05 Dec Mark 01: The gospel of Jesus Christ

Mark 1:1-13

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, ³ the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” ⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” ¹² The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³ And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Let me start with a question. “Do you know Jesus Christ?” This may sound like a simple question, but it is not. Our answer to this question has an eternal consequence. And I am not talking about knowing Jesus in the sense that we know a lot about Jesus. I am talking about knowing Jesus in the sense that we have a personal relationship with him. Let me tell you about my goal for this sermon. I want you to know who Jesus is and have a personal relationship with him. Just because you are in church, does not mean that you have a personal relationship with Jesus. So let me ask the question again. Do you know Jesus Christ? Tonight, we begin a new series on the gospel of Mark. And the goal of this series is for us to truly know Jesus of the Bible and what it means to follow him. Because here is my concern. There are many professing Christians today who have different opinions on who Jesus is. I’ve heard some Christians say, “My Jesus loves everyone. He won’t send anyone to hell.” Or, “My Jesus wants me to be happy. He doesn’t have a problem with me practising homosexuality.” “My Jesus this, my Jesus that…” Can you see the problem? We talk about Jesus, but we are not talking about the same Jesus. People love to create their own version of Jesus. And here is the irony. A Jesus we shape, a Jesus we make up to fit our own desire, our own version of Jesus is useless. Because that Jesus cannot do anything for us. Why? Because that Jesus is simply a mirror version of us. We invented him and we are not able to have a personal relationship with him.

For example, let’s say I meet a girl for the first time, and I am attracted to her. I want to get to know her. So, I walk up to her and start to converse with her. As we talk, she tells me about herself. She tells me that her name is Sally and she’s a Chinese Indonesian. She is a vegan, and her hobby is writing poems. To which I reply, “Well Sally, here is the truth. I am attracted to you, and I want to get to know you. But I have some problems. First, I don’t like your name, Sally. I always want a girlfriend named Sabrina. So, I am going to call you Sabrina from now on. I also don’t like the fact that you are Chinese Indonesian. But I like Korean girls. So, from now on you will be Korean. I also don’t like the fact that you are a vegan. I love pork. So, you need to start eating pork. And if you keep writing poems you will be very melancholic and emotional. I don’t like that. I want you to be active. So, from now on you need to start playing soccer and watch Manchester United.” What do you think will happen to me? Exactly.

When we get to know a person, we don’t get to choose who we want them to be. We must accept them for who they said they are. Any personal relationship requires the other person to be able to contradict us. If that’s how we approach a relationship with one another, what makes us think that we can do it differently with Jesus? We don’t get to pick and choose which Jesus we want. We must know him as he reveals himself to be. This mean, there will be many things about Jesus that we find offensive. Why? Because he is not us; he is God. And if our god never offended us, then that god is not the true living God. That god is most likely a god that we created in our own image. But the God of the Bible will constantly offend us. I love the way Timothy Keller puts it. “Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.” That is why we are going to spend most of 2022 studying the book of Mark. Because if we want Jesus that can change us, we have to get the real Jesus. We want to know who Jesus truly is and what does it mean to have a personal relationship with him.

Let me give you some information about the book of Mark first. This book was written by John Mark. We saw his name mentioned a few times in the book of Acts. Mark was the cousin of Barnabas and he accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. But something happened and he abandoned them. So, when Paul and Barnabas were about to go on another missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them again, but Paul strongly disagreed. This created a sharp division between Paul and Barnabas, and they ended up going separate ways. Yes, the author of the book of Mark was the person who created a division between two super-apostles. But later Paul and Mark reconciled, and Mark became very helpful to Paul’s ministry. Let that be an encouragement for us. Our failure does not determine our future. God is specialized in using failures to accomplish his will on the earth. The book of Mark is the first written account we have of the life of Jesus. And it was written for Roman Gentiles to tell them who Jesus was. That is why there are not many Old Testament references in Mark. Mark also does not record many teachings of Jesus. Mark is more interested in giving his audience the real Jesus. Mark wants his audience to know that Jesus is the Son of God not so much through Jesus’s teachings but through what Jesus does. The book of Mark is the shortest of all four gospels. It has a very quick fast pace. It is more gospel of action than of teaching. And we are going to spend about 40 sermons on it. I am not kidding. So, let’s begin the journey.

