The only way to stop the misunderstanding of Jesus is you need to hear what Jesus says. And so, I invite everyone to open your Bible with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses 14 to 15. And we're going to let Jesus speak to us here today. And if you don't have a copy of the Bible, if you open up your bulletin, you can see there some things about the church, and there's a handout that has the verses printed on it for you. And so, this is a summary of the teaching of Jesus, and we want to study what Jesus says together here this morning. So out of respect for God's word, I invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture, and I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. This is the Word of God. Mark 1:14-15. Please follow along as I read.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;[a] repent and believe in the gospel.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And on that handout, if you want to take some notes, you can see we have there these three most important words: Gospel, Repentance, and Faith. Right there, these three things that Jesus says, repent and believe in the gospel. This has helped our little church here in Huntington Beach so much, and we've really been built on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus. And this call to action, Jesus is calling for people to respond. He's saying, “Repent”. He's saying “Believe”. He's calling for you to respond
We've been able to preach this, and we've been able to talk to so many people about what it means to repent and what it means to believe in what this gospel is. And so, let's start with the gospel. The “Gospel” is the “Good news that Jesus is the Christ who died for our sins and rose again.” Okay, let me just give you some definitions. And hopefully you know this. If you don't know this, this is very important. This is most important. The good news is you’ve got to know who Jesus is. He is the Holy, Anointed One of God, the Son of God. He's the Christ. That means Messiah. It means anointed one. Jesus is the Christ, and he came, and he lived among us, and he died on the cross to pay for our sins. And then what we're celebrating today is that he rose from the dead. Sin has been paid for. Death has been defeated. Our enemy, Satan, has been vanquished, and now Jesus has opened up a way for you to be free from your sin, for you to have life after death. Jesus has made a way for you to know God. That's good news. That's what the gospel is. Okay? So that's the message. That's why we call it the gospel of Mark that we're studying, because it tells us about the life of Jesus, how he dies and how he is risen from the dead. That's the good news. Now the call, though, is repentance. Repent.
“Repentance” is a change of mind. Let's get this down for our second definition: “A change of mind to turn from your sins to a new life in Jesus,” a new way of life. A whole new opportunity is opened up in front of you when you repent. So, it starts in your thinking. It starts with a willingness to say the way I'm living my life, I'm not living the way that God has commanded. I'm not going the right way of God's way. I'm going my own way. And so, I start changing the way I'm thinking, and I turn from the way I have been living, and I turn to a new way to live. So, there's this 180 degree U-turn where this is what I'm turning from, and then this is what I'm turning to. And so, this is the call here in the Gospel of Mark. John the Baptist shows up, a voice in the wilderness saying repent. Jesus preaches, he says, “Repent”. The disciples are sent out. They say, Repent. That's what we should be saying here on Easter Sunday, 2025. Hey, you want to know Jesus? Repent. Change your mind about the way you live life. Turn to him. So, there's a willingness to call sin for what it is, to say that's wrong, that's evil, and to say, I'm going to be done with that, and I'm going to turn and learn a new way to follow Jesus.
Now, you can't just do that by trying harder. You can't just do better. You can't just say, okay, I'll go knock it off with that sin and I'll start doing the right thing. No. You need to have faith. “Faith” is a transfer of trust. This is our third definition. Faith is, “A transfer of trust from anything that we could do,” from thinking, well, I'll just do these good works, or I'll just go to church. Or no, there's nothing you can do. It's “A transfer of trust from anything we could do to what Jesus has already done.” I believe that Jesus paid for my sins, a debt I could not repay. He paid it all.
And I believe that Jesus did rise from the dead, and in that is a living hope of eternal life. And so, I'm trusting in Jesus. How is my life going to turn around? Because Jesus is going to save my soul, and I trust in him. So, this is what Jesus is saying,” Repent and believe in the gospel.” I got to talk about this with people the other night, Good Friday. We've got this white tent set up in the courtyard. People have been coming up to me after the service, confessing their sins. What an exciting week we've already had, celebrating. Hey, Jesus died for us. He rose again. And people are changing their minds, and people are trusting in Jesus. So, this is so important, these three most important words you need to make sure.
Hey, do I know what the gospel is? Have I turned from my sin. Have I put my trust? Am I just trying to do this? Am I just being a religious person, or do I really believe in the good news that Jesus did it and he's the one I'm trusting in? See, that's what the call is when you see that here in verse 15. So, let's just go through these two verses here. John the Baptist gets arrested, and Mark will say more about the brutal treatment that John the Baptist gets, later in the Gospel of Mark. But Jesus, at that time that John gets arrested, Jesus is in the northern part of Israel, in Galilee, and Jesus begins the thing he came to do, which is to share the good news from God. Heaven has a message for Earth. And so, Jesus begins to go around, and he begins to proclaim the gospel of God. God's message that he wants everyone to hear is that he sent his Son to die for us and rise again.
