Latest / Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast / Oct'26- Sunday Bible School- OT themes in Mark- Dave Mitchell

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Oct'26- Sunday Bible School- OT themes in Mark- Dave Mitchell · Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast

• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do come on in.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's some seats.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's a row of seats down here.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to fill these ones in.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do grab there's a second row here that's uh that's free.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Lovely to see you this evening.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Bible School.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you've not been down here before, it's a chance in kind of more of a seminar style to think through either a biblical book or a biblical theme to go a little bit kind of uh yeah, dig in a bit deeper to some of those things.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's a chance, uh Dave's gonna be speaking tonight.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's a chance to listen if you've got kind of questions as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, there'll be a bit of time for questions.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're gonna finish quite promptly at eight because the students are gonna arrive here um uh and we need to kind of vacate the space for the students.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh like Matt said upstairs, both talks are recorded.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to hear what uh is happening upstairs, uh go on the website.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um Bible School is on uh podcasts, so if you search for Woodlands Church Academy, uh you'll find a whole stack of stuff on your regular podcast providers.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh Bible schools uh and some of our other training stuff will be on the woodlandschurch.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: uh woodlands uh church academy.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but Dave's gonna lead us through uh this evening.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Dave, over to you.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tim.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um great to have Tim on team, isn't it?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and for Tim to really give such a commitment to training and um just to help us get our heads around um the Bible, which is such a key source of authority for us and uh for our whole framework of understanding our faith.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I tonight, as I talk a little bit about the Gospel of Mark, and um I'm aware that probably be people here who are really experienced, you might have things to teach me about the Gospel of Mark, and there may be people here who could feel like I'm absolute beginners, you know.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really not I don't know very much about this stuff at all.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you feel like you're at the early early door stage, you just give it a little wave wave your hand at me if you think, oh, actually, I've got a lot to learn.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if you think that you should be giving the talk, no, anyway.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um so just a little bit of background, first of all, there's lots of ways we we could kind of organize our understanding of scripture and the Bible, but um, one way you could think about the the New Testament is around four streams based on the four gospels.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So there are four gospels, they're all accounts of the life of Jesus, they're they're different, and they are Matthew, Mark, and we particularly think about Mark tonight, Luke, and John.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Alright?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was that wasn't too hard, was it?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: We know those bits, but um, within the early church and the the the people that gospels were written to, they weren't all written primarily for the same audience, there were different ages and stages when they were written, and there were different audiences.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So Matthew is a very Jewish gospel, and in fact, there's a whole stream of kind of Jewishness in the writings in the New Testament.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there's like a we sometimes call there's like a Jewish stream in the New Testament, and books that are particularly, if you like, with a Jewish audience in mind, are the book of James, for example, or the book of Hebrews, and um you can see that that those those books of the Bible, even that the name kind of gives it away a little bit, and the reference points, the imagery.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll find it in the book of Matthew, for instance, Matthew always talks about the kingdom of heaven rather than the kingdom of God.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that is?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the name of God was very sacred to Jewish people, you've very careful about how you say it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this kind of Matthew's three.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Mark.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we think about Mark as uh uh sometimes that's linked with the authorship of Mark, linked with the Apostle Peter.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the earliest authorities that we have from the early church um made that link very clearly.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Papias, who's one of the early church fathers, so he's bishop of Hieropolis, 120 AD, he talks about Peter as the interpreter, no, sorry, Mark rather, as the interpreter of Peter.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: He he describes a tradition where Peter has a relationship with Mark, and um and it's through the eyes of Peter that Mark records and writes what he's done.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that tradition was very established by other church fathers like Eusebius, who picks up from Papius and Iranius, and those some of those kind of big names in the early church father school.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're all you know big hairy men with beards.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um they look like at all, actually.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we think there's a there's a kind of like a petrine street stream, and when you think about that, you can think the gospel of Mark.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, there are some little clues about the relationship that Mark and Peter have.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, Mark is called Peter called uh in one Peter he talks about my son Mark at the end of his gospel, and there are some incidents in Mark's Gospel that seem to have only Peter could probably have known about this, or there's ways in which Peter is betrayed which seem a little bit different from the early words of early church.