December 27, 2009
Morning Worship
Text; Matthew 3:1-12
Subject: The Kingdom of God – Part 1
Title: Making the Transition Into the Kingdom
Charlotte and I were sitting at the breakfast table yesterday morning watching the snow fall. What a delight it is to be able to see those big flakes floating down, blowing here and there until they finally reach the ground. What a joy it is to be able to sit inside while that is all taking place on the outside. But at some point I knew that I would have to get outside to do some things. I can’t stay in my comfort zone forever can I? There would have to be a time of transition, when I went from being inside in the warm house to being outside in the cold and snow, even if it were just for a short time – until I could get over to church to do what I needed to do here.
From the day that Jesus was born until He began His earthly ministry, the earth was in a time of transition. The nation of Israel was especially in transition and didn’t even know it. It was the period of time between when the King left His throne in heaven and then thirty years later began to exhibit attributes of His kingdom on earth.
That is a pretty good description of where the church is today. Annually we celebrate the birth of the King and then the death and resurrection a few months later, and it seems that we stop there. We are in transition waiting for the promise of His coming to receive His church. But in the next few weeks I want to show you that Jesus never intended for the church to be in a holding pattern. When He came to earth as a baby boy He brought heaven with Him. And His desire is for the church to realize the fullness of its potential and then act accordingly.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Read Matthew 3:1-12.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
As the Spirit opens your eyes and ears ask Him to help you make a complete transition into the kingdom.
I. BRINGING THE KINGDOM INTO PLAY. 1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is the end of the thirty-year transitional period of Jesus’ life before His public ministry. When Matthew begins the passage with, In those days… he is referring to the time that Jesus lived in Nazareth. John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the kingdom’s coming to its fullness. This was truly a time of transition for Israel. This was the time when the provisions given under the Old Covenant would come to an end and the New Covenant would begin. You see, God had called a people to be His own with His solemn covenant with Abraham. That covenant was extended through his son and grandson. When God called Moses to lead His people out of Egyptian captivity and into the Promised Land Israel had only One King – God Himself. But as they began to have contact with other nations and then began to conquer those nations something began to change in them. They wanted to be just like the people they were conquering – they wanted to have their own king. They were no longer satisfied with a king they couldn’t see – they wanted an earthly king. 1 Samuel 8:4-9, 4So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 6But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” … 19But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” From that time forward Israel was under control of an earthly government, whether it was their own king or the government of a conquering nation – God was no longer their king. But something new is about to take place. 1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea … This time of transition in the history of man was foretold by the prophets and fulfilled in John the Baptist. Even though John is mentioned in the New Testament, he is the last of the Old Covenant prophets. And the message he proclaimed was not the message that Israel expected concerning the coming of their Savior. Isaiah 9:6-7, 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. Israel was looking for a government but God never intended His kingdom to be a physical, government based kingdom at this time. When Jesus came He instituted a spiritual kingdom that was intended to transform the natural realm. John’s message gives us instructions about entering into that spiritual kingdom.
II. REPENTANCE – A KEY TO THE KINGDOM. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” According to the scriptures, salvation is by grace through faith, but if it is not accompanied by repentance, grace doesn’t work. I want to explain that a little further – first by defining what repentance isn’t. Repentance is not feeling sorry for the things you have done. At least not in the sense that Matthew uses the word repent here. There are two Greek words that are translated “repent” in the New Testament. One word is metamellomai (met-am-el’-lom-ahee ) and it means “to regret”. It is used only four times in the New Testament. The other word is metanoia. It is used twenty-four times in the NT and it means “to think differently” or, “to change your mind”. That is the Greek word that is used in Mathew 3:2. He is calling the people to think differently about the way the view sin in their lives. The religious leaders of the day taught that sin was an external act. Jesus later would tell His listeners that sin always begins in the heart and manifests itself in the flesh. John the Baptist’s call to repentance clearly connected a change of mind with a change of action. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Oswald Chambers said, It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience that puts me right with God? Never! I am put right with God because prior to all else, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, instantly the stupendous atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God. By the miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because of anything I have done, but because of what Jesus has done. The salvation of God does not stand on human logic; it stands on the sacrificial death of Jesus. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus, which is prior to all experience. However, a profession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior without a change of mind and a change in your life must be questioned. To think that you can be saved without a radical break from sin is an affront to the very nature of God, whom the bible says in Habakkuk 1:13, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil… To think that you can be saved and then continue in a sinful lifestyle without changing your mind or the way you think is foolish. It’s like the old man who went to the doctor and said, “Doc, every time I drink iced tea I get a sever pain in my right eye. What should I do?” The doctor’s response? “Take the spoon out of the glass.” 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. John says that repentance is a key to preparing the way for the kingdom of heaven.
III. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NEAR. I have read many different ideas about the kingdom of heaven. Some say that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are two different things. I don’t believe that to be true. I believe that since Matthew wrote his gospel for Jews he purposely used “heaven” instead of the name for God out of reverence. Some say that the kingdom of heaven/God only occurs when Jesus sets up his reign on earth. Still others say that the kingdom is in the hearts of believers and that there is no physical kingdom. The fact is that the kingdom of God does reside in the hearts of believers. However, it was never meant to stop there. When John warned that the kingdom of heaven was near, he probably had two things in mind. First, Jesus, the one who came down from heaven, was close by. And if that were true, if the Son of God who came to earth was close, then His kingdom must be close also. Second, if the King was close, and the kingdom was close, then the fruit of the kingdom – the things that the King would bring – must be close as well. The transition is already in full swing. 11“I baptize you with£ water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The kingdom of heaven/God has two separate aspects. 1) Salvation and repentance. With that comes the idea of judgment, which will take place at the fulfillment of the kingdom. Those things deal with the eternal aspect of the kingdom. Salvation is for eternal life. 2) The baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is the power of God for you in this life. It is the one thing that you really need that will help you to understand and then to accept all the things that were provided for you as a subject of the kingdom through your salvation. It’s interesting that subjects in an earthly kingdom are subject to every whim of their king; even to the point of being forced to do things they don’t want to do. But in the kingdom of heaven, God has established a kingdom where all the subjects become adopted children; all the authority of the King has been transferred to the subjects; all the works of the Son have been given into the hands of believers. That is the kingdom of God.
For decades now the church has been crying out for revival. Every one of us here, I believe, would like to se a prolonged sovereign move of God in this church because we know that if it were here that it would affect the whole town. For us to realize the revival that God is wanting to pour out on us – as a matter of fact I believe He has already poured out on us – we must realize that we are in a state of transition. Transition brings change – change in the way you think, the way you react, the way you respond to all that the Holy Spirit is wanting to do here. When Jesus came 2000 years ago the transition started. For the first 300 years of church history the gospel impacted the world so dramatically that experts estimate that had it continued for just another 200 years that the whole world would have become Christianized. But when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire the growth slowed. The church became comfortable with the new found peace after years of opposition and persecution. The Pentecostal revival that began at the turn of the twentieth century stirred the flames of revival once again and brought opposition and persecution back into the church. Once again the church began to experience numerical growth, because when opposition arises God moves among His people. Then, after decades of opposition, acceptance by the church world has settled us again into our comfort zones. Yes we are still a church in transition. We are in transition until we begin to realize the full potential of what God has called us to be.
The kingdom is right here. It is right now, and it is for you, the child of the King.
