Sycamore Sermon (2)
Notes
Transcript
The Kingdom has Come
The Kingdom has Come
For the last couple of weeks Pastor Jon has been preaching on our world view
How this world view influences how we operate within the world we live
How we see the world, the lens that we look through
He, has contrasted the many world views out there with a Christian World view, one that is rooted in the Word of God and the person of Jesus Christ
So, how does the Word of God and the Person of Jesus Christ influence how you see the world in which you live?
Is the Word of God the lens through which you look on all matters?
Is Jesus and His life and teachings the lens through which you look, the ideal that we hold up in comparison to all that is happening around us?
These are some questions I was confronted with and have been wrestling with.
And, so, to pick up on this trail, I’d like to continue looking at Jesus, can’t go wrong with that as your first sermon, to talk about Jesus and how amazing He is
But I want to look at Jesus, to take a closer look at Jesus and why He said what He said, and why He did what He did.
Now we are going to move through a section of Scripture, the Gospel according to Matthew to be exact, but we will land in chapter 8 and spend some time there.
But, we are going to start in chapter 3, the passages will be up on the screen, but if you’re like me you’ll want to turn there as well.
So let’s look at Matthew chapter 3 verses 13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 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; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
We are all familiar with this story, the events of this story
We recognize the 3 members of the Trinity present here, The voice of God the Father, the physically present God the Son, and God the Spirit descending in the form of a dove.
We may or may not have asked why is Jesus getting baptised?
For us baptism is this public proclamation and demonstration of an internal truth, we are identifying with Jesus in His life, death, burial and resurrection and are making it known that we have place our faith, trust, hope in that.
We too are being buried with Christ in His death and raised to new life
For the Jews of this time, a baptism was not uncommon, and it was a cleansing, a confessing of sins and a departure from this sinful life to walk anew in Gods ways
So, again, we have to ask the question, why would Jesus need to be baptized?
The answer is this, Jesus didn’t need to get baptized, not for a cleansing, not for a recommitment to God and His ways.
What He did need to do is to fulfill all righteousness, all right “things” in God’s sight.
Jesus is identifying with the people, He is already standing for them, the sinless Son of God, standing in the place of sinful man.
If what God is asking of men at this time is to enter the waters of baptism as a confession of sins and a sign of repentance, then Jesus will model this for the people.
Jesus will be the ultimate right one with God, the ultimate obedient one, and also the ultimate sacrifice.
You see, Jesus here is also prefiguring His life, death, burial and resurrection.
At this early moment, before His “public” ministry has begun, Jesus is already standing in man’s place and showing He will bear the sins of man, die, be buried, and raised to new life.
But something that is super significant is also happening here.
I mentioned the 3 members of the Trinity being present, the voice of the Father, the physically present Son, and lastly God the Spirit descending in the form of a dove.
What we see in this scene, this snapshot that Matthew gives us is twofold,
The firs thing I will mention actually happened second, the voice of the Father, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am so so pleased”, this was said before Jesus had really begun His ministry.
This is Jesus identity, this affirmation is what caries Jesus along, He knowing who He is and that He has The Father’s approval before doing any public ministry.
The second thing I will point out, the first thing we must see is the Holy Spirit descending from heaven and resting on Jesus.
I’m not going to talk about the dove, even though I want to, but what we can’t miss, is that the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven and rested on Jesus.
God’s Spirit is now on Jesus, in Jesus.
Now don’t ask me to explain the hypostatic union, the union of God and man, here.
Or ask me the question, at what level of Godness was Jesus before the Spirit came on Him.
I think what we are supposed to see is this, now that same power of God which conceived Jesus, is now the power that will equip Him for what lies ahead.
So what lies ahead? Let’s look at Matthew 4:1
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness.
For what purpose? To be tempted by the devil it reads.
You may or may not know this but the word in Greek for tempt is peraizo, and it also means test, and it is also the root word for trial.
So, The Spirit of God is leading Jesus into the wilderness for a trial, a period of testing by God and tempting by the enemy?
Will Jesus be faithful, obedient, will He succeed where Adam and Israel failed?
Jesus by the power of God, His indwelling Spirit will succeed, He will resist the temptations, He will pass the test. He is the better Adam and the better Israel.
This power of God, the Spirit, will not only lead Jesus into the wilderness and not only be the power by which Jesus resists temptation, but He will also empower Him to teach, and do the mighty works of God, His miracles.
It is this power, we can’t miss this, it is by this power that Jesus is launched into ministry.
Let’s turn quickly to Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The righteous One, the One who has right standing with God and is empowered by the Spirit is telling people to turn to God for He, God, has brought His Kingdom to the earth
The Kingdom of Heaven is here and I, Jesus, the obedient one, who is empowered by the Spirit, have brought it.
Matthew then gives us a quick summary of Jesus’ Spirit empowered ministry in chapter 4 verses 23-25.
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
This is the power of God in action.
So, what happens next?
According to Matthew, Jesus will teach the people what living in this kingdom of heaven or Kingdom of God should look like.
