Our Heavenly Father, as we come before your word,
would you give us the ears to hear what you have to say to us?
Help us to see the Lord Jesus and all that he has come to do.
Help us to turn our eyes and our hearts to you.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, good morning.
It's great to be here with you and this is why I want to ask by asking you a question.
If you were to ask your neighbor or your friend or your coworker,
what is the single most frightening problem that the world faces today?
What would they say? What would you say?
Maybe you'd say it's the rising cost of living, the inequality of wealth,
the threat of war, global warming, or just physical and mental health.
Now the problem with this question is that they're all kind of true, aren't they?
They're all real and very significant problems that the world faces today.
But the thing about that is that it's like treating cancer.
It can always come back.
It's in part why we always fear cancer, because you can treat as much as you can see,
but you never quite know when it will reappear.
In the same way, even though we deal with these issues that we've thought about earlier,
the rising living costs, inequality, wars, global warming, we can fix all those things,
but they just keep coming back in one way or another.
Now the problem lies much deeper,
and that's why we must consider the problem that the Bible puts before us,
the problem of sin and Satan's grip over humanity.
Because as you read the Old Testament part of the Bible,
what we see repeatedly is that humanity could never overcome him.
They kept falling for his liars, receiving what he is tempting them to do
time and time again in the Old Testament and even now.
And it's because of Satan's deception that we see the results of sin in the world today,
and indeed even in ourselves,
because this is the result of rejecting God and choosing our own ways.
This is the consequence of rebelling against a holy, perfect God.
But this morning I hope that we'll see, as we look in this passage in Matthew,
as we continue this series in Matthew, I hope that we'll see that there is hope.
It's not all lost.
Even though we are guilty of sin, even though we have rejected him,
we can still have hope because of this one man, Jesus.
And that's what we're going to be exploring this morning.
So if you have your Bibles with you, please keep it open.
We're going to work through three parts of this sermon.
So first section from verses 12 to 17, what we see is the light has dawned.
Let me read it again.
When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.
Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali,
to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah,
land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death.
A light has dawned.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
So immediately we'll put into Matthew's Gospel, we see Jesus reacting to John the Baptist's imprisonment.
He was the forerunner for Jesus. He said, prepare the way for the king.
And now he's put into prison. And what does Jesus do?
Well, he withdraws to Galilee.
It's like a starting pistol goes off and you see the signal for Jesus to go and he kind of disappears, doesn't he?
He withdraws to Galilee.
But why?
Well, according to verse 14, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah.
That's why he withdrew.
But to understand why Jesus is reacting in this way,
we have to understand what the prophecy that Jesus is fulfilling, right?
What was the promise that was made in the past
that Matthew, the writer of this Gospel, that he sees Jesus now completing?
Well, as Chess has mentioned, it is a reference to the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah,
and it is taken from Isaiah chapter nine.
One of the striking things of Isaiah is the chapter before that is a very, very dark chapter.
Well, even as we look throughout the history of the Old Testament, the people of Israel who were,
they were special people for God, God chose them himself, blessed them, led them.
And here is Isaiah. He's a prophet.
He's a spokesperson for God to the people.
That was his role.
He told them about what was going to happen as a result of what they did.
And he warned them and he called them to take action lest this happens.
So let me paint a scene of chapter nine.
Chapter nine talks about hope, but in chapter eight,
let me paint the picture of where the people of Israel are at at this point.
We have the people of Israel, God's chosen special people of God.
He blessed them. He cared for them.
A real rags to riches story because they were obedient to God.
And as a result, the nation flourished.
It prospered under kings such as David and Solomon.
And God continued to provide for them and care for them.
But over time, when King Solomon passed away, when King David died,
when new kings came in, they didn't want to follow God.
They turned their backs on him. They rejected God.
And they worked their own ways.
Over and over, the people, God's special people, rejected God.
And Isaiah comes and warns them of judgment that is about to come before them
because of their actions.
And he says a force called the Assyrians are going to come
and they will wipe you out.
And so you have this huge force, the Assyrians, marching into Israel.
And this is what eventually happens.
The Assyrians come into Israel in their chosen and their promised land.
And they are taken out.
They are torn away from the land of God,
dragged into slavery and captivity.
And it is at this point of darkness,
this point of hopelessness that the shadow of death is cast on all the people.
And that's where Isaiah 9 comes in.
That's when this prophecy of hope comes in.
Now you can read about these stories in 2 Kings 15.
These are real stories that have happened in the history of Israel.
And then the prophecy is in Isaiah 8 and 9.
You can have a read because they are really such a devastating story.
And yet that is our story that we're part of.
But thank God that it didn't stop there.
Isaiah points in chapter 9, he tells them that there is a promise of hope.
There is a time where there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress.
A great light will come upon the people.
But now it's not just Israel.
Now it's a hope that comes to the Galilee of the Gentiles.
And now this is a place in Israel that has a significant portion of not just Israelites,
but people from all other nations, so the Gentiles.
And so this hope God promises to all people now.
In the midst of that darkness there is hope.
A great light has dawned, Isaiah says.
