only begotten son. It's the love that preceded them all. And God wants to include us all in that love. Remember how God said to Satan at the beginning of the Book of Job. He boasted, he said, "Have you considered my servant, Job? There's no one on earth like him. He's blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil." Well, friends, take that and multiply it by a billion times a billion and you have a fraction of the loving pride, if we could use that word, that the father has for his perfect son. “Have you considered my son, Jesus? I mean, there's no one like him. He's the one I love. And with him, I am well pleased.”

Now in all of this, of course, we have to somehow take our finite minds and wrap them around this infinitely deep topic of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity. We, Christians, believe in one God that has eternally existed in three persons, father, son, and spirit. Now were we, Christians, to teach that there were three gods, the world would really have no difficulty understanding that concept for many world religions have been polytheistic. Three separate gods interacting in certain ways. They're used to that kind of thing. But the clear revelation of the Bible, of the Old Testament, again and again, Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." Ten chapters are given in Isaiah 40 through 49. God's fierce jealousy over the syncretism and the polytheism of his people as they mixed worship of Yahweh together with other gods. And he's saying, "Absolutely not. I am God and there is no other. There is no one like me." A fierce monotheism. But the idea that there is one God that exists in three centers of personality or persons, et cetera, coequal coeternal is maybe the greatest mystery of our Christian faith. It could never have been derived by human deduction. Human science wouldn't have come up with this by experimentation. Human philosophy would not have come up with the Trinity. Had to be revealed by God himself. And so it was. And that revelation of the Trinity was most clearly displayed that the human race around the person of Jesus, understanding the deity of Christ of what that means that Jesus is the son of God or God the Son and then the Trinity flows out from that. So it centers on that.

And one of the clearest revelations of the concept of the Trinity is at the baptism of Jesus. If we had been there at the baptism of Jesus, we would've experienced this revelation. The person of Jesus at the center receiving water baptism from John the Baptist, heaven being torn open, the Holy Spirit descending as a dove on Jesus, and then a voice, a powerful voice coming from heaven, the voice of God, saying these words, "This is my son, whom I love; With him, I am well pleased." We would've experienced all that. And we would've gone home and had dinner and went to bed and not got it. We would've not have understood it. And if we became believers in Christ, we would have all eternity to try to figure it out, try to understand it. And that's the doctrine of the Trinity.

Now, all of that's a really lengthy preamble to the sermon. Now we'll get going with the sermon. But I want to walk through the water baptism. I want to walk through the significance of it, but I've already told you the most important ideas in this sermon, the central idea. But we need to walk through it. So let's understand. We're in the gospel of Mark. This is the second sermon now, the beginning of the gospel at verse one uses the word beginning: "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God." So that's the theme. But we would understand that. This account is part of that explanation of what that means that he is the son of God.

Now essential to Jesus' mission is the concept of the kingdom of God. We'll understand that more as we go on in Mark's gospel, the kingdom of God. But Jesus is presented not only as the son of God, son of David and the king of the kingdom of God, the king of the kingdom of heaven. And before any king, you often have a royal herald. And a herald is a messenger. He goes ahead of the king, prepares the way for the king. We saw that last time; John the Baptist with the herald of the king and of the kingdom. And so, he came proclaiming a coming king and he's very plain, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was very plain in his role as a herald that a king is coming greater than him. "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the whole Holy Spirit,” Mark 1:7 and 8. So that's where we're at.

Now today, Jesus himself is introduced and he's introduced at the time of his water baptism. Now what is God's purpose in Jesus' baptism? We need to understand that Jesus came to be baptized. Look at verse nine. "At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." So, we had some physical locations here. We got Nazareth, Galilee. We got the Jordan, the Jordan River. So, we start with Nazareth and Galilee. Galilee was in the northern area of the nation of Israel. It was a despised region because there had been, through the exiles, some mixing together of Jew and Gentile, a lot of intermarriage perhaps. And so, the southern kingdom, Judah, Jerusalem, looked on the people from Galilee as somewhat mongrel - a mongrel people. Not exactly like the Samaritans but the area was despised, and Nazareth was just a small town in Galilee. So, you have Nathaniel in John Chapter 1 verse 46 saying, "Nazareth, can anything good come from there?" Now that's an overstatement, but that was the feeling, nothing good comes out of Galilee. It was a backwater. That's how they saw it.

