Mark 2022

Take up your bibles. Mark chapter 1, we're going through Mark's gospel because we wanna build up to Mark's drama. And the Mark drama so Kneet is sort of really in charge of that from our church and she's doing a great job. She's producing that and it's very exciting.

And we are doing it with other churches as we say, which is which is really wonderful. And it's the whole of Mark's gospel. So we thought we would start a series in Mark and it's Mark chapter 1 and verse 1. The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice, 1 calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the lord.

Make straight paths for him. And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judeian countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the river Jordan. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey. This was his message.

After me comes the 1 more powerful than I. The straps of Whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and I'm tied. I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the holy spirit. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galile and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love, with you, I'm well pleased. At once, the spirit sent him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and the angels attended him. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galile, proclaiming the good news of God.

The time has come, he said, The kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe the good news. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galile, He saw Simon and his brother, Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come. Follow me, Jesus said. And I will send you out to fish for people.

At once, they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little further, he saw Jane's son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them and they left their father's Ebody in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Tom. Thanks, Pete.

Morning everybody. My name's Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here and great to welcome you this morning. Do keep an eye in Mark chapter 1 and have that open in front of you. That would be helpful.

As Pete says, we are beginning this new series this morning, working up to Mark Drummer getting excited about Mark's gospel and our intention at least at the beginning of the series is to preach through this in bigger chunks. We're gonna take the sort of size chunk that we've taken this morning. I'm sure by the end of the series, we'll be back down to 1 sentence, sermons. But at least at the outset, This is our intention to move through it quite quickly to get a big overview of how Mark is structured where Mark is going and so I hope you're excited for that. Worth knowing a bit of background information about the gospel.

It was written by a man called John Mark. That's what church history and church tradition tells us. John Mark, we first meet him in acts chapter 12 and although he wasn't 1 of the first disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Hist tells us that he was a close companion both of Paul and of Peter, and the tradition is that Mark's gospel is actually the testimony of Peter or the sermons of Peter as he spoke and retold the life and the work of Jesus Christ. And when you read through this gospel in particular, it does feel like that. It's got a sermon like feel to it.

It's well structured. It moves quickly. It goes at a good pace. It focuses much less on what Jesus actually said. And what he and instead on the action, on what he did, and the applications are clear, and pointed, and sharp.

It feels like a a sermon has been recorded for us here in in Mark's gospel. And that is certainly true in this introduction, the first 20 verses. You can see there's all kinds of things that we've just read about John the Baptist, about the baptism of repentance, the baptism of the spirit, the baptism Christ, the temptation of Christ, the first sermon, the calling of the disciples. All of that stuff is just packed into the first 20 verses. And I think this is what Mark is doing in his gospel.

You know, he turns to John chapter 1 and we love the kind of lofty theology of John chapter 1. Well, you turn to Matthew 1 and we need the kind of historical genealogy of Jesus. But you come to Mark and it's us as if he's stripping everything back and he's saying to us, the most dramatic moment in all history was when the Lord Jesus Christ stepped into the world that he He has come and he makes a loving claim on your life. It's a take it or leave it claim. But if you are gonna take it then you have to respond in the right way.

You have to respond through repentance and faith. And you can see that both at the beginning and at the end of this chapter or these verses that we've just had read. It's how John the Baptist puts it. It's how Jesus puts it. The arrival of the king into his world means that we have to turn back to him in repentance and trust in him as lord.

That is the only right and proper way to respond to the king, repentance. And so that is going to be our fee this morning. There's all kinds of things that we could look at, but we're gonna look at the nature of repentance. What it means to respond rightly to the coming of of the king. So let's pray and ask for the lord's help as we do that.

Father, we thank you that we can come to you and call you by that name. That you are our heavenly father, and that on this day, we've just read about that the heavens were torn open broken open, and you announce that the Lord Jesus Christ is your son, who you love. And we pray that you would help us to see him as that this morning, that we would see him as the son of God, that we would love him, that we would respond to him rightly. We thank you father that you are always more ready to hear us than we are to pray to you. You are always more ready to give to us than we are ready to ask.

You are such a kind generous giving God and we pray that you give us eyes to see Jesus and hearts to respond to him this morning. In his name, amen. So the first heading this morning then is to call to repentance. That's the first thing we're going to look at. We're going to look at the nature of repentance.

That's the theme. First heading is the call to repentance. And in verse 2, if you put your eyes down to verse 2, we have this end of the old testament right at the start of the passage. It's like a it's like an old testament fruit smoothie. We've got the blender and there's a bit of exodus there and there's a bit of malachi in there and there's a bit of Isaiah in there.

