Part 7 - The Gospel according to Mark

Transcript (Auto-generated)

In just a few minutes I'm going to ask all the male species to stand now um I'm giving you some warning about that because uh men don't like surprises and uh so whether you're 150 or whether you're just 5 months or whatever old uh if you're five months you might have trouble standing but if there's any baby men in the church get you to Dad will hold you up or Mom will I'm not going to embarrass you in any way I'm not going to get you to say anything or do anything I just want to illustrate something okay so um just letting you know that so of of course um if you um if you can't stand because of age or illness whatever that's okay it might might be a problem or even if you want to be a conscientious objector and not stand um we do have another word for those people but that's okay too so if you're if you're a male doesn't matter what age you are would you mind standing just uh from moment okay we're doing pretty good here Oran just looking see where the little no is up there he's sleeping okay permission granted there's a few others asleep here too and haven't even started preaching what are all these these men these Blakes have in common other than their good looks natural charm and their muscles they're all good-looking at least some of them are looking around just in their mother's eyes but uh that's okay you know what they all have in common they're all Sons we are all sons and I just want to illustrate this because today we're talking about Jesus as son and so as human beings we represent and we portray sometimes aspects the godhead and so standing here in front of us is examples or illustrations or or um things that help us to understand something about the father son relationship in the godhead now of course there's um all of us we're tarnished by sin and the father son in the godhead is not tarnished by sin and uh so just remember that guys that as you live as we live our lives we are portraying to some degree something of the Trinity some aspect of the Trinity and Ladies as you look around and see these men standing Endeavor to see what you can in them that remind you of the Trinity of the father son relationship does all that make sense it does hope so you can sit down there that wasn't too hard was it we're continuing our Series in Mark's gospel we're going to keep going right through to Christmas and um as you're aware that uh I've just made you aware that we today we're talking about Jesus as son so far we've looked at a whole range of topics and the purpose of all of this is that we're building up this this wonderful picture of um of who Jesus is and so over the period of time we've been looking at these topics and today we are looking specifically at this aspect of Jesus as son and so if you've got your Bibles there would you turn with me to Mark chapter 9 and I'd like to read from verse 2 through to13 um this is the Transfiguration of Jesus just by the way we're looking at some of the names of Jesus and in the Bible there were around in the New Testament there were about 16 names that are assigned to Jesus and this is being son or the Son of God the only begotten son is one aspect of that so this is a transfigurations it's recorded in Mark chapter 9 after 6 days Jesus Took Peter James and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone there he was transfigured before them his clothes became dazzling white whiter than anyone in the world world could bleach them and there appeared before them Elijah and Moses who were talking with Jesus Peter said to Jesus Rabbi it's good for us to be here let us put up three shelters one for you one for Moses and one for Elijah he did not know what to say they were so frightened then a cloud appeared and enveloped them and a voice come from the cloud The Voice came from the cloud this is my son whom I love listen to him suddenly when they looked around they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus and as they were coming down the mountain Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead they kept the matter to themselves discussing what rising from the dead meant and they asked him why did the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first Jesus Jus replied to be sure Elijah does come first and restores all things why then is it written that the son of man must suffer much and be rejected but I tell you Elijah has come and they have done to him everything they wished just as it is written about him God always blesses the reading of his word the idea of the sun is not just in the um in the New Testament it's right there way back in the Old Testament and if you had have been really taking note I'm sure you're paying attention but if you had have been really taking note um Kelly read part of this in Isaiah in uh in early in the service so in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6 remember this is written in the 8th Century BC so 700 and something years before Jesus was born Isaiah spoke these words these um these words of Prophecy for a child is born to us a what a son the son is given to us the government will rest on his shoulders and here we have something of the uh character tray of the Lord Jesus being spoken about 700 and something years before he actually came and he'll be called wonderful counselor Mighty God Everlasting father Prince of Peace Now isn't it worthwhile just stopping and soaking that in for a while that here are the characteristic here are some character trays of the Lord Jesus being spoken about and this is the Jesus who we worship who we remember coming into the world at at Christmas time uh this is the one name it would be called wonderful count of Mighty God and so on so right back in the Old Testament it's foreshadowed that God the son was going to be here and then if we go to the early part of the Christmas story in Luke chapter one we have the announcement of the Angel to uh the angel to Mary and this is just part of it um I've got about a 100 bible verses to to read today and um and you're not going to have time to flick through them all in fact I probably won't even have time to read them all so but just make sure you get copy of the PowerPoint and uh and work through them then Luke 1 and verses 31 and 32 the angel appears to Mary and a part of the the message that she that the angel says to Mary is this you shall have a son and he will be called the