The Heart of Jesus' Ministry

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If you've heard any political discussion over the last two weeks, and it's been pretty hard not to, you know that there are two divergent choices for President in this election. That's a strange start, isn't it? You're afraid I'm going to tell you who to vote for aren't you? Both political parties sense that difference, that divergence, and both are doing everything they can to draw the distinctions clearly. And both Presidential candidates in their convention speeches, if you listened to them, sought to outline and highlight those differences. In a sense their convention speeches were designed to convey the heart of their mission that lies behind their desire to become the next President of the United States.

Now we can argue about how well they may have done that, but I think we can all agree that that was at least each of their desires. And if you heard the speeches, you could probably give a fairly accurate report on the heart of each man's candidacy.

But let me ask you if you were forced to do the same about the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, His earthly ministry here during those 33 years He lived, how would you describe it and particularly during the 3 years in which He wandered about in Israel? How would you summarize what His teaching was about? What was His platform, if you will?

Well fortunately, Scripture doesn't leave us to flounder on our own here, early in his gospel; Mark condenses the ministry of Jesus Christ to a few short lines. Only two verses, but two verses that are absolutely crowded with rich meaning. We discover in these two verses the heart of Jesus' ministry. Look at them, Mark 1:14 and 15.

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God. and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

In those two short verses, Mark following Peter's direction as we've discussed before introduces us to Jesus' ministry. Now it's important to see how these two verses fit into the flow of the book, so let me before we look at them specifically give you just a brief outline of the Gospel of Mark. You see that I've broken it into two parts, 1 - 10, Sent to Serve 11 - 16, Sent to Save. He is a Servant with a mission to save.

You'll see that the first ten chapters you have the preparation for His ministry and service in the ministry of John the Baptist, Jesus' baptism by John, Jesus' temptation, and then you have the heart of the ministry itself. And that ministry, you'll notice, breaks down in His ministry to Galilee which is seven chapters; and then His ministry to the Gentiles; and then His journey to Jerusalem; and then following that of course is all that He accomplishes in that final Passover at Jerusalem in 11 - 16.

Now if we were to break down chapter 1, it falls into the section we're going to be looking at; falls into that section about His ministry to Galilee. And here (you have at the very beginning of this introduction of His long ministry to Galilee, 18 months of His ministry spent there), you have Mark giving us the heart of His message. That's followed, as we'll look at, Lord willing next Sunday night, by the call of His disciples. Then he really concentrates on Jesus' ministry in the town of Capernaum, and then His tour of the whole country of Galilee. And then we begin to meet opposition when we get to chapter 2, but we'll look at that when we get there.

Before we are introduced to the ministry of Jesus and particularly to the ministry of Jesus' concentrated in Galilee, Mark first orients us to when this happens in the flow of first century history and to where. So, notice first of all, the time. Mark 1:14 begins, "Now after John had been taken into custody…."

This is obviously important, every Word of God is inspired, it's put here to orient us so that we can understand the importance of what Mark's about to tell us. The first thing that's important to note here is that Mark includes this to be sure we understand when in Jesus' life the events he's about to record occurred. That's important, because there is a huge amount of time that passes between Mark 1:13, His temptation, and what we're introduced to beginning in verse 14, a large amount of time.

Let me briefly remind you of the timeline of Jesus' life, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, but I just want you to see this and remember it. You remember that Jesus is baptized, and we studied all of this when we did a survey of the New Testament together so I'm not going to defend all of this, I'm just going to remind you of it. But you'll remember that Jesus was baptized in the summer of 26 AD. His temptation came right after that for 40 days, and His ministry began in the winter of 27. He gathers His first apostles there in that same period of time. But I want you to notice that He begins His ministry in the winter of 27, now when happens all three of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they all jump ahead. They skip it. But John records the events that occur in the next few months of Jesus' ministry, from after His baptism and temptation as He begins His ministry.

