September 19, “now” and “not yet”

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew 4:23

Look intently into the above verse.  Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom.  The act of preaching, different in Greek terminology from teaching, represented a proclamation (kērýssō).  The kingdom Jesus announced was the long-awaited arrival of God who would “act with sovereign powers in human affairs.”[1]  The healing ministry of Jesus proved that God had come, and He was bringing restoration.  So, Jesus both announced and embodied the kingdom.  The good news expressed the kingdom – “the in-breaking of God’s saving reign in the person of His Son the Messiah.”[2]

 The Gospel represents the good news of the kingdom – God’s offer to deliver us from the domain of darkness, and to transfer us into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).  The Gospel announces the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. This announces the sphere of God’s rule and reign by His grace and mercy through Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom took place within the context of healing to point to the validity of the message of the kingdom. God was breaking into humanity in a new and different way.  Jesus’ healing revealed the essence of His kingdom – that God through the Messiah was restoring what was broken.  

And the good news of the Gospel of Jesus then is the very same message today.  God has stepped into this world in the most personal way possible to restore all that is broken.  His kingdom is both here now, and not yet.  His kingdom “now” becomes expressed as He restores and redeems, thus proving the rule and reign of Christ over all that is broken.  And the Kingdom “not yet,” expresses that Christ will one day return to set up His kingdom once and for all.  

This is the good news. This is the Gospel. 

Today, view the brokenness of this world not through religious eyes, whereby one concludes people are the problem.  But rather through kingdom eyes, whereby one concludes that sin is the problem.  Today, view those marginalized not as recipients of the next outreach program, but as lives fully accepted by the love of Jesus expressed through the Gospel and in need of your embrace.  Today, view the nations of the world not as outsiders, but as the context of God’s missional work in the world through which one day every tribe, kindred, and tongue will be represented singing at the throne of the Lamb (Revelation 5:9).  This is the Gospel!  This is “His kingdom come.”  

Today, see yourself not as merely an adherent of religion.  That eventually grows cold and institutionalized.  Instead, see yourself as one who is a citizen of the kingdom because of the truth of the Gospel - because of the redemption of Christ that comes to all who trust in Him.  And see your life’s mission equal to that of the heart of the Gospel and the work of the Kingdom: the restoration of all that is broken.  

Blessings.

[1] Robert Mounce, The New International Biblical Commentary, Matthew (Hendrickson Publishers, 1985), 34.  

[2] D. A. Carson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9 (Zondervan, 2010), 150.