Now the Jordan River is the main river in Israel. It connects the sea of Galilee with the Dead Sea. Dead Sea is the lowest place on the surface of earth, 1,300 feet below sea level, kind of an odd thing. And we don't know exactly where John the Baptist was doing his baptism, but he was baptizing probably at the southernmost area of the Jordan River near Jericho "…because there's much water…" there, it says in John 3. So, he's doing this baptism and lots of people were coming in. One day - and you imagine people standing in line and John baptizing them one at a time. And suddenly, there's Jesus just standing there in front of John to be baptized.

So we come to the relationship between these two men, John, John the Baptist, and Jesus. This is the only physical meeting there is between these two men in the Bible, the only time we have a record of that they actually met together. Now John must have learned from his godly parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, who this one was. There can be little doubt that in his upbringing that Zechariah and Elizabeth told him what was coming. That was essential to his mission. It seems that they're related by blood. John and Jesus seemed to have been cousins. Now the angel, Gabriel, told Mary that her child would be the son of God, son of God. And so when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, John leapt up in his mother's womb as soon as Mary's greeting came in Elizabeth's ears, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and called Mary the mother of my Lord.

So, all of that doctrine and that expectation was there in the household where John was raised. So, he must have understood that, but they grew up separately. They lived separate lives. They weren't together it seems because John says in the gospel of John Chapter 1, verse 33, he says, "I wouldn't have recognized him. I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize told me that the one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain as a dove is the one. I've seen and I testify that he is the son of God." John Chapter 1. But he says, "I wouldn't have known him any other way..." So, there he is, he looks up and he sees him.

Now John's initial reaction, there's not a lot here in Mark's gospel. They're very simple account. But if you looked at Matthew Chapter 3 and you see the initial reaction, Matthew 3:14, it says, "John tried to deter him or stop him saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?'" And keep in mind, John's water baptism was a baptism of repentance in which people were coming and confessing their sins. And they're receiving this water cleansing a symbol of the washing of all of their sins being washed away by the waters of baptism. That was what's going on. And so, when John tried to stop Jesus from the water baptism, he says, "You don't need this. I don't deserve to untie your sandals. I don't deserve to carry your sandals." He had a sense of the sinlessness of Jesus. And so he was testifying to Jesus' sinlessness effectively. He's saying, "I need you to baptize me, and do you come to me?" Well, one thing you learn in the gospels and just in life, don't stop Jesus from doing anything he wants to do. And don't ever tell him something he said is wrong. All right. That just - don't do that - that's unbelief. And so however pious it was for John the Baptist to stop Jesus, still, it was wrongheaded. He didn't understand what was going on. He didn't understand why Jesus would submit to water baptism.

So, this brings us to the two purposes of Jesus' water baptism, God's purposes. All right. First of all, as he says in Matthew's gospel, to fulfill all righteousness. And secondly, as we are just seeing from understanding the significance of what's going on there, to present Jesus or to anoint him as king of the king in coming kingdom of heaven. Those are the two reasons why he did this water baptism. Purpose number one is to fulfill all righteousness. Again, that's in Matthew 3:15: "Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented." Well, what does that mean, to fulfill all righteousness? Well, righteousness is that which lines up with God's righteous being, lines up with his justice, lines up with his word. Those are different concepts of righteousness. What is right? Its line ends up with what is right.

So, first of all, let's just keep it simple. It's right for Jesus to be baptized by John because God the Father wants it done. So, let's just keep it simple. When God tells you to do something, you do it. And that was Jesus' whole way of living. He was there because the father wanted him to be water baptized, but we have to go deeper than that. Ultimately, Jesus was on earth. He was incarnate to save us from our sins. As the angel said to Joseph, you'll give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. In order to save us from our sins, he had to immerse himself in our experience. He had to immerse himself in our sinfulness, though not being sinful himself.

