I. A Cheery Message 00:01
Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
So I’ve got a really cheery message for you this morning: “Repent, for the kingdom.” The kingdom part actually is the cheery part of the message. Let’s get this straight. We tend to think of repent as something to be afraid of, something to resent, something to feel bad about. We think of repentance and we think about the time we cheated on a test and our teacher found out and we had to go to the principal’s office, or that time we slapped our brother because he just looked like he needed one, or whatever else. And immediately the punishment and the discipline and the justice of God encounter us, and we’re called to repent.
And yes, absolutely, that is a large part of what we’re talking about today: the justice of God encountering us in our brokenness and challenging us to turn aside. That’s really what repentance means. It’s to turn away from your chosen course of action. In our world, where you should just be you, live your truth, you’re perfect just the way you are, repent is just about the most countercultural thing we believe as Christians. In a world where you should celebrate yourself, and not only that but market yourself on Instagram so everybody else had better celebrate you too, we’re told no. In fact, when truth enters the world in the form of Jesus Christ, the first thing he says in his ministry is, “You need to change. You need to turn aside.” And the promise is built into this command: “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
So when I say I have a cheery message, I’m only half joking. Because truly, we were just in Exodus for fourteen weeks, all because we wanted to get to the promised land. All fall we were trying to get to the promised land. Well, what is Jesus saying? He’s saying, “It’s here. Repent, for the promised land, the kingdom of heaven, is right at hand.”
So as we talk in this message, and as you keep up with some of the sermons (we’re ironing out the preaching schedule), as we go forward, when you see me up here, I want you to know this: from now till Easter, I’m talking about what happens when the true Exodus shows up in Jesus Christ. Because we learned a ton about how the Israelites were saved from tyranny and slavery, and how that relates to our own brokenness and sin, our own difficulties. And we saw how, even as they were being saved, they balked at the way God was trying to lead them.
And now what I’m saying is that that pattern didn’t stop. In fact, if we had done a study of the entire Old Testament, it just would have been one tyranny and slavery after another: tyranny, slavery, Exodus; tyranny, slavery, Exodus. And somehow, although they made it to a promised land, they never made it to the promised land in all the Old Testament, because they would get to the promised land and they’d turn it into Egypt.
Now, it’s more relatable, I think, if you think about your own self. You pray for months or years, you work toward this thing, and you get it, and what do you do? You start complaining to God about that other thing you need. That’s what would happen to the Israelites. They would pray, they’d get a great prophecy, God would save them, and immediately they’d turn aside to other gods, other goals, other visions of the way their life should be, aside from God.
And so today, as we talk and as we move forward, let’s think about us as the fulfillment. We are privileged to live in the age of the fulfillment of the true Exodus. Christ has come. The light has dawned. The invitation today is to enter the promised land today. You don’t have to wait. We get to be a part of it today, because Jesus came. So when we’re looking at this and talking about what that means, I want you to keep that in mind the whole time. The invitation today: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
II. Driven into Galilee 04:57
Let’s look at the Gospel to start. This is right after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. He was baptized, he went into temptation, and now he’s going to start his ministry, and it starts this way, in Matthew chapter 4, verse 12:
12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Matt 4.12–14
Let’s just pause there for a second. It says, “Now when he heard that John had been arrested,” he went to Galilee. So why did he go to Galilee? Because if he stuck around, he was afraid he was going to get arrested. And by afraid, I don’t mean that. Let me rephrase. I don’t think Jesus was scared of anybody at any time. But he knew that his ministry would be negatively impacted there. So, guess what: maybe God’s calling me to go over here, where I’m not going to be arrested right away. We see this happen again when they try to stone him, and he just walks through the midst. He does this disappearing act and walks away. Nothing is getting between Jesus and his mission.
But at the same time, Jesus going to Naphtali and Zebulun, we’re told, is actually also to fulfill the words of the prophet. So I want you to know that when the Gestapo is coming for you, it might also be to fulfill the words of the prophet that you have to flee your home.
Let me break that down a little bit. When bad things happen in your life, sometimes God is driving you into his promises. I’m not blanket-approving of every bad thing that happens. Absolutely, there is resistance to the purposes of God on earth, and let’s fight and win, because Jesus is our victory. But let’s not be so quick to condemn that awful car-breaking-down situation, the fire that consumed your house, the thing. All of these things, while they can be absolutely tragic, and we would not wish them on anyone: don’t be so sure God’s not moving on your behalf in the midst of those difficulties.
