We continue this morning in our series through the gospel of Mark, so please turn to Mark chapter one. I would like to read this morning as our text, verses 14 through 20. Mark chapter one, verses 14 through 20. 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 in the gospel. Passing alongside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. This morning is the first of a two-part sermon that I have entitled, The Calls of the Kingdom, C-A-L-L-S, The Calls of the Kingdom. And our text is what we read this morning, Mark chapter one, verses 14 through 20. There are two kingdoms in this world. There is the kingdom of God, and then there's the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this present evil age. And there is no dual citizenship among these two kingdoms. You cannot be a citizen of both. You are a citizen either of one or the other. Every person living today is either a citizen of the kingdom of God or a citizen of the kingdom of darkness. Every person living today is subject to either the king of the kingdom of God or the prince of the kingdom of this world. Satan is the prince of this current kingdom. Jesus is the king of the kingdom of God. And in the kingdom of God, there are two calls that come from the king of the kingdom. And both of these calls are seen here in this passage within just a few verses of one another. The first call of the kingdom is found in verse 15, when the King, Jesus says, repent and believe in the gospel. This is the universal call of the kingdom repent and believe in the gospel. The second call of the kingdom is found in verse 17, and it is simply, follow me. Jesus said to them, follow me. So the two calls of the kingdom are repent and believe in the gospel. and follow me, follow the King of the kingdom. This morning, I want us to focus only on that first call of the kingdom. Repent and believe in the gospel. You see, there is a gospel of the kingdom of God. There is no gospel, there is no good news to proclaim about this current evil kingdom. There is nothing good. There is nothing good to announce about the kingdom of Satan. But there is very good news to proclaim regarding the kingdom of God. And it is this gospel that Jesus, the king of the then inaugurated and soon to be consummated kingdom of God, began proclaiming in Galilee at the beginning of his short three and a half year ministry. This is where we come to now in our study of this gospel of Mark. Mark chapter one, verse 14, marks the beginning of the public earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. So far in the gospel of Mark, we have heard the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness. We have heard the voice of God the Father saying, you are my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. And now we hear the voice of the Son of God. According to Mark, Jesus preaches his first sermon. His sermon, as Mark records it, is less than 20 words and takes less than seven seconds. It was and is the greatest sermon ever preached on earth by the one that has all authority given to him in heaven and in earth. So Jesus, we're told, 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 in the gospel. This then is what I want us to focus on this morning in verses 14 and 15, Jesus's first sermon and the call of the kingdom. The call of the kingdom again is repent and believe in the gospel. This is what Jesus was saying as he was proclaiming the gospel of God. So it is very important for us to understand what Jesus is saying and what it means to repent and to believe in the gospel. But before we do that, it is also very important for us to consider the setting and the occasion of this sermon. I want us to understand when and why Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, repent and believe in the gospel. Now this may seem unimportant, the when and the why may not seem important at all, but it is very important because the setting and the occasion has great bearing upon his mission and his message. The when and why is important because it helps us understand the eternal significance of Jesus coming into Galilee when he did and saying what he said. And the when and why is also important in understanding the message of the gospel Jesus proclaimed and the urgency of the call of the kingdom. So let us first consider the setting and the occasion. Let us consider first what Mark says here in verse 14. Mark simply says, now after John was arrested. So Mark, like Matthew and Luke, the synoptic gospels agree. begin the record of Jesus's public ministry at the point when he left Judea and went into Galilee after John the Baptist was arrested. And from the Synoptic Gospels, we get the impression that John was arrested and Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel very soon after Jesus's temptation in the wilderness. if we look at the flow of both Matthew, Mark, and Luke. However, there was a lot that happened in Jesus's early ministry between his victory over Satan in the wilderness and John's arrest. So between verses 13 and 14, here in the first chapter of Mark, we must allow for the passing of a period of time. Between verse 13 and 14, there is a time gap of 12 to 14 months of Jesus's early ministry during which he traveled between Galilee and Judea, teaching and performing miracles. Now this period of time is omitted from the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. but it is described for us in the Gospel of John. Now this period of time of 12 to 14 months between verse 13 and 14 in our text has been fittingly described as the year of obscurity. Some have called this period of time the quiet year, of Jesus's ministry, but it wasn't that he was necessarily quiet. He was just less public. During this time, Jesus may have been obscure, but he was not inactive. The record of this year of obscurity, as