Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word.
It is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Lord, as we open up your gospel,
we ask that your Holy Spirit would do a work in our lives through your word.
We pray in Christ's name.
Amen.
Please have a seat.
It's a wonderful day.
We're together at last.
Some of you guys are visiting, which is tremendous.
We are opening up our service, our first service in the Gospel of Mark.
It's a wonderful place to open up God's word,
or to open up for our first service.
If you have a Bible, fantastic.
I'd ask you guys to follow along.
If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles on the back table.
Anytime you can just get up and grab a Bible, feel free to do that.
There are some movies, and this is a very common illustration that I've heard recently, actually.
But there are some movies where if you miss the first bits of the movie,
you fail to understand the plot.
There is something very important for some movies,
the way they have that opening scene being so important
for the rest of the narrative, for the rest of the plot.
Interestingly, sometimes there's an important bit that is revisited at the beginning,
and it's also that we see again in the back.
So the placement of certain instances in a movie, I mean, it's very critical.
It's very critical if we're to watch a movie, understand the importance of the narrative plot.
This is exactly what we're going to explore this morning in Mark's Gospel.
Before we get into the Gospel, a little bit about Mark.
Mark doesn't write his Gospel in such a way that we hang on every single word Jesus says,
that Mark communicates in such a way that we hear the words of Jesus,
but more importantly, we see what Jesus does, how he interacts with people,
how he heals people and their reaction to him.
One commentator I read said that Mark, what he does is he writes with a paintbrush.
He asks us to enter into the drama that he is describing,
for us to understand who this Jesus really is, what he has come to do,
how he interacts with the rich and the poor and the marginalized or the proud.
And that's a revelation of who he is, who God is.
It's very important that as we read in these next coming weeks and months,
enter into the narrative, enter into the story.
Mark is writing with a paintbrush.
And it's really, really, it's a fantastic, fantastic way to read the Scriptures.
This morning, we are in the opening verses of Mark.
And like I mentioned about certain movies having an opening scene
that is critical for the whole narrative and it's revisited at the end,
we have two of those instances in our section of Scripture this morning.
It's very important that we understand this, actually, for the rest of our time in Mark.
It's a critical bit for us.
And we're going to be looking at two things that will present themselves in this opening section,
but that we'll also revisit at the end of chapter 15, at the end of Mark's Gospel.
The first thing is right off the bat, Mark 1, 1, and we see it again in verse 11,
where Jesus is called the Son of God.
This title that is given to him, the Son of God.
The second thing is when Jesus gets baptized, the heavens are torn open.
It's interesting.
We see this right off the bat.
We're actually going to see it again in the latter part of chapter 15.
Very critical, very critical bit for us to keep our eye on as we read the Scriptures.
So let's take a look first at the Son of God.
Right off the bat, Mark 1, 1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus gets baptized.
The heavens are torn.
The Spirit descends.
And in verse 10, verse 11,
And a voice came from heaven.
This is God the Father speaking.
You are my beloved Son.
With you, I am well pleased.
In Scripture, no other person was called the Son of God.
No other person.
Moses was a servant of God.
Aaron, the chosen one of God.
Abraham was the friend of God.
David was the man after God's own heart.
The Apostle Paul was the apostle of God.
Only the nation of Israel is called the beloved Son of God.
But Israel proves to be unfaithful time and time again.
And so, this title, the Son of God, it begins to evolve in the story of Scripture.
And eventually becomes a messianic title for the offspring of King David.
That somebody would come from Israel, and he would be called the Son of God, and he would save Israel.
And this title, Son of God, very important, begins to evolve.
But there was no specifics with this messianic title.
That the Messiah would come, and he would save Israel.
But how?
How would he save Israel?
How would he go about doing it?
There's allusions to it.
We can read back, you know, from the Gospels.
We know about Jesus.
We can read back into the prophetic books, especially in Isaiah, in the servant of the Lord.
But if you're there, present, before Jesus' time, who's the Messiah?
What is he going to do?
How is he going to save us?
The Son of God, this idea, it begins to evolve.
And by the time Jesus comes on the scene, there's centuries go by without God speaking to his people.
