Sunday Sermon: Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand (Matthew 4:12-25)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. In our study of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been baptized by John the

Baptist in the Jordan River and he has successfully resisted the devil's temptations in the wilderness and these things being done to fulfill all righteousness as he said with John the

Baptist. Now Jesus comes out of the wilderness to begin his preaching ministry and that ministry begins here in Matthew 4 with kind of a brief narrative overview.

The only distinct words we get from Jesus preaching are these, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that's verse 17, and if you have a red letter

Bible you can already identify the next phrase, follow me and I will make you fishers of men, that's in verse 19.

But of course this is setting up some much more broad teaching coming up in the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Undoubtedly the greatest sermon that was ever preached.

The question who is your favorite preacher is always a funny one to me. Of course you've heard me say before some of those men that have been the most influential to me, but I think that the answer to who my favorite preacher is should be obvious.

It's Jesus. He is the preacher that I most desire to emulate. He is my Lord and my

King. While saying Jesus was the greatest preacher might strike you as a typical

Sunday school kind of answer, you might be surprised to learn that not all professing Christians think of Jesus as even being a great preacher at all.

At a Methodist college that I attended, one of the professors was talking about the life and times of Jesus.

I don't remember why because it wasn't really the point of the class, but I remember my professor saying that he believed that Jesus was not an extraordinary preacher.

There wasn't really anything about his words that were all that awe -inspiring, my professor said, nor was he very charismatic or a skilled orator.

All of my classmates kind of hmmed and nodded in agreement, so I just had to speak up.

I said, what makes you say that? And I didn't ask the question to be argumentative.

I expected, even as he was explaining his opinion, that the kind of answer that he was going to give was going to be something like we find in Isaiah 53.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and is one from whom men hide their faces.

He was despised and we esteemed him not. That's Isaiah 53 verses 2 through 3.

Now that's the kind of answer I was expecting. I expected there to be some sort of appeal to the scriptures.

Granted, he still would have just been sharing his opinion. Those verses are not about Jesus' ability as an orator.

But I still couldn't understand how a professor could stand there and say Jesus was not a spectacular preacher.

But he didn't have a scriptural basis for his opinion, except to say this, well, because I've read all of Jesus' words and there's nothing about them that are all that compelling.

That was the point where I started to get argumentative. And I just replied, according to you.

And he answered, according to the words themselves. Name one thing that Jesus said that was even unique.

He would say, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

My professor said that was not a unique idea. Even Buddha was saying love your enemies.

Now that isn't exactly true, but we'll talk about that when we get to the next chapter is where we find that passage in Matthew chapter five,

I simply remained on point and said to him, so even though Jesus attracted thousands of people and people would journey to listen to him, you still don't think he was a great preacher?

And the professor merely shrugged and said, he was just in the right place at the right time.

Look at Israel and who their options were. They either listen to the crazy guy out in the desert who's eating locusts and honey and he's telling them to turn or burn, or they listen to the soft -spoken guy who's saying live and love.

Yet according to what we read here in Matthew 4, 17, Jesus was preaching exactly what John the Baptist preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The same words John used in Matthew 3, 2, contrary to what my professor believed,

Jesus was more than a mediocre preacher. He was the greatest preacher who ever lived and there will never be another greater than Jesus was.

How do I know that Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time? Now avoiding further

Sunday school answers like because he's God or because the Bible says so as true as those answers would be,

I would say, I believe Jesus was the greatest preacher for these three reasons. Number one, because the people were in awe of his words.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, it says, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.

It takes more than the ramblings of a soft -spoken carpenter to speak with great authority.

The second reason why I believe he was the greatest preacher, because the people were healed by his words.

In Matthew 8, Jesus merely spoke a word and a centurion servant was healed.

I should have said to that professor, you mean to tell me that Jesus' words had the power to heal diseases and cast out demons, but they didn't have the power to compel a crowd?

Third reason why I think he was the greatest preacher, because the people wanted to kill him for his words.

If Jesus' words were not compelling, why were there people who wanted to put him to death for what he preached, even in the very town where he grew up?

In Luke 4, Jesus preached at Nazareth and the people wanted to throw him off of a cliff. Folks, that's a powerful preacher.

He preached words people didn't merely disagree with. They wanted to kill him for them.

Look again at verses 12 and 13. Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and leaving

Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.

In verses 12 -17, we see what Jesus preached, and we'll spend the bulk of our time on verse 17 this morning.

In verses 18 -22, we see whom Jesus called, talking about the calling of his disciples.

