Dr. Robert Martin
I went about preaching the kingdom (Acts 20:25).
In this chapter we continue our study of the foci and recurring themes of Paul’s preaching. At verse 25, he characterizes his ministry as “preaching the kingdom.”1 What, however, does this mean?
The phrase “preaching the kingdom” occurs only here and in Acts 28, where we read, “And he [Paul] abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him” (28:30-31). At 28:23 we find a similar phrase: “And when they had appointed him a day, they came to him into his lodging in great number; to whom he expounded the matter, testifying the kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning till evening.” These passages are helpful in seeing that the concerns of “kingdom” preaching are those things that “concern the Lord Jesus Christ” and involve “persuading concerning Jesus.” Kingdom preaching clearly then is gospel preaching. But that is to state the obvious.
The word “preach” (khru,ssw) means “to proclaim after the manner of a herald; always with the suggestion of formality, gravity and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed.”2 The word “testify” (diamartu,romai), which we have seen twice already (cf., 20:21, 24), means to speak solemnly, earnestly, and emphatically. Thus, in the expressions “preaching the kingdom of God” and “testifying the kingdom of God,” Paul appears in the role of a royal herald, coming with the authority of the King of Kings, speaking not flippantly but with earnestness and solemnity, as is befitting his royal commission and business, and as is befitting his hearers’ duty to hear and obey the royal message that he bears. Now, Paul says that in this role of royal herald, he went about “preaching the kingdom.” In some way, these words sum up his message–pointing to the heart of the proclamation that he delivered by the authority of his King. But what is “the kingdom”? Answering this question so as to give due weight to all that the Bible says on the subject of the kingdom of God is far beyond my capacity or the scope of this book. However, let us consider some basic things about the subject of the kingdom and then try to understand Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders against the background of what Luke says elsewhere about Paul’s preaching on this theme in Ephesus (cf., Acts 19:8-10). We will consider (1) the nature of the kingdom proclaimed, (2) the manner of entrance into the kingdom, (3) the content of the kingdom gospel, (4) the Ephesians’ reaction to the preaching of the kingdom.
1. The Nature of the Kingdom Proclaimed
Let us begin with the fact that Paul did not invent the concept of the kingdom of God. His knowledge of this subject came from the Scriptures of the Old Testament and from the Lord Jesus, whom he proclaimed as the Christ, or Messianic King. The Old Testament teaches that, in addition to a universal kingship exercised by Jehovah over all things (Psa. 103:19), at Sinai he established a special earthly kingdom in Israel.
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exod. 19:4-6).
This kingdom, however, was never meant to be an end in itself. God gave Israel his law and ruled over the nation so that it might foreshadow the final, heavenly kingdom that he would establish in the unfolding of his redemptive purposes. And Israel’s failures, far from overthrowing God’s purposes in establishing the nation as his provisional kingdom, only showed that it was not the final kingdom and that the kingdom in its consummate form was yet to come.
The prophets, of course, looked beyond the present spectacle of Israel’s failure and national ruin and spoke of God’s final kingdom as coming only when the Anointed One (the Christ or Messiah) appeared. Consider, for example,
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this (Isa. 9:6-7).
I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14).
When Jesus was born, the appearance of a special star signified the birth of the long-awaited messianic King (Matt. 2:2; cf., Num. 24:17). The angels also announced to the shepherds that “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). These, of course, were announcements of the kingdom’s arrival. When Jesus publically manifested himself to Israel, the gospels agree that he came preaching that the long-awaited kingdom was at hand (cf., Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43). Throughout his ministry the coming of this kingdom is the great event that he associates with his appearance and activity.
As to the nature of Christ’s kingdom and the manner of its coming, the teaching of Jesus and of his apostles was very different from the doctrine of their Jewish contemporaries and it was a stumbling-block to many of them. They looked for a Warrior-King who would break the Roman yoke and establish Israel as the dominant nation of the earth. Most of the Jews had no conception of a spiritual kingdom or of a Christ who would suffer and die as the Servant of Jehovah. The words “my kingdom is not of this world” would not have been well-received by most of Jesus’ Jewish hearers (John 18:36). Even among his disciples, these things were difficult to receive. And even after his resurrection, he still needed to instruct them about the necessity (for kingdom purposes) of his death and resurrection.
And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory [i.e., into his kingdom]? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. . . . Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the scriptures; and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:25-27, 45-47; cf., Acts 1:3-8).
The disciples needed to understand that Jesus’ death and resurrection were events critical to the establishment of his kingdom. And they needed to understand that the enemies of his rule were not the Roman occupiers of Israel–for he did not wrestle against flesh and blood, but “against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). And they needed to understand, as Paul says, that it is through his death that he despoiled these principalities and powers and triumphed over them, making a show of them openly (Col. 2:14-15).
