Who Do You Say That I Am? "The Beginning of the Gospel"

Hey, Church. We're so glad you're joining us this morning. We hope that you had a merry Christmas, surrounded by friends and family, some good food and some good rest. We're excited to be with you. We're gonna start this morning with worship.

Sing with us.

I've sung so many songs. Cried out at the top of my lungs. My heart still reaching something deeper, something more. Give me old, give me new. I just want to sing the truth.

Hearing these praises. Let me see Jesus. Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he glorious? Isn't he powerful?

Isn't he good to us? Brighter than any sun, Greater than any storm. He's faithful forevermore. Let me see Jesus walk through the open door that leads to where you are. Angels cry holy now all of heaven bowing down at the center.

Only one name belongs. Holy Spirit, lead us, we worship Jesus. Holy Spirit, lead us, we worship Jesus. Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he glorious?

Isn't he powerful? Isn't he good to us? He's brighter than any sun. He's greater than any storm. He's faithful forevermore.

Let me see Jesus. It's all for you.

My heart's ovation. It's all for you.

Heaven's procession. It's all for you. The song of creation. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all.

Your songs, my heart, salvation. It's all for you. Heaven's possession. It's all for you. The song of creation.

You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all.

Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he glorious? And isn't he powerful? And isn't he good to us than any stone? He's greater than any storm.

He's faithful forevermore. Let me see Jesus. Let me see Jesus.

Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he glorious? Isn't he powerful? Isn't he good to us? He's brighter than any sun.

He's greater than any storm. Faithful forevermore. Well, let me see Jesus.

So turn your eyes upon Jesus. Upon Jesus. And look full in his wonderful faith.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory. And praise.

Jesus. We're thankful for a chance to worship you and to sing your name. Wonderful and glorious and powerful. So we turn to your word now. Thank you.

Thank you for your grace. Amen. Well, hey. Good morning, church. It is the last Sunday of 2025.

And because we know that so many of you are traveling or you're still at home, in your PJs still on Christmas break. We wanted to make sure and stay connected with you online and make a service just for you. So we're glad you're here this morning and we look forward to forward to seeing you back here in the new year. In just a few days, through the month of December, we've been studying through Isaiah's words from Isaiah, chapter 9, where 700 years before the arrival of Jesus, Isaiah tells the world that there is a Messiah who is coming and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. And Isaiah tells us the kind of king that Jesus will be.

If you've missed any of the series, please go back and listen. It sets up this new series that we're going to start today. It's all connected and it's beautiful as we make the transition from 25 to 26, from December to January, from one series to the next. We also make this transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from prophecy about the coming Messiah to the coming of that actual very Messiah. Isaiah tells us what to expect as Jesus is born into the world and grows into a man and starts his earthly ministry.

And we get to see what this promised Messiah, not just what he was like, but what he actually did and who this Messiah actually was. And as we start a new study through the Book of Mark, we can't walk through Mark's Gospel without bumping into the question that sits at the heart of Christianity. It's the question that every one of us will be forced to answer now or later. This question is the title of our series and it's the question that Jesus confronts his disciples with. In Mark, chapter 8, verses 27 and 28.

It says Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets. And here comes the question. And I want all of us to imagine Jesus himself looking us in the eyes and asking this question, verse 29.

But what about you? Who do you say I am? And one of his disciples gives him an answer. Mark gives us the short version of this. It says, peter answered, you are the Messiah.

Well, the same story is recorded in the book of Matthew. And Matthew writes with a lot more detail than Mark. Here's what Matthew records in more detail. Matthew 16, verse 16. Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Here's the truth we can't escape. Jesus is asking all of us this same question every day, in every moment of our lives. This question is just kind of echoing through the air. And whether we realize it or not, we are already answering this question.

We are living the answer to this question in every decision we make, in every fear we carry, in every hope we cling to, in every habit we fight, in every relationship that we navigate. And while we can certainly try to ignore it or postpone it or dodge it or drown it out with noise, we cannot outrun this question because Almighty King Jesus refuses to stay a vague religious idea in the background of our lives. He steps right out into the center and he looks us in the eye and he says that we must decide. Is he a good teacher or is he Lord? Is he a comforting thought?

Or is he the almighty promised King? Is he a moral fairy tale character? Or is he truly the Messiah, the Son of God, the one Isaiah foretold, the Savior of the world? We must give an answer to his question, who do you say I am? I love how Dallas Willard puts this.

He says when we see Jesus as he really is, we must either turn away or else shamelessly adore him. He says there are only two options. When you see him as he truly is, you must turn away from him or shamelessly adore him. Now, before we dig in, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, King Jesus, thank you for your word.

And I pray, as your word does its great work of uncovering truth and confronting us with that truth, help us to understand. Help us to boldly proclaim our answer to this most important question. Father, please pour your words through me today with accuracy, with love, with power, so that they are far more than words, but they're seeds of eternal significance planted into our lives.