He gathers His first disciples as you see here. He does His first public miracle. He turns the water into wine at Cana, and then (and I want to show you on the map where He goes). Remember now, He was down near the Dead Sea, down in this area where He was baptized. He went into these this mountainous area here, the wilderness of Judea for the temptation. But the next time we find Him, as He gathers His future disciples, eventually He goes with His disciples and with His family up to Cana. Cana was where He did His first miracle, up in this area.

Jesus demonstrates His deity for the first time, and then after that, Jesus, His family and the disciples stay for a few days in Capernaum on the north side of the Sea of Galilee according to John 2:12 that's where He resides for a while. He's up in Galilee; He was down after His baptism and temptation; and went up to Galilee for a short time. Then He goes back down after that to Jerusalem. You'll notice the last event here after His first public miracle. He goes back down to Jerusalem for the first Passover. So, His ministry in Galilee really hasn't begun yet.

That brings us to the second period in Jesus' life, beginning in the Passover of 27 AD, and running to the Passover of 28 AD. This was His first full year of public ministry. It was a time of popularity and favor with the people. It begins with 8 months of ministry down in Judea in the south; the cleansing of the Temple; the interview with Nicodemus; Jesus joins forces with John the Baptist. Essentially, Jesus gathers to Himself all those who had attached themselves to John the Baptist in anticipation of the coming Messiah, and they begin to follow Jesus.

Remember John's comment, "He must increase, and I must decrease." Jesus begins to lead that pack of disciples that John the Baptist has. But then, something happens, John is arrested. Later in this Gospel Mark explains why he was arrested, and we'll get there, it's in 6:17 and following. But I want you to notice that this says, "after John had been taken into custody." [Literally Mark writes,] "now after John had been handed over."

In Greek text, the word "handed over" becomes a technical term for what the police do when they arrest someone, or they take someone into custody as a prisoner. This same verb, by the way, is used later of Jesus. So, after John's arrest, Jesus departs for Galilee. Don't misunderstand; Jesus didn't leave to get away from the danger. He didn't leave to get away from Herod. Herod Antipas, the one who arrested John the Baptist and eventually put him to death, also controlled Galilee, so that wasn't the point. Rather, there was another reason, and John tells us the reason, turn over to John 4. Why did Jesus go into Galilee? John 4:1, here's the real reason. It wasn't out of fear for His being arrested because, as I said, the same man-controlled Galilee that had arrested John. But here's the reason, John 4:1,

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), [When Jesus heard that the Pharisees had heard that,] "He left Judea and went away again [into Samaria, or excuse me] into Galilee, And He had to pass through Samaria.

Down in verse 43, it says, "After the two days" [After the hold up in Samaria] "He went forth from there into Galilee."

So, understand, this is why Jesus leaves Judea and goes up into Galilee. It's because Jesus knew that if He stayed in Judea (around Jerusalem), it would only heat up the antagonism of the Pharisees toward Him, and it might accelerate their antagonism and even bring the crisis of the crucifixion too soon. God had a plan, Jesus was marching in perfect step with that plan, and when He realized that the Pharisees were becoming uneasy because of the extent of His ministry, then He moves that ministry up to Galilee out of Judea.

By the way there's another important point here. John the Baptist is just another example in a long line of true prophets, preaching the true Gospel of God who were hated and persecuted; and Jesus of course will be the next. So, the true Gospel is often proclaimed, as one commentator said, in adversity and suffering not in ease and comfort. Don't for a moment think that because somebody is suffering or being persecuted that that means that they're not preaching the true Gospel they're not obeying God's will for them.

So, what's the conclusion out of all this , as far as the time? About a year after His baptism Jesus leaves for Galilee. That means that Mark doesn't start at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, but he starts at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee, and that is about a year after His baptism and temptation. Okay? So, he skips an entire year of Jesus' ministry and brings us here, and we'll talk about why as we go along.

Now that brings us to a second point of orientation that he gives us; and that is location. The location where Jesus goes, verse 14 says, of Mark 1, "Jesus came into Galilee."

