The service children in kindergarten and first order in your bibles to mark chapter one. If you remember I told you that starting in the winter and spring we would be working through portions of the gospels in the fall I preached through the Old Testament in the winter and spring the gospels and in the summer the epistles and more importantly this year I'm doing an experiment and I'm following the the lectionary the church calendar so we'll be a mark for about two chapters and then we'll jump to John and it falls all the way through the Passion of Christ to Pentecost and so keep that in mind today's text begins at Mark chapter one verse 14 and I say to you hear the word of God. Now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel. Starting alongside the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and Jesus said to them follow me and I will make you become fishers of men and immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on a little farther he saw James the son of Zebidi and John his brother who were in the boat mending the nets and immediately he called them and they left their father's ebidi in the boat with the higher servants and followed him. Father I pray this morning that you would come and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf teach us what it means to understand the kingdom of heaven what does it mean to heed your call what does it mean to be a fisher of men I pray all these things I pray also that you be in my head and in my thinking and in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking in Christ name we pray these things amen and amen. Remember last week we looked at we began looking at this book and it was sort of odd if certainly if you're unfamiliar with the Bible it was odd because you had this guide John the Baptist come dressed in camel's hair and eating locust and he was calling Israel out into the wilderness sort of through the waters of judgment that this baptism for the repentance for the forgiveness of sins and then one person comes from Galilee remember all ever was coming from Judea and Jerusalem but one representative came from Galilee remember Galilee of the Gentiles the sort of the unclean section of Israel and his name of course was Jesus it's odd because Jesus goes and he is baptized by John and the question is why it's a baptism of repentance to baptism with the forgiveness of sins in mind why would Jesus be baptized and the answer of course Jesus didn't need to be baptized at least not for himself you see Jesus underwent this baptism as our representative not just as our representative but in order to identify with us and so he not only identifies with us but then we also looked at at least in the evening I expanded on that Jesus going into the wilderness and remember in the wilderness what Jesus did is basically he did at least three things Jesus lived the life that Adam should have lived remember Adam was placed into paradise and by his sin he created a wilderness Jesus went into the wilderness and creates a paradise Jesus also lived the life Israel should have lived right he was he goes through the waters of judgment and out into the wilderness to be tested and unlike Israel that brought anxiety and alienation upon themselves he brought harmony and in fact one if you will but bigger than all that at least practically speaking is Jesus lived the life that you and I should have lived so we looked at that and then the very next thing with remember Mark's gospel he sort of goes from one thing to another very quickly right Mark is sort of the patron saint of those with ADHD and so he immediately switches to something else and that's the word he constantly uses and and I was thinking through this and I thought you know how do you get across what what this is sort of about and this week my girls were asking me they often do because they know my life growing up was so different than theirs the last me you know what was it like when you were in the army what was it like when you did this what we and they've heard the stories a hundred times and they still want to hear him again and this week the answer you know so tell us again what it was like when you were in high school and I thought well I need to come up with a different angle on what I usually tell them and I told I say girls when I was in high school high school for me was was a time of expectation and it's what do you mean I said I remember on the first day every year of high school on the very first day of class I was sitting class at the very back if I could and I would look forward and I would see the big year calendar that the teacher had on the wall it started in September when all the way through to June and I would focus and visualize and envision the very last day of school and every year I would just sit in class and contemplate what it is going to be like when that day finally comes and every minute in between then I focused on every single tick of the clock remember that I don't know if they still have them in schools I'm been in one for the huge clocks that every single minute if you can hear it which I can it goes and my my whole being was focused not just on the last day but on that last tick of the clock when it would go three months of reprieve from this waste of my time I thought do as I say not as I did by the way for all your kids out there so all that expectation you look forward to the time when it finally comes it's when we look at today's text Jesus finally starts his ministry and that's what it's all about Jesus whole preaching and his whole announcement is basically that that all of you with expectations the clock has now ticked it's the last day of school the it's the last hour the last stroke has happened now it has come and what are you going to do the thing you've been waiting for the thing you've been longing for the thing you've been envisioning and hoping for your whole life has arrived what now okay so we're going to look at two things at least this morning we're going to look at what Jesus preaching basically and the content of his preaching is basically composed of an announcement if you're a note-taker that's point one the announcement and the second point is an appeal so he gives an announcement and he gives an appeal so what what is his announcement
