Luke 17:20–21 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you [in your midst].”
Mark 1:15 “The time has come and the kingdom of God has arrived." [or, 'the reign of God has arrived – here and now'].
Acts 2:38
Returning from Bible study one evening, an elderly woman was surprised to find a burglar in her living room holding a bag filled with her belongings. Not knowing what else to do, the woman recalled the Bible verse they had just been discussing at Church. It was Acts 2:38 which says: “Repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ so your sins will be forgiven.” So she called out to the burglar, “Acts 2:38!”
The burglar couldn’t see the woman standing in the dark, and he got a huge shock. Feeling that she had struck a nerve, the woman repeated, louder and more forcefully this time, “Acts 2:38!”
The man’s hands began to shake and he dropped the sack at his feet. He lunged for the door and escaped to his getaway car, hardly touching the ground with his feet. “Go, Drive! Drive!” He yelled to his partner. The other man saw that his partner in crime was white as a ghost.
“What in the world happened in there?” he asked.
“I’m never working this street again. There was this crazy old broad in the living room screaming at me that she had an axe in her hand and two .38s pointed at me!”
Some of the funniest jokes are based on miscommunication, when the speaker is saying one thing but the hearer is picking up something quite different.
Jesus Central Message
Since all theologians agree that the central message of Jesus is the kingdom of God, it is more than a little exasperating to find that 2000 years after Jesus, so many Christians are still perplexed about what the kingdom of God really entails.
I want to ask you this morning what comes to your mind when you think about the kingdom of God? What does it mean to you? When will it come? Here are some of the alternatives that have been put up to explain the kingdom of God.
The Kingdom is the Church was the prevailing view from the time of St. Augustine through to the Reformers. Now, the Church is the people of the Kingdom, but the Church is not the Kingdom itself.
The Kingdom is the experience of God in a person's individual heart or soul. It is spiritual and involves the infinite value of the individual soul, and the ethic of love (Adolf von Harnack, Wilhelm Herrmann). [Note: this idea is the most common one accepted by Christians today, but it is not what the Bible is saying.]
Social. The Kingdom is a present social order based on love and solidarity, epitomized in the Social Gospel movement (Walter Rauschenbusch). [Note: This is categorically excluded by the Old and New Testaments.]
Futuristic. The Kingdom is entirely eschatological, in that it comes at the end of time. (Johannes Weiss, Gustaf Dalman, Albert Schweitzer). These see Jesus' miracles as the preliminaries, not the kingdom of God itself, which comes at the end of the Age. [Note: Of course the NT teaches the kingdom is future, but Jesus is very clear that the kingdom is here now, with him.]
Present. This holds that the Kingdom is a present reality in the person of Jesus, that all that the prophets had hoped for has been realised in history, and there is nothing more (C.H. Dodd). [This is excluded on the basis that Jesus prays for the consummated kingdom to come in the future.]
Present and Future. The Kingdom is present in the person and ministry of Jesus but is consummated in the future at Christ's return, thus it is both present and future (Werner Kümmel, Joachim Jeremias, G.R. Beasley-Murray, George E. Ladd, Herman Ridderbos, and the author). [1]
Marcus Borg quotes G.W. Buchanan to good effect regarding the multitudinous errors by Christians about the kingdom of God:
“One can well agree with the lament that scholars ‘have internalized, de-temporalized, de-historicized, cosmologized, spiritualized, allegorized, mysticised, psychologised, philosophized, and socialized the concept of the Kingdom of God,’ not necessarily for the sake of avoiding the political implications, but avoiding them nevertheless.” [1a]
Most Christians will tell you that Jesus disciples were way off the mark when it came to the kingdom of God. They think that the disciples misunderstood the kingdom of God entirely, that they were waiting for a physical, political kingdom on earth when they should have been looking for something very different – a spiritual kingdom living in our heart.
I don’t think the disciples were mistaken about the kingdom at all. If they were badly mistaken about the nature of the kingdom then Jesus would surely have told them so, and he never did. He corrected some aspects of the kingdom for them, but not the basic nature of the kingdom.
First Century Background – What the disciples understood from the Older Testament?
When John the Baptist, and then Jesus, came preaching, "The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the good news," they didn't speak in a vacuum, but in the midst of a first-century Jewish culture that understood the phrase, "kingdom of God."