Jesus’ disciples needed to know that their King was victorious and that he was establishing the kingdom promised by the prophets. And when he commissioned them, he told them that their work in the expansion of the kingdom was not military or political, but evangelistic. The servants of the Great King are to conquer the nations not by military or political means, but with the gospel. We are to make disciples, calling men to repentance and faith, promising them remission of sins, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that the King commands.
Jesus promised his disciples that after his departure he would give them the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things and bring to remembrance all that he had said to them (John 14:26). And true to his word, at Pentecost he gave the Spirit to his church. After Pentecost, the disciples’ ideas about the kingdom began to change. They learned that the kingdom was meant for men of every nation. And they learned that Christ’s rule would spread through the preaching of the gospel and the conversion of sinners. By this means it would increase through the ages, “reaching its consummation by a sudden crisis at the end coinciding with the second coming of Christ and the end of the present world.”3
The final kingdom began its coming when Jesus began preaching the gospel. His sinless life, sin-bearing death, and glorious resurrection are the foundation of the gospel by which his rule is spread. Throughout the ages, his disciples, through faith in him, become subjects in his kingdom. The church is a present expression of this kingdom and its history is the history of the kingdom’s gradual extension. Jesus said that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14). In the present generation, we now take our place in the history of the coming of the kingdom, preaching “the gospel of the kingdom” and “waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:7), i.e., for the day “when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power,” when “he hath put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:24-25).
2. The Manner of Entrance into the Kingdom
When John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom, he urged men to repent of their sins, saying, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). He came “that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him” (John 1:7). He pointed men to “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), so that they might believe on him and bend their knee to him as their rightful King. And “with many other exhortations he preached the gospel unto the people” (Luke 3:18). In John’s preaching of the gospel, entrance into the kingdom was not automatic simply because one was an Israelite, i.e., physically a member of the kingdom in its Old Covenant form. Even the scribes and Pharisees, and the priests and Levites, had to repent of their sins and believe on Christ to enter this kingdom.
Mark says that “after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Jesus fully agreed with John as to how men enter his kingdom. It is true, of course, that Jesus also spoke of the need of a new birth, saying, “Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5). And yet, though Jesus would have us know that we are dependent on the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit for this new birth (and therefore for entrance to his kingdom), he also urges us to recognize our need to “press into” the kingdom. He said to the Pharisees, who did not believe that they needed a new birth or repentance of sins or faith in him in order to enter God’s kingdom, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). The verb bia,zw signifies “to force one’s way int0” something (cf., NASB, NIV, ESV), so that here Jesus is saying that a place in his kingdom is gained only “with the most ardent zeal and the intensest exertion.”4 Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon entitled Pressing into the Kingdom of God, rightly says that the expression “pressing into the kingdom” denotes strength of desire, earnestness and firmness of resolution, readiness to break through every opposition and difficulty, and greatness of endeavor directly about the business of entering God’s kingdom. Edwards concludes, “It concerns every one that would obtain the kingdom of God, to be pressing into it.”5
On the question of how men enter the kingdom, this was also the doctrine of Christ’s apostles. We see this, of course, in Paul’s description of his own preaching. In “preaching the kingdom of God” (20:25), he “testified the gospel of the grace of God” (2o:24), “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (20:21). And as to the necessity of “pressing into the kingdom,” i.e., with urgency and resolve to break through every opposition and difficulty, we know that Paul exhorted his hearers “that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
3. The Content of the Kingdom Gospel
This theme is impossible to define comprehensively in better terms than those with which Paul already has set it out, i.e., “the whole counsel of God.” Indeed, the label “kingdom” comports with all that Christ and the apostles preached. In some cases this is explicit, as in the case of our Lord’s words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17; cf., 3:2; 10:7). The preaching of the gospel was the proclamation of “the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14) or “the word of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:19). In other cases, the word “kingdom” and other royal terminology are not used. Nonetheless, the sovereign rights and rule, the purposes and prerogatives, the works and will and ways of the King of heaven and earth are the background of all that is said. As we may see by comparing Paul’s words at 20:25 with 20:21 and 20:24, heralding (khru,ssw) the kingdom clearly included preaching repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and the principle of grace over against that of human merit. Because of the comprehensiveness of the theme of “the kingdom,” it is not possible in a brief compass to set out all the specifics of kingdom preaching; however, perhaps we can still say something on this point. Consider that . . .
1. Kingdom preaching begins with the proclamation of the King (Acts 28:31; cf., 8:12; 28:23). It is distinctively God-centered and Christ-centered (Matt. 6:10; cf., 1 Cor. 15:24-28). And it will include such things as a declaration of the King’s prerogatives (2 Tim 4:1) and character (Heb. 1:8). In conjunction with this emphasis on the King himself, kingdom preaching will direct men to worship him (1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 15:4), as well as to serve him (1 Cor. 7:35) and seek his fellowship as one’s greatest joy (1 John 1:3-4).