There's all these old testament promises that are blended up into this quotation. And really the big point of it, why Mark is using it, what these promises were all about is that 1 day, the covenant God of the Old Testament Yahweh himself was going to come into the world he made. That was going to be the great day of the Lord when God would set foot on this earth. And Mark wants us to know in the introduction without any confusion and without any mistake that that God has showed up in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the 1 who has fulfilled these promises.

He is the Lord, who has come to be with his people. But Mark also wants us to see in this introduction that the message of Jesus doesn't begin with Jesus. The good news of Jesus doesn't begin with Jesus. In the last words of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4, we're told that before this great day of the Lord when God himself would come and live among us before that day would come 1 in the spirit of Elijah. There would be a prophet in the great tradition of the prophets, a messenger along with all the other messengers who would come to prepare people for the day of the Lord, for the arrival of God himself.

And if you look at verse 4, Mark says and John appeared in the wilderness. And if you knew your old testament at this time, you would not miss the link. John the Baptist was dressed like Elijah was dressed, he had the same questionable fashion sense that Elijah had. He hung out in deserts, a little bit like did. He spoke with the same urgency and clarity that Elijah did.

He comes in the spirit, in the tradition of the great prophet. And in chapter 1, we have this basic message. He is saying This day of the lord promised of old is now upon you. It's here. It's deadline day.

He's come. See, some of you here, some of us can only get things done when we've got a tight deadline. It doesn't matter if you've been given 6 months to do a report or 1 week. You are going to be doing it at the eleventh hour. It doesn't matter, you know, how much time you've been given to be prepared.

You're a deadline person and nothing motivates you like a deadline. You get things done. When a deadline is approaching. And John the Baptist is saying exactly that in chapter 1. It's deadline day.

It's deadline day. Over the next hill, and around the next corner is the Lord himself. He is on the doorstep. He's knocking on your door. He's standing ready to meet you.

The next face that you see is gonna be his. This is the most dramatic moment in all of history. This is the moment of God's greatest action. The Lord is over the next hill, and you are not ready. You're not ready for him.

It's deadline day, and you're not ready. That's John's message. And so he's saying to them, it doesn't matter how religious you are, There has got to be repentant. You've gotta repent. You've gotta turn from your sins and get ready.

You need to turn your heart towards the coming of the king. You need to get ready. And so what's he saying here? He's saying to all these people who are coming out that now is the time for them to leave behind whatever system or whatever authority or whatever dream or whatever religion that has replaced God whatever it is you've been trusting in, whatever it is, now is the time to leave it behind and prepare for the coming of your sovereign. Your sovereign is there.

You gotta repent and you gotta get ready. And so like Elijah, John is just as clear, He's just as urgent the day of the Lord is upon you, and you've got to get ready. And it's interesting because at the end of our reading, when Jesus Christ begins his preaching in the world, his message apart from the timing is basically the same. The Lord Jesus Christ has been taken out into the wilderness and he comes from the wilderness from the place of the prophet, from the place of the messenger, And he says verse 15, the time has come. The kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe. The good news. You see, if you were alive at this moment in history, you were living at the most dramatic point in the universe. The kingdom of God is breaking into the world. The word has been made flesh.

The eternal king of heaven has left behind the riches of glory and he has walking now among you This is the most amazing time to be alive. And yet with 1 voice, Jesus and John say, you have to turn. If you wanna be part of what God is doing here, you have to repent. And with the same urgency, That call comes to us today. Jesus the king has come and opened the door to his kingdom, and that door remains open until he comes back and that call comes with fresh urgency to all of us.

We need to repent. And we need to get ready for the king. And so that's the first heading. At the turning point in history, At the end of the ages, there is this call ringing out from these verses. It's not good advice.

It's not a recommendation. It's not something that you might like to do if you find time later in life. It comes as a command from God himself at the last hour history. At the end of the ages, you have to repent and believe because Christ is coming. And so the call to repentance rings out from this chapter.

Secondly, let's look at the difficulty of repentance. We've looked at the call of repentance, Now secondly, let's look at the difficulty of repentance. Or in other words, why is it that when Elijah and John the Baptist and Jesus preach this message, they mostly have a tough time for it. Why is that? Have a look at verse 3.

Here's a prophecy from Isaiah 40, part of it anyway. A voice of 1 calling in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for him, and then the rest of Isaiah 40 reads, every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places are plain.

