The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

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0:14I'd encourage you to keep your Bibles open and follow along. We're gonna begin today by looking at something on the screen. It's an illustration that was made well over a hundred years ago and I wanna invite you to look at it and ask you, what do you see? You may notice that there is a duck which faces to the left of the screen with its bill and then that bill becomes ears facing the opposite direction of a rabbit. Did you see both? Why would I begin this sermon this way? Of course, to capture attention. Just kidding. It's because this illustration is similar to what's happening in our text. You see, Matthew is showing us two overlapping realities, two overlapping spiritual kingdoms.

1:21In this seemingly very simple text, it almost looks like Jesus packed up his U-Haul in Nazareth and drove it 40 miles to Capernaum and set up his new shop. Oh, but there is so much more going on in this text. Like I said, there's two overlapping kingdoms. Did you see the one that's easy to see right on the surface? It's in verse 17. It's the kingdom of heaven. But very present in the beginning of this text and throughout this text is the kingdom of earth, a spiritual kingdom that is set up and opposed to God? We read about it throughout the scriptures. For example, in one John five 19, it says The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

2:10So there are two kingdoms that are overlapping and competing for authority in the hearts of humanity. And the aim of this sermon is very simple. Just like I explained the two things in that picture, the aim is to help us see these kingdoms perhaps for the first time or see them afresh and take heart that the kingdom of heaven in this text has been inaugurated and it is spreading. Our outline is very simple. We're gonna walk right through the text. That's why I encourage you to keep your Bibles open and we're gonna try to do, uh, our three points are gonna hover around Matthew's aims to see three things.

2:56First, in verses 12 and 13, we are going to see the kingdom of this earth, the darkness in which we dwell. Secondly, in verses 14 through 16, we will see the fulfillment of God's word as the light dawns in the darkness. And finally we will see the kingdom of heaven as its light begins to spread and ask ourselves, what are we supposed to do about this?

3:30Please pray with me as we ask God to work in our eyes and the eyes of our hearts. Heavenly Father, we greatly need you to uncover the eyes of our hearts to re remind, renew our minds to see these spiritual kingdoms in conflict, to have hearts that long for you to take more ground in our hearts or for some of us to come and repent and bow the knee before you, the great king for the first time. Lord, would you hallow your name, heavenly Father, would you advance your kingdom on earth? May your rule look more and more and more like your rule in heaven. We prayed this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's begin looking at verse 12 where Matthew, like I said, will help us see the kingdoms of this earth, the darkness in which we dwell.

4:38But actually before we do that, I wanna encourage you to glance up the page because it's been a couple weeks since we've been in the gospel of Matthew. It's very important that we remind ourselves what has taken place so far in this narrative. If you look up at verse chapter three, verse one we heard a few weeks back, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. We're gonna hear a little bit more about John in our text today, but it's important that you remember that he is the great prophet proclaiming, in fact, he's the first one in this gospel who proclaims this same word, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

5:14We'll talk about that in just a moment. And he, he was preparing the way of the Lord. Yahweh, Jesus Christ was coming a little bit down further in verse 13 of chapter three, Jesus came from gey to the Jordan of John to be baptized and immediately after that, Jesus was led by the spirit out into the wilderness. That was the account that happened right before our text out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and if, if we needed a clue that there were kingdoms in conflict in Jesus' world and in our world there we see them right there in the wilderness doing battle as Satan tried to tempt the holy God man, Jesus Christ.

5:58And he even says in verse nine, all these kingdoms, meaning all these various domains with different kings and rulers over them, all these kingdoms I will give to you if you fall down and worship me. How could he say that? It's because at this point there are two kingdoms overlapping and in conflict and Jesus was faithful in the wilderness where Israel was not. He did not step over the cross. He did not. Fast forward, he did not tap out and get to the good stuff, which would've would not have been good. He endured, he fought, he was perfect, he trusted his father and he endured temptation. And then boom, right out of that wilderness temptation after it was ended is our text.

