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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This sermon is titled, "Jesus Arrives," and it's on Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 13.
It is the first sermon in the series, "Who Do You Say That I Am? The Son of God and the Gospel of Mark."
And it was preached at our multi-site office because this sermon was preached on January 5th of 2025,
which means that that day, that weekend, we had a massive snowstorm.
So, first time ever in my entire life that I was a part of a church that cancelled all of its services
because of the snowstorm. It was actually my first real snowstorm ever.
So, being in California, you don't get those a lot. So we had a plan to say, "Okay, we're going to have
one service at this campus. If people really want to come, they can come." And even that service
got cancelled. So, five campuses, no services on January 5th of 2025. But this was also the beginning
of our series on the Gospel of Mark, the first half of the Gospel of Mark, which was chapter 1
through chapter 9, verse 1. And so, I got selected out of the residence and pastors to preach this
sermon to a camera. And so, it's one of my shorter sermons. It's still longer than my first sermon at
Christ Community, but it's a little shorter because it was in a room, in an office really, to a camera
and one person in the room. But someone had to kick off the sermon, someone had to kick off the series,
and so that person was me, which I was honored that it was me. And I was really excited because
a lot of things happened in the Gospel of Mark that I love. And so, this is just a really exciting
start to the new year, really odd start to the new year, but really good. So, this is my eighth
residency sermon. Jesus arrives on Mark 1, 1 through 13.
Well, hello, Christ Community. My name is Jacob Nanny. I am our pastoral resident at the Shawnee
campus, and we truly missed all of you January 5th. What a wild, wild storm we had. You know,
I'm from California, and being from California, I didn't know what to expect. I had a lot of
questions. I'm a stranger, a complete stranger to snow, let alone the amount of snow we got
this past weekend. And as the reports of snow kind of grew closer and they grew in size and
the storm drew closer itself, I had a ton of questions. Like, should we be stockpiling water?
Like, how much food should me and my wife have in our home? Do I need change for my tires? Is
the world ending? Like, this was truly big reports for us. And thankfully, the storm did not end up
being as bad as my mind thought it might have been, but I had a lot of questions about it.
And me asking questions is something I've always done. When I was a kid, I used to ask a lot of
questions, a lot of questions. I would ask enough questions to get those around me quite annoyed
at the amount of questions I was asking. And somewhere along the way, I thought to myself,
"Well, maybe I shouldn't be asking so many questions of people all the time about every
certain thing." But I thought my grandfather corrected me, and he said, "No, you should always
ask questions. Questions are good, and questions are how we learn." He assured me that I should
never be afraid to ask good questions. In fact, I'm convinced that people my age and even younger
were really good at operating devices and technology because in our heads we ask a lot
of questions and push a lot of buttons and figure things out. But today, in our culture,
we don't really ask good, deep, thoughtful questions. Instead, we Google things. And yes,
we might Google things in the form of a question, but that's much different than asking a question
or being asked a question by another human being. And I think because we are not in the habit of
asking good, deep questions, we're not in the habit of having good, thoughtful, deep questions
posed to us. We're not good at answering those because they're not really posed to us
that often. But in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus actually asks a lot of those types of questions.
He asks questions to his audience that challenge our intentions,
that might challenge our traditions, and challenges their expectations.
A good teacher teaches by asking good, thoughtful, and deep questions.
In the Gospel of Mark, we actually encounter a pivotal question that Jesus asks his followers
in chapter 8, verse 28. He asks, "Who do you say that I am?"
This is a question that I want to pose to you and the question that we will be diving
into for the next 15 weeks in this series through the Gospel of Mark, which we've titled,
"Who do you say that I am? The Son of God in the Gospel of Mark." And this is an invitation to
anyone who reads Mark's Gospel, including our church in 2025. This is an invitation to wrestle
with the questions for yourself. Who do you say that Jesus is? What good reason do you have
for saying so? And do your beliefs about Jesus have real substance? And it's okay for us to ask
good and challenging questions about our beliefs and about our faith. In fact, I worry about people
who never ask themselves or others these good, challenging questions. And now for most of our
campuses, we're actually starting a class called "Believe," which will begin in January and in
February, for this exact reason. In this class, we want to ask good questions that help us understand
what we believe and why we believe it. In the "Believe" class, we will seek to know our faith
in the same way that the Gospel of Mark wants us to know Jesus. Now, the Gospel of Mark was written
by a man named John Mark, who was a disciple of one of the 12 apostles named Peter. And John Mark
wrote this Gospel in the early to mid-60s, and it's one of the first and earliest Gospels
that we have. And it's a unique Gospel. And perhaps one of the most unique features of Mark's Gospel
is how fast this Gospel moves. For instance, we see in 13 verses here in the first chapter of the
Gospel of Mark what Matthew and Luke take nearly four chapters to talk about. And this fast-paced
Gospel presents us with situation after situation, encounter after encounter, where Jesus does
something and people either believe or they don't believe. The people who are encountered by Jesus
and his ministry are faced with the question, along with the reader, "Who is Jesus?" And for
this series, and specifically for this introduction sermon, my main question for you is, "Are you
prepared to receive Jesus, the Son of God? Are you prepared not just to receive him in the sense of
welcoming him for salvation, but are you prepared to receive the Messiah and the work that he will
do in and through you? Are you prepared to encounter Jesus?" And to me, it's so awesome that
we're beginning this series, this Gospel, hot on the heels of our Advent Series, which went through
the book of Isaiah. In fact, one of the passages that I preached on in Isaiah is a passage that's
quoted here in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Let me read for you verses one through three.
