Last week we began to look at a section of an account
of Jesus life in the Bible, called the gospel of Matthew, as a man named John
the Baptist began to proclaim the message “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is
at Hand”. If John the baptizer was communicating this message in the language
that we use in our culture today, his message would sound something like this
“Repent, recognize and feel remorse for how you are living life. Change your
attitude and your mind when it comes to the trajectory of your life that is
moving away from God and turn back to God, because God is coming soon. The
kingdom of God is approaching and will be here soon”.
A natural question for those listening to John’s
message would be “is John the Messiah, the rescuer, the redeemer”? John denied
that he was the Messiah. And to demonstrate that he was not God’s promised
Messiah, John contrasted the baptism that he was providing with the baptism
that will come when the kingdom of Heaven appeared through the Messiah. John
explained that while the water baptism he was providing was an external sign,
the baptism of the Holy Spirit that will come for those who enter into the
kingdom of heaven will be internal. For those who refuse the kingdom of heaven,
John explained that their baptism will be of fire.
Matthew then gave us a front row seat to the encounter
that the messenger of the kingdom of Heaven had with the kingdom of Heaven in
Matthew 3:13-17, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus told John that He needed to
be baptized not because Jesus had ever sinned; Jesus wanted to be baptized
because He wanted to identify Himself with sinful people, even though He never
sinned.
This act was Jesus way of identifying Himself with us
so that He could allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and
sinful life so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus
perfect life. Matthew then recorded God the Father’s response to Jesus desire
to identify with rebellious humanity as all three members of the Trinity were
present as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus to empower Him to accomplish His
mission of revealing the kingdom of Heaven as God the Father proclaimed “this
is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. And a little later in Matthew’s account,
we see Jesus uttering a familiar message, beginning in Matthew 4:17. Let’s look
at it together:
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand."
Sound familiar? Matthew tells us that Jesus began to
communicate the same message that John the baptizer began. “Repent, recognize
and feel remorse for how you are living life. Change your attitude and your
mind when it comes to the trajectory of your life that is moving away from God
and turn back to God, because God is coming soon. The kingdom of Heaven is
approaching and will be here soon”. We
then see Jesus begin to call others to respond to His message. We see the call
and the response in verses 18-22:
Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon
who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for
they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I
will make you fishers of men." 20 Immediately they left their
nets and followed Him. 21 Going on from there He saw two other
brothers, James the son of
Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets; and He called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat
and their father, and followed Him.
Matthew tells us that Jesus saw four fishermen and
invited them to be a part of the kingdom of Heaven and to embrace and be a part
of a kingdom mission. And these four men immediately left their nets and
followed Him. Now I don’t know about you, but that just seems strange, doesn’t
it? I mean, don’t’ you think it would be weird to just leave everything behind
to follow a guy you just met? So what is going on here? In another account of
Jesus life, the gospel of Luke, Luke gives us further insight into what
happened. So let’s discover what happened in Luke 5:1-10:
Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening
to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and
He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten
out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of
the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the
land. And He sat down and began teaching
the people from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said
to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a
catch." 5 Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard
all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets." 6 When they had done
this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they
signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them.
And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8
But when Simon Peter saw that,
he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord!" 9 For amazement had seized him and all his
companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and
so also were James and John,
sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon,
"Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." 11
When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed
Him.
Luke tells us that Jesus asked if He could use their
boat as a stage to speak from. After speaking, Jesus performed a miraculous act
by filling their nets with fish. Peter, seeing what had happened, responded to
Jesus by recognizing that the trajectory of His life needed to change. Jesus
responded to Peter’s recognition by inviting Him to be a part of the kingdom of
Heaven. And Jesus responded to Peter’s recognition by inviting Him to be a part
of His kingdom mission to invite others to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.
And it is here that we discover a timeless truth when
it comes to the kingdom of heaven. And that timeless truth is this: The kingdom of Heaven calls for repentant followers. Just as it was for the crowds that came to
listen to John the Baptizer; just as it was for the crowds that came to listen
to Jesus; just as it was for Peter and his fisherman friends, the kingdom of
Heaven calls for repentant followers.
The timeless reality is that the kingdom of Heaven
does not call perfect people. Instead, the kingdom of heaven calls for flawed,
fallen, and broken people who recognize and feel remorse for how they are
living life. The kingdom of Heaven calls people who desire to change the
trajectory of their life that is moving away from God back towards God.
And Jesus call to be a part of the kingdom of Heaven
is always the same- “follow me”. And when we respond to Jesus call to follow
Him by believing, trusting and following Him as Lord and Leader, we receive the
forgiveness of sin and experience the relationship with God that we were
created for as a part of the kingdom of Heaven.
Now you may be wondering “well what is the kingdom of
heaven like”? That is a great question and we will spend the rest of this
series unpacking the answer to that question. Throughout this series, we simply
want you to ask the question “am I a part of the kingdom of Heaven”.
Because the timeless reality is that the kingdom of
heaven calls for repentant followers...
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