The Exodus of Jesus

Scripture Passage: Mark 1:9-15

What is Trinity Fellowship - North Jefferson, AL?

In recent years, members of Redeemer Community Church from across north Jefferson County began praying and dreaming together about seeing a similar church planted in their community. This had already happened once before in Homewood when Grace Fellowship was planted in 2017 and they wondered whether it could happen where they lived. The more they prayed and discussed this with the leadership of these two churches, the more it became clear that God was leading them to partner together to plant Trinity Fellowship.

The long-term aim is for Trinity to be an independent church that continues to partner with the Redeemer family of churches in celebrating and declaring the gospel across the region.

Well, over the next several months of the year, we are going to be working our way through

the book of Exodus.

That's our new series we're launching into today.

So naturally, I'd like for you to take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to the Gospel

of Mark, chapter one.

Gospel of Mark, chapter one, and Michael is here somewhere.

There you are.

And he's going to read our scripture for us this morning.

There we go.

All right.

This is Mark, chapter one, verses nine through 15.

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.

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

And he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God and

saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the Gospel.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray together, shall we?

Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth, so your ways are higher than our ways.

Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Lord, we thank you that as the rain and snow come down from heaven and water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout, so shall your word be that goes out from your mouth,

shall not return to you empty, but shall accomplish that which you purpose.

So Lord, I pray that by your Spirit and through your word, you would accomplish your purposes

for your glory.

In Jesus name, Amen.

And well, this morning, we're going to begin not just a long time ago, but in a galaxy

far, far away.

I'm talking, of course, about Star Wars.

There are so many things about the iconic movie series Star Wars that are great.

There's far more information about it out there than I care to know, but I'm always

being informed of more things from folks at home.

But one thing that I know is particularly iconic is the soundtrack.

It was composed by John Williams, and that first soundtrack of A New Hope was award winning

and ended up going on to be the best selling symphonic album of all time.

And that instantly recognizable soundtrack plays a pivotal role in the kind of storytelling

that films do.

You see, one of the things that a film score does is it provides kind of repeated musical

motifs that tie the story together.

And so, like in Star Wars, for example, you've got particular melodies or lines of music

that are attached to different characters, so you kind of know it's something related

to them as it plays.

But probably the most well known has to be the main theme, which goes like...

There we go.

Thank you so much.

I was waiting for Amanda Clarke.

I appreciate it.

That was you.

So you know what the main theme of Star Wars sounds like.

Every single one of the movies starts with exactly that.

And then that theme is then repeated in different ways throughout the different films, and sometimes

it's quiet.

Other times you've got kind of full orchestration with all of them joining together with this

kind of loud crescendo, and the films start with that loud crescendo.

Similarly, scripture has repeated patterns, themes that function almost like those musical

themes.

There are many places in the Bible that when you read it in light of the whole story, you

then hear almost like music, that kind of an echo of something that you've heard before.

It's almost like deja vu.

You kind of see these patterns coming up over and over again, these musical themes, if you

will, repeated patterns.

Arguably, the most prominent of these patterns is the pattern of the Exodus.

The Book of Exodus is a record of actual events that took place, but it's more than that.

D.A. Carson refers to it as the greatest redemptive event in the Old Testament.

And so you see this big event happening and repeated over and over again, and sometimes

directly, but sometimes it's more subtly.

You're seeing a kind of an Exodus pattern, because the story of Exodus then becomes a

redemptive pattern like a musical theme that is repeated and built upon throughout scripture.

And before we begin by looking at that kind of pattern, let me say a couple of things.

One, a couple of book recommendations.

The first one is, could I encourage you to read through the Book of Exodus as we're going

through this series together?

It would be helpful for all of us to begin with scripture and to look at that together

to see the whole.

But I also want to say that I am deeply indebted to a book that I read years ago called Echoes

of Exodus by Alistair Roberts and Andrew Wilson.

So I would highly recommend it to you.

