This week’s sermon covers Mark 1:1-20. The sermon in a sentence is, “We please God by who we identify with.” It covers Jesus’s baptism, His temptation in the wilderness, the start of His preaching ministry and the calling of his first four disciples.
The basic outline of this message is we please God when we:
1) Turn to Him
2) Endure Temptation
3) Proclaim Him
4) Follow Jesus
This message focused on who and what we identify with. We may wear t-shirts that tell people we’re into this sports team, or that organization. We’re publicly identifying ourselves with the thing represented on our shirt.
In much the same way, Jesus identified with us. He didn’t need to repent, but he identified with our need for repentance. He was baptized to leave us an example. Jesus could easily withstand temptation, but he allowed Himself to be tempted. He did it so he could identify with our feelings of temptation.
We want to please God, but we couldn’t. We needed someone to meet us where we were, identify with us and make a way for us to turn back to God.