"For
behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21) |
|
|
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came proclaiming "the |
| gospel of the
kingdom." Indeed, most of Jesus' teaching |
| centers around
the kingdom of God. Over and over He speaks |
| about entering
the kingdom. He opens many of His parables |
| by saying,
"The kingdom of God can be likened to...". Or He'll |
| talk about how we
might possess the kingdom. But what IS the |
| kingdom of God?
Do we really understand what Jesus is talking |
| about? |
|
As background, it's important to grasp what the Jewish idea |
| of the kingdom
was in the time of Jesus. If we understand what |
| was in the mind
of the listener in that day when they heard the |
| term,
"kingdom of God," then we can better see the Truth Jesus |
| was revealing
when He spoke to them. |
|
Two thousand years ago the Jewish concept of the kingdom |
| was primarily a
national one. They believed the kingdom to be |
| the restoration,
by the Messiah, of their national glory. The Messiah |
| would come and
set Israel free from all occupying nations, exalt |
| them as a people,
and commence to reign and rule from the |
| temple in
Jerusalem. |
|
Israel's expectation of the Messiah corresponded to their |
| expectation of
the kingdom. The Messiah, to them, was "Israel |
| personified."
He would be an extension of Israel; the embodiment |
| of all that
Israel was. The Jews of that day had no concept of |
| a Messiah, or of
a kingdom, which made room for anything |
| or anyone other
than Israel. |
|
The Jews, as taught by the Pharisees, believed that a person |
| could
"work" their way into the kingdom of God. They held that |
| through the study
of the law and the performance of good works |
| that one could
qualify to enter the kingdom. They held no |
| concrete view of
the sin nature, although they did acknowledge |
| "acts of
sin." Consequently, they had little point of reference |
| for a Redeemer
who would deliver them from sin, or one who |
| needed to die for
the sins of the world. |
|
When Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God it did not |
| agree with their
expectations, indeed, with their demands about |
| the kingdom.
Instead of a Messiah who preached deliverance |
| from Rome, Jesus
came preaching deliverance from sin. Instead |
| of One who
personified Israel, Jesus came saying "I am the Truth." |
| Jesus came
preaching about a kingdom which was drastically |
| contrary to the
concept of the kingdom of God in the mind of the |
| Jew of His day.
They rejected Him, and wound up killing Him |
| for it. |
|
Does our concept of the kingdom of God agree with what |
| Jesus taught? Ask
yourself, "What is my definition of the |
| kingdom of
God?" |
|
For some Christians, the kingdom of God is heaven. For others, |
| the kingdom is
the church. Still others claim the kingdom is |
| the
millenium.
Yet none of these is correct, although to a degree |
| they can be
included in the kingdom of God. So what exactly |
| IS the kingdom of
God? And where is that kingdom? |
|
The kingdom of God is not a PLACE. You cannot find any |
| place and call it
the "kingdom of God." Neither is the kingdom |
| of God a group of places, or a
group of people. Rather than a |
| place where God reigns, the
kingdom of God is God's reign |
| itself -- over any place! |
| That's
important to grasp. The kingdom of God is God's |
| reign. The people and places over
which God reigns then |
| become part of that kingdom in
that they are under the power |
| of His Lordship and realm. |
| Now we
can see why Jesus was able to say, "The kingdom of |
| God does not come with signs to
be observed...Behold, the |
| kingdom of God is within
you." Jesus was talking about the |
| reign or realm of God. You can't
"see" a king's reign. You can |
| only see the things and people
over which that reign is |
| exercised. |
| The
Truth is, if we want to enter the kingdom of God, we must |
| come under the reign of God. We
must allow the kingdom to |
| possess us if we are to possess
the kingdom. The |
| gospel of the kingdom is a
proclamation of Jesus Christ as |
| Lord, reigning and ruling over
all which He won through His |
| death and resurrection. When we
embrace Him as Lord, |
| and come under His regin, we are
living in His kingdom. |
| The Jews
of Jesus' time never did grasp this. Even the |
| disciples of Jesus did not
understand this Truth until after His |
| death and resurrection. Until
then, every time Jesus spoke of |
| the "kingdom of God,"
they interpreted Him according to the |
| Jewish traditional idea. |
| Nowhere
is this misunderstanding more accutely illustrated |
| than in Matthew 24. Indeed, many
Christians today continue |
| to misinterpret Jesus' words in
that passage and others like it, |
| simply due to a misunderstanding
of what Jesus means by |
| the term "kingdom of
God." |
| Get the
setting leading into this chapter. Jesus had just |
| finished publically upbraiding
the Scribes and Pharisees for |
| their unbelief and hypocrisy. He
warned them of impending |
| destruction which would
"come upon this generation." (23:36) |
| Then, as He was walking out of
the temple, He lamented over |
| Jerusalem. His rejection at the
hands of the Jewish leaders was |
| complete. Their house was indeed
left desolate. (23:38) |
|
Jesus completed His lamentation by saying, in the hearing of |
| His disciples, "You shall
not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, |
| Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord." (23:39) |
| As Jesus
and His disciples exited the temple, those final words |
| must have exicted the disciples
greatly. Jesus had just |
| quoted an Old Testament scripture
which they knew |
| announced the arrival of the
Messiah. For three years the |
| disciples had been waiting for
Jesus to announce Himself |
| Messiah, and to begin His reign.
