About this sermon
Isaiah promised that the people walking in darkness in Galilee of the Gentiles would see a great light. John the Baptist and Jesus both preached the same sentence: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The time has come in Christ, and the church still proclaims the good news of the kingdom with its call to repentance and faith.
Sermon transcript
The reading of the scriptures comes to us from two texts, Isaiah 9, verses 1-7, I think a text you’ve heard preached recently, if I remember your bulletins correctly. And then Matthew 3 and 4, those texts, the preaching of John the Baptist summarized, and also the preaching of Jesus Christ summarized. And you’ll notice a common sentence in both those sermon summaries from John the Baptist and from Jesus. Let’s then turn to the Word of God in Isaiah chapter 9. Very important text. Let us pay close attention to God’s own Word.
There will be no more gloom for those who are in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali. But in the future, he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles by the way of the sea along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as people rejoice with dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle, every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born.
To us, a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time forth and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
The Word of God from the Old Testament. And now the Word of God from the New Testament, Gospel of Matthew, starting in Matthew 3. In those days John the Baptist came, preaching at the desert of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, a voice of one calling at the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. And then skipping to chapter 4, verse 12, the introduction to the preaching of Jesus, again the Word of God from the Gospel of Matthew.
When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put into prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the lake in the area of Sebulon and Naftali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, the way to the sea along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness have seen a great light. And on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, For the kingdom of heaven is near.
As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were 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. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets.
Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
So far, the reading of God’s own word, thanks be to God. Surely one of the most glorious stories in all the history of the world we’ve heard right now. And what I’m going to do today is talk about, well, first of all, the smallest things in it. Then by the end, the largest things in it. What are the smallest things? Well, context, place, time, circumstance. And then the facts, the events.
What did Jesus do in this story? Well, summarized by preaching and by healing. What did Jesus preach? How did Jesus preach the gospel? How does Jesus preach the gospel? We’ll talk a little about healing. The function of healing in the gospel stories. And we have several commands, well actually not very many commands. Commands from Christ within the story, two explicit, one implied. Explicit, repent. Implied, believe. Explicit, follow. Repent, believe, follow. And then last and greatest, we’ll talk about the King. the king of the kingdom of God.
So there’s our focus today. And we see that in the preaching of Jesus as he preaches the kingdom of God, the theme of the day, it’s the same way that he continues to preach the kingdom of God, because the basic gospel commands have never changed. And they come to us even after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of faith. Yes, they come to us the same way. that they came to us the first day we heard the gospel. What are the commands? Repent, believe, follow. And so the old and mature Christian, the Christian who has followed for decades and decades, maybe lifelong, still takes up the cross and follows in faith and repentance the daily task of the Christian. And that’s how we entered in faith and repentance.
Jesus preached the kingdom that way. Jesus still preaches the kingdom that way. In those days he did it in bodily presence. Now he does it by the presence of his spirit and through the word, the scriptures, and by the ministry that he has commissioned and ordained, namely the ministry of the church, which is his agent upon the earth and the principal expression of the kingdom of God that he proclaimed. And so what is still the mission of Jesus in the world. Notice how the text tells us that, verse 17 says it this way, that at that time Jesus began to preach. He’s never stopped. Okay, he ascended. He ascended to heaven three years later or so, but still he preaches.
And he uses, yes, the fall in infallible means of, yes, people like me, and yes, you, in speaking the message, the message of the King. And so we see in Matthew 3 that John the Baptist is granted one of the greatest privileges in all the world history. What’s the privilege? That he should be the first to say the sentence What’s the sentence in common in both stories? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Same words in Greek, both texts, Matthew 3, 2, Matthew 4, 17. And so John the forerunner, Jesus the Christ, both privileged, I’m sorry, John vastly privileged, I should say, to be the accompaniment, the opening act, the warm-up, so to speak, of the main deal, Jesus, the incarnate God, is earthly ministry.
In my previous sermon on a very difficult text in Zechariah 6, a text that might have been still mystifying in many ways after the sermon as well as before, we see that the two crowns, the two thrones, the two anointed ones of that text are John and Jesus. And two crowns made in that story in Zechariah and 519 BC, one for the high priest in that time, a priestly crown, and one for the coming Davidic King, the Messiah. And those crowns would have been kept and cherished. And they are said to be signs, memorials, remembrances in the house of the Lord, especially the golden crown, the crown of the Messiah.
