Temptation
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the Gospel of Matthew. We're in week two. We're going to be in chapter four, verses one through eleven today.
We started off the Gospel of Matthew last week in chapter three, which was the announcement of John the Baptist. Jesus, the kingdom is at hand and introduced this theme that we're going to see throughout the Gospel of Matthew. The kingdom has come and the king has arrived. And I said last week that part one of Jesus beginning his ministry, part one of this beginning of this kingdom was at his baptism. It's a miraculous, powerful, even Trinitarian event. Jesus goes into the water.
The heavens open up. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. The Father looks at the Son and says, This is my Son with whom I am well pleased. It's this big, bold entrance. And I said that was part one. And part two of the beginning of his ministry is this week.
And it starts off in chapter four, verse one. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And it kind of takes a pretty interesting turn, which brings up a whole bunch of questions. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus out to be tempted in the wilderness. Is it possible for Jesus to fall to sin? Is that what's happening here?
How is it possible for God to sin? Why is he beginning this ministry with this period of testing and trials? And the more that we dig into it, you start to see there's some differences between Matthew and Luke and how they tell this story. What is happening? There's some big theological questions, which get easier, because today we've got to dive into the incarnation, which is always easy to understand how Jesus is both God and man. But we'll wade through some of these questions, and what we're going to see as we wrestle with a very serious subject is more of the gospel on display.
And it is a serious subject. This is the temptation of Christ. This is Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by sin, which for many of us brings up a whole bunch of different struggles, a whole bunch of different hurts, and a whole bunch of different fights as we were against sin. So I'd say there are probably two groups of people that will hear this, two groups of people that can approach this text. The first group is a group of us that realize we have a real war with sin. We feel it.
That we feel this daily battle of going to war with the flesh, going to war with the enemy. We have real battles with sin. We feel the shame of sexual sin and temptation. We feel the weight of anxiety and warring against that. Some of you came off a week where you went off the handle in a fit of rage, and you were still reeling from that. We understand this as a people that struggle with jealousy and strife, that messes up relationships we have with one another.
We feel this. The first group of people, we know this. This passage is real for us in a way that others, it's hard for us to see. But we vividly see this. And I want to say today, as we walk through this, this passage brings hope, that it brings good news to you. But there is a second group of people that I'm sure that looks at this, and is going to hear a lot of this and say, okay, I would admit that nobody's perfect.
Everyone has some sin. Okay. But the way that you're talking about this, and the way that you're going about this, seems a little bit dramatic. It seems a little bit over the top. I don't think that what you are going to describe is as big a deal as you're actually making it out to be. I had a professor in seminary that he told us this story of cows being slaughtered at a specific slaughterhouse.
And he said, at this slaughterhouse, they would bring the cows in, and they'd shove them onto a conveyor belt line, and they'd go up the conveyor belt line, and they'd be slaughtered, turn into hamburger meat and steaks. And it scared the cows, and it unnerved them. And that matters because what was happening was, is that the meat was tainted, that a cow that has a bunch of hormones raging through its system because it's scared right before it dies, that's not a good stake. So they devised a system, this gentle system that they bring in the cows. They put them through this nice gentle shoot, and that gentle shoot was meant to kind of make it feel like being next to a mother calf that was comforting.
Then they ease them into the slaughterhouse. They bring them through on this gentle path up the slaughterhouse conveyor belt, and then slowly they're starting to go up to be slaughtered. This cow has got his friend right in front of him. He's like, Carl, how's it going up there? You doing all right? Carl?
Carl? Boom! Done. Turn into steaks and hamburgers. It's a pretty graphic story. And his point was, that is exactly what temptation is like.
It lures you in. It makes you feel comfortable. It gets you with your guard down, and then slowly as it lures you in, it destroys you. And we've seen this. And we feel this. In our culture, the church feels this.
As temptation lures you in. As a click on the internet turns into pervasive use of pornography and affairs. As a simple jealous thought with a friend turns into an absolute false narrative that ends in an explosive argument and parting. Like, we feel this. It lures you in, and then it brings you in to destroy you. That is the reality.
And if you think that all of this is dramatic, you are mistaken, and you are on the conveyor belt, and you cannot see where you are going. And the hope today is that as we walk through this story, you would see the reality of your situation. That temptation is real, and that there is hope for all of us. So let me pray, and then we'll dive in. God, I pray that you would help us see the seriousness of this. That we'd feel it.
God, I pray that you would help us see the good news of this. That as we walk through this story, we would glean from how you battled against the devil. And that ultimately, we would see the hope that comes from this. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so, Jesus is being taken by the Holy Spirit out to the wilderness to be tempted.
We're going to walk through three different temptations that he goes through one by one. But we've got to start off in that first verse. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Alright, two things out the gate. First thing you see is that the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is leading the second member, Jesus, out to be tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Which brings up all kinds of questions.
Like, what? What is happening? Is it even, is it possible for Jesus to fall to sin? I want to say very clearly, temptation in and of itself is not sin. It is the luring you in to sin. But is it possible for Jesus to fall here?
Well, the complicated answer to that is yes and no. I'm about to give you a very unsatisfying answer as we wade through some paradoxes and mysteries that come with the incarnation. Jesus has always been God. Eternally has existed as God. A hundred percent God. When he became man, which we celebrate at Christmas, he took on humanity.
He did not give up his divinity. He did not give up being God to be man. He was a hundred percent God, always has been. But when he became a man, we celebrate at Christmas, he took on a hundred percent humanity. This is not a 50-50 exchange. He is a hundred percent God and he is a hundred percent man.
It is a mystery that we will never fully understand. So, because he is fully God, he cannot sin. It is not his nature to sin. Because he is fully human, he is weak and it is possible. How that works out, we do not understand. It is a mystery.
We are finite beings trying to understand the infinite. So, now that I've sufficiently broken our brains on that, we have a second barrier to get through and that is Satan. That we as a Western American culture don't really have good categories for the devil. We don't. We just, we're confused by a whole bunch of stuff that for centuries, for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, Western art has really trivialized Satan. Shows up in art as, he's got a pitchfork.
He's kind of threatening, but not really. And that kind of has shown up in our culture. If he's not trivialized and made light of, he's romanticized by different parts of our culture. Cultic circles, by metal, metal, by different dark art forms that really celebrate Satan. And then if you're not confused by that, Hollywood, who has made billions of dollars off of demons. I mean, from The Exorcist, which, I mean, for many of us, movies like this is our first interaction with demons.
