Sermon, Dr. Rayburn: "Behold the Man!"

• text: Mk 1.1-12


• There are two uses of the verb "to rend"–the first here, the second the rending of the curtain at the end. Rending the sky had an OT connotation of a visitation from God (Oh that you would rend the sky and come down–Isaiah).


• Parallel–Jesus in the wilderness 40 days; Israel in the wilderness 40 years.


• Already there is in the gospel a proclamation of Jesus as Yahweh–v. 3, "prepare the way for the Lord."


• God can't be tempted, but a man can–and thus we have a representation of Jesus as man and God. In many, many ways throughout the gospel Jesus will show the marks of divinity but also those of manhood (e.g. tempted by Satan/ministered to by angels). Jesus is God lived by man. Though the world is full of wonders, here is something more wondrous than all.


• Scripture does not attempt to satisfy our curiosity about the practical outworkings of the Trinity or the Incarnation–they are profound and unfathomable mysteries! In our age, we do not like to accept mysteries and yet many things most wonderful are mysteries to us.


• Milton was very insightful to juxtapose the Fall (Paradise Lost) with Christ's temptation (Paradise Regained).