…and the Kingdom of God is Advancing... | Part I

Series: …AND… | The Movement of God and His People through Mark
Title: …and the Kingdom of God is Advancing... | Part I
Text: Mark 1:16-34

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

My name is Andrew Haws. I am one of the leaders here. And over the past couple of weeks, well, I guess this is week two, uh, we have been jumping into a new sermon series. Um, we're looking through the book of Mark together, and we've called this sermon series and. And some of you are like, that sounds like a dumb name. It's okay. It actually has a good purpose. When we look at the book of Mark, what we see is the way that Mark tells the story of Jesus is at this relentless pace of momentum. Andrew started us off last week, and Mark begins and he's like, This is the gospel, you know, the good news about who Jesus is. And then it just goes straight into it. John the Baptist comes, he's preaching repentance. Jesus comes, he gets baptized, he just goes to the desert, he gets tempted, he comes out, John the Baptist goes into prison, and Jesus starts preaching. That's that's like of Mark. It's just story after story after story after story, movement after movement after movement after movement. And yet, Mark is not simply telling us these stories because he wants us to know what Jesus did. As he shares with us what Jesus did, Mark is actually inviting us to encounter who Jesus is. And this river of momentum is not just meant to be something that we go to the side and observe. Mark is inviting us to get captured up in the rapids of the river of Jesus. And that's my prayer for us this morning. That you're not just coming here and listening to someone talk about some verses in the Bible, but that you're here this morning and you're encountering Jesus, that he's speaking to you. And that he's inviting you to know him more through his word. So if you have your Bibles, I'm gonna back us up just slightly. Mark chapter 1, verse 15. So, as I mentioned, uh Jesus begins his ministry because John the Baptist has been thrown in prison. And it says that he begins to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. And then he he gets this most basic sermon in the world. I I tell you, like if this is all I had to do every Sunday, it would be so it's it would seem so easy. But Jesus only says three things. Number one, verse 15, the time has come, he said. Number two, the kingdom of God has come near. Number three, repent and believe. So simple and yet so significant. When Jesus says the time has come, what's he talking about? Well, if you have your Bibles, hold them up for me if you have your Bible. Anyone? Yeah, a few of you. Okay, if you have your Bibles, I want you to just look. Mark is not at the start of the Bible. Mark is like maybe three-quarters, two-thirds of the way through. So when Jesus says the time has come, he's inviting us to look back at the story of what God has done. And if you go all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 3, it tells us an incredible story of how a loving God created this world to reflect what he was like, a calling card of his love. And at the pinnacle of that creation, he makes human beings as a partner to care for and cultivate creation. But humans don't want to be a partner, they want full ownership on their uh on on their own right, independent of God. And so they rebel. And in the rebellion, it just creates a cascading mess of distortion. I think some of us can relate to this. This sense that things are not as they ought to be. Some of us feel this in our own lives. You're here this morning because you are intrinsically feeling like something's not right in here. Or perhaps you feel it in your relationships. And maybe everything internal to you, everything that's right in front of you seems okay, but you can look around in the world. Wars, corruption, all of these things are pointing to this reality that things are not as they ought to be. So when Jesus says the time has come, he is saying the God who created world the world in his image and likeness, who created human beings, has come to rescue, redeem, and renew his creation. And he says the means by which he is going to do that is through his kingdom inbreaking. I think we don't often think about this term kingdom very often because we we live in a democracy. And so even though we're like a constitutional uh monarchy or whatever we're called, uh like we don't really have a deep connection to a kingdom. But but when Mark's first uh hearers were listening to this, this is like military language, like an invasion is happening. Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is invading our reality. There's this great children's book written by a man named C.S. Lewis called The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe. Yeah, yeah, it's a great book. It's a great book. And there's this character who sort of represents Jesus in the book named Aslan. If you're familiar with the story, you know that the world of Narnia is not as it should be. It's always winter, always winter, but never Christmas. Like we are in the midst of the dark, dreary, rainy winter. Christmas is gone, and now all we have to look forward to is the hope of spring. But just imagine if that hope did not exist, how depressing would life be right now. That's Narnia. And then this rumor starts to percolate among the creatures of Narnia. Aslan is on the move. Aslan is on the move. Aslan being on the move wasn't just about a person coming, it was about reality changing. And you start to see the tendrils of that change. The Father Christmas comes, Christmas finally comes, the snow starts to melt, the flowers start to come up, spring starts to show signs of life. This is the picture that Jesus is proclaiming. He's saying, God's kingdom is inbreaking now in and through me, the King. And then the final thing he says is, I'm inviting you to respond to it. When Jesus says repent, what he is talking about is a turning of allegiance. He's saying, Jesus' kingdom is invading our reality, and you are being invited to join it. So today, as we walk through these three separate stories, what I want you to see is that Mark is not just telling us things that happened. Mark is showcasing for us what happens when the kingdom starts to inbreak into our reality. And we're not just invited to see what the kingdom looks like, but we're also being invited to repent and believe, which is an invitation to join and do likewise. So let's continue on, verse 16. Mark writes, As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once, let me say this again. At once they left their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further, he saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John in the boat, preparing their nets without delay. He called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Man, I love this, right? Jesus again is on the move. The kingdom is advancing. Jesus doesn't start his ministry from a platform in Mark's gospel. He doesn't start it with some type of program. He starts it with a walk, a simple walk beside the Sea of Galilee. And as Jesus walks, the kingdom spreads with him, and it is contagious. He comes, and there's these two men just going about their business. They're fishermen. And Jesus calls them. And he doesn't simply call them to come to a philosophy, a teaching, 12 rules of life. No, Jesus calls them to join him in his advancement. Some of you are familiar with the American Civil War. The beginning of the Civil War, I believe, uh, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Act, which freed legally all the slaves. What was so interesting is that as many slaves were being freed and rescued from the South and making their way up to the North, they didn't just stop and enjoy the moment. Over 180,000 former slaves joined the Union Army to continue to see freedom extend to their brothers and sisters who were still stuck in slavery. This is such a beautiful picture of what Jesus is inviting us into. The first thing that we see is that the kingdom is inherently invitational. And it's an invitation not just to come and observe, but an invitation to a greater purpose, an invitation into the movement of Jesus. I have talked about this a lot, and some of you are probably sick of me talking about this. But Shannon and I are starting a school in September. And as we were preparing for this, one of the things that really convinced us that this was something that we were feeling called to is we would have these conversations with students, with children about why they were in school. And so often I would get the same answer. I don't know. Why do you do math? I don't know. Why are you doing this course? I don't know. No sense of purpose, just going through the motions. And I think some of us are living this Christian life where we're like, why do you read your Bible? I don't know. Why do you go to church gatherings on Sunday? I don't know. Why should you have a quiet time? I don't know. We're just kind of going through the motions, but Jesus is inviting us into a purpose. For Acton, we we base this entire educational journey on what we call the hero's journey, this, this, this reality that it is meant to help form you into the person that God has made you to be. That you have unique gifts that are being given to you so that you can make a positive impact in the world. And everything you do is leading up to prepare you for that task. Jesus, in the same way, is inviting you to understand that you have been built for a much greater purpose, not the mundaness of life, but the kingdom change of reality. You're not just there to go through the motions. Jesus is inviting you to an active journey of expansion of his kingdom where you live, learn, work, and play. And when these fishermen heard the call, they understood to some extent how fantastic it was. Now, I've used a lot of kind of militaristic language, and I want to make sure that I'm defining what it is that Jesus is calling us into because sometimes, again, we can kind of co-opt Jesus for our own desires, as we'll we'll see uh Mark talk about in a little bit. Jesus is calling these fishermen to be disciples. And again, let's look at the call that he gave. Come follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people. I actually think the ESV does a better job of translating it. The ESV puts it this way: follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. When we talk about this term disciple, it is packed with meaning. And I think we see three important aspects to discipleship right here in this simple verse.

