Jesus Stands Where We Fell

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast. A podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. So with that in mind, would you open with me to Mark chapter 1.

! We're going to stay in this for a while and I think that where we are here in Mark 1 will serve us well for the events even of this day and of Good Friday and of Resurrection Sunday.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Mark's gospel moves quickly. He does not always provide as much detail because he's hitting the high point and he's moving immediately from one scene to the next and so this is a really helpful gospel to be able to read and to get a feel of what's going on in the life and the ministry of Jesus.

And I want us to consider verses 9 to 13, both this morning and our Good Friday service.

If you would please stand with me and honor the reading of God's Word. Mark chapter 1, verses 9 to 13.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

And he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals. And the angels were ministering to him.

Lord, we pray now because we ask your Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us. We need his help. I pray that you would help my thoughts and words to be clear.

I pray that I would speak in a way that would be understood both by those who are young in their faith and those who have known you for many years. I pray, Lord, that your Spirit would bring conviction where we need it.

Bring comfort and encouragement where that would be helpful. And above all, may we submit ourselves to the teaching of your Word and seek to faithfully obey in all that we say and all that we do.

We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus, who is our Savior and the one to whom we anticipate His coming, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I want you to consider with me this morning two things. And this will carry us into Good Friday service as well.

First, we're going to look at the teaching in the water as we look at the baptism of Jesus. And second, we're going to look at the triumph in the wilderness as we look at the temptations that He would endure.

And the heading that I want you to consider or the title for this passage we're looking at, I want you to consider with me that Jesus stood where we fell or Jesus stands where we fell.

He did this in time and space in history, and yet He still stands today as our reigning Savior. And so I kind of went back and forth on what the right tense is to even express this.

He stood where we fell. He still stands where we fell. And I don't know which way I ended up turning it in, which way it looks in your bulletin, but either way is good with me.

He both stood, and because He stood, He still stands. And because He does, we have eternal life. We're looking in two aspects that Mark records for us here.

We've got the baptism of Jesus and the temptation of Jesus. His teaching in the water through the baptism, and His triumph in the wilderness through the temptations.

Mark records these events briefly. And as we need to do, anytime we study through a gospel, we take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we try to put them together in what is known as a harmony of the gospels.

Putting them all together so we can get a full picture of what happens. And we begin here in Mark 1 verse 9. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

This begins the ending of the public ministry of John the Baptist, and it initiates the start of the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

John has been preaching, and he's been baptizing. He's been speaking the words of God. And now, Jesus is going to begin His public ministry.

And as He does, whatever spotlight had been shining on John the Baptist is now going to be redirected off of John and toward Christ who is the Lamb.

John records for us in chapter 3 the great words that helps us understand this where John the Baptist says, speaking of Jesus, He must increase and I must decrease.

Jesus has made this 60 to 70 mile trek from Nazareth to Judea. And Matthew, in his gospel, chapter 3, tells us a little bit of the conversation that Mark does not.

Matthew 3, 14 tells us that John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized. Now, we need to ask ourselves, why is that? Why is it that John the Baptist would be hesitant to baptize Jesus?

Well, remember, John's baptism was for the repentance of sin, confession of sin. Jesus had no sin to confess. He had no sin for which to repent of.

John is hesitating to baptize Jesus for the exact opposite reason that he hesitated to baptize the Pharisees that came to him.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were in need of repentance but would not repent. They just wanted to go through baptism for one more spiritual accomplishment they could put on their resume, so to speak.

The opposite of that is what's going on when Jesus is baptized. He has nothing to repent of. And so John hesitates to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees because they're not repenting.

And he hesitates to baptize Jesus because Jesus does not need to repent. Hebrews 4.15 tells us that we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

Christ can sympathize with us but he is one that has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

And so what John says to Jesus again this is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew John says I need to be baptized by you and why are you coming for me to baptize you?

John is proclaiming here that he himself is a sinner and that Christ is sinless and perfect. So even in the baptism of Jesus you still see the very proclamation of the truth of the Gospel that all of us are sinners no matter who we are.

