Wordeed - Week 7: Signs, "Kingdom Signs"

- Just like the rest of the Jewish people of the first century, John the Baptist expected that the coming Messiah would free Israel and judge the nations.

- John's preaching was about repentance, judgment, and unquenchable fire.

- After Herod had him thrown into prison, John was probably feeling pretty sorry for himself while hearing about all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing.

- Maybe he was wondering, 'Why isn't Messiah setting Israel free?

- If Jesus is the Messiah, then why am I sitting here in prison?

- If Jesus really is the Messiah, then why is he not judging the nations?  Why is Messiah not condemning shameless sinners?

- So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 'Are you the Coming One, the One that the prophets foretold, the one we are expecting? Or should we expect someone else? Jesus, why are you not living up to my expectations?'

- Now, Jesus knew what the Jews were expecting. He knew what John was expecting.

- So basically what he says to John's messengers is this: "Consider the evidence: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."

- The kingdom's presence is shown through kingdom deeds.

- The list Jesus gives to John is a summary of the miracles Matthew recorded in chapters 8 & 9 and refers back to a number of passages in the prophet Isaiah.

- Matthew 8 begins with Jesus healing a leper who came to him, saying, Lord, if you will, make me clean, and Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be clean.

- Immediately after that we read of the faith of the centurion of whom Jesus said that there was no one in all Israel with such faith and Jesus healed his paralyzed servant without ever visiting him.

-  Continuing on we read of Jesus healing many and casting out demons. Then we witness Jesus' authority over the weather as he calmed the storm.

- Next Matthew describes the healing of two demon possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes. Matthew understands Jesus' word carries great authority and Jesus speaks only one word to the demons in his account of his story, go.

- With the beginning of chapter 9, Matthew reports the story of Jesus healing the paralytic whom he told, your sins are forgiven, and knowing the thoughts of the scribes Jesus told the man, Rise, pick up your bed and go home.

- Another man comes to Jesus, putting his trust in him, saying, My daughter has died but if you put your hand on her, she will live. While on his way, a woman who'd been bleeding for 12 years touched Jesus robe and was healed by her faith in Jesus.

- After raising the little girl, Jesus healed two blind men and cast out from a man a mute spirit.

- What is Matthew telling his readers about the kingdom's presence in Jesus?

- The kingdom's presence is shown through kingdom deeds.

- Let's hear what Isaiah has to say of the age of salvation, writing 500 years before Jesus.

- Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. Isaiah 26:19 (ESV)

-  In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. Isaiah 29:18 (ESV)

- Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;  then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. Isaiah 35:5-6 (ESV)

- Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Isaiah 42:18 (ESV)

- The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound... Isaiah 61:1 (ESV)

- Jesus understood his miracles as signs that fulfilled Isaiah's vision of the age of salvation. 

- As he said to John's messenger, "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."

- The kingdom's presence is shown through kingdom deeds.

- The judgment that John and the Jews expected to come along with the Messiah would be delayed until a later time.

- What Jesus was telling John's disciples to pass along to John was this: what you have seen in me and heard from me are the signs of the kingdom of God.

- If you want to know who Jesus is, then consider the signs.

- But it's not enough to consider the signs and know that Jesus is Messiah.

- As Jesus warned John's messengers, 'blessed is anyone who does not fall away because of me.'

- God's blessing rests on those who commit themselves to following Jesus Christ and stick with that commitment. (Osbourne, 415)

- Jesus warned John and his followers that their disappointment must not lead to abandoning Jesus because Jesus does not meet their expectations.

- The same is also true of us. We must not abandon Jesus when he does not do what we expect.

- Just like the people of the first century, we want to remake Jesus into our own image.

- We want a comfortable Jesus who makes life easier and simpler.

- But the Jesus portrayed by Matthew, and the rest of the New Testament, is not a comfortable Jesus.

- Jesus is not a grandfatherly, jolly, Santa Claus type figure who gives us whatever we ask.

- Our God is not a bubblegum machine into which we pay a quarter and crank out our blessing.

- Jesus Christ is Lord and King and he calls his followers to commitment, and faithfulness.

- And this Lord and King did not consider it beneath him to suffer. In fact, he embraced suffering for the whole world on a cross.

- And he also calls us to embrace suffering for the sake of the world.

- It's not enough to join the church; we have to join the mission.

- The signs of integral mission are easy to see if we're looking for them because they are the signs that God's kingdom is present.

- The presence of God's kingdom transforms lives.

- As Terry Smith writes in his Wordeed blog, "How do we know when a group of Christians have captured the vision and become fully engaged wordeed practitioners? What are the signs that transformation is happening? They might not only be the obvious ones of people becoming followers of Christ, churches growing and poverty being reduced. Sometimes they are more like the [substitute signs]. When you can’t always measure the direct impact of some [occurrence], you need to look for indirect signs or evidence. Maybe some of the [substitute signs] of integral mission would be the [decline] of substance abuse, or less absenteeism in school and work, or greater inter-church cooperation. Perhaps the sign of integral mission in your community will be lavish generosity and goodwill towards people who don’t even want to be part of your church. Or the evidence of Christians being consulted in municipal affairs."

- Whatever the sign, the presence of God's kingdom transforms lives.

- The kingdom's presence is shown through kingdom deeds.