How Close is Near?

Matthew 3:1-3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² and saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah,
saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’ ”

When John the Baptist says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, He is telling us that the Kingdom of heaven is
near, but what does he mean by near. That word is sufficiently vague enough that it can have many different
meanings. When a mother asks her son how he is coming with his homework, he very well might say, I’m nearly
done, meaning of course he has thought about starting. When I head down to Milwaukee to visit my sister she often
calls and asks how close I am. I say I am nearly there, meaning anything from thirty minutes to thirty seconds. If
someone from Eau Claire asks me where Millston is I’ll tell them its near Black River Falls. But next year if someone
from India asks me where Millston is I’ll probably draw a map and say its right here near lake superior. I know a guy
named Dean who used to describe the difference between what a German thinks it means to be close and what an
Italian thinks it means to be close. If a German sits next to someone there is a still a good five or six feet of space
between that person and his friend, but for an Italian to be near he needs to be pressed up next to him like a
sardine. But the question we face today is not what an Italian or a German thinks the word near means but what
John means when he says the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

To begin with when John said that the Kingdom of God was near, he meant another few years, maybe even within
the year and the Messiah, the King of that kingdom, would be there for them to see and hear and touch. That might
have been a little hard for them to believe. After all they had been told about the coming Messiah for the last 1,000
years. Again and again and again prophets had come saying the Messiah is coming. Now all of a sudden He was
going to reveal Himself within the year? Joyful tidings to be sure, but really? Many of the Jews after a life time of
hearing the promise of the Messiah and seeing nothing, had given up and were living lives that did not reflect an
attitude of He is coming soon and I want to be prepared, but rather an attitude of He hasn’t come, He isn’t coming,
He’ll never come. To them John says the Kingdom is near.

And what does Jesus say to them. On Palm Sunday, He rides His donkey over the mount called Olivet and there He
sees the whole city of Jerusalem spread out before Him. There He weeps for Jerusalem and talks about their
destruction, and continues to explain this will happen because, “you did not know the hour of your visitation.” In
other words they did not know where the Kingdom of God was coming. It certainly wasn’t God’s fault that they did
not know this. There was John preaching in the wilderness saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And we are told all of Israel heard him. No if they wanted to know, if they cared at all, they could have known
should have know, just how near that visitation was. They should have understood just how close God’s kingdom
was to them. They didn’t know because they didn’t want to know.

We too have been hearing from little on that the Messiah is returning. We too have been hearing for the last two
thousand years that He is coming soon, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. That He is in fact near. But how near?
Tomorrow? Next week? Will he return next week? On Christmas day? That would certainly save me the work of
packing up my house. Yes, He certainly could come that soon. He is near, the Lord tells us He is coming quickly.

Yet despite this admonition from the Lord there are plenty of people who act as if He isn’t near. Plenty of people
who act as if not only is He not near, but He is never coming. I met a girl once who had spent a good deal of her life
acting as if God’s kingdom weren’t that near, then she was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told her she was
going to die, even though she was very young, and all of a sudden she began to realize just how near the kingdom
of God really was. It was no longer some distant obscure future that she didn’t have to think about it, it was right
around the corner, it was coming soon. This girl was very lucky, the Lord gave her something in her life to make her
sit up and pay attention, to realize just how near the kingdom was before it was too late. To many the Lord comes
suddenly and they still think that He is far away, or not coming at all and they are caught unawares. Yet no one has
an excuse for the Lord reminds us right here in our text, “The kingdom is near at hand” It is coming quickly. Even so
Lord Jesus come quickly.

Secondly, when John said the kingdom is near, He meant stretch out your legs and walk in, for it is right by your
side knocking against your heart attempting to get in. When we talk about nearness, we can talk about two
different things. We can talk about nearness of space, as in I live near the Chuch, or we can talk about nearness of
time, like those of you who are thinking, “I hope this Sermon is near it’s end.” When we talk about nearness of the
kingdom in time, in other words how long until Christ comes, we have to say we don’t know, its near, its close, but
we don’t know how close. When we talk about nearness in space, we know exactly how far away it is, then the word
near means it is as close to you as anything can be. It is at your side, it is snuggling up to you, waiting to come in to
your heart. Or rather for most of you it is in your heart, that is just how near it is.

It was this that Christ meant when he told the Pharisees, ‘The Kingdom is among you.” They thought they wanted to
be a part of the kingdom and asked Christ how much longer they had to wait for it. Christ tells them you don’t have
to wait, it is right there among you, you can open the door and enter. This is also what Christ meant when He
declared, “Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.” The doors
are open and right there and the crowds are jostling each other to get in.

Some people act as if the Kingdom is far away in time, and thus they don’t bother to prepare, but other people
recognizing that the king is coming and that soon, they prepare, yet they prepare as if the kingdom is a long ways
away in space.

These men act as if it takes a great deal of walking in order to enter the kingdom. That you need to do great deeds,
or many good works, or a lot of praying. Many people act as if there is much you need to do before you can enter.
But what does John say, “the kingdom is at hand”. “At hand” that phrase indicates something that is with in
reaching distance. It is close enough that you can reach out your hand and grab it, there it is. That’s pretty close.
How close is the kingdom of God? It isn’t a long ways away from you. It doesn’t take great deeds, good works,
mighty acts of faith, a perfect life. If entrance into the kingdom of God required any of those things, than certainly it
would be far away, very difficult to enter but in point of fact all it takes is for you to turn around and there it is. John
says repent and enter. Remember what the word repent means, we talked about that it means to turn 180 degrees.
That is how close the kingdom is, all you need to do is turn around and there are you standing as a saint in the
courts of our Lord. Yes it is that close and that simple.

Some people, and if it were up to us we would as well, spend their lives like Jonah running away from God, trying as
hard as they can to get as far away from Him as they can, Yet the Lord spends their life, running right behind them,
calling out repent and turn around for right now my kingdom is right here waiting for you. And the kingdom of God is
at hand among us to, for in whatever hearts Christ rules as King, their the kingdom of God is to be found.

The King is coming, He is near at hand, soon will be the day of judgement, therefore let us enter His kingdom, that
when He comes He may find us as one of His own. This kingdom is near, within reaching distance, so close all you
need do is turn around. That is how close near is. Amen.