6:49And it says Now when he heard that John had been arrested, we don't know if he was in still in the wilderness of Judea, kind of down by the dead sea to the West or exactly what was going on, but we need to remind ourselves that as we saw before this voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord, God's greatest human prophet was arrested. That should startle us. We know the history. We know that this took place. So we may may be like, oh, he was arrested. No, this is serious. As we look a little further in Matthew's gospel to chapter 14 verse three, we see that this arrest was a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth.

7:41You see, Herod anus a arrested John because he had taken a woman that was not his own. In fact, it wasn't just a woman that was not his own, it was his brother's wife and John the Baptist. It says in Matthew 14, four had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her. And what does Herod do? He silences that voice. He cancels John, he throws him in prison. We need to know that is a serious wicked act When you lock up and stop a prophet from proclaiming, not just confrontation to you but God's message to God's people. That's very serious business. That was the context, the world in which God, Jesus Christ lived.

8:42Do you see that? That's the darkness that we live in. I encourage you look around, look around who is being canceled? What godly voices are being canceled or what issues that are talked about in God's word are being hindered or unwelcomed? Where are eyeballs rolling or angry words being thrown at God's design for life and marriage and humanity and gender and and how things should be.

9:18But don't just look around. Look within we are all that. We are all wrestling in our own hearts with this same reality. These kingdoms are seeking to take control of our very beings. Where are we suppressing the truth? Where are we turning down the volume on God's word or skipping over things or rationalizing or saying That doesn't apply to me or I don't think that's true? Where Are we suppressing the truth? You see, we live in a broken world and we ourselves are broken.

10:03Right? In the first few verses we see the darkness of this world, but it continues. Look further on in verse 12 with me. It continues. He that is Jesus. Upon hearing these things withdrew into Galilee and leaving Nazareth, he went to live in Capernaum by the sea. Now when we hear the word withdraw, we normally kind of come up with the con connotations of retreat or like throw up the white flag. We're withdrawing or we're backing up or we're giving up ground. So we need to understand what this word is. Jesus is not hiding under a rock. He's not like, whoa, I might be arrested too. I need to back up. I need to go over here.

10:53I need to go incognito, get off the grid. That's not what's happening here. I think we see that in a couple different ways. First, in Matthew's gospel, there is an identical pattern of hearing and withdrawing. In chapter two in Matthew 2 22 through 24, we read about Jesus's human father who is also facing a very concerning word about a ruler. Verse 22 says, but when he, that is Joseph heard that Aus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, a different Herod than I talked about earlier. He was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the District of Galilee.

11:43Now notice there is no words in our text that Jesus was afraid to go there. Okay? That might be an argument from silence, but I don't think so, but you can check that out, but there's more here. He was warned in a dream. So God told him to do this and he removed, he withdrew to the District of Galilee. Well notice what happens with Jesus if you were to look at a map and and understand the various controlling regions. What Joseph did was he was coming up from Egypt into Judea and the person that was ruling that was really scary and radical and would do not so great things, and so he went up to a different region ruled by herd anus.

12:23I mentioned his name a little bit earlier into Galilee when Jesus withdrew. So he, he moved to a different leader's region. When Jesus withdrew, he moved to the same region that that wicked ruler was ruling and he moved from the back waters to the forefront. He moved from Podunk town Nazareth, sorry. Uh, we love Nazareth, but it was really a teeny teeny town. 450 people to a place. Three times the population, Capernaum. And here's a little bit more that one source says about Capernaum. It held a Roman garrison. It served as administrative center and due to its location on a busy trade route, keep that in the back of your mind.

13:13We're gonna hear about that in a moment. Was a customs station. So he moved from kind of the hideout area even into further public regions trusting in God. I think just even those little details help us see that Jesus Christ did not just set his face like Flint to the cross. As he got close to the cross, he continually moved forward into opposition. His whole earthly ministry. Praise Jesus.

13:52We need to also see the darkness of this region, the land in which Christ dwelt in these realities. You see, God's chosen people whom he delivered in out of slavery in Egypt and then led out of exile from Babylon and being controlled by Assyria were in their own country, but it was an occupied country. It was an occupied land. There was a Roman garrison in the place that he lived. Why would there be a Roman garrison there? Because they were an occupied people. They were under the thumb of Rome. They could look down the street and say things are not as they should be. Just like when we drive by Highway 36 and see a Planned Parenthood complex and say things are not as they should be.