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Mark, um the the Latin prologue to the book of Mark describes him with a nickname, Stumpy Fingers, and so much so actually that the Bible Society wrote a song.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, someone wrote a song called Stumpy Fingers, which I'm going to sing to you now.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It goes, Stumpy Fingers, Stumpy Fingers, the whole world's waiting for you.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Take your pen in your stumpy fingers and write what you know to be true.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it has this other verse you couldn't hold on to your cloak in the garden, and when you were fleeing from there, you left it behind in the grip of a soldier and fled away naked and bare.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Altogether now stumpy.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a terrible song.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But there is that tradition because um uniquely in Mark's Gospel, for instance, there's this record of this young man who in the garden um is grabbed by the soldier, he's just wearing a linen linen cloth, and he he runs away naked, leaving it behind.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and it's it's suggested that um John Mark, who is again repeatedly referred to, particularly in the book of Acts, is is this character and and that his his um I have this kind of room where the prayer meeting has that Peter knocks on the door.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know what story in Acts?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so there's lots of internal evidence and church tradition that says Mark and Peter belong together, and there's a petrine stream in the New Testament, i.e.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: one and two Peter, those um epistles that uh particularly bear the name of Peter, and then you've got Luke.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: What stream do you think there is?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what stream would you call that?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: If that's a petrine stream after Peter, what's a Luke Luke stream?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Any guesses?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who said that?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you did, you got it right.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Paulline Sophie, you're you're on the ball tonight.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a there's a Pauline stream.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Luke, the traveling companion of the Apostle Paul, writes his gospel, and then part two of his gospel is the book of Acts, and then he there's all the the the letters of um uh Paul.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we we've got all the Pauline epistles there, so that's the kind of Luke and the the Pauline stream.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll call it Pauline now, rather than Pauline.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, you've got John, and and John's Gospel.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably noticed that John's Gospel is different from the others.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: We call these three synoptic gospels, in other words, they give a bit of a synopsis of the life of Jesus, and um, and and that they they don't all include the same material, but they're they're they're all of them kind of giving a bit of a kind of uh it's going somewhere, it's a bit of a narrative.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: John, and there's a stream of Johannine writing in the New Testament.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's John's Gospel, the letters of John, 1, 2, and 3, John, and the book of Revelation, and you'll see differences from the other stuff and similarities between themselves.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and John's Gospel is a really carefully constructed, crafted meditation on the life of Jesus.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's built around seven discourses, seven big chunks of teaching.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's built around seven miracles because for John, that seven is a a number of perfection, and it's all you need to know about Jesus.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, he says that you know, lots of things can be written about Jesus, but all you need to know is in this book, and um, and of course, we we find that kind of tradition it right back there in in Revelation as well, which is again built on a series of sevens if if you're familiar with that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: That all makes sense, and but you may have heard this already before from some other source, but for me, I can think, oh, what's the tradition which this is standing in?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um sometimes the gospels reflect the character a little bit and the interests of the writer and their particular lens, because we all have our own unique relationship with Jesus, don't we?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, your under, like like any relationship, the way that you know Tim Dobson will be different from the way I know Tim Dobson, because he is who he is, but we have a relationship with him, and so we have a lens in how we look at him.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same with those those people, the lens in which they look at the life of Jesus, but the within that kind of four different accounts from four different perspectives, we have this beautifully rounded um understanding of the nature, the unique and awesome nature of the one that we follow, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Peter then, hmm, what's that all about?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Peter is probably the earliest gospel.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you when whenever you look into biblical studies, you'll find there's controversy.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, behind the scenes, there's lots of controversy about almost everything.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and but there's again the bulk of of um scholarship, then there may well have been a proto-gospel that we don't know that doesn't exist anymore, that we that we haven't got access to, that was a bit of the basis for material that's in Mark.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and there are there are other writings, actually, by the way, that may have some unique sayings of Jesus that aren't even in in the Bible as we know it, particularly the gospel of of Thomas.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, yeah.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: But um, that's just a little interesting detail.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But um, we've got enough in what we've got here.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: But um what am I trying to say?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so but we we feel that that mark is the the earliest gospel that we have.