Matthew

The Gospel of the Kingdom

July 14, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So His fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and He healed them. And great crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:23-25)

Who did Jesus come to minister to? Was He there to teach the Jews and point them to God and proclaim His kingdom on earth? Yes. Did He come to heal the sick, cure pain, cast out demons, comfort the oppressed? Yes. Did He come to minister to the religious Jewish community? Yes. Did He come to minister beyond the confines of religious and national boundaries? Absolutely yes!

As far back as the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, following His forty days in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, He did not restrict His movements to just the religiously and nationally acceptable regions of Israel. He was known throughout all of Syria, a Gentile region north of Israel that extended as far north as modern Turkey and western Armenia and as far east as the modern northwestern border of Iran, encompassing part of what is now northernmost Iraq, due north of Baghdad.

Just across the Jordan River, outside of Israel proper, was a region known as the Decapolis, in the modern day kingdom of Jordan. The Decapolis was a group of ten cities that marked the easternmost boundary of the Roman Empire: Gerasa, Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Pella, Philadelphia (now Amman, the capital of Jordan), Capitolias, Canatha, Raphana, and Damascus (the modern day capital of Syria). Damascus was a major trading post at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Palestine on the western edge along the centralized north-south Mediterranean coast portion of what is known as the Fertile Crescent.

In Gerasa, there is an oval forum, a place that was surrounded by large stone columns with a column lined pathway that leads to the forum. Much like the Roman Forum in the captial of the Empire, the Gerasene Forum was a center for trade, political discourse, education, oratory, and much more. In the center of the forum is a small column, providing a point of reference for those within the forum. If you wanted the news of the day, this is where you get it. If you look closely at the layout of the Gerasene Forum, it may appear very familiar in design to you. It is likely that this design inspired Michaelangelo as he designed the architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica and the rotunda that leads up to it.

Jesus didn’t come to minister only to the Jews. He intentionally went to the Gentiles outside of Israel. He traveled outside of Galilee to Syria and throughout the Decapolis of Jordan. He taught and He ministered to those who were not those of the Hebrew tribes because He proclaimed “the gospel of the kingdom.” When Jesus was challenged by Pilate, He explained that His kingdom was “not of this world.” (John 18:36) It was a kingdom that extended beyond the geopolitical constructs of modern man. It was a kingdom that encompassed all who would place their trust in Him and in the Father. And He embraced those that had enough faith in Him to travel from the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire to seek Him and His mercy.

In the same way, the Kingdom of God today extends beyond the walls of our church buildings. It extends beyond the geopolitical confines of our modern world. Jesus extends the Kingdom to the entire world. How dare we ever restrict access to the Kingdom to just those with whom we are comfortable! How dare we restrict access to Jesus to only those who think like us, look like us, or act like us! That’s the entire point of the transformative power of grace!

We are called to send out the invitation to the dinner table and open the doors to all who will come. We are called to be His ambassadors to a world that needs Him the most. We are called to bring in the broken, the maligned, the sick, the hurting. We are called to be healers for a hurting world. We are called to be teachers to those who are ignorant of the truth. We are called to be an instrument of change, not an trumpet of judgement.

Don’t get me wrong. Yes, this message is intended directly for those who believe. Yes, the gospel demands repentance. It demands transformation. Holiness demands obedience to the dictates of God’s Word. But for those who have not yet entered into the Kingdom, the message is simple – Come to the table! Come and see this Savior who can make the lame walk, the blind see, the sick well, the dead live again. Come and see this Savior who can make broken hearts whole and lives renewed. Yes! Repentance is crucial and a part of the gospel message, but it is not the entirety of the gospel message. Grace is the gospel of the kingdom. Mercy is the gift of the kingdom. Transformation is the mission of the kingdom.

“Open your eyes, and see the fields are white for harvest!” (John 4:35) Now is the time. Here is the place. There is no better place to be. There is no greater time than now to let the message of the Kingdom ring loud and clear! The world can be a better place. And it begins in the humble, repentant heart of everyone who seeks Jesus trusting Him to make our lives whole again. It begins with every believer, humbly repenting of their arrogance and bowing on their face before our holy God and say “Not my will, but yours be done.”

The Reward of Repentance

May 29, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork in in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12)

I grew up in the country, the grandson of a beefmaster farmer, so I know a little bit about agriculture. I remember nummerable summers hauling hay bales onto the back of a truck and trailer, stacking them high and building forts. I remember picking a long stemmed grass with wheatlike fruit on the end and chewing on it while we worked the fields. The green stem of the grass was the chaff and the seeds would branch off near the top of the chaff in multiple directions but looked like wheat, but it was not. When this grass would age, it would even look like wheat at first glance, with its beige hue. This would eventually be cut down with the rest of the hay field and included into the bales that we would provide for the cattle to eat. It was a good source of protein for them, but not really something fit for human consumption. This was what is commonly known in scripture as tares.

When harvesting wheat for the grain stores in Biblical times, once the wheat was brought into the storehouse, a worker would take what is called a winnowing fork to harvest the grains of the wheat and separate it from the chaff so that it might be processed into flour for bread and other wheat-based products. A winnowing fork is essentially a primitive form of pitchfork where the harvester would pick up wheat, toss it into the air, and the wind would then separate the smaller wheat grains from the chaff. Once the wheat grains were separated, then the chaff was removed from the harvesting floor and thrown out into the fire since it was no longer of any use.The fruit of the wheat chaff – the grain – would then be used for multiple purposes, but primarily it would be ground into flour and then used for making bread.