It's really good kind of tracing these themes, but you also see that it's not too big.

Every one of us could benefit from reading that book, Echoes of Exodus, and to kind of

look at that pattern throughout the whole of the Bible.

But a bit like the Star Wars films, I want to begin our series in Exodus with the big

crescendo.

This is why we're starting not in the Book of Exodus, but in the New Testament in the

Book of Mark.

Because the story of the Exodus finds its climactic fulfillment in Jesus, in the greater

Exodus that he came to bring about.

While Exodus is the biggest redemptive event in the Old Testament, it is not the biggest

redemptive event in scripture because the biggest redemptive event in scripture is found

in Jesus, in the Exodus that he accomplished.

And so when we work our way back to the Book of Exodus, we will see that it is ultimately

about Jesus and what he accomplished.

So for example, let me just give you some evidence of this.

John chapter 5 and verse 46, Jesus says this.

He says, for if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.

So what is he writing about there in the Book of Exodus?

He's writing about Jesus, ultimately, Luke 24 after Jesus' resurrection.

He's with disciples, and he says, it says that beginning with Moses, he interpreted

to them in all the scriptures, all the things concerning himself.

So what Moses has written is being written about Jesus.

One of the most fascinating places, I think, that where Jesus speaks about this is in Luke

chapter 9.

It's on the Mount of Transfiguration, and it's just an amazing thing where Jesus is

shining, and he's seen to be for who he truly is, and God says, this is my beloved son.

And then he is actually speaking with Moses and Elijah on this mountain.

And you kind of wonder, well, what were they talking about?

Well, it tells us what they were talking about.

It says that they were speaking about his departure, literally, this is the word that's

used, his Exodus that he was going to accomplish, which refers to the Exodus that Jesus accomplishes.

And then throughout the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, for example, connects the story

of Exodus to Christ and his work in our lives.

But Mark chapter 1 is one of those places where the music of Exodus comes through loud

and clear.

Admittedly, as we read the passage we just read, Mark doesn't come right out and say

that that is what is going on here, but it is hidden in plain sight.

We read it again.

You see, in the story of Exodus, just to give us the full picture, just to remind ourselves,

you've got the people of Israel who were enslaved in Egypt, but they're then redeemed, and that

kind of act of redemption of the Exodus, God brings them out, and the final act of that

is the Red Sea Crossing.

And then when you move from the Red Sea Crossing to them in the wilderness, and then after

they're in the wilderness, you then have the promised land.

Moving into the promised land, that's where the Exodus is leading, although they don't

get there in the actual book of Exodus.

I wonder if you hear, though, any of that kind of redemptive pattern being echoed here

in our text.

Well, let's begin, first of all, with Jesus' baptism.

They're in verses 9 to 11.

Let's read verse 9 again.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

All right, so the context here, when you read earlier in the chapter, people are coming

from all over to hear John the Baptist and what he is preaching, and what he's preaching

kind of centers around a couple of things.

One is the problem of sin.

You see, the problem that the hearers had was far deeper than the external oppression

that they were experiencing at the hands of the Romans, and it was deeper than what

their ancestors had experienced at the hands of the Egyptians in slavery there in Egypt.

They were slaves to sin, and John calls their attention to the problem of sin.

When they're being baptized, the baptism that John is performing in the wilderness is a

sign that signifies the forgiveness of sins.

So if somebody was going to be baptized by him, they would be admitting that they have

a problem with sin.

When they went down into the water, they were saying publicly that they were sinners in

need of God's mercy, in need of forgiveness.

John wasn't just teaching about sin, he was also preaching about the coming Messiah.

He speaks about how the Messiah is going to be far greater than him, and he's going

to bring about a greater spiritual baptism.

He was, of course, speaking about Jesus.

Then when we get to verse 9, what we just read, the very Jesus that John has been proclaiming

now turns up at that very spot, and he does something that is very unexpected.

He's baptized.

Now remember, who's needing to be baptized?

It's sinful people, right?

