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Ready to Follow?
29 Plays1 month ago
Series: Discernment of Jesus' Person
Mark 1:1-20
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Transcript
The Shopping Dilemma: Finding Value in Christianity
00:00:00
Speaker
Have you ever gone to the department store shopping for new clothes? and And as you're rummaging through the various clothing racks, you eventually find that one perfect garment. That might be a shirt or a blouse or jeans, whatever it is. It's just the right style. It's just the right color and it's just the right size. And as you take that garment off of the rack, you realize it's missing The price tag. Don't you just hate when that happens? Hate when that happens. And now you're stuck in this dilemma. What do I do? Am I going to risk it? Or as my kids say, risk it for the biscuit? Are you gonna go stand in front of that really long line just to get to the cashier, only for the cashier to say, oh, that's too costly.
00:01:01
Speaker
I wonder, friends, what if you and I had a tag on us as Christians as we walked around? What would that tag read? Would it say that the cost is too much to be a Christian?
00:01:22
Speaker
Knowing the cost of something is really important.
Introduction to the Gospel of Mark
00:01:26
Speaker
We're gonna see today as we open up the Gospel of Mark that there is indeed a cost of following Jesus.
00:01:36
Speaker
We're going to look at chapter 1, just the first 20 verses, but we're going to see that there is a call, a commission, and a cost with three different people. A call, a commission, and a cost, or a consequence, if you will. We're going to look at John the Baptist.
00:01:56
Speaker
or if you're any other denomination other than the Baptists, he's called John the Baptizer, just so you don't confuse him with being a Baptist. We're gonna look at John, we're gonna look at Jesus, and we're gonna look at the disciples.
John the Baptist: Preparing the Way
00:02:11
Speaker
The call, the commission, and the consequence, or the cost. I'm gonna read the first 20 verses, if you will. Mark, it'll be on your screen. I'm reading from the new living translation.
00:02:23
Speaker
says, this is the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written, look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, for prepare the way the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and to hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey.
00:03:18
Speaker
John announced, someone is coming soon who is greater than I. So much so greater that I'm unworthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' Baptism and Divine Approval
00:03:39
Speaker
And one day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and John baptized him in the Jordan River.
00:03:45
Speaker
As Jesus came up over the wall out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting open and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, you are my dearly loved son and you bring me great joy. Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan for 40 days. He was out among the wild animals and the angels took care of him.
00:04:13
Speaker
Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee where he preached God's good news. The time promised by God has come at last, he announced. The kingdom of God is near. Repent of your sins and believe the good news. Verse 16 says, one day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water for they fished for a living.
00:04:41
Speaker
Jesus called out to them, come, follow me and I will show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once and followed him. Little farther up the shore, Jesus saw Zebedee's sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once and they also followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.
The Suffering Servant: Mark's Portrayal of Jesus
00:05:05
Speaker
This is the word of the Lord.
00:05:10
Speaker
The gospel of Mark is fantastic, and I'm just super excited that we're just diving into this study. Each of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are written from a certain perspective on who Jesus is. Matthew's gospel is all about Jesus as king, or his kingship. Mark's gospel is all about Jesus as the suffering servant.
00:05:39
Speaker
Luke's gospel is all about Jesus as the son of man, his humanity, and John's gospel is all about Jesus as the son of God, his deity. The gospel of Mark is authored by none other than John Mark. Some of you have been reading in Acts, you know who John Mark is. He's very rarely referred to as John Mark, says he's John also called Mark is how he's referred to.
00:06:07
Speaker
This Gospel is written somewhere between 65 and 67 AD, and it's a record of selected events. Mark's Gospel is not an exhaustive account. It is a very limited, selected view of the life and ministry of Jesus, and it presents a Gospel to Romans. This is who was reading this. Their initial audience was the Romans.
00:06:33
Speaker
And it's proving that Jesus is indeed the long-awaited Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. But his focus is primarily on discipleship and how Jesus is indeed this pattern of discipleship. And so as we read Mark's account over the next 25 weeks,
00:07:01
Speaker
and some of you are slinking in your chair right now. Yes, indeed, 25 weeks, 25 different sermons all on some facet of the suffering servant, some facet on discipleship, so that sermon by sermon, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, we are conforming ourselves into the likeness of Christ, into a better disciple.