2. Kingdom preaching will include a clear proclamation of the only way of entrance into the kingdom (Matt. 5:20; 7:21; 18:3; John 3:3, 5).
3. Kingdom preaching will include proclamation of the certainty of the salvation offered in the gospel (Heb. 12:28); but it also will include an honest declaring of the hardship in this life that comes to those who enter (Acts 14:22; 2 Thess. 1:5).
4. Kingdom preaching includes a distinctive doctrine of the Christian life. Those who continue in the service of sin cannot enter into it (Matt. 13:41-43; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5-7). The blessedness of God’s kingdom is for those who walk by his Word (Matt. 5:3ff). It is a life of kingdom priorities (Matt. 6:33), of self-denial (Rom. 14:17), and of killing sin (Mark 9:47). And it is a life of perseverance (Luke 9:62). In a word it is a life that is not of this world lived in the service a kingdom that is not of this world.
4. The Ephesians’ Reaction to the Preaching of the Kingdom
Paul here reminds the Ephesian elders that he had been present among them preaching the kingdom of God (20:25). In Luke’s account of Paul’s Ephesian ministry, he records that Paul “entered into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). The Ephesians’ response to his preaching on this theme (with emphasis on the nature of the kingdom and the manner of entering it) was mixed. On the one hand, by the sovereign, effectual working of the Spirit, some, both Jews and Greeks, received the gospel, repented of their sins, believed on Christ, were converted, bent the knee to him as their King, and were ushered into the kingdom. On the other hand, “some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude” (19:9). And doubtless among many a spirit of apathy prevailed. In this climate, though separated from the synagogue, for the space of two years Paul continued to preach the kingdom, “so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (19:10).
In their preaching of the kingdom, the Ephesian elders must expect the same responses. Some will believe, others will oppose them, offended at their insistence that they must repent of their sins and that they need a Savior. And many will be apathetic. To the Greeks the cross will be foolishness and to the Jews it will be a stumbling-block. Many will fight them rather than be told that they must be converted and bend their knee to King Jesus. Many will speak evil of the Way when they are told that they must press into the kingdom. The Ephesian elders must expect to preach in that climate. And so must all who preach the kingdom.
Paul tells the Ephesian elders that he was among them “preaching the kingdom.” This was a focus of his preaching and a recurring subject wherever he went, so that even in Rome, as he was awaiting his audience before Caesar, Paul was “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” (Acts 28:31). He always urged men to press into the kingdom by “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (20:21).
Jesus told his disciples, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:29-30). “Preaching the kingdom of God” was a vital, recurring theme in Paul’s preaching–a central part of “the whole counsel of God” by which sinners are profited. Any preacher who does not imitate Paul in this has diverged from the apostolic gospel and is greatly in error. The churches need men who will preach Christ’s kingdom and urge men to press into it.
Brethren, what a glorious privilege it is to preach of Christ the King and of his kingdom which cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28). Do we need a grander theme than “the good tidings of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43)? Can we serve in a grander cause than this–to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Can we offer a grander inheritance than being “heirs of the kingdom which he promised to them that love him” (James 2:5)? Edward Payson, commenting on the petition in the Lord’s Prayer “thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10), has said,
By assigning the first place to those petitions, which relate to the honor of God’s name, the advancement of his kingdom, and the accomplishment of his will, our Saviour probably intended to teach us to prefer these objects to our own private interest; and to give them, as he invariably did, the first place in our exertions and desires. To this place indeed, they are pre-eminently entitled. They embrace at once the best interests of heaven and earth–of God and of his creatures. So inseparably is their promotion connected with the highest happiness of our fallen race, that love to man and to ourselves as well as concern for the divine glory, must induce us to prefer it to every other object. Never do we display a temper more worthy of men and of Christians; never do we ask for such a profusion of blessings on ourselves and others, as when we sincerely pray that God’s name may be hallowed, that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.6
That kingdom for which we should sincerely pray at the throne of grace surely is a theme on which God’s ministers should preach with regularity. Prayer which does not ascend to this great theme is not prayer after the model of our Lord’s instruction. So likewise, in some sense, the expression “preaching the kingdom” should characterize our message. If not, it is not preaching after the example of the King himself and after the apostolic model.
Notes:
1. The KJV, following the Textus Receptus, reads, “preaching the kingdom of God.”
2. John Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (reprint ed., Wheaton, IL: Evangel Publishing Company, 1974), s.v., khru,ssw.
3. Geerhardus Vos, The Kingdom of God and the Church (reprint ed., Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1972), 27.
4. Thayer, s.v., bia,zw.
5. Jonathan Edwards, “Pressing into the Kingdom of God,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (reprint ed., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974), 1:655.
6. Edward Payson, “Prayer for the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom,” in The Complete Works of Edward Payson (reprint ed., Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 2:344-45.
Copyright © 2014 Robert Martin. All Rights Reserved.