I separate this sermon into three parts: Who Jesus is; What Jesus came to do; How Jesus accomplished it.

Who Jesus is

Mark 1:1-3 – The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, ³ the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

The book of Mark starts with a bang. Unlike other gospels, Mark does not take the time to tell of Jesus’ birth. There is nothing about the angelic visitation, Mary, the shepherds, the wise men, etc. Mark jumps straight into the action. And he tells us five things about Jesus in these opening verses. First, Jesus is the source of good news. The word for gospel comes from the Greek word “euangelion”, which is translated as good news. Today, we often think of the word gospel as a religious word. But in those days, gospel was a word that meant some history-making, life-shaping news. Let’s say for example that you are a doctor. And one day you find the ultimate vaccine to the coronavirus. You test the vaccine in a lab, and it works. It doesn’t matter what Greek alphabet variant it is; your vaccine works. You are extremely excited. So, what do you do next? You tell everyone that you find the ultimate vaccine to the coronavirus. You spread the word through Instagram, Facebook, Newspapers, TV, saying, “I have the ultimate vaccine to the coronavirus. Come and seek me for the vaccine.” This is the gospel. There is a sense of celebration and wonder to it. Gospel is not good advice; it is good news. And this is what makes Christianity different from all other religions. Other religions say, “This is what you have to do, this is what you must accomplish to be saved.” Christianity says, “This is what God has done, this is what God has accomplished for you that you may be saved.” Can you see the difference between good advice and good news? Good advice inspires us, but it does not remove the weight off our shoulders. Good news removes the burden off us and enables us to celebrate. And Jesus is the source of the good news. But he is not only the source.

Second, Jesus is the main character of the story. A group of people decided to do a Bible study on the book of Mark. They read this passage, and they shared their thoughts on what it meant. The first person said, “This passage tells us that everyone needs to be baptised and the right baptism is by immersion, not sprinkling.” The second person responded, “I think it means that everyone must be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The third person replied honestly, “I am not sure what this passage is teaching me.” The fourth replied confidently, “This passage teaches me that if I want to meet God, I have to live in the desert and eat locus.” Do you see what happened? There is a little element of truth in what they said but they missed the point. Because they assumed that the Bible is primarily about them. The moment we think that the Bible is about us, we immediately get it wrong. The good news is for us, but it is not about us. Mark is extremely clear that the gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not the main character of the story; Jesus is the main character of the story. Even when Mark talks about John the Baptist, his emphasis is not on John but on the one who comes after John and is more powerful than John. This passage is not about John, the mode of baptism, or living in the wilderness. Mark wants us to know that the focus of the gospel is Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus the focus of the gospel?

Third, Jesus is Saviour. The name Jesus means “God saves.” Save from what? I’m glad you asked. The Bible tells us that all of us has a disease that we cannot cure on our own. And the name of that disease is not COVID-19 but sin. Sin is not only something that we do. Sin is our condition without God. Sin makes us the enemies of God. The Bible tells us that everyone is dead in their sins. It means that there is a total separation between us and God. We are blind to his glory, we are deaf to his voice and we are numb to his love. We are as unresponsive as a corpse in our relationship with God. There is a big difference between being sick and dead. If we are sick, there is still something that we can do. We can still go to a doctor or get medicine. But if we are dead, we are dead. We are absolutely hopeless and there is not a single thing we can do to help ourselves. This is our condition before we meet Jesus. In the eyes of God, we are spiritually dead. None of us seeks God. All of us are walking dead in the eyes of God. We are in rebellion against God, and we deserved the wrath of God. We are on the road to eternal destruction. But praise God that the story doesn’t end there. Otherwise, it would have been terrible news instead of good news. But the gospel is good news because even though we deserved eternal condemnation, Jesus came to us to save us from our sins.

