The True Son of God — Mark 1

0:04 Good morning. Great to be with you. If you'd like to turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, I know you have been going through the gospel of Luke. So I hope it's okay we deviate slightly to one gospel to the left. We all have things that we say or terms that we use that maybe we don't fully understand.

0:37 For instance, me and my idiocy. For the longest time, the word... The phrase for all intents and purposes. I always thought that was for all intensive purposes. Store Barnes and Noble.

0:58 I always called Barnes and Nobles. I don't know why. I'm an idiot. So you can laugh at me, it's okay. My wife laughs at me all the time.

1:08 We all have these terms that we kind of misunderstand, we use, maybe we are familiar with, but we don't quite fully grasp the full dimension of what they mean. And what Mark does for us in his gospel is he places a high prominence on this term, the son of God. And we know this term and we're familiar with this term and Mark uses this term in a way that we typically think of. We typically think of this term as applying to Jesus as being the second person of the trinity. Right?

1:40 He's the the father, the son, and the holy spirit. And I think Mark would agree with that. But he also uses this term in a variety of other ways as well. And so what we'll look at here in the gospel of Mark, I want to look at three aspects that Mark presents here of three aspects of Jesus being the son of God. And this is not for Mark at any rate and for us, this is not just a like here's the different things, make sure you know these things for the test and then you can get the...

2:12 You can ace the score. Mark wants to place great prominence on these three aspects of Jesus being the son of God to lead us into submission, worship and imitation. And so here we'll look at three scenes, Mark one, Mark nine, and Mark 15. And so in Mark one, this first aspect of Jesus being the son of God is that he is the royal son of God. The royal son of God.

2:41 In Mark nine, we'll see how Mark again presents Jesus as the glorified son of God. The glorified son of God. And then finally, in Mark 15, he'll present Jesus as the suffering Son of God. The suffering Son of God. So let's begin here with this first one, Jesus as the royal Son of God.

3:06 And in Mark one, if you'd like to look with me, in Mark chapter one, there's really three... Two places here in Mark one that we're going to concentrate on and it begins right from the very beginning of Mark's gospel. He wants to set the stage for us. He opens it with this almost quasi title to his gospel in verse one of chapter one. He says this, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

3:38 And so right here from the beginning, this is his opening of how he wants us to think about who Jesus is. He sets the stage very clearly. Who is Jesus? He's the Christ. And what does that mean that he's the Christ?

3:50 He is this son of God. And we'll look at a little bit more of how he presents this, but again he presents this as a royal figure. And you see this in the following verses directly after this statement, which is actually kind of interesting to me because as we go through the Gospel of Mark, if we're to spend some time looking through how Jesus presents himself, he's kind of cagey. He doesn't come right out and say to everyone, hey everyone, my name's Jesus. I am God, please worship me.

4:26 He doesn't do that and he doesn't do that in most of the gospels and he especially does not do that in the gospel of Mark. And so Mark is going to present Jesus in kind of this... Jesus presents himself in Mark in this kind of reserved sort of way and he's going to do things and he's going to say things that evoke like, who is this guy? How can he say those things and how can he do those things and be a normal guy? It just doesn't work.

4:58 And so right before we get to that presentation of Jesus, Mark wants to just lay it out for us right from the beginning, who is he? Before we get any confusion, he is the son of God. And you see in the very following verses, in verses two through three, he quotes the bible. He quotes the old testament. And notice here in verse two it says, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.

6:09 And if we tie these two things together here in verse one, notice we have some key words here. The beginning of the gospel or the good news about Jesus Christ the son of God and then he describes Isaiah and speaking of this messenger who we find out is John the Baptist who prepares the way of the Lord. But if we turn to Isaiah and if you want to you can or you can just listen but in Isaiah 52 Mark has a clever use on the play on words, if you will. He's he's using that term gospel or good news and he wants us to ping back to Isaiah and ping back to where Isaiah uses this term good news. And notice of what it describes here in Isaiah 52 verses six and seven.