The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you. He will prepare your way, a voice of one crying out
in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. Make his path straight." Now, there's so much
loaded in these three verses. And in my last sermon on this passage that Mark quotes here,
I spoke about the people of God expecting a shepherd king, a king who comforts, a king who is
glorious, a king who comes in power against his enemies, but with that same power is tender to his
own people. The Old Testament prepared the expectations and hopes of God's people. The Old
Testament prepared them to receive the Messiah. In the first three verses of this Gospel, John Mark
directly quotes one verse and hints at two other passages that had a massive impact on how Israel
expected their Messiah. Exodus 23, 20, Malachi 3, 1, and Isaiah 40, verse 3 are all in the first
three verses of the Gospel of Mark. And I wanted to spend some time here because I think they're
really important for us. So let me read for you Exodus 23, 20 through 22, where God says to Moses,
"I'm going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have
prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to him. Do not defy him because he will not forgive your
acts of rebellion, for my name is in him. But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I
say, then I will be an enemy to your enemy and a foe to your foes." This passage points to Jesus,
who led the people of Israel out of the bondage and slavery that they experienced in Egypt. And
he's leading us, his people, in a new exodus, not out from under the oppression of nations,
but out from under the oppression of our true enemies, which are sin, death, and the devil.
And this passage is also wrapped up in Malachi chapter 3, verse 1, where Malachi prophesies,
"See, I'm going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek
will suddenly or surprisingly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant you delight in. See,
he is coming," says the Lord of armies. Like in the exodus, God tells his people through Malachi
that he is coming, that he will clear the way and he will come surprisingly to his people. Do you
feel the expectation building in these messianic passages? And it is here that Mark quotes Isaiah
40, verse 3, where Isaiah says, "A voice of one crying out, 'Prepare the way of the Lord in the
wilderness. Make a straight highway for our God in the desert.'" Israel had great expectations of
God breaking into their situation, breaking into history, and breaking into their presence to save
them from their true enemies. And one way that we receive Jesus and all that he has for us,
for our good and for his glory, is to prepare for him by expecting him. Are you expecting
Jesus? We're going to be encountering a lot of compelling, miraculous, intense, and confronting
passages as we journey through this gospel. Are you prepared for Jesus to break into your
situations the way he did in this gospel? You should expect him to. Are you prepared
to receive miracles from Jesus, like the ones that he performs in this gospel?
You should expect him to. Are you prepared for Jesus to deliver you from the spiritual
forces of darkness like he does for some in this gospel? You should expect him to do that.
Are you prepared for Jesus to confront your preconceived notions and traditions?
You can expect him to do that. And are you prepared for Jesus to crush your true enemies
like he crushes sin, death, and the devil on the cross? Expect him to. You should expect God.
And expecting God is one of our core habits here at Christ Community. We expect God to move in
everything that we do. And I want to highlight this and keep at the forefront of our minds for
this 15-week series, "Expect God in all that you do." You know, in reading the Old Testament and
living some of these histories we see in it, the people of God, Israel, had high expectations
for the coming of the Messiah. Why then, this is a crucial question I have growing up and even today,
why then do the people of Jesus's day, who are the people of God, miss Jesus when he comes?
And one of the answers I've come up with and I've seen is that they have built their expectations
and interpretations of Scripture around their experiences. They've held on to their own
experience-driven expectations over and against the Word of God. Now, whether you live a life
of expecting God, or maybe you're being compelled now to expect God, don't let your experience
drive those expectations. How do your experiences, maybe even now, shape the way that you expect Jesus?
