Matthew | The Light Has Dawned

You guys act like you haven't seen each other in a couple of

weeks. So the the introverts it all set

down. So I needed to get this rolling.

All right, So it's good to see you guys.

If you have your Bible, you can open the Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 4 will be in verses 12 through 17 today.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Just a little context, little set up here as we come to the

passage today. We are beginning Jesus's public

ministry. We've been talking recently

about his, the preparation of the King, and we're going to see

that the preparation has happened.

We, we had the baptism of Christ in which the Son of the Spirit,

sorry, descends on the Son. The Father speaks from heaven.

This is my beloved Son and who I'm well pleased.

And then we went from there into the temptation of Christ, where

he's led by the Spirit, into the wilderness for time of fasting.

And then he is tempted by the great tempter himself, and he

withstands all of that, he quoting Scripture, right,

standing on the word of God. So we examine that last time we

were together a couple weeks ago.

And so now we come to a time where Christ is going to

withdraw in a sense, but it's really significant what he's

doing. And he's going to begin to to

announce himself repentance and to do so because the Kingdom of

heaven is at hand. And So what you'll see in the

passage is that John the Baptist has been arrested.

He was the forerunner, right? He was the one who was sent to

prepare the way of the king. His voice has been silenced

through his arrest of the baton is now being passed fully to

Christ himself. And so Jesus, however, doesn't

begin his public ministry in Jerusalem like we might think

among the religious elite. Rather, he withdrawals to a land

called Galilee, which is a region that is long marked by

mixture, by neglect, by spiritual darkness.

And Matthew wants us to understand that this is this is

no accident, all right. This is according to the plan of

God. This is according to what God is

working out through his Son, the salvation that's going to unfold

in the redemption story. And So what unfolds in these

verses is the fulfillment of an ancient promise through the

prophet Isaiah that one day light would break into the

darkness and hope would dawn where despair once ruled.

Hope would dawn where sin rules, right?

Hope would dawn where people have no hope, that the light

would shine there first. And so as we hear this passage,

we're meant to see that the arrival of, with the arrival of

Jesus comes the arrival of something far greater, not to

say far greater than Jesus, but that he's bringing something

even more than just simply himself, right?

He's His coming indicates the coming of something else, not

someone else, right, but something else.

And that is the long-awaited Kingdom of heaven itself has

arrived, right? This is what it means that light

has dawned, as we will see in this passage.

So if you're able, would you please stand in honor of the

reading of God's Word this morning?

Again, we're in verses 12 through 17 of Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

When I'm finished reading, I'll say this is the word of the Lord

and you can respond, thanks be to God.

Verse 12. Now when he heard that John had

been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth,

he went and lived and Capernaum by the sea in the territory of

Zebulun and Naftali, so that what was spoken by the prophet

Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land

of Naftali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of

the Gentiles. 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.

From this time Jesus began to preach, saying repent, for the

Kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is the word of the Lord,

right? Spirit of God, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful, Lord, that you have

spoken to us by your word. We're grateful, Father, that You

have revealed yourself to us not only in creation through nature,

but You have revealed yourself through your spoken word.

That we might know you, that we might know your character, that

we might know your attributes, that we might love you.

Father, as you have revealed your redemption plan, that

redemption plan set forth from the beginning of time to

reconcile sinners to yourself and Father, we are gathered

today as your people, adopted sons and daughters, grateful to

be in your family. And we gather today to hear from

your word, to read it, to study it, to have you speak to us.

And so, Father, I ask that you would just simply use me as a

mouthpiece for yourself today, or that your word would be

magnified, that Christ would be magnified this morning, that we

would behold Him. And having beheld him this

morning, we would be transformed more and more into his likeness.

Father, we also pray that you would call sinners to

yourselves, unbelievers, Lord, that you would grant them faith

in Christ, that you would regenerate them, give them new

hearts today, having heard your word.

And Father, would you strengthen each of us to walk with Christ,

to serve him as our Lord and our King.

And we pray that you do this work to us, through us, in us,

by your Holy Spirit, a Father who is a comforter and a guide

for us. He's a seal for our souls.

And so Lord, we humbly now read your word.

We submit to it. We ask that you would guide us

in Christ name, I pray, Amen. Men, you may may be seated so

we, we live in a world that constantly talks about darkness,

right? We we speak of dark times,

right? We can look across our world

today and say there are many dark times happening.

There are many dark places, dark regions within the world where

sin just seems to be overwhelming.

