Royalty, Fanfare, and Fulfillment

Well, the name of my sermon today, as we open up the Gospel of Mark for the very first time, is

Royalty, Fanfare, and Fulfillment.

And the summary of this passage, verses 1 through 11 of chapter 1, is that there is a royal arrival that is happening in these verses that is announced with fanfare and fulfillment.

Now, in our culture, we are fast approaching a day of inauguration, a day when we will have a new president in our country.

And I did a little digging this week just to figure out, you know, what's that like?

What's going on in D .C. right now? And kind of looked around the internet on how

I would get tickets or even looked at some lodging, you know, and it's evaporating really quickly there.

And what I found is that attending this event is a bigger deal than just what

I've experienced watching it on TV. And if you want to go and be a part of this, man, you're running out of time.

There's a lot of planning, a lot of money that's going to go into being there. And then even in my searching, just looking at some of these tech companies and automotive companies that are donating millions, millions of dollars to the events and the preparation,

I don't even want to think about how much money is being spent on the inauguration. But here's the deal, it is a big deal, right?

That's what I found. As we open the book of Mark today and read his gospel, there's a royal announcement.

A king has arrived. He's not just any king. He is the king of the universe.

He is the God of creation. He is the God who destroys the world with a flood, saving only

Noah and his family. He is the God who brought plagues to Egypt and split the

Red Sea for his people. He is the God who brought down the walls of Jericho. He's the God who answered

Elijah on Mount Carmel with fire from heaven. He's the

God that Isaiah saw in a vision, in his holiness, in his temple. And he says, woe is me,

I am undone. I'm like a man who's about to die. These are my final thoughts, my final breath.

Woe is me. He is the God who delivered his people from captivity in Babylon.

This king, this king has arrived. That's what Mark is telling us today, and he is a big deal, right?

So whenever we look into a new passage of Scripture, we often look at the background.

And I want to take some time here this morning as I'm kind of getting things arranged, because I was just too excited to get into this.

I want to look at some of those background things before we start to get into this, even the first verse.

When we look at the background, we look at the things like the author and influences to that author and who it was written to.

So really quick, who is Mark? Who is this guy Mark? Well, he's not one of the 12 disciples, but he is a figure who is within Scripture.

Often you're more familiar with his name as John Mark, who traveled with Paul. John Mark who had an issue with Paul, and Paul and John Mark split ways in Acts 12.

And later we find out that his relationship to Paul was restored in 2

Timothy 4. John Mark appears to also have a strong relationship in the

Scriptures with Peter. And if we look at 1 Peter, Peter calls John Mark, my son, okay?

Interesting. That's in 1 Peter 5, 13. And perhaps the connection, and I'm just going to speculate a little bit, but just given those things that we've heard here, perhaps their connection,

Peter and John Mark was strengthened after the conflict with Paul. Because Peter too had experienced relational conflict with Jesus and had to be restored.

And so I wonder, I wonder if Peter was instrumental in helping these two, John Mark and Paul, restore their relationship.

It's just speculation here, but interesting. The early church actually met in the home of John Mark's mother,

Mary, in Jerusalem in Acts 12 .12. There it says, and when he realized, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called

Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. Let's talk about this relationship with Peter, because many historians and Bible commentators point to the gospel of Mark as being

Peter's account of the life of Jesus. Now a sign of this would be a greater usage of Aramaic words in the gospel of Mark.

Phrases that are usually attributed to Peter and his language, how he speaks in the other gospels.

And it's interesting that it seems to be written to a Roman audience. The gospel of Mark describes

Jesus as God's servant, and for Roman people, a servant isn't someone who you worry about their pedigree or who their mom and dad was.

So interesting, in Mark, we don't have a genealogy of Jesus. We just, we seem to skip that.

We also don't have an account of his birth. Mark's gospel also uses more

Latin words than any of the other gospels. Words like census, sectarius, praetorium.