look at verse 14 and 15 it says in verse 14 now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand that's his announcement time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand before you look at the announcement though it's helpful to understand the context and it's that's one of those things it's easy to skip over did you notice the context of this or the timing now after John was arrested to remember I've told you Mark's gospel most references to geography and most references to chronology are actually revolving around theology after John was arrested Jesus came preaching why did Jesus wait until after John was arrested why didn't he just immediately come out of the wilderness and begin preaching and the the honest answer is no one knows for sure on one hand remember in Mark's gospel John's arrested you see in chapter 8 by Herod because he confronts him about some marital issues and Jesus waits until after John is arrested before he starts his ministry but what we do know is that when Jesus starts his ministry there's no confusion about who who the man is if you will you see John had a very successful preaching ministry he's very popular he's he was very well-known and once he was in jail he was completely off of the scene that's when Jesus started because there's no competitor so Jesus started I want you to notice also the geography where Jesus began his preaching ministry remember it is baptism those one representative who came from Galilee the sort of the unclean section of Israel where people would have sort of looked down upon them they would have been the other side of the tracks and when Jesus begins his preaching ministry if he's like anyone else in those days or even in these days where would you go if you're a preacher and you got something to say wouldn't you go to Jerusalem why wouldn't you go to the biggest church or the biggest synagogue instead Jesus goes back to the unclean section if you will Galilee of the Gentiles and that's where he begins his ministry what you see in Mark over and over again is Jesus always pursues those on the outside he he seeks the outsiders he seeks those who are who are not the religious but the ear religious so that's where he begins his ministry and it says he comes and he begins pre-proclaiming the gospel of God now what is the gospel of God well what he says next it's it's the announcement in the appeal and the first thing it says the time is fulfilled that's the first thing he says what does he mean when he says the time is fulfilled there are at least three ways to read this probably all of there's some something to be said for all of them the first is maybe in the broad sense of the time being fulfilled if you remember all the way back to the book of Genesis in the book of Genesis Adam and he's sinned in the garden and God came to to discipline and the first thing he says he says to the serpent the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and he will the serpent will bruise his heel in other words Adam and Eve you completely screwed this whole thing up but I promise you I will fix it and the one who will fix it will be one of your children your seed it's instructed by the way if you Adam and Eve remember what their first son was named his name was Kane which in Hebrew means here he is they expected that that's God was going to save the world through Kane Kane didn't work out too well and if you just follow through the old testament he he calls Abraham and what does he say to Abraham Abraham Abraham I'm calling you so that your seed can be a blessing to all peoples and you work your way through he says to the king David king David you one of your sons is going to rule on your throne forever that's all coming I promise you Israel is dispersed they're completely scattered and God says through all the prophets I promise you I will bring you home I will come and I will restore all things and I will bring you back and when Jesus says the time is fulfilled that is one way to read this right now is the time all the promises of God are coming to fruition right now in me pretty bold they're the way to read this when he says the time is fulfilled might have something to do with John right John the Baptist is gone and I'm here now in other words the time is fulfilled in that the time for pointing is over the time of reality has arrived in other words John the Baptist came and he only pointed to the one who would come he was assigned he pointed and said that's the one I'm not the one he's the one and Jesus says the time of pointing is over the time is fulfilled because the reality has arrived God's promise and God's promise deliverer is here on the scene and the final way maybe the third way to read this is that basically Jesus is saying that it's sort of the jig is up in other words it's it's decision time that got promised you he was going to deliver you he promised you he's going to save you from your sins he's going to gather everyone in and now is the time to ask yourself are you going to embrace that it's decision time he's calling for you know the time it's now is the time not sometime later but right now the time is fulfilled and how do we know the time is fulfilled he says because the kingdom of God is at hand what's he mean when he says the the kingdom of God now if you've ever you know studied theology have been disseminated there have literally probably been hundreds of books written maybe thousands on trying to understand or explain the kingdom of God and I'm going to try and make it simple for you because that's how I have to understand it myself when Jesus says the kingdom of God is at hand what is he talking about and the easiest way to get your head around it I think is if you think about the Lord's prayer right our father who art in heaven holo be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven so what does it mean when Jesus says the kingdom of God is here it has to do I think in some ways with what we understand when we pray the Lord's prayer you see the kingdom of God if you imagine what heaven is like or don't imagine what heaven's like because I mean you can only speculate about some things but if you know what heaven is like at least according to the Bible we know in heaven there's complete reconciliation between creature and creator there's no alienation there are no more tears there's there's no brokenness everything is perfect God rules completely and utterly and those who are there with him worship him completely and utterly that's how it is on heaven so heaven is defined by worship and obedience and reconciliation and earth is defined in large part by what disobedience alienation brokenness hardship and so when we pray that we're praying that God your your will would be done here as it is there and when Jesus says the kingdom of God is at hand what he is saying is the way it is there is actually here right now it's at hand