My first two interactions with this subject were when I was five and I watched Ghost, which should lead you to question my parents' decision and let me watch Ghost with them. But it was terrifying because there's little demons that come up and take people to hell and ghosts and it scared the mess out of me. My second interaction was The Exorcist, y'all. I watched that when I was eight or nine and it scared the pants off of me. I slept. It was the only time I ever slept on my parents' floor in their room.
I mean, it was terrifying. And I mean, y'all, paranormal activity, there's like ten of those. There's Conjuring movies. There's Annabelle movies. There are billions of dollars made off these franchises. And it all confuses who he is.
It all either makes light of or too much of. And I just want to take a moment and briefly say who he is and who he isn't. So this is who Satan is. He is an individual. He is an individual. That we get from the Old Testament that he was an angel that once led a rebellion against God and God cast him into the earth.
And his goal ever since then has been to destroy the fabric of God's good creation. That he shows up in the garden in the form of a serpent. He tempts Adam and Eve and causes them to rebel against God. This is what he does. He's called a deceiver. He's called the father of lies.
He's called the prince of this world, which means he has power in this world. He's called the tempter. He is an individual who has power to deceive us in this world. Now let me explain who he is not. He is not omnipresent, which means he is not in all places at all times. Because sometimes the way we talk about him is that he's literally listening in to every conversation.
That he's behind every problem. He's not, because he's not God. We can't talk about him like he's at all places, like he's behind every rock. He is not. It's better to have the framework that we see in the Gospels, that Jesus is the figurehead of evil. And there are demons that are all over the place in the Gospels.
It's better to see that and not falsely attribute that he is everywhere in all places at all times. So he has power in this world, but he is not God. That is who he is. And he shows up here to tempt Jesus. All right, now we're through those two barriers.
Let's jump into the story. Verse 2. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. This is how Jesus has chosen to prepare for this moment. That if you were part of our fasting and feasting sermon a few months ago, this makes sense. That part of fasting is physically weakening yourself so that you might be spiritually dependent on God.
So what he's doing here is he's physically weakening himself. And Luke gives us some more details that this is an extreme fast. He has not eaten. We talked about the general fast where you'd fast throughout the day and you'd eat at night. This fast is an extreme one. He has not eaten for 40 days.
All he has done is he has drank in water. That's it. He has physically weakened himself that he might be so spiritually dependent by the Holy Spirit and God the Father for this moment. Because this is a cosmic battle that has been waiting. Ever since the garden, ever since Adam and Eve fell, there's been this moment that the whole Bible has been building up to. That in the garden there was a proclamation that one day a seed of Eve was going to come.
And he was going to crush the head of Satan. He was going to have his heel bruised. And it's looking forward to this moment when Jesus has this showdown with the enemy. It is a cosmic battle with a lot of anticipation. Think anticipation. Have you ever seen Save a Private Ryan when they're getting ready to...
The ships are getting ready to hit the beaches of Normandy. It's getting ready to... The doors are getting ready to fall. There's this moment where they're just capturing this waiting, just anticipating for this battle to go down. This is a battle of cosmic proportions. And it's getting ready to go down and Satan comes into this scene.
Verse 3. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. He is called a tempter and he gets right to work like he did with Adam and Eve. So before we get to his first temptation, we've got to capture a little bit of what his motive is. That yes, he does seek to kill, steal, destroy. He does seek to destroy the good fabric of God's creation.
But what is his goal specifically here? And you see a little bit of in how he addresses Jesus. He calls him Son of God. This is a challenge to his identity. And what we're going to see is that he is going to attempt to use Jesus' power against himself. This week, Chet sent me a podcast.
And at the end of it, they had this discussion on Russian interference in democracies. Which, slow your roll. I'm not going where you think I'm going. Just breathe. But it was interesting because what they were describing was is that they've been largely on social media all across the world in democracies.
They've been creating memes and fake videos and fake Facebook groups. But what they were getting at was is kind of the why behind all of this. And it really goes back to their leader. That Vladimir Putin, before he was the prime minister, before he was a KGB agent, he was the president of a judo club. And that many of the oligarchs who helped rule Russia were also a part of this judo club. Judo is a mixed martial art form.
The general, and I'm not an expert on this, if you want to know more about this, you can talk to Boneweed. He does Kung Fu. But the basics of judo is that you use someone's force against themselves. They come at you to throw a punch, you divert, use their force against them. And that makes sense when you look at Vladimir Putin. That's how they have engaged in this type of quiet warfare for years now.
That they interfere in democracies and what they do all across the world is they seek to exploit weaknesses and to use countries' power against themselves so that they will divide them. So they have fake memes and videos. They spread throughout all of our culture and other countries throughout the world. They'll exploit racial division. They'll exploit division between left and right. One of my favorite examples of this, they did this in their own country.
They took this actor that works on behalf of the Kremlin, on behalf of the Russian government, and she acted like a feminist who was angry at manspreading. And if you've ever heard the term manspreading, it is when a guy takes up too much room on a subway seat or a bus seat. So she went into a subway and attacked men who were manspreading and took bleach and poured it on their crotches. And it got everyone riled up. Left and right. It was like, you know, the feminists on one side were like, yes!
And people on the other side were like, this is the worst! They do this all over the world because they seek to use our power against ourselves in order to divide us. And I cannot think of a better description of what Satan does. He absolutely comes in to use your power against yourself. He seeks to divide us. And that is exactly what he is doing here with Jesus.
He's seeking to divide him and separate him from fellowship with the Father in order to divide him. How does the last verse of chapter 3 end? It is God the Father saying, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. What is the first thing that Satan says? If you are the Son of God. He goes right at the heart of his identity and right at the heart of his present weakness, which is food.
He has not eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. And he says, use your power. Command these stones to become loaves of bread. Eat. Fill yourself. Don't suffer anymore.
Be satisfied. And that's a real temptation. He hasn't eaten for 40 days. If he came to us after like 4 hours, some of us would be like, maybe. I mean, it's just, he goes right at his weakness. His eat.
Jesus, just break the fast. Listen to me. Listen to my words. Use your power. You have the power to feed yourself. You have the power to be filled.
He is seeking to break him from the Father, finding his strength from him to trust the word of Satan. Take my provisions. It's so much like the garden. He says, eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Be filled. You are missing out.
So he comes at him. And then Jesus responds, because this is bigger than bread. Verse 4, it says, But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So he quotes Deuteronomy 8, which is a passage where Moses is trying to teach the nation of Israel, You need more than manna. You need more than bread. You need to live by every word that God gives you.