There's Galilee, this is the land of Israel in the time of Jesus, and you can see that section I've circled there, that is Galilee. It's not the entire region, but only what's circled, that purplish area that I've circled there on the overhead for you. His ministry in this area is beginning now but will last 18 months of the 3 and ½ year ministry that He has. This will be the focus.

And the question that we should ask is why, why Galilee? He obviously left Judea because of the Pharisees and the possible increasing antagonism. Why would He go to Galilee? Well, there are several possible reasons. One is simply familiarity. He was raised in Nazareth. So, He's very familiar with this area. There are also in this area of Galilee many different nationalities. It had become a place with a presence of a number of nations. It had both a large Jewish and Gentile population, and in fact, it was surrounded by Gentile nations.

Going back to the first point there, it had a large Jewish and Gentile population. Since Assyria had driven out the north. You remember back in 722 BC; the area had had a greater mix of population. There were entire cities in the Galilee of Gentiles. There was a Roman city there called Beth Shean, that when we visited in Israel recently, we went and saw the ruins of. There were other Roman cities there as well. In addition, it was surrounded, as I said, by Gentile nations.

If you look at this map again, you'll notice where Galilee was, you see the green on the north side of it on the sort of northwest side? That's Phoenicia, you'll see on the other side across from the Sea of Galilee you see what is Syria, and then you have Decapolis. So, literally, Galilee was essentially surrounded by Gentiles, It's called Galilee of the Gentiles or of the nations at one place. And so, there was a good reason for Jesus choosing it; we'll talk about it in a just a moment; surrounded by Gentile nations.

It was also a major crossroads of two international highways that crossed there. We'll talk more about that when we get to Capernaum. So, because of this, because of this international mix there, the people were naturally more open. They weren't as religiously closed as the people down in the Judean area, where Jerusalem were, and Jesus could stay in one country, one very small country and yet insure the spread of His message. Because that crossroads was there, the nationalities, the nations were all around Galilee or were passing through it constantly, and there were a number of nationalities even living in Galilee at the time.

Another good reason is there was a large population there to influence. In fact, Josephus estimates that there were about 3 million people that lived in Galilee in the first century. Many of the towns had populations of more than 15,000. That's why when you read the Gospels, you see these large crowds following Jesus, and you wonder where do these people come from? Well, they came from this very largely populated area of Galilee. It's one of the most beautiful sections in all of Israel, and it was very popular in Jesus' time. So, as Jesus decides where to go as He leaves Judea He decides on Galilee, and as He headed up to Galilee, John tells us that He passed through Samaria, and that's when He had the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well there. And then He comes to Galilee.

So, we know the time, we know the location and why; and now Mark introduces us to the ministry of Jesus and specifically to His ministry in the Galilee. He describes the heart of Jesus' ministry. And when you look at the heart of Jesus' ministry, you can divide it in two ways here in this in these two verses; first of all, the central activity of His ministry, and secondly a simple summary of His message; the central activity of His ministry and a simple summary of His message.

Let's look first at the central activity of His ministry. Verse 14 says, "Now after John had been taken into custody; Jesus came into Galilee, preaching."

The central activity and the primary duty of Jesus' ministry is described in just one word; Jesus came preaching. So, it's very important that we understand what this word means. The Greek word is "kerusso". The New Testament authors use at least 33 different verbs to describe biblical preaching but "kerusso" is the primary one. It is normally translated as "I preach, or I proclaim." Literally the word means "to be a herald, to officiate as a herald, to proclaim after the manner of a herald."

You say what's a herald? It's not that guy that was kind of geeky in your elementary school class; it's not what I'm talking about, a different kind of herald. In classical Greek a related word referred to a powerful government official appointed to summon and speak to town gatherings on behalf of the ruler. These were powerful men who were spokespersons. I suppose, if we were to try to compare it to our contemporary American culture, we would say that this is the President's Chief of Staff. Or this is the President's, maybe his Press, his chief communicator to the press. This is the man who made official announcements on behalf of the ruler; his press secretary, but probably more powerful than that; probably more like a chief of staff. So, it was an important position, and it always is accompanied (this job and this heralding this message), is always accompanied with a sense of formality and gravity and with authority that has to be heard and obeyed.

