Joel Brooks: To our college students, welcome back. I realize some of you have already been back for 2 or 3 weeks, but I know this is a week that everybody is certainly back, and so we've missed you. And, what I wanna ask is if you were one of our college students, would you mind standing up right now At the balcony. Almost it's amazing. Almost all come to the 8 o'clock service, which I I don't get.
Thank you for coming to the 11:15. You probably stayed up late to watch. No. You have to just say sanding. I didn't say sit.
You say? What we want to do, I want to pray for you before we we start off, opening up God's word together. So church, if you would pray with me, for our college students. Father, I thank you for the many students that you have brought here to our church. Lord, I pray that we would serve one another well.
Lord, I think of, my time in college and the relationships that I built and the things that you taught me then still serve me to this day. And so I pray that You would do a deep, deep work in the students that are standing here in this room. I pray that you would teach them to ask the right questions as they go to their classes, pursue the right relationships, pursue the right things, during their time in school. And Lord, I pray that you would be so kind to speak to them and they would hear your voice. Grow them in their giftedness, but more importantly, would you grow them in character, in the fruits of your spirit.
So, Lord, fill them with your spirit and use them this year. We thank You for them. In Your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. Thank You.
Now now you're allowed to sit. So if you have a bible, turn to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. We live in a period of history, where there is more technology, more knowledge, more medicine, medical advancements, more food, than any other time in history. Most of you in this room, even when I said open your bibles too, you you pulled out your phone, and you turned your bible on.
You carry in your pocket more computing power than what sent the astronauts to the moon on Apollo 11. Now it's used for TikTok. That's okay. But it's incredible what you have just just easily within your reach. So we're, it's easy to say we're the most technologically advanced society that's ever existed, but it's also the most educated and knowledgeable time in history.
Because you could just get out that phone right now and if you wanted to, with just typing a few little letters together, you could find out, you know, who is the 2nd pharaoh in the 4th dynasty. You could find out what the weather is like in London right now. We also live in a time where we have the most advanced health care, the most advanced medicines. We have MRIs. We have robotic surgeries.
We have easy access to healthy foods. I mean, you could just just drive a few minutes down and for a few bucks, you could pretty much get whatever you want. I ate a Chick Fil A sandwich this morning. And it's Sunday. Pastors have certain privileges, that being one of them.
But it's just remarkable. Like, what the time that we live in, in the most advanced time with technology, knowledge, medicine, education, food, the most advanced time in human history. So let me ask you a question. Are the lives of humans more meaningful? With all of these advancements, do we enjoy living more meaningful lives than any time in human history?
Are people today, with all of these advancements, are we less stressed, less fearful, less anxious? Are we less evil? How's our hearts? If you think we're not less any of those things, what do you think the solution is? Is it to just keep blindly placing our faith in whatever advancements come our way, hoping maybe the next technological advancement is gonna fix everything.
No. Perhaps AI is gonna do that, finally gonna fix the human heart. I think we've maybe been asking the wrong questions and looking for the wrong answers. I think the most important question any one of us can ask is who is Jesus? Who is Jesus?
This is the question that Mark is going to answer for us. We're gonna be going through this gospel for the next 50 something weeks. And if you already know Jesus, great. I hope this deepens your faith and you learn more about him. If you don't know Jesus, you've come to the right place.
A good place for us to learn. And so what I want to do is read through these opening words and mark, and then we'll pray, and we'll work our way through this book. Mark chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him, and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt about his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.
And he preached saying, after me, He who is mightier than I He after me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This is the word of the Lord. You would pray with me. Father, I pray not just for this morning, but I pray for the many weeks and the months ahead that we might hear from you, we might see you.
Lord, that we would come to a greater adoration of who you are. We would be led to more fully surrender to you and your lordship. And, Lord, in order for this to happen, we need to hear from you. And so may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So before we jump into the the actual text, let me begin by just giving you some background information about the gospel of Mark. So the gospel of Mark was written by? Mark.
Good. We're on we're on the right track. I just wanna make sure you're awake. It was written by Mark or, known elsewhere as John Mark. He was the cousin of Barnabas.
He was a coworker with Paul. He went on a missionary journey with Paul. If you remember in Acts, they did not get along. It did not end well. They had such a heated agreement.
They went separate ways. This happens even with Christian friends, that you could get divided. But then later, the Lord brought them back together and partnered them up once again in ministry. John Mark was also really good friends and a disciple of the apostle Peter. They were so close, as a matter of fact, that Peter in his first letter, he calls Mark my son.
