The Son of Man came not to be served by to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. – Matthew 20:28

My mom was a great southern cook. At least six nights a week, she cooked a full meal for everybody who showed up at the table. There were eight of us and most nights, at least one or two of us had a friend who wanted to stay for supper. We had a neighbor, in fact, a big ol’ guy, who would show up completely by coincidence most evenings right around 6:00. It would never have occurred to my mother to turn him or anyone else away. There was always a way to stretch the meal so that everyone had enough. My mother had what Warren Lathem calls a theology of abundance. She always believed there was enough. I, on the other hand, had in those days what Warren would call a theology of scarcity, because I had four brothers, and I was just sure that if I didn’t protect my plate, I’d go hungry.

Like my mother would let me go hungry.

In a theology of scarcity, we believe there is only so much so we get very protective of our plate. But in a theology of abundance, we get that God is in control.

Jesus taught that in the last days, we’d become confused about that. We’d become very concerned about protecting our own lives and lifestyles, worried that if it isn’t up to us it won’t happen. So the question this morning is simply this: Is God enough?

Will you take a moment to prepare the soil of your heart to receive this word? Close your eyes for a moment, and listen to this: Just after Jesus says, “I came to serve, not to be served,” he comes up on two blind men on the roadside, who hear Jesus is passing by. And they cry out two things: “Lord, have mercy on us,”and, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

Both great prayers. Can you imagine Jesus passing by right now, passing right in front of you? And as he passes by you, he asks, as he asked those two blind guys, “What do you want me to do for you?” And you answer: Lord, have mercy on me. Let my eyes be opened. Can you imagine that as your cry to Jesus this morning? If so, make that your prayer. Lord, have mercy on me. Let my eyes be opened. Amen.

“Enough”is frustrating.

There is a verse in a song by Switchfoot (“Meant To Live”) that goes like this:

We want more than this world’s got to offer

We want more than the wars of our fathers

And everything inside screams for second life.

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

I think they’ve hit the nail on the head with these thoughts. We do want more than this world’s got to offer. We were meant for more. Everything inside us screams out for an option. And that’s why enough is frustrating. It is frustrating precisely because hard-wired into us is a desire for more, for a second life. And in pursuit of that something more, we go after the things we know how to do. We try earning more, working harder. We watch more Oprah, read more self-help books. We become fighters. We fight for what we think we deserve. We invent our idea of perfect and then go after it with a vengeance. We become very preoccupied with making sure we get ours. After all, if we don’t protect our own interests, who will?

But nothing we try quite scratches the itch. And that’s what frustrates us.

None of this is new. Jesus met a guy once who was in the middle of this frustrating personal crisis, and he used the guy to show his disciples just how hard it is to make your own stairway to heaven. And the disciples see this and are sort of stunned by the revelation of it. And they ask, “Who then can be saved? If we can’t earn it or work for it or somehow deserve it, how do we find the peace and joy and fulfillment we so desperately hunger after?”

Let’s look at this section of Matthew 19 and 20, that help us think through these questions.

Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”“Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man asked.

And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”

Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”

Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then. – Matthew 19:16-30

Do you know the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the Newark, New Jersey school system? The guy who owns Facebook decided he would give $100 million dollars to one of the countries worst school systems, so they could develop something state of the art that would totally transform the way public schools work.

$100 million dollars to save Newark’s educational system. Three years ago, the graduation rate in the Newark school system was 54%. In three years, they’ve hired 50 new principals, built four new schools, replaced the school superintendent. They’ve done a ton of other things, too, trying to save New Jersey’s educational system with $100 million dollars. And so far, what they’ve mostly gotten is parental outrage and very little real progress. A New Yorker article (“Schooled”) detailing how the organizers of this massive reform movement have gotten a huge education themselves. Turns out, all the money in the world isn’t always the answer.

Jim Carrey said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.” Jim Carrey made $25 million for his part in Bruce Almighty and was rated in 2003 as Hollywood’s top-paid actor. And he says, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

We can’t earn enough to make life meaningful.

For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.

At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’

The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’

That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last. – Matthew 20:1-16

I go to the gym early in the day. Most days, I am struck by all the body types around me, quietly doing their thing on machines and with weights. These are not young, buff types, not at that time of day. These are normal-looking, working folk, like you see in Wal-Mart or at Kroger. There are as many shapes as there are people — all interesting, none air-brushed.

On our respective machines, we move at different paces. Some are obviously just beginning this fitness journey, probably because a doc told them they should invest either in a gym membership or a cemetery plot. Those folks are lucky to make it a few minutes on a machine before they quietly head over to the coffee pot. Others have been at it a while and seem hardly to break a sweat after an hour of flailing around on whatever their contraption of choice is.

If you were looking critically at the collective group of us, you’d wonder why we bother. Most of us are normal, middle-aged people; we don’t look “fit,” not on the face of it. But we’re there. And more and more, I believe that’s what counts. Being there.

I’ve decided this much — if you’re inside the gym walls you deserve not to be judged, no matter what your shape or pace. I want this mind to be in me, that I am able to look at anyone in that room and default to this: “At least you’re here. And because you’re here, you’ll get only mental high-fives from me. No judgment, just grace and prayer.”

What I’m learning at the gym informs my view of those inside my church. They also are normal people who come in every spiritual shape, who go at every spiritual pace. They move at different speeds and make progress in varying degrees. Some are more comfortable near the coffee machine; others have more spiritual stamina. On the face of it they may not look like much, but those who make it in, whether they come sprinting or fall across the threshold, deserve not to be judged. At least they are there.

This was the gospel preached to me from the vantage point of my elliptical this morning so today – on the strength of that good word – I make this fresh promise to the people who will show up in my church on Sunday: “No matter what shape you’re in or what pace you’ve set for yourself, because you’re here, you’ll get only mental high-fives from me. No judgment. Just grace and prayer.”

