The Kingdom of God

Introduction

Review last week:

Continued working through the Gospel according to Mark

Followed Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan and achieved victory

Explained that believers are justified, sanctified, and glorified. What God does with Israel applies to us too — we are fully delivered from the hands of Pharaoh, purified and tested in the wilderness, and brought to glory in the promised land.

Our goal for this week is to unpack Mark 1:14-15 and begin thinking about the nature of the Kingdom of God.

The Point of this message will be that the Kingdom of God accompanies three basic structures:

The King (Jesus)

His People (Those who repent and believe the gospel)

His Law (How ought we live under this king?) or The Calling of the King (What does the King commission his disciples to do?)

We will focus on the first part of this framework today (i.e. The King).

When these different frameworks of the Kingdom are incorporated into one’s life, it is possible to see healing and freedom.

Beginning Exegesis: V. 14

“John had been taken into custody”

The greatest amount of detail on why John had been taken into custody comes from Matthew 14:3-12

Point: Speaking the truth in all times and places has been hated by evil people because the truth acts as light upon unrighteousness which leads to conviction.

John 3:19-20

1 John 3:12-13

What happened to John has happened to countless people who have been bold enough to call sin out for what it is.

Oftentimes, though, it is the failure to call out sin which results in greater tragedy:

Martin Niemoller:

“First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me”

Think about how vital it is to have record of John’s arrest on the basis of cultural memory

We live in a culture that is so fast paced, it readily forgets things — even atrocities — because we are constantly bombarded by the next thing.

Who cares about the fact that (_____________) happened when this celebrity just got her hair done in a new and exciting fashion? And have you heard about the football scores? Also new bills are coming in. Information, information, information.

1984 - “he who controls the past controls the future” [paraphrase]

The Scripture helps us to be wise against these schemes of the devil.

[Pivot]

John’s arrest does provide an interesting point of movement in that John’s ministry does not compete with Jesus’s

When the savior comes, his voice stands alone.

“Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God”

Luke 4:14 - gives us further details that when Jesus returned to preach in Galilee that he came in the power of the Spirit and that news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.

What is so powerful about this preaching in Galilee?

We will develop an answer to this question further in a moment, but it goes hand in hand with Jesus’s specific message and the fulfillment of prophecy.

Jesus is preaching God’s gospel - What does this gospel sound like?

V. 15

“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.”

When we study Matthew 4:8, one of the things we note is that in Jesus’s previous wilderness temptation, all of the kingdoms of the world are offered to him, but he rejects that saying: “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord Your God, and serve Him only.’ (Deut. 6:13, 10:20)

When Jesus comes preaching the Kingdom of God, he is demonstrating a willingness to not skip steps. Isaiah 45:23 made it clear that to the name of God, every knee would bow and every tongue would confess; this is picked up by Paul in Philippians 2:10-11. The way through to receive heaven is not through compromise to evil but through sacrifice and resurrection.

We will see this later, but Jesus could also look to Psalm 2:8.

Fulfilled and at hand

Biblical prophecy and time follows an interesting pattern

Many different passages feature God acting according to the “fullness” of time

Gal. 4:4-5

Eph. 1:10

Romans 5:6, 1 Tim. 2:6

The image here is akin to a glass beginning to fill with water and brimming over

Dan. 9:24-27 - Often used as evidence that the coming of the Messiah was a linear fulfillment.

Either way, Jesus’s message is clear: there is an immanence to the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is at hand.

The Kingdom of God

What is this “Kingdom of God” and where did this idea come from?

Shape of the Kingdom

What is the shape of the Kingdom of God?

(1) King

(2) People

(3) Law and Commission of the People

Origin of the Kingdom

Commission

Gen. 1:28, Gen. 2:17 - God creates mankind to rule in the likeness and image of God; God provides the commission and rule for mankind

NOTE here that pre-fall, all of the elements of the shape of the Kingdom are present.

God is King

Adam and Eve are His People

They’ve been commissioned to rule like Him, and submit to His law

[I won’t try to carry this format out, but rather just focus on the King]

Fall

Gen. 3:6 - Adam and Eve disobey God

Rejection of the King | 1 John 2:16 (Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life) has been carried out by Adam and Eve — Note that 3:6 has all of the justifications for sin woven into it.

Gen. 3:15 - God prophesies that a seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent.

The defeat of evil is predicted at the point of sin. This defeat will wound the heal of the seed but crush the head of the serpent.

Gen. 4:1 displays Eve’s hope that her offspring would be this Messiah note her language specifically, but this is not the case. Cain perfectly mirrors Adam; he is Adam’s child through and through

Both Adam and Cain are gardeners

Both Adam and Cain are given a command or warning from God

Both Adam and Cain fail to heed that warning

Both Adam and Cain are exiled, but before that occurs God clothes them

[One might note that after the Cain story, genealogies become really important. Why? Because the author is interested in this seed promise. In the gospel of Luke, we see that Luke traces Jesus’s genealogy all the way back to Adam. This is on purpose!]

Returning to the story though:

Abraham and Jacob

Who is the seed going to be which God uses to defeat evil? We can fast-forward some to Abraham and Jacob.

Gen. 12:3 indicates that in Abram, all the nations of the world will be blessed?

Gen. 17:6 indicates that from Abraham, kings are going to come forth from him. Note that Sarah’s womb is barren and when she gives birth it is because the Lord visits her (Gen. 21:1-2)

Gen. 22:17-19 tells us that the singular seed of Abraham is going to possess the gate of his enemies and that through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

These promises are reaffirmed to his grandson, Jacob at Gen. 35:11 when he is told that kings shall come from him.

