The Kingdom of Heaven is Near // Matthew 4:12-17

Introduction

Bible Passage: Matthew 4:12–17

Good morning church! If you have his Word and I hope you do, turn with me to Matthew 4:12-17. If you’ve been with us over the last several weeks, you know we’ve been studying through the Gospel of Matthew which is one the four unique Gospels we have in the Bible alongside Mark, Luke, and John. Though each of these Gospels tells the story of the same Jesus, each one of them does so by highlighting certain themes and truths that fit the unique purpose God gave them for writing. For that reason, what emerges are four unique portraits of one Jesus.

Illustration: If you’ve ever been to a professional baseball game, you might have noticed that everyone in the stands doesn’t watch the game in the same way. You’ll find some die-hard fans sitting by themselves and watching the game in front of them while tuning into the radio broadcast on headphones. While they watch the game in front of them, they’re also seeing things from the viewpoint of the commentators on the radio. You might also see some of the data geek fans who have made a hobby out of keeping a scorebook while they watch the game. While you might not as a casual observer remember the fine details over the course of several hours, they’ve kept a close eye on every batter, every baserunner, every fielder, and every pitch. In the very same stadium, though, you’ll find of other more casual observers who will watch the game and remember some of the big moments but mostly they’re taking in the general atmosphere. After the game, they’ll celebrate the win or mourn the loss of their favorite team but mostly what they’ll remember is the experience they had at the ballpark.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but we can think of the four Gospel writers in a similar way. As each one of them writes the story of Jesus, they do so with a particular purpose and set of interests that shapes how their Gospel is written. Since the Gospel of Luke, for instance, is written with a primarily Gentile audience in mind, so we find very few assumptions about the reader’s knowledge of the Jewish Scripture and tradition. Instead, we find Luke emphasizing all the ways in which the Gospel is Good News for the Gentiles who are included in the gracious plan of God. For Matthew, though, the driving motivation for how he writes his Gospel is to invite readers to see how the Old Testament is a lens we can look through to see and understand Jesus. What he wants to do is unite the larger story of Scripture to the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus so that we might read it as one cohesive witness. In a very Matthew-like way, he actually tells us that is his goal, by putting right in the center of his Gospel quotation of Jesus saying that a scribe (or teacher of the Scripture) trained in the Kingdom of Heaven will bring out both treasures of old and new (Matthew 13:52) — in other words, he is bringing forth the treasure of the Old Testament and uniting it together with this fresh revelation of God in Christ.

Here’s why that’s important — it’s not just a quick lesson in biblical theology… instead, it tells us how we should read Matthew’s Gospel. When we come across the literal hundreds of implicit and explicit references to Scripture, we should stop and pay attention to what Matthew says they mean about who Jesus is and what he came to do. Sometimes these references are very subtle allusions to the Old Testament like Jesus ascending up on the mountain to give this new Law of the Kingdom in this section of Matthew we know as the the Sermon on the Mount. This calls to mind for readers how Moses ascended on the mountain called Sinai to likewise receive the Law. In the most subtle of ways, Matthew has now suggested a whole new way of understanding Jesus through the lens of Moses — that like Moses, Jesus is teaching the new and greater law of God’s Kingdom.

Sometimes, though, the reference to Scripture is much more explicit, often taking the form of what some scholars refer to as “formula” quotations because they follow the same pattern. Usually, Matthew will insert a bit of commentary in a story with a phrase like “this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet” followed by a quotation of the passage he is referencing. While these passages might not be familiar to us, certainly a Jew in the first century would have been well-acquainted with the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament. But, that’s why we as readers should make an effort to really understand the context and meaning of these passages because what Matthew is doing is importing for us a framework through which to see and understand what is unfolding before us. This morning, we encounter one of these formula quotations where Matthew cites Isaiah 9:1-2 to give us an understanding of WHY this announcement that the Kingdom of Heaven is near is so important for our lives as followers of Jesus. Let’s read Matthew 4:12-17 together now…

Matthew 4:12–17 CSB

When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Big Idea: Live into the reality that the God’s Kingdom is near.

The main idea I want us to pay attention to this morning is the call to live into the reality that the God’s Kingdom is near. What I mean by that is that God’s Kingdom being near to us is an all-encompassing reality that ought to shape everything about who we are and how we live.

