The kingdom of God is at hand!

[AI translation] In the Netherlands, there is a movement to take the gospel of Christ to the world. In particular, they are trying to take the gospel of Christmas out into the streets, into the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Every year, the leadership of this movement creates a new poster, a drawing and a sign that proclaims the message of Christmas. This poster is then given to church members during the last week of Advent and displayed in a prominent place in the window of their homes or shops, so that those who might otherwise ignore the message of the great Good News can also be aware of it. This Advent, thousands upon thousands of posters depicting a modern metropolis with factory buildings and towering chimneys have appeared in shop windows. Above it, the outline of a man's face unfolds as he looks questioningly at the other side of the picture, where a small manger is visible in the bright yellow halo of a star. Against the dark background of the poster, the caption "What does this child want? Indeed, in this modernised world, in this pulsating, feverishly paced life, in this vastly improved world of almost perfect machines and instruments, in this thousand variations of modern metropolitan life, what does this child, this little newborn baby of Bethlehem, want? Is it still needed, or has it fallen out of fashion, but is it still cherished out of tender piety, as a beautiful former toy of a bygone childhood? What does he want, why did he come, why do we still remember him, why do we still celebrate the day he was born? Does he still want anything at all?What does he want? He himself answers this question in the Word that is read, "the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe in the gospel." (v.15) With this message Jesus began his teaching on earth, it was his very first sermon and the condensed content of all his subsequent teaching. No word was uttered so many times from the lips of Jesus, no concept spoken so much by the Saviour, as the kingdom of God, or in another phrase, the kingdom of heaven. That is why the Lord came! That is what He wanted and that is what He wants now and always, until it is fully realized in the world! Yes, in this world, in this modern man, in this driven man, in this mechanized man, in this man who has almost become a machine himself! This is where Jesus wants the kingdom of God!
So what is the kingdom of God? According to a more precise Hungarian translation of the original Greek word, basilea, I might say: the kingdom of God, the rule of God, the kingship of God: a happy, perfect state in which there is one will: that of the King, in which everything happens according to the will of one King. It is a kingdom in which there is only one possible relationship between the inhabitants: the relationship of love. I once saw a saying on the wall of somebody's house, it said, "Yes, Lord!" The kingdom of God is a state in which the glory and peace of God is reflected and echoed in a submissive, obedient, benevolent "yes" without ceasing. Never distracted by "no", denial, contradiction! Nor does it ever say "Yes, Sir, but...!" The kingdom of God is undisturbed rule and obedience to it.
We may approach the concept of the kingdom of God still more by this other expression, "the kingdom of heaven," which is the full reign of the glory and peace of God which is in heaven. So it is not a better and happier world than this world of ours on earth, but a different world, a very different world. The world that was in paradise before we sinned, and from which we have fallen out because of sin. The world that is closed off from us by a great, dark, impenetrable chasm: death. The kingdom of God is the world beyond death, where there is no sin, no sorrow, no passing away, but only happiness and eternal life! Do you believe that there is, that there is somewhere, such a kingdom, such a happy, divinely dominated, perfect world full of God's glory and peace, which we call heaven for short?
God Himself speaks of it in the Bible. He tells us many precious secrets in His revelation, but the greatest thing He says about it is that this kingdom, this kingdom beyond death, has come over to the other side of death. It has also landed at a point in our earthly world, or as Jesus Himself says, "The kingdom of God has come near". This landing of heaven on earth was the invasion of that other world into this world on Christmas night, there in the little stable in Bethlehem. That little child lying in the manger is the same Lord Jesus Christ who said of himself, "I am the... Life." (Jn 14,6) In him and through him eternal life comes to this earth. I do not want to explain the miracle of the divine person of Jesus, but I want to point to the sublime, great miracle itself, when I say that the divine-human person of Jesus here on earth, in this human world of sin and death, was a piece of that other world, the kingdom of God, eternal life. In some miraculous and incomprehensible way, on that first Christmas Eve, God planted, implanted in this world of our sin-infested human lives, surrounded on all sides by death, the germ of eternal life: conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, he appeared among us in a little child, the messenger of the reality of life beyond the reality of death. This is the mystery of Christmas. That is why Jesus, pointing to himself, said: 'the kingdom of God is at hand', that happy, perfect, pure heaven!
The enormity of what happened at Christmas is expressed symbolically - and I stress, only symbolically - in the calendar. It is from this date that we began to count the years, which we usually take to be the date of the birth of Jesus Christ. From this date we count forwards and backwards. Historically, this counting is unjustified, but not according to the Bible. In fact, according to the Bible, the coming of Christ, the appearance of Jesus on earth, is the focal point of the whole history of the world. A turning point where a new beginning is made, namely heaven on earth. There, on the first Christmas Eve, there and then, the reign of heaven began in the earthly world. The air of this other world that invaded the earth, this world beyond death, can be felt in the fact that the devil, sickness and death fled from it. Once, when a blind and dumb demon was brought before Jesus, "He healed him so that the blind and dumb man both spoke and saw." (Mt 12:22) Then he said to the amazed multitudes, "But if by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you without a doubt." (Mt 12,28)
Although people often don't know it, these demonic powers undoubtedly recognized immediately that the kingdom of God had arrived in Jesus, this great turning point in the history of the world, from which point they will be increasingly pushed back, driven out of this world, until their final destruction. Two self and public devils once met Jesus in the domain of the Gadarenes. The devils within them suddenly began to shout, "What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? (Mt 8:29) You see, these devils knew what it meant to be "the kingdom of God made nigh"! That's what it means: the end of Satan's reign, the cleansing of sin, the abolition of suffering, the cessation of all troubles! The outpouring of the power, the glory, the peace of God, as the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace, and good will toward men!" (Lk 2,14) Behold: the angels also proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand!