I mentioned, is found in the first three chapters of the Gospel of John. And in those chapters, John provides us details of these years, details of this preliminary history to Jesus' Galilean ministry that the Synoptic Gospels give such prominence. So here is what we learned from the Gospel of John about what happened in that first year of our Lord's public ministry, that year of obscurity. Jesus met Andrew, John, James, and Peter, who would later leave to follow him. They would leave all to follow him. This is recorded here as we read this morning in verses 16 through 20 of Mark chapter one, and we will consider that next week. But also during this year of obscurity, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for his first Passover with his disciples. He cleansed the temple for the first time. He performed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee when he turned water into wine at a wedding feast. And John, of this, John says, this was the first of his signs in which he manifested his glory. And also, Jesus had a conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. That very famous conversation that is recorded for us in John chapter three. that conversation in which Jesus spoke of the necessity of the new birth. You must be born again. Now, after this conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, we don't know much about the next eight months or so from the Gospel of John. We do know that Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and they remained there. John says they were baptizing, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were. So this is what was happening in Jesus's very early ministry after his temptation in the wilderness before John the Baptist was arrested. So here is the point, and this is the question that we must ask ourselves. Why this year of obscurity in Jesus's ministry? Why did Jesus wait that year or so until John the Baptist was arrested before he went into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. When we read the first three chapters of John's gospel about Jesus's year of obscurity, we note there very prominently that this year of obscurity is bracketed at the beginning and at the end by the testimony of John the Baptist. At the beginning, in John chapter one, verses 19 through 28, is John's testimony to the priest and Levites from Jerusalem. John told them, I am not the Christ. I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. John told them, I baptize with water, but among you, one stands that you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie. And then at the end of this year of obscurity, before possibly right before John the Baptist was arrested was his testimony to his own disciples. In John chapter three, verses 28 through 30, John said, you yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease." This is very instructive for us to understand the reason for this year of obscurity. Why did Jesus wait until John was arrested? John tells us that all the events and all the conversations in Jesus's year of obscurity, everything he said, everything he did, are colored by the comparison between John the Baptist and Jesus. The comparison is designed to demonstrate what the prophets Malachi and Isaiah had said, and what John the Baptist himself declared, that Jesus is coming, that Jesus is greater than John, and that John came to prepare the way for him. So why did Jesus wait until after John was arrested? Well, before his arrest, John was preparing the way. But after John was arrested, his ministry ended, and his testimony about Jesus Christ was silenced. And when that happened, In the eternal plan of God, Jesus then left the Judean countryside and came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. There is a lot tied up in this phrase now after John was arrested. Earlier at the wedding in Cana, John records in his gospel something very significant. John chapter two, verse four. At the wedding, when Jesus' mother told him that they had run out of wine, Jesus said to her, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. But after John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus's hour had now come. The hour for ordained from the foundation of the world had come. It was time for Jesus now to appear in Galilee and to proclaim the gospel. When John the Baptist was taken into custody, the great herald of the Lord had fulfilled his ministry in pointing to Jesus as the coming Messiah John had finished his work for which he was sent, the work of preparing the way of the Lord by preaching a baptism of repentance. It was then and it was for that reason that Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and telling everyone, repent and believe in the gospel. The time had now arrived. It wasn't a forethought, it wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't just as the coincidence happened to be. It was from the determinate counsel of God that Jesus waited. But there is even more significance and meaning in the setting and the occasion of Jesus's first sermon. And again, this is very important for us to understand his sermon and his mission. John tells us in his gospel that the time of Jesus's departure from Judea into Galilee also had to do with his growing popularity with the people in Galilee. In John chapter four, verses one through three, we read this. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. So John says what prompted Jesus to go into Galilee and proclaim the gospel was when he learned that the Pharisees had heard of his popularity with the people of Galilee. John says in John 4.43, when Jesus came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. And when Jesus left Judea and started on his way to Galilee, he knew what this would mean for him. He knew that his own popularity there would bring such resentment on the part of the religious leaders of the Jews, that in the course of events, this hatred would lead to his death. but yet he went there anyway. When Jesus went into Galilee, he willingly entered the fray, so to speak. He was entering the fray to voluntarily suffer and lay down his life for his people. He knew what would happen. So here the setting and the occasion is very powerful. Because when Jesus left Judea to go into Galilee, it was his first step on his journey to the cross. This helps us understand his mission and why he began proclaiming the gospel and commanding men and women to repent and to believe in the gospel. When he set foot in Galilee, he was stepping into the fire. In Isaiah chapter 50, verse seven, Isaiah spoke prophetically of the Messiah, the suffering servant of God, when he said, but the Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. Luke tells us in Luke chapter nine, verse 51, that when the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, he would be taken up on a cross to die a substitutionary atoning death. And with determined focus, Jesus set his face to do that. He set his face to go to Jerusalem After John's arrest, he began his journey there, there to Jerusalem, to be taken up to die for the sins of his people. Jesus's life was not taken from him. Jesus voluntarily gave himself up. What a savior. Oh, how this exalts our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rather than running away from the fray and remaining in the wilderness in seclusion and in obscurity, Jesus went into the fray to suffer and to die for us. When Jesus went into Galilee, he showed his unshakable resolve to accomplish the work his father had sent him to do for the redemption of God's elect from the foundation of the world. Before Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, be Mary will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. to save his people from their sins. This was the work his father sent him to do. And Jesus was determined and steadfastly resolved to accomplish this work. This is the recurring statement of Jesus as is recorded in John's gospel. John 4.34, Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. John 5.30, Jesus said, I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. In John 6.38, Jesus said, I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. In Jesus's prayer in the upper room with his disciples before he went out into the garden to be betrayed by Judas and arrested, John 17 four, Jesus said, I have glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Luke records in his gospel, Those agonizing words of Jesus praying in the garden and sweating great drops of blood as he was about to bear the horrors of the cross. Jesus said in Luke 22, 42, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And then Jesus was taken by his enemies, and he was scourged, and he was nailed to a cross. And before he breathed his last breath, he cried out, victoriously, it is finished. To Leo, it is finished. the most precious and blessed word ever spoken on earth. But you see, Jesus would not have been able to say it is finished if he had not taken that first step to go into Galilee after John was arrested. This is the when and the why Jesus went into Galilee. His hour had now come to accomplish the work of redemption. His hour had come to begin his journey to the cross and to save his people from their sins. So when John was arrested, Mark says that Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. To help us understand this and to really explain it and to apply it, it may be best to ask and answer three key questions about this. First, what does Jesus mean by the phrase, the kingdom of God? These scriptures, both the Old and the New Testaments, and particularly the Gospels, talk a great deal about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a central topic of scripture. It was a main topic of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, He taught us that our prayers should all flow from the ultimate request, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. With this simple prayer, we see that the kingdom of God is the manifestation of heaven on earth. The kingdom of God is the realm in which God rules and reigns in and with his people who willingly and joyfully worship him and obey him as Lord and King. The kingdom of God is life as God designed it to be. That this kingdom is called the kingdom of God tells us that it is not an earthly kingdom. Jesus says in John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world. Hebrews 12, 28 says, it's a kingdom which cannot be moved. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, 11, that it's an everlasting kingdom. Now these are not really definitions of the kingdom of God, and really to some degree we shouldn't look for a concise definition of the kingdom of God. The Bible doesn't provide one. Jesus never gave an actual definition, even though he constantly taught about it. The apostle Paul didn't give a definition of it either. The closest that Paul gets to a kingdom definition is in Romans 14, 17, where he says, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now, none of these are really definitions. Paul tells us that Paul speaks of the nature of the kingdom and the source and the fountain of it, who is the Holy Spirit. So why is there no definition? Because the kingdom of God exists as a realm completely unlike anything humanity has known in this fallen world. The kingdom is spiritual. It is eternal. It is heavenly in nature, and it is governed by God himself, resulting in a realm and a place of perfect peace, justice, righteousness, joy, and love. Oh, how different it is than any kingdom on earth that we know. So the kingdom rests really beyond our human comprehension. The kingdom cannot be intellectually