“The Case for Christ: - Kingdom/God: Jesus’ Thought”

What did Jesus mean when He spoke of the Kingdom of God?

To answer this question, we will look at some of the elements and thoughts about the kingdom at the time of Jesus’ ministry.

And - we will examine the mind of Jesus in the way He expressed His thought concerning the kingdom of God during His earthly ministry.
  
And, then, we will see how the Church is to understand the mind of Christ concerning His kingdom.

Let us start tonight by focusing, first, on the two outlooks: the general outlook of the kingdom in Hebrew history and, then, Jesus’ outlook of it. 

First, what was the general idea about the Kingdom of God?

For generations, the Hebrew people, because of their faith in God, looked forward to the day when God would visibly rule the world.

It would be a day when all of the injustices, all of the wrongs, all of the evil men could possibly conceive would be eradicated and only good would reign supreme.

That day would come as a supernatural event that would bring on God’s direct rule and activity.

So - because it was apocalyptic in character, it looked to God to divinely intervene and set up a new world order immersed in His sustaining righteousness.

This concept naturally divided the two periods into the ‘present’ world age and the ‘future’ age to come.
So - when John the Baptist came onto the scene, he preached the coming of the kingdom with these elements in mind. 
And, in doing so, he emphasized the ministry of Jesus, referring to Him Who would ‘baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in His hand’, Who would clear out evil and burn up the ‘chaff with unquenchable fire’. 

That was right, and it was good, for - when Jesus came, we find that His preaching and teaching was in agreement with this general idea John was using.

Mk 1:14-15 tells of how Jesus preached ‘...the gospel of the kingdom of God... saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.’ 

Just the fact that He asked John to baptize Him, that, later on, He spoke so highly of John, and that He Himself urged His listeners to ‘repent lest they perish’, further confirmed that continuity with John’s thought of the kingdom.

So, then, what was Jesus’ outlook as He taught about it during His earthly ministry?

Of course, He said many, many things about the kingdom so we cannot possibly mention all of them.

But, they can probably be classified into three main groups.

First, He did agree with the idea of dividing history into the two general periods: the ‘present’ age or world and the ‘future’ age or world.

You can see examples in various passages. 

In Mk 10:29-30, He spoke of the reward which shall be given to the righteous now and in the world [or age] to come.

And He spoke of a sin against the Holy Spirit which shall not be forgiven ‘neither in this world nor in the world to come.’ (Mt 12:32)

And of the judgment which shall take place ‘at the consummation of the age.’ (Mt 13:39-40)

And, then, there were those times when He taught and also told His disciples to announce that the kingdom was ‘near’ or ‘at hand’, in Mk 1:15 and Mt 10:7.

So, these, and many other Scriptures, indicate His thought of both the present age and the age to come in His preaching and teaching of God’s kingdom. 

And then, secondly, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, He also identified it with God’s final judgment.

In passages such as in chapters 13 and 25 of Matthew’s gospel, the tares and the wheat are separated, the preparations made by the wise and foolish virgins are considered, and, likewise, so are the enterprises of the servants entrusted with talents.

‘Not every one who says unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven’ verified the differences in judgment that would take place. 

In Mk 9:47-48, He talked about entering the kingdom of God as being the very opposite of being ‘cast into hell fire where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.’

In Mt 25:34, He talked about a state in which those who have served Him are honored by God: ‘To those upon His right hand, the King shall say, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’  

So - many times, Jesus spoke of the time of reckoning and judgment that would take place in His kingdom.
 
And when He spoke of these two ideas - of the two divisions and of the final judgment - He was confirming the general belief of His countrymen about God’s kingdom.

But - what was the third element Jesus expressed when He taught and preached the kingdom?

When Jesus used the phrase ‘kingdom of God’, He was using it in terms of the basic current idea of His day: namely, the ‘kingship’ or the ‘rule of God.’ 

So, the elements He thought of, and taught and preached consistently, as being supremely important, were the spiritual aspects of the kingdom.

When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He saw how unprepared the people were for such a radical, divine visitation. 

Not only were many indifferent and irreligious, self-absorbed and self-deluded, but there were also those who were neglected and ostracized, ‘...distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd.’ (Mt 9:36) 

Many were totally misguided in their expectations, their ideas, their concepts, and the requirements God expected, what His rule really meant, and what sort of blessings it should bring.

For example, there were those who thought mostly in terms of overthrowing the Roman yoke in their zeal for national glory. 

Too, James and John, at one point, were among those who thought in terms of gaining a seat of honor in the coming kingdom.

Others thought in terms of material blessings they would inherit in the days of God’s kingdom.

Others thought in terms of putting a date and time on the end-time event and holding on until they would die to be thrust into a blissful state forever!

Little did any - in these various misinterpretations - realize what true blessings God had to give and how blessed it would be to simply readjust the misguided and ineffectual concepts and behavior to His will instead. 

So Jesus was completely detached in His thinking of the kingdom from all of these misinterpreted ideas.

As far as living in the ‘present’ kingdom of God, it was not productive to stress ideas of national glory nor to think of the kingdom of God in terms of world institutions and organizations.

To indulge in self-absorption in God’s kingdom was pointless for He gives His kingdom to whomever He wills.

To fantasize about wealth and material comforts when the great and lasting blessings were those of the inner spirit was deceptive.

To be confounded about the end-time event and predict its day of arrival was to distrust God completely since He alone knows the appointed time.