They didn’t have to explain what the kingdom of God was because it was well understood by everyone, because it was burned into the very history of Israel and readily apparent in the Old Testament (OT). Let’s look at just a couple of examples.
While the actual term kingdom of God does not appear in the Older Testament, it is very clear that the concept is a comprehensive OT teaching, and it follows that Jesus teaching is a natural development of its OT background.
The Old Testament teaches clearly that Yahweh is the true King of Israel.
When David gathered Israel's assembly in preparation for Solomon's anointing, he said, 'Out of all my sons, for Yahweh has given me many sons, he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel' (1 Chr. 28:5).
Two things are immediately noteworthy. First, the phrase, 'throne of the kingdom', indicates that the term 'throne' is a symbol of a kingdom, and secondly, that God's kingdom is 'over Israel'. In other words, the human kingdom of Israel currently ruled by the ailing warrior David and his inexperienced son Solomon, was in some mysterious way closely bound up with the kingdom of God.[2]
1 Chronicles 17:14. God's concluding promise through Nathan to David says, 'I will establish him in my house and my kingdom for ever, and his throne will be established for ever'.
Two comments may be made about the nature of that kingdom here. First, the close relationship between the Davidic dynasty and the kingdom of God is again evident. Secondly, that by divine decree both kingdoms are to be permanent.
Another reference occurs in Jehoshaphat's prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:6, 'O Yahweh, are you not God in heaven, ruling over all the kingdoms of the earth?'
So here it is acknowledged that God’s rule extends over all earthly kingdoms not just over Israel.
The kingdom of Yahweh is not merely a heavenly or spiritual entity, but it is real, specific, visible on earth, and somehow connected to the political kingdom of his people Israel.
Now in the early days Yahweh is King over Israel and the prophets serve as his spokesmen. However, towards the end of Samuel's prophetic career, you may remember that the people demand "a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have" (1 Samuel 8:5). So, even though it is anathema to him, God reluctantly allows them to have a king. But even in this case the king was to remain under the strong influence of the prophets. You will remember that even a king as powerful as David bows to the counsel of a lowly prophet like Nathan, because David realises that the prophet is God’s spokesman to him.
The kingdom of Yahweh incorporated elements both human and divine, immanent and transcendent, localised and universal. It was focused in one particular human family, which had produced more bad kings than good ones, and for many decades had provided no kings at all.[3]
In the book of Daniel, we see the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of God set on a collision course, set in motion by human arrogance, and resulting in divine judgement. The kingdom of God will be given to 'one like a son of man' (Dan. 7:14), and to 'the holy ones, the people of the Most High' (Dan. 7:18, 27).[4] In the earlier prophecy of the giant image in Daniel 2:31-35 we see the same picture, with the different kingdoms, starting with the Babylonian kingdom of gold, followed by the silver kingdom of Medo-Persia, the bronze kingdom of Greece, the iron kingdom of Rome, and finally multiple kingdoms forming a very unstable base, symbolised by a mixture of iron and clay. Then the prophecy focusses on the stone cut out of the mountain that strikes the man-made kingdoms at this historical point, smashing them into a thousand pieces.
Dan. 2:44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever...
The kingdom of God was established in the person of Jesus, as Messiah, over his people Israel (that is, those who remained with him by faith), when he came the first time. Eventually, this kingdom will grow from the small stone that struck the unstable stack of human kingdoms during the rule of Rome, into the "great mountain" that will be the consummated kingdom of God when Jesus returns the second time.
The OT is saying primarily that the kingdom of God is the rule or sovereignty of God over all earthly kingdoms, but in a special way over Yahweh's people, Israel. The disciples were understandably expecting the Messiah to come and re-establish Yahweh's ruler-ship, through the kingdom of Israel, over all other kingdoms, because this is what the OT was clearly saying.[5]
Christians often think that in the NT this all changed, but we will see that this promise is revisited in the NT as well.
Jesus and the New Testament Teaching
Jesus seldom used either the title "Messiah" or "Son of God." Instead, his preferred title was "Son of Man" – this very Son of Man identified in Daniel's prophecy. However, at Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin, the high priest asks him if he is "the Messiah, the Son of God." Jesus answers in the affirmative, but then clearly identifies himself with the Son of Man of Daniel 7.[6]
Matthew 26:64 "'Yes, it is as you say,' Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'"
To understand what Jesus meant by "kingdom of God," we need to be able to answer three questions. What is its essence? How is it related to Jesus' person and work? And when does it come? Let’s look at what Jesus says.
