The Public Announcement that Changed the World Forever!

When we think of Jesus’ teaching and preaching, we tend to look first at his parables, or the Sermon on the Mount, or some of his miracles and acts of mercy. But in Mark’s Gospel, the very first words out of Jesus’ mouth in respect to public ministry are short, urgent, and powerful, and forever changed the world: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Someone called this the headline of His entire ministry. Everything He will do - healing the sick, casting out demons, calming storms, dying on the cross, and rising from the dead - flows from this announcement.

Notice the setting. It’s estimated that as much as one year has passed after the baptism of Jesus before John the Baptist was arrested. The forerunner has finished his role, and now the Messiah steps forward declaring the arrival of a new era, heralded and brought near by a new King, featuring a new agenda, a new power, and a new hope for the world. His message astonished the crowds, alarmed the powers-that-be, amazed and transformed His followers, and set in motion a new course for the history of men and events. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom, and nothing has been the same since! The announcement  begins with:

A Noun that Portrays the Author of the Gospel – “gospel of God”

The phrase “gospel of God” is a noun and not a verb. It is about the Author and not just the announcement. The gospel reveals God’s thinking, his treatment of rebellious man’s condition, and God’s terms for entering his kingdom.

The Gospel is not Good Advice to be Followed but Good News to be Believed! The gospel is news about what God has already done for you, rather than instruction and advice about what you are to do for God. The importance of his work, not our work, is part of the essence of faith. In other religions, their god/gods reveal to them how they can find or achieve salvation. In Christianity, God achieves salvation for us. The gospel brings news primarily, rather than instruction.

The gospel of the kingdom of God addresses everything that was affected by the fall of mankind. It deals with sin, self, Satan, time, the earth, life after death, and the final return of Christ. The gospel of the kingdom announces that the “reversal of the curse” began with the successful mission of King Jesus. Yet today we tend to focus on one aspect of it – missing hell and making heaven when we die - and make that “our gospel.”\

A Notification that Proclaims Good News from the Ruler of all Creation – “…proclaiming the gospel of God…”

1. The Gospel is an announcement of a victory that established Christ’s Kingdom – “proclaiming”

The word used for the preaching or proclaiming that Jesus did during his public ministry is, “kērussōn.”  Kerusson means to make a formal or an official announcement and thus to announce by means of a herald of a king or one who functions as a herald.

The Roman Empire of Jesus’s day had their own gospel. The Roman Emperor would send out “heralds” declaring that a Savior Emperor, who was declared to be god, had been born, and that the one born had come to end war and create order, a benefactor who is filled with virtue, a god whose birthday is the beginning of the gospel and which should therefore be celebrated by making it the basis for recording the passage of time itself.

Jesus’ gospel of the Kingdom is going to bring him and his followers into conflict with Rome’s gospel. They both can’t be true. Either Jesus is Lord and Savior or Caesar is.

The apostolic “kerygma” was “a proclamation of the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of King Jesus that asserted that in His person, He was both Lord and Christ. This is the proclamation of Peter in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

Borrowing from Dudley Hall’s comments, he states that “we discover in Acts 2:36 that the "kerygma,” or the announcement of the gospel declared Him both Lord and Christ, and in so doing, confronted two major strongholds:

(1) Jesus is Lord confronts the Stronghold of Rebellion: The Gentiles had given up on Submitting to God and tried Managing their lives as “god-players” through rebellion! Caesar claimed to be Lord, individuals claimed to be their own lord, but Jesus sent forth his “heralds” with one uncompromising announcement – Jesus alone is Lord!

(2) Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) confronts the Stronghold of Religion: The Jews had given up relating to God and tried manipulating Him through religion! Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ – Truth is a person to relate to and not just a proposition or principle to use to make life productive and prosperous. Knowing God is a relational experience and not a religious ritual exercise!

This confrontation of mankind’s rebellion and religion with the gospel announcement carried with it a call of immediate and radical repentance, and promised the forgiveness of sins, to those who believe and are baptized in water, with a drenching of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon them for enjoyment of the King and employment in His kingdom!” This announcement or proclamation was delivered with a driving sense of urgency (1Co 9:16); it appealed to every man’s conscience by the open statement of truth (2Co 4:2); it was accompanied by miracles, signs and wonders that demonstrated that it wasn’t just a lot of loud talk (1 Cors 4:20, kingdom is in word and power). More often than not it was met with opposition (cf. 2Co 11:23-28). Since it demanded faith from the hearer, it was careful not to obscure its message with lofty words or eloquent wisdom (1Co 1:17; 2:1-4).

The Gospel is an Announcement of an Event that Changes History.

As “kingdom announcers, heralds, criers, or proclaimers,” they declared that the end of the old age had come in Jesus, and a brand-new world order or creation was dawning. The end of all religion had come because Jesus came to establish a relationship with the living God, not to give some more rules, rituals and regulations.

