The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Mark, chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, and things are going to be switched up just a little bit this morning. We're going to get to where the bulletin says, but this morning we're going to slow down a little bit, just a tiny bit. We're going to look at Mark chapter 1 verses 7 through 13. Mark chapter 1 verses 7 through 13. Hear now God's word.

And he preached, this being John, saying, there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And immediately, coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Immediately, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan. and was with the wild beasts and angels ministered to him.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and the faithful testimony you have given us, a true testimony you have given us of your son. Please, may your Holy Spirit be active at this time. Father, give me wisdom and words that your people might be built up in their love for you in Jesus' name. Amen. I miss the old days. I miss the old days when if you got around someone with gray hair for the first time and you met them, think this is pre-iPhone days, what was the first thing that they would do?

Sermon

As you got to know them, they would pull out their billfold, inside their billfold, all of a sudden this huge accordion would stretch out, of all their kids and grandkids. And they would start showing you all the wallet-sized pictures of all their kids and grandkids, and they would tell you about little Johnny, and about Jane, and their daughter, and their son, and they would go through. Because they wanted to talk to you about the person who, or people who were important in their lives. Now people just pull out their iPhones, right, and they're like, you know, look at these kids. But they've got to swipe through the thousand other pictures there to find the ones that they want.

I want to introduce you this morning to someone who's the greatest person who's ever walked. I'd like to introduce you to my older brother, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we come to Matthew chapter one, verses seven through 13, this really is Mark's introduction to Jesus. And as we look at this, I want you to see that Jesus is the mighty one. I want to introduce you to the Jesus who is filled with the Spirit. I want to introduce you to the Jesus who identifies with his people. I want to introduce you to Jesus, the one who is beloved by the Father. And I want to introduce you to Jesus, the one who is victorious. So first, let me introduce you to the Mighty One. Look with me at verses 7 and 8.

And he preached, saying, There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. All right, John is the Elijah crying out in the wilderness wearing his camel's hair and his leather belt, but as he is there and all the people are flocking from Jerusalem and from Judea and they're coming to hear from him, he says, guys, I'm not the real show. There's one mightier than I, and he's coming.

See, I'm preaching to you a baptism of repentance, but he's the one who will come and he will baptize you with something better than water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. See, Jesus' baptism is different than John's baptism. John came and he's preaching a baptism of repentance, and by all means, Jesus, we're gonna find out next week, preaches repentance. But John is pointing out to a sign.

He's saying, I'm gonna wash you with water and it's gonna be as if you were really cleansed. But when we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, see, we're baptized into the one that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness. See, we're going to be baptized with better than physical water, but with the blood of Christ. washed pure snow, completely clean. I remember being raised in the church that didn't make any distinction between John's baptism and Jesus' baptism. And your baptism was always just your profession of faith.

And I would see people time and time again struggling. Have I repented enough? Did I really truly repent? Did I really receive the Holy Spirit? And so they would sit there and wonder all the time whether their baptism was real or not. So they would get re-baptized and re-baptized. I remember talking to a guy in college Here's one of my good friends, we used to go to ball games together in Pittsburgh, and I called him one time, he said, well, I got re-baptized. I said, why'd you get re-baptized?

You're already a Christian. He said, oh, I'm not sure I was really a Christian then. I thought, you're reading your Bible, you're praying, you're confessing your sins, you were in the church, you were doing all the signs, I'm not sure you understand what baptism is about.

See, when we get baptized into Jesus Christ, it's more than just repentance of sin, it's we're being united to Jesus Christ. We are being tied not to our faithfulness, not to our level of repentance, but to Jesus's obedience. Jesus's death and resurrection on the cross. Baptism is not primarily about our repentance, but about Jesus's death and Jesus's resurrection.

This is why in Acts chapter 19, Paul goes to Corinth and they've been baptized, but there's a guy from Ephesus there and he wasn't baptized in Jesus' name, he was baptized in John's. And he has to get baptized again, why? Because he hadn't been baptized into Christ. He hadn't been brought into his name. He hadn't been united to Jesus.

So my question for you this morning, have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Have you come to know Jesus? Have you received him? Are you resting upon him? Has he given you a heart of flesh? Has Jesus taken out your heart of stone? Children, this is why you were baptized. See, because God made this promise to his people, and Peter proclaimed it on the day of Pentecost. He said, this good news is for you and your children. That's why we bring children into this household of faith, into the covenant. We who were once not his people, now in Jesus Christ, we are made his people.

But each one of you kids, you're gonna have to decide for yourself. We hope that you will. You've got all the tools in your hands. We hope that you will receive and rest on Jesus alone. Something only the Holy Spirit can work in your hearts and so we pray for you that that would be true in your own life.

So I have to ask you, have you met that Jesus? Have you met the one who is mightier than John? The one who can do heart transplants? The one who can baptize you with the Holy Spirit? Secondly, I'd like to tell you a little bit more about Jesus. I'd like to introduce you into the one who identifies with his people.

Look with me at verse nine. It came to pass in those days that Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee came and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Jesus doesn't come. This is the first time we've, or the second time we've heard of Jesus' name. Verse one, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, now we're introduced to him in the story. And where does he come from? If you were expecting the Messiah to come at that time, you would think, oh, he's going to come from the centers of authority.

