The
definition of the kingdom
This morning we begin a new series entitled: “the kingdom – what it is.” We will spend several weeks fleshing out the
kingdom.
Whereas radical relationships, our last series, was
extremely practical this one may get a little technical at times, but once we
have defined terms and established a foundation of what the kingdom is, we will
find that Jesus’ teachings become very practical. So our discussion of the kingdom will move
from technical to practical.
We find this type of movement in most of the NT
letters. The structure tends to be
intensely theological in the beginning and later, after laying a theological
foundation, the author then says, therefore,
and gives a series of exhortations to apply to life practically.
Our journey through this doctrine of the kingdom will
be very similar. We will lay a
theological foundation and then once we understand what the kingdom is, we will
explore what it’s like, and finally we will explore what it means. What does it mean for us to be living in the
kingdom? How then shall we live? So this series will flow from technical to
practical, much like the letters in the NT.
We begin part 1 this morning by defining THE
kingdom. What is THE Kingdom?
First things first.
Before we define THE kingdom, let’s define A kingdom:
Miriam Webster’s
dictionary defines A kingdom as:
1) Kingship
2) A politically
organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government
headed by a king or queen
3) Often capitalized
a. The eternal kingship
of God
b. The realm in which
God’s will is fulfilled
4) A realm or region in
which something is dominant
5) An area or sphere in
which one holds a preeminent position
6) One of three primary divisions into which
natural objects are commonly classified: Animal kingdom, mineral kingdom, plant
kingdom
That is what A kingdom is – a realm or sphere ruled by
a king. It is a politically organized
community headed by a king. In a
kingdom, there is
·
a territory
·
a king, and
·
subjects
o
those who dwell in the kingdom
o
and who submit to the authority of the king
who governs.
Now
let’s define THE kingdom…
What
is THE kingdom? We
will take several weeks to give a more rounded answer to that question. In weeks to follow, we will zoom in on the
various details, but this morning I want to do a broad sweeping overview and
get a big picture of the kingdom.
For the rest of this morning we will unpack the
following answers to the question What is the
kingdom?
(This is essentially the outline in your bulletin if
you’d like to follow along)
·
It is the kingdom of heaven
·
It is also the kingdom of God
·
It is also the kingdom of Christ
·
It is literally translated as “the reign” (YLT)
·
The kingdom is the central teaching of Jesus in the NT
·
The kingdom is the gospel
·
The kingdom is the antitype of OC Israel in the promised Land
·
The kingdom is the inheritance of the saints
·
The kingdom is the church – the new covenant community
·
The kingdom is that which had broken into the “present age” but in its full
consummation belongs to the “age to
come”
What
is the kingdom?
The first thing I’d like to point out is that that the
kingdom is the
kingdom of heaven which is synonymous with the kingdom of God. I’ll point this out briefly by comparing the
words of Matt
13 with those in Luke 13.
Matt 13:31-33 31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Notice that Jesus says that the kingdom of HEAVEN is like a mustard seed and it is like yeast. Now look at Luke 13.
Luke 13:18-21 18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”
20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Matthew
has Jesus saying the kingdom of heaven is
like yeast and a mustard seed. Luke has Jesus saying the kingdom of God is like yeast and a mustard
seed.
The
kingdom is the kingdom of heaven, which is the same thing as the kingdom of
God.
These phrases could be literally rendered as the
reign of God or the reign of the heavens as the YLT
puts them.
Here I’ll also point out that we find yet another
phrase used: the
kingdom of Christ.
Eph 5:5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy
person—such a person is an idolater —has any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and of God.
So the kingdom is all of the above: the reign of god
manifest in Christ – Christ who is god is king.
In THE kingdom Christ is the King.
To help us better understand THE kingdom, let’s
take that understanding (Christ is king) back into the definition of A
kingdom.
1) Kingship (Christ’s
kingship)
2) A politically
organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of
government headed by a king (Jesus, the king)
3) Often capitalized
a. The eternal kingship
of God (manifest in Jesus)
b. The realm in which
God’s will is fulfilled
4) A realm or region in
which something is dominant (that something is Christ)
5) An area or sphere in
which one holds a preeminent position (Christ holds preeminence)
Simply
put, the kingdom is the community whose king is Christ, Jesus.