son of the most high now do you notice something special about these about these two words about where the word sun is there I've tried to make it a bit easier for you because I put it in bold and underline the two s's you shall have a son which is a small s son you're going to have a son Mary he's going to uh just be a normal human but he will be called what the son the capital S son the son of the most high so this is talking about his deity that you're going to have a son which is fully human but you're also going to have a son who is fully God he's going to be called the son of the most high and so even just in this verse in these these verses this reference of the angel in uh talking to Mary we have this we have this um this identification given of Jesus one that he is both human and divine that he's both man and God and that he really is all in the one he is the god man um that's just an amazing picture U it's just something which boggles their mind it's something which we can't fully understand so we have it in the Old Testament we then have it in the announcement to Mary that she's going to have a son who's going to be called a Son of God but then there were these two references one of them which we read but the other one we didn't read um where is that Jesus baptism where the voice from heaven so these two references is when the father is speaking about Jesus and the first one is about his baptism and this is the words of the father in Mark 1 and: 11 you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased and then what we read in Mark chapter 9 and verse 7 this is my son whom I love listen to him so we have these two um these two times where the father is affirming Jesus as the son but I wonder whether you pick a difference in these two references in Mark chapter 1 and verse 11 who is the father speaking to God the father is speaking to he's speaking to Jesus and so there's these words of affirmation from the father to the son where the God the father is saying to Jesus to his son you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased but then the second reference the one that we read in Mark chapter 9 who is the father speaking to he's speaking to is he speaking directly to Jesus no he's speaking to Peter James and John and he's saying this these affirming words about Jesus who is there in the their presence this is my son whom I love listen to him now I want to go back a bit into talk to um fathers here because I wonder what that did for Jesus to hear his father say these words you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased um if we were to paraphrase that would you not agree that we could say that the father was saying to Jesus his son I'm proud of you son I want to ask fathers and put a challenge out to fathers about affirmation to their sons um I'm a son youngest of seven three of us boys um I'm the youngest of all seven and um you know what I can never remember my father giving me an affirming word at all does that mean that he didn't love me no I think you'll find that that is more a characteristic of our era and probably if you talk to most men about my age or their abouts plus or minus a few years you'll probably find that most of us never had or never heard an affirming word from our from our dads it's just whatever you know parenting uh ins and outs comes and goes and all the rest of it but here we have the biblical example of God the Father saying to God the son you are my son am I love with you I well pleased we only have three daughters so um I don't know what it's like to have a son I do know it's like to have three sons-in-law though um and I know what what that's like I reckon that women tend to marry men who remind them in some way of their father uh and vice versa that men marry women who bit like their mother and so sometimes it's certainly not a dwelling point of mind but sometimes I look at our three sons-in-law and I think what is the likeness in there for me and I really struggle sometimes to see anything uh but they're all three wonderful men they're really great guys um but I do have just looking here to make sure I get this correct eight grandsons yes I've got the notot how's that and so I know what it's like to be a grandfather of grandsons dad's only to challenge you on this if you have a son my challenge to you this week is to give a word of affirmation to your son so whether that's put your arms around him and give him a hug or sending him a text message or an email or a or a phone call or whatever but this is what the father and the son is lie this is the affirming words of the Father God the Father to God the son you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased now that's a tremendous change and it's going to be a for uh for you for some of you men to do that some of you guys are say already done that even this morning as I say we've got three sons-in-law um two of our sons-in-law by the way are from broken homes and so for them to have us our home as uh as as an example that this is what a home is like and this is what a dad can be like is uh I I just sense the weight of that sometimes um and I find these days well always had that whenever I greet sons-in-law as as I do with our daughters to give them a big hug uh one son-in-law has always be a bit March a bit standback is but even find these days after many years he's quite happy to join in the hug um you see this is all the important things of the affirmation of affirming birthdays and Christmas and wedding anniversaries we have them all in my diary and to say to our sons-in-law thank you for being a good husband to our daughter and giving us such tremendous grandkids the affirming word to a man never is wasted and just as it was to Jesus as the son to hear those words from the father you are my son whom I love with you I'm really proud dads granddad's say that to your sons and grandkids even if it's really really tough or even if it's really uh if you're AR strange from them uh work through that if you can so that's it is baptism but then at the Transfiguration there are these other people appear Moses and Elijah appear why then we don't really know it's most commonly thing that Moses was uh representative of the law given the Ten Commandments Elijah's representative of the prophets uh one of the first prophets and one of the great prophets um some say it that way others said that Moses died in a natural way Elijah