7:03 It says, this is the Lord speaking, therefore my people shall know my name, therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak, here I am. Verse seven, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. There's that word, good news. Same word that's used that we have in Mark chapter one. Are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.

7:29 Who brings good news of happiness. Who publishes salvation. Who says to Zion, your God reigns. So what is this good news? What is this good news that Isaiah describes?

7:42 What is this good news that is that is the beginning that we have with Jesus Christ? It's that God reigns over his people. And Jesus's coming is the beginning of that of him coming and reigning as king. And so what we have here is this this depiction of Jesus is this royal figure as the king. The king has come.

8:07 We see further if we jump down to verse nine verses four, which we won't take time to read, but verses four through eight introduces John the Baptist and then in verse nine we see that Jesus comes forward, it's the first time we see him as a character in the story and he's baptized by John the Baptist. And it says here in verse nine, in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and when he came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. So if we just pause here for a brief moment, notice the descriptions because Mark, the way that he describes this scene is unique, specific to him. Notice how he describes this as the heavens are torn open. They're not just merely open, Matthew and Luke described it as they just open.

9:03 Here you give a little bit more description, they are torn open. We're going to come back to that term in just a minute. But here he describes this as the heavens are torn open, the spirit descending on him like a dove and then notice verse 11. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. So you have the father himself speaking to the son in the midst of the spirit.

9:34 The father speaking, you are my son. In you I am well pleased. He delights. The father delights in Jesus, in the son. But here this is almost like not a direct quotation but very close quotation to Psalm two.

9:53 In Psalm chapter two, you don't have to turn there, but in Psalm chapter two which is a kingly, which is a royal psalm that has kind of some messianic implications, but in Psalm two verse six it says, as for me I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And when this was originally written in ancient Israel, they would have thought of that as the king. This is the king. The king is the God's son.

10:32 He's God's representative before the people of himself. And so this language here is being used by Mark under the inspiration of the holy spirit to present Jesus as this kingly figure, that he is this righteous king, this anointed one, the the the Christ, this messiah, the one that Israel has longed for and hoped for, he has come. Now in addition to this, we have the king bringing, Israel's king has come and he is going to bring peace. He is going to bring prosperity. He is going to bring salvation to his people.

11:13 But in addition to this, which I find is really interesting, is that Mark is also playing on other uses of this term as well. So he's utilizing the old testament to kind of ping our minds to the... Of what it looks like for Israel's king. But then he's also utilizing the Roman world. And he wants to ping our minds to that connotations of this term son of God as well.

11:42 I don't like trick questions on exams. If you've ever been in college or high school and you had a professor give you a trick question and you're like, that's not fair. So I I I don't give those at all, but I had one at one point. I took it out eventually. But I had this like trick question on the exam.

12:22 Same same description that's used here. And the language that Mark uses here, he wants to ping back to the old testament, but he also wants to ping to this Roman context and this propaganda that described how great Caesar was and how great the Roman Empire was. Caesar, you know, the the emperor, the the ruler of the Roman Empire. For instance, there's one text that's predates Mark's gospel, but was well known. And it's called the prion inscription that's all about Caesar Augustus.

12:56 You know Caesar Augustus, right? He's the one, he's the Caesar that was born or that was ruling during Jesus' birth. If you've watched the Peanuts Christmas special. In those days of Caesar Augustus, right, that's that's the Caesar Augustus here that we're going talk about. He has this whole inscription about all of the great things that he's ever done in his life.

13:16 He was really a humble guy. And so he has this inscription and it says this, that he might benefit humankind sending him as a savior for both for us and for our descendants that he might end war and arrange all things. And since he, Caesar, by his appearance excelled even our anticipations surpassing all previous benefactors not leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done. And since the birthday of the God, Augustus, was the beginning of the good news for the world that came by reason of him. So that phrase, the beginning of the good news is used first about Caesar.

