#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:
• Mark 1:9 begins, “…In those days JESUS came…” – “Jesus” was His given human name; it was not a title like Christ or Lord. Mark uses the human, given name of Jesus to emphasize how Jesus shared in our common humanity, for we all have human names.
• Second, Verse 9 goes on to say that Jesus “came from Nazareth of Galilee.” – Nazareth was not anything to write home about religiously speaking. No prophets or spiritual leaders came from Nazareth. Jesus was not from a high spiritual pedigree; he came to Jerusalem as simply a common carpenter from a practically no-name town—like most people.
• The rest of verse 9 says “and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” – John preached the baptism of repentance—but Jesus did not need to repent. He had never sinned. Yet, he shared the same heritage and predicament of His Jewish brethren. By humbling Himself and submitting to baptism of repentance, Jesus was identifying with the people as the Son of Man.
II. SECOND, MARK PORTRAYS JESUS AS THE “SON OF GOD”. – Verse 10 – “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn opened, and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. And voice came from heaven, saying, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The phrase, “Son of God” is not used in the sense of a human father and son. God did not mate with Mary and together produce a son. And in no sense did God the Son ever have an ultimate beginning, nor did He NOT exist at some point in eternity past, for He is fully God, and God is eternal.
He did, however, have a HUMAN beginning, and hence the title the “Son of God” is descriptive of His entrance in human form in time and space. Theologians tell us this title was also used to illustrate the great love God the Father and God the Son has together with God the Holy Spirit throughout all eternity.
The term Son of God was meant to infer the deity, or the divinity, if you prefer, of Jesus. Some point out that Jesus so often refers to himself as the Son of Man, stressing His identification with mankind, and therefore, they claim, He never claimed to be God.
But nothing could be further from the truth in the Gospels! In fact, Mark is so emphatic about it that it is impossible to read his Gospel without missing this key emphasis.
• He proclaims Christ’s deity in the very first verse of his gospel by saying, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, THE SON OF GOD.”
• In verse 10, as we saw, the Father testifies that Jesus was His “Beloved Son” and God does it again in 9:7 in the Transfiguration, where the Father says, “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him.”
• Twice in Mark, in 3:11 and 5:7, demons identify him as the Son of God upon sight.
• In 14:61-63, in Jesus’ trial before the council prior to His crucifixion, the chief priest pointedly asks Jesus, “Are you the Christ [which mean’s “Messiah”], the SON OF THE BLESSED” and Jesus replied, Yes, I am,” causing the high priest to tear his garments and accuse Jesus of blasphemy.
• And finally, at the cross, after watching Christ’s death, the sun’s eclipse, the forgiveness of one thief’s sin, Jesus’ loving care for His mother, how Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, a Roman executioner confesses, ‘Truly this was THE SON OF GOD!”
One has to be willingly blind or woefully uninformed to think that Jesus and the Gospel writers did not clearly see Jesus as the Son of God.
So, it’s not surprising that Mark emphasizes what happened at Jesus’s baptism, because it was God’s clear identification and approval of Jesus as the Son of God. Remember, as we saw in our first sermon in Mark, Mark’s main audience was Romans, and his goal was to convince them—and us—that Jesus was God.
Jesus comes to John to be baptized like any other human, but it immediately becomes apparent that He is not like any other human! Hundreds, if not thousands, of people came to be baptized by John in the Jordan; but only one had the kind of baptism Jesus had!
William Lane says, “Many had come to the Jordan to be baptized by John, but only in the instance of Jesus, in whom true submission to God was perfectly embodied, was the “coming up” from the water answered by a “coming down” from above. The cosmic significance of this event is indicated by the vision of the rending of the heavens, the descent of the Spirit and the testimony of the voice from heaven.” [5]
At Jesus’ baptism, God the Father clearly identifies Jesus as His Son, and the descent of God the Spirit on Jesus was an empowering of God the Son for His chosen task. Though God does not use the full term, “Son of God” here, this is clearly the way the Father uses it here.
III. SO, WHAT ARE THE THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE “SON MOTIF”?
I want to talk to you about an important Christmas truth: the doctrine of the incarnation. You cannot truly understand Christmas, or even the Gospel, without understanding the incarnation. It is one of the most sublime mysteries of biblical truth.
“Incarnation” is a term used by theologians to indicate that Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh and became fully man. This resulted in the complete identification of God with man. Not just God “with us” which is what the name Immanuel means, but God with us AS ONE OF US!
You may be thinking, I just cannot understand all this.
Illus. – Once the great American statesman, Daniel Webster, was dining with a company of literary men in Boston. During the dinner the conversation turned to the subject of Christianity. Mr. Webster stated unapologetically his belief in the divinity of Christ and his trust in Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection for his salvation
One of them said to him, “Mr. Webster, can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man?”
“No,” he replied. “I cannot. If I could comprehend Him, He would be no greater than myself. I feel I NEED A SUPER-HUMAN SAVIOR.”
Illus. – John Wesley said, “Show me a man who can understand the incarnation and I will show you a worm who can understand a man.”
All the Gospels are infused with the idea of the incarnation, but go with me to John 1, the other Gospel besides Mark that does not begin with a birth narrative of Jesus.
John speaks in philosophical terms verses 1-4 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
This verse tells us several things about the “Word”:
• First, though John uses the term “Word”, verses 2-4 tell us the Word was a PERSON.
• Second, these verses teach that He was WITH God, but he also WAS God.
• Also, He was here at the beginning of the world according to both verses 1-2.
• And all things were made by the Word in verse 3, including life, verse 4.
Now this is confusing until you go down to verse 14 – “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten [EXPLAIN] of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Who is the Word?—It is Jesus Christ!