In the first passage, Jesus has been accused by the Pharisees - or teachers of the law of driving out demons by demonic power. Jesus answers them by saying:
"If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." (Matthew 12:28)
The Aorist tense in the Greek here indicates that the kingdom of God had already arrived with Jesus, and his casting out demons was one of the signs that the kingdom had come.
When Jesus does battle with Satan by the Spirit of God, and begins to plunder the strong man's house (v. 29), freeing people from his bondage, the powers of the kingdom are at work and the kingdom is already present.
The other classic verse used to argue that the kingdom is present in Jesus' life and ministry occurs in Luke 17. The Pharisees are asking Jesus for a timetable of when the Kingdom of God will come. Jesus replies:
Luke 17:20b-21 "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the kingdom of God is among (entos) you."
In some English Bibles, entos is translated "within" (NIV, KJV), and there are only two texts with this wording, and these are where people got the idea that the kingdom could be in their heart. But based on the context, most scholars believe it must be translated as "among" (NIV marg., NRSV, NJB) or "in your midst" (NASB).
"The Kingdom of God is not here under discussion as a state of mind or a disposition in men. It is a fact of history, and not a psychological understanding. ...Jesus speaks elsewhere of men entering the Kingdom, [but] never of the Kingdom entering men. The Kingdom is a state of affairs [in society], not a state of mind. The weight of evidence of everything else Jesus teaches about the kingdom demands the translation, ‘the Kingdom of God is among you [or ‘in your midst’].'"[7]
So the kingdom of God for Jesus still holds true to the OT, and the contemporary Jewish understanding, that it remains bound up with Yahweh's people, Israel. It remains a historical, political and social entity, that men 'enter' or become citizen's of.
We are certainly on very shaky ground if we say, "Oh, Jesus must really have meant some sort of a 'New' kingdom (meaning he has done away with Israel and has replaced it with a religious denomination or movement, the Christian church)." And the ground will start to move in a massive way if we, on no grounds but wishful thinking, say, "Jesus must have meant that the kingdom reigns or dwells in our heart."
The Cross and the Mystery of the Kingdom
What baffles Jesus disciples is the cross. They cannot seem to reconcile the idea of a Messiah dying on a cross. The disciples expected Jesus to usher in the Davidic Kingdom immediately. Cleopas tells Jesus on the road to Emmaus: "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21a). By redeem he meant to put Israel back at the top politically.
The cross seemed to the disciples as a huge obstacle to the Kingdom coming. But Jesus saw the cross as essential, and as a part of the unfolding of the Kingdom itself.
Jesus predicts his crucifixion at least three times, each time telling his disciples that this would happen to "the Son of Man," that is, to the brilliant Warrior figure of Daniel 7, who came riding on the cloud chariot to vanquish his foes and rule over all the kingdoms of men (Daniel 7:13-14). This concept of a crucified Messiah, the warrior Son of Man figure, is what totally baffles the disciples.
Jesus explains that the "Son of Man" came "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Neither Jesus’ disciples nor the scholars in Jerusalem can understand how and why the Son of Man "must suffer many things" (Mark 8:31).
This seems to be part of what Jesus and Paul call the mystery of the kingdom. First, Jesus begins to correct a misunderstanding of the kingdom—namely, that it would come with such militarily observable signs and that it would be unmistakable: Rome would be overturned, Israel would be vindicated, and an earthly kingdom would be established. Jesus said, "No, it is not coming in a way that can be observed like that. There is a mystery about the coming of the kingdom. It is here in your midst without those kinds of observable signs. It is here because I am here. I am the arrival of the kingdom, even though I will not overturn the Romans or set up an earthly kingdom.... yet!" But the setting up of some category of earthly social order in the kingdom will come, because the NT tells us it will.
In 2 Timothy 2:12 Paul tells us we will reign with Christ; in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 he also tells us we will judge the world and judge angels ('judging' is primarily an activity of ruling); Revelation 5:10 says we will reign on earth; Revelation 2:26-28 also says we will have authority and rule the nations; and of course Revelation 20:4-6 says we will reign with Christ a thousand years.
And Revelation 20:7-10 describes a last great military battle where all the enemies of God and his people are destroyed once and for all. Following all of these cues, it is very clear that the kingdom of God in the New Testament is very much in line with the pictures and prophecies from the OT.
