Two Necessary Ingredients for Spiritual Success
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· 8 viewsThis message is an explanation of two necessary parts to conversion: repentance and faith.
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Two boys were playing in the snow one day; when one said to the other, “Let us see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started.
One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking his eyes off the object selected. The other boy set his eyes on the tree also, and, when he had gone a short distance, he turned, and looked back to see how true his course was.
He went a little distance farther, and again turned to look over his steps. When they arrived at their stopping place, each halted and looked back. One path was true as an arrow, while the other ran in a zigzag course.
“How did you get your path so true?” asked the boy who had made the crooked steps.
“Why,” said the other boy, “I just set my eyes on the tree, and kept them there until I got to the end; while you stopped and looked back and wandered out of your course.”
This is a perfect picture of the Christian life. We must fix the eyes of our hope, our trust, and our faith upon Jesus Christ.
What type of person was Jesus?
What type of person was Jesus?
Many words could be used: kind, loving, tolerant.
The world would have you believe that He never asked anything too demanding from anyone. He just went around solving everyone’s problems.
But this mass of impressions actually gets in the way of a more accurate picture presented by the gospels.
Jesus had a straightforward message: the Kingdom of heaven is here.
Jesus had a straightforward message: the Kingdom of heaven is here.
Mark 1:14-15
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.”
But how many times did Jesus tell people to repent? Some 60 times. Those are just the times that are recorded.
It was common for rabbi’s to teach the same lesson more than once. And Christ’s message was repetitive, simple, yet demanding. The kingdom of God is here.
Repent and trust God.
Noted is that this was a continuation of what John the Baptist presented.
Mark 1:4 records
4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John the Baptist was Jesus’ distant cousin and considered to be God’s messenger. His ministry is described in reference to Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 in Mark 1:2-3
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
In our passage, the timing of Jesus message is critical because John was taken into custody. He is the last in a long line of prophets, calling people back to covenant faithfulness.
A bit about the author...
A bit about the author...
The author of Mark was a special person. He was a young man, maybe even a teenager at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Many scholars believe that it was a relative of Mark’s that hosted the passover meal for Jesus and His disciples.
There is a theory that the authorities came to Mark’s parents’ home and tried to arrest Jesus. But they encountered young John Mark and tried to apprehend him, but he escaped and ran to tell Jesus and the twelve.
He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ arrest.
Some believe he is the young man mentioned in Mark 14:51-52, and thus would have witnessed Jesus’ arrest.
Mark’s family were close friends of Peter’s, so much that after Peter was freed from prison, he went to Mark’s mother’s home (Acts 12:12)
It was said that Mark was like a son to Peter (1 Peter 5:13). And that Peter was no doubt a key source to Mark’s gospel.
It is theorized that Mark’s gospel could also be known as Peter’s memoir.
And there unique things about His gospel. It is the shortest and the oldest of the four, dating to the late 50’s.
The universal symbol of Mark’s gospel is a winged lion. It’s emphasis is on Jesus as the Divine Son of God. He is the “lion of Judah,” and the symbol represents power, strength and authority.
It is seen as the source for Matthew and Luke, as one commentator points out:
“More than one-half of Matthew and one-third of Luke are composed of material from Mark.” (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 518).
It’s prose is more staccato and abrupt. The word “immediately,” is a transition word from one scene to another.
Mark was also an assistant to Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys (Acts 12:25 and Acts 13:5
5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.
Paul mentions his assistant in Colossians 4:10
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him),
Things were not always good for Mark . He is said to have left Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem.
But later there must have been a reconciliation, for Paul commends him in 2 Timothy 4:11
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
Incidentally, I was able to visit his crypt, housed in the basilica that bears his name in Venice, Italy.
But back to his gospel. It announced...
The Kingdom of God is here, now, within you, among you.
The Kingdom of God is here, now, within you, among you.
Jesus called people to change because of the Kingdom of God had come.
In Mark 1:1
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And this gospel, or good news was part of the message of the kingdom of God or, the kingdom of heaven, as it is also called.
The reign of God in the hearts of minds of His followers, and being initiated, and its anticipated full consummation, demands for a different set of ethics, than what is promoted by the world.
And this requires forgiveness and a resetting of sorts. This is why Jesus said in Mark 1:15
Mark 1:15 (ESV)
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
As the late Dr. Royce Gruenler points out:
“All the evidence of the Gospels points to the inauguration of the reign of God in Jesus’ ministry, its power being manifest by His followers until the end of the age when it will be fully realized. The kingdom is present, is in process of realization, is yet to come, and accordingly calls for the immediate response of repentance and belief.” (Evangelical Commentary on the Bible ed. Walter A. Elwell) 768.
You must respond to this kingdom.
You must respond to this kingdom.
Let’s break-down this two part call.
Because of the kingdom’s arrival, you must repent.
The word for repent is the Greek μετανοέω.
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (μετανοέω)
which means ① to change one’s mind and/or to ② feel remorse, repent, be converted (in a variety of relationships and in connection w. varied responsibilities, moral, political, social or religious in (religio-)ethical sense ἐν σάκκῳ καὶ σποδῷ μ. repent in sackcloth and ashes Mt 11:21; Lk 10:13. As a prerequisite for experiencing the Reign of God in the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus Mt 3:2; 4:17; Mk 1:15.
It is elsewhere mentioned in places like Matthew 3:2 and
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
It is not just asking for forgiveness, but certainly includes that. It’s by product his cleansing as 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Baptism is a symbol of this cleansing.
I should point out that this is not just a one time event, repentance, but something that Christians will do all of their lives. It is a constant dying to self and exaltation of God and conforming to His image as the Lord works in your life, making you more like Him. As one commentator stated:
“The entire ministry of Jesus is understood in relation to this important declaration of the presence of the kingdom. His ethical teachings cannot be understood apart from the announcement of the kingdom. Participation in the new reality of the kingdom involves a follower of Jesus in a call to the highest righteousness.” (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 730).
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then there is faith. It is revealed in the command to believe in the gospel.
πιστεύω But it is a special favorite of John’s gospel and his first epistle, where it is found 96 times and 9 times respectively;
① to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust, believe
ⓐ believe (in) something, be convinced of something, with that which one believes (in) indicated. (William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 816).
It goes beyond just believing that there is a God. Most people believe that there is a God. Even demons believe in God, as it is a mental ascent. James 2:19
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
But Biblical belief goes much further. It involves embracing God and following Jesus Christ. Matthew 16:24
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
What do you need to repent of today? Right now?
What do you need to trust God for? Right now?
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian author and Soviet dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system.
During his eight years in Russian camps, his parents died and his wife divorced him.
Upon his release from prison he was dying of a cancer that was growing in him so rapidly that he could feel the difference in a span of twelve hours.
It was at that point that he abandoned himself to God, so beautifully illustrated in three lines of the incredible prayer that came in that dark hour:
“Oh God, how easy it is for me to believe in You. you created a path for me through despair… God, You have used me, and where You cannot use me, You have appointed others. Thank You.”
