Please turn in your Bibles to the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. Mark, chapter one. I'm going to start by reading today's passage, short passage, Mark 1, verses 35 to 39. And speaking of Jesus, it says, "And rising in the morning, actually, and rising very early in the morning, While it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. And he said to them, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons." I ran across a story a little while back that I think will help us consider what is happening in this passage. As I tell this story, I could spin it a couple of ways. I could focus on what is the same as what we've just read, or I could focus on what is different from what we've read. I'm going to focus on the different. I'm going to go for the contrast here, and you'll see in a little bit where this is going. The story is set on our continent a little while ago. It's set in Chicago, the year is 1891. William, a young man of 29 years, steps off the train ready to find some new customers for the products manufactured by his family's business. He's arrived with a load of soap. Now, lots of people sell soap, so William had to find a way to promote. He had to come up with an angle to promote the soap. So he decided that what he would do is he would give away a small quantity of free baking powder with every purchase of soap. And this seemed to help gain him some customers, but then something interesting happened. Customers at the stores where this soap was being distributed began to ask, where can we get more of this baking powder that this soap guy is giving away for free? And so William took a risk, and he pivoted his business plan. He stopped selling soap, and he began selling baking powder. But of course, he needed an angle. And so he decided to choose another product, and this time he chose a product that didn't have as widespread a reception, it wasn't as popular as it would be today. The idea of a bonus had worked once, he decided to use it again, and he chose to offer sticks of chewing gum with every purchase of baking soda. And to his surprise, people began asking whether they could purchase just the chewing gum. Well, William took a bigger risk than he'd taken the first time, and he pivoted his business to focus on the sale of a product that was not yet as widely used as soap and baking powder. He launched his chewing gum business, and he offered a couple of interestingly named flavors. In 1893, William, that is William Wrigley, launched his spearmint and juicy fruit brands. And then used a number of novel advertising and sales approaches to establish a thriving and lasting business in the confectionery industry. And some who tell William's story point out that Wrigley's genius was that he did not get stuck on what he imagined himself to be doing when he first arrived. It would have not have been at all unusual for him, as someone whose family had been in the soap business for a lot of years, to just forge ahead to expand the soap business. Instead, he showed remarkable business insight in embracing the understanding of what his customers actually wanted. And he took a risk to reinvent his business to make the most of newly emerging customer demand. So that was William Wrigley's story. But Jesus' story proceeds on an entirely different kind of path. In this passage, we see Jesus at a time when people were thronging to him because they want something from him, turning away from the crowd and being faithful to the larger mission that he knows lies before him. So let's take a quick look at the broader context of the passage we just read, still in the Gospel of Mark. Mark chapter one, verse 14, we see Jesus, after his time of temptation in the wilderness, launching into his ministry of preaching and teaching. So I'm gonna read verses 14 and 15. It says, now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. And as he's going about preaching, he calls Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John to follow him as disciples. And with his disciples, once Sabbath, they enter into the synagogue in Capernaum. And this scene unfolds. And I'm going to read verses 21 to 28. They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent, and come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, what is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And at once, his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee." So after these events in the synagogue, Jesus visits the home of Peter's mother-in-law. And finding Peter's mother-in-law sick, he heals her. And then when evening arrives, which marks the end of the Sabbath, and the ends of the restriction on travel and movement that were the law at that time, people who had seen or heard about what Jesus had done, people who had seen or heard what had unfolded in the synagogue earlier that day, thronged to the house where Jesus is staying. And we read in Mark 1, 32 to 34, a description of that. That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. What we see unfolding here seems at first glance to be an extremely positive response to Jesus' ministry. People had an opportunity to find relief from some very serious problems, and they flocked to him for help. And his disciples apparently see this as the beginning of something really