Fourth, Jesus is the promised Messiah. Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. It means that Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s promises in the Old Testament. This is why in verses 2 and 3, Mark weaves in Scripture from Exodus 23, Malachi 3, and Isaiah 40 to make a point that Jesus is not an afterthought. It is not as if God’s original plan has failed, and God turned to Jesus as plan B. Mark shows us that Jesus’ entrance into the story is part of the plan. It is not out of the blue. It has always been part of God’s original blueprint of salvation to send Jesus to save us from our sins. Which lead me to the fifth point.

Fifth, Jesus is God. When Mark writes that John the Baptist comes to prepare the way of the Lord, the Lord in the original Hebrew text is the word YHWH. And YHWH is the sacred name of God in the Old Testament. This means that the way that John prepares is none other than the way of the God of the Bible himself. In other words, Mark tells us that Jesus is YHWH in flesh. He is saying, “YHWH, the creator God of the universe, the sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth, has come to earth in the form of Jesus Christ.” Do you realize how radical this is? This is extremely hard to take, especially for the Jews. The Jews revered the name YHWH. In fact, the name is so sacred that they would not speak of the name or write the name. They have no concept of God becoming a human. It is absolutely insulting for them to think that God would become a human. In their understanding, God is so great, so majestic, so transcendent, so unapproachable. And it is certainly true. God is all that. But God is not just that. Mark says that in Jesus Christ, God has come to us. The ideal has become real. The immortal has become mortal. The unapproachable has become someone we can touch. The impossible has become possible.

Let me give you just one quick implication. It means that we can know God. We never have to second guess God again. Everything there is to know about God is revealed in Jesus. There will be no greater revelation of God than Jesus. Jesus is God in flesh. He is it. And what is mind-boggling is that this God comes to earth and takes on human flesh for us to know him. Let me put it this way. There was a very popular British crime novel author named Dorothy Sayers. One of her most popular works was on a detective called Lord Peter Wimsey. So, in her novel, Wimsey was an aristocrat who loves to solve mysteries. And as Dorothy continued to develop Wimsey’s character in her novel, she fell in love with him. So, what did she do? How can she communicate with Wimsey who was her creation? She wrote herself into the story. In her later novel, there appeared a girl who was exactly like Dorothy, who held the same credential as Dorothy, who went to the same school as her and worked as an author of crime novels. The girl met Lord Peter Wimsey and they fell in love and got married in the story. In a similar but more amazing way, this is what God does with us. He writes himself into his story in the person of Jesus. Why? Because this is the only way we might truly know him.

What Jesus came to do

Mark 1:4-8 – ⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So, Mark does not tell us of John’s birth. Mark has no interest in John except as the one who makes way for Jesus. John’s purpose in the story of the gospel is not to make name for himself but to bear witness to the more powerful one who comes after him. John says that the man that comes after him is so great that he is not worthy of loosing his sandals and washing his feet. And loosing sandals and washing feet is the duty of the lowest slave. So, John is saying, “In comparison to Jesus, I am far lower than the lowest slave. I am here simply to prepare the road for him.” John is simply a forerunner of Jesus. And what a strange forerunner he is. Think about it. If we must choose a forerunner for God, we would choose a person with the best credentials. Am I right? We would choose someone who graduated with the best mark from the best Jewish Torah University and came from a respectable family. But look at John. He has no credentials. He does not have formal education. He wears funny clothes. He lives in the wilderness. And he eats weird food. He is not what people expected at all. But John is chosen to be the forerunner of Jesus. It tells us that what Jesus comes to do are radically different from what people in his days expected him to do. So, what does Jesus come to do?