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna use that as my starting point tonight, and and there's a little bit of debate about that, but on the whole, consensus is the earliest gospel we have is Mark, and and and the other gospel writers may well borrow some of the material, and and you could find some very similar um stories told almost in exactly the same way in some of the other gospels, right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: But but Mark, um, as well as being early, it's a very it's the shortest gospel, it's action-packed, it kind of um it starts off with a bang, it doesn't kind of muck about with nativity stories or anything like that, just starts off Jesus, the son of God, you know, this is where we're going.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh and I I think with Mark as well, what I see in the Gospel of Mark, first of all, a word that's translated immediately, very often, if you if you go through your your Bible and underline immediately, oh, it keeps on saying immediately, it's kind of like there's not a lot of narrative space, it's boom, boom, boom.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like Mark's like a trumpet call, it's like a clarion.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that Mark is interested in the kingdom of God.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's and for me it the the a priority of of Mark is it's a kingdom one, and because of that, one of the things that you'll find in in Mark's Gospel is that there's a lot of spiritual warfare.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mark's gospel um it kind of pivots that there's there's a it's kind of like a gospel of two halves.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: The first half, right up to Mark chapter eight, there's a lot of of the kind of the things that Jesus does.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: There are 20 miracle stories in in the in the book of Mark, in the first eight chapters, and and uh about a third, uh over a third of the start of Mark is devoted to that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: But in Mark chapter eight, there's a there's a pivot moment.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is where Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's where Peter has his amazing declaration, you're the you're the Christ, the the Messiah, the Son of God.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And from that time on, the focus shifts from the things that Jesus is doing to where he's going, that is, towards his death on the cross in Jerusalem.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the second half of Mark, because Mark's only about 16 chapters, so kind of like here we are, is it's very much orientated towards that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the last week of Jesus' life, the passion of Christ is takes up a really significant part of that final part of Mark's Gospel.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's but here's uh Mark telling us about King Jesus.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we're actually gonna dive straight into Mark.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and as I said, as a kingdom gospel, it has so much in terms of deliverance ministry in it, of encounters with the demonic.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the the very first miracle, you know, it's interesting in John's gospel.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: The first miracle is what?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are gonna get a lot of points tonight.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have you been going to Tim's Bible schools?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so it's interesting that that's not recorded anywhere else, but it's it's really important for John because he's giving a picture of who Jesus is.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's the bridegroom who's coming, and and and there's there's a whole lot of other reasons why that miracle's there.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: But in Mark's gospel, what's the first sort of thing that Jesus does that's like kind of like a sign?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone tell me?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cast out a demon.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he goes into the synagogue, and there's a man there who shouts out, we know who you are, you know, and and and Jesus sets him free.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and and that that's a bit of a marker, actually.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of deliverance ministry through the book of Mark.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna just start off.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna actually read to you the first eight verses.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe maybe we might go, we might go to first 12.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: I reckon if we get through the first 12 verses in the next 25 minutes, we'll have done, we'll have done well.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is that all right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: You with me, okay?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm asking you questions, and so far only so no, Sophie's giving me lots of answers, but this is very interactive, so do shout out if you can.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, as is written in now, Isaiah the prophet.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll send my messenger ahead of you who'll prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: They were baptized by him in the river Jordan.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this was his message: After me comes one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, was baptized by John in the Gordon.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And just as Jesus was coming out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And a voice came from heaven.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: At once the spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's packed with content, isn't it?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: A few verses incredibly dense.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the beginning.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, Mark's Gospel is kind of bookended with that declare declaration, the Son of God.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's here in Mark chapter 1.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 15, which is almost at the end of Mark's Gospel.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, there's a kind of alternate ending to Mark's Gospel, which probably people think was added later to tidy it up because it was left a little bit untidy.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: But we won't go into that now.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: But almost right at the end of it, there's another person who says the son of God, and that is the Roman centurion.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Surely this man was the son of God, he says, as he witnesses the crucifixion.