big. And underlying all of this was something even bigger. The disciples already have some understanding that Jesus is a long-awaited hero. one spoken of by prophets long ago, one who would bring relief from even larger problems, especially the problem that the people of Judea, the descendants of the ancient Israelites, were living under the harsh domination of a foreign empire, and that is Rome. The prophets had spoken of a descendant of the ancient King David, who would arise and restore Israel to its former glory, and even beyond that. Yes, the disciples see all that had happened, and understanding Jesus to be the promised Messiah, the divinely appointed descendant of David, are convinced that now is the time to seize the moment, to make the most of what is beginning to unfold. And then Jesus disappears. Morning comes, and he is nowhere to be found. The crowd is gathered. The disciples are searching frantically for Jesus. They finally find him in what is described as a desolate place, a lonely place, a place corresponding to the wilderness, as it were, where he has been praying. and having found him, they urge him to get back to the scene of the action, and Jesus says, no. What is going on here? Do we have any idea of what was on Jesus' mind as he was praying? How do we make sense of Jesus' decision to walk away from the opportunity that seemed to be so obviously at hand? Let's read again today's passage. The five verses in Mark 1, 35 to 39. And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. And he said to them, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. So what is going on here? And what is the substance of Jesus' prayer? Well, actually, the passage doesn't tell us what Jesus prayed. It doesn't spell it out. But there are some important clues. And if we follow those clues, we will gain some important insight into what is happening here. The clues are that Jesus is indeed engaged in prayer. and that we see from his words after that he is preoccupied with this task of preaching. And if we look elsewhere to see what Jesus says about prayer, and what the early part of this chapter has already said about Jesus' commitment to preaching, we will learn something of what's going on right here. So let me give you this kind of a quick birds-eye view. In stepping away from further engagement with the crowd at Capernaum, Jesus says, let us go to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. Jesus' commitment to preaching has been presented to us just a few verses earlier in verses 14 to 15, where again we're told, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. So Jesus is described as proclaiming the gospel. And the meaning of the word gospel is good news. So he's preaching good news. The good news is that the kingdom of God is at hand. And the response he calls for is repentance and faith. Repent, he says, and believe the good news. And Jesus' renewed commitment to preaching in today's passage is linked to a focused time in prayer. He's been praying and now he announces his ongoing commitment to the preaching. And Jesus elsewhere gives insight into his priorities in prayer. These themes of the kingdom of God, And repentance, which is accompanied by faith, feature prominently in the teaching of Jesus on prayer in two passages outside of Mark. One is in Matthew and one is in Luke. In Matthew's passage, Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray. And in Luke, he is contrasting the prayers of a Pharisee and a tax collector. And that contrast highlights the significance of repentance and faith. So these themes are all over what Jesus is doing and teaching. So let's start with Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. Let's look at Jesus' priorities in prayer as reflected in his instruction here. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 6. We're gonna look at verses 9 to 13. Very, very familiar verses. Matthew 6. Verses 9 to 13. Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. There's the kingdom again. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." So four priorities that appear early in this prayer are the honor of God, hallowed be thy name, the honoring of God. Number two, the coming of God's kingdom, which I understand referred to the expression of God's kingdom in this world. Number three is the doing of God's will, which again means the doing of His will in this world. And then number four, the humility that accompanies repentance, which is made evident in asking for forgiveness of sins. Now all four of these are important, but let's look especially at the first two for the moment, the honoring of God's name and the coming of God's kingdom. And the others I will get to in a further way in a few minutes here. So number one, the first of the things that Jesus instructed his disciples to pray was the name of God would be hallowed, that it would be set apart as holy, that it would be treated with the greatest honor. Jesus was not content to have people imagine God in whatever way they pleased. To hallow God's name includes being attentive to what God has revealed of his person and of his character, and holding that understanding of God in reverence and awe. God has revealed himself as being great, as being perfect in righteousness, perfect in goodness, in kindness, in