You Are Not Far From The Kingdom
Mark 12

Intro:
Good morning.

I’m going to start with a story I’ve used before about a young Indian who went up a mountain to find his wise old teacher and when he got there, he asked, “Teacher, how can I find God?” His teacher said, “If you really want to find God then come with me down the mountain to the river.” Off they went together and when they got to the water’s edge the teacher led the young Indian into the deepest part of the water.

Despite the young Indian kicking and punching the teacher ducked his whole body under the water and held the young man there for a few moments. When he finally let him up out of the water, he said to him, “Young man if you want to find God as much as you wanted air a moment ago, you will find him -- no problem.”

I guess the point of the story is; if you want to find something, sometimes it’s going to be difficult. Sometimes it’s going to take a bit of effort.

My cousin and her husband spent time in Scotland during WWII in a city called Edinburgh. When work called me over to the UK, Nina and I took some vacation and one of the places I wanted to visit was that city. Edinburgh is on the east of the island and across the Firth of Forth is a natural peninsula known as Fife. Fife is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth and by custom it is widely held to have been one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.

A preacher from the UK said that this place is simply known locally as “The Kingdom”. This preacher wrote that he had a friend who wanted to go and visit this kingdom, so they drove over the Firth of Forth road bridge and went into the kingdom.

If you have ever visited the Kingdom of Fife, you will know it is a beautiful place and I guarantee if you ever have been there you’ll like what you see. Nina and I went up to Perth which is Firth of Tay and we can tell you how beautiful this part of the country is. As an aside the historic town of St. Andrews is located on the northeast coast of Fife. It is well known for the University of St. Andrews, one of the most ancient universities in the world and is renowned as the home of golf.

The reason I told you this is to help focus our minds on Mark 12:34, where Jesus says to a man who is standing in front of Him. “You’re not far from the kingdom.”
In a very similar way, this preacher and his friend were only a very short drive away from the kingdom. A kingdom that his friend had heard about but never visited. A kingdom that was supposedly full of beauty, but his friend had never seen it, and in a very true sense, he wasn’t very far from the kingdom.
Of coarse, Jesus wasn’t talking about the Kingdom of Fife, no matter how much Scottish people might like to believe that. In Mark 12:34 He is speaking about a kingdom that is just as real and which can only be entered into by the deliberate desire of an individual. -- He is speaking about the Kingdom of God.

When you are reading your Bible at home, read Matthew 22 and there you will find the very time when this event took place in the life of Jesus. It was during the final week of the Jesus’ life. He had ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem, the multitude praised Him. He had just cleansed the temple by turning out the moneychangers and the merchants.

The religious leaders were around Him and they were trying to trap Him. The Herodians came to Jesus and tried to trick Him. They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to give to Caesar?” Jesus said, "Whose portrait is on this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

As soon as they are silenced the Sadducees came along. They too, tried to trick Jesus. They asked about a woman who had been married to 7 brothers, all of the same family. They then asked, “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” We recall the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection anyway.

Jesus says in Matthew 22:29-32 - “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Finally, we have The Pharisees, the teachers of the nation. From Matthew 22, it seems as though one young man, pushed his way forward to ask Jesus another trick question to try to trap Him. This young man came to Jesus and asked the question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