And so, here's a summary Mark. He just summarizes the whole message of Jesus in these phrases, “The time is fulfilled,” “The kingdom of God is at hand,” and then there's the call to respond, “Repent and believe in the gospel,” so that we understand that the time is fulfilled. Now's the time. This is the hour. Don't put it off. Don't delay. It's resurrection Sunday morning. You're here in it. Now is the time you should turn from your sins. You should trust in the good news of Jesus. But this idea right here, the kingdom of God is at hand. See, that is the compelling reason why you should repent and believe in the gospel. There is a kingdom, a kingdom of God, and it's at hand, it's not just a coming, kingdom in the future. It's right there. You could reach out and grab it, the kingdom. Yes, Jesus is going to come back. Yes, the kingdom is going to come. But the kingdom is also right here, and it's at hand. And you could enter the kingdom. You could be a part of God's kingdom. And you want to be a part of this kingdom so much, the idea of this kingdom is so compelling, why should your whole life change? Why should you become someone who follows Jesus by faith for the rest of your life? Because the kingdom of God is at hand. That's the message here. And see, the kingdom, we're not super clear about the kingdom. The kingdom to us is a mysterious thing. Are you talking about Jesus coming back in the future? No, Jesus is preaching, the kingdom is right at hand, when he was here before.
And so, we need to understand what this kingdom really is. Because if you really want to be in the kingdom, repent and believe in the gospel. And so, what makes this call to repent and believe in the gospel so immediate and urgent is when you understand what the kingdom is, and that the kingdom is right here presently this morning, and that you want to be a part of the Kingdom of God. So, some of you are looking at this handout, and you're like, This is going very well. There are only five blanks, and we've already done three of them. I really like this Easter service. Then you flip the hand out over and you realize we got more blanks, everybody. Alright? So, we didn't get all dressed up for nothing here today. You know what I'm saying? It's not just the photo booth afterwards.
So, we’ve got four things that Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark about the kingdom, and when you hear more clearly the teaching of Jesus on the kingdom, it will help you see why repentance and faith in the Gospel is so important. So, turn with me to Mark, chapter 4. Let me just give you four different things that Jesus says about this kingdom. And again, this is not my message. This is not the message of Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach. This is the message of Jesus. These are his words. Okay? We're not trying to do church our own way here at Compass, HB.
And can we just take a moment to praise the Lord that while we're here right now, there's a brand new church in Long Beach having their first Easter right now? Praise God for that. Yeah. I mean, like 200 brothers and sisters from our church went over to Long Beach, and they've started a whole new church up there. And so, that's very exciting. But I want to show you what Jesus says. The whole goal of our church isn't to add to the misunderstanding. We're not trying to get people to follow us. We really want people to hear from Jesus, and we want people to follow him. And so, what does Jesus say about the kingdom? If the kingdom of God being at hand is a compelling motivation, what does it mean? Well, here in Mark 4:10. He starts to share parables with the crowds. And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables, and he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven,” turn and be forgiven. That sounds like what, everybody? That sounds like repentance, where you change your mind, turn from your sin, and God forgives you for your sin. Well, the people, though they're not really hearing and they're not really seeing, there's a misunderstanding.
The misunderstanding of Jesus is already prevalent by chapter 4 of Mark. He's already being widely misunderstood. So many people think they know who Jesus is, the miracle worker, the great teacher. They think they know, but they don't really hear, they don't really see. And so, Jesus says, yeah, I'm giving these parables to the crowd because they don't really listen to me. And some people think the parables were like Jesus telling stories, so people would get it. No, the parables are actually Jesus telling stories because people are not getting it. There's a massive misunderstanding. And Jesus the disciples, they come around, and he says, well, you guys get to know the secret of the kingdom, these people, they don't really want to hear it, but to you, it has been given that the secret of the kingdom. And then in a parable, look at Mark 4:26-27, this is how he teaches them about the kingdom. “And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” The Kingdom of God is like a little seed. You plant it in the ground and, all of a sudden, it's sprouting, it's growing. And you're like, how is this even happening? Look at that life. He says it again in Mark 4:30-32, and he said, “And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” The Kingdom, oh, it might sound like some small idea. It might sound like some far away thing when you first hear about it, but the kingdom, yeah, it might look like the smallest of seeds, but when you put it in the ground, it's going to grow to the largest of plants. It's going to be unmanageable. Even the birds of the air, they're going to come and start living in it, because the Kingdom, it's going to advance, it's going to grow.
No one on earth will be able to stop God from building his kingdom. Jesus is going to build his church, and not even the gates of hades shall prevail against it. Can I get an amen from anybody on this? See, we came into Huntington Beach, just a few of us here with the good news, telling everybody, repent and believe in the gospel. You want to know what happens with the little seed of the kingdom? Oh, you can't contain it. Oh, you can't control it. Now the kingdom of God, it will eventually cover the earth from horizon to horizon, everything will be under his kingdom. That's the parable of the kingdom.
Okay, so let's get this down for point number one: “Ready or not, the kingdom comes.” Ready or not, the kingdom comes. We should expect people to come to church on Easter and Jesus to do a radical change in their life, because the Kingdom of God is on the move. That's the expectation. And see, there's a big misunderstanding. I grew up going to church, and I hear a lot of people at church my whole life. I'm planting seeds. Oh, I'm out here planting seeds. Oh, I'm out here planting seeds. And eventually I had to realize, why are we always planting seeds and never seeing seeds grow? This is saying, yes, the kingdom, it's like a seed, but do you see how it grows? And what I have unfortunately found is that a lot of church people, they think people getting saved and the church growing is the exception, but Jesus is saying here, it's the expectation. You should be ready to see God do things and you're like, I don't even know how he's doing it. I can't even contain or manage what he's doing. But look at God advancing his kingdom. Look at his glory being put on display. That's the expectation about the kingdom. Jesus says, yeah, even though so many people are misunderstanding, you watch the kingdom, it's going to start out like the small seed of this idea, and it's going to grow bigger than anything else.
And so, Jesus is trying to increase your faith in what God is able to do, because his kingdom is on the move. So, one of the things church people completely misunderstand. You might be one of these people. I grew up as one of these people. You might be one of them today, always planting seeds, never expecting growth. Is that you? Because if that's you, you don't really understand the kingdom. We should expect salvation. We should expect churches to be planted. We should expect people to come and worship Jesus, because God has a kingdom, and it's at hand.
Now, go to chapter 9. Here's the second thing we want to see that Jesus says about the kingdom. It's here in Mark 9:47. And let me just tell you, Jesus, he's not going to say like, oh, it's Easter. We better just say nice stuff. That's not how Jesus works. Okay? Jesus says it how it really is. And so, look at Mark, chapter 9. Look at what he says in verse 47. This is how seriously Jesus takes sin in your life. This is Mark 9:47. “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into,” where does he say everybody? Hell. Okay, so let's get the full context here. Jesus is upset about people causing other people to sin, and then he starts to go off on sin. Look at Mark 9:43-47 “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.” So, Jesus, he's saying, if you continue in sin in your life, you are playing with fire, and you're going to get burned in an unquenchable fire. So, Jesus is mentioning hell. Here, he's warning people, you can't live in your sin and think you're going to get away with it. You can't live in your sin and think that you're going to enter the kingdom.
Now, if you continue in sin, you will be judged in hell. But if you get rid of your sin, if you cut off the sin, you can enter the kingdom. So, do you notice how Jesus says it? It's a little bit different than how you might have heard it today. Today, people kind of give this idea, well, when you die, you either go to heaven or hell. Jesus, he gives this idea like, right now you're either choosing your sin or you're choosing the kingdom. Which one are you choosing right now? That's how Jesus puts it. It's not heaven or hell. It's the kingdom right here, right now, the kingdom that's at hand, or it's hell, because you continue in sin. Which one is it for you? So, these days, a lot of people act like, well, don't worry if you sin. Don't be too hard on yourself. There's grace for that. And people use this idea of grace as like, hey, your sins, okay, there's grace to cover your sin. Well, that's true to an extent. But when Grace appeared, and grace has a face, Grace has a name, Grace is the goodness of God. Grace is God's undeserved favor. And what is the main way that God gives grace to all of us? It's when he sent his Son Jesus. You can never disassociate Jesus from grace. God is good to us through his Son Jesus Christ; grace comes to us in Christ.
And so, people want to act like, well, if I keep sinning, it's not that big a deal, because there's grace. Well, yes, that's true, there is grace, and God's grace is greater than all of our sin. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? But let me ask you this, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. No, we don't want to keep sinning because there's grace. That's the opposite of how we should think. Because there's grace, not only will God forgive me for my sins, but God will teach me a new way to live. God, in his grace, in his goodness, not only is there forgiveness, he gives me the strength to learn a new way, to put off the old way, and to put on the new way of Jesus Christ.
