Back to the Basics: God’s Kingdom Personified in Jesus.
The Person and Works of Jesus Define the Kingdom!
Magi (Matthew 2:1) translated as “wise men” in many Bible versions followed a star in search of a king. They were probably astrologers coming from the East - from either the Arabian Desert or Babylon. These men of great faith led by a star, traveled thousands of miles in search of a Jewish king. Representing the gentile world, they saw God wrapped in human clothes - bowed down and worshiped Him.” (Matthew 2: 11). They also presented Baby Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The gifts symbolized Jesus’ mission. Gold represents His role as King, Frankincense speaks of His deity, and Myrrh - used to embalm dead bodies, says volumes about a life of “gathering gloom, sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying…” as rendered by the lyrics of a popular Christmas Carol, “We Three Kings of Orient Are…”
We are in the business of probing the realm of kings and kingdoms:
John declared the kingdom of heaven was near.
Jesus announced it had now come - Mark 1: 16:
He was saying the kingdom of God is embedded in Him.
The kingdom had come in Him and with Him because He was the Christ, the Messiah, and the Son of God.
The person and works of Jesus exemplify what the kingdom means. This is how:
His Character:
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6: 38), “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” (John 8: 29).
His Authority:
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone (what they knew) that he was the Messiah,”
(Mathew 16: 19-20).
His Identity:
“Jesus said to them. Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Matthew 21: 42).
His Ministry -
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19).
This is God’s kingdom in action - demonstrating the king’s rule.
When John queried if Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus drew attention to the works he was doing - authenticating his Messiahship and fulfilling prophecy (Luke 7:20-22; Mark 12: 28).
The works are the evidence of kingdom presence. His Ministry is the Rule of God.
10 Manifestations of the Rule of God
Poor receive Good news;
Prisoners hear about freedom.
Blind recover their sight
Oppressed are released
Lame walk
Deaf hear
Lepers cleansed
Dead raised
Demons expelled
Time of God’s favor proclaimed.
Jesus showed us what the kingdom (rule) of God is like - demonstrating it through his life and ministry. Far from overthrowing an earthly military or civilian regime, the kingdom of God manifested in Jesus Christ, overthrowing the rule of darkness - expressing itself in the release of men and women from the power of the devil.
The Kingdom of God — Present and Future.
The Bible speaks about the kingdom of God now and in the future. The word separating the two is “age” - the present age and the age to come.
Ephesians 1, speaks of God’s
“incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come…” (Ephesians 1: 19-21).
Take that with Matthew 12: 13,
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in This Age or in The Age to come.
The present age began with the Advent or Incarnation, covering Christ’s ministry on earth, His death, resurrection, and ascension until Christ’s return to usher in His millennial reign and transition onto eternity.
The Church - God’s Means of Expressing His Kingdom.
Christ gave birth to His Church to expand God’s kingdom in this age. His parting command to the Church (Great Commission) was “Go into the world and ‘recruit’ men and women into the kingdom” (Matthew 28:16-17). The growth of the kingdom is key. In Matthew 13: 31-33, Jesus spoke two parables 1) of the Mustard Seed and 2) of the Yeast both on the advancement and growth of the kingdom. The central theme of the parables is that no matter how small and insignificant it appears at first, the kingdom of God will continue to expand and become a blessing to all who enter it.
The promise of the growth of the kingdom is recurrent throughout scripture. Daniel predicted the rise of kings and kingdoms, and the one kingdom that will supersede all kingdoms:
“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2: 44).
See also Isaiah 2: 1-3 for prophetic images, Luke 12: 32 and Revelation 7:9 for comparison. And 1 Corinthians.15: 24- 28 and Matthew 11: 12 for the certainty and power to advance.
The growth and advance of the kingdom as promised in Scripture is unstoppable (Hebrews 12:28).
Believers should be highly motivated to serve God’s purposes in seeing the kingdom advance as assured in the Scriptures.
Opposition:
Here we come to a trend that has continued to dazzle and mislead potential believers and the unwary into falling victim to the adversary. One of the key factors is the presence of evil opposing the kingdom of God (Matthew 13: 24-26; 47-50).
Rather than check evil, Scripture infers that evil will grow alongside the kingdom of God - (Matthew 13:26, 24:4-14).
The world is a scene of conflict. Power of evil versus the kingdom of God. This conflict will last until the end of the age (Matthew 24: 12-14, 2 Timothy 3: 1-5). The light will shine brighter and the dark will get darker. As the kingdom of God grows, we see the signs of the age increase in the world.
Someone has suggested that we need a theology that allows for failures. This, probably, is to correct peoples’ inclination to see adverse conditions as a mark of failure on the part of a believer or an attack from one enemy. So some Christians, in the spirit of Elijah, often call fire down from heaven to destroy perceived enemies. Jesus, however, said to His disciples, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of; For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9: 55-56 NKJV).
Christ is saying to believers to allow God’s Spirit in them to impact their actions — not the spirit of the word.
Perhaps we need no other theology beyond the reality that we are limited in our ability to figure out, in precise terms, what is going to happen, and who is responsible for failures and setbacks in our lives. The propensity to predict the unknown has given rise to false “prophecies” and “prophetic utterances” rather than teaching our followers to put faith in God and obey His words.
The question of why the righteous suffer remains daunting to believers. At times the sick will not recover despite long prayers and fasting, and the gospel will not be received gladly; difficulty and setbacks will hit us. These are to be expected.
After all, the break out of the kingdom of God throughout Jesus’ ministry, was moderated by the limitations of this age:
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead - yet Lazarus died again.
Jesus stilled the storm yet more storms occurred;
Jesus fed 5000, yet hunger remains
Luke 4: 18-19 promises release for the prisoners, yet it didn’t happen for John the Baptist.
Signs and wonders are what they are - ‘Signs’ pointing to the coming age. All the signs will be fulfilled when the kingdom comes to its fullness.
So Jesus urged us to keep praying, “Your kingdom come, “Your will be done on earth.” We look to a future when the kingdom will be fully established. But for this age, we must pray God to deliver us from the evil one.
