Transitioning To Jesus (1)

[0:00] The following sermon is made available by Lakeside Bible Church in Cornelius, North Carolina.

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[0:39] We understand that while Mark's stated purpose that we have looked at in verse number one of this chapter, his stated purpose for writing this gospel is to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and the Son of God.

[0:55] We are not actually introduced to this Jesus and to who this man actually is until we get to verse nine. It's the first time in the narrative that we actually are introduced to who he is.

[1:08] Mark's focus up to this point, as we studied in depth last week, has been on the voice in the wilderness that would prepare the way for the coming king.

[1:19] And that voice was none other than John the Baptist or John the Baptizer, whose ministry had the distinct features of preaching and of baptism.

[1:30] And we studied last week how unique his preaching and his baptism actually was. It wasn't that there were no other people in Israel who were involved in these kinds of things.

[1:41] There were others who were preaching in some form or fashion. There were various ceremonial washings that people went through. But nothing was quite like what John was doing, nor was it happening where John was doing it.

[1:57] And we're told in verse five that people from all over Judea, people from all over Jerusalem, had flocked to the wilderness by the Jordan River, specifically to hear the preaching of John, and to involve themselves with this baptism.

[2:16] It was a radical ministry. It was a radical message. And it was a radical method that John was going through to get the message across.

[2:27] And it was radical because John was calling Jews to see themselves as Gentiles. The baptism that he was doing, as we talked about last week, was a baptism that was most closely associated with Gentile proselytes coming into Judaism.

[2:45] Jews didn't go through this baptism. They didn't go through this kind of ceremonial cleansing. What John was getting them to do in his preaching was recognize that they, in and of themselves, needed this same cleansing of heart.

[2:59] This was a baptism of repentance. So it was a radical message. They were to view themselves in terms of the way that they would view Gentiles, and the Gentiles standing with God.

[3:10] They were outsiders. They were unclean in that sense. So John called for these people to repent of their sinful ways, and to turn their hearts to the Lord.

[3:22] And this was the way in which John prepared the hearts of the people to receive the coming Messiah and King. Now, it was in the days of John's wilderness ministry that we find Jesus' first public appearance in terms of formal ministry.

[3:42] Remember, John wasn't meant to be on the scene and have a ministry that lasted indefinitely. That wasn't his purpose. His time of ministry was actually very short, though it was of an immense impact and of an immense importance.

[4:01] But like any herald, John's role, his calling, his duty, was to prepare the way and then get out of the way. And so there's not much more time spent on John the Baptist in the Scriptures.

[4:16] John's gospel goes a little bit further into who John was and what he was doing, but really there's no reason to talk about him further. He had fulfilled his calling. For probably about six months before Jesus shows up on the side of the riverbank, John was preaching in the wilderness.

[4:32] For six months, he had this elevated ministry in Judea, and then maybe for another six months or so after the fact. He had a very short ministry, but it was for a very specific purpose.

[4:43] He was the herald of the king. But the king was now there, so there was no need for the herald. So John is beginning to transition off the scene as Jesus is transitioning on the scene.

[4:57] And Mark uses verses 9 through 15 in order to record this transition. And so we see then in verse number 9 that Jesus came from Nazareth.

[5:10] Would you look at it with me one more time? And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. Now, when we get into this part, I want you to think for a minute and imagine if you were one of the people that had come from Jerusalem or from one of the other parts of Judea to hear John preach this message.

[5:32] And what was it that he was preaching? You show up on the side of the riverbank. You're curious as to what this is all about. And John is proclaiming, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he's saying, there comes one after me who is mightier than me.

[5:47] I'm not even worthy to wash his feet, John says. And you get this anticipation in your mind, this thought of, wow, John is pretty well regarded.

[5:58] He's saying that there's someone else coming just after him that is gonna be of such greater magnitude and of such greater importance than even John. And so you're anticipating on the riverbank that day this amazing person to show up.

[6:12] And then what you see come to the scene is this man named Jesus of Nazareth. John tells us that on the day that he shows up, John the Baptist looks and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[6:27] Now I want you to imagine, we have the distinct opportunity of already knowing lots of the scripture. Like most of us understand this story. We have already talked about how this is really about Jesus and this is who Jesus is.

[6:39] None of the people on the side of the riverbank knew that. They didn't know who Jesus was. Their entire understanding of the Messiah was nothing like what Jesus was going to be.

[6:51] His ministry, at least in this particular advent, was not gonna be anything like they expected for it to be. And yet, what we have Mark emphasizing here is not only that Jesus came to be baptized, but he emphasizes where he came from, which I think is significant and an encouragement.

[7:12] Nazareth was Jesus' hometown. It was an insignificant place. It was a place that nobody even knew about. So when John writes about this, or excuse me, when Mark writes about this to his Roman audience, he has to even explain a general geographical location of where Nazareth actually is.

[7:31] He says it's Nazareth in Galilee, or in Galilee of the Gentiles, as it was often referred to. That was to give them an approximate understanding of where Nazareth actually was.

[7:44] This is also a nod to the Old Testament prophecy that foretold that the Messiah would come from this region. Now, most people didn't think about that.

[7:54] They didn't look for the Messiah to come from here. A fixation on the birthplace of the Messiah being in Bethlehem is probably what gave rise to the ignorance in regards to Isaiah's prophecy in chapter nine.

[8:07] Now, you know that chapter well. Every Christmas, we quote one of the verses in it. Isaiah chapter nine, behold, a child is born. The government shall be upon his shoulders.

[8:18] We understand that prophecy. In verse number one in relation to that prophecy, here's what Isaiah says. In earlier times, God treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt.

[8:31] But later on, he shall make it glorious. By the way of the sea, that is the Sea of Galilee, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

[8:42] But most people had missed this. They were looking for this Messiah to probably be more affiliated with a place like Jerusalem. They certainly would have been aware of David's hometown of Bethlehem and how the Messiah would need to be of the lineage of David.

[8:58] But not many people were thinking that this Messiah was gonna come from Galilee, but especially Nazareth. I mean, where is Nazareth?

[9:09] We don't know anything about it. It's not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. The fact that Jesus' birth took place in Bethlehem fulfilled Micah's prophecy.

[9:21] But the fact that he grew up in Nazareth fulfilled Isaiah's, just giving more proof that Jesus is indeed this Messiah that the prophets had foretold long before.

[9:32] Now, Galilee was sometimes referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles. And the reason it's referred to that is because it had a history in Judea for having Gentile citizenship.

[9:45] And there's lots of history you could go into there that we won't do this morning. But basically, most Jews, especially the closer you got to Jerusalem, looked out on the area of Galilee, and they looked down upon it.

[9:56] They despised the people from there. They considered them unclean. They considered them a lower system of people. They considered them Gentile people, and they wanted nothing to do with them.

[10:07] One such person, or one such indication, is evident even in Jesus' calling of his own disciples. When he called Nathanael, here's what he said. John chapter one, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[10:28] And Nathanael said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? To which Philip responded, you're just gonna have to come and see. In other words, I'm with you, and it doesn't sound right to me, Nathanael, but you gotta see this guy.

[10:45] You gotta listen to what he's saying. You gotta see what's going on with this man. What's the importance of this? The importance is, Jesus was nothing of what people expected him to be. He was nothing of what we would want him to be, even.

[11:01] This great king, this savior, this person that John is saying is so much greater, he's from Nazareth? And then we see the humility of Christ. The humility of Jesus is quite astounding.

[11:16] And we see it not only in the fact that, and it's enough even in this fact, but not only in the fact that God condescended to become a man, that he set aside the glories and the benefits of heaven in order to come and be a man, but he did that in the most inferior and contemptible manner imaginable.

[11:38] This is not a Cinderella story. Jesus' life is not a Cinderella story. That's not what this is. It's not that God looked down and he saw this young man named Jesus of Nazareth who was like most stories would tell in our day.

[11:54] He was just destitute, and he was robbed of everything that he needed, but he was of such great character and integrity. He was a diamond in the rough, so to speak. And God looked and showed pity and compassion on him and brought him up from the depths of his despair and used him in such a fantastic way.

[12:10] That is not what's happening in this passage. Jesus is literally God who has condescended to become a man in order to save sinners from sin and death and hell.

[12:25] He is literally God that has come to do that. And as he has done that, he did it in the most inferior way. He's the king, John says, that is coming to save his people.

[12:37] And one might expect a king to be born in a palace. They might expect them to be raised in the grandeur of a city like Jerusalem. But Jesus was born in a stable.

[12:53] And he was raised among the poorest of people in the poorest of towns. That's where the king came from.

[13:04] Now Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 53, that he would be despised and rejected of men. And then he goes on to say in chapter 53 that he would be one from whom men would hide their face.