I. In Mark 12:29 the young man is called a “scribe” in the KJV and he is called an “expert in the law” or a “teacher of the law” in others. The question he asks is phrased in the NKJ as “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered this young man and I wonder if there wasn’t a look of sympathy on His face! This man had probably been so wrongly informed about Jesus; I don’t think he would believe anything that Jesus would tell him anyway.
A. Perhaps like the couple that were driving down a country road and passing a farm with donkeys and pigs, when the man jokingly asked his wife, “Relatives of yours dear?” His wife replied, “Yes, the in-laws.”
B. It is often that once you have made your mind up about someone, it is difficult to change your mind about that person. Imagine that man standing back and waiting for the answer from Jesus, and Jesus deliberately quotes from the Old Testament.
C. Jesus uses a passage of scripture that every faithful Jew would recite twice every day. It’s known as “The Schema”, from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Jesus says in Mark 12:29-30; “The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.” Then Jesus says in verse 31 using Leviticus 19:18 “And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.”
1. I want us notice the scribes reply in Mark12:32-33 – “So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” The scribe’s answer is enthusiastic.
2. I would like us to notice something else. It says “So when Jesus SAW that he answered wisely,”. Jesus didn’t just hear that young man speaking to Him, He SAW on his face an honest expression, when Jesus SAW that he answered wisely. It is then that Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”.
D. I believe that Jesus saw in that man’s face, faith and honesty. Here is a man who many might call a rationalist, or a ritualist. There, standing before Jesus was a man who seems to have more understanding than those others who had been trying to trap Him. Jesus can bless that person abundantly.
II. I would like for us to think about this man’s position and then I would like for us to think about our positions, and our position as being near to the kingdom of God. Let me say a few words about the Kingdom of God first.
A. For many, many, many years, the Jews had longed for the kingdom to come. Way back in Old Testament times, God had promised He would establish a kingdom, which would have no end. There had been silence from the prophets for 400 years until John the Baptizer came and stood on the banks of the river Jordan and said, “Repent” Why? “For the kingdom of God is at hand.”
B. The people thought Jesus was here to do that, but they thought He was talking about a physical kingdom. An overthrow of the oppressor (the Romans) and a return to power like the time of Solomon. Hence, the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem with the cheering throng. But Jesus said, “You are to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.”
C. The people were looking for a physical kingdom, a material kingdom, but Jesus had to tell them, “Listen it’s not a physical kingdom but a spiritual kingdom.” He says, “That is what the Old Testament prophets were talking about.”
D. You will remember Jesus said in front of Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my servants would fight.” He also says something else about the kingdom. The kingdom prophesied in the Old Testament is a spiritual kingdom, which is also known by other names.
1. Let me mention one briefly. In Luke 18:18, there was rich young man who came to Jesus and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” If we go to verse 25 of the same passage, we find that Jesus said, after the young man had gone away, “For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
2. I would like us keep that in mind as we continue because it seems to me that the kingdom and eternal life are one and the same condition that a person can find themselves in. If someone has eternal life, then they are in the kingdom. If someone is in the kingdom, they have eternal life.
E. Let’s take this one step further. Jesus said in John 3:5 – “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Do you see what I’m getting at? There is a condition into which a person might enter, where it doesn’t matter about age or color or background or education, but which in reality, is just as obviously entered, as the preacher’s friend entered the Kingdom of Fife. Deliberately entered.
F. He went because he wanted to go, not because anybody made him. Jesus said, “That’s how a person can enter the kingdom of God.” It is also true that a man or a woman can be as near to the kingdom of God as the preacher’s friend was when he was in Edinburgh and near to the Kingdom of Fife... but not be in it. It’s the same with the kingdom of God. We can be near, but not in.
III. Let’s look at the man in Mark 12 again. First of all let’s say this about the scribe -- he was a religious man. The Bible tells us that he was a scribe, a teacher, an expert on the Old Testament scriptures. He was a person who possibly stood in front of a multitude of people and read out of the Old Testament laws.
A. Yet, I want us to notice, he wasn’t in the kingdom. Jesus simply said to him in Mark 12:34, “You are near to the kingdom”. Here was man, who knew that religion, which consisted of sacrifice and burnt offerings wasn’t the whole of religion. He knew that God demanded the heart, as well as the sacrifice, but he was a man who was only near the kingdom.
B. Here was a man who knew that God was above everyone and overall things and that it was man’s duty to serve Him completely, and yet he was a man who was only near the kingdom -- not in the kingdom. This man knew what one ought to do, but he was only near to the kingdom.
C. It’s like the 3 new psychologists who went for an interview with their new professor. The professor asked the first man, “What is the opposite of joy?” The first man replied, “Sadness.” The professor asked the second man, “What is the opposite of depression?” The man replied, “Elation.” The professor asked the third man, “What is the opposite of Woe?” The man replied, “Giddy up.”
D. They all answered correctly according to their understanding of the question. Here was a man who started with debate and ended with respect. Here was a man who started with a group of people, but Jesus answered him as though there was only the two of them. He was near to the kingdom but not in the kingdom. We don’t know if that man ever did enter the kingdom.
E. Let’s look at it a little closer to home. How near to the kingdom are each of us? Are we as near as that man? If Jesus were to sit down next to us just now and we were able to talk to Him as that scribe did, I wonder if we would dare to be as open and honest as the scribe was.
IV. I wonder of Jesus might lovingly deal with every one of us today in the same way he dealt with the scribe? Lovingly, carefully, consciously, aware of that man’s need. Let me ask this question; Are you in the kingdom? Or are you near to the kingdom? How can we judge?
A. I’ve made a list of some steps that we might want to note from God’s word, to show us if we are near the kingdom. If we are near the kingdom, what do we think about the Bible?
1. What is our honest opinion of the 66 books, which we call the Bible? Have we checked its values? Have we checked its virtues?
2. Have we checked its claims and condemnations? Have we seen that it states very clearly that we are all without hope in this world if we haven’t accepted the sacrifice that God provided?
B. If we believe that the Bible is the word of God, we are one step nearer the kingdom of God. Have we seen that within the Bible it clearly states that there are 2 classes of people in this world today?
