Understanding the Gospel of Mark

We're going through the Gospel of Mark together, and Mark really wants us to see who Jesus is. And not just to see who He is, but he wants us to believe that He is God and be saved. That's the whole point of the Gospel. Actually, that's the point of all the Gospels, is to believe on Christ and to be saved. And he does that by showing us that for hundreds, even thousands of years, God's people... have been looking forward to a Messiah, a Savior. And to discover Him, there would be somebody that goes before the Messiah and prepares the way, reveals who He is. And Mark proves in our first eight verses that the foretold messenger is John the Baptizer. He just makes it very systematic in saying, this is who the messenger is, and the messenger... goes before the Messiah and prepares the way. And in proving that John the Baptizer was the messenger assigned to this divine task, he's getting at his real goal, to show that Jesus is God, who has come to save his people. And that is the dividing line between all religions, that Jesus is God and he's the one that saves his people. And Mark, in his work to prove that Jesus is God, he now turns his fast-paced attention to Jesus himself. So as we've said before, it's like sprinting with Mark. Immediately, immediately, immediately, right? And it's a fast-paced gospel. Because remember, Mark is writing from things that he's pulled from Peter's sermons in Rome. And I just imagine that Peter... was just moving from one thing to the next, going from thing to thing. And so Mark distilled the gospel of Mark from the sermons that Peter preached while he was in Rome and Italy. And it kind of matches personality of Peter. But remember Mark's opening line, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You guys remember that? Verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And this gospel, or good news, is that Jesus, the human, is not only the Christ or the Messiah, but is God. That's the big point. It was the good news, singular. And Mark will take the next 16 chapters to show us that fact, that we might believe in Jesus Christ. And so Mark's longing, just as Paul's was when he wrote to the Romans, was that people would believe and be saved. The scripture says that everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. You will not be put to shame if you believe in Christ because that is what saves you. And so why don't we all stand as we read Mark chapter 1 and our text this morning is verse 9 through 11. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he come out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn apart, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. So on a summer day, maybe not unlike this summer day, maybe in the year 26 AD, 26 AD, among the crowds of the people who had been coming to John the Baptist, pouring out to John the Baptist in the Judean wilderness, another person came. And this person was Jesus. John the Baptist had been preaching repentance for six months approximately. He'd been preaching repentance. and judgment to the people for six months. And he was well known, as we discovered last week, in the land of Israel for this ministry. Everybody knew that his baptism was a baptism of repentance and confession of sin. But Jesus arrives about halfway through his ministry at the six-month point. And John still has six more months to go. And it'll be about six months that John continues preaching the same message after the baptism of Jesus. And at about the end of that year, he's arrested by Herod. And he's incarcerated for about a year. And he comes down into the Judean wilderness. And he's from Nazareth, it tells us. Which was a little, tiny, podunk town that was unknown. And Nathanael, the future apostle, basically, when he hears that Jesus is from Nazareth, he basically spits out his coffee laughing and says, can anything good come from Nazareth? And you know what? Nathanael was from Galilee. Galilee is the region. Nazareth is the city. I don't know where you grew up, but I remember there's little cities where I grew up in Pennsylvania that even though you were in northwest Pennsylvania, you didn't want to be from Union City. That was right next to where we grew up. We were quarry. I mean, we were a thriving metropolis of 6,000. Those guys had at least 4,000 people. You did not want to be from Union City. Well, Nathaniel's from Galilee, the region. He finds out that Jesus is from Nazareth, and he literally says, can anything good come from that place? And Mark's writing to a predominantly Gentile and Roman audience, so he takes the time to actually explain. that Nazareth was in Galilee. They would have no idea, no idea. The second phrase we read there is, and he was baptized by John in the Jordan. And like I said a few weeks ago, Mark loves paradox. He's just said in verse 8, the verse before, that he himself is unworthy to untie Jesus' dirty sandal strap, and that his baptism of repentance was less than the coming Messiah's baptism of the Spirit. Yet in the very next verse, there he is baptizing him. No introduction, no context. He says, I'm unworthy. Next verse, I'm baptizing him. He gives no explanation to unravel that puzzle, but thankfully we have some complementing perspectives in each of the Gospels. And I want to take just a second here to remind you that plurality is a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing. I prayed for a city Bible church. That's a church in Sacramento. They're a church that is praying for more elders, so it has a more robust leadership team. That's what we're praying for, too. I just want to remind you people from Foundry that we need plurality of elders. If we only had the Mark's Gospel, do you know how much we'd be missing? We might even draw conclusions, not because God's Word's wrong, But we might draw conclusions that might not be actually as accurate as they could be if we didn't have the other Gospels. This is the beauty of having different perspectives on the truth of God. And I believe strongly that we, as a church, need to be praying for other elders to be a part of our leadership team. So pray for that. I invite you to pray for that. Matthew 3.14 describes this same situation. He says, John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? Verse 15, but Jesus answered him, let it be so, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he, John, consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water. Luke 3 describes it this way. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had also been baptized, and was praying, Boy, we didn't know that from Mark, did we? The heavens were opened and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, descended on him in bodily form like a dove. Oh, now we're getting even the fuller picture of it. Then we come to John chapter 1, verse 31 and 34. John chapter 1, verse 31 and 34. He says, I myself did not know him. This is John the baptizer speaking. But for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John the Baptist bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. Oh, there's another fact. It remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain. with what this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of god wow isn't that great so many different perspectives gives us a fuller picture but i also owe you a little bit of clarification last week i had some bereans come to me and i'm so thankful for bereans the first berean was my wife we got home and she said hey i was a little confused you said that john the baptist didn't know jesus and i said no i didn't I don't think I said that. She said, no, I think you did. I said, well, I was so excited to explain the fact that John the baptizer did not know that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, until the dove descended like a dove, that I was trying to make that point so clear that I might have been a little bit confusing. So first of all, I'm sorry. I never want to confuse anybody. John, in some part, did know Jesus, clearly. He knew that he was something more than he was. And there was a couple other people that brought that to my attention, so thank you. I need those Bereans. But the clarification that I was trying to make was that John the Baptizer did not know that he was the Son of God. That was withheld until the moment that this bodily form of the Holy Spirit that looked to be a simile of the dove descended. So, clarification. So second cousin John, the lesser, the messenger, he knew that he was unworthy, but he didn't know how unworthy he really was. And in Matthew 3, we hear that the description that John uses when he tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him, it says that he protested and forbade Jesus to be baptized by him, to completely prevent. He was dimly aware that Jesus was greater than him. And he attempted to prevent that baptism, but yet he submitted to Christ's will. And some will ask, and they have over the centuries, why would Jesus need to be baptized? Why on earth would Jesus, a sinless man, need to be baptized when John's baptism was the baptism of repentance? And that's a great question. The first thing that I want to say is that Jesus... The Messiah associates with the sinful and guilty. And aren't you glad that he does? Jesus needed no cleansing. He needed no confession. Yet the perfect Son of God chose to walk into that filthy river, the same river, catch this guys, the same river that was used to wash off, metaphorically, hundreds of thousands of people's sin. And he submersed himself in the filthy water of the Jordan River for you and for me. Filthy with, polluted with sin and corruption and took it upon himself, not for his sake, but for yours and mine. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. He's literally putting him under the filth of that to identify with us. Secondly, it was to present Jesus as a sacrifice. Jesus' baptism by John takes on this added dimension. And I think I may have just... to explain this a couple weeks ago. But when we consider that John the baptizer was from the tribe of Levi, and he was a direct descendant of Aaron the priest, we begin to see this clearer picture. Luke specifies that both of John's parents were of the Aaronic priestly line. And one of the duties of the priest in the Old Testament was to present the sacrifices before the Lord. And John the Baptizer's baptism of Jesus could be seen as a priestly presentation of the ultimate sacrifice. John's words the day after the baptism in John chapter 1 verse 29 have a decidedly priestly air. He says, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The high priest was to present the sacrifice for the people. And John says, look, behold. the sacrifice that's to take away the sin of the world. And surely we can say that this was an example for us believers as well. The question is, why would Jesus be baptized? He associates with the sinful. He presents a sacrifice. And he's also an example to us as believers. Matthew 28, 19, we know this verse. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. the Son and the Holy Spirit. Peter said, repent and be baptized all of you in his first sermon. And I can think of no more compelling reason to be baptized than Jesus' example. And just as he says in Matthew, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, we see the Trinity on full display in the baptism here as well. But either way, We do know for certain that Jesus did this to fulfill all righteousness because he says that's why he did it. Okay, we got kids running around. We got birds flying around. I can't believe how good you guys are doing already, staying focused. But I want you to dial in right now. Can you imagine what happened next? Jesus is baptized like every other person that's coming. but then Something happens. Verse 10, let's read it together. And when he came out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. This is not normal. This did not happen with the other people. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. First, we read in Luke's Gospel that Jesus was praying. Just picture that. Picture that. Jesus is coming up out of the water, praying. Jesus knew what had been triggered by this moment. It was time to begin to reveal that He was God. And so He is praying. I don't know if you prayed while you were baptized. I know that sometimes... We joke around that we're going to hold certain people under the water a little longer. That's my mischievous laugh. But Jesus is down there and he comes up and he's praying. And it says that Jesus was baptized. The Greek word is baptizdo. It means immersed, dipped. And he's coming up out of the water. And I think the discussion on baptism, whether it's full immersion, is basically pretty much put to bed in this. description of Christ being baptized. Certainly there are moments that would prevent a full immersion, and it certainly isn't something to argue about, but I think we have a picture of our example there. If it's feasible, immersion is the way to go. But we see three things happen, and all three things are intended to prove that Jesus is God. That's the whole point. We've got to keep that in our brain. What's the authorial intent? What's the writer's intent? The intent is say and to prove that Jesus is God. The heavens rip, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks. The heavens rip, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks. Jesus immediately rises. That's the word that Matthew uses. Mark uses it 40 times, 11 times in this first chapter. Matthew uses it three times in the whole gospel. Here's one of those times. Jesus immediately, almost bursting out of the brown Jordan River, water still dripping off of his beard, having washed over his face and his body, and he's praying to the Father. It's overwhelming imagery. He comes up out of that, and the heavens are split. And Mark uses for the first time that word, immediately. Immediately, the heavens split. Immediately Jesus comes out, immediately the heavens split. And Mark uses a verb that is so striking here. The Greek word is schizo. And it's from where we get our word schism. To rend or tear, to divide or split, or to rip. Matthew and Luke use a more tempered verb meaning to open. But Mark loves to paint the picture graphically and powerfully, drawing us into the event. Peter displays a little bit of his emotion here, right? Peter's preaching and Mark's scribbling. Ripped! It was ripped! Immediately! The only other time that Mark uses this verb is to describe the temple curtain or veil tearing at the death of the Messiah. That curtain was four inches thick and nearly 60 feet tall in Herod's temple. And it was what divided... where God dwelt in the temple called the Holy of Holies from where men dwelt. And this veil was ripped skid-so apart like the heavens were. Just imagine, you've seen it, Mr. T with the phone book. That's the picture. And notice, notice carefully, it was Jesus. who saw this tearing. Look at your Bibles with me. We need to learn to really look at it. It says, he saw the heavens being torn apart. Matthew says this, the heavens were opened to him. Luke simply says the heavens were opened. Here's the point. Mark is proving that Jesus is the anointed Messiah come to save. And the same word. that we read here is found in Isaiah 64 19. 64 19 says this, Oh, speaking of Yahweh, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. Speaking of Yahweh, Oh, that you would tear the heavens and come down that the mountains might quake at your presence. What a beautiful prophecy. And this is happening in this moment. This section in Isaiah is explicitly about the anointed servant who would come and draw God's people back to him. Those people who were looking for Yahweh to return, those people who were looking for him to come down, one of those signs would be that the heavens would be torn. And Mark says, look, this is proof. The heavens have been split. The Messiah has come. And once the heavens are split, the next thing that we read is the Spirit descends. Our text says, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Luke says, and the Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. Matthew says, And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. John the Apostle writes, And John the Baptist bore witness. Remember, there's two Johns. John the Apostle wrote John. He's writing about John the Baptist. He says, John the Baptist bore witness and said, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. John goes on further in chapter 1. verse 33 we're emphasizing the idea of the spirit remaining he says i myself did not know him meaning jesus as the as the son of god but he he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on him you see the spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit that was the identifying marker and although the tearing of the heavens may have been only visible to Jesus. We can't be fully certain of that. What came next was visible to everyone. Luke tells us that the Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. Add to that, John later, when he described it in advance, said, I saw the Spirit descend and remain on Him. Now, I certainly don't think that Jesus walked around for