As heralds of King Jesus, we announce that through the death and resurrection of Jesus a new order of things has come into being.  Not just something in an individual’s heart, but a new reality in history. The fullness of time has come; a new creation has been born; the long-anticipated age of the Spirit foretold by Joel has arrived. Now the last days of this present evil age have come as well as the new world of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The reason to believe and repent isn’t just to go to heaven when you die, get peace in your heart now, or have a happier marriage and better kids.  The reason to repent and believe is quite simple, “God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” and this being true there are no other options other than rebellion and more religion; repent or perish!

A New Day that Publicizes that the Climax of History has Come! – “the time is fulfilled”

The first message of Jesus was an announcement that declared that “the time has come.” This phrase means essentially the thing you’ve been waiting for is on its way here and now. There are two basic words for time in the Greek language. One is "chronos" and this means clock or calendar type time. The other word, and the one Jesus used in this verse, is “kairos,” and it means a special event or encounter, and epoch moment, or a window of opportunity.

Jesus is saying here that a new world order has dawned. The old-world order or era has come to a close. Time is fulfilled in that all the shadows of the Old Testament have become substance in Him; all the rituals have become reality in Him; all the types have been fulfilled in their antitype - Himself. He explains the parables and solves the riddles. He completes Israel’s mission, fulfills its law, as well as its temple and inheritance. He has come to reinstate normalcy to life on earth. He is declaring that the power of the end times has broken into to the now of human history. Nothing has ever happened to compare with this event, and nothing ever will, including the final or second coming of the Messiah. The climax of history has come. There is a meta-narrative, a Big Story, that gives meaning and purpose to all of life’s little stories.

As “kingdom announcers, heralds, criers, or proclaimers,” the first century believers declared that the end of the old age had come in Jesus, and a brand-new world order or creation was dawning. The end of all religion had come because Jesus came to establish a relationship with the living God, not to give some more rules, rituals and regulations. The New Testament exists because the final, complete, decisive, lasting act of divine salvation happened when Jesus, the Messiah, came into the world. He was the final Adam (Read Romans 5:12-21), and the final prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22; 7:37), the final Israel (Matthew 4:1-11), the final high priest (Hebrews 7:23-24), the final Passover sacrifice (1 Corinthians 5:7), the final manna from heaven (John 6:31-32), the final suffering servant of Isaiah 53 (Mark 10:45), and the final Son of Man of Daniel 7 (Matthew 24:30). His blood was the blood of the promised final new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31 (Luke 22:20). He therefore was the final, decisive “Yes” and “Amen” to all God’s promises (2 Corinthians 1:20). The gospel is the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ actually made full payment for our sins. It declares that He removed the wrath of God; detoxified the sting of death, disarmed the devil and his demons, disbanded the curse sin brought on the earth and initiated the reversal of that curse. He has been installed in the place of supreme authority at the right hand of God as the Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe where He will reign until all His enemies have been made His footstool! That’s actual -- a done deal!

In Mark’s introduction of Jesus, he records him as saying as clearly and emphatically as He could - ‘the opportune moment is here right now’. That begs the question, the opportune moment for what? To get in on the kingdom of God that He was definitively establishing, would progressively extend, and would ultimately and victoriously establish on earth and become one the King’s Kids in training for reigning in life with Him – beginning now and continuing into the then of eternity (Roms 5:17)!

A Now Time that Provides Access to the Life of the Age to Come – “kingdom of heaven is at hand”

What is the kingdom? (Kingdom of heaven occurs 32 times (only Matthew).  Kingdom of God is used 66 times (throughout the NT). As to the two phrases “kingdom of Heaven and kingdom of God”, they are virtually synonyms  - heaven is where it’s from, and God is the One who runs it.

The Kingdom of God is the divine rule which Jesus came to bring into the affairs of men. It is an administration of righteousness, peace, and joy which we may enter by the Holy Spirit (Roms. 14:17), through the new birth which comes by grace through faith (Jn. 3:3,5). The Kingdom of God centers on Jesus, who is its King, and on his call to follow Him in a life of self-denying service to the glory of God. To enter this Kingdom is to be born again to a life set apart for God, characterized by obedience to the Word of God.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is not, in the first instance, about you and me going to heaven when we die. It is about the Kingdom of God first and foremost - about a new reality that has broken into human experience with irresistible, transforming power, making all things new and bringing the knowledge of the glory of God to light in the sight of all men and nations.

With the coming of the Kingdom of God a new era has broken into human history. A new King is on the throne, and He is advancing a new economy —a spiritual economy in which grace and truth, flows from King Jesus by the power of God's Spirit, in widespread, ever-increasing love and truth among men. A new agenda governs the affairs of men: King Jesus is building His Church and calling out a people for Himself. His people pursue an altogether new priority — seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness for all of life. And they are infused with a new hope, the hope of knowing God's glory and showing His glory to the world.

