The Commands of the King - Part 7

Today's lesson is called, "The Commands of the King - Part 7." 

Today's command of the King is "Repent and believe the good news."

Read Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; Colossians 12:1:12-14

Before getting started, it is important to understand the terminology and some of the background information about why Jesus said this. So first, let's look at the terminology.

• "Repent" means to turn around. In context, Jesus was saying, "turn away from your idols and what you are doing, and turn to God in total allegiance."

• "Believe" means to accept with your heart and mind that Jesus is in fact God's Son and that he is the Messiah/Christ/King.  

• "The good news", in a nut shell, is that there is another King through whom God provided an alternative to our aimless lives of rebellion and alienation from God (see Acts 17:7). Someday we'll look more in depth at what the good news is, but this is basically what it is.

That is the terminology that we need to know, now for the background.

Israel were the people whom God made His own, made a covenant with, and established His kingdom with. However, they continued to rebel against Him by worshipping idols and rejecting Him as their master and King. 

So, He sent prophets to them to tell them to turn away from their false idols and to turn to Him. They told them to repent. However, they refused to listen to their message and they persecuted and killed the prophets.

Because of this, God stopped sending them prophets and He stopped communicating with them altogether. Over 400 years went by without them hearing anything from Him.

Then, kind of out of nowhere, a messenger from God appeared to three of His people! So, they go from not hearing a peep from God, to all of a sudden, three people are visited by His messengers!

The first messenger came to a man named Zacharias. The reason he came was to let him know that his wife will have a child who will, among other things, "turn many of the children of Israel to the King" and to "make ready a people prepared for the King." Their child was named John [the Baptist] (see Luke 1:5-17). 

And then just six months after that, a messenger of God appeared to a young virgin and the man that she was going to marry. He said to them that they were going to have a child who is going to be "the Son of the Highest; and God will give him the throne of David to reign over His kingdom forever". The messenger also said that this child shall be called, "God with us", and that 'he will save his people from their sins" (see Luke 1:26-35; Matthew 1:18-23).

When John the Baptist was older, the Word came to him, and he went all over the region of the Jordan in Israel, proclaiming a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (see Luke 3:2-3). He went all throughout Judea saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" (see Matthew, 3:1-2).

About a year after John the Baptist was imprisoned by King Herod, the Son of the Highest, Jesus, began proclaiming the very same message as John the Baptist to "the lost sheep of Israel", "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" (see Matthew 4:17; 15:24). 

Both John the Baptist and Jesus were sent as prophets to Israel, over 400 years after they rejected the last prophet Malachi who was sent to them. God said, "They will respect my Son", so He sent him as the last prophet that he would send them, in order to try to get them to turn to Him, but they killed him too (see Matthew 21:37-39).

However, before they killed him, Jesus sent his twelve students out to the lost sheep of Israel and instructed them to say, "The kingdom of God is at hand", which is also part of the same message that he and John the Baptist presented them with (see Luke 10:8-9). He did not instruct them to tell their audience to repent, but he does tell them that if they do not receive them, to say to them, "The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you."

He then said to them regarding those who do not receive them, "It will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city". He goes on to say that many of the cities that he visited and who rejected him, were going to judged and were not going to fare so well, not only because they rejected him, but also because they rejected His Father (see Luke 10:11-16). 

The point is, even though he did not instruct his students to tell the lost sheep of Israel to repent when he sent them out to them, they should have repented when he went to them and they saw the mighty works that he was doing among them (see Luke 10:13). 

So, this is the back story which we can learn from in order to properly apply the command of the King to our lives.

(Below is borrowed in part by Curtis Sergeant, "Commands of [the King]: 6):

Jesus came and has established God's kingdom on the earth, which he reigns over as King with all authority. He has made a new covenant with the people of His kingdom and He has begun the process of restoring creation and seeing his will done on earth as it is above. 

Just as God commanded the people of His kingdom Israel then, he commands the people of His kingdom today, to turn to him and believe by voluntarily having allegiance to Him and aligning our lives with His reign as King. He gives all people whom He created the opportunity to reign with Him over the renewed earth forever, if they turn to Him and believe.

He will right all wrongs and He will fix all that is broken. There will be peace, justice, righteousness, and restoration! All of this is truly good news!

The only alternative for us is to reject his authority and his Kingship, and to continue to live apart from Him, until we are forced to acknowledge these things about him and face the due punishment as his enemies. 

References

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17 

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 1:15 

giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:12‭-‬14 

Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”

Acts 17:7 

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.

So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, 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 to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘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 1:5‭-‬17 

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Luke 1:26‭-‬35 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Matthew 1:18‭-‬23 

while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,

Luke 3:2-3 

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Matthew 3:1‭-‬2 

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17 

But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Matthew 15:24 

Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Luke 10:8‭-‬9 

‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."

Luke 10:11‭-‬16