9.20.16 Bible Study: The Message of the Kingdom of God
Key Scripture: Mark 1:14-15
INTRODUCTION: The message of the Kingdom of God is the most important news ever delivered to the human race. Why? If you do not understand the Kingdom, it is almost impossible for you to understand the Bible and the real message it brings.
Mark 1:14-15 (MSG) 14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: 15 “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” It appears that the first public ministry of Jesus was a focus on our thought life and how we were thinking. Jesus came to reintroduce God’s original plan for this earth and “Repent” was His first sermon to mankind. Most folks have the wrong idea about the word “repent.” Repent, you sinner! Stop your sinful ways or you are going to hell!
- A New Reality
- Jesus came preaching and demonstrating a new reality, preaching not just about people missing hell and going to heaven, but about heaven coming to earth.
- He demonstrated the power of this kingdom to control circumstances, environments, social-ills, and even death itself. (1 Cor. 4:20)
- Repent simply means to stop, to turn around, changing, turning from sin and our own way to God. Sin can be seen as loving ourselves instead of loving God, and preferring our own ways instead of seeking to please Him. (Isaiah 53:6)
- We had the wrong idea of repentance, and therefore the wrong attitude about winning the lost. I (we) didn’t know that it meant to change your thinking. I (we) didn’t know that because of Adam’s sin, we were no longer thinking like God (like royalty), and that our mental processes had been retarded . . . that our thoughts were no longer His thoughts, and our ways no longer His ways.
- Basic to all sin is selfishness. The most common word for sin in the New Testament is the Greek word “hamartia.” It means to miss the mark; to be in error, to fall short.
- Full Payment Through the Blood of Christ
- God saw the hopelessness and helplessness of creation, the condition of mankind, and sent a substitutionary and vicarious sacrifice (John 1:29) (Hebrews 9:14 –MSG)
- Sin can only be settled by the blood of Jesus, the eternal “spot remover” that cleanses (purges) our conscience, not only from what was done in the past, but also frees us to enter into that rest where faith can flow like a flood.
- No Ordinary Life
- Embrace the fact that you were not born to live an ordinary life, you were born for dignity and distinction. (1 Cor. 15:34)
- Repentance releases a revelation of who we really are (Genesis 15:1)
- Reward in Hebrew is “sakar” meaning salary, wages, or compensation
- Repentance prepares our heart to receive new seed (Matthew 13:15)
- Repent! Return to your place of dominion. It’s the best thing you could ever do.
