January 25 Sunday Sermon Manuscript

The Kingdom of God

Matthew 4:12–23

The Turmoil of the Age We Are Living In

1. There are several moments of major change that I remember clearly. When I was young, hosting the Asian Games and the Olympics in Korea marked a major turning point for the nation, and when I entered college, it seemed that computers and the internet were beginning to bring profound changes to the world.

2. Around the time I was discharged from the military, the 2002 World Cup felt like another major turning point. The incredible event of hosting the World Cup in South Korea, and even more so the miracle of the national team reaching the semifinals, seemed to turn the entire nation into soccer experts.

3. After I got married, smartphones opened up a whole new world, and now AI is having an enormous impact on our lives.

4. At each of these turning points, we were often excited about change, but it also seems that concern and anxiety always accompanied those changes.

5. When I look at my father’s generation, they lived in an agricultural society in their childhood, then passed through an era of light industry, experienced heavy industry, and suddenly found unfamiliar things like the Fourth Industrial Revolution settling into their lives, so it must have felt as though life was falling behind them.

6. Even for me now, I feel that I used to be something of an early adopter, but as I experience the limits of no longer being able to keep up, these breaks and unfamiliarities seem to divide generations, divide ways of thinking, and create an unexplainable distance—an experience that feels characteristic of the age we are living in.

7. On top of that, since we live in an age dominated by algorithms, the information we encounter ends up being limited to only what we are interested in, and this limitation seems to confine or isolate us, producing greater divisions, distances, disconnections, and even serious conflicts than before.

8. Because things we do not want to see or hear are automatically filtered out, we come to live under the illusion that what we think is the truth of the world, and I believe this illusion dominates our age.

Balanced Thinking Begins with Taking Interest in What Is Unfamiliar

9. Soon it will be the first full moon of the lunar year. On that day, we crack nuts and cook and eat multigrain rice. After enduring winter and waiting for spring, our ancestors prepared for the hot summer by cracking walnuts and peanuts in the hope that no skin problems would arise, and by nourishing their bodies with multigrain rice mixed with various dried vegetables.

10. Saying playfully to friends, “Sell me your summer heat!” we prepare ourselves so that we will not be worn out by the heat of summer. A principle of the first full moon’s multigrain rice is that once it is cooked, it is exchanged and eaten with neighbors.

11. There are many reasons for this, but since each household cooks rice differently and seasons it differently, sharing and eating unfamiliar food seems to give our bodies a bit of tension. Bitter spring greens may taste bitter in the mouth, but they are said to regulate the body, help it endure the summer, and keep it from becoming weak.

12. Perhaps this is why the Israelites also ate bitter herbs before beginning their wilderness life after the Exodus. If you eat only what suits your own taste, you become ill, but to overcome illness, you must eat what is unfamiliar and bitter.

13. In this sense, we need to make intentional efforts to escape being dominated by algorithms by listening to thoughts and opinions different from our own—like deliberately eating bitter greens.

Faith Is Also Being Dominated

14. This is not merely a social issue, but an effort that is also deeply necessary in our faith.

15. We can diagnose the Christianity of our age as being dominated by a new kind of binary thinking. Faced with choices of “this or that,” we are pressured with the compulsion that we must choose one side.

16. Living a life of faith means remembering God’s grace and living with gratitude and joy, but once we are caught up in the wrong algorithm, it can make us quite severe and rigid.

17. One of the biggest problems is short-form videos known as “shorts.” One reason I do not make sermon shorts these days is that they consume a great deal of time and energy, but also because in an age that judges everything through shorts—an age dominated by algorithms—it may actually be an unnecessary act.

18. We call ourselves Christians. Christianity is a religion established through more than two thousand years of history, and within it are diverse experiences and confessions that cannot be contained so simply in short videos.

19. When we read, interpret, and share Scripture, we easily encounter two tasks. What is the content of the text as it should traditionally be read? And how should this biblical word be applied in our lives today?