 In order to save us, to make us righteous, to fulfill righteousness on our behalf, he had to identify with us as a sinner to be our substitute. As it says in Isaiah 53:12, "He was numbered with the transgressors." What does that mean to be numbered with the transgressors? It means to be counted among them, to be seen to be a transgressor. And as Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:5 and 6, this is the ultimate reason why: "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." It's what it means to be numbered with the transgressors and is by that atoning sacrifice that he would save us and make us righteous. So, baptism, the word literally means immerse or immersion, to immerse. And so, by being baptized by John, Jesus was immersing himself in our sin, effectively, swimming in it, immersing himself in it. And this is a symbol of the final substitutionary atoning work he would do. All of our sins would be laid on him and he would bear them. He would become sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." So, his baptism of us in the spirit is to immerse us in the Holy Spirit and to immerse us in his purity and his righteousness. That's what's going on in this water baptism. In John's gospel, John the Baptist proclaims us about Jesus in John 1:29. "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Only by his immersion in our sin could he do that. And so that baptism was a picture of it.

All right, the second reason why Jesus was water baptized and why this whole occasion occurred is so that God could anoint and present Jesus as king, to anoint him and to present him as king. Now we need to understand the history of anointing and the kingship in Israel. Some commentators have likened Jesus' baptism to a coronation ceremony because of the role of the Holy Spirit. Remember that in Israel's history, kings were identified and established as kings by the ritual of anointing. And that would involve a prophet taking a horn of oil and pouring it on the head of the anointed one to identify him as the Lord's anointed. The word Messiah or Christ means anointed one, the one identified as the king.

Now the pouring of oil symbolizes the coming of the Holy Spirit on the man, to equip him and empower him to be a good king, to come upon him and enable him to rule wisely. So, you remember the first anointing we have of a king was Samuel on Saul. So, in 1 Samuel 10:1, Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him saying, "Has not the Lord anointed you as leader over his inheritance?" And then he says, Samuel prophesied these words. He said, "The spirit of the Lord will come upon you, Saul, in power, and you'll prophesy with them and you will be changed into a different person. And once these signs are fulfilled, then do whatever your hand finds to do for God is with you." So, at his baptism, Jesus was anointed by God and by the Holy Spirit to empower him and to present him as king of the world.

And so, we see God's power coming on Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And we see this through the dissent of the Spirit as a dove. First of all, the text says that heaven was torn open. What a violent image that is, the tearing of heaven. It's interesting, in Mark 1:10, it's written from Jesus' perspective. Look at verse 10, "As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove." So, Mark is written from the perspective of Jesus, what Jesus saw, and the experience he had focused on that. The gospel of Matthew presents it more of an audience form as we're watching. So, if you'd been there, you would've seen this, the heavens were torn open.

Now, what does that mean? Well, we talked about this, remember, when I was preaching through the Book of Job and Behemoth and Leviathan and all that, that there is surrounding us, at every moment, an invisible spiritual realm. And there seems to be a barrier, a membrane, a wall, something between us and that invisible spiritual world. We operate in this five-sense world, the world of science, the world of observation, this physical world all the time, but there are the spiritual realms, the heavenly realms. And there is this wall or barrier. And at Jesus' baptism, it was torn. There was a tear in it. Now, this reminds me of another scripture, Isaiah 64:1 and 2. And there, the prophet filled with a holy zeal for God, a zeal for God's glory. Isaiah says, Isaiah 64:1, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that mountains would tremble before you. As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down and make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you." Well, what does Isaiah want? He wants war. He wants wrath. He wants God's justice and judgment coming down out of that rend in the heavens. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down and make water boil.

 But instead of this, the heavens are rent and out comes a dove. A dove. And it comes down. This gentle white bird comes down as a dove. The Holy Spirit comes as a dove perhaps in the form of a dove. Now dove is extremely peaceful, gentle. We remember at the end of the flood how Noah sent out a dove and it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf. And the dove with the olive leaf in its mouth is a symbol of peace, an end of hostility, an end of judgment. That's what you have, the Holy Spirit. And since as we said in John's gospel, Jesus is proclaimed as the Lamb of God. You've got a dove coming on a lamb. That's not water boiling and mountain shaking. That's gentleness, tenderness and kindness.

