"The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15
Last time we saw that Mark wanted us to make a connection. A connection between what the Old Testament had anticipated and what his eye-witness sources saw first-hand, on the ground, when Jesus appeared on the scene.
We saw that he wanted us to connect Jesus with the long-awaited Messiah - the promised deliverer. And to understand that John the Baptist was a new Elijah.
We saw the significance of the river Jordan and John’s location out in the wilderness as fulfilments of Isaiah and Malachi. We saw the significance of a new practice called ‘baptism’ and how Jesus’ baptism indicates to us that his death and resurrection speak a message of hope. Hope through the forgiveness of sins - which he would accomplish in his death; and everlasting life - which he would accomplish in his resurrection.
And at the end of verse 11 we saw that God gave Jesus his mark of approval by conferring his audible blessing on Him from heaven, and by causing His Spirit to alight on him in visible form - as a dove; Father, Son and Holy Spirit all present and discernible at the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry!
In Jesus’ own words, verse 15, the Kingdom of God has come near in the arrival of Jesus on the scene.
Now, as we know - because we live in one - kingdoms are realms or domains where people live under the rule and oversight of a monarch. Even though we feel that it’s our government that rules our country, it does so only with the permission of our King, Charles the third. We are citizens of the realm or kingdom of King Charles.
So, when Jesus says in verse 15 that ‘The time has come, the kingdom of God has come near’. He’s telling us at least two things. He’s telling us that before this time the Kingdom of God wasn’t near, but now it’s appearing. That’s massive because it means that in all God’s dealings with Israel since Moses, right the way down to John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God wasn’t near. But now Jesus is here, the kingdom of God has come near!
And secondly - and this is emphasised by his preaching-call to those in the region of Galilee - that God has this good news for you: you can become a citizen of his kingdom. That’s what Jesus means by saying God’s kingdom has come near: you can become a part of it - a citizen in it.
I’ll say more about that shortly, but I want to remind you at the outset this morning that, with the arrival of Jesus, monumental; history defining things are happening and God is making them happen for the likes of you and me!
Let’s go back then to verse 12 and ask the question, what is the point of the wilderness temptation of Jesus? And could that relate to the coming of the kingdom of God?
Verse 12 says that, no sooner had Jesus been baptised by John and received the Spirit, than the Spirit directed him to go out into the wilderness. Mark tells us he was there 40 days, and he was tempted by Satan.
Now, there’s no difference here, Mark wants us to do the same thing as before and make a connection with the Old Testament. Not for the fun of it, but because he’s got something to convey to us through the details of the event.
The unmistakable connection in view is between Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days, and the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years.
The Apostle Paul gives us a summary of the Israelite history in Acts 13. Speaking to his fellow Israelites he says, ‘The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made them prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country’ - he means through the Red Sea, by miraculously parting the waters - so they went down into the water and came up out of it, like Jesus just did when he was baptised. He goes on, ‘for forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance’.
So, Paul’s telling us that the Israelites went through a period of testing in the wilderness after passing through the waters of the Red Sea. How did they perform? Paul says, God ‘endured their conduct’. In fact their conduct was so bad that God declared in his anger that the generation that came out of Egypt into the wilderness, would never enter the promised land. And that’s what happened. They all died in the wilderness.
So we’re meant to recall that history, as Jesus himself goes into the wilderness - sent by the Holy Spirit just as Isaiah 63:11 tells us the Israelites were.
That’s how the Israelites performed. How will Jesus perform? Mark doesn’t give us much detail, like some of the other gospel writers do, but he leaves us in no doubt that Jesus never gave in one inch to Satan’s temptations. Mark simply says ‘angels attended him’.
God was pleased enough with the performance of his Son to send him angels from the realms of heaven to tend his needs. Psalm 91:11-13, ‘For he will command his angels concerning him. They will lift up their hands, so that he will not strike his foot on a stone. He will tread on the lion and the cobra, he will trample the great lion and the serpent’.
Here’s the point: back in Israel’s day, what was God doing? Well, he was bringing a people out of Egypt and he was about to constitute them as a nation of people. That’s what happened on mount Sinai. He made them more than just a loose group, he gave them laws and made a binding agreement with them - that he would be their God and they would be his people.
So, that should alert us and make us ask the question: if Mark is helping us to make the connection between Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and the Israelite’s testing in the wilderness; and if God was making the Israelites into a nation out in the wilderness, then what might he be doing here with Jesus? Let’s see.
We’ve already dealt with verses 14 & 15, largely. But notice that John is out of the way now - he’s been arrested by King Herod for calling him out on his marriage to his brother’s wife - he called it ‘unlawful’ and it got him locked up - but more about that in chapter 6. Now that John’s out of the way, Jesus is up front and centre as he preaches the good news: encouraging people to repent of their sins and to believe.
There is no coincidence in the fact that Jesus’ message is both that God’s kingdom has come near to you and the way that you enter in is by repenting and believing.
That was John’s message and now Jesus has taken it up. He’s saying, very clearly and boldly, that nothing less that citizenship in God’s kingdom is available to those who repent and believe. Just think how radical that message is.
