The Gospel of the Kingdom: Part 4

The Kingdom of God is Tomorrow. This is not meant to encourage you to adopt the slogan of the grasshopper as your own: "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" Remember our basic description of the Kingdom of God? It is basically the rule of God; or divine sovereignty in action. It is helpful, however, to remember that God's reign is manifested in several realms, and the Gospels speak of entering into the Kingdom of God both today and tomorrow. There is both a future realm and a present realm in which men may experience the blessings of God's reign. For the moment, we are going to focus on the future realm.

It is a clear teaching of the New testament that God's will (and the accompanying enjoyment of blessings) is not to be perfectly realized in this realm. Central to Biblical Theology is the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This doctrine, and what Scripture says what must transpire on planet Earth before the Lord's return is central the ministry of Encouragement for End-Times Endurance http://www.endtimesencouragement.com/ Just as there are two advents of Christ, one in the flesh which we call the Incarnation, and the other in glory, which may be called the Parousia, so there are two manifestations of God's Kingdom: one which is present now because God's Son has appeared among men, and one in power and glory when Christ returns. For now we will look at the final realization of God's Kingdom in the realm "beyond history"

Properly understood, the Bible does not present a view of time, and then eternity. The Bible really presents the linear concept of eternity simply as unending time. There are two Greek word in the New Testament translated by the single English word "world." The first is kosmos, which in its most common usage means the world as the sum and total of everything constituting an orderly universe. (Oscar Cullmann, Christ and Time, S.C.M. Press, London, 1951). The other Greek word translated "world" is aion, which is better translated "age" as in a period of time. The entire sweep of man's existence is set forth in terms of this age and the age which is to come.

In Ephesians 1:21, Paul speaks of the exaltation of Christ, not only in this age (aion) but in the age to come. The blessing eternal life Christ speaks of for those who have left earthly comforts for His sake will come in the age to come. Over and over the New Testament speaks of two different ages, separated by the Second Coming of Christ and the First Resurrection. This present age will end with the Parousia and it will be followed by the age to come. In Luke 20:34-36 Jesus speaks of "those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead...." Reading through the passage you discover that in this age, marriage is a necessary (and honorable) institution, but that a different state of affairs will exist in the age to come. The "sons of the resurrection" will be immortal, and thus this present age will be separated from the age to come will be separated by the First Resurrection.

We read that Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father," (Galatians 1:4). A more detailed presentation to the order of this present evil age is given in Ephesians 2:1-2, and all believers once walked in accordance with this order. The New Testament is full of non-exhaustive lists describing our attitudes and activities as we walked in ways displeasing to God. For example: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21).

Whew! Is there any hope of inheriting the Kingdom of God; is there any hope of ever entering it? I know this is rather a down place to stop; but I promise you: It is not the end of the story. Please keep in mind that the title of this blog series is "The Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom. So stay tuned..........

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Part 3

To understand the Kingdom of God, we must understand the biblical meaning of the word, "kingdom." The archaic definition from Webster's dictionary gives us a clue. "The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; dominion; monarchy; kingship. The primary meaning of both the Hebrew Old Testament word and the Greek New Testament word translated "kingdom" is the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king. We have already ascertained that the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 24:14) meant the Gospel of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. Now we are ascertaining that, first of all, a kingdom is the authority to rule, the sovereignty of the king. So when it is written in Ezra 8:1 of the return from Babylon "in the kingdom" of Artaxerxes, it refers to his reign. Likewise, when the Scriptures refer to God's Kingdom, it refers to His reign, His rule, His sovereignty and not the realm in which it is exercised. (George Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, [Wm. B. Erdmans, Grand Rapids, 1959] 20).

In Hebrew poetic expression, God's Kingdom is also His power. (Psalm 145:11). "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations." (Psalm 145:13) It is God's rule which is everlasting, not the realm of His rule, for the Scriptures also declare that this heaven and this earth will pass away. (Mark 13:31) So when Jesus said that we must "receive the kingdom of God" as little children, (Mark 10:15) He wasn't speaking about receiving the church, or heaven, but God's rule. So here we begin to see a condition of the Kingdom: to enter the future rule of the Kingdom, one must submit, in complete trust, to God's rule in the here and now.

