Walking With Jesus: Why the Kingdom?

As John the Baptist stood in the wilderness and his voice broke through centuries of silence, what was the message God sent him to proclaim?
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)
Then Jesus came to declare what God had given Him. What was the gist of His sermons?
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
And when Jesus sent His disciples into the world, their message was no different:
“As you go, proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 10:7)

Three voices. One message. The kingdom.

So why, after my seventy-two years of church life—sermons, songs, and Sunday schools—does it seem that so few sermons I’ve heard truly center on the kingdom of heaven? How could something so central to Jesus’ teaching be so peripheral in ours?
It troubles me deeply. Because the kingdom wasn’t a passing topic for Jesus—it was His obsession.
He spoke of it again and again, constantly weaving it into parables like threads of gold:
“The kingdom of heaven is like…”
a sower scattering seed,
weeds in a farmer’s field,
a net cast into the sea,
a lost sheep, a hidden treasure, a mustard seed, yeast in dough.

Over and over, He was trying to show us what life looks like when God reigns—not someday, but now.
In Mark 9:1, Jesus told His disciples, “Some standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” That means the kingdom isn’t some distant realm waiting in the clouds. It’s already here.

Then in Luke 17:21, He said, “The kingdom of God is in your midst”—or, as some translations put it, “within you.”

So, if the kingdom is here, if it’s within us, we must ask the question:
What is the Kingdom?
A kingdom, by its very nature, requires a King. And it requires subjects who willingly live under His rule.
Simply put:
The kingdom is the realm or place where the King reigns. That’s it!

We know who the King is—Jesus.
The real question we need to ask ourselves is this: Am I in His kingdom?

Here’s the test, and it’s not complicated:
If the King tells you to do something, will you do it?
If your heart says yes—if you trust Him enough to obey even when it costs you—then you are living in the kingdom.
But if your heart resists, if you insist on your own way, then it doesn’t matter how many church services you’ve attended, who your parents are, or how many times you’ve been baptized—you’re standing outside the gates. You are not in the kingdom.

Jesus told a sobering story about this in Matthew 22:1–14. The kingdom, He said, is like a wedding feast. Yet one man entered unprepared—clothed not in the righteousness of Christ, but in the garments of his own self-righteousness and self-will. When the King saw him, He cast him into the outer darkness ‘where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
That image should make every one of us pause.
So let me ask again—gently, but firmly:
Is Jesus truly your King…in everything?
When He leads, do we follow? When He speaks, do we obey?
Do we trust Him enough to let Him reign—not just in heaven, but in our hearts, our choices, in our very lives?
Because the kingdom of heaven is not a faraway land—it’s a present reality, unfolding wherever Jesus is obeyed.
And it begins the moment we each let go… and draw near.
So, if the king tells you to do something, will you do it?

Just a follower of Jesus,
Alan W. Harris