Warren Berkley says, “God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, pp. 61-62). And then Berkley says this: “It is not merely the time that we put in. It is the heart that we put into the time we have.”

This whole question of what “enough”means comes down to motive. Where is my heart? What am I really after? Because enough —when it is all about me —can be so frustrating.

Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. “What is your request?” he asked.

She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”

But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?”

“Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”

When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:21-28

The problem with what this mama is asking for her boys is that she somehow thinks there is only so much grace, only so much authority, only so much power, and she wants to make sure her sons get it. Only so many people are deserving, and what if her sons somehow miss out? After all, they’ve done the work. They’ve followed. Don’t they deserve?

Like Jesus says to her, “You have no idea what you’re asking for.”

Step back a few chapters to Matthew 15 and you’ll run across another mom who came to Jesus on behalf of her child. This one was looking for healing for her daughter, and Jesus’ response seemed cold. “I’m not here for the Gentiles. I’m here for the lost sheep of Israel.” He even calls her a dog. He says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs.” I don’t know about you but that would have devastated me. All my rejection demons and inadequacy demons and pride demons would have rallied and I would have walked away from that moment feeling angry and wrong. I would never have let that guy touch my kid.

But this wise mama understood that what Jesus was saying had nothing to do with whether or not she deserved his time and mercy and grace. In fact, he was saying quite the opposite. Beneath his words was something profound about God’s love for people who didn’t deserve more of his time. In that exchange, Jesus revealed how devoted he was even to those who reject him. And this mama heard the underlying message and agreed with it. “Even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Jesus was so impressed with her discernment that he healed her daughter on the spot. When this same healing story is told in Mark, it is sandwiched between two miracle feeding stories. Just before it is the story of the feeding of 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves. And just after it is the story of when Jesus feeds 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few small fish. In both cases, the disciples (who must’ve fallen out of their cribs at birth) ask, “Where are we going to get enough to feed all these people?” Both times! They don’t just ask Jesus the first time they see thousands of people get fed. They ask again a few days later when Jesus does it a second time! Because they are still bound by this theology of scarcity that says that if we feed all these people, we won’t be able to feed our own. Meanwhile, Jesus is operating out of an abundance we cannot even begin to fathom.

And between those two feeding stories is this woman and her daughter and her insistence on the crumbs. No wonder Jesus is so moved by her. In her, he sees the same love as his Father has for the whole world. He sees a kind of faith that isn’t about to walk away empty-handed when she knows there’s more. He sees a spirit of abundance in a woman who knows there is always enough grace, always enough power, always enough food to feed whoever shows up at the table. So your sin and my sin and your feeling like an outsider and your guilt and your shame is never enough to keep you from being at the table if you want to be at the table.

The moral of this story is that Jesus doesn’t intend to invite you into the Kingdom without changing your life. That was never part of the deal. It doesn’t matter which side of the equation you’re on. Whether you are part of the family being called out into the world or a strange, pushy Gentile woman begging for healing, Jesus plans to wreck your life.

What is enough?

So how do we get enough? The answer is in the approach of these two moms toward the circumstances of their lives. One mom has the sense that her sons have served Jesus enough to deserve a place at the table. The other gets it that there is no such thing as “enough” in the Kingdom. What we get is only because of the love, mercy and grace of Jesus. John Piper says, “The radical call to Christian discipleship is NOT a call to serve Jesus, but to be served by Jesus as we serve others, and to be ransomed by him from death.”

So when Jesus says he came to serve, not to be served, that’s not a formula for how to live this so we can feel good about ourselves. That’s a Kingdom reality. This isn’t Jesus saying, “You need to serve in the same selfless way I serve.” He’s saying, “The only way you can do this life, the only way you’ll be at peace, the only way you’ll find joy in this world is if you let me serve you. “Enough” happens when we let Jesus serve us.

Piper says we can’t be rich enough, work hard enough, deserve enough UNLESS we are served by Jesus.

(This is) what turns Christianity into gospel. If Christianity were only a great and radical teacher calling for the sacrificial obedience of radical disciples, it would not be good news. It would be just another ideology. Another philosophy. Another moral improvement program. If Christmas only meant that a man appeared on the scene of history to call others to be servants, it would not be good news…We don’t need a Messiah to tell us that. What we need is salvation from guilt and death and hell. And we need power to drink the cup of suffering in the path of service. We don’t need another religious leader to say, “Follow me.” We don’t need another prophet, like Mohammed. We don’t need another philosophical Buddha or Confucius, or another political organizer like Karl Marx or Mao Zedong. We don’t need any more New Age mysticisms or psychological self-help strategies. What we need is Someone who can forgive our sins and ransom us from guilt and death and the wrath of God, and who can give us a new life with the power to die for each other in the service of love” (from a sermon entitled “The Son of Man Came to Serve”at www.desiringgod.org. December 17, 1995)

This is what Jesus means when he says —-

Matthew 19:30 – Many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Matthew 20:16 – So the last will be first, and the first last.

Matthew 20:26-28 – Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He is saying that those who get it will be the ones who realize we’re nothing by ourselves…that what we want most from life won’t happen if we think we have to do it ourselves. It will happen when we let the One Who Is Enough serve us as Lord, and Messiah, and Friend.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Father is enough. All by himself, he is enough.

For some, it looks like gathering clouds. For others, a black hole. For some, it feels like dread or fear or hopelessness. For others, it feels more like guilt — the kind that won’t go away. It may feel like shame, or like anxiety that never eases up. It can leave one with questions, unable to function, and another unable to sleep. Some ease the pain by eating; others by not eating. In some people, it masks itself as physical pain. Other people mask it with anger; many medicate with substances that seem to help at first, but end up enslaving in a deeper darkness. It saps some or all their energy; it makes others nervously busy. Some become manic; others become numb.

Depression is hell.

