The Kingdom of Heaven Is At Hand
What Does This Mean?

Today's youthful evangelicals are saying to the Church, "Let's get back to Bible basics." I agree - we should never have left them. And I agree as well that too many mega-ministries are offering entertainment to the spiritually hungry instead of the undiluted power that is found within the simple truths of God's Holy Word.

"What are Bible basics?" Well, I am sure the answers and opinions will vary from ministry to ministry but for me, the basics mean going back to the first five Books of the Old Testament, the wonders and majesties of the character and the holiness of God.

It means reviving the ministry of Jesus, his trials and temptations, his teachings throughout the three and a half years that He preached, his courage as an overcomer and his example of an obedient walk. For me, it is the reharnassing of the faith of God and plowing the parched and thirsty fields when the only promise of rain in sight is in that tiny hand-shaped cloud in the distance...

The greatest story of all time and throughout all kingdoms began with the cry of John the Baptist, the one who came to prepare the way for the Messiah. Until the day Jesus came to be baptized of John, the Baptist had cried, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

Nobody knows how many days, weeks, months or years John preached before Jesus came to the Jordan, but afterward, as Jesus returned from the wilderness of his temptation, John introduced him to his own followers: "Behold, the Lamb of God." They understood what John was saying. Taking hold of the Revelation of the Baptist, the disciples of John turned to follow Jesus...

They followed him throughout the countryside, in the towns and in the villages, and when Jesus heard that John had been cast into prison he too began to preach, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

One may ask in all sincerity, "What does that mean - 'the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand?' "

In the days of King David and King Solomon, there existed first, the Kingdom of Judah, and then the Kingdom of all Israel. These were earthly kingdoms. Every tribe and nation was a kingdom with a king. Following the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of all Israel was divided into the Kingdom of Judah (southern Israel) and the Kingdom of Israel (northern Israel).

Both Kingdoms eventually fell into captivity because of their rebellious and unrepentant sins against God. The northern Kingdom fell to Assyria, the southern Kingdom (with Jerusalem) fell to Babylon. These were trying times for the people who had been chosen to be the people of the coming Messiah for, In those days, only the Kings, Priests and Prophets carried the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He had not yet been sent into the world as Comforter because Jesus had not yet been born or glorified.

Some five hundred years later the Roman legions marched into Israel and Syria, changed its name to Syro-Palestine, as an insult to the Jews while favoring the gangster descendants of Esau known as the Idumeans (Greek for Edom)- known today as the Palestinians.

Herod the Great was the second son of Antipater who had been appointed procurator of Judea by Julius Caesar in 47 B.C. Herod the Great, with the help of the Romans, took Jerusalem in 37 B.C. and established his Rome- appointed authority as King of Judea, (but not as King of all Israel). Like his father before him, he was an Idumean, an Edomite, a foreigner, a usurper to the throne. Herod was an Arab Israeli by Jewish law, and he was a vicious, paranoid, blood-thirsty and vile man whom God filled with foul-smelling, flesh-eating worms after he slaughtered all the babies of Bethlehem and the coastal areas.

Hmmm- I wonder if our liberal Congress has ever considered this? Wonder if our Supreme Court remembered Herod when they legalized abortion? What judgment will drink the blood of today's unrepentant slaughterers and the blood of those that command the slaughters? Will it be the swine flu? WMDs? Worms?

Following the death of Herod, Mary and Joseph ended their exile to Egypt and returned to Nazareth with the boy Jesus. In Nazareth the boy grew in wisdom and in stature, hidden away in that small Galilean town, until the time was right. Then one day, rather suddenly, (how many of you know God is the author of suddenlies?) the Spirit called a 30-year-old Jesus away from his carpenter's shop...

When John the Baptist came preaching to the trees and the river rocks in and along the Jordan River, Israel's youngest and brightest watchmen gathered. They were watching in those days for the coming of Messiah, and when they heard John, they believed He was the one they looked for.