The resurrection power of Jesus, is not something to celebrate one day of the year. It's something to live out every single morning the rest of your life that you have a new life because Jesus rose from the dead. So, there's grace to be forgiven for sin. There's also grace that is the strength to say no to that sin and to learn a new way, a self-controlled, Godly way, to live in this present time. And so, Jesus is actually saying, if you have sin in your life here today, there needs to be radical amputation. Yeah, like, hey, is it through somewhere you go? Is it through something you do? Is it through something you look at? Do whatever it takes to cut off that sin, to turn from that sin.
Let's get this down for number two: You need to “Repent like your soul depends on it.” Repent like your soul depends on it. If you stay in your sin, you will not enter the kingdom. That's what Jesus is saying. That's why you need to repent, because you want to be in the kingdom of God. And if you want to be in the kingdom of God, then you can't bring your sin into it. That's why your sin is a big deal. Now this has gotten very murky in Southern California Christianity; there's a lot of misunderstanding about grace and sin in the churches right now. There is no misunderstanding about this in the Scripture. Let me put some verses up here on the screen that talk about the kingdom and sin. Let's start with 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. And it says here, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” So, the question is, who's getting into the kingdom while the unrighteous they're not inheriting the kingdom. In fact, who are the unrighteous? Well, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” And then in verse 11, it says, “And such were some of” what? You. Hey, we all have sin in our lives. We're all fallen short of the glory of God. We're all born into sin. That is the curse of the fallen world that we live in. We all have sin. But guess what? Jesus can wash you from your sin. Jesus can set you apart from your sin. Jesus can declare you righteous so you can live a new way. Jesus has the ability to save you from your sins. He died for your sins, so you won't keep living in them any longer. But if you don't be deceived, if you stay in those sins, you will not inherit the kingdom.
How about Galatians 5:19-21? It talks about the works of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Do you want to inherit the kingdom of God? Well, you can't inherit the kingdom of God if this is still the way that you live, if this is still the practice of your life, then then don't expect to go to the kingdom.
How about Ephesians 5:5-6. “For you may be sure of this.” Here's something you can be confident about, everyone. “Everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous,” that is, an idolater, “has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Then notice this warning right here. “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” See, some people are going to act like, ah, don't worry about it. We all sin. We're all human. We all make mistakes. Don't worry about it. Don't be deceived. If you continue in your sin, you will not inherit the kingdom. So, we just read these lists of sins, sexual morality, fits of anger, drunkenness, greed. Man, have you really cut that sin off? Have you really repented and turned from that sin? If you think you're going to get away with it, if you think it's not that big a deal, comparing myself to other people, I'm really not that bad. It's not that big a deal if I have sin in my life, God, he'll just he'll be okay with me. That's not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus is saying, is it your hand? Is it your foot? Is it your eye. Where does the sin come in? Cut it off, otherwise you'll be in the fire. You won't enter the kingdom. Do you see if you want, if the kingdom of God is at hand, if it's present right here now, and we could be a part of it right here, right now, well then, man, I’ve got to repent. I need to change my mind. I can't live a worldly way and expect to enter God's kingdom. I need to cut the sin off in my life. Turn from it, find grace to live a new way. That's what Jesus is calling for here in Mark 9:47.
Okay, now go to Mark 10. It's just the next chapter over. You might be able to see it. Look at verse 13. Okay, Mark 10:13, “And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.” Look at these disciples. One of the things we are seeing in Mark is, even the disciples misunderstand Jesus through a lot of this gospel. It's not till later, when the Holy Spirit comes and Jesus dies and rises again, that they really understand everything. And so, can you imagine all the kids are coming to church on Easter? Get those kids out of here. What are those kids doing at church? Right? We’ve got no kids ministry for you. Get out of here, kid. I mean, what are these disciples thinking? And can we praise God for everybody serving in the kids’ ministry right now, right? It's like a whole church of kids over there right now. Praise the Lord. But see, the disciples, they're like Jesus doesn't have time for these kids. And look what Jesus when Jesus saw it, he was indignant. He was not okay with the disciples rebuking the kids, and he said to them, “Let the children come to Me.” Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Yeah, I'm so thankful for our kid’s ministry, how they've made that their theme. Let the children come to Jesus. Do not hinder them.
Now look how Jesus, he uses this as a teaching moment, “For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” Here's Jesus bringing all the kids, laying hands on them, blessing them. But Jesus says something profound, something for us to consider. The kingdom of God is at hand. Do you want to be a part of the kingdom? Well, you have to receive the kingdom like a child. Now, some of us just survived tax season. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And if God's blessed you with kids, you put them on your taxes and you call them your what? Your dependents. We’re not looking at our precious little kids and saying to them, hey, kid, how much are you contributing to the taxes this year? You know when you start pulling your weight around here, kid? Right? We're just hoping our kids keep gaining weight like they're supposed to. You know what? I mean, it's so we don't have any expectation. We expect the kids to be dependent on us. The kids are not independent themselves. See, Jesus is saying here, the only way you're getting into the kingdom is you have to declare your dependence on God. God has to do a work to get you into the kingdom. You can't even get yourself in. You can't just go be this independent, hard-charging person. You're just going to go try. You're going to just go do better. And, yeah, okay, you're telling me, I’ve got to stop that sin stuff. We'll all just go try. No, you need to change your mind about your sin. You need to be willing to turn from your sin. But you don't have the power, the ability, the energy, to really turn from your sin and live a new way. You need God to do that work in your life. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Like you can't save yourself. You can't be a good enough person. You're not even a good person to begin with. That's what the Scripture says. You have sin. That's why you need Jesus to die for your sin, and if you think you're independent and you can do it yourself, then you're not receiving the kingdom like a child.
So, let's get this down for number three: “Depend on God with faith like a child.” Depend on God with faith like a child. That's what you need. You need to acknowledge that you need help. In fact, you need more than help. You need God to do it. This is one of the hardest things I see for people at this church, is to admit that you need help. And I end up interacting as one of the pastors here. I'm sometimes brought into the trials of people's lives. And sometimes I end up visiting people when they're sick or when there's an end of life situation, people reach out to me, and I become a part of it. And so, I'm seeing people as they're going through sickness, as they're going through grief, as they're going through financial or relationship hardship. They're really low, they're really they're really having a hard time and people, through tears sometimes, one of the things I regularly hear people say is it's hard for me to ask for help. We have this pride within us. We don't want to humble ourselves; we don't want to admit that we need help. And I understand it. If you're a man and you want to provide for your family, I think that's a good thing. If you're a mom and you want to take care of your kids, that's a great thing. But, but can we really provide for our families? Can we really keep our kids alive? Don't we need God to do these things? Are we really as independent as we want to claim we are, or do we need God when we have that family meal? We're not thanking dad for the food, we're thanking God for the food. See whenI when my kid reaches another birthday, when my child, I'm so blessed to have kids. If you're blessed to have kids, what a blessing they are in our lives, and every milestone they reach, it's not because they're my kid. They got there. It's because of the grace of God that they got there in their life. See, I need God. In fact, us not wanting to ask for help is so antithetical to how Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus taught us to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Like. I need you to provide every day. “Forgive us our debts.” I've got sin. I need to be forgiven. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” And who are we supposed to be talking to when we're praying? Our Father in heaven? Because we're all dependent on our father. He's the one who's doing all things for us. The truth is that, apart from Jesus Christ, I will not be able to do one good thing today. Does anybody want to say, Amen for that? I don't just need Jesus' help, like I've got fifty percent, and Jesus can help me with the other fifty. I need Jesus to do one hundred percent of the work through me. I need his life. I need his resurrection. I’ve got nothing when it comes to death. I need Jesus for one hundred percent of that. I need Jesus to give me breath to be here with you this morning. I am a one hundred percent dependent person on Jesus. All my trust. It's all in Jesus. It's zero percent me; hundred percent him. That's how you enter the kingdom.
When we're in the kingdom, when we're basking in the glory of God, when we've got our new bodies and we're in a perfect environment, and King Jesus is reigning, and everything is right, the one person you want to have all power, all authority, all dominion, it's Jesus, the one the master who's willing to die for his servants. He's the one we want in charge. And when you're in the kingdom and you're seeing Jesus reign, and we're there together, we're not going to be saying, I'm so glad I chose the kingdom. I'm so glad I got myself into this kingdom. This kingdom is really worthy of me. We're going to look at one another, and we're going to be saying, how did people like us get into a kingdom like this? And we're going to give God all the glory, because he's the one through His Son, Jesus, who's going to take us to his kingdom. He's the one that we're going to be with in Paradise, and it's going to be for his praise, honor, and glory. It's not because of us. So, if you're independent and you think you can do it and you don't need help, you're not going to enter the kingdom. You’ve got to receive it like a child. You’ve got to receive it like you're dependent on your father. The only way the kingdom can be received is by faith, the transfer of trust that I can't do it, but I know the one who did it, and I'm believing in Jesus, that's how you enter the kingdom.