And there are as many faces of it as there are people who live with it. Statistics say one in ten adults will deal with it in some form at least once in their lives. They tell us more women than men suffer from it, but that may be more a difference in how we talk about it. We know this much for sure: a depressed person cannot talk himself out of it or will it away, nor can the people around him. And the pain of it can affect us spiritually, causing us to question God and even our own existence.

As spiritual people, how do we cope when the clouds gather? What stories help us understand how God works when we are in darkness?

The obvious choice would be Job, I guess, but I’d like to draw some thoughts from an unlikely character in the Bible — Moses, a great man whose obedience changed the world. Consider his story. Moses spent literally decades, sitting in his own cloud of unknowing, waiting for God to show up. Then, when God did show up, Moses could not have responded more unenthusiastically if he’d tried. He responded to God in fear. He was a man who tended to leave things half-done (remember the argument with his wife?). He caused his family no end in grief. His meetings with the Pharaoh create suffering for a cityful of people. If ever there were a man with a right to feel depressed, Moses would be it.

Eventually, he had it out with God (I love him for this). He explodes in frustration. “God, why have you mistreated your people like this? Why did you send me? You have not even begun to rescue them. Where are you, God? Have you forsaken us forever? Where are you? Where are you?” (Exodus 5:22-23).

Have you been there and done that? Have you felt low-hanging emotional clouds, like a weight of fog over your life? “Why are my finances in such trouble? Why is my job so miserable? Why is my home life so unappealing? Why is my marriage loveless? Why do my children suffer with illness or disability or emotional pain? Why, God, have you mistreated your people like this?” For some of us, the questions far outweigh the answers. And it leaves us depressed, broken, fearful, and feeling guilty for the way we feel about it.

One of the angriest times I’ve had in my life came after my mother died. I hurt. The grief was heavy; the pain worse than what I’d known before. I remember a pastor telling me I needed to keep praying. I responded by telling him I had no more prayers. I was so angry. I didn’t understand the suffering she went through or the grief with which we were left. Folks around us meant well (they always do), but no amount of words, food, flowers or care seemed to penetrate the darkness.

Then I got a card from a friend that seemed to touch at the point of my deepest need. In the card, she quoted a French poet named Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”

That thought seemed more relevant than any well-intentioned encouragement others offered. It went right to the heart for me. I couldn’t talk myself out of how I felt. There were no answers to make it all make sense. It helped greatly to be told I didn’t have to have answers. It helped to know I didn’t have to depend on cheap clichés to soothe deep pain. Making peace with the questions made more sense. It was certainly more do-able.

I suspect that God understands that. Maybe that’s why he answered Moses the way he did when Moses got to the end of his rope. God didn’t get mad at him or fire him. He didn’t make him feel guilty for being frustrated. He didn’t punish him for the emotional outburst. In fact, I can almost hear him saying, “Finally … now we’re getting somewhere.” In the midst of Moses’ honesty, God showed up compassionately. God met him at the very point of his questioning. God acknowledged his frustration and raised him above it not with cheap clichés that would ease the immediate pain but with the eternal truth of God’s power and promises.

The principle behind God’s response to Moses in his pain is this: The best thing God has to offer us is not answers to our questions, but the truth of himself. God said to Moses, “I know it doesn’t look great right for you now, and while that’s not something I will change, I am One you can trust as you walk through it. You can count on me to do what I’ve promised.” God comforts Moses by showing him who He is. “I am the Lord.” And then he gives him seven promises to bank on in the wilderness.

In Exodus 6:6-8. God says to Moses and the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and

I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

I will free you from being slaves to them, and

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

I will take you as my own people, and

I will be your God. …

I will bring you to the land I swore with an uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

I will give it to you as a possession.

(not because you asked but because) I am the LORD.’ (And that’s what I’ve promised.)

In other words, God says, “I have not changed. Even though your moods may swing and the clouds hang low and your perspective may shift and your faith may waiver and your circumstances may alter, I AM. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I have not changed,” says the Lord. “What I have promised, I will deliver. Even if Pharaoh does not remember your ancestors, and even if you don’t either, I will not change. I am still the same powerful and loving God who cares for you and wants to bring you into your destiny. I Am Who I Say I Am.”

Neil Anderson, in his book, Who I Am In Christ, says the most important knowledge we possess is a true knowledge of who God is (p. 11). Knowing who he is grounds us in who we are. “You are not who you are in Christ because of the things you have done,” Anderson writes. “You are who you are in Christ because of what He has done” (p. 15). In the midst of his frustration, God reminds Moses of who He is, and He calls Moses to rest in that truth.

Maxie Dunnam tells a story he first heard from J. Vernon McGee about a little Scottish lady who worked hard, day and night, to make enough money to send her son to college. After his first semester away, he came home full of doubts and questions about God, like college sometimes does to people. He didn’t want his mother to know about these new doubts, but his mother had this habit of talking incessantly about the wonders of God — of how he’d saved her and of how she knew she was saved. She would go on and on like this, so finally, he said, “Mother, you do not seem to realize how small you are in this universe. If you lost your soul, God would not miss it at all. It would not amount to anything.” She didn’t respond. She just went on with her work. Finally, she said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said. You’re right. My little soul does not amount to much; I would not lose much and God would not lose much. But if he does not save me, He will lose more than I will. Because he promised that if I would trust Jesus, he would save me. And if God breaks his word, he will lose his reputation and mar his character.”

That’s the point. Because you see, when it comes to us and our stuff, its not ultimately about us at all. Its about God. Its about his character, his faithfulness, his power to save and his desire to do so. Ultimately the best God can give us is not answers to our questions, but commitment to his promises and his character. And what has God promised us? At least this much: that if we trust in Jesus, he will save our souls. He will deliver us from our slavery to sin; he will redeem us with an outstretched arm and with his judgment which is full of grace; he will accept us as his people; and he will be our God; and he will deliver to that place of our destiny and give us what is our right as children of God. That much, we can count on … if we choose it.

