Today we continue with our study of the first few chapters of Matthew’s gospel, looking today at the beginning of Jesus’ public Ministry. Remember that Jesus has been baptised by John in the River Jordan, probably somewhere near Jerusalem. There he’s heard God’s voice affirming his identity as God’s beloved Son. Almost immediately, though, Jesus has been led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. In a sense this is the first major test of his calling and ministry, to prove that he’s not just the beloved Son, but also the obedient servant of the Lord. Having passed the test, Jesus returns and hearing that John has been put into prison, begins his own ministry. The forerunner’s role is finished. Now is the time for the Messiah to begin on his path to victory.
But notice where he begins. He’s just been baptised near Jerusalem, near the centre of the nation of Israel, but that’s not where he begins his ministry. Instead he returns to Galilee. To the far reaches of the nation of Israel. It’s as though he wants to start on the outside, because that’s where the most needy people are. He wants to make the point that the gospel is for all people irrespective of how close they happen to be to the core group whatever that means. But notice that in returning to Galilee he doesn’t go to Nazareth. He leaves Nazareth and takes up residence in Capernaum. We’re not given any reason for this move. Perhaps he wanted to distance himself from his childhood, from the associations that people might have with him as a little boy. Perhaps Capernaum had a larger population so was a better place to base his ministry. We’re not told. But what we are told is that Matthew has picked up another OT connection. He realises that the great prophecy of Is 9, that told of the birth of a child who would be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, was set in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. So this isn’t just a random change of setting for Jesus. It’s another fulfilment of prophecy.
Jesus is about to begin preaching a message that will bring light to those living in darkness, in the land of the shadow of death. Again we see the hand of God at work, bring his plans to fulfilment in the life of his beloved Son. And so Jesus begins to preach the gospel.
Now I want to spend a few minutes today talking about the gospel. Over the next few months we’ll be thinking in far greater detail about what the gospel is all about, but today I just want us to quickly think about what we understand the gospel message to be. It’s a word we throw around, often without much explanation, just assuming that everyone knows what it means. So right now I want you to turn to the people next to you or in front of you or behind you and spend a couple of minutes asking yourselves the question what is the message of the gospel. See if you can put into one or two sentences a summary of the gospel. Then we’ll see how you’ve gone.
Now let’s look at how Jesus presents the gospel.
His message is simple, isn’t it? He says "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near." So what can we glean from that? First of all, the message of the gospel begins with a call to repentance. Now before we jump to conclusions about what that means let’s think it through. You see, often when we tell someone to repent we have in mind some particular sin. They’ve been disobeying God in some way and we tell them to repent. To stop disobeying and start doing what’s right. Now that’s certainly a legitimate use of the term but I’m not sure it’s what Jesus means here. I think what Jesus has in mind here is much broader in its application. Think about the context in which he speaks. We’ll look at this some more in a moment but the context is the kingdom of heaven. So it’s about submission to the rule of a king. So when he tells them to repent, he isn’t thinking about particular sins. He’s thinking about a whole life focus.
When he calls them to repent, he’s saying that it’s not good enough to think they can run their lives their own way. They need a change of heart. They need to turn back to God and to Jesus. Now notice, by the way, that this bit is not necessarily good news. It seems to me we get ourselves into difficulty whenever we talk about preaching the good news, rather than preaching the gospel, as most of our translations seem to want to do. We mustn’t forget that the gospel is only good news to those who respond to it. To those who reject it it’s only ever bad news.
But secondly the gospel is about the Kingdom of Heaven arriving. God’s Kingdom has come to earth. Now if you’re one who loves the King and has been waiting for him to establish his Kingdom here on earth again, then this is very good news. As we saw when we looked at the birth narratives in Luke last month, there were many in Israel who were longing for this day. Who rejoiced at the thought that Jesus might be the Messiah.