And in verses 23 -25, we see the great crowds that Jesus ministered to, but this is setting us up.

Matthew is moving through this rather rapidly because he's setting us up for the Sermon on the Mount, and that's where we'll get to next week.

March the 1st, brand new month, brand new section of Matthew that we'll be looking at and spend actually a few months in the

Sermon on the Mount. So first of all, looking at this passage that we're reading today,

Jesus withdrew into Galilee. Remember where he came from. We had finished up the temptations of Jesus at the start of chapter 4, the wilderness where Jesus fasted and prayed during that time.

This was between the Mount of Olives and the Dead Sea, which is on the eastern side of Judea.

If you have one of those handy Bible maps in the back of your Bible, you might look at it or you can check this out later.

It was a very desolate place, not a great place to travel through, not just because of it being such an arid and barren region, but because there was simply no one out there.

Thieves would hide in the rocky hills and descend on unsuspecting travelers. Such was the case with the man who was beaten and robbed in Jesus' parable of the

Good Samaritan. He was on the road through that wilderness to Jericho. The prophet

Jeremiah likened this region to judgment, trial, despair, and death.

John the Baptist in Matthew 3 .7 compared the Pharisees and the Sadducees to the deadly vipers as if they just slithered their way out of that Judean wilderness.

Lots of startling visuals were drawn from this area, which was right out the back door of Jerusalem.

So a prophet merely had to point to it and warn his hearers that death was never far away.

There's not really anything to compare that to in this part of Kansas.

If I were to use such an illustration, I might point to the tall Kansas prairie grasses where you would be eaten alive by chiggers.

That would be about the closest comparison I think that we could make. But following his encounter with Satan, this is where Jesus came out of and then went into Galilee, which likely was a journey along the

Jordan River. This time he's going around Samaria and not through it, though with his disciples he would go through Samaria.

We read that story in John chapter 4. His home was Nazareth on the southern end of the region of Galilee.

This was the region where the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali received their land inheritance when the children of Israel had entered the promised land.

Zebulun was where Nazareth was located. Naphtali was where Capernaum was located. It was the other city that we have mentioned here in our reading today.

Of course, they weren't called by those names anymore at the time of Jesus because the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali just simply didn't even exist anymore.

They are a part of what we refer to today as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They were exiled out of that region when they were taken over by the

Assyrians. At this time, at the time of Jesus, this region is just simply called

Galilee. It's a Hebrew word that means district. Now that's an oddly non -specific name.

It would be like going up to Grant Street in the northernmost portion of Junction City and calling it The Street.

Or we would not call Fort Riley Fort Riley anymore. It would just be The Fort. That's Galilee.

That was literally its name, the region, the district. Galilee was just kind of up there.

It was beyond Samaria where the Jews hated to venture. They did not want to go through Samaria, so they didn't even go to Galilee.

Galilee was the land the Jews forgot. Jews went from there down to Jerusalem, but that journey wasn't necessarily reciprocated.

Jews didn't go from Jerusalem up to Galilee. If you'll recall in John's Gospel, Philip, one of the disciples, came to Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom

Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

And how did Nathanael reply? Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

The name for Galilee comes up a handful of times in the Old Testament, but most notably

Isaiah 9 .1. This is the chapter where we read in verse 6, For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

And he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We hear that verse read just about every Christmas, right? It's in verse 1 of that same chapter where it says,

But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish. In the former time he, being

God, brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the

Jordan, Galilee of the nations. Or in other words, the district of the nations or the district of the

Gentiles. Galilee was in a very bleak state at the time of Isaiah, but there was the hope of a promise of the coming

Messiah who would come to exactly this region. This is where Jesus, the

Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, began His earthly ministry. Incidentally, this is where Jesus started and finished

His earthly ministry according to Matthew's gospel. He addresses

His disciples for the first time here in Galilee and He addresses them for the last time on a mountain in Galilee.

That's in Matthew chapter 28. In case you're not familiar with Matthew 28, it does not end with Jesus ascending into heaven.

Luke's gospel concludes that way and the book of Acts begins that way, but Matthew actually does not finish with the ascension of Jesus into heaven.

Again, His earthly ministry begins with calling His first disciples here in Galilee and it ends with Him addressing

His disciples there in Galilee in Matthew 28. I don't know why Matthew didn't write about Jesus' ascension into heaven.