So - what, then, was Jesus’ thinking when He preached about the kingdom?

His thinking was in terms of God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

He was thinking in terms of His Father’s blessings poured out to the poor in spirit, to those who mourn, to the meek, to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, to the merciful, to the pure in heart, to the peacemakers, to those persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

In short, He thought in terms of His Father’s loving character reflected in a people of like-loving character.

These were the elements on which Jesus placed emphasis for those now living in His kingdom.

He put deep and unwavering stress on the spiritual elements - about God’s rule - originating in and carried on in His kingdom.

Hence, He brought forth this third element of the kingdom of God in His preaching.

Not only did He agree with the two divisions of the age and with the final judgment of God as part of His teaching about the kingdom, but He also emphasized God’s heart all along, His heart yearning for spiritual union with His people in a righteous element of living.

It rested on two characteristics of Jesus’ thought: that God’s rule over the human heart is the central thing and that God was actively and effectively working everything out to a plan of divine glory and splendor. 

So there was no reason to wait for the final consummation of things. ‘A person can enter now’, is what Jesus taught.

Instead of waiting for the apocalyptic ‘event’, He encouraged taking on the present ‘yoke’ of the kingdom: ‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.’

That is, ‘Make God’s rule actual and present through all of your earthly life’ and ‘...you will find rest unto your souls.’

A person could immediately enjoy a large part of the blessings of the kingdom as he lived his life on earth.

Thus, Jesus left no stone unturned to proclaim all the aspects of His kingdom and to urge men into it to show upon this earth the life lived under God’s government.

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And - one more important aspect of all of this: not only did He teach of all of the kingdom’s present and future elements, but He also saw that God was active in pouring out victory over the powers of evil in the present kingdom age.

Jesus saw, in its present reality, the victory that He gained in His temptation hours, in effect now. 

He saw God at work doing this as a precursor of His saving work that would operate fully and completely in the kingdom.

This was evident when His disciples came back from the missionary journey on which He had sent them.

They told Jesus all about the good things that happened.

And Jesus’ reply was: ‘I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven’ (Lu 10:18), a sign that God was actively engaged in destroying the evil upon earth.

And Jesus told His disciples to rejoice, not because of what happened, but because their names were recorded in heaven.

For them, it confirmed that the kingdom was already theirs, they had already been accepted into the kingdom that was only to be ratified and sealed in Jesus’ coming atoning work.

But, far beyond that point, God, in recompensing His Son for obedience to His Father’s will, was confirming the victory of Jesus over Satan in the wilderness temptation.

His obedience of faith paid off for it was God giving Him the assurance that the dynamic for good which He was seeing at work would stand firm and be effective in His kingdom.

In other words, the strength of the power of God’s divine kingdom through Jesus was already in force.

And His atoning work - soon to come - would thoroughly ‘purge His floor...and gather the wheat into the garner’ right down to the consummation of the present age.

Thus, we know that, although Jesus shared the apocalyptic view of the kingdom, even prayed for its coming, taught His disciples to pray for it, and gave His life for it, He did teach the ‘perfect rule of God’ for God’s people as part of the present kingdom age.

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Now, we come to the question of: ‘Why must the church understand His mind concerning the end time event?’

As you know, there are many, many notions concerning the apocalyptic time.

The world is pessimistic about it and certainly does not think much about God’s rule, activity, and order of things.

And, so, of course, it cannot see God’s hand powerfully and vigorously at work in the course of events.

But what may be even worse is that, among Christians, there are preferences and prejudices, assumptions and speculations.

In trying to figure out the mind and thought of Christ Jesus about the end-time, there has been made of Christ a creation of men’s own ideas that causes all kinds of chaos and confusion.

It is sometimes easy to forget to bring all our notions to Christ.

When we place them at the Cross, we see there, the meaning of and the need for Christ’s work more clearly.

And we see that the heart of Christ’s work for the world is deliverance: deliverance from sin, self, and all the evil it brings in the world - right down into our own hearts.

It is Christ’s work needed most - not all of those notions we dwell upon that pull us away from the work of His life in His kingdom.

So - as it was when He sent out His disciples, so it is with the church.

God’s approving eye rests upon it and it is through the church that He is recompensing His Son for His atoning work and sacrifices in the cause of divine glory and human salvation.

To bring it to this end, the church continues to be engaged in prayer for the universal establishment of His kingdom in the world.

There may be many events and many things involved in bringing about the answer to this prayer of the church, things we have no distinct idea about, things that may seem even disconnected at times.

But, we must remember - He sees the beginning, the middle, the end of all things.

He sees all things in how they connect with each other and in their dependencies on each other.

It is He Who conducts the whole mysterious process of divine things to a glorious end.

It is by ‘terrible things in righteousness’, (a phrase taken from Ps 65 which I hope you will read to understand this better) - it is by ‘terrible things in righteousness’, insofar as they relate to persons and systems opposed to the kingdom of God, that He answers the church’s prayer.

The political and moral atmosphere of the world is lurid and distasteful but - understand fully - God must ‘overturn’, ‘overturn’, and ‘overturn’, [again and again and again], till He come Whose right it is to reign’ and to Him He will give the kingdom. (Ezek 21:27)

And - know this: in the Church’s union with Jesus Christ in His present kingdom, God is hearing the prayers of His  saints on behalf of His kingdom coming soon!

And this is the confidence we have, that ‘The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever’. 

Amen. Let us pray!