Henri Nouwen was a brilliant scholar – a professor at both Yale and Harvard who left the academic world to work as a priest for people with profound disabilities. In his book The Inner Voice of Love, he writes this: “You are constantly facing choices. The question is whether you choose for God or for your own doubting self. You know what the right choice is, but your emotions, passions and feelings keep suggesting you choose the self-rejecting way. God says to you, ‘I love you, I am with you, I want to see you come close to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence.’ This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice…. Do not let your anxious emotions distract you.… Remember, you are held safe. You are loved. You are protected.… What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it and it will be yours” (pp. 114-15).

That’s the lesson of Exodus, chapter 6. In the face of our own pain and questions, God may not give us all the answers we’re hoping for, but he gives us himself. Which is so much better in the long run than the temporary fix of cheap advice, comforting food, bumper-sticker encouragement. All well-meaning, but what is of God will last.

Now, the very next section of chapter 6, beginning with verse 14, is a genealogy list. We are given the lineage of Moses and Aaron – who their parents and grandparents were. Then, at the end of this genealogy, we find an interesting little paragraph (Exodus 6:26-30) –The Aaron and Moses named in this list are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Lead all the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt” … They are the ones who went to Pharaoh to ask permission to lead the people from the land of Egypt. … This is the same Moses who had argued with the Lord, saying, “I can’t do it! I’m no orator. Why should Pharaoh listen to me?”

Don’t you love this? Whoever wrote this (and most people say it was Moses himself) must’ve thought it was something to remember that the same Moses who melted down with God, who had no sense of his own calling, who was moody and doubtful and at times deeply depressed, who didn’t even realize what it was he was made for –this Moses was the very guy who ended up in Pharaoh’s court demanding the release of a whole nation of people. And this family lineage of Aaron and Moses teaches us God had been planning to use them all along. Whether they felt like it or not, God planned to use them. Whether they sensed their worthiness or not, God used them. Whether they could see more than a half-step ahead or not, God came for them. And in fact, just after we read this genealogy list, God commands them to get back to work. And he even tells them it will get harder before it gets better. But none of that is because of them. All of it is about God. “I am the Lord!”he says in Exodus 6:28. “You tell the enemy of the souls of my people this news. I am the Lord!” That fact alone seems to carry power into the darkness, power to quiet fear and power to step into the unknown. We are not alone.

When I was ordained I was told to choose an elder in the church to stand with me at the ordination ceremony. I asked the man who was the senior pastor of the church I was serving at the time if he would be by my side. He had taken me on as his associate and I was grateful, but we didn’t have a long history together. Many of my colleagues who were also being ordained that year chose people who were special to them —a parent who was also a pastor, a spiritual father or mother in their lives. They chose mentors and pastors who’d led them richly. Since I didn’t have a person like that in my life —someone who’d shaped me over many seasons — I remember feeling a little lonely as we marched into the ceremony, almost like a spiritual orphan. I even remember wondering if maybe I wasn’t supposed to be there. I mean, all these other people seemed to have a heritage and a connection, and I didn’t sense that for myself.

But I was there, so I got ordained. Afterward our bishop gave each of us a certificate that included our lineage of ordination. It listed who ordained us, and then who ordained that person, then who ordained him … all the way up the line to John Wesley. And when I got that list and looked at it, I was blown away. Listed six spiritual generations before me was Bishop William Capers, my great-great grandfather. My own ancestor was in my spiritual lineage! I had no idea, and was overwhelmed to see that name there. Right there on stage, I wanted to cry out, “I’m supposed to be here! I have a heritage! I’m part of the plan! And even if I don’t think I can do it, even if I don’t feel this, God knows what I’m made of and God has plans for me!”

In Jeremiah 29:10-14, God says, “The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years (in other words, you are going to walk through seasons of spiritual darkness, of burn-out, of depression, of discouragement. You are going to walk through seasons when there are more questions than answers). But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you, says the Lord. I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land.”

Do you hear it? This is God’s response to Moses, to the Israelites, to you and me, throughout the generations. In our questions, we have a hope, and it is not rooted in our circumstances; it is rooted in the plan —in the very identity—of God. For those of us who struggle, who live under gathering clouds, it is not a promise that God will answer all our questions. It is promise that He will not change on us. God’s character is eternal, his promises are safe, his nature is to love and his plans for us are good. “What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it, and it will be yours.”

When is it time for ______?

I googled that question and my search engine finished the question in these ways: When is it time for a divorce? When is it time for a nursing home? When is it time for hospice care? To buy a new car? To break up? To let go? To move on? When is it time for the first kiss? (Side note: If you have to google that question, it probably isn’t time yet …) When is it time to move on from a guy? When is it time to move on from a girl? When is it time …?

The fourth chapter of Matthew inspires that question. This is the place in the story of Jesus where he decides the time is right to step into his public ministry. The Kingdom of Heaven has now come near, in earnest. A new movement is about to make itself known. And here, we learn how Jesus began the movement that changed the world.

The End of an Era

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. – Matthew 4:12

A true prophet was called and equipped by God, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak God’s message. Prophets get people ready. Prophets have a way of explaining reality so that it changes the way we see things. They show us truths about God and about ourselves that we may not have seen on our own. God has always used prophets, and still does. Every age has its own prophets. But in our family history, there is a season of prophetic ministry leading up to Jesus that we call the Prophetic era.

The first prophet recorded in the Old Testament is Samuel, who lived and prophesied around 1020 BC. Then came Nathan. Then, a season when the Kingdom was divided – Israel to the north and Judah to the south. The prophets of Israel were Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea. The prophets of Judah were Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, Malachi, and Jonah.

Then there was four hundred years of silence. Four hundred years of waiting and wondering and watching. Then … fire!