I don't know why he left it up to Luke to write about that twice. In the gospel of Luke and at the beginning of the book of Acts, but nevertheless, this is how

Matthew begins and concludes the earthly ministry of Jesus. Here in Matthew chapter 4, once again, verses 14 through 16 say,

So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the

Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

All four parts of Galilee, of the Galilean area, are described here. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the way of the sea, which was right around the western side of the

Sea of Galilee, beyond the Jordan, which was the Sea of Galilee on the eastern side, and Galilee of the

Gentiles, which is to the north and east of Galilee. All of those regions of Galilee described there in that particular passage in Isaiah, which

Matthew cites to show a fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus even begins his earthly ministry there.

This place that was desolate, that was nothing, it's even described as a place that's in the shadow of death.

I mean, how desolate does a place have to be for you to describe it that way? And yet,

Isaiah says, this is the place where a light is going to shine. This is the place where Christ himself is going to come and begin his ministry, the

Son of God. It will be in this region. Those who dwelled in darkness, those who were in the shadow of death, they have seen a great light.

On them a light has dawned. And this is the gospel, the message of Christ being preached to them, the light who has come into the world.

The gospel was preached by Jesus first here in Galilee. And even today we understand that those who do not have the message of Christ otherwise dwell in darkness.

But those who know the gospel, we are called the children of light. Ephesians 5 .8

says, At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

Lord. So walk as children of light. In 1 John 1, 5 -7 we read,

This is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his

Son cleanses us from all sin. What is the gospel that we have heard proclaimed and has brought us from darkness into light?

In Matthew 4 .17 we see the summary of this gospel message in these words, Jesus said,

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I don't know if you have ever seen a soapbox preacher before or a guy standing on a street corner who is preaching and proclaiming as people walk by, but I say to you, we should not consider the announcement by Jesus as being any different than that.

When we see a soapbox preacher out there, we should not have the mindset of, Oh, that guy, man, he just needs to quiet down.

That's not the way you win souls. That's exactly what Jesus did.

He went to the crowds and he stood up and he proclaimed, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, loud and bold and with authority, that the people may hear it and turn from their sin and trust in God.

What does this statement mean? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Let me give you three things that this message proclaims. Arrival, action, and authority.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It announces an arrival, it calls to action, and it declares authority.

So first of all, arrival. The king is here, proclaiming the message of his kingdom.

Again, these are the exact words that John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3 .2. All that John proclaimed was about Jesus and it was fulfilled by Jesus.

John was not just a madman yelling in the wilderness. He was prophesying the coming of the

Messiah. And John the Baptist spoke the words that God told him to speak.

John the Baptist was certainly well -versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. We see him quoting Old Testament passages, but he even proclaimed that which

God told him to say. And in John's Gospel, John the Baptist makes that point.

It was the Lord himself who told him to say what he said. And it was the Lord who revealed to him who the

Messiah would be. And so when Jesus passes by, according to John's Gospel, John the

Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the

Baptist was the forerunner to the king. He was the herald who preceded the king, announcing that the king was coming.

When Jesus arrived, preaching the same words as John the Baptist, he verified and authenticated everything that John said.

Jesus came announcing the same thing as if to say, The king is here. So John the Baptist was saying,

The king is coming. And Jesus shows up to say, The king is here. So first of all, we have the announcement of an arrival.

Secondly, a call to action. This message is more than an announcement.

It is a call to action. We see right here at the very start of this proclamation what word?

Repent. Turn from your sin and rebellion that you have committed against God.

To love God is to have such a reverence for Him that you turn from your sin and you give honor to Him.

These words are the sum and substance of all of Jesus' preaching.

He came to preach repentance and the kingdom of God. One does not enter the kingdom of God if they do not turn from their sin and follow

Jesus. I shared with you when we were going through Galatians that the command to repent and believe, as Jesus says in Mark 1 15, is a command to turn from something and to something else.

You don't just turn away from doing sin. You turn to Christ who forgives you of sin and cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

Your desire becomes Christ instead of your sin. He is the object of your affection rather than yourself being the object of your affection.

If you do not turn to Jesus, then you haven't actually turned away from anything at all.

You're just kind of shuffling sins around. You might turn from one sin, but unless you turn to Jesus, you're just turning to another sin.

You can, by strength of your own will or by your own volition, is the word that we often use to describe this.

You can, by your own volition, turn away from intoxication to drugs and alcohol.

But unless you turn to Jesus and are fully satisfied in Him, you're just going to find something else to give you a different high.

You can, by your own volition, turn away from cheating on your spouse.

But unless you turn to Jesus to be forgiven and made new, to be reconciled, you may just go find someone different to cheat with.

