“The Case for Christ - The Kingdom of God at Hand”

At the onset of our study tonight, let me pose a quick question: ‘In all the years that you have known Christ as your Lord and Savior, how many times has He done things exactly and precisely as you thought He would do them?’

My answer to that question is: ‘Never!’ and, do you know why?

He said of Himself, in Isa 55:9, ‘The plan of Mine is not what you would work out, neither are My thoughts the same as yours.’

And, thank God for that, for we would have made one grandiose mess of everything we have ever thought about - is that not true?  

But - let us continue looking at Jesus and see how perfectly His plan has been worked out in Him.

After He read the Isaiah prophecy about Himself at the synagogue in His hometown, Jesus opened His public ministry by saying: ‘This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears.’

This is similar to what He said in Mark 1:15 where He added: ‘...and the kingdom of God is at hand...the time has come at last...the time is ripe, and the reign of God, the kingdom of God, is here.’

What did Jesus have in mind when He said that?

It was just this: the decisive time for God’s action had come: God was doing something special, not just in terms of chronological time, but in terms of that special salvation-time, in terms of the consummation of all things in Himself. 

‘The completion of what had its beginnings in ages past is now in its final stage’, Jesus revealed. ‘This is the great moment of the beginning of the great future determined by God in His counsel.’

‘This is the last act in this time of God’s salvation history! The time is fulfilled, the time of the Kingdom of God is at hand. The time for the concluding part of this divine drama is now. The time to unlock the key to the Kingdom of God that the Old Testament has centered upon all through the history of Israel’s development is here.’ 
  
‘Heaven has opened its door and the presence of the divine work of consummation is here. The King in His full glory over the whole world has come!’ This is what He was saying!

What did the coming of the kingdom of God include for His listeners and for us, when Jesus announced this? Let us consider just a few together.
 
First, it included and meant an adjustment, or a new orientation to what its full intent and design was.

Of course, according to the Jews’ conception of God’s promise, to them it meant that Israel would be restored as a nation, the Lord would have His throne in Jerusalem, and Israel’s enemies would be subjugated.

However, it is important to remember that this concept of God’s divine covenant with the Jews is only one topic that concentrates itself on the special bond the Lord had with His people. 

When Jesus launched the idea of the ‘time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand’, He was introducing that dramatic history of salvation that incorporated everything in God’s revelation of Himself.

It not only included the covenant relationship He had with Israel, but it included many, many principles and topics that are joined together into this one all-encompassing concept of the Kingdom of God. 

As just one example, there was, and is, also the aspect of the justification of the sinner through faith. This is the aspect
clearly seen in places such as in Deuteronomy, in Romans, and in Galatians where it is an equally important viewpoint for the whole of the salvation history of God’s revelation of Himself.

And, of course, there are other points of it, so neither the covenant with Israel alone, nor the justification by faith alone, nor any other concept alone, can be taken to represent the entire thought of the Kingdom of God.

This is why we need to guard against belaboring one aspect of it above the other and fashioning the Kingdom of God around one specific Scriptural concept alone.     

So the Kingdom of God is far more comprehensive and certainly far more sweeping in scope than any one Biblical concept which means that many had to make some changes in their thinking to God’s full intent of His kingdom. Paul was certainly one of these called to concede to Christ. 

Jesus was bringing to the religious world a change - yes, a breakup of the old philosophies of religious life, old ways of life, old understandings of the nature of the universe and man’s capacity to do things.

He was changing the foundation of much of the religious thought. They, of course, were trying by all means to stop the disintegration of their tradition, trying to strengthen it by any means.

But, Paul, a very devout Jew, well-educated and well versed in the Scriptures, had to concede to Christ as He made the adjustment, which brings us to the next point of what the Kingdom of God included.

With this change to what it meant, there also came a change in the hub or the core of the Kingdom.

Now, a kingdom speaks of a king, and the king is the central point of a kingdom. This full, complete concept of living in the Kingdom of God had not dawned as yet upon the Israelites!