"The blind shall see, and the lame shall walk; the lepers shall be cleansed, and the deaf shall hear; the dead shall be raised, and the poor shall have the gospel preached to them that are poor." (Mt 11,5) These are the signs in which the Kingdom of God's invasion of this world will be seen. In these actions of Jesus we can already see something of this new world, of the new order of things that began at Christmas and is unfolding more and more fully, being realized on earth! The kingdom of God that has come in the person of Jesus is more than the individual salvation of each person. This kingdom is the rule of God over all and everyone, the Lordship of God through Jesus Christ over sin, death and Satan. In this earthly realm, the realm cleansed by Christ from sin, death and Satan, is the reign of Christ, the ultimate unfolding of which will be the realization of the new heaven and new earth at His reappearance to be God in all things again.
So this Kingdom has come near, has arrived, is here, has come within reach of you and me. And as soon as Jesus announces it, he immediately adds the exhortation, "repent and believe in my gospel." (verse 15b) It is as if he were saying, figuratively, that since the kingdom of God, since the kingdom of heaven has come after you, you have nothing more to do but to enter it. Repent therefore, repent therefore, and I will bring the kingdom of heaven after you, the kingdom of God. All you have to do is to enter, repent! This must be done by all who claim the kingdom of heaven. Lest there should be any doubt about it, God Himself once emphatically declares in His Word, "God now commands men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17,30b) So everywhere: here too, to everyone: to you too, to the good Reformed! It is not our main problem that we are very bad, and that we should be converted from this useless life, that we should be reformed, for most of us have many beautiful and honourable virtues. But our greatest problem is that we are all living in this world by nature, that is to say: in a world corrupted by sin, in a world separated from God, in a world of Satan and death! The world that Satan once presented to Jesus from the mountaintop: "All these things I will give you if you will bow down and worship me." (Mt 4,9) So in the world which God has judged and destined for death by the very act of binding His kingdom.
It was one of the greatest discoveries of my life when the Holy Spirit of God made it clear to me that on that wide road that leads to perdition not only burglars, murderers, adulterers, swindlers and similar sinners walk, but without exception everyone who has not turned off the narrow road begins on it in this life on earth and continues on it. Many good things can be done on that broad road. One can pray and sing psalms, one can even build a church. It is possible to live very honestly and well, working very humanely, and there are many people on it who are just like that. I did not walk it by swearing either, but by singing beautiful psalms and reading the Bible, until God showed me that it was not my deeds that were wrong, but the road I was on that led to perdition, to damnation! That is why even the so-called "good" man must repent! The kingdom of God is at hand, it is ready, the kingdom of God is not the sum total of my good works, not the summit of my striving for excellence, but the reign of God in Christ and through Christ, to which I can submit. To attain, then, to such a surrender, is surrender, surrender, total surrender!
In the Capuchin church in Vienna is the burial place of the former Habsburg dynasty. There, it was the custom that when the body of the dead king was carried down the narrow stairs, the people carrying the coffin knocked on the closed door of the crypt. "Who asks to enter?" was the question from within. "The Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary!" was the proud reply. The door did not open. The second knock came again, and again the question, "Who asks to be admitted?" Then all the dignities, titles and ranks of the former monarch were listed. The door remained closed. After a third knock and a question from within, the answer was finally, "A poor, miserable, sinful man!" And then the door opened and the procession carrying the coffin was allowed to enter.
We said that the kingdom of God, already made nigh in the person of Jesus Christ, is the territory cleansed from sin, Satan and death by His holy blood. To the gates of this kingdom knocks in vain whoever brings any other merit than the one and only Christ, His passion, death and resurrection: title, rank, earthly achievement, good works, virtues, sufferings. Unless you can say from the heart that a miserable sinner asks for admission, free of grace, the gates of this kingdom will remain shut. But it will open as soon as someone pleads for mercy before it.
What does the One whose birthday we celebrate today want? He wants you to enter, to enter, to be converted at last into His glorious kingdom! So that by giving your heart, your two hands, your work, yourself, you too may contribute to making everything in this world as fully Christ's as possible. That this world may acknowledge the triumphant reign of Christ over itself as fully as possible. The Christmas message is true: "the kingdom of God is at hand". Repent therefore, "and believe in the gospel".
Amen
Date: 25 December 1949 (Christmas)