John the Baptist came into his prophetic ministry preaching fiery sermons. He had a thing for holiness. He called people to repentance. He called them to prepare for the coming Messiah. John’s arch nemesis was Herod, a politician who obviously had a personal war raging inside – a war between the two sides of himself. Herod was opposed to John precisely because of this inner battle. He had a thirst for spiritual things and for knowledge, and he also had a thing for his brother’s wife. John, opposed – on holiness grounds – Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife. That got John thrown into prison.

Before we judge Herod too harshly, we have to confess that we’ve all got a little of the spirit of Herod living inside us. It’s that thing that rationalizes our bad decisions, that makes us try too hard to make sense of things that make no sense for us. So we date things and marry things that aren’t good for us, that pull us away from God’s best. We lose sight of God’s timing. We neglect to let go, to move on, to grow up, when the Spirit calls us forward.

With John’s arrest the era of the prophets comes to an end. This is a huge moment, and we reach it in Matthew 4:12. Unless you know better, you could easily pass by this verse, assuming it merely marks a transition from one scene to another. But this one line is so much more than a place holder. This line signifies the end of an era. This signifies the end of the prophetic era and the beginning of the messianic era. Yes, Jesus has been on the scene for thirty years already, but that moment when John steps back and Jesus steps forward … well, that moment represents an atmospheric shift. A spiritual climate change.

From this one verse, we learn something about how movements are birthed. It begins with a shift from one season to the next.  The “trick” is learning how to recognize the time for that shift. God’s time. “When is it time for _____?”

The great theologian, Tupac Shakur, says, “You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on.”

Tori Amos says, “Girls, you’ve gotta know when it’s time to turn the page.”

The writer of Ecclesiastes says (Ecclesiastes 3:1), “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

Matthew 4:12 inspires a hunger for divine timing. Is there a stirring in your spirit? Or even a sense that you’re pounding the brakes, trying to keep something from happening? Is there a nudge within, confirming what you may know or what you may be trying to ignore? The first step in any Kingdom movement is that step that moves us out of one season and into another. Divine timing requires a connection with the Holy Spirit.

The Way of the Sea

Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

Matthew 4:13-16

Jesus marks his move from the prophetic era into the messianic era by physically moving into a new place. Matthew marks the move by quoting from Isaiah, who mentions the Way of the Sea. The ancient name for The Way of the Sea is Via Maris. This was a trade route that ran along the Mediterranean, connecting Egypt to Syria. It ran right alongside the territory of people who weren’t exactly enemies, nor were they friends. Zebulun and Naphtali were bad influences. These were like the hoodlum friends who lived up the street, the ones your mother didn’t want you to hang out with because every time you did, you paid for it.

On one side, the sea. On the other side, temptation. This is the road Jesus walked, right after he spent forty days being tempted by Satan out in the wilderness. This was the road he took out of the wilderness. Do you find an assurance in that thought, as I do? A comfort? This teaches me that long before you took that wrong turn, long before you ended up in enemy territory, long before you lost your battle with temptation, long before you called on God to heal your diseases and cast out your demons, long before you limped out of the wilderness and experienced your own treacherous journey toward Kingdom purposes, Jesus walked this very way. He walked out of his wilderness and traveled the Way of the Sea. He felt your pain and conquered your enemies and cut a path out of that darkness.

Be encouraged! There is a way forward, and it leads into the purposes of God.

The Call to Repent

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” – Matthew 4:17

N.T. Wright says that in the first century, Kingdom talk meant revolution. Israel had experienced more than one political revolution and at the time Jesus showed up, they were living under the oppressive rule of yet another one. By entering into his public ministry, by claiming a new Kingdom was near, it sounds as if he is calling for a revolution. And in fact, he was. Not a political revolution, but a personal one. Jesus was calling for people to overthrow the oppressive and self-seeking kings who ruled over hearts, usurping the place of God at the center. And he called people to begin this revolution with the subversive act of repentance. Which means that repentance is not about shame. It is about freedom. It is the gift of another chance. Repentance is ultimately about hope.

Carl Medearis is a follower of Jesus who is considered an expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations. He lived as a missionary in Lebanon for twelve years. In his book, Muslims, Christians and Jesus, Medearis talks about going to a meeting of some top-level Lebanese political leaders. He says he was there “to discuss how these men could work with us in bridging the Arab East with the American West.” At that gathering, he met a man named Mohsen, a Sunni Muslim parliament member. In the course of conversation Mohsen asked Medearis what he did for a living. Now, Medearis is something like a missionary to the Muslim world, but he’s pretty careful about saying it that way. So when this guy asked him who he was, Medearis said he’d never used this term before or since, but in that moment he was inspired to call himself a “hope broker.” Mohsen asked what a hope broker was, and Medearis said, “Well … I deal hope.” Mohsen had just been talking about how desperate the situation in Lebanon was at the time, so he was really interested in this hope broker. He asked Medearis, “Where do you get it? The hope. Where do you get your hope?”

Medearis said, “Well, it is so simple it’s almost silly. Here’s the idea: we gather a few people together about once a week. We do a few basic things. First, we try to pray for the country. We are a mix of Muslims, Christians and Druze [Druze are a sect of Islam]. We all say we believe in a God who can save people, so we thought we’d start where we agree–with prayer. But lately, we’ve realized we need more than prayer. We need something to bind us together. Something to focus on. To study. So we decided to study the life of a great person who we could all agree on.”

Medearis asked if Mohsen could think of someone they could study that they could all agree on and Mohsen mentioned a few names like Gandhi and Mother Teresa. Then, suddenly he pounded his fist on the table (Medearis said it scared him to death) and he said, “I’ve got it! It’s Jesus! Muslims like Jesus. Druze like Jesus. Even Christians like Jesus!” That’s exactly the way he said it! “Even Christians …!” Then Mohsen asked Medearis if he would start a group with members of the Lebanese parliament and so they did. They started a study in the Lebanese parliament and they studied through the gospel of Luke. That little group of Lebanese leaders studying Jesus together hasn’t changed the world – at least not yet. But do you see how it could quite possibly start a revolution?

