Responding to the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you have a bible open it up to Matthew 3. I have titled the message this morning. Responding to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now here we are a few weeks into our study of the gospel of Matthew, and what we have seen so far has been all about Jesus linage and the time around Jesus birth. Last week we saw despite the horrible tragedy that happened in Bethlehem Jesus is the True Isreal. He was exiled back to Egypt came back fulfilling all sorts of prophecy. And today we arrive many years after chapter 2, and we are introduced to who the bible says is the greatest man to ever live. And he came preaching about the kingdom of Heaven.

And the way we respond to the kingdom of Heaven is going to dictate our life not only today, but our lives for all of eternity. Now before we read you this amazing chapter of God’s word I want you to see this as our main idea:

John’s Message, and Jesus baptism show us the kingdom of heaven is here and we must respond to his kingdom.

Matthew 3 ESV

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 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.’ ” 4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

So if you remember I titled this message....Responding to the Kingdom of Heaven, and I would argue that no man responded better than John Baptist. Just a little back story on John. He was the first prophet that the people of God had seen and heard from for over 400 years. Now God was doing some incredible things over those 400 years, but silent when it came to sending prophets.

In the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi we hear this prophecy about John the Baptist.

Malachi 4:5–6 ESV

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Now he did not send Elijah back from the dead he sent John who like Elijah was calling the people of God back to himself.

John is more spoken of in the gospel of Luke. Now in the Gospel of Luke we see some similarities that we seen in the birth of Jesus. With a few differences. One John’s parents Elizabeth and Zechariah did not have any children, the scripture tells us that Elizabeth was barren and advanced in years. And during a time of prayer and angel shows us and tells them they will have a child and he will be great. In fact the scripture says this about what John would become. Luke 1:15-17

Luke 1:15–17 ESV

15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

After the angel told them this Zechariah said how shall I know this for I am old? and because he did not believe the angel he could not speak anymore. Listen to what happened.

Luke 1:18–25 ESV

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

Now when John was born the Scripture says this. Luke 1:57-80

Luke 1:57–80 ESV

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. 67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, 68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

So here we have John who is promised to do incredible things for the kingdom of God burst on the scene proclaiming and preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. And he is preaching strongly about what we heard in verse 2. Matthew 3:2

Matthew 3:2 ESV

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Several points for you to see today the first is this..

The King and the Kingdom of God are here.

I think the biggest problem in the American church is that we don’t see the greatest of our King and the greatness of God, and we don’t feel the desperation that we should fill that we desperately need him because he has come.

When we see God for who he truly is we will see our need to repent and come to him. Listen to this picture in Isaiah 6:1-6

Isaiah 6:1–6 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

Jesus is Holy, and he is also righteous. Look at verse 15. He wants to be baptized. And John the Baptist though a righteous man knows he can’t even hold Jesus sandals. And he says if anyone needs to baptize someone you need to baptize me. Because the baptism that Jesus was being baptized under was a baptism of repentance, but with Jesus this baptism is going to be a baptism of righteousness. So this might puzzle you. I thought John was baptizing people who needed to be made clean.

Baptism is the Old Testament was not common . In fact it was done by Gentiles who wanted to follow Yahweh the true God of Isreal. It was this acknowledgement that said hey I am an outsider, I don’t come from the Jewish line I need to be made clean, I want to put my faith in the true God. So what is interesting is that it was not Gentiles who were going into the wilderness to be baptized it was the Jews. They were admitting that where they came from did not save them. They needed to be made clean as well. I will speak more on baptism in a moment. But what is so powerful here is people began to see that nothing could save them except God himself.

I have spoken countless times how prideful the Jews were for their heritage. It meant more to them their relationship with God it seemed. But in that moment they said nothing can save us but God. And through that you still see some who appear to care more about their Jewishness than their need to repent.

In verse 7-10 you see this…

Matthew 3:7–10 ESV

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

These people did not want to confess that they were not righteous themselves. They were just curious about John, and later these people would have him killed.

Now going back to Jesus and his baptism we need to understand this last week I hammered home that Jesus was the true Isreal and you see a powerful testimony is Jesus own baptism, and that is the testimony of John a righteous man , but also a far greater testimony the Testimony of Heaven, and Jesus baptism you see something incredible. The Holy Trinity all in one place showing us the King and the Kingdom are here. The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice from Heaven says This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. It pleased God to see Jesus fulfill this kind of righteousness.

I want you to listen carefully to how one man put it. Beyond being righteous in character, Jesus is also righteous ontologi-cally. The idea here is that Jesus, in his very being (ontology), became our substitute, really and truly. This idea moves us beyond the obvious theme of a second exodus in Matthew 1- 4 (i.e., just as Israel was brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea and into the desert, so Jesus is brought out of Egypt, baptized in the waters, and led into the desert). Unlike unrighteous Israel, Jesus as "true Israel" does fulfill all righteousness in this three-part act (out of Egypt which we talked about last week, through the water which we are talking about today , into the desert which I will speak on next week)

However and moreover, through his baptism he takes his unrighteous but repentant people through the new, final, and ultimate exodus—out of the slavery of sin! Put plainly Jesus was baptized not for his sake but for ours (cf. Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

I'll explain.

