“Getting Unstuck”
Mark 1:9-15
Mark 1:9-15
Maybe you have a cousin that you really like. Someone you just really have a great relationship with. I think we sometimes forget or maybe you didn’t know John the Baptist and Jesus are cousins. We forget that this crazy preacher named John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, wore clothes of camel’s hair and for food he ate locusts and wild honey. I don’t know about you but all of that puts quite a picture in my mind of John.
The birth of John is an interesting story. John’s parents, Elizabeth and Zacharias were advanced in years and had never had children. They wanted children so even though they were likely beyond the age of 60, Zacharias prayed for a child----then he went on with his regular duties Then one day an Angel comes and tells Elizabeth she’s going to have a son who will point the way to Jesus. That was John of course.
Then Mary the mother of Jesus shows up and it says that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the sound of Mary’s voice. Babies do that you know? Certain sounds can cause the baby to kick. Our daughter, Allison is due to deliver now any day. She’s going to have a little boy-his name will be Brady. Allison thinks Brady might be a gymnast or perhaps an acrobat because he’s just been all over the place-moving and kicking.
So as I said, God promised Zacharias a son but Zacharias just didn’t have the faith to believe it because of his age. When this word from God came that he and Elizabeth would have a child Zacharias quickly blurts these words out…... “How shall I know this for sure? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” So God did something for Zacharias to help him believe. He gave him a sign. This was it. Look at the sign. Luke 1:20... “Behold you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words.” So Zacharias could not speak through the entire pregnancy. Now I see some of you ladies smiling... Imagine a husband without a voice for nine months. Eight days after John was born Zacharias still could not speak and then on that day it came time to name the child. Elizabeth says let’s name him John. But everyone else says you don’t have anyone in your family named John. They named them after family members all the time. So they asked Zacharias to find out what he would like to name the child. So he asks for writing tablet and he simply wrote, his name is John. His soon as he wrote those words down his mouth opened and his tongue was loosed and he began to speak. After an entire year he finally spoke. This caused them to recognize that God’s hand was on this child named John and that God had something very special for him to do.
John grows up and he then becomes the voice. People come from miles around to hear him preach. But there is often a price you pay for preaching. Preachers often walk around with a bull’s eye on their back and Satan has you as his target. In verse 14 it says that John has now been placed in prison…he and Herod were discussing some issues and John confronted King Herod with his sin. There is a price for preaching the gospel; for preaching the truth, he has been placed in prison. He is stuck in a jail cell. Do you ever feel that way? I don’t mean stuck in jail. I just men plain stuck. You feel like life is closing in ---you’re not really going anywhere. You feel like you’re stuck in your job or maybe you’re stuck without a job; or you’re stuck in your marriage or your finances are stuck or maybe you’re stuck in your relationship with God. When life is stuck in one place and that place happens to be a bad place, life gets tough. Because we don’t know what to do to get unstuck. When we are there we need to remember this.
God does not sit still. God is always on the move. We serve an active God. And to quote Henry Blackaby, “you cannot stay where you are and go with go with God at the same time.” If you stay in that bad place, stuck in the past, stuck in sin, just plain stuck… you cannot move with God. He’s active. He’s on the move and we should be also.
Matthew’s gospel tells us that John didn’t feel too confident about baptizing Jesus. John looked at Jesus in fact and said, “I think I need to be baptized by you!” For many of us the real question is why did Jesus need to be baptized anyway? He had no sin to be confessed; no sin to repent of. This is why He was baptized. Jesus was identifying with us. He was identifying with sinful man. Paul said that “for our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s a pretty good trade. Second Corinthians 5:21
In a very real sense Jesus became stuck in our sin so that we might become unstuck. You see otherwise there was no way out.
If you have ever read the story of Brer rabbit and tar baby, you may remember that Brer rabbit constructs a doll out of a lump of tar and dresses it in some clothes. When the rabbit comes along he speaks to tar baby but doesn’t get any response. So he is offended and begins to punch tar baby but each time he does he becomes stuck. The more he tries the more stuck he gets. That’s the way it is with sin so many times. We get stuck and don’t know how to get out. When Jesus waded out into the water to be baptized, he showed us that he was willing to do absolutely anything to help us get unstuck in our sin. His baptism started the road to the cross.
Marks gospel, if you read all of it allows the reader to see that it was a gradual, slow process before the disciples were aware that Jesus was the chosen one who would rescue us from our sin. This was the only way we could get unstuck. Many people feel stuck in their sin; you may feel that today. There are dozens of different addictions people get caught up in. Our recovery program on Tuesday nights can help you move forward. You see Satan loves for us to be stuck. That is exactly where he wants us to be. Because when we’re stuck we are basically of no use to anyone. And “stuck” is where he would love to keep you.
Look at verse 13. Jesus was in the wilderness with the wild animals for 40 days. That’s pretty scary sounding to me. In the wilderness. Wild animals all around. Here’s a trivia note for you. Did you know that in 2/3 of the books in the OT, lions are mentioned? We can say pretty much with certainty that they were there where Jesus was. For Jesus this was a time of intense preparation. He was focused. It’s interesting that Peter describes Satan as a lion. He says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Temptations surround us all of the time. We’re faced with them daily. And it is often too easy to just give in and then we find that we give in again and again and before long we’re stuck. And it’s hard to get out. Thankfully we’re not surrounded by wild animals like John was. But we are surrounded by temptation, regret, abuse, addictions; scars from the past that somehow have not been able to get past and so again we are stuck.
Couple of things I want you to hear and to think about. (1) The first order of business for Jesus was to tell the truth. Preach the gospel. V. 14 tells us that Jesus went in to Galilee preaching the good news. “The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good news.” It is the only way you can get unstuck. The only way you can move out of your sin. Accept/believe the Good news. The gospel is called the good news because it tells us that Jesus did something for us that we would never be able to do for ourselves. We needed a way out and there was none until Jesus came along. We were stuck in a hole with absolutely no way out. It was too big for us to try to crawl out of. It was too deep for anyone to rescue us. Stuck.
(2) We often make the statement found in scripture that says “the truth shall make you free.” But that is only part of the verse. Is says “and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. You can hear the truth, you can think about it but until you know that you know it….you will be stuck. Freedom comes from really knowing the truth.
In the 14th chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and He says to them, “in my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I’m going there to prepare a place for you. You know the place where I’m going.” Not a surprise but Thomas says Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus replies, “I am the way, I am the truth and I am the life.”
Truth is the only thing that can move you out of the rut you are in. You have to admit what it is that got you there. You have to be willing to change. To repent. And you must then hang on to Jesus. Because He will pull you out. Every single time.
