What Was Jesus’ Gospel?
What Was Jesus’ Gospel?
“I must preach the
kingdom of God
...
because
for this purpose I have
been sent” (Luke 4:43).
“Now after John was put
in prison, Jesus came to Galilee,
preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God, and saying,
‘The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in
the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).
Jesus began His ministry
with these words announcing the King
-
dom of God. The time He
had in mind to be “fulfilled” was probably
a reference to the
prophecy in Daniel 9:24-25, where it is said that the
Messiah would come 483
years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.
The year A.D. 27 was when
the 483 years specified in the prophecy
would end (see “The Bible
Prophesied the Exact Year the Messiah
Would Appear,”. The year
27 is significant because that is the
year Jesus began His
ministry. He began preaching the message of the
Kingdom of God in
Galilee.
As we saw in the last
chapter, the people and even Christ’s own disciples had many misconceptions
about the Messiah and His mission.
People still
misunderstand today, but in a totally different way. Many
fail to realize that the
future, world-ruling Kingdom prophesied in so
many places in the Old
Testament was at the heart of Jesus’ message
and teaching.
A literal kingdom on earth
Most people don’t
understand that the Kingdom of God is a literal
kingdom, a government
both divine and royal ruling over literal people
on the earth. This is not
merely a symbolic or a spiritual rule, a sentiment that exists only in human
hearts. As we will see, it is far more.
And Jesus simply
continued the prophecies about this Kingdom that had
begun to be revealed in
the Old Testament.
A prophecy of this coming
Kingdom is graphically depicted in Daniel
2. In this prophecy the
Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, was shown an
image that represents the
major kingdoms or empires that would dominate the Middle East. The image
represents first the kingdom of Babylon,
and then three successive
kingdoms that would rule until the Kingdom
of God would be “set up.”
This Kingdom of God will put an end to the
rule of the previous
kingdoms.
Notice the description of
this final Kingdom, the Kingdom of God,
Ruling in the physical
realm as well as in the spiritual realm.
“Now as they heard these
things, He spoke another parable, because
He was near Jerusalem and
because they thought the kingdom of God
would appear immediately”
(Luke 19:11).
The people were looking
for the establishment of the Kingdom of God with Jerusalem as the center of
government over the
nations, with the Jews
being the prominent
people of the Kingdom, as
the prophets had
foretold.
So Jesus explained it
this way: “A certain nobleman went into a far country
to receive for himself a
kingdom and to
return” (verse 12).
Jesus, the nobleman of
the parable, taught that
while He was away
(in heaven) for an
unspecified length of
time, His servants would
continue where
they were (on earth)
doing their Lord’s
business until He
returned, when they
would be rewarded (verses
13-27). And
what is their reward in
this parable? It is
having authority over
cities—physical cities filled with men, women, boys and girls
(verses 17, 19).
The parable of the
talents in Matthew
25:14-30 is similar,
giving the same kind of message. The basic scenario
is the same: “...
The kingdom of heaven is
like a man traveling to a far
country, who called his
own servants and delivered his goods to them”
(verse 14).
The reward for those who
increased their talents (a denomination of
money here symbolic of
spiritual means) is being made “ruler over many
things” (verses 21, 23).
The Kingdom of God when it is established
by Jesus Christ at His
return will be a literal government, ruling on
earth and functioning not
only in the spiritual affairs of man, but in his
temporal affairs too.
This is the Kingdom that
Jesus announced would be coming. And He
began to invite some to
“repent, and believe in the gospel”—the good
news of His
message—because “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark
1:15). He was now
announcing that Kingdom, and they had the oppor-
tunity to prepare to be a
part of the Kingdom of God at His return.
• If you’re not already a subscriber,
request a free subscription to our
gods-word by gaurav pawar daily artical -magazine
The Good News at
http://gods-word-gauravpawarg-article.blogspot.com/,
http://br-vitarv.blogspot.com/
• While you’re at it, also request a
free subscription to our
World News
and good-nwse
newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment