Jun 25 2023 - Mark 1 - The Great Reversal

I want to go back to last week – there were some questions –

We were talking about peacemakers – as disciples, living lives of nonviolence – and especially verses where Jesus told us to turn the other cheek and not repay evil for evil –

Jesus was speaking to His followers and explaining what it means to live a nonviolent life as a disciple, living as Jesus’ witnesses in the world. It is NOT instructions to nations, or how a nation’s military is supposed to respond, or how police are to respond to a threat to the public. They don’t go into an active shooter situation with ‘turn the other cheek’ – they are to protect the innocence.

Turning the other cheek is very different than a person attacking you in a parking lot. Our response is to be different. Hopefully that did not confuse you more.

Jesus’ first words in the gospel:

Mark 1: 14 Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.“

What does He mean? The kingdom of God is at hand? Near? Close at hand? Arrived? Any and all of these? Maybe the question is – What is the Kingdom? We don’t have kings – so it is hard for us to think – what is He getting at.

Kingdom of God: The dynamic rule or reign of God.

This has arrived on earth in Jesus – so when He is saying this – Jesus is the King, so the Kingdom of God has come. You can touch it! The King is here.

On January 21, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as president of the United States. You could say – the presidency of Joe Biden had arrived – that is what happens when Jesus came to earth.

NT Wright – How God Became King (in Jesus)

We say – God has always been king – He has always reigned! It is true, but it is not true! They don’t contradict because they have their time and place.

The Bible also says that the devil is the god of this world.

God is coming – and in Jesus, He reclaims His reign as King.

In our language, we could say God is taking back the world.

What Mark is doing – is showing us what it looks like.

What do you think it looks like when God takes back the world? What comes into your mind? Not, ‘what would the world look like?’

Here is a negative example of someone taking back something. A bit longer than a year ago, Putin began to reclaim the USSR.

That is not what it looks like when God takes back the world.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3 NASB)

So, when God takes back the world – what does He do? He does not send in the bombs and tanks.

The Sermon on the Mount is what the Kingdom of God looks like.

He sends in the Gentle – those who mourn – the peacemakers – and you think – He will lose! But that is the point – He takes back the world by losing. That is God’s way of doing things. Definitely not the world’s way.

Here is a little assignment if you would like to do it – in Mark and Matthew – Luke too – Jesus gives a series of Parables on the Kingdom – read Matthew 13 – and then read Mark 4 – parables – and this is how – He is giving examples of what it looks like when God takes back the world. Think about what He is saying compared to how it is done in the world. He talks a lot about seeds – throwing seeds everywhere – tiny seeds.

God ascends to heaven – and Jesus looks down – and there is this rag-tag group of people with all kinds of problems – and He thinks – this is how I took over the world? And they are like – what do we do now? That is how you run a kingdom if you are God. That is what is amazing – we can all be part of that kingdom – part of that project.

A little background on Mark – Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the synoptic gospels – similar – using most of the same stories. And then there is John, who takes a completely different way.

However – don’t let the title fool you – Synoptic gospel – because Mark is unique.

First – it is very short. Nothing about the birth of Jesus. It is fast-paced. 42 times the word immediately appears in 16 chapters.

It is like reading a gospel at 1.5 speed! It is filled with conflict. Jesus is in conflict with the evil spirits, Satan – and the religious leaders. It is about who has the power.

It is about the failure of the disciples. There are only 2 stories where they do anything right! In the rest, they all fail. We can all participate in this story.

It is also about the faithfulness of outsiders and sinners.

So, the disciples fail, and the outsiders and sinners are being shown as faithful.

Son of God – no human calls him that – just the demons, until He dies – and the first person to call Jesus the Son of God is the Roman centurion.

Finally – it ends in a cliffhanger! It is really different. It leaves you like one of those shows that has Season 2 and you have to wait to find out what happens!

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He goes back to Genesis 1 – in the beginning – here, the beginning. There is a new beginning – he is introducing a new creation. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When we see this – it is easy to think genre – the gospel for us is a genre of literature. Like a biography. Gospel here – means – gospel – good news = good news.

