Matthew in Biblical Perspective:
A Biography of Jesus of Nazareth the Christ &ndahs;
The Ministry of the King

Matthew 4:12-25

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

When I was in Israel this past week I went back and went over the text for this study and I'm going to redo what I had originally planned for this sermon. The text we have before us in Matthew 4:12-25 we will be looking at it twice. This study will be an overview and the next Lord's Day will be a focus on the evangelism and disciple-making of Peter, Andrew, James and John. But this study will be an overview of this text with one particular thought I will give you from the text. I want you to bear with me on another thing also and that is this evening we will return to our study of Joseph. I know some of you are thinking, "Harry, wait a minute, you were doing Genesis on Sunday morning and now you are moving it to Sunday night?" I know. I just have too much to do and I'm sorry I just can't get it in on Sunday morning and I have to finish the life of Joseph. I have ten more sermons on the life of Joseph so those who are not in the habit of joining us on Sunday evening come on because Jesus will be here and you will be here and we'll meet Joseph. Thank you for your patience on that and it's good to be back home and with you. I was away doing a mission's conference and then in Israel but our thoughts and hearts were here with you and I'm so glad to be back. We arrived last night about 10pm and so I'm not sure which time zone I'm in at the moment but I'm just glad to be here in Central Standard Time with the Lord's Day here at Briarwood. I can't think of better place to be. Matthew 4:12-25 says,

12 Now when he (Jesus) heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned." 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

The grass withers and the flower fades, this is God's Word and it abides forever. Prayer: Father, there is one preaching this morning who is in desperate need, not simply physically but much more spiritually to be an instrument in Your hands for this Your Word. Would You so use him in spite of his inadequacies and Father You have a people here who love You and You have a people who have gathered here who would love to hear a Word from You from this Your Word. Holy Spirit come and do Your work, working in and through us that Jesus would be exalted and He might be enthroned as King upon our hearts and lives. The Kingdom is here, in Jesus the King I pray, Amen. Summation and initiation are the two things I want to start off with. Let me start by asking you a question about summation. What would it be like for somebody to sum up your life? You have one sentence to say something to tell me about this person's life.

What would be the one sentence someone would come up with to explain your life? That's pretty tough when you try to sum up a whole life and ministry in one sentence and that is what we have in this text. I want to remind you of the man who walked through a cemetery and saw a tombstone that read "Here lies a lawyer and a good man." The man thought, "How about that they are putting two in a grave now." I just got all the lawyers mad at me. That happens here. I remember my first year here when somebody got sick and I said, "Is there a doctor here, please we need a doctor in the lobby" and I lost a third of the congregation and then I lost the other third when the lawyers followed them out to see if there was a case there or not. So anyway, summation, how do you sum this up? How do you make a summation?

The summation of everything that we're going to study in this Gospel of Matthew about the life and ministry of Jesus as He begins His public ministry right here in Matthew 4:12, the summation is given to you in verse 17. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." How would people sum up Briarwood Presbyterian Church in one sentence? How would they sum up your life? What is the summation? Here at the initiation of Jesus' public ministry there is a statement of summation of His ministry, preaching, 'repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

Let's look a little closer at Matthew 4:12. It starts out with the word "Now" which is another one of those great words in the Bible. "Now" puts this in an historic moment. This is real life. I have got this deep in my soul after just getting back from Israel again. Christianity is not a religion of feel good myth or legend. It is something that has happened in space, time and history. It's happening right now in space, time and history and it's going to bring all of space, time and history to a conclusion for eternity to be before us. It is something that is real and has happened. It's not something we believe that makes us feel good. It is something that has happened and that we are called to believe, repent and put our trust in the Lord of heaven and earth, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, who had invaded His creation to save sinners and 2100 years ago at this time. So the verse says, "Now" meaning at this time.

There are three things about that time I want to mention to you. The first thing that happened from that time is that Jesus' ministry begins publicly upon the occasion of John the Baptist's imprisonment. I want to challenge you and encourage you to study all of your Bible and when you study the life of Jesus study all four Gospels. We are looking at the Gospel of Matthew in which Matthew is writing for a very specific purpose. It is a biography of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, related to Old Testament prophesies to declare to the Jews that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is the Prophet, Priest and King. Matthew has a very specific target audience. Now, through them he is writing to us in the power of the Holy Spirit but he is directing to them this message.

