Already, But Not Yet: Better Is Coming"

Big Idea of the Message

The kingdom of God arrived with the first coming of Christ but will be fully established at his second coming.

The Journey Begins Tomorrow

Sometimes, when our friends go to Liverpool to sail for Canada or any other distant region, on the night before they sail they get into a very poor lodging. I think I hear one of them grumbling, “What a hard bed! What a small room! What a bad view!”

“Never mind,” says the other, “we are not going to live here. We are off tomorrow.”

Think in like manner, you children of poverty; this is not your rest. Put up with it, you are away tomorrow.

“Are we there yet?” This infamous phrase brings to mind bored children in the back seats of minivans, awaiting the chance to finally leave the car upon arrival at their destination. If you have ever had to wait, one thing is true: it can be hard to have patience. For a kingdom that is already and not yet, a tension exist for every believer. The tension of the already and not yet can also be a blessing for believers.

Context of Matthew 4 and Revelation 21

Matthew introduces Jesus as he came to be know—as one who baptized people. He calls him a preacher or, more literally, one who speaks as a herald. John proclaimed God’s message as a prophetic spokesman in the desert of Judea, the wilderness area to the south of Jerusalem. Reminiscent perhaps of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness prior to their entry into the promised land, John too prepared the way for One who would reconstitute God’s people. Jesus himself would also have his time in the wilderness shortly.

Jesus, having been baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan, is led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). “Spiritual transformation brings spiritual testing.” The wilderness testing of Jesus provided the solution for victory over the devil with three simple words: “It is written.” We can submit to God and resist the devil by living in and by what is written (James 4:7). His cousin John has been arrested for exposing Herod, and afterwards, Jesus moves to Nazareth, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-2 and 42:7. Matthew introduces Jesus’ public ministry with a summary of the message of his preaching and teaching, examples of the call of his first disciples, and a summary of his ministry to the crowds, with a particular focus on healing. Preaching and healing sum up Matthew’s distinctive epitome of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples (4:23; 9:35; 10:7-8), and each makes people confront the question of Jesus’ identity. Calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John anticipates Matthew’s intense interest in discipleship.

John’s apocalyptic book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ ends with Christ being victorious over Satan and the ushering in of the new heaven and new earth. John saw the day when the holy city, new Jerusalem comes down as the voice declares that God desires to dwell with man and the eradication of things that brought death, pain, and sorrow. Christ declares that he is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end. In this new earth, he will provide the water of life for the thirsty and a shared heritage for the victorious. Yet, he speaks of several groups of people who’s portion lies in the lake of fire as they die a second death. John describes new Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb in detail as it radiates the glory of God with its high wall and twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed while twelve angels stand guard at those gates. 3 gates in the east, 3 gates in the north, 3 gates in the south, and 3 gates in the west provide entrance for the saints who kept the faith. John no doubt saw the wall, and on the wall of the city laid twelve foundations, and on those foundations were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The city measured foursquare with its walls of jasper, protecting the city made of pure gold. No doubt he saw the pearly gates and those streets paved with gold. There was no temple because the temple was the “Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (vs 22). There was no unclouded day in that city as the glory of the Lord gives the city light and the Lamb serving as the lamp. Nations now walk by God’s light instead of their light, and a place where the gates will never be shut by day because there will be no light. When we all get to heaven what a time it will be!!!

“The Kingdom message preaches change”

The messiahship of Christ involved two phases, a coming in humility to suffer and a coming in power and glory to reign, so the kingdom is to be manifested in two realms: the present realm of righteousness or salvation when men may accept or reject the kingdom, and the future realm when the powers of the kingdom shall be manifested in visible glory. The former was inaugurated in insignificant beginnings without outward display, and those who accept it are to live intermingled with those who reject it until the consummation.

