He proclaimed His mission in public on a regular basis, to eliminate any doubt as to why He chose to remove Himself from perfection and take on all the weaknesses of His creation. But He also did this so that His voice was prominent in the noise of the day.
Jesus was, among other things, concerned with where we get our information. Now this may seem odd, coming from a time before the invention of social media and such. Yet mankind has always found a way to communicate to the masses and that was no less true in the days of Jesus. We read that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria” (Matt. 4:23–24, emphasis added).
There’s a key distinction here that we can miss. Jesus teaches—he gives instruction or advice on how to live. But he also preaches, or proclaims. Today we associate preaching with churches and telling people what to do. But preaching wasn’t used that way in Jesus’ time. It wasn’t even a religious word. It was a “news” word. Jesus went around announcing that something had happened. And it wasn’t just news; it was good news. That’s what the word gospel means.
So what is this good news that Jesus himself proclaimed? His gospel message was simple, that the kingdom of God is now, because Jesus has brought it from Heaven to Earth through the incarnation of God to man. The good news is that all men now have access to the kingdom of God, and it is not a far off gift - it is something we can claim now.
But Jesus didn't just desire us to claim access to the kingdom of God, He desired that we, His people, would extend the kingdom to all the earth.
So what is the kingdom of God? It is the sphere in which everything that happens meets with God’s approval and delight. Everything is precisely as God wants it to be—where the greatest humble themselves like little children. There are no big shots. No arrogant egos. No one ever has an anxious thought. Every encounter between people causes them to walk away with more joy than they had before they met. As the apostle Paul says, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Watching over this whole realm as its greatest servant and most joyful caretaker is the magnificent God—the Father of Jesus—who is endlessly celebrated for his infinite, self-giving love.
This, Jesus said, is the kingdom of God. It exists. Right now. People you know and love who trusted God and have died and gone before us are immersed in this reality right now.
So now that we have properly defined the kingdom of God, let's ask the question, "How’s that going?"
I think most of us would say not very well.
Why is the earth still a mess? Why are pain and suffering still with us? And the answer—which took the early church decades to come to grips with—is that other “kingdoms” still remain. Other wills that are opposed to God’s will are still present. To bring that point home, some of those rebellious kingdoms belong to you and me. Yet God promises that one day all opposition will end. But it endures now because God chooses to act not with coercive power but in suffering love.
In the Lord's prayer, Jesus taught us to ask God to bring heaven—“your kingdom,” “your will”—down here to my office, my neighborhood, my small group, my family, my country. Starting with my life, my body, my little kingdom.
Jesus’ gospel involves the greatest offer of all time. The salvation of your whole life, both now and then. Not just getting you into heaven but getting heaven into you. When you get what Jesus is offering, it’s like finding treasure in a field that you’d sell everything to possess and laughing all the way to the bank. If it were a late-night TV infomercial, you’d call without delay.
It is good news.The great question is this: Do you really believe it can happen? Do you really believe that the kingdom of God can be established on this earth, starting with you?
Remember, Jesus never told anybody to pray, “Get me out of here so I can go up there.” Instead He told us to ask God to establish his kingdom where we are. Jesus’ gospel is not about something that might happen sometime in the future. It has already begun. In him. In hiddenness. In sacrificial love. Right in the midst of the kingdoms that oppose it.
No merely human kingdom can redeem and transform the earth. Only King Jesus can do that.
His ultimate success is certain. And if you want, you can be a part of his kingdom. Right here. Right now.
Based upon John Ortberg's "Why Heaven is a Lot Closer Than You Think"