We look at dark news cycles and we lament, right?

Our hearts are torn. Sometimes we're just, we become

numb to it that there's so much of it in front of us with the

way news cycles run on our phones all the time, right?

We also experienced dark seasons of the soul, times where we're

weary, times where we're suffering, times where strength

fails, times where we experience great loss or we experience

great turmoil and pain. There's dark seasons of the

soul, times where you feel like you're in a wilderness, you're

in a desert, you're in a dry land, right?

And so there's darkness all around because we live in a

fallen world. We live in a world that's

stained by sin, that's marred by sin.

Death, decay, and destruction are something we are well

acquainted with, not only in our own hearts and in our own souls,

but all around us, right? And yet, for all our talk, we

often underestimate what the Bible means when it speaks of

darkness, right? We we often misunderstand.

Scripture does not describe darkness merely as hardship or

sadness, right? So it's that those are

byproducts of darkness. Scripture describes darkness as

a condition. It's a, it's a sickness of the

soul. It's something that's affected

all of life. Creation groans for the

redemption of man when things will be set right according to

Romans 8, right? And so we, we know darkness from

Scripture as sin, sin and all of its effects, right?

That's a place in which God, people cannot see God rightly.

They, they can seek to understand but have no

understanding. They can appear wise but be

foolish in actuality, right? They, they cannot see God

rightly. They cannot discern spiritual

things because they are in darkness only can they not

understand spiritual things. They cannot understand

themselves. Truthfully, most people who are

in darkness would evaluate themselves as being full of

lights. They would say that they are

good, that their desires are good, that it's right for us to

not withhold anything from the desires of our own eyes or our

hearts, right? And so we, we pursue those

things headlong, right? We, we run into those kinds of

things. They don't understand that the

problems, most of the problems in life that we know are caused

by our own sinful actions, our own sinful desires.

All right, when we talk about darkness in Scripture, we're

talking about a darkness that permeates everything, including

your own soul, All right, We also understand that darkness

means we cannot find our way home.

We cannot find our way into the lights.

We are in a tunnel with no light at the end of it because of

darkness, unless there be divine intervention, unless there be a

work of God to arrest our hearts and minds and our souls and

grant us new hearts, hearts of flesh, remove a heart of stone,

grant us a right spirit with God through regeneration, all right.

This is divine intervention. This is where God acts in a

place that we cannot act on our own.

We're helpless to it. And so therefore we are hopeless

to it. And that's why Matthew 412

through 17 matters so much for us, that this passage is not

simply about where Jesus began his ministry.

It's interesting, but it's not just a geographical location.

What Matthew wants us to understand in these verses is

why Jesus's ministry matters at all for any of us.

This is Galilee of the Gentiles. This is a place of deep

darkness. Matthew shows us that Jesus

steps intentionally into a place of deep spiritual darkness in

order to fulfill God's ancient promise, in order to announce

that a new era has begun, a new age has dawned.

When Jesus arrives, the night does not slowly fade away.

It doesn't just disappear. No, what we see is that the dawn

is breaking. The sun is rising on the

darkness. And so here's the main point

that we must understand if we want to grasp this text rightly.

It's pretty simple. But God's promised light has

come in Jesus, and his Kingdom has arrived.

God's promised light has come in Jesus and his Kingdom has

arrived. As passage unfolds that truth

and three movements. The first is we're going to see

a land sitting in darkness. It's dwelling in darkness.

It's made its home in darkness. Darkness is all it knows and it

is unable to rescue itself. Second, we're going to see that

God's promised light dawns exactly as He said it would,

according to his plan, according to his purpose.

And 3rd, we're going to hear the King himself, Jesus Christ,

announce that the Kingdom has come, and he's going to call us

to respond with repentance and faith.

All right, so Jesus is beginning his public ministry here, and

before we can rejoice in the light of that, we must first

understand the darkness into which it came.

So we should begin where Matthew begins in verses 12 through 13.

I'm going to read those again to you now.

When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into

Galilee, and leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum

by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naftali point #1

Darkness covered the land. Darkness covered the land.

Matthew begins this section not with a miracle, not even with a

sermon. He begins with a setting, a

place. After John the Baptist is

arrested, Jesus, withdrawals from Nazareth, settles and

Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and

Naftali. Now, to you and I as modern

readers, this may not. This may sound simply like a

geographical note To Matthew's original audience, however, it

would have carried deep spiritual significance.

Galilee, especially Galilee of the Gentiles.