First, Jesus offers us true salvation. And the salvation Jesus offers is radically different from what people expected. The Jews would assume that if anyone knows anything about the way of salvation it would be the priest in the temple in Jerusalem. It would be the religious leaders. But instead of religious leaders in Jerusalem, the message of salvation comes from a strange man who wears strange cloth in the wilderness. It is as if Mark is saying that God has left the temple. And what John does in the wilderness is very strange. He baptises Jews. Let me tell you why this is very strange. You don’t baptise Jews. They are already converted. They are already God’s people. In those days, the Jews would wash their hands before going in to worship God as a way of saying, “I have certain uncleanness in my life and I need to be cleansed of sin.” So, it is normal for them to wash parts of themselves. But they do not get baptised. Do you know who get baptised? The gentiles. The gentiles who come to the temple to worship God not only need to wash their hands, but they must pour water all over themselves. They have to get soaking wet because the gentiles are really unclean. But John is baptising both the Jews and the Gentiles. This is radical.

And not only that. In those days, people always wash themselves. They do self-cleansing. But not John. John says, “You can’t baptize yourself. I must do it for you. It doesn’t matter who you are. Jews or Gentiles. Bible scholars or prostitutes. The only way for you to be clean is for someone else to do it for you.” In other words, John is telling them, “Listen. You cannot save yourself. You need someone else to do it for you. And that person is not me. That person is he who comes after me. He is far greater than me. I am only making way for him. I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” Don’t miss the point of what John is saying. John is telling us that religion cannot save us. It does not matter how good we are, it does not matter how often we go to church, we can’t save ourselves. We need someone else to cleanse us from our sins. And the cleansing we need is not only external. The cleansing we need is internal. We need to be baptised with the Holy Spirit. We need a new heart that loves God and wants to obey God. No amount of external religion can do that for us. Only Jesus can baptise us with the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus can cleanse us internally. Jesus comes to offer us true salvation.

Second, Jesus meets us in the wilderness. This is powerful. John preaches in the wilderness. So, people must go out and get baptised in the wilderness. What is wilderness? Wilderness in this context is desert. It is a place that cannot sustain life. It is a dry place. It is a place of death and thorns. Nothing can grow in the wilderness. It is a lonely place. But here is what’s very interesting. In the history of Israel, do you know where people often met God personally? It is not in the city. It is in the wilderness. Wilderness is where they met God. Here is why. Wilderness is a place where they desperately needed God to survive. During the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel learnt that God was the one who they truly needed to live. Apart from God’s intervention, they would die. God was the one who sent manna from heaven and provided water out of the rock. They had no hope without God. Do you know what it means for us? Here is what I know about us. In general, we do not meet God when everything in our life runs smoothly. We often meet God when we go through wilderness experiences. What is wilderness experience? It is when what we looked to as our ultimate hope in life, it is when the treasure that we clung to in our heart, it is when the thing that made us feel like someone special, fails us and disappoints us. It might be our spouse, our kids, our friends, our careers, our appearance, our money, whatever it is, it crumbles. It cannot sustain us. It leaves us very dry. It puts us in a place of death and thorns. We realize that without God’s intervention, we are dead. We are in the wilderness. And it is in the wilderness where we often meet God. It is only when everything falls apart and we reach the lowest point that we are learning to depend on God. Jesus meets us in the wilderness.

Let me give you an example that happens a lot in our church. Many of you grow up in a nice Christian family. You were taught many Christian values since you were young. You went to church every Sunday and life worked out pretty well for you. You were on your way to being a good happy Christian. You dated a Christian person. You thought life was going to be awesome. Then suddenly you faced a major relationship issue, and the relationship did not work out. You went into the wilderness experience. You realised that you have idolised your relationship and after you lost it, you didn’t know what to do with your life. You felt like your life had no meaning. You had trouble liking yourself. You had some really dark thoughts about yourself. You experienced an identity meltdown. You realised you were dry and empty. So, what did you do? You started to become active at church. You started reading your Bible more regularly, prayed more often, and attended MC weekly. You were very active ministering in the church. People around you praised you for the changes they saw in you. Your pastor was impressed with you. You were rebuilding your identity. You thought that what you needed was to be a better Christian. But let me tell you, it is not going to work. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to rebuild your identity, it won’t be long before it collapses again. You are a ticking bomb. Why? Because you are still trying to save yourself. Instead of your boyfriend or girlfriend, you are using the church for your sense of identity. What you are doing is you are still trying to baptise yourself. You are still trying to find meaning by your own strength. What you have is Christless Christianity. And it won’t be long before you enter another wilderness experience and have another identity meltdown. But the good news is that Jesus meets you in the wilderness. Jesus offers you true salvation in the wilderness. You no longer have to save yourself. You no longer have to baptise yourself. Jesus has come to baptize you and save you. How does Jesus accomplish it?

