We read in the Gospel of Matthew in
"Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
"From that time" is a phrase used to denote a chronological change in things. The birth of a new message was breaking upon the scene. It was a message that was going to be received only by those who were willing to change their minds, who were willing to see things differently.
Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
God had used the Law and the prophets to speak to His children in the past but now, the Gospel of the Kingdom was going to be the message, and the vehicle that He was going to use, to bring His people into all He had created them to be and to possess.
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
John the Baptist came out of the wilderness with the message of the kingdom, but he told his followers that he was not the central figure of the message. There was One coming whose shoes he was not worthy to remove or carry.
Mat 3:1-12 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
John was speaking about some radical things here. An axe being used to chop an unfruitful tree down from it's very roots, about it being gathered up and being cast into the fire. He spoke of the one who was going to purge his floor and gather the wheat into the garner and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. It appears that all the credentials that had been used to identify oneself as a child of God were no longer valid. When people maintained they could reject this message and that they had a relationship with God because Abraham was their natural father, John replied, if it were necessary God could create children from the stones that surrounded them.
Think of it! When Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven was at hand, it was a radical message. When something is at hand, it has arrived, it exists in the present. It is a reality in the now.
If you had been waiting for any type of event to take place and someone stood up and said, "It's at hand" you'd expect it to have arrived, wouldn't you? You wouldn't have to wait any longer for it to come to you or you wouldn't have to plan to go to it in the future. You wouldn't have to regret that you missed it or wait for it to happen at another time. It's at hand, its near, its within grasp and that is what Jesus Christ wants us to understand regarding the Kingdom of heaven.
It's not just a place, that religious tradition has taught us, that we are going to go to, at the moment of our physical deaths. It's not away out there in outer space. It's not a future destination. It's not for another time. It's a present reality for all that can believe and receive it, today. It has come to us in the "Now" of our lives.
This Gospel message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand is upsetting. When John the Baptist preached it, people got upset. When Jesus preached it people got upset. When the disciples preached it, they turned the world upside down and when you preach it people will get upset too. It cuts, purges and burns. It tears down and lifts up. It makes crooked things straight, brings high things low and elevates low things to higher positions. It demands change. It will influence your life like no other message. When people received it they were changed, healed, delivered and motivated. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. "Voyager has landed." "The kingdom of heaven has touched the earth" As I penned this statement immediately Psalm 85 came to my mind
Psalm 85:6-13 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
There is a coming together of two worlds in this Psalm, heaven and earth. They have kissed each other. "Kissed" is the Hebrew word "nashaq" meaning fasten up, attached and touched
The Psalmist said this salvation is nigh them that fear him, near those who reverence Him and hold Him in high regard.
Matthew Henry stated, "This Psalm may be taken as a promise to all who fear God and as a prophecy of the coming of the kingdom of the Messiah and of the blessings with which that kingdom shall be enriched. These blessings will be manifest in the following manner"
- Help at hand-God's salvation
- Honour secured-That glory may dwell in our land
- Mercy and truth, righteous and peace kiss each other consisting of
- A reformation of the people and of the government
- A return of God's favour upon His people
- A harmony of the divine attributes in the Messiah's undertaking. He may have mercy upon poor sinners without any wrong to his truth and righteousness
- A great plenty of everything desired
- A sure guidance in the good way so that we may go and meet him when he is coming toward us in ways of mercy
It is His coming to us that manifests the kingdom of heaven in the earth. He is the one moving toward us not us moving toward Him. He is the one pursuing us rather than our pursuing Him.
This was the reality Jesus Christ came to proclaim to His people and He said it was at hand. It was "in the now". The fulfillment of prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven had begun.
Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
The people were expecting the Messiah to come, they were longing for His coming with great anticipation but when He came preaching that the kingdom of heaven had arrived, most of them were unable to receive it. They were locked into "an another day mentality" They missed the day of their visitation.
John 1:6-12 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Luke 19:41-44 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
We can shake our heads wondering, how could they have been so blind, not knowing that the kingdom of God was standing among them, that He was living among them, that they could reach out and touch Him. They were waiting for another day and He was with them, in the now. Here we are, two thousand years later with the kingdom of God residing within us and we are still talking about going to heaven and being with the Lord when we die. Are we missing the day of our visitation as much as they lost their's. They were bound, enslaved and held captive by a mentality but Christ has come to give us light, revelation and knowledge of His presence.
Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
And the greatest place of captivity is the captivity that resides in our minds, in our understanding, in our knowledge of God and who we are in Him (Christ).
Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart (mind/understanding) was darkened.
When the Bible speaks of our heart, it is not talking about the muscle in our chest that pumps blood. It is talking about our mind Darkened to what? Darkened to the knowledge of the existence of God and the realm of the spirit in which He dwells and has dominion.
Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
This darkness (ignorance) makes us aliens of the spirit realm and the life in it. We are unfamiliar with it. We are uncomfortable under its influence and find it difficult to submit to the King of this kingdom. We have a nature that is contrary to the divine nature, a divine nature that permeates the very essence of the kingdom of heaven.
The apostle Paul says we are strangers and foreigners to this realm. That's what an alien is. He is a being from another realm. We are from the earth, earthy and He is from heaven, being heavenly.
Ephesians 2:12-21 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
"Aliens" is the Greek word "apallotrioo" meaning to estrange away, that is passively and figuratively to be a non participant
And that's what we were, non-participants in the life that God had purposed for us to live. Our very nature disqualified us from being the people God had ordained us to be. The apostle Paul put it this way.
Ephesians 2:1-6 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
We were without hope but Jesus Christ has raised us up to be seated together with him in heavenly places. We were not familiar with the customs, covenants, constitution, laws and principles of the kingdom of heaven. We were afraid when we began thinking about the kingdom of heaven touching our lives. People are afraid of anything they don't understand and for the most part even Christians don't understand the kingdom of heaven. They don't understand spiritual things. Look at what happened to Adam and Eve when they went against God's commandment and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They traded the knowledge of God (spiritual knowledge based upon a relationship with God) for the knowledge of good and evil (intellectual knowledge). That's why you can be super intelligent and believe there is no God. The serpent lied to them and said the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was food to make them wise but look at Adam's first words to God after he partook of the fruit of that tree.
Gen 3:10 And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Instead of making him wise he became fearful and went and hid himself from God and that's what people do today.People are afraid of anything supernatural. They are afraid of speaking in other tongues, afraid they might fall out if someone lays hands on them and prays for them, afraid they might look silly or do something they don't understand. People are afraid someone might prophecy over them and reveal something they don't want revealed. People are afraid of how others may perceive them. People are afraid to attempt to do even the smallest thing for God. Afraid they might fail, afraid they might be misunderstood. The list goes on and on but Paul told Timothy in
2 Timothy 1:6-10 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
Since Adam's spiritual fall in the garden we have all been afraid. In the Old testament God's people were afraid of any encounter with God and the spirit realm in which He dwells.
Exodus 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
People were afraid of the supernatural in the New Testament
Mat 14:25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
The very thought of anything spiritual spooked them. It rattled them; they were fearful
Act 18:9-10 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
Isn't it peculiar that the knowledge of good and evil has produced such fear in our lives rather than producing the freedom that the serpent promised. As time goes on, with the increase of intellectual knowledge and the decrease of the knowledge of God and His kingdom, men's hearts will be failing them for fear of the things that are coming on the earth. We are living in the Information Age where man's knowledge is growing at unprecedented rates but the knowledge of God is getting less and less.
Luke 21:25-28 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
1Timothy 6:20-21 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
and 2Timothy 2:15-16 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
Man is still reaping the wages of Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. He lost the knowledge of God.
Romans 1:21-23 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Psalm 14:1-2 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
The apostle Paul says our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ has come to break down the middle wall of partition that has separated us. What is that wall? Could it be a wall of ignorance concerning the knowledge of God? Could it be a wall that has been erected by sin that has kept us ignorant of a realm that has been co-existent with us all the time and we have not know it.
Has being born again removed this wall? Has acknowledging the truth that we are sinners and need a Savior removed this wall? Has believing in our hearts that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day for our justification and confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives removed this wall? Has believing that we are going to go to heaven when we die, believing that we will be raptured out of this world at any moment or believing that Jesus Christ could return physically at any moment removed this wall?
My experience with the majority of the Christians I have come in contact with, tells me it hasn't, because the central theme of our traditional Christian teaching, conversation, hymns and songs is about going to heaven someday when we die, rather than the kingdom of heaven being at hand. Our focus is "Lately I've got leaving on my mind" instead of preaching and teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus taught before and after His resurrection and commanded us to teach.
Before His crucifixion Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
After His resurrection He preached it
Act 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
And Jesus commanded His disciples to preach it
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
It seems we can claim that we are born again and be just as carnal as we have ever been. We can be just as nasty, negative, critical, selfish, judgmental and unkind as we have always been. We can testify that we are born again but still have the world's priorities, values and ways of thinking. We can claim that we are born again and yet possess very little of the character and spirit that dwelt in Jesus Christ. There's something wrong here.
It is my conviction that until we come to the knowledge of God. Until we understand that we have been born into another realm, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand "now" and that we are citizens of that realm "now", very little that is truly Christ-like or Godly will be manifest in our lives.