justice, and in so many other dimensions. God has revealed himself as being entirely separated from sin, as being entirely opposed to it. To hallow God's name is to embrace as true and good God's nature and character as he has revealed himself in the scriptures and to hold him in the highest honor. That is what it means to hallow the name of God. And we have every reason to think that Jesus, as he prayed early that morning, was more concerned that his father be honored. in all that lay ahead than he was with his own being popularly embraced by the people who were flocking to him with their own concepts of who God was supposed to be and with their own priorities focused on their most keenly felt needs at the moment. We are not told anything about the heart response of the people who flocked to him at Capernaum. We're not told whether things somehow got off track that day as the crowds flocked to him. But we are told elsewhere that Jesus did not entrust himself to the crowds because he knew what was in the heart of man. Not every person who was attracted to Jesus was committed to Jesus' highest priorities. And the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples demonstrates his highest priority, his primary concern for the glory and for the honor of God, God the Father. The second priority that Jesus voiced in the prayer he taught his disciples was the coming of God's kingdom, which I understand to speak of God's kingdom coming on earth. And this is where the priorities of Jesus, as displayed in the prayer he taught his disciples, can be seen to align with the priorities identified here at the beginning of Mark, where he went forth to preach the gospel and saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, where there is a kingdom, there is a king. And there are those who are subjects of the king. In the kingdom of God, God is the king. Now in truth, all of the universe is under his kingship, but there is a particular manifestation of his kingdom on this earth made up of those who are willingly subject to him. This manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth is a realm where God is trusted and obeyed and worshiped by those who are truly his people. The coming of this kingdom on this earth, which is the second of the petitions in the Lord's Prayer, has two dimensions. One of them unfolds in this age, and one is manifest at the dawning of the age to come when Christ returns in glory. The unfolding of God's kingdom in this age includes the proclamation of God's truth and the spirit-enabled response of all who embrace the kingship of God through faith. The revelation of God's kingdom in the age to come is full and complete and uncontested and utterly glorious. And we pray for both of these dimensions when we pray, may your kingdom come. But the one which we're paying attention to at this moment is the first of the two, the progress of God's kingdom now in the world. So, let's again orient ourselves to today's passage and see how this fits together. The crowds have been flocking to Jesus because he has been speaking with authority and casting out demons and healing the sick. This starts in the evening after the Sabbath and the following morning the crowds begin to gather again and the disciples go looking for Jesus and find him where he has been praying and they say to him, everybody's looking for you. And Jesus responds by saying, let us go on to the next towns, so that I may preach there also, for this is why I came. And what is he preaching? He's preaching that the kingdom of God is at hand. And he is calling people not to merely embrace external manifestations of his kingdom, the healing and the deliverance, As far as we can see, the crowds were embracing these external manifestations and benefits. They were embracing the good gifts that he gave. The gifts that gave them relief from present pain and weakness and sickness and anxiety and spiritual oppression. But Jesus was attentive to a more profound underlying need. And the offer of the coming of the kingdom offered something even deeper and greater than all that the people had seen happening as they were flocking to him. And the greater need, the more profound need, was reconciliation with God. The biggest issue that Jesus had come to address was man's alienation from God. All of humanity, all of us who have ever lived on this earth, with the exception of Jesus himself, live under the curse of sin until we enter into the reconciliation that Jesus came to offer. Not one of us starts off in a position of neutrality in terms of our relationship to God. Every one of us, apart from the reconciliation that Jesus came to offer, is an enemy of God. is in fact under God's curse on account of the fact that our hearts are rebellious toward him and on account of the fact that we have transgressed his holy laws. We have broken the most basic of his commandments and yet we excuse ourselves. The very greatest of his commandments, the commandment to love God supremely with heart and soul and mind and strength, is a command we have grievously failed to keep. And yet we are inclined to justify ourselves. And this brings us to the other passage on prayer that I referred to, Jesus' teaching about prayer, the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Open your Bibles to Luke