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's really striking because the language, the son of God, and the time of Rome was a title for the emperor.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Augustus, who was the first uh emperor after Julius Caesar and kind of ended a civil war in the Roman Empire, was given that honorific title, uh, the Son of God, and took it himself.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Caesar worship was a big deal in the first century.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and he was also called Prince of Peace, actually, because the Pax Romana, bringing peace to a uh you know, the to the empire was something that was given a lot of.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was called saviour.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you think there's a Roman Emperor's called Savior, Son of God, Prince of Peace.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Who else is called that?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel writers are setting out here's um the real son of God, here's the real Prince of Peace, here's the real savior, it's Jesus, and that's quite a challenge, actually.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting, it's right here at the very beginning.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a centurion, a soldier in the Roman Empire who recognizes not the Caesar's Lord, but the Jesus Lord right at the end, that Jesus is a son of God.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little interesting bookend.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Just that's just there in verse one.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's great, anyway.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so as it's written in Isaiah the prophet, I'll send my messenger ahead of you, who'll prepare your way.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight straight path for him.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: What's is there anything odd or contradictory about that verse?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: As it's written in the in Isaiah the prophet, I'll send my messenger ahead of you, who prepare your way.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's anything odd about that?
• 18:49
  unknown: It's actually a quotation from Malachi.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or Malachi.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, it is.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just interesting, a little little detail.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you look it up in your commentaries, where does that come from?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll send my messenger ahead of you.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's from Malachi.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Malachi actually means messenger in Hebrew, it's the same word.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um, sometimes the the the reason that's not an issue for us is because Isaiah sometimes stands for the prophets.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of the way that the Hebrew Bible is ordered, it's ordered into writings and wisdom literature and the prophets, and the preeminent first prophet is Isaiah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes everything that's prophetic is kind of under the banner of Isaiah, and and Isaiah actually is perhaps the most frequently quoted prophetic book by Jesus in the New Testament.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And here we've got two verses, there's there's a verse from Malachi followed by a verse from Isaiah, um, and they're they're pointing towards the one that is to come.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Malachi is really interesting in that respect because it's the last book of the Old Testament.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then we've got 400 years where there's it was called the intertestimonial period where where there isn't anything that's canonically recorded.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: There was lots of religious writing, actually, and lots of stuff that was circulating.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what we have in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, there's a gap of 400 years.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it Malachi, as you probably know, finishes by saying, you know, I'll send um the prophet Elijah to you before that great and terrible day of the Lord.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: He will turn the hearts of the parents of the children.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here's this quote, a quote from Malachi, which talks in chapter three, just before the end of Malachi, about a messenger who's gonna come.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then the the the quote from Isaiah, um uh I think Isaiah chapter 40, where where um there's this this promise that the the way of the Lord has come, make his path straight, that every mantle will be brought down, every valley will be raised up.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a picture as it was in in the time when in the ancient world, when a king was gonna come home to his city or come and visit a city, then you'd be out making it nice for it, you know, level the pathways.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's let's let's prepare the way.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they they've done that in modern cities actually, haven't they?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's slum clearance to kind of when a present's visiting.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: But um, here here that was a practice, and and it's a little bit of a reference.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: The king's coming, we need to make the way for him, and and this, this, this, there's two two comings, if you like, the coming of the messenger to prepare the way of the Lord, and the coming of the the Lord Himself.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they're linked in the Old Testament, they're linked actually by bringing these two verses together.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Malachi is talking about the messenger who's gonna come, Isaiah is gonna talk about the Lord Himself who's coming, and then straight away we're gonna be introduced to John the Baptist, who's gonna introduce us to Jesus.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got the messenger, and we've got the one who he's a messenger about, all within the next few verses.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that all right?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, John the Baptist appears in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um and it talks about John the Baptist, and it's it talks about his clothing.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you have got a Bible and you're going to turn to um to the book of Kings, 2 Kings, chapter 1, you'll find a little interesting description of someone in there.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is a story way back in the reign of um in uh well in in in the old testament back in Israel, and it's at the time of Elijah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh Elijah is having a bit of challenge, challenging time with the king, and um people keep trying to going to try and arrest him, and um and whenever they do, fire comes down from heaven, which is an issue.