How many times have you heard it said at a funeral, "Well, so-and-so is in a better place now"? For that to be true, so-and-so had better have already submitted to the rule of God in his former life. It is not written for nothing, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." (Matthew 6:33) When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," we are not praying for heaven to come to earth, really. Apart from the reign of God, heaven is meaningless, so we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10).

Now we've dealt with the primary meaning of the word "kingdom," but let's face it; a reign without a realm in which it is exercised is meaningless. So we find that the Kingdom of god is also a realm in which God's Kingdom may be experienced. In this regard, the Bible sometimes speaks of the Kingdom as a realm to be entered at the present; sometimes as though it were future. In passages such as Matthew 7:21; Mark 9:47, 10:23, 14:25 the Kingdom is equivalent to that aspect of eternal life which will be experienced only after the Second Coming of Christ. Other passages, such as Luke 16:16, 11:52; Matthew 21:31, the Kingdom is spoken of as being present, capable of being entered now.

So we are faced made up of three facts: 1) Some passages of Scripture refer to God's Kingdom as His reign; 2) Some passages refer to it as the realm into which we may now enter and experience blessings; 3) Others refer to a future realm which will come only with the return of Christ, into which we will enter and experience the fullness of His reign. So, the Scriptures must be studied to determine by context which meaning is correct for the particular passage. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

Fundamentally, the Kingdom of God is God's sovereign reign; but God's reign expresses itself in different stages throughout redemptive history. On occasion, God has entered human history and has abruptly changed it's course (the flood, the exodus). He has also entered human history and changed human destiny, but the manner of change has been much quieter, although no less real. I'm speaking here of the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, speaking to us, and expressing in human form the image of God. (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:1-3) Thus man has been able to enter the kingdom of God at various stages of its manifestation, where they experience today, enjoying in part but in reality, the blessings of God's reign, while they await the fullness of those blessings to manifest when Jesus returns as King of Kings.

So when you pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," pray with thankful confidence that His Kingdom is coming, and it will fill the whole earth. But when you pray that, also ask that God's will be done in the here and now (in you, in your family, in your church, town, state, country and the world). The church especially ought to be a fellowship of people among whom God's will is being done all the time. Our lives, our churches should be a sneak preview of the Kingdom of God.

"Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:10-11)

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Part 2

Some theologians have reduced the Kingdom of God to the subjective realm of "here and now" describing it in terms of the human spirit in relationship to God. Others interpret it as the absolute "wholly other" which entered space and time in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Still others confine the Kingdom of God to the apocalyptic realm which will be inaugurated by the supernatural act when Jesus comes again, history is broken off and a new heavenly order begins. And to confuse things even further, since the days of Augustine, the Kingdom of God has been identified with the church: as the church grows, so grows the Kingdom. Some have extended this "Kingdom Theology" so far as to believe that the church will actually establish the Kingdom of God on earth, and then Jesus will come. This last view coincides with another theology called "Post-millennialism." It also fits, to some degree, with those who place great emphasis on the social gospel, whereby man builds the ideal social order by solving problems such as poverty, sickness, labor relations, etc. Unfortunately Marxists, Fascists, and Progressives hold similar views, totally bereft of God.


With that short background, many will say, "Enough, already! Let's go to the Word of God and see what it has to say." That's a wonderful idea, except if you were to look up every reference to the Kingdom of God for the Kingdom of Heaven in the New Testament (some 120-130, depending on the translation used) and wrote down a short summary of each verse, you would end up with a complexity of teaching. The Kingdom of God is a lot of things:

A Present Spiritual Reality: "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).

An Inheritance Yet to be Bestowed: "Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'" (Matthew 25:34).

A Realm Into Which Believers Have Entered: [God] "has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13).

A Future Realm to be Entered When Christ Returns: [there] "will be provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11).

A Future Kingdom Attended by Great Glory: [angels] "will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers...Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:41, 43).

A Kingdom Without Signs: "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed....... for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17:20-21).