The spiritual leaders of the day heard of him too and they came, asking questions. Actually, they did hear what he was saying, but they did not digest what he was saying. What they saw and what they heard was a wild man, a man very much like the old prophet Elijah, though it had been four hundred years since there was a prophet in Israel.

These leaders did not know what to think. You see, John was not preaching the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. He was not preaching revolution. He was not even prophesying Divine deliverance for their beloved Israel. He was issuing calls for Godly repentance, baptizing them in the Jordan for the remission of their sins, and he was heralding the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven...

The Kingdom of Heaven! Four simple but glorious words. Words that express a mighty Kingdom and the origin of that Kingdom. It was a Kingdom that was - and still is - seeking to expand. And that Kingdom was "at hand," meaning it was near. It was and still is near enough to reach out and touch - near enough to step into and hide in. And that is exactly what a few Biblical characters did, i.e. the lady with the issue of blood (Mark 5: 25-34).

Jesus was Lord before there was a heaven or an earth. And if there was nothing but nothingness in the beginning, then He was Lord of the Kingdom of Nothingness until there was a heaven and an earth. If billions of years passed by before there was a heaven and earth, He was still Lord of the years that traversed the dark and cloudy firmaments that the Spirit of the Lord would divide in the time of the Lord's creative pleasure.

"In the beginning" refers to the beginning of the transition from nothingness to somethingness. We know the transition required six days, but we do not know how long nothingness existed before God began His six days of creation. You see, in the realm of nothingness there was no time to measure it by. But in the transition, God created time when He created the first day and the first night. On the 4th day He created seasons for the marking of days, weeks, months and years, and two days later the Kingdom of Earth came to life...

Four thousand years after the vision of heaven became the Kingdom of Heaven, and the vision of earth became the fall through Adam, the discipled sons of Shem and Jacob approached their Lord with all their hopes laid open. Knowing he was their beloved Messiah, they asked him, "Will you now restore Israel to its former glory, Lord?" They really did not understand what they were asking. And we can only understand it through hindsight...

They wanted national deliverance but Jesus was offering them the Kingdom of Heaven. He was telling them he was going to be offered up in Jerusalem but they didn't believe it would happen. They just didn't get it...

The Kingdom of Heaven was "at hand" - it was so very near. It was another miracle about to happen, when the Lord of the Heavenly Kingdom became the Lamb of God on an old rugged Cross, when he rose from a death that could not hold him, and when he ascended into Heaven to sit down at the Father's right hand. His work was finished.

In another ten earth days, the Kingdom of Heaven exploded into the hearts and minds of one hundred and twenty believers, gathered in a hide-a-way upper room. The flames anointed the Apostles first, then the Jews, then all who gathered with them. It gave birth to the Christian Church, Bride of the New Covenant. She is the daughter of the Kingdom of Earth, now betrothed to the Lord and King of the Kingdom of Heaven...

It was the Covenant work of the Comforter who baptized these saints with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the spreading of the Gospel and the growth of the Church. The saints had bowed before Heaven by faith and Glory came down by promise...

Calvary had opened the door for the Kingdom of Earth to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Calvary accepted the Lamb of God and the Lamb of God accepted Calvary...

Willingly, He paid the penalty for my every sin, and redeemed this sinner's soul for eternity. The Kingdom of Heaven took hold of and sealed this born-again repentant when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Living Christ, came and took up residence within my own spirit. Since then He has been my hope of Glory, the joy of my salvation and the light of my life. Since then I have belonged to the whole of his Kingdom, and King Jesus has belonged to me.

Most in Old Israel did not understand. And like today, most wanted no part of it. All they could see were the things of this world. And today's world is a reflection of Old Israel, even all the Old World, except that, the world of today will not ask the question. They prefer their trinkets and their ornaments, their earthly power and their earthly gold. Consequently, they may not hear it, but from long ago the Lord still gives the answer:

"Beyond the Day of the Lord, right after the honeymoon of the King and His Bride, when the Kingdom of Heaven and the Lord of the Kingdom step into eternity together, I will restore..."


Joan Krempel
July 25, 2009
joan@joankrempelministries.com