And apparently, when an important dignitary or when a king was coming into town. They would literally do things like this. Any bit of landscape that was dodgy, they would try to sort out so the king could have smooth ride into town. They would fill up the potholes. They would sort out the dodgy speed bumps.

They would amend parts of the road where it was broken. Would even try and make low some of the high places so that when the king showed up, he would have a low, smooth ride into town. They would prepare the land for the king. And that is the imagery of repentance. Just think about that as an image of repentance, making high places low, fixing rough spots, getting ourselves ready.

That's the kind of imagery that is used. And what's it talking about? Well, it's really talking about pride and humility, isn't it? You imagined pride like the high places of the landscape, the hills and the mountains that block out the view. Part of being humble is to lower the landscape in our lives, to lower down our pride, to get rid of our arrogance, to be done with our egos, to lower it down to fix up the proud spots so that we might be humble and ready to receive the king.

And you see, if you were baptized by John in the wilderness in these days, that's really what you were saying to the world, isn't it? It's a picture of humility. You would go down into the water as a way of saying, look, I I have to be honest, I've been living for the wrong things. I've been putting my trust in the wrong authorities and I want to go through this symbolic act to say to everybody I was wrong and now I'm gonna get ready and make myself low and and come under the Savior's yoke. I wanna come into his authority now.

I've been living for the wrong things. Backism was a dramatic picture of that, making yourself low so that you could be ready to receive the king. We used to have a in our house growing up and you you may have had 1 of these, 1 of these measuring walls in our kitchen. And, you know, every month or so from about 4 years old and upwards. I would go into the kitchen and my dad would put me up against the wall and he put a pencil mark on the top of my head and the next month or in 3 months time, I would go there again and I was always ahead of my brother, you know, still am today.

He's never been able to catch me. And the pencil marks would always be going I don't know if you had something like that growing up or if you've got kids, whether you're doing that, and that it was exciting. It's exciting to kind of watch yourself growing. And the Christian life is a little bit like that, but also very different. You know, because the way that we measure ourselves in the Christian life, the way that we grow up in faith is actually by growing down in humility.

The way that we see how much we're growing is not how high the pencil marks are on the wall, but how low they are on the wall. Because going low in humility, growing down in the Christian life, is how we grow up in faith. But that's also the thing that makes repentance so difficult to the natural heart. Because we wanna believe that we've made the right choices in life. We want to believe that we've chosen the right authorities, that our way of approaching things is right, that our way of interpreting the world is correct.

We wanna believe that. And we know that to repent would be to say I got it wrong. I got it wrong. I lived my life. Without reference to God.

I try to explain things my own way. I wouldn't listen when anybody told me differently about Jesus. And I now see that he was right and that I was wrong. And that's hard. And in the end, it's the big thing which keeps people out of the kingdom of God, is pride.

It's pride. We're not willing to make the high place low in our lives. You see, it's interesting with the pharisees, isn't it? How this call to be baptized comes to the Jews and the religious people of the day. Why did they need it?

I mean, they're already religious. They've got it all sorted. They don't need They don't need to baptize and get ready. And I think that's exactly the point. It's their religion.

Which may be the biggest hindrance to them getting ready. It's what they're trusting in, and they're not willing to give it up. And the Faracies that, they knew that if they were going to enter the kingdom of God on Jesus' terms, they would have to join the queue behind prostitutes and tax and they just were not willing to do that. It was pride that kept them out. And then when you combine all of that with the culture in which we live, which assumes that the opposite of all of this is true, that the decisions we make are right, that the information we have is enough.

That the the way we view the world is the correct way. Well then you can see how difficult this calling in verse 3 is. The difficulty of repentance, but you cannot bring a mountain down without difficulty. That's just the way it is. But John and Jesus are saying to us, without this humility and repentance, no 1 will be saved, and without it, no Christian will really grow.

And that's 1 of the things that really struck me this week as I was preparing. If you if you're a Christian here, if you would call yourself a Christian, then at some point, you and I, we have humbled ourselves in this way. We've confessed our sins realized that we were wrong, acknowledged that we were wrong, and looked to Christ for salvation. But then somewhere along the line, we forget that this is the economy in God's kingdom. We think that the beginning of the Christian life, the entrance into the Christian life involves humility trust, but once we get in, there's a kind of different economy and it's really about how good a Christian we are and making no mistakes in front of other people.

As if pride was something that we put off once at the beginning, but then like a favorite old jacket we put it on again. For the rest of the for the rest of the Christian life. And it struck me this week that 1 of the reasons I may not grow as a Christian as much as would like to and as much as I would want to is because I've forgotten that the way into the kingdom is also the pattern of the kingdom. The way we begin is also the way that we continue. It is a life of making the high places low.

