When the Kingdom comes near - then what?

Your Kingdom Come  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  26:18
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When the great light dawns, when the Kingdom comes near – you know it because genuine repentance happens. People walk out of the darkness of spiritual death and walk into the light of abundant life now and eternal life with God. Because the great light dawned on us – because the kingdom came near and, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us we repented, we live forever forgiven, for ever restored to fellowship with God.

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King Herod put John the Baptizer in prison. When Jesus heard the news, he withdrew from Judea and went to live in Capernaum. Contrary, to how it may appear, Jesus was not retreating to safety. No, Jesus had his eyes set on Capernaum as his new base of operations – 8 miles from where King Agrippa, the person responsible for John’s imprisonment, ruled over Galilee. Jesus was marching right into the heart of the conflict. John’s demand that one’s behavior must match one’s public confession of belief in God landed John in prison where Agrippa would order John’s beheading. Far from seeking safety, from that moment forward, Jesus took up John’s cry, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
On his way to settle in Capernaum, Jesus went home to Nazareth, to gather his belongings and to say his good-byes. There is biblical evidence that shows this was not a friendly parting of the ways. It seems that Joseph, has died. Jesus was the eldest son. The head of the family. The one upon whom his mother and brothers and sisters depended. Now Jesus was leaving them to pursue a mission that they do not understand. Jesus’ obedience brought grief and burden to his family. Jesus’ brothers must step up to care for the family - perhaps before they were ready. There seems to be some family resentment in that John tells us that even Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him.[1] Beyond that Mark tells us that once the family came to get Jesus because they thought Jesus had gone insane.[2] On top of the family issues, there were the problems with the community. Luke chapter four gives us added insight into Jesus’ visit home.[3]
Jesus goes to the synagogue, takes up the scroll of Isaiah and reads,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.””[4]
Jesus goes on to remind them that in Elijah’s time it was not a Jewish widow, but a widow from Sidon that God supported. Likewise, in the time of Elisha there was no shortage of lepers in Israel, but God chose to heal Naaman the Syrian. In saying these things, Jesus showed that God’s favor comes not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. This infuriated the home folks and they took Jesus out of town to kill him by throwing him off a cliff! This was a riot provoked by the racism of Jesus’ hometown neighbors.[5]
Matthew tells us that Jesus’ relocation to Capernaum fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah that a great light would dawn on Galilee of the Gentiles. A great light would dawn on those living in darkness. A great light would dawn on those living in the shadow of death!
Matthew tells us that “from that time on Jesus began to preach. This suggests that Jesus’ primary activity through out his public ministry was preaching. The theme of Jesus’ preaching was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come.” In the presence and preaching of Jesus the great light dawned and it demanded that all people repent!
This raises questions
1) Why should I repent?
2) What does it mean to repent?
3) How do I repent?
This morning, we will answer those questions and then consider the glorious outcomes of repentance.

Why should I repent?

I personally should repent because everyone should repent. Romans 3:22 and 23 tells us that
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The great human equalizer no matter what the color of our skin, no matter what our ethnicity, no matter what social class we belong to is the fact that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, the biblical teaching is that no person, no race, no ethnicity, and no social class has a right to point the finger at another and say, “That person is a worse sinner that I am” or “Those people are worse sinners than we are.” Red and Yellow, Black and White have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of our sin, what we earn, what we deserve from our sinning is death. Death in this sense is the death of eternal punishment.[6] Jesus tells us in John 16: 9-10 that the Holy Spirit “will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin . . . because people do not believe in me.”
Without believing in Jesus, we walk in spiritual darkness; we live in the shadow of spiritual death. Every person must repent for we have all turned our backs on God, preferring to go our own way.
Grant Osborne puts it like this, Sin itself centers on the centrality of self, so the basic sin is unbelief, the refusal to trust in anything other than one’s self.[7]
Red and Yellow, Black and White we all stand condemned by our sin before a Holy and Just God.
Then, the great light dawns on us. The Good News of Jesus comes to us. Our spiritual eyes open. We see our spiritual darkness. In a way designed just for us, we hear the voice of Jesus say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven as come near to you!” Then, it is our greatest pleasure to repent.
We realize our need to repent because . . .
to repent is the required first step for fellowship with God. Everyone who wants to enter the Kingdom of God must repent. Now that we know why Jesus requires each of us to repent, we must deal with the question . . .

What does it mean to repent?