How Jesus accomplished it

Mark 1:9-13 – ⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” ¹² The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³ And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

These five verses sum up Jesus’ life on earth very well. Three things that Jesus does. First, Jesus associates with us. Jesus’ baptism has a radical implication. Think about it. Jesus is the perfect Son of God. Jesus has no sin that needs cleansing. He has nothing to repent of. He is God who takes on human form. He does not need to be baptised. So why did Jesus get baptised? The only answer is that Jesus associates himself with us. He is not baptised for his sake but our sake. Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins. And to do that, it is not enough for Jesus to simply forgive us of our sins by dying at the cross. Because if Jesus only forgives us of our sins, it only gives us a clean slate before God. It does not make us acceptable before God. It is not enough for Jesus to forgive us of our sins; Jesus must make us right with God.

Look at what happens at Jesus’ baptism. When Jesus comes out of the water, all heaven breaks loose. Mark writes that the heavens are not only open but the heavens are being torn open. And the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. And God the Father speaks from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” We see the Triune God in action. God the Father speaks; God the Son obeys; God the Spirit descends. All this to show that Jesus has come to do what no other can do. Jesus is the perfect fulfilment of what every child of God should be. Jesus lives the perfect life that we could not. He lives life fully pleasing to God the Father. And he does so in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus associates himself with us. So that when we put our faith in Jesus, we are not only forgiven of our sins but we are credited with Jesus’ perfect life. It means that when God looks at us, he not only sees us without sin, but he sees us as perfect, holy, and righteous. We are covered in Jesus’ perfect righteousness. And this is the good news of the gospel. In the gospel, God does not say to us, “I have forgiven you; you may go.” But God says to us, “I have forgiven you; you may come.”

Second, Jesus is tempted for us. This is interesting. Right after baptism, right after Jesus is acknowledged as the Son of God, the Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness. Instead of celebration, what’s waiting for Jesus is temptation. Instead of palace, it’s wilderness. And in the wilderness, Jesus meets our greatest enemy, Satan. And Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days. Mark does not tell us the detail of what happens in this encounter, but do not take this encounter lightly. Remember that although Jesus is fully God, he is also fully human. Jesus is free to choose. He is not a robot with no desire and choice. And Satan knows exactly how to tempt Jesus. He knows what Jesus came to do and he offers shortcuts to Jesus. And at this moment, the hope of humanity lies on Jesus’ shoulders. Because if Jesus gives in to Satan’s temptations, if Jesus takes the shortcuts, we are doomed. There is no hope for us to be saved because Jesus cannot go to the cross as the perfect sacrifice and pay for our sins. Only the perfect spotless sacrifice can pay the price of our sins. But the good news is that Jesus wins. Jesus is tempted in every way, but he does not give in. There is nothing Satan can do to cause Jesus to turn from accomplishing our salvation. Jesus succeeds where we failed.