Coming down in ourselves, going down on the measuring wall and being raised up by by Christ. That is the call of this chapter without embarrassment. Nothing that we do and no clean living and no right behavior can cancel out God's displeasure, Arsin. Nothing that we can do. What we need is to repent of even our best efforts and go low in humility.

That's the call to repentance, but that's also the difficulty of repentance, right? Because we don't wanna do that by nature. But it gets tougher. Because even that making ourselves low, we can't do in our own strength. And so this is the third point.

We've had the call to repentance. Second, we looked at the difficulty of repentance. Thirdly, this is the surprising nature of repentance. This is the surprise of repentance. Have a look at what John says in verse 7.

And this was his message. After me comes the 1 more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals, I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. What's he saying there? John is saying that the 1 I am preaching about, the 1 I'm trying to get you ready for is greater than me, in every conceivable way.

He's greater than me in status. He is the son of God, and he's greater than me in his power. All I can do compared to Jesus is get you wet, says John. That's all I can do, just make you wetter than you were already. But what he can do is wash you on the inside.

He can baptize you and clean you up on the inside and he can change you in every way that you need to change. I can tell you to get ready for that. I can symbolize the fact that you are ready for that, but only he and the Holy Spirit can make that a reality in your life. Only he can make the high places low. He must do that.

That's why he's greater. In status and power and authority. And it's what makes Jesus and this opening chapter such good news. In verse 11, God says, this is my son whom I love. With him, I am well pleased.

In verse 10, we're told that the Holy Spirit comes down on Jesus to set him apart to identify him as God's man. And to equip him for his ministry. And the gospel tells us that it is the same trinity The same heavenly father sending the same spirit to open our eyes to the same Jesus. It's all he is the 1. This triune gracious God who can make us clean and change us in the ways that we are called to change.

In this chapter. Only he can do that. There's a wonderful example of this in acts chapter 11. Just turn with me either on your phone or in a hard copy of your bible to acts chapter 11, and just look at the way these things are all knitted together here. This is acts 11, and Peter, the apostle Peter is returning from a mission trip to the gentiles.

And the Jerusalem Church for some of them at least are very unhappy with that. The Jerusalem church is saying you've been preaching to the gentler, are you telling us that you've been eating with uncircumcised people. Is that what you've been doing? And Peter says, look, just lower your objections a minute and let me explain to you what happened. And here's what he says.

Acts 11 verse 15. He's retelling what's happened. As I began to speak, the holy spirit fell upon them just as he had fallen on us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, as he used to say. It's interesting, isn't it?

John baptized with water. But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So if God gave them the same gift, he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was I to hinder the work of God? When they heard this, their objections were put to rest. And they glorified God saying, so then.

God has granted even the gentiles, repentance onto life. You see how all those things work together? What is the gift that he's talking about here? What gift did the Holy Spirit give them? It's repentance onto life.

Who talked about that? Well, John preached about that and Jesus preached about that. And the apostles preached about that and who makes this repentance happen is the Holy Spirit. You see, all of that is there in seed form in Mark chapter 1. The gift of the Holy Spirit is repentance that leads to life.

Only he can change our hearts to make that happen. And that's why John said the 1 coming after me is more powerful than me. John is saying with his powerful sermon that the Jesus I preach is so glorious and so powerful and so full of love that he can even turn our hearts back to God. And that's so important because we can stand here and we can describe repentance and faith for ours. But for us to actually hear this call, and move towards Christ in saving faith.

We have to be baptized and born again in this way. Left to ourselves, we can describe it but we won't be able to act upon it. We need the holy spirit to move us. In Christ's direction, or we will never repent and believe. After this sermon, we're gonna sing a great song.

My Jesus, I love thee. And in the third verse, it says this, I'll love thee in life. And I will love thee in death, and I will praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath. And I'll say when the death due lies cold on my brow, if ever I love thee my Jesus tis now. And that verse is full of resolve, isn't it?

And rightly so, I'm gonna love thee in Life, Lord Jesus, and I'm gonna love thee in death. And I'm gonna praise you for as long as you give me breath and all the folly of sin I'm gonna resign it. That's repentance, isn't it? To resign the folly of sin, to leave it behind, to give it up to sign it off, and I'm gonna love you. And when the death due is on my head, I'm gonna say I love you.