chapter eight, and we'll find that story. Luke chapter eight, beginning with verse nine. I think I've given you the wrong reference. (The correct reference was Luke 18:9 and following) Okay, I will tell the story. So Jesus is talking about prayer, and he describes two people coming to God in prayer, standing in the temple, and one is a Pharisee, one who is preoccupied with the careful keeping of the law in such a way that he can satisfy himself that he's done it right. And he comes before God and his prayer is something, thank you God that I am not like this filthy old Pharisee over here. Thank you that I'm righteous, that I give, and he's preoccupied with his own sense of worthiness before God. And the Pharisee is standing praying to God and The tax collector, not even able to lift up his eyes, bows before God and he says, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus said in that passage, of those two, it was the tax collector who went away justified. That's the really, really important word in this story, a word brimming with life and hope and comfort, a word that communicates something that lies at the heart of any hope we have for reconciliation with God, the word justify. The idea of justification in the scriptures is a wondrous and a marvelous thing. To be justified is to be released from the guilt of sin. To be justified is to be counted, legally speaking, as righteous in God's sight. Righteous in spite of everything. To be justified is the foundation of being reconciled to God. Without justification, we remain his enemies. Without justification, we face the prospects of death, without hope, of judgment, and of wrath. With justification, the door of life, eternal life in the presence of God, as objects of his favor, stands open before us. Justification is wrapped up with forgiveness and cleansing, and these glorious benefits cannot coexist with pride. or with any imagination on our part that somehow we are entitled to them, that for the most part we deserve these benefits. That's just not compatible. Humility, repentance, the confession of sins are the things that accompany justification. Our own protestations that we are not so bad, that on our own merits we deserve something from God. These things stand in the way of justification. Now even as Jesus was teaching these things, this whole idea of justification remained to some degree cloaked in mystery. It's not that it was a brand new idea, but it remains something that was entangled with unanswered questions. How could a God of justice count the guilty as innocent? The whole religious system of the Jewish people was built on the idea of guilt being dealt with in various ways, sacrifices, offerings, rituals. But the ways offered through the Mosaic law fell short of being final solutions. They did not cleanse the conscience of the one who came. How in the final analysis could a just God not punish the guilty? How could he justify them and at the same time himself remain just? We know now what was not known then, that Jesus would die as a substitute, a perfectly innocent man bearing the guilt of all who would ever put their full trust in him, such that they might go free, that they might be justified. But at this point in the history that we're looking at this afternoon, all of this lay in the future. There was still a mystery waiting to be revealed in its fullness. But our understanding of this, in light of what we know about Jesus' sacrificial death, helps us make sense of the story we're looking at this afternoon. Jesus went forth preaching the nearness of God's kingdom, calling people to repent and to believe the good news. The good news that God was offering reconciliation and forgiveness to those who had been, up to that point, his enemies. That was their condition, whether they admitted it or not. An embrace of the offer, the offers of justification and reconciliation, involved humble acknowledgement of sin and guilt. It involved repentance. Now, Humility and repentance doesn't make anybody worthy of these gifts. The defilement of sin was too thoroughgoing for any human action to compensate for it. But humility, repentance, and faith were the pathway to the receiving of God's marvelous gift of reconciliation. So Jesus was not content to stay in one place and bask in the enthusiasm of the crowds that were so impressed with him. and with his ability to bring relief to the most immediate and obvious needs. He wasn't content to settle for that. Indeed, he was merciful in regard to these immediate needs, and everywhere he went, he granted those who came to him deliverance and healing from immediate afflictions. But he was more concerned with that which provided the most deeply needed thing, the need that had eternal value, the thing that had eternal value. And the early part of his mission in this regard involved preaching in a whole bunch of places around Galilee, proclaiming the kingdom of God and calling people to repentance and faith. And so he left that place and continued on to the other cities. This pattern of extending the reach of proclamation was something that he taught his disciples and that they later faithfully took up, as did those who followed the apostles. And as a much later consequence of all of this, the gospel has come to us. Now it is appropriate for