Day 5: Repent & Believe The Gospel
**Recommended Use**: Listen to the short sermon clip. Read through the provided passages and summaries. Think and talk through the provided questions. Ideally, do all that before, during, or after you meet up to with one or more followers of Jesus.
DISCUSS YOUR READING FROM DAY 4:
Q: What have you thought most about? What questions do you have?
READING:
Mark 11-13
KEY VERSES:
Mark 11:10, 17, 22; 12:6-9;
13:30-37; 1:14-15; 2:17
BIBLE THEME TO CONSIDER:
Summary:
1) God Rules
2) Humanity Rebels
3) Christ Redeems
4) Repent & Believe the Gospel
Repent & Believe the Gospel: God is reconciling back to Himself a beloved people born of His Spirit who repent from sin and lovingly follow the Lord Jesus by faith at the hearing of this good news and for all eternity in the new creation to the glory of God.
Q: Are there any words in that summary that would be helpful for me to clarify? What do you think about this description of God and how we are to respond to His gospel message?
BIBLE THEME AS SEEN IN MARK:
Let’s get into Mark’s Gospel.
As a reminder, chapter ten left off with Jesus correcting His disciples, healing blind Bartimaeus, and leading followers to Jerusalem where He said He would be killed and rise again the third day.
Today we come to chapters 11-13. The setting of these chapters is in Jerusalem with the Jewish temple being the center of the location and topic. Jesus comes holding the rulers of the temple accountable to God’s gospel. In doing so, Jesus gives them opportunity to respond rightly to His message.
In chapter eleven, Jesus came authoritatively from Galilee into Jerusalem and the temple, teaching the truth to sinners who have born God’s name in vain. He comes to judge with His words. He comes as the King who saves!
So, people traveling with Him into Jerusalem cry out…
Mark 11:10
"Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest."
Q: Why do you think the people traveling into Jerusalem and the temple with Jesus cried out with these words? What does this have to do with the gospel Jesus had been preaching?
Hosanna is an exclamation that means: Save us, we pray! People following Jesus into Jerusalem and the temple could be heard singing from Psalm 118 about the Messianic King coming to save!
This connects back to Jesus preaching: “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the gospel”. It also connects back to God’s many promises to provide a King who would save His people from sin, death, and all their enemies.
Jesus is God’s promised King. And how does Jesus exercise His authority? Before fulfilling the cross ministry He had prophesied, He spends chapters 11-13 condemning the sins of unrepentant, apostate teachers of Jersualem and his own Jewish people.
Jesus was not against His fellow countrymen. He was for them. But, He was for them in the same way faithful prophets had been for them all along. Faithful Jewish prophets never held back from telling the truth to their people.
So, Jesus prophesied of soon judgment on the temple that came to completion in 70 AD. This prophesy was a part of Daniel’s prophesy hundreds of years earlier.
Jesus was not just a King. He was and is the messianic Prophet, Priest, and King coming to His city and temple. Hear what Jesus authoritatively said in the temple.
Mark 11:17
"And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."
Q: Why were Jesus’s words significant? Who was Jesus rebuking? What did this have to do with the fig tree that Jesus cursed in the same chapter?
Apostate rulers of the temple convert the Gentile courtyard from being a place for all people to pray to Yawheh into being a place of loud and filthy commerce. They were found by the Lord of the temple to be fakes, frauds, and robbers.
Jesus alluded to two scriptures as He rebuked the blatant failures of the temple rulers:
1) They failed to justly shepherd God's people and make way for “all people” to come worship the LORD. (Isaiah 56:7)
2) They corrupted the temple with their wicked practices. (Jeremiah 7:11)
Jesus came to condemn their unfaithfulness and to replace both the rulers and the physical temple with a holy temple that would fill the earth. And this new temple would not be made by the hands of people.
Jesus and all His followers will become this long-promised temple of God that fills the earth. Instead of coming to buildings to worship God, God’s people would gather as God’s temple to worship in Spirit and in truth, inviting all to come worship the LORD.
So after declaring that the temple and its system would be dried up from the roots, Jesus tells His disciples…
Mark 11:22
"…Have faith in God."
