Episode Details

Introduction

Every Sunday, in the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What are we asking for in that prayer? What is the kingdom of God? That question is at the heart of our text this morning.

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming 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.” 

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. 

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As we look at the beginning of verse 14, we have a time stamp. Namely, “after John was arrested.” Some commentators take this to mean that the ministries of John and Jesus don’t overlap, but it is clear from the gospel of John that they do. But then John is arrested, and Jesus’ main ministry moves from also baptizing in the Judean countryside, to being a ministry centered in Galilee. 

Kingdom Come

Verse 14 tells us that Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, which is to say, preaching, the gospel of God. That word gospel simply means good news. It’s good in that the content is joyful or happy, and it’s news in the sense the this is an announcement. It’s not a suggestion, or the beginning of a conversation, or simply an offer. Jesus is announcing the Good News of God. And what is the content of that Good News? 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.” (v15)

There are three aspects to this Gospel proclamation in verse 15. The first is the announcement of time, the second is the announcement of the kingdom, and the third is the call for a response. 

Time

The idea of time is really building on what we’ve seen the past two weeks with the coming of John in the wilderness, and then the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, and his subsequent time in the wilderness. When Jesus came into the world it wasn't out of the blue, it is the culmination of hundreds and thousands of years of expectation, waiting, and longing. 

The promise of a Messiah, a Redeemer, a conquering King - these go all the way back to the beginning. 

Genesis 3:15-16 seed, Serpent crushed

Genesis 12:1-2 family, blessed

A dragonslayer was coming from the woman, and he would come from Abraham’s people 

But as we rehearsed last week, the wilderness years in many ways set the tone for the history of Israel. Amazing experiences of God, followed by stunning periods of rebellion and lawlessness. These periods would be followed by times of discipline, after which God would then rescue the people again. After the last of these cycles, when the people were carried off into Babylon in 587 BC and the begin to return to the land after 70 years in captivity, God gives them good leadership for a period, and a few more prophets. But when Malachi closes his book around the year 400 BC, things go silent. No more prophetic voice, no more word from the Lord. Has he forgotten his people?

But then the wilderness prophet, John the Baptist, comes like Elijah in the wilderness, preparing the Way For the coming of Messiah. Making straight in the desert a highway for the coming of the great Davidic king. John is announcing that the time is nearly here. Jesus picks that up here in verse 15, and says the time is fulfilled. What you have