Throughout their history, generally, the people always found themselves - over and over again - as the pivotal point for their existence that pushed God into the periphery of life. Their ramblings, their wanderings, were always on the outskirts of Jehovah’s intended blessings for life.

Thus, we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that when God was to assume His kingship in the full sense of the word, it was going to be in and through the coming of the Messiah-King Who would be the stablizing hub for God’s people. (Micah 5:1-2)

And His kingdom was going to be dominated entirely from a theocentric, or the God-directed viewpoint. 

Jesus Christ would be the ‘break-through’ for which, in this sense, He could say it was already fulfilled.

He broke through the temporal reality. His was an entirely new dispensation. The Sovereign God would rule, not only in the present, but also in the future part of its arrival!

He was the Core, the Hub, Who would keep the Kingdom of God exactly that - God’s Kingdom! The Israelites were unable to come through on this part of the covenant. They could not be faithful, but Christ could and would be!

Along with the new orientation of the concept of the Kingdom of God and its present Focal Point, there were certain announcements also included about it. It was definitely going to proclaim a higher, spiritual, imperishable, and impervious Reality - the Reality in the Person of Christ Who dominates the Kingdom of God - of that, there is no doubt!

And there are many, many declarations about this given in the Scriptures - let us look at just a few of them.

First, its salvation would be imperishable - it would last forever. It is in Isa 51:6-7 where God made that known when He said: ‘...My salvation unto times abiding shall be forever...My saving power shall last forever.’ Jesus brought in that imperishable salvation.

Second, its superabundant power in a fleshly, carnal object would begin. Listen to it as God made it known in Isa 60:1, and I have taken this from the Amplified: ‘Arise, [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you: rise to a new life]! Shine - be radiant with the glory of the Lord: for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you!’ 

Yes - rise to new life; shine - be radiant with His glory, for your Light is come! His ‘supernaturally natural’ power in a carnal, fleshly object such as we are could and would begin in the Kingdom of God! 

Third, its dwelling place would be under a new heaven and a new earth as God declared in Isa 60:19 and in 66:22, where His design of it is a place where [quote] ‘the ‘Lord will be your unfailing Light and God will be your splendor...’ [unquote]. The promise of its coming is to open heaven anew and make earth new, where He is the splendor of both.

Fourth, the effect of His kingdom was to be in a spiritual elevated sense, as in Isa 25:7-8 where He ‘will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples and the shroud enwrapping all nations, displacing death forevermore’ (Isa 25:7-8) and, in 26:19, where ‘...we have this assurance: those who belong to God shall live again. Their bodies shall rise again.’ Yes - death is conquered in His kingdom and in His life!

And, lastly, the kingdom of God would reveal its universality, for ‘on this Mount [Zion] shall the Lord of hosts make for all peoples a feast of rich things...’ inaugurating the reign of the Lord on the earth...’. (Isa 25:6) The inclusion of all peoples is assured once again, as we saw last week, as part of the launching of the reign of God’s Kingdom.

There are many other realities in Christ that are announced as part of the Kingdom of God that Jesus brought in.

But, when His Kingdom has come in its fullest Reality possible, to its complete consummation, it is the time when He, the Lord, is King over the whole world in that day (Micah 4:1-3) and when His people will ‘...go forward in the name of the Lord our God, for ever and ever.’ (v 5) 

These - and countless more - who can really know them all? - are the things that Jesus had in mind when He broke through in announcing the coming of the divine kingdom.

Thus, all in all, not only did this proclamation place Israel, but it also placed the heathen nations of the world, and yes, even the whole creation, in the wide perspective of the realization of all of God’s rights and His Sovereignity over all things!

Now, to finish answering what the coming of the Kingdom of God means to us who believe, besides adjusting to God’s full intent and design, besides recognizing Who the King is and conceding to Him, besides these realities and others that Scripture gives - besides all of these things that are oriented toward the redemption of God’s people, there is also one more important element to consider. It is the element of the self-affirmation of God in all His works.

When we look at everything, from beginning to end, from Genesis to the book of Revelation where we see the final stage of God’s work, we see everything as being summed up in Christ. Everything about it is entirely God’s own action and has been entirely dependent on His activity alone.

