you join me in welcoming David Chan. That's really heavy. Wow, good morning. The first Sunday of October, October the 3rd I think in my memory, Jesse started a new series and he entitled it, Move Beyond. And last Sunday, Pastor Mark spoke from Mark chapter 12 and he said, this is the end of the series. When he said that, little did he know that I would preach today from Mark. And I want to give it a title, Beyond the Beginning. Because so many people are staying at the beginning, on the site of beginning, and they're satisfied. Beyond the Beginning. What do you think is the mission of a preacher? What do you think is preaching? To me, preaching is to build a bridge between two different worlds. What are those two worlds? The first world is the ancient world or the world of the ancient text. The Bible is not a, you know, written book a couple of decades ago. It's ancient, old, thousands of years old book. Where we interpret the text, not from our perspectives, but from the perspectives of the original authors and the people of their recipients on our mind. Ancient context, ancient people. But if we stop interpreting the Bible right there, we will fail as preachers because the work of preaching should not stop at interpreting an ancient text, but we'll have to apply it to our post-modern lifestyle in the United States of America in the 21st century. So it's about the then and about the now. Interpret the text from the light, in the light of the ancient message, and then bring about the application to our time. I said application, not just mere transposition of what the Bible seems to say. Let me give you an illustration. In 2 Timothy 5.23, the apostle Paul speaks to his spiritual son Timothy and says, Timothy, do not stop, stop just drinking water, but use a little wine also because of your stomach illness. If you just transpose that message to our time without interpreting and properly applying it, you will go, hallelujah, the Bible says drink. So from now on, every time our small group meets, guess what? Paul, would you bring some wine, please? David, would you go bring some whiskey? What, Susie, would you prepare some sushi to go along with it? That is not interpretation and proper application. Back in the ancient Mediterranean world, you know, ancient days, they had medications of their time, but they did not have so many various different medications as we do. So people living in the Mediterranean countries back in the ancient days, they used wine as medicine for those that have stomach-related diseases. Medication. So the proper applications to our time should be something like the Bible says when Christians are sick, in addition to praying for God's healing, the Bible recommends that Christians will take medication for cure. Interpretation and application. My text today comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 13. Through this gospel, Mark is trying to answer a lot of questions that the people of his time was asking. I have no time to answer all these questions, but I'm going to deal with only one question that the people were asking and Mark is trying to answer in his book, especially in chapter one of the Gospel of Mark. The question is, who is Jesus Christ? We heard a lot about him, but who actually is he? And this morning, I'm going to build a bridge between John 1 and our time in terms of application. If you brought your Bible, please turn with me to Mark 1, starting from verse 1 all the way to verse 13, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. A voice of one calling in the desert, in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight path for him. And so John came baptizing in the desert region. and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. And he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals. and angels attended him. The question that people were asking is this, who is Jesus Christ? Now John is trying to answer this question that the people have at the time. In his book, in his gospel, he starts his gospel with this statement, chapter one, verse one, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you have the version of the Bible that has a little superscript at the end of the Son of God with footnotes, something looking like this on the screen? How many of you have that study Bible? Yes, yes. So, the footnote says, some script omits the Son of God. Gosh, what in the world is that? Now, if you and I know, you and I know that back in the ancient days, there was no Xerox machine, right? Am I getting too deep? So obviously important ancient documents were hand copied instead of being photocopied. So, however, not anybody copied. Trained scribes copied important ancient documents including the manuscript of the scripture. So if you have an analytical mind, as I, you will probably ask this question, while some manuscripts omit the Son of God about Jesus, then which copy, which manuscript is the original writing of Mark? I feel like I lost some people already. You know, so, If you ask this question, one theological question, you will find an easy answer. The question is, what was the intent of Mark as he was writing this book? His intent was to disclose to his readers who Jesus Christ was. So if I were Mark, if you were Mark and you were writing a book to tell people about who Jesus Christ is, I probably would not tell up front in verse one who Jesus Christ is, Son of God. I would rather strategically disclose to my readers about who Jesus Christ is here and there and here and there, masterfully weave who Jesus was into my writing, and at the end, in the conclusion, I would fully reveal who Jesus Christ is. So theologians