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Luke 4:31-44
(43-44) The Preaching of
the Kingdom of God by Jesus
"But He said to them, 'I must
preach the kingdom of God to the
other cities alsoJor I was sent for
this purpose.' And He kept on
preaching in the synagogues ofludea."1
The Redemptive Work of
Christ Included Preaching
J e$)lS Christ
came to seek
and to save
those who are
lost by
ACCOMPllSHlNG
their eternal
salvation in His
own life, death
and
resurrection;
and by
PREACHING
the gospel of
the kingdom of
God to them,
i.e., that the
saving power and reign of God is
operative in Christ among mankind
because of His own redemptive
work, Mk. 1:14-39. Mark, as well
as Luke, brings this out clearly: In
Mk. I :15 the content of Jesus'
preaching is comprised of the
following emphases: "The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand; repent and believe the gospel."
In Mk. 1:21 Jesus went into the
synagogue in Capemaum on the
Sabbath "and began to teach." In Mk.
1:22 we see that "they were amazed
at his teaching; for he was teaching
them as one having authOrity, and not
as the stribes." In Mk. 1:27 His
hearers were amazed at the power of
His spoken Word---"What is this? A
new teaching with authority! He
commands even the unclean spirits and
they obey him." In Mk. 1:38-39 Jesus
is specific in defining a part of His
mission to the world---to preach the
gospel---"And He said to them, 'Let us
go somewhere else to the towns nearby,
in order that I may preach there also;
for that is what I came out for.' And He
went into their synagogues throughout
all Galilee, preaching and casting out
the demons."
The point should be obvious:
Jesus Christ came to earth to serve
sinners by preaching the gospel of
the kingdom to them. He was sent
by God, not only to accomplish the
gospel, as our PRIEST, and to
administer the gospel, as our KING;
but also to preach the gospel, as our
PROPHET. Jesus Christ is THE
Preacher of the gospel par
excellence. In many ways, He is the
only Preacher of the gospel, Whose
preaching is effective in the saving
of sinners, the transforming of lives
and the reforming of societies. Our
preaching is totally powerless
toward those ends without His
preaching. He preaches with
incomparable anthority,
unfathomable wisdom,
inescapable persuasion,
irresistible power and thorough
penetration .
.. THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon September, 1995
The resurrected Christ preaches
to the church and world today by
two closely related instruments: His
Word and His Spirit. Christ
preached His inerrant, verbal
revelation to us through His Holy
Spirit-inspired Apostles, (including
those with apostolic approval),Jn.
16:13f; 20:221. His apostles bore
His imprimatur, being inspiredwith
His Spirit, and having His promise
that HE would send them His Spirit
to teach them, In. 14:26. This is
why Paul could say that Christ, Who
revealed the truth to him, Gal. 1:16,
now speaks through him, Rom.
10:14, having
"combined
Spirit-produced
thoughts with
Spirit-produced
words,"'I Cor.
2: 12f. Christ
also preaches
His revealed
Word into the
hearts and
lives of His
people
through the
faithful
preaching of
His Word by
ministers of
the gospel and the faithf)ll witness of
His church, Lk. 10:1-20; I Thess.
2:13; II Tim. 4:17; I Pet. 4:10f;
Rom. 10:14; Rom. 15:8-9, 15-16,
17-19; Rom. 16:25-27; Eph. 2:17.
The Central Theme of
Jesus' Preaching is the
Kingdom of God
For an explanation of the
kingdom of God, see 4., pg. 4, in
the introduction of the outline On
Luke 4:14-30, "The Startling
Preaching of]esus in Nazareth."
And remember the following
emphases in His teaching on the
Kingdom of God:
First, the kingdom of God is the
manifestation of the sovereign rule
of God in power and grace which
established a new order of
righteousness and blessedness in
history in and through Jesus Christ
in fulfillment of God's covenant
promises, which will progressively
triumph over all opposition in
history, and which will be
consummated at the end of history
in the second coming of Christ.
Second, the kingdom of God
comes in the person and work of
Jesus Christ.