us to consider our own response to his teaching. And I can lead us in doing that in a couple of directions. One is how we might respond as receivers of his teaching. Another is how we might go forth as bearers of his message. I think we need to get the first one right before we deal with the second. So I think that's where I'm going to focus right now. How might we respond as receivers of this teaching of Christ? Let's start by considering the two dimensions of the good news that have been set before us this afternoon. The two dimensions of the good news of which I'm speaking are these. One is that the kingdom of God is at hand. Number two, the offer of reconciliation with God that is offered in Jesus. One of these pieces is only good news if the other piece comes first. The coming of the kingdom of God is not good news for those who are not reconciled to God. The coming of God's kingdom ultimately represents the coming of judgment and wrath for his enemies, although in the period of time that precedes Christ's coming appearance as judge of the earth, there is a period that is rich in mercy, and we live in that time of mercy, mercy even to the wicked. But this time will come to an end. The future coming of God's kingdom in its fullness at the dawning of the age to come is a terrifying prospect to any who will not be reconciled to him. But if we embrace the good news of God's free offering of reconciliation, then the prospect of God's kingdom, both in its present manifestation and in its coming fullness, are true good news to be received with joy. The receiving of the gifts of justification and reconciliation with God are evidenced by the kind of humility we see in Jesus' story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It is evidenced by this kind of humility, but it is not earned. by this kind of humility or by any other kind of meritorious work on our part. The gifts to us of justification and reconciliation were earned by the perfect obedience of Jesus to God's law. and they are made ours through his bearing of our guilt and our sin on the cross. And we'll speak more of that when we come to the Lord's table in a few minutes here. Faith likewise is not some kind of meritorious work where we earn our justification. Faith is God's gift. Now we must embrace it. To fail to embrace it, to trust anything or anyone other than Christ and his saving work on our behalf, is to fail to embrace the gift, to trust anybody or anybody else in regard to our being able to stand in the presence of God. Jesus' depiction of the Pharisee in Luke shows such a mindset taken to its extremity. It's kind of an overpainted picture. But we dare not even lean in that direction. We must not trust in our own righteousness. We must accept God's verdict on our spiritual bankruptcy even as we put our faith in Christ and all of his accomplishments on our behalf. Repentance involves a turning away from dependence on our own work and a turning to reliance on Christ. Repentance also involves a change of mind and a change of heart toward God and toward his ways. We come to understand that an embrace of his ways is no longer something to be dreaded. It's a welcomed prospect. Jesus called his followers to seek the kingdom of God and to seek his righteousness. Now granted, sometimes the seeking of the kingdom of God and the seeking of his righteousness will involve the experience of sorrow. Sometimes we struggle. Sometimes, frankly, we experience periods of failure in our efforts to embrace his righteous ways. And our hearts sorrow over that. But the kingdom of God, the reality of living under his rule remains good news. as he is at work in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Sometimes we will suffer opposition from others as we seek to embrace God's kingdom and his ways. But the scriptures exhort us not to be weary in well-doing, promising that we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Now God has given us means of grace to encourage us and to strengthen us in the pursuit of his kingdom and of his righteousness. He has ordained that the ongoing receiving of his word will nourish us. His word as we read it, as we study it, as we memorize it, as we meditate on it, as we attend to its preaching, as we do right now as we are gathered. He has given us the privilege of prayer. He has called us to sing to one another and to him in such a way as to glorify himself and to encourage one another. That's part of why he's given that to us. He has given us the ordinances of the Lord's table and of baptism. He has given us fellowship with one another. lay hold of these means of grace deliberately, that you might grow in embrace of his kingdom. " And indeed, Jesus was preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. This is good news. Let us grow in our embrace of that. Now, we are receivers of the words of Jesus. We are also bearers of his message. Let us seek to embrace the goodness of His ways with increasing diligence and understanding, and let us pray for those around us whom God might call to Himself. Let us prepare for and be alert to opportunities to communicate the goodness of His ways and the truth of His gospel. And may the blessings of His kingdom strengthen and encourage us. as we embark on this new year that lies before us. Let us pray.