This vision is reaffirmed at the end of Jacob’s life in Egypt. In Gen. 49:8-12, we are told that the ruling seed will come from the line of Judah.

In the Wilderness (Balaam and Moses)

As we fast forward, we see God lead Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus. Right before they enter the promised land, a pagan prophet named Balaam reaffirms the prophecy given to Jacob. See: Numbers 23:24, 24:9, 17-19.

Balaam affirms that from Judah, a king is going to arise who is capable of crushing the nations and exercise dominion.

With all of the expectations of the Pentateuch anticipating a King, it is therefore not a surprise that the Law of Moses also creates a law of the king. This is featured in Deut. 17:14-20.

In the Promised Land

After entering the land, a number of interesting patterns emerge:

The book of Ruth concludes with a peculiar note about God enabling Ruth to conceive and her giving birth to a son (he is the grandfather of David). See Ruth 4:13 and conclusion

This conclusion of Ruth dovetails with the beginning of 1 Samuel when Hannah (who was barren but God gives her a son) praises the Lord and anticipates the coming of an anointed king (1 Sam. 2:10). The Septuagint reads at this point: “The Lord has gone up to the heavens, and has thundered: he will judge the extremities of the earth, and he gives strength to our kings, and will exalt the horn of his Christ.”

Within 1 Samuel, we eventually see David rise to prominence. He is — as 1 Sam. 13:14 describes — a man after God’s own heart. David is anointed by Samuel to rule over Israel. He is an anointed king, from Judah, from Israel, from Abraham, from Adam. Nevertheless, David sins and shows himself not to be the king who will defeat sin and death once and for all. However, God promises in 2 Sam. 7:8-16 that from the line of David will come a king who does sit on God’s throne. See specifically the language of 1 Chronicles 17:14. What we are given to anticipate is that from David will come a king who will be established forever.

The Prophets

It becomes very clear that Solomon was not the intended referent of God’s promises in 2 Samuel or 1 Chronicles.

What is more, after David and Solomon both pass away, passages such as Psalm 2 were canonized. These words which may have once been written for David or Solomon as a coronation Psalm were kept with an eager anticipation of the one who would fulfill all of the Messianic promises.

Isaiah picks these promises up as well and features the anticipation of a coming kingdom through passages such as Isaiah 7:14, 9:1-7.

How do we know that Isaiah 9:1-7 specifically corresponds to Jesus’s preaching ministry in Galilee? Matthew 4:15-16 directly quotes from this passage.

The Christ

When we arrive to Mark 1:14-15, these data points are supposed to collapse into Jesus’s statement.

The long awaited king has arrived.

What is to be the response?

Repent and believe the gospel.

Confidence of the Believer

It should probably weigh on you that these prophesies and anticipations were written by at least 6 different authors spread out over centuries leading up to the ministry of Jesus. This ministry is going to culminate in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but as 1 Co. 2:6-8 tells us, the wisdom of God was so great that even the spiritual rulers of this age could not discern God’s plan for saving humanity. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of Glory.

I say this to note that one of the tremendous realities that ought to give you confidence in this word is the depth, complexity, and consistency of vision that is presented within this word and fulfilled by Jesus.

Psalm 2:12 is for us. If you have yet to believe in Jesus, it is time to bend the knee to the King, kiss his hand, and accept his gracious gift of peace!

Fighting Callousness Towards Repentance

Some of you might have a specific callousness to passages like Psalm 2:12

What do mean that the Son would be angry (or angry with me)?

What do you mean that a person could perish because they don’t “kiss the hand?”

What do you mean that God’s wrath could be kindled against unbelievers?

And so forth.

Here, it is likely good for you to meditate on the peculiar reality of what it means to fear the Lord. Let me give you a couple of statements to meditate on:

James 2:19

Col. 1:16-17

Rom. 2:4

One peculiar reality to think on is that the God who deserves the most fear, the uncreated God to whom demons shudder, is also the same God who has shown you the most kindness.

The God is to be most feared is the same God who has shown you the most kindness.

Rom. 8:31-39

Note that there is an arc to the fear of the Lord — all of this is tied up in seeing just how beautiful KING JESUS is. When you trust your life to Jesus, you ought to begin to sound more and more like Paul. You ought to begin sounding floored at the fact that God is for you.

Hear the Call of Jesus

So I encourage you to hear the call of Jesus. Don’t revolt at repentance, but understand that God’s call for your life is to preserve you. God is good and worthy of your praise.

We will see soon that this great King, King Jesus, when you surrender your life to Him, He will take your life and turn you into a citizen of heaven such that you could never have envisioned for yourself.

Seeing Yourself In The Kingdom

Some of you, Christians, might also be thinking about how this message maps into your life because:

You have no issue with repentance

You have no issue knowing that God is for you

You know how long-coming Jesus was from the Old Testament

You understand this passage

This is how, I think, this word maps into your life too — it will be the basis of our next message and will tie into what Jesus is doing in calling His disciples.

Specifically, you should take this message and be thinking about King Jesus and your service to the king. One of the things I love more than anything is just how practical the Kingdom of God really is. When you see King Jesus with clarity and you begin working for Him, your life becomes a vessel for expanding the Kingdom of God into new spaces. More on this to come next week.

Benediction