What Is the Good News of The Kingdom?
The answer to “what is the good news of the kingdom” Through Jesus Christ, God’s boundless love and grace are made available to all, offering hope, transformation, and eternal life to those who embrace it. GFA World shares the Good News of Jesus with impoverished African and Asian families to meet their physical and spiritual needs.
When Jesus began His public ministry, He came into Galilee preach the Good News and declaring, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15, NKJV). This was the Gospel of the Kingdom — the news that God’s reign was drawing near. Jesus told His followers plainly why He had come: “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43, NKJV).
Jesus came to preach the Good News, and the Gospels record that Jesus fulfilled and the Kingdom drew near through His words and works. He carried all Jesus authority as the One sent by God the Father (Matthew 28:18, NKJV). His first followers watched Him cast out demons, still storms, and raise the dead — actions that showed the Kingdom had indeed drawn near. Matthew recorded that “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness” (Matt. 4:23, NKJV).
The Gospel of the Kingdom was not a distant concept. Jesus drew near to people others avoided — touching lepers (Matt. 8:3, NKJV), dining with outcasts, and forgiving sins (Mark 2:5, NKJV). When He sent His disciples out, He extended the same invitation He had first spoken in Galilee. Jesus Himself said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day” (John 9:4, NKJV). The parables He told, the healings He performed, and the confrontations He faced all centered on the Kingdom He was announcing.
The Heart of the Good News
God’s love is a present reality that calls us to action. We are urged to use our God-given resources to “preach the gospel to the poor… proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:18-19, NKJV). GFA World takes this mission seriously. We share God’s love with suffering people by addressing both their material and spiritual needs.
At the center of this message stands the death and resurrection of Jesus. The apostle Paul summarized the good news he had received and passed on: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4, NKJV). Through the death and resurrection, the Son of God restored broken people to God the Father (Rom. 5:8-10, NKJV). When Peter stood before the crowd at Pentecost, he did not open with a philosophy or a program. He told them that Jesus, whom they had crucified, God had raised from the dead (Acts 2:23-24, NKJV).
As Paul wrote, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NKJV). The Son of God came to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45, NKJV). Paul told the Corinthian church that this message was “of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3, NKJV). The King has come, has died, and has risen — and that news stands at the center of everything.
What It Means to Enter the Kingdom
What does it mean to experience God’s love? It begins with submitting to His will, allowing His transformative power to renew our hearts and lives (Romans 12:2 NKJV). As citizens in God’s kingdom, we must submit to God’s authority and share the Good News of Jesus with others. In doing so, we hope others will find freedom, purpose, and peace.
The Holy Spirit is the one who brings this transformation. Jesus promised His followers that the Spirit would guide them into truth and empower their witness (John 16:13, Acts 1:8, NKJV). Jesus described this as being born of the Spirit (John 3:5-6, NKJV), and Paul wrote that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead now lives in those who belong to Him (Rom. 8:11, NKJV). Paul also wrote that “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16, NKJV).
The transformation Paul describes in Romans 12:2, NKJV — the renewing of the mind — is something God does in a surrendered heart. People who experience this renewal often describe it as waking up to a reality they had never seen before. Priorities shift, relationships change, and how a person spends their days begins to look different. Jesus described the transformation in simple terms: “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3, NKJV).
The Kingdom at Work Through GFA World
At GFA World, we see the impact of God’s love reaching the brokenhearted. This Good News brings hope, lifting communities burdened with poverty and hardships. GFA World provides clean water, education, and medical care to those in need. More importantly, we see hearts repaired as people experience God’s love for the first time.
When a child drinks clean water for the first time, when a mother receives medical care she could never afford, when a family hears that their worth is not measured by their poverty — these are glimpses of the Kingdom of God in places that have known only hardship. James wrote that faith without works is dead (James 2:17, NKJV), and GFA World takes that seriously. Jesus healed bodies and fed crowds, and GFA World’s national missionaries follow that same pattern: meeting urgent needs while making known the name behind the mercy. In communities across Africa and Asia, a clean-water well, a medical camp, or a child’s education can become the first sign that someone cares — and that Someone greater stands behind that care.