believe that the shorter version that says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ was the original writing of Mark. But the scribes, as they were copying this text, Knowing the answer, who Jesus Christ was, they added their interpretive comments. The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Having said that, The writer of this book, Mark, introduces the ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to this world not by chance, but by following God's providence as his coming was prophesied. by Isaiah and so many other prophets of the Old Testament. Now Mark is introducing John the Baptist's message and his preaching. His message, however, did not have its focus on his own ministry, but his focus fell on who Jesus Christ was. There was going to come after him. I grew up, I was born in the earlier part of 1960s in Seoul, Korea, and I grew up there in the 60s and 70s. Back then, Korea was a relatively poor country, so in my memory, as I was growing up, I was always hungry. But the first time, as a young lad, when I read about John the Baptist, I'm going, wow, this man lived in the wilderness. He must have been pretty poor like me. Well, this man was living on locusts and wild honey. Didn't have a whole lot to eat. He may have been a poor person like me. but having moved to the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the world. Our problem is not that of poverty. Obesity is one of the major threats to our health and well-being in the United States. As I read about John the Baptist, I'm going, wow, this man may have been a wealthy preacher because he could afford living on healthy, expensive natural foods. Locusts and wild honey. Now in verse 9, Jesus comes to John the Baptist and he is being baptized into the river Jordan by John the Baptist. As he was coming out of the water, two amazing phenomena happened. There was a vision and there was a voice. Talk about the importance of audio visuals in our education. There is a visual and there is an audio. Now, as Jesus was coming out of the water, after he was submerged into the water, the scripture says, Mark wrote, the heavenlies were torn apart, it became wide open, and the Spirit of God came down upon Jesus like a dove. Amazing. Look at the voice of the verb. It doesn't say, that the heaven opened itself up. It's not active, it's passive. The heavenlies were ripped open. By who? By God. God ripped the heavenlies open for Jesus. Meaning that anybody that comes to God through Jesus, they can directly come to God without any obstacles. Jesus is that kind of a person. And then an amazing audio voice comes from heaven. He is, you are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased. You are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased. Do you know who Jesus is? For the first time, Mark reveals to his readers who Jesus Christ is. Jesus is who God says he is. You are my son. With you I am well pleased. Why does the baptism of Jesus matter? It matters because the baptism of Jesus establishes the identity and authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Last Sunday, we had seven young people baptized at our church. I was so thrilled to see them. What about you? Yeah, thank you. Can you imagine, can you imagine when they were being baptized one by one and coming out of the water, what if, what if the roof of our church was ripped open and the voice is coming down from heaven, you are my son, Ian. You are my precious daughter, Jenae. I am well pleased with you. There will be probably two responses. Some of you would say, hallelujah, God has accepted them. Some other people may have a heart attack and die right there. And the board will probably have a meeting and say, wow, how much money do we have to spend to fix the roof? Probably some people would pray, God do it, but do not overdo it, please. Mark. through baptism of Jesus, establishes who Jesus is. Paul, in Romans 6, through baptism of Christians, he establishes who we are in Christ. Jesus is who God says he is, and we are who God says we are. You are my son. You are my precious daughter. In you I am so well pleased. That's who we are. Please, please remember you are who Jesus says you are. What is the implication? Don't you ever, don't you ever allow your past and current hardships and failures define who you are. Don't you ever allow your socioeconomic level define who you are. Don't you ever define yourself, let your difficulties of life, let the income that you have, do not let the achievements or lack of achievement that you may have define who you are. You are not defined by those things. You are only defined, you are who God says you are. You are my son and my daughter. I am well pleased with you. But let us read the Bible carefully. When Jesus saw that amazing video, and when Jesus heard that amazing voice and come out of the water, There is no clue in the text of Mark that those videos and those voices were heard by other people there. Nobody knew it. Only Jesus knew it. Then what is Jesus' mission? The world doesn't recognize Jesus as the Son of God. It is Jesus' mission now to prove who he is through his character, through his lifestyle, and through his ministry. What about us? I know your Christian commitment, your professional faith that was expressed in your baptism was so real, so genuine. I have no doubt about that. However, just because you are committed to Christ doesn't mean the world will recognize that you are a child of God because the world didn't experience what you have experienced. The world didn't see what you saw. The world didn't hear the voice that you heard. Even your family may not try to recognize