Remember, John the Baptist is a very, very important man. He is the bridge from the Old Testament to the New.

He is the first prophetic voice that we've heard in 400 years since Malachi of the Old Testament. He is the forerunner for Christ.

He is the one that points the way to Jesus as the Messiah the Lamb of God. Jesus says of men born from women none have been better than John the Baptist.

This is a very significant person and yet he is a sinner. This is very important to understand in the Gospel.

that all of us have sinned. And no matter how influential a person may be how holy a person may be how used by the Lord a person may be there is no created person who has any need other than to repent of their sin and trust in Christ.

And John the Baptist even in the baptism of Jesus reminds us that all of us are sinners and yet at the same time also makes clear that Christ himself has no sin.

This is extremely important because as we're going to all read about and think about and talk about and sing about and consider over the next eight days Jesus dies on a cross for us but remember when Jesus dies two other men are executed the same day the same time the same place why is the death of Christ meaningful for us and the death of the others not?

It is because Christ was sinless it is because as the son of God he is the God man he is God in flesh and as the son of man he is our representative and he takes our place and if Christ sins even once his death cannot save so the gospel being proclaimed in the baptism of Jesus is extremely important Matthew 3 15 Jesus says let it be so now John baptize me Jesus is giving approval to the very words and message that John the Baptist is declaring yes John you are a sinner yes John everybody else around here they are sinners yes John it is true

I have no sin and yet in the baptism of Jesus he is identifying himself with mankind he who knew no sin identifying as our perfect representative and three years later will take our place on the cross absorbing a wrath we deserved that he did not so that what he deserves the glories of heaven could be your home that's what's taking place Matthew 3 15 Jesus says this is fitting speaking of his baptism for us to fulfill all righteousness remember remember John's baptism and the baptism of the disciples that they would do as they administered it it was a representation of a cleansing from sin after the resurrection the church is going to baptize and when the church baptizes it represents our identification with Christ's death and resurrection this is an important part of the

Christian life this is why people in our church quite often you see them up here behind me where they are baptized and they are publicly identifying themselves as believers in Christ the next several weeks you're going to see a number of people being baptized as people have trusted Christ as their savior in recent days and what they're going to be proclaiming in the baptistry with their baptism is they identify themselves as followers of Christ buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in a newness of life it's an extremely important part of the Christian life getting baptized if you're not a believer would do you no good there's nothing magical about the water that's up there baptism is our public profession that we stand with Christ it's a wonderful joy to stand in front of people who know you and love you and be able to say through your baptism what

Romans 1 16 says I am not ashamed of the gospel not ashamed to call myself a Christian so let me just say if you are a child who has confessed your sin and trusted Jesus as Savior I want to encourage you as your pastor to follow in believers baptism it's what the Bible calls us to do it's our way of publicly saying we belong to Jesus if you are a teenager and you've trusted Christ as your Savior and you've not followed through in baptism I encourage you to do that it's an important thing to be able to stand publicly and proclaim with your life that you stand with Christ if you're an adult maybe you're a new believer maybe you've been a believer for a while and you've never been baptized I encourage you to follow through with believers baptism this is an important thing for us to do

Christ in his baptism is identifying himself with mankind we as believers in believers baptism are identifying ourself with Christ as our Savior and I understand that it can be kind of nerve wracking there's a lot of people here I get it not to mention it's really high way up there but here's the thing the focus of our baptism is not first on how many people watch us it's not first on our exact wording of our testimony of conversion it's first about identifying ourself with Christ and to say I'm not ashamed to let the world know I belong to Jesus it's an amazing joy and an amazing privilege there's no doubt plenty of people even in this room today

I'm sure of all ages who have trusted Christ as Savior and have not yet followed through in believers baptism what a wonderful season right now what a wonderful season to say I want to stand with Jesus I want to publicly make my stand I want to let the church know I am a Christian I belong to Jesus and I understand that if you're a child or a teenager or an adult you may say but it makes me nervous it makes me anxious I know that there's a lot of things in the Christian life that aren't not easy it's okay just follow through with what Jesus has called you to do just trust in him he identified with us in his baptism we identify that we are his in our baptism and just as Jesus is teaching in the water so we when we're baptized we get to teach in the waters of our

