12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.

13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:12-17

It was officially time for Jesus to begin His ministry. The light that preceded him was now in prison, essentially for preaching what Jesus was about to preach.

The Light referred to in Isaiah was the coming Messiah.

As noted in BibleRef:

John preached that message to Israel as the one who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah. He called the people to get ready, before the Messiah arrived and established the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus preached the same message, but He did so as the Messiah Himself. He called people to repent, but He would also call them to submit to and follow Him as the Son of God. Both John and Jesus emphasized that people cannot participate in God’s kingdom without first repenting of their sins, changing the course of their lives to follow the way of Christ.

The message then is the same message today. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. It’s nearer now than it ever was with each passing day. Even forty years ago it was difficult for us to imagine an End Times scenario in our lifetime. I’m not saying we are in those times, but it was certainly harder to imagine before these last two months.

• What could cause churches to willingly suspend their Sunday morning services?
• What could cause a people to turn other people over to the authorities because they were on a beach in the open air?
• What could cause entire industries to shut down because medical academics highly exaggerated their own flawed statistics?

Right, a microscopic virus.

Now is a time to do some real soul searching for those of us in the Church.

Why are we here?

What’s our purpose?

Where are our boundaries regarding what the Government suggests we do going forward?

This time it was a virus.

What’s next?