“Jesus __________” Part 2: God’s Anointed King | Pastor Jacob Sheriff

Message Date: February 25, 2024
Bible

Part 2: God’s Anointed King

Victory Life Church, Central — Sunday, February 25, 2024

Introduction: Who is Jesus?

Mark 1:1 (ESV) The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus’ Titles:

    • Christ (the Messiah) — the Anointed King of Israel
    • Son of God — Divinely installed King

Mark’s framing for his whole story (gospel) and the assertion he makes about Jesus’ identity is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and the rest of this story will be how Jesus fulfills this vocation. So what does Mark mean by these titles? What’s most important about these titles is that they are a way of encapsulating a vocation for the person who receives the titles.

Here is the summary of these titles and the vocation that Mark assigns to Jesus: the Messiah, the Son of God, is the King of Israel, who is anointed and appointed by God Himself, and his Kingdom is the Kingdom of God that will last forever.

So how does John do this as he introduces Jesus to us (Mark 1:1-15)?

The Story of Jesus has a Backstory

Mark 1:2–3 (ESV) 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,’ ”

Old Testament Prophecies (Mark 1:2-3): Malachi 3:1 and 4:5, Isaiah 40:3-5, Exodus 23:20

Malachi 3:1 (ESV) “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.“

Malachi 4:5 (ESV) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

Isaiah 40:3–5 (ESV) 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5  And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Mark quotes from the first Major Prophet (Isaiah) and the last Minor Prophet (Malachi), as well as inferring a quotation from the Torah, as a way of summarizing the whole Prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. Key elements of this backstory — God is sending a messenger (who will be an Elijah-like figure) who will cry out from the wilderness to get God’s people ready for His return. God will “suddenly” come back to His Temple, His glory will be revealed, and it marks the “Day of the Lord.”

God is coming back to His Temple, and a Messenger will come in the wilderness to get God’s people ready.

Mark then introduces John (the Baptist) “in the wilderness” as this “Messenger,” and a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that prepares God’s people for His return.

Mark 1:4, 7–8 (ESV) 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…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.”

Jesus’ Baptism

Mark then introduces Jesus in the place of the Lord’s return to His people, and Jesus’ baptism as the Lord’s return, by HIs Spirit, to the Temple.

Mark 1:9–11 (ESV) 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.”

Jesus’ Baptism (Old Testament references):

    • Isaiah 64:1, Exodus 40:35-36, 1 Kings 8:10-11, 2 Chronicles 5:13-14
    • Psalm 2:1-12, 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 42:1-7, Isaiah 49:1-7

Jesus as the New Temple:

Mark 1:10 (ESV) 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.

Isaiah 64:1 (ESV) Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—

Exodus 40:34–35 (ESV) 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

1 Kings 8:10–11 (ESV) 10 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

The way Mark presents Jesus’ baptism is presenting him as the new Temple. In the same way the cloud covering the glory of the Lord came down into the Tabernacle and Temple, the Holy Spirit comes down onto Jesus from “the heavens.”

The Holy Spirit is the way the biblical authors talk about God’s  personal presence.

To understand how important this is, we need to see how Scripture  presents the structure of creation: heaven and earth. [Flip Chart] God’s space (heaven) and man’s space (earth) are not distant realities, but they overlap and interlock. Genesis 1-2 — Humanity and the Garden of Eden; Exodus 40 / 1 Kings 8 — The Tabernacle and the Temple; and now Jesus (Mark 1:10). The desired goal God has is for heaven and earth to be ONE, and for humanity to be God’s vessels bringing heaven to earth.

This moment in Jesus’ baptism is the way Mark presents Jesus not only as the new Temple, embodying God’s personal presence in the world, but a new humanity, and God’s anointed King, the Messiah.

Mark 1:11 (ESV) And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Psalm 2:1–8 (ESV) 1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6  “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7  I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

2 Samuel 7:12–14a (ESV) 12 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.”

Isaiah 42:1 (ESV) 1 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.

Isaiah 49:3, 6 (ESV) 3  And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” …6  he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

With these words from heaven, the Father speaking over the Son, Mark shows how Jesus is the Messiah, anointed by the Holy Spirit to be the King from the line of David, and the Beloved Son of God, the Servant who is appointed by God to be the King of Israel and the King of the world, bringing righteousness, justice, salvation, and redemption for the whole world.

Conclusion

With this presentation of Jesus, what do you say about Jesus? What does this mean for you?

There is a difference between good advice and good news. There are times to give good advice from the Scriptures, but there are times to simply tell you the good news of Jesus Christ.

We have been terrible masters over our lives. There is great injustice in our world and deep injustice and brokenness in our lives; some of it is self-inflicted, some of it is due to the evil and brokenness in other people’s lives and the sin they have committed against us.

You may have felt all alone in this world, that God is distant or non-existent, that He has abandoned you or left you to deal with life all alone. You have borne the weight of your life on your own shoulders, and it is too heavy for you. Your life has collapsed (or is collapsing) under the weight of your struggles or mistakes or hardships and you find yourself at your “end.”

Maybe you’ve come into a season where you are feeling hopeless, and do not have a clear meaning or purpose in your life, and it is making you wander aimlessly, or sink into just survival mode, or be overwhelmed with feelings of depression.

God is personally present in this world in the person of Jesus. He is God’s anointed and appointed King, who rules the world is bringing about justice and righteousness. We have proven to be poor masters of our lives, and so we called to surrender our lives under the authority of the One, True King. We are no longer alone in the world, God has not abandoned us, and Jesus shows us that God becomes personally present by His Spirit to us right now in our lives. God has also not abandoned our world, He cares deeply for our world. By surrendering our life to King Jesus, we get taken into His purpose for this world, we become citizens of His Kingdom.

Seeing Jesus as King calls us to a decision: do we remain masters of our own lives or do we surrender to Him?

Mark 8:29 (ESV) “who do you say that I am?”…