The First Gospel - Good News

Thanks Marlee. Well hey everybody. Her name's Marlee, my name's Greg. I can't help myself

sometimes, I'm sorry. Alright, so last week was the ninth anniversary of when we launched

this church, but because of a water main break, we know that this week is actually the nine

year anniversary of our first in-person worship gathering. And so, I feel a little hot if

you don't mind pulling me down a little bit. And so, this past week I was actually talking

to one of my spiritual overseers. You know, so Michael Omanara is in California, and then

Corey Parker is in East Malene, and then the other spiritual overseer that I have is named

Ross Parsley. He's in Austin, Texas. I know him from my days back at New Life Church in

Colorado. He'd been there for 18 plus years before he went and planted a church in Austin.

And this last week when I was talking to him, he just wanted to just extend just how proud

he is of this church, that we are who we are, that God has done what he has done in this

church, and he just reminded me that not all pastors in all churches make it to year nine,

right? And so, it is a, and not to mention a pandemic wreaking havoc on how every church

in America operated for a couple of years. And so, it really is something special that

we're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I just want to remind you that God

has done something good here. I want to remind you that God has been good to us, and because

God has been good to us that we can and have been good to others. We have fed hundreds

and hundreds of people through the pantry that we lead at Earl Hanson. Michelle Marquis

is the point person on that, and she just does a killer job of organizing that and making

sure that all the food that we need is there. We have provided hundreds and hundreds of

gifts to hundreds of kids that have been affected by the foster care system over the last, we've

done that eight times, well we did it in 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. So, we've

done that nine times for the last nine Christmases. We've provided gifts for kids that maybe would

not have felt like, oh this Christmas morning is as special as they wanted it to be. This

past Thursday, we sponsored the meal at Nest Cafe here in Rock Island, and when I was leaving,

Laura, the one that started that ministry, said that we brought through more people than

any other sponsor has ever brought through. So, round of applause, right? No, and it's

not a competition, but it is, but I'm just saying we're the best. No, no, that's not

in my notes. That wasn't the Holy Spirit that's not in my notes. But when we look at God,

this is true, when we look at God, we will always end up looking at others. It's just

how it works. If you look at God, he will have you look at others. And then our neighbor

over here, Closet to Closet, the last few years, we've been asking them to partner

with us in those gifts that we do for kids in the foster system, and so they've been

here actually a few months longer than we have. The building, initially Jeff started

it because he wanted us to have a home. That's just a smaller spot, and so it actually got

done before us, and so they were starting their stuff in here a couple months before

us. But we've never just said, okay, this is when we're going to do stuff with you,

other than Christmas. And so I was just talking to Ali Haskell, who leads that ministry right

now, that I think that once a month on a Thursday, that we need to start going, this is a Thursday

night that we come and help, that we help load boxes, that we help organize things,

we help sort things. And so I haven't decided what Thursday, maybe throw it out to the last

Thursday of the month, last Thursday night of the month, probably get an email to that

effect, that the last Thursday of the month, I would love it if we as a church could start

building the relationship that we have with our building mate, that we can build and give

into the ministry that they are doing, because what they are doing is so important. So you'll

hear more about that as time goes by. God has done something good here. And I believe

that his good work will continue as long as we are looking at him. So with that in mind,

let's open our Bibles. Let's look at the book of Mark and see what Jesus is doing and what

we are meant to learn. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Mark. It goes Matthew, Mark,

Luke, John, and the New Testament. So if you see any of those, you know that you are in

the right neighborhood. We went over Mark last week. Mark is the first gospel that was

written. That's why the series is called the first gospel. And if you don't have a Bible,

we have them on the bookshelf. Take one, one for your friend, feel free. Otherwise you

can download it from a digital app store. And we do our best to have a tradition of

giving the scriptures our full attention. Whatever makes sense for you to give the scriptures

your attention, you can sit or you can stand if you'd like. You can stand with me as we

read these scriptures. Okay? Here we go. Mark starting in chapter 1 verse 14 through 15.

Just a couple of verses. Mark 1, 14. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee

proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has

come near. Repent and believe the good news. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every tongue,

every color, every nation, we thank you for the scriptures that they exist, that they

have persisted throughout the millennia. I pray that whatever you have for us to learn

today, pray that it would become a part of the framework of our faith. That our faith

would become stronger, that we would become more like your son, Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y'all.

