A MESSAGE FOR THE AGES

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” He said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Mark 1:14-15

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him.

Luke 4:14-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus had been on quite a journey as He launched His adult ministry. In recent devotions, we found Him first in Jerusalem and then the Judean countryside before heading to Samaria where He was welcomed by the Samaritans. From there, as we saw in yesterday’s devotion, Jesus returned to his homeland, the region of Galilee and as we see in today’s scripture passages, He had a specific message to share with the people there. Look again at His words here:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” He said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  Mark 1:14-15

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him.  Luke 4:14-15

We know that John had gotten himself in deep trouble, arrested and placed in prison for rebuking King Herod over his sinful marriage to his brother’s sister, Herodias. Sensing danger, Jesus, who was in Judea at the time, traveled to Galilee via Samaria and did so in the power of the Spirit as we read in Luke’s account of the journey. Indeed, that Spirit was always on Jesus as he went about and proclaimed the “good news of God” to everyone He met. We read where He taught in the synagogues and built quite a reputation for Himself. The scriptures tell us that “news about Him spread through the whole countryside” as everyone He encountered brought Him praise.

So what was Jesus saying that allowed Him to garner such a following and standing among His fellow Galileans?

We get a glimpse of some of His message when we look at Mark’s account as Jesus declared:

“The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Think about the words Jesus spoke here as they truly composed a message for the ages, a message that included the following three segments:

1. The time has come.

The people of Israel had long awaited the arrival of a Messiah, a deliverer and savior who was predicted by the prophets. As Jesus burst onto the scene in Israel, He wanted to people to know that their wait had ended. The time had come for the Messiah to come and He was that person.

2. The kingdom of God had come near.

If there was an end goal for any believer, it was to be a member of the kingdom of God one day, to be in a place where one would abide and dwell with the Lord forever. In Jesus, that kingdom had come near to the people. You may remember these two things found in John’s gospel that He said to support this:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Here we see that God opened up the door to His kingdom for His people to enter in and He did so through Jesus, His Son. If one wanted to be a part of the kingdom of God, then all they needed to do is believe in Jesus who was “the way and the truth and the life”. This would save someone from perishing and lead them to eternal life with the Father, not getting their directly but rather through the gateway of Jesus, the One who brought the kingdom of God near to the Galileans who were listening to His discourse.

3. Repent and believe the good news!

Surely, what Jesus was saying had to draw the interest of His listeners, many of who would have been intrigued to hear the way to gain entry into God’s kingdom. For them, Jesus had two actions they needed to take.

The first was to repent. Sin would have no place in the kingdom of God and so anyone who had been living in transgression needed to repent, to acknowledge their iniquities and commit to turning away from them, exchanging a life filled with wrongs to one which would be defined by righteousness and right living.

The other thing Jesus commanded the people to do was to simply believe the good news He was sharing. Remember that in the words of John 3:16, God only placed one requirement on a person gaining salvation and that was to simply believe in Jesus, His Son, the Savior of the world.

That’s it. Just believe in Jesus, be saved, and reserve your place in the kingdom of God. It was as easy as that.

Today, nothing has changed for anyone who has not chosen to place their hope and trust in Jesus, the Jesus that so many Christians are proclaiming and testifying about, the Jesus who has already added millions upon millions of people to the rolls of the redeemed and saved.

For anyone today, the time had come and the kingdom of God is near them for Jesus is just as close to His people today as He was more than 2,000 years ago in Galilee. The only difference is that while Jesus was with His fellow Galileans in the flesh, He is with us today in Spirit and He expects us to repent and believe the good news about Himself, to believe in Him and find eternal life.

“The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

It’s a message for the ages, a message that still brings people to salvation today.

Are you counted in that number?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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