the rest of His time on earth with a dove flittering above Him or on Him. It doesn't say a dove, it said like a dove, but we do know it was literal, it was visible, it was like a dove, and it rested, and it remained. Let me read those again. It was literal, it was visible, it was like a dove, and it rested and remained on Jesus. I want to ask you a question. You can... You can join in the response by just raising your hand or whatever. How many people who are a part of God's body have been baptized by Jesus Christ? Every single person. You got to raise your hand if you're saved. Every single person who is in the body of Christ has been baptized into the body by Jesus Christ. Ephesians tells us there's one baptism, and I'm not taking the time to differentiate what some would call a second baptism or a further baptism. I'm not even addressing that at all. I'm talking about the baptism of Jesus Christ. Every single believer is baptized into the body of Christ. Guess what? Nobody saw something like a dove come down and land on me, okay? That just didn't happen. And it didn't happen like that for you either. I'm sorry. I wish it would have. I wish it did to me. But Mark is saying this because he's he's designed to prove that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is the Messiah. And there's a physical, visible representation of God that has descended upon him and remained. If you have your Bible, turn to Isaiah 64. I'll read it as well. So if don't, no worries. Isaiah 64, you might fight the wind a little bit. Isaiah 64 verse 1 says this, this is of who is going to come as God to earth as the anointed servant. Isaiah 64 1 says, the spirit of the Lord God. is upon me. Mark is proving that Jesus, the man, is God, the Messiah. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Remember Jesus quoting this, guys? He quoted this. After he was baptized and tempted in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4. After reading this prophecy about the anointed servant, Jesus read that very prophecy, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Why? Because the dove that looked like a dove descended upon him. I don't mean to say a dove, so I don't mean to confuse you. It was like a dove descended upon him as the Spirit of the Lord. That's the prophecy. And when Jesus reads that in the synagogue after he has been baptized, what does he say? Luke chapter 4 verse 21, and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Jesus reads that prophecy, rolls up the scroll, and sits down. I cannot imagine that moment. And it says, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and Jesus says this today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Mark is telling us Jesus is God listen to Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse that's the father of David out of David's line Jesse was David's line a A branch from his roots will bear fruit. And what does he say in Isaiah 11, 1? The spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The exact word. Then again in Isaiah 42, listen, 42, 1. Isaiah 42, 1 says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have... put my spirit upon him. Mark is saying in every way that he can, this is the one. And you might be saying, John, I get the point. You don't have to say it 30 times. Well, you know what? Mark said it three times. And so I'm going to say it at least that many times. He really wants us to know that Jesus is God. Jesus is the Christ. So the heavens ripped, the spirit descended. And finally, the Father spoke. Verse 11 in our text. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. God spoke from heaven. And what he says is so important for us to consider this morning, because it reveals so much about the relationship that God has with the Son. And when he spoke, what was his testimony? What did he say? He said, you are my beloved son. You're the son of God. You are the son of God. Remember Mark's opening salvo? Jesus, the son of God. God spoke from heaven. He didn't do that when I got baptized into the family of God. And he says, in you, I am well pleased. John MacArthur says this, no prophet ever heard that. Prophets were called friend of God, like Abraham. Prophets were called man of God. They were called servant of God. No prophet was called a son of God. And this name is taken from Psalm chapter 2, verse 7, which the Jews acknowledged universally to be a messianic psalm. The Messiah will be the son of God. This is at the very center of the reality of the person of Jesus Christ. He is not just a good teacher. He is not just a good prophet. He was not a person who did justice and righteousness. Certainly he's all those things, but that is the least of the importance. He is God. People can't swallow that. People can't accept. that. Whole religions refuse that. That's the sticking point with Islam. It's the sticking point with Mormonism. It's the sticking point with Jehovah's Witnesses. They say Jesus is not God. Mark is telling us over and again, as many times as he can, referencing Old Testament scripture, Jesus, the man, is God, the Savior. And the love of the... God the Father for the Son is so palpable in this moment. This was perfect love, full love, sacrificial love. And it's the first thing that the Father says to Jesus as his ministry becomes public. Listen, much of the woes that plague our society can be traced to absent fathers or fathers who do not love their children. I just told a sister here this morning that The first time I saw my biological father was when I was 18. That's a story for another time. I won't bore you with that one. But there's nothing so comforting and protective and heartening than knowing the love of our perfect father. And some of you are fortunate enough to have a father figure that conjures up ideas and emotions of strength and love and protection. and care, but many do not. That's just a reality in this broken world. But you can imagine it, can't you? We can want it, don't you? But we can learn through our Heavenly Father's love that we can have that same love. And you can hear it in the Father's love and words to Jesus, I am here and you are loved. And we would miss, seriously, some of the beauty and the power of these words if we only took them as fulfillment of prophecy and confirmation of Christ's deity. Although that's certainly here, and it's important, it shapes our thinking. How we think shapes how we worship. You know those songs that we sang this morning? We can worship better when we know truth. But we can't miss the tenderness of the Father's love for the Son. Do you remember back in Genesis chapter 22, when Abraham was listening to God describe his son? And he says three times, take your son, your only son. Well, Abraham had two sons. No, he didn't. He had one son of divine love, of promise. He says, take your son, your only son. Take your son, your only son. Take your son, your only son. It was undivided. He was the son of God's love. It's undivided. And that's the imagery that we have here. This is God saying, this is my son. He's the only one that bears the divine image of the Father in totality. He is the son of my love. He is God's son. And why do I make such a big deal about this? Because this, listen, this is the love that you share and can share when you become a child of God. We all long to be accepted and loved, to be known and loved. If you're known and rejected, that is painful. It's one thing to be rejected when you're not known, but if someone dives into your story and knows your secrets and knows who you are and then rejects you, that's painful. We all long to be known and accepted and loved. And this is the kind of love that's described here, a tender and strong and protective and healing love of a perfect father. John chapter 1 verse 12 says that to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right or the power in some of your translations to be called the sons of God. to become the children of God. This is the love that awaits all of God's children. The second thing that God says to him, the second thing that God the Father says to God the Son, with you I am well pleased. Do you remember Isaiah 42 that we read just a minute ago? That was the one that says, that talked about John presenting Jesus as a sacrifice. Do you remember the words that said, My chosen one, in whom my soul delights. And that's what's intended in these final words from Isaiah 42.1, in whom my soul delights. With you, I am well pleased. This is the ultimate testimony to the sinless, holy. perfection of the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark's point, Jesus is God. Three unique