This sermon was preached on the Second Sunday of Advent, 7th December 2025.

Isaiah 11.1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3.1-12

The Kingdom of heaven has come near. At Advent, we spend so much time talking about waiting for the arrival of Jesus at Christmas and for his arrival at his Second coming that you could be forgiven for forgetting that Jesus is already here with us. Yes, we celebrate his coming in Advent, but as I was talking about last week, Jesus is already here with us; God is with us. Emmanuel. He isn’t distant; he is near.

John cries out to the crowds that the Kingdom of heaven has come near. The kingdom of heaven is another way of referring to God’s kingdom, or the place where God reigns as king and his presence dwells. We talk about heaven as the place where God is. God is in heaven, but the good news of the gospel is that God has come near to us in Jesus. The kingdom of heaven, that is, the presence and rule of God, has come near to us on earth.

The Kingdom of heaven has come near. God has come near to us. And my question is, what are you going to do about it? As I ask you this question, I want you to distinguish between what you would do and what you think you should do, because we all know that what we believe we should do and what we actually do are not necessarily the same. What are you going to do about the fact that God has come near to you?

One of the things I find most frustrating about Christmas is that everyone gets so excited about Christmas, the story of Jesus, Emmanuel, coming into the world to be with us, yet so few of these people care about it. They spend the whole time and a lot of effort celebrating Christmas whilst failing to recognise anything of what it’s really about. They miss out on the true meaning of Christmas.

What are you celebrating at Christmas? Are you celebrating the true meaning of Christmas: that the kingdom of heaven has come near, that Jesus has come to us? 

Let’s come back to the question we spoke about a moment ago. If God has come near, what do you think you should do? To help me answer this, I look at what John the Baptist was saying to the crowds as he proclaimed that the Kingdom of heaven is near. John said, ‘Turn away from your sins because the Kingdom of heaven is near!’[1] To turn away from your sins is not about just stopping doing bad things, but the act of turning includes a 180-degree turn from sin to look at God. Whereas sin is all about us turning away from God and pulling away from him, John the Baptist is calling us to turn back to God. Why? Because God has come near to us. He is waiting for us, waiting to be with us. All we need to do is turn around to see him there before us.

The Kingdom of heaven is near. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to turn yourself towards God rather than running away from him? The change may be more subtle than that. Maybe you are already looking at God, but it’s blurry. You are all up for celebrating Christmas with everything you’ve got, but somewhere along the way, the true meaning of Christmas got lost. If that is the case, don’t worry. Instead, hear the cry of John the Baptist to turn to Christ because he has come near to us.

This is the good news of Christmas. This is the good news of Jesus coming into the world. But more importantly, not only did Jesus come for his own people, the Jews, but he came for Gentiles (non-Jewish) people too. Jesus came for the whole world, and he wants everyone to know he has come near, so that all people can draw near to him, because there is nothing greater than being with God. We were created with the primary purpose of being with God; that is our created intention, our purpose, our call. Whatever you want to call it.  And when God draws near to us, everything changes.

See in Isaiah how he describes that when Jesus comes, those who were at war with one another, whose nature is predisposed to turn on the other, will be changed. Love, peace, and unity will come where none was thought possible. Isaiah prophecies:

Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats. Calves and lion cubs will feed together, and little children will take care of them. Cows and bears will eat together, and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace. Lions will eat straw as cattle do. Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays near a poisonous snake. On Zion, God’s sacred hill, there will be nothing harmful or evil.[2]

These examples mainly involve animals, but from this prophecy, you can already catch a glimpse of what it means for this world when God comes near to us. With it, God takes away what is harmful and evil, all that is not of him, and brings his love and goodness to the world.

It’s important to recognise that when we say that the kingdom of heaven is near, we are not saying that it is fully established as the sole ruling kingdom on earth. We all know that when we look at this world, it is clear to see where the powers and evil of this world, opposed to God, still loom large. So, drawing near to God will not mean a complete absence of the harmful things in this world. However, their power to harm and hurt us is diminished because of the ultimate hope we have in Jesus to be with God forever. Nothing can separate us from him. We hold on to the words of Paul in his letter to the Romans:

For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.[3]

Life isn’t always straightforward, and it isn’t always easy to see and recognise Christmas as good news for us, or at least the truly good news that it is. But I want us to hear Paul’s words of encouragement to us.

‘For I tell you that Christ’s life of service was on behalf of the Jews, to show that God is faithful, to make his promises to their ancestors come true, and to enable even the Gentiles to praise God for his mercy.’[4]

‘And again, Isaiah says, “A descendant of Jesse will appear; he will come to rule the Gentiles, and they will put their hope in him.” May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.’[5]

Know that Jesus has promised to come near to us. He promised it thousands of years ago, and he is here fulfilling it every day. As God comes near to us, I ask, will you put your hope in him? God is our source of hope, and he wants to fill you with all joy and peace, all we need do is draw near to him. Draw near to God as he comes near to us. Come to know the good news that Jesus, Emmanuel, is God with us. Advent and Christmas are not about a distant God, but it’s about a living and present God with us forever. Let us turn to him, to turn around from running away from God, to come near and see him before us with clear eyes.

To close, I wanted to remind us of the words we will sing in the opening carol at our lessons and carol service in a couple of weeks. In the fifth verse, it says:

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
through His own redeeming love;
for that Child so dear and gentle
is our Lord in heav’n above,
and He leads His children on
to the place where He is gone.

The kingdom of heaven is near; God has come near to us. What are you going to do about it?

Amen.

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[1] Matthew 3:1 [GNB].

[2] Isaiah 11:6-9 [GNB].

[3] Romans 8:38-39 [GNB].

[4] Romans 15:8-9 [GNB].

[5] Romans 15:12-13 [GNB].