These are words that Roman people would identify with and understand. And then interesting along with that, that the

Bible translators go to, when they go to people who've never had the scriptures in their own language, usually they begin by translating the book of Mark.

Why? Because it's short. And the second thing is it's written to a people who are unfamiliar with Judaism.

So it tends to communicate better to them. Now, just like I shared a little bit of speculation before, here's one little tidbit that I don't know if it's true, but it's interesting.

We'll have to talk about it later when we get to it in Mark. There may be a mention of Mark within his gospel.

In Mark 14, 51 to 52, there is a young man who is following Jesus, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body.

Now, why he would include himself, maybe that's why he didn't put his name to it, okay? And they seized him, it says, but he pulled free of them, and the linen sheet was...

He pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked, okay? So it could be, as a youth, perhaps

Mark was a part of this larger group that followed Jesus. Let's now turn to Mark chapter one, verse one, and read the first verse.

Mark, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, okay?

Now, in this first verse, Mark is laying out his purpose. He wants to tell us who

Jesus was and what he came to accomplish. He is establishing here the authority of Jesus and distinguishing him from false messiahs.

Did you know that there were people who came before and after Christ who claimed to be the

Messiah? Like Dosythius, the Samaritan. Every time I look at his name, I think

Doritos, the Samaritan, but it's Dosythius, the Samaritan. He lived in the mid -first century. He attempted to persuade the

Samaritans that he was the Jewish Messiah prophesied by Moses, and we know about this through the writings of Origen.

Or Thaddeus, mentioned by Gamaliel in Acts 5, 36, where he says, for before these days

Thaddeus rose up claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

Josephus also talks about Thaddeus and describes him as a leader who urged the

Jews to reject Roman rule and paid no tribute to Rome. He is believed to have a false prophet as his sidekick named

Saddup, who likely presented himself as Elijah, the prophet expected to precede the

Messiah. And then, I'm sorry, I skipped in my notes.

I was speaking there of the next false Messiah who came, who was Judah the

Galilean, who Gamaliel also says, after him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him.

He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So both, my point here is that this was not uncommon in Mark's time.

People were rising up saying, I am the Messiah. And Mark is telling us, no, it's Jesus. And he uses the word

Christos in Greek, which means Messiah. He is the one.

He uses three other words in this opening phrase. There's no verb here. One is beginning, beginning, the beginning of the gospel.

It's interesting, is this a title? That's what I asked because Genesis, many of you started reading the

Bible this year together. We started in Genesis, now we're in Job. But that very first word of the

Bible, beginnings, bereshit, it is the title of Genesis, beginnings. And so we see

Mark's using the same word, beginning, the beginning. Is perhaps this first section that we're reading here, verses 1 through 15, which will take us three weeks, is the prologue.

And what is it the prologue to? I believe it could be the prologue to Jesus beginning his public ministry.

And if Peter is actually the one who's influencing, who is writing, his tale is being written here, it's very consistent with what we see, with what

Peter says when he presents the gospel to Cornelius in Acts 10. I know this seems dry to some of you, but this is fascinating to me.

In Acts 10, he says to Cornelius, as for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, because he's

Lord of all, you yourselves know what hope, what happened throughout all

Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John proclaimed. And we're gonna see John's baptism right here.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, he went about doing and healing all who are oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

So that's how Peter begins the gospel to Cornelius.

And now we see Mark beginning his gospel in the same way. That gospel is the second word that we see that I think we should talk about.

It's that word euangelion, which means good news. And what

I love about gospel here is that he's not just saying, this is my gospel right here.

You have to turn to it and get to the gospel. The gospel goes from cover to cover, right?

But here it comes into sharper focus, right? We can see it. In the

Old Testament, it seemed to be mysterious and shadowy, and it's talking about something that we really don't know about.

We get to know what it's about in the book of Mark. But Mark goes backwards in the next couple of verses to talk about, to begin with the prophets of old.