Q: Jesus cursed a fig tree to illustrate that the temple would be “dried up from the roots.” Then He taught His disciples to pray and forgive. Why do you think Jesus gave this pointed instruction to His disciples after condemning the temple? Why does this matter for us today?
Jesus in essence was saying to trust God! Believe His gospel. Be made the holy people of God who will fill the earth. You don’t need a physical temple or a line of priests any more. The promised Prophet, Priest, and King has come. Be forgiven and forgive others. God will judge all sin and falsehoods and replace them with His people who are created by faith in the gospel.
So in chapter 12, Jesus tells a parable about unfaithful stewards of the owner’s “vineyard”. In the parable, God’s people are likened to His vineyard, and the temple rulers are the unfaithful stewards.
The owner of the vineyard sends many servants to receive good fruit from the stewards of His vineyard. However, the stewards decide they should make themselves the owners and kill his servants. Finally, the owner of the vineyard sends his wellbeloved son to them…
Mark 12:6–9
"Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others."
Q: What does “wellbeloved” and “son” make you think of from other places in Mark’s Gospel? In this parable, did the people listen to the son? Because they didn’t, what happened to them?
Jesus came preaching that the kingdom of God has come near, so repent and believe the gospel. The people were told by John the Baptist and prophets before him to prepare the way for the LORD. They didn’t listen. Finally, Jesus was the wellbeloved Son sent as the last Servant to the stewards of God’s temple and people. Like with the parable, they still didn’t listen.
Instead, many just doubled down in their sin and did the same thing that we sinners like to do: acts like what belongs to God instead belongs to us.
We think, “Who is the LORD to tell us what to do with our lives! I have worked hard for what I have. It’s mine! I have the right to define what is good and evil for myself. I have the right to do what is good and glorifying for me. If I don’t look out for me, who will?”
But remember, Jesus said in chapter eight that whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for Christ and the gospel will find it and save it. All who do not repent and believe the gospel will be destroyed like those in the parable. All who receive the crucified and risen Christ and His gospel by repentance and faith will have their life “swallowed up” in Christ. Christ will bring them into the kingdom of God and life eternal. Christ will be their life.
Moving beyond parables in chapter thirteen, Jesus answers the disciples as they ask when the temple will be destroyed and about His messianic reign. You can read all that in the majority of chapter thirteen. Again, we have sermons in the app to help you with any of these passages. But, here is Jesus’s conclusion…
Mark 13:30–37
"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is… Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."
Q: When does Jesus say the things preceding verse thirty will take place? If they came to fulfillment in their generation, what does that mean about Jesus?
Jesus prophesied when and how the temple would in fact be destroyed within their generation. Jesus said that when His disciples see all those events take place, it will be a sign to them that Jesus is faithfully reigning on His throne in heaven as King of all. Jesus is to be trusted as the true Prophet, Priest, and King.
Q: Does Jesus give any way to predict “that day” when heaven and earth will pass away into the age to come? How does “that day” connect with His instruction in verse thirty-three? What does that mean for us today?
Jesus told them of a day when He will return and bring in the new heaven and earth—the new creation. Jesus said that of “that day” no one knows when it will take place. So, all His followers of all time must continue to believe in and steward the gospel until it is brought to its full completion. They must “watch and pray” until Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead and to bring in the new creation.
Jesus’s command is for all His followers to watch in faith. Jesus calls His followers to remain alert—believing, praying, and obeying—as we wait for God to accomplish all the gospel through Christ. And that is why at the start of Jesus’s ministry…
Mark 1:14–15
"… Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."
Mark’s Gospel shows us what it means to either obey or disobey Jesus’s command to repent and believe the gospel. To obey it by faith is forgiveness and life with God. To disobey it and remain in sin is death and condemnation—like the unfaithful stewards of the parable.
Q: What do you think it means to “repent”?
To repent is to turn from and forsake your sin. It is a miraculous change of heart produced by God’s Spirit as you hear the gospel message. God creates His people by His word. When you truly repent, you no longer want to be the king of your life. You want Jesus to be your King. You begin to release your grip on your life and lusts.
Q: What do you think it means to “believe”?
To believe is to turn to Jesus as your new love and to surrender all control to Him. It is to trust that Jesus died and rose again for your sins. It is to follow Jesus as your Good Shepherd. It is to know that you will never be ashamed of following the crucified and risen King among His people.