[13:18] He's not even talking about his crucifixion yet in Isaiah 53. This is the beginning. He's saying people will look on the Messiah, they will look on the Son of God, and they will despise him.

[13:30] He will not be attractive. What's gonna happen with this Messiah? You're not gonna look at him and think, wow, he just exudes power and authority. That's not what he's gonna be like.

[13:41] He's gonna be despised and rejected of men. He was gonna be somebody that when you looked on him, you'd hide your face from him. You don't want anything to do with him, Isaiah says. That was the way in which he was gonna come. And the simple statement of his geographical upbringing is what gives rise to this.

[13:55] It contributes to this prophecy that this is who he would be. Now again, think with me about these people that would have heard John preaching.

[14:08] He left the riches of heaven in order to be among the poorest on earth. That's what Philippians 2 tells us. He left the glorious praises of angels in order to be despised and rejected by mankind.

[14:31] You understand the significance of that? When you study the Old Testament and you see these encounters that individuals have with angels, they were so glorious and magnificent in appearance and in the way that they carried out their ministry that most people when confronted by an angel in the Bible either passed out or they immediately got down and tried to worship them.

[14:54] How many times do we read that someone would try to worship an angel and the angel would lift them up and say, no, you don't need to worship me. I'm just a messenger. But the sheer presence of them, the glory of what they look like and how they ministered was so magnificent that this was the response that men have.

[15:10] Now, Jesus was in heaven from eternity past and around the clock he was receiving praises over and over and over from the very beings that when they're presented to man on earth either pass out or fall down and worship themselves.

[15:25] And he leaves that, willingly, he leaves that in order to come to the earth to have some man that he created spit in his face, to hate him, to have the people that was supposed to be teaching about him plot a way for him to be murdered.

[15:45] He was despised. He was rejected. He left so much in order to go through that. He left the perfect, glorified state of heaven in order that he might take on the weakness and frailty of human life in a fallen world.

[16:06] Why? Why? Why? Some may say, what a waste. Why did he do that?

[16:20] It was love. Love is the reason. Love for his own. Love for you.

[16:32] Love for me. John 3 tells us plainly. You know the verse. For God so loved the world. His love was so great that he himself, he sent his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would never perish but will have everlasting life.

[16:53] Why did Jesus do all of that? Love. Love. There's a hymn that was instrumental during the second great awakening in America written in the early 1800s called What Wondrous Love Is This?

[17:10] I don't know if you know it. But it speaks of this love. It goes like this. What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul.

[17:24] What wondrous love is this, O my soul. What wondrous love is this that calls the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul.

[17:41] To bear the dreadful curse for my soul. And then the next verse goes like this. When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down.

[17:56] When I was sinking down, sinking down. When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul.

[18:16] Christ laid aside his crown for my soul. Why? Love. An amazing love.

[18:28] Now think about those people on the side of the river that day. Jesus shows up. They're here in this incredible, and they're excited. There's this anticipation building.

[18:40] And then John says, behold the Lamb of God. And everybody turns around, they look at Jesus, and they say, this is it? This is it, John? This is the one that's supposed to be mightier than you?

[18:55] This is the one that's supposed to take away the sin of the world? How in the world is he gonna do that? He's from Nazareth. To some people, he may not seem like much.

[19:12] But when you know him, when you know him, he's the most beautiful thing. When you know him, he's the most glorious thing.

[19:25] It didn't matter that he was despised and rejected of those men. When you know him, you will love him. Why? Because he loves you. We love him, John wrote, because he first loved us.

[19:39] And how was that love demonstrated? When I was sinking down beneath God's dreadful frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul.

[19:54] What wondrous love is this? You say, you get all that just out of that one phrase, Jesus came from Nazareth? Yeah, it's unbelievable. We're probably not gonna make it all the way through this sermon today.

[20:08] This is what Mark's doing in these verses. He's transitioning from John to Jesus. This is the introduction he gives of Jesus. And then he covers this transition in three phases.

[20:21] Jesus' baptism, Jesus' temptation, and then Jesus' ministry and message. We're only gonna make it through the baptism today. But let's look at it. Verse number nine. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee!

[20:35] And was baptized of John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

[20:52] And he was baptized in John, or of John, in the Jordan. Like Jews from all of Judea and Jerusalem, Jesus came to one of John's riverside meetings.

[21:07] And he expressed this desire and intention to be baptized. Now let's be honest, this is a little strange. In fact, this is an act of Jesus that has baffled the minds of Christians for hundreds of years.