And then last, I wanna focus on the Son of God. He calls him the Son of God. Now, you could say that we're all sons of God because we've been created by God.

But this Son of God is also uniquely God's Son, begotten of the

Father and eternally God, not created. He is a member of the

Trinity. And we'll hear the divine confirmation of sonship at Jesus' baptism today.

However, this is Mark's way of referring to God, to Christ's divinity. Jesus himself, through the rest of Mark, will call himself by a different name.

He'll call himself the Son of Man. Let's look at verse 2, right?

And this is, here begins the fulfillment of prophecy, how Mark is saying, he is the

Christos, and this is why. Verse 2, and as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold,

I send my messenger, that word is agelon, which means angel, before your face, who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

Now, this quotation here actually brings a composite prophetic theme together from various Old Testament passages.

He attributes it to Isaiah, but it actually comes in fragments from Exodus 2320, the book of Malachi, especially

Malachi 3 .1, Malachi 1 .3, and Isaiah 43. All of these passages are promises that before the

Messiah would arrive, his messenger would come. Let's break those down real quick.

Exodus 2320, God says, behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

Again, in the Greek, agelon is an angel, right, who is meant in this passage in Exodus to prepare to guide and to lead and instruct

God's people in the wilderness as they head towards their promised destination.

When we look at Isaiah 40, verse 3, we hear this, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Now, you'll realize that that one seems closest to what

Mark is quoting, but it's not exact. But in that passage, it points to the wilderness, it points the people to look for the messenger here.

Actually, the Essenes, a group of religious people during this time actually went into the desert, they separated from society, and the reason why was they wanted to be ready to meet this messenger, right?

And then if we look at Malachi 3 .1, Malachi, one of my favorite books in the Old Testament, outside of Isaiah, behold,

I send my messenger in Malachi 3 .1, and he will prepare the way before me, and the

Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the

Lord of hosts. Malachi is describing the messenger as Elijah the prophet in Malachi 4 .5,

and he says about him in Malachi 3 .2 that he is a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap.

So he's describing the kind of messenger that would be a fiery prophet who would reform the people and call them to repentance.

And this would actually be the first significant prophetic voice that Israel had heard in over 400 years, outside of the exception of Anna and Simeon at Jesus' birth.

Now, Mark uses the term Christos, meaning Messiah, from verse 1, and we can see how this quotation being attributed to Isaiah points to the promised figure that we find in Isaiah in the

Old Testament, especially in Isaiah 53 when Isaiah talks about the suffering servant.

This promised one is described as a Savior who is humble, who suffers in a substitutionary role, meaning he's going to redeem and liberate captives through his sacrifice.

Mark then introduces us to his messenger. Who is this voice calling out in the wilderness?

It is John the Baptist, and he is the one who's going to introduce us to the main character of the gospel, which is

Jesus. So let's move on to verses 4 through 8, which now we see

John being the voice in the wilderness. It says, John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, 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. Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locust and wild honey.

I want to stop right there because of just the detail that we are given there. What does that mean?

And there is huge meaning here. So if we remember what

Malachi said, that he's going to come as one like Elijah in 2

Kings 1 .7, we find this passage. Someone asks, what kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?

And they answered him, a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.

And his reply was, it is Elijah the Tishbite. He's wearing the same clothes that Elijah in the

Old Testament is wearing. Don't miss that. And what of the locust and the wild honey?

Well, I looked at a lot of different commentators to try and figure that. Here's the best one that I found.

I believe that these two things point to Old Testament judgment and promise.

First referring to locusts spoken about in the prophet Joel. And also, if you go all the way back to the plagues of Egypt, we see that God sends locusts upon His enemies.

It's a picture of judgment. What's curious is that locusts were not included among those things that the

Jewish people were allowed to eat. It was unclean. And yet, John comes eating that. Why? Why?