In fact, Mark is showing us repeatedly in these verses that that is Jesus’ message. He won’t let us get away from the focus Jesus has on people - people he wants to hear the good news and enter the kingdom.
It’s like Jesus is on a mission to make a new people of God. God made a nation of people back in Moses’ day and now Jesus is making a kingdom of people in a new age which is just dawning. And the message is: any who hear his voice and believe, will enter in.
Let’s see the way Jesus goes after people in verses 16 to 20. Mark tells us how Jesus hand picked his first 4 close disciples. Whilst Jesus had many followers, he chose a group of 12 to walk with him especially closely - they were called his disciples.
The first two he chooses are the brothers Simon-Peter and Andrew. These two were local fishermen, and Mark tells us that they ‘at once’ left their nets and followed Jesus.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if someone appeared on my patch tomorrow - out of the blue - and said ‘put down your pencil and set square and come follow me’, I would be asking some pretty pointed questions.
I would be wanting to know where we were going and what the plan was. I would be asking where this man, who calls people to follow him, thinks I’m going get my income from and how I’m meant to support my family.
We know Peter had a wife because that’s clearly implied in verse 30. So it’s not like they didn’t have anything to lose!
But Mark leaves us in no doubt - they didn’t just do what he said - without apparently asking any questions - but they did it immediately;Mark says, ‘at once’. That immediacy says more about Jesus than it does about them as individuals, I think.
They’re just like us. They’ve got jobs, responsibilities, ties that pin them down, and yet at the call of Jesus they move like lightning to follow him. What manner of man is this Jesus? That he should command suchallegiance?
And then there’s the curious thing that Jesus says to them just before they respond to his call in verse 17. Jesus calls them to follow him and he does give them their purpose. He tells them that he intends to send them out to do what they do best - to fish. Except that, they won’t be fishing for fish, they’ll be fishing for people!
Does expertise in catching fish mean you’ll be good people catchers? No. Jesus’ point is not their expertise, but that people need to be hauled into the kingdom of God and he’s going to use human instruments to do it.
Mark tells us that Jesus walked a little further and added two more brothers to his following - James and John. And there’s no doubting here what it cost them to follow Jesus immediately - according to Mark, they left their own father with the hired helpers in the boat!
They left an aging family member who probably relied on them, with non-family members to follow Jesus - with the express intention of catching people.
The radical nature of what’s happening here mustn’t be lost on us. Jesus is either an extraordinary magnetic leader who can demand instant commitment at significant cost, with only one promise - the unimaginably uninspiring idea that they’ll fish for people - or else there is something far more significant going on here.
Mark already told us that Jesus is the Son of God, anointed with the power of the Spirit of God, so when he calls a person to himself, it’s not a surprise that that person finds Jesus utterly compelling; irresistibly attractive - not physically but in his very being; in the very essence of who he is.
In other words, it’s not an ordinary calling these men have received, it’s a divine calling; they are moved by the person of Jesus and by his empowering Spirit.
John 10 records Jesus’ own words, ‘The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out’. Like sheep to the shepherd are these men to Jesus - no matter what the cost.
So far we’ve seen that Jesus has come with a message for humanity - ‘repent and believe’. We’ve seen that responding to that message is the difference between being in the kingdom of God and remaining outside of it. We’ve also seen Jesus choosing some hand picked followers to cast their nets for people - to bring them into the kingdom.
And now we’re going to see Jesus do three things for the people. We’re going to see him teaching. We’re going to see him exorcising. And we’re going to see him healing. All on their behalf. All in support of his main aim to bring them into the kingdom of God. He knows what they need and he knows how to give it to them.
How will they believe his message - ‘repent and believe’? They will believe him when he confirms his message with signs and wonders performed with authority, and that’s the theme of the next 13 verses.
Verse 21, on the Sabbath day Jesus went into Capernaum and began to teach in the synagogue. Verse 22, ‘the people were amazed at this teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law’.
The people were used to hearing their scribes and teachers explaining, with expert precision, the meaning of the Old Testament law. So when Jesus was invited to stand up and teach in the synagogue what would they expect to hear. Well, perhaps they expected a different style to what they were used to. Or a different turn of phrase - like you hear when Paul and I bring the sermon. But they didn’t expect what they got that day.
Because, when Jesus spoke that day, he taught with an authority that made the scribes and teachers look like primary schooler’s.
The way the scribes taught the law was with meticulous attention to the duty of performance - dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every ‘T’. They taught the necessity of performance-based righteousness - attaining to the standards; being worthy of God’s favour by keeping the law, that was their message.
And that made sense - after all, God had called the Israelites into an agreement based on performance according to standards.
But Jesus, in the synagogue that day, turned that all on it’s head. He took those same scriptures and taught something altogether different. He said things like, ‘I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the teachers of the law, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven’. That’s a word with authority because the teachers of the law were the standard setters - they were the best at keeping the law, and now Jesus was saying that everybody’s righteousness would need to exceed theirs in order to enter into the kingdom.
