obviously and hopefully you know that he serves as president of Dallas Theological Seminary and senior professor of Bible exposition his love for people and passion for the truth provide a unique leadership perspective for both the church in the classroom in his wife Barbie who is also speaking on campus today have been married for over 40 years they have two sons Joshua and his wife Emily and Jeremy and his wife cally and five grandchildren so would you please join me in welcoming our president dr. mark Bailey well good morning this message has evolved or devolved I
should say as I thought about opening chapel and as I thought about our world and I thought about the gospel and the person of Christ over the last number of months I have been increasingly interested in studying how Jesus identified himself how he thought about his ministry and in the different Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John at each point at the beginning of his ministry as those men were led by the Spirit of God to write their account of the life and teachings of Christ the opening message of Jesus in each is unique and pregnant
with meaning if you have your Bibles turn with me to mark chapter one mark chapter one and I want to talk about the good news of Jesus and in mark 1 chapter 1 verse 14 and 15 after Jesus has been authenticated by his baptism and his temptation introduced by John the Baptist it says now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel I thought about and I had studied in prep to take each
of those phrases one by one and as I got into them they are loaded with implication every single one of them and so what I thought I would do is take the first one summarize the other four and then show you the relevance of why you're at seminary and why we have a value at Dallas seminary in our X of exegetical and expositional courses of a priority of the original languages and the value that they have so if you haven't taken Greek you should if you are taking Greek be encouraged if you've never thought about
taking great think about it but I think it's going to be fun just to unlock a key to unlock a part of Mark's Gospel when you look at that opening message it talks about a point in time the arrest of John Jesus coming into Galilee it talks about Jesus proclaiming the gospel he is the preacher of the gospel he is the mussing juror and the message of his own gospel it is the fulfillment of prophecy the time is fulfilled the central message the referent of almost all of the parables the opening message the kingdom of
God is at hand or in Matthew the kingdom of heaven is at hand in acts they were wondering about the kingdom in Acts chapter 1 Paul is still talking about it in acts 28 it is a theme of the Ministry of Jesus and of course the imperatives repent and believe the gospel so a point in time the Messiah came with his message in fulfillment of prophetic expectation with the promise of the kingdom that as you know reverses the whole issue of the fall in human history that leads you all the way the consummation revelation and
in light of that message there comes the demand of a personal response repent and believe the gospel in that passage it says now after John was arrested the Greek word is paradiddle paradiddle meaning it's a unique term in Mark's Gospel it's found 19 times and so I just want to leap through the pages of Mark and I want to show you where this term occurs and why it's so significant to the key of the Gospel of Mark in mark 3:19 Judas Iscariot who there that word again betrayed him it was used of being delivered in
arresting when John the Baptist was hauled in by Herod for having pointed his finger at him and saying it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife so John is arrested and that turns the corner from John to Jesus in the Ministry of the forerunner to the Messiah but you get an advanced teaching early on in the gospel because mark wants you to know is the Spirit of God guides him God wants us to know through mark that Judas is going to betray Jesus he will deliver him up deliver him over same word same
word in mark chapter 9 and verse 31 he was teaching his disciples saying to them the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men that will be partly by Judas and partly by others they will kill him and when he has killed after three days he will rise so John the Baptist is delivered Jesus is delivered he's betrayed by one of his own in Mark chapter 10 that gets repeated see we're going up to Jerusalem the Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests to the scribes they will
condemn him to death and deliver him same word over to the Gentiles it happens by Judas it happens by the religious leaders it happens by the Gentiles in mark 39 in the Olivet discourse he advances the history down into the time of the tribulation and he says if you were alive and you're going through that and you are an identifier with Jesus Christ be on your guard for they'll deliver you same word parody to me to Counsel's you'll be beaten in synagogues don't miss that a future time you couldn't history where there will be Jewish
persecution in the land of Israel again and you will stand before governors and Kings for my sake to bear witness before them mark 13 11 they will bring you to trial and deliver you over same word don't be anxious beforehand what you were to say but say whatever is given you that hour for it's not you who speak but the Holy Spirit now that doesn't mean you don't need to study and go to seminary what it means is under duress at a critical point when you're put on the spot to stand for Christ God's going
to give you your bill to keep and be that faithful witness at that point in time in mark 1312 brother will deliver brothers over to death it's going to be such a phenomenal time Jewish persecution political persecution even family betrayal a father his child and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death in mark 14 11 begging Judas Iscariot who was one of the twelve went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them in mark chapter 14 11 when they heard that they were glad and promised to give
him money and he sought an opportunity there it is again betray 17 out of 19 times it relates to this concept of being delivered over to religious or political persecution to be betrayed by one's friend to be betrayed by one's family the opportunity to betray 14:18 as they were reclining at the table and eating jesus said to them truly i say one of you will betray me one who is eating with me mark 14 21 for the son of man goes that is written of him don't miss this but woe to that man by whom
the Son of Man is betrayed should have underline that word there it has would been better for that man had he not been born in the Providence of God Jesus was God's man for the hour as the counsel of heaven as well as the consequence of human sinfulness Ravi Zacharias has been so helpful to me that the most the worst moment in human history when the most innocent was persecuted the worst was the greatest moment in history when God was at his best it answers the ultimate question if God is God and God is a