Or you may never reconcile with your spouse or with God, and you think that you're in good standing as long as you're not out having an affair.

You can, by strength of your own will, by your own volition, you can change your attitude, how you react to your circumstances.

You can be less angry. You can decide, I'm going to be more cheerful.

You can complain less. You can be more content with what you have, and you can have a better outlook on life.

But unless you turn to Jesus and hope and trust in Him, you're just popping a chill pill on your way to hell.

I hate to break it to you, but you cannot smile your way into heaven. A cheery disposition is not what saves a person from their sins.

Jesus saves you from your sins. You can, by your own volition, stop doing a lot of the things that God calls sin.

But unless you turn to Jesus and His righteousness, it's just self -righteousness.

You're proclaiming your own glory and your own goodness apart from God instead of weeping in your wretchedness and giving all the glory to God, who alone is good.

The gospel demands action. Turn from your sin and follow Jesus.

Don't do the sin anymore. Live as your king calls you to live. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now, whenever we talk about this, whenever we get to this discussion of holiness and that we are called to leave a life of sin and walk in a manner of holiness, more often than not,

I will hear an excuse or I will hear some sort of caveat added to this.

Yeah, but we can't really be perfect, right? I mean, we can't really walk in sinlessness.

We're going to make mistakes. We're going to fall and stumble sometimes. I'm willing to let you say that if what you're looking for is the grace of God as you struggle and fight and toil with the passions of your flesh.

But if you're saying that to make excuses for your sin, if you're saying, but we're not ever really going to be perfect, we're always going to struggle with sin, if you're saying that so that you can sin occasionally thinking that God is going to be okay with it, be it far from you to think such a thing.

Don't give yourself allowances for your sin. Paul states plainly in Colossians 3, 5, put to death, put it to death what is earthly in you.

John Owen, one of his most famous quotes, be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Don't give any place for it. It's wonderful to know the grace of God that is demonstrated for us in 1

John 1, 9 that says if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But by no means, my brothers and sisters, should we be using that verse as an excuse or a reason to do sin, thinking, hey,

God is just going to forgive me for it anyway. Is your desire God?

Or are you still looking for reasons and excuses to have the things in this world that you want, even if it's sin against God?

Why? Because, hey, God will just forgive me for it anyway. As we've been talking about in our

Sunday school class and we come back to this over and over again going through 1 Peter, the statement that is made in 1

Peter 1, be holy for I am holy. It's on the front of your bulletin this morning.

Be holy for I am holy. We imitate the character of Christ.

Following Jesus means we do what Jesus did. Be holy as He is holy.

Give no place for your sin. Repent. Follow the call to action.

And repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That brings us to the third proclamation. We have arrival.

We have action. Finally, we have the declaration of authority. The kingdom of heaven is at hand is an authoritative statement.

It is the message of the kingdom, and this comes from the mouth of the king. At the end of Matthew, in Matthew 28, 18,

Jesus will say, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

To say that the kingdom is at hand means that the kingdom has not yet fully come.

But given that the announcement of the kingdom follows the call to repent, it means that the kingdom is coming soon.

And for those who do not know Jesus, this is not an announcement of a coming attraction.

My friends, this is a warning of impending doom. Say that Disney decided to build a magic kingdom in Kansas City, right in the middle of the

U .S. We've got them on opposite coasts, California, Florida. Now they want to do one right in the middle of the country.

So they would probably do a saturation mailing within like a 150 -mile radius. Every home within that distance of Kansas City, and we're about 120 miles from there, we would receive a flyer in the mail, maybe with special coupons,

Disney's new magic kingdom coming to Kansas City in 2022. People would start making reservations.

They'd start making plans. They'd call up and say, Hey, how can I get a spot to the new magic kingdom?

Even though it's two years away. If you went to the magic kingdom, you might have a lot of fun and you'll spend a lot of money.

But if you did not go to the magic kingdom, how would your life be any different?

It's not a real kingdom. It's a theme park. But the kingdom of God is a real kingdom.

It is the supreme kingdom. What did it mean to announce that the kingdom is coming?

It meant that the kingdom was coming to conquer and to reign. Everyone would be subject to the rule of the king.

And if you did not bow the knee and honor the king, you would be treated as enemies of the kingdom.

And my friends, when you try to raise yourself against the ultimate supreme kingdom and authority of heaven, you will not win that battle.

According to the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, those who even refuse to wear the garments that the king requires of his guests will be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In verse 14, Jesus says, For many are called, but few are chosen.

