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.

John’s Work

John’s work was to preach and not exactly what would be called the Gospel or the Good News. John’s work of preaching centered around his prophetic office, like the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and all the others that were sent by God to warn His people. The gift of prophecy is first a ministry of warning of God’s judgement against sin. It sometimes foretells events but most times it forth tells punishment.

The words of Ezekiel could have been preached by John, Ezekiel 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Or Isaiah in Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

John’s message, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” has an added power in it because it is being preached just before the coming of the Messiah, the King of Israel. And Israel though no longer worshipping idols, is still a sinful nation full of pride and iniquity and John is calling out to them, Repent, your king is coming and your judgment as a nation and as people is coming with Him.

Imagine you live in the area around Jerusalem or travel the main road for commerce that runs from Jerusalem to the Jordan valley and into your camp, or village one day walks this rough looking man and he calls out in a loud voice, because prophets always have the gift of volume, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” It was a short message but the people of Israel knew what it meant.

To repent literally means “to change the mind,” but it carries much more weight and responsibility in this context, just as it does today. We are not talking about repent in the sense of seeing you were wrong about who won the 1998 World Series, or who was the 10th president of the United States. No this is you being wrong in your relationship to your creator, in relationship to your God and your judge. Repent here means a complete change of mind and heart when it comes to sin and to God. That change is emotional and spiritual as well as intellectual. It should be accompanied by sorrow for my sin, a desire to change and the realization that only God can truly change me.

They needed repentance in order to be ready for the coming Kingdom and they needed baptism to show their willingness to repent and their commitment to the coming King. For they also knew that there could be no coming Kingdom unless the King was also coming.

And John was the forerunner, he was the catalyst that was starting the spiritual chain reaction that would explode when Jesus declared himself as Messiah.

The Message Updated

It must have been exciting times to hear and see John preach. To hear that powerful message, to feel the call to repent and then to watch every day with expectation because your King was coming.

When you think about it, that same message is still the message we preach and hear. It has been updated with the full revelation of Jesus as the Messiah, our King, but the elements of that simple message still should have their effect in our hearts today as they did in the hearts of the Israelites listening to John at the dawn of the New Testament.

Our entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven hasn’t changed but the aspect or application of the Kingdom has. When Jesus come and presented himself as Messiah to Israel, the rightful heir of the throne of David, the nation was presented with a choice. Accept Jesus as King on His terms or reject Him. We all know what happened there were many individuals who believed but the nation and its leaders called out, “We have no King but Caesar!” And they crucified the Lord and just as John had warned them judgment fell and in 70 AD the Temple was destroyed by the Roman Army and the people were killed, captured and made slaves, They were a people without a nation until 1948.

The Kingdom of Heaven for us though is not a physical Kingdom in this world today. We as children of God in the New Testament are not promised the physical promises of Israel or granted the blessing of their Covenants with God. But we still can enter the Kingdom because before it can one day be entered physically, it must be entered spiritually.

This is what the Sermon on the Mount was all about Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit (the repentant) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is what Jesus had to make Nicodemus understand, John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And that Kingdom for us today is not of this world but in our heart and of the world to come. John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world …. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Today we are citizens of a yet still coming Kingdom and a returning King, coming to claim His rightful place on the throne of David as he has claimed his rightful place on the throne of our heart. He is our King and until He returns, we must live, believe and work as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. I was born an American, but I was reborn a Heavenan. (Yes I just made up that word. How about Heavener, or Heavenite? No, those sound even worse. It doesn’t matter how you say it, what matters is that you know it and proclaim it.