and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
with all confidence, no one forbidding him.
Others proclaim that the gospel is that Jesus came to die for our sins.
Still others preach a rather insipid and saccharine "Jesus loves you" message.
All of those catchy phrases have relevance to Jesus' message—
We certainly must believe in Jesus,
He did die for our sins,
and He surely loves us—
What is Jesus' own testimony about the subject of His preaching?
Notice these verses:
» Matthew 4:23: "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people."» Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world
as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."» Luke 4:43: "[Jesus] said to them, 'I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also,
because for this purpose I have been sent.'"» Luke 16:16: "The law and the prophets were until John.
Since that time, the Kingdom of God has been preached,
and everyone is pressing into it."
Jesus' announcement of the good news is that the Father will establish His Kingdom and His capital city on earth.
He Himself will be here,
no longer separated from His children—
no longer unseen
and ruling indirectly through agents from His present location in heaven
but ruling directly on earth.
It is to this awesome, mind-boggling future that we,
as a part of His Family,
are being summoned to prepare for and to participate directly in.
Jesus is certainly mankind's Savior,
having died for our sins,
but to be properly understood,
that event must be seen within the context of
preparation for and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.
A kingdom has four basic elements:
a king, ( JESUS )
a territory it occupies, (The world with Jerusalem as the Center of it all),
subjects within that territory, ( Those who are chosen )
and laws through which the ruler's will is exercised.
Each of these elements is part of the gospel.
“When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven."
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.
5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
Thus the Lord my God will come,
And all the saints with [c]You.
6 It shall come to pass in that day
That there will be no light;
The [d]lights will diminish.
7 It shall be one day
Which is known to the Lord—
Neither day nor night.
But at evening time it shall happen
That it will be light.
8 And in that day it shall be
That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward [e]the eastern sea
And half of them toward [f]the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,”
And His name one.
