What if you’d spent your whole life expecting God’s kingdom to arrive “any day now”? Jesus’ first listeners did, thanks to a prophecy in Daniel. In this sermon on Mark 1:14-15, pastor Tom Hilpert unpacks why “The kingdom of God has come near” was electrifying news, and why Jesus paired it with “Repent and believe.” Lifelong repentance and unearned grace belong together. Read the full notes!

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Mark #4. Mark 1:14-15

¹⁴ After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: ¹⁵ “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! ” Mark 1:14-15

Have you ever wondered about how often Jesus talks about kingdom of God? What does he mean? What does he mean when says (as in verse 15) “the time is fulfilled?”

To really get at Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God, we need to understand something that most Jews at that time believed. To do that, let’s go back to the book of Daniel. Daniel was very young when the Babylonian empire crushed the kingdom of Judah, and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. He was taken to Babylon to be raised up as a Babylonian nobleman. Even so, he kept his faith in the Lord, the one true God. One night, the emperor of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream, and that dream was interpreted by Daniel.

³¹ “Your Majesty, as you were watching, suddenly a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying. ³² The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze, ³³ its legs were iron, and its feet were partly iron and partly fired clay. ³⁴ As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. ³⁵ Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
³⁶ “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. ³⁷ Your Majesty, you are king of kings. The God of the heavens has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever people live ​— ​or wild animals, or birds of the sky ​— ​he has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
³⁹ “After you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and then another, a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole earth. ⁴⁰ A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others. ⁴¹ You saw the feet and toes, partly of a potter’s fired clay and partly of iron ​— ​it will be a divided kingdom, though some of the strength of iron will be in it. You saw the iron mixed with clay, ⁴² and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay ​— ​part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. ⁴³ You saw the iron mixed with clay ​— ​the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay.
⁴⁴ “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. ⁴⁵ You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.” (Daniel 2:31-45, CSB)

 Just to make sure you get it, let me put it simply. The dream said that after the empire of Babylon would come another empire. That one would be succeeded by a third empire. Following that would be a fourth empire that would be particularly strong and brutal: “A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others.” That fourth empire would be not just one people, but made up of “mixed” peoples. Then, during the time of the fourth empire, God will begin to set up a kingdom that will never end. The other empires will pass away and be lost forever, but the kingdom of God, starting small, like a stone, will grow to fill the whole world.

Now, let’s think about actual world history. After the Babylonian empire came the Medo-Persian empire. That empire was defeated and conquered by Alexander the Great, and for a time the known world was dominated by the empire that he founded, the third after Babylon. Finally came a fourth empire, a brutal one that crushed all in its path: the Roman Empire.

Remember, it was during the time of the fourth empire that the kingdom of God was supposed to arrive. The Jews in the first century—the time of Jesus—understood that they were living during the time of the fourth empire (as indeed they were). They believed that sometime while the Romans ruled, the kingdom of God would come and eclipse all empires. Therefore, they were expecting the kingdom of God, at any moment.

There’s more from the book of Daniel. Daniel had a visit from an angel, later on. For now, don’t get too lost in the details. I’ll clarify things in just a moment. The angel said this (among other things):

²⁴ “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. ²⁵ Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
²⁶ “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. ²⁷ The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:24-27, NLT)

During the first century A.D. (that is, the century of Jesus) Jews believed about this text that “seventy sets of seven” meant “seventy sets of seven years.” In other words, 490 years. And get this: Daniel received this prophecy approximately 490 years before thirty A.D..

One of the amazing things to me is that these prophecies describe things that appear to have been fulfilled. Take the first prophecy, about the kingdom of God. It was supposed to start small, like a stone that came out of nowhere. Eventually it was to spread throughout the whole world, while the four empires were to pass away into nothing. Well, Christianity has indeed spread throughout the entire world. Meanwhile, even the Roman empire crumbled to nothing more than a thousand years ago.

The second one prophesies that the messiah will be killed, “appearing to have accomplished nothing,”(Daniel 9:26) and that, not long after that, Jerusalem and the temple will be utterly destroyed. Of course, at first it appeared that Jesus had accomplished nothing by his death. And, thirty seven years after the death of Jesus, Jerusalem was indeed destroyed in very much the way described by the prophecy.