Third, the kingdom of God is
God-centered and God-given. "As
God-centered, it is basically viewed
as the of the rule of God,
involving the g10rification of His
holy name and the performance of
His righteous will on the part of
men; only then can it be a kingdom
or realm in which men participate in
divine blessings. In congruity with
its God-centered character, it is
God-given; it depends for its
realization upon the sovereign grace
of God. If God's rule is to be
established, He must mercifully
bring it to pass. Because it is a reign
of righteousness, it can never be
brought about through the initiative
and as a cooperative action of
men." - Stonehouse. See Luke 12:32
and 22 :29f. So, the Kingdom of
God is GOD'S RULE and GOD'S
GIFT.
Fourth, "the kingdom is a gift of
the Father'S good-pleasure, but as it
comes in the midst of the world, it
comes as a rule of righteousness,
demanding absolute righteousness
ofits subjects, and this includes the
application, in a thoroughgOing
fashion, of the principle of
stewardship in all of one's social
relationships. It is necessary to
stress, however, that this feature is
somewhat inferential and secondary.
The primary feature of the gospel,
without which the other is
meaningless, concerns the tidings of
the crucified and risen Savior in
whose name repentance and
remission of sins were to be
proclaimed, Lk. 24:46f. The
realization of the kingdom was
therefore inconceivable without the
accomplishment of the Messiah's
task, and the fulfillment of the
messianic mission gave assurance of
the coming of the kingdom."-
Stonehouse.
Fifth, the kingdom which Jesus
preaches and brings near is the
kingdom which lay in the future in
the perspective of the Old
Testament, pointing to the unity and
continuity of the O.T. and the N.T.
The Messianic king is the
represeniiihve ofJehovah.
Sixth, "the kingdom of God is
not His destiny nor His abstract
right to rule---His sovereignty---it is
the actual realization of His sway."-
Vos.
Seventh, the kingdom of God is
"the actual exercise of the divine
supremacy in the interest of the
divine glory, Mat. 6:10,33; Mk.
12;34. --- The three principal
spheres in which the divine
supremacy works toward this end
are the sphere of power, the sphere
of righteousness and the sphere of
blessedness." - Vos.
Eighth, the exercise of Divine
supremacy in the sphere of power is
prominent in the O.T., and is
emphatic in Jesus' teaching and
miracles.
Ninth, faith in Christ is the
counterpart of God's kingdom as
power. "First, the miracles are
beneficent, saving acts, Which have
the result of making them an
exhibition of the divine grace and
evoking in the recipients the mental
state of trust. This, however,
important though it be, should not
receive the main stress. -- What is
unique to the miracle is the
assertion of absolutely divine
supernatural power. The efficient
cause of the mi racle is something
that man can contribute nothing to,
because it is wholly dependent on
the putting forth of the direct
supernatural energy of God. --- In
this dependence on the
omnipotence and grace of God lies
the religiOUS rationale of faith. Faith
is the practical (not purely
reasoning) recognition on the part of
a man that the saving work of the
kingdom is exclusively a divine
work."- Vas.
Tenth, the exercise of Divine
supremacy in the sphere of
righteousness is a concept common
to hath a .Tand NT. "According to
Scriprure, 'righteousness' is that
which agrees with and pleases God,
and exists for His sake, and can only
be adjudicated by Him. He is first
of all, and above all, the interested
Person. --- Righteousness is from
God as its source, it exists for God
as its end, and it is subject to God as
the ultimateJustifier."- Vos.
Eleventh, inseparably connected
to Christ's teaching on the kingdom
is His teaching on repentance. Just
as faith is the counterpart of the
power-aspect of Christ's kingdom,
SO repentance is the counterpart of
the righteousness-aspect. However
this demand of repentance as
essential to par.ticipation in the
kingdom is in no way meritorious.
The specific nature of biblical
repentance is the
COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE
TURN AROUND OF MIND AND
LIFE. "It is 'after-sorrow', or
reversal of consciousness, or
redirection of the life upon an
opposite goal, with regard to the
. whole content of the ethico-religious
life. --- ... the new direction of life
which the repentance hrings ahout,
(by God's grace), finds its
explanation in the absolute and
September, 1995 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon :;
exclusive subjection of the whole life
with all its desires and purposes to
God."- Vas.
Twelfth, the exercise of Divine
supremacy in the sphere of
blessedness connects God's
sovereignty and Gcd's blessedness
eschatologically. "It is inherent in
the eschatological conception of
things that the final, perfect order of
things shall also be the order of
things productive of the supreme
state of happiness. --- The
blessedness conferred by and with
the kingdom can be classified under
the heads of a negative and of a
positive blessedness. There are
three principal ideas, that of
salvation, that of sonship and that of
life."- Vas.
