Jesus: Promised and Powerful Messiah | Mark 1

The Gospel

Mark 1:1 CSB

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Gospel is the good news and the good news is that Kingdom of God is here and freedom has finally arrived.

Last year if you remember we summed up the Gospel this way,

The Gospel is about Jesus Christ, Him as Messiah, Him as King, and His Kingdom.

The Kingdom

Mark 1:14–15 CSB

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom and that it was finally here. The long awaited kingdom of God was finally here. This is amazing, this is so exciting, this is the culmination of so much that the people of God had been waiting for and it was finally here.

As Scripture is being given more and more kingdom language is used and now it is here. The word Mark uses for when Jesus starts to tell everyone this kēryssō (kay ru so) and it means to proclaim or like a herald. It is something to be shouted.

When was the last time you were waiting for something big, something that you knew would be life changing. Maybe like a baby. You are pregnant and now you wait. Sometimes you wait in agony. You are getting the room ready, you are preparing, and all the while you are just waiting. You know it is coming, you know it is going to happen, and it going to rearrange your entire life.

Maybe you are in school and you are in your final year. It could be 6th grade, 12th grade, college whatever it might be. It is coming, you can feel it, you can see it on the calendar and it cannot get here fast enough. You are burning with excitement.

This is what it was like to wait for the kingdom of God.

It was coming and now it is here so Jesus came proclaiming this!

We see seeds of the Kingdom in Genesis but in Exodus we start to see more

Exodus 15:18 CSB

The Lord will reign forever and ever!

Here we see kingdom language.

1 Sam 8:7 highlights more of this.

1 Samuel 8:7 CSB

But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.

God explicitly says He was supposed to be there King but they rejected Him.

The Kingdom of God is now here. It is a now not yet tension but it is here. It is not just about the redemption of our souls, or our bodies, or our minds, but of everything. Everything in the cosmos will reap the benefit of the Kingdom now here. It is here! The kingdom is here. Gospel, good news is such an appropriate term.

This is something to be proclaimed, something to be shouted (kēryssō)!

The time is fulfilled and we like Jesus are to proclaim this.

The Call of the Kingdom

The kingdom is here and there is a call that goes out.

Mark 1:17 CSB

“Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

The call to discipleship is also a statement about the Kingdom because it shows Jesus is Lord. I love this quote and the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it.

The call to discipleship is not first a call to belief, but a call to submission — because the One who calls is Lord. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jesus is not just calling the disciples to believe Him, He is calling them to submit, He is calling them to obey.

Another Bonhoeffer quote for you this morning,

Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.

What if we looked at obedience as belief? What if disobedience is unbelief? Does that change the way we interact with God? That when we refuse the call to Follow what we are doing is saying I do not believe.

Here me clearly this is important, this does not mean we do not have questions, doubts, or fail, everyone does at times. We all wrestle with these things. The point is in the end what will we do with these questions and doubts? Will we follow even without all the answers? Over the long haul, over time, not based in just a moment but over the span of time what will we do.

In chapter 12 we will talk more about questions and how Jesus feels about being asked questions. In short for now, Jesus never rebukes questions asked from a sincere heart. The disciples ask questions, the Scribes ask questions, the Pharisees, all sorts of people ask questions and when they are questions of the heart Jesus welcomes them.

Mark 1:17 CSB

“Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

The command is follow me, the result is I will make you fishers of people.

Christ does not want admirers, but followers. - Søren Kierkegaard

We don’t just think Jesus is great we follow Him.

The truth of the kingdom is the truth but we do have to receive it by faith. We must receive it and walk in it by faith.

There is a tension here that it is objectively true but in a sense it is also subjectively true. Much like being a parent we have all heard stories of deadbeat dads. Objectively they are the father but subjectively they are not because they are not in the child’s life.

The call of the King and the Kingdom is to follow and Jesus as King, but you must walk in it by faith.

