Jesus and His Message
Mark 1:16-20, 2:14-15
The Gospel of Mark is the shortest Gospel and is often referred to as the action Gospel because it’s always on the move. Today, we’re continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark asking the question, “Who is Jesus?” and “What does his life mean for us today?” Last week, we looked at Jesus’ baptism and saw in that act Jesus’ true identity revealed and confirmed as the Son of God. After his baptism, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and then returned to the region of Galilee where he traveled from town to town preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God. This is the central focus of Jesus teaching, the kingdom of God. You can’t really understand Jesus without understanding the kingdom of God. Our Scripture today is the summation of the sermons he preached. “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the Good News.” That was Jesus’ message. Everything else in the Gospel is a way of illustrating what that means, teaching what life in the kingdom looks like and how you can enter and participate in the kingdom of God. So everything that Jesus does and says illustrates that the kingdom of God has come near.
So what is the kingdom of God? Biblical scholars and theologians have spent entire lifetimes trying to understand the kingdom of God and what it looks like. The kingdom of God is harder for us to understand than the people in Jesus’ time because we do not have a monarchy for of government with a king. A king was the ultimate authority who ruled completely and sovereignly over his kingdom. The king was responsible for everything in the boundaries of his kingdom, like the safety and protection of his subjects. Everything within the bounds of his kingdom belonged to the king. His subjects were to do whatever the king asked and if they refused, they could be killed. And so when Jesus looks for an analogy of who God is and what authority he exercises over us, he chose a king, saying that God is over all his subjects, and even kings too. For he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his rule extends over all creation, from the ends of the earth to the farthest reaches of the universe. And part of that creation is you and I who were created in his image with the ability to love and with a mind who has been given the free will to choose for ourselves who or what we will worship, even if it means we turn our back on God. God gave us the free will to choose but make no mistake of it, God is king whether you choose to be His subject or not. If you choose not to follow God, it just means you choose to live in rebellion to the King.
The story of humanity is the story of our rebellion against the King. You see it in the very first story of the Bible with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Egeneration to generation….prophetsden. After that comes the story of Noah when God chooses to flood the earth and start over because he grieved over making mankind. Why? Because they were nothing but self-centered, violent people living in rebellion to the King. And so God saves only one family, the eternal optimist, hoping to start over. But that didn’t stop it there because from generation to generation, we have the story of people choosing to live as they desire and thus rebel against the king. So God sends prophets to call the people back to him and still they rebel and stone the prophets as they refuse to listen to them. This is what happens throughout history as people live in rebellion to the King of Kings.
The King we have over us chooses not to force us to worship Him but rather woo us, lead us and guide us as a shepherd back to Him and His ways for our life. We find this story of rebellion culminating in God choosing to enter this world by giving his only Son, all so that we might know how much he loves and cares for us and that his heart’s only desire is to be in relationship with us. How amazing is that? That the God of the universe will come among us to show us what it mans to choose Him and live for Him. And this one who came named Jesus announces for all to hear that God reigns and rules over everything and we called to live under His rule. He reached out to the lost, he embraced the excluded and he performed miracles in an attempt to show the kingdom of God was at hand and what it looks like. This is what you have the opportunity to embrace. But what does humanity do with Him? We crowned him with a crown of thorns, mocked him, beat him and then nailed him to the cross, mocking him to free himself. But even this God knew it was a part of His plan so that once and for all we might see the extent of our rebellion and the depth of His love and forgiveness for us. And in his death and his resurrection, our hearts might be changed and we might live as a part of His kingdom.
So what is the kingdom of God? There are three ways in which Jesus uses the term, the kingdom of God. Today I want you to understand them so that you might better understand His teaching and what He means by the kingdom of God. First, God rules and reigns over everything. God is the force behind the smallest sub-atomic particles to the great vastness of the universe. He rules over everything. He is present everywhere. At this very moment, God is all around you and his kingdom is all around you. And everything obeys certain principles that God set in motion. When you are a subject of the kingdom of God, you live with the sense that God reigns all around you. It is his kingdom and everything in it. And yet too often in our world we think that it’s all about us! But when you become a subject of the king, you recognize that it is God who reigns, you are a part of His kingdom and the single most important thing is that you live according to the rules of the Kingdom and the will of the King. And when you do, life goes differently for you because suddenly you are in line with the King’s will and the nature of the kingdom of God.
