Theological Fragments

I introduced the Vocational Gospel through a four-part series that went through Scripture cover-to-cover--literally, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. Now, I want to expand on that introduction by showing individual instances in the Bible where we see the Vocational Gospel explicitly preached or displayed. I'm calling it "The Gospel According To..." Today I want to start with John the Baptist. John was a man of two worlds: he was the last prophet of Israel, and he was the first preacher of the Gospel, before even Jesus. In Matthew 3:2 John begins to preach, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand"--which is, word-for-word, exactly how Matthew summarizes Jesus' message in 4:17. John's preaching is our first glimpse of the Good News that accompanies the arrival of the messiah, Jesus. So what does he preach? Well, as we just saw, he preaches repentance. In Luke's account, John's call to repentance is p

Now we finally arrive at the place where this journey all started for me: the "Kingdom of Heaven." This whole journey began when I first really asked myself the question,  ​W hat is the Kingdom of Heaven?  You see, I was taught in Sunday School, VBS and youth group that the Gospel was all about getting my sins forgiven so that I could get into Heaven when I died. "Fire Insurance," we called it. And so when I was confronted with this phrase, the "Kingdom of Heaven"--a phrase that Jesus uses constantly to describe his message--I just assumed that he meant, "Heaven." So when Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near," I thought he meant that the  way  to Heaven was near. When he talked about "entering the Kingdom of Heaven," I thought he was talking about getting into Heaven when you die. But that interpretation caused me a whole different problem. Have you ever noticed that Jesus seems to spend so little tim