God Sends His Message....

Have you ever played the whisper game? That is, one person whispers a sentence to another person who does likewise to a third individual. This is usually repeated eight or nine times until the final person states out loud what the sentence that he or she heard was. Almost always, it is something very different than the original statement  Thankfully, this did not happen to the gospel Jesus proclaimed as all four gospel writers, including Mark, recorded the gospel with great precision. In this passage, Mark 1:14-20, we see the following three gospel related questions asked and answered: 1) What is the Gospel of God?, 2) What is the response to the gospel? and 3) What will it look like to follow Christ? This writing will focus on the first question, what is the Gospel of God?

In verse 1 of this chapter, we learn that this Gospel of God is the gospel of Jesus; that is, Jesus is the content. In verse 14, Mark states that the source of the gospel is God and it is His, not the church's message. Our responsibility as the church is to proclaim the gospel's message exactly as presented by God (Mark 1:15).  Undoubedly, there are many details that we should know about the Gospel of God.  Primarily, we should know that the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as explained by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. However, at this point in Mark's writing, Christ's final and ultimate sacrifice, death on the cross, had not yet occured. Thus, the precise message at this point in time that Jesus states and Mark records is this: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). 

So, what exactly does this statement by Jesus mean? Let’s first look at the phrase “the time is fulfilled”. This simply means that the God-ordained time for the Messiah’s public ministry on Earth is now (the time period between His baptism and His resurrection). The next phrase, "the Kingdom of God is at hand",  is a very concise way to communicate the essence of the gospel which will be unpacked and revealed in great detail throughout the rest of Mark's writing.  However, at this time and for this specific verse, let us consider the three elements of an earthly Kingdom: 1) a human  ruler with authority, 2) a realm of citizens to be ruled and 3) the exercise of rulership. When translating this concept to the spiritual realm, the message is this: King Jesus has come and will exercise His divine authority as the Son of God over God's spiritual kingdom. Now, to expand our understanding of the Kingdom of God just a bit more, we can look to Luke’s gospel which records Jesus' response to the pharisees when they asked Him when the kingdom of God would come. He responded with the following statement: “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20-21). Succinctly stated, the kingdom of God exists wherever Jesus is. So, how does this truth apply to us today? The answer is that Jesus rules in the lives and hearts of all who have received Him. Friend, if you have repented of your sins and confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, King Jesus’ Kingdom exists within you! This is the gospel of God…..

For answers to the remaining two questions presented in this passage and to listen to this entire sermon, click here. To watch this entire sermon on Youtube, click on this link.