And then I thought, well, Ezekiel had the same problem, right, when God told him to cook his food over human excrement, and he said, oh, please,

God, please, that will make me so unclean. I've never done that. And God says, okay, you can use animal dung to cook your food.

Why? Why did He require him to do that? Because it's a picture of a people under siege, right?

God was making Ezekiel a picture of judgment that was coming. And again, we see

John eating locusts, it's a picture of judgment that's coming. We'll hear his words later, which are harsh, a fuller soap, fire.

What about the honey? Well, wild honey points to the promise associated with the promised land, that this one who's coming, bringing judgment, but also the promise of blessing.

Verse 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. In Matthew, it says, I can't even hold his sandals,

I can't even touch his sandals. Now what's significant about this?

In Mark's day, rabbis taught that a teacher could ask anything of his followers except for this, except to make them take off his sandals.

This was considered to be too much. This was over the line, but John says,

I'm not even worthy to do that, what is usually not asked for.

We find in the Babylonian Talmud, it says, all services which a slave does for his master, a pupil should do for his teacher, with the exception of undoing his shoes.

And then verse 8, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit. John is announcing the arrival of someone who is greater than a prophet, greater than him as this new prophet who is appearing.

In fact, I believe that he is addressing actually some of their misthinking and saying, I'm not the one,

I'm not the Messiah. There's one who's coming who's greater than me, and he is going to bring an immersion in the

Holy Spirit that is gonna be greater than what I'm doing with water. Baptism was already a part of the

Jewish community, but it was the form, it came in the form of a ceremonial immersions, but they typically only happened among Gentiles who wished to become

Jews at this point. Jews, for the Jew to submit to John's baptism, this baptism of repentance, was essentially to say,

I confess that I am as far away from God as a Gentile, and I need to get right with Him.

Now that, that's the work of the Holy Spirit, to change hearts, right?

This was so unique, what John was doing in baptizing people at the river and calling them to repentance, calling

Jewish people to repentance, was so unique that they began to call him the baptizer. Verses 9 through 11, and that'll complete our passage for today.

What we see in these last three verses is Jesus' identity and His purpose is revealed as He arrives and is baptized.

Verse 9, 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, okay, now take note of this word immediately because it's used 42 times in the book of John, right?

And it is significant because it highlights the fast -paced nature of this gospel and it underscores the urgency and immediacy of Jesus' actions and teachings.

Immediately, you're going to see it over and over again. In fact, it would be fun, if you wanted to, just underline this one and continue underlining throughout the book of Mark.

Immediately, He, John, saw the heavens being torn open and the

Spirit descending on Him, Jesus, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you,

Jesus, are my beloved Son. With you, I am pleased. So what we find here in these first 11 verses is that both

John and Jesus are announced or identified by God. John, through the prophet

Isaiah and through Mark, Jesus, through His prophesied messenger,

Mark, or John, and the observable presence of the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, God's own proclamation from the heavens, and notice here, notice here that the triune

God is expressed right here in the same place, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Father declaring the Son, well -pleasing, the Holy Spirit descending

His presence there above Jesus, and then Jesus being obedient to His Father. God's plan, this is

God's plan, to send John as the final herald of the

King's return, and now Jesus appears, He fulfills God's plan by submitting to John's baptism, and by baptizing

Him, John is declaring to all that here is the one, this is the guy that you've been waiting for, this is the one that the prophets have spoke about.

You've been longing for Him, and here He is. He is the Son of God, the one who

I said would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Also, Jesus here is confirming

John's ministry, approving of John's baptism, and bearing witness to it that this was from heaven and approved by God.

So, let's talk a little bit about baptism, because the bulk of this passage really is about baptism, and last week we got to see a picture of baptism, right?

Three people here who were baptized, and what does that mean?

Well, baptism for these Jewish believers was called the mikvah bath, and it originates in Leviticus 11, 36, and it was for a ceremonial cleansing of people and of things, utensils, that had become unclean, so that one could enter or use those things in worship.

