"The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand"

Our Gospel lesson for two weeks ago told Matthews account of the baptism of Jesus. Matthew then goes on to tell about Jesus’ temptation and time in the wilderness. Last week, we looked at how John the Baptist began pointing people away from himself and toward Jesus. We also saw how Andrew was one of the first two people who followed Jesus, and how he went and told his brother Simon Peter about how he had found the Messiah.

About a year elapsed between the temptation of Jesus in the desert and his return to Galilee. The events of that year are recorded in the first four chapters of John. Jesus was doing things like turning water in to wine, teaching a man named Nicodemus, calling Philip and Nathaniel, and talking to a Samaritan woman.

During those months in Judea, Jesus experienced considerable opposition and hostility. Our text this morning begins with Jesus getting word that John the Baptist had been thrown into prison. So Jesus withdrew from Judea and went to Galilee, not only because of the opposition he had been experiencing, but primarily because the prophet Isaiah had foretold his Galilean ministry.

Nazareth in Galilee had been Jesus’ boyhood home, but now he decided to make Capernaum his home and headquarters. It was centrally located on the road from Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea and on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was in the territory that had been assigned to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali when the Israelites occupied the land after their forty years of wandering in the desert. Some of Jesus’ relatives and disciples also lived in Capernaum.

In addition to the Jews that lived there, Galilee was populated by many Gentiles. Not all the Canaanites had been driven out when Israel moved in. In the 8^th century B.C., the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser took many Galileans into captivity and replaced them with Assyrians and other Gentiles.

This mixture of people had its effect on religious life. The God of Israel was not unknown there, but the worship of God was now almost nothing like the forms of worship that had been called for in the Law of Moses. The people were living in darkness, just as Isaiah had foretold.

Darkness symbolizes wickedness, ignorance, and unbelief. Most of the people did not know the way of salvation. But then Jesus, the Light of the world came to Galilee. He attracted huge crowds of people who followed him from place to place to hear him preach and see him perform miracles. The message Jesus proclaimed was the same as that of John the Baptist: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Repentance implies a radical change of heart and mind, followed by a corresponding change in behavior. Jesus’ call to repentance was an invitation as well as a command. But the people could not respond in a positive way to that invitation unless the Holy Spirit prompted such a response through the power of the Gospel.

Unfortunately, the initial enthusiasm of the people of Galilee did not last very long. Many deserted Jesus when they learned he was unwilling to be the kind of Messiah they wanted. In chapter 11 verse 23 of Matthew, Jesus finally has enough and pronounces a verdict on the people there. "And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day."

Sodom was synonymous with wickedness, but Jesus said Capernaum deserved a fate worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their opportunities to know the Savior were greater. He was there, in person, teaching in their synagogue and in their streets. That made their guilt of rejecting Christ even greater and more inexcusable.

What does that say then, about a people who grow up in a land of religious liberty, maybe even baptized and instructed in God’s Word, who deny their Savior and go their own way? What does that say about us, in this age of technology and information? How many in this country have heard of a man named Jesus, and what he did for us, born on Christmas day and raised from the dead on Easter day, and then turned and gone their own way? How has the devil and society and the commercialization of those days distorted their meaning and value for the human race?

Last week, in our Gospel from the first chapter of John, we see how John the Baptist directed his disciples to the Lamb of God. Andrew and his brother Peter

Andrew, Simon Peter, James, and John had no special qualifications to become Jesus’ apostles. They were fisherman. They probably had very little formal education. Many incidents during the time they followed Jesus clearly showed their lack of understanding when it came to spiritual matters. But Jesus didn’t call them because they were good. He called them because He was gracious.

Peter and Andrew understood exactly what Jesus meant when he invited them to become fishers of men. In their new calling, they would still have to work hard, they would still have to be patient, and they would still have to persevere, not knowing what the results of their labors might be.

They would learn to follow Jesus’ instructions, and use the "net" that he provided. We call that net the Means of Grace, the Gospel of Christ in Word and Sacrament. There is no other power in the world that can bring sinners into the kingdom of heaven. Only the blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, cleanses people of their sins, and only those washed in the blood of the Lamb are received into God’s kingdom for eternity.

We have no way of knowing how many sick people Jesus healed, or how many he freed from demon possession. Some people came individually, some were brought by friends. Some came in crowds. There were the blind and deaf, the lame and lepers. In some cases, Jesus didn’t even touch them or see them. Those miracles did more then help the people who were afflicted by all sorts of earthly afflictions. Those miracles testified to the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Peter and Andrew didn’t have to take a little time and think about Jesus’ invitation. They already knew that he was the Messiah, and regarded Jesus’ invitation as a special privilege and opportunity. They immediately left their nets and followed him. Likewise, James and John immediately left their boats and nets and followed Jesus.

Such instantaneous obedience, such a prompt response, is commendable. But at the same time, it’s almost unbelievable. Fishing one minute, discipling the next? Such behavior can only stem from a Savior whose Gospel deeds were characterized by promptness, commitment, and a sense of urgency.

So look at Jesus’ record. In Mark 1:21, we read that Jesus "immediately on the Sabbath, entered the synagogue and taught." When the disciples were afraid on the stormy sea, and thought the figure that was approaching them was a ghost, immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, be of good cheer, it is I. Do not be afraid.

It was Jesus’ baptism that really set the tone of His ministry. Jesus, when He was baptized, went up immediately out of the water. Even at the end of His ministry, as Judas left the upper room to make final preparations for Jesus’ betrayal, Jesus said; "God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once."

There was nothing showy or flashy about the miracles Jesus performed. A woman sneaks up behind Jesus merely to touch his robe and when she does, she immediately knows that she has been healed. Jesus commands a dead girl to get up, and immediately she does. To a deaf and dumb man Jesus says "Ephphatha….Be opened" and immediately his ears were opened.

The point of all this discussion of "immediately" is so that you and I can have a sense of urgency as Christ’s disciples because of the sense of urgency that Jesus had. You and I can respond to God and neighbor with promptness and enthusiasm only because He did. Whatever immediate virtues there are in our lives, they are the product of the immediacy shown in Jesus’ earthly career.

The world around us needs the Gospel message immediately. Jesus’ life and actions show us the heart of God and his desire to draw all men unto himself. Jesus was sent to this world to seek and save the lost. Before He returned to heaven, he commissioned His church to continue what he had begun. The sending out of his apostles and disciples is woven throughout the Gospel accounts and books that record the early history of the church, and for that matter, all of Scripture.

Those who have come to know Jesus as their Savior are called to go into the world and to witness His saving grace to those who have not confessed Jesus as their Savior. This task is just as important to the church today as it was to the church of the first century.

All disciples of Christ, you and I are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live like the apostles, as people sent by God into His world to share His good news of grace and hope. May God grant us each the strength and the sense of urgency of those who were originally called "apostles. Amen.