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um anyway, the so the king says um where is it?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of man who came to meet you told you this?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they replied, he had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's 2 Kings chapter 1, verse 8.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: He wore a garment of hair, had a leather belt around his waist.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So John the Baptist looks like Elijah, he he he's wearing a hairy coat with a leather belt around his waist.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So already we've got a clue because those these here would know the Old Testament, oh John the Baptist, he looks like Elijah.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's lots of things about him that's like Elijah.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things about Elijah is he gets into trouble with kings, and he gets into trouble with with kings' wives in particular.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know do you know that story?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: For those who don't, a little bit fresher.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Elijah Um in his day was challenging idolatry in the people of Israel.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: They they were worshiping uh the god of the of the Canaanites and the people of the land that could do the Baals, as they're called, or the God of the Philistines, or whatever.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and and Elijah challenges them, they have a big and and the wife of the king, Jezebel, she she's really into all that.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: She's really welcomed all these kind of other priests, the prophets from the from the idolatrous gods, and Elijah kind of on his own challenges them, and they have this big stand off um on Mount Carmel, and and and that they're all kind of crying out to for the Baals, and nothing happens.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and and Elijah builds a big altar and covers it with water, and then prays, and fire comes from heaven and consumes it.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty handy with the fire from heaven, Elijah is.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh and all the the priests of Baal get slaughtered, and and Jezebel is furious, and she she kind of threatens to take take his life, and and so he flees from her.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um so Elijah is afraid of the wife of the king and gets into trouble with her.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually John the Baptist also challenges the king, and and and he challenges the king of his day, King Herod, who is uh in a kind of marriage which is not lawful, and he's he's married to his kind of um it's like an incestuous marriage to Herodias, and um, and and and and she is mad with with John the Baptist.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so Herod has John the Baptist arrested, and um in that kind of famous scene where the daughter of um Herodias dances and pleases the king, and and and Herod says, Well, what do you want me to give for you?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um, the head of John the Baptist.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, guess his head dropped off.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Spoiler alert if you've not read the book of but um again it's a it's a parallel, isn't it?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of of prophets in the spirit of Elijah who fall out with a king and his wife.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, there are lots of uh repeated names in the Bible, aren't there?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's repeated Herods.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: There was Herod the Great, who is um um the the the Herod at the time of the um birth of Jesus, is not the same Herod as you get later on.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's um is he a uh a grandson of Herod the Great, and and uh the the Herod the Great's kind of territory they'd been ruling on behalf of the Romans has been split up, and anyway, just a detail.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just like there's lots of Joseph in the Bible, and um lots of lots of Marys, far too many Marys, frankly.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Get them all muddled.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but just this kind of prophetic role that that prophets has of of speaking truth to power, of confronting injustice, and of calling people back from idolatry to the worship of God.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what John the Baptist is doing.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: He and he's in he is the fulfillment of the promise that Malachi gives, that there's someone coming who's gonna be um I'm gonna send Elijah in that great and terrible day of the Lord to turn the hearts of the parents of the children, otherwise, I'll strike the land with a curse.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And people who listened to John the Baptist preaching were prepared for Jesus.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: The New Testament records that even that the tax collectors of the prostitutes listened to John and were baptized by him and found it easy to recognize Jesus.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the the the the the kind of religious people who weren't found it hard to recognize Jesus.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting, actually.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of Jesus' followers, James and John, were disciples of John the Baptist before they were disciples of Jesus.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's those two that wanted to call down far from heaven on a Samaritan village.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just a little detail.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's beautiful though, isn't it?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: The way that that John's posture after me comes one more powerful than I am, at the straps of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's the role of a slave.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's very um, there's a lot of taboo around feet and sandals and that kind of thing.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the lowest job of anyone ever was to sort out the feet and the sandals.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist says, I'm that's the place I I'm not worthy even to take that.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: He has this posture of humility, which is beautiful.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, doesn't he, to his disciples in in John's Gospel, he must increase, I must decrease.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, so we're really grateful for him.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and Jesus beautifully both elevates John the Baptist.