This sermon was preached to Grace Church Guildford on 10 April 2022. The full video recording of the service can be found below along with the transcript.
‘Oh! You are a Christian. I didn’t realise there were many Christians anymore.’ Have you ever had that kind of response when telling someone for the first time about your faith? Perhaps British politeness means they aren’t quite as blunt as that. Yet, you couldn’t help but feel that something like it passed through their mind. Society around us seems to be less and less aware of both the existence and relevance of Christainity today. For those of you who are a bit older, this is a significant shift from the world you were once used to. Throughout your life, church attendance and membership has steadily dropped and Christianity’s influence in our society has all but collapsed. Surveys now suggest only around 2% of the UK population are evangelical Christians. And that statistic is even lower among the younger generations. For many of us, being the only Christian in our class at school, course at university or place of work, is far more normal than it is not. We are surrounded by a society that seems to see Christainity as nothing but an historical hangover, a belief system no longer relevant for people today. And that can be dangerous for Christians. I’m not talking about the danger of marginalisation or persecution, but rather the greatest danger we face in a society that views Christianity as irrelevant: beginning to believe that ourselves. Brothers and sisters, it is unlikely that we will suddenly decide our faith irrelevant. But there is a great danger that we slowly and subconsciously start living as if it is. Accept the remote corner our culture has put us in. Believe the lie that because religious belief is personal it should be kept private. That tolerance for others means silence about ourselves.
Do you ever feel that kind of pressure when you have an opportunity to share the Gospel? Do the claims of Christianity ever feel inconvenient or a bit of an imposition? Do you have to resist the temptation to almost apologise for your faith? For disturbing a colleague’s apparently pleasant life? For being that weird family member who wants to go to church? For being the friend always inviting others along to ‘outreach events’? Of course, we need to be wise about how and where we share our faith, and remain respectful as we do so. Yet, if you are anything like me, the temptation you face most is not speaking too forcefully or frequently about Jesus; but a temptation to fail to speak of him enough. If you are a helper at HBC this week, is this not a temptation you might face when chatting to non-Christian parents? In such situations, it can be all too easy for us to act as if we believe the Bible stories we teach to their children, are not really for grownup conversation. Of course, we know the ‘Gospel’ means ‘good news’. However, if we are honest, sometimes it feels more like ‘inconvenient news’. Sometimes we begin to doubt, as society does around us, that Christianity really is relevant for everyone today.
I pray that our passage this evening dispels all such doubts. That tonight you are reminded just how good the news of the Gospel is, not only for yourself, but for every one in this world, both the children and adults at HBC next week. Over the last three months, we have slowly worked through the first four chapters of Matthew, the beginning of this account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We heard about his birth and childhood in Matthew 1-2. Then in chapter 3 as he was announced by John the Baptist, anointed at his baptism, and then assessed in the wilderness last week in 4:1-11. Tonight we see that all of that was his period of preparation for ministry. For here in 4:12-25, Christ’s career commences, his ministry begins. And from the very start of his work in this world, we see what Christianity, what Jesus Christ, offers. From his first appearance on the world stage, we get an insight into the impact Jesus can have in lives. Tonight we will see that Christianity offers this world at least three things: (1) A Light in Darkness (4:12-17); (2) A Lord to Lead Us (4:18-22); and (3) A Life of Wholeness (4:23-25).
1. A LIGHT IN DARKNESS (4:12-17)
‘The Dark Ages’. That is the name given to a period of time stretching from the 5th to 10th centuries. Why do we call it this? It was given this name because few cultural or intellectucal advances took place in these 500 years. The label is the oppositie to that given to the 17th and 18th centuries, a period known as ‘the Enlightenment’, which seen great rational and intellectual development. ‘The Dark Ages’ was a period of ignorance. ‘The Enlightenment’ was a time of reason. These two labels reveal that for many in our world, to be in the dark is to be uneducated. And to come into the light means to advance intellectually. Our world looks to learning to alleviate its darkness, believes we become enlightened through education. Yet, Christianity see our world differently. It claims that our fundamental problem is not ignorance, it is idolatry. The darkness of this world is not an intellectual issue, it is a spiritual one. Back in Isaiah, the darkness was defined in this way. We read in 8:19-22 that across the earth there is only "distress and darkness and fearful gloom". Why? Because the people had turned away from God, rejected his instructions and put their trust elsewhere. According to the Bible, it is sin, living contrary to God’s Word, that smothers this world in darkness. When we turn away from God, we end up stumbling around in the dark.
