Christ the King Adult Education Fall 2011
Joseph Hartman
POSSIBLE LEAD QUESTION:
How do you react when something disrupts your plans?
SUMMARY OVERVIEW
 TEXT: Mark 1:14-31
 The Call is GOOD NEWS– News versus advice
 The Call is TOTALLY DISRUPTIVE– Passion versus moderation

The Person Who issues the Call has TOTAL AUTHORITY: Demonstrated
over all aspects (Spirit, Mind, Body)
I. THE CALL BRINGS GOOD NEWS
A. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:14-15 - Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming
the good news of God. “The time has come,” He said. “The kingdom
of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
B. GOSPEL VERSUS RELIGION:
1. Significance: The idea behind the term “Gospel” is one that
announces an event of world-historical importance (to borrow from
Hegel) not just religious importance. This term goes to the heart of
what makes Christianity distinctive from other religions. You can
see this by comparing “Gospel” to “Religion”
2. Eu-angelion εὐαγγέλιον: Combines the word angelos
(angel), which is the word for a messenger of news, with the prefix
eu- which means “joyful” or “good.”

English Term: literal translation - “Gospel” – Old English “godspell” or “good news,” “glad tidings” (should have been “good-spell”
but there was confusion over the etymology – people thought it
meant “God News”)

Roman Usage: Tim Keller holds that this was a somewhat
common word in the Greco-Roman culture, but it had a political,
rather than necessarily religious, meaning. There was a
contemporaneous Roman inscription beginning “The beginning of
the gospel of Caesar Augustus,” which tells the story of the birth
and coronation of the Roman emperor.

Significance: Gospel is NEWS of the irruption of eternity into the
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World of Time
3. Religion: Disputed etymology, generally, religion has something
to do with carrying out one’s DUTY to God.

Latin Source: Cicero: religio - Diligence in piety; Augustine: religare – reconnect, re-bind (also favored by modern scholar of
mythology Joseph Campbell)

Sanskrit (Hindu): “Dharma” the word for religion, also translates
as law or natural law/order – refers to personal obligations or duties

Significance: ADVICE: Gives a list of oughts to which you are
instructed/advised to conform. Put in modern parlance, religion
expands your to-do list.
C. Good News Versus Advice: Other religions tell you what you
have to do to connect to God; the Gospel tells you what God has
done to reconcile Himself to you.
1. The Gospel is Historic News of Liberation, Religion Imposes
a Burden


