“Kingdom Ministry,” Matthew 4:17b

Matthew 4:12-23

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Pastor Tom Johnson, January 26, 2020

“Healing of the Blind Man,” by Carl Bloch 1871 

As Jesus begins his ministry, he repeats the same slogan over and over: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew describes his ministry: “Jesus went…teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” This is how Jesus manifests God’s love to the world: wherever the King goes, so goes the Kingdom. Wherever the King stretches out his hand, so the reign of God’s love is extended. Jesus preaches the Gospel and does good to those around him. Jesus blesses others by word and deed, mouth and hands, voice and touch. People do not just hear about the good news of God’s love they feel it in their bodies. He encourages their hearts and mends their wounds. He strengthens their spirits and he takes away their sickness.

Maybe you are like me and the word “repent” sounds archaic, negative, and demanding. In English, it can mean to feel remorse, regret, and to change one’s mind. In the Bible, repent means to change both mind and conduct. It is a transformation of both how we think and how we live. Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century Baptist preacher in London said, “Repentance is not only a change of mind. It seems to me more truthful to say it is a great and deep change—even a change of the mind itself.” We should find great comfort in Jesus’ little word “Repent.” Repentance goes with his nearness. It means that the reign of God will have and should have a tangible impact on our lives. When we encounter the King, we will experience the divine.

This morning’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew is about how Jesus does ministry—how he came to serve—his method of reaching people. He brings about positive change to those who come across his path. The spirits of people are uplifted. Their bodies are healed. And they find new purpose in their lives.  By the words of his mouth, Jesus spreads the message of good news. It’s the news of the arrival of a greater reality—the Kingdom of Heaven—a power, a purpose, a healing for the nations that transcends our world. When the Kingdom of Heaven comes near, King Jesus has come near—the true Messiah the one who is anointed by God the Heavenly Father. Wherever he speaks and whomever he touches, he brings a blessing from heaven to earth. This is how Matthew describes the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Later in the last chapter of Matthew (28), Jesus hands over the same ministry not to just a few fishermen but to all of us. He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them…,and teaching them. And, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now we are to go as Jesus did by word and deed extending the power of his Kingdom. We would be wise to follow his example. Jesus manifests the power of God’s love through the good news he teaches and preaches and the lives he tangibly impacts for good. Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Jesus does not just reveal truth, he reveals the love and acceptance of God. Jesus does not just give the world more information, he gives the world life-transformation. It is why what the world needs is not smarter Christians but more caring Christians. God calls us to be faithful not only to the truth of doctrine but also faithful to his heart and love toward people. Authentic concern and love for our neighbor will have a profound impact on the lives around us.

Last Monday, I heard a powerful sermon from Pastor Chris Bodley who serves in urban ministry development in Detroit, Michigan. He said the largest group missing from all our churches is the millennial generation. They are seeking an encounter with God that will forever change their lives. What they and all of us need is to be part of a community of believers whose lives have truly been changed by God. Just as we see in our text this morning. When Jesus shows up, it changes the course of our lives and our journeys. We begin fill our minds and hearts with God’s love. We experience his healing touch. Our lives have purpose and meaning.

God also calls us to fish for people. And the way we we do that is way Jesus fishes for people: by word and deed. Just as our mission statement says on the back of our bulletins: we proclaim Christ, nurture faith, and serve others.  We are here this morning to cultivate a caring community around God’s Kingdom. We are here once again to experience the reign of his Son Jesus. He transforms lives once again by his Word and healing touch. By the words that have been read and faithfully preached, minds and hearts are mended. By his touch through the bread and the wine—his true Body and Blood—we are strengthened body and soul. We have the assurance that our sins are forgiven and have eternal life.  We are a community that has experienced life-transformation. We celebrate positive change in all the lives we encounter. And we give King Jesus all the glory, thanks, and praise. He has truly come near.

“God has a Dream” (Isaiah 49:1-7)

Isaiah 49:1-7
John 1:29-42

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Pastor Tom Johnson, January 19, 2020

1963 March on Washington

God is speaking to his people. They are scattered throughout the known world. Israel has just suffered a tragic and devastating blow. They were conquered by foreign armies. Friends and family died. Others were taken as slaves. They are defeated, in exile, and humiliated. They fear genocide and annihilation as a people. Their hope now is for survival. They dream of a time they could return home to their homeland—Promised Land, Israel.

Tomorrow we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Some institutions are closed. Some of us have the day off. We remember that about 57 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a people who also felt defeated, scattered, and humiliated. Dr. King stood at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke words of hope and vision. His words summed up in the phrase “I have a dream.” In that monumental speech, King laid out his dream for the United States of America. It was a dream for all to believe that “all people are created equal by God.” He dreamed of a nation where the grandchildren of slaves and the grandchildren of their masters will eat at the same table of brotherhood and sisterhood. He dreamed of an America where his children could grow up and not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. And just like the people of Israel long ago, the years that followed that King’s speech became a nightmare. There were church bombings. Authorities sent dogs and fire hoses on people who were demonstrating peacefully. Many lost sight of the dream and simply wanted to survive—to make it to another day.