So how do we live into or align ourselves with this reality? The first thing this passage calls us to do is…

Exegesis // Matthew 4:12-17

Rejoice at the Arrival of God’s Kingdom

Matthew 4:12–16; Isaiah 9:1-2

John the Baptist is Arrested (Matt 4:12)

Matthew gives us some indication of what happened next to John after he was baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. We don’t get much detail from Matthew about what happened to John until he’s put to death in Matt 11, but we can fill in some of the gaps by looking to the other Gospels.

Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus continued on preaching about the coming Kingdom of God and baptizing people which would have been interpreted by Herod Antipas as an act of sedition - or inciting a rebellion.

While this might seem strange in our day where Christianity is understood more as a personal religious belief, it was commonly feared in the first century as social or political revolution.

Maybe we’ve lost some of the salience of that message rocked the ancient world and is still as true and meaningful today — that God’s Kingdom is here and the rightful King has come to claim his throne. Jesus might have preached a Kingdom that is not of this world (Jn 18:36), but we shouldn’t make the mistake of believing this message has no bearing on our lives in the present. In fact, Jesus tells us he didn’t come to bring peace on earth but a sword (Matt 10:34) calling his disciples to radical, life-altering allegiance to himself and his Kingdom.

That’s the message John was proclaiming — Mk 6 tells us that Herod didn’t intervene right away because he respected John as a man of God, but that favor ran out when John called Herod out on his sin of marrying his half-brother Philip’s former wife, Herodias (which is a shame because how perfect are those names for each other?). However, that was a step to far which caused Herod to imprison John where he remained until Herodias sought vengeance and plotted to have John killed.

Jesus Withdraws to Capernaum (Matt 4:13-14)

So, Jesus withdraws to Capernaum which some scholars have interpreted as Jesus fleeing in fear because of John’s arrest. However, that doesn’t make much sense because Jesus wasn’t afraid of the ruler and authorities and also he was going to the area where Herod Antipas was the Tetrarch not away from it. In addition to that, Capernaum was a larger city than Nazareth and a pretty unlikely place to go to lay low. The more likely explanation is that Jesus just didn’t have a reason to remain in Judea any longer after John was arrested. However, Matthew sees something of significance in where Jesus was going…

Neither Nazareth nor Capernaum are mentioned in the Old Testament but when the land is being allotted to the different tribes of Israel in Josh 19, we find that the area Nazareth sits was allotted to the tribe of Zebulun and the area where Capernaum sits was allotted to the tribe of Naphtali. Matthew looks back and sees the Old Testament actually has something to say about these seemingly insignificant places.

Dawning of the Light in Isaiah 9:1-2

Matthew tells us that Jesus’s movement in this area took place to fulfill what was said by the prophet Isaiah which he loosely translates from from the Hebrew text here in Matt 4:15-16.

Matthew 4:15–16 CSB

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

So, the question for us in light of Matthew’s prompting is this. What is does this passage in Isaiah mean and what does that have to with who Jesus is and what he came to do?

Context of Isaiah 9:1-7

As we look at the context around this passage in Isaiah 9:1-7, we can see that it is intended to be a message of hope for the people of Israel in the middle of a dark time. In the two chapters preceding it (Is 7-8), Isaiah recounts what life was like for God’s people during the reign of the current King Ahaz — it was an age of war, distress, and darkness. However, a chapter turns in Is 9:1 when the prophets looks ahead with this message of hope that a day is coming when things will not be as they are now — that a light will dawn on these people who are dwelling in darkness.

So what does this message of hope in the midst of distress for a people many years in the past mean for Jesus and this present moment? It’s an incredibly comforting passage to read to be reminded of the promise of God for future hope and restoration, but what Matthew is suggesting is that this event in Israel’s history means something for us.

Larger truth of Isaiah 9:1-7

This context of this message in Isaiah about the devastation of a kingdom actually points to a larger truth about all of humanity and this mortal problem we know as sin — what Matthew suggests is that this period of Israel’s history is in some way recapitulating the bigger story of Creation, the Fall, and God’s plan for Redemption. This gloomy and dark period under the reign of a wicked king calls to mind the first fracturing of God’s creation which gave way to this kind of evil and suffering in the first place. It reminds us that God’s good creation was corrupted when the people he made in his image chose the way of sin, introducing a curse on all creation and fracturing the relationship between us and God.