If you lived in a country that had a king and an official representative, a powerful official representative of the king, showed up in your little village with an announcement; you gathered and you listened and you responded. Because behind that person was the weight of the king himself. That's what this word describes.

This is what Jesus did. He came representing the Father and He came as a herald, announcing, pronouncing with gravity, with formality, with authority. I speak on behalf of someone you must listen to. By the way, this same Greek word is used back in the Old Testament in the Septuagint in Isaiah 61, to describe, you remember, that figure called the Servant of Yahweh; the prophecy of the Messiah? It says that unique Person will come and deal with sin, and when He comes, He will "kerusso". He will proclaim. He will preach the good tidings, the good news.

I don't think we can underestimate the importance and priority of preaching in the New Testament, this heralding. It was at the heart of John the Baptist's ministry, we read in Mark 1,

John the Baptist appeared…, preaching." It was the same for Jesus. Jesus was going throughout, according to Matthew 4, "going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and" [here's our word,] "proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom."

Matthew 9:35, "Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom…."

You find the same thing in Luke 4, in Luke 8:1, "… He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God."

Later this will become the focus of the Apostles as well. In Mark 3:14 we read, "… [Jesus] appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to "kerusso", to announce as a herald, to "preach."

Paul continues with this same commitment in Acts 20, as he speaks to the Ephesian elders, he says, "And now, behold; I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will … see my face [no more.]"

And in the Pastoral Epistles Paul commands Timothy and all future elders to continue to preach the Word. The heart of Jesus' ministry was what? Preaching. When Mark wants us to understand the main central activity of Jesus' ministry, it is proclamation. He sent His disciples out to preach. Paul prescribes preaching for the leaders of the church. You know there are many people in today's world that think preaching is outdated, but folks Jesus didn't think so. He commanded it of His apostles and of those who would come later through the Pastoral Epistles. Preach the Word, we're told.

But you know what, Paul warned Timothy that there would be times when proclamation, proclaiming the truth with authority as an official herald of the throne, there would be times when that would be out of fashion, you remember? He said that there would be times when preaching would be out of season. What do you do when preaching is out of season? Paul says,

"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in His kingdom preach the Word."

"Kerusso" the Word, proclaim it as a herald with authority. Be ready to do this in season and out of season. You say what's in season, and what's out of season? I don't know, but it's all covered there isn't it? In season and out of season those are the only two. That means all the time. You never stop doing this, he tells Timothy. Preaching was the central activity in Jesus' ministry. By the way, Paul goes on in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 to say this to Timothy,

… the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

There will be times he says when people don't want proclamation, they want whatever it is they want, whatever's popular. But preaching was the priority of Jesus' ministry.

That brings us secondly to a simple summary of His message, a simple summary of His message. Verse 14 says, "preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel."

Mark captures Jesus' message in these few words. Look, first of all, at this sort of title he gives Jesus' preaching, he says, "He preaches the gospel of God." Now we already examined this word gospel back in verse 1, but let me just summarize what we learned there, the word simply means good news. The biblical gospel or good news is simply the message about the righteousness that God gives to sinners on the basis of grace because of the life and death of Jesus Christ. And that's received by faith alone. That's the good news.

In other words, God made a way for rebel sinners to be right with Him. That's the good news and He did so through the life and death of Jesus Christ. And it doesn't require us to do anything because we can't contribute, it's the good news made known in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ brought the good news, but it's appropriate to say the Jesus is also the good news. He is the good news.

Notice Mark calls it the gospel of God. This is the only time Mark uses this expression, but Paul uses it often. It literally means the preaching that is the good news from God; preaching the good news that comes from God. God initiated all of this. God's the One who started it. So that's a description of what His preaching was about. It's about the good news that comes from God. But he gets a little more specific.

