Session 1 > Mark 1:9-20 Calls Jesus is the promised Messiah, worthy of being followed. Clay believes firmly that God called him into a life of Christian ministry. He also admits that his experience does not fit the mold of what many believers envision as a call to ministry. That admission, however, has not dampened his commitment to serve the Lord faithfully through the abilities, opportunities, and situations God has given to him. I met Clay years ago while in seminary. He had resigned from a successful accounting business in another state, sold his home, and moved with his family into a small apartment on the seminary’s campus. He proved to be an exceptional student who made good grades and excelled in ministry activities. He was more faithful in sharing the gospel one-on-one with others than any other student I knew. Then Clay made an announcement one day that took me by complete surprise. After completing a year of training, Clay decided to leave the seminary and restart his accounting business. He told me that he had come to understand God was not calling him into ministry as a preacher, pastor, or missionary. When I asked what he planned to do, he replied, “I’m going to be the best layman I can possibly be.” And that is precisely what he did—until God later put before Clay a new opportunity to fulfill his call to ministry and return to the seminary at the same time. Clay was hired as the seminary’s vice- president for business affairs. He then spent the next thirty years of his life serving the Lord in that ministry role by utilizing the gifts, abilities, and business experience God had given him. This session focuses on Jesus’ calling disciples to follow Him. In Mark’s Gospel, the narrative moves quickly to the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry. His basic message was concise: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). He then called two pairs of brothers—all of whom were in the fishing business—to follow Him and begin to “fish for people” (1:17). As we explore this Bible text, we will be challenged to hear Jesus’ call to ministry as well. His call begins as the call to salvation through faith in Him. It continues as a call to lifelong ministry: going where He leads and doing what He directs. 10 Explore the Bible © 2019 LifeWay UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT MARK 1:1-20 Where should a Gospel account of Jesus’ life and ministry begin? To judge from the four New Testament Gospels, the answer to this question depends on the Gospel writer’s circumstances and purpose, the initial audience’s needs, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Matthew began his Gospel with a genealogy that showed Jesus’ messianic lineage from Abraham through King David to “Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ” (Matt. 1:16). Luke chose to begin his Gospel account with a statement of his credentials and purpose in writing followed by two birth announcements delivered by the angel Gabriel—the first announcement to an aged priest whose wife would give birth to the Messiah’s prophetic forerunner and the second announcement to Mary, a young, engaged virgin who would miraculously conceive and give birth to the Messiah (Luke 1:1-38). John’s Gospel, on the other hand, opens with an emphasis on Jesus’ eternal nature: Jesus was (and is) the Eternal Word who was with God in the beginning and created all things, including life itself (John 1:1-5). Mark’s Gospel begins by stating who the gospel is about and pointing to the gospel’s being anticipated in Old Testament prophecy. Mark coupled quotations from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 to introduce the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist, the Messiah’s forerunner. John the Baptist called on people to be baptized, demonstrating their repentance, forgiveness from sin, and preparation for the Messiah’s appearance (Mark 1:1-8). Mark did not dwell long on John’s ministry but moved quickly to emphasize Jesus’ baptism by John (1:9-11). Jesus’ baptism did not indicate His need of repentance, for Jesus had not sinned. Instead, Jesus submitted to baptism to identify with sinners and show that He was the source of forgiveness and righteousness. In a unified response of divine affirmation, the Spirit descended on Jesus after the baptism and the Father’s voice declared from heaven that Jesus was God’s Son with whom He was pleased. Jesus’ baptism was followed immediately by a time of testing (1:12-13). Jesus spent forty days alone in the wilderness, during which time Satan tempted Him. At the same time, however, angels ministered to Jesus. After John the Baptist’s arrest, Jesus began His public preaching ministry. He proclaimed the message that God’s kingdom had arrived and called on people to repent and believe the good news (1:14-15). He then called two pairs of brothers, Simon (Peter) and Andrew as well as James and John, to leave their fishing business and follow Him as His disciples 1:16-20).( Session 1 : Calls 11 © 2019 LifeWay EXPLORE THE TEXT AFFIRMED (Mark 1:9-11) Mark asserted in 1:1 that the gospel is first and foremost a Person: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The name Jesus emphasized His true humanity. The title Christ emphasized Jesus’ role as the Messiah. The phrase the Son of God emphasized Jesus’ deity. To buttress his bold statement about the gospel, Mark immediately offered supportive evidence from the Old Testament (1:2- 3), from John the Baptist (1:4-8), and then from God Himself (1:9-11). VERSE 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. The phrase in those days refers to the period of John the Baptist’s ministry along the Jordan River in the region of Judea (1:5). Luke’s Gospel dates the beginning of John’s ministry as “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” (Luke 3:1-2). Given these historical references, a date for Jesus’ baptism around AD 27–29 seems likely. The words Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee remind us that He grew up in that small Galilean village located about ninety miles north of Jerusalem. Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea (five miles south of Jerusalem), both Mary, His mother, and Joseph lived in Nazareth prior to Jesus’ birth (Luke 1:26-27; 2:4-5). The family returned to Nazareth after a brief time of refuge in Egypt (Matt. 2:13-15,19-23; see also Luke 2:39-40). Since Joseph was a carpenter by trade, Jesus likely worked in this trade from His youth until his early manhood (see Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3). Some Bible scholars suggest that Joseph died during Jesus’ teenage years and that Jesus continued the carpentry business until Mary’s younger sons were old enough to work and provide for the family. In any case, the day came when Jesus knew that He must be about His heavenly Father’s business. That divinely preordained mission would go public with Jesus’ being baptized in the Jordan by John. John the Baptist had been preaching a message of repentance and baptizing for some time before Jesus came to him for baptism. John’s message struck a chord with many people (Mark 1:5), although many Jewish leaders did not know how to respond to John (John 1:22). Had Jesus met John prior to 12 Explore the Bible © 2019 LifeWay His baptism? Had He heard John preach? The Bible does not say, but we can safely assume that Jesus knew about John’s message and ministry activities. Where along the Jordan River was Jesus baptized? John 1:28 states that John the Baptist was baptizing “in Bethany across the Jordan.” However, the location of that site is uncertain. Speculation ranges from a site east of the Jordan near Jericho to a site a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. Mark 1:5 indicates that “all the people of Jerusalem were going out” to be baptized by John, so the location probably was nearer to that city than to Galilee. The baptism account in Matthew’s Gospel includes the detail that initially John hesitated to comply with Jesus’ request for baptism. John realized that Jesus had no need for a baptism of repentance; indeed, John needed Jesus to baptize him! Jesus insisted, however, that His baptism by John would fulfill all righteousness (see Matt. 3:14-15). VERSE 10 As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. The words as soon as (“straightway,” KJV; “immediately,” ESV) render the Greek term euthus [YOO thuhs], an adverb that Mark used more than forty times in his Gospel to advance the narrative and heighten dramatic tension from one event to the next. The term appears eleven times in chapter one alone (1:10,12,18,20,21,23,28,29,30,42,43) with various shades of meaning, including “immediately,” “right away,” “just then,” and “at once.” In 1:10, euthus signals a series of events that immediately followed Jesus’ baptism.