This is the way of Jesus. He creates revolutions. He infiltrates cultures and souls and he calls on us to change direction, and he does it not to shame us but to give us a future with hope. To give us direction. Forward movement.

The Gathering of Leaders

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. – Matthew 4:18-22

Talk about revolutions. These first men who laid down their lives to follow Jesus had their worlds rocked by his very presence. And Jesus conquered their hearts by taking their natural gifts – the things they are already good at – and spiritualizing them. Good fishermen began to fish for people. Think of it as a conversion of purpose – a moment when a person realizes they are made for more than a paycheck. A great God makes people for greatness! We discover from the example of the disciples that when our lives are aligned with the values of the Kingdom, we become part of a movement of God. If not, we can actually stifle forward movement. N.T. Wright phrases this same idea as a question: “Are we working to extend God’s Kingdom in the world? Or are we standing in its way?”

The Coming of the Kingdom

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. – Matthew 4:23-25

In this passage, we’ve moved from the prophetic era into the messianic era. We’ve witnessed Jesus as he negotiated the tests that come with change. We’ve heard him vocalize what is most important to a Kingdom movement. And we’ve seen him call a team together.

Now, he goes out to practice the Kingdom of God. He begins to live this, painting a radical picture of the Kingdom: lame walking, blind seeing, lepers being cleansing, dead being raised and poor people soaking in good news. What a work! What a revolution! This is not the staid and stuffy display of religious scholars one-upping each other on the ability to follow rules. This is a messy, joyful, radical display of healing power!

When is it time for you to get involved with that kind of work?

I get what a zombie is. I was watching zombie movies in the church basement before zombie movies were cool. I’ve seen Night of the Living Dead a dozen times. But what we have now, this is another level of interesting. I know nothing about the current zombie culture, so help me out here. What is this fascination with dead people who won’t die?

I do get that this is a thing, but I have to admit to you that I do not get the appeal of it. This isn’t an “I’m a preacher” thing. This is just me not getting what’s fun about brain eating zombies. Who wants to keep going after you’ve been amputated and mutilated and have had your head cut off?

There are literally dozens of sites online talking about the zombie apocalypse. Even the CDC website has a zombie apocalypse preparedness guide.

Evidently, when it comes to zombie preparedness, location is everything (as quoted from Estately’s blog post by Ryan Nickum). Ryan Nickum has done the math to figure out which states are more prepared for a zombie apocalypse and which ones are doomed.

As it turns out, states with more soldiers per capita will fare better, because soldiers are physically fit, trained to fight, and have access to weapons. Same with states with a higher percentage of veterans per capita.  States with residents who rarely get out of their Laz-E-Boy will not escape the zombie menace (this is an actual statistic). States with a  lot of martial arts and laser tag enthusiasts will do well. “Yes,” Nickum says. “Laser tag. Few things prepare you better for a zombie attack in enclosed space.” People who like guns and paintball will also do well.

So, given those factors, which states do you suppose are the most prepared for a zombie apocalypse? According to the people who know these things, the top five most zombie-prepared states are: Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana.

Georgia ranked 47^th. And don’t bother trying to escape across the border. You’ll only be slightly more protected. South Carolina ranked 37^th. The only states less prepared than Georgia are New York, New Jersey and Mississippi. (And of course, Washington, D.C. where the zombie apocalypse is currently already underway, but no one is yet aware of it.)

I believe this fascination with zombies flows from our innate fear of something that’s very real. It is that idea that we might already be a walking dead person. The Urban dictionary says zombies are the opposite of life and are driven to simply undo it, which ends up being a pretty good definition of the enemy of our souls–who is not a zombie, nor a fantasy, but someone determined to take all the meaning and significance out of your life.

Or to keep it out. This is our human condition. In the natural, as it is–without the option of God–it is a dead-end state. No way out. This is why we need a redeemer.

Ezekiel saw the whole thing played out like a scene out of a zombie movie–only this is real life. Look with me at his prophecy in Ezekiel, chapter 37.

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off’” (Ezekiel 37:1-11).

We know these bones. We know this valley. Ezekiel speaks to that place we get into where our bones are in order but we’re dead on the inside.

You can look right on the outside, but inside …

You can be quietly, very privately, hurting yourself.
You can be quietly, very privately, clinging to a habit that keeps you numb.
You can be quietly, very privately, barely breathing. No joy. No sense of purpose.

You can look right on the outside but inside you’re dead.

“I was working my calendar and paying my bills and I could keep things in order, but I could barely catch my breath. I was keeping it together and getting things done, but spiritually, there was nothing there.”

Our bones are dried up …

Our hope is lost …

We are in this zombie existence–walking but not really living. This is life at the expense of others. In this state, we will end up sucking the life out of the people around us so we can feel alive ourselves. No joy. No meaning. No breath.

And into this scene, God speaks the $24,000 question: Can these bones live?

Can I make something out this life? Can I start over? Can what I’ve done be redeemed?

Can people who are doomed to death live–really live–and live, even after death?

Because here’s the thing: Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.

That woman who poured oil on Jesus’ head testifies to this truth. Go with me to the last scenes before Jesus goes to the cross in Matthew chapter 26, beginning with verse 6.

This story is like the visual aid for Ezekiel 37. When we get to this story, we’re in the middle of some pretty thick stress for Jesus and his followers. There is a plot to kill Jesus, and he knows it. His followers know it.  They aren’t nearly as comfortable with the news as Jesus is. In the midst of that, a woman shows up–a woman who was among the walking dead. We don’t know her whole story. This may have been Mary Magdelene, who was delivered of seven demons during one of Jesus’ healing services. Or it may have just been some obscure woman who had a lot to be thankful for, who became famous that day for a choice she made. It was a choice to live a resurrected life.

I want to ask you to close your eyes and listen to this story and focus on the two people at the center of this scene–a woman who has just come from death to life, and a man who is moving toward death–with people just like her in mind.