Look at the content of this message, the title of his message was the gospel of God, but when you look at the specific content, it goes on to say exactly what it was he said. What was the content of this message of good news? Well, as you look at it, interestingly enough, there are two indicatives and two imperatives. Now, this fits in very well with this morning, you now know what indicatives are, they're statements, and you know that imperatives are commands. So, as you look at the content of Jesus' ministry, the content of His message there are two indicatives and two imperatives. Two things He wants us to know and two things He wants us to do.

Let's look at the two indicatives. "Saying," this is what He said, "The time … [has been] fulfilled, and the kingdom of God … [has come near]."

Those are the two statements Jesus wanted people to get, He wanted them to understand. Both of these refer to the same reality. Mark here summarizes the entirety of Jesus' teaching into one basic concept, the concept of the kingdom of God. This occurs some 14 times, this phrase, the kingdom of God; some 14 times in Mark. Normally, when we speak of a kingdom, we mean the territory or realm over which a king rules. So, biblically then the kingdom is simply the rule of God. The kingdom of God is the rule of God.

But the rule of God in Jesus' ministry is described in two distinct ways. You have the universal sovereign rule of God, in the sense that God rules over everything, nothing is outside of His control, everything under His power. But there's also a second dimension and that is the Messianic or Mediatorial rule of God; God's rule through His Son, through His Messiah, through the Mediator.

When Jesus came, He came offering a kingdom, the kingdom of God. So, what exactly is this Messianic kingdom? Well, Jesus taught that there are two aspects to this kingdom that He's bringing and offering. The first is a present aspect. There is a part of the kingdom that is right here, right now. It started in the first century, Jesus offered it then and it's still here now. There is a present aspect of Christ's kingdom. You read about it in a pass passages like Luke 17:20.

Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Look here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, [Listen to this] The kingdom of God is in your midst."

Literally "is among you." The kingdom of God is present right now. You dig a little deeper in the New Testament and you find that the present aspect of the kingdom that, that part of the kingdom, that's right now, is the same thing as salvation or eternal life. You enter into the rule of Christ right now through the gate of salvation.

Turn to Matthew 19 and you can see this. Matthew 19:16. This rich young ruler you remember comes to Jesus, and he says, … "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

So, you remember the context of what follows. Now, you remember what Jesus told him, go sell everything, He puts His finger on the one thing in this man's life that he's not willing to give up to follow Christ, and it shows this man is hard, verse 22.

… when the young man heard Jesus' … [commands], he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property." [So now he's gone, and a discussion ensues as often happened among Jesus and His disciples,]

And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of … [heaven]." [Now did you notice what Jesus did there? He used two phrases synonymously, in verse 23, He called it the kingdom of heaven, in verse 24, He called it the kingdom of God.] When the disciples heard this [so they mean the same thing by the way.] When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished … And look how they explain it. "… Then who [then] can be saved?"

So, in other words to enter the kingdom of heaven is to enter into salvation and the rule of Christ. To enter the kingdom of God is to enter into salvation and the rule of Christ. It all means the same thing. The kingdom of heaven equals the kingdom of God, equals the rule of Christ entered into through spiritual salvation, rescue of the soul. Jesus of course responds and says to them, verse 26, "With people this is impossible, but not with God, all things are possible with God."

So, we could define then the present aspect of the kingdom as the people over whose hearts Christ rules. Christ has a kingdom right now folks, and if you're a Christian, you're in it. It's a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one. You remember what Jesus told Pilate. "My kingdom is not of this world," it's not a political kingdom. I have a spiritual kingdom, if you are a Christian, you are under the rule of Christ. You are in His kingdom, and you got into His kingdom through salvation.

But there's also a future aspect of Christ's kingdom, not just the here and now but the future. In Matthew 26, turn over just a few pages, you see this other aspect of the kingdom. Verse 26 says, talking of the Lord's Supper, "While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

He does the same thing with the cup in verse 27, and He explains it in verse 28, now watch what He says in verse 29, "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."