20. If we read Scripture without facing these two questions, we may end up trying to dominate today with interpretations formed in the past; yet if we become overly absorbed in new interpretations, we may misread Scripture while ignoring tradition.

21. The reason I am sharing this today is that the most fundamental gospel Jesus proclaimed was the “kingdom of God,” that is, the kingdom of heaven. As we will examine later in more detail, the kingdom of God means living within God’s order.

22. Yet today there are those in the church who believe that God’s order must be forced into the direction they have decided. Acts of labeling others as heretical simply because they do not fall within one’s preferred algorithm raise the question: can Christianity really be this shallow? Before it becomes even more serious, I believe we need a whole and proper understanding of the kingdom of God within us.

23. In an age where people refuse to listen to one another’s stories, if Christian faith does not clearly reveal how the true kingdom of God—that is, the gospel of Jesus Christ—should take root within us while people wander in confusion, I fear that we may isolate ourselves, arbitrarily divide the world, and misunderstand Christianity as something shallow that drifts away from self-reflection. It is with this concern that I share today’s message.

After John Was Arrested, Jesus Went to Galilee

24. Today’s passage begins like this: “When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.” Matthew does not give a lengthy description of Jesus’ dazzling debut. As soon as the birth narrative ends, the dark news of John the Baptist’s arrest appears.

25. At that time, the ruler of the Galilee region was Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, and an incident occurred in which he took his brother Herod Philip’s wife and married her.

26. John the Baptist strongly criticized this, and as a result, Herod Antipas imprisoned him. The arrest of John the Baptist likely affected even those around him.

27. It is at this point that Jesus is recorded as leaving Nazareth and going to Capernaum, by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, which seems to have been influenced by the persecution carried out by Herod Antipas. The mention of the place to which Jesus moved was not merely to inform us of geography.

28. In this geographical movement, Matthew reads an important theological declaration: God’s work does not always begin at the center, but often starts at the margins that people do not pay attention to.

29. The Capernaum mentioned in this passage is a different place from modern-day Capernaum in Lebanon. Because of a recently released film titled Capernaum, one might confuse the two, but the Capernaum of the Bible refers to an ancient yet marginal town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, known as an unremarkable place with nothing to be expected of it.

A Great Light Shining on “Galilee of the Gentiles”

30. To explain this scene, Matthew quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, beyond the Jordan, the road to the sea, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, and for those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has dawned.”

31. Galilee was an ambiguous land for the Jews. It was not religiously pure, culturally mixed with Gentiles, and politically unstable.

32. Yet Matthew calls it “Galilee of the Gentiles,” foreshadowing that the gospel would eventually expand beyond the boundaries of Israel to all Gentiles.

33. This scene overlaps with the moment when the gospel was brought to the marginal nation of Korea. At the time, Joseon was not a popular mission field. Most missionaries wanted to serve in Japan or China, and those who were pushed out or redirected often ended up in Joseon.

34. As you well know, God’s work unfolded powerfully not in China or Japan, but on the Korean Peninsula. The United States, which once sent the largest number of missionaries in the world, has now largely withdrawn from many mission fields, and it is said that missionaries from Korea have taken their place.

35. Taking one more step, I think about Korean immigrant churches today. As American churches decline and seminaries close, Korean immigrant churches are also facing many difficulties, unlike in the past.

36. Even though we continue to live as foreigners in this land, as Matthew pointed out, and considering our experience of God’s work, I believe that through Korean immigrant churches filled with such weakness, the light of the kingdom of God will shine first, and God’s work that surpasses our expectations will take place through us.

The Weight of the Words “The Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near”

37. From the moment Jesus arrived at the margins—at Capernaum—he began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Here, the “kingdom of heaven” is not simply a comfort about the afterlife.

38. It refers to the “kingdom of God,” that is, God’s reign. This expression originates from the Hebrew phrase malkhut Yahweh (“the reign of Yahweh”), which was used to describe the theocratic system of the Davidic monarchy.

39. This concept presents a vision of a political order ruled directly by God and contains the demand that Israel’s rulers govern with justice and righteousness as though God himself were ruling.

40. It speaks of a vision of rule in which God directly governs and justice and fairness are restored. In the Old Testament, when Israel’s kings and imperial rulers forgot this rule and abused their power, the prophets repeatedly asked, “If God were ruling directly, would the world be like this?” It is a difficult and burdensome question.

41. The verb “has come near” uses the word engiken, which is not a simple future tense meaning “will come soon,” but a perfect tense expression meaning it has already drawn near and is now at work. In other words, the kingdom of God is not a vague future that will arrive someday, but a declaration that it has already come near with Jesus’ proclamation and is shaking people’s lives.

42. With this understanding, Jesus’ proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” is not merely a declaration made long ago, but a teaching of Jesus that still governs us today. In this sense, the question “If God were ruling directly, would the world be like this?” can be applied to us today in this way.

43. If God were ruling directly, would Yeolin Church be as it is now? The same question can be asked of your workplace. If God were ruling directly, would your workplace be as it is now? Thus, speaking of the kingdom of God—that is, heaven—is essentially an uncomfortable question that refuses to settle for the status quo and does not conform to injustice.

Living the Kingdom of God

44. Last week we shared the message that “living by God’s power goes in a different direction from where the world is headed.” Today’s passage shows how that word is lived out in reality.

45. Living the kingdom of God is not about shouting only my own convenient version of justice, but about establishing God’s order. It means not turning away from uncomfortable voices, not making neighbors with different thoughts into enemies, and practicing an order of justice and mercy instead of language of hatred and discrimination.

46. Jesus did not proclaim that kingdom only with words. He taught, proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and healed every disease and sickness among the people. He showed the kingdom through his life.

47. What is truly important for us now is to think deeply about why Jesus proclaimed the “kingdom of God.”

The Calling Given to Us Today

48. The proclamation of the kingdom of God does not stop here. By the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called Simon and Andrew, and then called James and John. They immediately left their nets, their boat, and their father and followed Jesus. Here, “to follow” does not mean simple religious agreement, but a decision to completely change the direction of one’s life. In particular, leaving “the boat and their father” means leaving behind an already determined path in life in order to follow Jesus.

49. Jewish public education began with local rabbis teaching children in order to discover future rabbis. A rabbi would choose the most outstanding child among them as a disciple, and those who failed in this process were destined to live by following their parents’ occupations.

50. When Jesus called Simon and Andrew, and called James and John his “disciples,” it likely revived memories of failure—of not having been chosen by a rabbi. Becoming Jesus’ disciple would have felt like a correction of failure. Throwing down their nets and leaving their boat and father meant choosing a life as Jesus’ disciples by stepping away from a fixed and predetermined life.

51. The kingdom of God is not completed by the ministry of Jesus alone, but continues to expand through the lives of the disciples who follow him. Scripture later shows that the disciples were still lacking and often appeared more inadequate than other Gentiles.

52. The called disciples were never outstanding; they were always lacking, yet they faithfully followed Jesus’ ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God. And as we know well, through the efforts of these disciples, the gospel spread throughout the whole world.

53. Beloved brothers and sisters, like Jesus and like these disciples, we too are living in a Galilee-like age. It is an age that is confusing, divided, and directionless, a place where one might ask, “What hope could there possibly be here?” Yet in such a place, we are striving to bring forth hope and life.

54. Right here, even now, Jesus continues to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” That kingdom is not built by hating one another. It does not expand through division and condemnation.

55. When we trust God’s reign and gradually practice that order in our words, attitudes, and lives today, the kingdom of God is already beginning among us.

56. Therefore, do not grow weary, but remember that the Lord is near us even now and is with our lives.