your Christian commitment. What is your mission? You will have to prove now through your character, through your lifestyle, and through your ministry who you are in Jesus Christ. This is my question. Can you do that without proper spiritual formation? Is your spirituality coming alive strong enough to tell the whole world through your lifestyle that you are a son, a daughter of God? If not, if you feel like, I need some training, I have good news for you. In the first week of January next year, our church will offer a couple more basic, very basic level discipleship training courses. If you are interested, please sign up. Even though you are not interested, you may need it. Now, there's an amazing, hard to understand story. Right after this amazing announcement come from the lip of a God, about Jesus Christ, amazing acknowledgement, you are my son, I am very well pleased with you. As soon as that announcement was declared, Jesus knew it, and the scripture says the Spirit of God immediately drove him out into the wilderness. Wow, it's a harsh word. The Son of God being driven out, not generally escorted, but being driven out to make it worse into the wilderness. Not into the palace, but into the wilderness. make it worse. The people that lived in the ancient world, the time of Jesus, their understanding of wilderness was different from our understanding. They believed that wilderness was the area where the sovereignty of God did not reach. Therefore, all the anti-evil forces, anti-God forces like Satan, devil, demons, and wild animals were living in the wilderness. That's the place where God's will is not being done. That's not the place where the Son of God should go. But the text says that the Son of God was not led there, but God himself, the Spirit of God, drove him into the wilderness, to the place of suffering. What is the implication of that passage to us? I wish I could tell you the moment you profess Christ into your life and got baptized, your life will be full of blessing and you will only walk on the great red carpet. Hallelujah. You have achieved everything. I'm sorry. The moment you profess Christ as your Savior and Lord, and you express your faith through baptism, you are being commissioned by God. Commissioning means conflict. Sonship means struggle. That's what the Bible teaches us. You will have conflict and struggle. Remember the people of Israel, three million people. God manifested himself in a mighty way, saved these people through amazing outworking of miracles, took them out of Egypt to the promised land. How long did it take? 40 years of travel. Where? In the wilderness. And God tested and trained his people in the wilderness. Even the Son of God was no exception. The Spirit of God drove him into the wilderness, the place where he was tempted, constantly tempted by Satan, and he was threatened by wild animals. How, what would you say if God drives you out into a wilderness-like place where you feel like, God, I don't see you here. Why do I have so much suffering? I am a saved child of God. Why is my life full of conflict and struggle and suffering? Why would you pray if you were in that place? As I said, I was born in Seoul, Korea. Only 35 miles north of Seoul, you see the border between South and North Korea. Only 35 miles north. It's the border, the fence, the barbed wires, on a wide open field and you can see it. However, if you drive west from there, there is a jagged mountainous area and there are deep valleys. It's a heavily armed, militarized area in the mountains. And I heard one day, one of the soldiers stationed there got a 10-day vacation, so he rode an old, dinky country bus to come home in Seoul. As soon as he stepped on the bus, he was looking for an empty seat, an occupied seat, a seat that's not occupied, and he saw one seat, one empty seat. way back, right at the center of that bus, in the rear. He was so tired, he ran to his seat, to that open seat, and sat down. As soon as he sat, he saw to his left an old, ugly, country farmer woman. in her work clothes and it was kind of stinky also. To his right, though, he saw a beautiful, sleek, seedy young woman sitting right next to his right side. And now the driver is driving the bus in that jagged mountainous area. He had to make so many abrupt turns here and here. And every time the bus driver is turning the bus abruptly to the left or to the right, Every body sitting in this body is oscillating to the left and to the right. And every time this young man's body was leaning on this old country woman, he goes, God, lead us not into temptation. But every time his body is leaning on this young, beautiful woman, he goes, God, I yield my right to your sovereign will. Have your way in me. So he goes, God, lead us not into temptation. God, have your way in me. God, lead us not into temptation. Have your way in me. Why don't you pray if you are situated? in a terrible, terrible place of suffering. In a place where you feel like God is not there with you. I'm pretty sure that some of you are in that situation. Commissioning means conflict. Sonship involves struggle. About this time, 31 years ago, in 1990, from the South Korean Army basic training camp I was taken to the hospital after I was I had excruciating pain in my abdomen and I was losing a lot of blood through hemorrhaging I was literally dying the pain was so excruciating I couldn't receive training The doctors examined me for days and they said, David, I'm so sorry, you're only 27 year old young man, but you have incredible disease called ulcerative colitis. It's so deep, there is no medicine for it. The only way we can save your life is to cut off your whole large intestines and remove it from your body. At the time, before I joined the military, I graduated from seminary, and I received my ordination as a young preacher, and then joined the military, and this is what's happening. The wilderness opened up in my life. To make a long story short, the doctor said, if we don't do that, you will die before Christmas. 