Dallas Willard writes, “when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he means to tell you of the immediate availability of the reign of God all around you.” You accept that by faith and begin to live accordingly. When you step into the kingdom, everyday you ask that your every breath, thought, word and deed honor and glorify God and fulfill His will. You are no longer your own. And here’s the thing, life doesn’t work like it’s supposed to until you’re living by the values and principles of the kingdom. So this kingdom is all around and has always been but now you are choose to live by faith and follow its ways accordingly. Paul talks about this in Acts 17:24-28, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” God is all around us and we are called to live accordingly. So each day we awaken and look for the signs of the kingdom, seeking to live for the kingdom. When we come to worship, when we serve others in Jesus’ name, when we sing his praise, when we practice the spiritual disciplines, when we speak for the weak, we are placing ourselves in the kingdom and doing the will of the King.
Second, Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God as not only a present reality but a future vision. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Think for just a moment of how the world would be different if the kingdom of God was fully realized. John of Patmos describes the kingdom of God in his vision recorded in the book of Revelation, “He (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” We would live in a world with no more wars, no more hunger because people would willingly share with those who did not have enough, no more segregated churches where every church would look like this church reflecting people of all nation, tongue and culture, a world where our divorce rate of 50% would be noting, and business as well as politics would be filled with honesty and intergity. So when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he speaks of a vision where all persons and all things are fulfilling the will of God. Our world would be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meakness and self-control.
The knowledge that God is all around us and the kingdom of God is breaking in as a present reality but also a future vision is meant to compel us to make the world look more like God’s kingdom. But the only way that will happen is if you take an active role in building the kingdom of God. You are to become a force for the kingdom of God by how you treat others, how you serve others, and how you live your life. Our vision of “Connecting diverse communities to a lifestyle devoted to Jesus” is that 20 years from now, the WestBank and even New Orleans, looks more like the kingdom of God because we as a church and you as a courageous Christian live out your faith in the world and seek to establish the kingdom of God by following its principles for life. To do so means that every day you ask yourself, ‘Lord, how can I live as a citizen of your kingdom in my sphere of influence?’
One person that did that was Dr. Martin Luther King. He painted a picture of the kingdom when he spoke of the promise land. He realized that he wasn’t going to get there in his life but he was going to continue to work towards it, calling people to a different reality to lives as citizens of the kingdom of God. His two most famous speeches spoke of this, the first being the “I Have a Dream” speech, and the second is the “Mountain Top” speech delivered in 1968 in Memphis, TN as he was taking a stand for the trash collectors who were working class poor. These men and women had been working full time jobs nobody else wanted but they could not provide for their family and thus were still living below the poverty level. This is what he said, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8 imbed in ppt
“Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
The next day as he stepped out of his motel room at the Lorraine Motel, he was assassinated. That would his last speech. Sometimes pursuing the kingdom of is dangerous and risky and comes at a cost. When you live as a citizen of the kingdom, how you look at the world, what you say, what you challenge, the decisions you make will be different. The kingdom of God is a vision for your life. It’s what you’re supposed to do because each day you ask God what you should do as a citizen of the kingdom. This is the message of that great hymn, ‘Be Thou My Vision’ that God would lead your life in what you are to do as a citizen of the kingdom.
The third meaning of the kingdom of God is the climax of human history. This is what the Scriptures speak of when they say, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth where the rule and the kingdom of our God will transplant the kingdoms of this earth. The day will come when God’s kingdom will be fully realized here on earth. That is the hope we have as Christians. This is the day we look forward to. And we know those who died will join the heavenly kingdom where God reigns and is worshipped. We believe that when you die, you go to a place where are no more signs of the pain and the rebellion which mark this life on earth.
Many of you have heard me tell the story of my fraternity brother and his wife who were Jewish and came into town for Jazz Fest. I picked them up at the airport and got them settled at my house and told them I had a funeral but would be back after and then we would head out to the Fairgrounds. As I was tying my tie and walking out of my bedroom, David came and asked what a Christian funeral was like. Describe that it is a time of sorrow and remembering but then I said it is also a time of great rejoicing because they have left this earth and all of its pain, illnesses and frustrations. They have eternal life and now live with God in heaven forever and so in the midst of our loss we can celebrate. David because silent, dropped his head and then stared at his feet, kind of shuffling them. There was a long silent pause and then he said, “I wish I could believe in something like that.” Well, we can and we do. This is the hope of the kingdom of God and how grateful we are for it. Jesus announces that God’s reign is over everything, it’s breaking forth into history and we are invited to join Him in building it and when it is complete, it will be the climax of history and of God’s re-creating work in this world. How are you going to live differently as a result of being a citizen of the kingdom of God? How are you going to live differently in the hope of the coming kingdom of God? Amen and Amen.