The Bible tells us that we have inherited this sin nature from Adam (Rom 5:12), being born into fallenness rather than the goodness for which we were created and for which we long.

Every one of us has therefore sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and this isn’t just disappointing, it’s debilitating our ability to know God. Is 59:2 tells us that our sins have separated us from God and we are unable to do anything about it because, as Eph 2:1 tells us, apart from Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

The problem with sin is not that it makes people bad, but that it keeps people dead.

Helpless in our state and being actively blinded (2 Cor 4:4) by the deceiving work of Satan, Eph 4:18 tells us that we were alienated from the life of God — unable to live to that which is good. That’s why Paul in Rom 8:21 describes us as being in “bondage to corruption” — we are enslaved to our sin, helpless to overcome it, helpless to resist how it devastates and destroys.

Do you see where this is headed? The point Mathew makes is that WE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WERE DWELLING IN DARKNESS — We were the ones who were dead in our sin, separated from the God we were made to know and love. We were the people who were helpless in our sin, unable to shake off it’s chains, unable to live to the things of God. We were the ones hopelessly headed toward eternal condemnation because the sin we freely yet compulsively because of our nature chose time and time again.

But friends, the good news is that Jesus is the light shining in our darkness — he has intervened in our story calling us out of darkness and into marvelous light (1 Pt 2:9)! He has come near to us in our brokenness and rebellion that he might, as Paul says in Col 1:13-14, “rescue us from the dominion of darkness” and bring us back to the “kingdom of his son” … “in him we have redemption — the forgiveness of sins” because he has defeated sin and death on the Cross — because he has cast out the darkness in the light of his coming.

Application — Rejoice! Rejoice at the Arrival of God’s Kingdom because he has intervened in your story. He has given you a grace you did not deserve that you might live a life in Him you did not earn. Of all the things we ought to be as a church, we most definitely should be a people of profound joy. So often, we approach our faith so seriously — maybe rightfully so because the things of God matter and we shouldn’t be flippant. But, friends, we also shouldn’t diminish the real joy the Good News of the gospel brings. I feel ok saying this because the last I checked, seriousness wasn’t a fruit of the Spirit but joy is. So, we can be a people who take serious things seriously… but we must be a people who in every way are leaning into the joy of the gospel. This is good news, friends, so rejoice.

The second thing we see in this passage is that we can live into the nearness of God’s Kingdom as we —

Hope in the Promise of God’s Kingdom

Matthew 4:15-16; Isaiah 9:3-7

As we look more broadly at the passage in Is 9, we see this promise of this future Kingdom unfolding. Here’s why that matters: if, as Matthew suggests, that Jesus’s coming represents the dawning of this new age, then all of these promises represent not merely a future hope but a present hope for us as the people of God.

However, there is a tension — though these promises in some sense are ours in Jesus, there is still a sense in which the redemptive work of God is not yet complete. You’ve maybe heard this tension as the “already but not yet” — the sense in which all the promises of God are ours in Jesus but we still live in a world and in bodies broken by sin. We still exist in a time between the times when Jesus has inaugurated this work of redemption but before the day comes when he will make all things new. Therefore, we have this hope of the promise of God’s Kingdom presently, but in some other sense there is more to be realized.

The way I see, it there are three aspects of the hope of this future kingdom in Is 9:3-7 that Christ brings…

Hope in God’s provision (Isa 9:3)

Isaiah 9:3 CSB

You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

In Isaiah, the hope of the future is predicated on the promise that God would defeat their enemies and that they would then enjoy the abundance of his provision. The allusion about the “harvest” here is possibly to the Feast of Weeks in Deut 16:9-12 which was a period when Israel would have an unusually massive harvest with plenty of food to enjoy. The idea of dividing the spoils alludes to the type of abundance people might enjoy when troops would bring home the spoils of a conquered nation.

This idea really comes to life for us when we consider what Jesus says about his defeat of Satan in Mt 12:29 when he would go into the house, bind up the strong man, and plunder his possessions… This promise of God’s provision for us is fulfilled when Jesus defeats the one who came to steal, kill, and destroy and instead offers us abundant life in him (Jn 10:10).