14:06 And so what Mark is doing is he's picking up on these signals in the Roman empire of how do we describe and how do we praise Caesar as he's like the most important person in the Roman empire. Mark uses that and says, you know, Caesar's really great, but he's not actually the true son of God. Who is the true son of God? It is Jesus. He is Caesar has all this propaganda.

14:32 He's going to bring peace. He's going to bring prosperity. He's going to bring salvation. He cannot. Jesus is the one that can bring salvation.

14:42 He is the one that will bring that peace. So what Mark is trying to do here is he's trying to present Jesus in this positive way of being Israel's king. Israel's messiah that would come and redeem his his people. Messiah But he also has this sort of like negative character... Characterization that Caesar is not that.

15:09 And he's pushing back against this very popular idea that Caesar was the one that they could look to for their salvation. That they could look to for their prosperity. Now when we think of what Mark is doing here, why does he push back against this Caesar ideology? And really, it's it's more so less against about Caesar and it's more so against the Roman way of life. The Roman way of life is all about really like selfishness.

15:40 How do I advance myself? How do I advance my group? It's all about us gaining of taking. If you know the founding myth of the city of Rome, so it's kind of a weird story as many Roman stories are. But there's these two small boys that are raised by this this wolf and they grow up and they found the city of Rome.

16:04 And then the one brother kills the other brother so that he can have complete control over this new city of Rome. Great founding story. But that sort of mentality, that's that sort of mindset that embodies that story filters down into the mindset actions of the average Romans. There's many actually even like specific Roman authors that describe this. That the Romans are all about like, yeah, we come and we take.

16:56 You destroy. That's the Romans mindset. That's the way of Caesar. One of selfishness. One of gaining.

17:05 One of of violence. One of power, of taking on of power. Here you have a different way of life in the life of Jesus. Mark is trying to show us and he doesn't just do it here, he does it all throughout the gospel of Mark. He he loves playing on this theme.

17:23 We're gonna come back to this in a little bit when we come to chapter 15. But Mark is trying to emphasize for us, where is our allegiance? Where do we find that one that will bring us security? That will bring us flourishing? That will bring us salvation?

17:42 Is it Caesar? Is it Rome? Or is it Jesus? Now, I doubt many of you are like, yeah, Caesar. Let's bring back the Roman empire.

17:54 I doubt you were thinking that. But like, you already already... Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

17:59 Caesar twenty twenty four. Yeah. Mark, you know, Mark's in a specific situation. Right? He's dealing with what is threatening the allegiance of his fellow believers against Christ.

18:12 He's writing a group of believers that know the Lord, that know the story of Christianity, but it is it is tempting and alluring to buy into an ideology that is powerful, that is predominant, but is not satisfying and is not the way of Christ. And he's pushing against this idea of like, be careful which son of God has your allegiance. Which ideology, which way of life, which person has your allegiance. Which one do you claim as your king? So when we think of our own lives, there are many ideologies.

18:52 There are many sort of myths. There are many sorts of ways of thinking, ways of living that are not the way of Christ. Mark wants us to look deeply at who Jesus is, that we would claim him as our king. That none other would have our allegiance. That he would be that royal son of God for us.

19:15 That he would capture our hearts. Mark is seeking to reorient, reconfigure his... These believers as he's trying to reconfigure and reorient us back to Christ. He is the only one that can truly satisfy. And he is the only one that can truly bring flourishing.

19:40 When we think of like this political royal sort of and we think of going into in our own political sphere here, we have everybody, both sides, saying I'm gonna do this for you and I'm gonna do this for you. And they may be benefits to this action or that action, but what they will not satisfy. And I think it's so dangerous for us as believers in our sort of Christian environment and our political landscape that we as believers can get caught up into this idea that if we vote for this individual, we will be set. If we vote for this individual, we will be set. And I see this with my republican friends.

20:26 I see this with my democratic friends. Just get this person in. It's a reminder that those things and those policies may have benefits, but the ultimate one that we owe our allegiance, that we swear as our king, is Christ. He must be our royal son of God. Does he capture our hearts?

