The Kingdom of God

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(Luke 17:20-21): Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."

This certainly required a new mindset for the Pharisees, and other than some notable exceptions (e.g., Paul) they never were able to bring themselves to change their way of thinking about the kingdom. Among the things we hope to establish are:

The kingdom of God is synonymous with the church that Jesus promised to build in Matthew 16:18,

This has never been and will never be a political kingdom,

Citizenship in this kingdom is attained by the prospect rendering obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and

The nature of this kingdom cannot be understood in terms of denominational practices.

When Did the Kingdom "Come?"

The word "come" is in quotes in the title for two reasons:

There is a sense in which there was a literal kingdom of God in Old Testament times, but clearly this is not the kingdom that both John the Baptist and Jesus stated was "at hand" -- Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7 - and

Since "the kingdom of God is within you" and does not come by observation, it would not be expected to "come" in a literal sense.

Just what did John the Baptist and Jesus mean when they said that the kingdom was "at hand?" It is clear that they were trying to give the impression that it would not be far off, certainly not several thousand years off. Jesus confirmed this when he stated (Luke 9:27): "But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God." This implies that they were not then seeing the kingdom of God, and that some event would occur shortly in which they would "see" it.

It is clear that the "coming" of the kingdom did not precede Jesus' death. After his death his disciples asked him if he was going to restore it, seemingly still expecting a physical kingdom (Acts 1:4-8). Jesus responded by telling them exactly when the kingdom would come: on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

It was at this time that Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim that (Acts 2:30-31) ³⁰..."God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne, ³¹ he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay." Thus, Jesus took the promised throne at the point of his resurrection. A throne implies a kingdom; if not it is a sham.

After Pentecost the kingdom is spoken of in the past tense as being in existence. Example (Col 1:13): "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son," and Christians are called "a holy nation" (1 Pet. 2:9). This spiritual kingdom fits Jesus' teaching perfectly -- a kingdom that does not come by observation but is within. It also maps perfectly to the church as to it membership (citizenry), ruler (king), and time of establishment (coming).

Have you ever heard it said?? ...

"... all you have to do is to call Jesus Lord" but Jesus said (Matthew 7:21):

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

Citizenship in God's kingdom is for those who do the will of God; all of His will to the best of one's ability. This does not merit salvation, since we can never justify ourselves by works and earn it (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is a gift of God. But God requires that we believe and seek after him (Heb. 11:6). It is God's will that this belief motivate us to turn from our sins in repentance (Luke 13:3). It is God's will that we continue to replace our sinful nature with a life of confession of Jesus as Lord of our lives (Mt. 10:32). It is the will of the Father that we be born again into his kingdom, as Jesus said ⁵"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."(John 3:5) We see that terms of entering the kingdom are identical to those of salvation -- identical to those for becoming part of the body of Christ (Rom. 6:3). Indeed, the word kingdom is used figuratively to demonstrate certain aspects of the church that can be described in no other way. Those who differentiate between the church and the kingdom do so with no biblical basis (Heb. 12:23,28).

 Adapted primarily from David Brown"s "Think on These Things"
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible).