8.2.09
THE DAWNING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD Matt 3:1-12
INTRO
Less than a month ago the new president if the United States, Barack Obama took office. What has been the verdict so far?
The general opinion is ‘so far so good’.
In such a short space of time he has planned the closure of the Guantanamo Bay, reversed the Bush administration’s carbon emissions decision and gathered around him a skilled team of financial experts to tack the economy. The only losers so far appear to be the people who make money out of Whitehouse jokes.
Barack Obama is the fulfillment of a dream of the African American people of the United States. It has been said that it was the dream of Martin Luther King jnr that gave rise to the hope of an Obama presidency, and he has been given an almost Messiah status among some of the people of America. That’s difficult to live up to since there is only one true Messiah whose standards no-one can reach.
POINT
I mention this by way of introduction in order that we might begin to imagine what it must be like for the black population of the USA to have hopes and dreams of this nature.
Have you ever had a dream that you hope one day may be fulfilled? And then one day you see that it might become a reality. It’s a day you look for, and the nearer you get to its arrival the greater your hopes become.
Then finally, on one incredible day, your hopes and dreams become a wonderful reality.
It’s the feeling someone gets when they have:
• Just married the girl of their dreams
• Or their team has just won the final in the Champion’s League
POINT
What kind of hopes and dreams did the people of Israel have whilst back in the land of Judah after the exile?
Might their dreams come true also?
They finally did come true, but not in the way that everyone of them recognized.
READING Matthew 3:1-12
POINT
John the Baptist was a significant figure – a prophet whose words were well respected enough for him to gain a significant following as he called the people to repent and be baptized because the kingdom of God was near and about to dawn for them.
But what did the phrase ‘the kingdom of God’ mean to the people? And why was it so significant?
It was a phrase that summarized the longing and the hope of the waiting people – their ultimate dream!
RECAP
So far in our overview of the biblical story we have sat back and watched in Act 1 as the curtain was raised on the first day of creation.
We observed how God made everything and it was good.
Then in Act 2 we saw the drama of Satan disguised as a serpent seducing Eve and Adam into choosing the way of autonomy and idolatry instead of trust and devotion for their Lord and Creator.
They submitted themselves to a new authority – that of the tempter who deceived them. And so they brought about God’s curse upon the entire created Order.
But God had a plan. Was there a way to reverse the effects of the Fall? Could it be possible that the whole of creation could be redeemed and restored? Yes! God’s plan began with his election of one man – Abraham – who would become the father of a people with whom God would enter into a Covenant. They would be his people and he would be their God.
God gave them a land, and leaders, judges, prophets, priests and kings. God entered into a series of covenants with them. But the people consistently drifted away from God and worshiped idols.
Ten of the 12 tribes were scattered – dispersed through the raids of the Assyrians who took them into slavery.
And of the two that remained in Judah in the south – these were carried off to Babylonia into exile.
But hope was dawning.
A new Persian king named Cyrus allowed the people to return to Judah and to Jerusalem under his policy of repatriation.
Ezra rebuilt the temple and Nehemiah the walls.
POINT
We come to the close of the Old Testament with uncertainty as to the future.
And after the interval the curtain rises again and John the Baptist appears announcing ‘repent, for the Kingdom of God is near’.
What happened during the 400 years?
How did we get from Malachi to Matthew?
POINT
These years have been referred to as ‘The Silent Years’, but they were anything but silent.
JUDAH
What was Israel like after the return from exile?
This was no large and powerful, independent territory. For all but 80 out of the 400 years Israel was a minor territory under the jurisdiction of a succession of foreign empires.
POINT
• They now had a national identity once more.
• The walls had been rebuilt and the gates set in place.
• The temple had been rebuilt.
• And above all they had a hope that one day God’s promises made to them in the Covenants would be fulfilled. – Including his covenant with David:
2 Samuel 7:12;16
" ’The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: [12] When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom……………..Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’ "
Their hope was that God’s promise of an anointed king, a Messiah, would be fulfilled
• It was their dream that the Messiah would come and that Israel as a nation would take centre stage in the world.
• It was their dream that the true spiritual Israel would be the means by which God’s created order would at last be redeemed.
But their hopes and dreams were to be strongly challenged.
WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE FOR THESE PEOPLE WITH THEIR HOPE?
POINT
FIVE BELIEFS SHAPED THEIR LIFE:
Monotheism – One God Creator Ruler
Election – God chose Israel to rid creation of evil
Torah (Law) – God gave Law to direct their ways
Land and Temple – Holy because God dwelt there
Hope for the a future redemptive act of God – because of their unfaithfulness they had not received the promise
But they were a people under intense pressure, and they struggled to maintain their distinctiveness and identity.
Forces against them:
• Comparatively few returned to the land after the exile
• A succession of imperial powers pressurized them to change:
Greek Empire 331BC
Alexander the Great of the Greeks conquered the Persians and as a result a new threat to the survival of the Jews emerged. The Greeks had a policy of introducing their Hellenistic culture and Greek language on the nations they conquered or ruled. (a bit like the colonial days).
Alexander died at 33. He had no successor and rivalry broke out between the Greek factions in Egypt and Syria first the Ptolemaic faction in Egypt ruled Israel for over 100 years.
Later the Seleucids in Syria ruled them, and this was a particularly difficult time for them.
The infamous Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a Seleucid. This leader was under intense pressure. Rome was the growing world power and Rome demanded financial tribute from the Seleucids. Antiochus looted States to get it. At the same time the Greek empire began to fragment and so Antiochus took radical measures to forcibly Hellenize the empire.
For Israel this meant: No circumcision, Sabbath observance, temple sacrifice, - death followed disobedience. Copies of the Torah were burned and on 25th December 167BC the temple was desecrated by the setting up of an altar to Zeus and the sacrifice of a pig on the Jewish altar.