But he doesn't come from the temple. He doesn't walk out of the temple down to the Jordan River. No, he doesn't come from there. He doesn't walk out of the meeting house of the elders, out of the Sanhedrin and walk down to see John. No, he doesn't come from there. He doesn't even come from Jerusalem, where you would have the city of David, where the kings would have lived. No, he doesn't come from there. He comes from nowhere. Not a literal place, but he comes from, can anything good come out of Galilee? Jesus isn't born to a high and lofty family, but he's born to poor, blue-collared, calluses on your hands, go to bed tired every night family. Jesus came into the world poor and identifies with his people. He travels from the north down the valleys into the Jordan Valley to go and meet John, and there something happens. Jesus comes and he's baptized by John.

Well, why would Jesus need baptized? Jesus is sinless. This is exactly what the book of Hebrew tells us, right? He's our high priest, he's able to sympathize with us in every way because he's been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Why would Jesus need baptized? If 2 Corinthians 5 is true, that he made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God, how can it be that Jesus knows no sin and yet is baptized? What's going on here? Jesus is identifying with you. Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness. Jesus is saying, I don't need to be cleansed from sin, but I will fully identify with my people. This is part of Jesus's humiliation.

See, you know what it's like to watch television or see a little video clip of politicians trying to identify with people, right? Have you ever seen this before? Some Ivy League person who wants to run for office and all of a sudden you see a video clip or a picture of them and they're wearing very nicely pressed clothes and they're standing in a factory.

And you're like, I know you've never turned a wrench the day of your life. What are you doing, man? You're not a working class person. Don't portray yourself to be a working class leader, right? And this is what Jesus is not. Jesus is not posing here. This is not a photo op.

Is not Jesus saying somehow, oh, I'm not like any of you. No, Jesus humbled himself into the form of a man, even of the poorest of families, and would even be willing to be baptized to identify with his people. Do you believe that type of Jesus? Do you believe in the Jesus who identifies with you? who knows your struggles, who knows your weaknesses, who knows what it's like to suffer. That's a Jesus that Mark wants us to know. But he's not just the mighty one, he's not just the one who identifies with his people, but Jesus is also the one who is filled with the Spirit.

Look at me at verse 10. And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove." This was a fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah chapter 64, the prophecy, one of the very last words of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 64, verse 1. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence. And there, as Jesus comes up out of the water, the translation here is a little bit weak. The idea is ripped open. He sees the heavens ripped open. And the Spirit descends upon him as a dove.

See, Jesus does not come with his own authority, but he comes filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes not with his own power, not to do his own will, but he comes with the Spirit. Jesus is anointed by God himself for his ministry here. In Luke chapter four, verse 18, Jesus goes into the synagogue, he opens up the scroll of Isaiah, and he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. And as he reads from that great book of Isaiah, he says, these words have been fulfilled in your hearing. The Spirit is upon Jesus.

And Jesus teaches with the authority of the Holy Spirit. Next time this word is used here, schizomenos, being ripped open, ripped apart. It's only used two times in the book of Mark. As Jesus sees the heavens and they're ripped open, the next time that will happen in the book of Mark, is in chapter 15, when Jesus dies upon the cross and the veil is ripped open by God.

See, the Holy Spirit works in Jesus's life and through his ministry to accomplish his will of reconciling sinners to himself, that we might have access to God. Do you believe in that anointed Jesus? Do you believe in the Jesus who's filled with the Holy Spirit? Fourthly, Jesus, I'd like to introduce you to the Jesus who is the one beloved of the Father.

Look with me at verse 11. And a voice was of heaven. You are my son, beloved. In you, I am well pleased. Notice who's talking to whom here. The father speaks directly to the son. I love this. You are my beloved son. Jesus knew this, but here the Father is declaring it upon Him. This is a fulfillment again of what we just sang. You sang it yourself in Psalm 2. When God says to His Son, let's go ahead and just look there, Psalm 2 verse 7, it says, This is one of the, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 are some of the most famous verses for Jesus' messianic fulfillment. In Psalm 2, verse 7, it says, I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me, you are my son. God declares this of Jesus Christ.

This is the messianic king. I want to introduce you as we continue to go through the book of Mark of Jesus, who is the beloved of the Father. He is the King that the Father has promised. He's a descendant of David. He's the inheritor of the promise of 2 Samuel 7, that someone would come after David of his own line, that he would receive a throne and sit on that throne for eternity.

That's the Jesus Mark is telling us of. But will this end like David? Right, we're just at the beginning of the book of Mark. Is it gonna happen just like David did? You know, he starts out good, he's a man after God's own heart, and by the time you get to David's life, you're like, dude, what? Where did things go wrong, man? Is this gonna be like Adam? Is it gonna be like Noah? Is it gonna just fail? No. No, it's not gonna happen again.