We must be cautious not to put too much emphasis on what we experience in this life. A chief example
of us doing this often is we begin to view God as we might have viewed our parents. Maybe you had
an absent father in your life. Well, just because of that experience, that does not mean that God
is an absent father. So instead of us letting our experiences drive the way we expect Jesus,
we should let the Scriptures drive our expectations of Jesus. And the people of God were expecting a
Messiah who would come to lead them in a new exodus out from under their enemies, and this
is what Jesus does for his people. He leads them out from under oppression of their true enemies,
of our true enemies. And my plea with us for this 15 weeks and forever is that you expect Jesus to
actually, to truly, and to really break into your life in an unimaginable and undeniable way.
Let the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, reshape
your expectations, not just to anticipate his work in your life, but to prepare your heart
for his transformative presence. True expectation involves more than just waiting.
It's a call to action. It calls us to examine the areas in our lives. Expecting Jesus means
we must ask, "How can we make room for him in our hearts?" And the answer lies in repentance,
which is a step of faith that clears the way for the Lord to enter and reign in every part of our
lives. In our passage, John the Baptist prepares the way for Christ's coming in verses four through
five, where it says, "John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem
were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins."
How does John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus? By calling all who will hear to repent
and believe and be baptized. And it's highlighted on the slide in the wilderness. The wilderness
is an important theme in the Bible, and we will see it from time to time in Mark's gospel.
The wilderness plays a significant part in Israel's history. Wilderness has many meanings
for God's people. For example, it's a dangerous place. It's a place where they first become a
separate nation, the place of wandering following repeated rebellions, and the place between slavery
and the land of promise. But the most important aspect of the wilderness is that it is where the
people of God are formed and forged as God's people. God forms and forges his people in the
wilderness. It's where we experience the grace and salvation of our God. Do you find yourself
currently in the wilderness? You can take comfort in the knowledge that God is with you in the
wilderness. Take comfort in the knowledge that he is using this time not to waste it, but to form
you into a more whole person in his image. He is forming and forging you into his own possession,
and he is preparing you for your good and for his glory. The wilderness is a time for preparation,
so it's not a surprise that John the Baptist is calling from the wilderness and baptizing in the
wilderness. John is inviting all who listen to come encounter the grace and salvation of God
through repentance and baptism. In the face of coming judgment on all who oppose the God of
Israel, John wants people to repent, to reorient their lives towards God and his kingdom.
This repentance is a new mindset that Jesus will call his followers to. It's a mindset that
requires a life of repentance. We prepare to receive Jesus by repenting, and by repentance,
I don't mean merely being sorry for your sin and trying to avoid your sin. That is definitely
included in repentance, but repentance is more about turning your eyes away from your sin and
towards Jesus. Turn your eyes away from your sin and towards Jesus. A mind that is set on Christ
will gradually and finally be turned away from sin. That's true repentance.
But why specifically a baptism of repentance? Let's look at Mark again, where it says in verse 4,
"John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins." Baptism or baptize was an exclusively Christian word in Greek
literature, but the practice of baptizing or washing with water was a common cleansing symbol.
So why or how was John's baptism different or significant? Well, during this time,
the people of Israel would participate in ritual cleansings, and it's possible that Gentiles were
even baptized when they converted to Judaism. But rather than repetitive washing, the people of
Israel participated in, John called for a single baptism that signaled a new beginning. And rather
than inviting Gentile congress to be baptized, John is asking born Jews to repent and be baptized
as well. So already, this message of repentance and baptism is reshaping the expectation that the
Jewish people had for their Messiah. You see, John is calling all Jews and Gentiles to a new mindset
focused on God's kingdom. He's inviting people to prepare for Christ's coming by repenting
and being baptized, which is a reenactment or a symbol of the exodus coming through the waters.
It's a signaling of a new exodus that is taking place. In fact, we'll be having an all-church
baptism at the end of February, and if you have not been baptized, I encourage you to partake in
this sacrament, this symbol, this reenactment that signals you are being led out from under
the oppression of sin, death, and the devil, and into a new life with Christ. And whether we find
ourselves in the wilderness being formed and forged by God or journeying with Jesus in life
and ministry, we must continually shift our eyes to Christ and away from this present life of sin.
We must repent in that way so that we can prepare to receive the Son of God.
But this is not the end. John's ministry is just preparation work
for the exodus that Jesus is beginning. In Mark 1, verses 7 through 8, it says that he proclaimed,
"One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and
untie the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit." Who is the one coming in power? It's none other than Yahweh himself
in human flesh, who will baptize his people, not with water, but with his very own spirit.