What
is THE kingdom?
The kingdom is the central teaching of Jesus. Jesus came preaching and teaching and as he
did He preached the kingdom. When Jesus
taught, his primary teaching was about the kingdom.
You will rarely find a book about Jesus that doesn’t
speak of the kingdom. That was the
thrust of Jesus’ preaching as well as that of his forerunner, JTB.
My NIV study bible actually has a great commentary on Matt 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
“Kingdom of heaven; a phrase found only in Matthew, where it occurs 33
times. Mark and Luke use Kingdom of
God,” a term Matthew uses only four times.
The kingdom of heaven/God in the preaching of Jesus as recounted in the
Gospels is the reign of God that he brings about the Jesus Christ – i.e. the
establishment of God’s rule in the hearts and lives of his people, the
overcoming of all the forces of evil, the removal from the world of all the
consequences of sin – including death and all that diminishes life – and the
creation of a new order of righteousness and peace. The idea of God’s kingdom is
central to Jesus’ teaching and is mentioned 50 times in Matthew alone.”
The
kingdom is: the central teaching of Jesus Christ.
That fact alone should have a drastic affect on some of
the ways of the church. It should alter
the way that we speak, the content of our preaching and teaching, and the focus
of the church. If the kingdom is the
central teaching of Jesus, why is it so neglected in the church? I have never, ever, at any church I ever
attended heard a message about the kingdom.
Never once. If the kingdom is the
central teaching of Jesus, why isn’t it the central teaching of the church?
What
is THE kingdom?
THE
KINGDOM IS THE GOSPEL.
Did you catch that? A lot of
people throw around that term, “the gospel,” but it’s kind of like that scene
from The Princess Bride when the guy keeps saying “Inconceivable.” The other character says, “You keep using
that word. I don’t think it means what
you think it means.” The
gospel. It means good news. And yes, I think most people know that, but
what would they say IS the good news?
According to Jesus, the good news (the gospel) is the kingdom. To give further definition to the kingdom, we
cannot forget that the kingdom is the gospel; it is the good news.
Let’s look at some passages that make this case
explicitly:
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and
sickness among the people.
Matthew 9:35 Jesus went through all the towns and
villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and
sickness.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom
will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the
end will come.
Luke 4:43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns
also, because that is why I was sent.”
Luke 8:1 After this, Jesus traveled
about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Luke 16:16
“The Law and the Prophets were
proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached…
Acts 8:12
But when they believed Philip as
he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Notice that the Bible never says that JTB, Jesus, or
the apostles ever preached the good news that if one has enough faith he will
have better job, bigger house, wealth, health, and prosperity. The Scriptures declare that they preached the
good news of the kingdom. The kingdom is
the gospel.
Notice also that the Bible never says that they
preached the good news that Jesus was going to die on the cross. The cross was certainly a component part of
God’s redemptive work and part of the gospel message, and I am certainly not
downplaying the cross as it was that act through which God made atonement for
our sins. So, yes, the cross is awesome
and it is a part of the gospel. But is
the cross alone the gospel? What does the Bible say about the gospel? That it was the arrival of the kingdom. The kingdom is the gospel.
Notice also that we never read that they preached the good
news that you don’t have to go to hell when you die; all you have to do is say
this prayer and accept Jesus into your heart.
Paul and Barnabus didn’t show up at the synagogue and say, “Listen gang, hate to interrupt, but I’ve got great
news. It’s alter call time. Anybody who wants to walk down the aisle can
do so at this time. If that’s
uncomfortable, just raise your hand with your heads bowed.” The good news that was preached
was the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The
kingdom is the gospel.
Good
news: the long-anticipated kingdom of God has come upon us, the king has
arrived and his name is Jesus!
The kingdom is the gospel or good news.
If the kingdom is the gospel and the church is all
about the gospel, why does it seem so often that the kingdom is rarely a part
of the preaching of the gospel?
