ESSENTIAL KING JESUS: KINGDOM COMES
MARK 1:14-15
#kingjesus
(?) USE AUDIO BIBLE: Mark Chapter 1:1-45 (?) [5:24]
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Mark.1
INTRODUCTION… The Word Essential
The word ‘essential’ means ‘of the utmost importance.’ ‘Essential’ means ‘basic,’ ‘indispensable,’ and ‘necessary.’ We might say that air, food, and water are essential for life. Exercise and good nutrition are essential for good health. Gas is essential for a vehicle to continue working. Some of us might say companionship, joy, and clothing are essential for life as well. I suppose we could debate a few of those.
There are some things we may think are essential that probably are not. Shelter may or may not be necessary. I feel like people can and do live outside and all the people who camp prove shelter is overrated. The internet is not essential for life even though we may feel that it is. TV and movies are not essential.
In the past few years, the word ‘essential’ got connected with the word ‘worker’ meaning “those who conduct a range of operations and services in industries that are essential to ensure the continuity of critical functions in the United States.” During the height of COVID in 2020, if you were essential you kept your job and if not, you perhaps lost your job. ‘Essential’ is not a bad word in and of itself, but we may not like it especially if someone somewhere in some office termed us non-essential.
Today we are beginning a sermon series on the Gospel of Mark that I’ve themed ‘Essential King Jesus.’ Each week we will take a look at one passage in a chapter. First week, chapter 1. Second week, chapter 2. And so on. Each week a passage from that chapter. My prayer overall is that as we make our way through the Gospel of Mark, that we will encounter the Essential King Jesus and bolster our faith or perhaps find it for the first time. And… each week I want to share with one essential truth that is important for us to believe and then also communicate to others about Jesus. We are going to focus on the Essential King Jesus.
BACKGROUND ABOUT MARK
Before we get into our passage for today, I’d like to share a little background about the Gospel of Mark. Eusebius, one of the earliest Christian historians, tells us (Ecclesiastical History iii.39.15) that Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis (around 140 AD) said: “Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of the things either said or done by Christ… he was careful to omit nothing of what he has heard or to make any false statements.”
Mark, also known as John Mark, was a young man who accompanied the Apostle Paul on a few of his journeys (Acts 12, 13, 15). He became an associate of the Apostle Peter and received all the information in his account from Peter. In fact, 1 Peter 5:13 (ESV) says: “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.” Peter means “my son in the Gospel” and was Peter’s close friend. He probably was the actual one who wrote down the words of 1 and 2 Peter as Peter dictated the letters to him.
I find this important in that this Gospel account, this telling of the life and events and teaching and miracles and conversations we have written in Mark come right from someone who walked and talked with Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is the recollections and testimony of Simon Peter. That is trustworthy!
TRANSITION
Anyway, I find that interesting and important as we look through these trustworthy chapters over the coming weeks and discover the Essential King Jesus.
MARK CHAPTER 1
There is quite a lot of significant information, theology, and truth in Mark 1.
We see John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry (1:1-8).
We see the baptism of Jesus (1:9-11) which begins His public ministry.
Jesus is driven into the desert and tempted by Satan (1:12-13).
We see Jesus beginning His ministry in verses 14-15.
Jesus calls His first disciples, who I might add, includes Simon Peter (1:16-20).
Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit (1:21-28).
We then have some summary verses about Jesus healing, teaching, and travelling (1:29-39).
The chapter concludes with Jesus healing a leper in a profound way (1:40-45).
TRANSITION
I’d like us to focus on verses 14-15 today.
READ MARK 1:14-15 (ESV)
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
As we look at these two verses, I see Jesus beginning His ministry with a bang. His words are spot on and direct our focus on God and His Kingdom. Let’s dig into verses 14-15.
THE TIME IS FULFILLED
ILLUSTRATION… Signals things are near (p)
When the leaves turn color and fall from the trees, we know winter is near.
If you are trekking through the woods and smell smoke in the air, you are close to a campfire.
The traffic light turns yellow to warn you that the light is about to turn red and traffic will stop.
When there is a full moon, you can be warned people will be crazier than normal.
Thunder is a signal that lightning is in the area and rain probably will fall.
Your stomach growls and signals your body that you are hungry and a meal will soon follow.
When the brakes on your vehicle squeal, that is a signal the pads are wearing down.
When a junior high boy starts showering regularly and uses cologne, you know there is a girl.
When contractions start and water breaks, you know a baby is on the way.
There are signals for all kinds of things that changes will occur, the pattern of life will shift, or something is about to break. This is true for many things. In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus tells us that ‘the time is fulfilled’ and there are signals that all that He is about to do has come.