They could join with God's people in worship after coming in contact with something that made them unclean.

Not everything that was unclean was sinful, okay? For example, a woman's menstrual cycle, after she experienced that, she would need to bathe herself in the mikvah bath, or if you buried your parents and had to touch a corpse, right?

This is not a sinful thing. It's a part of life, and yet it separates us from God, and so they would go through the mikvah waters to cleanse themselves.

During John's time, like I said, it was mostly used for converts to Judaism, symbolizing their new dedication, a new beginning of faith, a sort of rebirth.

John's baptism was a baptism of water and repentance. So again, like I said, for the

Jewish people, it was unique, it was different. But now Jesus comes, and He baptizes with what

John calls fire and the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But why does Jesus get baptized?

When I read this, I was like, why is He getting baptized? What sin does

Jesus need to repent? Why is He in line with all these sinners, right? And can you imagine that, as He joins the line, waiting to be baptized?

Just that whole thing, if you just think about it, and John's sitting there receiving people, they're confessing their sins,

He's baptizing them. And then He looks up, and Jesus is there, and He goes, oh, oh, why are you here?

In fact, He says, why are we doing this? You should be baptizing me.

We'll look at that later. But let's look at that now, because that's what

Matthew's response is. Matthew records this little awkward moment that Jesus and John have in Matthew 3 .14.

It's kind of esoteric, and it's kind of vague, the response that Jesus gets, but let's just get to it. John says to Jesus, I need to be baptized by You, but You're coming to me?

And Jesus says to him, and this is the vague kind of, what is He talking about? He says, let it be so, for it is fitting in this way for us to fulfill all righteousness.

What does it mean for Christ, and He says us, so it's

John and Christ, John and Jesus, to fulfill all righteousness?

One, I believe that this means that Jesus is being obedient to the plan of God, which has already been laid out, which

Jesus is already aware of, and what it's going to do, what this plan of God is going to do is it's going to provide righteousness apart from the law.

We see that in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the

Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, for God has done what the law weakened by our flesh could not do, by sending

His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.

He sent Him for that purpose, and in Him He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the

Spirit, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So what that's saying is that Jesus does not abolish,

He does not come to abolish the law that stands condemning us to death. He doesn't. He doesn't take it away.

He doesn't smash it and destroy it. Instead He fulfills it. He fulfills the righteous requirements of the law with His own righteous life that assumes our just penalty, and now the righteous requirement of the law through Christ is fulfilled in us.

It's fulfilled in you. It's fulfilled in me. Or we can look at what

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 12. This is the plan of God. This is why Jesus is there. This is what

He's trying to do. It says, for our sake He, God, made Him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus, in this baptism moment, is saying, my life and my purpose is to grant righteousness to all who would come to me and exchange their sin for righteousness.

Sinclair Ferguson says this, and I want you to hear this because this is beautiful. It's not

Scripture, but when I read it for the first time, I said, whoa, and I had to read it again.

He says this, here already, Jesus indicates how

He will become our Savior by standing in the river in whose waters penitent

Jews had symbolically washed away their sins, and He allowed that water, polluted by those sins, to be poured over His perfect being.

Jesus here is becoming a picture of redemption. He is taking our sin upon Himself.

It is a picture, an early picture of the cross. Now, the baptism of John that Jesus submits to points forward to His death, burial, and resurrection, and where that comes in most clearly for me is if I move forward in Mark to Mark chapter 10,

He's having a discussion with His disciples, and a couple of them are thinking a lot of themselves, and they come to Jesus and they say, and Jesus says, hey, what do you want me to do for you?

Because He can tell they want something. And they said to Him, grant us to sit on Your right hand and on Your left in glory.

And Jesus said to them, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which

I am baptized? Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized?

And they said to Him, and it's very clear they did not know what He was talking about.

We are able, absolutely, sign us up. And Jesus says to them, okay, the cup that I drink, you will drink.