known, yet it can be entered into and it can be experienced. Our intellect can't properly understand the kingdom of God. We need the mind of Christ to even begin. Therefore, Jesus says in John 3, we must be born again, born of the Holy Spirit of a different world and in a different way to both see and to enter the kingdom of God. The Old Testament prophets anticipated a future messianic kingdom. We know that beautiful prophecy of Isaiah in Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7, where he speaks of a child to be born, whose shoulder the government shall be upon, and who will establish a government of peace and justice Isaiah says, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So Jesus Christ then is the king of the kingdom of God. Again, Jesus says in John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world. Paul says in Colossians 1, verse 13, God has delivered us from the domain of darkness, there's one kingdom, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. The kingdom of his beloved son is the kingdom of God. King Jesus rules and reigns in his kingdom. So the kingdom of God, and this is important to understand too, is both a present reality and a future hope. It is both, as many theologians say, it is both already but not yet. The kingdom of God has already come, but the kingdom of God has not yet come. Both are true. The kingdom of God was inaugurated through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, yet it awaits its final consummation at his return. So our Lord did not come to found a new religion, but to usher in the fulfillment of something promised long beforehand. The kingdom of God, which is already here, will be fully realized at the end of the age when Christ returned. Revelation 11, 15 proclaims, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. When Christ returns in power and in glory, our prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, will be fully answered When Christ returns, the world will be made right. The world will be made right again as it was meant to be before sin destroyed it. The prophet Amos said in Amos 5.24, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. And you see, this is our blessed hope as Christians. The king of the kingdom is coming again, and we are part of his kingdom. We are part of a kingdom that will win. We are part of a kingdom and a king who will reign, who will eradicate all evils forever and ever. And we will be with him. And this then is the good news that Jesus, the king of the then inaugurated kingdom, began proclaiming in Galilee after John was arrested. Mark says in verse 14 of chapter one, he was proclaiming the gospel of God. We know that that word gospel literally means good news or glad tidings. And notice that this good news is of God. meaning that this gospel comes from God. It originated with God and it was not invented by men. This is the gospel of God. It conveys the idea of a divine pronouncement of good news. It is good news of the arrival of the king and his kingdom. That's what Jesus was proclaiming. John the Baptist is no longer on the scene. John the Baptist was testifying of this king who was already here, this king who has come. Now Jesus, in the appointed time, comes and says, proclaims the gospel, this good news. The good news, the gospel of God is the good news that salvation has come with the coming of the King, with the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the declaration that salvation has dawned. With the arrival of Jesus, the end game has begun, so to speak. God's kingdom has come. The king has arrived and God's plan of redemption and restoration is unfolding. This then helps us answer a second question. What does Jesus mean then by the causes? The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. There are two ancient Greek words that can be translated time. One is chronos, the word that we get chronology. It simply means that chronological time as the clock ticks on and on second by second. But the other word is kairos, meaning a measure of time. It means a fixed and definite time. It is the decisive, Epoch, epoch, that everyone has been waiting for. This is the word that Jesus used. The kairos is fulfilled. His meaning was that the strategic, designated moment of time for the kingdom of God is here. The time has come. This was the fixed moment in history at which God ushered in the kingdom and his redemptive plan. As Paul puts it in Galatians chapter four, verses four through five, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. When Jesus then talks about this time being fulfilled and at hand, which are parallel ideas, he is saying that what had been foreordained and prophesied and waited for has now arrived. God's kingdom has come and now is the time to enter it and to experience it. This then brings us to the call of the kingdom. It brings us then to the importance of heeding this call. The call of the gospel of the kingdom is repent and believe in the gospel. Those who enter the kingdom of God, those who are subjects of Jesus's kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are only those who repent and believe in the gospel. This is how you enter into the kingdom of God. You must repent and believe in the gospel. This then brings us to this third and all important question. What does this call of the kingdom mean? What does it mean to repent and believe in the gospel? We probably know if you're familiar with your scriptures, but we must be told again and again and understand what it means. Repentance. This Greek word speaks of a change of mind and a change of purpose. It speaks of a change of direction. So by implication, it is a reversal of course, It is an about face. Biblical repentance, the repentance that leads to salvation and entrance into the kingdom of God is a real