But what does this part of the message mean for people? Well, if a Kingdom has come near, it means a King has come near doesn’t it? And who is that King? Jesus! And if Jesus is the King, what should our response to him be? Well, we should treat him as king. Do what he says. Give him the authority he deserves: authority in our lives, in the life of our church, even perhaps the life of our nation. So this message has both a personal and a corporate implication. But it’s at the personal level that Jesus is operating here, and it’s at the personal level that we’ll mostly find ourselves operating. At the personal level the gospel message is that we need to change from one allegiance to another. We need to stop trying to be lord of our own lives and give Jesus that position, one that’s rightly his in any case. In God’s Kingdom, in the kingdom of heaven what matters is our response to Jesus, the King.
But notice that that isn’t all that Jesus has to say. His proclamation of the Gospel comes into closer focus as he begins to gather a band of followers, disciples who will later become the apostles. His message is still "follow me." But notice that it has another element to it. "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." You see, making Jesus king isn’t just a passive thing. You don’t just enter God’s kingdom like you might join a footy club. It’s a bit more like those people yesterday who took the oath to become Australian citizens. They promised to not just live here in peace, but to obey the laws of the country, to support our government, our way of life, to pay taxes, to contribute in whatever way they can to our national life.
In the Kingdom of heaven, membership implies service. To follow Jesus means to learn to fish for people. Now let’s be clear about this. I don’t mean that we’re all going to be apostles. There were only 12 of those. Nor does it mean we’ll all have the gift of evangelism. Research seems to indicate that only 10% of any congregation will have the gift of an evangelist. But we are all called to share our love of God with others. We all have a part to play in fishing for people. We all have a responsibility to share the saving knowledge of Christ with those who don’t have it. We’ll be studying how we might be able to do that in our Lenten studies starting in a few weeks time when we study the course, "Everyday Evangelism." So if sharing your faith seems too daunting to you, then come to the study and learn how you can do it at your own level and your own speed.
But let’s get back to the passage. Jesus calls the first of his disciples and they immediately leave their nets and follow him. There’s an urgency to the gospel that brooks no delay. And the message of Jesus is so compelling that they don’t even need time to think about it. They just up and go.
Then Jesus begins his teaching program throughout Galilee. What we have here in v 23 is a summary statement that seems to summarise all that goes on between here and the end of ch 9. In fact in 9:35 we get the exact same statement as we have here in v23: "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people." (an inclusio device)
He teaches, first in the synagogues, because that was where God’s word was read faithfully week by week to people who wanted to learn from God. But then he also teaches in other places, like up on the mountain, where we find the greatest sermon on record. And as he goes he releases the healing power of God. Jesus power and authority is shown as he heals every disease and every sickness among the people.
The result is that the news about him spreads to all the surrounding regions. People come not only from Galilee but from Syria, the Decapolis, the East bank (what’s now Jordan), and from beyond the Jordan, presumably further north than the Decapolis. So here we discover another truth about the gospel. That is, that the gospel is for all the nations. The original call of God was to Abraham and his descendants, but now those descendants are discovering the breadth and depth of that call. They’re called not just to be God’s people on their own. They’re called to be a light to lighten the Gentiles. Their destiny, their calling, is to be the light that will attract the nations to God’s kingdom. God’s blessing of Abraham was to be a blessing for all peoples. So we see the universal nature of the gospel coming out. We see the implication of the disciples being called to fish for people expanding to include people of every race and colour and tongue.
Well, that’s about all I’m going to say today. Next week we’ll begin a series on Romans that’ll take us most of the year, with a couple of breaks in between. There we’ll find out more about the nature and content of the gospel. In the light of what we talked about at our AGM last year of the need for more outreach and for more training in evangelism, I want to encourage all of you to be here as often as you can over the next year as we study in some detail the wonderful plan of God for the salvation of the world as it’s revealed in this gospel of the Kingdom. In the meantime, remember that the gospel is centred on Jesus Christ, and that it’s a message that’s meant to be self-perpetuating. That is, that receiving the message carries with it the onus to pass it on to others. Our aim this year is to equip every member of the congregation to pass that message on to those we know who don’t yet know Christ.
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