Tonight to the Gospel by Mark chapter one. March Gospel chapter one. For the past few Lord's day evenings, we've been dealing with the subject of the purpose of God being fulfilled in and through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The focus of our studies has been Christ Jesus the Lord. The messianic hopes. that are centered in him. The seed plot of the Bible is Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen, where God said to the devil, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, our Lord said to Satan, the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. In other words, the head of Satan would be crushed. Hebrews chapter two is very clear that at Calvary the Lord Jesus destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. And the word destroy there means he rendered him powerless in relation to the people of God. However, his final destruction awaits the time when our Lord defeats Him in a total defeat and casts Him into the lake of fire. We must keep these things in mind. While we see the accomplishment of the cross by faith, many of the messianic hopes await the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Genesis chapter three is indeed the seed plot of the Bible. And the whole of the Old Testament is a manifestation of the fulfillment of the promise that God made there in Genesis three. And it was that promise that Adam believed. And because of that promise, he named his wife Eve. She didn't have a name other than Adam before she got that name. That name was given to her by Adam when he believed the promise concerning the coming of the one who would crush the head of the serpent. And all the predictions of the Old Testament look forward to the person of Christ. The whole of the Bible is built around two men. These two men are the first Adam, Adam the first, who was a federal head of the all of the old creation. And all of us are related by natural birth to Adam the first. And that is why all men by nature are lost. Dead in trespasses and sins. The other man of the Bible is Adam the second. Or the last Adam. The Lord from heaven. The one who was born in Bethlehem. who grew up to be a man and died on Calvary's cross and was raised again from the dead, even our Lord Jesus Christ. So in the fifth chapter of Romans where you see the both of these contrasts, Adam the first and those who are in his family only know one thing, the wages of sin which is death, and Adam the second and those who are in his family through a birth, the new birth. being partakers of the divine nature, giving us a righteousness and grace and peace. Now, what we've done in looking at the fulfillment of that blessed promise in the gospel, or in Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen, we particularly focused on the gospel by Matthew, how Christ is the fulfillment of that messianic hope. In that he is the true king of Israel. For he is David's son. And for the more he is a great redeemer of his people. He is a son of Abraham. The one to whom it was said. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And that statement. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It gives us. who have believed from among the Gentiles genuine hope. For our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Savior of the Jews, He is the Savior of those who were without covenants, who were without hope, who were in the world, dead in trespasses and sins. He is our great Redeemer, and He has brought us in because He's the true Son of Abraham, He is Abraham's seed, and therefore, because of our relationship to him, we are Abraham's seed also. And the blessings of God through the Messiah belong to us who are Gentiles as well as to the nation of Israel. Now tonight we want to examine Mark, Luke, and John. And we, as we examine Mark, Luke, and John, I'm going to try to do it as rapidly as I can, and I want to bring out some of the main points in particular. We want to deal with the ministry of John the Baptist in Matthew, or in Mark, in Luke, and in John. So we begin our reading at verse fifteen. In verse fifteen, it is a climax. It is a climax. of John's ministry and here it is our Lord Jesus himself who's doing the speaking. In verse fourteen we read now after that John was put in prison Jesus came unto Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel. When you read the previous verses in John's gospel Or in Mark's Gospel, you realize that the message of John the Baptist was one of judgment, and he's one of calling a nation to repentance. They who God blesses, first of all, repent of their sins. God does not bless a person with salvation apart from repentance. So we move over to the Gospel by Luke. Luke's Gospel, chapter one. And we want to read verse forty-five. Luke one in verse forty-five, where we read, And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And then beginning in verse forty-six, you have Mary, the mother of the Lord, and her famous magnificat, that expression of praise. that exalted the God of all grace. And it's a great expression. Chapter two of Luke's Gospel in verse thirty. Chapter two in verse thirty. Here it is Simeon who blesses the Lord. And in verse twenty nine he says, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which now is prepared before the face of all people. a light to lighten the Gentile and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Now I want you to turn to John's Gospel chapter one. The Gospel by John chapter one. And we're going to begin our reading at verse twenty nine. John one and twenty nine. The next day John seeeth Jesus coming unto him and sayeth Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water, and John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not. but that he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he, which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I saw, and bear record, that this is the Son of God. Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus, as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the focal point of thy divine revelation. It is that blessed person whom you sent to crush the head of the serpent, even our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for who he is. for it's because of who he is that he could do what he did. And we pray that tonight as we examine him from the pages of thy word and see how accurate thy word is in its description of him, we pray that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart will indeed be acceptable in thy sight and will glorify him and bless your people. We ask in His worthy name, amen. When we come to the focus of Mark and Luke, the focus of Mark and Luke emphasizes that which is similar to Matthew. Both Mark and Luke point to the forerunner of our Lord Jesus. The forerunner was the one who ran before the king. The forerunner is the one who announced that the king is coming. And the forerunner in the Gospels is John the Baptist. His great expression that was given by the Lord, it was the same as that which John the Baptist used. But the expression that time is fulfilled. Verse forty-five of chapter one. That's what our Lord said. That time is fulfilled. And the kingdom of God is at hand. And the meaning of this is it is a call to repentance more than that. It says the time of waiting is over. The Messiah is here. The hope of the ages is now reality as the Lord Jesus stood in the midst of his people. What a statement that is in Mark chapter one in verse forty five. In Matthew's gospel the focus is upon Christ as the king and the redeemer. In Mark, it is the servant of Jehovah, the one who is the worker in bringing about the kingdom of God. But when we come to Luke's Gospel, in Luke's Gospel, we have Christ presented as a son of man, the one who is true man. And Luke takes us behind the scene, as it were, to the parents of John the Baptist, to Elizabeth. and Zechariah. And Mary visits Elizabeth after the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and announces to her that she shall be the mother of the Lord Jesus. She's going to be the mother of the Messiah. And as she announces this to her, she uses an illustration. It's an amazing thing. If you remember, I pointed this out on other occasions. There are two times that the expression is used in the New Testament. How can these things be? One time, Mary uses it. She says, how can this be? Seeing I know not a man, she was the first one to doubt the virgin birth. Mary herself. The second time this expression is used, it is used by Nicodemus in John chapter three. He says, how can these things be? Can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? It's an amazing thing. Each time the Spirit of God is pleased to give an illustration. To Nicodemus, the Lord said, And this is his illustration. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. To marry the wife of Zechariah, he used an illustration. He said, now you have a cousin, don't you? You have a cousin, Elizabeth, and you know how old she is. She's like Abraham and Sarah of the Old Testament. They're too old to have children, but she's six months pregnant. And you know what Mary did? She went right over to see her cousin. She went right over to see her cousin. And in the presence of her cousin, her cousin, who is going to bring forth the forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist, she makes that statement in verse forty five concerning Mary she said and blessed is she that believed you see Mary not saw for herself and she believed blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord what the Lord told you he's going to bring the past and what did the Lord tell her back in previous verses the angel Gabriel said to her concerning her son he shall be great he shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and of his kingdom there shall be no end and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever no wonder Mary burst forth in praise in what we know of as a magnificent that great expression of praise that he's found in verse forty-six down to verse fifty-five. But this also goes further than taking us behind the scenes to the parents of John the Baptist. He gives us an insight into an old man in Israel by the name of Simeon. And in chapter two that we read, and in particular in chapter two it's verse thirty where simeon says in verse twenty nine and lord now permit thy servant to depart in peace according to your word i've seen it all that's a new way of putting it that's the bumberger translation i've seen it all mine eyes have seen thy salvation and if a person has seen the salvation of the lord he's seen it all and then he adds which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. And this salvation of the Lord is a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel. You see, it includes the salvation of both Jew and Gentiles. I have seen the one who is the true seed of Abraham. I have seen the one who is indeed the blesser of the whole world but it's interesting when you go back to chapter one of Luke to Mary and the announcement that Gabriel makes to Mary concerning the birth of her son and I want you to notice verse thirty one of Luke chapter one and verse thirty one by the way and verse through down to verse thirty three if you'll take the word shall There are seven of them there. Seven shalls which declare what God is going to do through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where we read, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a girl. Doesn't say that. Thou shalt bring forth a son. Did God ever say that before? The same angel said it before. The same angel, if you read the book of Judges, chapter thirteen and verse three. When the angel of the Lord appeared to the mother of Samson. For Samson was the one who was going to begin to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of the Philistines. And the angel Gabriel said to her, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son. And then he told of deliverance. This is quite interesting. With the birth of Samson, there was deliverance. With the birth of Jesus, there's a greater deliverance. The birth of Samson was deliverance from the Philistines. But the birth of Jesus brought a deliverance from something far greater. than a natural physical enemy. It was deliverance from the dominion of sin. What do we read there? Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be called the son of the highest. And the word God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There shall be no end. Oh, what a person is the Son of God. But we have to move on. You see, the Gospel by John is so full for us who are the people of God. For the focus of John... As we noted, we began our reading in verse twenty-nine. The emphasis in John's gospel is very pronounced. For John, of all the gospel writers, he tells us what he wrote in chapter twenty in verse thirty-one. He says, if you take verse thirty with us, he says, And many other signs or miracles truly did Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written. that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life to his name. You can't get away from the redemptive purpose of God in revealing who Christ is. There is a messianic hope, there is a redemptive purpose. These are written that you might believe, believe what? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life to his name. The many and varied titles that are given to Christ in the Gospel of John declare that he is indeed all he claimed to be. He is the Son of God. He is Israel's Messiah. He is spoken of as the Son of Man. He is spoken of as the light of men. He is spoken of as the true light. This was the true light that lighteth every man. He is the greater than John the Baptist. He is the one of whom Moses wrote. He is the Holy One of God. He is the one who comes in the name of the Lord riding upon an ass in the fulfillment of Zechariah chapter nine and verse nine. Or the titles that are used in the gospel of John to tell us that this one is indeed the Messiah, believing that he is the Christ, the Son of God. You have life through his name. Now, in chapter nineteen, or in chapter one, in verses nineteen through verse thirty-four, that passage is filled with hints concerning the Messiahship of Jesus. In verse twenty-nine, He is the Lamb of God. But in that passage we read that He is the one who is going to baptize, anoint with the Holy Spirit. Now who can anoint but the one who is the anointed the Christ of God? For that's what the word Christ means. He is the anointed one of God. That's what the word Messiah means. And He is is the one who is going to anoint others with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now the climax is reached in verse thirty-four of John chapter one, where John says, and I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. Make no mistake about it, John says, I saw. And I bear record that this is the Son of God. But our Lord makes great declarations concerning himself. After verse thirty-four, you have the first public ministry of our Lord before he really manifested himself to Israel. And we have the conversion of Andrew and Philip and Peter and Nathaniel. And there are some great truths in the verses following verse thirty-four. But what do we find? I want you to notice in the particular the last verse, verse fifty-one. It is the lesson of our Lord himself, and he saith unto him, Verily, verily I stand to you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. What is our Lord saying here? He is saying, I am the mediator that links heaven and earth. How do we know that? Because of the other reference where it's used. In Genesis chapter twenty-eight, the night that Jacob ran out, had to leave home because his brother was going to kill him, for he had stolen his brother Esau's blessings. He laid down that night to sleep. And his motel didn't have a good pillow. It was a rock. He had a stone for a pillow. But he dreamed. And he saw the ladder from earth to heaven. And the top of the ladder there was a Lord. And he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the top of the ladder. Here our Lord refers to that when he speaks concerning himself to Nathaniel. Nathaniel had made the expression, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Can any good thing? The Lord says, you'll see. You'll see the heavens open. And you'll see the angels of God ascending and descending, not upon Jacob. upon the Son of Man. I'm the mediator to link earth and heaven. And then we get to First Timothy two, verse fifteen. We read, no, excuse me, First Timothy two, verse five. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. But all You see, when you come to verse forty-five, you have a great expression there. For here Philip finds Nathaniel and he says to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did right. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We have found him. We found the Messiah. Now, when you come to chapter two of the Gospel of John, we have the first miracle that our Lord performed. In the first miracle that our Lord performed, if we understand the message of the water pots, if we understand the message of the water pots, what they symbolized, for what were the water pots used, the Word of God tells us, they were used for purification. Here we have the one who is going to bring purification for sin, and he's going to provide the joy that comes with purification for sin, the joy of the Lord. He's going to provide genuine purification and genuine joy. Well, when you move over to chapter four, in chapter four, the Gospel of John, we have that woman. of Samaria at the relic Sychar, and our Lord speaking with her, our Lord drawing her to himself with accords of love, and that woman going back to the city, meeting the people there and declaring that she is found the Messiah, for our Lord had genuinely revealed himself to her, and what do we read in verses forty-one and forty-two? We read this. and many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world and that expression the Savior of the world brings in a Gentile here the woman of Samaria he had brought her in He is the Messiah. He will not only save Jews, but he will save all who call upon his name. When we get to chapter six, in chapter six we have the great discourse of the Lord Jesus as a bread of life. And in chapter six, in verse sixty eight, you'll find as you read the few preceding verses that because of our Lord's statements concerning himself and the teaching of the doctrine of election there are those who would no longer walk with the Lord and our Lord turns to his disciples and he said to them will you also go away and Peter makes that memorable statement in verse sixty eight and then Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You don't need to look any further. Peter said, you're the only one who can save. We believe and are sure. But in John's Gospel account, as he focuses upon our Lord Jesus Christ, you