Jesus commanded us not to be preoccupied with what we will eat or drink or distracted by what we are going to wear. Rather, we are to seek first the kingdom of God. But how do you seek something you can’t describe and don’t know how to define? Modern Christians are not the only ones confused about what this means. Dr. Luke tells us that Jesus spent his last forty days on earth explaining this concept to his disciples, and they still got it wrong, asking “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) But Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God are puzzle pieces that do fit together and can make a huge difference in understanding our mission. This episode puts some of those pieces together and illustrates how Christ-followers have sought and prayed for the kingdom of God to advance over the earth.
Just before Jesus’ ascension, when the disciples mistakenly expected him to be about to usher in an earthly, political kingdom, Jesus took their focus off his future, final return to set up that eternal kingdom and turned it to their mission to spread Jesus’ present spiritual kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit. “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:7-8). Sadly, a lot of Bible-believing Christians in the twentieth century focused primarily on the future kingdom of Christ, and withdrew from culture, waiting at the bus stop for the bus to take them up to heaven. But Jesus turned his disciples’ attention away from his final return and future political reign and placed it on the spiritual presence of the kingdom of God right now.
Understanding how Christ’s ascension and outpouring of the Holy Spirit relate to our everyday lives requires a quick overview of the biblical concept of kingdom.
The idea of kingdom begins in the very first chapter of Genesis, where Adam and Eve are created king and queen over kingdom earth and continues to the last chapter of Revelation where the second Adam, the Lamb is seated on earth’s throne. To adequately represent God as his image bearers, Adam and Eve are created moral beings. As humans multiply and develop the potential of their kingdom, the culture that emerges is to be shaped by the moral law of the High King written on their heart. But no sooner had God finished creating earth’s king and queen in Genesis 1 and 2 than another character enters the story. Satan succeeds at convincing Adam and Eve to join his rebellion. The moment earth’s king and queen eat the forbidden fruit, they align their kingdom with Satan, sin, and death. Now their kingdom, earth, is under the tyranny of these three powers.
But God so loves his image bearers and the kingdom he has created for them, that he himself invades human flesh and comes as a second Adam to overthrow Satan, sin, and death. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). Scripture had always taught that Israel’s military subjugation by other nations was a consequence of their sin. When the disciples expected the Messiah to overthrow Rome, Jesus’ response was, “My kingdom is not a military one. I did not come to overthrow Rome. I came to overthrow a much more sinister, destructive, wicked enemy, the triumvirate, Satan, sin, and death. My kingdom is a spiritual one that will spread over the earth. My resurrection proves the curse upon man and his kingdom for mankind’s rebellion is broken. I have triumphed over Satan at the cross and I am ascending to the right hand of God and will send the Holy Spirit to empower the spreading of my kingdom.”
The kingdom of God is used synonymously in Matthew 6:33 for the kingdom of righteousness. Jesus brings the kingdom of righteousness from heaven, where there is no sin, down to earth, which has been corrupted by the rule of Satan, sin, and death. Jesus actually explains what the term, kingdom of God means when he teaches us to pray, “Father, may your kingdom come—may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, "May the righteousness of heaven spread over the earth."
Much clarity about the meaning of the term kingdom of God comes from realizing (as Jesus’ disciples did not, at first) that Christ brings the kingdom of God to earth to restore Adam’s fallen kingdom, earth, into a kingdom of righteousness in two stages. Stage one, the defeat of Satan, sin, and death has ALREADY taken place at the cross and the proof is the bodily resurrection of Christ. The kingdom of Christ has been inaugurated. Satan sin and death have been defeated but NOT YET destroyed. Christ will return and set up his eternal kingdom of righteousness. The kingdom of Christ will be consummated.
1. Stage One: The Defeat of Satan, Sin and Death. The second Adam resists Satan’s temptation to sinfully turn stones into bread, while all alone, in a stark wilderness, at the point of starvation, in contrast to the first Adam, who ate the fruit in a lush garden, on a full stomach, with his wife next to him. Our Lord’s full obedience is accomplished as he surrenders to the Father’s will in going to the cross. Jesus’ miracles did more than just prove that he is God’s messenger. They prefigured this overthrow in casting out demons, teaching what true righteousness looked like in the Sermon on the Mount, overcoming the curse of the ground because of Adam’s sin in calming the storm, restoring broken bodies, and raising the dead. The ALREADY aspect of the kingdom is proved by verses like these:
- He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Col 2:15)
- Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1 Pet 3:22)
- If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (Matt 12:28).
2. Stage Two: The Final Return of Christ. Yet, Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness has NOT YET been fully realized and will not fully come until Jesus returns. Here are verses that point to the final consummation of Christ’s kingdom.
- Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:24-26).
- For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility… in hope (anticipation) that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:19-21).
- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more….He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new (Rev 21:1-5).
But we live in this in-between period. How are we to understand our times in view of the two stages of kingdom arrival? Theologian Oscar Cullmann explains the ALREADY/NOT YET aspects of the kingdom. Christ has accomplished a decisive victory at the cross much as the Allies did on the beaches of Normandy in World War II. Once they succeeded in the D-Day invasion, their victory was sure; it was only a matter of time until Victory Europe Day. The decisive battle in a war may already have occurred in a relatively early stage of the war, and yet the war still continues. Although the decisive effect of that battle is perhaps not recognized by all, it nevertheless means victory. But the war must still be carried on for an undefined time until ‘Victory Day.’ This is the situation of which the New Testament is conscious…that that event on the cross, together with the resurrection which followed, was the already concluded decisive battle.”
D-Day has happened. The decisive battle for Adam’s kingdom has already taken place at the cross. Jesus won! But the enemies remain to conduct guerilla warfare against Christ and his followers. Satan has been disarmed, but not destroyed. Slavery to sin has been broken for those who are in Christ, but not its reality in our hearts. Death's permanence has been vanquished giving us hope that will not disappoint but it still brings us heartbreak. How do we understand this in between period, between the ALREADY and the NOT YET in terms of discipleship? Discipleship is the restoration of Adam and Eve's original call to exercise dominion over the earth.
The great commission is not just a call to make personal disciples of Jesus who live in all the nations of the world. Jesus’ words are, “Make disciples of ALL NATIONS.” The great commission is the renewal of Adam and Eve’s cultural mandate, “Exercise dominion over your kingdom” (Gen 1:28). The coming of the kingdom of God brings restoration to earth. Jesus has begun to fix everything broken by sin and establish righteousness over the earth. The impact of Christ’s kingdom in the present age seems to be the focus of Jesus in several parables from Matt 13. He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened” (vs 31-33)
Kingdom Discipleship in the Current Age
1) Kingdom disciples DISPLAY his kingdom. Christ’s kingdom is the world we all long for—where there is love, harmony, world peace, and justice—where there is no toxic manhood or neighborhoods full of crime and drugs. The great calling of believers today is to point others to this kingdom and by God’s grace, give the world an appetizer of the restored life to come in Christ’s eternal kingdom. Today’s believers are the firstfruits of God’s recreation of man and his kingdom. The apostle John describes the church: “It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb…” (Rev 14:4). This high privilege is the reason for marinating our souls in the kingdom values Jesus taught, notably in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-49). Here are some inspiring examples of Christians being Christ to their communities.
In South Central Los Angeles FCM Baptist Church began training volunteers to work in the neonatal intensive care unit of the overburdened and underfunded Martin Luther King Hospital. After completing their training, these “Rock n’ Hold” volunteers began to spend hours in the hospital nursery, holding the twitching, afflicted babies who had been born addicted to the crack that their mothers consumed. Rocking and holding the babies, some of whom were born with AIDS, they love them, sing them lullabies, and show the hospital staff Jesus.
East Foursquare Church in Kirkland Washington started centering its small groups around joint skills that could be used for outreach--visiting a nursing home, forming a medical needs group, and building a team of mechanics to repair cars for needy families.
Tenth Presbyterian Church located in a part of downtown Philadelphia with numerous gay bars and homosexual meeting areas began running a two-line advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Homosexuals and Lesbians can change,” followed by a phone number to this outreach ministry arm, Harvest. Despite some crank calls, hundreds of people called Harvest, where they have received tender love, and real hope, some coming to faith in Christ. Kingdom disciples display Christ’s kingdom.
2) Kingdom disciples SPREAD his kingdom. We are called to take Christ’s kingdom geographically to the ends of the earth and spiritually to the very gates of hell. Just as the first Adam was called to be fruitful, multiply, and exercise dominion over earth for The High King, so the followers of the second Adam are called to go into the world exercising dominion for The High King—spreading Christ’s kingdom of righteousness. Jesus taught his disciples to seek first his kingdom (Mt 6:33), i.e., seek to bring about the redemptive reign of Christ in every sphere of life, because, as Abraham Kuyper has reminded us, there is not one square inch of planet earth over which King Jesus does not say “Mine.”
When the Fairfax County, VA County School Board proposed a study program called, “Family Life Education,” parents at McLean Presbyterian Church examined the curriculum. What they found was a serious undermining of family and moral values in what claimed to be a “value-free” curriculum. So MPC laypeople organized an information night at which members could be alerted, then helped organize parent groups to attend school board meetings. While they did not get the curriculum changed, Christian parents did wring some concessions from the school board. Praise God for Christians teaching in today’s public schools. But more Christ-followers are needed to support Christian teachers and speak up about what public schools are teaching in our communities. The ongoing battle to take the kingdom of Christ into the public schools needs all-hands-on-deck right now!
