Jesus Announces the Time of the Kingdom

Sadly, the majority of Bible-believing churches today can’t properly understand the times in which Jesus preached. You see, they claim that Jesus will come back one day and set up an earthly kingdom of Israel and reign for 1000 years from Jerusalem. This is a serious misunderstanding of many Scriptures. This teaching is sometimes called Dispensationalism. It is made popular in Christian bookstores by such fictional works as the Left Behind series. And one such Scripture is ours, where Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The Kingdom arrived when Jesus did, and it has never left.

Verse 14 sets the scene by telling us that this was the time when John the Baptist was imprisoned. John was the one who prepared the way. But he was not to be confused with the Messiah. He will decrease, yet Jesus now must increase in glory and honor. Jesus would later say, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it” (Luke 16:16).

Not only was the kingdom preached by Jesus; it was present in Jesus’ ministry. Verse 14 says Jesus was ministering in the region of Israel called Galilee. Now Galilee was on the northern borders of Israel, and in prophecies it was described as a land in darkness, upon which one day the Messiah’s light would shine. This was that day.

Remember also that while Jesus preached a very similar message to His forerunner, there was an important difference. Those who first heard Jesus preaching had already been hearing John the Baptist preach about the Kingdom being near, and that means they had to repent for the Mighty One was coming. Now Jesus preaches the Kingdom is here, but He says nothing about a greater One Who is coming. Jesus is saying that He is the One for whom they prepared the Way in the wilderness. The kingdom is here because the King is here, and I am that King! To confirm that truth of the presence of God’s Kingdom, Jesus was publicly installed as the King at His baptism. God had announced that He was the Son of God, in whom He was well-pleased.

We see another aspect of the time of the Kingdom which Jesus is announcing by the Old Testament prophecy we read in Isaiah 40. The first several verses of that chapter speak of John the Baptist who will prepare a way for the Lord in the wilderness. Then the prophecy says that good tidings, or the gospel, will be proclaimed. What is that gospel? The Kingdom of God. For verses 9–11 state that God is present right after this way is prepared for the Messiah. In fact, the LORD God comes with a strong arm to rule and to gather His sheep into the Kingdom fold in love. All these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry. They continue to be fulfilled today as Christ gathers His elect sheep into the Kingdom through the ministry of His Church on earth.

So according to this text and the context of prophecies that are fulfilled in these events, The Kingdom arrived when Jesus did, and it has never left.

Now that we know the time of the Kingdom, what is the Kingdom of God? There are so many Scriptures that give us answers that it is hard to pull them together in a short definition. We’ll see this more in Mark as we learn Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom, for example. In our text, ‘kingdom’ does not refer to the eternal reign of God over the universe. That has always been. Jesus’ coming didn’t change that. Rather, the “kingdom of God” means the redeemed dominion where God’s authority holds sway (Jesus, van Bruggen, 77). The Kingdom is God’s reign in the hearts and lives of His elect people.

This Kingdom is not focused on man and his ability to follow Jesus’ ethical standards so that the world will know how to please God. The Kingdom is the result of the gospel. Jesus preached peace to those who were enemies and traitors to their King.

Jesus didn’t come to Galilee to join Jewish freedom fighters to overthrow the Romans and reestablish a political state of Israel. We have NO business in today’s world supporting a political state of Israel on the basis of the Bible. We might want to support them for political reasons or for protection of our citizens. But we do not support them as if they have a right to the land because of the Bible. Jesus took off the map all such claims when He was here 2,000 years ago. Social actions or political actions by Christians around the world do not bring in new souls to Christ. That has its place, but we need to remember that Jesus said repent and believe—that is what His Kingdom demands. We must preach the gospel everywhere, and expect the Holy Spirit to bless it according to His good pleasure.

This is a gospel of God! Mark 1:1 says that—its all about Jesus, the Son of God. Romans 1:16 tells us the gospel is the power God uses to save our souls. Paul’s mission in life was “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). All that follows in the book of Mark is meant to illustrate this core doctrine of Jesus’ preaching: the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The healings and miracles, the parables and teachings, all show that God’s Kingdom has invaded human history and He is redeeming His elect people in gracious love. Think of it: every preacher has had to tell the gospel story. But Jesus saw to it that there was a story to tell. For He not only preaches the gospel, He lives it! He is really preaching His own autobiography. When Jesus started His ministry, He was starting the work that everyone of us depends upon for our very life!

Jesus Announces the Demands of the Kingdom

Secondly, Jesus announces the demands of the Kingdom. If the time is fulfilled and the King is here, then we can no longer wait around for something else to happen. Now is the day to respond. We must declare total allegiance to Him. The Kingdom was so near to the people and the way to enter was so real that all they needed to do was respond to Jesus’ sermon! How should we respond to the good news of Jesus’ Kingdom? Jesus describes two demands we must meet to enter the Kingdom: repent and believe the gospel.

Repent! The word “repent” means to completely turn around. You turn around your thinking and your speaking and your living in the opposite direction. You turn away from yourself and your own desires and towards God and his perfect will.

