Bible Study series: Mark 1:14-15. This ministry will eventually change the whole world. It began in Galilee.
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Links in this post are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 1:14-15
14 After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near! Repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)
Commentary
Jesus begins his Galilee ministry, which commentator R. T. France says is a major section in Mark’s Gospel.
14:
John was arrested and put in prison for preaching against Herod Antipas, who had married his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. John was beheaded. Jump ahead to Mark 6:14-29 to find out the sordid story of the unjust plot against John.
“arrested”: The verb will be used about Jesus when he predicts his own arrest or is actually arrested (3:19; 9:31; 10:33; 14:10, 11, 21, 41, 42, 44; 15:1, 15). The opposition to John and his cousin (relative) Jesus is of one piece.
Now Jesus has embarked on his ministry. It is launched.
“good news”: It is the good news about God. Go to this link to read more about this term.
John the Baptizer Announces the Coming One
15:
The time is fulfilled: this is in the passive voice, and Jesus is the one fulfilling the season. But the Father is ordering his Son’s steps.
The noun here is kairos (pronounced kye-ross and is used 85 times), which speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
All of this stand in a mild contrast—not a sharp contrast—from chronos, another word for time in Greek: chronos (pronounced khro-noss), which measures one day, one week or one month after another.
Here kairos means the right quality of time, when Jesus began his ministry, right after his baptism.
“kingdom of God”: As will be noted in other verses that mention the kingdom in this commentary, the kingdom is God’s power, authority, rule, reign and sovereignty. He exerts all those things over all the universe but more specifically over the lives of people. It is his invisible realm, and throughout the Gospels Jesus is explaining and demonstrating what it looks like before their very eyes and ears. It is gradually being manifested from the realm of faith to the visible realm, but it is not political in the human sense. It is a secret kingdom because it does not enter humanity with trumpets blaring and full power and glory. This grand display will happen when Jesus comes back. In his first coming, it woos people to surrender to it. We can enter God’s kingdom by being born again (John 3:3, 5), by repenting (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:5), by having the faith of children (Matt. 18:4; Mark 10:14-15), by being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son whom God loves (Col. 1:13), and by seeing their own poverty and need for the kingdom (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20; Jas. 2:5). The kingdom has already come in part at his First Coming, but not yet with full manifestation and glory and power until his Second Coming.
Here are some of my posts about the kingdom of God:
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
I like this comment on v. 14, by Wessel and Strauss:
The kingdom has come near because the king is present. It has drawn near spatially (in Jesus’s person) and temporally (since it ushers in the events of the end). God’s reign is evident in Jesus’s healings, exorcisms, and nature miracles. His disciples experience the power of the kingdom—driving out demons and healing the sick—through his authority (5:7, 13). If the kingdom is directly related to the person of Jesus, then it is ultimately achieved through his death on the cross, the ransom for sins. The kingdom is realized not through conquest but through sacrifice. It will be consummated when he returns in power and glory.
So miracles and healings and exorcisms are signals that some of the kingdom is encroaching in our lives and in Satan’s territory. Wow. Perfectly said.
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
“repent”: it is the verb form of repentance. The noun metanoia (pronounced meh-tah-noi-ah), and it literally means “change of mind.” But it goes deeper than mental assent or agreement. Another word for repent is the Greek stem streph– (including the prefixes ana-, epi-, and hupo-), which means physically “to turn” (see Luke 2:20, 43, 45). That reality-concept is all about new life. One turns around 180 degrees, going from the direction of death to the new direction of life.
For further study, please click here:
“believe”: the verb is pisteuō (pronounced pea-stew-oh), and it is used 241 times. It means to “believe, be convinced of something.” In a more specific definition it goes in a direction: “to have faith in Christ or God” (Mounce p. 61). Believing (verb) and faith (noun) is very important to God. It is the language of heaven. We live on earth and by faith see the invisible world where God is. We must believe he exists; then we must exercise our faith to believe he loves us and intends to save us. We must have saving faith by trusting in Jesus and his finished work on the cross.
True acronym:
F-A-I-T-H
=
Forsaking All, I Trust Him
Let’s discuss the verb believe and the noun faith more deeply. It is the language of the kingdom of God. It is how God expects us to relate to him. It is the opposite of doubt, which is manifested in whining and complaining and fear. Instead, faith is, first, a gift that God has distributed to everyone (Rom. 12:3). Second, it is directional (Rom. 10:9-11; Acts 20:21). We cannot rightly have faith in faith. It must be faith in God through Christ. Third, faith in Christ is different from faith in one’s ability to follow God on one’s own. It is different from keeping hundreds of religious laws and rules. This is one of Luke’s main themes in Acts, culminating in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) and Paul’s ministry for the rest of Acts. Faith in Jesus over faith in law keeping. Fourth, there is faith as a set of beliefs and doctrines, which are built on Scripture (Acts 6:7). Fifth, there is also a surge of faith that is poured out and transmitted through the Spirit when people need it most (1 Cor. 12:9). It is one of the nine charismata or manifestations of grace (1 Cor 12:7-11). Sixth, one can build faith and starve doubt by feasting on Scripture and the words about Christ (Rom. 10:17).
Please see my word study on believe and faith:
Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness
To conclude …..
Jesus message was simple in the beginning. The kingdom of God has drawn near, so repent and believe. Repent means a heart-and-mind change. It also means to turn one hundred and eighty degrees. You were going one way, and now you are going in the opposite direction—the right direction.
It is interesting that Mark says, “Believe in the good news or the gospel.” “To ‘believe in’ something is to accept the truth value of the proposition (here summarized as ‘the gospel’) and to modify one’s thinking and behavior accordingly” (Decker, p. 19). The gospel must change you.
Grow App for Mark 1:14-15
1. Describe your repentance and faith in the gospel. What happened to you?
2. How has genuine repentance changed your life?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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