Sinners.

And so why would Jesus go to be baptized?

This is confusing here.

Why would Jesus have any sin to repent of?

And if you go to a place like Matthew's account, you see that John the Baptist is really thrown

by this.

Why are you wanting to be baptized?

I should be baptized by you, so why is Jesus being baptized here?

Well, there's several things that we could say here, but let me just say a couple.

One is it's pointed to what he came to do.

You see, Jesus is baptized not because he has any sin, but because he identifies with

sinners.

That's what he came to do.

This is the first time that he identifies with sinful people like us, but this is not

the last time.

He's going to continue to do this in his ministry and ultimately at the cross when he identifies

with our sinfulness there.

But as he's going down into the water, people look on and be like, oh, what sin is he confessing

or repenting of?

He was just identifying with sinful people like us.

And then in Matthew's Gospel, he told John that he was being baptized because it was

fitting to fulfill all righteousness.

He was doing exactly what would be required of sinful people like us by going through

the waters of baptism.

All this was portraying what Jesus came to do, how Jesus was going to save us through

his death and resurrection.

This is what baptism is portraying here.

It's pointing to Jesus' death and resurrection.

But all that was to say that it is doing this in a way that is echoing the Exodus.

So remember, the final act where God rescues his people out of Egypt took place at the

Red Sea.

What happened there at the Red Sea?

They came to it.

They're frightened because you've got the Egyptians behind and God parts the waters

and they walk through safely on dry ground.

But when the Egyptian army comes behind them, what happens?

The waters fall on them in judgment, and they were drowned.

So in those waters there at the Red Sea, you see a picture both of judgment and a picture

of salvation.

God's enemy is being judged through water, but also his people being saved through that

same water.

It was a place of death, but it's also the path of life.

When you come to the New Testament, you think, well, as the New Testament authors are looking

back at the Exodus, what are they thinking as they're reading it?

Well, 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul spoke of the Red Sea crossing as a picture or a

type of baptism.

You see the Red Sea crossing and baptism both point to or they're portraying this greater

reality, the redemptive work, the Exodus that Jesus came to accomplish for us on the cross.

How are we getting there?

Okay, let's go to the cross, like the Red Sea crossing.

The cross was a place of judgment and salvation.

The judgment waters that we deserve to drown in as it were fell upon him, and he was buried

underneath God's judgment on our behalf.

And when he rose again from the dead, we are raised to new life in him.

So Jesus' baptism here in Mark chapter 1 isn't just echoing the Exodus of the past.

It's looking forward to the coming Exodus that he is going to accomplish through his

death and resurrection.

So as he goes down into the water, it's picturing his coming death, the judgment he's going

to receive.

And as he's being brought out of the water, it's picturing his resurrection.

It's also picturing us being united to him in his death and resurrection.

You see, when we put our faith in Jesus, we are given new life in him.

We're trusting in his death for us and his resurrection for us.

We are united to him in his death and in his resurrection.

And then when we are baptized, well, what are we doing?

We're reenacting this same story.

We're publicly declaring that we are identifying with the one who did this for us, who died

for us and rose again.

We're saying we believe that Jesus took our judgment, that he was raised to life for us.

And what he did for us in his death and resurrection takes on even more significance when we see

who he is.

And that's a major part of what takes place in Jesus' baptism, too.

As we go through the book of Exodus, we're going to see that the main point is knowing

God.

It's a book ultimately about who God is.

And at Jesus' baptism here, we see a major revelation of God.

We see God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Each person of the Trinity is present.

When he's raised up from the water, the heavens are torn open and the Spirit descends upon

him like a dove.

God the Father speaks from heaven and says, You are my beloved Son with whom I am well

pleased.

And much could be said about each person of the Trinity here, but the primary focus and

attention is given to who Jesus is.

Jesus is God's beloved Son with whom he is well pleased.

Jesus is the unique, eternal Son of God.

And this is not the first time that sonship, though, is used in scripture.