14:44We dwell in a land of darkness and we see even more as we look at verse 13, what it says is these cities were in the territory of Zebulun and Naftali. You need to know that these are regions and Nazareth was in Zebulun and Capernaum by the sea was in Nepali. What are these regions? This is a historic geography lesson just kind of slipped in by Matthew. I mean Matthew is smart. There is so much going on in this text that we don't see. It's crazy, but I'll, I'll leave that for another time. Um, the territory of Zebo and nap were two of those. Those two names were two sons of uh, Jacob. They were part of the 12 tribes of Israel.

15:47And God had not only uh, raised them up and made great promises to them, he fulfilled those promises. When Israel came in, God parceled out the land flowing with milk and honey to these 12 tribes and where he gave regional land to these two places were right here where Jesus was living. They touched right up next to each other and the two towns 40 miles apart were in either of those two regions.

16:20So in the land that was flowing with milk and honey that God was giving to them as an inheritance, it just wasn't quite right. They came back and their temple wasn't the same size. They came back and their, their ability to thrive in the land was not there. The promises that God had made in Isaiah just seemed distant and not yet realized. Some of them things were not right. Do you realize that about our world today? We often sing a song. It's a call and response song. Is he worthy by Andrew Peterson? And it includes these lines. Do you feel the world is broken and it's an opportunity for the gathered congregation to say we do.

17:12It goes on later to say, do you wish that it could? You could see it all made new. It's an opportunity for us to say we do, but my question is not, do you know the next line of the song? But do you feel that reality? You see at various levels, we are at home in this world, but we shouldn't be. We shouldn't be. It's really interesting in two Peter two, seven through eight lot is described in a very positive way as one who was distressed in his soul about the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Are you like him in that way? Are you distressed by the lawless deeds that you see and hear around you?

18:03Do you see that as one Peter says, you are a sojourner and an exile. You are out of place. You are not in your homeland. This is not as it should be. Or are you going against John the apostle's call when he says, don't love the world and you kind of like it. You're kind of at home. You kind of want the things that are promoted in culture that you kind of know are against God to grow. Oh, be where? Look at your heart. Do you love the world? Are you at home or do you feel like an exile and a soldier? That's what God calls us to be and we can know for certain that it will all be made new. Revelation 1115 says these words that are warnings to those that love the world and a great rejoicing to those that see themselves as exiles.

19:02Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there was a loud voice from heaven saying The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever. Do you long for that day? Do you say, come marath, may that day come? Is that your heart or do you love the world? Take heed that kingdom is coming. Bend the knee. Now. Open up your hearts that more of that rule would take place in your own life.

19:49The second point that Matthew wants us to see is the fulfillment of God's word. As the light dawns verse 14 says, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Now you can turn there if you'd like this prophet Isaiah spoke on page 573 of your blue Bibles a word in Isaiah nine, one and two. Or you can just listen, but there will be no gloom for her who wasn't anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zabul and the land of Nepali. Do those sound familiar? But in the latter times, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan Galilee of the nations, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

20:43Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness on them, light has shown. Now there's two things to either look at if the text is in front of you or to hear now, you need to know that. But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish. In the former times he brought, when he brought into contempt the land, these lands that he talked about, Matthew leaves that out because what was happening in this time when, or I'm sorry, yeah, Matthew leaves those out. Isaiah was talking about a day he was writing to his own people in Judea. They saw that Babylon was coming to take them away and he was looking ahead 70 years and saying, there will be a time where your gloom will be taken away.

21:25Matthew leaves that out because that is already taken place in history and he focuses in on these two regions where there will somehow be this glorious highway. It will be made glorious. And notice Matthew or Isaiah in chapter two of Isaiah is talking in the prophetic perfect. What that means is he is saying something is gonna happen some 700 years in the future and I'm so certain that it's gonna happen that I'm gonna write it as if it already did.