Jesus obviously was pointing ahead to the future. This is one of many, many examples. If you want to study this whole issue more, you can listen to the message that we went through and talked about the kingdom of God back when we dealt with the church and its relationship with the kingdom. But there is a future aspect that includes both the millennium and eternity. So, to enter the kingdom is to enter under Christ's rule by salvation, that's here and now. But those who enter into His kingdom, His spiritual kingdom now, will one day participate in a future literal aspect of His kingdom, a physical aspect of His kingdom, here on earth and in the new world to come.

Now that's the kingdom, that's the kingdom of God. Now notice what Jesus says, the 2 things He says, the 2 indicatives about this kingdom.

Number 1, He says, the time for the kingdom has been fulfilled. The word, the Greek word He uses for time here is not the word "chronos" from which we get the word chronology that is order, time and sequence, but it's "chiros", it refers to an epic, a season. What Jesus is saying is the definitive moment for the kingdom has come; it's here. And then he says a second indicative, very similar; the kingdom of God has come near. This verb that's translated "has come near" is used primarily in the New Testament not of near in time but near in space. In other words, He wasn't saying it's come near in that it's only a year off; but rather He was saying it's come near in that its right here with you now.

James Edwards writes in Jesus of Nazareth, "The kingdom of God makes a personal appearance." Jesus was saying, I am the king. The kingdom of God is right here right now. It's a spiritual kingdom, the good news is that you can get into Christ's spiritual kingdom now and His eternal kingdom forever. You can be a part of God's kingdom. That was Jesus' message. Remember John the Baptist had come to prepare for whose arrival? The Messiah, the King's arrival. And now the message of the kingdom is the message Jesus offered. I am the King, the kingdom is here right here, right now, and you can be a part of it.

Now the message of the kingdom that Jesus offered implied several important things. It implied sin because it implied what? You aren't a part of it now, but you can be. In fact, Jesus goes on later in His ministry to say, if you're not part of My kingdom, you're part of whose? Satan's. You've got two choices, that's it. You, there are no, there are no, there's no middle ground in this battle. Jesus said you either belong to Me or you belong to Satan, that's it. You are part of one kingdom or the other. So, preaching the kingdom was an affront. It was directly antagonistic to Satan, and it was a call to recognize one's personal sin. It's , preaching the kingdom is about forgiveness because you can be a part of God's kingdom even if you've been a rebel against His kingdom. You see how there's so much implied in this.

Atonement is implied in the message of the kingdom because somehow God's going to make a way for those who've been rebels against Him to be reconciled to Him and to come under His authority and under His kingdom. That's good news. Folks, think about this. Jesus came, and He said I've got great news. You're currently part of the kingdom of Satan. You're under the rule and domination, the slavery of sin and Satan, but I offer you a different kingdom. I am a King whose yoke is easy and who's burden is light, and I'm telling you, you can be a part of My kingdom, a kingdom of joy and peace and forgiveness and hope and a future. The kingdom over which I rule, (and it's right here right now), it's a spiritual kingdom. Someday it'll be a physical kingdom, and you can be a part of that too. Such good news calls for a profound response.

That brings us to the two imperatives. The two imperatives, two commands. He said, "Repent and believe in the gospel." Folks, this is how you get into the kingdom. This is how you come under the rule of Christ. This is how you give up the slavery of sin and Satan for the easy, gracious, loving rule of Christ. Here are the conditions for entering the kingdom. Jesus teaches that the kingdom is God's gracious gift. It is received, the kingdom is, and yet in other passages Jesus says you have to be willing to sacrifice everything to get it. In one sense it will cost you nothing because it's been fully paid for, or will be fully paid for by Christ Himself, on the other had it'll cost you everything. You have to be willing to give up everything to follow Him.

He reduces our response to two concepts: repentance and faith. Let's briefly consider them together. First of all, "repentance". If you want to enter God's kingdom, you have to turn from your rebellion. This is the consistent message of the New Testament. Everywhere you turn, you find repentance, throughout the Scripture. And yet you'll notice in 2 Timothy 2:25, that I've put up here on the screen, it says that God grants repentance. It's a gift from God; in fact, it is even a supernatural work. Because according to Jesus in Luke 16 as He tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, you remember Lazarus says I want You to raise somebody from the dead, and if You raise Lazarus from the dead, and my brothers see it, they will believe.