20:53 Or are we showing our allegiance? Are we showing our desire for other ways of life or other individuals? So here Mark presents us with this first aspect as Jesus as the royal son of God. Then we see in Mark nine that he presents Jesus as the glorified son of God and these ideas that we've talked about of him being the royal son of God, they continue in these other two aspects as well, but in Mark chapter nine we see Jesus' transfiguration of him being glorified in front of his disciples and this comes right on the heels, yeah, there's so much here, there's so much great stuff, but in Mark chapter eight, Jesus has for the first time begun to reveal to his disciples who he is and what his mission is going to be, that he's going to come, that he has come to suffer, to die, and to be raised from the dead. You see this a well known passage in Mark chapter eight verse 27 and following, Jesus says, who do people say that I am?

22:13 He takes him aside and rebukes Jesus for saying like, here's what your mission is going to be. And he says, no no, that's not going to happen. We're not going to let anybody kill you Jesus. No way. And then Jesus rebukes him and brings...

22:31 You can see this, get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind on the things God but on the things of man. Then he describes the demands of discipleship. If anyone would come after me, him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Rooted in that our identity must be his identity. And directly on the heels of that encounter of this misunderstanding by Peter and the other disciples about the very identity and nature of Jesus, you have the transfiguration.

23:02 Mark sandwiches these two scenes right next to each other because he wants to see the failure of the disciples right with this scene again. And you have in this transfiguration, go up Peter, James, and John go up with Jesus to this high mountain and he's transfigured before them in verse two. And his clothes, this is verse three, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, so as no one on earth could bleach them. And then Elijah and Moses appear and then you get Peter in verse five who is just always sticking his foot in his mouth. Rabbi, it's good that we're here with you.

23:38 Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Then notice verse six, it always just makes me laugh. For he did not know what to say. Like you ever just find yourself talking? You know, like, I should stop talking but my...

23:52 I am still talking. That's Peter. That's what Peter is doing right here. He didn't know what to say for they were terrified. And then notice in verse seven and eight, a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud.

24:06 What does that remind you of? Chapter one, the baptism. Then you see this. Notice if you can see, do a compare and contrast with chapter one at Jesus' baptism and here at the transfiguration. This is my beloved son.

24:20 Listen to him. In chapter one, it was you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. It's the father speaking to the son, to Jesus himself. You are my beloved son. Here in the transfiguration, it's not directed towards Jesus, it's directed towards the disciples.

24:41 This this one is my son. This one is my beloved son. And then notice, listen to him. So we have kind of two aspects here of this presentation of Jesus as this glorified son of God. That he is being re authenticated to his disciples.

25:03 This is the one. You were resisting that way of life of Jesus, you were resisting that identity of who he is. This is truly the son of God, right here. This is my beloved son. You must listen to him.

25:19 This is not an optional, like this is this is the one that you owe your allegiance to. And then as we've seen here with him being transfigured, it's almost like he... I'm just trying to create this like mental movie if you will of him standing there in bright clothes and it just being like, woah. And just like being a crazy experience for these three disciples. And it's almost as like a flash forward to the resurrection.

25:48 You know how they do that in movies where they'll do like the flash back to a previous scene or a previous time frame, they'll move forward and then they'll come back in the story. That's what the transfiguration is. It's a flash forward to the resurrection. That this is not just a normal man. This is not just an earthly messiah.

26:06 That this is the glorified son of God. That he will reign. That he will be raised from the dead. That there is resurrection in him. And Mark, as the as the father's...

26:23 As he lays out of of the father's words, wants to show Jesus as this glorified son of God that there is hope, that there is a future and he must be listened to. He must be obeyed because he has been authenticated by the father. And it's just a reminder again that in Christ's ministry he will be raised from the dead. That his, as we'll talk about in just a moment in chapter 15, his suffering is not all that there is. It's very interesting if we read Mark's gospel carefully, He spends the least amount of time talking about the resurrection.