So there's a uniqueness to the sonship of Jesus as the eternal Son of God.

But sonship is also spoken of, you guessed it, in the book of Exodus.

It was an identity.

It was the identity that God gave to his people, Israel.

So Exodus chapter 4, verses 22 and 23.

It says, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son.

And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me.

So Israel is spoken of as God's son there.

That identity is then repeated, for example, in the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter 11 and

verse 1.

It says, out of Egypt I have called my son.

And then when you get to the New Testament, though, something very interesting happens.

That is then applied to Jesus, that very text in Hosea, when Jesus was brought out of Egypt

at the beginning of his life.

So Jesus is the Son of God.

By saying that, it is also saying that he is the ultimate Israel.

He is the perfect representative of God.

He is the beloved Son.

With that in mind, think, he is the one, the beloved Son, who came to give his life that

we might be called the children of God.

The fact is that if you are in Christ, God looks upon you in him and says, this is my

beloved Son, this is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased, we are loved children

of God through Christ.

And then in our baptism, after we become children of God, our new identity is proclaimed over

us.

Because we are baptized, Matthew 28 and 19, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus is identified here in his baptism, so in ours, our identity is proclaimed over

us.

We belong to our heavenly Father.

So that is Jesus' baptism, the Neck of the Exodus, the Red Sea crossing, pointing forward

to Jesus' death and resurrection.

Where does Jesus go from there?

The wilderness.

Let's see that in verses 12 and 13.

All right, as we're looking at this, let's start thinking about that first Exodus, too.

After Israel passed through the Red Sea, where did they then head into?

They headed into the wilderness.

That's exactly what we see Jesus doing here.

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

You might be saying, hang on, Brandon, you might be grasping at straws here looking at

this.

I'm not sure.

Are we sure the water in the wilderness is what is happening here?

Well, how long is Jesus in the wilderness?

Verse 13, and he was in the wilderness 40 days.

Interesting.

How long were the Israelites in the wilderness?

How long, do they wonder?

40 years.

It wasn't 40 days, but it was 40 years.

What's going on here?

Well, this actually happened, but how Mark is writing it here is also his way of clearing

his throat to say, are you hearing what I'm saying here?

Are you seeing the pattern?

Are you seeing the picture?

If you've not caught on yet, Jesus was there 40 days in the wilderness.

He's saying, if you haven't seen this before, now's the time to see it.

What Jesus is doing here is different.

It's similar to what happened in the wilderness, but it's different as well.

Let's see some of these similarities and differences.

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

God's people in the book of Exodus were not in the wilderness alone.

Who went with them?

The presence of God, the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night.

You can see the construction of the tabernacle later on in God's presence with them there.

Here we see that the Spirit of God is present with Jesus in the wilderness, but the language

used here in Mark 1 is even stronger than just being with Jesus.

The Spirit isn't just with Jesus.

The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness.

That word here is the same exact language that is going to then be used in the Gospel

of Mark to speak about Jesus casting out or driving out demons.

This is the language of control, being under the control of the Spirit.

To be clear, this is not saying that Jesus was compelled against his will to go into

the wilderness.

No.

He's walking in step with the Spirit.

It's saying that he is being led and empowered by the Spirit as he enters the wilderness.

You see the Spirit is helping him to do the will of his Father in the wilderness, even

in the face of temptation.

So in Exodus we see that the wilderness was a place of testing.

Here we see the wilderness as a place of testing and temptation.

Jesus is tempted by Satan here in the wilderness.

Here's where the big difference comes in.

Jesus succeeded in the wilderness where Israel failed in the wilderness.

In the book of Exodus, as we read through, we'll see that in the wilderness wanderings,

Israel was learning what it meant to trust and obey God, but they failed over and over

again.

We don't see that here.

That's not the case with Jesus.

He succeeds.

Then in Matthew and Luke's account, interestingly, of the temptation, it goes on to give more

details.

We're told how Jesus was tempted.