have the great I am statement in the Gospel of John. Our Lord said, I am the bread of life. Our Lord said, I am the light of the world. He said, I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the resurrection and the life. In other words, the name that he revealed to Moses at the burning bush, when Moses said, Who shall I say to the children of Israel, Send me unto you? Our Lord says, you tell them, I am, that I am, have sent me unto you. And therefore, John here says, Jehovah is the bread of life. Jehovah is the light of the world. Jehovah is the good shepherd. Jehovah is the Lamb of God. So when he says all these things, what is he really saying? He's saying that Jesus Christ is Jehovah. But when you come to verse twenty-nine of chapter one, a verse which we all know, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. That seems like a very simple statement that first as you read it, the more you read that statement the more complex and the more full a meaning it becomes to the child of God John's message about Christ as recorded in Matthew Mark and Luke is that of a judge and he calls John's message is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and he calls men to repentance And he says concerning the Lord who is coming, this one who is coming after him, who is preferred before him, for he was before him, he's going to thoroughly purge his floor. He's going to gather the wheat into his garner. The chaff is going to burn with unquenchable fire. That's what John said about the Lord. It was a message of judgment. But here in John one and twenty-nine, he speaks of him as a lamb of God. And the expression, the Lamb of God here, he's coming in trial to clean up and to remove sin. In other words, the sin of the world is going to be removed by this one. In establishing God's kingdom, in taking away sin, it refers to the destruction and the judgment of God upon sinners. as well as to the great work of redemption provided to our blessed Lord. For remember, they who believe not will be condemned. In other words, the picture here is that of a lamb being attacked by a wild animal, but overcoming the wild animal and establishing the kingdom of God. Now that's a picture that John gives in the fifth chapter of Revelation. You see, there's a book in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, and it's sealed with seven seals. And no one is found worthy to open the book in heaven or in hell or on earth. None could open it. And John loved what? But when he looked in the midst of the throne, there was a lion of the tribe of Judah. And when he looked further, the lion was the lamb. The lamb, the one who triumphed over sin. The lamb, the one who's going to break the seals, usher in the judgment of God, and eventually usher in the kingdom of God on earth. That's what Revelation is all about. And the focal point is the Son of God. The conquering lion is none other than the slain lamb who opens a book and who ushers in the kingdom. You see, the removal of sin did occur by the Paschal Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ. but the great conflagration awaits the second advent of our Lord. The redemptive purpose of God and the messianic hope found in the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. Now we need to apply these blessed truths that we find in Mark, Luke, and John three quick applications tonight. number one whether we examine the person of Christ from the viewpoint of sacrifice for sin or his coming as a judge who is going to judge the living and the dead at his appearance and his kingdom the scriptures reveal him to be all that he claimed to be we can be sure that Jesus Christ is indeed the only Savior of the world. We can say with Peter, To whom can we go? Da has the words of eternal life. And you know, we can say it in the morning when we awake, I wake in the morning with thoughts of his love, who is living for me in the glory above, and thus I rejoice till He calls me away and that keeps me bright all the rest of the day. You see, whether it's Christ in His first Advent or Christ in His second Advent, they are linked together in far closer union than you can imagine. they are linked together. Like love and marriage. They go together like a horse in a carriage. You can't have the one without the other. You can't have the first advent of Christ without the second. They are linked together in the statements of John the Baptist. He truly announced the king. The second application is this. The two advent of Christ are necessary for us to see the whole picture. One is simply not enough. And this is shown forth in the new covenant. When our Lord inaugurated the new covenant, when he provided the meal, that we celebrate as the Lord's Supper. The Scripture says, As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show forth his death till he comes. Therefore, we must proclaim our Lord is coming again. Just as he came the first time, he's coming again. The third application is this. we should be good students of the Word of God. We should spend more time with the Word of God than we do with a newspaper. In being good students of the Word of God, the simple verses of Scripture, like John one and twenty-nine, as we noted tonight, are far more pregnant with meaning than we can imagine. for we need to take into account the whole focus of the revelation of God and how that broad focus of the revelation of God points primarily to one thing the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glorification of him is united to the glory of the people of God who are united to him by divine grace we should not be content with simplistic answers only to the Word of God. We need to meditate. We need to examine. We need to meditate upon the whole Word of God. For our Lord Jesus Christ is a focus of it all. Now let's pray together. Father, we thank you for him who has loved us. and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We thank you in Jesus' name for who he is and for what he has accomplished. We can say with Peter, we believe and are sure thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. We rejoice in this knowledge. And we rejoice in that that you have revealed to us concerning him. Truly our hearts rejoice as we find him on the page of Holy Scripture. We give you thanks in his worthy name. Amen.