This one verse publicly confirms John’s entire wilderness ministry as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40. John the Baptizer preached the kingdom of heaven is coming and when Christ came, he inaugurated the kingdom of God. He preaching about the kingdom and said that the kingdom is near. Yet, there is a future hope of kingdom fulfillment when Christ returns to bring the kingdom of God to full consummation. From that time on marks a new stage in Jesus’ ministry, and it ties this new stage to what has just been narrated. This phrase marks a transition to a change in the pattern of Jesus’ activity. Matthew 4:17 marks the beginning of the section about Jesus’ Galilean ministry, which ends in 16:21 with the same phrase.

John preached that God’s kingdom is near.

Jesus preached the kingdom of God is here and not here.

We preach the kingdom of God is within every believer and is coming again soon in the clouds of heaven.

Preach here is kerysoo, to publicly announce religious truths and principles while urging acceptance and compliance. The task of the preacher is to declare publicly their inward convictions concerning the Christ in earthen vessels. “Preaching does not alway create celebration in the pews. Preaching must always create an atmosphere of acceptance and compliance its message.”

“The kingdom message requires a decision.”

Jesus’ preaching spoke to how to live the kingdom life while anticipating the heavenly destination. John’s message would not be popular among the modern church as he spoke about repentance from sin. Repentance messages don’t get many likes or heart, but its the one message that changes your eternal destination and present condition. Yes, he was the great light those in darkness saw, and to those who lived in the shadow of death, he was the light that shown.

The kingdom message demands the listener to decide to accept or reject the kingdom of heaven.

Repent here is metanoeo, to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness. Repentance in Greek traditionally implied a change of mind or attitude, but under Old Testament influence it took on the sense of a change of action as well. This combination means that John was asking his hearers “to change their way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.

“Going in reverse is not change;

The believer either begins reflecting the ethic of the kingdom (the Fruit of the Spirit) or the ethics of the kingdom of darkness.

The believer begins living life as a citizen of the kingdom (brought about in Jesus’s first coming) and the consummated kingdom (the return of Christ) meet in time, a believer has already begun living a kingdom life that is (in its full form) will be normal for eternity. Like magnets pulled toward one another from a distance, eventually they will come together.

“The kingdom message speak of better days now and later.”

Paul writes in Romans 8:18-25 about creation groaning in expectancy for the revealing of the sons of God. The fall of Adam subjected creation to death, futility, sickness and sin but hope still remains that the last Adam would set creation free from corruption in the hope of obtaining the freedom of the glory of God. Creation groans liken unto a pregnant woman, looking forward to delivery. Jesus’ appeal to repentance stemmed from the belief that a new epoch of world history was dawning. Some debate centers around whether the kingdom is so near as to be actually present or simply imminent.

The perfect tense suggests the meaning has drawn near and points to the present as the decisive moment of the kingdom’s arrival. The “kingdom of heaven” is a circumlocution for the kingdom of God, reflecting pious Jewish of the divine name. “Kingdom of heaven” perhaps refers also to the fact that all power and authority in heaven are given to Jesus. Specifically, “the kingdom” depicts the irruption of God’s power into history in a new and dramatic way with the advent of Messiah Jesus. Much Jewish thought of the day, though highly diverse, equated the arrival of the kingdom with the completion of God’s plans for his people in a physically visible, materially prosperous, and powerful geopolitical entity.

The kingdom continues to be so viewed by some who deny its presence with Jesus’ first advent. Such an approach often leads to the notion that because most of the Jews rejected Jesus’ call to repentance he withdrew his offer of the kingdom and postponed its arrival until his second coming. Others delete all future aspects, “de-apocalypticizing” the kingdom and turning it into a form of existence in human history which illustrates new possibilities of relationships among people.52

A large consensus and a vast array of scriptural data support a two-pronged focus in which the kingdom is both present and future (both in Jesus’ day and our own)—contrast, e.g., Matt 12:28; Luke 7:22–23; 17:20–21 with Matt 6:10; Luke 13:28–29; Mark 9:47. The kingdom is not currently a geographical entity, but it manifests itself in space and time in the community of those who accept the message John and Jesus proclaimed and who begin to work out God’s purposes on earth—personally, socially, and institutionally. Thus to declare that the kingdom is at hand “means that the decisive establishment or manifestation of the divine sovereignty has drawn so near to men that they are now confronted with the possibility and the ineluctable necessity of repentance and conversion.” More comprehensively:

The kingdom sums up God’s plan to create a new human life by making possible a new kind of community among people, families, and groups. [It combines] the possibility of a personal relationship to Jesus with man’s responsibility to manage wisely the whole of nature; the expectation that real change is possible here and now; a realistic assessment of the strength of opposition to God’s intentions; the creation of new human relationships and the eventual liberation by God of the whole of nature from corruption.

