Latest / Deep-Grace Diving with Tim Wright and Terey Summers / Mark Bible Study: The Baptism of Jesus

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Mark Bible Study: The Baptism of Jesus · Deep-Grace Diving with Tim Wright and Terey Summers

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, Tim Wright here, along with Terry Summers.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: And John D. Burgess.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we are doing Bible study together.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we just started last week.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: In case you missed the first episode,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: you might want to go back and we give you a little background on the Gospel of Mark.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing the Gospel of Mark together.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a way for us to look at the story of Jesus along with you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a way for perhaps you in your busy schedule to do a little Bible study along with us.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to look at the story of the baptism of Jesus and the temptation of Jesus.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to give John and Terry a chance to do a little work.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about how important it is to do Bible study with our imagination,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: with curiosity,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: with our brains.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll talk more about that in a moment.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Let me read for you the passage.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then before we actually dive into it, John's got a question.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: But let me read the passage first.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So here's where we're going.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're going with Mark chapter 1, 9 through 13.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: In those days, Jesus...
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: who's already been identified for us as the Christ and the Son of God up in verse 1.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Jesus we're talking about.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pause there because John D. has a question about John T.,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So what I just want to pull us back real quick to verse six.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the description of John the Baptist.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair and he wore a leather bolt.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: He wore a leather belt around his waist for food.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: He ate locusts and wild honey.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: A comment always struck me as, frankly, a little funny and a little odd.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I thought,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: if you want to set up John the Baptist to be a big deal,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: is that the detail you want to include?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it's very detailed.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I can imagine John the Baptist thinking,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: if he reads it,
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: of all the stuff I did,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: that's the stuff you want to focus on.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a lot of detail, right?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: So why would we...
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: I know we're painting a picture,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: but isn't there other things we would want to say about John the Baptist?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a great question because they're being very intentional in why they're describing him that way.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the intention is to set John up almost to bring into mind for the
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: people of Israel,
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: the prophets of old.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And specifically someone like Elijah, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: these guys who, you know, they spent a lot of time out in the wilderness.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: They were seen oftentimes as uncouth.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: In some ways,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: the outsiders,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: because they were looking in on their people and bringing a message to them to say,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: hey,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: guys,
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: you're not really living the way God wants you to,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: and people don't necessarily like those kinds of people.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: So later on in the story,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will compare John the Baptist to Elijah the prophet.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, think of it this way.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: If we were writing it today and we wanted to connect Elijah to a superhero,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: we'd say,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: he's sitting in a phone booth and he's got a cape on and a mask.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And people would, oh, yeah, he's a superhero.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so with this description, say, oh, yeah, he's like a prophet.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: He's like one of those Old Testament prophets fulfilling the prophecy that this guy
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: is going to prepare us for Jesus' coming.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, that's a great question.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they're very intentional in what they're doing here.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: he saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove on him.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And a voice came from heaven, you are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: He was in the wilderness for 40 days,
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: tempted by Satan,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: and he was with the wild beasts and angels waited on him.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the ways to study Scripture, as I said before, is to use our imagination.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to invite all of you who are listening,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: and then,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: of course,
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: John and Terry,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: they're going to be speaking,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: to imagine you're at the story.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're there watching this happen.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to ask you guys both to pick a viewpoint.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to tell me what it is at this point.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're a bystander.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're John the Baptist in the water.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: But just sort of pick your point of view as you watch this story.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And as you do that, I'm going to read it for you again.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you now to imagine you're there seeing this.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to talk a little bit about what you're seeing and what you're
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: feeling and what questions it may raise for you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever your point of view is, that's where you are now.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So listen to the story from that point of view.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And just as he was coming up out of the water,
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: he saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove on him.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And a voice came from heaven.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: You are my son, the beloved.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: With you, I am well pleased.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: He was in the wilderness 40 days,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: tempted by Satan,
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: and he was with the wild beasts,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: and the angels waited on him.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, tell us where you're standing as you visualize this story and who you are maybe.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am standing on if it were the south side of the bank of whatever this is, like literally.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I came because I had heard that he was baptizing.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I'm clued in a little bit from scripture above Christ.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: That we didn't necessarily read aloud where he said he was baptizing in,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: verse four in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: forgiveness of sins.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of was curious to Terry just when I was reading prior to our podcast.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: But so if he's baptizing Jesus, how what is the is this a public thing?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then the spirit descended,
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might,
