Encounter Jesus – Matthew Week 2

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? What is Old Testament Fulfillment?

Matthew 1-4

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What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

  • Read 3: 1-3 – John the Baptist – “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”
    • Read Isaiah 40: 3-5 – prepare way for the Lord, glory of God revealed; ALL flesh will see it. BIG IDEA – People of God Redefined, God for ALL people
    • Also Malachi 3: 1- messenger prepares the way; the Lord suddenly comes to his temple.
    • Matthew tells us several stories of what happens when Jesus goes to the temple.
    • Presence of God only returns to this temple when Jesus arrives
  • Read 4: 12-17
    • Massive crowds had been going to see John the Baptist – Jerusalem, Judea, around Jordan
    • John arrested – end of the preparation phase; time for Jesus to come to the forefront
    • More Old  Testament Fulfillment – Isaiah 9: 1-2
      • We think of fulfillment as meaning prophecy that X will happen, then X happens. But there is way more to it in Greek and Hebrew thought
      • Prediction – Yes, that’s one kind
      • Completion
      • Perfection
      • Drawing out Implications of Something
      • Satisfying Request/Desire – we have that in English
      • Conform or Obey Requirement
      • Correlate Events Between Two Points in Time – View history/God’s activity as a rising cycle of events
      • Matthew’s Big Idea with all the Old Testament Fulfillment Comments = Jesus is the perfection and completion of all promises in the Old Testament, even what people messed up back then, e.g. the “Out of Egypt” fulfillment
    • Verse 17 – Jesus repeats John’s call – “Repent for Kingdom of Heaven is at hand
    • I’ve long struggled with – what does that mean?
      • Is Kingdom of Heaven = Heaven? 2nd Coming? What’s the Deal?
      • I’m convinced that Matthew immediately shows us, then recaps it throughout the gospel
    • Calls first disciples – Simon, Andrew, James, John – Inner Circle
  • Read 4: 23-25
    • 3 Activities in verse 23 as Jesus tours Galilee – Teaching (synagogue), Proclaiming (good news), Healing (sick/afflicted)
    • Verse 24 – famous in Syria – gentiles came and he did the same thing for them – healed the sick, afflicted, pain, demons, epileptics, paralytics
  • What He’s doing is for all people _ BIG IDEA – Kingdom of Heaven is for everyone!
  • Reiterated in verse 25 – Crowds from Galilee – mixed race, Decapolis – gentile, Jerusalem/Judea – Jewish. Verbal parallel with John the Baptist to say Jesus is bigger than John the Baptist.
  • Hold onto those 3 Activities – Teaching, Proclaiming, Healing
  • Think Big Picture of Matthew
    • Chapters 5-7 = Teaching
    • Chapter 8 – Healing and telling people good news about the Kingdom; that it’s for all who believe.
    • Chapter 9 – More healing and proclaiming
    • Read 9:35 – Bookend conclusion of chapters 4-9 – Teaching, Proclaiming, Healing
    • Read 10: 5-8 – Sends disciples to Proclaim and Heal
  • Jesus Himself is the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 10) and He brings it, and it looks like  Truth (Teaching), God’s Mercy (Good News), and Restoration (Healing)
    • Big Story of the Bible – Creation / Fall / Redemption / New Creation
    • God’s ultimate plan/goal is to restore the world to the perfection He made before people messed it up
    • The Fall brought – pain, suffering, sickness, falsehood, death, power of the devil over the world
    • Jesus is dramatically demonstrating the reverse of each of those things – healing, relief from pain and suffering, teaching truth, giving life, and pushing back the devil. That’s the Kingdom of Heaven!
    • Jesus has launched the invasion to take back a broken, messed up world and make it perfect again. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
  • Kingdom of Heaven is now, but not complete until the 2nd coming in Revelation
    • As we’ll see in chapter 13, Kingdom of Heaven starts small. Like parachuting in a small team of resistance fighters behind enemy lines.
    • But it will grow. As we unfold the gospels, the mission is passed on to the universal church AND this church, to those believers and to each of us who is a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior.
    • We’re supposed to be doing what Jesus and the disciples did
      • Teach truth
      • Proclaim good news – the gospel of God’s love through Christ’s sacrifice
      • Heal a broken world – trying to make our community better, helping those in need, caring for the sick, working for justice, glorifying God
      • Not just by our beliefs but by our actions
      • Jesus did all 3 continuously, based on this language
    • Unquestionably, we’re in a broken world. We too are behind enemy lines! What to do?
      • Great Commission – for most of us, that’s make disciples by getting up out of our chair, bring to faith and baptize, and teach to obey all Jesus commanded.
      • All have a vital role to play. Even if you are sick or unable to drive yourself, we all have a role to play. Prayer, financial, teaching, inviting, sharing, loving, serving the community around us.
      • Read Ephesians 2: 8-10 – Saved by grace for all good works, already prepped for us!
      • Too often Christians, especially evangelicals are content to bask in knowing the truth, discussing the truth internally, arguing the truth, and lamenting that other people don’t know the truth and don’t seem all that interested in it (which doesn’t compute for us).
      • If that’s us, that’s a fail.
    • But the truth is only 1/3 of our kingdom mandate
      • We’re also to proclaim the good news – except if we proclaim anything it often doesn’t seem like very good news to an outsider. We don’t appear to feel happy or excited.
      • We seem angry, unfun, and that we’re there to just criticize and prescribe life changes.
      • That ISN’T good news. Good news is God’s love and mercy breaking loose in the world; it’s forgiveness for sins even though you don’t deserve it; it’s everlasting life through faith in Jesus.
      • Once you realize that and rejoice in what God gives you, THEN you desire to change to honor the God of all mercy and grace. That’s 1/3rd of the Kingdom mandate.
      • AND, we’re to work to do all 3 continuously – just like Jesus did. Most churches and Christians just do one or the other well. Most churches and Christians just emphasize the one they value most. That isn’t effective in bringing the Kingdom to people.
        • Either we’re all truth and most people don’t want to hear us
        • Or we’re all making the world a better place, forgetting we’re there to proclaim the good news and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • As we encounter Jesus here, we’ll see he is all 3 of those things at all times, that’s the point of these passages as we’ve encountered Jesus. Only He is all truth, all grace, all healing, but we are called to be like him, and I think if we’re honest, most of us fall far short.