On Thursday, the nation stopped to commemorate a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack.
Today, in solidarity with Indigenous followers of Jesus, we pause to honour another Day of Mourning, reflecting on the dispossession and ongoing injustices experienced by Australia’s First Peoples, acknowledging our shared history, and renewing our commitment as Christians to justice, healing and reconciliation.
Beyond these important public events, there are also many reasons to pause as individuals, to reflect on our struggles and shortcomings, to pursue what Scripture calls repentance and reconciliation, and to look with hope to a new day shaped by what is true, right and good: the hope of light in our darkness, and life out of death.
Jesus offers that hope.
At the beginning of his “public ministry,” Jesus is baptised by John in Jordan (Mt 3:13-17), tempted by the devil in the desert (Mt 4:1-11), and then moves from Nazareth to Capernaum, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Matthew tells us he “began to preach, ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ” (Mt 4:13, 17).
But it was more than mere words. In verse 23, Matthew links the message of Jesus with reports of miraculous healings: “Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
What a time to be alive! What would you give to have been there?!
But Matthew’s narrative raises important theological questions for us: what is this “kingdom of heaven,” this “good news of the kingdom”? Theologians generally agree that the phrase refers to the supernatural “reign” or “rule” of God, expressed in time and space. Australian theologian Graeme Goldsworthy suggests that, from Genesis to Revelation, Scripture constantly confronts us with the theme of God’s rule over God’s people in God’s place. He suggests that
The kingdom depicted in Eden is lost to humankind at the beginning of the biblical account. The history of redemption begins immediately when the kingdom is lost, and tells of the way the kingdom of God will finally be established as a new people of God in fellowship with him in a new Eden, a new Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth.[1]
In the ministry of Jesus, this kingdom of God is approaching, or being inaugurated, in new ways: there is an urgent call to repentance and faith, accompanied by signs of healing and wholeness.
But we should not skip over the metaphor Jesus uses as he acknowledges the arrival of God’s kingdom in his own ministry, a metaphor he borrows from the prophecy of Isaiah: “The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned” (Mt 4:16, quoting Isa 9:1f).
Jesus understood the in-breaking kingdom of God as announcing good news, confirmed and enacted by signs and wonders – good news that brought light in place of darkness, and life in place of death. This was his message and mission.
The first sermon he preached is short and sharp. He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v.17). It’s within earshot; it’s within sight; it’s within reach. For those who are busy making peace with darkness, or exhausted by the power of death, as well as those who have simply lost their way, the time has come to turn around, reorient the heart, renew the mind, and embrace a new way of being in the world.
Notice that the kingdom as Jesus imagines it begins where we might least expect it: not in the corridors of power in Jerusalem or Rome, but in the provincial shadows of the village streets of Galilee. Not in “the centre,” but at the margins. Not among the proud, but in the weary, the sick, the poor, and the mentally ill. This is grace.
The kingdom of God advances through personal transformation as ordinary people like you and me hear the good news, and begin to follow the way of Jesus. He first calls Simon Peter and Andrew: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (v. 19). Then James and John, with immediate results (vv. 20, 22). We see that the kingdom of God
- begins with a call (“Follow me”)
- requires a turning (leaving nets, boats, security, expectations)
- creates a new identity (“I will make you…”)
- becomes a mission (carrying on the mission of Jesus)
What is Jesus asking you to leave behind as he invites you to follow him? Who is Jesus calling you to share the good news with? Where have you and I delayed in practicing full obedience to Jesus, on his schedule, not ours?
The kingdom of God is not just about embracing correct doctrine, but pursuing active discipleship; not just private salvation, but public justice; not words alone, but actually working together with God to bring about the reconciliation of the whole creation.
Matthew summarises the ministry of Jesus in three movements (v. 23):
- Teaching in synagogues (truth for the mind);
- Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom (freedom for the spirit);
- Healing every disease and affliction (mercy for the body).
Jesus invites us, as he invited those in his original circle, to turn from the darkness to the light, from death to life. He says to us, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is on its way.”
With the arrival of Jesus, the light has dawned. The King has come. The kingdom of God is breaking into our world, defeating the darkness, and overcoming sickness and death. The kingdom comes near through people like us whose hearts are turned toward the light, who begin to walk in the light, and who bring others with them and introduce them to Jesus.
Jesus invites you now to respond with joy to the grace of God, and ask God to give you a heart for mission that helps to inaugurate the kingdom wherever you go – in your home, your workplace, your friendship networks, your church, and throughout the world.
At the end of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the young hero, Ralph, is saved from death at the hands of his companions, former church choirboys, by the forces of law and order: the crew from a warship designed to kill men from rival nations.[2]
Commenting on this irony, church historian Richard Lovelace observes:
The very powers which keep us from killing one another are not angelic. They are ultimately part of systems which are engaged in the planetary equivalent of gang fights. “The whole world,” as the apostle says, “is in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19) and filled with his darkness and lies.
But these difficulties [says Lovelace] are not the world’s most serious problem. Fallen creation is estranged from the holiness of its Creator. It lies under his judgment and curse. The wages of sin, the Scripture reminds us, is death.
We do not like viewing the magnitude of these problems. Once we see them, it is natural for us to want practical answers which will begin working immediately to reassure us that we can stay on top. But there are more important things at stake here than our inner well-being. We are all part of a drama in which the glory of God is being displayed – especially the honor and excellence of his Son …
Healing a hard case brings honor to a physician. Defeating a terrible enemy shows the strength of a warrior. The ruin of this world shows the depth and tenacity of God’s love, and the grandeur of his Son’s achievement.[3]
I love that sentence buried in the middle of that quotation by Lovelace: “We are all part of a drama in which the glory of God is being displayed.”
Lovelace is correct: in his life and death, Jesus Christ inaugurates the kingdom of God. He embodies the light of God’s kingdom. He invites us to draw near. He calls us to follow him. He teaches us to discern what is true, right and good. He shows us how to live well, and how to die well. In his life and death, the kingdom of God has come near.
Jesus changes everything. Follow him.
Sermon 846 copyright © 2026 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 25 January 2026. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
[1] Graeme Goldsworthy, “Kingdom of God,” in T, D. Alexander & Brian Rosner (eds), New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Leicester: IVP, 2000), 620.
[2] William Golding, Lord of the Flies (London: Faber & Faber, 1954).
[3] Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002 [1985]), 115.
Image source: Jack Kilcrease
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