You have deeper needs that are bigger than the physical. You need to be reminded of your spiritual need, that you need God's word. And there's a lot of stuff that's happening here, that there's some connection between Moses and Jesus. But there's a real practical implication of what Jesus does here that I do not want us to miss. Jesus, the God of the universe, when going to war with Satan, quotes scripture. He uses the word of God to go at Satan.
That is how we should operate. We should see the Bible as a weapon. This is what Paul picks up on in Ephesians 6, when he tells them to put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. He's giving a metaphorical picture of how you would defend yourself against evil. Then he gets through all these different aspects of the armor, and then he gets to the sword of the spirit.
That is the word of God. The Bible is an offensive weapon that we use against the enemy. It is a way that we will combat his lies, that we will undercut his deception. The author of Hebrews picks up on this, and Hebrews 4, it's a weapon that's even used against our own flesh. It says, It is a weapon that is meant to be used against evil, and we have to see it as such. Because here's the deal.
If you don't know the Bible, you cannot quote it in a moment's notice. In the deep, darkest moments of temptation, if you don't know the word of God, you can't use it as a sword. You have nothing in your arsenal to go to war. That is why for the past couple of months, we have said in multiple sermons, and we're going to continue to say this, we want to grow in scripture memory in our church. We want to know the Bible. We introduced this a couple months ago, and we're continuing to roll this out, that every month we have a scripture memory verse.
It's going to be on the transition screens, before and after gatherings. It's going to be in your group content every week. Last month was Romans 6.23. This month is 2 Corinthians 5.17. And the hope is, is that we would memorize the word, that we'd store it deeply in our hearts. For the next 36 months, we're going to roll through a bunch of different verses, that had on different aspects of the Christian walk.
So we want to challenge you in your groups, to be doing this. To get together. So when you come together every week, have you memorized the passage for this month? The kids, we're doing the same curriculum as them. And sojourning kids, they're learning the same verses. So families, get together.
Memorize scripture. We need this. We need an arsenal. We need a sword. We need an offensive weapon, that will go to war with the enemy, so that we will withstand, in the moments of temptation, and we'd follow the model of our Savior, and that we defend ourselves against evil. So, get through the first temptation.
Verse 5. When the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. Now, before we dive into this temptation, I want to address the differences between Matthew and Luke, and the way they tell this. Matthew puts this temptation second, Luke puts it third. They flip-flop their second and third.
I addressed this a little bit last week, that we are dealing with ancient historians, that the gospel writers tell their history, tell these stories differently. That we tell most of our events, this happened, and this happened, and this happened. That's not how the gospel writers tell these stories. They tell them theologically and thematically. They are doing different things in their stories. And I said there weren't a lot of examples, in our own culture of doing this.
I have one that I can come up with, and that is football highlights. Have you ever watched sports highlights? Every now and then, they don't tell, this happened in the first quarter, this happened in the second quarter. Every now and then, a star is born. A kid from Orange County, California, rises up. Ryan Helensky, against Charleston Southern High School football team.
And it's like, you watch those highlights, and they're not tired, they don't care about the game, they care about the star that is born, that hopefully will bring us out, of the ashes of mediocrity. And it'll tell it thematically. And that is what they are doing here. They are doing different things, with these stories. Matthew, puts the third and final temptation, which deals with the kingdom, because it fits into his theme of kingdom, in the gospel. Luke is doing something different.
He has a little bit of a focus on Jerusalem, so he puts Jerusalem out of the third temptation. So, that's to explain that difference. We're going to see this happen throughout, the gospel of Matthew, and how they tell stories. Alright, so with that in mind, let's look at the two aspects, of this temptation. Firstly, Satan addresses him, if you are the son of God, he is continuing to challenge his identity. It is a subtle deception, very similar to, what happened in the garden.
Did God really say? And I want us to really, to understand this. Because I, I would argue, the enemy is doing this, in your life, in some form or fashion. Y'all ever been in a group, where, someone comes and says something nice to you, they give you some encouragement, and then immediately, you walk away, and you think, ah, did they really mean that? Did, did they, did they even like me? I, I don't, I don't really believe this.
It's almost like, it's someone telling you, they don't really believe that. They don't, they don't really mean that. No one really loves you. You ever feel that? That's a subtle deception, that sows seeds of doubt. It's the same reason why, when you fall to sin, and instead of running to grace, and to Jesus, and his mercy, you go to self-loathing, and self-hatred.
There's this voice that comes in, and says, are you really a son of God? Are you really a daughter? Are you really a Christian? Because if you were, you wouldn't be like this. It's this subtle deception, that seeks to deceive us. He does it again.
If you are, the son of God, throw yourself, off the pinnacle of the temple. That's the highest point, of the temple. Just, throw yourself down. You'll be protected. And what does Satan do? He quotes Psalm 91.
He quotes scripture. See Jesus? You'll be taken care of. Go ahead. Do it. That highlights that scripture can be used for good, but it also can be used for evil.
For those of you that are still paying for cable, if you turn on TBN, Trinity Broadcast Network, you're going to see this. You're going to see a televangelist stand up, and say, come on, 2 Corinthians 9, sow your seed. God wants to take care of you, wants to bless you. It's a misuse of the Bible. It is literally out of the playbook of Satan. It is satanic.
Satanic. In the most literal use of that term, it is satanic. People do this all the time with the word of God. They twist it for their own selfish gain and purposes. And we'll do this as well. We will seek to justify ourselves.
When we don't like the Bible, it's like, I'm pretty sure the passage says something different. We feel this in our own church. And I've seen this in other churches, that there's this idea that if you're living together and you're not married, someone comes and confronts you. He says, ah, this is what the Bible says on sex before marriage. And it's like, ah, no, it's okay. We're good, because we're married in God's eyes.
And it's like, no, that's not what the Bible. You know, you have to enter into a covenant of marriage. You are misusing the Bible for your own gain. We do this. We use the Bible for reasons that are not what it was designed for. And we have to check ourselves.
And Jesus sees right through this. He understands what he is doing. And he fires back. Verse 7. Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. He is not going to test the protection of the Father.
Because what Satan is doing here is he's still trying to undermine his relationship with the Father. He says, Jesus, do it. Just make the jump. You'll be okay. Angels will come. You'll be taken care of.
He seeks to undermine this in causing him to question God's goodness. It will actually take care of him. I know that we have done this. I feel this. Anytime that any of us lose a loved one, how many of us question, does God, if he cared, what if he intervened? Wouldn't he protect us?
Would he take care of this individual? This happens in providing. The promotions that we miss out on. The jobs that we don't get. Does God really love? Does God really care?
