The Discipleship Gospel

14 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.” 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

(1)A. Four gospel elements found in Mark 1.

Many passages tell us THAT Jesus preached not WHAT Jesus preached.

Here it clearly says Jesus was preaching the Gospel and here is what He said.

a. The kingdom is here.

God’s Kingdom is at hand.

It has arrived on earth.

Christ inaugurated the Kingdom on earth.

The kingdom of God is the restoration of God’s rule over all things.

We are preaching the restoration of God.

We are preaching a NEW CREATION

Not simply forgiveness from sin.

It is important for people to understand that Jesus is pulling them out of darkness and putting them into HIS Kingdom.

Something much bigger than ourselves.

Colossians 1:13 ESV

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

a. The kingdom is here.

We are now subject to the King and His will for the Kingdom.

Our allegiance and concern is for the Kingdom.

With this declarative statement, we see that not only is the Kingdom here, but it actively advance.

Actively restoring God’s rule over all things.

This is a declarative statement by Jesus the next three statements are imperative responses to the declarative statement.

b. Repent of your sins.

Repentance is the radical change of the mind and heart.

A person once living in unbelief, disobedience, and a hatred for the things of God.

Now living with belief, obedience, and a love for God.

Not simply a forgiveness gospel, but a call to live a different life.

A call to live for the Kingdom.

A call to make disciples.

c. Believe the gospel.

True belief in Jesus.

That He is who He says He is.

That He did what He says He did.

The problem is we tend to preach “gift card belief”.

(Bill Hull calls it this)

Believe in God and get stuff from Him.

Get forgiveness.

Get eternal life.

Get to go to Heaven.

There is no need for life change… just believe.

The Bible tells us: “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness.”

In Genesis 12, Abraham believed and left Ur.

There was action because of His belief.

Hebrews 11:9 ESV

9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

c. Believe the gospel.

Abraham did what God said because he believed.

d. Follow Jesus.

Some might argue that this call to follow is different because it is in a different geographical location.

First… Jesus called people to follow in other places.

Second… we have to trust Mark’s literary structure.

The gospel is more than forgiveness.

Somehow we have separated the gospel from following Jesus.

We talk about it.

We teach it.

But not as an essential part of the gospel.

The gospel is more that a change of mind.

It changes the way we live.

This is waving the white flag.

Luke 14:31 ESV

31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

Philippians 2:9–10 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

d. Follow Jesus.

(1)B. Three gospel elements found in Mark 8.

Mark 8:27–31 ESV

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

a. Jesus is the Christ.

Peter isn’t using a name, but a title.

We shouldn’t take this lightly.

This admission is the turning point of Mark.

Jesus tells them of his death and resurrection.

This topic had not been discussed before.

Mark introduces Jesus as the Christ and tells us what the importance is.

Mark 1:1 ESV

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

a. Jesus is the Christ.

Peter proclaiming Jesus as the Christ brings the weight of the entire Old Testament.

He is the anointed one.

He is the promised Messiah

The one spoken about in all of Scripture.

There is no other like Him.

Thus we surrender to Him.

b. Jesus would be killed.

He was crucified.

The Jews knew immediately when talk about the cross started that it meant death on a Roman cross.

Those who are truly following Jesus

Put their faith in Jesus’ death on the cross.

This causes them to put to death their own flesh.

As soon as Jesus used the word “cross” when speaking of following Him, the Jews understood immediately what that meant.

Jesus was not selling a bait and switch gospel.

Rather, allowing them to count the cost.

Jesus never put the cost of following Him in fine print.

Luke 9:23 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

b. Jesus would be killed.

Taking up your cross daily is a big deal.

It can even mean physical death.

We learned in Haggai that the gospel is not about us.

The gospel is about God’s plan.

God’s kingdom.

We are merely the benefactors.

c. Jesus would rise again.

We tend to emphasize Christ’s death more than His resurrection.

We need to be careful not to lead people to think that one gospel element is more important than another.

Without Christ’s death there would be no shedding of blood.

No shedding of blood means no forgiveness of sin.

No resurrection means Christ’s death was powerless.

Faith in the resurrection results in living a life of victory.

Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

c. Jesus would rise again.

There is immeasurable power in the resurrection.

How do we live in the power of the resurrection?

This can sometimes seem vague.

Romans 8:11 ESV

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

c. Jesus would rise again.

We walk in the power of the resurrection by walking in the spirit.

This give us new life as God is restoring all things to Himself.

This gives us the power to obediently follow Jesus.

If we go to Paul’s words to the Corinthian church it is almost exactly the same...

1 Corinthians 15:1–5 ESV

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus died.

Jesus rose again.

2. A Review of the seven elements of the gospel Jesus preached.

(2)A. The Kingdom is here.

(2)B. Repent of your sins.

(2)C. Believe the gospel.

(2)D. Follow Jesus.

(2)E. Jesus is the Christ.

(2)F. Jesus was killed.

(2)G. Jesus resurrected from the dead.

3. The gospel in a nutshell.

The kingdom of God has come through Jesus. He is Christ. He is the King. He is God’s only Son who willingly died on the cross for our sins. He was buried. He resurrected the third day according to the scriptures. In His great Love and by His amazing grace, God saves everyone who repents of their sin, believes the gospel, and follows Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

The reason Christians aren’t making disciples today is because we don’t understand the Kingdom and we don’t understand the gospel Jesus preached.

Both are closely connected.

Listen to Paul’s warning to the Galatian church.

Galatians 1:6–9 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

It is possible that we have slowly drifted from the gospel Jesus preached.

This could be the reason we see so much passive Christianity.

Why doing the good works in we were taught in Titus is so hard.

Nobody ever called us to that.

Here is why this is so important.

Christians will almost always say they believe in the importance of disciple-making even though they are not actually doing it.

They think, and have been taught, that going to church and giving money in the offering is making disciples.

This stems all the way back to an insufficient theology of the gospel.

We preach a forgiveness only gospel.

NOT a gospel that teaches that the Kingdom of God is here. We must repent (radically change), believe the gospel, and follow Jesus.

We preach that salvation is free.

We forget to preach that it cost something.

We don’t give them the opportunity to count the cost.

Yet we were never called to it when we were presented the gospel.

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