Christian believers baptism as we get to show the world what grace looks like so child teenager adult if you've not been baptized and you are a believer in Jesus Christ this is the time to follow through with that this is the season this is the time to be able to publicly make your stand and say I'm not ashamed of the gospel you may say I'm nervous to be in front of people no problem there's lots of things we do that make us nervous that's okay no shame in that but to say I'm not ashamed to publicly say Christ took my place on the cross and today I take my place in the baptistry and I say to this congregation I belong to Jesus it's an amazing privilege church

Mark 1 back to verse 10 says when he came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove The word when you read in the New Testament it speaks of people being baptized it speaks of the physical act of baptism it means to dip It's a word that you would use to describe an object being dipped it's what's called baptism by immersion that we put somebody under the water and the reason for that is because that's the example we get here in scripture and it says immediately the heavens were torn open and the spirit descended on him like a dove and a dove remember was a symbol of peace it was a symbol of life was also a symbol of sacrifice which is what we see in the life of Jesus Christ he's the prince of peace and just as a dove represents peace so

Christ is the very prince of peace and just as a dove represents life so Christ is the way truth and the life and just as a dove would represent sacrifice so Jesus is the once for all sacrifice for our sin in verse 11 of Mark 1 it says a voice came from heaven this is the father speaking you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased now what's interesting is this is taken from Psalm 2 verse 7 which every Jew accepted Psalm 2 as a description of the coming Messiah the mighty king who is to come when the father speaks these words it's an unmistakable reference that

Jesus is the long awaited Messiah this is incidentally the first of three times the father will speak from heaven he speaks in the Mount of Transfiguration Luke 9 and he will speak again shortly before the cross in John 12 and so what we see is Jesus is teaching in the water and what he's teaching is that all are sinful no matter who you are no matter how great or influential you are all are sinful and he is sinless what is also being taught in the water of Jesus baptism is that Christ is the Son of God he is the promised Messiah and everyone in his day would understand whoever Psalm 2 verse 7 is true of is the one who is the coming Messiah and for all who would have eyes to see him and hearts to believe in him the teaching in the water is crystal clear we are sinners

Christ is sinless but the good news is the Redeemer has come in Jesus the Redeemer has come and then Mark just immediately now goes to the triumph in the wilderness from the teaching in the water to the triumph in the wilderness and Mark just gives us two verses verse 12 and 13 the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and what's going to take place in the wilderness temptations are some of the most important elements of the gospel that often are completely left out in our explanation of what the gospel really is when people talk about the gospel rightly so they talk about Jesus on the cross that's critical they talk about

Jesus death on the cross that's critical they talk about him being laid into a borrowed tomb that's absolutely what happened and of course when we talk about the gospel we talk about Jesus rising again on the third day on Sunday the first day of the week which is why we gather for worship as the church on Sunday not Saturday because it's the day that Christ rose from people talk about the gospel they talk about his crucifixion his burial his resurrection all those things are critical to understand the gospel but what also must be understood is the perfect sinless life of Jesus if you don't understand that he was tempted and tested and tried just like we were yet without sin then we cannot fully understand the gospel there are all kinds of brave men and women who have served our nation's military and other nations military throughout all of human civilization who with great courage and bravery and love were willing and in many cases did lay down their life for somebody else it is an amazing act of courage and sacrifice but their death cannot save your sin there are parents who have given their own life for their children who have put themselves in harm's way to get their child away from a moving car who have put their body in front of somebody else when shooting broke out and have used their own body to take the bullet so that somebody else could live and it's an act of tremendous self sacrifice but that cannot save anybody's sin a sinner can lay down their life for a sinner and prolong the life of the other sinner!

