Right Here, Right Now
Matthew 3:1-2 NASB
3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Humanity has always struggled to receive God as He is.
In the Garden, humanity chose to define God for themselves instead of trusting Him. And the result was sin and death spreading across the earth.
That same pattern continues.
The story of Israel is a story of refusing to let Yahweh be King (1 Samuel 8:19–20). Instead of being led by God Himself, they asked for a human king. And God gives them what they want.
But it comes at a cost.
King after king fails. And Israel finds itself in captivity again and again. God’s people—stuck, held back, and constantly under the weight of their own decisions.
After rejecting God as King, the language begins to shift.
God is spoken of as the “God of heaven.” His rule becomes something described as “heavenly.”
Not because He isn’t King—but because His rule isn’t being lived out here. It becomes something distant. Something not fully realized on earth.
So when John the Baptist comes announcing,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,”
this is huge.
For the Jewish people, this is the moment they’ve been waiting for. The Kingdom isn’t far off. It’s not just in the sky somewhere.
It’s here.
It’s now.
And then Jesus comes preaching the same message:
Matthew 4:17 NASB
“…Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Jesus didn’t just say it—He lived like it was true.
That the Kingdom of the heavens is not distant, but present. Not someday, but right now.
So the question is:
What reality are we going to live by?
Do we actually trust what Jesus says about His Kingdom?
Or are we still living like it’s far away?
