The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes the Kingdom of God. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.… Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:10, 13.
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.… And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” Matthew 24:7, 14.
The gospel of the Kingdom will be a witness to all the nations, because nation is rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. It is inevitable that the gospel of the Kingdom shall go forth to tell the nations and kingdoms what will happen to them, but the Lord will do nothing without first revealing it to His servants, the prophets (Amos 3:7). He has been saying that all other kingdoms are coming down.
The vision of Daniel was a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. That stone smote the image of earthly kingdoms and rules, and it expanded until it filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:35). That truth is being preached in this day. It is the gospel of the Kingdom in which there is one King.
The Kingdom of God is beautiful and unique above all other kingdoms. It is the only Kingdom where there are all chiefs and no Indians—a nation of kings and priests unto God (Revelation 5:10). Christ’s end-time disciples are all sons of the King. They are a nation brought into being by a relationship to Jesus Christ. They do not take out citizenship papers; they are born into it, thrust into it by the miracle of God’s grace (I Peter 2:9–10). The children of the King proclaim the voice of the Kingdom, and God blesses them in it. Therefore, His Kingdom is rising against all other kingdoms.
The Lord’s prayer is becoming exceedingly beautiful. It is not repeated as a little ritual; but the sons of the Kingdom cry, “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done!” How emphatic are their hearts as they cry for it! Because they demand it, they are the force to see the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. God shall rule. This is the destiny portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew.
The book of Matthew is the voice of the Kingdom, and it speaks again and again about the Kingdom of Christ coming. The Jews loved hearing this because they were used to it in the Old Testament. They knew that a Kingdom would be coming. The disciples were still conditioned by that understanding, and so they asked Jesus, after the resurrection, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Acts 1:6. They were very much Kingdom conscious and aware that the Kingdom would be restored to Israel. God brought them that message in the beginning of the New Testament. Matthew is the gospel of the Kingdom. Matthew quoted numerous Old Testament prophecies about the reigning Christ the King. Over and over, he wrote, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken …”
Matthew was a beautiful Jew in all his understanding of the Old Testament, although he had been a despised citizen in the Jewish nation because he was a publican. In contrast, the Pharisees and scribes were respected by the Jews, yet Jesus said that the publicans and the harlots would go into the Kingdom of God before the Pharisees (Matthew 21:31). Matthew’s former job as a tax collector was ranked with the publicans and the harlots. But God chose him because he knew the Word. Through Matthew He could speak, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is at hand!” God could have chosen a man like Saul of Tarsus who knew the Word and had a good reputation. Saul was not a publican, but a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews (Philippians 3:5). However, God chose him to minister to the Gentiles. To preach to the Jews, God chose a man from among the publicans and harlots. When the Lord said to him, “Follow Me,” Matthew threw over his table and the money to follow Him. The Lord gave the gospel of the Kingdom in its truest style: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16). He selected a man from the lowest class of Jews to write the Gospel that has converted thousands of Jews to the Lord—the Gospel of Matthew.
If you were writing the Bible, would you choose a discredited person like Matthew to write the first Gospel? God did—that is God’s way.
Matthew 19:30 speaks of God’s law of reversals: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”; and so the cry now comes out of the Lord’s end-time disciples, “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done.” The motivation is pure in the hearts of these citizens of the Kingdom who say, “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever; amen.”
The prophecy of Matthew 24 tells us that the time will come when nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. This happened in Jesus’ day, and it is happening in ours. It is the Kingdom of God that is rising against all other kingdoms. It is the holy nation, the holy priesthood unto God that is rising up. They have weapons of which the world knows nothing (II Corinthians 10:4). The world will never understand what their secret weapon is, or how they can stand and prophesy the word of the Lord. The living Word of the Lord comes to the living family of God, and they will speak it until all the kingdoms come down and His Kingdom prevails. They will speak a mighty word that comes by the Holy Spirit, the gospel of the Kingdom that will be spoken unto all the world.
Think of all the areas that the Kingdom of God is coming against. Prophesy against them. For instance, prophesy that the Kingdom of God will prevail over the law of the jungle, where you see everything preying upon something else. Prophesy that the Kingdom of God will prevail until the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the wolf and the lamb dwell together (Isaiah 11:6, 7). Prophesy against the bureaucracy that has stolen away the democratic processes and enslaved the people to the bureaucrats and the bureaus they have created, and to the rules and the regimentations that they have brought forth as an excuse for their own existence. Prophesy against being thrust into wars that are meaningless. Prophesy against the system of law that renders meaningless all of the efforts of law officers who have been trained to be skilled and superior to the law officers of any other age.
Let the Kingdom of God come, a Kingdom of righteousness. If you have any grievances, get into the Kingdom of God with all your heart and prophesy against all the unrighteousness that you see. Prophesy, as it was written. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven!”