Now this message to them and to us is not easy, in fact it almost seems at times impossible, without the Spirits help of course.
The Beatitudes are entry into the Kingdom, who citizens of the Kingdom are, and what citizens of the Kingdom do.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Entry into the Kingdom
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
This is who Kingdom citizens are to be
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
This is what citizens of the Kingdom do
Then He goes on;
You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world
Let your light shine before others so that they may see YOUR good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Jesus then tells the people their righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, the religious elite of the day, that’s a tall order
He then goes on to talk about anger and lust and divorce and oaths, and retaliation, all at the heart level, a seemingly impossible task for the people.
How about love your enemies, this to a people being ruled over and oppressed by their enemies?
Not possible with man, but all things are possible with God.
Jesus then goes and points out the hypocrisy of the religious elite and at the same time reveals 3 common displays of righteousness, expected practices as a display of our righteousness with God, giving, praying, and fasting.
Treasures on earth and do not be anxious go hand in hand,
He’s pointing out, and this is important, He’s pointing out how easy it is to be an active participating member of the kingdom of the world and trying to accumulate things here,
But then He’s encouraging us to pursue and participate in God’s kingdom, store up treasures in heaven.
And this is the key to the Sermon, pursuing and participating in God’s Kingdom and forsaking the kingdom of this world and its ways, its beliefs, its desires and goals.
Everyone who hears these words of Jesus and does them, not just hears them, but does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, who anchors his life on The Rock.
Living in the Kingdom of Heaven is about doing, not just hearing.
That takes us to chapter 8, Jesus has taught about what living in His Kingdom should look like in chapters 5-7, now He’s going to do, to show the people what it looks like.
Let’s read verses 1-4 of chapter 8
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
There’s two characters in this story, Jesus and a leper. The leper isn’t named but he is described, he’s a leper.
For us this may not carry the weight it did then, leprosy was not only an incurable disease, but it was also a state of uncleanness with God, you can read about it in Leviticus.
Now being unclean wan’t necessarily because of sin, but it did prevent you from coming into the presence of God, nothing unclean can come into the presence of God. These were the rules
There were other ways you could become unclean according to the laws of Moses, like touching a dead body or blood, emitting sexual fluids, but with these there was a ceremonial washing that you could perform and a time period you’d have to wait out.
With leprosy there was no such washing, no time period to wait out, no way to “clean” yourself.
Add onto that, that this was also seen as a punishment from God reserved for bad sinners.
A leper would have to leave his home, leave town, he couldn’t go to synagogue or temple, he was literally a complete outcast
He would have to cross the road if he saw someone coming and would have to shout unclean to his shame.
No one would come near him in fear of being infected by his uncleanness, no co-workers, no friends, no family, not his wife, or his kids, no one, except other lepers.
This was his existence, isolated, alone, and not in right standing with God
And then there’s Jesus, it’s no wonder this is the first interaction Matthew writes about.
The ultimate clean one enters into the presence of uncleanness.
That’s Jesus entering the world.
Jesus isn’t afraid that His holiness will be negatively affected by this man’s uncleanness,
It’s His holiness that will affect this mans uncleanness.
The man utters these words, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” What’s he saying?
He’s saying, Lord, If you want to, I know you can make me clean.
The word for Lord that he uses is kurios in the Greek, adonai in the Hebrew, and one of its meanings is the supernatural master over all.
The man says “You, the Supernatural Master over all, You can make me clean, if you want.
It’s not whether or not Jesus can, it’s whether or not He wants to make clean this believed to be sinner being punished by God.
Now what the man doesn’t say is that you can heal me if you want to. Maybe you’ve noticed how many times I’ve said the word unclean.
It’s not just a removal of the disease that he’s after, it’s a re-admittance to the presence of God he’s after.
A healing allows him to go home, a cleansing allows him to go back to God
This cleansing would come with a perceived forgiveness for whatever he’s done that warranted this punishment.
He wants to be made right with God, and only Jesus can do that, if He wants to.
So how does Jesus respond?
Well first Matthew tells us He stretched out His hand and touched the man.
Not an angry punishing hand, but the tender, merciful hand of God who wants to cleanse, not just heal but to cleanse so that people can be made right.
I will, Jesus says, be clean.
This man represents humanity, all of us unclean, not right with God
All who’s only hope is to be made clean, right with God, by God Himself
Yes Jesus want’s to do this, it’s why He came, not to heal, but to cleanse.
Now on to the next story, verses 5-13
When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
In this story we again have two main characters, Jesus and a Roman centurion, a hated Roman army commander of 100 soldiers, who has come on behalf of his servant who’s paralyzed.
This is the next man, according to Matthew that Jesus interacts with.
Isn’t this odd, first an outcast leper, and now a hated Roman, a pagan Gentile dog. These are the first two interactions Jesus has when coming down the mountain.
Matthew is trying to tell us something.
From the Jew looking on, first there’s now way Jesus will interact with an unclean leper, no way. Huh, I guess He will, what does this mean?
Now, there’s now way Jesus will have anything to do with this hated Roman, huh, I guess He will.
