Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 1.
Imagine with me for a minute that you were sitting in a coffee shop enjoying a nice cup of tea, or a latte, reading a book, and a stranger sat down at the table across from you, and said: “Sorry to interrupt you, but I have a really important update for you. Josh says that you don’t need to worry anymore, that he has forgiven you, and he’s willing to repair the relationship, and he’s looking forward to your call.”
You’d probably be pretty confused by that. You’d have some questions for this stranger! Who is Josh? What did I ever do to him that required forgiveness, I didn’t even ask for it. What relationship? I don’t even know his phone number! And by the way who are you and why are you the one delivering this message to me?”
A pastor friend of mine used this little story at a conference I was at a number of years ago to describe how evangelism can often come across when a Christian tries to explain the good news of the Bible to someone who doesn’t have any background in it.
Our passage today, with no explanation, can seem a lot like that.
Review and Overview
Last week we studied the first half of the introduction to the book. A follower of Jesus named Mark wrote what we now call “The Gospel According to Mark”, and he starts by diving right in showing us three things.
First, the coming of Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament writings (Mark 1:1-7). Second, Mark shows us that Jesus really was the one promised by God by recording the events of Jesus’s baptism, where God literally spoke from heaven and told us so (Mark 1:9-11)! And finally Mark shows that Jesus was proven to be the worthy, chosen, rescuer of God’s people by briefly reminding us of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness, where he did what Adam failed to do in the garden, resist the temptation of the devil (Mark 1:12-13).
In our passage today, we are continuing with Mark’s introduction to his account of Jesus’s life with a powerful introduction statement, summarizing Jesus’s message, which Mark calls “The Good News of God” (or “The Gospel of God”). This news has three points: 1) The time is fulfilled, 2) The Kingdom of God has come near, and 3) we should repent and believe the good news.
We’ll then see in verses 16-20 that this good news demands a response. Jesus calls us to follow him, just like he called their first followers, who dropped everything to reorient their life around Jesus.
The Good News from God
14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14–15 (CSB)
Mark here starts his recounting of Jesus’s ministry in these two verses, sort of like a chapter header, showing what Jesus spent his earthly ministry doing. Proclaiming a message.
Jesus proclaimed the good news of God. Another word for “proclaimed” here is “preached.” It’s the thing I’m doing right now. Telling you what this book says. Jesus was telling the people, preaching to them, proclaiming to them news. He was delivering good news. This is where we get the word “gospel” – or “good story” – “or good news”.
Mark tells us that Jesus proclaimed “the good news of God” – the way this phrase “of God” works in the original language is a fun little feature. It means the good news about God, and at the same time it means the good news “from God.” — So, Jesus comes bringing the good news from God.
What is that news? Well, Mark summarizes the news Jesus is bringing to mankind from God in three points (depending on how you slice it.) The first two points are the news: 1) “The time is fulfilled” and 2) “The Kingdom of God has come near!” The third point of the news is a command, the thing we should do in response to the first two announcements: we should “repent and believe the good news!”
So really that’s four points. “The time is fulfilled”, “The kingdom of God has come near”, “repent”, and “believe the good news.” – But sermons are easier to follow when there’s only three points, so I’m rolling the last two into one. 🙂
The Time is Fulfilled
What does Mark mean that “the time is fulfilled”? What time? This is where Jesus’s message starts feeling like the random stranger at the coffee shop, unless we have the context that the people in Galilee would have had, and maybe more to the point, that Mark’s original audience would have had. Fortunately it’s not that hard to figure out. We just need to know the content of the Old Testament.
“The time is fulfilled” – There are two greek words for time. One of them here would mean something like “time’s up!” or “you’ve run out of time.” But the other (which is the one that is actually here) in this case, means something like “The moment you’ve been waiting for is here!”
What moment is that? The moment Israel had been waiting for, was the arrival of the Messiah, the Christ, God’s chosen rescuer of Israel who has been in captivity, under the thumb of foreign oppression for centuries. But more importantly, has been enslaved to their sinful hearts since Adam and Eve fell in the garden. The Old Testament sets up the expectation that God would one day send a rescuer, and Jesus is now proclaiming “that time is here!”
The Kingdom of God has Come Near
Mark then elaborates on the content of Jesus’s news: what have people been waiting for? “The Kingdom of God has come near!” The one you’ve been waiting for has shown up!
John the Baptist just a few verses ago was quoted as saying “after me, one is coming…” Today’s passage begins with John’s imprisonment. We’re now “after John.” The one is coming. Who was John talking about? What was his message in verse 3? “Prepare the way for the Lord.”
The Old Testament talks all over the place about the coming day of the Lord. The coming rescuer, the coming judge.
“Lord” is a funny word. A religious-y word to us. In other eras in other countries however, this word would have meant “royalty” to us. A good synonym for Lord, in our case, is “King”.
That’s what Jesus means “The Kingdom of God has come near.” He’s saying “The Lord is here!” “The King is here!”
Repent and Believe this Good News!
And then Jesus tells us the response we ought to have to this good news: “Repent!”