The simplest definition is found in what we know as the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” - Matthew 6:10. The Kingdom is the will of God, done on earth as it is already done in heaven. This is what Jesus enacts in his ministry. Wherever he goes, sin, sickness, hunger, poverty, injustice, the spiritual forces of evil, and even death itself, are pushed back. More than that, Jesus promises that there will come a day when the forces which spoil human life are not merely pushed back but defeated fully and finally, never to rear their heads again.

The Kingdom of Heaven Being at Hand or Near Means that it was: Powerfully Active – Now! Presently Available – Now! Personally Accessible – Now! Jesus said the Kingdom of God is “at hand” or “near”. The word ‘near’ doesn’t mean a distant near but so close you could touch it. Announcing the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is saying something like, "I have come as King, and I’ve brought my world with me."  The “eternal life” Jesus offers is not about length of life in heaven, but about the life of the age to come coming into history and into the hearts of believers – NOW!

The Gospel is not About a Free Pass to Heaven When You Die, But About a Full Relationship and Partnership with the Kingdom of Heaven While You Live! It is strategic that we recover the King Jesus gospel of the kingdom because until we do we will misunderstand our assignment and continue lead people to make decisions for Christ so they can go to heaven in the sweet by and by instead of making disciples of Christ who will bring the kingdom of heaven to bear in the nasty now and now. Discipleship flows from the gospel message. Until we teach this larger Kingdom message, we will never make the kind of disciples we were meant to.

We often wonder why someone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus comes to church and reads his Bible but is also looking at porn and not serving the poor, not evangelizing his neighbor, and divorcing his spouse, and not studying theology. We often wonder why someone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus can so easily separate their “spiritual” life from their “secular” life. It’s basically because we have preached a gospel that deals merely with personal salvation so once someone is “saved” there is not much else to think about. They “prayed the prayer” and now it is “mission accomplished.” However, if we realized that the gospel is not just about our “spiritual” lives but about Christ redeeming everything that has gone wrong in the universe it breaks down this sacred/secular divide.

Jesus isn’t just the “Lord of your heart.” He is the Lord of the universe. He is the Lord over your finances. He is the Lord over your sex life. He is the Lord over your marriage. He is the Lord over your hobbies. He is the Lord over your kids. He is the Lord over everything that exists!

A Necessary Response that Prompts a Choice to Change in Order to Enter the Kingdom of God - “repent and believe in the gospel.”

1. Accessibility to what Jesus Offers and what He has Can’t be had without relating to WHO HE IS!

You can’t get the blessings of the Kingdom’s supplies without bowing to the Kingdom’s Sovereign and surrendering to the scepter of His kingdom’s rule! You can’t have the fruit of the kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, without the root of a relationship with the King, who is the Righteous One, the Prince of Peace, and the Joy-filled Jesus!

We must clarify the meaning of repentance. It is a command to turn from rebellion and religion and submit to Christ by:

(1) Entering into a Love Relationship with Him – Before the kingdom is about reign and rules, it’s about a relationship with the King.

(2) Submitting to His Rulership or Kingship over me – to be commanded by His will, controlled by His Word, and directed by His ways!

(3) Embracing His Partnership or Discipleship with me – to become a counter-culture revolutionary that by the power of resurrected life and love and sacrificial living, show and tell what life in the kingdom of heaven is like!

Since the kingdom has come, is coming, and will come finally and forever, we cannot view history like others. History is no longer the story of civilizations coming and going without inherent meaning. History is about a loving and powerful God who created mankind to fellowship with him and partner with him in the earth project.

Many Bible teachers infer that Jesus went back to heaven disappointed and in weakness and defeat because He had been rejected as King by the Jews and had to postpone His kingdom until the quote, “church age” is complete. He is viewed as an exile in heaven, driven off by the hatred of men, and rules only in heaven and over His people. To console themselves they say, “But just you wait! One day He will come back and get the real, literal, material throne that He has wanted and has waited for centuries to get!”

NO! Ten thousand times NO! Our Redeemer never intended that men crown Him as King. No man can make Him Lord or King. Father God has already done that, so all you and I can do is either confess Him as Lord by faith and be saved or wait until He comes and confess Him out of fear and force as Lord and be damned forever.

We are not awaiting a future time or place when Christ receives a position of supremacy – He has it NOW! Thus, during the present age, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, putting His enemies under His feet, through His properly authorized, Spirit-baptized, great-Commission-going, disciple-making, signs-and-wonders-following-them type people!

The reason to repent and believe is quite simple, “God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” and this being true there are no other options other than rebellion and more religion; repent or perish!