They had that type of relationship. 1 of a father and of a son. And because of this, most scholars, when they read the book or the gospel of Mark, they really think you're reading the gospel according to Peter. Because Peter's fingerprints are all over it. And indeed, if you read through this gospel compared to the other gospels, there are more stories about Peter here than in the other ones.
And actually they're more negative. They they show Peter's failings. Which is remarkable that Peter would include those, or perhaps Mark didn't like Peter and secretly included those. But we know all of those stories about Peter as well. Most scholars also think that Mark was written, between 30 to 35 years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Which means not only is it the oldest gospel we have, the earliest one that was written, But it also means that it was written within living memory of those who knew Jesus. It was written during the time where people had actually seen Jesus. They had heard Jesus. They had witnessed the resurrection. And this is why Mark is writing down his gospel.
These people were beginning to die off. And so what was commonly known about Jesus is increasingly becoming uncommon. And so he wanted to write down a detailed accurate account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now, the new testament letters were already in circulation at this time. I know the letters come after the gospels in your bible, but they were actually written first.
The letters, Paul's letters, for instance, were written probably within 15 to 20 years after the death of Jesus. Which means that there were many people alive, as Paul was writing these letters who could testify as to who Christ was. And the remarkable thing that you'll find when you read through Paul's letters is just he doesn't even have to argue who Jesus is. Notice that when you read through his letters, he explains the implications of who Jesus was, but he's never really arguing for who Jesus is. He just assumes the reader knows it.
And this is within 15 to 20 years of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul could go on and just say, you know, we all know Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is the messiah. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus rose from the grave.
And everybody's like, yeah. Of course. We all know that. And at one point in 1st Corinthians 15, he says, there's so many witnesses to this. Just ask people about this if you're unsure.
Said not only are the disciples witnesses, you know, to this, at one point, 500 people witnessed the resurrected Jesus. They're out there. Go talk to them. The problem now was all of these witnesses were beginning to die off. And so Mark sees this.
He's like, if if we want to keep this accurate picture of who Jesus is, I need to write this down. And so he writes down this gospel. And this is important because up to this point, no one could just make up things about Jesus without being called out on it if they weren't true. So you can go around, you know, saying, you know, I I heard Jesus preach. You know, did you know He glowed when He preached?
Because someone else would be like, no, he didn't. He didn't glow when he preached. We we we heard him preach. You couldn't make up stories like that. You couldn't exaggerate stories without being called out on it because there were so many witnesses.
But now they're dying off. And so the more accurate account needs to be written down so it can still be verified by these witnesses. And this is one of the reasons I think this gospel is so important to us. Because if you truly wanna know who Jesus is, who he is, what he taught, what he did, you have to read the gospels. You can't just listen to other people.
You can't go to, you know, the airport or to Walmart and pick up whatever book on spirituality and learn about Jesus that way. Or just, you know, whatever your friend happens to say about Jesus. That they believe Jesus was like this. Or whatever op ed says, well Jesus, he never did this or he always did this. Always go back to the gospels.
I can't tell you how many times I've been in a conversation with someone and they have said, well, Jesus would never say that. It's like, but He actually did. He actually it's right here. You can read it. Well, that's not the Jesus that I know.
It's like, exactly. We tend to make up our own version of Jesus. And what I have found is the version we have of Jesus is He is just a slightly better version of ourselves. But that's not the Jesus Mark is gonna put before you. He's real.
It's times He might rub you the wrong way. But I tell you, you're you're never gonna come across anyone like him. So compelling, so loving, so radical. This is a person we can never make up. So I look forward to exploring what Mark has to say about the real Jesus in the weeks ahead.
Now one of the things This might sound really shallow. One of the things I love most about Mark is it's short. It's only 16 chapters. I mean, it is a short gospel. Most of you know this, but I'm dyslexic.
So if you could get short and to the point, it's gonna help me out. The only way that I actually graduated from college is because Lauren did all my reading for me. So guys, find a girlfriend who'll do all your reading for you and just tell you about it. Because, because I had to lean pretty heavily on her. So the shorter and the more direct a book can be, the better.
Mark it straight to the point on things. You know, Lauren and I, we've actually really had to learn how to communicate with one another over the years because we came from we would communicate opposite ends of the spectrum. So I am a bullet point straight to it. Lauren loves to tell stories, because she loves people. She loves a situation.
You know, I don't like people, apparently. But she she just tells these huge stories, and so she can she can start off by telling me, I ran into so and so at the grocery store. I'm like, uh-huh. You know who that person is? No.
Yes, you do. You know, that's, Natalie's friend's mother. No idea. You met her twice. Don't know.
