#3 Jesus’ Identity Revealed Series

#3 Jesus’ Identity Revealed

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

December 1, 2019

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 1.

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives

INTRODUCTION

CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, the hit TV crime drama show from 2000 to 2015, used one of The Who’s biggest hits, Who Are You? as their theme song. That makes sense, since all crime dramas are basically “whodunits.” That is, the whole idea behind this TV genre is to find out WHO is the murderer of the victim of each episode.

But the original song was not about a crime “whodunit,” but about personal identity. After a night of wanton drinking, the song-writer, Peter Townshend of The Who was awakened from a drunken stupor in a doorway in London’s Soho district by a policeman who asked him who he was. This took place at a low time in Townshend’s life, a time when he was deeply into drugs, alcohol, moral perversions and false Eastern religious philosophies. The song’s real meaning is not the policeman’s question about what his name was, but the deeper question of what Townshend’s true identity was. He was deeply conflicted and confused about who he was, what his purpose was, what he was here for and what he believed.

Mark leaves us in no such confusion about who JESUS was. In fact, the issue of Jesus’ identity was the main reason for his Gospel. This morning we’ll see how Mark identifies for us who Jesus is, then we’ll explore the theological implications of who Jesus is and finally, we’ll see what that means for us.

In the most basic sense, Jesus is God’s “beloved Son,” as we will see in verse 10. Remember that the New Testament can never be fully understood outside the context of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the word “Son” in reference to the long-awaited Messiah was used in two ways, to tell us different things about Him. Let’s examine them:

I. FIRST, JESUS IS THE “SON OF MAN.”

Mark says in verse 9 – “…In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” It’s not readily apparent how this relates to Jesus as the “Son of Man” in this verse, but it will become clear shortly.

The term Son of Man, found 69 times in the Old Testament, was used primarily in two ways.

• First, most commonly it was used as a poetic reference to humanity in general. We’re all the offspring of another human, (i.e., “sons of men”). In this respect, the use of the word is usually meant to infer mankind’s weakness—as being inferior to God [1], of being dependent on God’s care [2], of being mortal [3], and of being sinful and untrustworthy [4]. The key concept to grasp of this usage in the Old Testament is HUMANNESS.

• The most important use of the term in the Old Testament was in reference to the coming Messiah. – In Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel says, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of man, and he came to the Ancient of days, and was presented before him. 14 And He was given…dominion,…glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

Revelation tells us that Jesus is the One who has been given dominion and glory and a kingdom. So, the “Son of Man” here in Daniel is Jesus. But the essence of the other usage still applies to the Messiah—it stresses his HUMANNESS.

The term “Son of Man” is used of Jesus in the New Testament 89 separate times in 85 verses and was used to reveal and emphasize Jesus’ humanity.

In Mark’s Gospel, only Jesus uses this term for Himself. That is, no one else calls Jesus the Son of Man in Mark’s Gospel. The Jews knew it was a title for the Messiah, but His usage of it did not mesh with their expectations of the Messiah. They expected Messiah would conquer their enemies and rule and reign, as the scripture I read in Daniel, and in other places, prophesied.

Jesus called Himself by this name to identify with humanity and its plight. As a human, Jesus was born like any other human being, suffered human diseases and sicknesses, experienced human accidents and injuries, had human emotions, was tempted like humans and ultimately died like any other human.

Now look how Jesus’ humanity is portrayed in Mark 1: