The Message Which Is Proclaimed (1:14-15).
This summary of Jesus' message (He clearly said a lot more) emphasises the central point in His ministry. He has come to establish the Kingly Rule of God among men, ready for its final consummation. This is the Good News, which, as we saw in Mark 1:1, is summed up in Jesus Christ. Both aspects of His Kingly Rule are clearly brought out throughout the Gospels.
Analysis of 1:14-15.
a Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God (Mark 1:14).
b And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingly Rule of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15 a).
a “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15 b).
Note that in ‘a' Jesus proclaims the Gospel of God, and in the parallel He calls on men to repent and believe that Gospel. In ‘b' we have the content of that Gospel.
‘Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingly Rule of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel”.'
‘After John was delivered up.' This is a reference to John's imprisonment, which Mark in fact tells us about later (Mark 6:17-29), but here there is probably lying behind it a deliberate hint that there is yet Another Who will be ‘delivered up' later. Mark's Gospel begins with a delivering up and will end with a delivering up, for God works through tribulation, and His people must expect nothing less. The shadow of John's death thus lies over the ministry of Jesus, Whose ministry will also lie under that shadow. But John's ‘delivering up' is purposely stated so that it might also be recognised that John's preparatory ministry was now over and Jesus' own ministry had begun, before He too would be delivered up. It answers the question, ‘what happened to John?'
‘Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel (good news) of God.' Mark is concerned to pinpoint the importance of Galilee in the ministry of Jesus. He stresses that when He opened His own distinctive ministry it was to Galilee that He first came. This is probably in order to stress the uniqueness of His message. He had not come to pander to the religious authorities, but to reach out to men everywhere. Thus He began away from Jerusalem, in a place where men and women were more open to receive His message.
While Galilee was Jewish territory it was also known as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles' (Matthew 4:15, compare Isaiah 9:1). It was separated from Judaea by Samaria, which lay in between, and throughout its history necessarily had closer contact with Gentile nations. Indeed for a time it had been mainly Gentile territory and had had to be re-colonised by the Jews. It was of this area that the prophet Isaiah had promised that ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined' (Mark 9:2). It had thus a prophetic future which was largely ignored by the Judaeans. It was not as hidebound as Judaea, and indeed was consequently looked down on and treated with some hosility by Judaeans because it was a little unorthodox, and it was therefore more open to receive new truth (and also innovations which were not so good). But parts of it were fiercely Jewish in its own slightly unorthodox way.
‘Preaching the good news of God.' John had preached that the good news was coming. Now Jesus could proclaim that it was here. The word means to proclaim like a herald. The genitive ‘of God' could be translated ‘about God' or ‘from God', but perhaps we are to see it as meaning ‘the good news that God has to give to His people' or ‘the good news that God had earlier promised'. The word indicates something special that is worth celebrating, and it relates directly to God. This good news had already been mentioned by Isaiah 61:1. The Spirit anointed prophet would come with the good news of God's deliverance, to bring comfort and strength to His people, and to introduce the last days. Compare also Isaiah 52:7 where the good news is of what is good, and is of ‘salvation' and of the fact that God reigns.
‘And saying, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingly Rule of God is at hand”.' This was the essence of His message, that the new beginning was here. For centuries men had waited for it and longed for it, but now the necessary waiting time was ‘fulfilled', the centuries of waiting were over, the appointed time was now here. What the prophets had pointed to was now happening. The verb is in the perfect tense. ‘Has been and now is fulfilled.' It is not something in the future. It is now.
‘The Kingly Rule of God is at hand.' God's kingship, His rule over His people, had been established at Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:5; contrast 1 Samuel 7:7). But the history of the Old Testament bore witness to the fact that it had never become a practical reality. Right from the beginning they had fought against it. Indeed that was why they had sought a king over them (1 Samuel 10:17-19). And throughout their history they had constantly rebelled, so that it had become apparent that His rule could not be established because of their disobedience. In the words of Isaiah 63:19, ‘we are become as those over whom you never bore rule, as those who were not called by your name'.
Thus the prophets declared that their wretched condition, so unlike what had been promised, was due to this failure. The result was that the prophets then began to look forward to a future day when God would change the hearts of His people by the pouring out of His Spirit and would establish His rule (Isaiah 44:3-6; Ezekiel 36:26-28; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Jeremiah 33:3-4), and this was linked with the coming of a great king (Isaiah 11:1-5; Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 37:24) and the coming of a great prophet (Isaiah 42:1-4; Isaiah 49:1-6; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12; Isaiah 61:1-3). Now, says Jesus, that time is here. God is going to act to establish His rule.
But His kingship was not going to be limited to a particular area of land. It was to be kingly rule over His people. It was to be a living kingdom. We may understand this idea of kingship better if we think of the king of a desert tribe. He owns no land, his kingdom is his people. They have no settled area where they live but where they go, there goes the kingdom. And if you were to meet them and produce your map, telling them that you are not in fact in their kingdom but in someone else's kingdom, they would laugh and jeer, and you would soon learn that you were very much in their kingdom. For where this king's rule was established at any point in time, there was his kingdom. And if two such tribes were to intermingle for a short period there would be two kingdoms mingled together, but each with a separate identity.
So it is with ‘the Kingly Rule of God'. Where God's rule is established, there is His kingship revealed, and thus in a real sense where Jesus was, there too was the kingdom. And where his true people are who are in submission to His rule, there is a manifestation of His kingship. Thus the Kingly Rule of God was both within them (the acceptance of His rule) and among them (because Jesus the king and His people were there) (Matthew 6:33; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 21:31; Matthew 21:43; Mark 4:26; Mark 4:30; Mark 9:1; Mark 10:14-15; Mark 12:34; Luke 7:28; Luke 9:27; Luke 10:9; Luke 11:20; Luke 16:16; Luke 17:21; Luke 18:17; John 3:3-5; Acts 8:12; Acts 14:22; Acts 20:25; Acts 28:23; Acts 28:31; Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 4:20).
But it has, of course its vital future aspect, for God's rule will never be fully established over all men until that day when all that is contrary to Him is done away, and those who are His enter into His everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 24:23; Obadiah 1:21; Zephaniah 3:15; Zechariah 14:9; Mark 14:25; Luke 13:29; Luke 22:16-18; Luke 19:11; Luke 21:31; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Galatians 5:21; Colossians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:5). The one is preparatory to, and a part of, the other. For in the end the Kingly Rule of God is an eternal Kingly Rule, ‘Kingly Rule belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations' (Psalms 22:28). What is happening here is that men are now being called on consciously to have a part in it
‘Is at hand (has come near).' The verb appears twice more in Mark, in Mark 11:1 and Mark 14:42. In Mark 11:1 it refers to drawing near to Jerusalem and in Mark 14:42 to Judas as drawing near in the garden and being ‘at hand'. So we may well see this as meaning that God's kingship has now drawn near to them and is at hand (perfect tense), available to those who respond. It confronts them in Jesus (compare Mark 12:34; Matthew 12:28).
But others would see it as meaning that it is approaching but not yet come. It is ever ‘at hand', impending but not having arrived, thus seeking to stir men into response. This would then refer to the kingship in its future aspect. But it sits ill with the use of the perfect tense for it simply to be looking to an unrealised future. The whole point is that the time has come. John had looked ahead to what was to be, but Jesus is now introducing the reality. Not of course that His future Kingly Rule is excluded, for all who come under His Kingly Rule do so both in the present and for the future. They are His now, and His for ever.
‘Repent and believe in the Gospel.' Again we note that repentance, a change of heart and mind and a turning to God, is central to the message. Without repentance there can be no kingly rule, for repentance involves turning from sin and rebellion against the King's laws, and accepting the rule of the King. And this is what the good news is, that the King is here and they can believe in Him and respond to Him. They need no longer be cut off from God, for the way to God is now open.
Here we have both the essential similarity and the essential difference between the message of Jesus and that of John. Both demand a change of heart towards sin and towards God, both promise future blessing. But Jesus has now introduced the new element that the King is here and personal response is now possible, and it is He Who will usher in the age of the Spirit. Eternal life can be enjoyed now (John 5:24; 1 John 5:13). The new age under the king has begun. What is now required is response.
There are in fact two aspects to the work of the Spirit. On the one hand he has worked in believers in the Old Testament as evidenced in the Psalms (Psalms 139:7; Psalms 143:10) and is evidenced as at work in the Gospels (Matthew 10:20; Luke 4:18; Luke 10:21), especially in John's Gospel (John 3:5-8; John 4:23-24; John 6:63), but on the other there is to be an outpouring of Holy Spirit which will so far exceed all that has gone before, that it can be described as ‘the coming of the Spirit' (John 7:39).
‘The Gospel.' It is good news of deliverance (Isaiah 61:1-3) and of the certain fulfilment of God's great promise (Ephesians 3:6); it is good news of peace, peace with God and peace from God (Ephesians 6:15); it is good news of truth, newly manifested as never before, and of the arrival of Him Who is the truth (Galatians 2:5; Colossians 1:5), and brings hope for the future (Colossians 1:23). It is the good news of salvation and immortality, deliverance and eternal life (Ephesians 1:13; 2 Timothy 1:10), the two great yearnings of the heart of man when he truly thinks about himself. It is the good news that ‘God reigns' (Isaiah 52:7). And it is now forcing itself on the world in Jesus. But it must still be responded to. Without response it is not good news.