Third, Jesus suffers with us. Mark ends verse 14 by saying that Jesus is with the wild animals in the wilderness and the angels are ministering to him. Why mention the wild animals? Is Mark trying to tell us that there are many scorpions and snakes in the desert? I don’t think so. Mark has a special reason why he mentions the wild animals. Remember that Mark is writing this book to Roman Gentiles. And at the time of his writing, there are many Christians who are put in cages with wild animals in the Roman games. What Mark is saying is that Jesus is familiar with their sufferings. Jesus too is thrown to wild animals in the wilderness, but the angels are ministering to Jesus. And just like how God does not abandon Jesus, Jesus does not abandon his people in their sufferings. Jesus is with us in our suffering.

Let me give you an illustration to show why this is such a massive encouragement to us. I heard that the pain of women giving birth is enough to turn an angel into a temporary devil. Is that true, husbands? Let’s say that one of you women is in labour. You are in so much pain and your husband decide to call your pastor for help. So, I come to the hospital to see you. And I say to you, “Don’t worry. You will get through this. I have seen many women go through the same pain as you. They all get over it. You will be fine. Woman, stop making life hard for your husband!” Do you know what you would do to me? You would probably throw whatever is near you to my face. You would slap me in the face if possible. Right? “What do you know about the pain of labour, you wretched man. It is your kind who make me go through this pain. Don’t tell me it’s going to be alright.” I’m guessing you would think something along that line. Maybe this is why I never visit any woman in labour. But what if, it is a woman who comes to see you? And not just any woman, but a woman who has given birth to 20 children. She went through what you went through times 20. She looks at you in the face, holds your hand, and say, “It’s going to be all right. I’ve been there. I went through what you are going through. I felt the pain that you feel. But I also know the joy that you will experience when the child is born. It’s going to be worth it. Don’t give up now. Keep on fighting. A greater joy is just ahead of you.” How would you respond? You would find comfort. You would find hope. This woman knows what she is talking about, unlike that clueless pastor who never feel what you feel.

And this is what Jesus gives us. Jesus, who is God, becomes human so that he knows what we are going through. He feels what we feel. He experiences what we experience. But he endures to the end without failing. Jesus goes through what we go through times million. Jesus, although he is tempted with the same temptations as us, he never gives in. No one endures greater temptations and sufferings than Jesus because he never gives in to sin. Jesus associates himself with us and he succeeds where we failed. This is why he can save us. Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness is the foreshadow of the ultimate battle at the cross. Jesus wins his battle and because of it, he can save us. This is how Jesus accomplishes our salvation. Jesus becomes like us to die for us so that he might be with us. This is the gospel.

So, let’s sum it up. Jesus is the source of good news. Jesus is the main character of our story. Jesus is Saviour who comes to save us from our sins. Jesus is the promised Messiah who fulfils all of God’s promises. Jesus is God who took on flesh. Jesus offers us true salvation. Jesus meets us in the wilderness. Jesus associates with us. Jesus is tempted for us. Jesus suffers with us. How amazing is Jesus? And best of all, this amazing Jesus wants a relationship with us. He wants us to know him personally. The beginning of Mark is extremely confrontational. It does not allow a middle ground on the person of Jesus. The real Jesus will not allow us to think of him as a good person or a good prophet. He has no room for it. The real Jesus only allows us two choices: either he is God, or he is a crazy man. There is no middle ground. Which mean, there can only be three consistent responses. First, we hate him, and we try to get rid of him. Second, we are scared of him and try to run away from him. Or third, we fully surrender to him in adoration. So let me ask the question again. Do you know Jesus Christ? Because if you don’t, I have the greatest news in the universe for you. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants to save you from your sins. All you have to do is to say yes to his invitation. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. Give some examples of false “My Jesus…” statements. Why is it important for us to know the real Jesus?
2. How do we know if we read the Bible correctly? Give some wrong and right examples of reading the Bible correctly.
3. “It is only when everything falls apart and we reach the lowest point that we are learning to depend on God.” Share your wilderness experience with others.
4. Look at the three accomplishments of Jesus (associate, tempted, suffer). Which one resonate the most with you and why?
5. Jesus is either God or a crazy man. What are some implications of this truth in our life?
6. Explain why the heartbeat of Christianity is good news (gospel) and not good advices.