So, look at Jesus. He's over here rebuking us for our sin. He's over here teaching us how to have faith, like a child. Jesus, as he continues to teach about the kingdom, he's showing us why the kingdom of God is at hand. So, you need to repent, and you need to leave. But perhaps, the best teaching about the kingdom comes next in chapter 10. Look at Mark 10:17. Let me just read this account of this man who comes to Jesus. This is Mark 10:17-18, “As he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” And the idea of eternal life and entering the kingdom, they're used very similarly here in the Gospel of Mark. So, here's a guy, Jesus, how do I get eternal life? What must I do to inherit it? And Jesus said to him, “And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “’Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’” Okay, so let's just think what's happening here. A man is running up to Jesus. He's saying that Jesus is a good teacher, and now he's saying, oh, yeah, I've been trying to be a good person. I've been trying to keep these commands from when I was young. So, we have a guy who knows Jesus is the teacher and the way to eternal life, and a guy who's trying to be a good person. And then look at what happens here. Mark 10:21 “Jesus looking at him...” And remember, in the Gospel of Mark, whenever Jesus sees something, that's how it really is. Whenever Mark says Jesus saw this, or Jesus is looking at this, Jesus sees things for how they really are, how they really are in the spiritual realm, not just how they appear to our eyes, but Jesus sees it the way that it really is. And so, it says “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’” What an amazing thing that Jesus would invite this man to come and follow him.
But when Jesus looks at this man, he knows what's true about him is, that this man is a rich man. He has a lot of money; he has a lot of possessions. And so, that's why Jesus says, sell what you've got, because Jesus knows that this man is hanging on to his material possessions of this life, and that's going to keep this man from entering the kingdom. And so, because Jesus, he can look at him, because he can really see what's going on in his heart, Jesus says this very specific thing to this man, and look what happens. “Disheartened by the saying,” verse 22 “he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” He knows Jesus is the good teacher. He's trying to be a good person, but he ends up walking away sad. He ends up walking away from the kingdom. Why? Because he wants the material things of this life, the right here, the right now stuff that money can buy, and he's not willing to sell it out. He's not willing to let go of it. Then look what Jesus says. Mark 10:23, “Jesus looked around,” and Jesus sees how his disciples are seeing this, “and he said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.’ And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished. Three times he says how hard it's going to be for the rich person, the rich man, to enter the kingdom, how difficult it just is to get into the kingdom. Oh, it's going to be easier for a camel to go through a needle, impossible, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.
And the disciples are astonished at this. They thought, in the Jewish culture at this time, that if you had much, that meant you were blessed. They thought that wealth material possessions, must be a sign of God's blessing in your life. They understood that God is the provider. All good things come from God. So, if you've got a lot of stuff, you must be blessed by God. So, the idea that having a lot of stuff could be something that you would want the treasure now, not the treasure of the kingdom, not the treasure in heaven, but that you would want the treasure right here, right now, that that would keep you from entering the kingdom. Whoa. We haven't thought clearly enough about that; we've misunderstood that. This is something that they're really having a hard time hearing.
And if there's a group of people that need to hear this, it's a bunch of Orange County church people on Easter Sunday. Okay, can we just acknowledge that if you live in North Orange County, California, in the year of our Lord 2025, you are one of the rich people. And you might be thinking, well, I'm not that rich, compared to some of these people around here. Well, no, I mean, if you stopped by a coffee shop, and if you got coffee on the way here, you spent more. And hey, I'm thankful that you can just get coffee here, but if you got your own coffee on the way here, do you realize you already spent more money today than most people live off in an entire day? Like, we are the rich people,. If you just start to get a perspective of people throughout history and even right now, people all over the world, they don't have as much money in a day as you spend on something, and you don't even think about it. And so, we have so much stuff. We can buy so many things. We can have them shipped straight to our house in a way unprecedented to people throughout time. Do you realize that if you get attached to all that money can buy, if you love that, if you get greedy for that, then that person, the rich person, is going to walk away sad from Jesus, and they will not enter the kingdom. And the disciples are like, this is something we really need to think about this. He has all the disciples’ attention. They are astonished, and they said to him, “Then who can be saved?” How can this even be? Who's even going to get into the kingdom then?” And Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.’”