31 years ago. Somehow, myself and my family decided, we are not going to receive the surgery. The doctor said, if you're going to die, go home, die at your own home. So I came home, and I was dying every day, little by little. Hundreds of people prayed for me, prayed that God's miracle would come to my life. At the time, The chair of the ordination committee for me, for my ordination, sent me a letter. In that letter he said, Pastor Chung, I'm not a young believer anymore. If I were a young believer, when I see your suffering, I would probably cry out to God, God, where are you? Your child is dying. Where are you? How come you are showing your providence in a cruel way like this? Where are you? Are you alive? But I've been in ministry for 30 years now, and I have a terminal degree in theology, and I know now that God disciplines His own child, not necessarily unbelievers. While I was dying, I don't know how many times I read this poetry written by an unknown man and wept so many times when God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and scale a man when God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part when he yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall be amazed, watch his methods Watch his ways. How he ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects. How he hammers him and hurts him and with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay which only God understands while his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands. How he bends but never breaks. When he's good, he undertakes. How he uses whom he chooses. and with every purpose fuses him, by every act X induces him to try his plunder out. God knows what he's about. When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man, watch his methods, watch his ways. The writer of the book of Hebrews says this in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 down through verse 8. My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Incredible. Exactly in 20 days, I will be celebrating my 31st bonus Christmas that God has blessed me with. What does wilderness do? Wilderness is inevitably coming to everybody because God leads his son. He doesn't lead his son. He drives his son into the wilderness of life. What does wilderness do? Look at David, the shepherd boy David. He was a meaningless shepherd boy of Israel but it was while he was in the wilderness that God molded his heart as a future king of great kingdom Israel. But while he was living in the luxury of his palace, somehow he was deduced into a rapist. It was while I was suffering in my dying death, in my dying bed, in my deathbed, that God molded heart to become an evangelist who will preach the word of God to the end of the world. Wilderness is a blessing. Wilderness is the place where we should meet God solitarily. Jesus was in the wilderness. Constantly tempted by Satan for 40 days. Constantly threatened by the wild beast for 40 days without ceasing. But look at the text. The Bible says in the midst of all those crises of life, angels attended Jesus. God's presence is experienced through struggle. and through conflicts. Let me summarize my message and conclude my message today. Mark wrote this book with a purpose of answering the question of the people of his time, who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is who God says He is. You are my son. I am very pleased with you. Who are you, ladies and gentlemen? If you are a professing Christian, you are who God says you are. You are my child. You are my precious daughter. You are my precious son in whom I am well pleased. Nevertheless, the world around you will never acknowledge that you are the child of God because they didn't see what you saw, because they didn't hear what you heard. It is your mission now to prove who you are through your character, through your ministry, through your lifestyle. How can we do that if you are not spiritually well-formed? Wilderness is one of the best divine schools where God will form your spirituality. And we have something else. In January, from the first week of January, we are going to offer a couple more classes on discipleship, where you will learn discipline. to grow in Christ. We have trained disciple makers that want to reach out to you and work together with you so they will grow together. Look at the screen. I'm inviting you to this endeavor of growing together as disciples. Do you see the screen? I see the screen. There are no words. So, no. The next screen. Yeah, that. Amen. Momentarily, I felt wilderness. But now, if you are interested, please text training to this number on the screen. If you are not interested, please know for sure that wilderness will come to your life. Are you trained? Text training to this number will figure out how we can grow together as we go through the wilderness of life. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the grace that you have given us, that you have saved us, and you have endowed upon us this precious privilege of becoming the sons and daughters of the Most High God. We do not take it lightly, Lord. Help us to faithfully prove who we are through the way we live. through the way we deal with hardships and through our witnesses for your glory and for your kingdom. In your name we pray, amen.