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a little confused on the point of baptizing Jesus from,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't kind of get rid of what I already know about Jesus.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So taking that in.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get rid of it for a little bit here.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a reporter.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm here with Jerusalem Times and Terry Summers.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: We hear something really exciting happened down at the Jordan River.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'll mute you.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's FedEx.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, my dog just came in.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: There, we've got him turned off.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, you're on mute.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So John,
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to come to you and then we'll come back to Terry because she's going to
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: go quiet her dog down.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: John, your point of view, where are you standing?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a bystander as well.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm just curious as to what this is that seems to be causing some fur amongst the people.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just kind of standing back.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you head on out to the Jordan River.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you're just curious what's going on.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've heard rumors about some guy out there who's eating locusts and honey,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: dressed in animal fur,
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: whatever it is.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: What do you see?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think what strikes me right away is it's a pretty interesting description that
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: the heavens were torn apart and then immediately followed by the spirit descending
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: like a dove.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I think what strikes me is this.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: incredible, frightening might immediately followed by this tenderness.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think those are hard to describe.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a type of thunder that is more aggressive than I've heard before.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think to me, it sounds like in today's time, if you hear
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: a jet fighter pass over above you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like it's tearing the air apart.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's kind of what it sounds like.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think there's this immediately followed by this piece that,
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: that has got to be just as striking,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: but for different reasons.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: When you're,
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: when you're looking at the guy who was baptized and this is all happening to what,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: what's your initial impression of him?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think I look at him and I think he kind of looks like the rest of us,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: but something must be different here because that doesn't happen when I walk in the Jordan.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, you're back with us.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did your dog eat the FedEx guy?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm, as you know, I'm in a different location and I apologize for that.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So Terry, you're on, you're on the banks of the river.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: What do you see?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: What did you see?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I saw this, this,
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: gentlemen baptize this other fellow and when that happens um i think that i was
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: taken like it seemed like other than experience other than because of of whatever i
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: might have determined the spirit was and i think i don't know i mean i'm
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I still kind of would associate it with a dove,
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: but something took place that I think is super unusual.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go back to that first verse we looked at last week.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just read it for you again.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And as I mentioned, this is an overture.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so these themes are going to come back over and over again.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we see this theme come back almost immediately in the baptism of Jesus.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so you've got Jesus coming from Nazareth.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: John is in the Jordan River.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So John is, to answer Terry's question, John is baptizing people
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: with a baptism of repentance,
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: which is an interesting phrase because we're going to learn later that the baptism
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus does is different from the baptism that John does.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: So John's, I don't want to get in the weeds here because I know I can get us in the weeds.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: No,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: no,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: it's,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: it's in the weeds because of all the background that we need to know about these
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: different Jewish religious
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: entities and how they viewed baptism um so they always many of them uh had ritual
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: washings so if you wanted before you could eat uh you would have to wash your hands
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: or baptize your hands so to speak oh clean your hands uh if you wanted to go into
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: worship in some of these places you had to go into a full ritual bath and bathe
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: yourself before you could go into worship
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so John's baptism has some of that sense about it that if you want an
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: experience of God,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: you first need to get washed up.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so he, in a sense, he kind of represents God.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be careful in saying an old understanding of how God works,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: but an understanding of God that's dependent sort of on what we need to do,
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: and Jesus is going to come to remind us that that's backwards.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So John is a Baptist in repentance,
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: and essentially what he's doing is he wants people to get their hearts prepared for God.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the physical ways to do that so that their body can participate is to get in the water.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be something that the public at that time would be kind of reading
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: into this if they were standing around?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they would understand that because they had all kinds of these ritual washings.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: They would even have to baptize or wash certain eating utensils, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the way you would prepare it for its purpose.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So when this extra happens,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: when there's this voice and this,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: then they're clued in that this is different.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yes.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's always interesting to ask the question, who heard this?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: and who saw what was going on.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: We have other stories where,
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: and John was mentioning this earlier while you were trying to free the FedEx leg
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: from your dog's mouth,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: that it sounded like thunder.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we have another story where God speaks and some people hear thunder.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Some people hear the voice of God.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so we don't really know for sure what other people saw.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: We can look at the scripture now and stand there because we know what they're saying.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: We can say, okay, what am I seeing?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: But it could just be that the only ones who actually saw this were John and Jesus in that moment.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And what we don't have in Mark's gospel,