00:07:27
Speaker
And we begin today here in chapter 1, verse 1, and we see this call on John the Baptizer, the Baptist. It's interesting here. Look with me. He starts, John Martin does, with this Old Testament quote. Now, he attributes it to Isaiah, but it's really both Isaiah chapter 40, and it's also a mix of Micah chapter 3.
00:07:53
Speaker
He says, look, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. Indeed, this person was, everybody say it, John the Baptist, right? The forerunner. His call was to go out and prepare the way. What does it mean to prepare the way?
00:08:21
Speaker
You know, when when a herald was sent out to go prepare the way for the king's message, literally two things happened. He literally prepared the way. He would repair the roads that the king would travel on to make it a smooth trip. Did you know that? And then he also prepared the people. He prepared the roads and he prepared the people for the king to come. And friends, this is what John's call was.
00:08:50
Speaker
He's called here to be the voice, to be the messenger, to prepare the way for Christ's coming. He's the forerunner to Jesus, and He's preparing this way for Jesus. That's His call. Jesus' call, we're told here, says that He enters in.
Fulfilling Prophecy: The Significance of Jesus' Baptism
00:09:11
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went into He's from Galilee, and He comes to the Jordan, and He asks to be baptized by John. but What's interesting to me in Mark's account, it's so limited. There's a lot going on in that baptism of Jesus, right? We're told in Matthew's account that that as Jesus came up, John's like, not really worthy to do this. Why are you coming to me to be baptized? I'm not the person to be baptizing you.
00:09:49
Speaker
But Jesus says in Matthew's account, I'm doing this basically to fulfill prophecy. See, Jesus didn't need to come be baptized by John, because John's baptism was one of repentance, repentance of sin. Jesus didn't sin. So there was no physical need for him to be there, but Jesus came to fulfill prophecy, and I think Mark's gospel is kind of slim and directly to the point so we don't get lost in sometimes all those details. The point is he's coming here, and it says that...
00:10:30
Speaker
There's this divine approval of Jesus. It's this beautiful picture of the Trinity. And oftentimes, friends, you'll hear other denominations that don't believe in the Trinity, and they'll say, show me a spot where the Trinity is mentioned in the Bible, to which the word Trinity is not found there. But a picture of the Trinity is is seen right here. Look with me, verse 10. It says, as Jesus came up out of the water,
00:11:00
Speaker
He saw the heavens splitting open. Your translation may say torn open. This is this verb. This is the same tearing open that happened at the Holy of Holies where the curtain is torn open when Jesus died. It's the exact same picture that's happening here.
00:11:21
Speaker
It says, the heavens are torn open and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove to which we hear from heaven this voice from God saying, you are my beloved son. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, this picture of the Trinity all right here, it's the beginning friends of his public ministry.
00:11:51
Speaker
And now you would think coming up out of the water, verse 11,
00:12:00
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voice heard from heaven, you're my dearly departed son, you would think or you're my dearly ah beloved son, you would think verse 12 would then launch Jesus into his public ministry with this fantastic miracle, something big. Jesus is on the stage, let's come out with a big bang.
00:12:20
Speaker
But friends, that's that's not what happens. Just a few verses there, 16. Jesus' is first call is to call the disciples.
Calling the Fishermen: A New Kind of Discipleship
00:12:32
Speaker
He reaches out and he makes this call to Simon and his brother, Andrew, who were fishermen by trade. Notice he doesn't come to the religious elite. He comes just to the regular ordinary guy.
00:12:49
Speaker
Jesus comes in his authority and he calls these regular folks and he says, come and follow me. Now, you and I might hear this and in it seems pretty normal. Jesus wants these guys to follow him as his disciples. But in the Jewish culture, if you were a rabbi, you would never call your students. Your students, however, would call upon you to see if they could become a student. Jesus has turned this around and he has reached out to these men not the religious elite, and he says, simply come and follow me. Friends, it's the same call that you and I have been asked to answer. Come and follow me. It's a call that cannot be ignored. It's a call that requires a step of faith. Or for some of you, a leap of faith this morning.