Mark is saying – it is HIS gospel

We would say – The pastor PREACHED the GOSPEL today.

When we get to the end of Mark, we would say – Mark, PREACHED the GOSPEL today.

If you read a person the entire gospel of Mark – you have just shared the gospel with that person. That is what Mark is telling us here.

We have shorter presentations of the gospel at our disposal, but we can’t let our short presentations become our complete understanding of what the gospel is.

CRU came out with the Jesus Movie – it was pretty much the gospel of Luke – Billions saw it and hundreds of millions came to faith in Christ watching a movie of Luke. They saw it lived out – acted out – the gospel gives life.

The first thing he says about the gospel:

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet

He connects the story of Jesus to the story of Israel – it is the fulfillment. There is no gospel without the story of Israel. It is connected. We rarely do that when we ‘preach the gospel’ – Our gospel goes like this – we start with Genesis 1-3 – God is this loving Creator who created us for relationship with Him. But we have sinned – and the result is death. Then what do we do? We skip 90% of the Bible – jumping to the New Testament – and say – God sent Jesus to die for your sins. That is the point – but the rest of it leads up to that point. That is an enormous story that God wants us to become a part of. Yes, we don’t have hours to talk to people – but we are invited in to be part of God’s purposes and plans for all eternity. That is what we are invited into – The kingdom of God – His reign and rule! It is so much bigger than just going to church or being religious.

It is joining God to help Him take back the world. That is what we are called to.

In 1900 – L. Frank Baum – (from NT Wright) – wrote a book – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

That book was turned into a musical – and that is how we all came into contact with it – for me – as a five-year-old, hiding in the dining room when the flying monkeys came out!

There is no backstory – we are just dropped in – when Dorothy and Toto drop on the witch.

In 1995 – Gregory Montgomery wrote Wicked – the Backstory –

Think back – if the first thing you saw was Wicked and then you watched the Wizard of Oz – you would have a very different perspective on the story.

I do a lot of reading – I don’t read a lot of fiction – but I was listening to Silo – on audiobook – a dystopian novel – plopped down 300 years from now – and they are dropped underground in a silo that holds 10000 people. There is one window – and you can see the world is ruined – and there is only one person who knows what happened. And the rest is trying to figure it out.

The second book of the three - goes back and explains it. It is like, OHHHH that is what is going on! The point is – it is important to go back and understand. The Bible Project videos do a great job of explaining the backstory.

Let’s continue – We are introduced to John the Baptist.

, "Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

4 In the wilderness John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 People from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem were going out to him, and he was baptizing them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

Mark does this short introduction. But he did indicate that the people from the whole Judean countryside were coming – and that was the center of the religion – the movers and the shakers. And this is a contrast to verse 9 below:

6 John wore a garment made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, "One more powerful than I am is coming after me; I am not worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

9 Now in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. 10 And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight."

So, Nazareth and Galilee – that was the unimpressive place. I won’t do any comparison of anywhere in the United States – so as not to offend. You figure out for yourself – there was a saying – Could anything good come out of Nazareth? The answer was no – it was the one place where nothing good could possibly come out of.

The Gospel of Mark is about the Great Reversal – the greatest reversal in the history of the world. It is the first shall be last. That does not mean that if you go to heaven – that if you were a lousy golfer on earth you’ll be a great golfer in heaven – it means the first shall be last.

For much of the history of God’s faithful people – the remnant – were most often outsiders. Even when the Church was in charge of the Empire – it was the outsiders who were the faithful remnant.

And those outsiders are always living for a great Reversal

For Christians, we need to see – that is what God wants to do – even today – a Great Reversal.

And we need to view ourselves as the last. So, when He says – the first shall be last – don’t get discouraged because you are first – no, we are last – followers of Jesus. We should be last in that one sense, and God will reverse all of that.

Lord, thank You – You love us – You are bringing about a great reversal – and even though we don’t experience that until the end – when You return – when Your Kingdom is brought to this planet – when the New Jerusalem comes down – then we will know – that we the last will be first – it is a great and glorious hope.