God of love and God is a God of power then how comes evil into this world as Epicurious ask and the answer is by the sovereign design of God the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world God was at his best in that moment of the crucifixion and humanity was a it's worst God had to be at his best if I could say it that way so that he could deliver man from his worst the cross becomes the greatest display of sinfulness and the greatest display of grace all in a moment all according
as it was written about him there is divine sovereignty but there is absolute responsibility it would have been better for that man had he not been born because of the consequences of that kind of sin 14:42 rise let us be going my betrayer are the one who is betraying me is at hand in mark 14 44 now the betrayer has given them a sign saying the one I kisses the man seize him and lead him away under the hurt 15:1 as as soon as it was boring the chief priest held a consultation with the elders
and the scribes of the whole council and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate and what we have later in 1510 Pilate says he perceived it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up notice the betrayal notice the motivation notice the horrendous consequences what I learned from those five statements in the context of Mark's Gospel here's a statement that I put together thus the gospel is rooted the good news is rooted in the historical person and message of Jesus Christ who has come in fulfillment of
prophetic expectation with the announcement of the imminent and inevitable arrival of the kingdom of God which invites Jay even demands the appropriate response of repentant faith even in the context of cultural hostility now think about it if John endured that and if Jesus endured that and his disciples would endure that and future disciples in the tribulation would endure that then the message of mark to you and I is that the gospel comes with a powerful message of good news to a bad world the gospel comes sent the person and work of Jesus Christ it will
be through that Gospel work of Jesus Christ that God's kingdom will one day come as revelation says then the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord in his christ and he will reign forever and ever the gospel comes in a context of cultural hostility we're watching hostile betrayals we're watching a world in conflict were watching political intrigue were watching electronic sabotage we're watching political banter in fact verbal warfare a context of hostility is it new to the presentation of the gospel when Rome was tyrannical and taxes were outrageous and slavery was
phenomenally brutal and in the context of Mark's Gospel when the Romans and the Jewish leaders were persecuting Christians the linkage between John and Jesus His disciples on all future disciples and in the death of Jesus Christ himself parody to me becomes a key word that would be a warning it would be a dose of reality but it also would be an incredible encouragement when I think about that that's not a different message than what Paul preached listen to what he said to the feed and elders the next twenty you yourselves know how I lived among
you the whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching me in public and from house to house testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks what's the core of the message again repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ when you see that message the purpose of Mark's Gospel under the inspiration of the holy
spirit mark selected events from the life and Ministry of Jesus Christ to present the gospel to a Roman readership by proving that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and to provide a pattern of discipleship what does it mean to follow Christ who was introduced by John who was betrayed was preached by Jesus the same word for preaching throughout this context of John Jesus and the disciples is the same word in our seminary motto Karuk sont on log on it's the announcement of that message of good news it's a pattern of discipleship how do
you live in spite of the hospitality of the culture while you serve Jesus Christ even if necessary to the point of death some of you who come from other nations are going to need to be our instructors in these days you know what it's like to come from a culture in which the Christianity was never a dominant thought it was never a majority opinion it was a minority view just like it was in the beginning we need to hear from you we need to pay attention to you we're watching our culture in the United States
make a drastic turn away from Christ where Christianity that was once respected and then tolerated has now become the object of scorn what is it going to mean for us to live and preach the gospel when the experience of parody to me betrayal delivered over delivered up for money for envy for political correctness all of the reasons modeled in Mark's Gospel no longer simply become a historical message to Mark's early audience it becomes a phenomenal message to us today just a word study to let you know mark puts in that key and turns the lock
I could have used another word for arrest he says but I'm going to use this word and we'll use it all the way through my gospel to link Jesus John the disciples all future disciples even after the time of the church what relevance then does it have for us who find ourselves in the in-between let's pray father just a few thoughts from a great little book with a big message thank you for Jesus who summarized so succinctly his mission and message and the implication that there's going to be a need to rely on ourselves with
God to change the way we think about our world and ourselves so that we can think like God things about life and to trust to believe the good news of the gospel that you have provided in Christ all that's necessary for our salvation both for time and eternity would you help us grasped in a little bit more measure the significance of thoughts linking the arrest of John the location in Galilee of the Gentiles to a messiah who has a message that comes in fulfillment of great expectation that will ultimately result in the answer to the
prayer he asked us to pray thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven may we be thinking rightly and trusting rightly and were convicted by the fact that those are present imperatives and not Erised imperatives it's a constant state of denying ourselves in relationship to your father and it's a constant expression of our trust that's what you've asked us may we respond like you've asked us to respond and may we help others do the same we pray thee in Jesus name amen god bless you have a good day [Applause]