27:03 It's quite short. But if we... Again, if we read carefully, we have it all throughout the gospel. Jesus is just throwing little bread crumbs all throughout that he will be raised from the dead. Every time, we mentioned the three passion predictions, every time he predicts that he will die, he's going to suffer, he's going to die and he's going to be raised from the dead.

27:27 He always includes that. The seeds throughout the gospel that he will be raised, and this is a reminder that he will be vindicated, that he will be glorified, and that his way of life and his identity is truly the right one. Caesar can't do that. No one else can do that. That's why we can rest in him.

27:50 And that's why like the resurrection means so much for us. Like the resurrection is not just a apologetic point that we try to prove to prove Christianity. It's the very hope of our Christianity. Like why do we have hope in our daily lives and why do we hope for the future is because Christ has conquered death and that Christ has victory over death and sin. And we are longing for the day when we fully experience that victory.

28:24 That is coming because he has been raised from the dead. And this scene of him being transfigured is that flash forward. This... Of him being this glorified son of God. Reminder, rest in him because he has won.

29:23 Like when we think of the crucifixion and when we talk about the crucifixion or when we depict the crucifixion, we typically think of his physical sufferings. We describe how horrific, the act of crucifixion was. And it is, and it's absolutely, despicable and horrific way to die. It's actually, if we think of it, it's it's not a form of execution because it's like the least efficient way to kill somebody. It's the most efficient way to torture someone.

29:58 It's a torture device that ends up killing the person. It allows the the the Roman guards to keep the guy alive just long enough that they can exert maximum pain. But Mark's depiction here is not just about his Jesus' physical sufferings. It's also about his experience of suffering of shame. Notice when we look at chapter 15, and if we've just started to read in verse 16, we won't we won't take time to read all of it.

30:34 But in 16 and following, if we read carefully, you get very little pictures of of what they physically do to Jesus. And there are other texts that describe people, martyrs who died for their faith, Jewish martyrs that died for their faith a little bit earlier than this. And they can get into gross detail. And they're like, and then this happened and you're like, oh, and then that happened and you're like, oh, I don't feel well, feel kind of queasy. I I think I would like to take a break from reading this and hold a nice warm puppy or something like that because that's disturbing.

31:04 And Mark doesn't do that. He's probably like like knowing that his his audience knows what crucifixion is. But he describes the shame that is inflicted on Jesus by the Roman guards, by the the chief priests and by the people. Like he moves from each different group and describes the shame that they heap on Jesus. And really, like when we think of crucifixion, crucifixion's purpose was to...

31:35 Was not to kill somebody. It was to exert a social death. It was to like, desol someone. It was to rid the person of who they are. And so many Roman soldiers had lots of flexibility in how they would perform a crucifixion.

31:58 And they would utilize various different ways so that they can flick maximum amount of shame and social death to bring the person and their sense of self to a very sense of nothing. That was the purpose of crucifixion. And so when we have this description about Jesus, you see the soldiers in verse 16. They bring the whole battalion. Somewhere like 600 soldiers are brought together.

32:22 They clothe them in a purple cloak. What's interesting too is that many of the things that the Roman soldiers do depict or or mimic a triumph, a victory parade for Caesar. When Caesar would have victory over his enemies, he would get this long parade in Rome called the triumph. And he would have various aspects of... You'd have...

32:44 He'd wear a purple robe. And he would be the only one that would be allowed to wear that purple robe. He'd have a laurel laurel wreath placed on his head. He would have people holding up placards saying, Caesar, he's our man. Or I'm sure they didn't say that, but something like that too.

32:59 In honor of Caesar. And so what Mark is depicting here of what the soldiers are trying to do is they're creating this like mock victory procession of Jesus. Which is interesting because Mark is already playing with this idea that who's the true son of God? It's Jesus. And so they are kind playing into this idea of mimicking Jesus.