He had already entered |
| Jerusalem to the cheers of the
crowds a few days before. Now, |
| they surely reasoned, He was
announcing that He was about |
| to make all their expectations
come true. The Messiah |
| had come. And He was about to
begin His reign and rule from |
| the temple in Jerusalem. |
| This
hope is seen in Matthew 24:1. After Jesus departed the |
| temple, the disciples came
"to show Him the buildings of the |
| temple." The parallel in
Mark 13:1 has them saying, "Master, |
| see what manner of stones and
what buildings are here!" |
| In other words, they were saying,
"Look at the wonderful temple |
| you will have as your throne!
Look at this marvelous complex |
| of buildings from which you will
reign!" They clearly interpreted |
| the words of Jesus as meaning
that He intended to take His |
| place on the throne. They had
forgotten that He had already told |
| them He had come to Jerusalem to
die. |
| The
reply of Jesus to the disciples must have been so |
| contrary to their thinking that
they were unable to understand |
| Him. Instead of verifying that He
was about to reign and rule, |
| and instead of agreeing with
their admiration of the temple |
| and it's buildings, Jesus said,
"See you not all these things? |
| Verily, I say to you, there shall
not be left here one stone upon |
| another that shall not be thrown
down." (Matthew 24:2) |
| Do you
see what Jesus is saying? He is telling his |
| disciples, and us, something we
must understand if we are |
| grasp the nature of the kingdom
of God, and if we are to |
| gain a proper understanding of
Matthew 24. He is saying, |
| "My friends, I have been
telling you all along that your |
| idea of the kingdom of God is
wrong. I have not come to |
| reign and rule in a physical
kingdom. The physical kingdom |
| that you think will reside within
all of these buildings |
| is not going to happen. In fact,
everything you see before you |
| is going to be torn down and
destroyed." |
| Jesus
was dashing to pieces all of their hopes and |
| dreams about a kingdom. But if we
read on in Matthew 24, |
| we will find that He is also
showing them what is coming |
| to replace it: The real kingdom
of God: The reign of God |
| over the hearts and lives of men
through Jesus Christ. |
| Matthew
24 has most often been interpreted as a |
| narrative describing the end
time, namely, our time. We have |
| assumed that Jesus is there
talking about the end of the |
| world as we know it, and the
establishment of His kingdom |
| in the millenium. But He is not.