1. It’s not speaking about Jew and Gentile, it’s not talking about rich and poor, it’s not talking about black and white or male or female or even moral or immoral people.
2. It’s talking about 2 classes of people because there are only 2 that stand before God. There are the lost people and there are the saved people.
C. If we believe that the Bible is the word of God, then we must have come one step nearer the kingdom of God. Because the Bible says in Romans 3:23 that, “We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there’s no one righteous, no not one.” Do we believe that? Do we believe that without Jesus in our life we are lost?
D. If we do, then we are near the kingdom. We are near to the kingdom because Jesus said in Luke 19:10, “He came to seek and to save those who were lost.” Does that belief in the Bible allow us to see that Jesus is the savior of all men?
E. If it does, then we are nearer the kingdom than we were with just our belief in the Bible as the word of God. Jesus said one time, to some religious people that were speaking to Him, “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have life and these testify of me.”
1. John the baptizer stood next to the river Jordan, he lifted his eyes and saw the master coming towards him and said, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John wrote in his gospel 20:31 – “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
2. Do we believe the scriptures when it says in; 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”? Do we believe that heaven gave its very best, so that it might take us, the worst, and bring us to glory?
3. If we believe that, then we are near the kingdom but are not in it. We are near the scriptures, the savior, but we are still not in the kingdom. Does this motivate us to do something? Does it motivate us to cross that bridge into the kingdom?
F. Does it motivate you to feel sorry in your heart for the sins that you have committed which sent Jesus to Calvary? Then you’re nearer to the kingdom.
V. The Bible calls this repentance. It’s probably the hardest step for anyone to make -- to say that you are sorry for what caused Jesus to go to the cross. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
A. Repentance isn’t just a turn about; it’s about revulsion for sin that caused Jesus to have to go to Calvary. Jesus said in Luke 13:3 – “unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
B. If you are here today and are sorry for your sins, then you are near to the kingdom. Because you believe, and are seeing Jesus as the savior, repenting of your sins, you are near, but you’re still not in the kingdom.
VI. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 10:9 – “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” If you are prepared to confess Jesus, then you are near the kingdom. Part of that confession means that you are not ashamed to admit that Jesus is Lord, the Son of God. It’s a recognition that Jesus understands.
A. I heard a story from a preacher in the UK about an evangelist coming to a small town in Scotland. Now I will attempt to repeat the words I heard but I’m sure fail miserably.
1. "Mither," said a Scots laddie, "there's a new mon come to toon to preach. Gang and hear him." Thinking it strange to be asked by her boy, she resolved, -- though reluctantly, to go.
2. But how to conceal from her neighbors her going to a revival meeting was her difficulty. We know that Nicodemus went to Jesus under cover of night; but this meeting was in the day time so this was not an option.
3. This woman took her market basket on her arm, as if she were going to make the usual daily purchases, thus screening herself from the observation and jeers of her neighbors.
4. Day after day she appeared at the meeting with her basket. At length she was brought to know the Lord. "Ye'll no need the basket anymore," said the evangelist to her, with a significant twinkle in his eye.
B. Jesus said, “whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes” in Mark 8:38, and Luke 9:26. One of the devices that Satan uses to stop people from coming to the Lord is the use of peer pressure. It is a powerful thing when those around you look down on something you are doing and laugh at it and you. It is a form of bullying, making you ashamed of something you wear, ashamed about the way you look, or ashamed about an activity you are doing.
C. Paul tells us in Romans 10:8-10 where he is writing about the righteousness of faith, “But what does it say? "The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart'' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”
D. Just saying that, “Jesus is Lord” doesn’t really mean anything though unless it affects your life. Otherwise it is just words. You see confession, means it’s all of your life saying, “I believe in Jesus and I’m going to stand up for Jesus no matter what.” That’s confession; it’s every day of your life when you are prepared to stand up and be counted. It’s admitting that Jesus is Lord, and that He’s the master. It means that what He commands you will do, His laws are to be obeyed and not be ashamed of Him.
E. To say, “Jesus is Lord” means that you are prepared to put Him above everything else and to give Him first place in your life. If you are prepared this morning to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you’re nearer the kingdom than you were when you just believed the Bible. You are still near, but not in.
VII. The preacher’s friend went to Edinburgh and he could have turned around and never entered the kingdom of Fife, but he went there deliberately one day. He even paid to go over the bridge that took him into the kingdom of Fife.
A. That’s like what happens when a person enters the kingdom of God. I’m not saying you have to pay, but what I am saying is that you have to deliberately go and enter the kingdom.
B. In John 3 Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” He was talking to a man, who was a teacher of the Jews, a man who knew the Old Testament. Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How, How can this be, How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus then explains the way that a man might experience new birth.
C. This entrance into the kingdom. Listen to what He said in John 3:14 – “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s clear, isn’t it? Jesus says that, “we are to look at Him and if we believe in Him with all our hearts, we might enter into the kingdom of God.”
D. How does that work out? Is believing just a mental activity? Surely not. “Belief” - in the Bible sense is never passive. It always motivates us to do something. The people on the Day of Pentecost for example in Acts chapter 2, were made to realize the truth of the scriptures when they heard of the sacrifice for sin of Jesus. When they heard that Jesus had risen, that Jesus was able to draw all men unto Him and they cried out and said, “What must we do to be saved?”
E. They are saying in effect “How can we born again?” Let’s put it another way. How may we enter into the kingdom of God? How can we come into that sphere? That spiritual realm, where Jesus reigns and we are His servants. How can we enter into that kingdom?
F. Peter gave them the answer. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” On that day, 3000 people that stood near the kingdom were transported into the kingdom by their obedience to Jesus -- by accepting the sacrifice and applying it to themselves.
G. How does that work? It works like this. Romans 6:3 “Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” There it is, we are baptized into His death. Entrance into the kingdom, is by your own deliberate admission. You go because you want to go into the kingdom of God.

