But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Matthew 23:13
Here we see Jesus calling “Woe” upon the teachers of the Jews. This well known passage describes the hard-heartedness of the Jewish leaders, who did not recognize Jesus as who He was.
But, when one considers this rebuke, one must consider what exactly is being said by Jesus.
Specifically, Jesus is rebuking them because they “shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men”. Next, he breaks this down into both halves of this. They do not go in themselves, and they do not allow others to.
That they themselves enter into the Kingdom, and they could have, is what Jesus rebuked them for. That they did not suffer (allow) others who were trying to enter in, but were also could have, they were also rebuked.
Which means, basically, the Kingdom was enterable then.
It isn’t just that they were preventing people who were trying to enter and would some day. No, the first part of the delineation prohibits that. They were rebuked because they did not enter, not that they weren’t preparing to enter it some day.
To Jesus, the Kingdom was not a future event, but a present reality (Mark 1:15, Matthew 28:28). The teachers were rebuked because they prevented people from entering into that reality of the Spirit. The Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom (Psalm 145:13). It always had been here, only now, it was available through the Only Door, Jesus Christ.
The rebuke of Jesus was that they would not enter into the reality of the Kingdom, through the work of the Holy Spirit in His life. While the Holy Spirit would not be poured out individually upon the 120 for a while, the operation and activity of the Holy Spirit was available through the life and the ministry of Jesus, in the same way that it was available through the Old Testament prophets, when they prophesied.
The Jewsish teachers not only didn’t enter into the then available reality of the Kingdom, but they prevented those who were trying.
Much like today, many would say that the Kingdom is not now, or in some way not here. Yet, Jesus had the Spirit without measure. The Kingdom is fully here, just as it was then, and it is the only Gospel there is (Acts 28:31).
Today, just like yesterday, a great many Bible teachers, either knowingly or unknowingly, are teaching people away from the reality of the Kingdom. This reality, the leaven on the inside, is the indwelling Holy Spirit.
How else could Jesus, in Matthew 13:1-9, explain the Kingdom as a Word? It is the preaching of the Gospel, just as the original Sower was the Son of Man. The enemy wants to steal the seed of living in the Spirit, that is, the Kingdom. It is those that live by the Spirit that live, and those who by the flesh die (Romans 8:13).
The preaching of the church through the Epistles has always been “The Gospel of the Kingdom”, and it is this Kingdom, the life in the Lord through the Holy Spirit, that we are all called to walk in, abide in, obey, and heed.
Any preaching against this truth, whether by great strides or small, is doing the same thing that Jesus rebuked the teachers for. It is shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against men, for even if you take away the language of this reality, it will cause some to stumble, and if you forestall it completely to another age, you have, effectively, re-written the Gospel to be something other than the Gospel of the Kingdom it is. While it is better to say “No No” and still do it anyway (certainly better than “Yes” and not), it is all the more better to teach and do the Kingdom, the only Kingdom there is, Christ on the throne, and us living the life in the Spirit by Faith.
It is not useful to argue over words. But the only salvation there is, according to Colossians 1:13, is being transferred into His Kingdom. The Kingdom is the sheep-fold, and Christ it’s Only Door.
Jesus was not only teaching the Kingdom, He was seeing people enter it there in His life. This is the context of this rebuke, that the Pharisees, those that should have led Israel, did not enter into Him, and they were stopping those that were. This is “entering the Kingdom”, entering Christ. If this is the Biblical definition of the Kingdom, how does that affect your definition and perception of what the Kingdom really is?