My beloved and whom I love and will please says that the father's full joy is in Jesus. That there is full delight in his son. That there is perpetual and eternal smile of God, of approval of Jesus. You know, there's only one time in the Bible when we have to wrestle with any type of discord that seems like it happens between the Father and the Son. Do you know when that is? It's when Jesus takes our place on the cross and God's full wrath that we deserve is being poured out on Jesus that he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the only time that it seems as if the Father's face turns dark towards the Son. But it's not because of the Son inherently, it's because the Son is taking our place.

That's the Jesus that Mark wants to introduce us to. The Jesus that is beloved of the Father. That the Father speaks directly to the Son and He says, you are mine and I am pleased in you. Jesus didn't become the beloved son. Jesus is the beloved son. Always has been and always will be. Theologians would say this is part of his ontology, right? Jesus' being is sonship as a second person of the Godhead. He is the beloved son. Do you believe in that, Jesus? Do you believe in the Jesus who is the beloved son of the father? Do you rejoice in him like the father rejoices in him? Is he your joy and salvation?

Lastly, I want to introduce you to Jesus the victorious one. Jesus the one who is victorious.

Look with me at verses 12 and 13. Immediately, so the spirit drove him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts. And the angels ministered to him. Man, what a turn of events, right? You expect he's filled with, or the Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he gets this wonderful declaration from the Father, and you expect him to go straight up to Jerusalem and claim his kingship. And instead, the Spirit's got different plans for him.

No, you're gonna go even deeper into the desert. You're gonna go into the arid places where there's scorpions and jackals. The Spirit drives him out there to be tested. And it's at this point that we have to rely on Matthew and Mark's accounts of what happened here, because Jesus, as he is hungry in the desert for 40 days, is tempted.

He's tempted in his humanity, as Satan tells him, why don't you turn that rock into some bread? And Jesus stands face-to-face, toe-to-toe with our adversary, the devil, and says, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

But then Satan tries to tempt him with his identity. He says, if you are the son of God, you bogus Satan, God's just said he was his son, and yet now Satan says, if you are the son of God, don't you find that in your life sometimes? You know your identity as God's beloved, and yet your heart accuses you at times, doesn't it? You know your reality of being a redeemed child of Jesus Christ, and yet you find Satan whispering in your ears at times, do you not? Do you really believe enough This is what Satan does with Jesus.

Why don't you throw yourself down from the top of the temple? Right, if you're really the son of God, angels will carry you up. The Psalms say that your foot shall not graze upon a stone. And Jesus just calls him out, just calls his bluff. Hold on here, buddy. Don't put the Lord, your God, to the test. I don't need a test that I am the beloved son of God. I know that I am the beloved son.

Jesus stands and then Satan comes to him with his last temptation. He takes him up to the highest mountain, probably Mount Hermon. He shows him all the air and he says, I'll give you all of it, all the kingdoms of the world, if you'll just bow down to me.

Now imagine this, you haven't had anything to eat for 40 days. You know what happens to your body after 40 days of not eating? Nails are brittle. Your bowels don't work correctly. Hair thinning. Color draining. Muscles weak. Heart possibly spasming. And Satan says, it'll be all done. Just one thing. Just bow your knee to me and it'll all be over. You don't have to do the cross. You don't have to do the suffering. None of it. I'll just give you the whole world. No. You worship the Lord and serve him only.

Jesus proves the test that Adam failed. Where Adam broke the covenant of works, where Adam failed to obey God, Jesus obeys. Where Noah failed after the flood, Jesus fulfilled. Where David failed to keep the commandments of God, Jesus stands toe-to-toe with Satan himself and wins. When Jesus comes, he conquers Satan. When Jesus comes face-to-face with temptation, he is victorious over it. Jesus is our anointed King and is victorious in that same desert where the Israelites failed. Where they made the golden calves, Jesus refused to bow down.

Where they wanted food for their bellies and complained against God, Jesus was content with God's word. When they wanted to be just like all the other nations around them, Jesus was content with his Father's glory. It is Jesus who fills what we fail.

We fail. We do it all the time. How often will you forsake breakfast for your Bible? Or is it more often that you forsake your Bible because you're hungry for breakfast? We fail looking at our present circumstances rather than eternal realities, but Jesus never did. We fail, settling for a lesser kingdom. The deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this life, having the nice home, the bigger car, the better retirement, the picture perfect life is what we often seek and desire.

But God's plans are far more marvelous than that. Jesus had an eye towards his father's glory. where we fail, Jesus fulfilled. Jesus is victorious. Jesus is a mighty one. Jesus is the one who identifies with his people. Jesus is the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the beloved one of our Father in heaven. And it is Jesus who is the victorious one. It's a simple sermon. It's a simple question. Do you believe that Jesus? Would you follow that Jesus? Will you learn of that Jesus? Will you receive and rest on Jesus as he is offered to you in the gospel?

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, thank you for sending your beloved son. Lord, we believe. Please help us in our disbelief. Father, I pray for these members of your church, that if there are any here who do not know you, that your Holy Spirit would take the scales from their eyes that they might behold your glory, that they might see Jesus and desire to know you. Father, would you do a work of your Holy Spirit in our lives and in our hearts and in the midst of this congregation as we go through this wonderful gospel of Mark. Lord, we thank you. And we leave our souls in your hands.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.