Jesus' Message: Mark 1:14-15

After Jesus’ baptism and temptation Jesus began “proclaiming the Gospel of God”.  This marks the beginning of Jesus’ 3 year ministry that we will be following for quite a while.  We will be looking in later weeks at Jesus’ teachings very closely.  Today we will be looking at the message Jesus was proclaiming.

Read Mark 1:14-15              

John was preaching at about this time, and as I have mentioned before John the Baptist and Jesus had the same message to bring to the people.  They were both “proclaiming the gospel of God”.  So, what is the message that can be called “the gospel of God.”  I must say that if you don’t understand this you will be hard pressed to understand most of what Jesus talks about in His ministry, but when you get it; it will be glorious and it all makes sense. 

We talked about the fall a while back and we saw that mankind had perfect fellowship with God, but when Adam sinned the whole world was thrown into an uproar.  The natural order of things was disturbed and now every single person that has ever lived has began their lives in total rebellion against God.  This has broken down that perfect relationship.  Then Jesus came to restore that relationship and this was His message.
            
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 

Jesus, who was the promised Messiah was now on earth.  He was the fulfilled promise from long ago that the people were waiting for.  In fact the people were desperately longing for this day to come.  The Spirit had been speaking to the people of Israel in the Old Testament and then in Malachi 4 we see the last prophesy of the Old Testament, after this is said the Spirit says no more.  "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.  "You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts.  “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.  "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.  "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." –Malachi 4:2-6- 

These were the last words that God had given a prophet in the Old Testament.  It is no wonder they were waiting for the Messiah, this was given in 424 B.C.  This period of time is often called “the 400 silent years”.  God was still guiding and directing things, but one can be certain that the people of Israel no longer felt like God was working amongst them as He had done in the past.  Even though all of this is true and the coming Messiah would stir up a lot of activity in Israel the implication for us today is different. 

     Jesus, who was fully God came to earth, clothed Himself in humanity, lived a perfect life, and was crucified on the cross for our sins.  He was placed in the grave dead and God raised Him from the dead on the third day.  All of this has already been accomplished.  Jesus conquered sin and death.  Sin and death has already been defeated.  And Jesus now is seated at the right hand of God because “It is finished” Jesus has already accomplished these things.  Jesus has defeated sin and death.  There is now a sense of urgency in Jesus' message.

     Jesus throughout His ministry stressed that now is the appropriate time.  Do not wait to follow Christ!   “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” There is a sense of urgency in the teachings of Jesus.  It is like He is crying out, “Don’t put this off, now is the appropriate time.”  Paul says it like this.  “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU."  Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION" –II Corinthians 6:2-  Paul and Jesus are both telling us that salvation is here.  There was a time in the past when the Messiah had not yet come, but we are not in that time.  Jesus has come and fulfilled all that He came to do.  The time is fulfilled, what is holding some of you back from surrendering everything to God and following Jesus?  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;”  Salvation is here, Jesus cries out.  Now is the perfect time to obey, but what do we obey?            

     “repent and believe the gospel.”  I am 27 years old, and have been going to church for 11 years now and have heard this message proclaimed very little.  Pastors, preachers, and teachers have come up with all kinds of catchy phrases and gimmicks that they believe work better than what Jesus says here.  This is Jesus telling us how to be saved.  This is it.  This phrase is what God requires of you and everyone else that desires to come to Him on this earth.  Don’t be deceived by the products of men.  “The term repentance is derived in the Hebrew from conversion, or turning again; and in the Greek from a change of mind and purpose”  Repenting is a turning from your life to following Christ.  There is a change of mind and then a physical change in the direction of your life.  Both of these things are implied.  We are sorrowful and sorry for what we have done and we turn to God.  We have rebelled against the Living God.  We have lived in disobedience to the one who created us and gave us life.  We have broken His commandments and will be punished for doing so.  Even though we have done this and we deserve God’s perfect intense wrath for all eternity, God loving calls us back to Him.  "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." –Acts 17:30-31-  

Paul when defending himself in front of Agrippa said,

"So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” –Acts 26:19-20- 

     God’s declaration to us is that we repent, we lose our lives and turn to Him.  John MacArthur says it like this, “Repentance and faith are man’s required responses to God’s gracious offer of salvation”  The word faith and believe have the same meaning here.  Having faith is not just understanding facts.  Having faith is not just understanding facts and agreeing that they are correct.  Faith is trusting Christ and Christ alone for salvation.  That is what it means to repent and believe the gospel.  We must understand that we have rebelled against God and trust that His offer is true.  When we trust that His offer is true we will do what He has requested and obey His loving offer to give up our lives and turn to Him.  That is what Jesus means when He says “repent and believe the gospel”.             

In reality the call of Jesus is to come home.   "Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices." –Ecclesiastes 7:29-  People were once good, but oh how far we have fallen.  We must trust God and we turn to Him.  That is faith and repentance.  It is easy to understand, but hard to do.  We lay the sin that we hold onto aside and follow Christ.  He is then lord and master of your life and you follow Him and believing and repenting will continue throughout all the days of your life. 

Here is the link to a video of the story being told that was told as the illustration on Wednesday.  Copy and paste this into your we browser to view it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWaIvB_heo


“I don’t care what you have done and don’t care what you have become, please come home.”  That is what God is declaring to us today.  God is calling all men everywhere to come back to Him.  God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, or come to Him. God calls us to come home to Him, if you have not turned to Christ, I pray that you will and don’t hesitate.  The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.  God has given you life, God has given you breath, God has given you everything that you have.  We have turned our backs and rebelled against Him and His response to all of this was to provide a Savior and a way to come home.  At the beginning of Genesis when man was created mankind had fellowship with God.  This relationship can be restored and not only will it be restored it will be restored and God will never let us go.  “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; -I Peter 3:18-  Our powerful God will restore the relationship and will never let us go.  Come home was the message of Christ, He wrote it with His life, He wrote with His words, and He wrote it with His blood.          


Dwain Minor