Q: Can you think of any terms the Bible uses to describe when someone both repents from sin and believes on Jesus?
The Bible describes this with such terms as: being born again or from above or of God, being converted, being saved, being made a new creature in Christ, being raised from death, being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son, being made a saint or holy one.
Conversion to Christ is a one-time, lasting work of God in which God gives you His Spirit, justifies and forgives you through the substitutionary death of Christ, brings you into the new people of God, and makes you an eternal citizen in the kingdom of God with the sure hope of the resurrection and new creation. God begins a work in you that He will surely bring to completion, making you more and more a reflection of His beloved Son.
Repentance from sin and faith in Christ are ongoing evidences that you have been converted by God into being a follower of Christ. They don’t look like perfection. They look more like continual responsiveness to the word of Christ among His people.
And in case you are wondering who can be saved, Jesus said it back in chapter two.
Mark 2:17
"…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
All sinners are called to repent and believe the gospel. Whosoever may come to Christ for forgiveness and eternal life with God and His people. God brings sinners to repentance and faith in Christ through the shared message of the gospel and the call of His Spirit.
The Spirit of God changes sinners into repenting believing followers of Christ. The gospel does transforming good in you. It makes you into a lover of God and others.
If your life is defined by Christ and God’s gospel, your entire life will begin and continue to look more and more like what you see Jesus doing with his followers in Mark’s Gospel. And you will help others follow Jesus in the same way through church community that Jesus established and now leads.
Q: How are you responding to God’s gospel? What happened to those who refused to listen to the wellbeloved son in the parable of chapter twelve? What is preventing you from repenting from your sin and trusting in the crucified and risen Christ?
Think and pray about this. Next week, we will pick up right here with: What good is the gospel doing in you?
QUESTIONS TO ASK AS YOU READ MARK 11-13 BETWEEN MEETUPS:
Q: In Mark 11:1-26, how does Jesus present Himself when He enters the temple? (Hint: Psalm 118) What does Jesus declare about the temple? What does this have to do with His disciples needing to pray and forgive?
Q: In Mark 11:27-12:12, what warning prophesy in the form of a parable does Jesus tell the leaders of the temple? What does this have to do with Jesus’s mission and call to disciples?
Q: In Mark 12:13-17, what does Jesus say God owns by pointing to the image on Caesar’s coin? (Hint: Genesis 1:26-27)
Q: In Mark 12:18-27, what does Jesus teach is true of God and His people? What authority does Jesus say reveals this truth—if rightly interpreted and believed?
Q: In Mark 12:28-44, what does Jesus say are the greatest commandments in Scripture? What does loving the Lord have to do with Jesus, according to His question from Psalm 110? What does the second commandment have to do with how the temple rulers treated the poor widow?
Q: In Mark 13:1-30, what does Jesus prophesy will happen within the generation of the disciples? What does this have to do with what Jesus has previously said about both the temple and Himself? What did Jesus instruct His disciples to do when this all happens? How does this relate to history later in the first century?
Q: In Mark 13:31-37, what “day” does Jesus say no man can predict—in contrast to the prediction of the previous verses? What does this have to do with Jesus’s mission and the calling of His disciples? (Hint: v34) What does Jesus command “all” His disciples to do until “that day”? What would it look like for you to obey Jesus's instruction? Will you?
Q: How are you responding to Jesus's warnings and teachings? Do you believe Him? Do you believe He will return and that we will all give account to Him?
Q: What do you need to repent from? Will you? Will you try to rule your life as though you are the owner, like those in the parable of Mark 12? Or, will you submit to God as our good Ruler?
Q: Will you entrust all your life to God who came in Christ? Remember how blind Bartimaeus cried out for mercy in Mark 10? Will you? Do you trust that God truly does save from sin and death through the crucified and risen Jesus?
Q: Do you believe Jesus's words in Mark 10:15 that to enter the kingdom of God you must come as a child with nothing to offer and everything to receive? Do you believe God saves unworthy sinners by His grace?
Q: Do you trust that God's grace not only saves from sin and death but also that it transforms sinners into faithful followers of Jesus who "watch and pray" until He comes again?