The Kingdom of God
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mark 1:1-3).
It is illuminating and refreshing to observe how God’s revelation of the Kingdom in the New Testament took off exactly where the last words of the Old Testament left off. The very last words from heaven, before the 400years of apparent silence that lasted after Malachi laid down his pen, were these:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6).
The very next words in the opening of the New Testament reveal the fulfillment of this promise in a striking way. Angel Gabriel appeared on the scene bringing a message from the Throne to Zecharias:
“And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.”
“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:10-17).
In angel Gabriel’s message to Zacharias, we have a direct continuation of the last message spoken by God through Malachi. The purpose of Gabriel’s message was to announce the coming of the prophet promised in the last words of Malachi, who should perform the Elijah-ministry of “turning the hearts of the people to the Lord their God”, thus making ready a people “prepared for the Lord.” This one will also fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah in the fortieth Chapter of the Book of Isaiah:
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isa 40:3-5).
John, a rugged man, who lived in the wilderness for majority of his life, without formal schooling but taught in the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, prepared the way before the Lord. He made the announcement that the time had come, and that nation should repent.
John was about six months older than Jesus and about thirty years old when his ministry began. He ministered for about a year and a half, spent about a year or so in prison before he was beheaded. And when John came out of the wilderness, he did not consult with the Scribes or the learned elders of Jerusalem. Rather, he went right to work in the spirit and power of Elijah, preaching repentance and calling all Jerusalem and Judea to prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.
Indeed, the preparation for the Gospel of the Kingdom began by the “Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness”.
Mark’s Gospel says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:1-4).
This gospel began when John came announcing the arrival of the King and His Kingdom. When the fullness of time came, the strange wilderness man appeared on the scene, preaching with a loud voice in a remote desert part of Judea, near the river Jordan saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”. This man was a Nazarite of the priestly tribe and had been consecrated to God from his infancy. He was not clothed in soft raiment but in a coarse tunic of camel’s hair; he had no craving for fine restaurant food but was content with dried locusts and wild honey.
He was literally the Voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!” Like the prophets of old he had a message directly from God for the people of Israel. His message was the announcement that God was visiting His people; That the Kingdom of God was at hand, and that the King was already in their midst.
The effect of John’s ministry was instantaneous. Israel was moved as they had not been moved for centuries. His voice reached from the region of River Jordan to Jerusalem. Multitudes came out to listen to him and to confess their sins. Pharisees and Sadducees, priests and scribes, publicans and sinners, soldiers and tax-collectors, all went forth to listen.
“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:5-12).