National missionaries serve in their own communities, speaking local languages and understanding cultural dynamics that outsiders would miss. A study of global mission effectiveness found that local workers reach areas and build trust in ways that foreign workers often cannot, and GFA World has seen this principle confirmed across decades of field ministry, because they already share the language, customs, and daily burdens of the people they serve.[1]
Jesus authority — the command He gave to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19, NKJV) — takes concrete form when a neighbor serves a neighbor, and the Kingdom advances one life at a time through ordinary people who have themselves been transformed by the good news.
Walking in the Kingdom’s Power
K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), the founder of GFA World, reminds us that sharing God’s love relies not on our own efforts but on His power. He wrote, “Some of us are naturally gifted and able. As such, we are in great danger of walking through our life and doing great things for God―all in our own strength. Only in the end will we find out that in spite of all our accomplishments, God could not use us to impart Christ’s tender, gentle, broken, and creative life to others. No doubt our gifts and abilities are given to us by our Creator; however, they will only become useful in building God’s kingdom if we walk in humility and brokenness, depending on His strength instead of ours.” [2]
Yohannan’s words challenge a culture that prizes self-reliance. The apostle Paul learned this firsthand when he pleaded for relief from a thorn in his flesh and heard Christ answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9, NKJV). A missionary who knows the language and culture but walks in pride can block what God wants to do, while a worker with fewer visible gifts who leans hard on God can see things change that human effort could never accomplish.
National missionaries supported through GFA World step into villages where the gospel has never been preached. They often face hostility, poverty, and isolation. They stay because they believe God called them there, and over time, communities begin to change — families find hope, churches form, and the good news spreads from neighbor to neighbor. His Kingdom advances through people who pray because they know they cannot succeed without God’s intervention.
How You Can Respond
GFA World is committed to preaching, sharing, and living out the message of Christ’s love. We want people to know what is the good news of the Kingdom and turn to God in faith. As we walk in humility, we know God’s love will continue to change the world. Across Africa and Asia, millions of people have never heard this good news in a way they can understand. The population of the 10/40 Window includes the largest concentrations of people who have never heard the name of Jesus.[3]
National missionaries carry the eternal Kingdom into villages, slums, and remote regions every day — through words and through works. Many of these communities face severe poverty, and the good news addresses both their deepest need and their present suffering. When a missionary arrives with medicine, clean water, and the words of Christ, whole families encounter the Kingdom in tangible and genuinely life-changing form.
The question that began this article — what is the Good News of the Kingdom — finds its answer in a Person. As John wrote, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14, NKJV). This is the meaning of the Good News of the Kingdom: God has come near in Christ. To answer what does the Good News of the Kingdom mean for someone today, Jesus Himself gave the invitation: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28, NKJV). The writer of Hebrews described this Kingdom as one that “cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28, NKJV). What God is building will outlast every human empire and every passing trouble. The apostle Peter wrote that believers have been born again “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven” (1 Peter 1:4, NKJV).
As the apostle John wrote, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NKJV). That love is meant to be shared. Through GFA World, ordinary people can help bring the good news to communities that have never heard it. National missionaries — men and women who already know the language and culture of the places they serve — are waiting to be sent.
Your generosity can support a missionary family, provide clean water through a Jesus Well, help fund medical camps in communities where a doctor is otherwise out of reach, or sponsor a national missionary who brings both practical assistance and the good news to people who have never heard it.
You do not need to cross an ocean to make a difference. When you partner with GFA World, you stand with workers who are already on the ground, serving their own people in the name of Christ. The Gospels show us a Savior who touched lepers and welcomed children. Today, that same compassion reaches families through sponsored missionaries who deliver both physical help and the words of eternal life. As Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matt. 9:37, NKJV).
What is the Good News of the Kingdom that Jesus preached? Learn more![1] “National Missionaries: Why They Are Effective.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/sponsor/why-national-missionaries/.
[2] “You Have to Make the Journey Yourself.” GFA World. Accessed November 12, 2024. https://www.gfa.org/kpyohannan/5-minutes-with-kpyohannan/you-have-to-make-the-journey-yourself.
[3] “The 10/40 Window.” Joshua Project. https://joshuaproject.net/resources/articles/10_40_window.