Receive the Gift

The Good News Kingdom

(Mark 1:14-15, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 24, 2018)

[14] Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, [15] and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

After John was arrested

This is how it goes in this fallen world. Your best spiritual giant, John the Baptist, gets arrested. It was also how things went for the Man who was far greater than John. Jesus was handed over to the authorities. It was also the case for early believers and church leaders. They faced the violent assaults of the powers that existed in their day. Acts 3 and 4 tell the story of a healing by Peter that leads to his arrest. In Acts 5 the apostles are again arrested. In Acts 6 there is an internal dispute regarding ethnic favoritism that threatens to destroy the church in Jerusalem. In Acts 7 one of the Christian leaders, Stephen, is stoned to death by an angry mob.

All of this leads to Acts 8:1–4:

[1] And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. [2] Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. [3] But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. [4] Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God

So in our text this morning, John the Baptist was arrested, yet this is how it continues in this world: John may be close to death, but Jesus takes His position in the unstoppable mission of God beginning in Galilee. John may be killed, but the proclamation of the Word continues. And now the Son of God is speaking. His message? The gospel of God: But what is it? A very big question, and one we do not want to get wrong (Galatians 1:8).

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

Using only the verses before us for the moment, the gospel (good news) has to do with a time and a fulfillment. It is the story of the kingdom of God from beginning to end. At this moment in the life of Jesus, the story of the Old Testament is fulfilled and the opening motions of a New Testament world begins. The amazing kingdom of God with its resurrection conclusion is “at hand.” The reason is that the gospel is all about a person, and that person just entered the public arena.

Therefore, two gifts must now be exercised by all who would be part of God's kingdom: repentance and faith.

Repent

What does it mean? The word means a turning of the mind, and here's something we want to get right: Repentance is a gift of God (Acts 11:18, “God has granted repentance that leads to life.” Also 2 Timothy 2:25 speaking of opponents to the faith, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”) But what is the gift? To repent is to surrender to God:

An ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, gives us an illustration from Roman history that helps us to get the point. A Roman general speaking to a group of valiant rebels calls upon them to “repent.” They once hoped that they could fight the Romans and win. Now they must face facts, switching their misplaced loyalties from their own failing plans back to the emperor. God Almighty in the flesh calls us to do the same, not as a matter of grinding submission to someone who hates us, but to the Lover of our souls.

Peter in Acts 2:38, as an ambassador for the King of kings, called on all His hearers to do what Jesus had commanded a few years earlier: “Repent.” When a child in a family has acted in a way that is deeply hostile toward the authority structures of his household, surely nothing less than true repentance can bring about the right ordering of a happy home. The child must surrender to the parents who love him, not as an outward reality only, but with body, soul, and spirit. But how can the little rebel do it? He needs a gift.

And believe in the gospel

Faith is the second gift (Ephesians 2:8) that must be exercised by the one who wants to be in the kingdom. What does it mean to believe? The view of the ancient world was that there were many gods, and that one might go to an oracle in order to get the answers that he or she needed for living. Ezekiel 21:21 gives us a vivid picture of a military leader needing to make a life or death decision regarding an imminent battle looking for something to believe. “The king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim; he looks at the liver.”

In John 9 we are told about a man born blind who was healed by Jesus. We read about a breakthrough in faith coming to this man who can now see. When he is first questioned by the authorities he makes no claim about who Jesus is. He later says that Jesus is a “prophet” (John 9:17). He then suggests that on the basis of this amazing miracle Jesus must be a “worshiper” of God who “does His will” (John 9:31). At the end of the chapter he says directly to Jesus, “Lord, I believe,” and “he worshiped him” (John 9:38).

People look all over creation for answers for living and for a message they can trust, especially searching within self, yet many come up empty. What about you?

1. Have you heard and understood the gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God?
2. Have you repented of your sin as a gift of God rather than your work of merit?
3. Have you believed in the gospel as God's mercy received rather than your wisdom?

At great cost, Jesus started proclaiming the good news that comes from God. What a thrilling development! The era of preparing for Messiah was over. The call began to be heard: Repent and believe in the gospel. May God's kingdom come right here, right now.

Final thought: He wins, and it really is good news!

Check out Nehemiah 8:9-12 – If the plain understanding of the Law was supposed to lead to joy, what should our reaction be to the gift of right relationship with Jesus?

Sermon Point: Jesus announces a good news kingdom that cannot fail.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 63 – Your steadfast love is better than life

New Testament Reading—1 Peter 3:13-22 – Honor Christ the Lord as holy

Jesus WINS and so shall I!

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

(Mark 1:12-13, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 17, 2018)

[12] The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. [13] And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Jesus and Spiritual Warfare: (Mark 9:19,29, 15:37) This is where it begins.

The Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.

Paul tells the church in Rome that “all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). What did the Spirit of God do after descending upon the only begotten Son of God like a dove? He “immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.” The desert is a place of deprivation and testing, and this is where the Spirit sent Jesus.