33:21 Oh hail, king of the Jews. You see that even the the chief priests, they also mock him. They say this, Where's the verse? Well you have in verse 29, those who pass by, the crowd does this. Those who pass by derided him wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourselves and come down from the cross.

33:47 Here it is. Verse 31. So also the chief priests and the scribes mocked him to one another saying, he saved others. He cannot save himself. Let the king, let the Christ, the king of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.

34:03 Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. So the shame, shame, shame that is being heaped upon Jesus. This is the thing I love about how Mark depicts Jesus' death. Crucifixion is the most shameful thing and Jesus willingly takes that for us. Then you have here in verse 37, he cries in verse 34, cries, my God my God, why have you forsaken me?

35:06 How were they opened? They were torn open. And here, at the moment of Jesus' death... Let me back up here. In...

35:16 At Jesus' baptism, the clouds are torn open. Then what happens? The father confesses, you are my son, you are my beloved son, and you I'm well pleased. And then here, at the moment of Jesus death, the veil of the temple is torn in two. And notice what happens directly after it.

35:36 And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the son of God. Mark loves literary sandwiches. He starts his gospel. He does this many times throughout his gospel, but he starts his gospel with Jesus is the son of God. And then he ends it at the moment of Jesus' death being declared and confessed as the true son of God.

36:07 What's super interesting is in Mark's gospel, only the father and demons ever call Jesus the son of God. It's only the supernatural realm. Like in the gospel of Matthew, everybody and their brother is calling Jesus the son of God. But in Mark, he reserves that it's only the father and it's only demons until you come to this scene. And it's this centurion, this Roman centurion who has sworn his allegiance to the emperor to...

36:38 That... Caesar that he is the son of God and he says, no, Jesus is the son of God. Why does he do this? Notice the language is is quite subtle but specific. Notice in verse 39, it's not the curtain of the temple that draws him to make this conclusion.

36:58 When the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way, he breathed his last. It's the way in which Jesus died that leads the centurion to come to this conclusion that he is truly the son of God. The way that he took on that shameful death. The way that he took on the sins of the people. The way that he suffered and died for us.

37:25 That he willingly took that on for us. That is what tunes this centurion's mind like, that's the true son of God. And this is in total contrast with Caesar, who's all about other people die, other people I'm gonna inflict violence on them. That's what makes me the son of God. But here we have the true son of God.

37:51 He takes the violence upon himself. He takes all of our sin, he takes all of our shame upon himself. And in this we see that he is truly this son of God. And he... What Mark is trying to do is he's again trying to reorient our hearts back to Jesus.

38:14 That our hearts would be captured by him. That we would be... That we would have allegiance to him, but that we would fall in deeper love with Jesus because of who he is. And so he gives us these three aspects of Jesus being the royal son of God, the glorified son of God, and the suffering son of God. So that we would submit to him, that we would worship him, that we would live for him.

38:44 I want to just close with one of my favorite hymns, that man of Calvary, maybe you know this hymn. I'll just read a couple lines from it. But it says this, fairest of all the earth beside, chiefest of all unto thy bride. Fullness divine in thee I see, beautiful man of Calvary. Drinking a dire and dreadful cup crucified Jesus lifted up bearing our guilt and misery sorrowful man of Calvary.

39:18 That man of Calvary has won my heart for me and died to set me free. Bless man of Calvary. May we fall in deeper love with our son of God that we would show our allegiance to him, that we would worship him and that we would live for him. Why don't we close in a word of prayer? Father, we thank you so much for your son.

39:45 We thank you for his sacrifice, for his victory, we thank you that he took on our sin, that he took on our shame, that we no longer have to endure that suffering, that sorrow. We thank you and we long for the day when we have the full experience of and victory over sin and death that your son has given us. We pray father that you would just rid our hearts of things that go against who you are. That we would love you, that we would serve you, that we would follow you Lord. Father, thank you so much for your son, we thank you so much for your spirit and we just pray that we would fall in deeper love with you.

40:31 We ask all these things in Jesus name, Amen.