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: because again,
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: he's so concise,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: is in the other gospels,
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: John says,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: why are you doing this?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: You should be baptizing me.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, no, I want to do it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want to do it by the book.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because he's building up his street cred, of course, himself.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But to go back to that first verse,
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Two things happen here.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: One, the Spirit comes down on him.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And remember what we said the word Christ means?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: It means Messiah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: It means anointing.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so in this moment, Jesus is anointed as Messiah in the baptism.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: So God is anointing him.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: This is my chosen one.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then what does he say to him?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: He says, this is my son.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: You are my son, the beloved.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And with you, I am well pleased.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Terry.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if it were just John the Baptist and Jesus that were hearing this,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: what would the significance be of God saying that to Jesus when Jesus already knew
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: that and probably John did too?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so now see, let's use our imaginations.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus know prior to his baptism?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Do we even dare ask questions like this?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And in some places you would be hit with lightning.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens to Jesus right after this?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to look.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He goes into the wilderness, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then what happens right after the wilderness?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: What begins?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: His ministry.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I got you right, John.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: All right, John, take it in.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's strong.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's strong.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, to answer your question, I think he knew, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a hard time believing that before that happened, Jesus did not know who Jesus was.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So what if...
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows, has a sense of who he is.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's why he's there.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: But for 30 years, he's really been wrestling with this.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, who doesn't wrestle with, who am I?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is wrestling with this idea.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Has God called me to something different?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: his responsibility as the firstborn,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: especially if Joseph is out of the picture,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: is to take care of the family.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And now he's going to leave his family, the one who's supposed to take responsibility and leave.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: So there's obviously something churning in him.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to connect the dots here in a moment.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: But what if part of the reason why God speaks to Jesus is so that Jesus can hear clearly,
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: this is who you are,
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: to get him ready to
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: for everything that's going to happen to him as he goes.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to fill in some blanks, and then obviously we'll come back to him.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing that happens after he hears, you are my son, he goes into the wilderness.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Mark doesn't record this, but Matthew and Luke do.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: For 40 days, that very identity is tested again and again by Satan.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So imagine Jesus walks into the wilderness.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: He's just heard the voice of God saying, you're my son.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he gets in the wilderness and Satan says, really?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: You think you heard right?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: All right, if you think you're the son of God, let's give this a test drive.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you turn those rocks into bread?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you jump off a building and see if God saves you?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you kneel down before me and I'll really let you run the world.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: So every step of the way, his identity is tested.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: And could it be that part of the reason why he heard you are my son,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: the beloved,
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: is to give him the anchor he was going to need when his identity is called into
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: question in the wilderness.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then the next time he hears those words is at the transfiguration where which
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: two people showed up,
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: by the way,
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: from your quiz last week?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Moses and
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Moses and Elijah, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus hears again, this is my son, because that's going to have to carry him through the crucifixion.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because what does he say on the cross?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So is it possible that even though, remember now, Jesus is a human being.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: He was raised by human parents.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he's got a God complex, you know, a little joking.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: You'd have to imagine that he's wrestling with his identity.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so at this baptism, two things are happening.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think one is for us as readers, it's sort of that coronation.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, he's the son of God.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's the Messiah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Two things prove that.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: The dove came on him and God said it.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're going to see how that plays out over the course of the rest of Mark.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it was also for Jesus and for John's sake.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: So just to make this,
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: turn this back to more about Terry and I,
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: I thought you were going to say it was really for the bystanders that this happened,
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus knew who he was.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: But what I also hear you saying now is to be fully man and fully God at the same time,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: there was a part of Jesus that,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: that,
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: that could use affirming at that point.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we think that Jesus just knew that he was always God's son.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that stories like these give us a sense that Jesus in his own humanness
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: needed the reaffirmation.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine sort of knowing if I go this direction,
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's not going to end well.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: You better really know who you are.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, I think that this story was more for Jesus to get him ready for that moment.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: He was going to go and wrestle with his identity in the wilderness for 40 days.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that when he came out of that,
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: and by the way,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: who else wrestled with their identity in the wilderness for 40 years?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me Moses.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Moses and the people of Israel.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hey!
