Dynomite!

Text: Mark 1:14-20 Romans 1:16

Focus: Good news

Function: To help people increase their own faith by sharing the Good News.

Form: Study

Intro:

Let me just restate the 15th verse. I want you to do an exercise with me. Imagine that you are indeed living in Palestine during the 1^st Century. Imagine that you were hearing these words for the first time: (close your eyes and imagine with me)

¹⁵“The right time has come,” he said, “and the Kingdom of God is near! Change your thinking and believe the Good News!

Focus on those words. What do you hear? (ask)

When I was 4, I prayed that Jesus would come into my heart and save me from my sins. And He did. I felt Him, right here. I used to think that that, and that alone was the gospel.

But, as I have mentioned, the gospel, the good news was this: “This is the time. It is right now. It is here and It is good news. God's kingdom is here.”

The good news is that now is the time.

Now, we need to clarify something in terminology: “The Kingdom of God.”

It could be one of those nebulous terms that could refer to about anything.

Remember, for me, growing up, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, always referred to the promise that when I die, I get to go to heaven.

And again, I believe that that is true. But all that can merely limit what the Kingdom of God is.

History, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, The Holy Roman Empire, Religious wars and etc might lead us to conceive that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is indeed an earthly Kingdom with all the might, policies and politics of governments and the institutions of humankind.

And you all know that Jesus makes it clear that His kingdom is something completely different than human institution.

I often wonder if we could describe it with some spiritual terms.

Could we call it: “The Kingdom of Hope?”

Could we call it: “The Kingdom of faith?”

Of course, we need to qualify that last one a bit, to mean, not religion, but trust.

The Kingdom of Trust.

The Kingdom of trusting God.

There are two action verbs in Jesus proclamation. Change your thinking, and then Believe.

Believe. Trust. It is the same word in the Greek.

Pistus is the Greek word. Funny, but in the Koine Greek language, the word pistus was always followed with the preposition “into” instead of “in.”

The idea is that instead of believing that God exists, we believe in God.

We place our trust in God.

I like that. “I trust God.” “We trust God.” (say it)

I have an old wedding ceremony and in the vows are the words: “And thereunto I place my trust.”

I place my trust in you, as my wife.

I trust you, to have my back, I trust you to believe in me when no one else does, I trust in you to work together with me, for us. We are now one Flesh, with common interests and desires.

And, we placed our trust in God.

One could almost boil it down to say: “change your thinking to trust.”

And the point is that the time for them has finally come to believe that something good will happen to them.

Good News! The Kingdom of God is here. The will of God, for the salvation and deliverance of the entire world is now Here. It is happening today.

For people oppressed into poverty and virtual slavery by the Romans and their collaborators, it was almost dangerous for them to get their hopes up.

For many of them, any good news was too good to be true.

And to these people who were living under the jackboot of Roman occupation, good news was desperately needed to be heard.

And, it still is today.

I love most of the Old Hymns.

I love the drive between Dayton and here because it is filled with really good music.

Sometimes, I am driving down the road with my hands in the air as I am singing praises to God.

And there is one particular artist who really blesses me.

He is cousin to Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, his name is Jimmy Swaggart.

And although his Christian Career was been shrouded in shame, there is something about his music that is wonderful.

I finally figured out what it is.

Every time he sings, he sings of God's love and grace.

He is always reassuring us with “yes it is...” and etc.

And I listen to that speech, or I listen to the speeches of other great orators and realize that the common thing that really moves us is the message of hope.

It is real.

There is power in that message of hope.

There is power in the message of faith.

Let me refer us to another Scripture that also speaks to the power of the message.

Romans 1:16: ¹⁶I have complete confidence in the good news; it is God's power to save all who believe,

There is power in hope.

And I don't believe that it is merely some sort of psychological phenomena that fires transmitters in our brains and gives to us a sense of peace.

There is power to change.

So first, He says: “change your thinking about the future and then believe.”

God is doing something that humanity cannot stop.

And they tried to stop it.

But it didn't work.

The Church was born.

This place of help and healing was born.

This place that brings positive change to world was born.

And in it, people have been nurtured, helped, saved, secured and aided on their own journeys.

And, it transforms lives.

In the late 70's, Jimmy Walker played J.J. He was a silly character whose phrase catch phrase was “dynomite.”

It was the beginning of Hollywood giving significant roles to black men and women, but the stereotype that it created left many puzzled. But it was a beginning.

And Jimmy Walker rose above that role and invited credibility for his race on the national television stage.

And me, when my preaching career started, I was all about that concept of power. The power of the gospel.

So, I preached this sermon, with that catch phrase as the Title; “Dy-No-Mite” as an evangelistic message about how we as Christians need to stand up and proclaim the gospel so that whenever anyone hears it, they too, can get saved and when they die they can go to heaven.

And again, it works, and I believe that.

But man o man!

There is so much more wrapped up in that statement, “The good news is that God is here and now!”

Today! God cares. Today, God has peace for you.

And look what happened transformation wise:

Peter, Andrew, James and John simply left everything and started following Jesus.

What faith! What trust!

There was something to the words of Jesus that enabled and encouraged them to change everything about their lives.

This good news is so powerful, it changes the course of our lives.

It is a commitment to truly holistic living in touch with Spirit, Soul, Mind and body.

It is a cry from God: “i see your fears, I see your hopes, I see your weaknesses, but more, much more. I also see your potential, I see what you can I can do together, I see a new world coming through what you and I can do together.

As I mentioned, there is something about that music that does the same for me.

That good news gives me hope, that good news gives us hope and it encourages us to press on.

So, maybe the message is “what about today?”

Maybe it is “now is the time to be baptized.”

Now is the time to allow hope.

Now is the time to turn to something new.

It is here and it is now.

As with the disciples, it was a powerful call. It caused them to leave their nets and follow Christ.