Jesus: Our Role Model

Mark 1:9-15

Introduction: A first grade teacher asked her students, "What do you do to help at home?"
One little girl said, "I dry the dishes."
One of the boys said, "I sweep the floor."
Another one said, "I feed and water the dog."
When the teacher came to one little boy, she looked at him and asked, "What do you do to help out at home?"
He said, "I stay out of the way."
Sadly, many today are just staying out of the way instead of enriching the church with their talents. A Gallup poll revealed that only 10% of church members are active in any kind of personal ministry, and 50% said that they have no desire or interest in serving in any ministry.
This seems like an appropriate passage with which to begin the New Year because this is the public inauguration of Jesus' ministry. Matthew 3 & 4 provide a more detailed account while Mark gives us a concise thumbnail version of the events at the coronation of Jesus' public ministry. As we consider this passage, we want to notice what we must do in order to serve God.

I. COMPLETING TERMS-
Having just come through the Christmas season, you'll notice that God had not spoken.
Interestingly, He sent Gabriel to Mary and angels to the shepherds.
In the narrative of Jesus' life, we even find Jesus at age 12 impressing the educators of the temple.
But It is not until this moment when God declares His pleasure in His Son publicly.
We can be sure that God had privately communicated His pleasure to Jesus.
But this public pronouncement is not merely for Jesus' benefit but for the people.
First, they needed to know that Jesus was the Messiah of God.
Secondly, God was making it known to them and us that there is a pattern for obedience.
We need to understand some things. Baptism is not how a person is saved from sin.
Jesus was sinless. He was perfect and righteous in all of His ways.
Baptism follows salvation, but it is faith that makes us a child of God.
Jesus was already the Son of God.
Baptism is the first step of obedience in the life of a believer.
It is, for us as it was for Jesus, a matter of declaring to others that we are children of God.
Since you and I are not perfectly righteous, we need to deal with our sin before being baptized.
We have to recognize that we are sinners but that Jesus died to save us from our sins.
We have to lay claim to what Jesus provided by reaching out to God in faith.
Once we have asked Christ Jesus to save us, we should also fulfill the terms of obedience.
Matthew's Gospel tells us that John at first protested to baptizing Jesus because John felt unworthy.
Jesus explained that His baptism was necessary to obeying the will of God.
If Jesus was willing to submit to baptism, on what grounds can we object to being baptized?

II. CONFRONTING TEMPTATION-
Immediately after His baptism, Jesus was directed into the wilderness to face temptation.
Before Jesus can serve as our Savior and role model, He must be put to the test.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are, but remained sinless.
For that reason, Jesus understands what we are facing when we are tempted to sin.
We need to understand that Jesus was also tempted outside of this 40-day period.
But this time of temptation involved Satan personally.
Most of us will never experience Satan's direct attention but rather that of his demons.
God is omnipresent,