in my person you see because Jesus is the one who brings this reconciliation he's the one who initiates or inaugurates the kingdom of heaven here on earth and I don't mean that in some kind of you know way that you where we're gonna take over the government what I'm saying is that the heaven I'm speaking about is this reconciliation with God this this removal of alienation this dealing with brokenness this dealing with sins Jesus says the kingdom of God is here and your your sins will be dealt with because I'm the one who will deal with them remember my baptism remember the wilderness I lived the life you should have lived and I died the death I will die the death you're gonna die you should die and so the question is what are you going to do with that do you want that do you want reconciliation with God or do you not do you feel a need for reconciliation with God because Jesus says that is at hand right now when Jesus came he basically inaugurated this time when he would undo everything that Adam did in the fall that's his announcement now what's his appeal the appeal comes next right and it's pretty simple his appeal is just this he says repent and believe in the gospel what's it mean to repent we talked about it last week in some sense it's like that sweet little lady that was driving the wrong way down Benson in a snowstorm you know you want to yell for her to stop where she's going and turn the other way otherwise great harm will come to her that's true we tend to think about repentance and negative terms you need to stop being bad you need to stop doing bad things or stop thinking bad thoughts repent of them when in fact repentance there's an element to that but there's also something bigger repentance at its bottom line level means simply coming home come home you were created to be in a relationship with God you're created to live in a relationship that was reconciled not alienated and what Jesus is saying is come home remember when John preached repentance he wasn't just telling people to stop being bad he was calling Israel back to the wilderness back to to reinitiate this relationship with God and so the question is will you come home Jesus and by the way Jesus here he's not asking he's telling you come home then he also says believe in the gospel believe in this good news now a lot of people make a big to do about you know whether you could believe without repenting or repent without believing and that's just a spurious argument and it's a waste of time to even discuss it in many ways because the question is is can you if you really believe this good news if you really believe that God has has given you everything you need in the person of Jesus if you really believe that when Jesus went to the cross he took every bit of your sin and gave you every bit of his righteousness and God calls you to come home how could you not it's a hypothetical argument to think that they could be separated because if Jesus was really done this how could you not want it and the only reason you would repent is if you really believed it but if you are repenting or being good in order to somehow gain God's favor you're missing the boat here because you can't gain God's favor by your repentance you can't gain his favor by your belief all you can do is receive God's favor by both of those two things combined believing and coming home and embracing the work of Jesus is that where you are some of you I'm guessing aren't Christians have you ever really thought about that they God wants you to come home he doesn't want you to be good that comes later I quote we'll talk about that some tonight what he means by that I'm going to close with this you notice where Jesus goes to preach this message he goes to Galilee and notice the first people that he calls to himself and it's easy especially if you've been in church for a long time it's this is one of those things that you don't even notice but did you notice the names of those two two people that he called the very first ones we read it to you for 16th is passing along the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen now if you lived a few thousand years ago and you read you were Jewish and you read that you would be horrified why because although we know Simon and Andrew were Jewish their names aren't Jewish Simon and Andrew are Greek names in other words what that tells us among other things that even if Simon and Andrew weren't religious we know their families weren't because if their families were religious and strict Jews they would have never named them with Greek names so Jesus goes to the other side of the tracks and he goes he doesn't go to the place where you would normally go to get people to help you out if you needed to start a ministry right if you're if you're going to start a ministry where would you go right if you're smart you go to like reform seminary where I went you go somewhere and you would seek out the best students with the best pedigree we do that today back then you wouldn't have done that you see in in the days of Jesus the best students with the best pedigrees would go seek out the best teachers and ask them appeal to them to let them follow them in other words it'll be the equivalent of what we do with like SAT scores you try and get the best SAT score you can have in the best transcripts you have and then you apply to a college in hopes that they will accept you that's what they would do the best students would go and they would appeal to the best teachers and say will you please let me study under you study the law and unlike other rabbis Jesus doesn't wait for students to come to him Jesus goes and pursues the students and fortunately Jesus pursues students like me the ones who didn't like school very much the ones who didn't do very well in school in fact he pursues fishermen and he pursues fishermen who are probably not particularly religious by way just by way of their names we know that and what does he ask of them he says follow me follow me and then he makes them a promise and I will make you become fishers of men we'll talk about what fishers of men means more tonight think about that let me pray father I pray that you would come and you would just teach us what it means to both repent and believe teach us what it means to for the kingdom of heaven to be at hand or we in our lives more and more experiencing the shalom that you bring the way things are supposed to be I pray that you would do that in our lives in our church in our neighborhoods in our state and even throughout the whole world in Christ's name we pray these things amen and amen