Mark 1:14-15 "The Messianic Message"

Introduction:

The ministry of John the Baptist came to a close once he was arrested by Herod Antipas.

You may remember that Herod had John arrested because of John’s prophetic criticism of his marriage relationship to Herodias, his brother’s wife. It was for this reason Herod had a problem with John and arrested him in order to please Herodias.

And eventually Herod would execute John at the request of Herodias’s daughter. Mark 6: 14-29 is reflective more on the details of this. But here Mark simply informs us that John was arrested as a sequence marker indicating that John’s ministry is coming to a close and the Messianic Ministry of Jesus is begining.

But this is not an example of the sinful actions of men disrupting the providential workings of God. We have already seen from Mark 1: that John coming was prophetic fulfillment of kingdom preparation and we have also seen that even John knew that his ministry would be minimized and Messiah’s ministry would be maximized.

God was at work and He was inaugurating His Kingdom on the earth and it was being revealed in a message that had it’s origins in the decreed will of God. We see this in our text this morning. Look at what I am calling the origination of the message in verse 14:

I. The Origination of the Message (14).

So we see that John gets arrested and Jesus came into Galilee. This is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and much of that is set beside and around the Sea of Galilee. Nazareth was just a city in the Galilean region but Mark here is making the point that Jesus moves into His ministry position after John had been arrested

Now we know this was a ministerial move on Jesus part due to the fact that He was proclaiming the gospel of God. Here we have the Messiah who was sent by God to bring the Kingdom of God now proclaiming the gospel of God.

Remember that John was the forerunner to the Kingdom but now there is a shift because John is being removed from the scene.

This word for gospel in the original language is “euangelion.” And it literally means “good news”. Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the “good news” of God.

This good news has its origination in God. He is the source of it. This good news is not anchored in the subjective ideas and opinions of human beings in a fallen world.

This is objective and indisputable good news the actual grammatical structure bears this out denoting that it is news from God and it is news about God (TEBC, Carson). Fallen man, ever since the fall has had the perception that “good” as a moral category is self determined by the individual.

But what we may want to know is what does this Messianic Message of the “good news” of God consist of? Well I am glad you asked because we actually see the essence of the message of good news being declared in verse 15. Look back at your text:

II. The Declaration of the Message (15).

So we see first that Jesus is declaring that “the time is fulfilled.”

D.A. Carson points out that, “Time here is not simply chronological time (chronos) but the decisive time (kairos) for God’s action (TEBC, Carson). The point that Carson is making is that the “time” that Jesus is referring to is not in the sense of time in relation to a calendar or a sun dial or as in our day a watch that tells you the time. Jesus is referring to time as the point of God’s decreed order and providential design.

This denotes that His ministry and the message being proclaimed is taking place at the appointed time according to God’s design for the Kingdom. This is profound because it will only happen once because there will be no end to the Messianic Kingdom of God.

It will never in all of history ever begin again.

And Jesus begins His Messianic ministry proclaiming that the fulfillment of the appointed time has come and Kingdom is at hand.

First we need to understand that “the Kingdom of God” as a descriptive and definitive term does not exist in the Old Testament. Jesus uses it often in the New Testament but it is not used in the OT.

But references there are many references to concepts of the Lord reigning as a King over His Kingdom, the reign of Messiah, the eternal nature of the Lord’s reign and the salvific dynamic associated with the Kingdom are all over the OT. We just came off of Christmas it is not that hard to recall such text. We even had one such text in our Call to Worship this morning.

So when Jesus references “the Kingdom of God” which one of the Old Testament verses do you think He has in mine? Answer, all of them, even the ones we overlook as being significant references to the Kingdom.

He is talking about every Kingdom text, every Messianic text, every salvation text and every text dealing with the eternal sovereign dominion of the Kingdom. And Jesus is fully aware that He is at the center of the fulfillment of them all. There is no ambiguity in the understanding of Jesus in the declaration of His message and that is the good news according to Jesus.

At this point in the ministry He is even aware of the coming implications of His ministry and message that include His death, burial and resurrection even though those events hadn’t taken place yet.

In the mind of Jesus all of it is included in His declaration of the “good news” of the Kingdom of God. He fully knew what had already been decreed by God to be “good news” and He didn’t need to go to Sunday School or Seminary or Bible College to understand it.

Remember Christian, Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” He is the Son of God and the “good news” is all about Him and what He came to do in fulfillment to the covenant promises of God to His people regarding their redemption, and their reconciliation to God for all eternity and that runs in alignment under the exaltation of King Jesus as supreme in the Universe!

Christian, the declaration of the Kingdom of God is not primarily a message about how Jesus came into the world so that you could have a life enhancement in order to be happier in this fallen world that we live in.

The declaration of the Kingdom of God is primarily a message about how God has decreed the rule and reign of His sovereign King and has worked salvation for His covenant people to bring glory to Himself through the exaltation of King Jesus.

I have thought about this a lot lately. I thought about it at the bedside of Henry DeVries when he told me that the doctors are saying he was terminal. Every time we encounter loss in this fallen world of the good things of God, remember Christian those are the temporal assaults of the kingdom of darkness to use pain and fear to undermine our faith and hope in the Kingdom of God and to challenge our fidelity and our allegiance to King Jesus.

The difference between the two Kingdoms is as vast. At one time I used to play with my toy boats in the bathtub. Mom would tell me to take a bath and it was more enjoyable as a little boy if I could get my toy boats in there and pretend that our bathtub was an Ocean.

But when I was in New Jersey I went to New York City and toured the USS Intrepid. It is a decommissioned aircraft carrier. Thick plated steel artillery the likes I have never seen. In one of the presentations I saw, they say that today the Intrepid is small in comparison. The weaponry and sophistication of the technology is second to none.

Those kinds of ships are a far cry from one of my little bathtub toy boats. But in my childhood days my imagination made it big but in reality there is no comparison.

Christian make now mistake, the gospel of the Kingdom is fully loaded for battle and the decrees of the eternal sovereign have made this Kingdom unsinkable. The enemy has to use tactics of deceit and lies to instill intimidation and fear in our imagination to convince us that his boat is bigger than it is.

Truth is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ blew a whole in the side of the Kingdom of darkness and it has been taking on water ever since.

And one day it is headed for the final showdown and death and the grave will be no more. The dead will be raised incorruptible and King Jesus will destroy the enemies of God once and for all time and death will be no more.

Conclusion:

The declaration of the Kingdom of God is the Messianic Message. And today Unbeliever it is calling to you to repent and believe the gospel. Maybe today is your appointed time to hear the voice and command of the sovereign King, to repent and turn from your sin and believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God as revealed in the person and work of King Jesus.

Believer some of us need to quit believing the lies of the world that undermine the reality of your faith in the Kingdom of God. This is why we have to be informed by the word of God and why it is that Jesus Christ is good news for us as the people of God.

We are washed in the blood and fortified in His grace and undergirded by His divine decrees. And Christian how richly God has provided for us in His Kingdom. For we have all that we need in Christ Jesus our Lord and King.

Come to Him and confess your sin and rest in His provision to us. He loves you Christian with His covenant love and His promises never fail. Rest in Him.

Let’s Pray!