The Kingdom of God pt.1
Since there is a lot of stuff I can post on "the Kingdom". So, let’s start with some basics and an overview for a foundation. I also want to point out that these are my notes and represent my journey to greater understanding of the Kingdom of God that I so love. I do not pretend to know everything there is about the Kingdom. However, my goal is to encourage others to dig deeper and to see that there maybe more to the Kingdom than what you or I may have been taught. So, now that I have written my little 2 cent disclaimer lets continue….
When Jesus came into the environment of his day he was undoubtedly faced with challenges. He came to bring change, and change by its very nature is always met with human opposition. The Jewish leaders had grown attached to their covenant lifestyle of offering sacrifices, celebrating feasts, fasting, obeying the law (or trying to), and temple worship. Old Covenant worship was a mere shadow of the new and far better reality that Jesus came to offer (see Heb 10:1 and 9:11). But because of religious blindness, and the preference they had to stay in their current state of mind, many of the Jews missed the life and freedom that Jesus came to give. Before we go blaming the Jews, how much of this can be said of us today when we prefer rituals, and observances over true worship? (see Mat 22:37-39)
To put it another way, the old covenant was like a blueprint. When building a house, a blueprint is very valuable. Before and during the building of the house, the contractor and the builder must adhere to everything on the blueprint in order to insure the proper construction of the house. The blueprint becomes a “law” to them. However, when the house is finished, the blueprint has served its purpose. The house, the very thing the blueprint was intended for, is a “far better” reality. And now that the house is built, the blueprint no longer holds its original valuable. The family is not going to move into the blueprint, but into the house.
The Jewish leaders’ narrow view of the old covenant blueprint shaped their expectations of the coming Messiah. Their expectations were that of a literal Jewish King who would sit on the literal throne of David and become the national ruler over Israel. He would come and defeat all of the enemies of Israel as God had done so many times in the Old Testament. This new king would liberate Jerusalem from control of the Roman Empire.
However, from his very birth, Jesus set out to demonstrate to Israel that his Kingdom is not of this world and that their expectations were misplaced. He was expected to come in a palace, but he was born in a manger. He was expected to live among the wealthy upper-class but instead he kept company with the ordinary people, and even ate with prostitutes and tax collectors. His Message? “The Good News of the Kingdom” (see Mark 1:14-15). In fact, Jesus talked about his coming Kingdom more than any other subject. At one point Jesus “was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Nor shall they say, Lo here! or, behold, there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
This one statement by Christ completely deconstructed the Pharisees’ expectations of the Kingdom. First he tells them the Kingdom is neither geographical or national by telling them that its coming but you won’t see it. Then he says to them that the Kingdom of God is inside of them, or “amongst them”. In Luke 11:20 Jesus states to the Jews, “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, no doubt the kingdom of God has come on you.”
To sum up where we are so far; Jewish leaders expected a physical and literal Kingdom to come to Israel. Jesus demonstrates to them that his Kingdom is not geographical but spiritual. If we expect a physical or national restoration of the Kingdom now or in the future to natural Israel, then we are likely making the same mistake as the Pharisees in the historical setting of Jesus.
Next we will discuss the coming of the Kingdom and why there are not “multiple” comings.