things happen to him. And God, the Father, is saying, I delight in you. I am pleased with you. It's the acceptance of him. But it's not just the acceptance of him. It goes deeper. It's the acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice. And this striking picture of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, displays love and acceptance. And John, you might say, John Nelson, John, you might say, wait a second, where do you get the idea of acceptance out of pleasing? But we need to go back to the Old Testament to understand this idea fully and really wrap our heads around what the Father is saying to the Son. Back in Genesis chapter 8, Noah, righteous Noah, you remember Noah, he's exited the ark and for the first time in scripture he makes an altar to the Lord and a sacrifice is made to the Lord, a burnt sacrifice. And when the aroma of that burnt offering came to God, metaphorically, it was pleasing to him. In just a moment, you're going to smell a pleasing aroma of hot dogs. And the way that you're going to know that that aroma has been pleasing to me is I am going to eat that hot dog and accept that hot dog onto my plate, hopefully more than one. But the acceptance of the sacrifice was proven to be pleasing because of the acceptance of it. In Exodus, In Leviticus, in Numbers, we see that word pleasing 42 times. I counted them this week. 42 times. And every single time that we see it, it's associated with a sacrifice that had been accepted. John, where do you get the idea of acceptance from God's words that Jesus was pleasing? From this. The sacrifice was pleasing because it was accepted. An accepted sacrifice is a pleasing sacrifice. And to establish this pattern even further, we can look at it the opposite way. A sacrifice that was not accepted is not pleasing. You guys remember Cain and Abel, right? Genesis chapter 4. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, but Cain's was not. And God said to them, And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering or sacrifice, but for Cain and his sacrifice, he had no regard. It was not pleasing. And the Lord said to Cain, he says this, why are you angry? Why are you so, why has your face fallen? And then he says this, verse 7, if you do well, will you not be accepted? Cain had presented an unworthy sacrifice that was not accepted and thus was not pleasing. Jeremiah the prophet indicts Israel with the same idea. Jeremiah 6.20. Jeremiah 6.20 says, What use is this frankincense that you're bringing to me? You say it comes from Sheba. I don't care where it comes from. Your frankincense is worthless. And why do you bring me this sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings, quote, are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me. You're not acceptable. You're not pleasing. Jesus, acceptable and pleasing. And remember, earlier in our study, I mentioned that John, having come from the Aaronic priestly line, was offering the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God. Jesus was perfect. There was no sin in Him. And John symbolically presents the sacrifice to the Lord. And what does God do? He says, this sacrifice is perfect and it's pleasing to me. He was pleasing to the Father because of the perfection of His sinless and untainted offering. Jesus was sinless. And John the Baptizer said, Lamb of God, acceptable and pleasing to the Father. We see it throughout all Scripture. The heavens ripped. The Spirit descended. And the Father spoke, and it all proved that Jesus, this human man from podunk Nazareth, was the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. This is Mark's intent. Do not be fooled or think for a second that Jesus was just a good teacher, that all religions are the same. There is a defining characteristic of Christianity, and that is that Christ is God come to save and Mark's hope is that you and I and every reader would believe that truth. We learned that when we believe in Jesus not only are we saved but we become his children and he lavishes his fatherly love on us through Christ right you remember that we he lavishes a fatherly love on us. But here's the final encouraging thing. When you are in Christ, please listen, when you are in Christ, hidden in him as a child of God, you are also acceptable to him because of Christ. You're not just saved by him. You're not just loved by him. You are accepted by him because you're pleasing to him. You got to take that home. You got to take that home and remember that. Jesus' sacrifice, his perfect life and sacrificial death was pleasing to the Father. It was accepted. The hot dog was taken. And because of this, You are accepted and pleasing to the Father. Not because of what you do. You are certainly not exempted. I'm sorry, you are exempted of not only what you did, but who you are. And sometimes what's been done to you. We think to ourselves, I'm not pleasing because I've done this. Or I'm not pleasing because this was done to me. You are fully pleased. pleasing to the Father because Jesus' sacrifice was accepted as a sweet aroma to the Father. You got to take that home. That, brothers and sisters, is how God feels about you because that's how he feels about his Son, Jesus Christ. You are pleasing to him because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice was accepted. Oh, thank the Lord. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for obeying the Father and coming down. Oh, praise the Lord. When we sing worship songs, if our worship is informed by truth, it becomes more real, doesn't it? Does that mean you can do whatever you like? Of course not. You and I, brother and sister. have the ability in Christ to please God with your sacrifices of obedience. When you give up your will and lay down at the altar your feelings and sinful longings and kill them in order to obey the God, you have the ability to please God. And I don't want to take too much time on what we can do or what we should do to distract from what Jesus did and what we have in Him. But I think it's important to recognize in this closing time that, and the worship team can kind of make their way back up here, Paul was overjoyed with one of the brothers when he was in jail in Philippi. He was overjoyed with Epaphroditus, and he writes this in Philippians chapter 4, verse 18. Think of Paul writing from jail, verse 18 of chapter 4. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts that you sent. Okay, catch it. Paul just received some gifts while in jail, and this is what he says, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Not only are we acceptable and pleasing to God, the things that we do out of obedience are a sweet aroma to the living God. And Paul writes that living a peaceful and quiet life, check this out, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 10, he says that a pleasing thing to the Lord is a quiet life and godly and dignified. That pleases the Lord. That's like a sacrifice to Him. So I want to close with this. Sacrifice, catch on to this, what sacrifice, what area of your life will require some sacrifice for you to be obedient and please the Father? And the question is, are you willing or are you unwilling? Cain was unwilling. And we see that Mark's intent in our study tonight, this morning, was to prove that Jesus was God. The heavens ripped, the Spirit descended, and the Father spoke. This is so important for us to see this, because of its differentiation from every other person that was baptized, and every other person that gets tempted. but also to know what the Father says about us. I'm going to close in a word of prayer, and we're going to worship the Lord. Having been further informed of the truth of God's Word, let's worship Him with all of our hearts and our minds. Father, we come before You in Jesus' name, and I praise You and I thank You for truth. I thank You for Mark writing the Gospel. I thank You for the sermons that Peter preached so passionately that painted such a good... beautiful picture of what happened. Lord, I thank you that you ripped open the heavens, that you, Holy Spirit, descended and remained and rested upon Christ the Messiah. And I'm thankful, Father, that you spoke. And Lord, I pray that you would speak today into the recesses of our heart for some of us the guilt and the shame. For some of us, the longing of a father. For some of us, just to know Christ more truly, but to believe. But to believe that you are the Son of God, the Messiah. To believe that we are accepted. To believe that we are pleasing to you. Lord, help us believe those things this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