Well anyway, you know, she was going to the track meet of her other daughter and she was taking orange slices there and yada yada yada, dada yada. It goes on and on and on. And then in the afternoon, Lauren will say, why didn't you pick up Georgia from the dentist? Like, what do you mean? I told you this morning.
At the end of the story, that's how Lauren gets there. She tells a really long story. And then my actionable point is at the very end when I miss it. And I'm like, I need you to flip that around, and I need you to just tell me directly what I'm supposed to do. Bullet point.
Joel, pick up, pick up Georgia from the dentist. Then you could tell me how you got there. That's what Mark does. He's like, Jesus. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.
Boom. Now let me tell you how we got there. And now He's gonna be unpacking this story or stories that tell all about that bullet point He puts right at the very beginning. He doesn't mince any words. There's no long birth narratives there.
It's just the beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. And so, Mark really resonates with me. If you want an image of how Mark is going to be written out, I think the best image you can have is one of a slideshow. Picture somebody giving, you know, a PowerPoint slide of their summer vacation. In which it's just boom.
Slide after slide. You know, hey. We went to Yellowstone. There's us by the sign. Boom.
That is, you know, Old Faithful Geyser. It shoots water really high. You know, next, there's, there's a bison. Some people call them buffalo. You know, just you're just going through slide after slide after slide.
That's what Mark's gonna do. Point after point after point after point with a little bit of commentary. Image after image after image. All building a case and showing us Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But he does this.
He goes from slide after slide after slide in a relentless pace. He uses the word immediately more than the rest of the new testament combined. But Jesus is just moving from thing to thing to thing. Look at all that happens just in chapter 1. So in chapter 1, verses 9 through 11, Jesus is baptized.
Verses 12 through 13, He is tempted in the wilderness by Satan. Verses 14 through 15, He begins preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God in repentance. Verse 16 through 20, He calls His first disciples. 21 through 28, He begins teaching and then He casts out a demon. Verses 29 through 34, He heals Peter's mother-in-law and then a bunch of other people, in addition to casting out more demons.
Verse 35, Jesus gets up before sunrise to go and pray. Because apparently, that's the only time you can do it with His schedule. And then He he goes, to preach a bunch more at certain synagogues. He casts out a bunch more demons. And then the chapter ends with him healing a leper.
You're like, I mean, it's relentless, the pace. But what Mark wants to do is show you there was an urgency to Jesus. I mean, Jesus didn't just dally around. There there was an urgency to why He came. What He was wanting to do.
And Mark wants us to get us to a certain point as fast as He can. Mark is driving us to the central event that best shows that Jesus is the Son of God. And that's the cross. So He moves us at this relentless pace until we get to the week of the cross. Think of it this way.
That He took 8 or 9 chapters to go through 3 years of Jesus' ministry. And then He takes about 5 or 6 chapters to go through 1 week. If if you were filming it, it's it would be this. He all of a sudden zooms closely in and he's filming it in slow motion. Because he doesn't want you to miss a single detail of what happens during that final week, because that's where you recognize who Jesus is.
Everything culminates at the cross. There you realize the point behind all of Jesus' teachings. The point behind all of His miracles. You only fully understand him as the son of God when you see him with arms stretched out, bleeding, dying, suffering on a cross. Now we're told at the very beginning of this gospel who Jesus is.
I mean he begins it in verse 1. Jesus the Christ, the son of God. But hear me. No one else, no one else in the gospel is ever going to confess this or understand this while Jesus is still living. So essentially, what we're getting is a little secret at the start.
It's almost like Mark goes, hey. Jesus is the Christ. He's the Son of God. We tuck that away, and then for the rest of Mark, no one gets it. No matter what Jesus does, no matter what Jesus teaches, they all walk away with questions, with confusion, but not confession.
That does not happen while Jesus is alive. Just look at all of the confusion around Jesus. In chapter 1, we see Jesus casting out a demon. People, of course, are amazed by that, but then they're really confused. Verse 27 says, they questioned among themselves, what is this?
What's happening? Even the demons have questions about Jesus. They're like, what are you going to do with us? Are you going to destroy us? Why are you here?
Chapter 2. Jesus heals a paralytic man. He forgives him of his sin. Everyone's in awe, but also in uproar. They have questions.
Why does this man speak like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Later on in chapter 2, you get even more questions. They pepper Jesus with questions. Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Why doesn't he make his disciples fast like John's? Why does he do what's not lawful on the Sabbath? In chapter 4 in that famous, story we have of Jesus calming the the waters, the wind and the waves. You know, there's essentially a hurricane coming or that's that's come up and Jesus speaks to it like a child. He says be quiet, stay quiet.