As one scholar says, this is not simply a hope of spiritual refurbishment,
but of the active presence of God himself among his people. Are you prepared to receive
Jesus? Then repent. Turn your eyes up to Christ. Set your mind on the kingdom of God,
and he will come to you suddenly and surprisingly. And if there's any doubt that this Jesus is God
coming in human flesh, Mark gives us verses 9 through 11, where it reads, "In those days,
Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. And as soon as
he came up out of the water, 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.'"
This is a remarkable event in the life of Jesus that confirms his identity. And we see this
confirmation unfold in a threefold affirmation. First, immediately, which is a word we're going
to see quite often in the Gospel of Mark. When Jesus comes out of the water, he sees the heavens
torn open. And this word "torn" is not incidental. Mark is alluding to Isaiah 64, 1, which says,
"If only you would tear the heavens open and come down." Isaiah 64, 1 is a prayer that God himself
would tear open the heavens and come down to be present with his people. And the people of God
longed for God to intervene powerfully in their lives and in history. And in Jesus,
this longing is fulfilled. God has come down in power to rescue his people. And the second thing
that Jesus sees is the Spirit of God descending on him like a dove. Again, fulfilling expectations
that the Messiah will be filled with God's Spirit, that God's Spirit would rest upon him.
And finally, a voice from heaven declares, "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased."
In Jesus, the Messianic expectation of a king who is God's Son, who will rule the nations
and defeat the enemies of God, is fulfilled. We will encounter these words again, God's words,
again in chapter 9, where he says to those witnessing Judas' transfiguration,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Again, one scholar writes, "These words are therefore
the highest importance. Whatever the verdict which people in Mark's gospel may reach on the question
of who do you say that I am, the reader is left with no option when the identity of Jesus is twice
declared explicitly on the highest possible authority, God's Word." The words, "You are my
beloved Son," are God's words. And they allude to Psalm 2, which celebrates the king who comes
with power, the power of Yahweh, to triumph over the nations. In the scene of Jesus' baptism,
any doubts that the reader has about Jesus' identity are quenched. Jesus is the Son of God,
the promised Messiah who will lead his people on a new exodus and triumph over their true enemies.
And if we are to receive Jesus, we must prepare by trusting in his identity. Over and over,
the people who encounter Jesus in this gospel, the reader, and even us hearing these words today,
are confronted with that crucial question, "Who is Jesus?" Mark answers that question in verses
9 through 11, and he continues to answer it in verses 12 through 13 when he says that immediately
the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by
Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. The main focus of these
verses is not that Jesus is being tempted, but the theme of wilderness preparation.
Immediately, there is that word again, Jesus is driven to the wilderness by the Spirit of God.
And as I mentioned earlier, the wilderness means many things, but for those who journey into the
wilderness with God, it's a place of preparation, of forging, and of forming. Jesus' 40 days in the
wilderness might remind us of Moses' 40 days on Mount Sinai where he's with God, or maybe of
Elijah's 40 days where Elijah walked and finally, after 40 days of walking, experienced God.
But mainly it reminds us of the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness after the Exodus.
The Spirit drove Jesus out to the wilderness for a time of testing and preparation, and Jesus
succeeded where others failed, proving his identity as a son of God. Do you trust in the identity of
Jesus? Do you trust that when he came, he came as God himself breaking into human history with
the power to destroy your true enemies? Do you trust that he has the power to atone for your
sins, to raise you to new life, and to intervene in this life in real and tangible ways? And I
encourage you to prepare for him to do these things really and truly by trusting in his
identity as the son of God. Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah, who comes in unexpected and
surprising ways to his people, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we have asked
or think, who is able to lead us on a new Exodus to life everlasting. Prepare for Jesus to work in
and through your life. Expect him to do unimaginable and undeniable work in your life even today as you
hear this message. Turn your eyes to him and set your mind on his kingdom and trust that he really
is the son of God, who has come to take away the sins of the world.
Now let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have broken into human history to comfort us,
to show us your glory, to come in power against our true enemies, and to tenderly care for us as
a shepherd for his sheep. And I pray, Jesus, that as you did in your life on earth, you would come
and do miraculous things at each and every campus of Christ's community. And I expect you, Jesus,
to work miracles, to deliver us from spiritual forces of darkness, and to lead us into a life
of wholeness only found in you. I pray that you help us lift our heads to gaze not upon our own
sin and life here on earth, but upon you and your kingdom. And I pray that you would reward us and
increase our trust in you as the son of God. Amen.