The Gospel According To Mark (Part 5)

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The Gospel According to Mark

(Part 5)

Good morning and welcome to Jesus Church

Great to be with you all… week 5 of our study the Gospel of Mark

• That means we are 1 month in so far… 25% through chapter 1
  • Last two weeks have been about how Jesus starts his ministry
  • And we know that everything Jesus does is an example
  • On what does it truly mean to live as God’s creation…
    • How we were meant to live
• 2 weeks ago we saw a glimpse into the family of God in the baptism
  • This beautiful balance between the Father/Son/Spirit
  • And the fact that we can be a part of this family as well
  • Baptism culturally seen as a transfer from one family to another
• Last week we looked at the temptation of Jesus
  • And point wasn’t Jesus asked to do something bad and says no
    • Was far more a test than a temptation…
    • Because what the Devil asked Jesus to do weren’t sins
  • And the test was if Jesus knew who he was according to God
    • And could the enemy wedge doubt in that identity
    • Look at your circumstance (hungry)… if you are Gods son
    • Look at your situation (alone)… if you are Gods son

With that we finish the prologue of Mark… This week we start Jesus story

Mark 1:14-15

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

• These verses are going to start us into a 2 week mini-series
  • B/C this phrase Kingdom of God will be central to story of Jesus
  • It literally what Jesus came to accomplish
• So its really important us to understand what Kingdom of God means
  • As Jesus starts with the announcement (Good news)
  • Then he gives us a commission (Repent and believe)

[PRAY]

Anyone here like road trips

Growing up in Seattle once/twice a year we would visit family in Spokane

• And I’m definitely more a destination person than a trip person
  • I don’t really like sitting in a car for hours
  • Back then all you could do is look out the window
  • Play my Sega GameGear
• Didn’t have GPS so you didn’t have much of a way to tell how long
  • That’s why you ask the beloved question “Are we there yet”
  • And drive your parents crazy

But there were landmarks that would give us an idea of how close

• So when we got to the Columbia River (Gorge) you were ½ way there
  • And once things started going from a void of desert to pine trees
  • I knew that we were practically there

Jesus makes bold claim: The Kingdom of God is here

And that’s fun and exciting to say… but what does that mean

• Because when I look around I still see lots of pain and suffering
  • I see discrimination… hate… injustice all around us
  • I hear of doctors cutting of the heads of babies before born
  • So if the kingdom of God is hear what does that mean
• Think its like when I started seeing pine trees driving to Spokane
  • I would exclaim “Finally we are here!”
  • But were we there yet… no but the destination was in reach
• This is what Jesus means when he says the Kingdom of God is here
  • The Greek word actually means its within reach or at hand
  • That we are right on cusp of it

So when Mark starts off he does with a quote from the prophet Isaiah

Is. 61:1-3 (Jesus speaks this – whole story in Matthew again)

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.

• And this prophecy is about a coming anointed one (Messiah)
  • Who was going to usher in a new world order
  • Where God is sovereign and King
• Mark says everything the Jews had been waiting for is found in Jesus
  • And Jesus is bringing this as “Good News”
  • Now this word in Greek – Euengellion
  • Talked about this word a lot: Good News/Gospel/Announcement

And what is Jesus announcement…

• The time has come / Kingdom is here / Repent & believe good news
  • This is Marks summary of Jesus message and purpose
  • Everything about why Jesus shows up is right here
• And its broken up into 2 parts
  • 1 – Announcement: Time has come… Kingdom of God is near
  • 2: – Command: Repent and Believe IN the announcement

First: Announcement

If I said next week is SuperBowl – You didn’t know what that was

• It wouldn’t mean very much to you just based on that
  • Its only if you have the context of why something is important
  • That you actually understand the value there
• And to do that with this announcement – Must answer 3 questions
  • 1 – What is the kingdom of God
  • 2 – What does Jesus mean by “has come near”
  • 3 – Why is that important when Mark writes this gospel

1 – What is the Kingdom of God

• Its the idea of rulership – Active exercising of God’s power/authority
  • You could paraphrase the announcement like this

The world is under a new Government. A new king is in power. Satan and his hinchmen have been dethroned. A new society is rising up that is different from anything from before. Its time for justice, its time for the healing of the world, its time for a whole new way of life.