Now, you can quibble about the math, or the meaning of “sets of seven” if you want to, but the fact remains that the Jews who lived during the time of Jesus were expecting to see the coming of the kingdom of God, and the anointed one (in Hebrew, “anointed one” is messiah) basically “any day now,” when Jesus himself came. The ministry of John the Baptist would have only increased and intensified the expectation that soon, the kingdom of God was going to come, led by God’s messiah.

All this is to explain how people would have understood it when Jesus started saying, “the kingdom of God is at hand.” This was an incredibly exciting message. It would be very much as if we Christians had a prophecy from 500 years ago telling us that in 500 years, Jesus is coming back. On top of that the prophecy described America unmistakably, and said that it would happen while America was a dominant world power. We would be pretty darn excited by now. Of course, the Jews of Jesus’ time thought the kingdom of God was going to be an actual empire like the Romans. They didn’t understand that it would spread throughout the world in a different way, and become a kingdom within the hearts of people all over the world.

But Jesus began with that point of connection, because after all, he was there to begin the kingdom of God, and fulfill the prophecies, even if the Jewish people didn’t quite understand how that was going to happen. So, he says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”

Jesus didn’t just say that, however. He added something else: “Repent and believe the good news! ” Since this was the message Jesus preached, let’s dive into it now.

Repentance means earnestly turning away from our sins, and from our rebellion against God’s kingship over us. We must do this when we come to faith in the Lord. But the Christian life involves ongoing repentance. Jesus still wants to show up in our lives in greater and more profound ways. He wants to give us even more grace, more joy, more peace, a more abundant life in Him. To receive these things from him, our path is the same: repent! That is, live a life of ongoing repentance.

In many ways it is like the path that Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) encourages members to take. An alcoholic recognizes that not only alcohol, but also the reasons that drive people to abuse it, will be lifelong problems. So, alcoholics who have absorbed the twelve steps say that they are “in recovery.” A person may have not had a drink in thirty years, but they will still describe themselves as a “recovering alcoholic.”

There is great wisdom in AA, mainly because its 12 steps capture the basics of Christianity. I think that we should think of ourselves as “repenting sinners.” In other words, just as alcoholics live in recovery, so we all should live in repentance.

To repent means to turn back, to go a completely different way. To repent is to fully own the fact that you have been wrong at the heart-level, with no excuses, and then to turn away from it, for all intents, forever. You may not succeed in never again committing a particular sin. But true repentance fully intends to go a different direction.

Some people admit their sins, but do not really repent of them. They may feel, in the heat of a moment, that they want to do better next time, and even resolve to do so, but they do not fundamentally commit to going a different way forever. They don’t admit that the problem is deep within them, and they are incapable of fixing it. If you are a Christian, and have struggled with the same thing over and over again, and you don’t seem to make any progress, ask the Lord to show you if you have truly repented in that area of your life. If the Bible says you need to repent, or if the Holy Spirit shows you that you need to repent, then make a decision to turn back from that (action, habit, attitude) forever. Don’t worry about whether you will fail again at times: make the commitment to turn away from it forever, and invite the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to keep that commitment. In fact, I think part of repentance is recognizing that we need God’s help, or we will only fail continually.

And, of course, the reality is, even when we repent, we often fail and sin again. Don’t let that discourage you. The path of repentance may involve some fits, starts and restarts. During the past year, for a time, I gorged myself on sugary snacks late every night. I came to understand that I was committing the sin of gluttony. I repented of it, but I seemed powerless to stop myself. Eventually, I recognized that the problem was in my heart, and I was indeed helpless to do anything about it. I could manage to hold off for a night or two, but I kept going back to it. However, I really was repentant: I didn’t want to do that anymore, and my intention was to stop it. Even while I failed most nights, I never thought that it was OK, and I did not make excuses for myself. Then one day in May, the Lord just stepped in and suddenly I was able to stop (really, it was the Lord who stopped it). The point is, you may not see a big change at first, but if you really are repentant, eventually, whether slowly, or all at once, you see that there is a change happening.

Here’s another one: I have a sinful habit of condemning other drivers when I drive. I think they are stupid, foolish, dangerous, morally deficient morons. I expect other people to drive responsibly; much like I do. I generally go the speed limit, except when passing, then I accelerate quickly and get the pass over with, as all drivers should. I signal my turns and lane changes. I don’t drive too close to the car in front of me.

About now, you probably see the problem: I am fundamentally self-righteous about my driving. From what I believe is my place of righteousness, I feel justified in judging the jerks who are unrighteous.

I am in repentance over this. My family knows that my repentance is very much a process. They may not notice, but I do think there has been some progress. My first step was to admit that I couldn’t change myself or my immediate gut-reactions to the stupid idiots who… you get the idea. But I finally realized that I truly need help from the Holy Spirit to be better. I have repented of my sin, and of my own efforts to fix it. I truly do not want to, or intend to, be that way any more.

As a matter of fact, I do still get angry and judgmental, and self righteous when I drive. But I’m quicker to realize it, and I do think this happens a little bit less often than before. I am trying to walk a different path. Before, I probably grew angry at drivers five or six times for every trip of 20 minutes. Now, I still do get frustrated, but it’s probably only two or three times in a 20 minute trip. I am not perfect, but I am on the road of repentance. I expect that as the Lord continues to work on me, it will happen less and less.

 When I do fail, I don’t give up and say, “I guess that’s just who I am.” No, I receive grace from the Lord, and continue on a path away from this kind of sin.

Now, I mentioned receiving grace from the Lord. That is the second part of Jesus’ message. “Repent, and trust the good news.” Repenting does not help us unless there is good news for us to rest upon. The good news is that God himself has come near to us. We couldn’t reach him through our own attempts at being good. Instead, he reached us, and it is an act of grace. Here’s the good news in just a few verses:

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, ESV)

God offers us grace. It is not based upon our performance. When we repent, he takes us from there. He does have things he wants us to do, but that is because he literally created us to do certain things, not because we have to do anything to earn his love.

Repent and trust the good news is the heart of Jesus’ message. It should be the heart of the message of every church and preacher as well, but for some reason, we Christians tend to emphasize either “repent” or “good news,” and we have a hard time holding on to both at the same time.

Many churches and individuals emphasize that God loves us with an incredible, everlasting love. Sometimes they emphasize it so much that they sort of skip, or ignore the need for repentance. In such churches, sin becomes no big deal, and they fail to teach the whole truth of God. God’s earth shaking love and forgiveness bought at the price of the suffering of Jesus Christ slowly becomes something like, “Oh, God’s cool with that sort of sin, don’t worry about it.”

On the other hand, some churches and individuals do the opposite. They emphasize sin so much that, to listen to them, you might not realize that Jesus Christ has decisively dealt with our sin. Their message becomes one of legalism, where you need to perform, and check how you measure up against other people. The message of forgiveness and unconditional grace is lost.

Jesus’ message included both “repent,” and “trust the good news.” If we don’t believe we need to repent, there is actually not much point in the good news, nor any real need for it. On the other hand, repentance is pointless unless there is, in fact, forgiveness and love available to us.

What is jumping out at you today from the text? Does your faith need to be strengthened by learning that ancient prophecies, which long predated Jesus, were fulfilled by him, and by the spreading of his gospel to all the world?

Perhaps you need to hear the message of repentance. Maybe you needed to hear that it is a lifelong process and we ought to be serious about turning away from sin. If you continue to commit the same sin, don’t settle for getting comfortable with it. Don’t make peace with it. Turn away again and again. Trust that in his time, the Lord will use your repentance, and set you free from it.

And we all need to hear the good news over and over again. We can’t repent well enough. We can’t perform to the level we ought to. God’s love for us is so great that when we were helpless in our sin, Jesus died for us anyway. He saved us, not because of any good deed we had done, or were going to do. God has not waited for us to come near to him. Instead, he himself has come near to us.