The prophecies from the OT are said by John in Revelation to be fulfilled. This is part of the fulfilment of the promises about the kingdom of God on earth in the future.
We don’t have time to look at these issues here but perhaps it will be an interesting topic for another time.
In the kingdom which came with Jesus in his first coming, it is evident that, “Some of its power is available now but not all of it. Some of the curse and misery of this old age can be overcome now by the presence of the kingdom, but some of it cannot be. The decisive battle against sin, Satan, sickness and death has been fought and won by the King in his death and resurrection, but the war is not over. Sin must be fought, Satan must be resisted, sickness must be prayed over and groaned under (Romans 8:23), and death must be endured until the second coming of the King and the consummation of the kingdom.”[8]
The Kingdom of God Is Not Yet Present in its Fullness
There are passages that make it very clear that the kingdom is not yet present. For example, in Luke 19:11ff. Jesus tells a parable to make the point that the kingdom is not yet here. Verses 11–12:
“As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said therefore, "A nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom and then return."
He was near Jerusalem. In other words they thought he was about to make his move on the power centre of the land and set up the kingdom right then. That was the common conception of the coming of the kingdom — that the Messiah would ride in, sword in hand at the head of Israel’s armies, that all Israel's enemies would be destroyed and that he would establish a new reign of peace and righteousness in the world.
But Jesus told a parable to make clear that the kingdom is not coming that way now—it would be a long time in the future. Verse 12: "A nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom and then return." In other words, Jesus is going back to heaven and will be gone some time before he returns to establish his kingdom in power and glory. Make no mistake, the coming of the kingdom is still future in some aspects!
The "Mystery" of the Kingdom
So the kingdom has come according to Matthew 12:28 and Luke 17:21; and the coming of the kingdom is still future according to Luke 19:11–12 and many other texts.
This is puzzling. It threw the Pharisees into confusion. It took John the Baptist off guard (Matthew 11:2–6). It caused one crowd to want to throw Jesus off a cliff (Luke 4:29) and another want to make him king (John 6:15). It baffled Pilate when Jesus was on trial (John 18:36–37). It left the apostles confused and feeling hopeless between Good Friday and Easter Sunday (Luke 24:21).
The Old Testament sees only one great day of the Lord coming, when God would deal finally with sin and defeat his enemies and gather his people into a kingdom of peace and righteousness and make the earth and the heavens new and glorious, with the Messiah ruling forever and ever.
But it didn't make clear that this day of the Lord—the coming of the kingdom—would happen in two stages: first, with Jesus coming as a suffering servant to atone for sin, and second, with Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
This is the mystery (the secret) of the kingdom—the arrival of the kingdom in a preliminary, small way in advance of the final consummation when all enemies would be defeated and all sin, satanic power, sickness and suffering would be gone forever.
Notice in Matthew 13:11, that Jesus says to his disciples, "To you it has been given to know the secrets [mysteries] of the kingdom of the heaven."
George Eldon Ladd, a Baptist theologian, wrote a great book titled, The Presence of the Future, which captures these two ideas wonderfully. The kingdom has come, in the person of Jesus, but its consummation awaits the future when the Son of Man from Daniel 7 rides in on the cloud chariot to vanquish all foes of righteousness.
The Presence of the Future. The future is present right now, because Jesus arrived with it two thousand years ago. Herman Ridderbos wrote to the same effect as Ladd, in his equally great book, The Coming of the Kingdom. In this title, the same idea is latent, that the kingdom has come with Jesus, but it is still in the process of coming in the sense that it is yet to be consummated at the second coming of Christ. [9]
So what does this all mean for me as a Christian today? Well, it means many things. Firstly, it means that if I have accepted the Messiah, I am a citizen of the kingdom of God now. Jesus is enthroned already, in heaven, as my king, and I am a faithful citizen of his kingdom here below.
I was born a citizen of Australia, but now my citizenship in the kingdom of God takes priority. If the Australian government goes to war and asks that I fight for them, I must say, sorry, my citizenship in God’s kingdom precludes me from killing others. I may decide to support my fellow Australians in another way if war should come, but if I follow Jesus example I cannot fight. This is only one instance of what it means to be part of the kingdom of God.