Speaker 12:20

Jesus says, Come follow me. Do you catch that? Jesus isn't inviting them to a philosophy. Jesus isn't inviting them to a program. Jesus is inviting them to a person. A disciple is not someone who subscribes to the teachings of Jesus, to the philosophy of Jesus. A disciple is someone who walks with Jesus.

Speaker 1 13:10

And that's exactly what he says next. I will make you become.

Speaker 13:41

But the beautiful after aspect to the Christian life is he doesn't leave you there.

Speaker 1 13:47

Jesus has your full potential in mind. You were created to be like God. In fact, the whole Bible tells us that this is where we're moving to, that God is going to rescue and redeem us and restore us so that we can once more be his partners and caring for creation. All the flaws that you have, all the hard edges that need to be softened, Jesus actually wants to take and refine and make you into a person that is like him.

Speaker 14:21

And then finally, Jesus says, I will make you become what?

Speaker 1 14:24

Fishers of men. Jesus is not just inviting you away from something, he's inviting you towards something. He's inviting you not just to become like him, but then to extend his likeness to the places around you, to your relationships in your school, in your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your family, in your network, in your gym.

Speaker 14:54

Jesus inviting you to bring his kingdom to bear in each of those moments. Now, Mark gives us this stark picture of their response.

Speaker 1 15:11

Andrew and Simon, who's also called Peter, they just like drop it all. They're like, all right, I'm out. See y'all. They come along, and there's James and John, they're hanging out with their dad and the hired helpers. And then they just drop everything. And we get this impression. And I think Mark wants us to get this impression that when Jesus calls, we drop everything and leave it all behind. What's interesting is in a few verses, we're going to see that they are going to Peter's home. So it's not like they left everything behind. In fact, as you continue to read through Mark's gospel, Jesus often finds himself in a boat. Who had the boat? Probably the fisherman. Right? So what Mark wants us to understand is that when Jesus invites us, it's not just that we drop everything. In fact, again, as we see behind what Mark is writing, it wasn't that they divested themselves of every earthly attachment. What Mark wants us to understand is that when Jesus calls, he supersedes everything else in our life. What do we see? They leave behind their social attachments, their economic responsibilities, their familial, familial obligations.

Speaker 16:27

I think some, some of us today might be sitting here and we're kind of sitting in the boat.

Speaker 1 16:35

We're sitting in the boat, and Jesus is walking by today, and he's saying, follow me, follow me. I've got something so much better for you. I'm gonna completely transform you, and I have a mission for you. And we're sitting there, we're like, I don't know, like this boat is comfortable, it's predictable. That's kind of scary. And Jesus saying, Come on, come on, come on.

Speaker 17:00

Are you ready to leave it all behind? If you're wondering what this might practically look like, reminds me of my friends Dave and Brianna, who are part of our church.

Speaker 1 17:13

A couple of years ago, they had this like crisis moment. I didn't tell them I was in the store. I don't even know if they're in the room right now. But uh, they had this crisis moment. Um, they they were like, man, Victoria is a really expensive city. We're starting to have kids. They had some family on the Sunshine Coast. They're like, you know, um maybe we should just go. Like that, that's gonna be a lot easier for us. And on paper, it probably would have been. They would have had more economic uh stability, more opportunities. And yet, as they wrestled through this, they clearly heard the call of Jesus to his adventure here in Victoria. And so they made the decision to stay. Yeah, we're very thankful, right? We love them. I'm very thankful. That's a picture of people who are saying yes to the call of Jesus. It doesn't mean that everything gets dropped. It means that Jesus becomes the metric by which you measure your decisions. He supersedes everything else in your life.

Speaker 18:19

For some of you, maybe you jumped out of the boat and you followed Jesus.

Speaker 1 18:24

But at a certain point, something came along, a new boat. You kind of started to dip your feet in the water towards it, and maybe your hands are on it. Life's just slowed down and things have gotten mundane. And today, Jesus wants to invite you to once more jump out and follow him. To continue to pursue that first love, that first call, that moment where you're like, it's time. I've been called, I've got to leave everything behind and follow Jesus. For others, you're there. You are chasing after Jesus. But I want you to know that chasing after Jesus doesn't always look like the mountaintops' experiences. Chasing after Jesus sometimes looks like faithfulness as you quietly walk behind him through the deserts.

Speaker 19:19

So stay the course. Stay the course. We see a second scene of the kingdom.

Speaker 1 19:30

After Jesus gains these four followers, it says that he went to Capernaum. And when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and he began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Be quiet, said Jesus sternly. Come out of him. And the impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were so were all so amazed that they asked each other, What is this? A new teaching? And with authority, he even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey him. News about him spread quickly over the region of Galilee. And I know this is probably for some of us a very unsettling story. But I think it's so interesting that we look at this scene. It's like an ordinary average church gathering. I mean, it's a synagogue on a Saturday, but it's probably so similar to this. People gathering together as a group, and they're among the people gathered, hidden away, is this man who has been completely and utterly captured.

Speaker 20:58

And what's so interesting to me is it seems like no one else knows this. Like it's a surprise.

Speaker 1 21:07

And obviously, there has been people, these teachers of the law, that these scribes that Mark describes, these people who are the academic experts, the ones who have gone to school, who have the PhDs, who know how things are supposed to work. They're in the room. They're obviously doing some teaching as well. And yet they have zero power to expose and free this man who is completely entrapped by an impure spirit.

Speaker 21:52

And there is something that has captured you. A secret addiction or not. Habit an affair that you're afraid might come out. No one knows, and on the surface, everything looks good. But Jesus knows, and he wants to come and free you. He wants to come and free you. The difference between the authority of the scribes or the religious leaders and Jesus was that the religious leaders they derived their authority from someone else.