Now, where have we been? In Matthew 1 he made the point that this Jesus, the Messiah, was to be of the seed of Abraham, Son of David, and from the tribe of Judah. So he gives you the genealogy that proves that Jesus of Nazareth was of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah and a Son of David. So He is the fulfillment. Then in Matthew 2 we find that Jesus' birth was in accordance with six prophesies that had declared how His birth would take place. It was the Son of God becoming the Son of Man and how the Messiah would be born. Matthew 2 laid out for us the birth of Jesus then the protection of Jesus in Egypt, coming out of Egypt, after Herod's death. Then we have His life in Nazareth of which Matthew is rather silent about but the other Gospels fill in the gap for you. Then we have Jesus coming forward at age 30, when the priest would begin his ministry, Prophet, Priest and King, the Mediator, at age 30, and He is inaugurated by a baptism in accordance with God's Word in Numbers 8. At age 30 the cleansing water is sprinkled upon Him. He is baptized and the Father inaugurates Him by pouring forth the Spirit of God and saying, "This is My Son in whom I am well pleased."

With that inauguration He steps out and the first place He steps out into is the wilderness. There He fasts 40 days and 40 nights, confronting Satan and overcoming all that Satan would bring Him. Satan is attempting to get Jesus to live. Isn't it interesting how Satan is a murderer except when it comes to Jesus? He didn't want Jesus to die on a cross. He kept wanting Jesus to live because he knows when Jesus goes to the cross he will be defeated. So Satan is putting everything before Him but Jesus resists with the Scripture and the power of the Spirit and Satan leaves Him. Now some other things the Gospels tell us what happened around Jesus' life but Matthew picks up at this time, John the Baptist, the herald of the King, has now been imprisoned by an earthly king named Herod the Tetrarch. You have to go to the other Gospels to find out the stuff that is behind the scenes concerning John the Baptist here.

I want to give you a way to look at this. There is a marvelous verse in Acts 13:36 that says, "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers." So David lived and fulfilled God's purpose and then he died. The same thing is happening to John the Baptist. John the Baptist had a purpose and what was that purpose? He had three things that God called him to do. One was to be a prophet. It was to call His people to repentance. The second thing he was to do was to prepare the way for the Messiah the King. He was a herald of the King. The third thing he was to do was to proclaim Him as King. Now he has done that. So he is not only in prison but he is just about to die. You have to go to the other Gospels to see this.

John has been put in prison but Herod the Tetrarch won't kill him. Do you know why? It is because all the people are talking about John and if he kills John they may revolt against him. But Herod gets trapped in his sin. Herod the Tetrarch is actually engaged in an incestuous relationship with a half sister of his half brother Philip. Their wives are half sisters and they are half brothers and Herod is now having this relationship with him and so the herald to the King which is John now becomes a herald to a king. John comes before this king and tells him, "It's not lawful for you to have her." This woman then entraps Herod by giving her daughter to dance suggestively. Herod is so over come with her daughter's dance that he promises the daughter that he will do anything she wants and then the daughter, instructed by her mother, says, "I want the head of John the Baptist." So the herald of the King becomes a herald to a king, and he loses his head. It's at that moment of that imprisonment that is going to lead to Jesus going to Galilee, not out of fear because this is the right time.

The second thing is we are told that He is beginning His public ministry in Galilee and He is also beginning in leaving Nazareth. Again, you have to go to the other Gospels to see what happened. When John the Baptist was imprisoned Jesus goes back up to Galilee and the first place He goes to is home to Nazareth. The first thing Jesus does is He opens the Scriptures and He begins to preach in the synagogue at Nazareth. Everybody is amazed saying, "what a great sermon." As He is preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth He then preaches that He is the Messiah and that the Father has sent Him. He also preaches that He is the Son of God and now they are ready to kill Him and they chase Him out over the precipice outside of Nazareth but He did not let them kill Him. He withdrew from them and He left Nazareth.

