Turn with me to Mark 1.
Read Mark 1:9-15.
There are three things we see in this passage. There is anointing, trial and ministry.
Anointing
Jesus had to be anointed by the Holy Spirit before he could start his earthly ministry. For the first thirty years of his life, he was a carpenter in the out-of-the-way town of Nazareth. He worked and lived his life with little or no fanfare. He repaired roofs and tables and was basically a handyman.
I find it interesting that he didn’t start his ministry until he was about 30 years old. In Jewish culture a boy becomes a man when he turns 13. For 17 years after becoming a man, Jesus continued to live and work in his hometown. He was not in a rush to start his ministry. When John the Baptist came on the scene, Jesus knew is was time to act. It was time to leave home. He waited for the time God had chosen for him to act.
Sometimes we get in such a hurry to do the Lord’s work, that we forget who’s in charge. We are an instant gratification society. We have microwaves and instant coffee. Did you ever wonder what would happen if you put instant coffee in the microwave? Would you go back in time? We want instant results immediately. We have “real time” everything.
Jesus is told by the Father, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus is assured that he is headed on the right path. Jesus is about to begin his public ministry, and the Father tells him that he is on track.
I believe that we are headed in the right direction. Last Sunday we had an incredible service. The Holy Spirit met with in a wonderful way. I believe that God was telling us that we are on the right track. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged. Sometimes it’s easy to say, “What am I doing? Why am I doing this? When will something happen?”
Perhaps in the seventeen years between his thirteenth birthday and his baptism, Jesus wondered, “Okay, when am I going to start my ministry? I know the Father has sent me to do something special.” Then when the moment came, Jesus embraced it.
Our moment has arrived. We have to embrace it. We are on the edge of something terrific at the Greenville Church of the Nazarene. I’m not one who runs around very often saying, “God is about to do something.” But I firmly believe that God is about to do something here and soon. Last week I heard a sense of commitment in your voices. I know that we all have a burden to see this Church succeed. Our time is now. We must move, now. We have to be anointed to carry out our calling. We have been anointed to carry out our calling.
Trials
The unfortunate thing with mountaintop experiences is that they are often followed with times of trials.
Jesus had just had an incredible experience. The Holy Spirit descended on him and the Father affirmed the job he was doing. Now he winds up out in the wilderness for an extended period of time.
Have you ever been in the wilderness? Have you ever felt like you out in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to turn? Mark doesn’t tell us the specifics of Jesus’ temptation. The other Gospels indicate that it had to do with his power and his mission. Jesus was tempted to abort his mission and set up his own kingdom on earth. The expectation surrounding the Messiah was that he would be a military ruler, and Jesus, fully aware of that, was tempted to become just that.
Some people seem to think that Jesus wasn’t really tempted. I differ with those. Jesus knew that he was headed to the Cross, and that he would die on the Cross. It seems so much easier to just take over and rule without the Cross. The point here is that Jesus was truly tempted, and he refused to give into that temptation.
What is fascinating about this event is that it came immediately after the mountaintop experience of the baptism. Jesus had just heard the Father tell him he was on the right track, and now his is out in the wilderness, tempted to give up on his mission.
We will face times of trials and struggle in the coming months, but we cannot give up on the mission that God has given us. We may be tempted to give up at some point. We may feel like our efforts are not paying off. We may feel like we pushed the boulder up the hill only to have roll back down. Jesus faced the same temptations that we face, and he overcame them.
It was not in his own power that he overcame them. Verse 13 says, “The angels were ministering to him.” God was with him in the wilderness. God provided and protected him. God did not leave him.
We will not encounter the wilderness on our own either. When we feel like giving up. When we feel like scrapping it. At those times, God is still here. The week leading up to last was a rough week for me. I was feeling discouraged. I was feeling unsure about my abilities. I was down. Last Sunday helped me to realize, again, that God is still with us. It’s amazing how often we tend to forget that. We have to be constantly reminded about that.