This should give you great comfort and peace to sustain
you in the days of tribulation to come. Next
year when we are still discussing the kingdom and you are tempted to say, “Really? Are
we still talking about the kingdom?” remember this one thing: when you
ask that, what you’re really asking is “Really? Are we still discussing the gospel?” Because when we are discussing the kingdom,
we are discussing the gospel and I cannot think of a better topic of
discussion. I cannot think of a greater
sermon topic than the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is precisely what the
kingdom is. Yes, for months on end, we
will be discussing the kingdom; thus, for months on end, we will be discussing
the gospel. We are a gospel-centered
church, a church that is focused on the good news of Jesus Christ and His
Kingdom.
What
is THE kingdom?
The kingdom is
the antitype of OC Israel in the Land.
To put it another way, the Kingdom of Israel, dwelling in the Promised
Land serves as a type or shadow of the heavenly kingdom that was to come.
Remember that types and shadows are real people, places,
and events in history that typify or foreshadow spiritual realities that were
to be found in the New Covenant age.
National Israel as the covenant community dwelling in her Promised Land foreshadowed
spiritual Israel, the church, as God’s new covenant community dwelling in the
kingdom.
As the land was the inheritance of OC Israel, the
kingdom is the inheritance of NC Israel.
The saints inherit the kingdom.
First, let’s confirm that the Land was the inheritance
of God’s OC people.
Joshua 11:23
So Joshua took the entire land,
just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to
their tribal divisions
Joshua 13:33
But to the tribe of Levi, Moses
had given no inheritance; the
LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance,
as he promised them. (The
tribe of Levi were the priests; they don’t just get a plot of dirt in the
Middle East, they got God as an inheritance)
Now, that land as the inheritance served as a type, a
mere foreshadowing of the reality that is found in the kingdom in Christ.
Matthew 25:34
“Then the King will say to those
on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,
the kingdom prepared for you
since the creation of the world.
Colossians
1:12-13 and giving
joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance
of his holy people in the kingdom
of light. For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
James 2:5
Listen, my dear brothers and
sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be
rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom
he promised those who love him?
Eph 5:5, Gal 5:21, 1 Cor 6:9,
1 Cor 15:50 also indicate the same.
As the Promised Land was the inheritance for national
Israel, God’s OC community,
The kingdom is the inheritance for spiritual Israel,
God’s NC community.
Now recall the priests.
In the OC, the priests were those who served as the mediators. People didn’t go straight to God. They went to the priests, who served before
God. The priesthood served as the
go-between, the middle man. You want to
come to God, you have to go through me. But in the new covenant, in the Kingdom, everybody
is a priest before the Lord.
1 Peter 2:4-5
4 As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen
by God and precious to him—you also, like
living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. All
believers are priests, serving as a royal priesthood before God. We don’t go to another human to get to God,
we go straight to God, himself. As a
royal priesthood, we don’t offer up animal sacrifices to God, but we offer up
spiritual sacrifices.
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called
you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Revelation 1:5-6
To him who loves
us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to
be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father —to him be glory and power
for ever and ever! Amen. In the kingdom, all are
priests, not just the Levites!
Recall that the Levitical priests in the OC didn’t
receive inheritance in the Land, but their inheritance was God, himself. In that sense, the priests of the OC served to
foreshadow the citizens of the kingdom who are all priests and like the priests
we don’t inherit a plot of dirt. As the
priests inherit God himself, so also, our inheritance is in God manifest in
Jesus Christ and His kingdom.
What
is THE kingdom?
Simply
put, the kingdom is the church. It is
the NC community.
How else can we define THE kingdom?
The kingdom is that which
had broken into the “present age” but in its full consummation corresponds to the age to
come. The Scriptures speak of two ages “the present age” and “the age
to come.” Both Jesus and Paul were
living in the last days of the OC order; they spoke from a perspective of
living in the “present age.” But they looked forward to the “age to come” in which the kingdom would be fully
consummated.
In what they called the present
age, they were under the OC and were dominated by Gentile Kingdoms. They anticipated the “age
to come” in which God’s people would be under the NC and the Gentile
Kingdoms would disintegrate and be overcome by God’s Kingdom, which did indeed
happen as they watched Babylon’s kingdom fall to the Medes and Persians, and
the Medes and Persians give way to Alexander the Great and his conquests to
establish the reign of Greece.