You probably know how difficult it is to become a citizen of desirable countries like U.S.A., Germany or Norway. It can be very discouraging to even try. The standards are set very high, because people from many countries want to live there and partake of their high standards of living and social security. But the really good news is that it is an easier process to become a citizen of the kingdom of God. You don’t need to be under 30 years old, speak their language well or have a high skill level in your profession.
You can become a citizen of the kingdom of God right now. Who can tell me how? Yes, by accepting the crucified Messiah of this kingdom. By renouncing the principles of your old life and kingdom that do not coincide with God’s kingdom. By practising the principles of this kingdom in your life now. By taking the laws of this kingdom into your heart.
If in your previous kingdom you had a criminal record against your name – it’s cancelled when you enter the kingdom of God through the death of the Messiah. We are all criminals – murderers, thieves, adulterers, covetous, liars, prostitutes – but our criminal slate is wiped clean as we enter God’s kingdom. Perhaps you were not particularly conscientious in your former kingdom – in God’s kingdom you start and finish with a perfect record, perfect righteousness.
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done
Jesus tells us in his model prayer what duty means in his kingdom. He says,
Matthew 6:10 (NRSV) — 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
It is our privilege to incorporate the principles of his kingdom here and now, to do his will here even while we wait for the full consummation of his kingdom when he comes the second time. Micah also knew how we should behave in this kingdom.
Micah 6:8 (NRSV) — 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Conclusion
The kingdom really has arrived in the person of Jesus. The King has come. He has dealt with sin once and for all in the sacrifice of himself. The King sits at the Father's right hand and reigns now until all his enemies are under his feet. His righteousness is now already ours by faith, and we must make it work here while we wait. The King's Spirit is already working in the world and in us. His holiness is already being produced in us. The King's joy and peace have now already been given to us, even if wars rage around us and we wait for the final state peaceful state of Shalom. The King's victory over Satan is already ours as we use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to do his will until the kingdom comes in its fullness.
Addendums:
The Parables of the Kingdom
Behind the confusion over the kingdom was what Jesus called the "mystery [or secret] of the kingdom." The parables in Matthew 13 unfold the mystery of the kingdom for us. What is mysterious about the kingdom is that number one, it has come in the person of Jesus, partly but not fully, and number two, it entails the suffering and death of the Messiah, which was almost unbelievable to his first century audience.
Jesus Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13 tells us again about the strange and mysterious nature of this kingdom that is already present in our world. In the kingdom of God the tares appear along with the wheat, Jesus says. But don’t disturb them right now he says, 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
The final separation waits for the second coming of the Son of Man (v. 41).
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
The mystery of the kingdom is that the kingdom came like a mustard seed and not a military coup. The kingdom has come into the world without the cataclysmic transformation most expected.
The Parable of the Fishing Net
The parable of the fishing net (Vs 47–50) explains that as the net—the power of the kingdom—draws men into its sway, it draws good and bad. Only when the net is up on shore at the close of the age will the good and the bad fish be separated. The separation here is between two kinds of people who are swept into the net of the kingdom. The mystery of the kingdom is that the people who come under the power of God's kingdom are a mixed bag. Some are true disciples. And some are hypocrites.
[1] Introduction to the Kingdom of God, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
[1a] Borg, M.J. Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus. Studies in the Bible and early Christianity. New York: E. Mellen Press.1998:34, (Quoting Buchanan, G.W.: The Consequences of the Covenant; Leiden, 1970:55)
[2] Martin J. Selman I. Tyndale Bulletin 40.2 (1989) 161-183. [My alteration]
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] “Typical examples include the promise that God will raise up 'to David a righteous Branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is right and just in the land', with the name 'Yahweh-our-righteousness' (Jer. 23:5), and Isaiah's hope of a child who 'will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it in justice and righteousness now and for ever' (Isa. 9:6 MT).40 Only in this last passage do the prophets speak of this king ruling over a kingdom, though even this kingdom is David's rather than Yahweh's. The human, and indeed imminent aspects of this kingdom are also mentioned by Ezekiel, who expects the new David to assist Israel's return to the land in peace (Ezk. 37:24- 5). The Old Testament writers believed essentially that the kingdom of God was among them, though some certainly anticipated its greater revelation in the fulness of time.” (from Selman)
[6] Wilson, Ibid.
[7] W. Manson [Possibly its T.W. Manson] (my additions in parentheses)
[8] John Piper, Sermon.
[9] Ladd, G.E. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974. Ridderbos, H.N. The Coming of the Kingdom. P & R Publishing 1962.
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