The Shepherd’s Voice

When comedian Yakov Smirnoff first came to the United States from Russia he wasn’t prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in the American grocery stores. He says, “On his first shopping trip, he saw powdered milk–you just add water, and you get milk. Then he saw powdered orange juice–you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then he saw something incredible, baby powder, and he thought to himself, what a country!” James Emery White, Rethinking the Church, Baker, 1997, p. 55-57

The err is human. We all make mistakes; we think we know all about life and along comes Jesus. After John the Baptist, a simple man, an outspoken man was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee and said “The kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe the good news.”

Last week we talked a little about the simple, straight forward message from Jesus, follow me. If you remember Jesus wasn’t asking for you to believe anything he was just saying walk by my side, go with me, and in the process see what God is doing here. The essence of the message was “Come and See.” Tell your friends, in this case Philip was excited about finding the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote about and he told Nathanael to come and see for himself.

This week we see Jesus kick it up a notch. Jesus said “the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe the good news.” There are three things we need to understand here.
1) What is the kingdom of God?
2) What does it mean to repent and believe the good news?
3) How can we become a part of or an heir to the kingdom?

Have you ever been involved in a group or wanted to join an organization and you just weren’t sure how to join or even if it was worth joining in the first place?

I used to work for Proctor and Gamble many years back. It’s a great company; they hire the best and provide great training for business. I was happy with that, but being a farm boy, just out of college I was not aware of the politics of some of the groups within the plant in which I worked. Could I be myself? Did I need to be at a certain managerial level to be part of the in crowd? Did I need to have a house in a particular area to merit being included? I found out the hard way that there weren’t any particular rules about being a part of the in crowd. Then I discovered that most of the in-crowd were divorced, worked extremely long hours, and were not very loyal friends, that is if I didn’t go out drinking with the in-crowd.

When we look at the kingdom of God at first we might be a little confused, but after pouring over scripture we see over a hundred references in the NT to the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God belongs to little children according to Mark. – Mark 10:14
The kingdom of God belongs to the poor according to Luke. – Luke 6:20
If you’re rich you’re in trouble – it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. – Matt 19:24
Farmers might also be in trouble – it says no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the kingdom of God. – Luke 9:62 – that’s a bit of a stretch & very confusing
The kingdom of God can’t be observed, but it is among you. – Luke 17:21
The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit Paul tells the Romans. – Rom 14:17
The kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. – 1 Cor 4:20
One must be born of water and the spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God. – John 3:5

Being born of water and the Spirit has something to do with our second question. What does it mean to repent and believe the good news? Jesus said the kingdom belongs to little children. What does that mean? Do we need to have a conversion experience as a child to be part of the kingdom, NO!

Here Jesus was talking about one of the aspects of believing. Unless we have the faith like little child, meaning unless we accept what God was saying through the life of Christ we can’t embrace the knowledge and saving grace of God. Accept it at face value.

This second question deals with trusting what God says to us. Jesus said believe the good news. The root word here for believe in the Greek is πιστεύω (pisteuō), it means trust. It’s the kind of trust a small child has that mom or dad will come and pick them up after school or soccer practice or swimming lessons. It is unquestioned trust. If you or I forget to pickup one of our kids they quickly become weary about the next time they are waiting for us to pick them up. This pisteuō is different, there is no mistrust. Our Christian faith requires we trust God’s living Word, the good news that Jesus was bringing to the people in Galilee.

The other word here that’s important is repent. This was a concept that John the Baptist was promoting. It was a familiar idea to the Hebrew mind.

Repent in the Greek μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite) verb, second person plural, present, active, imperative. For the English majors this has significance. It means Jesus is talking to more than one person, he’s speaking forcefully, this is happening in the present and he is telling them they need to change their minds about sin. They need to change not only their minds, but also change their old ways, turn about. Because we are human we don’t fully understand God’s ways outside of Jesus Christ. We err as human beings. We must Repent!

Now the final question I asked was how can we become a part of or an heir to the kingdom?
Here is where the story takes a turn for the good. If we had to rely on our humanity we could not, would not be able to fully repent and believe or trust in the good news. Jesus said we must believe the good news.

I don’t know about you, but there’s not a lot of good news around today. I often don’t even like to watch news any more because it seems like if it bleeds it leads. A number a years back I had just come back from working with some high school youth in a ministry to a small town near Mexicali in Mexico. Most of us we’re higher than a kite as we saw and experienced the love of God being shared by most people on that trip. It was a life changing experience for most of us that were there. There were thousands of kids on that trip.

What did I see when I got home as I turned on the TV news. Kids out of control, drinking, carousing, causing trouble in Palm Springs. Did I hear one once of good news about the thousands of kids who were ministering in Mexicali, NO!

As a society we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Where is our focus? What are we thinking?

Jesus said repent and believe the good news. The good news is all about God’s unconditional love for us. It’s about how Philip, in last week’s message had to invite others to come and see, they found the Messiah.

This week Jesus, also excited about his burgeoning ministry said to Simon and his brother Andrew drop your nets and follow me. They didn’t seem apprehensive about it, they dropped their nets and immediately followed Jesus.

Jesus said believe, trust the good news. We’ve likely heard all about the good news before, but Luther used to break it down this way.

Luther called John 3:16 “the heart of the Bible—the Gospel in miniature.” It’s so simple a child can understand it; yet it condenses the deep and marvelous truths of redemption into these few pungent words:

“God”… …The greatest Lover
“So loved”… …The greatest degree
“The world”… …The greatest number
“That He gave”… …The greatest act
“His only begotten Son…” …The greatest Gift
“That whosoever”… …The greatest invitation
“Believeth”… …The greatest simplicity
“In Him”… …The greatest Person
“Should not perish”… …The greatest deliverance
“But”… …The greatest difference
“Have”… …The greatest certainty
“Everlasting Life”… …The greatest possession

You want to become an heir to the kingdom, follow your heart to God.
You want to know love like no other – that’s God’s love – not human love.
Who’s included in that equation – the world, God desires all people to be saved.
How does it happen – we work for it, NO! God’s Son provides it, gives it freely.
It’s the greatest act of giving the greatest gift of all time.
The invitation is not restricted, it open, it’s simple, it’s in person, it’s for you.
God wants all of us to not perish, but have eternal life, be an heir to the kingdom.
We need to trust like little child, unconditional because the results are everlasting.

The kingdom of God has drawn near, Jesus said, repent and believe the good news.

To err is human, to become an heir – heavenly!
Amen.


The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

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