When we think that we are being led by the Spirit to go somewhere or to do something, we can be mistaken. Later we may decided that we were wrong. This was not the case with Jesus. The Spirit thrust Jesus out of a place of relative comfort and into the desert. He must have had some good purpose in this plan.

And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals.

Consider what Jesus went through. This was not an easy experience for our Lord.

First, it was more than a minute. The Man who would save us began His ministry by spending forty days in spiritual warfare in a very harsh environment.

Second, a murderer was nearby. Satan, the leader of fallen angels, an adversary of God, and the accuser of God's people was doing what He does. As Jesus informs us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” And in John 8:44 we learn about the devil that “he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan is a formidable adversary who must be resisted. As Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:8-11, “[8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” So, a murderer was nearby...

Third, there was the matter of wild animals. Young David testified to King Saul, “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears.” Hungry animals are a part of this dangerous world, but what if one of them might even be demon-possessed? After all, that was what happened with the serpent in Genesis 3.

In this challenging environment, a battle for our souls took place that would go all the way to the cross. What Satan meant for evil, God meant for good. The devil wanted to tempt our Lord in order to derail Jesus' ministry and life. The Father was testing His Son with an eye toward His great purposes of growth. (A challenging concept, but Jesus was not only fully God, but also fully human. See Luke 2:52 and Hebrews 5:8.)

And the angels were ministering to him.

In the midst of this Spirit-led, God-ordained contest, good angels were near at hand. We are told that they were “ministering” to Jesus. The word is “deaconing.” They were doing what deacons do. They serve God by seeing a need and then entering into trying situations with actions that help and heal.

Though we live in a world of fallen spirits and dangerous predators, God also created holy angels who are ministers to the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). This is the world that we live in, whether we realize it or not. There are hostile dangers and powerful allies in nature and in spiritual realms. (Story of our missionary and MBBs.) In this environment in which you and I also live today, the place where we ask God to “lead us not into temptation,” Jesus passed the test that was before Him. His victory over sin in this world was foundational for our secure hope of eternal life. What if Jesus had failed?

The first Adam and the second Adam.

This experience was not the first time the Lord tested the metal of a man. The first Adam failed in a world of bounty. The second Adam, Jesus, passed this test at the inception of his public ministry. He would obey the Lord in a far more difficult accomplishment at the close of His mortal life. In His human nature, the desert prepared Jesus of Nazareth for the cross. We can expect a life of testing and learning.

Jesus' temptation and ours.

Why did God the Holy Spirit lead the beloved Son of God into a place of testing and deprivation? How is this experience of our Redeemer unique to Him? Why is Jesus' wilderness trial essential for us to understand correctly as we encounter our own temptations?

In Romans 12:1-2 we learn that our costly service to the Almighty helps us to understand the will of God better in our lives. We offer our bodies as “living sacrifices,” but God teaches us how to obey Him faithfully through such struggles, by showing us His “good and acceptable and perfect will.” Jesus' challenge was only for Him, but now God is also teaching us many valuable lessons through trials (James 1:2-5).

The Bible teaches us the truth about the spiritual warfare faced by Jesus and by us. We need to trust in Him and resist the devil in the strength of our Savior's victory over every evil enemy.

Two thoughts for us as we face various tests from our God's Fatherly discipline:

1. Declaring truth, living lovingkindness, and offering up God-dependent prayer are essentials and not a menu of choices. We need a balanced diet and so do others.

2. Far above our wins is the towering fact of Jesus' victory over evil. We rest on Him.

Sermon Point: Jesus' passage through a God-ordained period of testing is an essential foundation for our own victory over every evil.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 62 – God Alone

New Testament Reading—1 Peter 2:11-3:12 – The War Against Your Soul

John Meinen's Notes on Mark 1:9-11

Fire and Water

(Mark 1:9-11, Preaching: Rev. John Meinen, June 10, 2018)

[9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] 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. [11] And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

I. Our problem is we all have problems.

a. We have small problems and big problems.

b. We are looking for “messiahs” (little ‘m’) to fix our problems.

c. Evil and injustice is bad enough, but exile—feeling cut off from God, that he is remote, indifferent, impotent to do anything about it—that’s the worst, makes all the other suffering unbearable!

d. Isaiah 63:11, 64:1: “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the mist of them his Holy Spirit…? Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence!”

II. God has given us a Solution (His Son).

a. The heavens do open up!

b. The holy Spirit does come down!

c. And the “spotlight” is on God’s very own Son—the Messiah (big ‘M’) who is the ultimate answer to our ultimate problems.

d. Isaiah was looking for “fire” (judgment) against God’s enemies (cf. Isaiah 64).

e. Jesus bore that fire so his Holy Spirit “fire” can fall on us.

f. Jesus doesn't just bear the fire. He walks through it with us too!

III. Application/Conclusion

a. What “messiahs” are you looking to? Look to Jesus.

b. Listen to Jesus.

c. Be baptized unto Jesus. (He identifies with you, so you can identify with Him.)