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's no one greater born of women than John the Baptist, but the least of the kingdom of heaven is greater than him, and that's all to do with the work of the spirit.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I often think about John the Baptist as the you know, we we we use the language, I use the language of the now not yet the kingdom, and I think about the the not yet the kingdom as John.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's not yet.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pointing towards it, I see it, I welcome it, but I don't yet inherit it.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he's the prophet who fasts, who's ascetic, who you know, whereas Jesus is the the kingdom is now here, where Jesus the kingdom is, and so he's feasting and celebrating all the time.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's the prophet of feasting, and that that whole tension between the now and not yet.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: John's the not yet prophet, Jesus is the now proclaimer of the kingdom.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus is, the kingdom of heaven is.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so here's Jesus.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes from Nazareth in Galilee and baptized by John in the Jordan, and 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.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very violent language, the heaven being torn open.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of what makes me feel of like the kind of spiritual warfare element, what's going on here.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's this kind of oh, is there a resistance from in the heavenly realm to Jesus?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's uh Jesus, I mean, that the devil is sometimes called the Prince of the Power of the Air.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that there is this kind of, and it somehow the kind of maybe you one way you could look at it is like we're being we're being besieged, or or that the whole earth is kind of like surrounded by uh unclean powers.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of in my own com cosmology, the way I try and understand it, I think, is I feel like that the um the powers that were the angelic powers that were involved in creation are fallen ones in our case.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some embedded principles and powers in our bit of the universe that are fallen and uh and they're resistant to the spirit of God.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that is like speculative language, and you find quite a lot of that in C.S.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis's imaginative writing, particularly um in his um three science fiction novels, The Voyage to Venus from uh out of the silent planet, and um uh that hideous strength.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Recommend them.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: A good rollicking read, but anyway, so here was this violent picture, spiritual warfare, heaven being torn open.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: The you know it's like the D-Day landing is happening, it's kind of all the resistance being broken because the spirit of God has come upon Jesus.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: What there are some things in the story of Jesus being baptized which are really significant, and we think about the history of what's going on, and so the spirit, there's water, there's a dove, so there's some motifs in the big stories that inform the whole of the Bible that are right there in the book of Genesis and the Exodus, that we're good to get our heads around.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, where have we seen the spirit and water working before?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the very first book of the very first verses of the Bible talk about um the spirit hovering over the waters because God is doing something really creative, there's a new creation going on, and the early account in the book of Genesis is is God bringing order out of chaos, bringing creation into being, and um and the spirit is really involved in that.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that might make us think there's a new creation thing going on here where we see spirit water.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where do we see water and new creation elsewhere in in the in the book of Genesis?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Noah's flood.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: The the Noah's story in the Old Testament is almost like a a rerun of creation, it's it's a sense in which the the following the fall of Adam and Eve, and then the subsequent breaking down of um loving relationships between human beings, starting with Cain and Abel, and and and Cain killing his brother Abel, and then there's this kind of rise of violence culminating in someone called Lamech who who kind of says, you know, I'm gonna take revenge 70 times on someone who's injured me.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, he's one of the ancestors of Noah.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and and in the Genesis account, God says to Noah, you know, uh, or God is grieved that the earth is full of violence, it says it grieved into his heart.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of cleanse the world, and and the way that happens in the Genesis story is through a flood, and um, but there's one righteous family that's rescued from the flood, and that's Noah and his sons and their wives and all the animals, um, two by two or seven by seven or however they came in.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, but that picture of um cleansing and new beginning.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you read it in Genesis, you'll see this is a rerun of of the first creation story, and so God says the same commission to Noah as he gives to Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and um and they do that, there's this whole new beginning thing.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we see again water and a new beginning, but there's something extra in the Noah story that we see here, and that's the dove.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: The sign of new creation in Genesis is when Noah sends out a dove from the ark, he sends it out over the waters when the rain stopped and they're still bobbing about, and um comes back, and there's nowhere to rest.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then Noah sends the dove out again, and the dove comes, brings an olive branch back.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, there's life on the earth again, and and then when when the the dove is sound again, it it leaves because it's it's found somewhere it can rest.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a picture, if you like, one of the names of Jesus is branch, the righteous branch.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's the new creation person on whom the spirit can now rest without limit, as John the Baptist recalls, because he's totally pure, and and the picture of baptism and the spirit coming like a dove is actually in itself a harking back to the cleansing of the earth in the Noah story and the the dove being sent out.