And with the baptism with I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

Jesus clearly is not talking about this moment with John. Jesus is talking about His death.

He's talking about the cup that He must drink. So if you ever thought that it was strange that Jesus was baptized, you are correct in that thinking.

That's a good thing to be sensitive to, because something else is going on here.

This baptism that Jesus participates in is very unique.

Some say that we today are baptized to follow the example of the one that He set for us.

It seems that the disciples in Mark 10 will do that, but I don't think that that's why we are baptized, not to follow in a death like His.

Jesus never had to repent. They did, and we must. And His baptism points forward to His substitutionary death for our sin, but our baptism merely identifies with His death.

So we have to understand that Jesus' baptism is different. I baptized a lot of people, and at no time have the heavens opened and a dove descended and a voice cried out from heaven, this is my

Son in whom I'm well pleased. That in itself shows us the difference. But what does it mean that Jesus is going to come and He's going to baptize us with fire and the

Holy Spirit? Let me read what Matthew says that John preaches here, because it includes the word fire, where Mark only just says the

Holy Spirit. Matthew 3, 9 -12, So this fire that John is talking about here is not some cozy fire that we will desire to cuddle up next to in the next couple of days as it gets bitterly cold, especially on those days where work or school has been canceled and we just really have enough time to catch up with a nice book that we've been neglecting.

No, this fire is different. This fire is terrifying.

In the Bible, fire is often a symbol of God's holiness. Remember in Pentecost, as the

Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles, there are flames of fire that appear above their heads.

We also know that from various Deuteronomy, and it's mentioned in Hebrews chapter 12, that our

God is a consuming fire, right? So He's going to baptize with fire.

And we still use that phrase now when we talk about a baptism of fire, right? Usually we're referring to a rookie quarterback who's probably encountering the best defense in the league, right?

Or a naive couple who are getting married, and you kind of look at them and you go, whoo, it's going to be a baptism of fire right there, because you notice they're both kind of stubborn, they're kind of both independent, and it's like, whoo, that's going to be rough.

Or maybe new parents, right, and they have a colicky baby, and it's like, whoo, for your first one, boy, it's breaking you in right here.

And what do we mean by that baptism of fire? It means, when we say that, that the fire of inexperience in this cauldron that you're in is either going to do one of two things.

It will transform you, or it will consume you. It will make you better, or it will destroy you.

It can be a purifying fire, or it can be an unquenchable fire. It is the fire that divides the wheat from the chaff.

That's what John is saying here. It is gathering up people, or it is burning them up.

John is saying that the Abrahamic tree, this nation of Israel, is about to be consumed by the fires of God's wrath, and for those who believe in Christ, for those who believe in Him, Christ will actually drink the cup of God's wrath against Him.

That fire, He is going to drink it down, and He will give His Holy Spirit. I thought about it this way.

It's kind of like a controlled burn, right? You set the fire ahead of the fire that's coming so that it burns the ground, and then the new fire that comes doesn't find anything to burn up.

Christ, in the same way, sacrifices Himself with those flames so that the judgment will pass over those to whom

He shows mercy. But it's not just fire, right? It's not just judgment or this winnowing.

The Son of God has the power to dispense or give the Holy Spirit greater than any prophet.

It says He's going to baptize in the Holy Spirit. The sign and the seal that's given, it's a promise, it's a down payment of redemption.

In Ephesians, we find that in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, in Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, you were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance. It's how we can know that we have been redeemed.

Daniel and I have been meeting together, and we've been talking about what are the signs?

How do we know that someone has actually been redeemed? Are there signs of regeneration that we can find in that person's life?

Well, I would say that this is a great sign for that. Is the

Holy Spirit there? Is the Holy Spirit present in that person's life? Paul in Romans 8 says, anyone who does not have the

Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. That's very clear. You can't say it any more clear.

No spirit, no life, no salvation. This is how

I know that the baptism of the Spirit is separate from salvation.

