THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.
"This is He whom Seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the Prophets
Promised in their faithful word."
We have seen that, in the providence of God, John the Baptist was sent
to proclaim to the world that "The Kingdom of Heaven" was at hand, and
to point out the King. And as soon as the Herald had raised the
expectation of men by the proclamation of the coming Kingdom, our Lord
began His public ministry, the great object of which was the founding
of His Kingdom for the salvation of the world. And, as S. Matthew
tells us, He "went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and
preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom" (S. Matt. iv. 23); or, as S. Mark
relates, "After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee
preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is
fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe
the Gospel" (S. Mark i. 14, 15).
Thus the King took up and continued the message of His Herald, only
adding to John the Baptist's preaching of repentance the call to
believe the Gospel--to have faith in the good tidings which He came to
tell of the Kingdom of Heaven and of God. And from this time to the
end of His ministry we find that the Gospel of the Kingdom was the
continual subject of His teaching. Thus S. Luke records that He
declared once to a multitude which would detain Him, "I must preach
the Kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent" (S.
Luke iv. 43). And, a few chapters after, we read, "It came to pass
afterward that He went throughout every city and village, preaching
and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God" (S. Luke viii. 1).
And then, after a while, "He called His twelve disciples together, and
gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God" (S. Luke ix. 1, 2). And
having thus spent the years of His public ministry in publishing the
good news of the Kingdom, He declared towards the end of it, as He was
foretelling to His disciples the signs of His future coming to
judgment, "And this Gospel[3] of the Kingdom shall be preached in all
the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come"
(S. Matt. xxiv. 14).
And what is the Gospel of the Kingdom?
To form the answer we must look to the general teaching which runs
through the Bible. As soon as Adam fell from his high estate as God's
child, the Deliverer was promised, "who should bruise the serpent's
head" (Gen. iii. 15). Ages passed with only a dim hope of a coming
Saviour; until at length God gave to Abraham the distinct promise that
the Deliverer should arise from his posterity; saying, "In thy seed
shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 18).
Again ages passed; and David was raised up from amongst the
descendants of Abraham, and of the predicted tribe of Judah, and to
him the promise was made, "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be
established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for
ever" (2 Sam. vii. 16). We know that princes of the family of David
succeeded one another on the throne for 450 years, until the Jews were
carried into captivity; but we learn from the Psalms that it had been
revealed to David himself that this promise was not to be fulfilled in
any such earthly and temporal manner. And his faith and hopes are
expressed continually in glowing words, describing a Kingdom of
Messiah, which should be universal and without end, a Kingdom of
righteousness and peace.
Thus in Psalm ii. the nations of the world are represented in
rebellion against God and the Messiah. "Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against His Anointed" (Ps. ii. 1, 2), i.e. Messiah--Christ. And
then the decree of the universal sovereignty of Messiah is
proclaimed: "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me,
Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts
of the earth for Thy possession" (Ps. ii. 7, 8). Then in Psalm xxii,
after the mysterious sufferings of Messiah have been set forth, His
Kingdom is again proclaimed as universal: "All the ends of the world
shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the
nations shall worship before Thee" (Ps. xxii. 27). And, to pass over
other passages, in Psalm lxxii. Messiah's everlasting reign of
righteousness and peace is described in glowing words: "They shall
fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all
generations. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance
of peace so long as the moon endureth. All kings shall fall down
before Him; all nations shall serve Him. His Name shall endure for
ever; and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him
blessed[4]" (Ps. lxxii. 5, 7, 11, 17).
Many years passed; and then Isaiah proclaimed in prophecy, "Behold a
King shall reign in righteousness" (Isai. xxxii. 1); and in many a
glowing passage described the peace and glory of His Kingdom. And
Jeremiah yet more clearly announced, "Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King
shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the
earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our
Righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6). And Daniel was directed to explain
the king's dream, as a vision of earthly empires, which should be
overpowered "by the Stone cut out without hands;" for "the God of
Heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the
Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever"
(Dan. ii. 44, 45). And Zechariah sang, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto
thee" (Zech. ix. 9).
Many years were yet to pass before the fulfilment of these promises
should be commenced, through the setting up of the everlasting
sovereignty of Messiah. But at last the fulness of time was come; and
the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, and after
addressing her as the favoured mother of Messiah, declared of her Son,
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and
the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; and
He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His Kingdom
there shall be no end" (S. Luke i. 32, 33).
This then was the Gospel--the Gospel of the Kingdom--the Gospel of
God. The good news was published abroad that the long-promised King of
the seed of David was come. Messiah's Kingdom was to be set up; and
all men were invited to enter in and be saved.
The King Himself went forth to preach the good news, and to describe
His Kingdom and the character of His subjects. But by what means could
He persuade the people that He was their King? We often wonder that
the Jews were so slow to believe in Him; but perhaps we do not realise
their difficulties. There was one great obstacle which stopped all
but a very few from accepting Him. And it was this. "The Kingdom of
Heaven" which He preached as the Kingdom of Messiah was altogether
different from anything which they had expected, because it was a
spiritual Kingdom. No doubt the words of the Psalmist and of the
Prophets ought to have led them to expect the Son of God as King. And,
if they had nurtured any real love of God in their hearts, they would
have been ready to become His subjects. But it was not so. They
expected a conqueror to free them from the yoke of their enemies. And
the enemies which He came to conquer were spiritual--the great enemy
of the whole human race--not the earthly foes of the one race of
Israel. They expected the glory and pomp which are the outward signs
of the authority to rule; and they could not understand the position
which He claimed to hold who had come in such humility that He said,
"The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head" (S. Matt. viii. 20).
"Tell us," they said, "by what authority doest thou these things?" (S.