Have a seat. Okay, so verse 14. The first thing that we're told is that John is in prison,

alright? John, John the Baptist, we talked about him a bit last week. Now think, we're

only 14 verses into this book, okay? 14 verses. Think about how jarring this is. If you're

a reader back then and you knew just a little bit about the story, you didn't know exactly

when things happened. You're reading and 14 verses in, suddenly one of the main characters

is put in prison. Think about how jarring that is. Mark has framed all of this beautiful,

rich imagery. What is happening and who is involved. We're reminded of creation, the

first beginning and how this is a kind of new beginning. We're told that John, this

John that is put in prison is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. We learned last week

why Isaiah is so important and Mark shows us that Jesus is this kind of physical embodiment

of heaven and earth becoming one, uniting the different branches of the people of God.

We see Jesus resist temptation. We see him succeed where others had failed and then suddenly,

verse 14, without explanation, no explanation, his forerunner, the one Isaiah spoke of, his

friend, his actual cousin is thrown in prison and we're not told why. We're not even told

by who until you get to chapter six. We find out in chapter six that it's because John

was calling out the adulterous sins of a local Jewish ruler. His name was Herod, Herod Antipas.

He was the son of the same Herod that had tried to kill Jesus when Jesus was a child.

When Herod the Great died, his territory was split up amongst his sons and this territory

was under Herod Antipas. We actually know that John never made it out of prison. You

read the rest of the, oh, spoiler alert? My bad, my bad, he dies. There's this video online

right now of like a fake Bible study and a guy that's sitting there and he's never heard

the story and someone goes and then later when Jesus gets crucified he's like, spoiler

alerts? He dies? Yeah, so the Book of Luke tells us that later when Jesus is on trial

before his crucifixion that he actually stands before this same Herod and that is actually

the first time that they meet. The reason I'm pointing that out is because here in Mark

1 when John the Baptist is arrested, Jesus doesn't go to Herod and demand his release.

Jesus doesn't pick up and go and talk to Herod and try and talk him out of whether it is

that he had in mind. Instead it says that he picked up where John left off preaching

and saying, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the

good news. Now this is a pretty famous phrase that even if you didn't grow up in church,

even if you weren't a regular church goer, you've probably heard part of this. If you

haven't heard part of this, you've probably at least seen part of this scrawled across

the poster that someone's holding up on the corner. Repent, repent. We have to ask ourselves

what is repentance? What is this good news? Repentance can be translated as simply as

this y'all. Two words, reverse course. Those are the two words that it is translated. Reverse

course, turnaround, change directions. Jesus is saying what he is saying right here isn't

all that different than what God has been saying for the entire Bible. Right? I feel

like I'm getting a feedback. So this is the same thing that John was saying. It's the

same thing that Isaiah was saying. It's the same thing that every prophet, every judge,

every religious ruler had ever been saying. If you go all the way back to the beginning,

it's the message that God gave to Cain, one of the first children. Right? God gives the

same message to Cain when he was being tempted to kill his brother. He doesn't use the same

words, but God says, you know the right thing to do. He says, you know the right thing to

do as you're being tempted to hurt your brother. And if you do not change directions, sin is

crouching at your door. He's saying, turn around, change directions, reverse course,

repent. That's it. It's not a scary word. As much as some people try to make it be,

what makes repent a difficult word is how we choose to use it. And I wonder if at least

in this case, if we, if Christianity is using it the same way that Jesus is using it. Because

what does Jesus say? He says, repent and what? Believe. Believe what? This good news. So

what is this good news? The word in Greek for good news just means news that brings

joy. Think about the pairing here between what we typically feel about the word repent

and the concept that good news is news that brings joy. The word that is translated from

Greek to good news is also the same word that is translated gospel. It's the same word,

gospel, good news. Now back then the word for gospel or good news, it wasn't as much

of a word like that it was owned by religion as much as it was a cultural word. Back then

the gospel, the good news, it was anything that they believed to be history changing.

If something was world shaped, that was world shaping, was happening, they'd ask, hey, did

you hear the gospel? Hey, did you hear the good news? In a lot of cases, it was a word

connected to propaganda. It's a word emperors would use about their conquests. It's how

they describe their own greatness. When they would conquer something, they would send someone

ahead, good news, you are now ruled by so and so. Listen to how they began this inscription

about the birth and coronation of a Roman emperor. It says, these are the words, the

beginning of the gospel of Caesar Augustus. Now anyone that was here last week should

be asking, why does that sound familiar? Why is that? Or anyone that has read the book

of Mark? Think about it. How did Mark begin his gospel about Jesus? Mark 1 says word for

word, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only is Mark pointing us back

to creation, but Mark is stealing. And Jesus is stealing and reclaiming and repurposing

the words of empire. See, Jesus doesn't go to Herod and demand John be released because

Herod was a puppet king for an earthly empire. Jesus is interested in a different kingdom.