As John 3:17 says, "For God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." And he comes to save us through his kindness and through his gentleness. He is meek and lowly of heart and gracious and tender towards sinners. As it says in Ephesians 2:7, "…in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." That's how he comes, the gentle spirit on a gentle lamb, saving you in kindness. Also, Titus 3:4 and 5, "when the kindness and love of God our savior appeared, he saved us." We've got this picture of kindness and generalness, but also with this comes the empowering of Jesus for ministry. He's empowered by the spirit to do the ministry he's about to start.

Now in Saul's case, 1 Samuel 10, Samuel tells him that the pouring out of the spirit would change him into a different man. He would have a changed nature. He would start to act better. He was the guy looking for his dad's donkeys, remember. And he was hiding among the baggage. That was King Saul. But then when the spirit came on him, he was changed into a different man and became more king like, at least for a while. But in Jesus' case, the spirit didn't change him at all. His character was perfect already. He was ready to be king. No transformation at all. The spirit doesn't come down on Jesus to transform him into a different man, a better man, a more kingly man. He's ready already.

But what did the spirit come to do? Well, he came to empower him to do the ministry, to empower Jesus to do his ministry. Acts 10:38 says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. And he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil because God was with him." Jesus himself said his exorcisms - and we're about to get into that, lots of exorcisms in Mark's gospel - but he says his exorcisms were done by the power of the spirit of God. Matthew 12:28, "If I drive out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. I do my miracles by the spirit of God." Now about three or four months ago, I had a new thought. It was powerful new thought. Very deep. I already knew that Jesus openly said, consistently said, concerning his vertical relationship with his father, "I do nothing except what the father has told me to do. I don't say anything except the words the father has given me to say." A very strong dependence on the father for everything. I think that's part of his morning quiet time. He would go and God would open his ear to listen, like one being taught. And he would tell him what to say and what to do, father to son. I get that. So, Jesus did nothing apart from the father's will. But here's the new thought. Jesus also did nothing apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing. Now this will fry your noodle. Could Jesus do miracles without the Holy Spirit? Go home and ponder that one. Well, of course, he can, he's God. Well, you could just as well say, "Could Jesus do any work apart from the will of his father?" Well, you, right away, is going to say, "No, he wouldn't do that." Well, I'm telling you, he doesn't do anything. He doesn't preach a sermon apart from the Spirit's power. He doesn't roll open the Isaiah scroll and preach, except that the Spirit is upon him, anointing him with power. He doesn't interact with a single person one on one, Nicodemus, apart from the power of the Spirit. He doesn't heal anyone apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. That was what the Spirit came to do to empower Jesus for his kingly ministry.

And along with this comes God's proclamation of Jesus as king, going to proclaim him as king. Two aspects of the king's coronation is anointing and announcing, anointing and announcing. Now, this was essential to the kings taking power in Israel. So for example, King Solomon. 1 Kings 1:39, "Zadok, the priest, took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, 'Long live, King Solomon.'"  Same thing with Jehu; 2 Kings 9:6, "The prophet poured oil on Jehu's head and declared, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, I anoint you king over the Lord's people Israel.'" It's an announcement. And a few verses later, “[the people] hurry, took their cloaks, spread them under him on the bare steps. And then they blew the trumpet and shouted, 'Jehu is king.'" Or Joash; in the time of the wicked woman Athaliah, the solitary descendant from the lineage of David was kept alive miraculously, amazingly, and then was rolled out as king when he was a boy. The priest, Jehoiada, "…brought out the king's son and put the crown on him and presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. And they anointed him and the people clapped their hands and shouted, 'Long live, the king.'" A couple verses later, "The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets."

So that's what they do. They have like an announcement ceremony and a trumpet thing, and maybe some cloak thing, and that's the rolling out of the king. I'm telling you, this was better. Don't you think Jesus is better? The announcement ceremony is better. No other king in the history of Israel was announced by Almighty God with his own voice from heaven. And he announces a son. A voice came from heaven, you are my son. Now again, in Mark's gospel, he's saying it to Jesus. Don't you find that interesting? He says it to Jesus, "You are my son. With you, I am well pleased." This is infinite mystery. What did Jesus know? And when did he know it? Big question. We know that when he's little baby and he's wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, he didn't know anything. You guys know that, don't you? He didn't know anything. He didn't talk to Mary about scripture at that point. Okay. It's like, Mary, did you know? It's like, what did Jesus know? He didn't know anything. He was wrapped in a swaddling cloth. All right.