We too can find ourselves in a living nightmare in our struggle with illness and bad medical news. We live a nightmare when we see the mounting bills before us, experience broken relationships, or when we experience the death of loved ones. Even as a nation, we can collectively experience a living nightmare because of an energy crisis, the threat of war, the threat of a terrorist attack any time, any place, anywhere. And sadly, prejudice and racism still threaten us as a people. We may also think our greatest hope is to simply survive—to just make it another day. We don’t want to lose our lives or livelihood any more than the people of Israel did in their day. We dream and long for a brighter, new day.

But thanks be to God, that when he speaks to us in our text this morning, he give us the encouraging word we need by challenging our limited vision. He tells us that our dreams are not big enough. He tells us in our text that “it is too light a thing—it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel.” It is too limited a vision to bring redemption to just one people and one nation. This is good news! Our dreams are not big enough. Our dreams are not weighty enough. Our dreams are merely for a safer and better life. Our dreams are to just live another day. Our dreams are to restore what we once had. Our dreams are to simply be what we were—not what we could be and what God has called us to be. Notice that our dreams are mostly for ourselves.

But God has a bigger dream. It’s not a dream that began after things went bad. It’s a dream that began, as our text says, even before we were in our mother’s wombs. It’s a dream that God’s Son makes into a reality. God’s dream is far greater, better, and weightier than we could ever imagine. This is God’s dream in our Scripture: he says, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation will reach to the end of the earth.” People are coming to John the Baptist to deal with their own personal and individual sins. John points to Jesus who comes not just for them but every tribe, language, people, and nation. He cries out and points to Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

God’s dream is not just that we would make it another day. But that we would reach out globally. It’s a dream that we would clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the fatherless, widows, the sick, and the imprisoned in their distress. It’s a dream for the whole world to hear the good news of salvation that is found in the Jesus. He comes to us as a sacrificial Lamb of God but deals with our sin and the evil of this world as the Lion of Judah. God has a dream for every living soul. And his dream is for us—the people of God—to be that light for the nations so that his salvation will reach to the end of the earth and every human soul.

In Martin Luther King’s last speech “On the Mountaintop,” he said it was a joy to simply pursue his dream. As he marched for peace and justice, and when the authorities sent their fire hoses and dogs, he said that the fire hoses were like a holy Baptism and the dogs became the audience of their songs. King likened himself to Moses who would never enter the Promised Land where God’s dream is fully realized. He said, “I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” The next day, King entered into the glory of his Savior.

It’s still a dream. But we are God’s light to the nations now. And one day, the Lamb will come again and bring us into his Holy City where there is no need for sun or moon because its lamp is the Lamb. Nothing unclean, detestable, false, or accursed will be there. We will, in all our diverse humanity, worship the Lamb in peace, unity, and joy. God’s dream will be our reality.

“Baptismal Spring of Justice” (Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17)

Isaiah 42:1-9
Matthew 3:13-17

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Pastor Tom Johnson, January 12, 2020

John the Baptist is confused. Why would Jesus get baptized? “I need to be baptized by you, Jesus! Not the other way around,” he says. Jesus’ answer is simple yet profound: “In my baptism we will fulfill all righteousness” or “all justice.” Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah is very enlightening. Isaiah 42 is such important Scripture to Matthew’s Gospel that he quotes this passage almost in its entirety later in Matthew chapter 12. God promises to send his servant, the Messiah. This prophecy saturates us with the idea that the Messiah will be anointed with the Holy Spirit and drenched with God and his own righteousness. But even more than that, he will radiate his light to the nations and flood the world with his justice. He will be altogether righteous. And he will fill the cosmos with his justice. “See,” God says, “the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”

That sounds a lot like Jesus in Revelation who says, “I make all things new,” when he comes in all his glory to bring justice to the living and the dead. His justice and righteousness will spring forth, as Jesus will also say later in his ministry to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). All of these Scriptures, promises, prophecies, and images in the Bible come together in the waters of Jesus’ Baptism.

We often hear of how Jesus does the right thing, pleases God, and fulfills the law’s demand in his Baptism. But it clearly is much more. In Christ’s Baptism God gives the world a Spring of Righteousness, Justice, and Eternal Life. His Baptism is not only Jesus doing the right thing and being wholly righteous. He is also the one who executes justice, rights every wrong, and makes all things new.

In his catechism, Luther asks, “How can water do such great things?” “Certainly, not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water.” It is “a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of new birth in the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is a wellspring of life, grace, cleansing, and new birth. It makes us righteous—just and through us brings forth God’s justice and righteousness to all the world.

In Isaiah 42, God’s promise of his baptismal spring of justice is not just for his faithful people but for those who are suffering in their bodies, for those prisoners languishing unjustly in the dungeons and darkness of their captivity. It is for those who are held captive by false gods and idols—that is, for all the nations. God cares about all the sickness in the world, emotional pain, and physical hardships. He hears the cries of those who receive the judgment of the world—not the true justice of God. Even those who turn to other gods have a place in God’s heart to make all things new. He promises to bring them out of spiritual darkness and make our cups run over with his grace and love.