But how do we do it? Well, the answer is in verse 2 of that hymn. I love thee. Because thou has first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. The only way that we can repent, that we can say I love you, Lord Jesus, is because he first loved us, baptized us with the Holy Spirit and moved us.

Towards Christ. That's what we need. And so there's the call to repentance, there's the difficulty of it, there's the surprising nature of it because it's not in our it's a gift of God. And fourthly, and lastly, let's look at the heart of repentance together. The very beating heart of repentance.

Have a look at verse 16 with me. As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once, they left their nets and followed him. Without delay, he called them, and they left, this is verse 20.

Without delay, he called them, and they left their father, Zebadi, in the boat with the hired men. And followed him. And I think if you'd said to John the Baptist, John, can you just describe to us in simple terms? What it means to repent. Can you just lay it out for us?

You know, let's let's take the example of a fisherman, John. You you just tell us, all that you've preached that, all that you've said, what's he gonna look like for a fisherman to do what you're calling us to do here? And I think he would have said, exactly that. This is exactly what I mean. I mean leaving your nets and following him.

I mean leaving behind your old ways and taking up the new ways. I don't literally mean that every person will have to leave the job that they're in. But in some way, there's gonna be a decisive break. You're gonna leave your old nets and you're gonna follow Christ. That's the heart of repentance, isn't it?

It's just following Jesus. And that's a really important point just to dwell on for a moment because if we divorce repentance from Jesus, we're gonna go really, really wrong. If we divorce repentance from Jesus, we're gonna go wrong. Because then what's gonna happen is we'll think of repentance as this religious thing that I've gotta do. I've gotta say the right words, I've gotta do the right things, I've gotta change in this way tomorrow, and it may include all of that.

But really, if we take repentance away from the person of Jesus, all we're going to be left with is an emotional sense of guilt I've somehow got to overcome. I'm just gonna feel guilty, I'm gonna feel fed up, and I'm gonna have to plan a way to overcome that sense of guilt. But if we think about repentance like that, we're gonna lose the gospel. It's as serious as that. You know, as we heard at the beginning, verse 1 says, that this is the good news, not about repentance, but about Jesus Christ.

This is the good news about Jesus Christ. And that means that everything else, repentance and faith and trust and baptism and kingdom are all about Jesus. These are not just religious things that we have to do. These are things that we see through the lens of a relationship with Christ. And when you read through the Gospels, you see that is how repentance is is described.

Hopeless people looking to Jesus for hope, weary people looking to Jesus for rest, guilty people looking to Jesus for forgiveness, hungry people feeding on Jesus as bread, thirsty people drinking from Jesus as water. It all involved they're different people, different stories, but all of them involve a turning and a new relationship, a new beginning with Jesus following him. Repentance is looking towards Jesus. Faith is trusting in Jesus. The Christian life is following Jesus.

The good news is is Jesus. And if you're here and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian or you're still looking looking into this, I would love you to get just that point from Mark chapter 1. That this is not a call just to feel guilty about some of the things that you've done and try to fix it yourself. The whole of the Christian life and repentance is a new direction, a new relationship with a new person, the king of heaven, who loves your soul. That's what it is to repent.

Stop looking that way and look to him. Live your life in reference to him. Talk to him. Walk with him. Keep your eyes on him.

That's what it's all about. And if you are a Christian, this is good news as well. Because I think all Christians deep down all of us deep down, no matter how buried this desire is, we all want to turn away from the things which stain our lives, don't we? We want we want it. We want to turn from the things which stay in our lives and we do because we have the holy spirit living within us.

But how do we do that? While we return to our savior, and we see his love, and we hear his call to to follow him. That's the heart of what repentance is all about. Not just a religious word, but following a new beginning with Jesus. And so you can see the core and the difficulty and the surprise and the heart of it is to leave the nets behind.

And by the help and power of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus. Should we pray, God will help us to do that. Father, we thank you for the good news about Jesus the Messiah who is the son of God. We thank you that he is your son, anointed by your spirit sent into this world. To die for our sins, to rise again, and to call us to a new way of life.

And we pray, lord Jesus, that you would help us not just at the beginning of our lives, but throughout them, to make the high places low, to fill in the rough patches on the road, to to to go down in humility. And in doing so to grow up in the Christian life. We pray that you would help us lord Jesus as we think about all of these words like repentance and trust and faith and kingdom, not to divorce them from you, because it's all about you, lord Jesus. It's all about turning to you and knowing you and following you and walking with you, and we pray that whether we this is the first time we're hearing these things or whether we we know these truths well that you would help us to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in the way described in this chapter, and we ask it in his name. Amen.