And that is a tremendous act of love but both people in that equation will one day die stand before the Lord and if not for the grace of Jesus Christ they have no hope please understand it is the sinless life of Jesus that allows him to be our perfect sacrifice on the cross so we should sing about and think about the cross and we should sing about and think about the empty tomb absolutely just understand that for those things to have the impact and meaning they have we must also think about and celebrate the reality that Christ was tempted just like we yet without sin this is a very important part of the gospel it's often overlooked and that's what's taking place in the temptation of

Jesus here in his triumph in the wilderness now to be sure I think there are things we can learn in the temptations of Jesus that are helpful for us absolutely we can learn some things about how we fight against temptation we can learn some truths from the example of Jesus of what we do when temptation comes our way that's completely true but the primary purpose of the wilderness temptations is not first to give you an example to follow it is first to show you how Jesus stood where you fell it is true as God's people that with every temptation God provides a way of escape first Corinthians tells us that it is true that the way Jesus responds to temptation in the wilderness becomes for us a model of how we as believers can escape when we are tempted so we do not sin but understand the first thing that's happening in the wilderness is

Jesus is standing where Adam and he fell he is standing where Israel fell he is standing where the disciples fell and he is standing where you and I fell he is doing and accomplishing what we in our sin could not do and so the purpose of the temptations and the reason they're recorded are probably far more important than most of us realize he is standing Adam and Eve were tempted by sin and they fell Jesus was faithful God calls out Abram changes name to Abraham and establishes the nation of Israel and he is their God and they are his people and yet they fell Jesus stands God calls out prophets to go and speak the truth of his word and his message and the prophets proclaim the truth of who

God is and yet the prophets themselves will sin Jesus does not Jesus will call twelve disciples and they will walk around the earth with him and they will preach with him and baptize with him and witness his miracles and eventually they will turn the world upside down and yet even those disciples when they are tempted they fall Jesus stands and you brother and sister you've been tempted by sin and time after time after time you fell because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but where we fell Christ stands as our perfect sinless substitute now

Mark doesn't record for us the details of the temptations we have to go to the other gospels to be able to do that and the first temptation Matthew chapter four records it for us we'll just introduce this and then we'll pick up with this on our good Friday service so if you would turn with me to Matthew chapter four I told our new members in our class most recently as I do each class that my favorite sound in the church is the sound of a thousand people in their Bibles there it was three temptations take place and so just we'll walk through this first one and then we'll pick up Friday night the first is a temptation of trust it's a temptation of trust

Matthew four verse three the tempter came and said to him if you are the son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread now at first this temptation seems pretty harmless in fact Matthew records for us in verse two Jesus has been fasting for forty days and forty nights he was hungry that's what Matthew says so Jesus is in the wilderness he is hungry forty days forty nights of fasting he's hungry and the devil comes the tempter comes and says if you're the son of God and that can be translated because you are it's not a question of causation because you are the son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread you know what he's trying to get him to do this isn't about a hungry man getting food this is about trying to tempt

Jesus the son of God to act independently of the father in other words the devil is saying look at you Jesus you say you're doing the work of the father you say you've come into the wilderness because the holy spirit led you here look what the father's will for you has led you to you're starving you're lonely you're emaciated you're weak you have no provision maybe trusting in the father's will was not such a good idea after all I mean Jesus there's all kinds of sinners all around us and they're not hungry starving all kinds of people who are not doing the father's will they're not starving there's all kinds of people living up doing whatever they want indulging in sin and they seem to be doing just fine look at yourself look at all the weight you've lost in 40 days look at how physically weakened you are after 40 days and you tell me you're in this condition because you're doing the father's will well maybe the father's will isn't just so good after all so

Jesus look out you see all these rocks you're the son of God why don't you just turn these stones to bread just do it your own way don't worry about obedience obedience has led you to starvation just take care of you that's the temptation is that temptation common to man you bet it is and in that temptation Adam and Eve took and they ate and in that temptation Israel turned from the one true

God and worshipped false gods and in that temptation Peter said I don't even know who he is and in that temptation you and I over and over again have fallen but Jesus stands where we fell what does Jesus say look at the text verse 4 it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God incidentally Jesus quotes here from Deuteronomy 8 3 which does help us to understand that one of the ways we fight temptation is by knowing quoting and believing scripture that's absolutely true we absolutely can learn how we should encounter temptation and how we can be obedient by watching his example absolutely but this is first and primarily about

