Repent and Believe!

The Journey Continues

The advent of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas began a journey that continues today. Its hard to believe 3 months ago we waited with eager expectation, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia! Christ has come!

Today marks a continuation of that journey called the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and the resurrection. Lent is a time of self examination, repentance, prayer and fasting. It is a time to remember how badly we need God to breathe new life into us.

Joel 2:12–13 NLT

12 That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.

These are the words of God spoken through the prophet Joel, to his people. It’s a call to reconcile our wills with God’s. It’s a call to be driven not by what we want but to be driven by the Spirit that dwells in us.

Today on this first Sunday of Lent we hear the cry of Christ in Galilee declaring the Good News of God.

Mark 1:15 NLT

15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

Jesus entered into the mission of God in the waters of baptism, when he rose up out of the water the Spirit of God descended on him. Spirit of God over the next 40 days drove him to the wilderness, and brought him to Galilee to proclaim the Good News of God. Over the next 40 days how can we the people of God be driven by the Spirit to proclaim the Good News of God?

Hear the Good News!

The Gospel according to Mark begins not with a long birth narrative but it begins with the mission of God through the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Good News of God. Mark has a tendency to get right to the point. In our text for today he covers in a few verses Christ baptism, His temptation in the wilderness, all leading to Christ ministry proclaiming the Good News of God. “The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

BAPTISM

Declaration of who Jesus is by God

The Holy Spirit descending like a dove

40 DAYS WILDERNESS

Driven by the Spirit into the Wilderness.

Struggles with Satan and human temptation

The Spirit guides him victoriously through the wilderness.

THE TIME PROMISED BY GOD HAS COME AT LAST!

Luke 4:14–19 NLT

14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

Mark starts the ministry of Christ after John the baptist has been arrested. The baptism of John prepared the way for the ministry of Christ. His ministry prepared the people to hear and receive the Good News of God that Christ would proclaim.

The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the Good News!

The Kingdom of God is here and is coming. The Kingdom of God is life as God intended it at the dawn of creation. Kingdom of God here and now is following Christ into the waters of baptism and living a life not driven by our own spirit but by the Spirit of God. The good news of the Gospel is that same Spirit that lead Jesus victoriously through the wilderness, that empowered him to proclaim the Good News of God, that would bring life back from the grave, that same Spirit is available to you. Life in the Kingdom is life in the Spirit. What God shut at the end of Genesis chapter 3 has been flung wide open through the work of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:18 NLT

18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.

Hear the Good News of God today! The Kingdom of God has come near! Through the ministry of Christ, God has thrown open the doors to the Kingdom to bring you safely home. No matter the sin that darkens your path, no matter the skeleton in your closet. God has opened the door to bring you safely home. Hear the call of Christ today to repent and believe the good news.

Repent- 3 responses,Turn from following your will, your Spirit and embrace being led by the spirit of God.

Believe- Dare to believe the unbelieveable. That God who made all things would embrace the suffering of this world. That God would walk this earth in Human form to personally invite you back home to the Kingdom, back to life as God intended at the dawn of creation.

The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the Good News!

We mark the first Sunday of lent remembering that Christ went to the Jordan to be baptized by John. After coming up out of the water the sky was rolled back and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and the voice of God proclaimed this is my son in whom I am well pleased. We mark it remembering that Spirit drove him to and guided him through the wilderness for 40 days and lead him into the mission of God in Galilee proclaiming the Good News of God. “The time promised by God has come at last! Repent and believe the Good News!”

Over these next 40 days may we follow in the footsteps of Christ and be led by the Spirit, that others may join in our Kingdom Journey.

The Not Yet Kingdom

Through Christ death burial and resurrection almighty God threw open the doors of the Kingdom. This is why Christ came that through him we may return home to the Kingdom of God. Through Christ the Kingdom of God has come near. God through Christ calls all sinners home, to repent and believe the Good News. Come be part of the Kingdom that is here and is coming.

Brothers and sisters over the next 40 days lets examine ourselves, be quick to repent when God prompts us to, and lets live like Christ. In and through the Holy Spirit at work in us. May the same Spirit that descended on Christ at baptism, led him victoriously through the wilderness, and that has brought him back from the dead, breath new life into us. That we may be led by the Spirit to proclaim the Good News of God.

Galatians 2:20 NLT

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.