21:59What's more, these words are a prelude to what we spent our entire Christmas season last year looking at. If you glance down the page, or you can just listen to me, Isaiah nine, six says, Fortu, a child is born to us. A son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. There's a king who's coming, he will be born and he is the one who will set up an everlasting kingdom. He will father an everlasting kingdom. He will cause peace to reign. He is the mighty God and he is a warrior.

22:44You see what was happening in Isaiah's text is there's all these mountain like realities that are gonna happen in history that he's looking straight on. And what we can do in our history is turned that sideways and say in 70 years the people will be brought back from captivity and then there will be a king who is born and he will show up in the land of Zebulon and natali, which is our text about today. And he will reign as in his everlasting kingdom forever in something that hasn't yet taken place.

23:22So how is Matthew using this passage? First notice so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled. What he's saying is, Hey everybody take notice. What Isaiah said is happening. It happened right here exactly like he said it. Secondly, notice what he says in verse 15 about geography. Those same places that we talked about are here and it's happening in this region as Jesus moves there. And then he also says, the way beyond the Jordan, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, that is a highway running from Damascus to Syria in a south westerly direction alongside the Jordan River, through Capernaum.

24:14It's a highway that would've run straight through the city that Jesus now lived in. How would that way become glorious? Jesus Christ walked that road. Also, Matthew includes that this is the Galilee of the Gentiles. Now that was to say that many peoples who were not Jewish lived in that land and that was true even more so in Jesus' day because Jesus is not just about a certain individual people and forgetting about all the rest. He wants everyone to join his kingdom, Jews and Gentiles. In verse 16, we see that the focus is light. Matthew turns from geography to light in the darkness, and you can notice the poetic repetition as Isaiah gives us two parallel phrases, each that speak of the same overlapping reality.

25:12Spiritual kingdoms. Notice he changed the prophetic purpose or perfect looking ahead to something that's fulfilled to the present tense. He's saying right now you people that are dwelling in darkness in the region of the shadow of death, which also reminds us of the brokenness around us. We live in a a, an age of brokenness, of sickness. I was at a funeral yesterday grieving for somebody who was taken too soon. We live in that reality. But the light has dawned, the kingdom has broken in. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is advancing. There is hope. You see, we are so trained to be so fast. Like why would we spend a whole sermon just talking about Jesus moving?

26:08Because Matthew wants us to rejoice in that reality. The kingdom has broken in, the light has begun to shine, but it's good for us to consider the whole story. Not only has the light come, the light lived a perfect life illuminating the way to the Father. This great light was extinguished by death upon a cross. He allowed himself to be extinguished so that those of us by faith might receive his perfect purity. He is light and in him is no darkness at all. But because of his sacrifice, we can enter the kingdom of light because of his perfect righteousness. That same light arose gloriously on the third day that all who trust in him might be raised with him and what is their forever home?

27:04They will bask in the light of Christ. Remember, there will be no sun. For Christ will be the light the light has shown and he fulfilled scripture. Therefore, we must continually move from darkness to light and shine that light upon others who are dwelling in darkness. This leads to the final point. See the kingdom of heaven as it begins to spread. Verse 17, from that time, Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. These are very, very important words. Jesus began to preach. The word began highlights that Jesus started something new and continued to do it. This is something new. This is a a pivot point.

28:01All the preparation for Jesus' ministry has taken place and it that ended in verse four 16 and now this is a new phase of ministry. Jesus is spreading light. Secondly, Jesus began to preach. That probably shouldn't be shocking. For those of you who were here last week, how did his kingdom advance? In the book of Acts, through the proclamation of God's word, we need to know and and take heart. That proclamation was at the center of Jesus ministry as well. And what did he preach? We're gonna carefully look at the kingdom, try to understand that what it means that it's near and how we are to respond.

