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.
Luke 13:23-24
“Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
Look into this verse. “Are there few that be saved”. This means, are there few that enters the Kingdom of heaven? Jesus replied, strive to enter in through the narrow gate: because many will seek to enter in and would not enter. Why? They are not willing to follow the Lord and His teachings. They do not want to give up everything of the world. They want to slip through between God and mammon and live a ‘successful’ life in this world. Narrow gate and narrow path mark the significance of this Kingdom. One must empty himself to enter through it. Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. When we compromise in our Christian life, we are moving off to the broad way that eventually ends up in eternal destruction.
You may see the broad way in contrary to what the Lord said. You may see many of your friends and relatives marching through it. The way appears to be impressive to you. On the other side, there is the narrow way, unnoticed, appear to be rough, not many people walking through it. Anyone may be deceived to think that how the majority can be wrong? Do not listen to what the majority say- they say there is no God. Does it mean there is no God? There are other religions who are more in numbers than your Church. Does that mean their teachings and faith are right?
Following the Lord is costly. One must count the cost before becoming a follower of Christ. This is well explained in Luke 14:26-33. Following the Lord is a choice. Choice between eternal and temporal, heaven and hell! If we can say like the psalmist, “whom have I in heaven, Lord, but Thee? And besides Thee I desire nothing on earth”, then we have truly come to the path of discipleship (Psalm 73:25). Our self-life is the main enemy of the life of Christ. The Bible calls this ‘flesh’. The flesh is a storehouse of evil lusts within us that tempts us to always do our own will- to seek our own gain, our own honour, our own pleasure, our own way, etc.
In John 18:36, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Though a physical heaven is waiting for us when we die, we are now in a spiritual kingdom of heaven which is not visible to the world. We are guided by the principles of the kingdom of heaven, and we are following our Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of this spiritual kingdom. If we are not identified to be a part of this spiritual kingdom, we cannot enter the physical kingdom of heaven when we die. We know our King, we know our fellow citizens, we know our constitution and we are bound by the laws of this kingdom even before we literally and physically enter the physical kingdom in the future. We are trained here to be true citizens of Kingdom of Heaven!
PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Mathew 5:20 “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”.
We need to pay special attention here. When the Lord said, “you will certainly not enter”, we must meditate on it. If our righteousness doesn’t surpass the righteousness of Pharisees, we shall not enter heaven. Pharisees had a righteousness that was external. They were blameless according to the Law of Moses externally. We know our Lord was constantly in disagreement with Pharisees when He was in this earth. Mathew 23, the whole chapter the Lord was rebuking their hypocrisy. They had an external form of godliness but inside them there was no repentance. From Matthew 5:21 to 7:27 (Sermon on the Mount), the Lord was laying down the principles of the Kingdom of God. There we notice, the emphasis is not on the external but of internal (heart). When the Holy Spirit resides in us, we are being the temple of God (1 Corinth 3:16/6:19) are sanctified in heart by His power, provided we submit to Him in humility. We cannot live a dual life in the kingdom of heaven.
Acts 14:22 “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” When we stand in the faith for the Lord, we will be despised by the world. We see our fellow believers are persecuted and rejected around the world for their faith. Some are killed because they profess Christ. To be in the kingdom of heaven, we must be willing to suffer for the sake of our faith.
Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
Another thing we need to bear in our mind is, we need to be constantly dependant on God for all our needs when we are in the kingdom of heaven. We need to be poor in spirit. Who is a poor person? One who is depending on someone else for his needs. Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. We need to knock at the door of our Lord all the time. Every single moment we need to trust in Him to live forward.
What is the visible sign when we are truly in the kingdom of God?
Bible gives us a test to examine ourselves. In Romans 14:17 we read, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
When we truly become a part of the spiritual Kingdom of God, we become heavenly centred. Things of this world will be less important to us than the things of heaven. Our heart will be at rest, not worrying about hundred and one thing of this world. We will come into a reality to believe that what we have or have not been of no great deal in 100 years from now. We are on the move, every second of our life. Every single day of our life is a count down, count down to the reality. Let’s experience the real joy of God’s Kingdom in our personal, family and social life not to be deceived that joy comes from the abundance of material blessings. As the text says, kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking!
Pastor Renji George
Mount Church, Cardiff, Wales, UK
www.mountchurchcardiff.com
