Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 5 Study # 2
December 18, 2018
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(036)
1901 ASV
14 Now after John was delivered up, 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 ye, and believe in the gospel.
- I. Mark's "Timing" Statement.
- A. Mark made a fundamental assumption: his readers would know about John's imprisonment by Herod.
- 1. This is in harmony with his declaration that "all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem" went out to be baptized by John.
- 2. It is another validation of John's reception by the people as a legitimate prophet and of Jesus as the "One coming after" John to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
- B. That Mark presents Jesus as having come into Galilee after John was "delivered up" indicates that he intended to present Jesus according to John's declaration that "The One Mightier than I comes 'after' (different word) me whose moral character is vastly superior to mine".
- C. That Mark focuses upon John's arrest by Herod indicates the "split" between the recognition of the people that John was a prophet and the "rejection attitude" of those in "authority". [In Mark's record, Herod has a significant part in revealing the crippling effect that "the pride of life" has upon those who are in bondage to it.]
- II. Jesus Came Into The Galilee.
- A. Mark's focus is upon Jesus' activities in Galilee, with twelve references to Galilee as the place of Jesus' actions.
- B. This "coming" follows immediately on the heels of Mark's identification of Jesus' "origins" in 1:9 as Nazareth of Galilee. He completely ignores the Bethlehem birth narrative that figures large in Matthew's and Luke's presentation of Jesus as "of the lineage of David". This signals a focus upon Jesus' "insignificance" in the eyes of many of the leaders as they dismiss Him with the "no prophet arises from Galilee" nonsense as recorded by John 7:52.
- III. The "Preaching of Jesus".
- A. His "preaching" is of content called "The Gospel".
- 1. "The Gospel" content was not, at this time, about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but those factors were behind the scenes as this historical period played out. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and His death was always the undergirding issue of all the variations of "good news", but, until history caught up with prophecy, the particulars of the Gospel focused upon "repentance unto forgiveness" without an explanation of the "How?" question of "forgiveness" in the face of Justice.
- B. The actual words.
- 1. The "time" has been fulfilled.
- a. This announcement was set at the beginning of Daniel's "sixty-ninth week".
- 1) There were only seven years prophesied to yet come before the catastrophic events that were to take place between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks.
- a) Messiah was to be "cut off" (for the sake of "others").
- b) The city and the sanctuary were to be destroyed by the people of "the prince that was prophesied to come".
- 2) After those events there were only seven more years prophesied to be a "time" which would end with the establishment of the Kingdom of Messiah.
- 2. The Kingdom of The God has come near (Perfect Tense, Indicative Mood).
- a. Mark only refers to things "being near" in three texts in Mark.
- 1) Our current text.
- 2) Mark 11:1 uses the term to indicate geographical "nearness" as in how close Bethany was to Jerusalem.
- 3) Mark 14:42 uses the term to indicate the "nearness in time" of the betrayer's arrival (a matter of only minutes).
- b. The strong implication is that "The Kingdom of The God" is about to "come" in some sense related to "the time" which had to have been "fulfilled".
- 3. Repent.
- a. This is the key to, and singular requirement of, God's "forgiveness being extended".
- b. It is an absolutely crucial concept that is little understood in our day. We addressed this extensively in our earlier studies regarding John's preaching.
- 4. Believe in "The Gospel".
- a. The particular issue in "believe" is that associated with John's promise of "forgiveness of sins upon repentance" (this being the most significant "good news" of all of the details as far as men's experience is concerned).
- b. The imperative is rooted in the actual "nearness" of the Kingdom of The God. If the eschaton is "near" it is critical that men prepare for its "arrival".