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: For 40 years.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: You're on fire, Terry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on fire.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: They entered the wilderness as slaves.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: They left the wilderness as people of God.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So for 40 years, their identity is being forged.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so in the wilderness, the identity of Jesus is being forged.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not just Joseph's son.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: not just mary's son you're not just the firstborn you are my son and by the way i'm
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: really proud of you and that gets him through gives him the courage to handle all
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: of that stuff that's really going to call into question are you really the son of
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: god you're sure you're just not a little nutty and then that propels him into his
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: mission and ministry and carries him through and so i think just like any human
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: being
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus needed that word from his parent, his father, that yes, I love you.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm proud of you.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do this thing.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it was that relationship with God.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yes,
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: John,
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying,
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think this story happened more for the sake of Jesus first and then John the Baptist.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And whether people around heard it, saw it,
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think at that point,
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: if they did see anything or hear anything,
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: they would have just been completely confused.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: What was that?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Did we really see it?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Was it thunder?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Was it my tummy?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Did I really see a dove come down?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: They would have had no context for it at that point if they saw it.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing I want to say about this, and then we'll pick it up with you guys,
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: It talks about the heavens being torn apart.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That phrase doesn't come back again until the end when Jesus dies and the temple
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: curtains are pulled apart.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Same word.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Same word,
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: which is a way of saying that God has removed the barriers between heaven and earth,
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: between the divine and creation.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: God has entered into human history in the person of Jesus.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a barrier there anymore.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is the one who bridges that gap or removes the barrier.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: So again, it's another way for John here to do it a little bit more of that overture stuff.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that word phrase comes up again at the death of Jesus.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it is baptism, right?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: When his identity is revealed and at his death,
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: when i would argue his identity is revealed as the crucified god okay um there are
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: some other things that we can tease out i think for us personally but what other
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: questions is this race for you
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You had said that at first it could have likely been for Jesus.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so into that.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got you.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you said, but then also John the Baptist.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can you flesh out that just a pinch?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: John knew that his whole purpose was to get people ready for the coming of the Messiah.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now John and Jesus were cousins.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they knew each other.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And could it be that John...
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And wondered, is he the guy or not?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we know he asked that question later on in one of the gospels.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: As he was sitting in prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus and said, are you the guy?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I'm sure he's thinking back, well, I know I saw that dove.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: I know I heard the voice, but I can't die until I know for sure.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, well, just go and show him what I'm telling him what I'm doing.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: blind see the lame walk uh the deaf received their hearing yeah i'm the guy um and
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: uh so yeah i think it was also for john to say okay john your work is done uh
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: you've done what you needed to do you prepared the way um and jesus your cousin is
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: he's the guy
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: And he still had some doubts as he went along.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: But I think John needed to know as well so that he just didn't keep baptizing
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: people wondering,
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: is this the guy?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then for us now,
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: all these years later,
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: we read the story and we see the pieces and we say it's for us as well.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's what I was going to say.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it would have been more impressive if I had said it before you, Tim.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: All right, say it.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: What I think is interesting here is
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: that it sort of affirms the humanity of Jesus.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: It what?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: It what, John?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: It affirms the humanity of Jesus.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then at the same time,
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: 2,000 years later,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: billions of people have read it,
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: and we're essentially asking the question,
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: who is Jesus?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a pretty clear indicator of who Jesus was,
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: who they believed he was then,
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: and who many of us believe he is now.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And again, Mark is taking us on a journey.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of us listening have been on that journey already, right?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we sort of have these preconceived ideas of who Jesus is.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And what's fun about doing something like this is it allows us to go back and say,
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: all right,
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: let's sort of unwrap some of those preconceived ideas.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's leave them aside for a while.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: We'll probably come back to them again, but we're going to see them a bit differently.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think we...