[21:24] But it's not an obscure passage in the scripture. It's not one that keeps us guessing. In fact, all four gospel writers emphasize this event as being significant to the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

[21:36] The question has to do with, why would Jesus need or want to be baptized to begin with? John's baptism was about repentance from sin.

[21:49] Does that mean that Jesus had some kind of sin in his life of which he needed to repent? Some people have suggested that. But that cannot be the case. The Bible clearly teaches that he has never sinned.

[22:02] He never did a sinful act. Though presented with every opportunity to sin, he never succumbed to temptation. He is God and therefore it's impossible for him to sin. So it couldn't be that.

[22:14] It couldn't be a sin that he needs to repent of. Some have suggested that Jesus was just a man and that at this moment of his baptism he was somehow infused with the divine essence and divine qualities that God wanted to give him to accomplish this purpose.

[22:32] But that couldn't be it either. John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He's always existed and he's always existed in a perfect state.

[22:42] So it can't be that he needed to be cleansed of sin or repent of sin. It can't be that this was just an act of divine infusion of the Spirit in some kind of weird way that took a normal man and made him a God-like figure.

[22:55] That's not what's happening here. Even John the Baptist was troubled by this request. He didn't want to do it. In fact, in Matthew chapter 3 in Matthew's account it says this, then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him.

[23:11] But John tried to prevent him. He tried to prevent him. That word prevent is in the imperfect tense which from what I understand means that it was a continuous thing.

[23:22] It was something that John this was a conversation. It wasn't a Jesus comes to John and says, hey, I want you to baptize me. And John says, you know, I don't know about that. And Jesus says, no, I want you to do it. And then, okay, I'll do it. It wasn't like that.

[23:33] There was this exchange happening where John was so troubled by this request of Jesus to be baptized knowing that his baptism represented repentance. That he refused to do it over and over.

[23:46] He kept saying, no, I can't do this. I can't do this. This is going to diminish who you are. This is going to diminish what I've been preaching. I can't do this for you. He says, John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you.

[24:02] And do you come to me? John says. Now, John had an incredibly high view of Jesus. And he had an incredibly humble spirit. I don't know that most of us would respond that way.

[24:15] We're out on the riverbank. Jesus of Nazareth shows up. And we have this understanding that he's going to be the one that delivers us from Rome. That's probably what most of them were thinking at this point.

[24:27] And Jesus walks up to you and he says, hey, I want you to baptize me. Can I tell you what? I'd be tempted to think at that moment. Yeah. You want me to do it? Yeah. Yeah.

[24:37] I'd love to do it. Hey, everybody gather around. I'm going to baptize Jesus. He asked me to baptize him. That's how most of us would respond, isn't it? Not John.

[24:48] He had such a high view of God to me. Such a high view of Jesus. Such a humble spirit that Jesus comes and says, John, I need to do this. And he says, I can't do it.

[24:59] I can't do it. I'm not even worthy to wash your feet and you want me to baptize you? No. I need to be baptized by you, John says. But then Jesus says, Matthew 3, Jesus answering said to him, permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

[25:23] And then he permitted him, it says. In other words, Jesus says, John, for us to obey the will of the Father, us, not just me, but you too, for us to do what God the Father wants us to do right now, we're gonna have to do this.

[25:37] We're gonna have to fulfill all righteousness and we need to do it. And of course, John submits and goes through with the baptism. So if Jesus had committed no sin of which he needed to repent, why then did he get baptized?

[25:54] Why do the gospel authors place such a significance on it? Let me give you three explanations, really just three words if you're keeping the notes there in your scripture journals. The first word is this, confirmation.

[26:07] Confirmation. We see that in verse nine. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John. He didn't go to just anybody to be baptized.

[26:22] He went specifically to John and there's a significance in that. His participation in John's baptism was a public confirmation of who John was and what he was doing.

[26:38] It makes sense that John's claim of being the voice in the wilderness would be validated then by the very one to whom he was or of whom he was preaching about. For Jesus to go through this process meant that he was confirming John's identity and he was affirming John's message.

[26:58] It put his public stamp of approval on the message that every individual was in need of a savior regardless of their background, regardless of their status, regardless of their affiliations.

[27:11] It didn't matter that they were Jews. It didn't matter that they were of the physical seat of Abraham. None of that mattered. This puts Jesus' stamp of approval on the fact that every single person is in need of redemption and salvation and forgiveness.