Is it any wonder so many different interpretations have arisen over the ages concerning the Kingdom of God. It's a present reality and a future blessing; an inner spiritual redemptive blessing, yet has to do with the government of the nations in the world; it's a realm into which men enter now, and a realm into which they will enter in the future; it is a gift which God will bestow in the future but must be received in the present.

I hope this has captured your attention while captivating your imagination. There is a key to understanding these varied definitions and applications of the Kingdom of God. It all has to do with this question: "What is the meaning of kingdom?" In our western thinking, a kingdom is primarily a realm over which a king exercises his authority. We don't have too many examples on the world scene today. The second meaning is the people belong to that particular realm. To exclusively apply either of these two ideas to the Scriptures leads us astray. Even the dictionary definition "the spiritual realm of God" is misleading. We will stop at that point, allowing us to complete our definition of "kingdom" and thus "the Kingdom of God."

Until then, keep praying......"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Part 1

The teaching series, "Birth Pangs and Fig Trees" ended last time at an interlude recorded in Revelation 10:1 - 11:14. Since it was an interlude, and since the series was evolving into a commentary of Revelation, it was probably as good a time as any to stop for a while. Additionally, God has been impressing on me more and more a need to study and teach on the subject, "The Gospel of the Kingdom." This does not represent a departure from focusing on "End-Times" matters; rather it focuses on one of the most important topics of the end-times. One of the questions most frequently asked concerning the end-times is, "When will the end come?" or "When will Christ return?" The date-setters have always failed when answering this question, but did you know that Jesus (Who, along with the rest of us does not know the day or the hour - Matthew 24:36) gave a very definitive answer to the question, "When?"

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14, NIV)

While we, along with Jesus, don't know the day or the hour, we do know the times and the season and by God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit have the ability to walk in light so that the Day of the Lord will not take us by surprise. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11). I doubt seriously that anyone will know precisely when the task mentioned in Matthew 24:14 is completed, but it does behoove us to know the gospel of the kingdom. We are told that "Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom...." (Matthew 4:23, NASB). The gospel of the Kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus' ministry. The phrase "Kingdom of God" appears in the New Testament 84 times - NIV and 90 times - KJV. The phrase Kingdom of Heaven appears 38 times - NIV and 40 times - KJV.

The Kingdom of God is basically the rule of God - the action of God's divine sovereignty and reign. It belongs to the present as well as the future. It is both limited and comprehensive. It can be resisted, and it is also absolute. It can take place in a nation, city, home or individual heart. The Hebrew-Christian faith expresses its hope in terms of the Kingdom of God. Biblical hope is not a pipe dream, but is an essential element ion the revealed will and redemptive work of the living God. The hope of the kingdom of God was seen by the Old Testament prophets as a day when men would live together in peace as described in Isaiah 2:4. (This Scripture is engraved on the walls of the UN Headquarters in New York - except the UN sees man as the one who will implement such peace, and not Almighty God.) The prophet saw a time when not only would all of the problems of human society be solved, but the present evils of man's physical environment would be no more (Isaiah 11:6)

Then came Jesus on the scene, announcing, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at

hand." (Matthew 4:17 NASB) Yet most of the Jews saw nothing of what was prophesied in Isaiah 2:4; 11:6. And today when you ask the Christian Church, "What is the Kingdom of God? When and how will it come?" you receive a bewildering array of answers. I doubt sincerely that I possess what it takes to give and answer to these questions that is both exhaustive and absolutely correct. But as we go through the study together, I am confident that the holy Spirit will give us a better understanding of this important subject than we started with.

In addition to trying to properly define the Kingdom of God, we will be looking for answers to some of these questions. Is the Kingdom just for the future; just for today; or both? What is the mysterious element of the Kingdom? What is life like in the Kingdom? Is there a righteous standard for the Kingdom? What are the demands of the Kingdom? Who gets in the Kingdom. Does the Kingdom concern just Israel, just the church, or both? What are we really praying when we pray "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?" By God's grace I hope to stay at this to the tune of at least one blog (hopefully two) per week. Until then remember, "....unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5, NASB)