and thorough change of heart and mind upon the subject of sin and turning away from it with abhorrence from sin. Turning away from sin with abhorrence. It is turning with sorrow and remorse from your sin to God. Repentance doesn't describe something we must do before we come to God. It describes what we must do to come to God. This is describing what it means to come to God, repenting of your sins. The decisive time to enter and to experience the kingdom of God is here, Jesus says. And Jesus then says that you cannot enter the kingdom going in the direction you're going. You have to stop and turn around. You have to do a 180. You have to change the direction you're currently going. You're currently going away from the kingdom of God. You're currently outside the kingdom, and you're going further and further away from it. Jesus says, repent, stop, turn around, and come back. That is repentance. Some people think that repentance is mostly about feelings, especially feeling sorry for your sin. Now, repentance does include that. It includes sorrow and remorse for your sin, but it is much more. Biblical repentance isn't merely feeling sorry for yourself. It is not a feelings word. It is an action word. There is a real movement in genuine repentance. Jesus told us to make a change of the mind about our sin, not merely to feel sorry for it. If you are in your car, driving away from church, and I give you a call and say, come back to church, I don't really need to tell you to stop and turn around. Stopping and turn around is part of coming back to church. To come to church is stopping and turning around. And if you don't do that, you will not come to church. This is repentance. You can't come to the kingdom of God unless and until you stop, forsake your sin, stop living your sinful life, leave your sin and your self-life behind, and come to God. This is repentance. And Jesus says, and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ or the gospel. There is no belief without repentance. There is no repentance without belief. This word believe, pisteo, it speaks of a conviction of the soul It speaks of entrusting one's spiritual well-being to Christ. It is far more than a mere acknowledgement of some fact or event. It is total and absolute trust and dependence upon Christ. I think of the account of the thief on the cross. The one who turned to Christ and said, remember me when you enter into your kingdom. That's faith. Because this thief knew that he was condemned, rightfully so. He knew he was going to die. And he knew there was nothing he could do to save himself. He couldn't get himself off that cross. He couldn't go and be baptized first. or do good things, to try to level out the scales. His only hope was to turn to the one, the one of hope. Turn to the king of his kingdom. He said, remember me. That is biblical faith. This is what Jesus tells us. This is the call of the kingdom. Repent and believe in the gospel. Notice the object of faith is not your own faith. It is in the gospel. We hear the saying, just have faith. Just have faith, faith, faith. You're not putting your faith and trust in your faith. you're putting your trust in the object of your faith, and that is Jesus Christ. To believe in the gospel is to believe in the good news of the kingdom of God by the king of that kingdom. It is to believe in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we read this morning, this is the gospel that Paul preached. This is the gospel that the Corinthians believed. This is the content of our faith. This is what we believe. The conviction that the gospel is true and putting our personal trust and dependence in Christ alone. This is the call of the kingdom. Repent and believe in the gospel. and how we must feel the urgency of this kingdom call. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Now is the time to repent and believe in the gospel. Today, Jesus says, repent and believe in the gospel. Turn from your sin to God and trust in Jesus Christ. Turn from yourself and your pursuit of sin and turn to God in the pursuit of righteousness for His glory. Do you feel the weight of your sin? Are you afraid of the wages of sin and the judgment of God, death and eternal damnation? Paul asked in Romans chapter two, verses three through five, do you suppose that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But Paul says, because of your hard and impenitent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Hear the call of the gospel of the kingdom. Repent and believe in the gospel. Both the words repent and believe are present active imperatives. Present means an action that is occurring in actual time right now, and it is ongoing. Repentance is the way of life for the kingdom citizen. Active represents the subject as the one doing the repenting. and an imperative. This expresses a command to the hearer to perform the action by the order and the authority of the one who is commanding it. So Jesus' command to repent and believe in the gospel is not at all an invitation. Jesus is not inviting you to repent and to believe in the gospel. He is not asking you to consider it. The king of the kingdom is commanding you to repent and believe in the gospel. Let us heed this call. Let us hear this command. Let us understand that no one enters the kingdom of God who doesn't repent and believe in the gospel. Today is the day. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and this passage of Scripture. Oh, Father, we thank you Just knowing that we as sinners living in darkness with no hope can enter and experience the kingdom of God. What mercy and what grace. Father, I pray you will speak to each person here today. and Father that you would work mightily in their heart. Compel repentance where it is needed and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah.