From the The Kingdom series.
John said it. Jesus said it. “Repent for the kingdom has come near” (Mt 3:2, 4:17). But what did they mean? What is this kingdom all about, and who is the king? It’s a movable kingdom? How does it come near? And how does repentance fit in?
As a first century Jew, we know something about kings. We’ve had lots of them – some good, some not-so-good, and some were just awful. We were warned (1 Sam 8:4-22). These days we have the Romans calling the shots, they’ve been here for decades now. We really don’t like them at all, although they do let us have our temple in Jerusalem and our synagogues. Many of us dream about a king that will march into town one day and sweep the occupiers from our land in a blaze of glory. A messiah. Maybe that’s what this kingdom is about…