Jim Parker
Member
Back to Basics I. The Gospel
(Mark 1:14-15) Now after John was put in Prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
In this verse, Mark identifies the Gospel, as preached by Jesus, to including four essential items:
1. Time is fulfilled
2. Kingdom of God is at hand
3. Repent
4. Believe
1. The time is fulfilled
At that time, everything necessary for the coming of Christ has been accomplished. The Mediterranean Roman World is at peace and travel throughout the empire was safe for trade and communication because the Romans had driven the pirates from the sea and the robbers from the land so that travel along their magnificent engineering feat of road building was safe throughout the empire. And there is a common language of commerce: Koine Greek. So people from different tribes who spoke different languages could carry on business or just a conversation in that common Koine Greek of the marketplace.
In Israel (The Roman province of Judea) was also peace enforced by the occupying Roman army and the Jews had been given special rights to practice their religion without interference from the Romans and without the insult of Roman temples to their pagan gods being erected within their borders. This is a unique privilege in the empire and the leaders of the Jews; the Sanhedrin (ruling council), the Sadducees (priests), Pharisees (religious purists) and scribes (Mosaic law scholars) were expected to keep a lid on the desire of zealots to incite rebellion against Rome. But the very fact of Roman occupation rankled the Jews and gave rise to a messianic yearning and even expectation. They wanted a messiah, and “anointed one”, a new David, to lead a revival of the Jewish state, to drive out the Romans, and to bring in a new “Golden Age.”
In the midst of this social and political situation, Caesar Augustus decrees that a census be taken of the entire empire with the requirement that each head of household register in his ancestral town. For Joseph, the husband of Mary and stepfather of Jesus, the ancestral town is the city of David; Bethlehem. So, in fulfillment of prophesy, Jesus is born in the city of David, from a virgin of the lineage of David having a step father who is also of the line of David. So, Jesus was born according to the prophesy of Micah.
Mat 2:6 “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel." (Micah 5:2)
Further fulfillment of prophesy is Jesus being taken into exile in Egypt to avoid the murderous intentions of King Herod the Great and then, after his death, returning to Israel but settling in Nazareth.
Out of Egypt I called my son. (Hosea 11:1) and
He shall be called a Nazarene.”(Jeremiah 31:15)
And so Jesus fulfills the requirements of the one who will be the Messiah; born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, and a descendant of David. But what this messiah will do to set his people free is not what the people are expecting. The Messiah has indeed come to bring salvation from the dominion and enslavement of a foreign power. But that foreign power is not the Roman Empire; it is the kingdom of darkness and the enslavement is to sin and death.
The Son of God has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and He has been born. He will be crucified for the sins of mankind. He will rise for our justification and he will destroy the work of the devil by His complete victory over the power of sin to cause permanent, physical death.
Sin brings physical death but, because of God the Logos’ incarnation, death and resurrection, everyone will be raised from the dead. Death can no longer hold the human race that was created in the image and likeness of God. Satan attempted to destroy that icon of God, the human body, by enticing man to sin which brings death and the corruption (decay) of the body. Sin brought death and corruption to all mankind but Jesus Christ, by His sinless submission to death and His victorious resurrection, has brought immortality and incorruptibility to all mankind.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:52-57)
The Messiah has come. He has defeated mankind’s enemy: death. He has established the Kingdom of God and opened its gates to whosoever will believe and submit to the Lordship of the Messiah who is Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He who believes in the Son has eternal life;
he who does not obey the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God rests upon him. (John 3:36)
iakov the fool
(Mark 1:14-15) Now after John was put in Prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
In this verse, Mark identifies the Gospel, as preached by Jesus, to including four essential items:
1. Time is fulfilled
2. Kingdom of God is at hand
3. Repent
4. Believe
1. The time is fulfilled
At that time, everything necessary for the coming of Christ has been accomplished. The Mediterranean Roman World is at peace and travel throughout the empire was safe for trade and communication because the Romans had driven the pirates from the sea and the robbers from the land so that travel along their magnificent engineering feat of road building was safe throughout the empire. And there is a common language of commerce: Koine Greek. So people from different tribes who spoke different languages could carry on business or just a conversation in that common Koine Greek of the marketplace.
In Israel (The Roman province of Judea) was also peace enforced by the occupying Roman army and the Jews had been given special rights to practice their religion without interference from the Romans and without the insult of Roman temples to their pagan gods being erected within their borders. This is a unique privilege in the empire and the leaders of the Jews; the Sanhedrin (ruling council), the Sadducees (priests), Pharisees (religious purists) and scribes (Mosaic law scholars) were expected to keep a lid on the desire of zealots to incite rebellion against Rome. But the very fact of Roman occupation rankled the Jews and gave rise to a messianic yearning and even expectation. They wanted a messiah, and “anointed one”, a new David, to lead a revival of the Jewish state, to drive out the Romans, and to bring in a new “Golden Age.”
In the midst of this social and political situation, Caesar Augustus decrees that a census be taken of the entire empire with the requirement that each head of household register in his ancestral town. For Joseph, the husband of Mary and stepfather of Jesus, the ancestral town is the city of David; Bethlehem. So, in fulfillment of prophesy, Jesus is born in the city of David, from a virgin of the lineage of David having a step father who is also of the line of David. So, Jesus was born according to the prophesy of Micah.
Mat 2:6 “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel." (Micah 5:2)
Further fulfillment of prophesy is Jesus being taken into exile in Egypt to avoid the murderous intentions of King Herod the Great and then, after his death, returning to Israel but settling in Nazareth.
Out of Egypt I called my son. (Hosea 11:1) and
He shall be called a Nazarene.”(Jeremiah 31:15)
And so Jesus fulfills the requirements of the one who will be the Messiah; born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, and a descendant of David. But what this messiah will do to set his people free is not what the people are expecting. The Messiah has indeed come to bring salvation from the dominion and enslavement of a foreign power. But that foreign power is not the Roman Empire; it is the kingdom of darkness and the enslavement is to sin and death.
The Son of God has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and He has been born. He will be crucified for the sins of mankind. He will rise for our justification and he will destroy the work of the devil by His complete victory over the power of sin to cause permanent, physical death.
Sin brings physical death but, because of God the Logos’ incarnation, death and resurrection, everyone will be raised from the dead. Death can no longer hold the human race that was created in the image and likeness of God. Satan attempted to destroy that icon of God, the human body, by enticing man to sin which brings death and the corruption (decay) of the body. Sin brought death and corruption to all mankind but Jesus Christ, by His sinless submission to death and His victorious resurrection, has brought immortality and incorruptibility to all mankind.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:52-57)
The Messiah has come. He has defeated mankind’s enemy: death. He has established the Kingdom of God and opened its gates to whosoever will believe and submit to the Lordship of the Messiah who is Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He who believes in the Son has eternal life;
he who does not obey the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God rests upon him. (John 3:36)
iakov the fool
