“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Matthew 4:23
Jesus loved to share the good news of His Father’s Kingdom. Often He taught in parables, sometimes He taught plainly, but always He told of the Kingdom we are to seek. Many would look for this Kingdom with human eyes, but Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the Kingdom of God is within you.” To Nicodemus, He said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Our human eyes are prone to much deception as the master of lies tries to confuse the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world. As Jesus walked by the magnificent temple, a structure many thought represented God’s Kingdom, He said, “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” Oh how we need the “unshakable Kingdom”, the Kingdom Jesus says we must seek first.
Andrew Murray, a man of prayer of the last century, made these observations about the last words Jesus gave His followers before He ascended:
In the last command our Lord gave to His disciples we find the great essential characteristics of the Kingdom of God in great power.
- The King – the crucified Christ
- The disciples – His faithful followers
- The power of their service – the Holy Spirit
- Their work – testifying for Christ as His witnesses
- Their aim – the ends of the earth
- Their first duty – waiting on God in united, unceasing prayer.
“Jesus showed himself to his disciples… speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:3-8