00:13:47
Speaker
if you have yet to choose to follow Jesus. Have you responded to Jesus' call in your life? Come with me, come follow. It requires him to respond right then. You notice he didn't say, at the end of meeting you, I'm gonna have this invitation.
00:14:12
Speaker
and possibly if you wanna come follow me, maybe in a week or two, you guys, y'all discuss it amongst yourselves, and maybe you come back and follow. No, friends, it says he asks, come follow me, and immediately, which is Mark's favorite word, immediately they responded. Immediately they dropped their nets. Imagine if you're working at Alcoa, back when Alcoa was, imagine Jesus shows up.
00:14:42
Speaker
Billy, come follow me. Ray, come follow me. Tom, come follow me. Loretta, come follow me. Drop what you're doing right now, leave the classroom, leave your workplace, and follow me. Friends, this is exactly what they do. Now, they're each tasked with something else. That's the call. Their commission is different.
00:15:09
Speaker
John's task was to prepare the path for this long-awaited Messiah, and his message was to preach this message of repentance.
00:15:21
Speaker
Turn back from your evil ways and turn towards God. This is the message that John preached. Baptism, we often think, is something new that John isn' and is instituting here, but friends, baptism has been around a long time.
00:15:38
Speaker
John is saying to this Gentile population, common repent of your sins and be forgiven. But he's also, you'll notice it says all of Judea, all of the people from Jerusalem also come out to see him. So he has a mixed crowd. He's got Jews and Gentiles alike and he's telling everybody prepare for the coming Messiah, repent.
00:16:07
Speaker
But if you're Jewish, you're thinking to yourself, I'm following the law. There's no reason for me to repent like that. Why would John be asking me that? Friends, this is the call that John had. He's calling the people, regardless of their Gentile, regardless of their Jew, to have a change of heart and a change of purpose, ah purpose and then to be baptized, right? The baptism itself we talked about,
00:16:33
Speaker
Today West did a great job or ah in West's class. They did a great job Scott pointed out baptism is literally this outward demonstration of what's going on, right? It's not salvation going underwater does not salve you it does not save you But it's this outward demonstration of what's going on. This is what John is commissioned with preach the word preach repentance and And Jesus' message we received. He is called here, verse 14. Look with me. It says, later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee where He too preached, but He preached God's good news. So your translation may say He preached the gospel of God or the gospel of the kingdom of a God.
00:17:20
Speaker
He's saying the time is now here. This event that you've been waiting that's been prophesied in the Old Testament has finally come true in my coming and I'm and i here on the stage and I'm going to preach the gospel of God. Repent, but also believe the good news, right? Do you see the difference between John's call and Jesus' call here?
00:17:49
Speaker
John was paving the way for Jesus. Jesus is actually here on the scene now and he's saying, preach, preach the gospel. It's the gospel of Jesus because he's at the heart of it. It's his life, death, and resurrection. This is the good news. It's the gospel of grace that Paul would call because there's no salvation apart from God's grace. He says, repent and believe. Repentance alone will not save.
00:18:18
Speaker
Even though God expects you and I to turn from our sins, we must also put our faith in Jesus Christ and believe his promise of salvation. So what are the, if that's what Jesus' commissions, what's the disciples' commission? And friends, it can't get any simpler. look Look with me, he says, verse 17, he calls out to them, come and follow me, and I'll show you how to go fish for people. Their response is to follow him.
00:18:47
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That's their response. Are we following him? yeah are we Are we a disciple of Jesus? Because friends, if you're a disciple for Jesus, there will be a cost.
00:19:02
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in And we briefly talked about this in the Bible study this morning, and I didn't want to give away the entire sermon, although I was asked to.
The Cost of True Discipleship
00:19:12
Speaker
Friends, there is a real cost to be a Christian.
00:19:18
Speaker
The early disciples had to do things Christ's way. Matter of fact, that whole movement was called the way. When they were called to follow Jesus, it meant that they were to go learn from him, to observe him, to see how he interacted, to see how he taught, to mimic him, to imitate him, to submit themselves under his authority.