We read in the days of the Maccabees in 170 or so BC how the crowns were taken by Antiochus IV, that wicked Greek king who made the faith of Israel illegal and killed those who sought to obey it. But we see that even the taking of the crowns cannot prevent the event, the fulfillment of the event, namely the coming of redemption. And so John comes, a fulfillment of priestly ministry, baptizing, a priestly work in Levitical teaching, the washing of cleansing, Levitical purity by means of water. But of course, the water doesn’t do it, right? Repentance. Okay, Pharisees, who told you to come? Who told you to flee?
Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. says John, to those who sought baptism without, without repentance. And so a Levitical sign, kosher washing, you might say, the ministry of John the Baptist proclaiming that yes, even kosher Jews need to be cleansed of sin and repent and prepare for the coming of the Lord.
And so John, the great forerunner, And we have Isaiah 40 quoted there, the voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him. Isaiah 40, also predicted in Zechariah 6, also predicted in Malachi, the last page. And then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. Again, the book of Malachi, speaking of the Messiah. And so next chapter, Matthew 4, Jesus taking up the ministry now.
And verse 12 has it that John has already been put in prison because of his bold denunciations of the sins of one of the herets, taking his brother’s wife. All right, Jesus then withdraws to Galilee and there chooses Capernaum, a seaside fishing town on the northwestern shore of the lake called Galilee.
And it’s the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Why does the gospel make much of that point, that location? The gospel writer cites Isaiah 9. The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, two of the tribes of ancient Israel. There they were in the far northern territories of that ancient land. The way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles? I thought Zebulun and Naphtali were twelve-tribed Israel, holy land.
But in the days of Isaiah the prophet, as you now might know, in 728 BC, the Assyrian Empire conquered Galilee and paganized it. The rest of the Northern Kingdom would fall just a few years later. Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom, will be besieged in 725 by the Assyrians. A triple defensive ring of massive walls will keep that army out, but not forever. Three years the city stands besieged, and in 722 the ring is broken, and Samaria falls, and the whole North Kingdom paganized under Assyrian domination.
The Assyrians were the great evangelists of their ancient Mesopotamian pagan world. If you were under their thumb, you worshiped their gods. They insisted upon it. You didn’t worship the Assyrian gods, you were in trouble. Even King Ahaz in Jerusalem in that time makes a deal with the devil, namely an alliance with the Assyrians and shoves aside the altar of Yahweh in the temple courts to build and replace it by a bronze Assyrian style altar. And so yes, the star gods of the Assyrians worshiped in Jerusalem too. Because the underlings of Assyria must worship the Assyrian gods. Already in 728, the first lands to fall to that northern pagan empire will be the lands around the Sea of Galilee, Zebulun, Naphtali, and they will be paganized.
No wonder Isaiah refers to the people as the people living in darkness, dwelling in the shadow of death. But Isaiah foresees the time of grace. On them the light has dawned. And by verse 6, the manner in which the light has dawned. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.
And so in Matthew 4, what text is cited regarding the place, the circumstance of Jesus preaching? The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. And so the preaching of Jesus is presented as the breaking of the darkness, the breaking of the, of the reign of evil and idolatry in that world. And this matches exactly how Mark proclaims the gospel too, at least how Jesus proclaims the gospel according to Mark. In Mark chapter one, the first sentence from the mouth of Jesus in that presentation of gospel is this, the time has come.
What time? The time spoken of by the prophets, when the power of evil shall be broken over the world. And the time of God’s righteous kingdom shall invade it. The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. That’s the glorious first sentence of Jesus in Mark. Mark chapter 1 verse 15. And notice how Matthew matches it. A different occasion, a different summary, but the same point. Repent, says Jesus. where the kingdom of heaven is near. The truth is the same.
The kingdom of heaven has now come upon the earth. Why is it come upon the earth? Why is it drawn near? Why is the door now open? Because the king of the kingdom is upon the earth. The child that was born is now grown and has started the preaching ministry. And the door of the kingdom of heaven is open. Enter, enter, says the Lord. And how do you enter? Well, there’s only one way. And that’s the way of faith and repentance. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has Luke does a similar strategy.