Another important thing to remember about trials is that they make us stronger. Jesus was built up after the trial in the wilderness. He came out blazing. He dove right into his ministry, and didn’t let up, except for times of prayer, refreshing and renewal.
A great example of how adversity brings about strength is the high school baseball team in Big Lake Texas in the mid-1990s. They were immortalized in the movie The Rookie. The main thrust of the movie is the story of Jimmy Morris. He is a high school science teacher and baseball coach who missed his major league dream in the early ‘80s. He challenges his team to win the district championship, and he will try out for a major league baseball team.
The thing that Jimmy Morris doesn’t realize is that he is helping his team in more ways than just coaching to them. He began to throw batting practice to the team. What he didn’t realize was that over the years, for whatever reason, his arm had grown stronger, and he was throwing these high school kids major league fastballs. He was delivering the ball at 95-plus miles per hour, where most high school pitchers do well to reach 80 mph. The kids began hitting Morris’ pitching, and consequently they began to hammer the pitching of the opposition.
The kids were able to hit the pitches of the other teams because they had gone through the ordeal of hitting major league pitching. The fact that they had done something more difficult in practice, made it that much easier in the game. The trial of standing in and hitting a 95 mph fastball, made them better ball players.
That’s not to say we go out looking for trouble. We don’t need to go and look for trials. If we are ministering and doing the work of God, enough trouble will find us. It was after the Father said that he was pleased with Jesus that Jesus faced his greatest trial that side of the Cross. Trials have a way of coming around after those mountaintop experiences.
Ministry
How we respond to trials determines how we will minister. Overcoming trials leads to effective ministry.
When John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus stepped up and began his public ministry in full force. John’s arrest was another trial for Jesus. Jesus and John were very close, and the arrest was a blow to Jesus. He didn’t let it get him down. He continued to push forward in his ministry. He came to Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God, Mark tells us. His message was clear.
He had a message of hope and salvation. The word gospel means “good news.” Jesus was telling people good news.
Our message should be good news. I think it is awful when people take the good news of Jesus and make it sound terrible. We’ve got the message of good news, and we should proclaim it.
When I look ahead, I see this church doing wonderful things for the Lord in the months and years ahead. I am not so naïve as to think that it will all be easy and pain free. We will encounter things and roadblocks. There will be obstacles that will get in our way, but we must remember why we are here. We are here to proclaim the good news of hope and salvation to a world that lacks hope. It is not a hopeless situation, but there are many people who see no hope. Our job is to show them that there is hope.
Our trials may come in the form of people who give us trouble when they come to Jesus. They will struggle. Some may backslide. But we cannot be discouraged. When the deputy sheriff came out after the break-in, he said that it was probably a kid from the church. I found myself wishing that we had kids in the church capable of doing something like that. That’s why we are here. We are here to offer hope to kids who have no hope. We are here to offer hope to kids who think stealing is the only way to get what they want. That is why we exist.
The key is to stay on course. We must have continual anointing of the Holy Spirit. Often in the Church of the Nazarene we talk of two works of grace: salvation and sanctification. The unfortunate thing about that is that in many churches people are saved, sanctified and petrified. I believe in many works of the Holy Spirit. We must continually be filled with Holy Spirit, if we hope to do anything positive for the Lord. God is sufficient to meet our needs daily. What we had yesterday isn’t good enough for today. We need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.
Challenge
This last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. Often in the Church of the Nazarene we don’t make a big deal out of Lent. It has for many become just some routine that means little. It really is a time of preparation for Easter. It’s a time of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting should be a part of our lives year round, but this time of year there is a special emphasis on it.
I want to challenge you to pray and fast for those friends and relatives that you wrote on your bookmark two weeks ago. The time is right. The Holy Spirit has visited us. We know our mission. We know it will not always be easy, but we also know that God is with us and will be with us.
As we sing that song, “Find Us Faithful,” if you would like to come and pray for the people on your list, please do so.