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Matthew 26:6-13).

Here is a woman who has encountered Jesus, and now she is living a resurrected life. She’s beginning to live from a place of gratitude. And while she’s doing this thing–anointing his head with oil–Jesus is interpreting this moment in light of God’s ultimate plan. “This isn’t just a nice gesture,” he says. “This–what she’s doing–is connected to my death, the very death that makes her life possible. This is the death that makes grace possible. The death that makes second chances possible. The death that makes gratitude possible.”

And so her anointing is really gratitude for the cross, which teaches us the great paradox of Kingdom living: Though we die, yet shall we live. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it will not produce fruit. To gain your life you must lose it.

I’ve told you before about our cat, Grace. This is her, the day Richard Coleman’s children came to our house during the GIC. For those of you not familiar with how cats communicate, let me just translate here. She is saying, “Why? Why did you bring these people here? Why do you torture me?”

Grace has not yet really lived into her name.

And I would feel a lot more compassion toward Grace in moments like this, except that she wreaks havoc on our furniture. She has killed at least two chairs. And I won’t declaw her because that’s just not the way we do it at our house, but I can tell you that things would be different if Grace didn’t have claws. Our lives would not cost as much if she didn’t have claws.

Folks, the cross is how God declawed death. It took the sting out. And right here in this scene, Jesus connects this woman’s act with his death to help us connect with what the cross is capable of. The cross takes walking dead people and gives them resurrected lives.

Go to Matthew 27:51-54, to the moment Jesus died. Here’s what happened the day God declawed death:

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 

This is powerful and important. It teaches us that there is no longer a barrier between us and God. We don’t need a priest to make sacrifices for us, or to go into the holy of holies on our behalf. We are now welcome to come boldly before the throne of grace, without shame, to seek forgiveness and acceptance from God. We are called and encouraged into an intimate relationship with God.

And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 

The treasure in this scene is the word Matthew uses to describe what happened to the earth when Jesus died. The earth shook. The centurion saw the earth quake. The Greek word used here is seismos (I learned this from Max Lucado’s small book, Imagine Your Life Without Fear, pp. 13-19). The only other times this word is used in Matthew are when the stone is rolled away at the resurrection, and then also on the day Jesus calmed a storm. Do you remember that story? Jesus and his followers were out on the water in a boat when a storm kicked up. It must have been quite a storm. Matthew describes it like an earthquake–the disciples are scared witless by it. And they are confounded by just how calm Jesus is in the midst of this earth-shaking storm. In the Mark version of this story, they ask, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The answer to that question comes definitively at the cross. “YES! Yes, I do care! I absolutely DO care that you’re perishing! I care what it feels like for you who are walking dead through life with no purpose or joy or contentment about you. I care about you who are dying in your sin.”

So, what’s the seismos event in your life right now? Where is the anxiety or fear brewing? Here’s how you claim the cross over that storm: You look dead into it and say, “I will not perish. The resurrection of Jesus is bigger than the power of this moment.”

What would it take for you to believe, truly believe, you will not perish? Not now. Not ever. He cares. And his intention is to give us a resurrection life. A life with power and meaning. And as if to prove the point, it happens right then and there, the day Jesus dies.

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 

This is the answer to Ezekiel’s prophecy. Yes, these bones can live. We will not perish! We are not doomed to a life of walking dead! The enemy of your soul wants you to live a zombie life, but Jesus invites us to live a resurrection life.

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

In that moment, the centurion encountered the truth. An encounter with the cross leads us to both grace and truth. We need both.

This scene in Matthew 27 shows us exactly what we can expect from the cross:

• We get God. With no barriers.
• We get strength for the seismos events of life.
• We will not perish. We get a resurrection life.
• We get grace and truth.

We’ve been to the land of dry bones. We’ve been to the cross. Now, Paul explains what it all means.

^“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:50-57).

Jesus calls people out of death to life. The message of Easter is not “Jesus was dead and now he is alive.” The Message is, “I was dead and now I’m alive and Jesus is the one who did that for me.” Ezekiel heard God say (Ezekiel 37:14) – I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.  Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

That’s the promise. So here’s the question: what does your life feel like right now? Are you doing that thing where you get up every day and walk through it, then fall into bed, get up and do it all again the next day: no change, no vision, no resurrection power? Are you existing, but not really alive?

Do you realize there is an option? It is a choice to let the resurrected Christ live in you. And it is a choice to let the cross work on you. It begins (as with the woman with oil) with bowing before Jesus and acknowledging him as the source of resurrection power. And it is proven in the storms.

In his power, there is no perishing.

The Kingdom of Heaven is the rule and reign of God on earth, and this is what God is building among us.

Matthew teaches us that this King and his Kingdom have come and are coming. Thirty-two times in Matthew’s gospel, he uses the term “Kingdom of Heaven.” That’s his working theme as he shares the story of Jesus with the Jewish world in the first century. They were looking for a Messiah and Matthew tells them that in Jesus, that Messiah has come, bringing healing and forgiveness. In Jesus, death has been defeated, and that message is now the hope of the whole world.

This is the message of the Kingdom of God, and this is the message John the Baptist came preaching. This is the Kingdom he called people to get ready for. David Platt says, “If this Jesus is the King of all history, then it follows that He should be the King of your life. When you realize His rule and submit to His reign, it changes everything about how you live.”

In 2012, I went to India to preach the good news about Jesus Christ. We preached in little villages and under tents and one night in the middle of a bug-saturated street. We preached a message about this consuming fire of a God who wants our total allegiance. We preached about the exclusive nature of God, that he doesn’t want to share space in a heart with other gods or other interests. We told crowd after crowd of hungry souls that it can’t be “Jesus Plus.” To work, it has to be Christ alone. Night after night, we asked if there was anyone ready to give their exclusive allegiance to this God above all other gods. We challenged them: anyone responding must make a totally counter-cultural choice to reject thousands of Hindu idols in favor of the one, true God, who has revealed himself through Jesus Christ. Over the course of twelve days, hundreds of people said yes to that challenge.