You can go and read that yourself, but just know that each one of those three temptations

have really strong parallels with the testing that happened in the wilderness wanderings,

but Jesus resisted the temptation every time, quoting God's Word, and he quoted from the

book of Deuteronomy, which was given when the people of God were in the wilderness.

It says he was there with the wild animals.

You know what that means?

If you do, let me know, because I have no idea what that is talking about.

Then it says the angels ministered to him.

It could be talking about the danger that he was in.

There's different theories that are there as to why the wild beasts were there.

I'm not decided on it, but it could be there's danger there, and then you've got the protection

that is there with the angels guarding or something like that.

I don't know, but this is what I do know.

During Jesus' great trial, he trusted his father perfectly to provide for him and to

protect him, and he obeyed his father's Word.

A few things happens when he does this, when he trusts and he obeys.

One is it confirms his identity as the beloved Son of God.

A few days ago, I was trying to log into something I hadn't logged into in a while, and one of

those things came up to try to prove that you're not a robot.

You know what I'm talking about?

It's telling me to click on the pictures of motorcycles.

Let me tell you, I clicked on every motorcycle that was there, and I failed the test.

I promise you, I'm not a robot.

I went to the next one, failed a second time, and finally, it let me in.

My identity was not confirmed initially, but Jesus has this test here.

What's happening through the test?

As he trusts and obeys the Father, it's confirming what we've just heard from the Father.

This is my beloved Son.

He trusts and he obeys, proving that he is who he claims to be.

Also, another thing's happening here.

It's good news that he succeeded where Israel failed, because Jesus succeeded where we all

fail.

Hebrews 4.15 says, he is the one who is in every respect, has been tempted as we are,

and yet without sin.

So, Jesus has been through exactly what we've been through, but he was without sin.

Because of that, because he succeeded where we failed, he was able to do what we could

never do, and that'd save us.

Because he succeeded where we failed, he was able to provide us with his own righteousness.

And also, because he was tempted like we are, he is able to help us during our times of

trial and temptation.

So, it's good for us to hold that in mind.

We've been given the righteousness of Christ, and he is with us in our times of trial and

temptation, and that remains true even when we fail.

Because like Israel, we all fail to trust in the Lord.

We all fail to obey the Lord, and the thing is, like Israel, I don't know if this is the

case with you, actually, I do know this is the case with you, after our redemption, even

after we're saved, we still fail time and time again.

But when that happens, remember what Jesus has done for you.

Look away from your sin, confess your sin, and put your trust in Jesus again, again,

and again, and look to him to provide what you need to trust in the goodness of your

heavenly Father, and to live out the life that you have been given in him.

Like Jesus, the Spirit of God goes with us in the wilderness, teaching us to trust and

obey, not in order to be redeemed, but because we have been redeemed.

Oftentimes he does this through trials, just like we see here.

When you look forward to this new year, you might be worried about what's coming, or maybe

you've got plans that you're hoping to fulfill.

I had a chuckle this week thinking about all those pastors preparing for their 2020 vision

series, in the year 2020, having no idea what was about to happen.

We knew that COVID was about to hit.

We don't know what the year holds, but we do know that God is with us, and he is using

all things for our good to conform us to the image of his Son.

So what happens next?

So you see this picture of redemption in Jesus' baptism.

Spirit of God is going with him in the wilderness, and Jesus trusts and obeys.

And then Jesus, having passed the test in the wilderness, now proclaims that the kingdom

of God is at hand.

Let's look at verses 14 and 15, once again.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and

saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

So God brought his people out of the land of Egypt in order to bring them into the land

of promise.

And there in that land of promise, they were to live under his reign.

But his reign over their lives didn't begin in that land of promise.

His reign over their lives began in the wilderness, and it continued on in that land of promise.

When Jesus begins his ministry, he proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand right now.

The kingdom of God was at hand because the king himself was at hand.