Does God really protect? Does God really for my good? There's this question that comes in that makes us almost want to even test that out. If God loves you, prove it on these terms. Take the jump. See what happens.
Here's the deal. Jesus knows that God loves him. He knows that the Father has infinite love for him. He knows in a moment's notice if he needed the protection, he would get it. He tells Peter this much later on in Matthew, in chapter 26, verse 53. In the night that he was betrayed, they come to take him.
Peter takes a sword, starts wielding it around. Not very well, because all he gets is an ear. But Jesus looks at him and he says, do you not think that I cannot appeal to my Father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? He knows that he's taken care of. He knows that in a moment's notice, he could call angels from heaven, he would be protected. But Jesus doesn't question the love of God based on circumstances.
He understands that certain circumstances will require you to suffer for a greater purpose. And that is something for us to remember as well. So Satan whispers these lies and Jesus, he knows who the real enemy is in this situation. And that's the hope. The hope is as a church that we would grow in this, that we would be so aware of false lies that come in from the enemy that we remember who the real enemy is. There's this moment in the second Hunger Games in Catching Fire.
Every now and then, some teen fiction is good, y'all. But in the second book, Katniss is getting ready to fight in the quarter quail. And her trainer, Hamish, comes and there's a lot of confusion as to who's the good guys, the bad guys in this battle. And Hamish says, remember who the real enemy is. And we need this. We've got to remember this.
This happens all the time in counseling. I have two people that are frustrated, that are fighting. And I say, hold up. Who's the real enemy? It isn't the person across the table. We have an enemy that wants to destroy your marriage, who wants to sow division, who wants to bring lies.
We've got to remember who the real enemy is. So this one fails. He comes for a third round of temptation. Verse 8. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me.
And Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. So Satan takes Jesus to a high mountain, shows him all the kingdoms. Look as far as you can see, Jesus. These are the kingdoms.
These can be yours. Just bow down. Worship me. The uncomfortable reality here is that Satan does have power. He has this kind of power. Jesus calls him in the Gospel of John the ruler of this world.
That is a title for someone who has authority in kingdoms of this world. that he has power. And Jesus sees right through it. He quotes Exodus 23, 25 reminding him that God the Father is the only one worthy of worship. And then he departs. Satan leaves. Luke tells us he leaves for a more opportune time later.
And Jesus is so physically weak in this moment, spiritually in need, that the angels come down and minister to him. And then it ends. That's the end of the temptation narrative. And it kind of has a little bit of an odd ending. It kind of feels a little bit off. Like, what actually just happened here?
Like, power is a real temptation. We feel that. That God offers us, or that Satan offers us things that we'll take them, that we'll try to advance. Okay, there's some real power, but what's the big deal about this being the final thing that he offers all of this to Jesus? Why is this such a big deal? I want to close with two reasons why this moment is huge and two reasons why our God is so good.
First, Satan offers exactly what Jesus came for. Y'all, we remember how this started, right? Matthew 3. Behold, the kingdom of God is, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is why Jesus came. He came to have a kingdom that was encompassing all the kingdoms, that was bigger.
He came to be the king of kings. Satan offers him exactly what he came for. Global domination with his kingdom, that's it. That's the end game. Satan offers it up to him. And he offers him a much easier path.
Man, this is a path with no suffering, with no pain, with no abandonment, with no cross. And to think he could have taken that offer and he would have avoided his friends leaving him. He would have avoided the torturing and the excruciating pain of the cross. He would have avoided God the Father whom he's enjoyed perfect fellowship with for eternity, pouring the full cup of his wrath on him. He could have avoided all of it. The offer was right there.
All he had to do was to bow down and he could have avoided all of it. But he chooses the harder path because a bigger and better kingdom is in mine. And how does the gospel of Matthew end with the Great Commission? Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. All of it. Go therefore and make disciples.
That ultimately, because Jesus chooses the cross, we get a better kingdom. And that we get to be a part of this kingdom. Where the first Adam failed, the second Adam prevails. He rejects the offer of Satan and the kingdoms of this world for a greater, eternal, bigger kingdom that because of his blood on the cross, all of us get to be a part of. That is the good news of the gospel that we get to celebrate part one. Here is part two of why this is so good and why our God is so glorious.
We go to Hebrews 4, verse 15 and 16. It says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. I want you to hear that. Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need. Jesus endures all of this temptation for you and for me.
He comes. Feel this. The God of the universe comes, takes on human flesh, and then endures all of this temptation. I mean, that's what the text says. In every respect, in order that he might sympathize with our weaknesses, which means when the God of the universe humbled himself, everything was thrown at him. He understands sexual temptation being thrown at you.
He understands the passions of this world being thrown at you. He understands the struggle. He gets it. He walked in our shoes. Jesus knows what it feels like to want to be tempted to hate your enemies. But he doesn't.
On the cross he says, forgive them for they know not what they do. He knows what if the temptation for anger to come and this righteous anger where you start moving over into unrighteous anger, he stops. He knows the struggle. He knows the struggle of fighting sin. Temptation was thrown at him. He prevails.
He, in every respect, was tempted and tried. God, and he prevails. And he knows what it feels like to be so physically weak, to be so spiritually exhausted. The moments in group where you are so tired, the week was so hard, you feel how hard it is to follow Jesus and all you need is people in your group to just sit with you, to be able to say truth to you. He knows what it's like to have angels come and minister to him. Jesus gets the struggle.
Y'all, we have a high priest who gave up being in the heavens to take on flesh for us so he could walk on our shoes and show us the way. We do not have a distant deity who just stands in the heavens and says, obey. We have a God who got his hands dirty, who came down in the form of man, endured every temptation, and perfectly obeyed the law so that we would have a perfect record for us so that we have a Savior to stand in our place. We have a God who got his hands dirty. That is perfect love. It is love that we don't deserve.
It is the reason we get to celebrate and join in worship every week. That this King came, endured all the temptations, suffered in our place, paid the penalty that we deserve for sin.
Welcome to the Kingdom
Transcript
Good morning. So, last week, on a Friday, I was getting ready to preach this sermon as we start the Gospel of Matthew. And it looked like that it would be a very small possibility that our thirdborn would come. So I called Tim Olson over at Midtown. And I was like, hey man, just letting you know, small chance this might happen. Would you be prepared to preach a sermon on Sunday just in case it does?
He said, yep. Saturday morning, it was not a small possibility. She did come. So, glad that Tim Olson got to come and preach last week. Glad we got to see some exposure. It's a grassroots kingdom network that we are a part of.