• Best person to go to on what the kingdom of God is… Jesus
  • Jesus says in the Lords prayer
  • “Your kingdom come… your WILL be done on earth as in heaven”
  • This is actually a form of poetry called parallelism
    • 2 different ways of saying the same thing
    • “Your Kingdom Come… Your Will be done” are same thing
• The Kingdom of God is where God’s will is always done
  • One Earth as it is in Heaven
  • So in heaven this is how it already is… but not yet on Earth
    • Heaven is invisible space around us… Gods will always done
    • Earth is where we live… Gods will not always done
• Sometimes Gods will is done… also other wills (allowed by God)
  • Spiritual Wills – Angelic & Demonic
  • Human Will – My will & your will

TAG: Jesus saying: All the tension between Heaven/Earth about to change

2 – What does “Has come near” mean – Again to the beginning

• Jesus is saying this is just within reach… or right around the corner

3 – What would this mean to Mark or his original readers

• We know these people were waiting expectantly for God’s Kingdom
  • Like this faithful Jew from the end of Mark’s story

Mark 15:43

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God…”

• • So Mark and the Jews of the day divided time into 2 eras
    • This present age
    • The age to come
  • This present age marked by sin/death/everything else
  • Age to come marked by new reality God rules over everything
• This all was believed because of God’s promises from the past
  • One specific promise came from a dream King Neb had
  • Daniel is in exile with Jews – But in service to the King
  • Neb is the most powerful man in the entire world has this dream
    • Daniel is brought in to interpret it…

Dan. 2:31-45

Your majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue – an enormous, dazzling statue awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching (listen carefully) a rock was cut out but not by human hands. It struck the staue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

This was the dream and now we will interpret it to the king. Your majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory. In your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze will rule over the whole earth. Finally there will be a fourth kingdom strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of backed clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom, yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock ut out of a mountain, but not by human hands…

• So around the time of Jesus Jews were reading this story specifically
  • Because it had been 400 years since Daniel said this
  • And guess how many kingdoms had been in power (4)
    • Babylonians / Persians / Greeks / Romans
    • And all of these kingdoms oppressed the people of God
    • To by the time Mark writes this – Christians killed for sport
• People of this time were dying for this dream to come to pass
  • And then Jesus shows up and says what… “The time has come”
    • That’s the significance of this announcement
    • That’s why it was so important – The TIME was finally time
  • 2 words for time in the Hebrew language
    • Chronos – Time as in what time is it right now
    • Kiros – Time as in pregnant wife says “Honey, its time”
      • It’s a special moment in history… significant… powerful
      • Jesus says: The KIROS has come

Second: Call to respond

What does all this mean to us… we aren’t 1^st century Jews in persecution

Professor Ferguson

This message demands a response. If the kingdom of God has come near, and the King himself is already present, life must change. The old lifestyle of indifference to God and his will must be abandoned. Loyalty to the King must be the order of the day… abandon your old self-centered manner of life, and live the new life of a royal subject.

• This message demands a response… which is what?
  • Repent and Believe in the “Good News”

Repent: Meta-Noehoh (Renew/Restore & To think)

Can be translated to think of the world in a whole new way

• Because God is up to something in the universe
  • And that fact means we need to rethink everything
  • The lifestyle of “Whatever I want or think is the best”
    • Has to be abandoned
• NT Wright – “Give up your agenda and trust me for mine
  • Because we all have an agenda… something we are chasing
  • What is it for you – a thousand different answers
    • Jesus: If your agenda doesn’t fit with Jesus Kingdom dream
    • Its time to give it up
• That doesn’t mean throw out your TV and sell your Golf Clubs
  • But this life is short… what we do must have kingdom implication
  • Because you are God’s creation // In his image // Filled with Spirit
  • You have the Kingdom of God – Your goal shouldn’t be a new car
    • Fine to have a new car… but that shouldn’t be the goal
    • And I’m first in line to look at my life and find that change

Repentance isn’t just saying you won’t sin anymore – It is but MORE

• Its you giving up whatever you are making priority over God
  • And its not that you have to get rid of it…
  • Just give up its position in your life
  • And if you can’t do that… then yes get rid of it
• The world we are living in won’t be here forever
  • Don’t live for a world that is passing away
  • Live for a world that is coming to pass
  • Live not for the past… live for the future

Believe: Hard to translate… we think “I believe E=MC2”