And as the beloved son, he reigns over the kingdom of God, and he preaches that everyone

who repents, who turns from their sin and rebellion against him, who puts their trust

in him, will be welcomed into his kingdom, will become citizens of this new kingdom.

See, Jesus doesn't establish his kingdom with a sword.

How does he establish it?

The sermon with the message of salvation.

He preaches, repents, and believes the gospel.

If you read on, you'll see that just like in the land of Canaan, he had enemies to face.

It's interesting, even just like flicking through the book of Mark in front of you,

you'll see that Jesus has enemies, including demonic opposition.

But by the power of his word, he casts them out.

By the power of his word, by the power of the gospel that he is proclaiming, he brings

forgiveness to those who believe.

He establishes his good reign in their hearts.

They know him as their savior and king.

This is continuing on to this day.

Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13 says this.

Here's how it describes what it means to become a Christian, become a follower of Jesus.

It says that God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to

the kingdom of his beloved son.

This is what it means to become a Christian, to be in Christ.

It is to be delivered from one kingdom, from the domain of darkness, and to be made a citizen

of the kingdom of heaven.

To live as a Christian is to live under his reign.

This isn't something that just happens in the future.

It happens right now.

Right now, we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

But we also do this, living under his reign now from a place of hope, because we are making

our way to the land of promise.

We're following Jesus, knowing that he's been this way before, and he will fulfill all that

he has promised.

One day, he is going to bring us into the new heavens and the new earth, and we will

dwell with him forever, because his kingdom will never end.

Over the past couple of days now, no doubt if you've seen the news, you've been seeing

what's going on in Venezuela, and you just see how quickly earthly kingdoms and reigns

can come and they can go, and that is true of every earthly kingdom and government.

The Jesus kingdom will never end.

He will reign forever.

Once Jesus ascended to his heavenly throne, his followers then went out just as they had

been sent.

When they go out, what are they doing?

You don't find them kind of repeating the conquests that you see like in the book of

Joshua.

Nonetheless, they are going out to the nations, and what are they doing?

They're following the way of Jesus, that Exodus way, and they are proclaiming the kingdom

of God.

They're proclaiming, repent and believe the gospel.

As they do that, they're not going in looking to overthrow governments and that sort of thing.

They do that, they make disciples, and they plant churches, so it's in churches that

we live under the reign of Jesus now.

We live in light of his kingdom together, and this is continuing on even here this morning.

This here is an invitation, hopefully, to you this morning to participate in what Jesus

is doing in the world today, because the fact is the music of the Exodus is still playing

and that's the music that we see in the book of Exodus itself, but also in the greater

Exodus that Jesus brings about.

It's the soundtrack of God's story, and we are part of that story.

We're going to pray here in just a second, but before we pray, let me just ask you a

question, and the question is, where are you at in that ongoing story of the Exodus?

Where are you at?

Let's look at those three pictures.

Let me just ask, are you in need of redemption?

Are you in need of redemption?

Wherever you're looking for it, you cannot bring about your own Exodus, but know this,

that Christ can.

The call is to not trust in ourselves, but to repent, to turn away from ourselves and

put our trust in him.

Or perhaps you're here and you're in the wilderness in need of transformation.

Maybe you feel like you're failing over and over, but remember when you fail that Christ

has succeeded on your behalf.

Keep trusting in him.

If you feel weak, remember that God is with you, and he is faithfully shaping your life

by the Spirit and by the Word, and you can trust him in the wilderness.

You may not know where you're going, but you can know that he is with you.

Maybe you're here and you're in need of hope, looking forward to the land of promise.

If you're here in need of hope, remember that whatever's going on, whatever the chaos is

in the world, or in your home, or in your own self, remember that Christ is reigning

now, and his reign will never end.

He will bring us safely home.

The call is to put our hope in him, to rejoice in what is to come.

So wherever you're at, let's all take time to pray silently now.

Let's praise God for what he's done for us, and pray that he might help us with whatever

we need, whether it's redemption, or transformation, or hope.