He chooses yet another occasion in the earliest preaching of Jesus. He takes us to the synagogue in Nazareth, the hometown where the boy grew up. And he’s been away for a while, and so they’re glad to see the hometown boy return. And they hand him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue that Sabbath day, because he, among other men, is one of the qualified ones, a bar mitzvah boy, now grown up, qualified by synagogue standards to read and comment upon the scriptures. And he’s been away and he’s been doing some preaching and some very other strange things. And we want to know more about, okay, he’s given the scroll of Isaiah that day. He turns to a certain passage and reads, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
He’s anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the prisoner, to declare The year of the Lord’s favor. The year of the Lord’s favor, that’s the jubilee year. Every 50 years when land goes back to its original family, owners, debts canceled, slaves liberated, a year of redemption. And on our liberty bell in Philadelphia is a line from that description in Leviticus 23, I believe. Proclaim liberty in all the land. And Isaiah takes that old Moses commandment and makes it the symbol of ultimate redemption when evil is broken. The blind see, the lame walk, the poor of the gospel preached, and the year of the Lord’s favor. That is the consummation of the kingdom of God.
In that story, Jesus then takes his seat but on the podium, on the platform, I should say, the bema, the rabbis would say, and that’s the chair of the preacher in synagogues. Synagogue preachers sit. And the text in Luke tells us that the eyes of everyone in the synagogue are fixed upon him. And here’s the sentence that Luke chooses to summarize the preaching of Jesus. Here’s the sentence, quote, This scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. What’s the statement mean? That the Jubilee has arrived with me.
The crowd doesn’t like it. They try to throw him over the cliff adjacent to the town. They fail. They fail. In Arab Christian legend, that cliff is called Jumping Mountain. And the legend is that Jesus flew away. He leapt into the air and flew. And that’s how we escaped them. In actual gospel story, He simply slips through their hands because it’s not the right time. Not time for that atoning death quite yet.
And the crowd is left in astonishment at what Jesus has claimed in their very hearing. that the year of liberation, the dawning of God’s kingdom power has come in him. And so we then find the ministry of preaching and healing going on. And Matthew 4, the rest of the text summarizes that. Notice verse 23, Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. and healing every disease and sickness. Preaching, healing, preaching, healing.
And by the end of our paragraph, we have then the crowds from all over, even into pagan territory, even Syria and the Decapolis. What in the world is the Decapolis? Those are the 10 cities of Hellenistic foundation, Greek-speaking paganized towns with Jewish minorities, yes. but pagan towns in Holy Land territory. One of them is just south of the Sea of Galilee, Scythopolis, otherwise known as Beit Shan, one of the largest cities in the land of the Gospels.
Pagan. Pagan. And large crowds following Jesus, then we should see them as Jews and Gentiles alike. And in the kindness and compassion of Christ, All manner of people, rich, poor, Jew, Gentile, healed in the ministry of Jesus. Sorry, the time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. Repent, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is near. Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
In the days of Luther, as you may know from one of my lessons a year or two ago in this place, You may remember that that word about repentance was misunderstood in their Latin Bibles. St. Jerome had translated the Bible into Latin and in obedience to a request from the Pope of that time to get a unified standard Latin version for all the Western Church in which Latin was the principal language of the people of God. And Jerome’s Latin had Jesus say it this way, In Latin, probably in 400 B.C., that meant repent, agita, the act of doing, penitentium, repentance. But by 1200, 1300, 1400 A.D., that was not understood that way anymore.
And the text was understood to mean do penance, that is, go to your priest, confess your sins, receive absolution and works of merit to earn God’s favor. So the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance was understood to be the command. In the 95 theses of Martin Luther, we see the correction which he learned from reading the Greek New Testament published the previous year by Erasmus, that Jesus did not say do penance, but metanoid repent, repent. And that’s the first theme that becomes the Protestant Reformation, a restoration of the spirituality of the Gospel with repentance and faith.