But he grew and developed. And it says in Luke 2:52, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." So, Jesus learned things. Now that'll fry your noodle, too. How does an omniscient being learn something? Huh, I don't know. But there's Jesus who is Almighty God and he's also learning things and growing. And we know that we have one little checkpoint along the way at age 12, remember, they go up for one of the feasts, Joseph and Mary, and somehow, they left Jesus behind in the big city. I've often wondered about that, that the angel, Gabriel, could circle back with them and say, "Look, you had one job to do, watch Jesus. And you lost him in the city." But I know that this can happen when you're in a loving community, when you're in a group of 20 families and you thought that he was with and he wasn't there.

So, they went back and they're searching everywhere for him. And Mary's distraught. And they find him at the temple and all the priests are listening. And they can't believe the depth of knowledge of Jesus. And they're anxious. And so Mary reproves him, she says, "We're looking for you everywhere." And he says, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house?" So, he knew at age 12 that God was his father. But here at his baptism, God the Father is saying it directly to him, "You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased." He's feeding him his love, feeding him how wonderful you are and how much I love you. But ultimately, as I said, this announcement is for the whole world. So here we are, at this time, with this sermon and you're contemplating these words, it was for us, too.

And so in Matthews' gospel, it's "This is my son whom I love. With him, I am well pleased." And he'll be in Mark's gospel too on the Mount of Transfiguration saying to Peter James and John, "This is my son whom I love, listen to him." So that's the announcement.  And now we have God's pleasure in Jesus. And this is where we started. You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased. The father is delighted in the son. He delights in him in every respect.

John 1:18 says that the son "…is in the bosom of the father." What does that mean? He's in his father's heart. He's at the core of his being. His affection for his son is immeasurable. John 3:35 says "The father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands." Consider that. Wow, the father loves the son and places the universe in his hands. The father's delight in Jesus is because he is the perfect reflection of himself. Says in Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God." Colossians 1:19, God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell on him. Hebrews 1:3 says he "is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." So, God knows better than we do. There's nothing in all the universe that's more glorious and more awesome and wonderful than God himself. God would be an idolater if he honored any creature, any created thing, higher than himself. Therefore, God esteems his son as the radiance of his own glory, the exact representation of his own being higher than anything else in the universe.

Therefore, friends, we would not say that God's love, the father's love for the son, is unconditional. We use that language for ourselves, that God has an unconditional love for us. The father does not love the son in spite of who he is and in spite of what he does. That's us. That's us. No, he loves the son because of who he is and because of what he does. Clear scripture on this. He loves that he is the radiance of his own glory and the exact representation of his being. In Hebrews 1:9, he says of the son, "You have love righteousness and hated wickedness." Therefore, God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. In other words, when the father studies Jesus' mind and heart, he realizes he perfectly loves righteousness and perfectly hates wickedness as God himself does.

Secondly, what he's done and what he has done is to do everything that's constantly pleasing to the father. And whatever the father's doing, the son also does, "For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing," John 5:20. Now, this started with the creation of the world. Before the world began, the father loved the son. And then in the will of God, they created the universe together. It says in John 1:3, through him, all things were made. And without him, nothing was made that has been made. What an amazing picture of a father-son work project. I mean, picture that in your mind. I want you to picture in your mind, the teenage Jesus, he's 18 years old. He's in Joseph's carpentry workshop. Says plainly in Matthew's gospel, isn't this the son of the carpenter? So, Joseph was a carpenter, but it says in Mark's gospel, isn't this the carpenter? So, Jesus himself was a carpenter. So that means he probably had an apprentice period. So, he's learning how to make furniture. Imagine teaching Jesus how to make furniture. But there, the father and the son, or maybe he's 18 years old, and they're working on a table and chair set. I had to look it up. They did have chairs back then. But I just want to be sure. So, they were making chairs. And maybe there's a specific design of the legs that Joseph had developed. And Jesus learned that and made them and he copied it exactly, did a great job. And imagine as they're working, the father's working on the table, the son's working on the chairs and they're just humming and happy together. I don't think it's wrong to think in this physical way. Only take that and lift it up to infinity and think of the father and the son making everything in the universe that way. The father making the universe through the son, every star, the earth itself.