CONCLUSION:
But what if you don’t go in? What happens if you choose to stand outside of the kingdom?

Let me tell you about a steam clipper ship named “The Royal Charter”. She was a fast ship for her day, an iron-hulled passenger clipper with auxiliary steam engines. She made the Liverpool to Australia run in under 60 days. In late October 1859 The Royal Charter was returning to Liverpool from Melbourne. Her complement of about 371 passengers (with a crew of about 112 and some other company employees), included many gold miners, some of who had struck it rich at the diggings in Australia and were carrying large sums of gold about their persons. A consignment of gold was also being carried as cargo. As she reached the north-western tip of Anglesey on 25 October the barometer was dropping.

Off Point Lynas she tried to pick up the Liverpool pilot, but the wind had now risen to Storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale and the rapidly rising sea made this impossible. During the night of 25/26 October the wind rose to Hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort scale in what became known as the "Royal Charter gale". As the wind rose its direction changed from E to NE and then NNE, driving the ship towards the north-east coast of Anglesey. At 11 pm she anchored, but at 1.30 am on the 26th the port anchor chain snapped, followed by the starboard chain an hour later. Despite cutting the masts to reduce the drag of the wind, Royal Charter was driven inshore, with the steam engines unable to make headway against the gale. The ship initially grounded on a sandbank, but in the early morning of the 26th the rising tide drove her on to the rocks at a point just north of Moelfre at Porth Alerth on the north coast of Anglesey. Battered against the rocks by huge waves whipped up by winds of over 100 mph, she quickly broke up.

I heard one story about this disaster involving the first officer of the ship. His wife was sitting at home waiting for him. She had his dinner ready for his expected arrival. The minister had to go and break the news to her, that her husband had been lost at sea.
Imagine that long voyage and then to be shipwrecked in Wales. The story goes on to say that the minister said he would never forget the anguish in that woman’s eyes, as she grasped his hands and said, “So near to home and yet lost.” So near to home and yet lost.

What will it be like if you don’t enter into the kingdom? How can we explain when we are to stand before the judge and are divided between the sheep and the goats? What is it going to be like for you who are close to the kingdom but won’t go in?

To hear the songs of the righteous, to know the brightness of His glory and yet to go into utter darkness! Some to go with Him into heaven, and for some to go to hell! Some to have living water at your feet and for some to be parched! Some to see the bread and yet be dying of hunger! Who can explain what it is like, if you don’t enter the kingdom when you are so near?
Folks, I hope this message has been clear, there’s only one-way into the kingdom. The scribe was near to the kingdom; we don’t know if he ever went in. Let me leave you by asking you this question, where are you?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

# ???

Reference Sermon
Mike Glover