Repentance is a change of heart and mind that results in new behaviors that reverse the direction of one's life.[8][9]
Repentance means that Instead of walking away from God, we turn around and walk toward God.
True repentance involves internal changes, which are changes in our mind – how we think, what we think – and changes in our heart – how we feel about God, about living a holy life, and about other people. Tied to these internal changes are necessary external changes – changes in behavior.
Matthew tells us in chapter 3:7-8 that when John the Baptist
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? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Repentance means that we stop treating God as less than He is.
Sin is acting or believing that God is somehow less than the God the Bible reveals to us. There are persons who want to believe that God is all love and no wrath; God is all mercy and no judgement. That makes their god less than the God the Bible reveals to us. The God of the Bible is so great and formidable that he is simultaneously perfect in his love and perfect in his wrath. The God of the Bible is simultaneously perfect in dispensing mercy and perfect in exercising judgement.
When people say “I can’t believe in a God who condemns people to hell.” They are also saying, “I can’t believe in a God who would sacrifice himself to save people from their sins so they don’t have to suffer in hell.” You cannot have one without the other, because the God of the Bible is the God who is holy enough, just enough, righteous enough to condemn perfectly and to save perfectly.
When the great light dawns on us we see God as he is: perfect in His judgment of unrepentant sinners and perfect in His saving mercy for all who will repent.
Repentance also means we stop treating people as less than they are.
Humankind has a long history of dehumanization. It did not start last week. It did not start 401 years ago. Because of our broken and fallen sinfulness – we have inflicted this curse on each other from the beginning. Dehumanization is the psychological process of making a person or a group of persons seem less human thus subverting our moral consciousness that prevents us from treating others as animals.[10] Dehumanization is an evil that multiplies itself quickly and broadly. It is behind large-scale societal evil such as slavery, torture, and human trafficking. It is also behind individual actions. Can you see dehumanization in the national unrest we are experiencing? It is behind those who on social media or in the press use rhetoric comparing certain individuals or classes of people to animals or to vile, inhumane historical figures.
Brené Brown in her research on dehumanization notes that what separates acceptable behavior from behavior that is not acceptable is the line of human dignity. Brown wrote, “There is a line. It’s etched from dignity. And raging, fearful people from the right and left are crossing it at unprecedented rates every single day.”[11]
Evolution theory tells us humans are nothing special – humans are no more valuable than any other species.[12] And according to one activist I read, human life may even be less valuable than the life of other species under certain conditions.[13]
God says, “I create every one of my precious humans in my image and I create everyone of them as a one-of-a-kind unique gift to the world. I have given to humans the authority to care for and develop the world. Each one of them is so important to me and I love them so much, that I gave my one and only Son to die for their sins, so that our fellowship and love can be an eternal one.”
When the great light dawns on us we see our fellow human beings as image bears of God and we are compelled to extend to them all – Christians and non-Christians – the dignity that is their birthright.
Red and Yellow, Black and White we are all precious in His sight.
We should repent because everyone is a sinner and must repent to enter the kingdom of God. When we do repent, we change our thinking and our actions to align ourselves with who God is and how God teaches us to treat our neighbors who bear his image.

How does one repent?

Repentance is choosing to stop walking deeper into darkness and start walking into the light. One repents through godly sorrow, confession, change of affection, change of mind, change of action - in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”[14]
The Holy Spirit works within us to convict us of our need for repentance and producing a godly sorrow for our sin that leads us to confess our sin to God. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10 “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”
The Holy Spirit works in us not only to see our sin, to grieve our sin, and confess our sin, but also to change our thinking, our feeling, and our actions. We cannot self-discipline ourselves out of sin. What we can do is willingly cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He produces with in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[15]
When the great light dawns on us and we genuinely repent, then we know in the depths of our soul:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”[16]
When we genuinely repent then we experience . . .

The Glory of Repentance

The goal of repentance is forgiveness, restoration, and life. Jesus calls us to repentance because he intends to forgive us – everyone of us – every time we ask.
2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us,
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Jesus told his disciples at the last supper,
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”[17]
And Jesus told his disciples before his Ascension,
This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”[18]
When God calls us to repentance, that call always intends forgiveness. Jesus tells us that we are to extend that same kind of forgiveness. Luke tells us in chapter 17:3-4 that Jesus said,
So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
One thing to remember in our current social and political environment where the theological language of repentance and reconciliation roll easily off the lips is this: The only meaningful call to repentance is a biblical call to repentance. A biblical call to repentance always intends, extends, and enacts forgiveness. Any call for repentance or reconciliation that has as its end something other than genuine forgiveness is less than what God requires and less than what people and society really need.
When the great light dawns, when the Kingdom comes near – you know it because genuine repentance happens. People walk out of the darkness of spiritual death and walk into the light of abundant life now and eternal life with God. The Apostle Peter helps us see who we really are as a forgiven people in Jesus Christ with these words:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”[19]
Because the great light dawned on us – because the kingdom came near and, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us we repented, we live forever forgiven, for ever restored to fellowship with God.
[1] John 7:5
[2] Mark 3:7
[3] Luke 4:13-30
[4] Luke 4:18–19
[5] Wilkins. Ibid.
[6] Matthew 25: 31-46
[7] Osborne, G. R. (2018). John: Verse by Verse. (J. Reimer, E. Ritzema, D. Thevenaz, & R. Brant, Eds.) (p. 376). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Faithlife Corporation. “To Reconsider (repent).” Logos Bible Software, Computer software. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, June 3, 2020. https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.reconsider+repent.v.01.
[9] DiFransico, L. (2014). Repentance. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Although this definition is my own particularly in referencing our “moral consciousness” it draws upon Brown, Brené. Dehumanizing Always Starts With Language [blog]. May 17 2018 [cited June 6 2020]. Available from https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/05/17/dehumanizing-always-starts-with-language/.
[11] Brown, Brené. Dehumanizing Always Starts With Language [blog]. May 17 2018 [cited June 6 2020]. Available from https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/05/17/dehumanizing-always-starts-with-language/.
[12] Taber, Keith S. "The Relationship Between Science and Religion: A Contentious and Complex Issue Facing Science Education,” in Science Education: A Global Perspective. Edited by Ben Akpan. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing 2017.
[13] Watson, Paul. Human Lives Are Not More Important Than Animal Lives. The Outdoor Journal LLC, June 8 2016 [cited June 6 2020]. Available from https://www.outdoorjournal.com/slider/human-lives-are-not-more-important-than-animal-lives/.
[14] Philippians 2:12-13
[15]Galatians 5:22
[16] 1 John 1:9
[17] Matthew 26:28
[18] Luke 24:46–47
[19] 1 Peter 2:9, NIV
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