Christ being obedient and faithful when we were not see for Jesus the stone being turned to bread is not first about getting food it is about perfect fellowship with the father Jesus teaches us in the water and in the waters of baptism Jesus teaches us that all are sinful he is sinless and he identifies with us to be our substitute and now he triumphs in the wilderness because where we sinned he obeyed and because he did because he is our sinless substitute he is able to go to the cross and take our place so that we who should have felt the wrath of

God instead find grace and forgiveness from the father see he stood where we fell so that he could go to the cross where we belonged but in his grace he takes our place in his grace he offers forgiveness in his grace he offers you salvation so this morning we could say a few things with complete confidence all of us in this room are sinners all of us there are nice people in here there are generous people in here there are sacrificial people in here there are kind and godly people in here but all are sinners all of us have the same primary problem we will die we will stand before the lord then what then what what are you going to do when you die and you stand before the lord hebrews 9 tells the point of the man of thy wants and after that the judgment when you stand before the lord what are you going to do

I can tell you what you're going to do you're going to recognize Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords and you're going to recognize he is the way the truth and the life he is the resurrection and the life and he is the only way to heaven but in that split second of a moment if you did not already know him it will be too late now I have exceptionally good news and in all honesty and transparency I have some bad news here's the good the good is that Jesus did live a sinless life he did die on the cross for our sin he was put in the tomb he was raised back to life on the third day he does live and reign forever more and all who trust in him and all who call upon his name they shall be saved and while all have sinned

God's salvation is available and if you would turn to him and call upon his name here's the bad if you don't know him a savior and if you live the rest of your life and you never repent of your sin then one day when you die one second after you finish your last breath you meet the Lord you stand before him not a single person in this room will ever be able to say I didn't know I never heard it was never explained to me not a single person in this room will be able to say that and you're going to remember in that moment that you heard who

Jesus was that you were told of your own sinful condition and that you were invited to call upon the name of a savior who in grace does save love love but in that moment it will be too late which is why the scripture says today is the day of salvation today you've heard the gospel today it's been explained to you so this very day I urge you and plead with you to call upon the name of the Lord it's not about magic words it's not about saying the perfect prayer it's about acknowledging that the Holy Spirit right now is at work in your life convicting you in your heart of sin letting you know you need a savior and you cry out to the

Lord in your heart and say would you forgive me I confess Jesus you are the son of God I confess you are the only savior I confess you are obedient I've been disobedient and I ask you to save me and forgive me would you even this moment right where you sit in your heart would you even this moment cry out to the Lord and say Jesus save my soul and the great news is that our God saves our God saves would you this day learn the lessons from the water see the triumph in the wilderness and trust in

Jesus Christ to be your savior Friday night at our good Friday service I'm going to take you deeper into the wilderness and I'm going to show you more of what the devil tries to do with Jesus and show you more of how he stands where we fell and I trust and pray we're going to leave Friday night with even more reason to praise the name of our savior the Lord Jesus Christ our father in heaven we thank you today for your grace we thank you today that you are the one who sent your son that we would be saved I thank you Lord that you have made a way for us and our God we pray that even this moment you would draw people to yourself we're excited about the next several weeks as we see people baptized but

Lord I know there are others who need to be who are ready to be Lord there may be some adults who know that they should be baptized but say I've been a believer for so long I feel weird about it now Lord may they understand it's not about their feelings it's about being faithful Lord may they be faithful to be baptized there may be teenagers who need to be baptized and they're nervous concerned about what their friends may say what their friends may think Lord may you help them to not have their focus on what others think but on what you've called them to do and Lord there may be children who have trusted you as Savior and they need to be baptized and they haven't maybe they're nervous about the crowds or anxious about the water or any number of things that we can all understand but Lord may they have a greater desire to say I stand with Jesus more than anything else and for any who do not know you as

Savior may this be the very day that you bring salvation to their souls we ask it in Jesus name Amen vacation什么 happy home Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh