Jesus, The Perfect Servant Unveiled In The Gospel Of Mark

23 October 2016 (8.30am service, New Creation Church at Star Vista)

-  A video recording of Pastor Joseph Prince’s sermon delivered on 5 May 2013 was shown.

(Video: Excerpt from the sermon)

 

I.           Always Abounding in the Work of the Lord, Knowing that Your Labor is Not in Vain

Psalm 91:3
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.

“Surely”, not perhaps. Jesus shall deliver us, Surely!

 1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

We should be always “abounding in the work of the Lord”.

“Abounding” refers to quality and quantity. It’s about serving the Lord everyday, in day-to-day life.

If you serve Christ, the Lord honours you, the Father honours you. It will not be fruitless. You will be rewarded.

Pastor urged each of us to serve the Lord in different capacities. And yet it does not mean that people in the full-time ministry are definitely serving Christ, as some serve for their ego or material gains.

John 12:26
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
                                                                   
Doing Christian work doesn’t mean you are serving Christ. We must be seated and settled in the righteousness of God in Christ before we can serve the Lord. And when we serve, the Father will honour and regard us highly. He will make sure that we are taken care of.

We don’t do things for people’s eyes. We do things for Christ.

Thus, before you can serve Christ, you have to be settled and seated, and understand that your sins are forgiven. We receive righteousness by faith and not righteousness by works. We should be seated, and be relaxed.

We should be the solid rock, and be someone whom people want to go for advice. People know that your yes is yes, your no is no.

II.        Jesus, the Perfect Servant

The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect servant in the Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark is about Jesus as the servant.  We should serve not just in church but in our personal life too. When we return home, and return to family, we should learn to serve. We should even learn to serve our children as well, for instance, we can give our children great massage.

Those who focus on “me”, “I” or “mine” lose their life.

A leader has the 4 faces- the lion (king), the ox (servant), the man (man) and the eagle (man of God).
 
Mark 1:1
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the Gospel of Mark, there is no genealogy, as you don’t ask the servant where he comes from. The servant is there to serve. One doesn’t ask the servant about the family line.

The son of the house and the servant of the house are different things. But here, the son becomes the servant.

Jesus has the qualities of majesty and meekness at the same time. Jesus is full of dignity and yet serving at the same time.

Only people who know they have everything can serve. People who are insecure in themselves can’t serve.

Mark is not one of the 12 disciples of Jesus.  Mark failed in the work of the Lord. He failed Paul. Paul didn’t want to bring him on his journey.

However, God chose a servant who failed to write about a servant who never fails- the perfect servant. God restored Mark:

2 Timothy 4:11
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.

Paul wrote the above.

 

III.      The Gospel of Mark- the Briefest of the Four gospels

The Gospel of Mark is written for the gentiles, and it is the briefest of the four gospels. It is chronological and written in sequence.

“Eutheos” in Greek means to do things immediately. We can see “eutheos” in many instances just by looking at chapter one of Mark:

Mark 1:10
And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.

Mark 1:12
Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.

Mark 1:18
They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Mark 1:20-21
And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught.

Mark 1:28-30
And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.
 

Mark 1:31

So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.

Mark 1:42-43

As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once,

The Gospel of Mark is about working— work, work, work, work. Immediately this happens… Immediately that happens…

If we take care of the small things, big truth will come to us. There is revelation through small words. For instance, it is grammatically incorrect to start our sentences with “And”. However, 35 out of 45 verses in the chapter one of the Gospel of Mark starts with “And”.

Normally, we don’t begin our sentence with “And”. Mark has 16 chapters, 11 chapters open with “And”.

There are about 1200 times of starting a verse with “And” in the Gospel of Mark. “And” speaks of movement, which implies that there is still work to be done.

The Gospel of Mark reveals the beauty of the One who serves with compassion and power with the following 5 aspects:

1.   Announced by the forerunner

Chapter 1 is the seed chapter of Mark.

Mark 1:3-4

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.' "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

 

 

Isaiah 40:3

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.

John the Baptist was the forerunner. The Word or Voice comes first? Word comes first. We can see word before we give voice. John the Baptist was the voice! John did not perform any miracles but he pointed people to Jesus and brought Jesus to people.

Jesus veils his glory, hides his glory, but we search it out with grace.

Philippians 2:5-8

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

2.   Approved by the Father

We serve God because He loves us. The Father approves of the Son.  When the Father said "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11), Jesus has not yet performed a miracle.

 

Nobody knows really what happened during the first 30 years of life of Jesus.

The Father proclaimed that Jesus is his beloved Son twice, once near the Dead Sea and another time at Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel, and it is located at the northern point of the country. However, the place of baptism near the Dead Sea is at the lowest point of planet Earth. The Father said that Jesus is His beloved Son at the lowest and highest places. Declaring that from Southernmost to northernmost indicates that from land to land, the Father proclaims that Jesus is His beloved.

Fathers should always approve the children first. We should not say— you do first, then I approve you. We need to affirm our children all the time that whether they pass or fail, we love them a lot, and they are a joy to us.

3.   Anointed by the Spirit

Mark 1:10-11

And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

The heaven opens to Jesus.

Matthew’s Gospel was for the Jews. Mark spoke to gentiles, and thus didn’t write about Jewish laws. In the Gospel of Mark, there were 3 times more miracles mentioned than in the Gospel of Matthew. In the Gospel of Matthew, there were more parables.

The theme of the Gospel of Mark is divine service.

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

The Lord served us till we were so full that we can serve.

Mark placed emphasis on works of Jesus, and thus more miracles were written. There were 12 accounts of Jesus casting out of demons in Mark’s brief gospel. Matthew only wrote about 4-5 miracles compared to the 12 of Mark. To Mark, it was the deeds that count.

Holy Spirit tells us that power flows to people who are lowly and have a servant’s heart. We should have the mindset of servant leadership— we serve people.

We should think of serving and not “how to get money” — even for corporate companies, and they will become profitable.

The true test of a ministry, Jesus says, is none greater than John the Baptist. John keeps on pointing people to Jesus. True ministry brings people to Christ and brings Christ to people.

True ministry is like what John the Baptist did. It’s all about His son.

4.   Assailed by the devil

Mark 1:12
Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit sent Jesus to be tested by the devil. He drove Jesus right into the wilderness.

Jesus cannot be tempted to sin.  He is tested. When we are tempted, there is something inside us called the flesh that is responding to the temptation. However, Jesus is not tempted to sin.

An analogy is that if you give someone a gold bar for testing, the person tested the gold bar to know that it’s pure gold. Jesus is thus tested, and not tempted. Through testing, we know that he is perfect. The Father is almost telling you— this is a pure gold, go test it!

The devil, after testing, has to acknowledge that He is a pure gold.

Mark 1:13
And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

Jesus was tested by Satan. Jesus the Lord was in the wilderness. Satan was there. The wild beasts were there too. Angels came to him.

5.   Acknowledged by the wild beasts

After 40 days of being tested, the wild beasts acknowledged Him

The only scars Jesus took with him were the ones he got from humans/man, and not from the wild beasts. Even the wild beasts acknowledged the Lord.

Jesus serves us with love and power.

6.   Attended to by angels

Mark 1:13

And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

The angels were here.

We are protected by a multitude of angels.

7.   Acclaimed by the multitude

Mark 1:32-34

At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.

Mark’s chapter one closes with sunset.

Mark’s last chapter closes with sunrise.

Jesus came into our darkness and brought the light of his glory/light to bear our darkness. The Lord came into our darkness, and it is brighter now.

IV. Conclusion  

Last verse of the Gospel of Mark:

Mark 16:19-20

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Jesus is still working WITH us. He works with us, when we are serving the Lord.

When we serve the Lord, we are not alone.

 

Mark 10:45

Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve

Servers allow the Lord to love them, fill them up, and thus they can serve as they are not empty.

The sermon closes with the following song:

The Servant King
From heaven you came, helpless babe,
Entered our world, your glory veiled;
Not to be served but to serve,
And give Your life That we might live.

This is our God, the servant king,
He calls us now to follow Him, to bring our lives
As a daily offering of worship to the Servant King.

There in the garden of tears,
My heavy load He chose to bear;
His heart with sorrow was torn,
'Yet not My will But Yours,' He said.

Come see His hands And His feet,
The scars that speak of sacrifice;
Hands that flung stars Into space
To cruel nails Surrendered.

So let us learn How to serve,
And in our lives Enthrone Him;
Each other's needs to prefer,
For it is Christ We're serving.