Every Christian needs to hear this message of repentance. Our response to this demand of Christ is crucial for our salvation. Do you really take God at His Word? He says you must repent—continually. Martin Luther applies this concept this way, “The old Adam in us, by daily repentance, must drown and die, with all sins and evil lusts.” Our Catechism reminds us, we must know our sins and misery.

Being told to repent really puts us in our place. It reminds us of a perfectly holy God Who has eyes everywhere. He sees and knows everything, and that means He knows everything we have broken of His law, everything we have failed to do in His law for the good of our neighbor and for God’s glory.

We should be reminded that the call to repent is the most familiar statement of any messenger God has ever sent to man. Noah is called a preacher of righteousness who called upon his neighbors to repent of their evil before the flood came. This message to repent repeatedly came to the covenant people, within the church, not those outside. “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11).

John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance from sins. Then, as John moves off the stage, here comes Jesus saying the same thing: repent! The message of repentance continues until Jesus returns, for we see the Apostle Peter applying it to the Jews who rejected Christ saying, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Paul declares this message to the Gentiles, even to the intellectual elite of the day, saying to the philosophers at Athens that [God] “commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness...” (Acts 17:30–31).

Repentance is the negative side. We must turn away from our sins and toward God. The second demand of the Kingdom tells us how to repent and find hope—by believing in the good news that salvation is a gift from God. He gives us the ability to repent. These precious truths are true the moment we deny ourselves and trust in God for mercy.

Believe in the gospel! This demand is also a common theme in the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Peter explained that God made Him an apostle so that Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe (Acts 15:7). The Apostle Paul declared in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” We must believe in this gospel, and when we believe it, we experience the power of God’s Kingdom, for it truly is the power of salvation!

However, people still try to fill their life with meaning and purpose apart from a faith in God’s program. When Jesus was on the cross, we read, “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:32). Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. At the very hour when Jesus was washing away our sins, people said they would believe He was King if He stopped doing that and came down. They wanted to define their King their own way. They wanted to create a customized religion that fit their personal needs and interests. But Jesus said throughout His preaching ministry, repent of your selfishness and believe in the gospel—your sins require real suffering, and I will suffer for you. As one pastor explains, to “believe in the gospel” means “We abandon all our efforts to rule our own lives and establish our own kingdoms....” (Sinclair Ferguson).

When our text says to “believe in the gospel,” it is not saying that we place our trust in a certain teaching or even in a book. Our trust is placed in the person who accomplished what we read of in the book (cf. Eph. 1:17). The gospel is a word of truth which we hear, and then respond by belief in Christ personally. Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus” (Acts 19:4).

Duties Joined Together

These two things—repentance and faith—are not everything the Bible teaches. But they are the summary of the kingdom message and the gospel which saves. It is appropriate then that Mark records for us a summary of Jesus’ preaching with these two concepts of repentance and faith. Repentance from dead works and faith in the living God is the foundation of Christianity. These are the elementary principles of Christ, as Hebrews 6:1 describes it. The Apostle Paul followed the same preaching pattern as Jesus. When Paul summarized his ministry among the Ephesian church, he said that he taught “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

Matthew Henry commented,

“By repentance we must give glory to our Creator whom we have offended; by faith we must give glory to our Redeemer who came to save us from our sins. Both these must go together; we must not think either that reforming our lives will save us without trusting in the righteousness and grace of Christ, or that trusting in Christ will save us without the reformation of our hearts and lives. Christ hath joined these two together, and let no man think to put them asunder.”

These particular demands show us the nature of the Kingdom of God. It is not a kingdom like we could ever know unless God had revealed it to us from heaven in Holy Scripture and by sending His own Son to tell us about it in the flesh.

God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of grace. There is no other explanation. In order to enter this Kingdom you have to meet the demands of repentance and faith. Those are demands that are very offensive and intolerant. They offend us because they tell us that we are terrible sinners who have something of which to repent. They offend our hearts also by claiming an intolerance for all other ways of entering the Kingdom—can we only believe in this one gospel of Jesus? Aren’t there other doors into the Kingdom? Perhaps a back door or a side door which is easier, or allows me to contribute some of my own works?

God’s Kingdom cannot be earned by us, only given to us. How wretched are we if we do not repent and believe? In that case, we would be members of the kingdom of Satan, of darkness. The only way to God’s Kingdom is through repentance and faith. Are you in His Kingdom? Have you answered the demands of Jesus’ preaching?

Jesus does not proclaim the gospel of God’s Kingdom so we have something to discuss in our Bible Study classes. He does it as an official announcement and summons. He is God’s final word to mankind. There will be no more prophets or apostles after the New Testament is done. Either a person submits to Jesus’ call or a person chooses this world with its riches and pleasures. There is no time for delay. Repentance is not something you think about and pray about. It is something you do. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and turn away from your sins, or else you will not see the Kingdom of heaven.

The time of God’s Kingdom is now. Everywhere the gospel is preached, there is the opening of the doors to the Kingdom. All who believe that gospel and walk through those doors will enjoy eternal bliss such as eye has not seen nor ear heard. Won’t you walk through, trusting that Christ has dominion over not only  the heavens and the earth, but over even your heart and life? Amen!

--Rev. Kyle Sorensen, Manitowoc, WI