28:50First the kingdom of heaven. Now you need to understand this is a very important idea. It's special language that only Matthew uses, although it's a concept throughout all the gospels. Matthew uses this phrase 32 times. This is only the second time. So I'm gonna share a little bit about it, but don't worry, like I didn't get all that. Well just keep coming back and we're gonna keep coming back because Matthew keeps coming back to this concept. In fact, he uses the word kingdom 55 times in this gospel. So this is really important. So what is it? Here's some ideas to help your mind grasp it. Taken from some people that spent a lot of time studying it, it is an unseen spiritual domain over which God rules.

29:36It will never end. It's not time bound. It doesn't have a four year term. It doesn't end with the death of a dictator. It will be forever. It is a worldwide realm. It's not limited to a geopolitical state. It is God's heavenly ordering of life and society, which is radically different from the ways of sinful. Earth is a kingdom built on God's character, not on human wisdom, and therefore goes against how we naturally think, act and structure our human society. It gives its citizens a heavenly oriented identity in the midst of a hostile world. And as we see in this text, it has dawned in Christ, it has come, it is beginning to spread and it has been spreading for almost 2000 years.

30:37What does Matthew mean by is at hand? This is very important because we heard these words a little while ago, exactly outta the mouth of John the Baptist, and he was like the great movie trailer saying, you guys are gonna watch, wanna watch this film? It's coming. It's gonna be great in theaters on this date come. That's what he's saying when he says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it's coming. When Jesus says it, he's saying it has come. It is here. It is on the move. Join the movement. How does Jesus call us to respond? You need to know there is only one command in this passage and it begins Jesus' sentence.

31:25It's the first word and that is repent. The word in the original language is in the present tense, which I think is very significant. It means it's ongoing. This is a repeated action that continues indefinitely until we are ushered into that forever. Kingdom is a call to every person in this room. It means by God's grace, see again and again and again that your life, that your heart, that your thinking, that your words, that your heart's desires are out of step with your creators intention. They do not align with the king and his kingdom. And as you see that, go to him, bow the knee repenting.

32:16I'm turning from all that is opposed to you and I'm turning towards what you desire. Help me. Help me live for the kingdom. Take this area of my heart, this thought, this desire, this hope, this truth that I'm suppressing and help me walk in line with your kingdom. Repentance is turning away from the kingdoms of this earth, the spiritual kingdom of this earth and turning towards God's rightful rule and reign.

32:50If you are not yet trusting Jesus, today is the day of salvation. Turn from your rebellion and run to the merciful king who not only said the kingdom is here but also died, that you might enter it. Run to Jesus. If you are trusting in Jesus, cultivate a heart that is open to repentance sentence. Lean into God's word as you read it, as you hear it, as you study it, as you talk about it with others. One of my favorite practical ways in this area is praying Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24. I regularly pray it when I don't see anything that's going on in my heart that's not right. I pray it when I see that something's not right and I don't know what it is.

33:46This is regularly a place I turn. Search me oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there'd be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. That's like God, put your X-ray on my heart and show me where am I not living for your kingdom, for your rule. And then help me move from that place on the way of your word, in the way of your kingdom. Come help me see, help me turn. Throughout this week, he's been showing me all sorts of different ways where my thoughts, my desires, my actions are not in line with him. We are to be people that continually repent. So today is perhaps the day where you first repent or be encouraged to keep repenting for the kingdom of God is at hand and it is soon coming.

34:42We don't know when. We don't know how soon, but it is soon. It is soon. So this message is very simple. It's a reminder we live in a broken world, broken by sin, and we ourselves are broken in sin. The light of the world has inaugurated his kingdom. He's here glorious day. Therefore, we must keep turning from our sin to Christ, seeking his help and seeking the advance of that kingdom. Would you please pray with me?

35:30Our Father in heaven, The way that the pattern for prayer that you set up helps us. We wanna ask that you would hallow your name. Would you the great king get more and more and more praise? We ask you to expand your kingdom rule in our hearts, in our world, in our church, in the same way that your heavenly kingdom advances that, that your will is done in heaven. Lord, please be merciful to us. Be merciful to hearts that are rejecting your kingdom today. And be merciful to expose the areas where we are rejecting your rule and reign and invite you into those places. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Christ Has Come, He Will Come Again

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The End Is Not Yet

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