The Kingdom of God
Introduction
In the New Testament, Jesus’ message, the "good news" or gospel, is encapsulated in the declaration, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The concept of the "kingdom of heaven" forms the foundation and core of all Jesus' teachings. This idea, rooted in the Old Testament as "the kingdom of God," signifies the restoration of the Davidic monarchy and the return of the people of Israel to their land. The arrival of this kingdom will usher in global peace, universal prosperity, the resurrection of the dead, and the outpouring of God’s Spirit, all marking the Messianic Era. Jesus' message was "good news" for Israel, not because He came to replace them, but because He promised their national redemption. He called them to respond with repentance—turning from sin and living in obedience to the Torah.
The Good News
When Jesus said He came to bring "good news," He referenced numerous prophecies in the Old Testament. Jesus was a rabbi—a teacher. But what did He teach? He rarely taught about the after-life. More often, He taught the Torah, but that's not all. He had a specific message that He taught everywhere He went. He entrusted His disciples with this specific message, and He told them to teach the same message to their disciples. We call it "the gospel.”
The Gospel = the Good News
In a Jewish context, the "good news" referred to the good news of God's redemption of the nation of Israel. We find the "good news" in the prophecies of Isaiah. Three prophecies in Isaiah will provide context and the biblical definition of the "good news" that Jesus taught.
Isaiah 40:9 speaks of a messenger coming to Jerusalem to proclaim the good news of Israel's redemption:
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40:9, ESV Bible)
The gospel is the good news about the redemption of the nation.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7, ESV Bible)
This prophecy helps us define the good news a little more closely with three specific terms. The gospel is the good news about peace, salvation, and the reign of God.
The messianic redemption of the nation will bring peace to Israel because it will save Israel from the nation's enemies. Then the nation will experience the reign of God.
Gospel = Reign of God = Kingdom of God
In Isaiah 61, the Servant of the LORD declares that God has anointed Him with His Spirit to bring the good news to the captives and exiles of Israel. It's a message of national redemption and restoration:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4, ESV Bible)
This is the same prophecy in Isaiah that Jesus read aloud in His hometown synagogue in Nazareth. He then said, "Today this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing.” (This does little to combat Realized Eschatology). This prophecy is about the final redemption: the restoration of the land and the people of Israel. The gospel is the good news about the restoration of the land and the people of Israel.
The core of Jesus’ teaching can be summed up in one simple statement. Jesus taught His students the good news. From a Jewish perspective, the term "good news" refers to the good news about the redemption of the nation of Israel and the reign of God:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel 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, ESV Bible)
The gospel, in a nutshell, is this message: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand! This is the same message that John the Immerser taught:
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2, ESV Bible)
In the following chapter, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Yeshua began to preach the same message:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17, ESV Bible)
When He sent out His disciples, He said:
And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ (Matthew 10:7, ESV Bible)
The message of the gospel is repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The kingdom is the central point of all Jesus’ teachings. But what does it mean when He says, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand”? "Kingdom of heaven" does not refer to a kingdom that is up in heaven. He wasn't talking about the afterlife. In this phrase, "heaven" is a politely indirect way of referring to God Himself. The "kingdom of heaven" and the "kingdom of God" are the same thing. The phrase "kingdom of heaven" is a common Jewish way of referring to the "reign of God.”
Kingdom of heaven = Reign of God
The Messianic Era
The prophets give us some incredible glimpses of the joys of the Messianic Era.
According to the prophets, the Messianic Era will begin when the Messiah, the King of Israel, gathers the exiled people of Israel back to the land of Israel:
If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. (Deuteronomy 30:4)
The Messiah will summon the exiles with the sound of a great shofar:
A great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. (Isaiah 27:13)
The Messianic Era will be a time of ingathering of exiles. But the kingdom isn't only for the Jewish people. As the Messianic Era begins, King Messiah will conquer all the nations and rule over them as King:
Every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. (Isaiah 45:23)
He will judge between the nations ... and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. (Isaiah 2:4)
The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat. (Isaiah 11:6)
The Messianic Era will be a time of universal peace.
The prophets also depict miraculous fertility, agricultural abundance, and an end to famine and scarcity:
The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water. (Joel 3:18)
The Messianic Era will be a time of universal prosperity.
It will be an era of heightened spirituality and knowledge of God:
The earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)
They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother; saying, "Know the LORD," for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Jeremiah 31:34)
The Messianic Era will be a time of spiritual revelation.
I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those davs. (Joel 2:28-29)
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:27)
The Messianic Era will be a time of the outpouring of God’s Spirit.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness. (Ezekiel 36:25)
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:27)
The Messianic Era will be a time of the outpouring of God’s Spirit.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness. (Ezekiel 36:25)
I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)
The Messianic Era will be a time of spiritual cleansing.
The Messianic Era will begin when the Messiah comes with the blast of a great ram's horn (shofar) and the righteous are raised from the dead:
Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 37:12)
The Messianic Era will be a time of the resurrection of the dead.
According to the prophets, the kingdom will begin with the resurrection of the righteous. This explains why we are so excited about Yeshua's resurrection from the dead.
The resurrection of Yeshua from the dead is proof that there is such a thing as the resurrection of the dead and that the prophecies about the future kingdom are all true. It also proves that He is the King of that future kingdom.
Therefore, to believe in Yeshua requires us to receive Him as King and heed His message about the kingdom: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jewish literature imagines that the kingdom will be like a great banquet, where we will enjoy tasty foods and drinks in the company of great heroes of faith. Yeshua tapped into that imagery:
Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)
The ancient Jewish sages saw the Messianic Era to be like the Sabbath at the end of the week. A common Jewish belief is that this Sabbath-like era of redemption will last for a thousand years.
Afterward, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, also known as the World to Come. The World to Come will last forever. While the Messianic Era will be a utopian version of the world as we know it, the World to Come will be beyond anything we can anticipate or comprehend.
This timeline is depicted in the book of Revelation. First, there will be the resurrection of the righteous and the kingdom for a thousand years (there is debate over this and we will cover this later):
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4-5)
Later will come the new heaven and new earth of the World to Come:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and no longer is there any sea. (Revelation 21:1)
(If the first passed away, then that would imply not a renewal of things but a replacement of things) All of that is in the future, but there is a sense in which we can enter the kingdom of heaven right now by becoming citizens of the kingdom. To become a citizen of the kingdom, we just need to cast our allegiance with the King.
After the death and resurrection of Yeshua, this became the main thrust of the good-news message: Yeshua is King. It's good news because His resurrection proves that the prophecies about the coming kingdom are true.
Conclusion
The kingdom of heaven is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings. Far from being merely a spiritual or abstract idea, it is the tangible fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel and the world. Through His resurrection, Jesus confirmed that the kingdom is not only near but inevitable. As we reflect on His message and the prophecies of the Messianic Era, we are reminded that the call to repentance is a call to align ourselves with God’s eternal plan. Just as the early disciples proclaimed this good news, we are called to live in anticipation of the kingdom, making ourselves ready for the restoration of all things. The good news remains as powerful and transformative as ever—inviting all to turn to God, embrace His commandments, and await the glorious future that lies ahead.