[27:27] When standing before God we are all unclean. It puts his stamp of approval on that message. Of course, by confirming the ministry of John Jesus confirmed his own identity as the Messiah because it was Jesus that John was preaching about.

[27:43] So the very fact of Jesus' participation said to the people, you need a savior and I am that savior. Listen to John and now listen to me.

[27:57] So confirmation. Secondly, identification. Identification. Though perfectly sinless, in his baptism Jesus identified with the sinners that he had come to save.

[28:14] MacArthur helps us here. He wrote, in the first act of his ministry, the one who had no sin publicly identified himself with those who had no righteousness.

[28:27] The sinless lamb submitted to a baptism designed for sinners. A foreshadowing of the fact that he would soon submit himself to a death deserved by sinners.

[28:40] There's a shadow in this act that points to what Christian baptism would eventually come to look back on. So as Jesus goes down into the water and he goes and baptizes, it becomes symbolic of that moment of what we now in baptism look back on and that is his death and his resurrection.

[29:00] People from all over Judea and Jerusalem came to demonstrate a repentant heart. Jesus came to identify with them by pointing to the cleansing that he would provide.

[29:13] This cleansing was just symbolic of what he was going to do for mankind. Of course, this was a mystery to them. Nobody on the bank of the river understood that.

[29:25] It wouldn't be until after the crucifixion and resurrection that anybody could. It was veiled in this moment but we had the distinct privilege of looking back and saying this is what this meant.

[29:35] He was identifying with me. He was identifying with what he had come to do for me. King Hughes says he associated himself with us sinners and placed himself among the guilty not for his own salvation but for ours.

[29:51] Not for his guilt but for our guilt. Not because he feared the wrath to come but to save us from it. His baptism meant the cross. Why did Jesus get baptized?

[30:04] It's not because he had sin. It's because he wanted to confirm the message in the ministry of John and then he wanted to identify with sinners pointing us to the cross and then thirdly and most dramatically we see revelation.

[30:18] Revelation. We see this in verses 10 and 11. Straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and there came a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased was during this act of baptism that the very first explicit revelation of Jesus being the Messiah and Son of God was made.

[30:49] As Jesus came up out of the water in this instance he and John and presumably others that would have been gathered at the river that day for this meeting witnessed and experienced something spectacular unbelievable we might say.

[31:09] Jesus comes up out of the water and immediately the heavens are torn open is the word that's actually used there torn they are opened up and the Holy Spirit descends in a visible way it's not that he was a dove that's not what that is meaning it's meaning that he was gentle like a dove would be it symbolized kind of like a dove would have responded and they witnessed visibly the Holy Spirit descending from these heavens that have just been torn open and resting upon this man that had just been baptized and then it gets even better a voice thunders from this heaven that has just been torn open and what does the voice say?

[31:51] It says this is my beloved son in fact it speaks directly to Jesus and says you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased what a magnificent revelation this is this is unbelievable Jesus comes up out of the water and all of this happens it's really amazing this wasn't just the declaration of Jesus as a Messiah this was a declaration that Jesus was the very son of God and amazingly we see the representation of each person of the Trinity all in one place all at one time maybe for the first time truly in the Bible as far as we understand it in this way now think about it Jesus the son the son of God the second person of the Trinity is in the water he's visible then God the Holy Spirit is descending the same place and then God the Father is not seen but he's heard he's heard as he's speaking remember last week we talked about he's a God who speaks and he speaks and all one time we see all three parts of course we don't understand this we don't understand how this works a lot of people try to deny it but how can you deny what the scripture says in one place

[33:04] God the Son God the Spirit God the Father all there together in one essence this is who they are it's who he is this was a monumental and undeniable moment on which John the Baptist based his testimony and witness of Jesus we're almost done listen in John chapter 1 John testified saying I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and he remained on him and John says I did not recognize him that is John and Jesus though related John spent his life in the wilderness his parents were very old when they had him they probably died when he was very young and he spent his life in the wilderness there might have been times that John and Jesus at family gatherings particularly around the feast in Jerusalem might have seen each other and known each other as children we don't know for sure but it's possible that that happened but in adulthood it's been very long since John had seen

[34:07] Jesus himself and so at first when Jesus comes he doesn't recognize him he doesn't recognize him like any of us would recognize somebody that we haven't seen for 20, 25 years at this point somebody that we knew as a kid we may not recognize them now that's what John's saying he said I did not recognize him but he who sent me to baptize in water that is God the Father God said to me he upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and John says I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God now what are these gospel authors doing?

