Mark 1:9-20, "The Kingdom Comes in Jesus"

What are some things that diminish human flourishing, that keep us from living fruitful lives?

Injustice, disease, ignorance, lack of resources, spiritual neglect, spiritual oppression, selfishness, time-wasting activities, hopelessness, etc.

The kingdom of God cultivates fruitfulness to our lives. When God runs the show, we flourish like fruitful trees, bringing blessing into our world. When we run the show, we become fruitless and diminish the flourishing of others. In our sin, we become self-centered. We misuse the good things God has provided for our flourishing by turning them into idols. We replace God with His gifts, we worship self, and we diminish our own fruitfulness and that of others.

For example, we all know someone that has become so consumed by their job or career that everything in their life revolves around that. And because spending time listening to God doesn’t fit into a busy schedule, they sacrifice spiritual nurture for the sake of productivity and wear themselves out trying to make something of themselves. Replace career with education, sports, relationships, substances, entertainment, whatever, and we have all been there. We need a reorientation of our lives that restores flourishing and fruitfulness.

If you thought of your life like a plant that you’ve been given to nourish, what does that plant need to flourish? What if you say, “this is a beautiful plant. I want to look at it always. I’ll put it at the center of my room and it will please me to have it so near me”? Would that plant flourish? No, if you oriented that plant to your selfish pleasure, it would wither and die. But if you were to orient that plant on a windowsill facing the sun, brining it water at the right times and food at the right seasons, it could flourish.

What we see today is that Jesus restores our flourishing and cultivates our fruitfulness when we orient our lives to Him. As we begin, we can think about this question: what areas of my life are oriented around Jesus Christ, and which areas are oriented around myself, my pleasure, my happiness and my comfort?

Jesus is the Beloved Son, so Orient Your Identity to Him

When we meet Jesus in the gospel of Mark, things are already happening. Mark begins by pointing us back to the Hebrew Bible as if to say, “go read all that to really understand Jesus”. But we’ve done that in our series. To review, the Bible starts with God creating a world that is full of fruitful life. His Spirit hovers over the waters of creation and His word goes out to create light and life and abundance. He creates humans in His image. You could say we are His children. That is our true identity. He created us to share in His dominion, His kingdom over the earth. If they will obey His voice, they will cultivate flourishing in the whole world.

In fact He places the first humans in a garden. They are surrounded with abundance, beauty, and all the animals to take care of. But they decide to stop listening the voice of God. They listen to the voice of the serpent. They go their own way and make themselves the center of their world. This is human sin and it infects all of us. We take on false identities.

What are some of those? Achiever, self-sufficient, worthless, unlovable, etc.

When we meet Jesus at His baptism, it reminds us of creation in so many ways. Jesus comes to the waters of baptism to start over, a new creation.

Mark 1:9–11 (ESV)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Just like at creation, God the Father, the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, the Son are all present. Jesus is affirmed by God as His Son in whom He will well pleased. Like withe first man, God and man are at peace. But unlike the first man, who started in a perfect world and broke everything, Jesus starts from the brokenness and works backwards. Baptism is a reminder that we need cleansing. In our sin, we have been corrupted by self-centered living and all the injustice and idolatry that produces. Jesus starts there, but reconciles man to God so there is peace.

Then, He faces the serpent, the Satan.

Mark 1:12–13 (ESV)

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Like Adam and Eve, He is tempted by Satan himself. Unlike Adam and Eve, He is not in a garden abounding with fruit from God. He is in the wilderness. Like Adam and Eve, He is surrounded by animals, but unlike them, they are now wild, affected by our sin. Like Adam and Eve, He must choose to listen to the voice of God or the voice of the serpent. But unlike them, He chooses correctly. So, this time when the angel shows up, it isn’t to keep Him out of the garden, it is to minister to Him in His weakness.

Mark is telling us, Jesus is the new human. He faces everything we face in our broken, sinful world, but He does it the right way. In all the ways we despised our identity as children of God, He demonstrates that He is the true Son of God. He lives according to God’s kingdom. Mark is inviting us to find a new identity, apart from our false one, corrupted by sin. We are being presented with a new beginning, a new creation in Jesus. So, as a reader of Mark, I ask, can I be made new? He begins to answer that as we read on.

Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom of God, so Repent and Believe

When Jesus leaves the wilderness, He comes into Galilee of the nations. He comes preaching what Mark calls the gospel, or the good news of God.

Mark 1:14 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,

And this is the gospel,

Mark 1:15 ESV

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

What makes this good news? The kingdom of God cultivates human flourishing. God is King, He’s running the show for those who reach out their hand to Him.

How do we access the kingdom of God? Repent - what does that mean? Believe - what does that mean?

Repent means to reorient yourself. Believe means to trust. Jesus points us in the right direction. Reorient from your self at the center of your life and trust in Me. Put me at the center, and you can be restored to the flourishing for which God created you. You can live a fruitful life when Jesus runs the show.