You see, the Gentiles were not God's chosen people in the Old

Testament. They were wicked and cut off.

They were not Israel. Galilee of the Gentiles was

historically associated with a mixture of religions and

peoples. It's associated with

marginalization. It's associated with spiritual

neglect. These northern tribes were among

the first to fall to a Syrian invasion and 2nd Kings 15.

They became a symbol of a people that are cut off from God.

They became a symbol of a people that were compromised, that had

given themselves to foreign gods, to foreign women, to to

all sorts of idolatry. They were overshadowed by the

nations. And This is why Isaiah is able

in Isaiah Chapter 9, to describe them as those who walked in

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

darkness. He describes them as those who

dwelt in a land of deep darkness.

So only are they walking in darkness themselves, right?

They're, they're, they're in darkness by their own sins, by

their own actions. They also dwell in a land that's

marked by darkness. They've set up residence there.

It's their home. And Matthew, Matthew's point is

clear, right? Jesus intentionally begins his

ministry not at the center of religious power, Jerusalem,

though He begins his ministry at the edges.

He begins his ministry on the outskirts, among the people long

accustomed to the shadow. And notice the language that

Isaiah and Matthew use. The people are not said to be

wandering in darkness, other they're walking in darkness,

they're dwelling in darkness, they're sitting in darkness.

It's their way of life. Darkness is portrayed in Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and Isaiah as a settled condition that they've

settled themselves. Here it's similar to Psalm One,

which tells us blessed is the man who doesn't sit with the

sinful right, the unrighteous, the wicked.

These are not the blessed man of Psalm 1.

These are the wicked people who have made their residence with

the wicked. It's their identity.

It's who they are. But I do want you to understand

that when Matthew talks about darkness, he's not merely

talking about suffering or hardship.

Again, those are byproducts of sin.

He's describing a spiritual blindness, an inability to see

righteousness. He's describing an alienation

from God. That's the kind of darkness

here. And we might be tempted to

think, well, that's Zebulun and Naftali, that that's those

people. But Paul does something in

Ephesians 2 and in four where he describes the fallen humanity as

this. He says the fall of humanity is

darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God.

So darkness biblically is not something we occasionally fall

into, brothers and sisters. Darkness is something that we

dwell in apart from Christ. It's it's the realm we inhabit

apart from divine grace. This passage tells us something

deeply humbling about ourselves, doesn't it?

What it reveals is that if we are left to ourselves, if we're

left to our own desires, if we're left to our own pursuits,

if we're left to ourselves, we will not naturally gravitate

towards the light. It's not in US.

It's not who we are by nature. If we're left to ourselves, we

sit in the dark until God acts on our behalf, until God

rescues, until God redeems, until God saves.

John Calvin put it this way very plainly.

He said Until Christ appears, we are held fast in darkness and

can perceive nothing but what is confused and perplexed.

We can perceive nothing but what is confused and perplexed,

meaning we don't understand. We have no understanding of

light. Darkness is not simply the

absence of information then, is it?

It's not simple that we don't have all the facts.

It's not simply that we haven't been given the right

information. No, it's it's more than that.

It's the absence of saving light.

It's the absence of Christ himself.

It's the absence of the Spirit which awakens us.

Those matters because it corrects A subtle but dangerous

assumption. And this exists especially in

the Bible Belt. I think it exists everywhere,

but especially in the Bible Belt.

The assumption goes that people merely need encouragement, they

merely need moral improvement, they merely need better

circumstances. But Matthew confronts us with a

deeper diagnosis than that. He confronts us with the true

state of the person. But the problem is not that the

world needs advice or needs better counsel or needs better

circumstances. No, it needs illumination.

It needs light, right. The land does not need reform

First. It needs rescue, needs

salvation. This forces us to ask honest

questions about ourselves because what we're seeing here

is that apart from Christ, we are not neutral seekers standing

in twilight. Now we we are people who sit in

darkness. Romans 3 describes the condition

really well. Couple of the phrases that you

see in Romans 3 or is that no one is righteous.

No, not one. No one seeks God. 323 You see

that we all fall short of the glory of God.

So what that means is exactly what Jesus tells Nicodemus in

chapter in John chapter 3. You you cannot find the lights

John 3 · chapter mention

by your efforts. You cannot find the light by

insight. The light came looking for us.

We love Christ because Christ first loved us according to

first John, right? That humbles our pride.