As it says in Hebrews 1:10, in the beginning, "O Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens of the work of your hands." That's the father saying that to the son, "Son, you laid the earth's foundation." They did it together. There was nothing that was made by the father that wasn't made through the son. They worked on everything together. Every tree. They made the ostrich together. Isn't that cool? Think about that. Hey, let's make an ostrich. And the father and the son working together on the ostrich with the big egg, remember that whole thing. Anyway. So he loves him because of who he is and also what he has done and that extended on into his earthly life. In John 8:29, Jesus said, "The one who sent me is with me, has not left me alone for I always do what pleases him." Ponder those words. I always do what pleases my father.

Wouldn't you love to be able to say that? Wouldn't you love to be able to go to bed tonight and say, Today, for one day, everything I did please God." I would love just one day like that. You're like, "Pastor, I've had a lot of days like that." And it's like, no, you haven't. Anyway. But you think you have. But you haven't had one. Jesus had nothing but those days. I always do what pleases him. From the moment he was born until he was presented in public ministry at age 30, he never sinned. Every moment, he did what was pleasing to the father. Every moment. And then that perfect obedience would extend even to death on the cross. Listen to these words, John 10:17 and 18; "The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it up again. This command, I receive from my father." Go back to the beginning of the statement. The reason my father loves me is I obey him perfectly even to the point of death in the cross. That's why he was pleased.

Now our salvation, we are invited into that love relationship. By justification, by faith, we are united with Jesus, spiritually united. And we're seen to be as righteous as Jesus. We're seen to be as pleasing to the father as Jesus. We're seen to be as obedient as Jesus. That's what justification is. We're united with him. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. And Jesus invites us into the intensity of that love relationship. John 15:9 says this, now listen to these words, "As the father has loved me, even so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." Think about those words. As the father has loved me, even so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. So, at salvation, God is inviting sinners like you and me who have violated his laws, who are filthy and wickedness, to come in through the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit into a perfect love relationship that existed before the world began between the father and the son. He's inviting you into that. As Paul prays in Ephesians 3, "…that you have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." I get the infinite dimensions of the universe. This love, to know this love, that surpasses knowledge that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. God is saying, "I love my son this much. And I'm inviting you into that love relationship."

"Now our salvation, we are invited into that love relationship. By justification, by faith, we are united with Jesus, spiritually united. And we're seen to be as righteous as Jesus. "

So central application, one main application I want to start with. Not so much you should love but you are loved. Not so much you should love but you are loved. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what's happening in your lives, but we all struggle with this. We all struggle. Am I loved? Does anyone really love me? Is there really any love in my life? What's going on? You are because you have been invited into an intense, perfect love relationship as the father has loved me, even so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

Now, of course, that's going to flow out to others around you. It's going to. As John says, "We love because he first loved us." It's going to flow out horizontally, but it starts with this. Not so much we ought to love but we are loved. So meditate on this, meditate on the dimensions of the father's love for the son, and meditate on the end of the story here. It's an interesting short little book, gospel of Mark, because here the father is saying, "I love my son." At the end of the story, he kills him, slaughters him on the cross, killed him. How do we possibly begin to understand that? Well, we understand it this way. Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" This love never dimmed. It never diminished. But his love for us flowed in that he was willing to give this son who he loved, with whom he was well pleased, to pour him out under death so that we might be forgiven of our sins. That's the love of God for us.

Close with me in prayer. Father, it is a challenge for us in the midst of our lives to get up out of our ordinary circumstances and be able to contemplate concepts like this. Father, I pray that you would take the gospel message that we've heard today and press it into our hearts, that we would understand the love of God for the son. And that we would understand that by faith, we can come into that love relationship and experience it for ourselves. Father, I pray that if there are any that are here that are not yet converted, that they would hear and believe and repenting of their sins would trust in Christ. His atoning worked for full forgiveness and to be drawn into a love, the dimensions of which we can only begin to comprehend in this life in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Spirit as a dove at Jesus' baptism shows Jesus' purpose, His power that came from God, that He's God's son, and that He pleases God.

The post The Father Declares His Delight in His Son (Mark Sermon 2) appeared first on Two Journeys.