What is the most fruitful life you can think of?

Jesus Makes us Fruitful, So Follow Him into the Harvest

As Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, He called people to follow Him as disciples. And that calling includes work. It is harvesting work. Jesus is living according to the kingdom of God, so His life is bearing fruit. The time for harvest has come.

Mark 1:17 (ESV)

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Farmers harvest fruit. Fishermen harvest fish. Jesus’ disciples harvest people. In other words, the fruitfulness Jesus is cultivating in the lives of His followers is a lifestyle that brings others into the kingdom of God. He cultivates our devotion to Him as disciples into a love for others that moves us out into the lives of others to bring them into God’s kingdom.

When Jesus restores us to the kingdom of God, our worship of God as our King includes a desire to multiply His kingdom among all people everywhere. We saw God call Abram and His descendants to be a kingdom of priests, going into all the world to cultivate the knowledge of God everywhere among all peoples. This is how He would make them a blessing.

Where are the places Jesus is sending us out of our own places of self-centered comfort into the harvest for His kingdom? Jesus has been leading His disciples from Mark’s time until now into all the kingdoms of this world to spread the gospel of the kingdom of God. The final outworking of that as we read it in Mark’s gospel is the overthrow of the powers of this world that diminish human flourishing.

Jesus Overthrows the Kingdom of Darkness, So Be Amazed at His Authority

We have said over the last few weeks, God uses His power and authority as king to cultivate fruitfulness in our lives. We asked at the beginning of the message, what are some things that diminish human flourishing. These include ignorance, spiritual neglect, spiritual oppression, disease. In Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus using His authority to overthrow all of these enemies.

Mark 1:21 (ESV)

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.

Mark 1:22 (ESV)

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

The scribes were the teachers of Torah, God’s instructions for fruitful living. They had neglected God’s words in their teaching for the sake of teaching the words of men. They would not teach, “Thus says the Lord.” They would quote their rabbi, “Thus says Rabbi Akiva (or Shammei or Hillel or Yonatan).” Their authority came from one another. Their spiritual neglect of the people had led to ignorance of God’s word and spiritual malnourishment.

What astonished people about Jesus’ teaching was that He simply taught God’s words by His own authority. He taught God’s words as if He was God Himself.

But worse than spiritual malnourishment, when there is spiritual neglect of God’s word, it opens the door for darker, more evil spirits to enter the scene. The kingdom of the devil had taken over people’s lives, even in the “church” (synagogue).

Mark 1:23–25 (ESV)

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”

Jesus’ authority to restore the kingdom of God among men is taking territory from the kingdom of darkness. It’s okay to be amazed. In fact, it’s the right response.

Mark 1:27 (ESV)

And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

Jesus is in charge. He has all authority. Mark goes on to describe

Mark 1:32–34 (ESV)

they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons…And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Disease and demons have to flee and they aren’t allowed to complain. Jesus doesn’t heal everyone. He doesn’t free everyone from their spiritual oppression. But Mark is demonstrating that Jesus is running the show now. So, be amazed at His authority.

What’s the application? Give Him authority in your life. How do we do this?

Many people claim to be believers in Jesus, but you wouldn’t know by their lives that He runs the show. Jesus’ brother James said,

James 2:19 (ESV)

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Just look at the reaction of the demons in Mark’s gospel. They know who Jesus is, but they don’t worship Him or love Him. Our worship of Jesus as One with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit, not just in our prayers, but in our lifestyle, demonstrates that we have truly repented and believe. That our faith in Jesus is real.

Jesus uses His authority to restore our lives to fruitfulness and flourishing. He overcomes spiritual ignorance. He overcomes spiritual oppression and confusion. He heals many of our diseases. Through His obedience to God the Father in His righteous life, His death for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead, He has opened the door for all humans into the kingdom of God. The Lord’s table is celebration of the gospel that Jesus preached. It is an invitation to partake in the fruitful harvest of righteousness, forgiveness and mercy that Jesus has provided us.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

When do you feel you are living your most fruitful life?

What are reasons people fail to flourish that motivate you to take action?

What do we learn about Jesus in our passage?

What do we learn about ourselves?

What are some false identities that keep us from finding our identity in Christ alone? How does the gospel address that?

How does the gospel Jesus preaches in Mark 1:15 apply to the unbeliever? How does it apply to the believer?

In what ways is Jesus calling you into the harvest for the sake of God’s kingdom? How can we pray for you in that endeavor?

In what ways does participating in Jesus’ calling to fish for men make us more fruitful people?

What are some areas of your life in which you’d like to see Jesus use His authority to overcome spiritual enemies such as spiritual neglect or ignorance, oppression, disease, or something else? How can we pray about that?

How will you respond to this passage?

Who is someone you could share this passage with this week?