The wind dies down, the waves die down, and you would expect at that moment for the disciples to bow in worship and say you're the son of God. Instead their reaction is this. Who is this? They don't know. They get among themselves and are like, who is this man who can, even the wind and the waves, obey Him?
In chapter chapter 8, Jesus asked the disciples, a question of His own this time. He's like, I'm sick of being asked questions. I'm gonna ask you a question. Who do people say I am? Who do people say I am?
Well, this is like, some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're a prophet. And Jesus goes, well, who do you say I am? And Peter steps up to the plate.
And now we're thinking, here's the confession. Here we go. He goes, you are the Christ. Then he stops. And when you read Matthew's account of that story, Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mark doesn't include that. So you get a true, but only a partial confession. You are the Christ. Why doesn't Mark include that confession of you are the Christ, the son of the living God? Well, once again, it's because Mark is driving us somewhere.
He's taking us to that place where all the threads come together. He's taking us to the foot of the cross. It's only at the foot of the cross after Jesus died that you get the first human confession that Jesus is the son of God. In Mark chapter 15, we read that Jesus, He's on the cross. He utters out a loud cry.
Mark doesn't tell us what that cry is, but it likely was, tetelestai or it is finished. And then we read that he breathed his last. And there at the foot of the cross, there was a Roman centurion who saw it. A gentile. So not a Jew.
Just a gentile soldier saw it. And when he saw Jesus die, he said, truly, this was the Son of God. That's the first human confession we have of Jesus being the Son of God in Mark. Now we, the reader, of course, we got it at the very beginning. Jesus is the Christ, the son of God.
The father says it. We'll look at that next week at Jesus' baptism. He says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. But no other human gets it until the end, not even his disciples. Everyone walks away confused.
Even when Jesus told parables, nobody thought, well, that cleared things up. Everybody's confused around Jesus' teaching and His miracles. Only at the end of the cross do we know His true identity. Jesus is the Son of God, the one who gives his life as a ransom for many. When you see the Son of God there, when you see God there, you realize there is no God like our God.
No other religion has a God like that, Nailed to a cross, bleeding, suffering, crying out forgiveness for their enemies. No other founder of any other religion has as their founder, as they're dying, crying out, God, why have you abandoned me? Not a very good way to start a religion. Jesus is utterly different. It's captivating.
And as we read this, Mark says, you wanna know where justice and mercy and love meet. You wanna know what your god looks like? Go to the cross. That's my introduction to Mark. I've actually cut it way short because I actually had to read 8 verses before, and we have to go through those.
So let me quickly go through these 8 verses before we end. Look at verses 12. Now I'm gonna define some words as I read through this. The beginning of the gospel. Stop there.
Gospel is good news or glad tidings. It's what you say when there's been a huge significant event happen. For instance, when Caesar Augustus was born, the gospel went forth proclaiming His birth. So here, Mark is saying something of worldwide significance has happened. The good news of Jesus Christ.
Christ is not Jesus' last name. It's his title. In Hebrew, this is messiah, or it's the anointed one. Jesus is the long awaited and anticipated king. Not just of the Jews, but of the world.
And then he is the son of God. Now we immediately, when we read that, we think divine. That's not what they would have immediately thought. Son of God meant more you were in the royal line of David. David was called a son of God.
King David's descendants were called sons of God. And so that's been their first thought right there is when Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. He is the royal line of David. The the rightful heir to the throne of David, which will endure forever and ever and ever. That's what you should read there.
But then Mark goes, wink wink. We know He's actually more. Because this is not just gonna be some earthly king. He's gonna be so much more. And this is what He will begin to unpack for us beginning in the very next verses.
So the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Now Mark, he says this is from Isaiah, but he's actually quoting from both Isaiah and Malachi. He just knows no one reads Malachi.
I mean, come on. Have you all? I mean, how many it's the last book in the bible. If you're going through the bible reading plan, how many have actually made it to the end? He's just a minor prophet.
And so, you have Mark, he he he just he names the big prophet, Isaiah. We all know who he is. And so he he smooshes Isaiah and Malachi together. But both of the prophecies he puts together are about God coming to this world, to the temple in particular, and bringing about a new creation. God coming to this world and recreating it.
Malachi here, last book of the bible. This is one of or last book in the old testament. One of last words we have in the old testament. He tells his people, God's coming. Yahweh himself is coming to this world.
And to get you ready, He's gonna send His messenger. When I was in high school, I was living in Atlanta at the time. And Atlanta was just they just won the Olympics. And everybody was going crazy. And so, being the studious person I was, I skipped high school, that day.
And I went to downtown Atlanta for the ticker tape parade. And I convinced Lauren to go along with me. I was a bad influence even then. But I You know, no one remembers what they learned in school that day. But I remember the ticker tape parade.