Now the third thing is that He comes to live in Capernaum. Let me ask you a question. Does this seem smart to you strategically? You are going to put in place a movement that is going to change the world and you have come to Israel through which to reach the Gentiles. Where would you set up your home base of ministry? If I'm going to have a ministry that is going to change the world, where would I put it? Capernaum? Capernaum is the village of Nahum. It is probably a small little village up in the area where the prophet by the name of Nahum grew up and that is why it is called the village of Nahum. According to Isaiah 9, it's located on the way to the sea and that actually is a formal name called Via Maris. There were two roads that lead right there. Capernaum is just a few miles away from the crossroads of the world. It's called the Valley of Meggiddo (Armageddon). Battles have been fought their since timing immemorial and the Scripture indicates there is one yet to come. It is right on one of those roads that is by Capernaum that leads to Meggiddo where there is this village called Capernaum on the Galilee.

So if you are starting your public ministry and you have to pick a place for the headquarters, where would you put it? I don't think I would have picked Capernaum. I think I would have picked Jerusalem, wouldn't you? But He doesn't go to Jerusalem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and what was Bethlehem? He was raised in Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Okay Jesus, you have acknowledged the smaller places in your birth, in faithfulness to the Scriptures and in fulfillment of prophecy, and in Nazareth He would be called a Nazarene. He will be born in Bethlehem but now it's time for His ministry. Don't you think we need to get strategic here? Let's get to a place where people would come to look for a world changer but He goes to Capernaum. Why? Again it is because He is fulfilling Scripture. Isaiah 9:1 says, "In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations."

Capernaum because of its location had a mixed population of Jew and Gentile and in fulfillment of Isaiah 9:1, 2 that the Messiah is going to come through Israel to take the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, in fulfillment of Scripture, God has Him right there where the Jews and the Gentiles would live in a mixed population. By the way, it is also there in this small little fishing village that Jesus is going to come up with four disciples; Peter, Andrew, James, and John. It's also there that He is going to come up with a fifth disciple who is writing this book, Matthew. The writer of Matthew who is Matthew is there at Capernaum as a tax collector. It's there that Jesus is going to do miracles. In fact the first time Jesus gets there He goes to the synagogue and I was just standing there in the ruins of that synagogue just four days ago. It is right there that Jesus will open up and preach. Of course, when Jesus shows up and begins to preach the Word, Satan is going to run and hide, right? No he won't. Right in the middle of Jesus is preaching a demon possessed man comes into the synagogue but instead of distracting Jesus, He shows His sovereign power and He casts the demon out of the man. Then Jesus will raise the mother in law of Peter and He will do miracle after miracle with paralytics, epileptics and people with all kinds of diseases. Plus He will do spiritual confrontation with the powers of darkness throughout that region, throughout the Decapolis, throughout Bethsaida and from there Jesus will go north to Mount Herman to Caesarea Philippi.

From there He will go three times to Jerusalem and He will do ministry all around never leaving Israel but from that place in that location He will accomplish many miracles and His new hometown in fulfillment of the Scripture, this is the eighth of prophecy in four chapters of Matthew that Jesus has fulfilled as the Messiah. In our study of the first four chapters of Matthew this is the eighth Old Testament prophecy that Jesus has directly fulfilled which is found in Isaiah 9:1,2, in the land of Naphtali, in the land of the Galilee, in the land of the Gentiles and the Jew, in the land of darkness the light is now shining and it will go from Jew to Gentile throughout the whole world. There is actually from this text two takeaways and next Sunday I want to come back to the same text. Next Sunday I will give you a take away on what is evangelism and disciple making the way Jesus does it by looking at Peter, Andrew, James and John a little bit closer but in summation of this text which is a summation of the life and ministry, there is one simple take away that I would like to give you in this study. Here it is. The church today is very concerned with its strategy and its style. Jesus, while certainly strategic, did not focus on strategy and style but He focused on substance and salvation. We are consumed with program, personality and appearance. We are the people that come up with perception is reality. What an ignorant statement. Perception maybe a part of reality but it's not reality. We get enamored with personality and program. We get enamored with strategy. Again, Jesus is strategic. Jesus is here saying something to Jew and Gentiles strategically. Yes, Jesus will go immediately to this town and to this town and He will say, "I must go through Samaria." He will be strategic but strategy never trumped substance in Jesus' life and ministry. Substance was His focus.

The summation of His life and ministry is found in Matthew 4:17. At that time Jesus preached repentance, "Repent for the Kingdom is at hand." How could the Kingdom be there? It was because the King was there. The Prophet, Priest and King, Jesus was there. When the King showed up the Kingdom was there but praise God this Kingdom had come with King who had not come to judge but who had come to suffer and save sinners, His people. Now, this King that has come and the Kingdom has come to suffer and go to a cross and save sinners. This King who has come to die to bring His people to life, what is it we are to do? We are to repent, for the Kingdom is at hand.

There are three things about substance in this takeaway I want you to think about. The first thing is the method that Jesus committed Himself to. What did He do? Did He heal? Yes. Did He teach? Yes. Did He counsel? I'm sure He did. But when you have to put it in one sentence for a summation what was it that Jesus did? What was His method to bring the Kingdom to bear in this world? He preached. The method is preaching. Matthew 4:17 starts out, "From that time Jesus began to preach..." The Bible says that preaching is the method of substance. Preaching is not the exchanging of ideas. Preaching is not debating opinions. Preaching is not exploring concepts. The Greek word for preaching is the word kerusso. It's the word that is used to describe a watchman. What does a watchman do? A watchman is responsible to either comfort or alert people. The watchman walks on the walls and he says, "9 o'clock, all is well" or "On the hills the enemy is gathering, be prepared." The watchman was responsible to communicate the truth and the news accurately. Jesus preached.

Is there are place for debating? Absolutely, I love to do that. Is there a place for exchanging ideas? Absolutely there is in Christianity. Is there a place for exploring opinions? Yes, certainly, we all have opinions and people deserve to hear them. Certainly all those things are there but preaching is announcing good news; the Kingdom is at hand, the King has come to suffer and save. Preaching and proclaiming, so that all creation hears.

There are two kinds of preaching in the Bible. There is your preaching and my preaching. Jesus does both kinds here. Harry, what do you mean your preaching and my preaching? Your preaching is my preaching too and I have to do some preaching that you don't have to do. I'll clear this up just hang with me here. We are all called to be preachers. We are all to proclaim the Good News which is Jesus Christ has died for sinners, we who are dead can live, we who are sinners can be forgiven, you can have a new heart, a new record, a new family, a new life, a new home because God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves and now He offers it as a gift to you. That is Good News and we all can share that. Here is what the Bible says in Romans 10:13-15,

13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. So come on preachers let's go preach. Harry, I may say something for Jesus and get stumped. Harry I'm a little afraid. Harry how do you do this? I am so glad you asked that. This Wednesday night there is training for all of you preachers. My heart desire is that all 4,000 plus members of this congregation will be preachers of the Gospel. I pray that every one of us will have beautiful feet. Harry, you haven't seen my feet. I don't really want to either but they are beautiful if you will use them to take the Gospel to bring your mouth to open up and share, lovingly, graciously, convincingly, and persuasively, Good news. God has called you to preach the Good News.

I have been praying for the last month and I know we are in days of difficulty with many challenges out there but I have asked God, "God, out of what maybe increasing poverty and difficulty please allow us to keep moving forward in sending preachers around the world with our faith promise commitments and our prayers." I want to ask you that again. I am praying for you and I'm praying for me. I can't think of much more important things than to fulfill the Great Commission than partnering with people to get them out there with prayer and financial support. I don't know what you can do but I'm praying that all of us, whatever it is, that God would put upon your heart by faith beyond your regular giving that we would give that 100 percent for world evangelism to send the preaching of the Gospel and to put boots on the ground, feet on the floor around the world to preach the Good News.

I'm also praying for something else. I'm praying that every one of us will see ourselves as called of God. How shall they preach unless they are sent? Jesus said, "As the Father sent Me, so send I you to seek and to save the lost." We are all called to preach, to proclaim the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ. What if I just live the Gospel? Praise the Lord because that will open up doors but people are not going to go to heaven because the watch the way you live. People go to heaven through faith in Christ. They don't have faith in Christ without hearing. Faith comes by hearing so you have to share the Gospel with them. To plant the Gospel seed, to water the Gospel seed, to share the Gospel with people, to be used to pray with someone who is coming to Christ, other than getting saved yourself I don't know anything more joyful in your life.

By the way, the preaching that we are to do are in our homes, our neighbors, our classrooms, our teams and we are to proclaim the Good News graciously, thoughtfully, kindly, confidently and also the trigger is pulled when churches remain faithful to the priority of preaching in the congregation.

So I think Satan is having a hay day because he has people who are supported with the tithe to work hard at preaching and teaching off doing everything else but that and the church no longer values the formal special preaching. That's why I think the general act of preaching is suffering also. I sense my own inadequacies as one called to the special act of preaching yet I know that if the pulpit is lost, I know that Christianity falters. The method of preaching in summation is not all the church does but when you have to sum it up, we are preaching the Gospel from our pulpit when we gather and from our people when we scatter. They went everywhere proclaiming the Good News.

So what do we preach? Secondly, it is through the foolishness of the message preached that we are being saved. What is the message that we preach? The second thing of substance I want you to think about is the message that we preach and that is repentance, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. There is nothing new about this. What did the prophets do? They preached. What did the prophets preach? They preached repentance. What did Ezra do? He preached. What did Ezra preach? He preached repentance. What does John the Baptist do? He preaches. What does John the Baptist preach? He preaches repentance. What is being said about Jesus in summation has been there essentially all through the Old Testament up to John the Baptist, magnified in Jesus and then will be there even gloriously after Jesus through the Apostles. I want to show you this. Let's look in Matthew 3. We are currently in Matthew 4 which is where Jesus starts His public ministry and in Matthew 3 you the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry. Matthew 3:1, 2 says, 1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The King has come to save not to judge. What should I do? What is my response to the King? Your response is to repent. After Jesus ascends let's go to the first sermon that is preached which is in Acts 2. This is exciting, at least it is for me. So Jesus has ascended and what is it that we are supposed to do? What's the summation? In Acts 2 Peter has been preaching and he has gone on too long so the people break in. Acts 2:27, 38 says, 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"(Peter has been preaching) 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." So there is Peter preaching and his message, now what about Paul?

In Acts 17 Paul is in front of Athenian philosophers. Philosophers, oh I know what Paul needs to do. Paul needs to enter into a short dialogue. He needs to debate, he needs to exchange ideas. That is not what Paul did. Did you know what Paul did? He preached. Do you know what he preached? Acts 17:18 says, 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He (Paul) seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"— because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. So Paul is preaching and he was preaching about Jesus. So Paul gets to the end of a sermon and how does he bring it to a conclusion? Acts 17:30 says, The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. In Acts 26 Paul gets audience in front of another king. This one who has now become a herald for King Jesus gets an opportunity to preach to a king named Agrippa. When Paul gets in front of Agrippa he shares with him exactly what has happened in his life and then he begins to preach. As he preaches he sums up his ministry. What is the summation of Paul's ministry? Acts 26:19, 20 says, 19 "Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

One may be thinking, "Harry, don't you need to believe in Jesus to be saved?" Yes. Faith and repentance are like two sides of one coin. If you believe that you are sinner and need a savior and you can't save yourself and you believe that Jesus is the Savior then do you know what you do? You repent and turn. Repent in the Greek is metanoeo and it means to make a radical change. The first time I preached this I got so excited about it that I said, "It means to make a radical change. God wants you to radically change and come to Him. Turn from your sin and your self and come to Him. God wants you to make a change, a 360 degree turn in your life." Then I said, "Well I have great news. I have better news. He doesn't want you to make a 360 degree turn because then you are right back where you started. So it's just 180 degrees, that's all you need."

When I was growing up in Augusta, Georgia there is this great picture of my family where we were either at the Mill Town or the Railroads. That is where all our people worked. There was a railroad center at Augusta, Georgia and how do you get a train to Macon and back to Macon on the same day? You don't just say to a 14 ton locomotive, "Just turn it around in the road." How do you get it turned back? How do you get it to do a 180 degree turn? They would ride the train up on the roundtable and then the locomotive would turn 180 degrees so it would be facing back where it came from. Now it made the turn and they would put new cars on the end of it. That is what God has called you to do. The King is here.