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: We don't always do a good,
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: in some facets of Christianity,
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: the whole focus is on the humanness of Jesus and we miss out the divinity.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: In other facets of Christianity, they just focus on the divinity and we lose out on the humanity.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what we have is a really human divine story.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And at least at the beginning,
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: we can say we've got a story about a human being and God is going to use him to
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: turn the world upside down.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then as the story progresses,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: we find out,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: there's more to this human being than just someone being used by God.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't leave verse 11, Tim, because it's just so intimate and tender.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for me, there's something that really calls to my being, right?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: That wants to hear, that just desperately wants to hear these words.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll read them from a slightly different translation.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: The Spirit said, you are my son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: And isn't there just something like so tender and intimate and calling about those words?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: in my life,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: I use those words,
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I hope to,
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: or words close to them when I put my kids to bed at night.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: You are my beloved son.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: You're my beloved daughter, chosen and marked by my love.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: You're the pride of my life.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: and John,
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: that's where,
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: when you do Bible study,
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: certainly you want to just say,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: okay,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: what's Scripture saying?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's application.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that you've hit on one of the important applications of a story like this,
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: and that's the importance of hearing,
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: first of all,
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: from significant people in our lives,
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: that we are the pride and joy of their life,
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: that we are loved.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we talk often of a father wound for people who maybe didn't,
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: they had a father who never said,
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: I love you,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: or they didn't have a father or their father passed away before dad could really
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: say that.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And every child needs to hear from somebody significant, a mom, a dad,
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: you are loved, you're beautiful, you're mine, I'm proud of you.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if Jesus needed to hear it, and Jesus needed to hear it, then we need to hear it.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so part of what Jesus comes to do is to,
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: on behalf of God,
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: the creator,
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: and whatever language you want to use about God,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: father,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: mother,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: parent,
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: says,
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: you are my beloved son,
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: you are my beloved daughter,
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fully pleased with you,
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: period.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that is one of the messages of the gospel that sets Christianity apart from anything else.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else says you can be my son or daughter if you do A,
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: B,
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: C,
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: and D.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Christianity,
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: God just says,
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: you are my beloved son,
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: you're my beloved daughter,
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fully pleased with you,
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: period.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a radical message.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: that gets lost in translation far too often in our culture today.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: But that is one way of talking about grace.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: You are my beloved son.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're my beloved daughter.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fully pleased with you.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you are marked with my love forever.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: So again, if Jesus needed to hear that, and he did, then we all need to hear it.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And whether we're parents or we're friends,
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: to be able to share that with folks that we love and care for,
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm proud of you, John.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm proud of you, Terry, for good work today.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to do it again.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, for those of you listening, if you've got questions, you can send them to me.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can reply on the sub stack or you can email me at Rev.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you what it is.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot what it is.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't use it enough.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just reply on the sub stack.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll figure out what my email is.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'll put my email in the notes.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: So next week, just so you can get a little head start, we're going to look at two short verses again.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Chapter 1, verses 14 and 15.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this is Jesus' first public message, according to Mark.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he shares his mission.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: He shares his agenda.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see now why it takes so long to get through the gospel of Mark,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: even though it's a short gospel.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Everything has such high impact to it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that'll be next week.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Terry, any last words?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, I just love this today.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And John, any last words?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think your last words are the perfect ones.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to hit our little Morse code.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: This means that you are God's beloved son.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: You are God's beloved daughter.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's fully pleased with you.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time.