He is talking about the |
| end of the old order of things,
as personified in the temple and |
| the nation of Israel, and the
establishment of the new order |
| of things, i.e., His spiritual
kingdom as found through the |
| New Covenant. |
| I
realize this sounds almost absurd. But that's because |
| Christians have become so trained
to read chapters like |
| Matthew 24 a certain way, with a
certain interpretation, that |
| to suggest otherwise seems almost
heretical. Yet if we |
| remain consistant to Jesus'
continual definition of "the kingdom |
| of God," and read what He
says in this chapter without |
| preconceived ideas, there is no
question about it. Jesus is |
| not saying what many of us
interpret Him to be saying in this |
| chapter. He is talking about the
end of the Old Covenant, |
| and the destruction of Jerusalem,
and then the ushering in of |
| the New Covenant through the
spiritual kingdom of God. |
| Let's go
on to see this. The disciples, upon hearing these |
| shocking words from Jesus, reply,
"What? When whall |
| these things be? And what shall
be the sign of Your coming? |
| And of the end of this
world?" |
| Note
their reply. They are flabbergasted. No temple? All |
| these building destroyed? How can
He reign and rule without |
| a temple? Thus, they plead for an
assurance from Jesus. |
| They want to know the "sign
of His coming." And they want |
| to know when will come the
"end of the world." |
|
Incidentally, the word for "world," here, really means "age." |
| It means "a period of time
marked by moral and spiritual |
| characteristics." Therefore,
when the disciples asked Jesus |
| what the sign would be of the end
of the age, they were not |
| asking Him the question many
Christians think they were |
| asking Him, namely, when the end
of this world would be, |
| and when the millenium would
begin. They were simply |
| replying to His shocking claim
that everything they hoped |
| for would be dismantled and
thrown down. They sought |
| a sign from Him; an assurance
that He would still begin a new age |
| by reigning and ruling from
Jerusalem as they had hoped. |
| Now we
see why it is vital to grasp the disciple's |
| concept of the kingdom of God. It
was that concept which was |
| in their mind, and it was that
concept which they were referring |
| to when they asked the question,
"What will be the sign of Your |
| Coming, and the end of the
age?" |
| But that
is not all. Not only does understanding the disciple's |
| concept of the kingdom interpret
to us their question to Jesus, it |
| likewise helps us to interpret
His answer to them. The disciples |
| were asking their questions to
gain an assurance that, yes, |
| all that they hoped for would
indeed come to pass. There would |
| be a national kingdom for Israel,
with Jesus as the Messiah. Yes, |
| they would reign and rule with
Him in this kingdom. But Jesus' |
| answer was that there would be NO
national kingdom as they |
| had hoped, but a spiritual one.
The national kingdom, with |
| it's temple and rituals would not
be the kingdom of God. The |
| kingdom of God which Jesus was
bringing would be a spiritual one. |
| Matthew
24 and 25 are Jesus' answer to the disciples. In these |
| chapters He is describing the
destruction and passing away of the |
| old age and old kingdom, and the
ushering in of the spiritual |
| kingdom of God. He is talking
about a kingdom in which the |
| Son of Man is ever present within
the hearts and lives of men. |
| The word
"parousia" pictures this. Everywhere in the Bible |
| where we read of Jesus' Coming --
that is, His return to earth as |
| it's ruling King -- the word
"coming" is translated "parousia." But |
| the word means more than just
"coming," in the sense of travelling |
| from one location to another. It
literally means "active presence." |
| Therefore, when we read of Jesus
"coming," we are reading |
| not only about His arrival among
us, but about His active presence, |
| that is, His reigning and ruling
once He arrives. That is, afterall, |
| what the kingdom of God is. It IS
Jesus' coming -- His active |
| presence in the hearts and lives
of all of us. |
| After
Jesus spends most of Matthew 24 describing the end of |
| that present order of things, He
begins to describe to the disciples, |
| sometimes in very symbolic
language, the nature of the spiritual |
| kingdom of God. He says,
"THEN shall the kingdom of heaven be |
| likened unto ten
virgins....." Again, Jesus is trying to tell them, and |
| us, that our ideas of His kingdom
are lacking. He is trying to reveal |
| to us that His kingdom is a
spiritual one, and that all of the |
| scriptures which we interpret
naturally are to be taken spritually. |
| Jesus
Christ IS coming again. Literally. But what kind of |
| a literal kingdom will that be if
His spiritual kingdom is not first |
| established in the hearts and
minds of humanity? What good |
| will it do to have Jesus reigning
and ruling "out there" if He is |
| not first reigning and ruling
"in us," where Jesus said the |
| essence of the kingdom of God
was? "For behold," He said, "The |
| kingdom of God is within
YOU." |
|
The kingdom of God is not a place God reigns. It IS God's |
| reign -- over any place. It is
the reign of God, through Jesus |
| Christ, over the hearts and lives
of people. For that, we do not |
| have to wait for the millenium.
We have the millenium right now, |
| inside of us, as manifested
through our reign and rule with Christ |
| on His throne to God's glory. |