It's because in Ephesians, it's not separate. Let me be clear.

This is how we know that the baptism of the Spirit, this baptism that Jesus is able to baptize us in is different, is not different, or not separate from our salvation.

Because it says in Ephesians, when did it happen? It happened when you heard the Word and believed.

At that moment, you were sealed, you were indwelt, you were given the Holy Spirit. Paul continues in Romans to say, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the

Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised

Christ from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

And for me, that becomes a thing that I go, well, that's what

I need to look for. Because some people, they come to Christ and they may struggle. They may struggle for a time, not because they're not made new in Christ, they are.

But they've been living in a way that has been opposed to Christ. And some of those habits are hard to overcome, they're hard to break.

But if the Spirit is within you, if the Spirit is within you, then what 1

John says about that we should look for, the signs that we should look for, that's what I look for, right?

Does this person love God? And how does he love God? Not just saying, yeah,

I love Jesus, but when he sins, he's broken. When he sins, he runs back to the

Father, please forgive me. I don't want to be this way. You have not made me this way.

He loves God's commandments. This is how, 1 John says, this is how you will know that you have eternal life.

You love God's commandments. They're not just suggestions to you, they're actually things that you find life in and that you want, you're striving to make a part of your life.

He says that you begin to love the people of God. And not just like, yeah,

I like the people at church, but no, you want to spend time with the people at church. These are the people that you want to surround yourself with.

You're not pursuing other relationships that are running away from God, you're joining with those who are running to God.

And then the last thing that 1 John says is that these people who have been redeemed, they don't love the world.

Their affections for the things in the world, the things they used to pursue, the things they used to love, those things are passing away and they're finding a deeper and deeper love for Christ.

The Holy Spirit that Jesus baptizes with is an indwelling source of life. He gives life.

The Spirit is life because of righteousness. So why are we baptized with water, okay?

Why don't we just get baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, right, because that seems to be more significant.

It seems to be better, right? Well it's a both end, okay? Baptism is a sacrament of the church, something that we follow.

John Calvin defines sacrament as an earthly sign associated with a promise from God.

But when we think about the sacraments, we need to distinguish between the sign and the thing that it signifies, okay?

So what is signified in baptism? Well, symbolically, what these three people experienced last week was union with Christ.

It was the forgiveness of sins. It was regeneration. It was adoption. It was new life and resurrection.

This is what it signified, right? But what is the sign? The sign is being immersed in water for the purpose of washing, right?

But it's not just washing that we do by ourselves. That was the Jewish way. They would walk up to a bath and they would have steps.

They would step into it. They would immerse themselves. They would come back out. But we don't do that.

The washing that we experienced through baptism is administered by another. And the difference between this baptism that John is giving and the one that happened here on Sunday morning was that now we are commanded to baptize in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He's administered through the power of another who can bring righteousness.

Not through my name, not through Josh's name, but the name of the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Spirit. The name of the one who has fulfilled all righteousness for us. Baptism is not a means of salvation.

I want you to hear that and let it be clear. It is a sign, right? It is a witness.

It is a testimony. But it is a means of grace. And Josh said that last week. And he said, baptism is a means of grace.

What does Josh mean when he says baptism is a means of grace? In this case, it's a way in which

God provides spiritual blessing to the believer. Okay? So as we identify with the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are experiencing...

The person who's being baptized is experiencing spiritual blessing. We also, as we observe it, as witnesses, we are also being reminded of that spiritual blessing.

I'll take you to Philippians chapter 3, verse 7. And I think that these words by Paul, if you think about them in the context of baptism, you'll understand what

I'm saying here as a means of grace. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians 3, verse 7.

But listen to what Paul says here. But whatever gain

I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

Christ and to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know

Him and the power of His resurrection, that I may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. I'm getting kind of snotty -nosed up here as I read that, because isn't that beautiful?