Or like when he took a central commandment from the big ten like ‘do not murder’ and told the people that anybody who was angry with his or her neighbour would be subject to judgment.
Or that anybody who simply looked lustfully at their neighbour was an adulterer.
Or that anybody who got slapped on the cheek should turn the other one instead of giving a slap back.
Or that people who hate their enemies instead of loving them cannot belong to God.
That’s what Mark means when he says they were ‘amazed’ at his teaching. He’s taking the same scriptures and kicking them up to an impossibly high level. And he’s doing it with authority, and no one can argue with him. He’s increasing theirs and our guilt, but remember, he’s not preaching a message of performance; he’s preaching a message of forgiveness. Jesus is saying: ‘we’re all guiltier than we think, but God is more gracious than we think too’.
Then there’s the exorcism of verses 23-28. As all the people listened on, stunned by Jesus’ teaching, a man, who Mark tells us was possessed by an impure spirit - a demonic apparition - cried out.
Just right there in the middle of the synagogue, at the top of his lungs, uncontrollable: ‘what do want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God!’.
I wonder if you believe that Mark has recorded it correctly? That there really was a man who was demon possessed? You should. Jesus already contended with Satan face to face in the wilderness and now here is a demon speaking through it’s host, terrified at what Jesus might want to do with it.
We should not be surprised! The kingdom of God has come near and the kingdom of Satan knows it and is petrified. ‘You, the Holy One of God - what do you want with us? We know you are who John said you were. We know you are who the voice from heaven confirmed you were. We know you are the one in whom the Spirit of God resides! Have you come to destroy us?’
‘Be quiet’ Jesus says. ‘Come out of him!’ Jesus says. And the spirit, with a shriek and shudder comes out! Jesus commands with authority demons, and they can do nothing except obey him!
The people were ‘amazed’ at Jesus, Mark says. Are you amazed at Jesus? They said, ‘He even gives orders to demonic spirits and they obey him!’ If only we believed so intently that when we encountered these things about Jesus, we were amazed also!
Is Jesus not worthy of our wonder and awe in an age of spectacle, when we are wowed by even shear nonsense! Maybe that’s why we are so slow to be impressed with him - we’re too busy paying attention to anything except paying attention to him.
We’ve seen him teach with authority, and exorcise with authority, and now we’re going to see him heal with authority.
Verse 29, they left the synagogue and went straight to the house of Simon and Andrew where they found Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever.
Have you noticed how Mark tells us everything with urgency - it seems the kingdom of God is a matter of expediency to Mark and he wants us to know that, and feel it, as we read - he says, they told Jesus `immediately’.
This time his authority isn’t spoken, it just comes from his very being. The mere presence of Jesus is enough to banish the fever. Yes, it seems that even fevers - without ears or brain - respond to his authority and obey. And the woman’s recovery is so effective that she is well enough to wait on her guests right there and then.
Verses 32-34 confirm the effectiveness of Jesus’ testimony about himself. People come in their droves to him - they waste no time. And they come bringing the demon possessed and the sick, because that’s what they’ve seen him demonstrate his power over.
And Mark says, Jesus healed many and drove out many demons.
So, Jesus is urging people to repent and believe and thereby to lay siegeto the kingdom of God - to storm its gates and force their way in. No kingdom is a kingdom without citizens and Jesus is saying become a citizen, now, today - do not delay.
And Mark is pressing that immediate urgency on us. When the king comes near and offers amnesty, do not delay one more second - respond to his kindness before it’s too late.
Jesus is preaching that good news, but he’s also recognising the challenges that face the people he’s calling. There are 5 big challenges that he’s been dealing with here. There’s the challenge of hearing - which is why he’s recruited some people to be fishers of people.
There’s the challenge of faith - which is why he demonstrates himself to be the Son of God with power by performing extraordinary miracles. The Apostle John says at the end of his account, that ‘Jesus performed many other signs…but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’.
And then there are these three challenges within people: the challenge of the world’s philosophy; the challenge of Satan and his operations; and the challenge of sin and it’s grip on our souls.
What Mark has just shown us is, that Jesus has authority to squash bogus philosophies - he comes with a new teaching. It’s a teaching that takes the emphasis off self reliance - the world loves that - and puts it on God.
Mark has also shown us that Jesus has authority to drive out Satan with all his evil intent and godless temptations.
And Mark has shown us that Jesus has authority to purge from us the sin that grips us like the fever that gripped Simon’s mother-in-law.
And if that sounds far-fetched to you, then I just appeal to Jesus’ own words in chapter 2: ‘On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’. The sick are to sinners as the healthy are to the righteous in Jesus’ analogy. So make no mistake about it, we’ve seen this morning that Jesus has authority over the sin that grips us.
Therefore, I make this appeal to you this morning: Own your sin and repent. Believe on Jesus who has authority over all the hellish obstacles that stand in the way of us coming into the kingdom of God. And he willtranslate you into the kingdom of God this very day!
Jesus is building a kingdom of people through his power to forgive sins and he says to everyone, everywhere, repent and believe and enter in!
Comments