Everything is concerned with God: everything originated with Him, everything proceeded from and with Him, and everything will go on forever in Him to the conclusion of it all when ‘Christ is all that matters.’ (Col 3:11)

In this absolutely theocentric character of the Kingdom of God, Christ is to become and will become ‘all and in all’!

In God’s design, ‘God has put all things into subjection under His [Christ’s] feet. And when all things are subdued unto Him, then shall the Son acknowledge Himself subject to God the Father Who gave the Son power over all things so that God may be all in all.’ 

This makes the Kingdom of God absolutely transcendant in its origin and its spiritual development!

It is NOT MEN WHO PREPARE IT FOR GOD!  That is the underlying mistake of many a well-meaning man trying to prepare God’s kingdom with men’s means! 

All such attempts are hopeless superficial interpretations of the tremendous thought of the fulness and the finality of God’s coming as Messsiah-King to redeem, to ‘break up the fallow ground’, to break through, to judge.  

Whether a person accepts this or not, adjusts to it or not by
conceding to Jesus Christ, it does not alter God’s moving onward in His Kingdom.

He will continue with His work in this fashion with those who will focus in on His Son alone and let everything else fall by the wayside!

For His Kingdom is not a state or a condition, it is not a society created and promoted by men through any social order, it will not come through any kind of earthly evolution, nor will it come through any human moral action.

Viewed from the human standpoint, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is the ‘rending of the heavens’ (Isa 64:1), the beginning of the operation of the divine ‘dunamis’, the divine power in seeing ‘the reign of God present in all its power.’ (Mk 9:1)

Jesus has come to open up to men this reality of the Kingdom of God, to outline for men the meaning of citizenship in it, to urge men to accept His Kingship over it. 

He started in His hometown but they did not receive Him. In His Person, they were confronted by the Kingdom of God in its nearness. 

Its message was then, and still is, one of peace, of power, of love, of reconciliation! It is NOT one of severe judgment - not at this time! 

This salvation is of immediate and actual significance - it is not salvation that comes after judgment. It comes before judgment and before the great consummation of time. 

The ‘time is fulfilled’ in this redemptive coming of the kingdom in the Person of God’s Son! We can live in the joyful certainty of the break-through of this majestic, critically-
important time of salvation and can behave accordingly, because WE BELONG TO HIM!

John was preaching under the dispensation that represented one of these two parts of God’s design of salvation.

‘This day is the Scripture fulfilled’, Jesus had said: John lived on the other side of this fulfillment - Jesus came WITH its fulfillment.

Just remember that as we become part of God’s purpose powered by the love of God in Christ, so we will become effective in pointing toward the Kingdom of God brought forth by Christ’s complete work.

Others can go about doing what they want to do, think what they would like to think - they are free to refuse to concede to Christ - the Lord will never stand in their way if this is what they choose to do.

But Jesus called forth His ‘new’ way in contrast to man’s. Just as He had come - quite differently from what was  expected and how Scripture was being interpreted - and just as He changed the system to a system so foreign to what was then known - and just as He went about preaching and teaching in ways that were peculiar and arresting, so - He goes onward in His work toward the consummation of all things in God’s Kingdom.

What God will yet do in this regard may be quite different from all of the current thought that we find in the latest printed books and exciting films - are we all aware of that?

We do know this: all concepts, all Scriptural principles and topics are to be summed up in Jesus Christ. 

All things will be headed up in His Kingdom and in His Lordship and the one who faithfully keeps his focus on Jesus Christ will be partaker of the final consummation of His Kingdom when every knee is going to bow before Him that day and every tongue is going to confess that day that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 

Make no mistake about that! He will have His way - He will do things His way - and they will be brought forth in His way for He is Sovereign God!

Amen!

I leave you with these thoughts tonight. Take them before the Lord within your own heart and let the Holy Spirit minister His Light and Life to you in them.

May the Lord bless you with a victorious, glorious week in Him!

Let us pray together.