And Jesus said this, "if they will not here Moses and the prophets, neither will they repent if one is raised from the dead." So, even a miracle can't accomplish repentance. It's a gift of God. It's something God has to do in the heart. What is repentance? Again, this is just a brief overview, but true repentance is an intellectual change. Second Timothy 2:25 talks about this repentance that leads to a knowledge of the truth. There is a recognition that what I'm believing is wrong in an embracing of the truth. I believe the devils , and I'm not going to believe it anymore. There's an emotional change that takes place. Second Corinthians 7:10, there is a sorrow that accompanies repentance, a Godly sorrow. I hate what I've done; I hate the choices I've made.

And there is a volitional element to repentance. Acts 8:22 says, "Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray [that] the Lord …, if possible, … [will forgive] the intention of your heart…."

It involves a decision of the will to desert my previous motives. There is a volitional change that's involved.

Now, I'm going to show you this next slide just because I want to give you an overview of how repentance takes place, the process. I'm not going to spend any time here, but I think you'll find this interesting. Biblically, if you take the various texts, this is how repentance plays out in the heart. It begins with a conviction of sin produced by the Word of God. Always this is true. It begins with a conviction sin produced in the heart by the Word of God. You hear the Bible, you remember the Bible maybe, you've wandered away from home, and all the people that you knew and loved, and you wander away from that, and you find yourself sitting alone, and all of a sudden the Word of God that you know comes and attacks your heart, and it brings conviction. That conviction then produces Godly sorrow for that sin.

Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 7, and he says that that Godly sorrow is accompanied by a hope in the mercy of God. There's a sense in which you're not only hating your sin, but you say like the prodigal, my Father is so generous, why don't I go back to my Father. There's hope that He will receive you. And in 2 Corinthians 7, Paul says that Godly sorrow then produces true repentance. And true repentance produces the fruit of repentance in the life. That's the process repentance plays. It begins with the Word of God followed by conviction, which brings about Godly sorrow, which brings hope in God that He'll receive me, which brings true repentance and ultimately out of that comes the fruit of repentance in my life. This is what repentance looks like, and this is what Jesus demanded. Repent.

The other word is "faith". The other demand, the other imperative is "believe". What does it mean to believe? Well, saving faith can be defined a number of ways, I've shared some of these with you before. Calvin and his institutes refer to faith as, "… a kind of vessel with which we come empty, and with the mouth of our soul open to seek God's grace." It's a great picture. I'm a beggar, and I just come begging, like a little baby bird sitting in the nest, can't do anything but open its mouth and say please. That's faith. Spurgeon in All of Grace defines faith as "believing that Christ is what He said to be and that He will do what He promised to do and then to expect this of Him." Louis Berkhof gives us a more technical definition, he says, "it is a certain conviction wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit as to the truth of the gospel and a reliance or trust on the promises of God in Christ." That's faith. You say, well what does faith look like? That's a little technical.

There are some wonderful pictures in the Scripture of faith. It's likened into looking to Jesus. It's compared to eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It's compared to receiving Him, and it's compared to coming to Him. Those are pictures of faith. In the New Testament the Greek word translated "faith" and its verb form "believe" occur about 240 times each. This is a major theme in the New Testament; nearly 500 times. And when you look at the New Testament usage of those words, you uncover 3 basic elements of faith. This is what's involved in faith.

There is, first of all, a "knowledge" part of faith. This is the intellectual part, the factual content of faith. This is the only foundation for true faith. Saving faith is always based on the truth of God revealed in the Word of God. Then there is assent. This is the emotional part of faith, the emotional response to the facts about Christ and His salvation. This is being convinced that the knowledge you have gained from the Scripture about Christ is factually true, and it's what I need and want.

