the gospel of the kingdom
/“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
John the Baptist first, and then Jesus Christ Himself both speak these exact words in the first few chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus goes on to refer to the kingdom of heaven some four dozen times throughout His ministry as recorded by Matthew. It’s the primary focus of His teachings. Matthew 4:23 says, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”
As I follow this thread through the book, highlighting each use of the phrase “kingdom of heaven” or related terminology, I wonder: Where did this all begin? What does He mean, “the kingdom of heaven”? What is its gospel?
Of course, I know the Sunday school answers to these questions. I could give you a few verse references that define the Gospel from Paul’s letters, for example. But far too often we fill in the spaces between the lines with our Sunday school knowledge instead of the rich backdrop that Scripture itself provides. So I ask—how did we arrive at Matthew 4 from the pathway of 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures? What would Jesus’ contemporary Jewish listeners (who had never been to Sunday school) have heard when He said “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”? John and Jesus didn’t pull this phrase out of thin air—it must have a context.
Matthew gives us a clue into that context when he introduces John the Baptist:
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’”Matthew 3:1-3
The prophetic quotation comes from Isaiah chapter 40 and is what rabbinic teaching would have called a “remez”—a hint. The quote contains only Isaiah 40:3, but it is intended to guide us to a much broader passage, possibly even the entire sixth scroll of Isaiah (which would encompass chapters 40-48). So let’s pull back from verse 3 for a wider view:
“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
“Speak kindly to Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her warfare has ended,
That her iniquity has been removed,
That she has received of the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
“Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”Isaiah 40:1-6
The poem paints us a picture. Can you see it? Watch! The very earth is smoothing the way for a mighty King’s arrival. The valleys rise and the mountains flatten so that the path for His royal procession may be clear. A voice urges—“Call out!” But what’s the announcement? What is the news?
Get yourself up on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news,
Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;
Lift it up, do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
Behold, the Lord God will come with might,
With His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him
And His recompense before Him.
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.Isaiah 40:9-11
There it is—the good news, the gospel of the kingdom, the source of John the Baptist’s cry for repentance: “Here is your God!” Here is the King! He is returning to His domain, to the kingdom that has been shattered by the enemy, and taking it back from its foes. He is rescuing His people from their imprisonment—their “iniquity has been removed” (Isaiah 40:2) and “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light” (Isaiah 9:2a).
How lovely on the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who announces peace
And brings good news of happiness,
Who announces salvation,
And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices,
They shout joyfully together;
For they will see with their own eyes
When the Lord restores Zion.
Break forth, shout joyfully together,
You waste places of Jerusalem;
For the Lord has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared His holy arm
In the sight of all the nations,
That all the ends of the earth may see
The salvation of our God.Isaiah 52:7-9
Your God reigns—source of salvation, author of restoration, pursuer of redemption.
He is mighty. He is sovereign. He is generous. He is gentle. He is holy.
He is coming.
The King is coming. This is the good news. And there is only one appropriate response to His imminent enthronement: Repent.
When John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” they aren’t handing out tickets to paradise or get-out-of-hell-free cards. They aren’t even calling for the overthrow of Rome and the return to Israel’s golden age, which is what the Jewish people desperately hoped. Instead, they are announcing that the God of the Universe has come to reclaim the world from the clutches of death, and summoning each and every soul to declare an allegiance.
It’s an invitation to become a citizen of a different country, to be adopted into the Royal Family, to claim an undeserved inheritance of eternal life.
In this kingdom, it is the helpless who are most powerful, the meek who are richest, the hated who are blessed. In this kingdom, “the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). In this kingdom, “the last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16), and “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave” (Matthew 20:26-27).
This kingdom has been won by a King whose crown was made of thorns—who was raised up not on a throne, but on a cross. He was a Prince who came to be a servant. The Creator of all life who came to die.
Friends, I have good news: Your God reigns! The King has come, and He is coming again. He has won back His kingdom, and He is returning to rule over it. It looks nothing like the kingdoms of this world, but it is the kingdom our souls hunger for. We are all welcome in. We must only repent, exchanging our trust and allegiance to ourselves for trust and allegiance to the King, and receiving His forgiveness for our sins.
