Jesus says a lot about this.
So, maybe we’d better pay attention to it, too. The word ‘kingdom’ is used 126 times in the gospels. But, then it is only used 34 times in the rest of the New Testament. Jesus had a lot to say about the Kingdom and he used all kinds of metaphors and similes to describe it to us. I’ve listened to a lot of ideas and definitions about what other people think about the Kingdom. It can sometimes sound like a fantasy novel description or a Star Trek episode. Major religions try to describe what living the ‘ultimate reality’ will be and religions attempt to place their definition as the final word about the things to come and why we live in a certain way. I’ve also noticed the anxiety Kingdom talk can produce.
When I do research, I look at a variety of sources. I can usually tell what political point of view someone has by the way they define the Kingdom. Some believe the Kingdom is all about peace, sharing resources and no war. Other people focus on God’s absolute control over all things, the power of the Kingdom and the reign of Jesus. I wonder sometimes if we just project our definitions and hopeful ascent to the leadership positions of the Kingdom. Perhaps you can identify with the mother of Zebedee’s sons as she approached Jesus to ask that He grant that one of her two sons sit at the right hand and the other at His left hand. (Matthew 20:20-27) “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. I agree. We don’t know.
We casually use the Kingdom language in our Lord’s Prayer like we know what we are talking about. Think about how many times you’ve said the words, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” I’m grateful for the grace of God because I’ve said that prayer since I was a little kid not knowing what it meant. In many ways, I am still that little kid. I want to please my teacher, so I recite the Lord’s Prayer perfectly word for word. I get the gold star next to my name. But, then I go on to the next assignment.
Here’s what I think. God’s character is to be trusted. He never uses the ‘bate and switch’ method. He clearly communicates who He is and what He is about. So, think for a moment about the Incarnation and how important it was to God to reveal the Messiah. Salvation and the Messianic promise was made possible through a single people group—the People of Israel. God spoke not once, not through a single special messenger and not to those who had special intellect to understand. God spoke clearly as He revealed His plan through an epic story that included millions of people over time. Even though we had never seen the God-Man, totally divine and totally human, we could’ve known what to expect because God told us over and over again. We need “ears that hear and eyes that see.” (Proverbs 20:12)
God didn’t invent some new way to undermine us in order to make us look foolish. He doesn’t need to control us or demonstrate how powerful He is—that’s real power in my book. God is truly omnipotent. Like our God, truly confident and powerful people don’t need to ’show and tell’ how powerful, intelligent or strong they are. Their character reveals who they truly are and what they are about publicly and openly. Not in secret. God is mysterious. He is amazing. He is revealing. God defines the terms and He employs grace. God’s grace is sufficient for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9). Truly powerful people never mishandle the gifts they’ve been given. Again, God defines the terms. We develop the God-honoring vocabulary and vision when we allow Him to saturate our mind, heart, soul and strength. (Mark 12:30)
So, with the Messiah, we see clearly how God revealed Himself. This is God’s character. Why would the revelation about the Kingdom of God be any different? For the Messiah, He used the original model—human—and brought forth Jesus. For the Kingdom, He uses the original model—the material world and brought forth the Kingdom of God interspersed and spread out to include every tribe and tongue developing the holy multitude. (Revelation 7:9) Kingdom people are not to be separated but interspersed throughout this material world. The work of the Kingdom people is to show others what’s already been revealed and live in the tension of the ‘not yet.’ Kingdom people allow the hope of what is to come spring up within them. No secrets. Not confusing. Mysterious? yes. Other worldly, of course! Magnificent and ever-developing…always. And now, He includes you.
Here is a description that I found incredibly helpful from Tim Keller:
In the future you have all these cultural activities going on. Why? Because our future is a material future. The book of Revelation makes it very clear. At the end of time, the end of history, we do not see us as individuals leaving the material world and going off into some ethereal realm, a disembodied spiritual realm. Instead we see the power of God coming down to cleanse and perfect this material world. So if you want to see the future of the human race, you look at Jesus after the resurrection when he had his absolutely perfect glorified body, but he could eat a fish. You could put your hand through the nail prints and you could feel him. Now contrary to everything you’ve ever heard through Star Trek, the evolutionary future of the human race will not be balls of light or points of consciousness. We are going to hug and be hugged. We are literally going to eat, drink, and dance in the kingdom of God.*
Prepare, pray and ponder this Kingdom focused scripture. Join us Sunday as we worship and build our Kingdom community. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” (Matthew 13:24-30)Pastor Jen