This man, comes to Jesus because his servant is paralyzed at home and is suffering terribly. Maybe this man does have a heart, he’s concerned about his suffering servant.
But, I have to also say, a paralyzed servant is of no use.
Regardless, before this man even asks, Jesus says He will go with the man and heal his servant. Wow, why?
This centurion used the word Lord as well, supernatural master over all, and then takes this understanding to whole other level.
He understands power and authority, if Jesus is the supernatural master over all, then He doesn’t even need to be physically present to heal, He can just order it, command it and it will be done.
Jesus marvels at this mans faith and then lets the people in on a secret.
It’s not by birth or lineage that one enters the kingdom of God, but by faith in Jesus.
But let’s get back to the healing. This man didn’t ask, nor did Jesus offer his servant cleansing, he is a non-Jew and isn’t concerned with God nor His ways.
But the centurion reveals an understanding of the power of Jesus that up until this point, no one in Israel is even close to comprehending.
He completely believes that Jesus can heal by the power of His word, that Jesus doesn’t have to be there, just say the words and he will be healed.
Now what is this power? Think about it,
Jesus isn’t even there, if this isn’t a Holy Spirit healing then I don’t know what is.
Jesus, by the power of the Spirit of God, heals this servant.
God has even come to reveal Himself to the enemy, to show His power.
As we continue in Matthew 8
Jesus then heals many, casts out demons with a word its says and healed all who were sick.
Let’s quickly look at one more passage in this chapter, verses 23-27
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Jesus has power over disease, power over sickness and paralysis, He has power over the demons, and now displays power over nature.
The sea and its depths were considered the realm or abode of the devil, Jesus has authoritative power over the enemy well.
“What sort of man is this”, the disciples ask, well He’s the God man empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform the mighty works of God.
Ok, now I have to say this, our American Christianity doesn’t have room for this kind of power, and yet this is the power of God,
American Christianity is about living a good life now, it’s rooted in God’s love, the American Dream, and the pursuit of happiness.
But that’s not the Kingdom of God.
Jesus told the disciples that they would do the same works as He did, and that they would do more.
How? Because of the Spirit of God in them, in multiple people instead of only Jesus and yet doing what Jesus did.
The problem is we don’t have time or room for the Spirit of God to live and work through us, we are too invested in this life, our life.
If we had to be honest, we might be more a citizen of this world and its kingdom than God’s
Now this isn’t a, “me guilting you”, message.
It wasn’t that long ago that I needed to take a mini Sabbatical, I went to a monastery because what was happening in this world, in my little world, and it was kicking my butt.
It’s so easy to be entrenched in this world, concerned, worried, invested, in the kingdom of this world and at the same time to also go through the motions within the Kingdom of God.
Sure we come to church on Sunday, and maybe read during the week, pray and possibly attend a Bible study.
But, again, if we had to be honest, how often are we doing those things for ourself? to make our little world good.
But how is the Spirit of God moving and using us for His Kingdom?
What did Jesus say? It’s not the hearers of my Word, but the doers who are the true citizens of the kingdom.
Now this isn’t a “now go and do” message, that’s a works based righteousness and a doing in our own power.
This is a let the Holy Spirit have more of us and our lives and then let’s see what He can do through us.
I’ve been to Cuba two times now for work ministry trips.
Cuba is not like the U.S. not sure if you know that.
Cuban’s aren’t pursuing the American dream, it’s not an option for them.
They’re fleeing for the American Dream, but not pursuing it in Cuba..
They aren’t caught up in the traps of materialism, career advancement, or providing everything for themselves and their families.
Their option for the kingdom of this world is a voodoo religion called santaria.
This religion is supposed to help them, stay healthy, get food, what ever, but it is in complete opposition to Christianity.
There it’s obvious.
In Cuba I’ve seen this satanic opposition, headless chickens, blood poured at the threshold of a house church.
I’ve felt it’s presence, and yet I’ve met people liberated out of bondage to it by the power of the Spirit of God.
We, for the most part, are missing out on the power that resurrected Jesus from the dead, the power that defeated sin and death, the power that empowers us to live righteously and to not fear death.
But also we are missing out on the power of God to rescue, liberate and save souls, which is the greatest miracle,
We are to be the conduits of God’s power to provide a cleansing so that people can be right with God, Jesus modeled this for us with the leper, the Roman centurion, and the disciples.
It will always be the Spirit of God who does this work, but we must be willing participants, usable, ready to let God do His world through us.
Let me pray
Father in Heaven I thank You for what You did for us, You rescued us and have set us free, not to live however we want in this world, the kingdom of this world trying to build our own little kingdoms, but to live for another world, for Your Kingdom. By the power of Your Spirit living in us, we can be used by You to do amazing things, we just need to be willing, to submit. Maybe that means we need to start cutting ties with this world, maybe it just means we need to see ourselves differently in this world in which we are living. But I am confident of this, You Lord, Supernatural Master of all, are ready to display Your power, to make the unclean clean, and You want to do it through us. May we like Isaiah say, here I am Lord, use me. Amen