See how that brings you right back to that dependence? Like, well, God's going to have to change my heart, because see “where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” So, look at what Peter then puts together here. “Peter began to say to him,” hey, hey, wait a minute. Let's look at this. See we have left everything and followed you. See, sometimes, Peter needs to put his foot in his mouth, right? But sometimes Peter, he says the right answer. And it's beautiful. And this is one of those moments where Peter's like going back to the Sea of Galilee, to when he was fishing with his brother, Andrew, and he used to be known as Simon. And then this guy, Jesus walked up to him, and they had an idea of who Jesus was, and he said, hey, you guys “follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.” And immediately they dropped their nets and they followed Jesus. And then he went over to James and John, brothers, working with their dad, Zebedee, and all the servants and their fishing business, and he said to James and John, hey, you guys, come follow me. And they left behind their father's business, and they went and followed Jesus. And Peter's processing this. And he's like, hey, we have this moment where you invited us to come and follow you. We did leave it behind. We did follow you. And look what Jesus said, “Truly. I say to you,” this is verse 29, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive one hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions’ end in the age to come. Eternal life, but many who are first will be last, and the last first,” Jesus says, truly, I do want you guys to understand that if you're willing to leave it behind, if you're willing to sell it, hey, you will gain. Oh, hey, don't mistake Jesus. He wants you to leave it all. He wants you to leave it behind. But then he wants you to know he will make it worth it. It will be worth it, both in this life and in the age to come.
And so where is your treasure? Is your treasure here in this age, in this world? Or do you treasure the kingdom? And your treasure is where God is, and you want to ultimately be with him and his Kingdom. See, the problem is we are spreading the misunderstanding. The problem is we're misrepresenting Jesus, because we ask questions like this, when you die, do you want to go to heaven, or do you want to go to hell? Hey, in the future, someday, when you die, would you rather go to a good place or a bad place? That's not what Jesus is saying. That's never been what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying right here, right now in this time, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is not some far away place when you die. The kingdom is not some far away thing coming in the future. The kingdom is at hand right now, right here. What do you want? Is your treasure right here in material things, or do you want the kingdom? Where's your heart right now? See, Jesus is always putting it into the present moment. What's in your heart right now? When, if Jesus looked at you today, he would see exactly what you're all about, and he would know whether you really want to enter the kingdom and you're willing to leave everything to gain the kingdom, or whether, no, there's something I want to hang on to.
And see, the question is not like, do you want to go to hell, or do you want to go to heaven? The question is, if you feel conflicted between the kingdom of Jesus and something else, are you willing to drop the something else and just have Jesus, or do you want the something else too? That's the real question. That sin you won't let go of, that independence and pride that you have, those things that money can buy, that are so important to you. Are you willing to leave those things for Jesus, or do you still want those things because you can't have Jesus and those things take your pick. Now, the kingdom of God is at hand. That's the real question. Okay? And the invitation is available to everyone. I mean, this is the beauty of the gospel of Mark.
This is why I'm so excited that our church is going through the Gospel of Mark right now, because we're going to get to hear the invitation, come and follow me. Jesus is going to say and he's going to teach all of us what it really means to follow him, what it really means to be one of his disciples, even how we as a disciple can learn how to make disciples. And when we follow Jesus, we become fishers of men. We become winners of other people's souls, like Jesus shows us the way, and we can pass on that way to other people. That's why I'm so excited. Our whole church is going through the Gospel of Mark, because we all need to follow Jesus. That's the point. Follow Jesus. That's the way to the kingdom. You want to enter the kingdom, leave it all behind, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. That's what Jesus says.
Now, I don't think we know what it means to follow anymore, and I blame Instagram. Has anybody ever heard of this thing called Instagram? Okay, now, I'm not recommending Instagram, I'm just saying it's there, all right, and I'm about to go full dad mode. So, this might make the young people feel cringe right now, but there's this thing called Instagram, and I it's an app on your phone. You can download it, and I went on there, and I'm on Instagram and I and I'm like, how does Instagram really work? Because I hear people say, oh, I follow you on Instagram. Okay, well, what do they mean by I follow you on Instagram? So I go on Instagram, and I find somebody I'm following, like my brother, Bill here at the church, okay? Bill Blakey, I'm following him. And then I notice next to following, there's a drop down menu. And I'm like, how does following have a drop down menu? I don't know if you’ve ever done this before, but I hit this little button, and it drops down and a whole plethora of options is suddenly presented to me. Do I want to put Bill on my “Close Friends”? Do I want to put Bill on my “Favorites”? And all of a sudden I'm in this quandary, what's the difference between close friends and favorites? Like I like which one is Bill? I mean, I really like him, but, but I'm not I mean, what? How am I supposed to think about this? And then I notice at the bottom it says, “Unfollow Bill.” And then there's this very mysterious one that says, “Mute.” What does this mean? So, you hit mute, and now it's like, his posts, his reels, his comments, there are different things you can mute there. And it says, Instagram basically won't let Bill know what you're doing. And I'm like, well, why wouldn't you just unfollow somebody? Why would you mute them? Oh, because you want to have the appearance that you're following someone that you're not really following. And at that moment, I realized I know a lot of people who have Jesus on mute. I know a lot of people that on their profile, it says they're following Jesus, but they're not really following Jesus.