Speaker 1 22:37

And I think we kind of have an idea of what this means. Some of you guys know John Seder, he's part of our church. Last year he did a uh he did his dissertation defense to get his PhD. Super smart, super smart guy. And what's so interesting is John will have to come into this room and there's all these other people who have PhDs. But here's the thing: all those other people got their PhDs from someone else who had PhDs, who had PhDs. All of their authorities derive from someone else. They're built on someone else's foundation. In fact, all of academia is really built off of someone's foundation. How do you measure someone's success in academia by the number of citations they get? But guess what? They had to quote someone else's work. And this is exactly what was going on in Mark's day and age. The scribes, the teachers, they would say, Well, this rabbi said this, and this rabbi said this. Gambliel thinks it's this way, Halal thinks it's this way. But Jesus says, I am the foundation on which all else is built. I need to quote no one else. I am the one who gets quoted.

Speaker 23:48

Jesus spoke with authority. And they took notice. What's more, Jesus demonstrated authority.

Speaker 1 24:00

He comes into contact with this unclean spirit.

Speaker 24:06

And he demands that the unclean spirit comes out, and the unclean spirit obeys him. I think right now in our culture, we properly understand that authority is suspect.

Speaker 1 24:32

I think we do. I mean, it's not so long ago that we were in the middle of COVID, right? Now, if some of you are like, oh, wait, too soon, Andrew, too soon. But but there's a reality. COVID, regardless of where you land on the spectrum of how things should have gone, you know that so many people, so-called experts, did not know what the heck they were doing and were just winging it by the seat of their pants. Like we know that people were trying to figure it out at the same time. We were all trying to figure it out. And people made a ton of mistakes. The so-called experts were not experts in everything. I'm simply saying that human beings are fallible. Human beings derive their authority from someone else, and moments like this expose that we do not know everything. But Jesus says, I am an authority that you can trust. And the fallout of things like COVID is that our culture is deeply suspect of anyone who puts their hope or puts their name forward as someone who's an authority. We are in an authority drought. We don't know who we can trust. We don't know who we can look to. But Jesus is inviting you to see that you can look to him and he can prove it. Because he actually has the authority to free us from the things that bind us. And when the kingdom advances, it does not negotiate with what enslaves us, it commands it. And some of us are here today, and we are looking for an authority that can bring us freedom. The Jordan Petersons of the world with their 12 steps of life, 12 rules of life, they're not going to do it.

Speaker 26:34

What we need is someone who actually has authority to change and transform us.

Speaker 1 26:43

When we put our hope in lesser authorities, it will just lead us to frustration and failure, and we will be like the man who was sitting in the middle of the synagogue with a hidden impure spirit.

Speaker 26:59

So what is it? What is it that you are placing your hope in for authority?

Speaker 1 27:09

Jesus is inviting you to come to his kingdom, to submit yourself to it, but in that he is telling you his kingdom is a kingdom of freedom. And that's the paradox. Our submission to the authority of Jesus is actually the means by which we will find our freedom from those other things that entrap us.

Speaker 27:32

And he's inviting you to come and submit to him and allow his power to come and bring you freedom. So what is it that you look to for your authority? It's interesting.

Speaker 1 27:47

The final story that we look at is a beautiful contrast to this. It's such an ordinary average picture, isn't it? This is what what Mark writes. As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and the demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. This is such a ordinary average moment. Many of us will experience something like this. You go to a church gathering on a Sunday, and after you're like, I'm going home, I'm going to invite some friends over, we're going to have lunch together. So simple. And this is what I love. The kingdom of God is not this extravagant program. It's something that saturates the ordinary moments of our life. Jesus has doesn't have this plan, as far as we know. Mark doesn't communicate it of like going and starting a healing ministry. He just simply responds to the things that are right in front of him. And just look at the way he responds, so different than how he responds to the impure spirit. The impure spirit is about Jesus' power, it's about his authority.

Speaker 29:18

It's about deliverance. But this simple story is just so saturated with compassion.

Speaker 1 29:28

Jesus comes and he hears that Simon's mother-in-law has a fever.

Speaker 29:33

She's in bed. And there we have that immediate, that that fast pace, immediately they told Jesus about her. And then what does Jesus do? He went to her, he took her hand and he helped her up.

Speaker 1 29:52

Like, can you picture that gentle, beautiful scene as Jesus calms up to this woman who is lying in bed sick, extends his hand to her, gently brings her up.

Speaker 30:09

It's so laced with compassion and gentleness. And the final product is her healing, her restoration. What we see in this third story is that Jesus' kingdom is not just invitational. Jesus' kingdom is not just freeing, Jesus' kingdom is also restorative. It's also restorative.