And after that parade was over, Atlanta got really busy. New stadiums were built. New dormitories were built. They started cleaning up everything. Fresh paint was everywhere.
Downtown Atlanta was transformed over the next 5 years. You can think of it this way. The gospel of Atlanta having the Olympics went forth and now the city had to get itself ready to host them. There was a joke that, people used to say about the queen of England that everywhere she went, she would only smell fresh paint. Which is true.
Wherever she went, wherever royalty comes to, everybody gets gets things ready and freshened up as as fast and as quick as they can. Here in Malachi, he's saying, it's not just a king who's coming. It's not just a prophet who's coming. Yahweh himself is coming. Get ready.
And to help you get ready, I'm gonna send a messenger to do this. And 400 years later, he sends John the Baptist. John the Baptist was unusual. It's I I gotta get this image out of my head. But the image I have of John the Baptist is Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter.
It's it's the first image that's in there. And I don't know. I need to get it out, replace it with something else. I can't help it. But he was eccentric.
I mean, none of you are wearing camel's hair or leather belts, you know. Or maybe some of you have leather belts. You do. You didn't eat locusts this morning. I could guarantee that.
So he was a character. Intense. Singular in his purpose. He was to prepare the way for the Lord. And if you want the Lord to come to you, you need to be prepared the same way.
So I briefly wanna just mention 3 things that John the Baptist did to prepare the way for the Lord. First was this. He baptized everyone, not just the irreligious or the gentiles. Ritual cleansings, like washings one's hands or one's feet, was very commonplace practice for the Jews. They did that all the time.
But they didn't baptize themselves. That was for Gentiles. Gentiles would immerse themselves in the waters as part of their conversion process. That's how they converted to Judaism. But here, John the Baptist says, everyone has to be baptized.
Jew or gentile. I don't care whether you are a prostitute or whether you are a priest. I I I don't care if you grew up going to church every time the doors were opened or if you have never once walked into a church building. You have to be baptized because everyone is a sinners. Everyone.
Doesn't matter your your heritage. It doesn't matter who your parents were. It doesn't matter how you grew up. Like, everyone is a sinner who needs to be baptized. 2nd, we see in John's baptism, not just our need for baptism, but our need to be baptized by another.
As I mentioned, you know, these ritual cleansings, these baptisms were commonplace. They were practiced for centuries. But you always did it to yourself. When the gentile was being converted, they went to the water and they dipped down themselves. Or they lifted up the pitcher and they baptized themselves.
This is the first time in human history that you were baptized by someone. And I think what we see here is is John is saying you can't save yourself. I don't care who you are. You need help. As I look in this room, I see a lot of people who look perfect.
You really look good. You guys wearing your Sunday best? It's kind of intimidating. I mean, people, especially visitors, when they come in for their first time and they look around our congregation, like, everybody just seems so perfect. I was like, just give them a minute.
But you do you do look perfect, but but I know better. I actually know you're sinners. I know you're sinners and I know you cannot save yourself. You need someone else to save you. You have to look for help outside of yourself.
And John's baptism shows this. And finally, John's baptism points us to the only one who can save us. Points us to Jesus. John said in verse 7, after me comes He who is mightier than I. The strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the holy spirit. In other words, John is saying, my baptism can only wash away dirt. You know, the dirt you picked up on the road as you were walking out here into the wilderness. But that's not gonna give you the cleansing you need. You need a cleansing from the inside.
Your sins need to be washed away. You need to be given a new heart. You need to be baptized with the spirit. And this only comes from Jesus. As great as John was, his entire ministry was simply to point to another.
I've actually heard that's the best way to describe, a preacher's duty. Is to never point to himself, but to always point to Jesus. To never say, hey. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. But to say, go to Jesus, all who are weary and heavy laden, and he will give you rest.
Never from the pulpit should you look for somebody to come and save you because He cannot. Our goal is to point to the one who can. That's all of our goal. As we share our faith with other people, as we just live amongst other people, we should constantly be pointing them not to ourselves, but pointing them to the one person who can actually save them, Jesus Christ. So the question is this.
Have you gone to Jesus to have your sins washed away? Have you gone to Him to get new life through His Spirit? Mark is an invitation for you to go to Him even now. Pray with me. Father, like began this sermon, I want to pray again, not just for today, but for the coming weeks months.
Will we go to you? Will we see you in a new way? Would we be irresistibly drawn to the real Jesus, not whatever our culture has made up, but you as you truly are. For we believe that you are glorious. Lord, would you do that even now in this moment?
And we pray this in your name. Amen.