Reading Reading Mark chapter 1 verses 9 to 15

Repent and Believe The Gospel

What is the worst place you can imagine being? What would it take for you to go to that place? Would you go there if there was any way you could avoid it?

The Lord Jesus came to this world from the highest glory in heaven. Later in His life He spoke to God The Father about how He'd been before He came into the world. We read in John 17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" He came from Gods presence, which is holy, and entirely without sin to a place which was full of sin and things that grieved Him. The Lord Jesus didn't react like we might. If we found ourselves somewhere we thought was awful, as He must have found the world, we'd take off and look for somewhere nicer. Instead of leaving The Lord Jesus set about the task He'd come to do.

Would He have done this if there were any other way?

The Lord Jesus began to tell people things they needed to hear. He told them about the Kingdom of God being at hand. He told them about the need for Repentance and Faith.

The Kingdom of God is to be found where God rules and reigns as King. It is anywhere where God is Sovereign. The Kingdom of God is particularly in the hearts of Gods people because it is only Gods people who are really those who accept His rule. Everyone else is in rebellion against Gods rule because they continue in sin. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual, internal kingdom. We read in Luke 17:20-21 "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you". The Jews expected a kingdom on earth where they, as a nation, would be in charge. When the kingdom was announced they expected to fight a war and be victorious, led by the Messiah. (Messiah is the anointed, the one chosen by God.)

The Lord Jesus announced that The Kingdom was at hand. The Lord Jesus came to open up the way for sinners of every age from Adam to the end of the world to enter The Kingdom of God and to be at peace with God forever. His message was of supreme importance and it was important, therefore, that people listen to His message. The Jews weren't expecting this message or a Messiah like The Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus began preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, the good news and glad tidings of the kingdom of the Messiah which lies not in worldly pomp and splendour, in outward observances, in legal rites and ceremonies, but in righteousness, peace, and joy; in peace and pardon by the blood of Christ, in justification by his righteousness, and in free and full salvation by him.

The Jews thought they'd be OK because they were Jews and because they thought they were good people, not like the Gentiles or Non-Jews all around them. They thought The Kingdom of God was theirs because of the nation in which they were born.

The Lord Jesus taught the need for repentance and faith for everyone. Repentance means turning around and going in the opposite direction. It involves a true sense of our own guilt and sinfulness, an understanding of God's mercy in Christ; an actual hatred of sin as portrayed in Psalm 119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. and Job 42:5,6 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. and this provokes a turning from sin to God. It also involves effort to live a holy life and walking with God in the way of his commandments. The true penitent is conscious of guilt and pollution Ps 51:4 to 9 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities and of helplessness Ps 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Thus he admits himself to be just what God has always seen him to be and declares him to be. But repentance comprehends not only such a sense of sin, but also an apprehension of mercy, without which there can be no true repentance Ps 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

The Jews thought they didn't need to repent because they thought they kept Gods Law.

Faith is trusting. We trust car drivers when we walk on the pavement and they drive past us a few feet away at 50 miles an hour. We believe they'll stay on the road and not come onto the pavement and squash us. The Lord Jesus commanded His hearers to Believe The Gospel. They were to have faith in Gods word and believe the message The Lord Jesus brought. This was His message. He spoke of Himself as the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning the Messiah. Luke 4:18-21 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. The Lord Jesus declared Himself to be The One promised all through The Old Testament. The good news of the Gospel (gospel means good news) was that the Messiah was there in Judea. The hearers were to believe Who Jesus was. After The Lord Jesus spoke these words in Nazareth where He grew up the people objected to other things He said and tried to kill Him. They didn't believe His Gospel.

The message is the same today for us as it was in Jesus' day.

The Kingdom of God and the way to become a member of that kingdom is close to each one of us. All we need to know is revealed in the Bible. We all need to repent of our sin and to turn about and go Gods way. We all need to trust God and believe His word about ourselves as sinners and about The Lord Jesus as the only Saviour. We need, with the help of God, to ask for forgiveness for all the wrong we've done and for God to accept us through what The Lord Jesus has done.

The Lord Jesus did not come into the world just to teach people. He came to die on the cross to bear the punishment due to His people. He suffered in the place of sinners so that they could enter in to The Kingdom of God and be at peace with God forever. He arose the third day and is now on His throne at Gods right hand from where he sends the same message as He preached on earth. Repent and Believe The Gospel.

The wondrous thing is that, as sinful people we are incapable of repentance and faith, The Lord Jesus gives repentance and faith. We read in Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Speaking of The Lord Jesus, one of His disciples, Peter said Acts 5:31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. God has done all that is needed - will you not ask Him to give you repentance and faith to believe the Gospel.

Ask Him and He will.