have been looking forward to a Messiah, a Savior. And to discover Him, there would be somebody that goes before the Messiah and prepares the way, reveals who He is. And Mark proves in our first eight verses that the foretold messenger is John the Baptizer. He just makes it very systematic in saying, this is who the messenger is, and the messenger... goes before the Messiah and prepares the way.

And in proving that John the Baptizer was the messenger assigned to this divine task, he's getting at his real goal, to show that Jesus is God, who has come to save his people. And that is the dividing line between all religions, that Jesus is God and he's the one that saves his people. And Mark, in his work to prove that Jesus is God, he now turns his fast-paced attention to Jesus himself. So as we've said before, it's like sprinting with Mark. Immediately, immediately, immediately, right?

And it's a fast-paced gospel. Because remember, Mark is writing from things that he's pulled from Peter's sermons in Rome. And I just imagine that Peter...

was just moving from one thing to the next, going from thing to thing. And so Mark distilled the gospel of Mark from the sermons that Peter preached while he was in Rome and Italy. And it kind of matches personality of Peter.

But remember Mark's opening line, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You guys remember that? Verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And this gospel, or good news, is that Jesus, the human, is not only the Christ or the Messiah, but is God. That's the big point. It was the good news, singular.

And Mark will take the next 16 chapters to show us that fact, that we might believe in Jesus Christ. And so Mark's longing, just as Paul's was when he wrote to the Romans, was that people would believe and be saved. The scripture says that everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. You will not be put to shame if you believe in Christ because that is what saves you. And so why don't we all stand as we read Mark chapter 1 and our text this morning is verse 9 through 11. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And when he come out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn apart, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. So on a summer day, maybe not unlike this summer day, maybe in the year 26 AD, 26 AD, among the crowds of the people who had been coming to John the Baptist, pouring out to John the Baptist in the Judean wilderness, another person came.

And this person was Jesus. John the Baptist had been preaching repentance for six months approximately. He'd been preaching repentance.

and judgment to the people for six months. And he was well known, as we discovered last week, in the land of Israel for this ministry. Everybody knew that his baptism was a baptism of repentance and confession of sin. But Jesus arrives about halfway through his ministry at the six-month point. And John still has six more months to go.

And it'll be about six months that John continues preaching the same message after the baptism of Jesus. And at about the end of that year, he's arrested by Herod. And he's incarcerated for about a year.

And he comes down into the Judean wilderness. And he's from Nazareth, it tells us. Which was a little, tiny, podunk town that was unknown.

And Nathanael, the future apostle, basically, when he hears that Jesus is from Nazareth, he basically spits out his coffee laughing and says, can anything good come from Nazareth? And you know what? Nathanael was from Galilee.

Galilee is the region. Nazareth is the city. I don't know where you grew up, but I remember there's little cities where I grew up in Pennsylvania that even though you were in northwest Pennsylvania, you didn't want to be from Union City.

That was right next to where we grew up. We were quarry. I mean, we were a thriving metropolis of 6,000.

Those guys had at least 4,000 people. You did not want to be from Union City. Well, Nathaniel's from Galilee, the region.

He finds out that Jesus is from Nazareth, and he literally says, can anything good come from that place? And Mark's writing to a predominantly Gentile and Roman audience, so he takes the time to actually explain. that Nazareth was in Galilee. They would have no idea, no idea.

The second phrase we read there is, and he was baptized by John in the Jordan. And like I said a few weeks ago, Mark loves paradox. He's just said in verse 8, the verse before, that he himself is unworthy to untie Jesus' dirty sandal strap, and that his baptism of repentance was less than the coming Messiah's baptism of the Spirit.

Yet in the very next verse, there he is baptizing him. No introduction, no context. He says, I'm unworthy.

Next verse, I'm baptizing him. He gives no explanation to unravel that puzzle, but thankfully we have some complementing perspectives in each of the Gospels. And I want to take just a second here to remind you that plurality is a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing. I prayed for a city Bible church.

That's a church in Sacramento. They're a church that is praying for more elders, so it has a more robust leadership team. That's what we're praying for, too. I just want to remind you people from Foundry that we need plurality of elders.

If we only had the Mark's Gospel, do you know how much we'd be missing? We might even draw conclusions, not because God's Word's wrong, But we might draw conclusions that might not be actually as accurate as they could be if we didn't have the other Gospels. This is the beauty of having different perspectives on the truth of God.

And I believe strongly that we, as a church, need to be praying for other elders to be a part of our leadership team. So pray for that. I invite you to pray for that. Matthew 3.14 describes this same situation. He says, John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

Verse 15, but Jesus answered him, let it be so, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he, John, consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water.

Luke 3 describes it this way. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had also been baptized, and was praying, Boy, we didn't know that from Mark, did we? The heavens were opened and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, descended on him in bodily form like a dove. Oh, now we're getting even the fuller picture of it.

Then we come to John chapter 1, verse 31 and 34. John chapter 1, verse 31 and 34. He says, I myself did not know him. This is John the baptizer speaking. But for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John the Baptist bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. Oh, there's another fact.

It remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain. with what this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of god wow isn't that great so many different perspectives gives us a fuller picture but i also owe you a little bit of clarification last week i had some bereans come to me and i'm so thankful for bereans the first berean was my wife we got home and she said hey i was a little confused you said that john the baptist didn't know jesus and i said no i didn't I don't think I said that. She said, no, I think you did.

I said, well, I was so excited to explain the fact that John the baptizer did not know that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, until the dove descended like a dove, that I was trying to make that point so clear that I might have been a little bit confusing. So first of all, I'm sorry. I never want to confuse anybody.

John, in some part, did know Jesus, clearly. He knew that he was something more than he was. And there was a couple other people that brought that to my attention, so thank you. I need those Bereans. But the clarification that I was trying to make was that John the Baptizer did not know that he was the Son of God.

That was withheld until the moment that this bodily form of the Holy Spirit that looked to be a simile of the dove descended. So, clarification. So second cousin John, the lesser, the messenger, he knew that he was unworthy, but he didn't know how unworthy he really was.

And in Matthew 3, we hear that the description that John uses when he tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him, it says that he protested and forbade Jesus to be baptized by him, to completely prevent. He was dimly aware that Jesus was greater than him. And he attempted to prevent that baptism, but yet he submitted to Christ's will.

And some will ask, and they have over the centuries, why would Jesus need to be baptized? Why on earth would Jesus, a sinless man, need to be baptized when John's baptism was the baptism of repentance? And that's a great question.