Believe in the Greek is more along the idea of trust

• There are some translations that read “turn and trust”
  • And all of us lean on or trust something in our lives
  • For your world view… truth… satisfaction
• Maybe it’s a textbook… news… parents… twitter… therapist
  • But we all trust something for what we think matters/truth
  • Jesus invitation is “HEY TRUST ME”
  • Because his worldview and agenda is right
• Not just to believe in your head “E=MC2 > Jesus is Messiah
  • What’s difference b/w belief & trust – Going to Israel in 3 weeks
    • Its one thing to say safest/fastest way to get there is a plane
    • Another to get in giant metal tube for 14 hours at 43k feet

That’s the difference between believing & trusting

• Trusting is acting on what you believe to be true
  • When Jesus says “Repent and Believe”
  • This isn’t just in your head… its with your life
  • James tells us even the Demons believe Jesus is God
    • GET ON THE AIRPLANE
• So what is God stirring up in your life/mind/imagination/heart
  • That has to do with Gods kingdom… and are you pursuing that
  • And the word pursing is really important here
  • Because its not that you have to attain something…
    • Trust isn’t the achievement
    • Trust is stepping out and pursuing it
• Are we actually acting like this world is going… God’s world is coming
  • Because its easy to check of the box under believe…
  • To say nothing matters more than the kingdom of God!
  • And then you know you’re supposed to pray for someone… eh
    • Where do u need to start living like you trust the Good News

This is the invitation of Jesus – Repent & Believe

• And Jesus says this as an announcement… with an action step
  • But verb used means its an ongoing event… not one time action
    • Don’t think repentance/trusting happened 10 years ago
      • At that Christian concert… or in that Church Service
      • Not we are REPENT & BELIEVE people all of the time

Tag: One last thing we need to look at

Last Question: How can any of this be true

How can we look at our world – Actually believe Kingdom of God is here

• Because we can look at current news and see things worse than ever
  • There are people right now being killed for their beliefs
  • There is sex trafficking happening probably within a mile of us
  • There are people finding out today they have terminal cancer
• How can I see/know this yet think God’s Kingdom is here (next week)
  • The key is how we see Jesus talking about the Kingdom
  • Because at times Jesus talks as if Kingdom is here… now… present
  • But other times he talks as if the Kingdom was still coming
• Well which one is true? Yes – Both And
  • All 4 gospels teach 2 comings of Jesus
  • 1^st – Jesus born on earth as the Messiah and Son of God
  • 2^nd – Jesus the resurrected Lord/King of the Universe
    • Jesus FIRST coming inaugurated the Kingdom & Rule of God
    • Jesus SECOND coming establishes His Kingdom once & for all

In seminary this is called Inaugurated Eschatology

• Eschatology (Study of God’s Future Plan)… Inaugurated Eschatology
  • Says Jesus 1^st coming inaugurated God’s future rule over Earth
  • And he dragged the future into the present
  • So its here but not all the way
• Like when you go out to dinner with friends to a new restaurant
  • You’re hungry… excited because you’ve heard really good things
  • Serve you bread – And its amazing (everything you heard is true)
    • But you’re still hungry… b/c you’re not to the main meal yet
    • You got a taste of what’s coming… but bring on that steak
• And with us as followers of Jesus we get tasted of the Kingdom
  • A glimpse here… an experience there
  • But we are still hungry because the Kingdom isn’t all the way here
    • We’re at the restaurant – There’s a plate and menu
    • But we aren’t all the way there

We live in what one scholar calls: The time in between the times

• Because the kingdom is…
  • Coming: There is still sickness/death
  • Is Here: We pray for healing… it happens
    • I’ve seen people healed absolutely
    • I’ve prayed for people and they don’t get healed
      • Truth is… even if God does heal your knee… temporary
      • Best case you are just postponing the inevitable
      • Unless you can show me where God heals us of aging
• Because the kingdom of God is…
  • Coming: There are people who have to flee country for their lives
  • Is Here: Many of you have helped welcome them… pastries after
• Because the Kingdom of God is…
  • Coming: Some are worried about kids – relationship w/ God
  • Is Here: We believe and pray that God would bring them home

But we live in between… Now: Healing/Freedom/Life and the not yet

• And we get tastes of Gods new world… but its not fully here yet
  • We are in Kingdom – Filled with Spirit – Made right with God
  • But I am a work in progress
    • Paul says – Creation is groaning for redemption to complete

[PRAY] If you’re here (good/not good) – Need taste right now of Kingdom