BEGINNING TO SERVE PART 2 of 12

TEXT- MARK 1:9-11

INTRODUCTION

Today is theme day for our church and this year our theme is, "The Serving Church."

In emphasizing this theme I will be preaching a series of messages from the gospel of mark showing the many ways Jesus was a servant and how we should follow his example.

The Gospel of Mark is different from the other Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John in two very important ways.

First, you will notice right away that the it doesn't have a genealogy of Jesus like the other gospels.

The reason for this is because Mark presents Jesus as a servant and not as a king or son as do the other gospels.

In biblical times, the genealogy of a servant was not considered important.

Second, this gospel is different in the way mark de-emphasizes the speeches Jesus made and the things he said and emphasizes his service and the things he did.

Out of the four gospels, this one is filled with more action than any of the others.

A favorite word that mark uses to emphasize action is the word "immediately" or "straightway" which is found thirty to forty times in this book.

Church historians and theologians like, Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexander and Origen all believed that Mark was the author of this book.

Mark actually had two names. One was Marcus which was Latin and the other was John which was Hebrew. Acts 15:37

Mark is also known within the Bible as Barnabas' cousin in Colossians 4:10.

It is also believed that Mark was won to the Lord by the Apostle Peter who refers to him as "my son, Mark" in 1 Peter 5:13.

Mark was also the one who accompanied Barnabus and Paul on their first missionary journey but abandoned them early on and returned home in Acts 13:4.

This morning our text is found in Mark 1:9-11 and the title of my message is, "The Beginning of Service."

The first step that a person needs to take in serving God is to be baptized.

Before Jesus preached a single sermon or did even one miracle he was first baptized.

A pastor tells the story about one of his most embarrassing moments that occurred during an Easter Sunday baptismal service. The baptistry was positioned so all the congregation could see. "My plan," he says, "was to baptize at the beginning of the service then rush to the pulpit during the song service so I could preach. That morning I wore my new waders--huge rubber boots that came up to my chest, held in place by suspenders. "The last person I baptized was a large woman. When I lowered her beneath the surface, she displaced far more water than I had anticipated. The overflow rushed into my waders--filling them to the brim. When the woman came up, the water went down--leaving me standing in 400 pounds of water- filled boots. I was rooted to the bottom of the baptistry and couldn't move. Finally with no other choice I had to remove my suspenders and crawl out of the boots in front of the entire Easter congregation--in my underwear!"

As we examine this passage there are three things I would like us to notice about the baptism.