It's in the powerful name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Well, our new series will run us almost verse by verse through the Book of Mark between now and Easter. And before we get to the words Mark wrote, let's back up a few steps and get a little history on who Mark wrote. I find that most people assume that the four Gospels were written by four of the original 12 disciples that walked with Jesus.

And a lot of people don't realize that Luke and Mark weren't actually part of the 12. So who was Mark? And how did he know what to write about if he wasn't one of these 12 disciples? Well, the first time we meet Mark in Scripture is actually in the book of Acts. Acts picks right up on the story after Jesus resurrection and ascension into heaven.

And it tells us how through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, God launches the New Testament church, the early church. In Acts 12, we read that one of the disciples, James, the brother of John, was arrested and executed by King Herod. This is the first of the disciples to be martyred. This Herod is Herod Agrippa. He's the grandson of Herod the Great.

Herod the Great is the guy who tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby. Herod Agrippa was the last king of the Southern kingdom. He was an ethnic Jew, but not a religious Jew, and he was called King of the Jews. That was his title. But really he was actually nothing more than a puppet king.

He was controlled and an errand boy of the Roman Empire. Well, the Bible says that when Herod Agrippa saw how much it pleased the Jews, the people that he had killed, James, his plan was to continue his PR campaign and become even more popular by having Peter arrested with plans to have a public trial, find him guilty, and publicly kill him too. Here's what happened. Acts 12, verse 5. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

Notice that in the face of impossible odds, where the king has decided to kill Peter, the church gathers to pray. To pray not as a last resort because they could do nothing else, but a first and only proactive move because they believed that prayer actually has power. And here's what happens as a result of their prayers. Verse 5. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial.

That's Peter. Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and w up quick, get up, he said. And the chains fell off Peter's wrists.

If you were here on the Mighty God week of our Christmas series, then you'll recognize this pattern that we just read. God's people facing impossible odds, desperate and praying in faith, literal and figurative darkness. It's at night. They're sleeping. And into that darkness bursts light in the form of an angel.

God explodes into the world once again and miraculously and impossibly releases Peter. Peter and the angel walk right out of the prison together and Peter thinks he's having a dream. He thinks the whole thing is a dream until he's out on the street, the angel disappears, and he kind of snaps out of it and he realizes the whole thing real. Here's verse 11. Then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.

When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. There's this comedic moment where Peter shows up at the gate. He knocks on and they think he's a ghost because of course, he couldn't possibly be there because he was in prison. But imagine this moment, you're gathered, praying in grief, desperation, thinking all is lost, and the answer to your prayer in real time shows up and knocks at the door, like, how fantastic is this? And here's where we first meet John Mark, the author of the Book of Mark.

Now, Mark was young, likely a teenager, when all this is happening in his home. His mother was Mary. His home served as one of the main gathering places for the church in Jerusalem. So imagine that you're John Mark, and the earliest believers are praying in your living room. Apostles stopping by for dinner, Peter knocking on your front door after being broken out of jail by an angel.

Here's why all this matters, John Mark would have spent some of the most impressionable years of his life surrounded by eyewitnesses, by teaching, by miracles, by people who walked with Jesus every day. And it's very possible that he would have known Jesus himself firsthand. Scholars estimate that at the time of the crucifixion, Mark would have been between the ages of 13 and 17, most likely old enough to remember things, old enough to observe, but not old enough to be one of the Jesus close disciples. And so the natural question is, if Mark wasn't one of the 12, and if he was too young to spend much time with Jesus personally, then how did he know so much about him that he could write an entire gospel? Well, it turns out Mark had a very important mentor, a spiritual father, someone who disciplined and taught him or discipled and taught him everything he knew about Jesus.

A guy who was as close to Jesus as any human ever was. The same guy who first answered this question that we're confronting ourselves with in this series, the miraculous escapee himself, Peter. The Bible doesn't actually tell us this, but the early church fathers taught it from very early on, in 120 A.D. a guy named Papias wrote the oldest recorded writing that we have found, confirming this. Here's what he said. He said Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately all that Peter remembered of the things said and done by the Lord.

So on top of having Peter as a personal mentor, John Mark's family was a central family in the start of the first church and the spread of the Gospel. John Mark's cousin was Barnabas. Barnabas was Paul's right hand man during his first missionary journey and Mark actually tagged along with them. Something disrupted John Mark on that journey so much so that he left Paul and Barnabas early and he headed home. And there's a lot more to the story, but this did make Paul unhappy.

And eventually when Paul wants to take a second missionary journey, Barnabas says we should take Mark and Paul says no. This actually splits up Paul and Barnabas. Paul takes Silas in one direction and Barnabas and Mark head off in another direction. Fast forward several years and we read in 2 Timothy that Paul and Mark seem to have patched things up. Now the Bible does suggest that after his falling out with Paul and before the second missionary journey with Barnabas, John Mark spent a significant amount of time with Peter.