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Does that illusion is there to be seen?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost it might be hidden in plain sight if you don't link the stories, but I think it was written to the people who first will have heard this sort of stuff will have made that link in their in their mind of that ah yeah, there's a new creation act going on.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God's new creation, there's a whole new age coming.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and what we see with the proclamation of the kingdom is that all through history so far there's been kind of God's creative work and it's been spoiled, and and a new beginning, whether it's through Noah or whether it's through the the chosen people of Abraham and whether it's through a king like David, and all the time it kind of comes to nothing because of human brokenness.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: But finally, God sends his son not just to come uh like a kind of conquering king, but also to embrace humanity and to sweep our humanity up into his divinity, Jesus who is fully fully human, but also fully God, and and and on whom the spirit can rest.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And now there's someone who's like a true Israel.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the one of the the way that Israel can be referred to is God's son, and um uh and you'll you'll find, for instance, in the book of Hosea that um that that God refers to to um Israel as his son, someone who he kind of leads with cause of kindness.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus really is God's son in that kind of special and unique way to bring us all into the inheritance of the sons of God as we become the bride of Christ, because you know, we're with both genders get a look in.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that that's what what's going on here, you know, there's a new creation out.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: We we've got our attention here already.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're only in verse um verse 10, and we're we're already our our minds are taken right back to those primal stories.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding the purpose of God is to bring a new creation and renew the earth, and it's happening through the man Jesus Christ.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: At once the spirit sent him into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan, he was with the world animals, and angels attended him.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, warfare straight away, you know.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes uh when we talk about the spirit, we use the dove as a sign of peace, don't we?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I the the dove here is a sign of war, it's a sign of conflict.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send you out into the into the wilderness to be um tempted by the devil.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, where where does the wilderness fit in?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: How long was Jesus in the wilderness for?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: 40 days ago when it comes to trials.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 40 days is a big number, isn't it?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh and and it it we we think uh don't we, because of that, again, the story of Israel, the story of the people of God being in the wilderness for 40 years, and there's a sense in which just the the 40 language is a resonance for the people who are hearing it.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, in the wilderness, 40.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that rings a bell with me.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: What was going on there?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the wilderness for the people of Israel was a time of formation, wasn't it?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was a time of testing for sure.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: There were those people who in the wilderness um had a kind of an Egypt craving.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: There were people in the wilderness who had an idol worshipping bent, you know, who didn't fully trust in God's ability to lead them.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there are people in the wilderness who were faithful, and those people who were faithful are particularly summed up by um people like Caleb and Joshua who who had the confidence that God was on uh their Lord and their leader, and they were going to be able to inherit all that they had and go into Promised Land.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a time of real testing, it was a time of real miracles.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the the more miraculous events really in the in the exodus wanderings than we we can find almost anywhere else in the Bible, you know, and and um and in a sense as people go to see John the Baptist to be baptized, there's a sense in which they're participating in their own exodus.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's a sense in which there's a continual motif in the Bible of the people of God being in exile waiting for deliverance.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And even though at the time of Jesus the people were in the land, yet they were still in some ways aware of a sense of exodus, a sense of oppression, a sense of being under the domination of powers, of not being able to worship with the full freedom that God had for the full sovereignty that they tasted briefly in the in the in the Maccabean era, just um a couple of centuries beforehand.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but now they're they're back under the thumb of a of an alien power.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: There must be a deliverer, messiah coming.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: And but but all of that is there, and and um and the Exodus motif bringing us through water, maybe through a wilderness, and then into a promised land, is one way of understanding all the journey of the people of God.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in fact, Luke, in his story of the transfiguration of Jesus, it says Jesus, when he meets with Moses and Elijah on the mountain, says he spoke with them about his exodus.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um Moses and Liz, that's interesting, isn't it?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those those two figures, the law and the prophets, both people who had an unusual way of dying.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, we haven't got time to look at that now.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't think we've got time for anything else now because we've got to finish and get ready for students to come down here.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I've whittered on at you.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any kind of comments, question, reflection that you want to push back at me from anything I've said?