It keeps us from thinking that I'm responsible for my

salvation, which is really helpful because when you sin and

you, you face temptation over and over again and you fall into

temptation over and over again and you sin over and over again,

you start to think somehow, someway, I must be losing my

salvation. If I was responsible for it, I

must be giving it away in my pursuits.

But what we see in Scripture so we cannot be prideful in our

salvation. Ephesians 289 tells us that you

are saved by grace through faith and that faith is not of

yourselves. It is a gift of God.

So that no one may boast means none of us can say look at how

great I am in my salvation. None of us can look at the good

in our lives and think, look how amazing I am.

We all look at that honestly. If we look at it honestly,

humbly, we say aye was a wretched, dirty, rotten Sinner

destined for hell. And Christ saved my soul by the

grace of God and we glory in him.

Whatever good comes from my life, Christ gets the glory.

God gets the glory because I dwelt in darkness and Christ has

saved me and brought me out of the darkness into marvelous

light. It's his work.

And so that humbles our pride, but it fuels our gratitude as

well. But it tells us who to be

thankful for. It tells us what to be thankful

for. It teaches us how to praise God

above ourselves or our circumstances or our situations.

We can thank God that he is in control, that He's at work, that

He's sovereign in salvation. And it also shapes our mission.

That shapes our mission. If Jesus was willing to enter

places long overshadowed by darkness and to save a people

from their sins, to grant them new life, then we understand,

brothers and sisters. We understand that there is no

heart, there's no family member, there's no community that is

beyond the reach of God's grace. That when faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the Word of God, we know that we are to go and

proclaim the Word of God to family members, to friends, to

coworkers, to people in other areas of the world.

That's their hope. That's the light of the world

that we bring. And we know that when the light

shines, the darkness cannot overcome it will not overcome

it. It's the great hope for anyone

who was outside of Christ today. But Matthew doesn't want to

leave us standing in darkness long right.

It's it's gloomy even just to look at it for a moment.

You feel the the weight of sin. You feel the darkness kind of

creeping over you and Matthew doesn't leave us there for long.

He wants us to see that this darkness was not ignored by God.

That's the beauty of grace. Since God doesn't look at the

darkness and say, man, they're they're just too far gone.

No, God looks at the darkness and says, I'm going to send my

son into the darkness. I'm going to bring hope where

there's no hope I'm going to be bring redemption where there's

no hope for redemption. I'm going to grant new life

where there's nothing but death. But he wants us to see that this

darkness was not ignored by God. It was not permanent.

Praise God, it's not permanent, right?

The darkness was real, it's deep, it's long standing, but it

was not the final word. Because into that very darkness

God did exactly what he promised.

His Son came and the light dawned.

Point #2 The promised light has dawned.

The promised light has dawned. Verses 14 through 16.

So what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be

fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land

of Naftali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of

the Gentiles. 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.

Matthew is careful to tell us that Jesus's move into Galilee

was not merely strategic or circumstantial.

No, it's scripturally necessary. It was necessary to show that

he's the Christ, to prove yet again through the prophets that

this is the Messiah. It was necessary so that what

was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, Matthew

says. And with those words, Matthew

invites us to step back, to take a breath, to see this moment not

only through geography, but through redemptive history.

Isaiah had spoken these words more than 7 centuries earlier.

That's a long time. That's longer than dog years.

Kids addressing a people who were crushed by invasion and

exile. Zebulun and Naftali had been the

first to fall. They were the last to be

restored. They were the place where

darkness seemed to settle most heavily.

And yet Isaiah declared that it would be precisely there.

There of all places, that God would cause a great light to

shine. And Isaiah 91 and 2.

And so Matthew now declares that this time has come.

The promise is no longer future tense.

No, no, no, no. It's past tense.

The light has dawned. The imagery is deliberate.

The imagery is powerful. Light does not argue with the

darkness. When you turn a flashlight on,

it doesn't get in an argument with the darkness around you,

does it? No.

What does it do? It dispels the darkness.

It casts the darkness away, and it shines light.

It illuminates. And Matthew does not describe

this light as some flicker. It doesn't describe it as a

gradual glow. No, it's a great light, he says.

It's a decisive breaking in of God's saving presence.

That verb dawned signals the beginning of a new age.

Night is ending. Day is arriving.

The light is dawning. It's crucial for us to

understand that the light is not a philosophy.

It's not a moral program. It's not some pragmatic thing

that God brings to help make a a more moral people tell people be

better versions of themselves. No, it's, it's, it's a whole new

way the light is a person. It's not a person with a new set

of teachings. No, it's Jesus himself.

He embodies what the prophets longed for.

He embodies what the prophets foretold.

He embodies what God had been promising for ages.

He is the God man. He is the light of the world and

the gospel of of John the Apostle John makes it explicit.

He said in him was life and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not

overcome it. John chapter 1 verses 4 and 5 S.

John 1:4

The light promised by Isaiah shines because the light

promised by Isaiah is Christ, and Christ has arrived.

The light was not only dawning in history past, brothers and

sisters, No, the light stands among us still in His Word and

by His Spirit. This is why Matthew's

fulfillment formula matters so much.

We talked about this early in the series that Matthew over and

again says this was to fulfil what the prophets said.

It's a repeated refrain throughout Matthew's Gospel.

What Matthew wants you to understand, brothers and

sisters, that God is not improvising.

He's he's not making up some new plan as it goes.

He's not looking for a way to defeat where he has been

defeated. No, not at all.

God is keeping his word. He's staying true to what he has

said. He's remaining faithful where

man has been unfaithful, and what he promised in Israel's

despair, the depths of Israel's despair, he now accomplishes in

the presence of his own son. Now Charles Spurgeon captures

this well when he said Christ is the true morning star.

He ushers in the day of grace, and with him comes light and

warmth and life. There's a few applications to

this .1 If the light has dawned in Christ, then your despair is

never ultimate. It's never ultimate.

If you belong to Christ, then your despair is not ultimate.

Darkness may still press in and you'll feel the effects of a

fallen world, either through your own sin or outside things,

right? But what you understand, or what

you must understand if you do not, is that darkness does not

reign over you. Christ does.

Christ is your hope. You carry a hope that is

undefiled and kept in heaven for you.

You understand nothing can defeat the light.

Nothing can cast out. I don't care what you've gone

through. I don't care what losses you've

experienced, what pain you've had.

It's not that I don't care about those things.

It's not what I'm saying. But I want you to understand

those things are not bigger than Christ.

Those things are not greater than His glory.

Those things are not, are not able to harm body and soul.

You are kept in heaven. So despair is never ultimate for

you, is it? You can rejoice in despair.

You can praise God in despair. You can hope in despair.

You can have strength and joy and peace in despair.

You can hurt in despair and know that Christ carries your tears.

Christ is a sympathetic high priest, as we sang earlier and

before the throne. Another application is that this

means that Christianity is not primarily about climbing toward

God through insight or effort. I want you well, that the elders

here want you to be a doctrinally informed people, to

be theologically rich, to have depth to your faith.

That's what we mean when we say that we exist to glorify God by

making disciples who grow in their faith in Jesus.

We want that faith growing deeply.

We want you to be faithful for a lifetime and let God sort out

the fruit for a lifetime. That does require theological

death. It does require doctrinal

purity. It requires a lot of those sorts

of things. But I don't want you to ever

misplace those things, to think that doctrinal depth or

theological purity or any of those things are the high marks

of Christianity. The high mark of Christianity is

loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and

strength to love your neighbor as yourself.

You're not trying to climb your way to God.

You're not trying to gain His love through further insights or

through better efforts. You're not ascending a mountain.

No, what we see in the Gospel is that Christ descended the

mountain and came to us. We only receive what God has

offered. By His marvelous grace.

We receive the light that God has graciously sent to us.

It's his work. And so I think for believers

this fuels confidence and hope, a confidence in Christ, a

confidence in his finished work that he has done what I cannot

do. He's the great high priest who

was able to sit down after making his sacrifice, and he sat

down at the right hand of God. And he invites us to come boldly

before his throne in our time of need and to find mercy and

grace. He's sympathetic to us and our

weaknesses because he was tempted and tried as we are, yet

without sin. And he invites you to come to

him. So you have confidence that

Christ has done what you cannot do, and you have hope.

Hope in the middle of a darkened world.

Hope in the middle of a darkened circum, darkened circumstance.

You have hope that Christ reigns, that he will not be

dethroned, that he's working all things together for your good

because you love Him and you've been called according to his

purpose. Now, if you're an unbeliever in

here, you have not set your faith on Christ.

You've not repented of your sins, you've not made Christ

Lord of your life, you've not received him, but you've

rejected him at every turn, at every opportunity.