Speaker 1 30:40

Jesus here demonstrates gentle compassion. And I think there are some of us again who are here today. And this is what we need from Jesus. Now, to be sure, Mark is declaring something by declaring Jesus' power to bring about physical healing. And I truly do believe that there are those who are going to be physically healed and have been physically healed. I have heard many verifiable stories within our own church context of people who have had ailments, cancers, hurt legs, who have actually been healed. But more than that, this is a picture of restoration. And there are those who are here today and you have deep wounds that you are carrying with you. And the experience that you need of the kingdom this morning is the gentle hand of Jesus, who is coming to you in your moment of need when you have nothing left.

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And you can't keep going. And he's extending his hand. And I love what happens next. Because when this happens, everyone around takes notice. And it's contagious. It's contagious.

Speaker 1 32:13

Some of you may remember John Yaxley. He came to our church a few years ago, and he came in a place of severe brokenness. John Yaxley's marriage had blown up. In the midst of that, pornography addiction was exposed. He was estranged from his wife, his kids, and he had been battling cancer. And God, in his grace, spoke power into John's life and freedom from that pornography addiction. But there were deeper wounds that needed healing. And I watched over the years as John continued to be healed by Jesus. And for a time, he was healed of cancer. His cancer went away.

Speaker 32:55

The treatments worked until one day he went for a follow-up and it was back. He was back.

Speaker 1 33:06

Eventually, John's health declined to a point where he had to go into palliative care. And I visited him one day in the hospital. And in the course of that visit, so many people came in. And I watched as this man who'd received the healing of Jesus, not the physical healing, but the emotional healing of Jesus, to the wounds of his life, talked to young men that he was mentoring, people in his recovery group, nurses that were on the floor, and his love for Jesus, his experience of Jesus, the healing that he had had and the restoration from Jesus was effusive in the lives of those people that he was interacting with. Because what Jesus does to you, he also wants to do through you.

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Jesus' healing extends from just us.

Speaker 1 33:57

And Jesus is inviting you not only to be healed, but he's inviting you to put your healing on display so that others know that they too can come to him and also be healed. So let me just ask this question. For those of you who have experienced that healing from Jesus, who can see that restorative work in your life? Who does Jesus want to invite to him through you? Don't hide it. Don't push it away. Share it. Let the town know so that they too can line up at the door and experience the healing that only Jesus offers. This is another picture of what happens when the kingdom of God invades our reality.

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I'm going to invite the band to come up as I finish off here.

Speaker 1 34:58

I mentioned this earlier, but there's these really strange scenes that happen as Jesus is confronting evil spirits. He tells them to be quiet. We see this in verse 24, and then again, right here at the end in verse 34. And this is what Mark records. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. One of the features of Mark's book is what people call the messianic secret. Jesus heals people and he's like, don't say anything. Jesus confronts demons and they're like, Well, we know who you are. And he's like, Don't say anything. And I've wondered why this is. But I think when you consider it, one of the reasons is that Jesus actually wanted people to understand who he was on his own terms. See, we have this temptation as human beings to take Jesus and co-opt him for our own causes. The people of Israel were primed for a particular type of Messiah. They wanted someone who was going to come in power, who was going to overthrow the Romans, who was going to break the chains of injust occupation. And we see this at different points of all the gospel accounts. They want Jesus to be something. But Jesus is inviting us not to put our stamp of what expectation on him. Jesus is inviting us to humbly meet him on his own terms.

Speaker 36:36

And today, his terms are an invitation, an invitation to leave it all behind. A call to freedom, to allow his authority to free us. And an invitation as well to healing and restoration.

Speaker 1 37:00

As we finish off and think about how to respond to what we've seen today. Why is there hope in you? And what we've seen in Mark chapter 1 to this point is exactly the kind of life that does that. Because when the kingdom of God advances, it doesn't just change what we believe, it changes how we live. So if our lives are meant to provoke questions, then again, they need to be lives that are marked by these three things. A life that is invitational. I have a couple of response reflections, but let me just go through these with you.

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Have you responded to Jesus' invitation today? Are you still sitting on the boat? Jesus is calling.

Speaker 1 38:52

But if you have, do you carry that invitational nature in you? Are you inviting others to come and follow?

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Number two, a life that is built upon the only true authority.

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Who is your authority? Who is the person that you are looking to to free you, change you, transform you? And if your authority is Jesus, who in your life needs the freedom that only Jesus has the authority to offer?

Speaker 39:33

Finally, a life that is restorative. Where do you need to feel the gentle hands of Jesus restoring your life? Bringing healing.