Tim and I went to seminary together. I'm excited for their church plan as they're going up to Charlotte. But we take Matthew to this week. So we're starting off Gospel of Matthew, be on page 472 in your blue Bibles that are around you. Go ahead and flip there. So in stories, in books, and even in movies, oftentimes they'll have this kind of preface, intro type beginning where you'll get some introductory details, you'll get some facts, some themes that kind of go into the rest of the story, and then the meat of the story picks up later.
Think like Jumanji, like the original Jumanji. It starts, you get a little picture of what happened with the game back in the 1800s. All of a sudden, you're in the living room, and Alan Parrish rolls the dice, and it gets sucked into the game, which, when you are eight and you see that, it is terrifying. You were fine with playing Candyland at that point. Like, it's just... And then the movie picks up.
Here's the back story, and then the rest of the story begins. And that is how the Gospel of Matthew starts. The first two chapters is a preface, it's an intro, and the story really picks up in chapter 3. So we're going to start in chapter 3, also, because we want to save Matthew 1 and 2 for Christmastime. So we'll come back to Matthew 1 and 2 in Christmas, in the Christmas season, but we will be jumping into Matthew 3.
Our encouragement for this series is that you would have a Bible. Whether you bring one, or you grab one, or you pull one up on your phone, there'll be a lot more text that we're walking through in the Bible as opposed to on the screen. So, Matthew 3, page 472 of the Blue Bibles around you. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift to you. All right, so in Matthew 1 and 2, which we'll get to at Christmas, some themes are introduced.
It becomes very clear early on in the Gospel of Matthew why the early church put it at the front of the New Testament canon. So when the early church had all these scriptures, the Old Testament and the New, they had a general understanding of how the Old Testament would be done. They had to figure out what are we going to do, how are we going to organize the New Testament, where are we going to put these scriptures, these books. They placed Matthew at the front of the New Testament because it is filled with Old Testament references and Old Testament scripture quotations and allusions that look back to the Old Testament.
It is the doorway from the Old Testament into the New. But there's also a theme that picks up early in Matthew that runs throughout the whole Old Testament and then comes front and center here at the beginning, and that is the kingdom. The kingdom and the idea of king. And that is what we're going to see a lot as we walk through today in Matthew 3, but also the rest of our time in this gospel. Now, a couple things before we jump at that because we've got to work through some of our understandings. Firstly, we don't have really good references for what a king and a kingdom are, not the way the Bible talks about it.
When we think of king or we think of kingdom, we might think, oh, the closest thing we have is the president. And it's like there's some slight parallels. Each administration brings some change. But it's not the same. I mean, maybe if Trump or Obama had eight, nine turns back to back to back, that might get the feeling of what's happening here, but that's not close. Maybe some of you watched The Crown on Netflix, which is a good show.
You've gotten really into British monarchies, and you're thinking that's what kingdom looks like. And it's like not quite. She just kind of rubber stamps laws. She doesn't really have any authority in parliament. Maybe you have different things that you saw growing up. Maybe you love Lord of the Rings.
Maybe you really enjoyed when King Joffrey died. Maybe you love stories like King Arthur. We have all these different pictures of kingdoms and kings, and they don't quite relate. So a little bit later, we're going to have to readjust our mindsets and understanding what king and kingdom are. But the second thing we need to know and we need to understand, for the connections that we do make today with kingdom and king, we have to understand that we trust in some very bad kings and in some very bad kingdoms.
One of the most popular subject matters in political science, sociology, psychology right now, is the idea of tribalism. Tribalism is the idea that over our evolutionary history, we've always been tribal people. And because we're tribal, right now, we've kind of organized in tribes. It's really popular right now because everyone's trying to figure out, why are we so angry? Why do we hate each other? Why are people screaming on the TV?
Why is social media, it used to be like for nice pictures of food and kids, and now it is long, crazy, angry rants. And everyone's trying to figure this out, and they've come to this conclusion that it's tribalism, that we are a result of our evolutionary history, that we nationally form tribes, and in our tribes, whether you're in the Trump train or you're in the Bernie camp, like you have your people and you talk to your own people and you have this little echo chamber where it's just you guys talking, and then all of a sudden, when you interact with anyone else, you're lobbing grenades. And it's like that. I like some of the observations that come out of that.
I think it is helpful. I think they have missed the point. I do not think we have a tribal problem. I think we have an allegiance problem. We have an allegiance problem that we naturally give ourselves away. We pledge our allegiance, for lack of a better term.
That's what we do, because we are made in the image of God. We were made to worship God. When we, because of the fall, and because of sin, we will naturally give ourselves away to created things, to created people, and not the true king. That we have an allegiance problem, and we have trusted in bad kings and bad kingdoms, whether it is socialism or it is capitalism, whether it is sexual freedom or moral superiority. Maybe you long for the days of Kennedy or the golden era of Reagan. Maybe you love woke culture, and that is something that you have all been about.
Maybe your newfound Julian life is owning the lips. And if you could just find that meme that will make you happy, that you can just bring liberal tears, that is the camp that you have aligned yourself with. Maybe it is political correctness. Maybe it is being a jerk for the sake of being indecent. We have lined ourselves up with bad kingdoms and bad kings, whether it is people that we like, whether it is Ben Shapiro or Bill Maher or Joe Rogan or Jink Uger, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Oberman, down the line. And if you take a step back from all the chaos and all the crazy of our culture right now, you start to see this isn't really a tribal problem.
It is a problem of allegiance. We have given ourselves to bad kings and the bad kingdoms. And in this season, right now, in our culture, I am so incredibly thankful that we get the Gospel of Matthew. that we get to walk through this Gospel because out the gate, He is going to call us on it. He is going to show us that we trusted in bad kings and that a better kingdom awaits, that there is a better king. We are going to see this come out, come out. We are going to see this go throughout the Gospel of Matthew and it shows up here today.
So open up to Matthew 3 and we are going to see the moment that the king steps onto the scene and ushers in His kingdom. And as we listen to what Matthew has to say, our hope is, is that we would allow ourselves to be challenged and to be pushed, that maybe, just maybe, we've swapped out the king for some really bad kings and we've given up the kingdom for some lesser temporary kingdoms. So let me pray and then we'll get going. Lord, thank you so much for the good news of the Gospel, for the biography of Jesus that we get to spend time in. God, I pray that you would speak to us and that we would listen.
I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, first six verses. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. They were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. Alright, I want to go back to that first phrase. In those days. Because we need to understand something before we jump into the Gospel of Matthew.