Sermon Point: The one and only Messiah

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 61 – The Eternal King

New Testament Reading—1 Peter 2:1-10 – Christ our Cornerstone

Bad News and Gospel

The Beginning of the Gospel

(Mark 1:1-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 3, 2018)

[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

[3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] 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. [6] Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus Christ the Son of God

This morning we begin the first of about 90 sermons which will make up our ambling walk through Peter's way of telling the story of Jesus. Peter did not tell the story over 90 Sunday's but in one sitting. His interpreter, John Mark, committed Peter's message to writing and therefore we have what we call “Mark” or “The Gospel According to Mark.”

We start where we ought to—at the beginning. The first verse is amazing: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Peter, or Mark, did not waste any time in getting to His point. In fact, one of his favorite words is “immediately.” He gives us a very fast-paced, first-hand account of the most important Man in history.

This story that we begin today is a “gospel,” which is a word that means “good news.” When many of us were growing up in a Roman Catholic setting, if someone had asked us what the gospel was, we might have given the person a funny look, or asked them which one they were talking about, since there were four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Others here were brought up in little Protestant churches that knew about the gospels, but also used the word, “gospel.” often referring to an evangelistic presentation that we were supposed to speak to others with the hope that they would respond to it by asking Jesus to be their Savior. Both of these answers have some merit, but the most important thing about the good news is that it is about Jesus (Jehovah is salvation) who is the Christ (Anointed One or Messiah) and the Son of God (the King of Israel and the divine prophet, priest, and King of kings) who fulfills our Old Testament expectations of the Man who would come to save us from our sins and challenge all of us with holiness.

Malachi, Isaiah, and John the Baptist

The Jews were prepared for the coming of Jesus by the Old Testament Scriptures and particularly by the prophets. Mark quotes two of them in this opening passage, although He only names one, Isaiah. Both Isaiah and Malachi talked about an important forerunner of Jesus we call John the Baptist.

John, the son of Zechariah, was the “messenger” who came to “prepare the way of the Lord.” Like ancient servants of a great emperor who went before their king in order to make sure that obstacles in his path were removed prior to the arrival of their master, John was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” in order to “make His paths straight.” Don't miss this: John says here that Jesus is the Lord God Almighty.

John had an unusual method that seemed designed more to repel and to fail than to attract and succeed. Yet succeed He did! Decades later when Paul was traveling through modern-day Turkey, he met some people that were still trying to follow what they had learned from John. Therefore they only knew about John's baptism, and not about the Trinitarian baptism that we read that Jesus instituted at the end of Matthew's gospel.

John's baptism seemed to come out of nowhere. “John appeared.” He was ministering in the desert, and telling Jews that they needed a ceremonial washing that had once been reserved for sacrificial animals and ritually dirty Gentiles. To give this baptism to Jews was deeply humbling. He dressed and ate in a way that must have been odd, and his message to high and low was far from flattering, yet people all over Judea and from Jerusalem were coming out, not only to hear him, but to repent and to be baptized by him “for the forgiveness of sins.”

John, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit

All of this was interesting, but the most important part of John's message was His announcing of the imminent coming of the Gospel Man, Jesus. John insisted that, though everyone else, even King Herod, needed to repent, Jesus was “mightier” and more “worthy” by far than John or anyone else. How great was Jesus? John said about Jesus' sandal strap, “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie” it. John had “baptized” with water, but Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Peter's gospel, presented here through the pen of his companion Mark, is all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Lord of glory. Jesus, and even the man who prepared the way for Him, John the Baptist, were predicted by the Old Testament prophets. Now John's ministry had begun. John spoke of the Messiah and of the gift of the Holy Spirit that would be poured out on the church. The only way for anyone to prepare for such extravagant blessings was to admit that he was “not worthy” of them, and to repent, receiving the forgiveness of Almighty God.

John's ministry inextricably linked the bad news with the good news. How can we appreciate gospel without seeing the pit of human depravity and the way it touches each of us? This was true not only for dirty Gentiles, but also for ceremonially pure Jews. This was the offense of John the Baptist: He did not limit the bad news to Gentiles.

Applying John's message today means being honest about Christian sin, and being all the more appreciative for the good news of Jesus. Let's start today by realizing the tug of temptation. Children that grow up in the protection of a God-honoring home will soon discover that many others in the military, in college (Christian and secular), in the work world, will have a very lax view of what it means to be a faithful servant of the Lord. It will be tempting to downgrade obedience to match peers. But what is sin? (WSC 14) And what is repentance? (WSC 87) And what is sanctification? (WSC 35) And what of the gospel? We all need a bath, and a new beginning in the grace of Jesus and the Spirit.

Sermon Point: Jesus is worthy. In the light of His glory, repentance makes sense.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 60 – A Banner for all who fear the Lord

New Testament Reading—1 Peter 1 – The Good News that was preached to you