Point number four, let's get it down like this: “You can't say you're following Jesus without following Jesus.” You can't say you're following Jesus without following Jesus. See, I think we really live up in a, yeah, we're growing up. We're living in a misunderstanding of Jesus kind of mentality where you get to decide how much you let Jesus influence your life, and you can keep this part of Jesus, this command that Jesus says over here, we'll just mute that one, this thing that Jesus is saying over here, like the cut off your sin, or this faith like a child or this well, you can't be attached to the possessions of this life and enter the kingdom. Let's just mute some of that. And so, you can't do that. Jesus, when he looks at you, he loves you, just like he loved this man, and he looks at your heart, and he knows where your treasure is, and he says, “Come follow me.” And the only way to follow Jesus is you really have to leave something behind. What did you leave behind to follow Jesus? If you haven't left something behind, you're not really following Jesus. That's how it works. Something you have to say no to, something else to say yes to Jesus. And a lot of people, they want to say yes to the world, yes to sin, yes to material possessions and yes to Jesus. That's not how it works. You can't mute Jesus, and some of you have done that.
And I'm so glad you're here today, and I'm so glad we're reading through what Jesus says, because Jesus wants you to hear that now is the time and the kingdom of God, it's at hand, and you need to right now repent and believe in the gospel. I know it's Easter, I know it's a happy day. I know we got dressed up and there are donuts and coffee and a photo booth and Little Jerusalem. But if you are a rich man or a rich woman, and you know, I'm so caught up in this life, I'm not living for the kingdom, I've still got this sin that I have not cut off. I'm still trying to be a better person myself. Jesus just told us all three of those things will not enter the kingdom. And so, you've got maybe some sin you need to repent of. You've got maybe some humility, and you need to respond in faith. You have maybe what am I really living for? Am I living to follow Jesus, or am I living for myself in the here and now? And you need to ask yourself, am I really following him? Because he knows. Like this idea, Instagram won't let Bill know what you're doing. Jesus knows exactly what you're doing. Jesus knows exactly who you are. No one knows you better than Jesus does right now, and he's trying to be clear, hey, the kingdom of God, it's on the move. The kingdom of God is on the advance. But if you continue in your sin, you will not enter the kingdom. If you don't have faith like a child, you will not enter the kingdom. And if you want to be rich and all about this treasure right here, right now, you will not enter the kingdom.
So, what are you going to do? Because the kingdom isn't coming someday, it's right here today. You could have the kingdom today, repent and believe in the gospel. And so, I hope you'll come back next week. Next week, on Saturday night, we're bringing dinners back, and we're going to be going through the scene next week, where Jesus is going to go to Simon Peter, and he's going to say, “Follow me,” and Peter is going to follow Jesus, and Jesus is going to teach Peter how to be a fisher of men. And so, if you want to follow Jesus, that's what we're all about here at the church, and we want you to go through Mark with us. Let me pray right now.
Father, I come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus, and I'm so thankful that we could just hear his words today. I'm so thankful he rose from the dead just as he said. And if he could tell us he was going to rise from the dead on the third day. We should definitely listen to what Jesus has to say. So, God, please let people hear this. God, I just pray that there are some people here in this room right now and they're convicted about something; they know there's something in their life that needs to change. God, I pray that you would put it on their heart to not keep it on mute, but to talk about it. God, that they would go out into the white tent in the courtyard and talk to someone, that they would come up here in front find me, talk to me. God, I pray that if people know they need to turn from their sin and trust in the Gospel of Jesus, that they will respond, because the time is now, and your kingdom, it's right here among us. And so, God, thank you that we could actually hear from Jesus. Please let the misunderstanding stop right here today, and let us be the people who could say, Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Jesus. Haven't I left everything to follow you? And that we could hear Jesus say, truly, I say to you that whatever you left, you're going to gain it in this age and in the age to come. And I pray that we would all believe that Jesus is worth following, no matter what we have to lose. The best investment we're ever going to make is to sell it all now and to inherit your glorious kingdom forevermore. Now, whatever we lose today, it will be so worth it in the kingdom. And so let us see clearly. Open our eyes. Let us hear the clear words of Jesus, and let us seize today the kingdom, your kingdom that is at hand. God, I thank you so much for what a joy it is to follow Jesus, that Jesus, he is your Son, that he died for our sin and he rose again that we could follow him. He is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life. Let the name of Jesus be glorified in Huntington Beach today, we pray. And let us follow him to the end. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.