The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospels themselves and really largely a lot of the narratives in the Bible are not written the way that we understand how history is told. They are not written chronologically. There is a general chronology. Jesus was born. Later he dies and he rises. But everything in between, if you try to read the Gospel of Matthew as a sequence of events, you are going to bang your head against the wall.
They did not write the Gospels chronologically. They wrote them thematically and theologically. That is what they were doing. And that is because in our culture, we largely are influenced by historians that have a white, Western, European understanding of telling history, of telling stories. That is why we understand this event happened and this event happened and this event happened. And I will be honest, it is a little boring.
That is why a lot of people do not like history. It is the way that we tell it. That is not the Bible writers. That is certainly not the Gospel writers. They were from 2,000 years ago. They were Middle Easterners and from Asia Minor.
They were not the same as us. So here is my disclaimer. If you are a skeptic, if you consistently challenge the historicity of the Bible, the accuracy of the Bible, if you want to completely dismantle it because it doesn't fit into your, I would say, cute, white, Western understanding of how history and stories are told, I would just call you to pause for a moment and accept that maybe, just maybe, these ancient storytellers who are not like us told history a little bit differently, told stories a little bit differently. Just put that out there. Because the reality is I get really frustrated because like one of the greatest storytellers of our time is Christopher Nolan.
He did The Dark Knight and he also did a movie called Dunkirk which is the Battle of Dunkirk. Everyone loved Dunkirk because of how he told the history of it. He did it with, have you ever seen it? There's all kinds of time loops and everything's all over the place and everyone loves it when it's Christopher Nolan but when the Bible does things and when the Gospels do things a little bit out of order everyone loses their minds. And we need to know that because early as next week we're going to see some things that Matthew and Luke are doing differently. Alright, that's my disclaimer for the rest of the Gospels.
Alright, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Alright, so before we get to what he was preaching let's take a look at the man, John the Baptist. John the Baptist, his last name was not the Baptist. Alright, I'm thankful that the early church gave him this distinction because there are a lot of Johns in the New Testament and it's helpful but he was known for baptizing. We could say he was Baptist he was our original Baptist. We can look back to him.
It's fine. But he was known for being Baptist. So, a couple of things about John the Baptist. Here's what we know from the Gospels. Him and Jesus were related. They were probably cousins.
That's the best we can tell is that they were cousins. That his mother Elizabeth and Jesus' mother Mary when they met in the Gospel of Luke that John the Baptist slept in his mother's womb. So there was an interaction there. Then we know that he spent the majority of his time preparing for preparing for ministry for this moment out in the wilderness. So he didn't have a whole lot of interactions.
So it's safe to say what we're going to see today might be one of the only significant interactions that they had. But he spent the majority of his time preparing for ministry in the wilderness and I would love to spend a few moments in walking you through all the theories as to why he was in the wilderness. But I'm going to spare you. If you want to nerd out on that later we can talk. But we see a description of him in verse 5 of what he looks like.
And the way that Matthew describes him is actually going to be a picture of the rest of the Gospel of Matthew. This whole section right here has tons of allusions. Meaning it alludes back to the Old Testament. And then we get a quote of what John the Baptist looks like. And every Jewish Christian who heard this in its context would understand what he was getting at. It says he wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist.
And that is a quote from 1 Kings 1.8. He wore a garment of hair and a belt of leather around his waist. And every Jewish Christian who hears that description thinks Elijah. This is the second coming of Elijah. This is a prophet who is just like Elijah. Elijah is one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament.
He's beloved. He's a wild man. So the picture here is he's a wild prophet just like Elijah. And I would say probably even wilder because he ate locusts and wild honey. Which is pretty crazy. He's edgy.
He has an edgy look and his message is even more so. It says, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Alright. So we are going to get a very heavy dose of this understanding of kingdom.
Matthew uses kingdom of heaven over and over again in this gospel. The other gospel writers, they use kingdom of God over and over again. It means the same thing. It's getting at the same idea. So for us to understand what he is getting at and what the people would have felt when John the Baptist says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, we need to have a better understanding for what king and kingdom means.
And seminary I had a professor, his name is Jonathan Pennington, he was very helpful in expanding some of my categories here and a lot of his stuff shows up right here. So, when the first century Jews go out and they hear John the Baptist saying, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Their minds go to the promised Messiah. Messiah. See, when a king came, even if it wasn't a Jewish king, when a king came and his rule came and they conquered a nation, everything changed. Everything changed and there was this long expecting hope that a Messiah was going to come.
So when a prophet in the wilderness says, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, their mind goes to Messiah, Savior King. This would have been the king that was promised, the king that was better than the greatest kings in the history of Israel. We're talking King David and King Solomon, the two biggest kings in their history. This king was going to be like them but even better. He was going to bring the protection that David brought. When David ruled as king, the people felt safe.
When David ruled as king, they had provisions. The economy was good. They had food in their bellies. That a king was going to come and bring protection and provisions. He was going to be a philosopher king, a sage like Solomon, one of the wisest men that has ever lived until Jesus comes. There's this long hope that this philosopher king, this protector, this provider, this Messiah, savior king is going to come.
And there's these prophecies that are prophesying his coming. In Jeremiah 32, there's this hope that shows up a lot in the Old Testament. It's the hope that a new covenant is going to come. In Jeremiah 32, 40, it says, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. There's this hope that this new king was going to come. He was going to bring change.
He was going to establish this new covenant with the people. There was this hope that a king was going to come that we see in Isaiah 9 for to us a child is born. To us a son is given and the government shall be on his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Feels Christmas-y, right? That's because there's this hope, this hope that this Messiah is going to come and his rule is going to be good and he's going to change their current circumstances. He'll be better than David.
He'll be better than Solomon. And he was going to bring a new covenant that would be providing, that would be the wisdom, leadership, the protection they've been thirsting for for centuries. Because it has been a long time in the land. Shortly after, David and Solomon, the nation splits in two. Then after that, they abandon God and God brings judgment.
And then one by one, nations come through and the Assyrians come in in the 8th century and completely just destroy most of the people and the land, taking the ten tribes and scattering them. And what they don't finish, the Babylonians come in in the 6th century and deport the rest of the tribes. And this is destroying their identity. Everything they were built on, they destroy and then the Persians come and rule over the people. Then the Greeks come and rule over the people of God.
And now we have the Romans at the time of Jesus. And with every kingdom and every bad king that came, they lost more of their identity and their hope started to fade. But there was this hope throughout all of it as the prophets spoke that one day a Messiah was going to come. A Messiah was going to come and he was going to change everything. And that's what they've been waiting for. And there were 500 years of silence.