Does God want Herod and the Israelites to be out arresting John the Baptist? No. Did God know what would happen? Yes. And believe it or not, he is so big and so powerful that he can use even their rebellion to further his kingdom. And so Jesus gets driven into Galilee, and it’s for that reason that we all get to be here today. Because most of us are not Jews, and this prophecy that we’re going to dig into a little bit today is part of moving God’s purpose from his ethnic people, Israel, to the entire world. We are the people in darkness, those filthy Gentiles who get invited into the purposes of God. And so as we look here, it says, quoting Isaiah:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” Matt 4.15–16
Clearly it’s talking about us. We were dead in our trespasses (Ephes 2.1), and Jesus came that we might be set free and live in the light of Christ. And so it continues:
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 4.17
III. God Is with Us 08:15
Now I want to go back and look at this Isaiah passage, because we read a part of it for the Old Testament, and we read some of it in our Gospel reading. But it is absolutely fascinating when we look at what’s going on here, and I think it speaks very well to our situation today. So let’s go to Isaiah chapter 8, beginning in verse 9:
9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered. 10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. Isa 8.9–10
I don’t think I’d be alone in arguing that in our lifetime we have never seen worldly powers arraying themselves against the people of God like we’re seeing today. I know, absolutely, there have been bad things and good things and ups and downs, and I don’t want to be somebody standing here saying the world is ending. That’s not my point. My point is, it doesn’t take a genius to look out into the world and say, “Wow, there are a lot of people setting themselves against the purposes of God in the world.” There are a lot of people trying to get you to give up your values and jump on their bandwagon, whether that’s financially, whether that’s in your lifestyle, or in this idea that’s crept into our culture where it’s no longer “live and let live,” but it’s actually, “If you don’t celebrate my sin, if you don’t celebrate my lifestyle, then you’re a bigot and deserve to lose everything.”
You’ve heard these stories: cancel culture, or the globalist elite, the COVID response, all these different things, these doomsday words that float in the atmosphere of our conversations. I hear it all the time. At the gas station I heard somebody next to me complaining about Facebook and Google and the monopoly and the media and all this stuff. Yeah, things are happening. People are out to destroy the works of God. It’s not new. It’s not news. But let’s be aware of it.
This is what’s happening in this Isaiah passage. Israel, first of all, is turning away from God. So when it says, “Be broken, you peoples,” it’s very clearly implied by the context that he means Israel too. And they’re just about to be conquered by the Assyrians. They’re about to be enslaved in a way we can hardly imagine. So the big bad guys are arraying themselves against God, and even the people of God are turning away from God.
We may even see some of that in our culture, where we’re like, “Wow, that church is just wholesale going with the culture.” We have all these grievances about all these people turning against us. It’s not new. This is the same thing God was dealing with with the Israelites in Isaiah. And the answer has already come. In this passage you’ll see he’s giving them a promise, and we’re told in the Gospel that that promise is Jesus.
And so not only is this passage addressing the same situation we’re in today, but like it says, all you enemies of God, “take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.” More than ever today we can say God is with us, because Emmanuel, God with us, came (Matt 1.23), and he is never going to leave us or forsake us (Heb 13.5).
So when you look out on the world and you might get scared, remember that the challenge has been issued from God to the nations, and the victory is already won. The question is, what do we do in the meantime? What is our role? Because the fight isn’t between the nations and you. The fight isn’t between the works of darkness and you. The fight is between the works of darkness and God. We just get to live it out in our life. But Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1.27), wants to lead you, so that you don’t fall by the wayside, so that you don’t get taken out.
IV. Fear God, Not Conspiracy 12:43
So what do we do in the meantime? Well, the title of the next passage in the Bible I was reading is “Fear God, Wait for the LORD.” Pretty simple. So let’s get into what that looks like.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” Isa 8.11–13
We’re in an age where “conspiracy theories” is a common accusation, a common issue. There’s a large legal case being settled right now between a podcaster and these people who are accusing him of conspiracy theories, and millions of dollars being paid. The media has been saying the words “conspiracy theories.” If you look at the growth on Google of how words are used, “conspiracy theories” is through the roof over the past ten years. And again and again we’re seeing that some of these things may actually be true. God help us.
But that’s not the point. The point in this passage is: do not look toward your enemies. When you look out into the world, do not focus on how devilish, how wise, how clever they are. Do not focus on conspiracies and dread of all the people coming against you. Instead, who should you focus on? Well, it says, “But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.”
Because you see what happens when you go down the conspiracy theories rabbit hole. I have two friends in particular who have really gone down that, and it doesn’t matter how right they’ve been about certain things. What their life has become is about worshiping their fear of the conspiracy. They can’t talk about anything else. “Yeah, but isn’t God…?” (They’re both Christians.) “But isn’t God in control?” “I don’t know. Yeah, but no, but these people, they’re so powerful. What are we going to do?” “But didn’t God rise from the dead? Did he not send his Son to rise from the dead and buy us eternal life?” “Yeah, but I don’t know, man. Have you heard about this thing?”
They’ve created this cocoon of fear around themselves, and they’ve blinded themselves, because they’ve been so focused on the problem that they’ve missed the solution. And the solution isn’t for you to have a Facebook page that gathers people, that mobilizes against the global elites and overturns them and brings everything back to the Christian nation that we love. That’s not the solution. The solution is Jesus in your life today. Absolutely, we will be called to be a part of changing the world, but first we’ve got to get this part right: fear the Lord, and him shall you dread. That means there’s no space to fear anything else. As VeggieTales has taught us, God is bigger than the boogeyman. He’s even bigger than those monsters on TV. So we must center our lives on the power of God, because fear is a weapon, and it’s wielded against us constantly.
V. The Fear of Missing Out 15:05
In fact, I want to move away from these global conspiracy theories. There’s one fear that I think maybe is more dangerous to us today than any of that, at least for those in this room, and that’s the fear called FOMO: fear of missing out. In Orange County, California, FOMO is at an all-time high, because everyone you know has a better life than you. How is that possible? How is it possible that everybody in this room, everybody we know, has a better life than we do, and is able to do more things than we are, and has more money? Well, I’ll tell you: it’s actually not possible. It’s a lie. You are constantly manipulated by your phones, by the TV, by everything, even by your conversations with one another, to think that you need something else.
I was just watching this great interview with this guy talking about Catholicism and the doctrines of the church, and they were having this great interview, and they were drinking this great scotch and smoking the cigar, and it was like three in the afternoon, and they were in this beautiful study, an office. And I was like, “Oh no, I’m missing out. I don’t have my cigar. I don’t have my scotch. I don’t have my office. I’m not sitting around talking about the things of Jesus. I’m just stuck in LA traffic trying to get these doors to a job site.” And the ball starts rolling. And then he says, “You know, I have a cigar every night, and it’s just this wonderful hour where I can contemplate my life, and I slow down, and I let God speak to me.” And I have this moment: “Oh, I’m getting a little hyperventilating here. I can’t find ten minutes to stop and sit and think about God.”
Fear of missing out: am I missing out in my life on the good things? The answer is no. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It’s not out there. It’s not in everybody else’s Instagram. It’s not the mimosas at brunch. (I don’t think I’ve ever been to brunch.) It’s not that. It is at hand.
Man, I’m not going to get teary. I’m not going to do it. But I was looking at my kids last night, them just playing, and I was so concerned with all the things I needed to do to get the sermon ready and to get dinner ready and stuff. And at some point I just looked around, and I was like, “God, the kingdom of heaven’s at hand. It’s right here. Why don’t I just slow down for a second and enjoy the evening?” It doesn’t mean there’s not stuff to do. It doesn’t mean I’m not busy. It doesn’t mean I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to try to get this sermon together. But it means I wasn’t blinded by the fear of missing out.
I was going to have a whole Madame Blueberry thing too, but you get the point. Don’t go out and spend, or make decisions about your time and your money, because you’re afraid. Even if it’s the right decision, if you do it because you’re afraid, you’re feeding an evil beast that will take you over. So if you start feeling afraid, that compulsion, “I’ve got to do these things,” slow down. Ask God. You might even make the same decision. But stop and put your trust in the Lord.
VI. The Stone of Stumbling 19:21
Okay, let’s keep moving here. This is where we want to go, verse 14. So after we slow down and fear the Lord, it’s saying what God will do:
14 “And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” Isa 8.14–15
So what is this stone we’re talking about? Well, what did Jesus say? Let’s just bring it back to him. Jesus said, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matt 21.44). Let me just tell you: the rock, the stone, that’s Jesus. There are all these prophecies throughout the whole Bible. There’s one that’s really beautiful and crazy and surreal, about this multi-metal monster thing of clay and iron and bronze, and it hits this rock and falls apart (Dan 2.34–35). And what that symbolizes is the empires of the world, everything arrayed against the kingdom of God, falling apart because of this one stone, this rock.
But there’s an invitation for us in what Jesus says: “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” And in other passages it says it will crush him utterly. That is the call to repentance today. The world is created such that all of the universe, all of existence, flows with the justice and purposes of God, and if you work against those, you’ll encounter the Rock. That’s the way the world works. Not because God’s looking to smash you, but because there just isn’t another way. The way the world works is that if you choose sin, if you choose your own way, if you choose to run after gods that aren’t God, that rock will fall on you. The foot will drop.
But there’s another invitation, and I love how it’s phrased here. The other invitation is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” which means: throw yourself on this rock. And yes, you’ll be broken in pieces, but you won’t be crushed utterly. This has always stuck out to me for some reason. The one who falls on the stone, the one who throws himself on the mercy of God: yeah, he’ll be broken. But what are we told God’s going to do in that process? He’s going to burn away those things in your life that are not of God. He’s going to burn the chaff. Those pieces that are breaking off of you are the things that are keeping you from living in the kingdom of God. Yeah, you might have to give up something you love. But you know what? If God calls you to give it up, you don’t want to keep holding on to it. It’s only keeping you from entering into his purposes.
