The Kingdom is at Hand

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it. We’re going to start in Mark 1:14 tonight. I told you when we started the Gospel of Mark that we were going into this book with no set end date to finish the book and that is still the case. I wanted to say sorry because my plan originally was to go through a much larger section of verses than we have over the past 3 weeks but that plan got immediately thrown out the window as I was studying and preparing for tonight because I kept getting caught up in Christ’s message in verse 15. There is just far too much to get to in that verse for us to rush through so once again, we will be limiting our study to 2 verses so verses 14-15 is what we will be looking at tonight. At this rate, we are averaging about 4 verses per week so at that rate, we will finish up Mark 1 by the end of March and we will finish up the entire Gospel of Mark in March of 2027 and that is only if we meet every single Wednesday from here until then. Of course I am kidding, once we start getting to some of the miracles that Mark records, we will start to make some progress but one of my wishes for us taking the time to carefully study God’s Word together is that you will see in this an example to imitate in your own quiet time with the Lord. The reason that I go through books of the Bible verse by verse is so that you would see that there is an excitement in going through the verses of the Bible slowly. It is so that you can see that God can say a whole lot with what appears to be very little. Tonight we are going to see Jesus open His mouth for the first time in the Gospel of Mark and in 18 words, He will say more than what many might say in a lifetime. At least in terms of importance, these 18 words may be the most important words in the Gospel of Mark, maybe even the most important words in the universe but you will never realize that if you do not take the time to really sit down and study God’s Word. I have said this before but God says so much in His Word that we will never reach the fullness of it. I’ve taught the book of Acts twice in about 10 years of ministry and there is just so much in that book that even if we started it over again tomorrow, I would have whole new sermons to preach because there is just so much to go through in the Bible. Not a single one of us here can truthfully say that we have mined the Bible for all that it’s worth. You have not tapped this well dry and you will never be able to. So what is it that happens in these 2 verses that I want us to spend so much time with? What is it that Jesus says that is so significant? Let’s open up in prayer and then we will dive into Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Now After…Jesus Came (Verse 14)

Before we get to verse 15 where I want us to spend the bulk of our time tonight, we need to make something clear on what is happening in verse 14. If you have been with us the last few weeks, I have mentioned how Mark’s favorite word is the word “immediately”. Up to this point major events have been signified by this word, Christ’s baptism and His temptation have both been introduced with the word immediately but now Mark wants his reader to recognize that there has been a passage of time and that is seen in the words, “Now after.” Just how much time has passed between verses 13 and 14? Well all of John 2:13-4:4 has taken place so maybe as long as 6 months have passed. Now Jesus did not do nothing in those 6 months but was ministering in Judea and this time has come to be known as Christ’s Judean ministry. At some point within those 6 months, John the Baptist is arrested by King Herod because John rebuked him over Herod’s marriage to his own niece. John will stay in this prison until his death which we will read about at the end of Mark 6. Now it would be easy to look at the arrest of a man like John the Baptist and think, “Well there goes that movement.” John was such an influential and godly man that any hope that his followers had was likely dashed to pieces. How could they carry on this work of repentance for the forgiveness of sins without John? How can there be good news when the messenger that has come to prepare the way for the Messiah has been tossed into prison? He wasn’t tossed in their because of his own moral failure but because of the moral failure of someone else. He wasn’t thrown into prison because of his own breaking of the law but because of someone else who broke God’s Law! Isn’t that how it works for the man or woman of God? The law that they are often guilty of breaking is not God’s law but the failure of those in a position of authority that have the responsibility to uphold God’s law. But not all hope is lost and Mark wants us to know this by how he phrases verse 14: “Now after John…Jesus came.” What we need to be reminded of here is that the suspension of Gospel ministry for one does not equal the silence of all. God always has the next person in the wing, waiting and ready to carry on the work. For every Paul, there is a Timothy waiting. For every Wycliffe and Huss, there is a Martin Luther ready and waiting. God never needs to have all of the ducks in a row and prison doors wide open in order for the Gospel to thrive. Matthew Henry said, “The silencing of Christ’s ministers shall not be the suppressing of the Gospel; if some be laid aside, others shall be raised up, perhaps mightier than they, to carry on the same work.” After John is arrested, Jesus comes and He comes not as a political figure, not as a social activist, not as a man with a strong opinion, He comes as a preacher. He comes as a preacher with a very specific message and that message is the Gospel of God. Jesus comes with the message that we will see in verse 15 but it is important now before we even get there that we understand that what makes the good news of the Gospel good news and not just good ideals or good recommendations is that it is something that has happened in history on our behalf. What makes the Gospel good news is that it is a historical event. Tim Keller put it like this, where other religions are just advice, the Christian faith and the Gospel stands apart as good news. How so? What’s the difference? Well every other religion in the world will tell you this: Here is what you have to do in order to connect to God and this is how you need to live in order to earn your way to God. The Gospel and Christianity is fundamentally different because the message of Christianity is this: Here is what God has done in human history. Here is how Jesus lived and died and He earned your way to God for you. Keller said, “The gospel is that God connects to you not on the basis of what you’ve done (or haven’t done) but on the basis of what Jesus has done, in history, for you. And that makes it absolutely different from every other religion or philosophy.” What makes news the news, or at least what should qualify it to be news, is that something has actually happened. The news in order to really be news cannot just be random thoughts, philosophies, or opinions. When the news is reported, it is on events that are being reported and that is what the Gospel is: It is an event that has taken place in time and space. The news is that it has happened and the good is that it has happened in spite of you and ultimately for you despite what we fail to bring to the table. We know it is news and we know that it happens based on what Jesus says in verse 15. Verse 15 is so important to the book of Mark that some commentators have said that what Jesus says in verse 15 is the most important summary statement in the book of Mark. Let’s read Mark 1:15 again. Mark says of Jesus ministry: “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