No prophet in the land. No one speaking on behalf of God. Very dark. And then in the wilderness, a prophet comes. He rises and he starts to preach of this kingdom that is coming. And now the people have hope. verse 3.
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. See, this is a quotation from Isaiah. And they hear this. And the original Christians that are reading this are feeling this. This is the one that Isaiah spoke of. This is the one who's going to prepare the way.
He's going to be the herald. He's announcing that the king is coming. And even in this quotation, there's a little glimmer of what this kingdom is going to look like. Because this was written by Isaiah to the Babylonian exiles, to the Israelites who were scattered abroad, saying prepare yourself for your return. And what's happening here is that he is showing us that the whole nation is in spiritual exile. They are in spiritual exile.
They are lost. They've lost identity. And John the Baptist has come to prepare the way for this new covenant, this new hope. And with each detail that we're getting, we're getting more of a picture of what this kingdom looks like. And also, John the Baptist is gaining a big following. He has got people coming out in droves to come and see what this prophet has to say.
Verse 5, it says, Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. So, I would love right now, I would really love to take five minutes and make a plug for why we believe in baptizing, professing believers, and not infants, professing believers by immersion. Because it's John the Baptist. This is the moment, right? That I could just take some time and unpack it.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time and that is not the main point of this passage. But I will say this, that this baptism is unlike anything that anyone has seen. I mean, this is completely new. There are some loose connections in the Old Testament law talking about purification by water. There were some people that were doing some types of water rituals before John the Baptist comes. But nobody was doing this.
No one was bringing people out to the river to be baptized for their sins. That was not happening. This is a new sign. Which is why we as Baptists believe with a new covenant comes a new sign. That's all I'll say. Come talk to me later, I'll baptize you later.
Alright. So then we get to verse 7 and we get a taste of his message. And it is a message that is dangerous to the status quo. It is a wild prophet who is a threat to the political and religious system. Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers.
I love John. He is a renegade. He looks at the Pharisees and Sadducees who were some of the most powerful people in the land and he says, You brood of vipers. And here's why. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were in bed with the Romans. The Romans were in bed together helping keep the people in check.
They had sold themselves out. The beauty and really how the Romans conquered empires is they would conquer you and they would say, You want some of your culture? Keep it. You want some of your religious practices? Keep it. And they would keep the people in check by giving them a little bit of their culture, a little bit of what they could practice.
And then over time, they would slowly start to assimilate the culture. They'd have some power brokers they would use to keep the people in check. But slowly they would inject their culture. And that is why this period of time, this period of Judaism is called Hellenistic Judaism. It is the blending of Greco-Roman values and Judaism. And because of this, there are people that are purists.
They don't like that this pagan culture has blended with Judaism. And that is why consistently in the history of Israel and the Roman Empire, they are rebelling and rebelling and rebelling all the way up until 70 A.D. when they rebel and there are no more rebellions because they completely destroy them. So the Romans need help and they have two ways of keeping the people in check. The first is King Herod, which we will see back in Christmas and in the Gospel of Matthew. There's a long line of Herod and his sons that rule the people. And if you look at the Roman Empire, you study their history, they didn't have a lot of kings that served under Caesar.
But because the Jews were so, they were consistently rebelling, they had a king that helped keep the people in check. But the people didn't really respect Herod. They just didn't. I mean, they saw he was an obvious sellout. So the second group of people that the Romans used to keep the people in check, that was the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
These are the religious leaders. These are people that the nation respected. These are the people that they feared. When they spoke, people listened and they got in line. And on top of that, John the Baptist sees right through the religious charade. And so much of what the Pharisees and the Sadducees are doing is they have this empty legalism where you act like you were doing good.
You have this outward good, but inside you were dead. And you're just presenting good works before God. He sees and he cuts right through it. He calls them a brood of vipers, which is snake offspring. And a lot of times when you get stuff like this in the Bible, we've got to do some put this into context for us because a lot of statements like this don't translate. That one still translates.
You call somebody a snake, you have assassinated their character. You have called them sneaky, venomous, corrupt, deadly. All things that are very accurate as we see that they're the ones that help assassinate Jesus later. And what's happening here is we're getting a theme that is introduced. This is going to be Jesus versus the religious rulers, as we see throughout the gospel of Matthew. So, he calls them a brood of vipers and he says, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The sad thing is the Pharisees and Sadducees thought that they were bearing fruit. They thought that they were good. They thought that they were righteous. They were presenting their good works before the people but inside they were dead. It was a charade.
It was not true repentance. It was not the correct response before a holy and perfect God which is, I am an unworthy sinner in need of grace. So, he calls them out and he keeps going. Verse 9, he says, And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. John the Baptist comes and he preaches this message that shows up throughout the whole Old Testament and that is just because you are an ethnic descendant of Abraham does not mean you are an actual child of Abraham and does not mean that you are a child of God. He says, God can raise up children from stones. Raise up Adam from dirt. You think that because you are a child of Abraham that you are going to have a covering that this is going to work out well for you. That is not how this works.
The only people that have the right to be called children of God are those who do the will of the Father. That is a message that shows up throughout the Old Testament and John the Baptist just preaches it right to their face. bear fruit or be cut down. Repent or experience the fire. John the Baptist is the original fire and brimstone preacher. He absolutely brings it. He is fearless.
I can't undersell how powerful these groups are. And he is absolutely telling them exactly like it is and then he makes a shift. Verse 11. He says, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I.
Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork, which a winnowing fork was a tool that used to separate the wheat from the chaff. The wheat you use for bread. The chaff you threw away. Winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.
But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And now we see John the Baptist and his purpose coming into full view. This is a man. I want you to remember this. There has not been a prophet in the land for almost five centuries. No one is speaking on behalf of God.
He shows up and the crowds are coming out. The masses are coming to see him and he pauses and he says, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. It's not me. I'm just a set up man. Now the main event is coming.
You've been to a concert and got really excited about the opening act. That's just, you don't do that. Raz's dad was in a band in Australia and they opened up for ACDC back in the day. How cool is that? And Raz, I've had dinner with Raz's dad. He's a really, he's a good mate.
Like he's, I like him. And if I could go back in time, it'd be really exciting to go to that concert. And I like his dad, but I would not be excited about him. I'd be excited about seeing ACDC. Like that. You don't get excited about the opening act.
You wait for the main event. And that is what John the Baptist is trying to show. He's like, I'm not, I'm not it. There's a greater one coming. There's a mightier one coming. You don't get it.
