The Gospel of the Kingdom
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those that had the palsy: and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.” Matthew 4:23-25
What is the gospel of the kingdom as compared to the gospel of Jesus Christ? During Jesus’ time on earth, He preached the gospel of the kingdom to all the folks who gathered and followed Him from town to town. There were over 200 towns and cities in Galilee, and it is believed that Jesus visited most, if not all, of them. He taught in the synagogues, designed for religious instruction and the reading of the law but not so much for public worship. The synagogues provided an opportunity for the lay people to at least have some knowledge of the law since the only ones allowed to study the law were the religious leaders. There was one incident in Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, where He was not welcome in the synagogue (Luke 4:16-30). In our day, we know that He is not welcome in public places and even in some churches as shown by their lack of preaching the truth of Christ.
Jesus’ teaching focused on the Old Testament scriptures and the “gospel of the kingdom”. At this point, He had not suffered and died for the sins of the world and had not been resurrected. Consequently, He did not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people. He did inform His 12 disciples on at least three occasions that He would suffer, die, and rise again (Mark 8:31; 9:31; and 10:33-34), but they did not understand until after the Resurrection. If the disciples couldn’t understand this, then neither would the townspeople to whom Jesus preached even though His death and resurrection were prophesied in the Old Testament. The people had little knowledge of scripture, and the scribes and Pharisees, who knew scripture, were blind as to who Jesus really was, the Son of God and the Messiah. So, what did Jesus preach to the common people?
Jesus’ preaching prior to His resurrection was to call people to honor God and live righteously, to have faith that God was bringing about a remedy for their sin. Until Jesus arose on the third day, the Jews were still obligated to sacrifice and make offerings because that was the law, but after Jesus was resurrected, those sacrifices and offerings were no longer required. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He brought the worship and service to God down to a practical level. The religious leaders had added many rules and traditions, some of them very burdensome, but Jesus gave the people a wise and beneficial way to live to please God and not break the law until such time as He became the one and final Sacrifice.
Matthew Henry describes the gospel of the kingdom as (paraphrasing) the kingdom of heaven, the rulership that God may bring on the earth at a certain period of time. The gospel of the kingdom is the word which will be established for all eternity, and the kingdom of heaven will survive all other kingdoms of earth. This gospel contains the King’s coronation oath which obliges Him to pardon, protect, and save the subjects of that kingdom. Also included is the oath of allegiance by which men and women oblige themselves to observe His statutes and seek His honor. The gospel of the kingdom is God’s purpose to establish an earthly kingdom in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant (II Samuel 7:16) wherein David was promised that the throne of his descendant (Jesus Christ) would be established forever (Unger’s Bible Dictionary). If I understand this correctly and to put it more simply, the gospel of Jesus Christ makes the way to be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. The gospel of the kingdom was the only gospel until after Jesus died and rose again, making His gospel the only gospel to save sinners.
Not only did Jesus teach and preach, but He healed those who were sick physically and mentally. Word of His healing power spread quickly among the people, and they were coming probably by the thousands from Israel and other areas outside of Israel. Christ had such compassion upon those who were hurting, but He also desired for them to be spiritually healed as well. Romans 2:4b tells us that “the goodness of God leads us to repentance”. How could people see all the healings that Jesus did and not believe in Him? When He began His ministry, there were no Christians. There were a few folks who were faithful to God and believed in His promise of a Redeemer, but, by and large, the majority of people were ignorant of God and His coming Messiah. Jesus’ way to show the people what God was really like was to heal and do miracles. We do not have healings on a grand scale today because we have 2,000 years of history, the New Testament, and the testimony and witness of millions of Christians to verify the truth of God’s word. We don’t need healings or outward manifestations of the existence of Christ to prove that He is our King and Savior. We have His sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalties for our sins as the method whereby Jesus draws us to Him. He told His disciples in John 12:32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” The most awesome miracle of all is Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, and the power to save us lost sinners. Who needs to see a miracle greater than that?