Taking the kingdom of Christ into prisons was the calling of Chuck Colson, after he completed his prison term. Prison Fellowship has had an enormous impact on prison conditions, prisoners themselves, and the recidivism rate, (the frequency of prisoners returning to crime). In the first twenty years alone, PF trained over forty thousand volunteers on how to communicate, care, and serve in prisons, and how to help inmates and their families take responsibility for their own lives through the power of the Holy Spirit and the help of the local church.
In Fullerton, CA, the kingdom invaded another world. Pastor Gary Richmond was talking to eight-year-old Brandy and her brother, Stephen. He said, “It’s really hard to go through a divorce, isn’t it, kids?”
“Man, it’s the pits!” responded Stephen right away. “I hated it.”
Brandy looked up, a bored expression on her face. “Oh, I didn’t think it was so bad,” she said. “You just get more moms and dads. No big deal.”
Stephen glared at his sister. “You’re lying to a pastor, Brandy!”
“Yes,” she said, “but I don’t like to talk about it….I just take the sad thoughts to my secret place and then I lock them up.”
What a thing for an eight-year-old child to say! Gary thought.
“Brandy,” he asked, “is your secret place getting full?”
“Yes,” she said, tears welling into her eyes.
“What happens when you can’t fit any more into it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She paused for a moment then said suddenly, “I don’t say the F-word anymore.”
Now what? Thought Gary. “What word is that?” he asked.
“F-a-m-i-l-y,” she said. I don’t say it because it hurts too much.
When Gary Richmond decided to take the kingdom of Christ into the hearts of kids affected by their parents' divorce he trained volunteers to help the kids learn a series of Bible verses to help strengthen and comfort them in times of need, as well as help the kids express their feelings and work through their emotions. They had fifty children respond to their very first effort!
3) Kingdom disciples draw upon Christ for kingdom power. The apostle Paul urgently prays that the church at Ephesus would grasp what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. The ascension of the second Adam to the right hand of the Father matters. The breaking of the backs of Satan, sin, and death, the reclaiming of Adam’s throne from them leads to the Holy Spirit being poured out. Kingdom disciples know therefore, that the spread of kingdom righteousness into their own heart attitudes comes only by abiding in Christ the Vine. Only Christ’s Spirit in us empowers spiritual fruit. And we know that the kingdom of Christ advances in this age primarily by prayer.
August 27, 1727, the Moravian Community of Christians in Herrnhut, Germany commenced a round-the-clock “prayer watch” that continued nonstop for over a hundred years. Twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted to spend one hour each day in scheduled prayer. Some others enlisted in the “hourly intercession. “For over a hundred years the members of the Moravian Church all shared in the ‘hourly intercession.’ At home and abroad, on land and sea, this prayer watch ascended unceasingly to the Lord,” stated historian A. J. Lewis. Here are the astounding historical events that followed.
- In the 1730’s and 1740’s the Great Awakening took place in America, having an immeasurable impact on the shaping of America.
- John Wesley, after two years of fruitless ministry in Georgia as an unconverted minister met a group of Moravians on the ship as he returned to England. In England he joined a Moravian group leading to his famous conversion, May 24, 1738, when he felt his "heart strangely warmed". He went on to immeasurable impact upon England as a circuit rider, founder of small group ministry, and founder of the Methodist church.
- In November 1734, Jonathan Edwards delivered a series of sermons on “Justification by Faith Alone.” The result was a great revival in Northampton and along the Connecticut River Valley in the winter and spring of 1734–35, during which period more than 300 made professions of faith in 18 months.
- In 1741, Englishman, George Whitefield traveled to North America, where he eventually traveled 5000 miles. Eventually he would preach over 18,000 times to ten million listeners in Great Britain and her colonies.
In Psalm 2, God the Father promises Jesus and his team of intercessors, “Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession” (vs 8). IF YOU WILL JUST ASK—YOU WILL BE AMAZED BY WHAT I DO!
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What is the most helpful thing you have ever learned about the term kingdom of God?
- Do you agree or disagree with the argument that Christians fail to understand what it means to seek first the kingdom of God because they don’t go back to Adam and Eve’s original creation as rulers of kingdom earth and calling to spread shape culture FOR the High King?
- How does understanding the ALREADY/NOT YET aspects of the kingdom help you understand it. What is still confusing to you?
- What examples of kingdom discipleship stood out most to you?