In our Scripture today, we begin with the baptism of water. In the ministry of John the Baptist, the immersive baptism was symbolic of the washing away of our sins as a result of individual confession and repentance. The act was a total immersion within the water as a means of ensuring complete cleansing from head to toe so that no part of the body was left dry and unclean. The symbolism of baptism changed after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ to represent believers being buried with Christ and raised again to new life (Romans 6:4).

But John mentioned a different baptism by Jesus whereas He would baptize us with the person of the Holy Spirit and with fire, a spiritual fire that will burn away the chaff, the useless parts of our lives that are no longer needed once the fruit of the Spirit has ripened for harvest – the fruit of repentance.

Additionally, in keeping with the context of John’s criticism and condemnation of the hypocritical religious leaders in the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Holy Spirit would in effect be the “winnowing fork” that would separate the good wheat from the tares. He would separate the good fruit from the waste.

The heart of repentance is one that demands and inspires holiness. Grace also demands and inspires holiness. Grace by definition is the imparting unto us that which we do not deserve. This definition implies that we deserve something much worse. Romans 6:23 declares “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The old Hebrew word for death and even the Greek word represent a separation from life. The root definition implies a separation in relationship, but the context implies a deeper separation – a broken relationship with our Creator. A relationship broken by our sin. But a relationship that can be restored supernaturally as a result of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

It’s not enough to simply pray a prayer of forgiveness and then go about your life unchanged. If you still bear no fruit of the transformative power of grace, it is because repentance has not taken root in order to bear that fruit. In which case, when the time of harvest comes and the grains of wheat are sifted from the chaff, which pile will your life end up on?

Will you remain on the threshing room floor so that you might undergo the transformation from wheat to bread? Sure, it’s going to be a painful grind, but the end product is what provides nourishment to a world starving for the Bread of Life.

Or will you be tossed in the wind with the remainder of the chaff, separated into the pile of waste, to be burned away and forever separated from the saving knowledge of a relationship with the harvester of souls? Yes, hell is a reality. The lack of belief is not evidence for the lack of existence. Like Pascal, I’d rather gamble on the reality of spending eternity in the arms of my Savior. For if I am wrong, and there is no hell, then I have lost nothing. But if I am right, and I choose to reject Him, then I have lost everything.

The Haunting Question

May 27, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“Then in Jerusalem and Judea and all the region about the Jordan were coming out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:5-6)

Recently, I explored the haunting question asked of Elijah by God as he was hiding out in a cave on Mt. Horeb: “What are you doing here?” (1 Kings 19:9) I say that it is “haunting” because it both challenges us and convicts us. Today I pose the same question to you for self-reflection: “What are you doing here?” And there are a variety of ways I could ask it:

“WHAT are you doing here?” – What is that you are doing with your life that is purposeful for advancing the Kingdom of God? If you aren’t doing anything to advance His kingdom on earth, then why not? If you are, is WHAT you are doing glorifying Jesus or is it drawing people’s eyes to yourself? Are you continually calling yourself to repentance? Are other’s around you inspired to repentance by your own behavior?
“What are YOU doing here?” – What is it about you that God has chosen to empower for His kingdom purposes? What gifts and callings has He enabled in your life that define your mission in a way that it defines nobody else in your circle of influence? What makes you unique within His design?
“What are you doing HERE?” – Are you where you know God has called you to be in your walk and ministry? Has God called you to be somewhere, but instead you are wasting your life isolated from His purposes? Are you sharing the love of God with your neighbor? Are you declaring His truth to your colleagues? Are you showing your friends what a life of joy in Christ really means? Are you advancing His Kingdom in your home, street, neighborhood, city, state, and country?

For the last question, I intentionally left out the rest of the world, because in keeping with the context of our focal passage, John the Baptist’s calling was not to the whole world, but to prepare the hearts of Israel for the coming of the Messiah.

It is often much easier to go into another place where you are unknown and share your testimony and minister the gospel of grace to those who do not know you intimately. But it is quite another thing to share grace and forgiveness with those who know you best. Those who know your weaknesses, your failures, your family history, and all the superficial things that bind us in fear from sharing the truth of the Good News of God’s restoration and reconciliation.

But Jesus calls us to minister where we are. In our city (our “Jerusalem”), in our state (our “Judea”), and in our country (our “region about the Jordan”). This includes going to the people that aren’t like you (Samaria). This includes the people that are your enemies (the Romans). This includes the people blinded by religious tradition (Pharisees and Sadducces). This includes men, women, and children. This includes liars, thieves, adulterers, blasphemers, and all other sinners as well.

We are all sinners in need of grace. And yes, grace offends the proud. But grace restores the broken. And we are called to prepare hearts for healing and spirits for restoration that only Jesus can provide. How selfish it would be if we were to hoard that healing vision for ourselves and not offer it to the beggar who doesn’t even know his need.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written [Isaiah 52:7], ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'” (Romans 10:14-15)

So I ask you again: “What are you doing here?”
And I also ask: “How can I help?”

Matthew

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