Faith/Works – Lutheran/Pauline distinction
World as Providential history versus in which the world of time
points to the world of eternity versus classical/pagan view of world
as eternal recurrence Polish Sociologist of Religion Mircea Eliade
Myth of the Eternal Return
2. Implications – Self-Absorption versus Relationship
a) Religion turns one inward on the self:
b) Genesis 1-2 demonstrates that we were created in a
world where relationships were whole – psychologically
and sociologically perfect. Our self-centeredness
destroyed that.
c) Self-Centeredness destroys relationships: There is
nothing that makes you more miserable or less interesting
than self-absorption – How am I feeling, how am I doing,
how are people treating me, am I proving myself, am I
succeeding, am I failing – Self absorption leaves us static
and inevitably results in conflicts, small and large. If we
are self centered WE HAVE LEFT THE DANCE
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d) The Gospel announces God’s work to reconcile
Himself us and to others. We are invited to rejoin the
DANCE
II. THE CALL IS TOTALLY DISRUPTIVE
A. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:16-20 - As Jesus walked beside the Sea of
Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the
lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I
will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and
followed Him. When He had gone a little farther, He saw James son
of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in
the boat with the hired men and followed Him.
B. THE CALL IS DISRUPTIVE: The disciples leave their careers,
leave their father and friends to follow:
1. Relocation of Identity: Those who follow Christ sacrifice the
very thing that gave them identity. Everything else comes SECOND
a) Traditional culture (Communal): Extended Family,
Tribe, Community within which you are embedded
b) Modern Life (Individual): Nuclear Family, spouse,
children, Career, achievements, degrees, hobbies,
consumption.
Accepting the call of Christ demands a relocation of that which
is constitutive of identity from all other things to Him.
2. SIDEBAR: Points to God’s Sovereignty over Whom He calls:
Note Jesus calls followers, who obey the call, rather than followers
choosing Jesus: (PREDESTINATION) (CITE Article XVII of
Westminster Confession)
C. THE CALL IS TOTAL
1. The Call Demands the Whole Person, Complete Transfer of
Loyalty: Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, he
cannot be my disciple.” Compared to Christ, we must “hate” all
relationships, activities, and loyalties “If anyone does not hate his
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family, favorite football team, political party, country club,
neighborhood, country, he cannot be my disciple.” IF WE ARE NOT
TOTALLY COMMITTED TO CHRIST, WE’RE STILL TREATING
THE GOSPEL AS ADVICE – We’re being MODERATE.
2. The Call Does Not Elicit Moderation:
a) Contra Aristotle Christ is not looking for followers who
are “moderate in all things.” There’s no Golden Mean
here.
b) Perhaps this is why Paul will later characterize the
Gospel as “foolishness to the Greeks.” (I Cor. 1:23)
c) Not Utilitarian: So be careful when you make
arguments in defense of Christianity on utilitarian or
pragmatic or prudential grounds. For many Christians,
following Christ means poverty, illness, physical
suffering and even death.
d) Not Therapeutic: The late social theorist Philip Rieff
(Triumph of the Therapeutic) once stated that in late
modernity “Christianity becomes therapeutically, “Jesus is
good for you.” I find this simply pathetic.”
3. Immoderation is a natural consequent of the Religion/Gospel
News/Advice Distinction:
If one is following advice, one exercises prudence, restraint, careful
thought. The Gospel is News that you don’t need to—and indeed,
can’t earn your way to God. He’s done it for you.
One doesn’t moderately appreciate someone who’s saved His life—
rather, fanatical devotion is called for. (Brandon Wright in Logan,
Utah. “forever in debt”)
4. Fanatical/Radical: Love joy peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
(Galations 5:22-23) Fanatical humility, sensitivity, understanding,
generosity
III.THE PERSON WHO CALLS HAS TOTAL AUTHORITY
A. AUTHORITY OVER THE INTELLECTUAL REALM
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1. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:21-22: They went to Capernaum, and
when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began
to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he
taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the
law.
B. AUTHORITY OVER THE SPIRITUAL REALM
1. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:23-28 - Just then a man in their
synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What
do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy
us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said
Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the
man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all
so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new
teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits
and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole
region of Galilee.
C. AUTHORITY OVER THE PHYSICAL REALM
1. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:29-31 - As soon as they left the
synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon
and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and
they told Jesus about her. So He went to her, took her hand and
helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
D. Christ’s Teaching, Casting out Demons and Healing represents
not a CLAIM of Authority but a DEMONSTRATION of authority. ἐξ
ουσίαν(Exousia)
E. REJECTION OF DUALISM: This Total Authority Reflects the
Incarnational Aspect of Christianity: Christ demonstrates that His
followers are neither wholly focused on the spiritual or intellectual and
neglectful of the body, nor are they overattentive to the body without
addressing the mind or the soul. This is a recurrent pattern in which
Christ heals and forgives sins. Saved by Faith For Good Works Social Justice/Personal Salvation
IV.
CONCLUSION
A. The Gospel is the Call to Follow the King
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1. The Content of the Call is Good News, not Wise Advice
2. The Impact of the Call is Total Disruption of all prior
relationships and identity
3. The Person Who Calls is the One Who has Total Authority over
things temporal and eternal – mind, body, soul.
B. IMPLICATIONS
1. OUR PLANS: We are modern. We have our carefully organized
and systematized plans. We always want to know where we’re
going and what’s next. We forecast the weather, anticipate the
traffic, fill our iphone calendars with appointments.
2. GOD’S PLAN: God has His own Providential plan for human
history, and He calls us into relationship with Him as a part of His
Plan
3. OUR RESPONSE:
a) REJECT: Ignore the Call
b) ACCOMMODATE: Try to accommodate God’s Call to
our plans: Moderation. Embrace Christianity to the extent
that it doesn’t require wholesale change. Treat the
Gospel as potentially good advice.
c) In faith, FOLLOW: The book of Hebrews reminds us
that Abraham went out “not knowing where he was going”
(Hebrews 11:8). The book of Jeremiah tells us that God
“know[s] the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11).
d) CHRIST IS OUR MODEL: Jesus Himself has done
everything he asks us to do. He already left His
father and His throne, and His existence in heaven
with the Father, too, was totally disrupted. If we are
to be imitators of Christ, the only option is to
FOLLOW the CALL
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