The Evidences of the Kingdom

The Kingdom comes onto the scene and it comes in Authority and Power as well as Compassion.

As you might expect if the Kingdom of God is invading the earth then there were and there are evidences of the Kingdom.

Kingdom Evidence of Authority and Power

Authority and Power and linked together in the Kingdom and in Jesus. One does not exist without the other. This is because

Power is the ability to act or compel | Authority is the rightful or legitimate use of that power.

Jesus had power because He is God, He had authority because the Father gave Him all things. We see this authority and power in teaching, over unclean spirits, over illness

Mark 1:21–22 CSB

They went into Capernaum, and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.

The teachings of Jesus left the people dumbfounded. They were caught off guard at how clear, amazing, and powerful the teaching of Jesus was.

It was amazing. It was like nothing they had ever heard. It was powerful.

Mark 1:23–25 CSB

Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue. He cried out, “What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”

Jesus had authority and power in His teaching, and He also had authority and power over unclean spirits. The unclean spirit was in the synagogue just listening to the message. Not worried about the preaching, not worried about the people around it, just sitting there listening to the sermon.

What we will look at is that Jesus silenced this unclean spirit. He told it to hush and it hushed. It knew who Jesus was.

Mark 1:27 CSB

They were all amazed, and so they began to ask each other, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

Again the people are amazed. They are totally caught off guard. Not that there was an unclean spirit in their midst. Which kind of baffles me but they were amazed that Jesus not only had teaching that was blowing their mind but that He could command unclean spirits and they had to listen.

This is evidence that God was among them and the Kingdom was here.

We also see authority and power over illness.

Mark 1:30–31 CSB

Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve them.

We see authority and power evidenced in Jesus’ teaching, in His command over unclean spirits, and over illness. This is in essence every area of life. There is nothing the Kingdom does not touch. Nothing that is beyond the power of the Kingdom.

Kingdom Evidence of Compassion

Something that is remarkable and outstanding is that one of the evidences of the Kingdom is compassion.

Empathy is nice. Empathy is being able to understand someone’s pain and trouble. Compassion is better because compassion is empathy in action. It is saying I see your pain, trouble, discomfort, or misfortune and I will do something about it. The Lord of the Kingdom has compassion, so He acts.

We see Compassion in Jesus and the Kingdom because He preaches the word and He heals the sick.

Mark 1:38 CSB

And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.”

Jesus was not stationary nor could He be. He was on a mission to bring and spread the Kingdom. Jesus is constantly going around proclaiming and preaching the good news.

He was motivated and moving. We go back to Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 CSB

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

We see this word Kerysoo again.

Jesus was going into the towns and telling them the Good News, the Time is fulfilled and the Kingdom has come near.

This is compassion. To tell someone that the Kingdom is here, to share the Gospel with people is to love them. If we believe that there are two opposing kingdoms, that there are two ways of living, that there are two options, and one of them brings life, hope, and a future then how much must we either dislike them or be so selfish that we do not share that with them. At what point do we decided, no there are enough Christians now, sorry folks parks closed to quote John Candy in National Lampoons Vacation.

No!

We take our cue from the Master of the Kingdom and we go into every town and share the Gospel, this is not optional.

This is not for some Christians. This is not just my job, this is Kingdom work. We do what Jesus did, we love people enough to tell them about Jesus.

One more story about compassion.

Mark 1:40–41 CSB

Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he told him. “Be made clean.”

I love this verse and we will end with this. Someone came to Jesus needing healing and Jesus, moved with compassion, said I am willing. I am willing. His very presence on the earth tells us He is willing but will we ask.

This does not guarantee that every time we ask God for a healing or a miracle that He will do what we want. He is the King we are the subjects but He does promise to be close and we should ask in faith and receive His answer in faith even if it is a no.

Jesus coming as a man tells us He is willing.

Faith in Action: The Kingdom is here and the Lord says Follow Me.

Will we follow? We will show our believe in obedience by answering the call to follow?