In Isaiah 9:1 we see one region in the land of Israel was particularly dark, had less light than than all the others. In the far north, Gailelee, which belonged to the two tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, was under the greatest darkness. And when we read the rest of the Old Testament, we can understand why. Galilee was on the edge of the land. It was far from Jerusalem, where God was worshipped, and nearby the neighbouring nations. And when the people began turning away from God, towards the religions of their neighbours, Galilee led the way (1 Kings 9:10-13). It was the first region to abandon God, and so it was the first region to experience judgement. Even before the rest of the land was invaded by Assyria, those in Galilee were taken to exile (2 Kings 15:29). And yet Isaiah says that it is here where the Messiah would come. That where the darkness was deepest, light would dawn.
In 4:12, we see on the surface, the trigger for Christ going to Galilee was the arrest of John the Baptist. And yet, Matthew makes clear this relocation has a more significant meaning that moving for the sake of security or safety. In 4:14, we read that this all took place "to fulfil what was said through the prophet Isaiah". Now that the herald, John the Baptist, has left the stage, it is time for Jesus himself to begin his ministry. Now the moon has dropped below the horizon, it is time for the sun to rise. Such language is certainly appropriate, for Matthew makes it clear that Jesus Christ is the great light in Galilee that Isaiah foretold. He is the sun that dawns on those in darkness. In Isaiah 9, this light came about through the birth of a child, one who is called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (9:6), one who reigns on David’s throne and rules over a kingdom of peace and joy forever (9:7). And here, Matthew leaves no doubt this coming king, this shining sovereign, is Jesus Christ.
If you here this evening and are trying to understand what Christianity is all about, these verses present two of its most important truths: (1) The problem with this world is sin; and (2) The solution for this world is Jesus. The Bible teaches this world hasn’t always been like this: war, famine, sickness, suffering, disappointment, depression, frustration, loneliness, death, whatever other form of darkness you can think of. The Bible tells us in the beginning, none of them were here. That when God created this world, it was entirely good. And yet, all these things came about because mankind turned away from God. As we read last week, Adam and Even believed the lies of Satan and sinned again their Creator. In that moment, the light in this world went out. And humanity has been living in the dark ever since. 1 John 1:6 explains that by nature we all live walking in the dark. We live against rather than according to God’s Word. We believe the lies of Satan and sin just as Adam and Eve did in the beginning. Like those in Galilee, because we have turned away from God, we are in deep darkness, far from God’s goodness, and will experience his judgement as a result. In this way, the Buble shows that sin is the source of all suffering and sorrow in the world. Sin is the shovel with which we have dug ourselves into this pit of deep darkness. Sin is the spade with which we have dug our own grave. And yet, the good news of Christianity, the Gospel, is that though we are in deep darkness because of our sin, a light has dawned. Jesus came into this world to bring us back to God. A King came to roll back the reign of darkness and establish a kingdom of light. The problem with this world is sin. And the solution is Jesus, for Jesus went to the cross to deal with sin. As Matthew records in 27:45, for 3 hours while Jesus was being crucified, the whole land was covered in darkness. Jesus, the great light of the world, plunged into darkness, why? Because on that cross he was bearing the punishment of sin for all who trust in him. And he rose again from the dead at Easter to declare his victory over darkness and death forever. That is the good news of Christianity, the Gospel: that by faith in Jesus our sins can be forgiven, that because he came, we can step out of darkness and into the light. This gospel is the same message we see Jesus himself proclaiming here in 4:17. Obviously, Jesus went about saying more than this, indeed in chapters 5-7 there is a whole sermon. And yet, like John the Baptist, his message can be summarised by a single sentence: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." We thought about this back in chapter 3, but see again there is both a reason and a response here. We are told that because this kingdom of light is dawning, we must respond with repentence. That is, we must turn away from all deeds of darkness, from our sin, and turn towards God, accepting the forgiveness found by faith in Jesus and walking in the light as he did. If you are not a Christian tonight, that is the main message of Christianity, and that is what Christ can do for you. As Jesus himself put it in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Friend, if you turn from your sin and trust in Jesus as your Saviour tonight, if you become a Christian, you will have a light that can never be put out. What does Christianity offer the world? A light in darkness. Without Jesus, there is no light. There is only deep darkness.