And I was just one voice calling out in a few villages in a country of more than a billion people. But there are literally hundreds of thousands of “John the Baptists” in India, preaching and teaching the Word of God in thousands of little villages and under countless tents and in little hole-in-the-wall buildings. And through those voices, one by one, the Kingdom of God is being built in India. Sparks are flying all over India! Every person who claims Christ alone is like a spark and every preacher who cries out in the wilderness is like a spark, and one day, all those sparks will start a fire that will consume that country and eventually, the world.

Do you believe that?

If the witness of scripture is true, then this is how the Kingdom of Heaven comes. It is like preaching in the wilderness, like a voice calling out in a desert. Jesus says it is like a mustard seed that someone plants in a garden. It is the smallest of all seeds, but against all odds it becomes the largest tree in the garden and a place for birds to nest.

This is how the Kingdom message was first proclaimed. In a few words … in a line. In these verses, Matthew gives us the message and the means of the gospel. The means, as we’ve discovered already, is counter-intuitive; the message is repentance. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” This is the message John came preaching and it is the message Jesus came preaching. Repent. Change. Reorient toward God. The Kingdom is at hand, is coming, is near!

The Invitation

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:1-6).

The Kingdom message is first of all an invitation: Repent.

Repentance is me exchanging how I’ve done it for a different way. It is me course-correcting, exchanging one path for another one that heads more directly into the heart of Jesus. N. T. Wright says it this way: “Repentance is a complete and lasting change of heart and life.”

This is how we prepare the road that leads from my heart to the heart of Jesus, the King. It is a spiritual exchange – exchanging the Kingdom of Self for the Kingdom of Heaven. Angel Davis teaches us that the Kingdom of Self is small and limited and focused on my personal feelings and happiness. It is very much based on my desire for control. In the Kingdom of Self, “self” reigns and God is dethroned. The Kingdom of Heaven, on the other hand, is big, hopeful, and focused on God’s truth and God’s pleasure. In the Kingdom of Heaven, God reigns and self surrenders.

Repentance means exchanging the Kingdom of Self for the Kingdom of God.

Pick a behavior. Pick something you’re not particularly proud of, like what you say on Facebook after a frustrating day, or how you act when you first wake up or how you respond to things you don’t understand. Now, ask yourself, “Is my approach small and limited? Do I default to pessimism or paranoia? Am I focused here on my personal feelings or happiness? Do I get quickly agitated when I cannot control this situation/ person/ habit?” If so, maybe this is the place of repentance for me. Maybe this is a thing for me to surrender.

Remember: The Kingdom of Heaven is big, hopeful and focused not on me and my feelings but on God and His Kingdom. God reigns and I surrender; surrender is the posture of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is my right response to the invitation to repent.

The Initiation

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:7-12)

The Kingdom of Heaven is also an invitation to be baptized. To link baptism with repentance was an oddity, by Pharisee standards. The Pharisees weren’t often the kind to get baptized, certainly not for repentance’ sake. After all, to do so would be to admit they’d failed at a rule or two. To these people who thought they were pure, John preached a message of repentance, using two images: the fire and the axe. The axe is what cuts away anything that isn’t bearing fruit. And John says the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Not the branches, but the root! He was calling people to start over, to be born again. To come and die.

Fire is mentioned three times in this passage. All three times, it is a reference for clearing the way. If a king is coming into the wilderness and you want to make a road for him, you’d use fire to burn away the scrub and make a road. Jesus used fire to talk about burning the trash after you separate the wheat from the chaff. You keep what’s good and burn the rest. This is how the Kingdom gets built in us.

John was preaching a new thing, challenging his audience not to tweak or adjust, but to come and die … to do a new thing.

There is an invitation, an initiation and now an invocation to be filled, linking spiritual renewal to the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Invocation

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:13-17).

Now, the plot twists. John finds himself surprised by Jesus’ desire to be baptized. Isn’t baptism only for those who need to repent? A Messiah should not need to repent! Especially not out here in the open, in front of religious people who care a lot about the appearance of things.

But Jesus insists. In N.T. Wright’s translation, his response to John reads this way: “This is how it’s got to be right now. This is the right way for us to complete God’s whole saving plan.” Jesus now links repentance with God’s saving plan, then links the Messiah with those who need to repent. God’s plan is to save sinners, so by being baptized Jesus identifies himself with sinners. Jesus stands in this moment as an act of supreme obedience. This is how it is done in Kingdom: Surrender is the posture of the Kingdom of God.

What happens next is beautiful. When Jesus comes up out of the water, all of God is there. Father, Son and Holy Spirit … all there. The Son is on earth being buried by the water, then raised up, identifying completely with this Kingdom call to come and die. The Spirit is hovering dove-like above the Son, defining the character of the King and his Kingdom. This isn’t a warrior but a dove, a sign of hope and peace. The dove, which in the flood story found signs of life when it looked as if all life was dead and buried.

And the Father is speaking the blessing that sends his Son out into Kingdom purposes. With this blessing, he teaches us that effective, fruitful ministry isn’t motivated by my need but by God’s love. My call isn’t empowered by my steam but by the Holy Spirit.

Here in this scene we are given a gift. We’re shown what a good baptism does for us. It kills everything in us that won’t live in the Kingdom and it surrounds us with the love of God. It fills us with the Holy Spirit. Baptism matters in the Kingdom of God because it is the essence of surrender. This is what it means to come and die.

The road that leads into the Kingdom of Heaven runs through fire and axes and water. That road invites us to separate the Kingdom of Self from the Kingdom of God – to let go of things that have no Kingdom value and clear a road for Jesus to come in.

Are you ready to come and die? To do a new thing? To become a new thing?