The first thing that I want to say is that Jesus... The Messiah associates with the sinful and guilty. And aren't you glad that he does? Jesus needed no cleansing.

He needed no confession. Yet the perfect Son of God chose to walk into that filthy river, the same river, catch this guys, the same river that was used to wash off, metaphorically, hundreds of thousands of people's sin. And he submersed himself in the filthy water of the Jordan River for you and for me.

Filthy with, polluted with sin and corruption and took it upon himself, not for his sake, but for yours and mine. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He's literally putting him under the filth of that to identify with us. Secondly, it was to present Jesus as a sacrifice. Jesus' baptism by John takes on this added dimension.

And I think I may have just... to explain this a couple weeks ago. But when we consider that John the baptizer was from the tribe of Levi, and he was a direct descendant of Aaron the priest, we begin to see this clearer picture. Luke specifies that both of John's parents were of the Aaronic priestly line.

And one of the duties of the priest in the Old Testament was to present the sacrifices before the Lord. And John the Baptizer's baptism of Jesus could be seen as a priestly presentation of the ultimate sacrifice. John's words the day after the baptism in John chapter 1 verse 29 have a decidedly priestly air. He says, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The high priest was to present the sacrifice for the people.

And John says, look, behold. the sacrifice that's to take away the sin of the world. And surely we can say that this was an example for us believers as well. The question is, why would Jesus be baptized?

He associates with the sinful. He presents a sacrifice. And he's also an example to us as believers. Matthew 28, 19, we know this verse.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. the Son and the Holy Spirit. Peter said, repent and be baptized all of you in his first sermon. And I can think of no more compelling reason to be baptized than Jesus' example. And just as he says in Matthew, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, we see the Trinity on full display in the baptism here as well.

But either way, We do know for certain that Jesus did this to fulfill all righteousness because he says that's why he did it. Okay, we got kids running around. We got birds flying around. I can't believe how good you guys are doing already, staying focused.

But I want you to dial in right now. Can you imagine what happened next? Jesus is baptized like every other person that's coming.

but then Something happens. Verse 10, let's read it together. And when he came out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. This is not normal.

This did not happen with the other people. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.

First, we read in Luke's Gospel that Jesus was praying. Just picture that. Picture that.

Jesus is coming up out of the water, praying. Jesus knew what had been triggered by this moment. It was time to begin to reveal that He was God. And so He is praying. I don't know if you prayed while you were baptized.

I know that sometimes... We joke around that we're going to hold certain people under the water a little longer. That's my mischievous laugh.

But Jesus is down there and he comes up and he's praying. And it says that Jesus was baptized. The Greek word is baptizdo. It means immersed, dipped. And he's coming up out of the water.

And I think the discussion on baptism, whether it's full immersion, is basically pretty much put to bed in this. description of Christ being baptized. Certainly there are moments that would prevent a full immersion, and it certainly isn't something to argue about, but I think we have a picture of our example there.

If it's feasible, immersion is the way to go. But we see three things happen, and all three things are intended to prove that Jesus is God. That's the whole point.

We've got to keep that in our brain. What's the authorial intent? What's the writer's intent? The intent is say and to prove that Jesus is God. The heavens rip, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks.

The heavens rip, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks. Jesus immediately rises. That's the word that Matthew uses.

Mark uses it 40 times, 11 times in this first chapter. Matthew uses it three times in the whole gospel. Here's one of those times. Jesus immediately, almost bursting out of the brown Jordan River, water still dripping off of his beard, having washed over his face and his body, and he's praying to the Father.

It's overwhelming imagery. He comes up out of that, and the heavens are split. And Mark uses for the first time that word, immediately.

Immediately, the heavens split. Immediately Jesus comes out, immediately the heavens split. And Mark uses a verb that is so striking here. The Greek word is schizo.

And it's from where we get our word schism. To rend or tear, to divide or split, or to rip. Matthew and Luke use a more tempered verb meaning to open.

But Mark loves to paint the picture graphically and powerfully, drawing us into the event. Peter displays a little bit of his emotion here, right? Peter's preaching and Mark's scribbling.

Ripped! It was ripped! Immediately!

The only other time that Mark uses this verb is to describe the temple curtain or veil tearing at the death of the Messiah. That curtain was four inches thick and nearly 60 feet tall in Herod's temple. And it was what divided...

where God dwelt in the temple called the Holy of Holies from where men dwelt. And this veil was ripped skid-so apart like the heavens were. Just imagine, you've seen it, Mr. T with the phone book.

That's the picture. And notice, notice carefully, it was Jesus. who saw this tearing. Look at your Bibles with me. We need to learn to really look at it.

It says, he saw the heavens being torn apart. Matthew says this, the heavens were opened to him. Luke simply says the heavens were opened. Here's the point. Mark is proving that Jesus is the anointed Messiah come to save.

And the same word. that we read here is found in Isaiah 64 19. 64 19 says this, Oh, speaking of Yahweh, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. Speaking of Yahweh, Oh, that you would tear the heavens and come down that the mountains might quake at your presence. What a beautiful prophecy. And this is happening in this moment.

This section in Isaiah is explicitly about the anointed servant who would come and draw God's people back to him. Those people who were looking for Yahweh to return, those people who were looking for him to come down, one of those signs would be that the heavens would be torn. And Mark says, look, this is proof. The heavens have been split.

The Messiah has come. And once the heavens are split, the next thing that we read is the Spirit descends. Our text says, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Luke says, and the Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. Matthew says, And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

John the Apostle writes, And John the Baptist bore witness. Remember, there's two Johns. John the Apostle wrote John. He's writing about John the Baptist.

He says, John the Baptist bore witness and said, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. John goes on further in chapter 1. verse 33 we're emphasizing the idea of the spirit remaining he says i myself did not know him meaning jesus as the as the son of god but he he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on him you see the spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit that was the identifying marker and although the tearing of the heavens may have been only visible to Jesus. We can't be fully certain of that. What came next was visible to everyone.

Luke tells us that the Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. Add to that, John later, when he described it in advance, said, I saw the Spirit descend and remain on Him. Now, I certainly don't think that Jesus walked around for the rest of His time on earth with a dove flittering above Him or on Him. It doesn't say a dove, it said like a dove, but we do know it was literal, it was visible, it was like a dove, and it rested, and it remained. Let me read those again.

It was literal, it was visible, it was like a dove, and it rested and remained on Jesus. I want to ask you a question. You can...