Thirteenth, the five chief
characteristics of the kingdom of
God are that it is theocratic,
dynamical (powerful), messianic,
future, and present.
Fourteenth, the kingdom of God
has, not only a temporal-future
character, it also has a
universal-cosmic character. " ... the
idea of the kingdom of heaven
implies the participation of all
created life in the coming of the
kingdom, to which especially
resurrection and RE-creation also
belong in the most essential sense of
the word. --- The whole of the
revelation of God in the O.T. and in
Jesus' preaching is based on the
fundamental fact of the creation of
heaven and earth by God. The earth
is the Lord's. --- This is why the
coming of the kingdom, as the
re-assertion of God's right and glory,
also consists in the redemption and
restoration of life, in a material as
well as in a spiritual sense. Because
God is God, i.e., the God of the
revelation, the creator of heaven and
earth, the Holy One who has
committed Himself to Israel in His
promise and covenant, the
'proportions' of the kingdom are
universal. So long as the world does
not answer its purpose and is
subject to death, God's glory will be
veiled, His name will not be
hallowed, and the prayer for the
coming of the kingdom will not be
answered." - Ridderbos. See Romans
S:19f.
Fifteenth, in Christ the kingdom
of God has come, Mk. 1:15. "The
threshold of the great future has
been reached, that the door has
been opened, and that the
prerequisites of the realization of the
divine work of consummation are
present; so that now the concluding
divine drama can start. --- It is clear
that here, Lk. 4:1S,19, the time of
the great fulfillment is represented
as having definitively started."-
Ridderbos
Sixteenth, the kingdom of God
advances through history
triumphantly, gradually,
progressively, and certainly, until it
exercises global dominion and fills
the earth with the glory of the
knowledge of the Lord, with all
opposition to the rule of God put
down, I Cor. 15:24f; Mat. 13:31-33.
Seventeenth, the kingdom of
God will be consummated and come
in total perfection, bringing with its
perfection physical resurrection and
cosmic renovation, I Cor. 15:24f; I
Pet. 3.
The Lord Jesus Christ
was Sent to Earth to Advance His
Kingdom Through His Preaching
Throughout
the World
Luke's emphasiS in this early
portion of his narrative of the
Galilean Ministry of Jesus must not
be missed: The kingdom of God
comes with all its power,
righteousness and blessedness into
human hearts and human societies
through the Word of Christ and His
preaching of that Word into the
hearts and lives of people through
the witness and preaching of His
church.
"The law and the prophets were
6 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon September, 1995
until John: since that tirne (the Good
News oj) the kingdorn of God is
preached," Luke 16:16. --- "In other
words, in the preaching of the
gospel has been realized that which
was only an expectation in the law
and the prophets. --- The preaching
of the gospel is no less a proof than
the miracles that the kingdom of
heaven has come." - Ridderbos.
Jesus' preaching of the gospel is
charged with omnipotence: It gives
what it announces. Jesus causes to
happen what He preaches. In His
Word He gives the salvation He
defines. It accomplishes all that He
pleases, Isaiah 55. The word of
Jesusis at the same time the power
of Jesus. His proclamation of the
kingdom on earth and through His
church is the manifestation of the
kingdom. The kingdom comes in
the preaching of Jesus. Praise God
for a preached Christ and for a
preaching Christ!
'Luke 4:44 has "synagogues of
JUDEA" and Mark 1 :39 has
"synagogues throughout GALILEE."
Is this a contradiction? No! Luke is
not in error, nor is he introducing
confusion into his narrative, and
here's why: "A survey of Lukan
usage easily demonstrates that the
designation, Judea' signifies 'the
land of the Jews,' that is Palestine as
a whole. (Thus Herod is described
as king ofJudea' in 1 :5, and Galilee
is specifically included within Judea
in 23:5; Acts 10:37.) There is, then,
no contradiction or confusion in
Luke. But there is the difference
that at this point he does not confine
the ministry of] esus so strictly as
Mark to the bounds of Galilee, but
allows himself, in the midst of his
narration of Jesus' ministry in
Galilee, to take note of the broader
sphere of His preaching." -
Stonehouse, THE WITNESS OF
LUKE TO CHRIST, pg. 96.
(TO BE CONTINUED)