God's Timing, God's Kingdom, Our Response

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, bpreaching 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.”

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,

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

Jesus came into Galilee...

-Mark 1:14-15

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4

15 “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI,

BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES—

16 “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT,

AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH,

UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”

The gospel of God...

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, acalled as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,

The gospel of Jesus or the gospel of God?

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, bpreaching the gospel of God,

1. The time is fulfilled

1. The Wait is Over

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

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

The fullness of time - What does it mean?

This is the point of history to which all the rest of history had been building.

Roads. Language. Communication. Unprecedented.

Anticipation is killing me.

Over 400 years of silence

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 5

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Are you looking for something else?

Are you waiting patiently (or impatiently) for what will satisfy you?

Jesus is saying here, in his context, the wait is over! Pay close attention to what is now happening and what is about to happen, because it is what you should have been anticipating all this time.

The difficulty we will see that the Jewish people, and especially the Jewish leaders, had is that this messiah did not meet their expectations.

What about us? Are we allowing our own expectations to get in the way of the truth? Do we expect the messiah to conform to our expectations, or will we conform to who he is? These are the questions of Mark’s gospel.

2. The Kingdom is near

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

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

What is the kingdom?

For Mark’s audience (and Jesus’ audience) there was a significant misunderstanding about the nature of this kingdom.

The best way to understand the kingdom of God is in terms of the reign of God, as opposed to the realm of God.

Earthly, political kingdom was expected.

Spiritual kingdom was in view. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of hearts.

This, of course, does not preclude an eventual physical kingdom of God. We know that at the second coming of Christ, he will usher in a physical kingdom that will never end.

To be a part of the Kingdom of God now is to submit oneself to the rule of God in our hearts, the subjection of our will to his.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 6

10 ‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

How often do I cling to the things I think I need? The things that I want, not once asking myself if perhaps I am tacitly asking God to enter into my kingdom? To conform himself to my rule?

There are perhaps times when what I want and what God wants are in agreement. But even then, it is perhaps a coincidence, and not the result of my carefully pursuing the will of God. Many people can behave in a godly way, caring for orphans and widows in their affliction. But if they do so out of a sense of secular morality, is it pleasing to God?

What about the way we spend our money? Amazon purchases? Car notes? Do we consult God? Do we consider what would be pleasing to him?

You may say, “Your being kind of legalistic, aren’t you? Don’t we have liberty in Christ? Do we really need rake ourselves over the coals every time we make a decision?” No we don’t. But is it so hard to ask ourselves a simple diagnostic question?

Does the thought of living under the authority of Christ bring you joy? Or does it make you uncomfortable?

Consider the following statement:

If strict obedience comes from true love for Jesus & faith in his eternal promises, it’s not legalism. & if the exercise of freedom comes from a love for self & faith in the the world’s fleeting promises, it’s not liberty.

We are faced in the preaching of Jesus with two realities. The wait is over. You need look no further than the gospel of God. The kingdom is near, and this is good news for those who subject themselves to God’s kingship.

These two realities lead to two imperatives:

3. Repent and Believe the Gospel of God

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

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

The word repent means to turn around, or do an about face. It is a change of allegiance from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God.

It is interesting that the word most often chosen in the LXX to translate this greek word is a word that means to grieve or mourn over.

Our actions while under the influence of the kingdom of the world, or the kingdom of our own flesh, should grieve our hearts. By contrast, changing allegiance to the Kingdom of God will result in joy.

You may say, “This doesn’t apply to me. I’m already saved.” But we are called to a life of repentance. Just as we continue to struggle against our flesh, though we have been justified by the grace of God, we are obligated as the people of God to live a life of enduring repentance.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Thus, we are called to repent. For the first time and forever.

But because of the reality that the wait is over, and the kingdom is near, we are also called to believe the gospel.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

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

Belief, rightly understood always results in action. The word for believe is simply the verbal form of the noun “faith.” This could literally be translated, “have faith in the gospel,” and as James reminds us:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead

To repent and believe in the gospel is to subject yourself, actively to the kingship of Christ.

This is a daily discipline.

Are you here and you have never come to Christ as Lord? Never submitted yourself to his kingship? There is nothing else coming that can give you true freedom. The wait is over. Repent and believe today, for the first time.

Have you already come to Christ for the first time? Today and every day renew your resolve to repent and believe the gospel.

The last: Jesus is our model in the proclamation of the gospel. We ought to be preaching the sufficiency and exclusivity of Christ, and calling people to repent and believe. Anything less is deficient.