was taken up to heaven in the same way most of us will die a natural death but when Jesus comes again we'll be taken up into heaven but the important thing is that we think of the law and the prophets the father is saying to Peter James and John he's saying to them don't neglect the law don't neglect the prophets but listen to my son listen to Jesus listen to him and those words come through to us today that not to ignore the law of the prophets not to ignore the Old Testament but to do this ensure that we are listening to the words of Jesus that's why we're doing The Book of Mark that's why we look at the at the gospel story that's why we study his words we are Disciples of his because the father says this is my son who I love listen to him don't just hear him but obey him as well well we have those words there but what else do we know about this idea of uh of sunship by the way can I just come back a little bit and say this the father child relationship often impacts and um and impacts the way that we see God as father and so if we had a bad relationship with our father we often struggle with our relationship with God in that area um it that affects probably around about 99.9% of us in varying degree some it has a big impact some it doesn't have much some had an estranged father some never knew their father for whatever reason uh some had of us had a really good close relationships with their dads and so on but the problem with with that sort of thinking is this is that we start with our Earthly father to examine our heavenly father but in actual fact we should be what starting with our heavenly father engage our Earthly father in the light of that so remember that um our Earthly father is a centner just like you and me um I say to our kids that I wasn't the perfect father and that was because we didn't have the perfect kids but uh but I've got the perfect heavenly father and and to remember that and to understand even my own relationship with my Earthly father to understand that in the light of my relationship with the heavenly father to get that right okay so son there are two different ways this word son is applied to Jesus he's referred to as the Son of God like over 40 times in the New Testament but it's also referred to the son of man like 85 times just in the gospels and so there's this this Jewel sunship if you like just be careful how I use that word Jewel don't take that too literally but there's this this two identification Jesus is the son of God expressing his heavenliness his deity but also the son of man expressing his Humanity so I want to look very quickly at uh at both of those things um I'm going to introduce you probably to some new words today you don't need to memorize them or learn them um when I was in college we had to go through them and learn them and all the rest of it don't know whether they still do in college I'll check with Dylan later whether he knows these these terms if not he needs to learn them but uh but it's it's helpful for us and I'll explain why so he's the son of God that he is fully God this part of the Trinity the father Son and Holy Spirit now you won't find that word Trinity in the New Testament but the concept is the Trinity the concept of the Trinity is there through and through so it's there the the Trinity is three persons three persons but one substance do you want me to explain that to you man I wish I could explain the Trinity to you because it's the only thing in this whole universe and it's beyond our comprehension and we've struggled with it we something that we can accept we accept that it's there but we can't fully explain it like we might be able to explain how to uh how to prepare lunch or whatever and in the early church there were these three heresies and this is so what I was in college we had to learn about the early church councils and what the arguments were on all around how it was addressed and and all the rest of it but why I'm pointing this out today is this is that in another form these heresies still exist and it's helpful to be aware that they've been around for hundreds of years and that they've been addressed by the early church and you can still find uh how how to address these arguments so there was this um one area which I had to address which which is called modalism where the father Son and Holy Spirit where the where the godhead appeared in three modes of Revelation Peter is the Father Peter is the Son and Peter is the holy spirit one form of that that's not the only form is that you find one form it's a heresy what I'm about to say so don't don't say this is what ler said other than quoting as heresy Old Testament you see God as the father in the life of Jesus you see the life of Jesus the God the Father God the son and after Jesus went the Holy Spirit was given you have the Holy Spirit so that's heresy to say that God appearing in three different modes then there's a subordinationism where there is the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit elicit beings but the churches and the Bible clearly addresses this whole fact that the father son and the spirit one God three in one co-equal in the godhead and then there is the tritheism that uh there's actually not one God but three um three beings of God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit the Bible clearly says there is one God um some of these heresies like the Jehovah's Witness and how their view of Jesus is is is heretical there heresy but this is where it's at so God the son did Lord Jesus is fully God but let me just outline very quickly some of the characteristics of him now here are some words which uh which may look rather difficult when they first come up all start the first three begin with the prefix Omni all that Omni means Omni means everywhere all you know that I'm a trade from way back in radio and uh so we had uh different sorts of antennas that we used to use and some of them were directional antennas antennas it's like your TV antenna um remember the old days we used to have uh dad used to be up on the roof and Mom would be inside and dad would be twisting the aerial around and say stop that's where the best picture is do you remember doing that uh some are saying is we just got a new TV antenna the man got up on the roof and he had the the instrument and he just did it all himself thought oh how slack you know but anyway so there's the directional antenas like