00:19:48
Speaker
So when he said, hey everybody, we're gonna pick up and we're gonna go to Galilee, guess what they all did? They all picked up and they went to Galilee. Why? Because that's where their teacher went. They were in full submission, full authority he was in full authority over them. and i And I just put a note to myself here today, I thought, if we're really disciples, if we're really following Jesus,
00:20:15
Speaker
there was There was a cost for the disciples in that time. And friends, there's a cost for you and I today.
00:20:26
Speaker
What was the cost for John? Well, it tells us right here at the beginning of 14. We don't have to guess. This is later on when John was arrested. What was the cost for John? He was arrested. I know you're thinking to yourself,
00:20:44
Speaker
pastor we're so far off from that I don't have to worry about that maybe this year I don't think we're that far off from that and I say that as your loving pastor but as a ah real warning that the country is in a tailspin and Christianity is no longer a powerhouse that it once used to be here in this country, and there very well may come a time where that persecution starts really small, and it is already starting that way, but it's gonna just ramp up and ramp up, and while we may not initially see it, your kids and grandkids will see it. I just, I don't see them getting out of experiencing that cost. John was arrested. Actually, this word here is handed over. This is paraditamide. This is the same word
00:21:40
Speaker
that Mark uses when Jesus is handed over. It's the exact same word. It's the same word saying that because John was faithful in his call, the cost was that he was handed over, placed into jail. And and I think it's no coincidence that verse 14 kind of says, John's arrested. Guess what? Jesus' ministry starts and he's preaching the good news.
00:22:08
Speaker
Friends, the preaching of God's good news, the gospel, is part and parcel with suffering. There's gonna be some suffering that you and I do, that you and I experience as we preach the word of God. So as he was handed over in this adversity or this suffering,
00:22:34
Speaker
is part and parcel of the gospel. Jesus, what was the consequence for Jesus? Well, obviously was he was faithful all the way to the cross.
00:22:44
Speaker
Later on in Mark chapter nine, verse 31 says, for Jesus was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man will be handed over. He'll be delivered into the hands of men and they will indeed kill him and when he is killed, after three days, he will rise again.
00:23:04
Speaker
All right, Jesus paid the ultimate cost.
00:23:08
Speaker
He took our place. This is the person who knew no sin, who didn't need to be baptized in the Jordan, but was baptized in the Jordan to fulfill prophecy. This is the person who knew no sin, who took our place in the penalty of sin. It was a debt that you and I could not pay. And in paying that, he defeated death and sin at the cross.
00:23:34
Speaker
And rising again, he also now prepares a what? A way. He prepares a path. Kind of like John, but this path leads to eternal life.
00:23:53
Speaker
I'm not a fan of quoting lyrics from songs, so I won't do that. But there is a song that says something like this,
00:24:05
Speaker
It's not just the good news, it's the best news ever. right This really is the gospel message. Friends, it's not just good news to the sinner, it is the best news ever. It is a way of salvation. So what is the cost for disciples? you know We don't have a clear cut picture right here in this text, but we know further on many of the disciples paid to a ah big price to follow to follow Jesus.
00:24:34
Speaker
What can you and I do with this passage? This is where I want to just lay in today. What do we do with the idea of counting the cost to follow Christ? So I'll say this, I'll just simply repeat what another pastor asked me one time. He said, are you experiencing hardship because you're following Jesus? Are you experiencing suffering because you're following Jesus?
00:25:04
Speaker
And he said, before you answer that, just think. He said, because if you're not, maybe you're not following Jesus. Maybe you're not a true disciple of Jesus, because I think they go hand in hand, and I'm not saying that your suffering and your persecution will look like mine. um My guess is, because I have the pulpit and because I have a microphone, that maybe my persecution will look vastly different than yours.
00:25:34
Speaker
um I come up to preach the good news each and every Sunday regardless of what other people say. Conley does the same thing. it's It's an unashamed approach to the gospel message, but understand that doing this from here we'll put a target on our back. There is some cost to preaching the good news. There's some cost in your life as you go out to the workplace, as you meet with your family, as you meet with people that aren't believers that are gonna step up and say, in some type of way, I don't agree with how you're living life. You'll notice they'll never say, inspect how I'm living my life in the secular world.