The Jews were outraged and saw this as fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 11:31. Though hopelessly outnumbered the Jews were about to rise up against the Seleucids.
Maccabean Revolt and Hasmonean Dynasty
This began when an elderly priest (Mattathias) refused to offer an unclean sacrifice to a pagan god. He killed a Jew who had compromised along with the Greek soldier attending and fled with his five sons in order to organize a rebellion. His third son Judah (nicknamed Maccabee (the hammer) lead the guerilla army.
Three years to the day after the desecration, 25th Dec 164 BC, Judah Maccabee rode into Jerusalem with shouts of ‘hosanna’ waving palm branches. He cleansed the temple and removed the images of the Greek gods, rededicating it to the Lord. A new feast of Hanukkah was established to remember the victory.
Twenty years later the Seleucid rule was removed completely from Israel and 80 years of independence followed. (The Hasmoneans who were descendents of Simon Maccabee ruled).
This was a DEFINING MOMENT akin to the Exodus for the Jews. But hopes of a dramatic act of redemption were short-lived. The Hasmonean kings were deeply compromised by pagan, Hellenistic culture and concerns to maintain political power.
Israel within the fist of Rome
Rome was an increasing power. In 63BC Pompey the Great marched into Jerusalem to bring Israel into the Roman Empire and begin 500 years of rule. They set up puppet governors and kings including Herod the Great and Pontius Pilate. The Jews again looked to Daniel 7:7 and interpreted Rome as the Beast.
The Romans treated the people harshly and taxed them heavily. Racial hatred of Gentiles increased including hatred of collaborators. Uprisings by quasi messianic figures were put down with ferocity and mass crucifixions followed. This was the Israel to which Jesus came – a troubled nation, ruled by a foreign power but one with intense longing for God’s rule and hope from a redeemer to come and establish the Kingdom of God.
Israel’s hope for the kingdom
They thought of history as two periods: This age and the age to come. The present was stained by sin. The future would be cleansed by God – a new creation beginning with Israel and then extended to the surrounding Gentile nations in the ‘Last Days’.
Their belief in the two ages was rooted in the prophets.
They believed that a mighty deliverance would be accomplished by a Messiah – a king or priest who would usher in God’s renewed kingdom. Israel looked for the Kingdom of God.
THE RESPONSE OF THE PEOPLE
Over the 400 years, In keeping with their hope, the people responded in different ways:
The people had serious questions as to why so much had gone wrong
In response some of them established an oral tradition of teaching Torah (Law) and established synagogues so that faithfulness to the Torah would remove God’s judgment from the people for violating the covenants.
Pharisees
Their understanding was that God could not bring about the Kingdom if Israel remained corrupted and therefore they promoted complete separation from pagan ways and radical (extreme) obedience to the Torah (Pentateuch)
They gained a following because the people had a strong enough hope that radical obedience to the Law would bring about the desired outcome.
APPLIC
Modern day Pharasaism includes the tendency to obsess about behavior in order to get God to do something. It sees those who don’t join the movement as the enemy.
Essenes
They took a different view. Their strategy was to withdraw themselves from a Judaism they considered to be corrupt and beyond cure. God could come only to a separated, true and pure Israel. They withdrew and formed community. (The Dead Sea scrolls were the possession of an Essene community)
APPLIC
Modern day Essenes would include monastic movements and Christians with separatist tendencies who have no association with others outside of their own group.
Sadducees and Priests
These were the members of the ruling Council along with the Pharisees.
They were the official teachers of the Law. But in order to become established they had to collaborate with the Romans when the Romans came to power. They had an investment in preserving the status quo.
APPLIC
Modern day Sadducees would include those who are nominally Christian but who are motivated more by self-interest and are unprepared for sacrifice.
The Zealots
These were a mixed group of Pharisees who were inspired by Mattathias (the initiator of the Maccabean revolt). They were radicals who used violence if necessary to achieve their ends. They fiercely resisted compromise with pagan culture. They were willing to be martyred. There were many bands of Zealots in Jesus’ time. Their Messiah leaders were often captured and crucified by the Romans.
APPLIC
Modern day Zealots would include those who march, protest and use even violence, such as the murder of abortionists, to promote their cause
The Common People
These were not of one party or another but people who hoped for God to return and redeem them from pagan oppression.
These are the average Christians who are people of hope in our day.
APPLIC
In the context of their history over 400 years, can you imagine the import of the words of John the Baptist in the hearing of those whose hope was in the Kingdom of God? For those who truly believed in its imminent arrival?
Now at last the hope of the people was approaching:
The Messiah – the king in the line of David whose kingdom would never end was arriving.
Israel’s hope was dawning. Their dream was about to come true.
Israel would now be the means by which God’s creation would be redeemed and restored.
The people of Israel would no longer be a marginalized people in a region governed by the Roman empire, or any other empire.
God’s promised was about to be fulfilled.
RESPONSE
So the people, full of hope, turned from their sin and were baptized in preparation.
Even Pharisees and Sadducees responded. But their response was one of political correctness not true repentance, and John the Baptist challenged this in no uncertain terms.
APPLIC
And so God’s promise was fulfilled.
Abraham’s descendents became as vast as the numbers of stars in the sky and grains of sand on the seashore.
- Not in the way that the waiting people expected
John 1:10-13
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. [11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. [12] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
[GOSPEL APPLICATION]
God’s word to the church is:
Galatians 3:26-29
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, [27] for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
CONCL
We are the waiting people of God in a different age.
The Kingdom of God has come.
And yet the Kingdom of God has yet to come.
It has come, is coming and will come, just as Jesus was, and is and is to come.
But the difference is that Jesus’ Second Coming will be sudden, unexpected and final.