And the Son of God became this title for the Messiah.
The expectations were that the Messiah would come and would absolutely smite Israel's foes.
But even then, the Messiah was still just a man.
That's it.
He was just a man in the minds of the Israelites.
A mighty man.
A fantastic man.
A man of excellence.
A man full of God's strength.
But still a man.
A man.
Jesus, right off the bat, it seems like just, not like a throwaway bit, but verse 1-1, the
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
It's like the intro credits to a movie.
It seems like it's just some kind of passing title.
But right off the bat, what Mark is doing, he's saying, let me introduce you to the hope
of Israel.
Israel.
The hope of the Messiah.
The one who will come to save Israel.
And we'll see what that kind of looks like.
Because it's not just Israel.
But Mark here is declaring that the hope has arrived.
He's on the scene.
He's come.
It's interesting.
Right off the bat, following on the heels of Mark's declaration, we see that this Son
of God is no mere man.
He is most certainly a man.
But there's something divine about him.
He's, he's, can't quite put your finger on, on who this Son of Man is, because right off
the bat, in verse 2 and verse 3, Mark quotes prophetic books that talk about the Son of
Man, the Messiah.
And all of a sudden, it's using the language allotted just to God.
Talking about John the Baptist.
Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way.
This is talking about John the Baptist.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.
Make his path straight.
This Son of God is divine.
He is not just a mere man.
Not just a savior.
Not a guy that is just a bit stronger than the foe is able to vanquish them.
No, there's something, there's something greater to this Son of Man.
Verse 8 also.
John the Baptist speaking of the Son of Man, of Jesus.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Only God gives the Holy Spirit.
Nobody else can give the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God but God himself.
All of a sudden, this Son of Man, like it is an incredible, all of a sudden, it's like we double click on it.
And we see that the Son of Man is pregnant, like the title is pregnant with meaning.
It's no mere generic title.
God has visited Israel and he will save her.
And it is so interesting because we will see that this term doesn't show up again on the lips of anybody else until the very end of chapter 15.
If you turn with me to chapter 15, keep your finger or thumb in chapter 1.
In 15, I'll just, I mean, we're not going to get to this for some time as we preach through the gospel of Mark chapter by chapter.
But here we are.
Jesus is on the cross.
He has died.
And this is what it says.
This is a Roman centurion.
Verse 39 of chapter 15.
See, Mark has, it seems like there's a bit of a secret about who Jesus really is.
That Jesus is keeping from his disciples, from the religious leaders, from those who are poor.
Basically, all of Israel.
He keeps, it's almost a bit of a messianic secret.
And the first person in Mark's gospel to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God is a Roman centurion.
And it's very likely that he was the captain of the guard squad that put Jesus to death.
It was his enemy.
Jesus' enemy.
A foreign ruler.
Jesus' son of God.
The Messiah was supposed to smite the Romans into oblivion.
To crush them.
That was the messianic hope.
And here Mark has, the first person to confess the Son of God, is the captain of the death squad.
It's remarkable.
And all of a sudden, this small picture of the Messiah, the Son of God, who was just supposed to save Israel,
we get a glimpse into the Son of God saving the entire world.
There is no insider or outsider if you confess who Christ is.
There is no greater outsider than the centurion who put him to death.
He is a pagan.
He is a man of blood.
A man of terror.
And Mark here, remember, right?
He bookends the entire gospel with the Son of God.
And we see it at the beginning and we see it at the end.
This is a very important scene.
And why is this important for us?
God is eliminating the boundary markers of who's in and who's out.
Who's clean and who's dirty.
Who's beloved and who is just refuse.
And it's not based on where you come from or who you are.
It's based on what Christ has done.
What he has done.
And all of a sudden, in our culture, in Canada, where there is so much polarization.
And there always is polarization, of course.
But it seems it's hit a bit of a fever pitch.
We see here God throwing all that stuff on its head.
The centurion doesn't...
I mean, he's still a centurion.
He doesn't go through some kind of de-radicalization class
before he is brought into the kingdom.
Or at least recognizes that Christ truly is God himself.
On the spot.
And we remember him.
We're reading about him 2,000 years later.
Remarkable.
What do we do?