The Time is Fulfilled (15 a)

What I want to do with the time we have left is take Christ’s statement in verse 15 and divide them into 3 main components. Basically wherever there is a comma or a semi colon, we will look at as a section so the first thing that we will look at is the statement that Christ’s makes that “The time is fulfilled.” Now when you think of time, what do you usually associate time with? You think of like the time of day or the time on a clock right? If you look at the Greek word that Mark uses in this verse, he does not use the word Chronos which is where we get the English word chronology from. Mark is not talking about time in a, “It’s 3 pm on a Friday” sense but actually uses the different Greek word Kairos. What Jesus really means is, “the divinely appointed event has come. That which all of the Old Testament prophets have pointed ahead to has arrived.” A new era has arrived with the preaching and ministry of Jesus. Why else is it that a new era has come? It is because the king has come. The most important king came for the most important event in human history. Jesus’ ministry is the turning point for all mankind. John MacArthur said, “Jesus’ ministry took place according to God’s sovereign timetable. This was the hour for which the world had long been waiting; it was the most significant moment in earth’s history. The savior had arrived to pay in full the penalty for sin and thus provide salvation for all the elect- from the beginning of history to the end.” The divinely appointed time has arrived but more than just an event has come, the king himself has come and that is what we see in the second component of what Christ has to say: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

The Kingdom of God is at Hand (15 b)

Now we could spend a whole night talking about what the Kingdom of God is and I am sure that if you have been in church for a while, that may be a term that you are already familiar with but for brevity’s sake, we will use Graeme Goldsworthy’s definition because it is one of my favorites: The Kingdom of God could be summarized as God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule. The kingdom of God is not a small, tucked away corner of the world, the kingdom is where God is and it is where His people are. There are some who hear the Kingdom of God and they assume that it refers solely to a future kingdom that Christ comes to rule and reign over but that is not entirely the case. Is the kingdom of God a present kingdom or is it a future kingdom? The answer to that question is both. The Kingdom of God is a present reality that will be fully seen and embraced in the new heavens and new earth in the future as Christ reigns as king. The Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign rule over all things. How do we know that the kingdom is both present and future? Well we can take Christ’s statement here in verse 15 that the kingdom is at hand or has drawn near. That means that because the King is present, the kingdom too has come. When the pharisees ask Jesus about when the Kingdom of God was coming, He tells them that the kingdom has in a sense already come, that it is a present reality. He says in Luke 17:21 “nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”” The Jews in the first century had this idea that the Kingdom of God would be connected to a physical reign on Earth and would be centered around Israel escaping from under the thumb of Roman oppression. Every Jewish man, woman, and child was looking ahead to the day when the Jewish nation would be restored and the Son of David would reign in their midst. But here Jesus says, “You got it all wrong. The Kingdom is not just a future kingdom or even a physical kingdom like you think it is, the Kingdom is here now! The King is here now!” Not only is the Kingdom here now, the Kingdom’s fullest manifestation will be seen when Christ returns in the future. John writes in Revelation 20:4–6, “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” It should be clear to us that Jesus does not return to Heaven to do nothing. He returns to Heaven and will return on this Earth to rule and to reign. So the Kingdom of God is a present reality now and it is a future kingdom that will be fully revealed when Christ returns. Now because the dawning of this new era has come, because the King has come and is ushering in the kingdom, a response must be made to this reality. What is it? That is what the last part of verse 15 tells us.