Jesus brings about justice without breaking a bruised reed or putting out a smoldering wick. He is not a bull in a china shop. He works out of tender mercy and the strength of his compassion. It is why God says, “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord, “I will bring forth justice for my people.” When we take matters into our own hands—when we fight evil with evil, it should not surprise us when God does not bless us. Without God’s help, we shatter reeds and snuff out smoldering wicks.

We do not bring our righteousness and justice to this spring. That would have how springs work turned the wrong way around. The source of this holy washing of regeneration is God’s Anointed Son who brings us righteousness and justice with whom God is well-pleased. We, on the other hand, bring the filthy rags of our sin. We bring our need for cleansing. We bring those things that are about to come to pass so that the new can rush in by the torrent of God’s love.

And so here at the font, we have the floodgates of all who Jesus is as God’s beloved and righteous Son. Beneath this wellspring of baptismal water is a vast sea of God’s grace and mercy. It pours out from the person and work of Jesus Christ, whom Scripture calls the Just and Justifier of those who trust in him (Rom 3:26). We have all that Jesus promises by the water, Word, and Holy Spirit. In Holy Baptism are united with his death and resurrection. He is our Alpha and Omega—the beginning and the end. We are his new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, he makes all things new (2 Cor 5:17). He is the One who fulfills all righteousness and justice. He reconciles us to God and he reconciles us to one another. He is the One who will make “justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

“Joyful Wise Men” (Matthew 2:1-12)

Matthew 2:1-12

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Pastor Tom Johnson, January 5, 2020

On Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul talks about how “God made from one man every nation of humankind to live on all the face of the earth…that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27). The wise men are from the east. They are not of Jewish ancestry. And yet they are believers. They are just as fearfully and wonderfully made as any of God’s people. God has put in all of us a longing for a relationship with him. The wisdom of the wise men is their teachable spirit and desire to discover God’s promises. They are wise because they seek God’s signs in creation and, even more importantly, the holy Scriptures.  They set out on a journey from a far country. They have information King Herod and the Israelites don’t seem to have: they have been watching an astronomical phenomenon—a curious star drawing them near the Christ Child. They are wise because they ask what the Scriptures say about the location of the Child. The chief priests and scribes tell them the prophecy of Micah: “the city of Bethlehem in Judah.”

In contrast to these wise foreigners, all this news and information makes King Herod frightened. The King is scared. And what could possibly make him afraid? The wise men’s question: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? King Herod will soon be out of a job. Herod is about to lose his power. The long-awaited Messiah—the King whom God promised to liberate his people and bring peace to the whole world has just been born. Herod’s days as king are numbered. Herod tells the wise men to go search diligently for the child and then come back to him so that he too can worship him. But that is all a lie. God knows the thoughts and intentions of his heart. So God warns the wise men not to go back to Herod. Herod will do the unthinkable. He will try to kill this newborn King by killing all the male children two years and younger in and around Bethlehem. Fear leads him to mass murder. That is how much Herod is held captive by fear and evil.

Fear sends us in the wrong direction. Fear clouds our minds to wisdom. Fear robs us of faith in God. Fear makes us turn to ourselves and not to God in our time of need. Fear prevents us from trusting that the one who is within us is great than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Fear leads us to harm others and ourselves.

We often see the wise men wearing kingly crowns on their heads. They are much more noble than King Herod is. The reverential fear of the Lord—not the fear of losing power—is the beginning of wisdom. Their motive is to worship the newborn King and give him kingly gifts—gold and rare and precious spices. They are eager to lay down their crowns and treasure at the feet of the Christ Child. But what I admire so much about them is their joy. When the star finally leads them to Mary and Jesus, they are “overwhelmed with joy.” This is one of those times the English translation falls short. It says, “they rejoiced with great joy very greatly.” The word “great” is where we get the word “mega.” The wise men had mega joy. And just so we understand, joy is mentioned in its verbal and noun form: rejoice, joy. And there are two intensifiers: greatly, mega. “They greatly rejoice with mega-joy.”

Joy is so vital to our Christian faith. All this talk about Jesus, his birth, the gift of his life, death, and resurrection is not just to make us smarter or even merely wiser. It’s not even just to make us better people. Although those things are important. Our highest honor and our greatest privilege is to participate in joyful worship. The wise men did not come all this way to just be closer in proximity or a little bit wiser but to worship—to kneel down, pay him homage, and give them their very best as offerings of thanksgiving. In the book of Revelation, the sainted elders cast their crowns at the feet of Jesus and say, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). Just as we sang earlier in the service, “You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High.” And later during Communion we will sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, Lord God of power and might: heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.”

God wants to take us on our own spiritual pilgrimage—our own journey of faith. It is okay that it may feel like a far off country from east or west. The Holy Spirit will draw us through the magnificence and beauty of his creation. He will lead us through trial and temptation and keep us safe by his Word. He makes us teachable and rewards us with the joy of discovery. He leads us again and again to the Christ Child—the One who perfectly reveals the love and wonder of God himself. And he wants us to be filled with amazement each time. God transforms us into joyful and worshipful people. He takes us to the feet of Jesus where we lay down our pride, our treasure, our prayers, our thanksgiving, throw down some serious celebration, and adore the newborn King.