Do you know why repent is there? It is because we don't start off in neutral. You have a king right now. You need to repent of that king and come to this King, Jesus. Harry who is my king now? Self is your king now. It's all about me. Repent and come to Him. Why is the message repent? It is because none of us are in the place we need to be until we come to Christ. Repent and then after you come to Christ repentance is not a one time thing you did at conversion. It's a way of life. Anything that gets in the way with your relationship with Him, anything that takes the adoration and allegiance of your life away from Christ is sin. So even though I'm converted I want to repent so the King alone is in my heart. So not only do I repent when I come to Christ, faith and repentance becomes a way of life. I turn from myself and my sin, now to trust, serve and follow the King. Hear this. It's non-negotiable. Jesus doesn't say, "Now some of you can repent and others don't have to." If you are going to believe in Jesus you have to repent. It's the other side of the coin.

By the way, repentance is not just "I'm sorry for my sin." You can be sorry for the consequences of sin. Repentance is confessing, "I'm a sinner and I am grieved over the sinfulness of my sin that some other king has had my soul, my heart. Lord, I repent of anything that's in the place of You, even the good things. I want to repent not only of my sin but I want to repent of my trusting in my righteousness. I want to repent of my taking Your good things that You have given me like a marriage or family or children or friends or a church and putting that in place of You. Lord, I repent. I want to surrender to the King, Jesus Christ."

Thirdly, what becomes the ministry? You go proclaiming, teaching, healing, you go everywhere with that marvelous message. Here's the key. The herald is in prison. Now the King has come. What will you do with the King today? Christian, you and I, who have turned from Christ, has the old man come back in and we've let another king slip in? What will you do about that today? Today, if you don't know Christ, what will you do with the King? There are only two choices. Please listen to me. You either repent or you reject. He doesn't negotiate. We are not talking about penitence where you say "I'm going to go do things to appease Him." No, He has paid the penalty for your sin. The King has done the work of redemption. Now if you believe you need a Redeemer and if you believe in Christ as your Redeemer, turn. Make a radical change from sin and self to Him.

One may say, "Harry I have already done that." I would say has anything crept into your life today that you need to turn from that has gotten in the way of your effectiveness, your intimacy, your walk with the Lord? Then repent. Even good things need to be repented. It's non-negotiable. You either repent or you reject. What will you do with the King? Let me rephrase that. What will you do with the King? By God's grace today if you will repent, wait until you see what the King will do to you. He'll save you, change you, grow you, take you and you'll walk in the triumph of His glorious salvation. Even in the adversity of life you will be more than a conqueror. What will you do with the King? Repent. When you repent watch what the King will do with you but you only have to choices.

Those in Capernaum were curious about Jesus. Great crowds followed Him. Before He went to Jerusalem He turned to Capernaum and He said, "If the things done and the things that you've heard here in Capernaum, Corazon, Bethsaida, if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon, a place of greed and lasciviousness, if they had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, perversity and immorality, if what was done here had been done there, they would have repented but you would not. Woe to you!" Four days ago I stood at that very place in Israel. It's all ruins. The prophecy of Jesus has been fulfilled. Oh they were curious. They showed up at the Synagogue. They were interested. What did they have to say, "Would You do another miracle for us?" They loved entertainment but they didn't repent. Some did but the onlookers in the city did not repent. Today it is ruins. Repent. Watch what the King will do with you. If you don't, woe be unto you. It is nothing but ruins in this life and the life to come. Oh that people would sum up, this church, you and me. They went about preaching, "Repent, the King has come to save you." Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the moments we could be together. Thank You so much for Your Word. Dear Lord as You are working in the lives of people just do Your work right now. Holy Spirit those even now rejecting, would You turn their hearts to repentance? Those who have repented, would You cause us to search our hearts to see if we have allowed some false kings to grab our affections and our adoration in this world, ruining our effectiveness, our vitality, our intimacy and allow us to repent? We who know the King ought to repent readily. Friend, if you don't know this King come now. Why will you die? Repent and say, "Jesus I turn from my sin, right now and trust You." Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.