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think when we get baptized, uh that's our own getting hold of that story for us.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's recognizing that I mean, and and of course, um in in in the epistles, I think in Peter's it, uh that reference point to Noah and and Baptist is made explicit.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, we do.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: I also think that for many people there is a a formation that happens sometimes through wilderness.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, wilderness can be a place of refuge in the Old Testament as well as a place of testing.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so in the book of Revelation, you know, the the woman who is stands perhaps for the church is being chased by um by the great serpent, the great dragon.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: She she's finds a refuge in the wilderness, and and and very just like for well, there's lots of stories where wilderness is refuge as well as everything's very clear in the wilderness.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's uncomplemented, it's very black and white, it's a bit greyer in the promised land, actually.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: The miracles are very clear.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: The guidance of God and the exodus is really clear.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night, easy.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: When they get into promised land, those things are not there for them anymore.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: They have to work it out a little bit.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, for many of us, a wilderness period.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, you know, I I often talk about my own testimony of going into um a time of spiritual questing and going to work in Western Superman, just like the wilderness, barren, dead, and and having a real encounter with God.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sorry, you've lived that so yeah.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think we we we can we can be formed in wilderness times for sure.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't talked about the spirit very much.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, there's so much in when we talk about the spirit, what was the early hearers think about the spirit, and they will have so many reference points um in their ultimate scriptures of the spirit, whether it's Ezekiel, whether it's the prophet Joel that Peter quotes, whether it's stuff from Isaiah, and but the work of the spirit is preeminently what John the Baptist tells us that Jesus is coming to do, and I often reflect on that.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's come to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and water's just a picture, and and and water and spirit they're they're they're they're taken up in the New Testament big time.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Any other comments, questions?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let you close us off, Tim, shall I?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, by the way, if if it was Tim, you'd have had a handout, you'd have had a properly produced talk instead of a bit of rambledness.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much, Dave.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh just to say that Tuesday Bible school is happening, we're just looking at the book of Exodus.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to come along uh on Tuesday this week in the foyer, uh Paul and Dan Weiner are doing the input for us.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and next uh in November, uh Jack Saunders, who's uh youth minister, he did a master's looking at the mission of God in Scripture.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: So he's gonna do a talk for us, the mission of God in Scripture uh next Bible school in November.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll just take a chance to praise, okay, as we finish.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um God, thank you so much for your word and for how we see through Scripture being woven this uh image and picture that is fully seen in the person of Jesus and and now we can enjoy because of uh the grace of the life that He's given to us.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to, as we look at your word, to uh to read it, to understand it, to put it into practice and to find that actually it's life given to us as well.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your spirit, Lord.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for our own personal exodus of uh being freed from sin and coming to find uh wholeness and freedom in you.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, we say thank you for your word.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well thanks very much, folks.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say the students will be here in five minutes or so, so if you unless you're a student, thanks very much for coming.