The gospel is not an open -ended invitation. It is not a flyer in the mail.

It is not a coupon or a get -out -of -hell free card. I've used that illustration many times in my sermons, and my kids are just beginning to understand the metaphor because they enjoy playing

Monopoly. So we'll play Monopoly together, and you always love that community chess card when it comes up.

Get out of jail free! I'm holding on to that one because when I get thrown in jail, I can just play this card and get out.

Many of us treat saying that prayer of salvation as a get -out -of -hell free card.

As long as we've prayed it, we've stamped our ticket, and we're sure that when that day rolls around, all we've got to do is flash that card and say,

Hey, I'm good. But the Apostle Paul says in Romans 11, Who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid?

God owes you nothing. You don't have a card that somehow trumps the authority and the judgment of God.

We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and in no other way.

This message of the gospel, this announcement of the kingdom, demands a response. Every word from the mouth of the king is spoken with authority.

Those who have heard the voice of the king and are convicted in heart will turn from their rebellion, and they will follow him.

But those who do not turn, they will be destroyed. Like my professor said,

John the Baptist had the message of turn or burn. Jesus had the message of live or love. No, Jesus was preaching turn or burn as well.

I've heard Stephen Lawson say, There was never a greater fire and brimstone preacher than Jesus himself.

It's not just those Baptist preachers on Sunday morning slamming their pulpits. It's Jesus himself.

Turn. Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Judgment is coming.

Jesus said in John 10, 26 through 30, You do not believe because you are not among My sheep.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow

Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

I and the Father are one. This statement, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, this is an everlasting gospel.

It was proclaimed before Jesus came, and it continues to be proclaimed as He sits on high enthroned in heaven.

Those who believe in the everlasting gospel will have everlasting life. We are saved from the kingdom of darkness, which is perishing and coming under judgment, and we are saved into the kingdom of light, which is eternal and coming in glory.

Yes, this message is frightening to those who do not believe. But to those who do believe, this is a wonderful, glorious message.

It doesn't need dressing up. It doesn't need a laser light show.

It does not need a fog machine. Amen, Raymond? It doesn't need popular culture to be appealing.

This message of the gospel attracts everyone who believes it. Esteemed theologian

Matthew Henry said, Ministers must not be ambitious of broaching new opinions, framing new schemes, or coining new expressions, but must content themselves with plain, practical things, with the word that is nigh us, even in our mouth and in our heart.

We need not go up to heaven, nor down to the deep, for matter or language in our preaching.

As John prepared Christ's way, so Christ prepared His own and made way for the further discoveries

He designed with the doctrine of repentance. As followers of Jesus, as subjects in His kingdom, we must obey the commands of the

King. You have heard me say many times that we are saved by grace through faith, as I've said it even in this sermon.

And that is certainly true. We are justified by faith, not by our works.

You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And that's it. That's all there is to it.

But do not hear me say that obedience is not important. The Christian life is a life of obedience.

You will demonstrate that you are a child of the kingdom of God when you obey the word of God.

In John 14, 15, Jesus said, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Verse 21,

Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves

Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. John 15, 10 through 11,

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept

My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

The first commandment of the kingdom, according to this announcement by Jesus Himself, is to repent.

So do that. Follow in the way of the kingdom of God.

Do not follow in the way of the kingdom of this fallen world. You must not be like the world, even in your thinking.

If you call yourself a Christian, but you also believe a boy can call himself a girl, a gay couple can call themselves married, and an unborn baby can be called something other than a person, you can stop calling yourself a

Christian because you have not heard the call of Christ to repent. Again, we read in 1

Peter 1, 13 through 19, Therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober -minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written,

You shall be holy for I am holy. Today in our 1 Peter class, we were in 1

Peter 3, starting in verse 8. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing.

For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the

Lord is against those who do evil. So as Christians, then, as we put these things into effect, or as I said to the class this morning, holiness shows.

So what does it show? No longer have hatred or bitterness in your heart, but love as Christ has loved us.

Do not lust for another person, but have the mind of Christ. Do not speak filthy words, but let the transformation of a new heart that is in Christ Jesus be reflected in your language.

For Jesus said, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Do not lie or gossip or speak disparagingly of others, but encourage one another and speak the truth of Christ in love.

Do not covet or desire things that aren't yours, or steal things that don't belong to you, but be content with what the

Lord has given you and long instead for the coming of Christ's kingdom. These are the actions of those who follow him.