00:26:20
Speaker
They just don't want to hear about you following Christ. And i I think, friends, it's just going to get worse. How do we prepare ourselves? How do we count the cost? This is where I'm going to land today. And I thought it could come in many different ways. But I'm literally going to just offer one example today that you may very easily do.
Commitment to Studying the Gospel of Mark
00:26:44
Speaker
I often think to myself, if I'm asking you to do something in way of application, I need to be willing to do the same. So what I'm asking you today, if you were to suffer for the sake of Christ, can you count the cost by committing yourselves to a 25-week Bible study, if you will? And you're like, you bet I can, pastor. I'm just gonna show up on Sunday when you preach it. Well, here's what I'm really asking you to do. I'm really asking you to
00:27:18
Speaker
do some self-study during the week. Really read through the Gospel of Mark. I like to use the term an inductive study. This is something where you really are taking a deep dive. And you're really reading ahead of time so that when you come on Sunday and you hear me preach, it's already a double dose. you already It already comes to your mind, oh yeah, I know what he's talking about.
00:27:45
Speaker
If you've ever taught the Bible, you know this is the way God operates, because you prepare yourself for the lesson on Sunday, and the Holy Spirit's working on you, and He's convicting you, and He's telling you, this is the way I need you to be conformed into my image, and then you go give that message on Sunday. Well, imagine if you got that twice. Imagine if you did that in the Gospel of Mark throughout the week, and this is separate from what you're learning in Acts. I understand you're thinking to yourself, I can barely keep up with Acts.
00:28:15
Speaker
I'm asking you to count the cost this week.
00:28:21
Speaker
And I put three words just to keep us on on track here. Abide, submit, and imitate. Abide means to stick with it, to live it, to read it day in and day out when some days you wake up and think, I just don't feel like reading the Gospel of Mark today. And I'm asking you to count the cost.
00:28:43
Speaker
To make a commitment, I'm gonna read for the next 25 weeks the Gospel of Mark. I don't think it's gonna take you 25 weeks to read through it. But if you really take your time and you really will study it, I think it's gonna show us exactly what a disciple looks like.
Principles of Discipleship
00:29:04
Speaker
And it's really gonna help us to kinda look at ourselves in the mirror and see what Jesus expects as us, as followers of him.
00:29:16
Speaker
Abide. Submit. Submit meaning to give yourself over to whatever the Bible study reveals to you. Friends, this is the beauty of studying the Bible thoroughly,
00:29:29
Speaker
if I could put it that way. so God will show you something in that thorough studying that you need to work on, that I need to work on. Where it becomes beneficial is if you do it.
00:29:45
Speaker
Kids, your parents can tell you all the time, you need to go clean your room. You can hear that every day, all day long. But unless you're willing to submit to the authority of your parents and do that, it's no longer really beneficial. So my prayer for you is not only that you abide with it, that you stick with it, that you remain in God's word, but as it reveals these timeless truths of what it means to be a disciple, you'll start making minor changes. Micro changes, I like to say.
00:30:16
Speaker
Micro changes, friends, are doable. They're attainable. And it helps us slowly, week after week, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, look more and more like what a disciple of Jesus really looks like. And third is just to imitate. The ultimate model of serving others at a cost was Jesus himself. And it should be our desire to imitate him.
00:30:45
Speaker
And I just put, it did this same message just kept coming back to me this whole week. And i and as much as I try to, so I like to study other things too. And I don't know why the Holy Spirit is like this, but I mean, i I had a whole new commentary on the book of Psalms and it was my desire this weekend when Kim was out of town that I really just wanted to sit and read this. And I also wanted to work on my car, but that didn't happen either.
00:31:12
Speaker
All I kept getting was this prompting of the Holy Spirit that just said these couple of words, it's either his way or it's your way, but you have to choose.
Choosing the Path of True Discipleship
00:31:24
Speaker
It's either his way and you're gonna follow him and you're gonna be a disciple or you're gonna be your disciple. You're gonna follow yourself.
00:31:36
Speaker
And I said, are we willing to do it his way even if it involves suffering on our end? because I'm gonna give you a hint, it will. There is a real cost to following Jesus and to doing things his way. May we be a people who count the cost, amen.