• Jesus Christ was WITH God, but He WAS (and IS) God.
• Jesus Christ was in the beginning of the universe with God, and in fact, it was Jesus Christ who was the creative agent of the universe.
• It was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who breathed the breath of life into Adam and Eve, and in fact created ALL life.
• And Jesus Christ is the light of the world, light being one of the symbols of God, as opposed to darkness, associated with sin and Satan.
THIS Jesus, the SON OF GOD, God HIMSELF, left the heavens to become a human, to dwell with us sinners and life a life full of grace and truth.
The question is Why?: Why was all this necessary? Why is this such an important doctrine in the Christian faith? There are several reasons, such as that the incarnation shows Christ’s humility [6] and it fulfilled prophecy [7], thus verifying God’s Word . It would be great to discuss these further, but time does not permit us today to do so.
But we cannot neglect to mention the most important reason for the incarnation, which is that the incarnation was necessary for us to be saved from sin. At least 70 scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments teach that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. But the book of Hebrews, and other scriptures, point out that the blood of animals was not sufficient to pay the penalty for sin. But God, who is a spirit, by definition, cannot die; only a human can pay sin’s penalty for another human. But no human could pay the penalty for either for themselves or for others because they have transgressed God’s commands and are under the same curse and God’s judgment all other humans are under.
The answer is the incarnation. Jesus came to earth to be born both as a man and as God so that He could fulfill all God’s commandments and be a suitable substitute to pay the penalty for our sins. What a glorious plan and what a wise and gracious God we have!
CONCLUSION
These truths are amazing, and we haven’t begun to examine them in detail. We didn’t even get into the miraculous conception of Christ, His virgin birth, or the hypostatic union. (Yes, it’s a thing.)
Every truth I’ve shared with you this morning is important. But they are not meant to just be added minutia to your brain. Every doctrine, every command, every injunction, every story in the Bible is designed not just to TEACH us things, but to help us know God better and challenge us to live for Him with greater fervency and love and commitment.
So, what should you do with these doctrines this morning?
• First, they should compel you to run to Jesus for salvation.
Jesus, the almighty Son of God, became the humble Son of Man by laying aside all His heavenly privilege to come to this earth and become a man. [8] But not just so he could be like us, or be with us, to be an example for us, or show us the way to live, or how to face death valiantly. He came with one premier purpose above all others: to be a qualified candidate, the only candidate possible in this fallen world, to die for your sins.
Your sins have separated you from God. The only answer is the Son of God who became the Son of man so that He could die for your sins to pay that penalty in your place.
A pastor’s family had started putting up a nativity scene in their front yard. All of them were carrying out the little statues to put in the nativity scene. Finally, everything was in place—Mary & Joseph and the manger and the baby and the angels and the shepherds and all the barnyard animals.
Then little Scott came out carrying one of his favorite toys—the figure of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the dinosaurs! It was one of those plastic figures that you inflate, and, in comparison to the other figures, it was an enormous thing, towering over them all, and certainly not something to have in a nativity scene.
The Dad said, “I tried to tell him, ‘Scott, you have to take that back because it doesn’t belong there. Dinosaurs existed many years before the baby Jesus, and it just doesn’t belong in a nativity scene.’”
But little Scott insisted—so they finally put it there behind all the other figures—a fierce dinosaur hovering over the manger and everything else.
Then he said, “As we stood back and looked at it, we realized that maybe that dinosaur says more than we realized. For over each of us there is this menacing character that threatens to rob us of all our joy and peace and cheer. It’s a three-letter word called sin. And God has given us the victory through the gift of His Son.”
Dear friend, do not leave here today without turning to Jesus and trusting in Him. You can defeat that monster, sin, and the threat of God’s eternal judgment! On the back table are some Next Step cards. Fill one out and drop it in the tin box on that table and I’ll contact you and we can talk this week and get this matter settled once-and-for-all!
• I have a personal application for us who already are saved: O Come Let Us Adore Him!
The truth of the incarnation should overwhelm you with a heart of awe and wonder, resulting in praise and worship. This Christmas, do something different: Pause each day to remind yourself the “reason for the season,” which is that the Son of God came to earth to become the Son of Man to live a perfect life to pay your sin’s debt.
May this truth not only fill you with worship, but with a deeper commitment to Christ. Someone so wise, so wonderful, so compassionate, so loving as God to provide such an amazing way of salvation is worthy of not just our praise, but our very lives.
Follow Paul’s advice in Romans 12:1 ¬– “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your proper service of worship.”
[1] Ps 115:16 The Hebrew term here, “children of men” literally means “sons of men”. Many of the OT references cited in this theme follow this pattern. See also Ps 11:4; 33:13-14; 45:2.
[2] Ps 8:4; Ps 36:7; 80:17; 107:8,15,21,31.
[3] Ecc 9:3; Ecc 3:18-19; Eze 31:14
[4] Ps 146:3; Ps 14:2-3 pp Ps 53:2-3; Mic 5:7
[5] Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., p. 55.
[6] Deleted from notes to cut the sermon down in length: Jesus is not your typical king! He didn’t come to be served; He came to SERVE. From Bethlehem to Golgotha, the humility of Jesus is on display. Paul tells us in the greatest doxology on the incarnation in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped: 7 but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men: 8 and being found in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.”
[7] Deleted from notes to cut the sermon down in length: Isaiah said the Messiah would be “a child” who would be born, who would be, among other things, the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6) In Isaiah 53, Isaiah tells us that the Messiah would die to pay the atonement for our sins, something only possible if God became a man. The incarnation fulfills these and other prophecies, verifying the Scriptures.
[8] Philippians 2:5
