Repent, For the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

By Paul Earnhart

After Jesus made the journey to Judea where he met Nicodemus and preached and baptized with great success, He returned to Galilee where He had grown up.  And Matthew 4:17 reports that “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  This was precisely what John the Baptist had been preaching in the wilderness, Matthew 3:1-2.

This message of Jesus (and of John) gives us a clue as to the kind of kingdom that was to be established.  The Jews were expecting an earthly political kingdom.  At the time, they were under the domination of Rome.  They hoped that the Messiah would overthrow the Roman government and establish Jerusalem as the capital of the world.  If this had been the kind of kingdom to be established, Jesus and John would have said, “Arm yourselves, learn to use your weapons, get yourselves into condition, for the battle will soon begin to establish the kingdom of God among men.”  But this was not what Jesus said.

Rather, Jesus and John said REPENT.  The kingdom was to be a kingdom of righteousness.  It was to be made up of individuals who had left the service of Satan to yield themselves completely to the authority of God.  This required a change of heart, and that’s what repentance is.  This was the reason Jesus told Nicodemus that he would have to be born again to enter the kingdom, John 3:3-5.  He would have to be changed within and without.

Many people today express an interest in the kingdom of God.  Their attention, however, is riveted on the Near East and the political and military events that take place there.  That’s the wrong place for our concerns to be centered.  Our concern must be with our own hearts—getting them right with God through repentance.  We must be born again.  That is the condition of our acceptance into the kingdom.  That is where the kingdom must exist—within us!

The Woman At The Well

By Paul Earnhart

We read in John chapter 4 beginning at verse 5 that as Jesus was passing through Samaria, He sat down wearily by a well while His disciples went to buy food (Jn. 4:5-6).  A Samaritan woman came to draw water and was surprised when Jesus asked for a drink.  Jesus told her that if she had asked, He would have given her living water (Jn. 4:10).  He was speaking of the spiritual refreshment which He could provide.  But her mind was so much on the water and the well that she could not think of spiritual water at all.

So, Jesus changed his approach.  He asked her to go and call her husband (Jn. 4:16).  This was His way of getting her to examine her own spiritual condition.  Jesus knew that she had had five husbands, and at that time she was living with a man who was not her husband (Jn. 4:17-18).  It is interesting that she immediately changed the subject.  She did not want to talk about her sins; so, she brought up an old question about the proper place to worship (Jn. 4:19-20).

Many people today are happy to talk about religion so long as it does not get into their personal lives.  They like to talk about such things as where Cain got his wife, or about Jonah and the whale.  They might even be willing to discuss their own religious experience and tell you about their church preference.  But if we should meet Jesus today as that woman met him, I am sure He would ask about our personal lives... how we are living before God.

What would you say if Jesus asked you about your husband, or your wife?  Are you living with someone who is not your spouse?  What would you say if He asked you how you make and spend your money?  What would you say if He asked about your favorite recreation and entertainment?  Would you feel comfortable talking to Jesus about these things?  Whether you talked to Him about them or not, He knows.  He knew that Samaritan woman's condition without her telling Him.  And before He can save you, you must face up to your condition and repent of your sins.  No amount of religion can save you without a complete change of life to bring it into harmony with God's will (Lk 13:1-5; Acts 2:37-38)).