Repent and Believe (15 c)

Now if you were the first century Jewish man or woman, you would have heard the first half of Christ’s proclamation and thought, “This is amazing! That which we have waited for all our lives, that which the Old Testament has pointed to, it has finally arrived!” And as you are rejoicing at the thought of the time being fulfilled and the kingdom of God being at hand, you get smacked in the face as Christ’s next word is repent! Imagine that, imagine you are standing there in Galilee and here comes this preacher and as He is preaching, He says what is to the effect of, “All that you have waited for and have dreamt of has now arrived.” You would think, “That’s fantastic! I’m overjoyed.” But then Jesus goes, “Now hang on, I’m not finished. You need to respond to this.” You think, “OK, no problem, what do I need to do? Show more excitement, maybe recruit to tell others, make some posters for you and advertise it on Tiktok?” “No, you need to repent.” That sucks the wind out of you! It’s like God is saying, “The Kingdom is here but you aren’t worthy of it. Not in your current state at least.” You see it is because the Kingdom is here that we must repent. God will not dwell in the midst of sinful mankind. To be a part of His Kingdom, we need to operate according to His principles. God has the right to govern however He wants and He can let into His kingdom whoever He wants. To gain entrance into the Kingdom, there must be repentance. To repent means that we turn from loving the things that God hates and hating the things that God loves. We go from devotion to sin to devotion to Savior. To repent means that we need to do more than just recognize that we have sinned, it means that we must recognize that we are nothing but sinners. Charles Spurgeon said, “There must be sorrow for sin and hatred of it in true repentance.” Christ says that we are to repent and we are to believe in the Gospel in order to enter the Kingdom of God. What is our way in? It is by faith! It has always been by faith. Salvation has never been by works and… It has also been by faith alone. Let me just tell you that if you were to get to the front desk of Heaven and whoever was in charge of letting people in were to ask you why you should be there, the last thing you would want to start your sentence with is the word “I”. “I did this, I lived this way, I did good works” you see the moment you stake your claim to the Kingdom on yourself is the reminder that the kingdom was not and is still not yours. If we want to be a part of the kingdom of God, we must first recognize that we have no inherit right to the kingdom of God. You see the Gospel is not good news until we know the bad news. Until we know that we must repent, we have nothing within us that will compel us to. We need to know the bad before the good really begins to look good to us. How do we get into the Kingdom? By recognizing who we are sure but we also must recognize who the King is! Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “We are rebels, we are sinful, we are guilty, we are vile. You cannot live in God’s kingdom unless you are a worthy citizen. How then can I enter? HE is the answer.” When I said that the worst thing that we can say at the front desk of Heaven is “I”, I hope that you recognize that the only thing that we can claim, the only hope that we have is outside of us and it is in Him! Christ alone is our entry way into Heaven. If He does not let us in, we do not get in! If He does not pay the way in, we are lost and have no way in. Now some will say, “Is it really that simple? Is it really just faith alone in Jesus Christ and His perfect life, death, and resurrection that will bring me to the Kingdom?” Absolutely it is! And all our works do is act in response to the salvation that He has bought for us. I love Alistair Begg’s illustration of the thief on the cross. Do you remember that Christ was not the only person on the day of His crucifixion that was crucified? There were criminals on both sides of Him yet to one of them, Jesus said that on that very day, that man would be with Him in paradise. Begg said imagine what it was like when the thief got to Heaven that day. He shows up to the pearly gates and the angel turns and says, “What are you doing here? How did you get here?” The man says, “I don’t know.” “What do you mean you don’t know?” This guy was just cursing out Jesus with his friend a few hours ago, he never attended a Bible study, he was being crucified for some criminal activity, he was never baptized, never made a member of the church, but he made it! How’d someone like him get in? The angel has no idea so he goes off and gets his supervisor and the supervisor starts questioning him at the gates saying, “Are you at least up to date on the doctrine of justification by faith alone?” The guy says he never heard of it. “Ok well, are we at least certain about the doctrine of Scripture and the process of regeneration? The guy just looks at the angel as confused as could be. This goes on for a while and eventually the supervisor angel gets frustrated and says, “Look, on what basis are you here? Why and how are you here?” And the man just says, “I am here because the Man on the middle cross told me that I could come.” You see that is the answer. That is the answer for all of God’s children as we come into the present and future kingdom. How can we stand before this King? Because the man on the middle cross told us that we could come. The good news will never be good news for you as long as you see yourself as someone that deserves good news or has earned it. You see in your pride and with your sin, you will look at the state of your life and you will look at the state of the world around you and you will say, “It’s ok, I got this and I will figure this out.” No that’s not the answer. The answer and key to the Kingdom is, “I don’t have this. I don’t have this sin under control and I don’t rule over all things. My only argument and only plea and only hope that i have is in my sinless Savior. All that Christ said close to 2,000 years ago applies to the here and now. The time is still fulfilled the Kingdom of God is still here and the only hope that we have is to repent and believe in the Gospel. The message that Christ proclaimed is the one that we are all to proclaim until the day that God brings us home or Christ returns. There are only 2 types of people in the world: Those that are in the kingdom and those that are out of it. Can you say that you are living as a resident of His Kingdom? Or are you still trying to build and live in your own? You know that I cannot answer that for you, so as we close in prayer and worship, reflect on which Kingdom it is that you belong to. Let’s pray.