Look at Matthew 10, beginning in verse 5. The author has just listed the twelve apostles, the twelve sent ones, and now Jesus gives them some instructions. If you are a sent one, you should pay attention. Look at verse 5:
5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Look, he’s saying, if you’re one of the sent ones, and you are, you should go, and as you go, you should preach… preach what? He says, this is the message you should preach: preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The kingdom is near. Understand, that Jesus was the kingdom of heaven in the flesh. In that day, in that region, in a very real, practically, geographic sense, the kingdom of heaven was near. Preach that! He was saying. Tell them I’m near. Tell them I’m here. Tell them I’m here to redeem them. Tell them the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Friends, are you in Christ? Are you? Does the spirit of God dwell in you? Did you know that in Christ, the church has become the dwelling place of God? Ephesians 2:22 says, “…in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
The spirit of God lives in you. You are God’s temple. Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Apostles, sent ones, wherever you go, the kingdom is at hand. Wherever you go, you take a bit of the kingdom of God with you.
You’re not just telling about the Gospel, you’re incarnating it into a world that thinks it is chronologically and geographically and philosophically separated from God. They’re not. Wherever you are, the kingdom is near.
So, as you go, you not only take the reality of the kingdom with you, but you also can proclaim a simple message to describe that reality to the world. Paul said, (1 Corinthians 1:23) wherever I go, I preach Christ crucified.
That’s the simple message for a disciple to share.