Luke xx. 2). And, therefore, we need not seek far to find the reason
of the small success which followed the preaching of the Gospel of the
Kingdom. Only a spiritual power can move men in spiritual things, and
a man must first give himself up to the guidance of the Holy Spirit
before He can take in spiritual truths. If men resist the teaching of
God, no evidence will move them. "If they hear not Moses and the
Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the
dead" (S. Luke xvi. 31). "The Kingdom of Heaven" could not be set up
until the Holy Ghost was given[5], because the Jews were not prepared
to accept Messiah as the King of a spiritual Kingdom; and only the
Holy Ghost could move the hearts of men to desire spiritual blessings,
and to hope for spiritual rewards.
So our Blessed Lord preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to unwilling
hearts; and was compelled to "upbraid the cities wherein most of His
mighty works were done, because they repented not" (S. Matt. xi. 20).
Only the few received Him--the few who were "babes" in spirit--whilst
"the wise and prudent" (S. Matt. xi. 25) rejected Him.
There were two kinds of evidence to which He continually appealed in
His arguments with the Jewish rulers in proof of His claims upon their
hearts. The first was the direct testimony of John the Baptist: "Ye
sent unto John and he bare witness unto the truth" (S. John v. 33).
For "when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
Who art thou? he confessed, I am not the Christ" (S. John i. 19, 20).
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the
Lamb of God" (S. John i. 29). And he declared that he knew Him in
consequence of the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him at His
baptism; and (said he), "I saw and bare record that this is the Son of
God" (S. John i. 34). The other evidence was "greater witness than
that of John," namely, the miracles which He wrought, for (said He)
"the works which the Father hath given Me to finish bear witness of Me
that the Father hath sent Me" (S. John v. 36); and "though ye believe
not Me, believe the works" (S. John x. 38). Other kinds of evidence
were also employed; such as the direct testimony of the Father in the
voice from Heaven, and in the immediate answers to prayer in the
working of His miracles--"The Father Himself which hath sent Me, hath
borne witness of Me" (S. John v. 37)--and also, the statements of Holy
Scripture, describing His person and His work so clearly that He could
say to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures; for they are they which
testify of Me" (S. John v. 39). But we know the result. All the
evidences were in vain. The Jews in general refused to believe in Him
as their King. The ruling classes not only rejected Him, but they also
hindered others from acknowledging Him. So that He cried out against
them, "Ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for ye neither go
in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in" (S.
Matt. xxiii. 13).
And there were but very few exceptions. The Apostles and the small
band of disciples professed their faith in Him. "Whom do men say that
I am?" He asked them once; "and they said, Some say John the Baptist;
some Elias; and others, Jeremias or one of the Prophets." None
accepted Him as Messiah, their King. "But whom say ye that I am?" He
went on to ask; "and Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God" (S. Matt. xvi. 13-16). So also
Nathanael, the "Israelite indeed," boldly proclaimed his belief:
"Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel" (S. John
i. 49). And there was one bright flash of enthusiasm which carried all
along exultingly to welcome Him on His last visit to the Holy City;
when the crowds spread branches of the palm-trees, and cried, "Hosanna
to the Son of David: blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord" (S. Matt. xxi. 9). "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name
of the Lord: peace in Heaven, and glory in the highest" (S. Luke xix.
38).
But it was within a few days after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem
that the rulers of the Jews took the Lord Jesus, and having condemned
Him in their own council for blasphemy, for professing Himself to be
Messiah--"the Christ"--"the Son of God" (S. Luke xxii. 67-71), they
charged Him before the Roman governor with treason, for saying "that
He Himself is Christ a King" (S. Luke xxiii. 2). And this accusation,
it may well be noticed, was not a different charge from the former.
All that they did was to put cleverly before the earthly governor the
earthly side of the spiritual crime, for which they had themselves
condemned Him. If He was Messiah, He was their King. They condemned
Him for professing to be Messiah; a charge on which no civil tribunal
could give judgment. But professing to be Messiah, He professed to be
King; and this they represented as an offence against the state, and
to be punished accordingly. And the result was, that by the Providence
of God He was not stoned to death, as was His first martyr Stephen, on
the charge of blasphemy; but He was handed over to the civil power to
be crucified for treason, as claiming to be King. And it came to pass,
that after their persistent rejection of Him, the Jewish rulers were
compelled to see Him acknowledged upon the cross as their King, in the
words of the superscription containing the charge on which He was
condemned. His cross became His throne, with His title above it,
"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (S. John xix. 19). Fit
throne for Him who was "obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a
name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow" (Phil. ii. 6-10). And all the efforts of the Jews to alter it
were in vain. Pilate at length was firm: "What I have written, I have
written" (S. John xix. 22).
Thus seemed to end the Kingdom which our Lord and His disciples had
been inviting men to join. They could preach no more the Gospel of the
Kingdom, for the King was put to a shameful death. "The chief priests
and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have
crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have
redeemed Israel" (S. Luke xxiv. 20, 21). So spake even the disciples
in their despair. They had "trusted," as they supposed, in vain.
Verily God's ways are not as man's ways.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] It may be noticed here, that the expression "preaching the Gospel"
is used in these passages of Holy Scripture in a very wide sense. It
is not limited to the preaching of the great doctrine of the
Atonement, but it refers to the general purpose for which Christ came;
which was, to gather all the world into His Kingdom of grace and
salvation. See Bishop How's Commentary on the Gospels, under S. Luke
viii. 1. (Publ. by S. P. C. K.)
[4] See this very skilfully drawn out in a little devotional
Commentary on "Five Psalms of the Kingdom," by Rev. G. F. Saxby.
Published by J. T. Hayes, London.
[5] See below, notes on pp. 50 and 83.