The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand
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Matthew 1-2
Matthew 1-2
Before we look at ch. 3, let’s take a quick review of St. Matthew’s Gospel thus far. St. Matthew begins his Gospel by giving the genealogy of Jesus, which, as we’ve talked about in our course, The Story of the Bible, is a not-so-subtle way of summarizing the story of Israel, emphasizing a few important figures and one important event, and indicating that the story he’s going to tell is the climax of that larger story. This is verse seventeen of chapter one.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
In other words, the story goes like this:
Abraham - David - Exile - Messiah
And therefore Matthew’s Gospel, his story of the Messiah, is the climax of the story of Israel. So, we get in verse 18:
Matthew 1:18 (ESV)
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
In the next chapter and a half, Matthew has to explain a problem. His problem is that the Messiah is named: Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth
You might say? Well, what’s the problem with that. The problem is that the prophet Micah had said this:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
The disciple was supposed to come from Bethlehem, but Matthew’s claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and so St. Matthew spends the next chapter and a half discussing how Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem and then how he came to live in Nazareth. But Matthew isn’t simply describing geographical movement. He isn’t saying, “the Holy Family went there, and then the Holy Family went there. Isn’t that interesting?” No, Matthew is doing something far more compelling than that. Let’s see if you can notice it.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
Matthew 2:15 (ESV)
This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
What do word do you notice recurring again and again? Fulfilled! or as I prefer, Filled Full
Fulfilled/Filled Full
Fulfilled/Filled Full
Matthew is making the claim again and again that Jesus of Nazareth isn’t merely bringing the story of Israel, but equally significantly, he’s “filling it full,” he’s giving it meaning in all kinds of unexpected way.
If you’re wondering why I don’t like fulfillment language, it’s because most of the verses Matthew quotes aren’t prophecies and therefore can’t be fulfilled. They are typically prophetic recollection of past events in Israel’s story, and so St. Matthew is saying that the significance and meaning of these texts and the events to which they refer are now filled full in Jesus Christ.
And then we turn to chapter three. What we might expect to find is a story about Jesus. A story that tells us something about this person of whom Matthew has made this remarkable claim. Maybe we expect to find a story about him as a young man, a story about his education, a story about his upbringing. Instead of a story like that, what we get is the preaching of John the Baptist.
Now, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again because it’s worth repeating. There are many stories, events, and sayings in the Gospel that are important and significant, but for various reasons, only occur in a few of the Gospels, but not all of them. For example, the summary of the Law only occurs in the Synoptic Gospels. The Lord’s Prayer only occurs in Matthew and Luke, same for the birth of Jesus and the Beatitudes. Jesus’s pre-incarnate existence is only discussed at length in John’s Gospel. Lots of stories, sayings, and events, and some that are very important to us, only make it into some of the Gospels, but not all. But do you know what event is mentioned in all four Gospels?
John the Baptist
John the Baptist
And not just John the Baptist, but the explicit connection identifying John the Baptist with the voice crying in the wilderness from Isaiah 40:3.
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”
the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
All four Gospels want you to be absolutely clear that John the Baptist is the voice crying in the wilderness, and what does the baptist cry? Let’s start with Isaiah 40:3.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Remember the story:
Abraham - David - Exile - Messiah
John is the voice announcing that the exile is at last coming to an end, and he announces this how? With one simple command:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
Daniel had spoken of a coming kingdom (Dan 2:44), that he described as stone cut from the mountain without human hands that would smash the statue of the idolatrous kingdoms of this world. This kingdom would never be destroyed. It would stand forever.
Daniel had spoken also of a Son of Man who whom would be given
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
That Kingdom, John says, is at hand. That King is at hand. The end of the exile, the first domino to fall, is at hand because John is the Isaianic voice crying in the wilderness. And that what voice in the wilderness says is that this is time, the time for warfare to be ended, the time for forgiveness of sin, and most incredibly the time for God to return back to his people.
That is what Matthew wants us to believe about Jesus. That is what John the Baptist wants us to believe about Jesus. They want us to believe that in Jesus of Nazareth, the one for whom we wait this and every Advent, the kingdom of God is at hand because the king is at hand because the Lord is at last returning in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And so John gives us a very simple command this Sunday:
Repent
Repent
This isn’t Lent. This is Advent, but the command to repent is still there. The voice in the wilderness cries, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” John the Baptist cries, “Repent.” Repent. That is how we prepare the way of the Lord. That is how we prepare our hearts for the coming of our King. We repent. We repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In the child who is coming, the story of Israel is filled full. He is the end of Israel’s exile and of our exile from the Garden. He is the King whose Kingdom shall never be destroyed and shall stand forever. He is the Lord, returning back to his people at long last. And to his people the voice in the wilderness cries, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Amen.