Instead Jesus uses the words of empire and conquest, the words of world shaping news

about his kingdom. He says, believe this gospel, believe this good news because this news will,

will literally shape the world. The Roman empire is gone. The kingdom of heaven is still

here. Jesus is proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near and that he is the

king. Now, let's circle back around to repentance in the context of this, right? And the question

of whether we are using it like Jesus is using it in this passage. The context of this story

tells us Jesus isn't simply calling people to think about their sins. He's not calling

them, just think about how generally bad you are. That's not the context of what he's saying.

He's not asking them to think about their mistakes. He's calling them to change courses,

to change directions, to turn around and repent of what kingdom they follow. What kingdom

they think is in charge. For a people like the Jews who remember, it's like extreme home

makeover emperor edition. Remember? How many times who was in charge of their land had

changed hands. Now Jesus is telling them there is a kingdom that will last forever. It has

come near. Repent of who you think is in charge. Repent of even who it looks like is in charge.

And believe this good news. This is repentance. This is the good news that Jesus is king.

That Jesus brings a new kingdom and that we can follow him. Instead of kings like Herod,

Caesar, or America, or ourselves. So what do we do with that? How do we participate

with any of this? Really honestly that's what the rest of this series is about. The passage

right after this shows Jesus calling his disciples. And then it shows him healing and it shows

him teaching. It shows him liberating people from evil spirits. It shows him praying. It

shows people dropping their nets, throwing away their careers so that they can follow

Jesus so that they can be Talmudim. Talmud is a word for disciple. Talmudim is to be

a group of disciples and to be one of these disciples meant that you wanted to look at

the rabbi you followed and to be everything you saw them be. And so the rest of this series

is us looking at Jesus. Deciding do I want to be like what I see Jesus be? One of the

weeks is about him confronting religious leaders. Do we want to be that? Are we comfortable

with that? So that's what I'm going to spend the rest of this series talking about. Mark

shows us what Jesus is like by extension, what his disciples became, and by extension

what we are meant to do and become. But today, for just a minute here as I close, I want

to acknowledge that tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And there was this jarring moment

where the other day I was at an event and someone said, hey, the next holiday coming

up is Valentine's Day, so what are your plans? And in my head I go, no, Monday is Martin

Luther King Jr. Day. And this thing that is so important in the history of our country,

it kind of gets treated like, yeah, some people get school off. But I want to acknowledge

that 55 years ago, this coming April, that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for

many reasons, but in large part because he was trying to look at Jesus. He was trying

to liberate. He was trying to heal. He was trying to teach. His day, Dr. King was looking

around and he did not see the kingdom of God, or rather, maybe I should say, he didn't see

the country that professed to be Christian reflecting the kingdom of God. Because many

of us, like me at least, that have white skin, knowingly or unknowingly have benefited from

how earthly empires work. Kingdoms that diminish people groups based on their ethnic or racial

background. Our skin, our attitudes, and our actions have too often reflected earthly empires

instead of God's heavenly kingdom. Repent and believe this good news. Too often we have

taken the concept of repentance and gone, oh, I've repented of the sins I know about,

and I believe this good news that Jesus saves me without the extension of believing that

his kingdom is supposed to bring life to everyone. My hope is that this year that we continue

as individuals, as a church, to reject racism, to continue to change our course whenever

we see that is necessary, whenever the spirit convicts us that we will grow in our anti-racism

and that this church, this house, continues to become a safer church for people of all

backgrounds. Because I've talked to different people in this room, I've said the point of

a church isn't just to be safe, it is to continually be safer. Because Jesus is the king of this

kingdom. Jesus is always saying, change courses, believe this joyful news, this news that brings

joy, that your hearts be changed. Abandon your careers, abandon your loyalty to your

empires. Instead, follow me. Amen? Let's pray. God, I thank you for the life of Martin Luther

King Jr., but I thank you for the life of every person in this room that can use their

voice, that can use their life to be like you. To speak up, to speak out, to act boldly

as you have acted, to offer life in a kingdom that is unlike any other kingdom on this earth.

I pray that you would teach us to change directions, to turn around, to reverse course every way

that you reveal to us. Plus, listen to our brothers and sisters, that their hearts be

open to the way that you speak to us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.