Eventually Greece was overcome and Rome became the reigning kingdom. It was during that age, the age that was for
them the “present age,” under the OC, under the
reign of Rome, under the Caesars that Christ came, established His Kingdom and
the NC, ushering in the “age to come.” The Roman Empire eventually disintegrated and
Rome became the headquarters for the Catholic Church.
Jesus and his contemporaries looked forward to the age
to come. You and I live in the “age to come.”
It’s no longer “to come.” It was
future to them, but present for us. This
age that you and I live in is indeed the church age, the age of the kingdom. You and I are citizens of the Kingdom of God.
What
is the kingdom?
·
It is the kingdom of heaven
·
It is also the kingdom of God
·
It is also the kingdom of Christ
·
It is literally translated as “the reign” (YLT)
·
The kingdom is the central teaching of Jesus in the NT
·
The kingdom is the gospel
·
The kingdom is the antitype of OC Israel in the promised Land
·
The kingdom is the inheritance of the saints
·
The kingdom is the church – the new covenant community
·
The kingdom is that which had broken into the “present age” but in its full
consummation belongs to the “age to
come” which is for us the present age
APPLICATION:
That was a lot of information, but it’s not without application. Remember that doctrine drives our actions. What we believe shapes our worldview. That takes root, impacting our attitudes and
actions.
Let us rejoice in the reality of the kingdom. As we read the Scriptures and we come across
passages that speak of the kingdom, we can do so with a perspective that doesn’t
say “That
is a realm that exists exclusively in heaven that I can only participate in
upon physical death” but rather a perspective that says “I am a citizen
of the kingdom, right here, right now and I partake in its various and numerous
spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.”
We are a royal priesthood. We don’t make animal sacrifices but spiritual
sacrifices before God. Thank you Jesus! We serve in his temple day and night, not a
temple made of wood and stone, but we as the church are the temple in whom He
dwells.
We can view our daily life as a life of service before
the Lord. In other words, we can see
every action of everyday life as worship, as service to him as we offer up
spiritual sacrifices. Our daily tasks at
work can be viewed not as boring or monotonous but as an offering before the
Lord as if we were serving Him, not our bosses.
Mothers at home with their children are daily picking
up after children and giving baths, and taking to school, dr appts, changing diapers,
and making food that isn’t appreciated.
As a kingdom of priests, serving the Lord, mothers can view these tasks not
as serving their possibly ungrateful children, but as service unto the
Lord.
As Linda spearheads our community service projects we
can see our actions as those serving not only our community, but as service
unto God as his kingdom of priests who serve before him offering up spiritual
sacrifices.
Such a perspective will likely change our
attitudes. Isn’t it easy to get bitter
when your perspective is that the people you are serving aren’t appreciative of
your sacrifices? But what if we walked
in the realization that our sacrifices aren’t for them? What if our perspective was that they are actually
for our King? Joy will replace
bitterness.
As a kingdom of priests, we are in the business of
reconciling people to God, inviting them into relationship with Him in which
sin is forgiven, not because we sacrifice animals and spill the blood of lambs,
but because we point them to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Again, as a kingdom of priests, we don’t have to go to other
men to get to God. We have him. He is our portion. Forever!
Our portion isn’t dirt & rocks in Palestine. Our portion is Jesus Christ. We don’t dwell in a parched land or a desert
but we are surrounded by bubbling springs of the water of life and we drink deep
from wells of living water.
We aren’t citizens of a geo-political kingdom in the Middle
East but we are citizens of a glorious heavenly kingdom where King Jesus reigns
in the hearts of his people.
I’m excited for us as a church because we are growing
in an understanding of the doctrine that is the central teaching of Jesus.
As we preach the gospel, the good news, we can know
what that is. It is the kingdom. We can extend the invitation to others to
enter in to this kingdom, not with feet but with faith.
www.ncfgeorgetown.com
Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church Georgetown, Texas Preterist
church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Sermon audio mp3 sermon download
Full Preterism. Covenant Eschatology. New Covenant Fellowship Georgetown. Page
House 10:00 am Loving God. Loving Others. Realized eschatology fulfilled
eschatology Preterist church Austin
Texas. Bible church Austin Texas Second
coming of Jesus Christ churches in Austin area. Non denominational Churches in
Georgetown TX
No comments:
Post a Comment