You've lived for yourself. Well, then, this text presses an

urgent question on you. What will you do with the light

that God has provided? What will you do with Jesus

Christ? Do you think he's simply a good

teacher? If you think he's simply a good

teacher and a spouse some good things, then I would argue with

you that you do not know all that Christ said about himself.

Because if you did, then you would have to conclude that

either he's a lunatic or he's Lord.

But you have to decide what are you going to do with the light

that God's provided? You see, Matthew is not content

for us to merely observe the light.

He doesn't want you to look at the flashlight in the darkness.

He wants us to hear what the light says, but the light calls

us to. Because when the light dawned

did not remain silent. But the arrival of light brings

an announcement, and that announcement is a summons for

your heart. And it's a summons from the King

himself. That brings us to .3.

The Kingdom has arrived verse 17 from that time dwelling in the

land of Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles, dwelling in the land

of the great darkness. From that time Jesus began to

preach, saying repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

These are the first words in Matthew's Gospel from Christ,

the first recorded words of Jesus's public preaching.

Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This is not some warm up message, right?

This isn't, this isn't just, you know, taking a few swings in the

batter's box before you step in to really play.

It's not even a placeholder sermon.

Matthew signals with care that this is programmatic, right?

This is what God has designed. It sets the tone for everything

that we will see in the rest of Matthew's Gospel.

The content of the message is striking in its simplicity.

It's striking in its authority. Jesus announces that the Kingdom

of heaven is at hand. When he says it's at hand, he

means it's not distant anymore. It's not theoretical anymore.

It is near and its presence. It is among you.

It has arrived. The light is here.

The Kingdom is not merely an idea.

It's not a future hope. It arrives in the presence of

the King himself, and where Jesus stands, the reign of God

has drawn near to us. The dawning light is inseparable

from the arrival of the Kingdom. You cannot miss that in

Matthew's Gospel, and you cannot miss the demand that this

announcement makes. Jesus does not say reflect, for

the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He does not say consider all these things, for the Kingdom of

heaven is at hand. He does not say admire me, bow

down to me, for the Kingdom of heaven is a hand.

No, he says repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent. It's a word you're likely really

familiar with, at least in usage, but I want to explain to

you what repent means. Repentance is not mere remorse.

When you catch your child in a lie and you confront them about

this lie and they realize they're caught, often times they

will show remorse, especially if you have some consistency in

discipline because they know what's coming.

But repentance is not merely remorse.

Now, to be sure, James, the brother of Jesus in his book,

says we should be wretched and we should mourn over our sin.

That'll be remorse. That's not merely remorse.

Repentance is not merely a religious feeling.

I went to a youth camp or I went to VBS or I went to a church

service and I felt some goosebumps and I made some sort

of emotional decision because I had this religious feeling.

It's not repentance, brothers and sisters.

Not always. Not saying you won't have some

sort of feeling about repentance, but you can't tie

repentance to merely remorse or feeling.

Repentance is a decisive turning away from.

If you have to apologize for something in our house is not

enough in our home to say I'm sorry, you must say I'm sorry

that I lied to you. I'm sorry that I got angry with

you or that I yelled at you or that I called you a name or

whatever. Why?

Because we want to name the sins that we're turning away from.

These are things we're not going to do any longer.

It's a decisive turning. It's a renunciation of darkness

and a submission to God's reign. Right.

To repent is to step out of the shadows and into the light.

Repentance is to lay down self rule and bow to the rightful

king. He's at the heart of all of our

sin is a kingship issue. We have made ourselves kings.

We have sought to build little kingdoms for ourselves.

We have been selfish. We have been idolaters.

And so we must learn how to lay down self rule and submit

ourselves. Bow to the rightful king.

You may notice that this call echoes the preaching of John the

Baptist earlier in Matthew chapter 3, verse 2, but with a

Matthew 3:2

crucial difference. John was announcing the nearness

of the Kingdom. He was announcing the nearness

of the Kingdom and anticipation for the king.

He's preparing the way for the king to arrive, but Jesus

announces it in its arrival. As Herman Bavni observed, he

said this. He said the Kingdom is not

something Jesus proclaims only with words.

It is something that comes with him and in him.

He said the king does not merely speak about the Kingdom, he

embodies the Kingdom. Now I think theologically this

guards us from 2 errors, 1 is it prevents us from reducing

Christianity to moral improvement.

But the call to repent flows from the announcement that God

reigns. The call to repent flows from

the announcement that we are to bow to the rightful king.

So it's not moral improvement, it's Lordship.

