Heaven On Earth

Mathew 11:12

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force”.

We notice through the scriptures, there are phrases like Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven. God says everyone doesn’t get into heaven but only the violent men take it by force. We need to force into the Kingdom of Heaven. What is the difference between these two Kingdoms. They are same. Except in the gospel of Matthew, we see the phrase ‘Kingdom of God’ is used 68 times in 10 books in the New Testament. But Matthew uses the phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ 32 times in the gospel. It is well known that the spirit of reverence among the Jews was so much that they avoid the pronunciation of the divine name. Hence, Matthew, writing primarily for Jews, respects this feeling and speak of the Kingdom of heaven instead of kingdom of God. Moreover, in Matthew 19: 23-24 we see these phrases are used interchangeably. In verse 23 he used the phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and in verse 24 ‘Kingdom of God’ was used.

Like any other Kingdom in this world, the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of heaven has its own government. It has a King, it has citizens, it has laws, it has its own constitution. It is a Kingdom!

The difference between Kingdom of heaven and earthly kingdom is this- if you want to be in the physical Kingdom of God when you die- you need to make sure that you are a part of it even whilst you live here. Before we become a part of the physical Kingdom of God, we must become a part in the spiritual Kingdom of God.

This demands us to examine ourselves, whether we are an active part of the spiritual Kingdom of heaven now. Are we it’s citizens? Are we abiding by the laws and constitution of the Kingdom of God now? This Kingdom is under the Kingship of God and under the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, Law of God is the constitution of this Kingdom and the citizens in this Kingdom are the believers who follow Jesus Christ and His teachings. So, we can make sure whether we will be there in the physical Kingdom of God by evaluating our present level of spirituality.

We see in the text Matthew 11:12, Jesus said, from the days of John the Baptist the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence. What does it mean? Up until the days of John, there were only kingdoms of earth. All the promises in the Old Testament were concerning the blessings in the earth. God’s promises to Israel were of earthly blessings. Abrahamic covenant was primarily earthly. There was no mention of ‘Kingdom of heaven’ before the ministry of John the Baptist. But it was John who started to preach, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2).

This was a new message to the people of Israel. Their hearts melted when they heard about the preaching of repentance from John the Baptist. They were coming to John to confess their sins and for baptism. They were filled with the reverence for God. Their hearts were moving towards God. They had to leave their old style of life. They had to start a new beginning. They knew that the present world was for only a short time but there was another Kingdom which was going to be eternal.

They had to give up their old sinful habits. They had to confess and give up their transgressions. They had to pay a price when they followed these new teachings. Jesus said, from the days of John’s preaching people were wrestling into the Kingdom of heaven. It is not easy to get into God’s Kingdom. We need to fight with many forces. Powers of hell oppose us, we need to fight the desires and lusts of the flesh, we need to fight with passions of the world. We need to oppose our natural affections which stand against the will of God. It is a wrestle. But remember, God is on our side to give us His power to overcome these forces, provided we submit to Him humbly and seek for His grace.

Jesus said, only the violent men take the Kingdom by force. What does this mean? Only those who can overcome the evil temptations of sin can enter this Kingdom, only those who can defeat the carnal desires of the flesh can get through the narrow gate, only those who can say ‘no’ to the seducing advances of this world can walk through the narrow path to enter the Kingdom of heaven. When a person gives up these temporal pleasures to follow Christ will become a part of the spiritual Kingdom of heaven. Are we wrestling with sin? Are we wrestling with the pleasures of this world? Are we wrestling with the passions of the flesh? Paul says, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Every man and woman of God must wrestle to enter Kingdom of heaven.