Mark 1:9-11- The Servant king

Mark 1:9-11

                            Psalm 2

    The servant king

Have you been done yet?

Have you been dunked?

Have you been sprinkled?

When I say done, I mean have you been baptised in or by water?

Have you been done twice, as a baby and as an adult?

Did you know, that to be a member of this church, we require that you have been baptised with water?

But why?

Aren’t we just putting man-made stipulations on things which God doesn’t?

After all, your salvation isn’t based on whether you have been baptised with water or not. Your salvation doesn’t depend on your water baptism.

I am sure you have heard me many times tell you the simple truth- we are saved by faith alone though Christ alone by Grace alone.

Full stop.

The thief at the cross who went to paradise with Jesus hadn’t been dunked or sprinkled and yet he made it to heaven. – That day, he was with Jesus in paradise.

And so why do we “enforce”, “burden” church membership with a baptism of water.

Either as a baby or an adult?

Good question….

And it is a question I will hopefully answer for you over the course of this sermon, but in order to answer that question……I want to try and answer this even more puzzling question from these couple of verses we have read today.

The more puzzling question for us today, is this…..

Why did Jesus get baptised in water, in the Jordan river, by his cousin- John the Baptist?

Why did Jesus get baptised in water?

We can understand why other people were baptised by John in the Jordan river, since John’s baptism was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it says in verse 4. And so as people were being baptised, they were confessing their sin and as a sign of God’s forgiveness of their sins, as a sign of God washing their sins clean: they were baptised in the water.

For Jews, this would have been familiar with them, as they regularly did some ceremonial washings.

However, why did Jesus go through this process of water baptism?

Jesus was sinless, he never sinned, no lie came from his mouth, and so his baptism in the water from his cousin John the Baptist, wasn’t a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, because Jesus had no sins to be forgiven of.

Jesus- son of God, son of man, didn’t need to repent of any sins.

So why did Jesus go through this water baptism?

He wasn’t doing it, just to become a member of a local church.

So why?

Well, Jesus gave us an answer (sort of) which is recorded in Matthew 3:15.

When John questioned Jesus about why he was doing this….. and John actually thought that Jesus was the one who should have been baptising him, Jesus said this in response.

“Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”

Jesus told John, it doesn’t matter if you don’t quite get it now- why I am humbling myself and allowing you to baptise me, but just know this….it is fitting for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.

That seems quite a vague answer doesn’t it?

Jesus was baptised with water because it fulfilled all righteousness.

That would be like me, telling you, just be baptised in water because it’s the right thing to do….and it is the right thing to do……but how exactly did Jesus fulfill all righteousness?

Well there are multiple ways that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness.

First of all….By Jesus allowing himself to be baptised by John: Jesus validated the ministry of John- the one who came to prepare people for Jesus.

In thew fact, that Jesus was baptised by John, he was showing the people that John really was sent by God. He was showing that John really was the one whom the prophet Isaiah wrote about 700 years earlier, Jesus was showing that John was the one who prepared the way for Jesus. He was showing that John was the one crying in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord.

The baptism of Jesus by his cousin John- proved that John really was a prophet of God.

And this leads to the second way that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness in his baptism.

As Jesus was baptised by John, he was fulfilling what the scriptures had written about him hundreds of years earlier. He was fulfilling the plan of salvation that his father had made plain throughout the scriptures.

Jesus didn’t deviate from the plan that was set out in the scriptures. He followed through on all the details.

Which means we can trust Jesus in who he said he was and what he did, because it was all there for us before it happened and so we can actually understand the baptism of Jesus on many more levels.

When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan river by John, he wasn’t just being dunked, it wasn’t just a matter of getting it done, or a matter of ticking a box, but God was actually making a huge statement about his Son that day of his water baptism.

Just look at what happened that day when Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan river.

Look at verses 10-11 with me:

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”

As Jesus humbled himself that day and was baptised in the Jordan river, people there witnessed the father, son and Holy spirit all working in unison together. God the father spoke, the Holy Spirit moved and God the son was obedient.

That day that Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan river, was the day that God made it clear that Jesus was his only son, it was the day that king Jesus was officially, ceremoniously declared the king of God’s kingdom.