We, in our culture, we decide who are the clean and unclean.
And we're polite about it.
We are.
We don't say it...
We scoff at the people who are overt in how they draw lines in the sand
between the good and the bad.
Based on politics.
Based on vaccination status.
Based on who you have a history with.
What your history is.
What part of town you live in.
It's true.
I mean, those are a few examples.
You could fill in other examples yourselves, I'm sure.
If you're honest with yourselves,
think about ways that you've done this.
Or maybe you have been on the receiving end.
You haven't been the one who has decided who's clean and unclean.
You're just unclean.
It's just been...
It's just...
It's been your experience.
People talking down to you.
Or marginalizing you.
This is...
This happens.
And why does it happen?
We...
What we do is we put ourselves in the judgment seat
that only God can occupy.
Only God can occupy that judgment seat
to declare who truly is clean and unclean.
And he has, in fact.
The scriptures speak very clearly
that sin, it makes all of us unclean.
And nobody in here, nobody in here is faultless.
Nobody is.
Certainly the Roman centurion wasn't.
And yet, a work was done in his heart
to open his eyes to the truth.
Remember, moments before,
earlier that day,
he participated in a mock...
of mocking Jesus,
of spitting on him,
of striking him.
And then all of a sudden,
he recognizes.
And if that's not the work of the Holy Spirit,
I mean, this is...
that's exactly it.
So what we see here
is that Jesus,
he is reconstituting humanity
into clean and unclean.
And it is based upon what he has done
on the cross at Golgotha.
That he has taken upon the sins of the world
so that we are made clean and right
by what he has done.
It's remarkable.
Son of God.
God.
We don't see it too often
in the scriptures.
And yet,
it is the very title
that really marks the gospel of Mark.
So that is one aspect,
one thing that starts at the beginning,
we see at the beginning,
and then we see at the end.
What is the other one?
Well, the other one,
like I mentioned,
is in verse 10.
I'm going to read verses 9 to 11,
the baptism of Jesus,
and we'll see it again.
In those days,
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And when he came up out of the water,
immediately he saw the heavens being torn open
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 at this baptism,
the heavens are torn,
and the image is of a violent tearing,
like a child opening their gift at Christmas.
You aren't saving the wrapping paper.
It is done.
I also like the example,
it's like when certain people get home decor boxes
in the mail from Wayfair,
and they just tear into them,
and the box is shredded to confetti.
The idea is that there's a violent tearing.
There is a violent tearing that is pictured here.
The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus.
The Father affirms his delight with the Son.
And here,
it's a bit of a side bit,
we won't get into it,
but it's not that God the Father
is adopting Jesus as his Son.
It's presupposed from the beginning of time.
This isn't like a divine adoption.
But here we see the Father affirming his delight with the Son.
We see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
glorifying one another,
distinct yet together.
And this is a monumental event,
because like I mentioned,
we will see something very similar to it
at the end of chapter 15.
And by the way,
this was witnessed publicly.
This wasn't just an existential experience
that Jesus had.
There were witnesses to Jesus' baptism,
and witnesses to the heavens being torn,
and the Holy Spirit descending upon him.
And the voice of God
declaring his delight in the Son.
So what is this other example?
Well, again,
put your thumb in
to chapter 1,
and join with me
in chapter 15.
And this is right before
the centurion says what he says
about Jesus being the Son of God.
So Jesus,
why don't we back it up a little bit,
starting in verse 33.
Chapter 15, verse 33.
And when the sixth hour had come,
there was darkness over the whole land
until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour,
Jesus cried with a loud voice,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
Which means,
My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
And some of the bystanders hearing it said,
Behold, he is calling Elijah.
And someone ran and filled a sponge
with sour wine,
put it on a reed,
and gave it to him to drink,
saying,
Wait, let us see
whether Elijah will come
to take him down.
And Jesus uttered a loud cry
and breathed his last.
Verse 38.
Here it is.
And the curtain of the temple
was torn in two
from top to bottom.
It's the same word.
It's the same idea.
It's the same picture
of a violent tearing
of the curtain temple
in the second temple
in Herod's temple
that represented
the separation
between man and God.