Secondly, it keeps us from postponing obedience to some

future age. Right now in my life, I will

continue to do what I want to do because I've got plenty of time.

I will settle these things later in life.

And I wonder how many have split hell wide open thinking

precisely that. If the Kingdom is at hand, and

it is because Christ says it is, if the Kingdom is at hand, then

neutrality is no longer an option because the light has

demanded a response. Repents for the Kingdom is at

hand. What this means is that every

encounter with Christ, as people who are sitting here today

observing the Word of God, this is an encounter with Christ and

His Word. And every encounter with Christ

is a crossroads in your life. To hear His voice, to hear the

Word of God proclaim, to hear these things is in itself a

summons. It's a summons to turn from sin,

to turn from self, to turn from darkness, and to trust the King

who has come near to us in His grace.

Now for believers, we understand that this repentance is not a

one time event, it's a lifelong posture as we continually seek

to align ourselves, align our lives with the reign of Christ.

2nd Corinthians describes it as beholding the glory of Christ in

such a way that you are being transformed from 1° of glory to

the next. So in our sanctification

process, after you've been declared justified freely by the

grace of God, there's a process of sanctification that ensues

where God takes you and transforms you by his spirits to

be like his Son. What that means is we're

constantly, constantly at war with the flesh.

We're constantly at war with the old man.

We're putting death his old deeds and we're taking on the

new man, and that requires a posture of repentance.

If you've ever had a conversation with a seasoned

St., you'll know that you just become more and more aware of

your own sinfulness. Even as you're defeating sins,

even as you're putting those things to death, you become more

and more aware of new idols of the heart.

And by God's grace, we put those things to death through

repentance for unbelievers. Again, the call is urgent and

it's gracious. It's good to hear that you are a

Sinner in need of a Savior. It's good to hear that you

cannot climb the mountain of righteousness on your own.

It's good to hear those things. It's a grace of the Lord on your

life. Why?

Because what we're saying is that the light has come.

The Kingdom is here. The door of mercy stands open to

you right now, and I'm imploring you from the word of the Lord to

come to Christ, to stop yourself serving, and to serve the Lord

on high. Matthew has shown us the

darkness, He's shown us the dawning light.

He's shown us the King's call. All that remains for us is to

reckon honestly with what this means for our lives.

The question before us all, believers, unbelievers, is

simple and unavoidable. If God's promised light has come

in Jesus and his Kingdom has arrived, how are we going to

respond? And Matthew has shown us

something unmistakable this morning.

The world was not slowly improving.

No, it was. It was stuck in darkness,

dwelling in darkness. It was sitting in it.

You and I were sitting in it. But but God did not leave it

there, Right? God, God's promised light has

come in Jesus, and His Kingdom has arrived.

What we see is that the darkness was real and the light has truly

dawned, and the King has now spoken to us.

And yet Scripture is brutally honest with us about why this

moment is so searching for our hearts.

Jesus Himself tells us later in his ministry.

In John chapter 3, you read this.

John 3 · chapter mention

Jesus says the light has come into the world and people loved

the darkness rather than the light.

And that's the dividing line this passage presses upon us.

The question is not whether the light has come, because it has.

The question is whether we will come to the light or whether we

will clean to the darkness that we call home.

So again, for those who belong to Christ, my brothers and

sisters in here, this passage calls us to ongoing repentance,

and it calls us to confident hope in Christ.

We have not drifted into the Kingdom, no we we must walk in

the light daily, turning again and again from our own sin, from

our own self rule, from hidden shadows of the heart.

The same light that saved us continues now to expose us.

But it doesn't expose you to shame you, it exposes you to

heal you. Hebrews reminds us that God

disciplines those whom he loves, His children.

He disciplines them. And all discipline is painful

for a moment, yet it rewards the fruit.

Its rewards are the fruit of righteousness.

First, John chapter 1 tells us that if we walk in the light as

John 1 · chapter mention

He is in the light, and He is faithful and just to forgive us

our sins. So we understand this.

We understand that we should live as people of the day, not

as people of the night. We understand that we should

walk openly, joyfully, obediently under the gracious

reign of our King. Once more, for those who are not

in Christ the the Kingdom, I want you to know that the

Kingdom is not far off. The Kingdom is at hand.

The the king has come near in mercy.

The King has shed his marvelous grace on us and and when the

scriptures call us to repent, when Christ calls us to repent,

he's not calling you to lose life.

He's calling you to finally step into really living.