As the heavens tore upon that day, and God’s voice came from heaven and declared “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased” – the words from Psalm 2 were being fulfilled- all righteousness was being fulfilled.

In Psalm 2, a psalm initially written about king David: this king was described as the Lord’s anointed one in verse 2.

We know that it was the prophet Samuel who anointed King David with oil to officially set him apart for his role as king.

Psalm 2 goes on in verse 7 to describe this anointed king as God’s son also, and even more than that, it goes on in verse 8 to say that this anointed king who is also God’s son, will possess the whole earth and all his enemies shall be smashed to pieces.

Friends, when Jesus was baptised by John the baptised in the Jordan river that day, God was loudly proclaiming that His king had finally arrived.

And yet also that day, God was loudly proclaiming that this king- His king, His anointed one, was also His servant.  This was God’s servant king, who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many,.

God was declaring that day, that his king wasn’t going to exercise his power through military might, but his king would exercise his power through service and ultimately through suffering.

Just listen to how Isaiah describes this servant king from Isaiah 42:1-4

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;I have put my Spirit upon him;    he will bring forth justice to the nations.² He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,    or make it heard in the street;³ a bruised reed he will not break,    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;    he will faithfully bring forth justice.⁴ He will not grow faint or be discouraged    till he has established justice in the earth;    and the coastlands wait for his law.

You can hear the gentle rule of Jesus here.

Jesus is not going to rant and rave

He is not going to snuff people out

Jesus is not going to force people into his kingdom, he is just going to send out an invite.

Friends, in this day of rage, we need to hear this message.

His rule will be gentle, but don’t mistake gentleness for weakness, in that gentleness, his rule will also be established. He won’t grow faint or be discouraged, but his reign will continue to be established.

Repentant heart after repentant heart.

I think the gospel writer Mark- John Mark was preparing us in chapter 1 verse 10, of what it would look like for this servant king to establish his rule.

Notice it says in verse 10, that when Jesus came out of the water, the heavens were being torn upon. It was like that day, heaven literally came to earth, the curtain of heaven was drawn back, God’s voice was heard and his spirit was sent out.

The next time, that Mark, used that word “torn” was at the end of his gospel in chapter 15 verse 38, where he wrote about the time when Jesus drew his last breath on the cross, and at that time he recorded this:

“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two”

You see it was through the suffering and death of Jesus, that our way to God was made clear. The curtain in the temple which symbolised the dividing wall between us sinful beings and a holy God, was destroyed- it was torn in two. 

The curtain of heaven was pulled back, and now we, through the death and resurrection of Jesus have access to God. Through Jesus and only through Jesus- man and God meet.

And brothers and sisters, this finally leads me to the answers of the questions which I asked at the beginning.

Why was Jesus baptised by John in the Jordan river when he had no sins to repent from?

Why?

Because as Jesus was baptised in the river that day, he was identifying himself with you, he was identifying with your sins. He was identifying with your sins, so that he could pay for your sins through his sacrifice on the cross.

He was making a bold statement, that even though he knew no sin, he became sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.

He truly was fulfilling all righteousness.

By Jesus fully submerging himself in water that day, he was showing us that he was fully in for us. No half measures, he was all in. He identified with our sins and he paid for them all on the cross.

He truly was a man of his people, he was a God-man of his people.

And so when Jesus commanded us to baptised in water from Matthew 28 as part of his great commission, it is just one way that we show we are fully in for Jesus. As we are baptised, we are identifying with Jesus, that he died and rose again to save us, to wash us clean- just as Jesus identified with us, when he was baptised.

And so why wouldn’t we want to be baptised?

Just as Jesus showed he was fully in for us, we can show we are fully in with him.

And so baptism is a sign of our identity, as sign that we belong to Jesus.

However, just like Jesus identified with us and our sins that day, and followed through on that commitment as he paid for our sins…….our identity in Jesus isn’t just wrapped up in a one off baptism, but our identity in Jesus is also shown how we live each and every day.

It is shown how we like our king, sacrifice for others, it is shown how we like our king, do not live to be served, but to serve. It is shown in our gentleness, it is shown in our faithfulness to God’s word, it is shown in our obedience to God’s word, it is shown in our love for others.

Let us pray.