So we have the heavens
being torn open
and the spirit descending,
and we have,
after Jesus has breathed his last,
as the Son of God
on the cross.
The very thing
that separated
symbolically
mankind from God,
it's torn
in a way
where it's not going
to be stitched up again.
Just in case anybody
wanted to give that a go.
It's done.
The curtain's done.
There's always been
this separation
between God and man
from our first father
and mother,
Adam and Eve,
sinning in the garden.
They were expelled
from the garden.
They were separated
from God.
There's always been
some kind of separation.
We have this wonderful
kids' book.
It's called
The Garden,
The Curtain,
and The Cross,
and it tells this story.
And the refrain is,
because of your sin,
you can't come in.
That's what God says
to people.
Not because God is mean,
but because He is holy.
And because the holy God
can't interact
with sinful,
broken,
messy people.
And how do we sin?
Because sin can be,
again,
a term thrown around
to ostracize this group
from that group.
But in this case,
I'll say this.
Instead of recognizing
the kingship of God,
we fancy ourselves
as kings.
Once again,
our autonomous rule
bubbles up,
our ego takes over,
we know what's best.
We put ourselves
in the seat
of the Creator.
We assume His throne.
And here's the thing.
The irony is that
at best,
we're puppet kings
of our own lives,
if we think that
we are the kings
and queens
of our lives.
Puppets.
Because the real ruler
will be our flesh,
our desires,
that are not kept in check,
but that just rage,
our bellies,
our eyes,
our sexual drives,
our desires for prestige.
The world will also
direct the way
we,
what will be our king,
will be the true king
and we'll just be puppets.
The world has
a wonderful way
of saying
what is the right way
to live
from one moment
to the next.
And that's exhausting
to keep up with.
And it's also false.
And then there's the enemy.
He will tempt,
and if we give in,
He is ruling the roost.
He is the king.
And we are just puppet kings.
That's if,
that's if we assume
the throne of God.
The thing is,
I mean,
we don't want to be ruled
by anybody,
but the fact is
we were made to be ruled.
And that's not exactly
a fun thing to say.
But it's the right thing
to say.
Because when we live
under God's rule,
it's,
it's the most freeing
we can be.
the most free
we can be.
The most authentic
selves we may be
will be under
God's rule.
There's this wonderful,
I think it is,
the collect
for Concord.
It talks about,
in your service
there's perfect freedom.
It's in the liturgy
for morning prayer.
In your service
to the king
there's perfect freedom.
It's a wonderful
kind of juxtaposition.
But this is the reality
of it.
I mean,
God,
what he has done
in Christ,
the son of God,
the king of the universe,
he has made a way
for us to enter
into his presence again.
So that we are free.
And what are we free
to do?
We are free
to serve him.
So we have this
tearing
at the baptism
and we have this
tearing
at his death
and it means
for us
that we get
to be
under the reign
and rule
of Christ.
And it is freedom.
It is freedom.
It's wonderful.
So how should we live?
There's two ways.
The first is
to live
a humble life
of worship
to Jesus.
In certain
homiletics classes
that's like a preaching class.
You talk about
application.
And, you know,
the best
application
is to come away
from
a sermon,
from a church service
and worshiping Christ.
Knowing him more
and worshiping him.
Having
your desire
to please him
be the
very main desire
guiding your life.
So the first
way that we should
live in light
of the Son of God
who dies on the cross
to save humanity,
who tears the curtain
in two,
ushering us back
into the very presence
and rule
of God
is to worship.
You will live
a more free life,
a life more
full of peace
because your sins
are counted against you
no more.
A clean conscience.
It is wonderful.
We see this
in John the Baptist.
We'll go back with me.
Chapter 1,
verse 7.
John says this.
And he preached,
John preached,
saying,
After me
comes he
who is mightier
than I,
the strap
of whose sandals
I am not worthy
to stoop down
and untie.
The job of the man
who was to
take off the sandals
and wash the feet
was the slave,
was the servant,
was the lowest
in the pecking order.
The feet,
it was disgusting.
And John is saying
the right thing.
I am not even worthy
to stoop down
to untie his sandal.
May we have that heart.
We will partake
in Holy Communion soon.
And one of the prayers
we'll pray
is the prayer
of humble access.
And it says,
We do not presume
to come to this,
your table,
O merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your manifold
and great mercies.
It's the same heart
that John is having here.
We humbly,
humbly submit.
And the fact is,
what Christ does
on the cross,
we come into
the throne room of God,
and yes,
we can approach God
boldly because of Christ.
We can call him
Abba Father,
like a closeness
to that fatherly relationship,
but he is still a king.
He is still a king
and he deserves reverence.
And it's a humble heart
that approaches
the living God.
That is the way
of the Christian.
The second thing
is linked to
that humble
life of worship
to Jesus.
And it's
to expect hardship.
It really is
to expect hardship.
To follow the way
of Christ
as the people of God.
The wilderness
is always the destiny.
Israel gets
rescued
from
slavery
and bondage
to Egypt
right into the wilderness
for 40 days.
And here we have
Jesus going into
the wilderness
for 40 years
and Jesus going into
the wilderness
for 40 days.
That's no coincidence.
Mark is
helping us
to remember
the way
of God's people.
The way
of God.
John,
his whole ministry
is in the wilderness.
It is difficult.
It means
that when we put
ourselves
under the lordship
of Christ
and submit
to his ways,
yes,
we will have peace.
we will have joy
but we also
have hardships
because his way
is not the world's way.
He came to establish
the kingdom
of heaven
on earth
and just remember
you were part
of the kingdom
of earth.
You don't like
you feel
straight jacketed.
You are in
active rebellion
against
the kingdom
of heaven.
The centurion,
remember,
he is
inactive
actively
opposing
the kingdom
of heaven.
Now he is
a part of it
and it comes
with great
sacrifice
and hardships
and it doesn't
necessarily mean
you will be
facing martyrdom
but it might
mean
that you don't
compromise
that work
in a way
that would
get you promoted.
That there is
a thankfulness
that totally
trumps
the desire
to climb
over people
stepping over
them
stepping on
them.
It might
mean living
a celibate
life
and that's
hard
it's lonely
but it's
the right way
to do it
it's hard
there's
hardships
getting reviled
for sharing
your faith
faith.
We have
brothers and
sisters
in Central
Asia
we support
Church of the
Messiah
a brother
in East
Asia
that this
is his
very reality
is the
potential
the ever
possible
likelihood
of him
getting
persecuted
for his
faith
facing
hardships
and yet
if you
talk with
him
he has
joy
he has
peace
so how
should we
live in
light of
all of
this
as God
being our
king
the son
of God
in worship
and in
expectation
that he
will lead
us down
the same
path
that he
walked
friends
if you
do not
know this
king
if you
are new
to the
Christian
faith
or you
fall in
the way
you're a
seeker
in some
kind of
capacity
like the
Roman
centurion
who says
truly this
was the
son of
God
this is
just like
that
just in
a moment
and you
are part
of his
kingdom
you are
a son
or a
daughter
of the
living
God
you come
under
the
lordship
and kingship
of the
son of
God
Jesus
Christ
and for
us
may we
ask that
the Holy
Spirit
would work
in our
lives
work in
our
lives
helping us
to put
away
sin
it's
like
we
still
like the
Israelites
we still
kind of
pine after
the
food
the
life
of
Egypt
failing
to
remember
that
it
is
bondage
and
that
God
offers
us
so
much
more
we
struggle
with
living
in
the
kingdom
of
heaven
on
earth
and
we
need
to
ask
that
the
Lord
will
give
us
strength
to
do
so
let's
stand
and
let's
pray
ask
if
you
have
children
you
can
get
them
now
and
sign
them
out
and
bring
them
back
for
a
time
of
holy
communion
heavenly
father
we
thank
you
so
much
for
your
wonderful
truth
in
scripture
that
the
son
of
God
was
much
more
than
just
a
savior
for
Israel
against
their
occupying
enemies
but
he
was
the
savior
for
all
mankind
that
his
death
on
the
cross
tore
the
separating
barrier
between
us
and
you
Lord
let us
live
into
that
every
day
by
your
spirit
in
Jesus
name
Amen