2. A LORD TO LEAD US (4:18-22)
At the beginning of our service we thought a little together about what good leader looks like: someone ruling in righteousness and bringing about the flourishing of those following them, uses authority not for their own interests, but for the interests of those under them. The problem is that its not easy to find someone like that, as scandal after scandal of public leaders has shown. Even when we do find a good leader, they don’t last. The best teachers at some point retire, the most popular coaches or captains in sport eventually stand down, that boss who everyone wants to work for will only around for part of your career. We want a leader who will look after us, work for our good, lead us well forever. And that is exactly what Christianity offers the world. It has a Lord to lead us. If in 4:17 we seen a general summary of Christ’s ministry, here in 4:18-22 we are given a glimpse into a more personal encounter. As Jesus is ministering in that dark region, Galilee, he comes across two sets of brothers: Simon/Peter and Andrew and James and John. And to them he says them not, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." In 4:19 he says, "Come, follow me...". For those of us familiar with these words, their significance is easy to overlook. But do you see here Jesus holds himself out as the leader we all looking for? He tells us not only the kingdom has come near, but the king is here. To prepare for the kingdom means to follow him, for he is its king.
This calling of the first disciples, as they are later known, highlights two key truths about following Jesus, reminds us both of the purpose and price of discipleship. We see the purpose of discipleship highlighted to us in 4:18-20 with the first set of brothers. In 4:19, we read ""Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." Jesus calls these fishermen to follow him and become fishers of men. See here the great goal our Lord leads us towards. He calls followers to himself so they may call other followers to him. From the very beginning, those who come to Christ, Christians, were to be concerned about bringing others to him as well. This is clear through the whole book of Matthew, of course climaxing in its final verses with that great commission Jesus gave his disciples, the very same disciples we have here, to go and make disciples of all nations (28:19). The mission of the church has been and always in this age will be: making, baptising, and teaching disciples of Jesus. That is what God calls us for and sends us into this world to do. For 2000 years, an avalaunch has been rolling down the hillside of history, as person after person has trusted in Jesus and then called others to the same. Christianity is the greatest ponzy scheme this world has ever seen – only all its promises are true. Here in Matthew 4, we see the first snowball set off down the hill, as Christ calls his first followers and tells them to become fishers of men. Brother and sister, whether you have ever fished or not, we are all to be fishing for people. The analogy is an apt one given what these men were doing at the time, and yet fishing for followers is fundamentally different to fishing for fish. For when we fish for Jesus, we fish not to kill and eat. No, fishing for Jesus brings not death but life, it saves our friends and family from rushing on in the currents of this world and over the cliff edge of eternity. Fishing for Jesus is the most humanitarian kind of fishing there could possibly be! Brothers and sisters, when you share the Gospel with someone, when you fish for Jesus, you aren’t doing what cold callers do when they try to sell you a product on the phone, or promotional teams do when handing out leaflets in the street, or even colleagues do when they ask you to sponsor their son in a 5k charity walk. You are offering forgiveness to the guilty, life to the dead, a lord to the lost. You are offering a light in the dark, hope in death, you are telling them the greatest news they could ever hear: far greater than if they were cured of their debiliating ilness; than if they won the lottery, than if all their family problems were fixed! You are offering them Jesus. The purpose of our discipleship.