I see two meanings in Jesus’ words. I think He firstly means that the world is prepared practically for the Gospel message. In Jesus’ day, most Jewish people were part of the Roman Empire and they were always looking for relief from the oppression of the Romans. They wanted a Savior. They wanted a Deliverer. In addition, even though they were indeed conquerors, the Roman Empire brought peace, stability and their version of civilization to much of the world including the spreading of common language and common money. The Romans built major roads for travel and commerce between regions, established a mail system for communication, laid out towns with streets, running water and sewage disposal, and had a system of justice that protected its citizens. All of this created a unified world in ways it had never been before. This provided a wonderful canvas for God to bring the Gospel to be spread.
I think secondly, Jesus says that the time for Him to begin His day to day mission towards the cross is to begin because the plan God has been weaving since before the Garden of Eden is coming true. Make no mistake, the cross of Christ was always His ultimate destination and His journey to the cross begins in this passage.
The time is fulfilled… John the Baptist prepared as much of the way as he could.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus will now reveal Himself slowly as the Christ.
The time is fulfilled… Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled and more are about to be.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus is now ready to preach about God and His Kingdom.
We do not know everything about Jesus’ life from His birth to this time when He is thirty years old and begins His ministry. We do know that He was on task and preparing Himself. We know that because when He was twelve years old there was an incident recorded in the Gospel of Luke. After the incident, Luke records…
READ LUKE 2:51-52 (ESV)
“And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
Jesus spent His life increasing in the wisdom of God. He spent His life growing up. He spent His life living without sin and growing in favor with God the Father. He learned the trade of Joseph, the carpenter, and grew in favor with the people around Him. Jesus spent His first thirty years preparing for the last three of His life.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus will now reveal Himself slowly as the Christ.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus is now ready to preach about God and His Kingdom.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus would begin to do miracles and point people to God.
The time is fulfilled… Jesus would teach and mold those closest to Him to spread the Gospel.
SUMMARY
We see from this first statement that Jesus is on target and says that it is the proper time to begin His ministry and to begin the final stage of God’s plan to bring about salvation for those who would believe.
The Gospel, or Good News, is that: God, the loving Father, sent Jesus the Perfect Sinless Son, to die on the cross that we might have eternal life and a restored relationship with God in spite of our sinfulness. Once we believe, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk as Jesus walked and to live free and personally connected with Him.
ALTAR CALL
The Good News is this: God, the loving Father, sent Jesus the Perfect Sinless Son, to die on the cross that we might have eternal life and a restored relationship with God in spite of our sinfulness.
I am calling on you today if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and come forward and confessed Him. You need to decide today. You need to decide if you believe in Jesus or not. Be baptized or not. No one is promised anything about the future. I am letting you know right here and right now that this is one solid opportunity you have to accept the gracious gift of Jesus on the cross and to obey as He has asked and to enter the Kingdom. Everything has been done and fulfilled and planned and fixed so that anyone can come to Jesus and accept Him in trusting faith. At the end of the sermon, we will sing a song and that will be your opportunity to come forward.
Jesus comes and begins preaching the Gospel.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND
We secondly see that Jesus says ‘the kingdom of God is at hand.’
What is this ‘kingdom’ He is talking about? The phrase ‘Kingdom of God’ can mean a few different things depending on the context of how it is used and some of the meanings overlap.
The Kingdom of God is Jesus Christ and faith in Him.
The Kingdom of God is all of the promises God has made and kept with humanity.
The Kingdom of God is all of those who believe in Jesus and live for Him… the Church.
The Kingdom of God means Heaven.
The Kingdom of God means the way of life that Jesus teaches and shows by His example.
The Kingdom of God means all of that and Jesus says that because He is standing before them, the Kingdom of God is at hand. There is a complicated “now but not yet” flavor to these verses. Jesus Christ is standing before the people preaching and healing and showing the way to God, but everything has not yet been fulfilled. Even now the Kingdom of God is here as we are His Church, but there are some parts of the Kingdom that have not yet been made real for us… notably the Second Coming of Jesus and our eternal life with Him in Heaven.
The Kingdom of God happened then. Jesus stood and was the crucial hinge on everything God was doing to seek us and save us. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one enters into the Kingdom except by believing in what He has done. Jesus’ teachings explained the Kingdom. Jesus’ miracles showed the power of the Kingdom. Jesus on the cross brought forth the entrance to the Kingdom. The resurrection of Jesus affirmed the promise of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God happened then.
The Kingdom of God is happening now. You and I have the opportunity, as do all the people we know and all the people on this earth we do not know, to hear the Gospel and to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. That happens now. That happens every generation. The Gospel is spreading out until every tribe and tongue and people have heard the message that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. The Kingdom of God is happening now.