Walk in the gospel of Christ. So this is the message of the kingdom.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is the announcement of an arrival. It is a call to action.

It is a declaration of authority. And if we are submissive to Christ our

King, let us understand what this means and desire to obey it. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now, the next two sections of our reading today here in Matthew 4 go much more quickly. But we read these in light of what we have just considered.

Look at verses 18 -22. While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers,

Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, there were two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother.

These are the brothers that we would refer to as the sons of thunder. They were in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

Jesus called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed

Jesus. Consider these words that Jesus had spoken to them. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

The second direct quote that we have from Jesus in our reading today. Just as with the announcement of the kingdom, we have those same qualities of repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We have it also here, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. We have the arrival of the king, the call to action, and the submission to authority.

This call to the first disciples, Jesus calling his first disciples.

This is still the same calling that Jesus makes to his disciples even now. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are his disciples.

The word disciple means learner. We'll talk about that again as we get to the Sermon on the Mount next week, for that's the way that the

Sermon on the Mount begins. Jesus sat down on a mountain, his disciples came to him. The learners, the ones who wanted to hear him speak, they were at the feet of the teacher.

And so we likewise, if we call ourselves disciples of Jesus, we desire to follow what he teaches.

We desire to hear his word and obey it. Jesus said in John 8, 31 through 32, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And now as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, that's the way Paul describes himself in 2

Corinthians 5. He is now an ambassador of the kingdom, previously an enemy of the kingdom, but now an ambassador, an announcement on behalf of the king.

As ambassadors for his kingdom, we have likewise been called to preach the gospel.

John the Baptist preached it as a forerunner to Christ. Jesus came, he preached repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and now he's called his disciples to do the same.

So we are calling to attention this message, the gospel of the kingdom.

And when we do this, when we preach this message, we become fishers of men.

So here we see the individual persons whom Jesus called, the first individuals. And in the next section, verses 23 through 25, we see the great crowds that Jesus ministered to.

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 from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the

Jordan. Now, I'm content with reading this rather quickly and just briefing over it because what we will get to later on as we go through Matthew, we will get more specifics about some of those miracles that Jesus performed, and we will read of some of those actual accounts.

This that Matthew is presenting for us here, this is a broad overview of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.

Where do you think that he will go from here? He's talking about all these miraculous signs, so you might be tempted to want to hear about the miracles.

He healed every disease, he healed every affliction, and he cast out demons, and he made the lame get up and walk.

Tell me more about that. That sounds amazing. We want to hear a good story.

We don't want to go here preaching for an hour, right? But that's not where Matthew goes.

He doesn't go to the narrative. He doesn't go to the story next. He doesn't go to talking about all these miracles that Jesus performed.

Where does he go next? Preaching the Sermon on the

Mount. Three straight chapters of it, in fact. Why?

Because that's the reason Jesus came. He came to preach the message of the kingdom and give his life as a ransom for many.

He did not come to perform miracles. The miracles that he did authenticated the authority by which he declared the things that he declared.

But they were not the purpose of his mission. And he would heal people out of love and sympathy and affection for them.

But it was not the main purpose of his mission. Jesus came to save us from the wrath of God.

And how is it that we are saved? By believing the words of Jesus. So the words are what's most important here.

Romans 10, 17, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. In Mark 1,

Jesus performed many miracles, and the people began coming to him in droves.

So he separated himself from them, and he went to a desolate place to pray. The next morning, the disciples went looking for him, and when they found him, they said,

Hey, everyone's looking for you. Where have you been? And Jesus replied,

Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why

I came out, not to do great signs and wonders.

When the Pharisees demanded that Jesus do such a thing, he says a wicked and evil generation asked for a sign or a wonder.

But no sign is going to be given to this generation except for the sign of Jonah, which meant Jesus was going to die, be buried for three days, and come back alive.

That's the sign. So as I said, Jesus was the greatest preacher who ever lived.

He came to preach. He had the Holy Spirit of God, for he was God himself.

No one could have been more effective than Jesus was. There are great preachers today, preachers that I've recommended to you, that I would say we should even emulate and imitate their ministry.

But one of the things that makes those preachers great whenever I direct you to a person like that is because they desire to imitate

Jesus. So we might have real world earthly examples of what it means to live as Jesus lived.

He is ultimately who we aspire to be like. 1 Corinthians 11 1, the Apostle Paul said,

Imitate me as I am of Christ. So as a preacher,

I desire to imitate the preacher, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Obey his preaching, and you will live.

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.