The Gospel is good news. Not good advice. It is an announcement that your attention and response is required. The Gospel demands a response, the appropriate reaction to the announcement that King Jesus is now here is repentance.
Repentance is about changing your mind. It is about admitting that you’ve been seeing the world all wrong. You’ve been seeing Jesus all wrong. You’ve been understanding God all wrong. You’ve been understanding your self all wrong, and its time for a change.
Changing our minds about deeply held beliefs is really hard for us isn’t it? Neuroscientists have found that when we even just hear information that is contrary to our strongly held opinions, our whole brain and body chemistry reacts in the same way it does to a physical threat. So we’ve got that hurdle in front of us. In fact the scripture tells us that repentance is not merely difficult, it is impossible apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Repentance is a miracle.
In our sin and pride, we are so entrenched in our own way of thinking, that we need supernatural help. We need to pray for this help. “Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief.” “Repent and Believe This Good News!” Their problem was unbelief. They didn’t believe He was the Messiah.
For those of us less familiar with the whole big picture of the Bible, Old Testament and New, Jesus’s proclamation of the “good news” that “the kingdom of God has come near!” Can feel like that coffee shop stranger, with a cryptic message about some guy you’ve never heard of. But that wasn’t the case for the people Jesus was preaching to.
You see, Israel was expecting a lot of things to happen when The Lord, the Messiah showed up. We’re going to see as we go along in Mark that Jesus talks about some of those expected things being now here, and some of those things coming later.
They were expecting a conquering hero. A kingly man. Not a homeless carpenter. They were expecting an army, not a wandering preacher. “We’re supposed to believe you’re the Messiah?” they said.
He wasn’t what they expected, but he was far better. The first half of Mark’s Gospel is devoted to proving that Jesus is in fact The King, The Messiah, the one they need. A friend of mine pointed out to me that In just the first two chapters, he shows his power over sin, death, and the devil.
Jesus’s message was paradigm-shattering. And his call is for us to repent of our unbelief. To repent of our expectations for how the world should be saved. He is the King. And he commands us to respond in repentance and belief, by following him.
Follow Me
16 As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17 “Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 18 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat putting their nets in order. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1:16-20 (CSB)
Even though I’m ending with it today, verses 16 through 20, Jesus calling his first disciples kicks off an action packed sequence of events that Mark records over the next few chapters to show us Jesus’s power and authority as God’s Chosen rescuer.
But he’s also using it to show a right response when Jesus calls us to follow him.
Application
So what are our takeaways for today? We’re used to hearing talks that give us practical tips on how to live our life that we can put into practice in the next few days. Life hacks that make things a little better for us. Inspiration that give us a boost for the week, but the implications of today’s passage are so much bigger than that.
Mark isn’t recording a nice little nugget of self-improvement for us today.
Mark tells us that the right thing to do in response to Jesus’s message is to drop what you are doing, and devote your whole life to Jesus. Completely reframe what your life is for around him.
I’m not saying you should necessarily quit your job, like Jesus called Peter to do. I am saying you should reframe what your job is all about.
“Follow me.” is Jesus’s call to you. And that is way too big a thing for me to put into three easy steps, so I’ll just give you one practical step today. One simple trick to following Jesus.
Come back next week.
…and the next week after that, and the next week after that,
and the next week after that for the rest of your life.
Simon, Andrew, James, and John were commercial fishermen.
They would have understood Jesus’s call to be “fishers of men” as a team activity, not a solo mission. They would have heard Jesus’s call to follow him as an invitation into a community. An invitation to a team that needed a variety of gifts, a diversity of skill and strengths, all working together to accomplish a mission.
Devote your life to Jesus by devoting yourself to his people and his mission. Tie your life in with the life of the church. Get to know Jesus with His people. Get knit in to a small group who can help care for you, and whom you can care for. Studying his words, seeking to follow the way he showed us. Join in the work of ministry with the family of believers. If you are a follower of Jesus, you will find that he has given you a gift of grace that is to be lent to the body to help it grow. Jump in with both feet and give that gift back to Jesus’s body.
The Good News from God that Jesus proclaimed in Galilee and that his followers took from there to the ends of the earth where we are now standing demands a response: Follow Jesus, with everything you have.
If your’e wondering “what’s in it for me?” When it comes to this “good news”, I’ve got some good news. Everything. The good news about Jesus and the Kingdom, if its true, means that there really is a God who cares about His people and follows through on his promises, and offers mercy and forgiveness that we so desperately need.
It means there is a God who has power over sin, death, and the devil, who can rescue us from all that plagues us when we surrender our own selfish ways, and live in the way he designed us to, the way he came to show. It means that no matter what we face in life, we can face it with confidence that our destiny is secure.
If you’re still on the fence about Jesus, or know someone who is, come back next week, and bring that friend with, and we’ll get started looking at Jesus’s amazing life, digging deeper into this Good News he proclaimed. Next week we’ll see him proving that he is the Messiah by proving that he has power over death and the devil.
This message is too important to let it stay at the level of “cryptic message from a random stranger in a coffee shop.” Let’s work together on figuring out who this Jesus is.
I’m looking forward to that. Let’s pray.
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