When the voice of God says, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (3:17), what we have is a fusion of two key Old Testament texts-Psalm 2:7 which says. Psalm 2:7

Psalm 2:7 ESV

7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

and Isaiah 42:1 Isaiah 42:1

Isaiah 42:1 ESV

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

. Psalm 2 is about the Son, the Davidic King of God's eternal kingdom. Isaiah 42 is about the Suffering Servant who would be stricken for our transgressions and would make his soul an offering for sin, even though "he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth" (see Isaiah 53:4 9). Isaiah 53:11 is crucial here as it is in the passion narraives. In that verse the Father says of the Servant, "Out of anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant Jesus], make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

In sum, you might think of John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus in this way: John has moved God's people away from Jerusalem's temple to grant the forgiveness of sins in Jesus!?

So what do we do with all this information about the King and the Kingdom well we repent.

My second point this morning is this…

All people are called to repent.

You here that all the time in church. Right just repent. But what does that mean? I think after studying for years looking at stuff this week I believe it means more than just one thing. One its about admitting that you are a sinner. In verse 6 we see that. The people were going down to be baptized to admit they had sinned before God. But it can’t just stop there, because you can admit your wrong and do nothing about that that is what some where doing in John’s time and he called them a brood of vipers essentially calling them the devil.

the bible is full of people who don’t truly repent that we may be guilty of that as well. I struggle with this more in my personal life then I would like to admit, but repentance is also being sorrowful of that sin. Its easy to brush things off and admit you are wrong its another thing to say I have sinned again God. David is the best of example of one who does this.

in Psalm 51:4

Psalm 51:4 ESV

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Finally repentance is turn from sin. To repent means to be converted. To be changed. We have to see our sin, hate our sin, and flee from that sin. And this is a lifelong journey not just a one time thing. We need to understand that very thing. Thats why John in this text says Bear fruit in keeping with repentance our whole life is going to be about turning away from sin, and turning towards God.

And we do that because the Kingdom of God is at hand.

What else do we do.

Third point is this…

All people are called to be baptized.

In the text we see two baptisms here. Lets first talk about water baptism and its significance to us. As you may have gathered by now Jesus did not have to be baptized. But we learn from this is important. Jesus was baptized to identify with sinners. He is our example for us. When we are baptized we identify with Jesus Christ. We identify with his death, burial, and resurrection. Its a picture of salvation. One man I was reading says his immersion portrays his future death and resurrection.

It truly is a beautiful picture of our own selfs dying just like the people were going to John saying I have no good no righteousness in me. I count nothing good in me.

I need a savior we say ourselves. Lord we need you, we trust you we want to die to our old life, and we can’t wait to rise again in the life to come.

And when we are baptized we are fulling the great commission which says. Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Being baptized is a form of obedience. I like what one man said… Baptism is not something that man has made up; it's something that God has commanded, something He has called every follower of Christ to do, and something He has told us to do in all nations (28:19). Jesus sets the stage for this at the beginning of His public ministry.

So we should follow him in baptism as well.

Now John in the Text also talks about another baptism and that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, and this one is hotly debated depending on what kind of church you are in. And I don’t want to get into all those details today. Simply putt baptism is a purifying agent and a symbol for what the Holy Spirit is going to do in all those who believe in Christ. When you are born again when you repent and believe you are giving the Holy Spirit who cleans you within. Who Transforms you.

So John’s Baptism was a baptism of repentance, our physical baptism is a baptism of a testimony of the work Jesus has done in our lives and hearts, and when you are saved you get God living in you purifying you changing you something the people of God would have loved to have is a promise we receive because Jesus has risen from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit to live in his people.

And because we have repented and continue to live lives of repentance and because we have been born again and baptized all we can do now is just proclaim about the King and his Kingdom which leads to my final point.

All must proclaim about the King and his Kingdom until he returns.

We learned today a little about what we proclaim. We tell people about God how the creator of the universe, decided in his loving grace to save his people from their sins. That this God who is Holy and perfect and just came to put to death the pain of sin to all those who believe in him, but in his coming he also pronounced judgement for all those who do not believe in him but the only way you can make your path straight is by repenting of your sin, and putting your faith in Christ so that you to can be saved so that you to can walk in the newness of life, and so that you to can have the Holy Spirit living in you.

Before you leave here today or click off the link of sermon I want you to ask yourself how have you responded to the Kingdom of heaven and do you know the one whom which it was built for?

Have you repented of your sins?

Have you been Baptized?

Have you proclaimed the gospel to the world?

ask yourself which one you need to do so that you can please God just like Jesus does. So God can say to you this is my beloved child in whom I am pleased.

Let us pray…