You can join in the response by just raising your hand or whatever. How many people who are a part of God's body have been baptized by Jesus Christ? Every single person. You got to raise your hand if you're saved. Every single person who is in the body of Christ has been baptized into the body by Jesus Christ.

Ephesians tells us there's one baptism, and I'm not taking the time to differentiate what some would call a second baptism or a further baptism. I'm not even addressing that at all. I'm talking about the baptism of Jesus Christ. Every single believer is baptized into the body of Christ. Guess what?

Nobody saw something like a dove come down and land on me, okay? That just didn't happen. And it didn't happen like that for you either.

I'm sorry. I wish it would have. I wish it did to me.

But Mark is saying this because he's he's designed to prove that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is the Messiah. And there's a physical, visible representation of God that has descended upon him and remained. If you have your Bible, turn to Isaiah 64. I'll read it as well. So if don't, no worries.

Isaiah 64, you might fight the wind a little bit. Isaiah 64 verse 1 says this, this is of who is going to come as God to earth as the anointed servant. Isaiah 64 1 says, the spirit of the Lord God.

is upon me. Mark is proving that Jesus, the man, is God, the Messiah. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

Remember Jesus quoting this, guys? He quoted this. After he was baptized and tempted in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4. After reading this prophecy about the anointed servant, Jesus read that very prophecy, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Why? Because the dove that looked like a dove descended upon him. I don't mean to say a dove, so I don't mean to confuse you. It was like a dove descended upon him as the Spirit of the Lord. That's the prophecy.

And when Jesus reads that in the synagogue after he has been baptized, what does he say? Luke chapter 4 verse 21, and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Jesus reads that prophecy, rolls up the scroll, and sits down. I cannot imagine that moment. And it says, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and Jesus says this today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Mark is telling us Jesus is God listen to Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse that's the father of David out of David's line Jesse was David's line a A branch from his roots will bear fruit.

And what does he say in Isaiah 11, 1? The spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The exact word.

Then again in Isaiah 42, listen, 42, 1. Isaiah 42, 1 says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have... put my spirit upon him. Mark is saying in every way that he can, this is the one. And you might be saying, John, I get the point.

You don't have to say it 30 times. Well, you know what? Mark said it three times. And so I'm going to say it at least that many times.

He really wants us to know that Jesus is God. Jesus is the Christ. So the heavens ripped, the spirit descended. And finally, the Father spoke.

Verse 11 in our text. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. God spoke from heaven.

And what he says is so important for us to consider this morning, because it reveals so much about the relationship that God has with the Son. And when he spoke, what was his testimony? What did he say? He said, you are my beloved son. You're the son of God.

You are the son of God. Remember Mark's opening salvo? Jesus, the son of God.

God spoke from heaven. He didn't do that when I got baptized into the family of God. And he says, in you, I am well pleased. John MacArthur says this, no prophet ever heard that.

Prophets were called friend of God, like Abraham. Prophets were called man of God. They were called servant of God.

No prophet was called a son of God. And this name is taken from Psalm chapter 2, verse 7, which the Jews acknowledged universally to be a messianic psalm. The Messiah will be the son of God. This is at the very center of the reality of the person of Jesus Christ. He is not just a good teacher.

He is not just a good prophet. He was not a person who did justice and righteousness. Certainly he's all those things, but that is the least of the importance.

He is God. People can't swallow that. People can't accept. that. Whole religions refuse that.

That's the sticking point with Islam. It's the sticking point with Mormonism. It's the sticking point with Jehovah's Witnesses. They say Jesus is not God.

Mark is telling us over and again, as many times as he can, referencing Old Testament scripture, Jesus, the man, is God, the Savior. And the love of the... God the Father for the Son is so palpable in this moment.

This was perfect love, full love, sacrificial love. And it's the first thing that the Father says to Jesus as his ministry becomes public. Listen, much of the woes that plague our society can be traced to absent fathers or fathers who do not love their children. I just told a sister here this morning that The first time I saw my biological father was when I was 18. That's a story for another time.

I won't bore you with that one. But there's nothing so comforting and protective and heartening than knowing the love of our perfect father. And some of you are fortunate enough to have a father figure that conjures up ideas and emotions of strength and love and protection. and care, but many do not. That's just a reality in this broken world.

But you can imagine it, can't you? We can want it, don't you? But we can learn through our Heavenly Father's love that we can have that same love.

And you can hear it in the Father's love and words to Jesus, I am here and you are loved. And we would miss, seriously, some of the beauty and the power of these words if we only took them as fulfillment of prophecy and confirmation of Christ's deity. Although that's certainly here, and it's important, it shapes our thinking. How we think shapes how we worship.

You know those songs that we sang this morning? We can worship better when we know truth. But we can't miss the tenderness of the Father's love for the Son.

Do you remember back in Genesis chapter 22, when Abraham was listening to God describe his son? And he says three times, take your son, your only son. Well, Abraham had two sons.

No, he didn't. He had one son of divine love, of promise. He says, take your son, your only son.

Take your son, your only son. Take your son, your only son. It was undivided. He was the son of God's love.

It's undivided. And that's the imagery that we have here. This is God saying, this is my son.

He's the only one that bears the divine image of the Father in totality. He is the son of my love. He is God's son. And why do I make such a big deal about this?

Because this, listen, this is the love that you share and can share when you become a child of God. We all long to be accepted and loved, to be known and loved. If you're known and rejected, that is painful.

It's one thing to be rejected when you're not known, but if someone dives into your story and knows your secrets and knows who you are and then rejects you, that's painful. We all long to be known and accepted and loved. And this is the kind of love that's described here, a tender and strong and protective and healing love of a perfect father. John chapter 1 verse 12 says that to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right or the power in some of your translations to be called the sons of God. to become the children of God.

This is the love that awaits all of God's children. The second thing that God says to him, the second thing that God the Father says to God the Son, with you I am well pleased. Do you remember Isaiah 42 that we read just a minute ago? That was the one that says, that talked about John presenting Jesus as a sacrifice.

Do you remember the words that said, My chosen one, in whom my soul delights. And that's what's intended in these final words from Isaiah 42.1, in whom my soul delights. With you, I am well pleased. This is the ultimate testimony to the sinless, holy.

perfection of the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark's point, Jesus is God. Three unique things happen to him.

And God, the Father, is saying, I delight in you. I am pleased with you. It's the acceptance of him.

But it's not just the acceptance of him. It goes deeper. It's the acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice. And this striking picture of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, displays love and acceptance.