But what is this hope? What is this great light?
How is this prophecy being fulfilled?
Well, look back in Matthew if you would.
And after quoting this prophecy in Isaiah 9, verse 17, Matthew writes,
From that time on, Jesus began to preach,
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
When we had our first daughter Micah,
one of the many things we had to buy when you have your first child is a blackout screen.
I don't know if you've ever had one of those, like blackout curtains.
It's similar to that.
It was one of those amazing tools where it completely blackens out the room.
There's no light at all, which was excellent because we lived underneath a street light,
so it was always just glaringly bright.
And with a newborn, that was very problematic.
And so when we installed it, it was like night and day.
It was completely black.
You couldn't even see your hand. You couldn't see anything.
You had to grasp around to see where you were.
And every now and then when you have the lights on and you're waking up,
you're trying to find the light switch.
Maybe you've experienced this, but once you hit that light switch from being in pure darkness,
it's actually pretty blinding.
And you have no choice but to kind of flinch in reaction.
It's kind of like when you walk out of a cinema in the daytime,
and as you head to the car park, you flinch because the light is so bright.
And it's that brightness that Jesus speaks these words.
In that bright light, that flinchingly light, Jesus says, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
You see, if heaven, if the kingdom of heaven is all about healing the symptoms of death,
whether it's fixing the problems of inequality,
whether it's about fixing the health of the people,
if that's what it's all about, why is Jesus calling us to repent?
What does repentance have to do with the kingdom of heaven?
Well, firstly, surely you have to understand what repentance means.
And Chester has helpfully explored it earlier in looking at the Westminster Confession,
because simply it is turning away from something completely.
It's a transformation of your outlook on something and a completely new way of seeing.
But what is it that Jesus is calling us to turn away from?
Well, if Jesus is here to fix the problem of the world, why do we have to turn away from everything, anything?
Surely he could just fix the problem, and that's right, he can.
That's exactly what he's doing by calling us to repent.
Because you see, the problem isn't there are external things happening.
No, no, it's internal.
Because we've rejected God.
Because we were overcome.
We were engulfed in darkness.
We were living a life in the darkness.
Satan had us ensnared in sin.
Satan led us to rebel against God, and there was no way out.
No human could ever overcome him, and we see it over and over again in the Old Testament and even today.
No human could overcome what Satan had done.
And so we face the judgment that is to come, the judgment due for this rebellion.
And just how Israel faced certain destruction from the Assyrians, we too face destruction because of our sin against God.
And that's where this prophecy comes in.
But now the light has come.
This light now calls us out of darkness.
Repent.
Turn away from living in the darkness.
Stop living in rejection of God.
Stop living in rebellion to God.
Here is this great light that takes on the judgment of God that we deserve, nailing it on his body on the cross.
This is why it's so amazing as we looked at, as Michael looked at last week when you see Jesus overcoming Satan.
It's amazing because he's doing something that no one ever could.
Here now is a man who could defeat Satan.
And that's why he calls us to repent.
Because the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Because now there is hope.
There is rescue.
There is a Savior and his name is Jesus.
He is the one who can and has overcome Satan and the darkness.
All the other issues of the world are byproducts of sin.
And we can't fix them unless we fix that sinful, rebellious heart problem that we all have.
That's the root of the problem.
That's why even if we put a bandaid on cancer, it still comes back.
But if you want to walk in the light, if you want to come to the light, you must walk towards it.
That's what it means to repent, to turn away from, to make a radical change.
No longer are you going to walk into darkness, but instead walk towards the light.
Instead of rejecting or rebelling against God, you follow him.
You follow Jesus who is the light.
Because this is the light that has dawned upon the world.
Just as God promised the Israelites that there is hope, here Jesus says it is fulfilled in me.
Now how do we respond to this man who could push away the darkness?
How do we respond to the one who can overcome Satan and his snares?
Well, we repent, tell me.
We repent and we follow him.
So let me ask you that.
Have you repented of sin?
Have you repented from going your own ways instead of following Jesus?
Because we were once captives of Satan. We were enslaved to him.
But now this light has come to free you and me from Satan's grasp.
And so we live continually repenting, continuing living in the light because the light has dawned.
And as this great light calls people to himself, well we need to look at how he's actually going to do that.
How does this light call people to himself?
Well that's our next section in verses 18 to 22.
Have a look with me in verse 18.
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.
They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen.
Come and follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.
At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.
Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Before I worked at the church, I worked as a tax accountant.
And what I did, I had a boss who oversaw all the jobs that I did.
And often he would give feedback, but not directly.
He would give it to the receptionist who would pass it on to me.
Now when I got that feedback, it was very tempting to go, actually, I don't want your feedback.
You're a receptionist, I'm actually an accountant.
But I couldn't, could I?
Because the feedback that I was getting wasn't actually from the receptionist, was it?
No, it was from the boss who had the authority to give me feedback.
And might I suggest not doing that because it's not a good idea.
It's a bad practice to tell the receptionist not to give you feedback.
Always welcoming.