He's calling you to truly live as he designed you to live in

fellowship with the Father through the substitution of the

Son by the Spirit of God. He's calling you to turn from

darkness to receive the light that God has freely given us.

And Christ here is urging you. Do not delay.

He's urging you. Do not bargain as the rich young

ruler tried to bargain. He's urging you.

Do not hide as Adam and Eve tried to hide themselves from

the Lord, though. He's urging you to come to the

light while the door of grace stands open to you.

You see, the night is ending, the day has dawned upon us, the

light has come, the Kingdom has arrived.

And the only question left for us is how will you respond?

How will you respond? It's my hope and my prayer for

every one of us that we may turn from the darkness, that we may

come to the light and live joyfully under the reign and

under the rule of our King Jesus Christ.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we we praise

you, we thank you grace and mercy shown to us in Christ, We

thank you that he is described as the glory of the Father

revealed for us. What you once spoke through the

prophets, you have now revealed in your Son Jesus Christ.

And Christ says to us in the middle of darkness, repent, for

the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

God, you have not left us with neutrality as an option.

In fact, what you've done is revealed that neutrality was

never really an option. We are either people of the

darkness or people of the light. And Father, I pray now for my

brothers and sisters here, old and young.

God, would you help them in every way to walk faithfully in

the light of Christ, to truly be, as Christ will say, the

light of the world. God, would you help them to put

away the darkness of their flesh, to walk by the Spirit, to

walk by faith in Christ, to not only trust Him for the

forgiveness of sins, but to be vigilant in putting death,

putting to death the deeds of the flesh at the living by the

Spirit of God, which frees us from a spirit of slavery to sin,

to a spirit of sonship where we can now cry.

ABBA Father, we thank you that you have adopted us as your own.

You have made us your own children.

We're Co heirs with Christ. We're sealed by the Spirit of

God. There's nothing, nothing in this

world according to Romans 8. There is nothing that can

separate us from the love of Christ our Lord.

So God would you help us to walk in that hope.

Would you help us in that hope to put to death the flesh?

Would you help us in that hope to carry forward the light into

the world that man might see our good deeds and glorify our

Father in heaven? God, would you unite us together

as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Help this church, these people, these members here.

Help them to be a beacon of light and hope for the world.

God, help them to carry the light into their homes, into

their marriage, into their relationship to their children.

Lord, would you help us to serve and to glorify you, to magnify

your great name in every area of our lives?

Help us to carry the light into our workplaces.

Help us to be set apart. Help us to walk as holy men and

women of God again, not for our own boast or bragging, but for

the glory of the Lord Jesus God, would you lead us in

conversation to those who are lost, those who are dying

without Christ? Would you help us to carry the

gospel to them? Let the gospel adorn our feet

wherever we go. The words of Christ be on our

lips. The words of your Word be on our

lips. Help us to offer salvation to

those who seem as though or to those who are dwelling in great

darkness, and may we see salvations, God, near and far.

Would you lead us into our community for the same purpose?

Would you lead us into our nation and state for the same

purpose? God, would you lead us into the

world all across the globe for the same purpose of proclaiming

Christ and him crucified, the hope of sinners, the help for

those who are in darkness, a salvation for the soul.

God, again I ask that you first lead us to be a holy people.

Helps to walk in the holiness of God, putting to death our sins,

growing in our faith in Jesus Christ, loving those around us.

Father, I also pray for anyone here who doesn't know you again,

whether they're young or old. Maybe they're older and they've

made a life of living for themselves, a life of hedonism,

giving themselves to whatever their heart desires.

God, would you help them to see Christ today?

Help them to hear his call to repent, for the Kingdom of

heaven is at hand. May they yield themselves to the

lordship of Christ. May they deny themselves, take

up the cross and follow Him. Maybe they're young, being

raised in a home where Christ is proclaimed, hearing the truths

of Scripture, but haven't yet believed them, haven't yet had

the light of Christ shine in their hearts.

God, would you save them? Lord, would you help them to

never know a day where they were not in fellowship with the Lord?

Would you help them to grow in their faith and love as young

boys and girls? Would you transform them by the

renewal of their mind? Would you grant them new life in

Christ? Today I'm going to give you a

moment now there in your seat to pray and seek the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gracious work you do in

us, the merciful work you do in us through Your Word by your

Spirit Lord, it's my prayer that you would transform each one of

us, whatever that looks like for each person here.

God, would you help us to be faithful, to remain faithful, to

walk with you. To the name of Christ I pray,

Amen. Amen.