Sunday, January 21, 2018

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany (January 21, 2018)

Epiphany 3 – Series B (January 21, 2018)
“The Kingdom of God is at Hand” (Mark 1:14-20)
INI
Jesus announces the arrival of his kingdom.  The time is fulfilled.  The wait is over.  The Messiah is here.  Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  God is on the scene in the flesh of Jesus.  He is staring you right in the face.  God has visited his people.  That’s what the priest Zechariah said when it was announced to him that he would have a son: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68).  Zechariah’s son John would grow up and be the one to preach to the people and prepare them for the arrival of the Messiah.  Many people from Judea and Jerusalem went to him in the wilderness, confessed their sins, and were baptized by John in the Jordan River.  That’s why we call him John the Baptist or John the Baptizer.
But John stirred up more than just the water in the Jordan.  He got Herod Antipas ticked off at him.  At the time, Herod Antipas was the ruler of Galilee – up north – and Perea, the region to the east of the Jordan River.  John had been publicly criticizing Herod for his incestuous marriage to his brother’s wife, who also happened to be his niece.  And for all this, Herod locked John up in prison.  When you publicly speak out against the ruling authorities, you better be prepared for the consequences … even if you are speaking the truth, as John was.
Our text today begins after John was arrested.  Mark has Jesus heading into Galilee after John’s arrest.  It was time for him to begin his public ministry.  You’d think that Jesus would head to Jerusalem, the place of the temple and the religious establishment.  But for Jesus, it was not yet time to confront the leaders in Jerusalem.  That was coming, certainly.  Perhaps he decided to go to Galilee specifically at this time to challenge the authority of Herod Antipas, in his own territory.  Jesus goes to the place of Herod’s rule and reign to announce and to demonstrate the rule and reign of God.  Galilee does not belong to Herod.  It belongs to Jesus.  Jerusalem does not belong to the scribes and Pharisees or even the Romans.  It belongs to Jesus.  The whole world belongs to Jesus.  The whole universe belongs to Jesus.
But you and I and every other sinner in the world like to be in charge of our own kingdom.  We like to be the center of our universe, not God.  We like to rule and reign our own lives, doing what we think is right, doing what feels right.  The watchwords of the day are “listen to your heart” … “follow your heart.”  This, in spite of the fact that the prophet Jeremiah rightly declared, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).  That does not sound like a sound source of direction.
We are also tempted to fear the kingdoms of this world more than we trust in God and his kingdom.  There are authorities and authority figures who challenge God’s authority constantly, who permit things that are contrary to Holy Scripture.  And as God’s representatives, Christians are caught in the crossfire … sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally.  We are to obey the authorities over us insofar as their laws do not conflict with the Word of God.  But when they do conflict, we must obey God rather than men.  The authority of Jesus challenges this world’s authority even today.  Both our hearts and our consciences must be captive to the Word of God.
The kingdom of God is present in the presence of Jesus.  How should one react?  If God is present, what is our rightful response?  Repent and believe the gospel.  It’s time to repent.  Don’t waste time in doing so.  Can you hear the urgency in Jesus’ words?  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”  Can you hear the urgency in Paul’s words in today’s Epistle?  “The appointed time has grown short … the present form of this world is passing away.”  Paul and the other disciples were under the impression that the return of Jesus was imminent.  And even if the return of Jesus is still hundreds of years away, we should still have the expectation that he will return at any moment.  So, what do we do with the time we have?  Are you making the most of the time God has given you?  There’s nothing wrong with leisure and rest and vacation time, for sure.  We need that … to recharge and refresh.  Even Jesus got away sometimes to deserted places.  But laziness or complacency have no place in the kingdom.  If Jesus rules and reigns now, and if he is coming again soon, then this should certainly affect the way we live now.
So, what do we do?  We do what Jesus says.  Repent and believe the Gospel.
Repent.  That is, turn away from your sins.  Have a change of heart and mind.  Repent like the people of Ninevah did when they heard the preaching of the reluctant prophet Jonah.  Repent of our sins of laziness and complacency when it comes to the things of God and his Word.  Repent of the ways in which we have followed our heart when it has led us in courses of action that are not God-pleasing.  Repent of our failure to confess Christ clearly as individuals and as a church because of our fear of how the secular society around us will respond.
Repent … and believe the Gospel.  That word means “Good News.”  Now, I assume you all know what the Gospel is.  But before we say why it is good news here, I want to talk about how Mark unpacks it for us.  He doesn’t quite define it for us here … not just yet.  The Gospel for Mark is the reign of God in Jesus demonstrated, unfolded, unpacked in the chapters following today’s reading.
It begins with the kingdom being reconstituted through the call of the first disciples.  Today, Jesus calls four Galilean fisherman to follow him.  He calls more later…eight more, to be exact, to be his Apostles.  Twelve men … corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, to be the beginnings of the New Israel, the Holy Church sent out to fish for men as they proclaim the Gospel … to catch people in the net of God’s grace in Christ Jesus.  And the Holy Spirit by the power of the Word pulls in to the boat those whom he will.
            The kingdom is reconstituted in the Apostles.  Then the rule and reign of God is demonstrated in the works of Jesus.  Jesus casts out demons to prove his power over Satan’s opposition to God’s rule and reign.  Jesus heals the sick, makes lepers clean, makes a paralytic walk, reversing the effects of living in a sin-broken world.  Jesus forgives the sin of that same paralytic, and thereby comforts the hearts of all those who think that they are broken because of their own particular sins.  Jesus has power over nature.  He feeds the multitudes.  He calms the raging storm.  All creation groans now, but Jesus pictures for us the way in which God will one day restore all things.  A new heaven and new earth is coming.  Jesus also raises the dead.  This is a preview of our Lord’s own resurrection and the resurrection to eternal life that he promises to all who believe in him.  All of this is a preview of the wholeness of body and soul and all creation that will finally be made complete when he returns.
Yes, all this is Good News.  It is the Good News demonstrated all the way to the cross.  Jesus foretold his suffering and death three times in Mark’s Gospel … in chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter 10.  And finally, in chapter 10:45 – right before his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem – Jesus reveals the meaning of his death.  He says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  It’s only through the death of Jesus that our sins are atoned for.  It’s only through the death of Jesus that our sins are forgiven.  It’s only through faith in this death that we receive his forgiveness.  It’s only through faith in this death that we can enter into and live in God’s kingdom, now and in eternity.  And this kingdom is near to you today … present for you … staring you right in the face … in these words you have been hearing, and on this altar today. The kingdom of God is at hand. God is on the scene here in the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for you.
God visits his people today. Repent and believe the gospel.

INI

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