It could not have been long after He began His public ministry that “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (Mt 4:23). What kingdom does He refer to? To answer that question we must go back to King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream recorded in Daniel 2, a dream which Daniel – in contrast to all the wise men of Babylon – could interpret and, in addition, he could tell what the King had seen in his dream. In it there were four kingdoms, symbolised by the various parts of the image he had seen but had forgotten. First there was the head of fine gold, which, Daniel explained, pointed to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom of Babylon. After referring to the other three earthly kingdoms symbolised in the image, Daniel declared that the God of heaven was to “set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (v 44). It was the gospel of this everlasting kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming.
Jesus was the King of this kingdom. He had come as “a witness to the people” (Is 55:4), to those who professed to be the people of God. He was going about Galilee bearing testimony to them about the never-ending kingdom He had come to establish. The same verse describes Jesus as “a leader and commander to the people”, pointing to the King as One who directs His subjects as they go through this life, and also giving them laws.
Matthew Henry comments: “Christ is a faithful witness; we may take Him at His word – a competent witness, for He lay in the bosom of the Father from eternity, and was perfectly apprised of the whole matter. Christ, as a Prophet, testifies the will of God to the world; and to believe is to receive His testimony. . . . Much difficulty and opposition lie in our way to Christ; we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, but to animate us for the conflict we have a good captain, like Joshua, a leader and commander to tread our enemies under our feet and to put us in possession of the land of promise. Christ is a commander by His precept and a leader by His example; our business is to obey Him and follow Him.”
When He was in this world, He was bearing witness to the fact that He had come to suffer and die in the place of sinners and to draw them into His kingdom. There, as His subjects, learning to obey God’s commands, they would be safe from eternal destruction; He would protect them and lead them on to heaven, which also is part of His kingdom.
It was the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus was preaching; in other words, He was making known the good news about it. Christ is still causing such good news to be proclaimed in this world; He is calling ambassadors to represent Him before sinners and call them into God’s kingdom. So every time a minister stands up to preach, he is to be treated as representing Christ – provided he keeps to the revelation that God has given in Scripture. If the preacher departs from the truth of God’s Word, what he says has no authority whatever. But when the preacher has been called by God to the work of the ministry and is faithful to the revelation which He has given, his message has Christ’s authority. In the same way, it was God who called Jonah and told him: “Preach the . . . preaching that I bid thee”; the prophet’s message therefore had God’s full authority behind it.
The message that Christ proclaimed about the kingdom was good news to sinners who were in danger of eternal damnation; the message proclaimed by Christ’s ambassadors today is good news, whether or not those who hear it take the message to heart. The message includes a promise of safety to all who will believe in Christ, for “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). And this message of safety has a solid foundation: what Jesus had just declared, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”. In infinite love to lost sinners, God gave up His Son to suffer and die in their place. Surely this is good news: that God is just when He accepts those sinners who believe in Jesus (see Rom 3:24-26). They are safe from the wrath of God, for ever. God has received them into the kingdom and it is a place of perfect safety.
There is a further aspect to the safety of believers: it is impossible for the devil to pluck them out of this kingdom. They are still sinners; sin has not been eliminated from their hearts or lives – though the work of sanctification will go on throughout life until they are made perfect. In this world they are still subject to temptation, and will be for the rest of their time here. Indeed they may succumb to temptation; so they must pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13). Let them remember that Christ is their Mediator, making intercession for them in heaven. He is presenting their petitions to the Father, on the basis of His work for them in this world. The Father always hears the Son when He makes intercession for them. So they are safe from falling from a state of grace; Satan, powerful and subtle though he is, cannot so tempt them that the result will be their removal from the kingdom of God.
This kingdom extends beyond this world. Although it is in this life that sinners must enter the kingdom, it is not God’s will that they should remain in this world for ever. Believers will be removed into a better world at a time of God’s choosing – into a world where there is no sin, where there is no curse, where no temptation will ever trouble them. Yet it may be a question with them: Is it possible that I, sinner that I am, can be received into heaven? The answer is, Yes, because Christ will make intercession for each of them in these terms: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory” (Jn 17:24). They will most certainly be received into heaven, in spite of having a sinful heart until death will remove them from this world.
Let us note two reasons for that positive answer. First, their souls are received into heaven at their death for the sake of the Mediator; for His sake they have a right to enter the celestial city – because His sacrifice for them was accepted. In making intercession for them, it is as if Christ is pointing to the fact that He died for them and that, accordingly, all the benefits that flow from His death must be theirs, including eternal blessedness, to be enjoyed for ever in that part of the kingdom which is above. Second, Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to express to the Philippians full confidence that “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6), the day of the Saviour’s second coming, when He will return to bring this world to an end and call everyone to judgement. Then the King, sitting on the throne of judgement will declare believers “blessed” (Mt 25:34), which implies, among many other things, that they are free from guilt and free from all remaining sin.
Christ’s ambassadors continue to make known the gospel of the kingdom. It is good news for lost sinners, and it is at their peril that any of them treats it lightly. It is a particularly serious sin for anyone to reject Christ and a perfect salvation through Him. When the King speaks, no one has any right to reject what He says – and that is true even when the King speaks through His ambassadors. The King still invites us: “Come unto Me” (Mt 11:28); it is a call to believe in Him – to trust in Him – as the One who came into the world to save sinners. Let us sense the wonderful graciousness of the call. Let us feel the tremendous urgency of it. And let us acknowledge the Kingly authority that lies behind it. Let us also take to heart the solemn words: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb 2:3). Let us remember Matthew Henry’s pointed reminder, about Christ, that “our business is to obey Him and follow Him”. We have no right to do otherwise.