Are You Into the Gospel?

Mark 1.14-15
3.5.06 DBC

Are You Into the Gospel?

“After John was put in prison, 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.’”

Tony Campolo tells the following story (Let Me Tell You a Story, Did you say this, 207):

“A friend of mine, who was pastor of a Baptist church, was once confronted by a woman in his congregation who wanted to have her seven year old daughter ‘done.’ By that she meant baptized.

My Pastor friend was reluctant to baptize this seven-year-old girl because he wasn’t sure she had had a genuine conversion. Since it is the custom of Baptists to baptize only believers, he was hesitant to accede to the woman’s request. However, the woman was so insistent, that my young preacher friend knew that he had best go along with her demands.

It was the custom of his church for anyone who was going to be baptized to give a personal testimony about his of her conversion experience at the midweek prayer service. The night came when this little girl was to tell how she came to believe in Jesus and share with the congregation, in her own words, something about her Christian experience.

The little girl started by saying, ‘For years I wandered deep in sin . . .’

Snickers and giggles went up among the people in the small congregation. It was pretty obvious that what she was doing was simply repeating some of the things she had heard other people say. She wasn’t sharing her own faith. She was mimicking others

I wonder how many of us simply repeat what we heard other people say and try to pass off the experiences of others as our own.”

I like that story, because what it is saying is that when we claim the name of Christ on our life than our own life (behavior, actions, conduct) must match what we say we believe in.

In what Jesus says, he reveals two (primary) covenantal requirements found both in the OT and the NT. That is, Repentance and belief in the gospel are the two primary things that bring one into an active relationship with God.

In the OT (in the Hebrew) repentance demanded a change of action. That is if one was to follow and love God they must change their behavior. There is example In Solomon’s Temple dedication prayer in 1 Kings 8.46-50:

46-“When they [God’s people] sin against you [God]—for there is no one who does not sin—and when you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; 47—and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul . . . 49—Then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer, and uphold their cause. 50—And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy . . .”

So in the OT (Hebrew) repentance demands a change of action, behavior, and conduct.

In the NT (Greek) repentance deals with the demand for a change of mind or the way one thinks and focuses their thoughts and mind.

The Greek word for repentance is mentaneo, and it means “to think differently about something or to have a change of mind.” (Seeking Him, 67)

It has always been this way and in our generations we’re starting to biologically and psychologically explain the difference and way that one’s thoughts and mindset can affect one’s body and behavior.

It is sort of psychosomatic, which is simply: We become what we think of. Our mind consists of peptides (emotional molecules) that form our identity and mindset.

*We become what we think of; what we focus on and what we think like, in a sense hard-wires, our brains. For example, if I hold hateful thoughts and bitter resentments then my actions and mindset becomes hatred and begrudging.

Basically and simply, you will become what and how you think.

So repentance in NT (Greek) involves changing one’s mind and therefore changing one’s action and being.

Repentance saves us from future mistakes and sins because it not only regrets the consequences of one’s past actions it anticipates future actions!

Buechner on repentance:

“True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ than to the future and saying, ‘Wow!’”

Jesus said repent and he said belief in the good news.

In the OT, belief or faith primarily revealed God’s character. God was loyal, trustworthy, faithful and kept fidelity.

In the NT (Pisteuo), belief means that God’s people (those who turn to him) trust and place their faith in him. It still carries the OT idea of loyalty, stability, fidelity, and trust.


Belief or faith are always used with a preposition (i.e. in or into).

Now there’s not much of a difference in the prepositions as they were used in the Greek (at least in this example), but in the English (for our application) there is a difference with the prepositional phrases of in and into. (A preposition links a verb into a noun; for example we believe into Jesus, i.e. John 3.15, 17.)

Let me illustrate if I say I’m in shoes, I mean quite literally I am in a pair of shoes. Now when I talk about some ladies (My wife specifically) I can use the preposition into . . . My wife is into shoes! She loves shoes. She digs shoes. She is into shoes.

Or someone can say if they’re asked what they do and if they work at a bookstore they can say that they are in books. Now if you ask Doris or Barry or Crensencia or Glenda or myself we could say we are into books. We dig books. We really, really, really, like to read books. We are into Books.

One more example if you ask someone who works with the Spurs administration what they do, they could say that they are in the Spurs basketball organization. But if you ask Becky, or Issela, or any number of you spurs fans out there about the Spurs, you could say that you are into the Spurs. You dig the Spurs. You’re fanatical about the Spurs. You’re into the Spurs!!!

How do you belief Jesus? Are you really into Jesus? Or do you just believe in his historicity or that he was good model or teacher? Or do you really believe and place your faith into Jesus.

It’s hard to explain, in my own life and this has not always been the case, I am constantly aware of the divine. I am often, sometimes constantly, thinking about Jesus or spirituality. It was not always this way. I am placing my faith, more and more, into Christ. I long to be found into Jesus.