And John, you might say, John Nelson, John, you might say, wait a second, where do you get the idea of acceptance out of pleasing? But we need to go back to the Old Testament to understand this idea fully and really wrap our heads around what the Father is saying to the Son. Back in Genesis chapter 8, Noah, righteous Noah, you remember Noah, he's exited the ark and for the first time in scripture he makes an altar to the Lord and a sacrifice is made to the Lord, a burnt sacrifice. And when the aroma of that burnt offering came to God, metaphorically, it was pleasing to him. In just a moment, you're going to smell a pleasing aroma of hot dogs.

And the way that you're going to know that that aroma has been pleasing to me is I am going to eat that hot dog and accept that hot dog onto my plate, hopefully more than one. But the acceptance of the sacrifice was proven to be pleasing because of the acceptance of it. In Exodus, In Leviticus, in Numbers, we see that word pleasing 42 times. I counted them this week.

42 times. And every single time that we see it, it's associated with a sacrifice that had been accepted. John, where do you get the idea of acceptance from God's words that Jesus was pleasing?

From this. The sacrifice was pleasing because it was accepted. An accepted sacrifice is a pleasing sacrifice.

And to establish this pattern even further, we can look at it the opposite way. A sacrifice that was not accepted is not pleasing. You guys remember Cain and Abel, right? Genesis chapter 4. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, but Cain's was not. And God said to them, And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering or sacrifice, but for Cain and his sacrifice, he had no regard.

It was not pleasing. And the Lord said to Cain, he says this, why are you angry? Why are you so, why has your face fallen? And then he says this, verse 7, if you do well, will you not be accepted? Cain had presented an unworthy sacrifice that was not accepted and thus was not pleasing.

Jeremiah the prophet indicts Israel with the same idea. Jeremiah 6.20. Jeremiah 6.20 says, What use is this frankincense that you're bringing to me?

You say it comes from Sheba. I don't care where it comes from. Your frankincense is worthless. And why do you bring me this sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings, quote, are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.

You're not acceptable. You're not pleasing. Jesus, acceptable and pleasing. And remember, earlier in our study, I mentioned that John, having come from the Aaronic priestly line, was offering the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God.

Jesus was perfect. There was no sin in Him. And John symbolically presents the sacrifice to the Lord.

And what does God do? He says, this sacrifice is perfect and it's pleasing to me. He was pleasing to the Father because of the perfection of His sinless and untainted offering.

Jesus was sinless. And John the Baptizer said, Lamb of God, acceptable and pleasing to the Father. We see it throughout all Scripture.

The heavens ripped. The Spirit descended. And the Father spoke, and it all proved that Jesus, this human man from podunk Nazareth, was the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. This is Mark's intent. Do not be fooled or think for a second that Jesus was just a good teacher, that all religions are the same.

There is a defining characteristic of Christianity, and that is that Christ is God come to save and Mark's hope is that you and I and every reader would believe that truth. We learned that when we believe in Jesus not only are we saved but we become his children and he lavishes his fatherly love on us through Christ right you remember that we he lavishes a fatherly love on us. But here's the final encouraging thing.

When you are in Christ, please listen, when you are in Christ, hidden in him as a child of God, you are also acceptable to him because of Christ. You're not just saved by him. You're not just loved by him.

You are accepted by him because you're pleasing to him. You got to take that home. You got to take that home and remember that.

Jesus' sacrifice, his perfect life and sacrificial death was pleasing to the Father. It was accepted. The hot dog was taken. And because of this, You are accepted and pleasing to the Father.

Not because of what you do. You are certainly not exempted. I'm sorry, you are exempted of not only what you did, but who you are.

And sometimes what's been done to you. We think to ourselves, I'm not pleasing because I've done this. Or I'm not pleasing because this was done to me.

You are fully pleased. pleasing to the Father because Jesus' sacrifice was accepted as a sweet aroma to the Father. You got to take that home. That, brothers and sisters, is how God feels about you because that's how he feels about his Son, Jesus Christ.

You are pleasing to him because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice was accepted. Oh, thank the Lord. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for obeying the Father and coming down.

Oh, praise the Lord. When we sing worship songs, if our worship is informed by truth, it becomes more real, doesn't it? Does that mean you can do whatever you like?

Of course not. You and I, brother and sister. have the ability in Christ to please God with your sacrifices of obedience.

When you give up your will and lay down at the altar your feelings and sinful longings and kill them in order to obey the God, you have the ability to please God. And I don't want to take too much time on what we can do or what we should do to distract from what Jesus did and what we have in Him. But I think it's important to recognize in this closing time that, and the worship team can kind of make their way back up here, Paul was overjoyed with one of the brothers when he was in jail in Philippi. He was overjoyed with Epaphroditus, and he writes this in Philippians chapter 4, verse 18. Think of Paul writing from jail, verse 18 of chapter 4. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts that you sent.

Okay, catch it. Paul just received some gifts while in jail, and this is what he says, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Not only are we acceptable and pleasing to God, the things that we do out of obedience are a sweet aroma to the living God. And Paul writes that living a peaceful and quiet life, check this out, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 10, he says that a pleasing thing to the Lord is a quiet life and godly and dignified.

That pleases the Lord. That's like a sacrifice to Him. So I want to close with this. Sacrifice, catch on to this, what sacrifice, what area of your life will require some sacrifice for you to be obedient and please the Father? And the question is, are you willing or are you unwilling?

Cain was unwilling. And we see that Mark's intent in our study tonight, this morning, was to prove that Jesus was God. The heavens ripped, the Spirit descended, and the Father spoke. This is so important for us to see this, because of its differentiation from every other person that was baptized, and every other person that gets tempted. but also to know what the Father says about us.

I'm going to close in a word of prayer, and we're going to worship the Lord. Having been further informed of the truth of God's Word, let's worship Him with all of our hearts and our minds. Father, we come before You in Jesus' name, and I praise You and I thank You for truth. I thank You for Mark writing the Gospel.

I thank You for the sermons that Peter preached so passionately that painted such a good... beautiful picture of what happened. Lord, I thank you that you ripped open the heavens, that you, Holy Spirit, descended and remained and rested upon Christ the Messiah.

And I'm thankful, Father, that you spoke. And Lord, I pray that you would speak today into the recesses of our heart for some of us the guilt and the shame. For some of us, the longing of a father. For some of us, just to know Christ more truly, but to believe. But to believe that you are the Son of God, the Messiah.

To believe that we are accepted. To believe that we are pleasing to you. Lord, help us believe those things this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

Transcript for:Understanding the Gospel of Mark

Transcript for:
Understanding the Gospel of Mark