[34:48] they're providing eyewitness accounts of who Jesus is and what he has done so that we may believe him and they're giving John's account of saying listen as John went around after that day saying look I saw it I saw it I saw the heavens open I saw the Spirit descend I saw it I was told this is what was going to happen and then one day Jesus showed up and that's exactly what happened I saw it with my own eyes John says he is the Son of God Dennis Prager is a popular conservative talk show host he's also an Orthodox Jew and from time to time he'll do a kind of a Q&A sort of thing called ask a Jew ask a Gentile and from time to time he'll have somebody like John MacArthur or Alistair Begg or somebody like that on his program and I was listening to one of them last year around Easter that he had done with Alistair Begg and Dennis Prager made this statement he said the Jews problem with Jesus is not his messianic claim he said the Jews have all kinds of messiahs we're grateful for them and Jesus probably fits that description well

[35:57] I like Jesus I like what he did he certainly attempted to turn people back to Sinai is what he would always make as his point of reference he said the Jews have no problem with Jesus' messianic claim they have a problem with this divinity claim that God would somehow be in three persons is beyond their ability to believe he along with many others believed that Jesus was a type of messiah whose teaching was powerfully compelling but they're unprepared to accept him for who he really is and that is the son of God but the gospel writers insist that the events surrounding the baptism of Jesus make this divinity claim of Jesus irrefutable why did Mark bother to mention the baptism of Jesus how could he not how could he not his purpose is to prove to us that Jesus is the Christ the son of God how could he ignore such a monumental moment of revelation perhaps you're prepared to accept Jesus as an incredible teacher with an incredibly powerful impact on the world but are you prepared to accept him as the son of God you say

[37:28] Jared I don't know about this this this seems kind of out there I don't disagree when I read things today fictional things and when I see stories demonstrated on TV and on movies and I see something maybe along these lines happen I never automatically look at it and think wow that must have really happened but this is not just a story this is not a historical novel this is not meant to just get us excited about something and draw some applications that might help us in our life that's not what this is this is an eyewitness account of a real man named Jesus of Nazareth that was baptized by a real man named John the baptizer a name given to him by people that didn't follow him this is the real account that people saw and witnessed and because the word of

[38:29] God tells it it's true are you prepared to accept it as truth even though you may look at it and think wow this is this is unique can you believe it yeah you can because it's true it's true why is this so significant Jesus tells us in John chapter 10 Jesus said I am the door he's given an illustration about sheep and shepherds and sheep pens and he says I am the door if anyone enters through me he will be saved and will go in and find rest find pasture the thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy but I came that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly Jesus' claim is that he was the only way to this life and what helps us understand the authority of that claim because there was a man named

[39:38] John the Baptist that said I saw it I saw it I heard it with my own ears he said you are my son in whom I am well pleased and if that's who Jesus is we cannot ignore his message and his message is I am the door if you want life you have to go through me and if you will come through me you will find rest for your soul he says you will find pasture but you have to go through me and when Jesus says that he doesn't say it arrogantly there's no pride in that he's not looking at people and saying demanding that his authority over them like a gentile leader would have lorded authority no he's saying it with compassion and with mercy understanding that if they don't go through him they will not get life and it's that love in his heart and that mercy and that compassion in his heart that he says I'm the door listen I'm the door if you don't go through me you won't have life but if you come through me you will find rest you will find pasture you will find rest for your soul the thief comes to steal and to destroy but I have come that you may have abundant life

[40:51] Jesus says and because of the witness of John and because of the experience around Jesus his baptism we cannot ignore that message and that's the message for you today are you prepared to believe it are you prepared to believe that Jesus truly is the son of God that he is God in the flesh if you're not prepared to accept that and to believe that you will not have life you cannot have life you cannot look at him indifferently you cannot see him as just a wonderful man that had an incredible impact and you shouldn't wait much longer to make that decision the Bible says behold today is the day of salvation I want to implore you to believe the gospel there was an urgency to Jesus his message and to John's why because of the reality of who he was if that's who

[41:55] Jesus is we have to listen to what he said and if we're going to listen to what he said we have to believe and if we don't we don't have life thank you for listening to this sermon made available by lakeside Bible church feel free to share it wherever you'd like please do not charge for it or alter it in any way without express written consent from lakeside Bible church don't forget to visit us online at lakeside Bible church or find us on Facebook and Instagram by searching meet