The Relational Dance

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Jesus, people love him, but they really don't know him. Honestly, if you do a survey in the United States right now, there's a lot of what we would call biblical illiteracy. Just the basic facts. When I teach world religions, we get to Christianity at FGCU. We have this little, you know, cahoot, where you put, and it's like, it's amazing what they don't know. Just the basics. The basics. We don't know. And so what happens often is we make Jesus into whatever projection-wish-dream that we have. We make him in our own image. And that seems good, you know, so Jesus can be my coach, or my therapist, or my mentor, or my homeboy, or my whatever, my friend. A person I can call on, and he'll just affirm me, and love me, and that's all wonderful. But that Jesus that you project, the Jesus of your own making, will never be able to really change you, or transform you. Because he will never be able to challenge you, because he's just you. And he'll only come and confirm what you already believe, bless what you're already doing, and encourage you to keep going because you're just so special. Right? That's not the Jesus we find simply, or profoundly presented in the gospel. And today we're going to be starting again in the first chapter. We're going to kind of walk through this. Now, like I said, we're probably not going to get through the entire Gospel of Mark in this series to start with. We'll break the series up so that you're not totally like, oh my goodness, we're in the Gospel of Mark for three months. But we are going to enjoy quite a bit of it all the way through Easter, and a little thereafter at least. Let's read Mark 1, 9-15. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel. Now, in just these few verses, Mark simply, but profoundly, is retelling the entire history of the world. The entire history of the world, and life, the universe, the meaning of it all, and everything. In just these few verses. Now, at first glance you go like, what? It was so simple, I don't understand. We probably read through those verses and not see it, but what he's showing us is creation, and the brokenness of the fall, and redemption, and mission, and purpose, and direction, all in this. To unpack these verses, I think I'm going to have to use a metaphor. I've used it before, because it's a good one. And it's a metaphor that does come from the early church. Different church fathers, especially the Greek fathers, used this term, and what it's related to. It's the Greek word, perichoresis. Perichoresis. Can you, that's the, yes. I know, you're probably going like, I don't know. Yes, perichoresis. Okay, can you say perichoresis? Yeah, very good, now you've got a new Greek word to throw around. It really means, peri, have you ever heard that word perimeter? Around? Choresis, choreography? Dance. Fascinating, right? It's used to say, this is who God is. That he is Father, Son, and Spirit, and in, with, and under each person is the others. They're always in working together. You never get simply one. You always get all three. All three are involved, all three are in this perfect community. This dance or joy of love and mercy and grace from eternity. So, what I'm all really saying is this. There is, here are three points. There's a relational dance at the heart of life. And your job, your real goal in life is to really get involved in that dance. And Jesus is the one who will enter you into that dance. So, the relational dance, where do I get this? It's from Mark chapter 1, verses 10 to 11. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open. And the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. You might have heard about the baptism of Jesus before. And you look at it and you don't really think too much. But Mark is saying, hey, this is a scene behind all scenes. This is what's going on in the heavens. This is what God is all about. He is revealing himself to us. Making himself vulnerably open to us to show us what's at the heart of the entire universe. And it's a dance. A father who speaks the words of belovedness on his son. And the Spirit empowering and giving mis...