how TV antennas but there's omnidirectional antennas which you also which just spread stuff everywhere so when you see Omni it's just talking about Omni is in all directions everything and so you take away that Omni and you have these three words potent has to do with power potency uh has to do with power the science needs to uh has to do with knowing and present has to do with presents and there are these verses in the word of God and I've just given you one reference for each of these and we won't have time to look at them now uh but you can look at them later or I've actually printed them all out to help me this morning uh somewhere so if you ask very nicely um I might even be able to get an email to you where all these references are all in the one place but uh so it's all powerful that all power is given to Jesus that he's omniscient that he knows everything and that he's present that he's present everywhere but it's also Eternal that Jesus did not just come into existence on uh on his birth at his birth but he was present even before his birth in the beginning was the word and the word speaking of Jesus in the beginning was Jesus and uh so the pre-existent Jesus is there and for all eternity in this uh as part of the Trinity so omnipresent present everywhere that he's Eternal that he's immutable that means that he never changes and you know how we change over life um the person we married is not the person we married to today well they are of course but there's has been changes our kids have changed over the years as they become adults but the Bible says Jesus Christ is the same what yesterday today and forever so we have this tremendous picture of the Lord Jesus um coming out that he's the son of God he's son of man that he's fully God he's fully human that uh his wonderful counselor uh this is the Lord Jesus who we invited to engage with today but he's also known as the son of man as well that is fully human so we're considering about his birth John 1:14 says that the word became flesh uh Jesus became flesh in Luke 2 verse 40 and again in 5252 um is the Fuller one that he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man so there is this human aspect of him and when you look read the story of Jesus he had all the typical human attributes of a Jewish man he got tired he got hungry he got thirsty uh physically Hae all of those things so for these 30 odd years Jesus just lived this life as a fully human being so we have this this amazing picture of this person this God man who lived 2, years ago who we were invited to ask ourselves today who do you say that I am is reflecting what Jesus said to his disciples but why do we need Jesus today I want to mention just five and here are the five things as to why we need the son one that he shows us God Philip was wasn't it came to Jesus and he said show us the father Jesus said hey I've been living with you for so long how come you're asking me to show the father if you've seen me you've seen the father so if you want to know what God is like study the life of Jesus because Jesus is fully God he shows us the father we also need the son because why he saves us from our sins for God so loved his son but for God so loved the world that he gave who his only begotten son his only son that who soever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life we also need the the son because he will set us free set us free from Death uh from the fear of death uh we we're reminded about that in uh in Hebrews 24 and 15 since the children have Flesh and Blood he too shed in their Humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death a relationship with Jesus reminds us us instructs us tells us that there is no need to fear death but also we need the son because he sympathizes with with us in our weaknesses you know everything that we go through Jesus has been through well maybe not Facebook things and social media but in principle everything that we face is there but also to strengthen Us in times of Temptation for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with us in our weaknesses he knows what you and I are going through but we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are but what's the difference yet he did not sin so we're invited today we're asked to consider this question about the Lord Jes Jesus who do you say that I am who do you say Jesus is and we can regard him from a far as being well someone out there or today we can invite the Lord Jesus into our lives ensure that he's in our lives as our personal savior as our friend just came up on my feed yesterday this song If I Had It come up earlier I would have um got Kelly to uh to teach it to us but I'll I wasn't sure but I checked Dylan he said no we don't know it but I've encouraged him to uh to think about teaching us is this song I Won't sing it to you you're right for that but uh but these are the words for this song says sometimes I Fall to my knees and pray come Jesus come let today be the day sometimes I feel like I'm going to break but I'm holding on to a hope that won't fade come Jesus come we've been waiting so long for the day you return to heal every hurt and right every wrong we need you right now come and turn this around deep down I know this world isn't home come Jesus come there'll be no war there'll be no chains when Jesus Jesus comes let today be the day he'll come for the weak and the strong just the same and all who believe in the power of His name one day he'll come and we'll stand face to face come and lay it all down because it might be today the time is right now there's no need to wait your past will be washed by rivers of Grace come Jesus has come we've been waiting so long for the day you return to heal every hurt and right every wrong we need you right now come and turn this around deep down I know this world isn't home come Jesus come come Jesus come come Jesus come this is the Jesus we're talking about he wants to enter into this intimate personal relationship with every one of us let's pray we long for that physical Return of the Lord Jesus to utter in all eternity that we need you Lord Jesus to come into our hearts to do the healing work to do the comforting work the encouraging work this morning Father we want to hear those words The Words which you spoke to your son we accept them as being spoken to us today this is my son this is my daughter whom I love with you are well pleased. Amen.