From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
4 sermons cite this verse
I don't want to be a person that is unaware of the time, unaware of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus said that so often, and I didn't look it up, so I don't know the exact number, but Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. What are you gonna do about it? How can we manage spiritual time blindness? Well, I think these are a few things that we could do, things that came to my mind. number one, repent. Repent of your time blindness. And you might be saying, but it's not intentional. It's not purposeful. I just forget. Well, whether it's purposeful or not, we need to come to a place where we realize that we have been blind to the time, that we've been blind to the time that God's given us that we have right now to the fact that Jesus is coming quickly, the fact that our lives are a gift, our breath is a gift, and what are we doing with the talents, with the goods, with the services, with the gifts that God has given to us? Repent. Repent. And what that word means is you're going in one direction, and you stop, and you realize that that's not the direction that you want to go. And so you turn in the other direction and then you go that way. And that's what we want to do. We want to be quick to repent of our sins. We want to be quick to repent of where …
… On those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting their net into the sea. They were fishermen. He said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every illness among the people. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Wait, you have a seat. …
… but we forget all that came before, which is very important. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Ah, ah. The kingdom of heaven. Now, we hear that, and we might kind of just hyper-spiritualize it right away. None of them. They heard it. What did they hear? They heard a divided Israel is coming together under, as the prophets predicted, under the lordship of the Messiah, God himself gathering in the tribes. The long-awaited renewal of the Davidic kingdom, in other words, is coming. The interior divisions of the tribes, the exterior exiling of the tribes, all of that's going to be overcome. The kingdom of God is at hand. Now, just to confirm this, listen to what he does. So that's the theme of the preaching, the kingdom. But now watch what he does. As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who's called Peter, and his brother Andrew. He said to them, come after me and I will make you fishers of men. …
… living in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. Now pay attention close to verse 17. From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. Now what we've got to realize is this is the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. Beginning of this chapter, he's tempted, resists temptation, and then he starts his public ministry. And from the very beginning, one message resounds from his mouth. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. That phrase is used, not just the whole phrase, but especially the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is repeated over and over and over again throughout the book of Matthew. And what it is, it's not a kingdom as in a place. It pictures the rule and the reign and the dominion and the authority of God. Wherever his rule and reign is acknowledged and submitted to, there we see a picture of the kingdom. …