Hope in God’s protection (Is 9:4-5)

Isaiah 9:4–5 CSB

For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian. For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Using the example of God’s victory over Midian (Judges 6-7), Isaiah predicts that God will shatter the oppressive yoke of the enemies of God’s people. This idea of a “yoke” literally refers to an instrument used to dominate people to force them into physical labor. Metaphorically, it also refers to a heavy burden through non-physical means such as heavy taxation or a domineering rule. In v.5, Isaiah notes how the trampling boots and garments of battle will one day be burned up which is a reference to how the people of God set fire to their spoils of war (Josh 11:6, Ezek 39:9). The point is that a day was coming when God would bring about the utter defeat of Israel’s enemies.

What might this mean about the work of Jesus? Quite literally, the dawning of this new age in Jesus marks the defeat of our enemy, Satan. By his death and resurrection, Col 2:15 tells us he has “disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly… he has triumphed over them.” Friends, if you are in Christ, that victory is yours! This hope in the protection from our enemies becomes our reality when God’s Kingdom comes near.

Hope in God’s presence (Is 9:6-7)

Isaiah 9:6–7 CSB

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

Isaiah looks ahead in hope to the coming of a son who would bring about this coming Kingdom — a son who would be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace who would rule the nations with justice and in fairness. While Matthew doesn’t explicitly say it, no doubt he means for his readers to understand that the dawning of this light in the darkness means that the King has come — and this King is none other and none less than Immanuel, God with us about whom Isaiah prophesied in Is 7:14 and Matthew quotes in Mt 1:23. Two things to note here —

The first is that we have in Jesus this promise of God’s eternal presence fulfilled. Just before Jesus let his disciples after his Resurrection, he made a promise to be with us always — friends, we should be shaped by this hope that God is present with us. Even when we walk through seasons of darkness and suffering in this life, we have not been abandoned by God; in fact, as we discussed last week — the wilderness reminds us that God is with us and that he is doing something through it. Though there is more to come one day when we see him face to face and will be with him for eternity, we can hope in the present reality that God is with us.

Which is why I want to offer two points of application that I think capture this hope that is ours and this tension between what is already and what is not yet.

Application — First, I think this passage invites us to have a profound hope in Jesus. Though our world often feels dark and hopeless as it did in the days of Isaiah, this good news of the arrival of God’s Kingdom is that it gives to us a present hope in the provision, protection, and presence of God. There is no threat to you in this life and in our world that can overcome the sure work of Christ. The King has come and he is on the throne.

Application — Secondly, I see this announcement of God’s Kingdom and King as calling us to turn from trusting in worldly wisdom, political allegiances, and human effort to instead trust only in our one true hope, which is Christ. We Nothing of our own effort or wisdom will be able to offer the hope Christ gives to us in an world broken by sin. No fast talking political will be able to ultimately make good on their promises for a brighter future. Our universal problem is sin and the devastation it causes; our singular hope for renewal is Christ. The goodness God’s Kingdom brings will only be accomplished by God’s appointed King and by God’s appointed means and in God’s appointed time. Trusting in any other person, method, or means is foolishness.

Finally, we see that the nearness of God’s Kingdom summons us to…

Respond to the Call of God’s Kingdom

Matthew 4:17 CSB

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Jesus continues on preaching exactly the message John proclaimed in Mt 3:2 calling his disciples to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Here’s what it means to respond to that message…

Repent — walk in the light

How do we respond to this dawning of the light of Christ in our world? We submit to the authority of Jesus as the reigning king through repentance.

Repentance means to “change one’s mind” — in other words, it means to turn aside from our sin and to forsake our worldly allegiances and to instead belong to God’s Kingdom. It means that we see the light of Christ and therefore leave behind the darkness of our former way. As Paul would say…

Ephesians 5:8–12 CSB

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth—testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Application — If you are not a Christian, the call of Jesus to you is turn away from your sin and darkness and to put your faith in Jesus. That involves both trusting in him for forgiveness for where you fail and walking in obedience to what he says. If that’s you this morning, this is the invitation of Christ — to turn from your sin and receive his grace.

If you are a Christian, I think this question remains: Where in your life are you walking in darkness as though the light of Christ hasn’t shown? Not one of this is exempt from the ongoing work of repentance and faith. The call for you this morning is to let the light of Christ expose every hidden and dark corner of your life; to leave behind what belongs to your former self and embrace the life of Jesus by walking in repentance.