John paints the image of saints seeing God as he, but people make light of it, but we have to leave here. Dr. Caesar Clark, one God’s most prolific preachers said it best, “Its not’s bad to move when you got somewhere to go.” Paul says this earthly tent of ours will be taken down, but thank God you and I have a building from God not made with hands of men, eternal in the heavens. As children of God, we are on our way home, looking forward to that home where God dwells and reigns. The word home is a sweet one, a comforting one, an assuring one. Some make light of it, but we know that we are on our way to that heavenly home. Have you heard of the city called heaven!!! The master is good and is not going to take a chance on us missing it, so Jesus came to remind us to repent for his kingdom is here and coming. His death and resurrection provided the means by which he would go and prepare a place, so when he returns to get us, we aren’t worried about home. Christians ought not worry about when he’s coming, but just be ready for that great day….it could be….that’s not your business and not my business, just be ready….

I know that I’m going to be ready cause Jesus is getting us ready for that great day….Jesus is getting us ready….its going to be a great….It’s going to be a great family reunion…a great day when angelic messengers sound the judgment alarm and revolving planets leap on the funeral piers of a smokey, judgment day….it’s going to be a great day when an angel shall leave the shiny courts of glory and place one foot upon the quaking earth and the other foot on the troubled sea and declare that time shall be no more, and this old earth shall leap from a chaotic presence to a transcendent future…it’s going to be a great day…for Jesus is getting us ready that great day…and by that time the Son of the Living God shall leave the courts of glory and its going to written on his vesture and on his thigh “King of Kings and Lord of Lords..” He coming in the clouds and every eye shall see him…its going to be a great day for Jesus is getting me ready for that great day…if you got religion, he’s getting you ready…if you’ve been born again, he’s getting you ready…what’s he getting you ready for….HOMECOMING…you talk about homecoming and its not hard to see. For every family that I know anything about, they have a home somewhere, and if you are apart of the family of God you have a home on high… and in that home…its gonna be a great day…in that home…everybody loves everybody else…in that home…no sickness or sorrow…in that home…there’s no confusion…in that home…there’s no suffering…in that home…no graves are dug…in that home…no hearse wheels roll…in that home…no funeral bells tone…in that home…the wicked cease from troubling…in that home…the righteous can be at rest…in that home…the wicked cease from troubling…in that home…saints stand of the banks of everlasting deliverance with palm branches of victory in their hands…in that home…the joy bells will be ringing…in that home…the saints will be singing…in that home…its an unclouded day…in that home…no storm clouds rise…in that home…I can tell you this morning that I’m on my way to the great homecoming…and in that home we shall see him as he is…no more looking through a glass darkly…we shall see him as he is…and when we see him as he is…what are you going….I’m looking forward to seeing him…Will you be ready....

The songwriter said:

Oh they tell me of a land far beyond the skies

Oh they tell me of a home far away

Oh they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise

Oh they tell me of an unclouded day

Oh the land of cloudless day

Oh the land of unclouded sky

Oh they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise

Oh they tell me of an unclouded day

Oh they tell me of a home where my friends have gone

Oh they tell me that land far away

Where the tree of life in eternal bloom

Shed its fragrance through the unclouded day

Oh they tell me of the King in his beauty there

And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold

Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow

In that city that is made of gold

Oh they tell me that He smiles on his children there

And His smile drives their sorrows all away

And they tell me that no tears ever come again

In that lovely land of unclouded sky