A Determined Area (Part II)

THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM

Matthew 3:1-3 (July 29, 2007)

Intro: The word “wilderness” is used in the Hebrew and Greek the same as the desert.  It is defined as waste, lonesome, or solitary place.  Ultimately, the wilderness will be defined by what is sourcing us.  The wilderness will either be viewed as a defeat, or a determination of God.  Let’s look at just a few aspects of the content of being in the wilderness.

I.  A Determined Area: (The wilderness history )

  A.  The wilderness often involves a Problem- Genesis chpt 16 and 21.  Hagar has been used by Sarah (Abraham’s wife) to provide a child for Abraham.  Now she is despised and twice Hagar is driven out to the wilderness.  She is essentially running for her life.  Is it desperation and defeat or a determination of God?  Exodus 3&4.  Moses has slain an Egyptian, Pharaoh is out to kill him, and Moses is running for his life.  Is this desperation and defeat or a determination of God?  I Kings 19.  Elijah has been mightily used of the Lord and now  he sits under a juniper tree asking to die.  Is this defeat or is it the determination of God? 

Matthew 3:1.  John the Baptist comes preaching in the wilderness.  Jerusalem seems the natural place.  This is where real potential for ministry is, but the wilderness? There are few people residing there and the land is sparse in pasture. Is this a crippled, defeated ministry or the determined area of God’s work?  Often it seems that we are running for our lives into the wilderness, but what if we were running to our life?  What if the wilderness was not waste, but the Way of the Lord?

  B.  The wilderness always involves His Purpose- Our purpose is not the issue here.  Often our purpose seems clouded at best, in the wilderness, but He always has a plan. We must be careful not to analyze and determine the purpose, for we may fall far short of the understanding of His purpose, and fail to enjoy Him.  In Gen. 16&21, on both occasions God reveals Himself to Hagar and that is the largest thing of all.  To have the revelation of God break into the wilderness of our lives is a monumental event.  Our thoughts are replaced by His Word.  In the midst of our many words, give us your Word, oh God!  In Exodus 3 God reveals Himself to Moses.  God speaks out of a fire in a bush.  Who knows where God will move, but in the waste or solitude (it’s your choice) of the wilderness God speaks.  In I Kings 19 Elijah has God revealed to him.  An angel of the Lord touches  Elijah twice and then 19:9 says: “the Word of the Lord came to Him.  Oh if the only purpose of the wilderness was to have a touch of God and the Word of the Lord come to us wouldn’t that be enough?  John comes preaching in the wilderness because God has revealed Himself to John’s parents, and filled John in the womb, and because this was the purpose of God revealed in Isaiah 40:3 some 700 years before.  One of the most powerful passages I have seen is in Luke 3:2- “The Word of God came to John....in the wilderness.” God’s great desire is to reveal himself into your life... and that is a marvelous purpose!  Is it a waste or Way of the Lord for you?  Is it  a determined area of God’s move.

C..  The wilderness always involves a Proving and Preparing- Our lives are never ruined by the wilderness, the wilderness just brings out what is in our nature.  It is a proving of Him and us.  Hagar is hopeless and watching a son die, God is planning a future.   Moses, the Prince of Egypt is now working for a Shepherd, but God is planning for a nation.  Elijah is requesting to die under a tree, but God is restoring a ministry.  John the Baptist is being developed from  wilderness living into a preacher in the wilderness.  Most often, God is replacing our view with His view, and God is changing our nature into His nature, It is a time when which He desires to move us from waste to the Way of the Lord in the wilderness.  It is the determined area of God’s move.

  D.  The wilderness can involve a Pursuit- Imagine that you were not biding time, or counting the days in the wilderness, but actually pursuing the wilderness.  Wouldn’t that be a huge paradigm shift?  Imagine that you actually wanted and needed to be there for Presence and Purposes of God.  Imagine that you knew that God seemed to minister to you and through you in the wilderness.  Far fetched?  I don’t think so.  Consider this.  Jerusalem on the whole has spiritually shut down.  The temple is a business, the ministers are managers, and the place of prayer is a den of thieves.  Basically, religion is a burden instead of a blessing. Where are people finding the “way of the Lord?”

In the midst of the above death and 400 years of silence comes John the Baptist!  In John 1:19-28 priests and Levites are sent (by the Pharisees) to find out who he was.  Was he the Christ?  NO!  Was he the prophet?  NO! Well, what was he then?  John said: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as said by the prophet Isaiah” (John 1:23).  The wilderness will not defeat, depress, or dominate him.  He will be used by God to make a way in the wilderness for others.  This is not a waste, this is a “way” of the Lord being made on him for others sake!!

What about Jesus?  Luke 5:16 “he withdrew Himself into the wilderness to pray.”  John 11:54 Jesus went near to the wilderness.. and continued with His disciples.  Mark 6:31 Jesus said to His disciples come into the desert (wilderness) and rest awhile.

There are many other passages but the message is this: The wilderness may seem like an area of defeat and desolation.  It may seem like a wasted time, but the nature of the Kingdom is that it is an area determined by God to be not a wasted time but a Way of the Lord Time!  A time of purpose, proving and the pursuit of God.  Welcome to the Kingdom of God!!   It is at hand!