But when we're considering this light that's coming into the world,
when we consider the good news of Jesus that's been passed across generations,
and we think about how, how is it that Jesus is still calling people to himself thousands of years later?
I mean, he's not here with us, is he?
Well, let's have a look at our passage.
And the first thing we see is Jesus approaching the fishermen, Peter and Andrew.
And what are they doing in verse 18?
They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
I don't know about you, but that sounds like a strange statement, doesn't it?
It's a bit like saying, Sean was driving because he was a driver.
Or perhaps Sean was sharpening his knife, for he was a chef.
You think, okay, doesn't add much.
But actually, it's quite important to note this, particularly because of the way they respond in verse 20.
In verse 20, Jesus calls them to follow him, and he will make them fish for people.
And verse 20 says, at once they left their nets and followed him.
Do you notice the urgency that Matthew puts on the call?
They were working, they heard the call from Jesus, and they left.
How different would it be if, say for example, they were kind of sleeping on the shore and their father was doing all the work,
and then Jesus calls them, and they're like, yep, we're good to go.
How different would it be if they were writing their CVs, not that they had CVs back then,
but they were preparing to leave their job.
What does that tell you about their work?
Well, it tells you that they were already kind of looking for a way out.
But that's not what's happening in this text, is it?
No, no, they're preparing their nets, they're preparing for their normal duties.
They were committed in doing their jobs.
And yet, when they heard the demand of Jesus to come and follow him, they dropped it.
It was a complete abrupt, a complete change of lifestyles, leaving their work, and even leaving their family.
But this is what you do when someone with all authority commands you to do something.
Like when a king commands his subjects, he's not looking on a debate about whether this is a good idea or not.
No, you drop your nets and you follow.
And here, what we see particularly is the disciples are being particularly called in this section.
This is Jesus calling his disciples. But later in Matthew 28, let me read to you verses 18.
This is at the end of the letter, it says this in Matthew 28.
Then Jesus came to them, and this is the 11 disciples, and he said,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
Do you see that? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.
And that's why these men, therefore, go and make disciples.
Here, the mission of bringing the light into the darkened world is now done by Jesus' disciples
to reach all the nations of the world, not just to Israel, the world.
And that includes you and me.
But surely the Lord is, Jesus is with us always.
You see, by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is with us.
Jesus is carrying on his mission through the church, through you and through me.
So what have we seen so far in Matthew?
Well, in this section, we've seen that a great light has dawned.
It has come upon this world, illuminating the darkness, and it has come through his followers,
through the followers of Jesus, calling people to repent and to follow Jesus.
And so let me close.
In this last section, we look at the light shining.
So verses 23, back in Matthew chapter 4.
Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom
and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought him all who were ill with various diseases,
those suffering pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.
Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him.
As you see here, what we see is the kingdom of heaven coming near.
What we see is the natural effects of the kingdom of heaven, the natural effects of light shining in the darkness,
shining brightly throughout Galilee.
Look at it. Look at what he's doing.
He's teaching, preaching, and healing every disease, every sickness.
His name spreading all over Syria.
All who are ill are healed. All who are suffering pain are healed.
All who are possessed are freed.
This is a picture of the new creation, where there is no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering, no more sadness.
Isn't this what the kingdom of heaven is like?
This is the effect of the light that has come upon the world.
Here is an image of the Lord Jesus piercing through the brokenness of sin.
Piercing through the darkness of Galilee.
The curse and the disease of sin now gone.
It is holistic. It is complete.
And it is the answer to the greatest problem of humanity.
For the devil had us ensnared to death.
That's why there is suffering in the world. That's why there's brokenness in the world.
But now it's pushed back.
In Jesus the curse has been removed.
Taken on the cross of Christ.
And so, brothers and sisters, I hope that you're relieved.
I hope that you're encouraged by this great momentous news.
Because the darkness is gone.
Satan cannot hold us before God and demand judgment.
Penalty, retribution for sin.
Satan can't do that anymore.
Like finding the cure to cancer.
Like finding the solution to climate change.
Finding the answer to the most frightening problem of the human race.
How do we respond to this?
With joy and with hope.
May this be the hope that spurs you on as you follow King Jesus.
May we look forward and long for the coming of the new creation.
When all things are made right.
Because this is the great light that has dawned upon the world.
Calling followers to repent and follow Jesus.
For the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Would you pray with me?
Our Father in heaven,
we give you thanks for the great light that is Jesus.
That despite our rejection, despite our rebellion from you,
you still send your son Jesus into the world.
To bring about the kingdom of heaven to us.
Such is your great love for us.
Father, would you work in our hearts that we would see you.
See your love and your grace in the Lord Jesus.
Would you change our hearts?
Would you help us to see sin as detestable, as evil as it is?
Lord, would you help us to put sin to death?
Help us to turn away from the ways that we have rejected you.
And help us to rejoice in living a life for you.
For your honor, for your glory.
Help us to repent and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even in our sin, Lord, we thank you that you have included us in your great salvation plan.
And so we ask that you would help us to then be bold.
Not because of anything that we do, but because of the authority you have bestowed upon us.
We ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.