A Call to Repentance

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. And saying, Repent you for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:1,2).

John the Baptist came on the scene just prior to the coming of our Lord and His earthly ministry. He was calling Israel to repentance in anticipation of the Messiah’s arrival. Multitudes came to the Jordan River to see and hear what John was preaching, including the Pharisees and Sadducees. He was calling them to examine themselves to determine if they were truly following the Lord.

The Kingdom of Heaven was being offered to Israel and this call to repentance was the way of separating those that believed in a national salvation, or a works based salvation, from those who realized the need for individual repentance and true faith in the coming Redeemer. Those that came were baptized by him in the Jordan River confessing their sins.

There were two groups of people that came to John as he preached his message of repentance. There were those that realized their need for repentance and truly sought the Lord and His way, and those that were self-righteousness. The Pharisees and the Sadducees fell into the latter group. John called both groups to bring forth evidence that they understand what the Lord required, which was repentance and faith. As evidenced by our Lord’s ministry, and the opposition by the religious leadership that He experienced, the latter group never brought forth the proper repentance.

Israel, due to unbelief, was destroyed. They had the ministry of John the Baptist followed by the arrival of the Lord Jesus and His incredible ministry of some three and a half years. They had no excuse. Judgment came in AD 70 when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were dispersed throughout the known world of the time.

This is a lesson for our world of today, and a warning for the church of our day. The King is coming. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Lord is calling all those alive today to repentance. The question is, which group will each of us fall into. Will we realize our need for repentance and come to the Lord repenting and placing our faith in the Lord’s gracious provision of Salvation, Christ and Him crucified, or will we walk out our life in self-righteousness having our faith in something other than Christ and His sacrificial death on the Cross.

Faith in our own ability to be pleasing and accepted by the Lord, or faith in our religious practices, or in a belief that because we were born into a particular denomination we are in the Kingdom, will not lead to the Salvation that must be our chief desire. These practices and beliefs can only lead to self-righteousness, just like the religious leaders of John the Baptist’s time; there are both true followers of the Lord and apostates in our churches today.

At the Lord’s coming, He will separate the wheat from the tares as the Lord told us in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. In the church as a whole today, there are those that belong to the Lord (wheat), as well as those that follow a false way (tares). He asks us all to decide today whether we realize our great need and will come in repentance, or will we stand in our own righteousness awaiting the judgment that will come on all those who refuse the Lord and have gone the way of perdition. We must remember what happened to Israel in rejecting their Messiah. Our faith must be placed in Christ and His sacrificial death on the Cross, daily.  The reward for walking with the Lord is great; the punishment for rejecting the Lord is eternal.

“He (Jesus) came to His own (Israel), and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God” (John 1:11,12).

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2026