The time is fulfilled ...

... the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). Suddenly after four hundred years of silence John the Baptist had burst on the scene to prepare the way for Jesus (verses 1-4). After being baptized, and John put in prison, Jesus announces His ministry with this morning's quote. “The time is fulfilled,” He says God had sent forth His Son “born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4,5). John was not the only one who had been preparing the way. The Father had spent several centuries preparing a people, teaching them His ways, giving the Law, emphasizing His holiness and His requirements, but also showing steadfast love and Mercy to those who love Him and obey Him (Exodus 20:1-6).

And it was to this prepared people that He sent His Son. So when Jesus speaks of the Kingdom (the rule) of God, His hearers would know exactly what He was speaking about. We cannot begin to understand the good news (the gospel), if we do not first understand the bad. God is holy and just, and there is coming a day of judgement, and all of us have “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Justice is about getting what we deserve. This is the bad news! Mercy (spoken of above), is about not getting what we deserve. Centuries before, the Lord spoke in the prophetic past saying “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The good news then is that the Kingdom is at hand, about to break into the there and now, and we are to repent and believe it. The Greek lexicon says that to repent is “to change one’s mind for the better, heartily to amend with abhorrence, one’s past sins.” It's about turning from our sins, and bearing fruit worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:8). Scripture knows nothing of a salvation that leaves us unchanged. In fact change is evidence of faith (James 2:18).

The phrase translated “is at hand,” is interesting. The sense, is that it is near, it is already here, but at the same time not yet in it's fullness. Jesus commands us to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and then to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers and raise the dead (Matthew 10:7, 8; 28:20). What is on my heart this morning, is a prophetic word from Bob Jones. He was an amazingly accurate prophet. He prophesied in 1982, for example, that there would be people in Asia with unplugged TVs in their hand, listing to the international House of prayer in Kansas city. He did not have the language for cell phones, but it is happening. At the same time He prophesied that the great end time revival would come after the Kansas city Chief's won the Superbowl. They won it last month, and it was fifty years since they even appeared there. What I am saying is that it looks very much like the “time is fulfilled” for the end time harves, and it's time for the church to step up to the plate.

Father, we are excited, but woefully unprepared for the coming end time revival. Help us to make sure our lamps are full of oil. Show us what You need us to do. Our eyes are on You Lord, even so come Lord Jesus, in Your precious Name Amen