The Kingdom of God will happen later. In the future, new believers in Christ will stand on our shoulders and receive the Gospel from us. In the future, there will come a time when the fullness of time again has come and Jesus Christ will return in power and Judgment Day will happen. Life in Heaven with God Forever will be offered to those who believe in Jesus. The Kingdom of God will happen later.
ILLUSTRATION… Hors devours (p)
I think the Kingdom of God is a little bit like a meal at a nice sit-down restaurant. For those of you who do not remember, before COVID, restaurants used to let you eat inside at tables and eat in groups. Anyway, I think the Kingdom of God is a little bit like hors devours or appetizers. You get the appetizer so you know you are having a meal, but the meal is still being prepared and is not quite at your table. Now, but not yet. When the waiter or waitress cleans up your appetizer dishes, you know the meal is at hand. When the waiter or waitress brings the foldable table close to your table for the tray of food, you know the meal is at hand. There, but not yet.
For those of us who are believers in Jesus, we have the entire history of God working through history to look back on and see how God worked. We can trust in Him because of what He has done. We also have now forgiveness of sins, peace, grace, and strength of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who are believers also have in the future the promise of Heaven, new spiritual bodies not tied to the sinful nature, freedom from pain and sickness and sadness, and an eternity to have a face-to-face relationship with God.
REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL
We thirdly see in these two verses that Jesus says that we are to repent and believe the Gospel. Every single person who hears about Jesus Christ must respond. We either accept that God, the loving Father, sent Jesus the Perfect Sinless Son, to die on the cross that we might have eternal life and a restored relationship with God in spite of our sinfulness… or we don’t accept it. Not making a decision or putting things off until later means we do not accept.
You see, when Jesus says we must ‘repent’ and ‘believe’ He is not laying out reactive words or passive words, but action-oriented essential words.
‘Repent’ means to understand that you are sinful and nothing in you is good. None of us are good. Once we realize that we are sinful and bad and mostly give into temptation, we must change over from that and move towards God. Repentance is not an attitude. Repentance is an action and is a demonstration of a change on the inside. No acceptance of sinfulness, no repentance. No change, no repentance. No demonstration, no repentance.
Repentance is active.
Repentance is an action borne from the heart.
Repentance is a continual ongoing process in some cases.
‘Believe’ means to place faith and more importantly trust in Jesus Christ in our hearts. The interesting truth about the Christian faith is that it is not passive. If anyone told you to get dunked in some water and say a few magic words and Jesus the fairy godmother would sprinkle Holy Spirit dust on you… and you then are good spiritually for the rest of your life… lied a serious lie to you. Belief is active trust in Jesus.
Faith is active.
Faith is constantly denying self and pursuing Jesus.
Faith is loving God with our whole hearts and demonstrating that love every single day.
There is one significant obstacle that I have noticed to people placing trusting faith in Jesus and repenting of sin. That significant obstacle is ‘self.’ What I mean by ‘self’ is that we do not want to live the way God wants us to live and so we don’t accept Him. I have to tell you, I think that is a legitimate reason to reject Jesus.
You see, Jesus is an all-in-kind of Savior. He wants all of our hearts and all of our minds and all of our strength dedicated to Him and most of the time we want to give Him much less than that. We might appreciate the cute stories about Jesus, but becoming a believer means He has a claim on us and we serve Him. Accepting Him means He is King Jesus to us. Not everyone wants to do that.
If you only want to live your life the way you want, do not enter into a relationship with Jesus.
If you want to be responsible for your own soul, do not enter into a relationship with Jesus.
If you go to church and carry around a Bible only to avoid conversations, just be honest and say you don’t believe.
A time has coming and has now come when God is pruning His Church of those who only want Him in a half-hearted way. Commitment to Jesus means 100% trusting belief and 100% repentance from the values of this world. Nothing else is going to cut it.
TRANSITION
Mark 1:14-15 is a passage that shows us Jesus’ entrance into His ministry. He begins His teaching and preaching and miracles and traveling when the time was right and He shared the Good News about the Kingdom of God. We either accept it or not… there is no middle ground.
We are called to faith.
We are called to repentance.
We are called to be an active part of the Kingdom of God.
ESSENTIAL KING JESUS
At the beginning of the sermon, I told you each week I would give you a solid Truth that must be communicated when we share the Gospel. So what is the Essential King Jesus from this passage?
Essential King Jesus: You cannot be part of the Kingdom of God without Jesus. Jesus is the Kingdom. Jesus is entrance into the Kingdom. Jesus is the teaching of the Kingdom. Jesus is the reason for the Kingdom. Absolutely everything God wants for a person is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. You cannot be in a relationship with God without Jesus. All paths and all faiths and all spiritual practices do not lead to God… the only way to God is by way of Jesus. That is the Essential King Jesus.
PRAYER
INVITATION