So there are the two ideas. You can either go your own way, and the rock, the justice of God, will fall on you, and you’ll be crushed utterly. Or you can throw yourself on the mercy of God today and repent, and he will break you. But in his goodness, the same way he invited us to the cross to participate in that with him, he will raise you up.
So this stone has significance in our life, but it’s also the stone of offense and the stone of stumbling. And that’s my hope for the world today: that all these big empires that are being built up against us are going to encounter the Rock, and they will fall apart. We get to be a part of that. Did you know we are actually invited to be God’s body on earth? By living our lives such that we are serving him, we’re invited to be a rock of stumbling in the world.
Let me talk about it this way. The whole world is blind to reality. By that I mean anyone who doesn’t know Jesus is living in that thick darkness we were talking about, and we can see. So who do you want leading the way: those who can see by the light of Christ, or those who are blind to the way the world is? It’ll get a little clearer as we look here. We’ll skip to verse 19.
VII. Mediums and Necromancers 23:51
19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. Isa 8.19–20
“When they say to you”: this is the people, the culture. They have no dawn; they have no light. I love this. Who are the medium and the necromancer? Well, there’s an easy parallel here: the medium, the media. Same word, the medium, the media. And in a way, today we can just say, yeah: who are you supposed to look to for your guidance? “Go look at the media.” Well, why would you do that? Shouldn’t you inquire of God? And if they won’t agree with the word and the testimony (I’m pointing to the Gospel here, the book we read every week, the Bible, the biblical worldview), it’s because they’re blind. They have no dawn. They have no light to see. Jesus is our dawn. He is the light that opens up the world. If they don’t know Jesus, they just don’t know how the world works.
VIII. Thrust into Thick Darkness 24:59
Okay, let’s look here, verse 21. This is what we read this morning:
21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. Isa 8.21–22
It recalls the plague of darkness in Egypt, where it said it was so dark they couldn’t even see their hand in front of their face. Well, guess what? It doesn’t help you if the kingdom of heaven is at hand if you can’t see it. That’s the reality of the world. For all those people out there who don’t know Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is right there, but they can’t see it.
Anytime you turn to a god that’s not the true God, anytime you worship something (materialism, ideology, wokeness, politics, whatever it is you worship, and that’s for us too), whatever thing is more important than God, whatever you look to for truth, for your answers, that’s not of God, it blinds you. It brings darkness into your life. So when we talk about “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” it’s a formula. You repent, you turn away from your sin, so you can actually see the kingdom. It’s like you’re facing the wrong direction, and Jesus is like, “No, turn around. It’s right here.”
So this morning, as we talk about these things and we look out into the world at all the various social media, the influencers, the ideas, the money, all of the stuff that’s saying, “Look here, look here, look here,” that’s vying for your attention, my call today is: repent. Turn away. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. In that moment where I was distracted and my kids were playing and I was thinking of all these things, all I had to do was look away from those things that were concerning me, that were making me anxious, and see: “Oh, the kingdom’s right here.” At every moment in your life there’s that invitation. Are your eyes open? Are you paying attention? Are you looking in the right direction? Because even when you’re slogging through a hard day at work, the kingdom of heaven’s right there.
So may God open our eyes. May God help us to repent. May God help us not to get so caught up in all the things on our heart and mind that are weighing us down. Repent means we have to change. It means we have to do things differently. It’s not just a pattern of thinking. It’s not an Eastern religion where if you just think hard enough you’ll get there. No, you actually have to change. You have to turn. But then, guess what? It’s so good. The kingdom is here. The promised land is here. Enter in. There’s only more, and it never ends. In twenty years I’m not going to be like, “Oh man, yeah, I’ve just been living in the kingdom. I don’t need to repent anymore. I have arrived.” No, that doesn’t happen. It’s every day: wake up, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
IX. The People Who Walked in Darkness 27:17
Okay, so this is the promise we are living in. This is the reason. And we have to do this, because the world actually needs people who live in the kingdom, because the kingdom of our God is invading the kingdom of this world, and we get to be a part of the invasionary force. We’re spreading the kingdom with how we live. And so here’s the prophecy we’re living in:
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isa 9.1–2
Her who was in anguish: that was Israel, the people of God. “He has made glorious the way of the sea.” We get to live right next to the sea, the ocean. It’s beautiful. I love this town. I’m going to hold on to that one.
That’s today. We get to live in the light. So repent, turn around, and see: the kingdom is here. Amen.