I mean, think about that. Think about that statement and what is being said there. I am entering these waters to identify with the one who died for me, and it means more than anything in the world, and now my whole heart is to follow and seek

Him. Paul, see, he desired to conform his life to Christ in every way.

It is very similar to the grace that we experience in communion.

We'll take it in a moment as we remember Christ's sacrifice, right? We consume the elements, and though they are small and they don't satisfy us physically, they satisfy us spiritually.

They nourish our hearts to follow Christ afresh.

So from Christ's baptism, from identifying with His death, burial, and resurrection, we do understand that there is an aspect in baptism of death, of burial, death to our unbelief, death to our self -sufficiency, death to all the things that we've hoped in, all the things that we have desired, but for us it's a death and a burial that results in a resurrection into a new and eternal life.

It is a witness of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. So let me wrap us up today with some things that we can take away from this, and I've got about four minutes to do that.

So how can we respond to this beginning of the gospel of Mark? Well as we read this familiar story, okay, and many of you have read this before,

I want you to resist the familiarity that leads us to take this story for granted, because it is the story of all stories.

Realize that this gospel is precious, even though it comes very easy for us.

Listen to that again. This is a precious story, but it comes so cheaply to you.

Because what I mean by that is that there are people and places in this world where this story is illegal, and proclaiming it and reading it and believing it has grave consequences.

You need to understand that. We sometimes just focus in the here and now. We don't have this global understanding of what this message does in the world and how there are people who are violently against it.

You're hearing this gospel news without fear of reprisal, through family rejection, loss of your job or ability to provide for your family, through threats of imprisonment, without threats to your life or the lives of the people that you love.

So my encouragement for you today as we move through Mark is to cherish these words, to tell this story because you can, and respond to the

Holy Spirit as He brings conviction. He will. He'll bring correction to your life. He'll bring correction to your thinking.

The second thing that I want us to be able to do is, as we think about this passage today, as it tells us of the arrival of the

King, and it calls us to prepare the way for Him through awareness and acknowledgement of our sin, resulting in humble repentance, we have to realize that this is a story in our past.

This has already happened. He has already come, and yet the Scripture says He's coming again.

Suddenly He will come. With the trumpet blast, He will come. And Paul speaks of Christ's return in his letters to the

Thessalonians, and he gives this charge to the church, and I give it to you today, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 through 15.

But we ought to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through the sanctification by the

Spirit and belief in the truth. To this He called you through our gospel.

To this He called you to this, through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our

Lord Jesus Christ. What that phrase... I don't have time for that. But so then, brothers, stand firm, hold firm to the traditions, that word in the

Greek, you can check me, Daniel. I think it is paradosis, not traditions. That's what the

Strong says, but I appreciate some other renderings, which describes it as stand firm, hold firm to the substance of instruction, that pattern, those principles, those doctrines that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by letter.

Jesus Christ is coming again. That's what Paul is encouraging the church in Thessalonica to realize.

And we, or they, the church there, and we, are destined to obtain the glory of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So this is what he prescribes, this is what he tells them, for those who are awaiting

His coming, this is your response. Stand firm, hold fast to the teaching of the

Word. Know it, live by it, and where we stumble, where we fail, we repent, we try and seek to make it right, we make restoration, that He may sanctify us through the

Spirit that He has made to dwell within us. Now, if you've yet to believe and trust in God, then this is good news for you.

I hope you're hearing it today. If you're a child in here and you're hearing what's coming out of my mouth and you're going,

I want to know more about that, ask your parents. If the Holy Spirit is working within you and giving you an interest, seek it out, respond to it.

Or maybe you're not a child, maybe you're just someone who's, I don't know where I am. When you talked about the whole not having the

Holy Spirit thing, now I'm questioning where I am with God. That's wonderful news, and you should find out if you are in Christ.

You should examine yourself to see that you're in Christ. Talk to Josh, talk to myself. We would love to have that conversation with you.

Listen to the Spirit as He is calling today, and if you hear Him, believe, believe