Enough that in 1st Peter 5:13, Peter refers to Mark as his son. He doesn't mean his biological son, he means his spiritual son. Because Peter took John Mark under his wing, he passed on everything he knew about Jesus. And that's how Mark is able to write his gospel. And as we work through the book, we'll see moments that Mark records details that could have only come from Peter himself.

Internal reactions, personal memories and eyewitness touches that point back to someone who must have been actually there. Some of these things are what Peter was thinking. Well, you could only know that if you knew from Peter. Mark's Gospel is unique from the others in that it is very fast, it's raw and it's unfiltered. It reads like someone remembering these highlight moments that change their life.

Matthew kind of writes like a teacher with lots of details. Luke writes like a historian. John writes like a theologian. And Mark writes like a man on a mission. His favorite word is immediately.

He uses it over 40 times in his gospel. Jesus does this immediately. They go there immediately. He heals, teaches, confronts, rebukes, restores all immediately. Mark is not wasting any time.

He is jumping to the next thing to make his point. And here's what else Mark's Gospel, what else makes I cannot talk Mark's Gospel different. It's not polished, it's not cleaned up. It doesn't hide the failures of the disciples. In fact, Mark may be the hardest on Peter, which makes sense because Peter is the one telling the story.

Peter doesn't present himself as the hero. He presents Jesus as the hero. And so every mistake, every misunderstanding, every moment of fear, every blunder is recorded so that the spotlight stays exactly where Peter wants it. Right on Jesus. A quick side note, you might be familiar with the TV show the Chosen tells the story of Jesus and the disciples, and it follows almost exactly the book of Mark.

So if you've never taken the time to watch it, it's totally worth your time. If you're like me, then you'll make it through the first episode and wonder if it is actually worth your time. Make it to about two or three episodes in Keep going. And after the first few episodes, it really picks up and gains some steam, especially through the first few seasons. The Chosen is a perfect study companion to this series if you want to watch it alongside the series.

It just kind of gives your brain and heart and imagination another way to internalize and visualize what we're reading. Okay, side note over. Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels, but it packs the most action. It's like Mark is saying, I don't have much time. I need to show you what Jesus did.

I need to show you why he's worth following. And let me just show you how he cannot be ignored. And that brings us back to the question at the core of this entire series. If this is who Jesus is, if this is what he said and did, if this is how he walked and lived and loved, what will we do with him? So let's dig in right at the beginning of Mark's Gospel.

And right away we see that Mark doesn't waste any time. He doesn't begin with a birth announcement or a manger or shepherds and angels. He skips all of that and he jumps straight into his main point. And he also conveniently links our last series to this new one. Mark 1, verse 1.

The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. And here's where he links Isaiah from the last series. I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way. A voice of one calling in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord.

Make straight paths for him. Mark opens with a prophecy from Isaiah that's also echoed in the book of Malachi. He uses this prophecy as A bridge between the Old and New Testaments, pointing to the one that Isaiah promised would come. Wonderful counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us, the one who put on flesh and came to this earth. And Isaiah says that a messenger will be sent ahead of this Messiah who will prepare the way for his coming.

Let's see who that is. Verse 4. And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. And he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his after me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Now, John the Baptist wasn't called John the Baptist because he attended First Baptist Church of Jerusalem.

More literally, he was John the baptizer, the one who baptized. Now, if you've been around much over the last two years, then you know I say all the time that the Bible is littered with repeating images, themes, threads. If you're used to this, then maybe you picked up on a few in this first section. Let's zoom in on them. Where does John show up preaching in the wilderness?

Anytime you see wilderness in your Bible, it should always bring you to two thoughts. First is the story of the Israelites being brought out of Egypt into the wilderness. And the second is that the wilderness is always a place of preparation and testing. The Israelites had to stay in the wilderness until they were ready for what God had next for them. They needed to be made ready for the promised land.

And the fact that John is preaching in the wilderness is symbolic. God's people are being called back into the wilderness to get them ready for what's coming next, the Messiah. And notice what John is calling people to do. He's preaching repentance and baptizing them in water. Now, water is another one of these repeating images all through Scripture and specifically passing through the water.

Water's associated with both judgment and new life. Think about the flood. Think about the Red Sea. Think about the Jordan River. Every time God moves his people forward into the next major season of what he's doing, water is involved.

And it's always a moment of passing through the water to experience death to the old an entrance into something new. When Israel crossed the Red Sea, slavery was left behind. When Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, the wilderness was left behind. And now John is standing in that same Jordan river, which is no coincidence. Calling people to repent, to turn around, to leave behind old ways of thinking and living, to continue confess their sin, and to pass through the water again as a sign that they're ready for God to do something new.