And then there's "trust". This is the volitional side, the will responding. The volitional response to Christ and this is the heart of faith. This makes the difference between saving faith and non-saving faith. There are a lot of people who have the first two, a knowledge of the facts and emotional assent to them, in fact the demons according to James believe and tremble, but they aren't converted because they lack this third element. They lack trust.

It was this third element of faith that Jesus focused on, on many of His calls to salvation during His earthly ministry. For example, in Matthew 11, He says, "Take my yolk…." That was a call to trust, to faith. Luke 9 and many other places, Jesus says, "deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me."

That was a call for the utter abandonment of yourself and utter reliance on Him, because faith can't stop short of a commitment of self to Christ; a transference of all of our reliance in ourselves and our human resources to Christ alone for our salvation. Faith is in the end transferring all of your reliance for pardon and righteousness for pleasing God, for being right with God away from yourself and your own resources in complete and total abandonment to Christ and resting entirely upon Him for salvation.

Both of these imperatives "repent" and "believe" are in the present tense in the Greek text. We could translate it like this, "be repenting and be believing." Jesus was not calling for a one-time act of repentance and a one-time expression of faith. It was a call to a life of repentance and faith. Repentance is a turning from sin; faith is a turning to God in Christ. And that's how you get into the kingdom Jesus promised. This was the message of the apostles. In Acts 20:21, Paul says that during my ministry there in Ephesus, "… [I testified] to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

So, when we look at Mark 1, we learn that Jesus was God's herald. He was His official powerful representative proclaiming, announcing a message of good news. Good news that God had made a way to make men right with Him, so that they could enter into God's kingdom. To borrow the words of Paul, "they could be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son." Men could enter into the spiritual kingdom of Christ now, the hearts over which He rules and in the future into His physical kingdom. You can belong to Christ and His kingdom. That was Jesus' message, and it's still His message today. Think about it for a moment.

If you're here tonight (and I don't want to assume that everyone here is a Christian), if you're here tonight, and you're not a part of that wonderful kingdom of Christ the hearts over which He rules and brings love and joy and peace and all of those wonderful fruits that are described in Galatians 5, the fruits of the Spirit. If you're not a part of the kingdom over which Christ rules, you can be. He extends a gracious invitation. Even though you have been a rebel against His kingship; even though you have acted as if He didn't exist; He says you can come. You can come and be a part of My kingdom. You can enter now into My spiritual kingdom and someday into My physical presence and into My literal physical kingdom.

He extends that invitation to you, just as He extended it when He was here. But there're two things He requires of you first; you must repent. You must turn from all that you know to be sin, in sorrow and a desire to leave that for the value and the beauty of Jesus Christ and what He will do in you and through you. You must believe that good news, not just mentally assent to it, but rather put your entire reliance and trust in Jesus Christ as your only hope, your only way that you will ever stand before God and be received and be accepted. If you'll do that, Jesus says I'll receive you. No one has ever come to Me, He said, genuinely and honestly and been turned away. Mark 1 tells us that Jesus came preaching the good news from God and saying the time is fulfilled for the kingdom, the kingdom of God is here, if you want in, repent and believe.

Let's pray together.

Father, we are overwhelmed by Your grace. We freely acknowledge that, left to ourselves, we are rebels at heart. We want our own way; we want to do what we want to do. And Lord, in so many cases we have made such a mess, but Lord, we thank You that in grace and mercy You sent Your own Son to proclaim this good news that it's not too late for rebels if they will lay down their arms, surrender their wills to Jesus as King, they can be a part of that kingdom over which He rules, here and now, and some day in the future when we really see His face.

Father, we thank You for such amazing grace, we pray that you would help us to learn as Christians more every day what it means to live in His kingdom under His rule, following His decrees, living by His laws, which are easy and light and bring joy and peace to the heart.

And Father, I pray for those here tonight who are still part of Satan's kingdom, still dominated and controlled by sin. I pray that You would help them to see. Remove the blinders. Help them to see the ugliness of the kingdom they're a part of and the beauty of Christ.

For it's in His name we pray, Amen.