And so we turn from evil. We turn to God. We renounce the evil of our own hearts. We turn to God in trust and faith, in confidence And renouncing evil, we know we have not renounced it yet enough. There is always more to renounce, right? There is always more to renounce. But we are not called upon yet to reach that vast perfection. We are received as sinners, and by the grace of God we are received.
Repent and believe the good news. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Remember the prayer? Mark 9. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And Lancelot Andrews, a bishop of the Anglican Church, 17th century, parallels the prayer in a prayer that first shocked me, but which I now love. Lord, I repent. Help my impenitence. That prayer is true. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, I repent, help my impenitence. Those gospel commands are always upon us to repent and believe. They never go away. They never should go away within all this mortal world. Because we are pilgrims on that road, following that next command, follow me.
It is not the providence of God that we should be instantly healed of all evil. That’s not the gospel plan. Oh, we might wish it were, but that is not the gospel plan. And the gospel plan is yes, testing and failing sometimes and testing and sanctifying. And as Paul says, through many tribulations entering the kingdom of God, that’s the Christian life. It’s fraught with difficulty. It ought to be. and this is for our good. Repent. Believe. Follow. Take up the cross daily and follow.
Now in those miracles we see the power of the kingdom and something of the goal of the kingdom. What is the goal? That all evil should be conquered. And Jesus will conquer it. The Kingdom of God begins in this new and powerful way in this mission of Jesus so long ago. The Kingdom of God, though, is not yet consummated. It will be.
And as we see from our glorious Isaiah text, that that child born, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace, what is said about him? that of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end. What is the increase of his government? Surely that is the history of the church of Jesus upon this earth. And surely it is also the story of the holiness that grows in the life of the believer.
It is not the providence of God that we should be instantly struck righteous. We are under the discipline of sin, yes. But we have a Savior who is sanctifying us. And as St. Paul tells the Philippians, faithful is he who calls you. will achieve it. What’s the it in that sentence? Our holiness. Faithful is the one who calls you. He will bring it to pass. So the time has come. What time? The time for the breaking of the reign of evil. The kingdom is at hand. the Kingdom of God. And how do we enter? Repent. Believe. Follow.
And this is said to be good news. It is actually the best news that you’ve ever heard in all your life. Because in this story we find the arrival of the King himself. who alone can bring the kingdom, and who alone can be the Savior, and who alone can be the one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as an offering, an atonement for his people. Only the King can do that.
And so, as we read in that shorter catechism, we’ve read it already, This morning, page 672, Shorter Catechism 102, one of the glorious statements in that glorious manual of instruction. What do we pray for in the second petition? The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed. That the kingdom of grace may be advanced. ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened. Jesus is still doing it. And Jesus still preaches the kingdom of God. Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before you with joy, with reverence, with devotion, with love, because you are the King who redeems, the King of the kingdom, the King who liberates us from the powers of evil, the King who breaks the spellbinding power of the idolaters that have ruled the world, the King who brings light and darkness, the King who is, in fact, in his own person, the kingdom of God. So bless us then with all manner of faith and devotion, of willing obedience, and give us, Lord, strength to do these things, strength to love them, because the power to obey God comes from God. How then can our weakness be any obstacle? Bless us, and we pray this day, and we pray it in your holy name, Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and before the throne of your righteous Father, who has determined that the world will be set right and it was coming to judge the world and the people’s inequity. Hear our prayer. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. The hymn is I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord. Hymn number 281. Shall we stand?
I love thy kingdom, Lord, The house of thine abode, The church of blasphemy, Jesus said, With his own precious blood. I love thy church, O God, With all thee stand, as the apple of thine eye, and bread in all thy hand. For her thy tears shall fall, for her You heard my cares and joys begin, Till chores and cares shall end. Beyond my highest throne, my mighty ways, O sweet communion, solemn vows, O hymns of love and praise, ♪ Jesus, thy friend divine ♪ ♪ Thou Savior and our King ♪ ♪ Thy hand on earth is meek and bold ♪ ♪ In thine inheritance clean ♪ ♪ Sure as thy truth shall last ♪ The Zion shall be gay, The brightest glories earth can hear, And brighter bliss shall end.
God extends His blessing to all those who trust Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s receive then the rich blessing of the Lord. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father Almighty, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be yours in rich abundance today and always. Amen.
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