But notice what he says about this baptism. And don't forget that he is not the one who is coming. He is the one who prepares the way for the one who is coming. John says, I baptize you with water, but the one who is coming after me, who is greater than me, will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. In other words, my job is to prepare the way for the greater thing that's coming.

John's like the last of the Old Testament prophets. He's standing at the edge of history, pointing forward and saying, this is another moment in history that God's people will be tested, prepared and cleansed so that they can step into an even greater reality. There's one who's coming who will do something we've never seen before and up the ante in every way. And then, right in the middle of repentance, wilderness, water and expectation, Jesus shows up. Verse 9.

At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Now, wait a second. I thought John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. And I thought Jesus didn't have anything to repent of because he was perfect. Why would Jesus be baptized?

Well, Jesus doesn't step into the water for his sin. He steps into the water for two main reasons. So that he can walk where all of us will be called to walk, and so that he can stand in our place in a way that none of us are able to stand on our own. He is El Gabor. Remember El Gabor, our champion, our mighty warrior who fights in our place so that his victory becomes our victory.

This is the first clear picture in Mark's Gospel of how Jesus will save the world. Not from a distance, not from an earthly throne, but by stepping directly into the mess. By stepping into the water with sinners, Jesus is identifying himself fully with the people he came to save. He's stepping into the same river where broken people are confessing sin. He's standing shoulder to shoulder with those who need cleansing, even though he doesn't.

He's saying, I'm with you. I'm for you. I'M here to carry what you cannot carry. So Jesus is baptized by John. And when he comes up out of the water, something extraordinary happens.

Verse 10. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.

And this is a declaration that echoes the Christmas birth announcement to the shepherds in the fields at night, the sky opens. God the Father makes it abundantly clear. This is the Messiah that Isaiah promised. This is the one that the angels said had come. Mark is drawing back the bow and setting up the giant question that's coming.

This is who God says Jesus is. Now, who do you say Jesus is? What will we do with Jesus? And then Mark takes what feels like an abrupt hard left turn. Verse 12.

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days. Being tempted by Satan, he was with the wild animals and angels attended to him. Mark says that the Spirit sent him into the wilderness. Other translations say the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

It's very strong language. The Spirit drives Jesus into the necessary wilderness that God has always used as his proving ground. The wilderness is where Israel was tested and veiled. And now, at the very beginning of Jesus ministry, Jesus goes into the wilderness to do what none of us could do and what Israel never did. Israel wandered for 40 years and failed the test.

Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and he passes the test. Don't miss this. Mark is showing us something huge. Right at the beginning, Jesus is reliving Israel's history, but he's doing it differently. He's doing it perfectly.

He is succeeding where God's people have always failed and always will fail, no matter the situation. When we try to save ourselves, when we try to walk the path of perfection, we fail. And that's why Mark keeps weaving together. Wilderness, water, spirit, temptation. He's telling us the old story is being rewritten.

The Messiah isn't just showing up to offer better teaching. He's showing up to redeem the past by doing what humanity never could. Mark makes it abundantly clear the kingdom has come near. Its king has arrived. And this king will do what no other king is capable of in ways that no one will ever expect.

He's a very different kind of king who rules over a very different kind of kingdom. And we'll spend the next several weeks studying through the Book of Mark to get to know this king. And my prayer for this series is that all of us who have named Jesus as our King and Savior, we'll get to know him at a deeper level than we have ever known him before. And those of us who have never become citizens of his great kingdom, those who have not named him as Lord and Savior will become more and more open to him until he breaks through our questions and our inhibitions and we step under his rule and reign in our lives. When we see Jesus as He really is, we must turn away or else shamelessly adore Him.

And I want us to come right up face to face with Him. So for the next several weeks, running all the way up to Easter, here's how I am inviting all of you to engage. First is this. Commit to showing up. Commit to showing up.

If you were here for the gather sermons, gather large, gather small. We said choose a group of people, show up and keep showing up. So I want to challenge you and encourage you and ask you to show up during this series through the Book of Mark and be committed to meeting this Jesus and coming face to face with Him. Second is read the Book of Mark. You can do this through reading plans on the Bible app.

You can do it chapter by by chapter every day. You can read it multiple times. However you want to read through the Book of Mark, read through the Book of Mark so that what we're talking about is fresh. It's even better if you can do that together. And here's the last thing.

Watch the Chosen. Watch the Chosen. It expands our imagination and gives us images for these stories that we're reading here in the Book of. Of Mark. So join us.

Show up. Dig in. Be in the Word. Be in the Word together. Watch the chosen so that we can get to know Jesus as he really is.

That's my hope. That's my ask. Hey. Happy New Year to all of you. We're so glad that you were with us today and we hope to see you back in just a few days.