In the second set of brothers, we see the price of our discipleship. Here the focus is less what they are called to do, and more what they are called to leave behind. Did you notice in 4:21-22 again and again Matthew mentions James and John are sons of Zebedee? And that when they go to follow Jesus, they have to leave their father behind. See here Christianity not only offers, it also demands. If we are going to follow this Lord, we must expect to leave somethings behind. As Jesus explains in 10:37, "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Now it is important to realise that Jesus isn’t against families. The same Lord who called Peter to love him more than family by following him, will soom rush to the bedside of Peter’s mother-in-law in 8:14 to heal her. Jesus does not tell us to neglect our families. Indeed, in 15:4-5, he criticses the Pharisees for doing just that, for using religion to justify the neglect of their parents. Similarly, Jesus is not against having an occupation. We read here that all four of these fishermen ‘immedatiely’ left their nets and boat to follow him, and yet throughout Christ’s ministry we see them occasionally fishing and often sailing on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus does not call his followers to make him their sole interest in life, but he does call them to make him their central interest. Jesus does not call us to love others less, but simply to love him most. To follow Jesus means to put him as priority, reorientate every part of your life around him as lord. To consider his cause and calling to be your chief consideration. To have Jesus as our King means responding to his call similarly to how we might respond to a call from Buckingham Palace. If Her Majesty invited you for lunch tomorrow, you would make sure you were there, even if it meant cancelling previous plans. Because she is your Queen, she would take priority over your other plans. Brothers and sisters, even more so, if Jesus is your Lord and King, he must take priority in all aspects of your lives. For his sake, you should be willing to make decisions that only make sense because of who he is and what he calls you to, because you are following him. Decisions like cutting down hours at work or turning down the opportunity for promotion to serve his church better, living in a smaller home in a less affluent area so you can build relationships in a particular community, living in a bigger home so that you can be relentlessly hospitable and generous to others, changing your retirement plans so you can support a small struggling church. Since coming to Grace Church, these are all things I have heard of and seen members here do. Praise God! Let us keep following Jesus in similar ways: ask yourself, what can you sacrifice in order to serve Jesus better? What could you leave behind to advance his cause in this world? Let us joyfully pay that price of discipleship. If or when such decisions feel too costly, remember not only the price, but also the prize. You see, later in Matthew, Peter will waver and wonder about the decision he makes here to leave all and follow Jesus. In 19:27, he asks, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." No matter what we must leave behind to follow Jesus, what lies ahead of us is far far better. As C S Lewis put it, when we enter the kingdom of the King, "There [will be] better things ahead than any we leave behind." The coming of this kingdom also brings something else...
3. A LIFE OF WHOLENESS (4:23-25)
As we close, in 4:22-23, we get a glimpse of what the arrival of this kingdom and reign of this king brings. We see in these verses how Christianity offers a light in the dark, for we read in 4:22, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom...". And at the end we learn again how it offers a lord to lead us, for we read in 4:25, "Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him." However, inbetween these two verses on the coming of the kingdom and this swelling following of the king, we are told something new, that Christianity also offers a life of wholeness. For in 4:22 we read he not only went about preaching, but also "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." As Malachi 4:2 promised, when the sun of righteousness rises there is healing in its rays. When the king comes and kingdom draws near, all the works of darkness and death begin to be undone. This king is not only a preacher, he is also a physican. And he is a doctor like no doctor this earth has ever seen, for 4:22 he heals "every disease and sickness among the people." That is, there is no kind of disease, no sort of sickness or suffering, that Jesus cannot heal. Brothers and sisters, you will never have an ailment so obscure, bear a burden so heavy, suffer a sorrow so deep, have a sickness so sever, that Jesus will not be able to put it right in the end. Jesus can heal every condition his people can have. When this king and his kingdom comes, he can make us all of us whole, complete. For the hands of our king are the hands of a healer.
In fact, doing so is proof that he is who he says he is. Here in 4:13, we hear John the Baptist has been taken into prison. And it is from prison that in 11:3 he will send some of his disciples to ask Jesus "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" How does Jesus respond? In 11:4, he replies "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor." Knowing Jesus is beginning to undo all the effects of darkness is all John needs to know, for that is exactly what the Old Testament told him to expect when the Messiah came. And indeed, it is what the Bible tells us to expect when Jesus Christ comes again. Here we are given a foretaste of that final kingdom, but on that last day, when the king comes again and his kingdom covers this earth, all his citizens will be made whole. Having dealt with sin by his death and resurrection, in that day he will make all things new. Having pulled darkness up by its roots, on his return all the thorns and thistles of the Fall will shrivel up and die. We started by asking what does Christianity offer the world? Well, in short, see here that it offers this world a better world. A new world. A new heavens and new earth. With a king ruling and reigning over them both, making earth like heaven, a place of peace and rest. Christianity tells us that that is how the story ends. Those who reject this king will be left in deep darkness forever. But for those who trust in Jesus, the light that dawns here in Matthew 4, will shine in all its brightness and will never set. There will be no more sickness or suffering, darkness or death, but there will be healing and wholeness, light and life with our Lord forever.
ALEXANDER ARRELL