“And Jesus went about all Galilee…preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom…” – Matthew 4:23

From our previous post, we learned that Jesus’ teaching ministry was primarily instructional – focusing on imparting knowledge and helping people understand Scripture or Kingdom principles so they can apply them in their daily lives.

But in addition to teaching, our meditation today says Jesus also did “preach the Gospel of the Kingdom.”

The English word ‘preach’ came from a Latin word, which means ‘to proclaim publicly’ – usually with the aim of persuading or convincing people to believe in Jesus Christ.

Taking on an exhortative, inspirational, challenging and persuasive tone, preaching is all about declaring the Good News of the Kingdom of God and challenging people to respond through repentance, faith, and obedience.

Like teaching, preaching was central to the ministry of our Lord Jesus.

 Our Lord understood that it was core to His mission on earth.

Indeed, at the very start of His public ministry, Jesus said in Luke 4:18 -19: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor…to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

By “acceptable year of the Lord,” Jesus meant a time of spiritual redemption – the promised time of rest when God’s people would experience His forgiveness, healing, and restoration.

Then later, He told the disciples; “I must preach the Good News of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43).

Today, the pulpits are full of people who preach incredible things.

Some can take months preaching about demons, money, politics, psychology, and even themselves!

However, the Bible highlights only three things that the true preacher of the Gospel should preach about.

Firstly, Jesus told the apostles in Mark 16:15:  “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.'” 

This command reinforces the universal scope of the Christian mission.

It presents preaching the gospel as a fundamental duty for all the followers of Christ, regardless of their gifting or ministry.

It also explains what true preaching is all about –  the Kingdom of God; what Christ has done, what He is doing right now and what He will do in the future!

Matthew 4:17 says; “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

That means true preaching should bring about a change of heart of some sort.

Sometimes I shudder when a person stands to preach a long sermon and doesn’t even once mention what Christ has done to save people from sin and Satan!

True biblical preaching must rotate around the finished work of Christ as its fulcrum.

In this new age where all sorts of things are passing off as ‘sermons,’ God is calling His Church to remain true to the preaching of the Good News of the Kingdom of God, of Christ Jesus as Lord of all, and of the unadulterated Word of Truth.

Secondly, 1 Corinthians 1:23 says; “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”

Authentic biblical preaching is about Christ as Lord of all and His finished work on the Cross of Calvary.

If your ‘preacher’s’ sermon is always egotistic and focusing on something else other than Christ, it might be what the Bible calls “another Gospel.” (Galatians 1:6-9).

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Corinthians 4:5).

If your preacher keeps saying ‘I’ and ‘me’ more than ‘Jesus,’ there’s a fundamental problem!

Thirdly, the apostle Paul urges Timothy, a young pastor, to “preach the Word of God” (2 Timothy 4:2).

True biblical preaching rotates around the Word of God – not the wisdom of man, because though human wisdom might be fun and exciting to listen to, it cannot bring about salvation for the souls of men.

The apostle made that argument in 1 Corinthians 1:21: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

In this new age where all sorts of things are passing off as ‘sermons,’ God is calling His Church to remain true to the preaching of the Good News of the Kingdom of God, of Christ Jesus as Lord of all, and of the unadulterated Word of Truth.

Amen