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Mark 1:9-15
©November 20th, 2022 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Mark
Most of the time, when you read a story, the author takes great pains in introducing you to the story’s main character.
They try to describe to you their appearance, their temperament, and any other number of things about them, so that you can have a pretty good picture of who this person is right from the outset.
Mark’s gospel doesn’t follow that pattern.
It starts, not by talking about its main character, but by talking about John the Baptist.
When we do get to the main character (Jesus), Mark doesn’t spend much time giving us background information.
Rather, he jumps right in to what he believes is most important—showing us what Jesus said and did.
In our passage this morning, Mark introduces us to the main character of his gospel.
He doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ birth or childhood, but starts at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at around age 30.
In today’s text, Mark tells us about three different things Jesus did.
He mentions them each briefly, but each is important and unique to Jesus.
We’ll look at each of the three scenes Mark sets for us in turn.
Baptism
The first scene is Jesus’ baptism.
9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove.
11 And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” (Mark 1:9-11, NLT)
Last week we were introduced to John the Baptist, who was baptizing people and calling them to repent of their sins.
John knew what his role was.
It was to prepare the way for the Messiah to come.
He was to serve as the Elijah who was promised at the end of the Old Testament.
He had told the people that another was coming whose sandals he wasn’t even fit to untie.
Mark fast forwards to the day Jesus showed up to where John was preaching and asked to be baptized.
Now, this raises pretty big question—why did Jesus want to be baptized?
John was calling people to repent of their sins and be baptized as a sign of this commitment and new life.
Jesus was sinless, so He had no sins to repent of.
So why be baptized?
In Matthew’s gospel, we are told that John had the same question!
When Jesus came to be baptized, John said Jesus ought to be baptizing him!
Jesus’ told John that he should baptize Him to because they must carry out all that God requires.
To be honest, that doesn’t give us a whole lot more information.
To John’s credit, he doesn’t demand further explanation, he simply goes along with what Jesus tells him, and baptizes Jesus.
People have come up with all sorts of ideas of why God may have wanted Jesus to be baptized.
· It was a way of identifying with the people—a way of Jesus saying He was one of us now.
· It was a way of inaugurating His public ministry.
· It was a way of validating John’s ministry.
· It was to set an example that we are to follow in our lives.
To be honest, I’m not sure if Jesus was baptized for one or all of those reasons.
I think the important point is that Jesus was obedient to the Father in coming to be baptized.
That’s also why we see the response of the Father and Holy Spirit immediately afterward.
We are told Jesus saw the Heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove.
It says that this is what Jesus saw, so it’s likely that the others gathered around that day did not see the same thing, but Jesus saw the Heavens opened as He came up out of the water.
I like the way one commentator put it—when Jesus was baptized “all Heaven broke loose!”[1]
We are also told that the Lord spoke to Jesus and reminded Him of His position as the dearly loved Son who brings great joy to the Father.
Certainly Jesus understood these things, but hearing them reiterated should have given him encouragement and strength.
Additionally, we are told the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove.
It doesn’t say the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove, but like a dove.
So, there was no actual dove at Jesus’ baptism, but rather the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus peacefully and gently.
This was something the crowd (or at the very least, John) was able to see, because later John says this moment confirmed to Him that Jesus was the Messiah.
It is interesting to note that at this event we see all three persons of the trinity present.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all present and active in Jesus’ baptism.
Those who deny the trinity have a difficult time trying to explain this account.
The big question though, is what are we to learn from this account?
I think it’s actually pretty simple: God desires for His children to be obedient to Him.
The Lord was pleased with Jesus’ obedience.
He is also pleased when we obey.
Both Jesus and John give us a great example of this kind of obedience.
They both did what the Lord asked of them, even though they may not have always understood all the reasons behind it.
Rarely will we understand the fullness of God’s plans, but we can still do what He requires, even if we don’t get an explanation for it.
As we do that, I believe we will please the Lord as well.
Temptation
The second scene of this story occurs immediately after Jesus’ baptism, and it is kind of unexpected.
12 The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, 13 where he was tempted by Satan for forty days.
He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.
(Mark 1:12-13, NLT)
What I find fascinating in this account is that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and then immediately led Him into the wilderness to be tempted.
This reminds us that not everything God leads us to do is going to be easy.
In fact, sometimes we will be led into the wilderness—but those times are not meant to destroy us, but to strengthen us, to help us find our strength in Him.
I believe that’s what happened to Jesus as well.
Mark gives us very few details about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, but the other gospels give us a bit more information.
Satan tried to tempt Jesus by appealing to his physical desires: his hunger or a desire for power.
These are temptations Satan also often uses with us, but to much greater effect.
He tempts us to indulge our desires in ways that are contrary to what God has said, promising us that by doing so, we will truly find what we are looking for.
But this is a lie.
Jesus knew this, and responded to Satan’s lies with the truth that comes from the scriptures.
When Satan lied to Jesus or twisted the Word of God, Jesus responded by quoting scripture to him.
Truth is the ultimate antidote to Satan’s lies—and truth is found in God’s Word alone.
Though Mark doesn’t give many details about Jesus’ temptation, he does mention that Jesus was out among the wild animals, and that angels took care of Him.
Why mention the wild animals?
Doesn’t that go without saying, since Jesus was in the wilderness?
I suspect he may have been drawing a contrast between Jesus’ temptation and Adam’s temptation.
Adam was tempted by Satan in the garden of Eden, surrounded by animals, but they were all tame.
He was in the perfect environment to stand firm, and yet Adam gave in to Satan’s temptation.
Jesus (who Paul calls the second Adam) also faced temptation from Satan, but everything else about His temptation was different.
Instead of being in the garden of Eden, Jesus was out in the wilderness, a dangerous place for anyone.
And instead of being surrounded by tame animals, He was surrounded by animals who constantly put His life in danger.
The greatest difference of all, however, is that despite the deck being stacked against Him, Jesus stood firm against Satan’s temptations.
He resisted them and was victorious.
As we talk about Jesus resisting temptation, it reminds us of an important truth: being tempted is not sinning.
Jesus was sinless, yet He was tempted by Satan.
So don’t be discouraged when you find yourself tempted to sin.
Being tempted does not mean you have failed, it just means a battle is being waged and you need to fight.
So when you feel temptations rise, steel yourself to stand firm, as Jesus did.
Message
After Mark describes Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, he describes the message Jesus proclaimed.
14 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News.
15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced.
“The Kingdom of God is near!
Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:14-15, NLT)
Mark said Jesus went to Galilee shortly after John was arrested.
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