I'm not fit to tie his sandals. And in a culture that thought feet were so socially beneath you and dirty, this is a great statement of humility. So I'm not worthy to tie his sandals. You don't get it. I've got this water ritual. I've got this thing that I'm doing, but he's got something that is bigger.
He is going to baptize with fire. And here's what he is getting at. The king is coming. And when he baptizes, he is coming with flames. Either you will be caught up and changed by this fire, like we see in Acts 2. This is looking forward to the Pentecost of Acts 2.
Either you're going to be changed by this fire, like the early church, who placed their faith in Jesus. You'll be changed into something completely new in this brand new kingdom. Either you will be changed or you will be consumed. It is your choice. And if you do not, if you were not changed, if you do not follow this king, you will be consumed by the flames like chaff. So repent.
The kingdom is at hand. I mean, you get it. You start to understand why John the Baptist ruffled some feathers. And there's a reason why he's later killed and beheaded because of the things that he says, because of the truth that he stands in. So if this prophet who has amassed a following, unlike anyone in the land for centuries, who the people are, who the people love and who the people actually respect, because he stands up to the establishment.
If this man is saying, it's not me, there's someone mightier who is coming. The people are waiting. Who is this one? And then finally, the king shows up on the bank of the Jordan. Verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan, 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 to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. So Jesus shows up at the bank of the Jordan, and John the Baptist says, I'm not baptizing you. You've got to baptize me. And that's an appropriate response.
Because John the Baptist, his baptism was a baptism of repentance. It was for sins. And he's saying, no, no, no. You, I, Jesus says, no. This is to fulfill all righteousness. And in the Gospel of Matthew, righteousness means obedience to the Father.
Obedience to God. This is the necessary step in obeying this plan of God because Jesus isn't coming for a baptism of repentance. He is coming for a baptism that will initiate an entirely new kingdom. His baptism is the start of the initiation of the kingdom that is now at hand. This is part one. Part two is next week, which we'll get to in Matthew 4.
So John the Baptist consents, and here is the scene. Verse 16, Man, I want to imagine what this scene would have looked like. We get these words. It is so hard to picture how glorious this is. How miraculous this is. The heavens, Jesus goes in the water.
The heavens open up. Light shines down. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, descends like a dove on Jesus. God the Father, I want you to feel the Trinitarian language here. God the Father speaks from heaven, says, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. This event is big.
It is bold. It is the way that a king makes his entrance. It is how a king steps on the scene to usher in his kingdom. And so it begins in the Gospel of Matthew, this unfolding kingdom of God that we're going to get to experience over the next 18 months as we walk through this Gospel. And there are so many things that we get to see. We get to see Jesus outshine the philosopher kings of old with wisdom that was never seen before and is never going to be seen.
The wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount, the wisdom in his parables, that we get to see him go toe-to-toe with the establishment. Toe-toe with fake religion and the religious leaders. We get to see Jesus care for the least of these and the sick and healing the broken, which does two things. It shows the heart of God that God cares for the hurting and the broken. But ultimately, his healings and his ministry of caring for the least of these is a greater picture of a kingdom that when it is finally finished, there will be no more sickness, there will be no more hurt, there will be no more pain.
That we get to see in this message of kingdom, we get to see discipleship on display. That throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' primary ministry is to the disciples. Over and over again, you're going to see he's teaching the disciples, he's teaching the disciples, he's spending time with the disciples, he's getting away with the disciples, that he's pouring into a few that they might impact the nations. We get to see mission as he sends out the 72 and as it closes with the Great Commission, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command on you.
We get to see the mission of God on display and here's what we get to see. The ultimate hope with this kingdom is that when this kingdom comes, it is for the spiritual exiles, which is you and me. Peter Gentry and Steve Wellen wrote a book called Kingdom Through Covenant. They described it so well. They said the kingdom of God refers primarily to God's kingly and sovereign rule and it is especially tied to God's saving reign that is broken into this world and the coming life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The ultimate hope of this kingdom is that a king came from heaven and he sought us and he initiated a kingdom and every kingdom that has ever been established in this world has been done through blood.
Every kingdom that has ever been established in this world has been done through blood. The blood of hundreds, the blood of thousands, the blood of tens of thousands, but this kingdom takes one man's blood. And his blood is so pure and so rich and so good and so powerful that it establishes an eternal kingdom that has no end. A king has come. And because of his death and because of his resurrection, all that this king requires is faith. The entrance into this kingdom is simply trusting in the king who came from heaven to rescue us and that faith is our allegiance.
It is our allegiance to the one true king. Over and over again in this gospel we are going to be challenged. Which king and kings are you trusting in that is not the true king? Which kingdoms are you hoping in that is not the eternal kingdom? You will not make it out of this book without over and over again having to ask that question. Whom do you bow the knee?
We are going to see this over and over again that it is not about history of tribalism. It is about allegiance. Who are the things that we are bowing to? What are the things that we are valuing so much in this world? Where is our allegiance? Is it in a political system?
Is it in a political party? I mean that is something front and center for our culture right now. Put so much hope in men that will be dead in a few years. So much hope in ideas that will eventually fade away. We put all this stock all this hope in people lose their minds when they don't get the temporary king that they want. We are hoping in lesser kings.
Is it the American dream? Is that the kingdom that we are building on? We are so tempted to see the here and now that it is this life with these worries with these cares with this money with this retirement with these toys. What kind of kingdom are we hoping in? Is it here and now? Is it the sexual revolution and freedom that has so come up through this culture?
Is it all about identity at this point? Is that the kingdom that we are hoping in? Is it the pride and self-righteousness of the Pharisees? And positioning yourself as better than other people. What kingdoms and kings are we hoping in? Where is our ultimate allegiance?
You will not make it out of this book without being challenged on that over and over again. But here is the good news of this book. That as we wade through the gospel of Matthew you will not make it through this book without seeing that this king is better than any king that ever came. That this kingdom is better than any kingdom that you could ever hope in. That we have a king a warrior king who came from heaven and defeated sin at the cross. That we have a philosopher king who gives wisdom and insight that is good for our souls that is eternally true that we have a provider king that provides for your needs that you don't have to worry about all the things of this world that he's going to provide for you now but more importantly he picks up your head and says no there's an eternity worth caring about.
That we have a king who holds the world in his hand and that is important for those of us that are driven by anxiety and control. We have a king who controls everything because we don't have to. We have a good king that we get to look and see and savor in the gospel of Matthew. So as we walk through this be challenged. Who do you bow the knee? Which kings are we hoping in?
Which kingdoms have we sold out to? And taste and see that we have a better king and a better kingdom and a better God and we get to celebrate that every week as we come to the table.