Bulletin
The Kingdom
The Kingdom
Many people today waiting for the fulfillment of the promised kingdom. The problem is that they do not realize that it has already come as promised. “And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1). So that first century generation saw it come with power or it didn’t. If it didn’t, then Jesus lied about the kingdom. But obviously Jesus didn’t lie.
My wife and I had about a year long bible study with a lady one time who was looking for Jesus to return to earth and set up his earthly kingdom which would last 1000 years. She read everything through this view of premillennialism until she came to Matthew 13. I was trying to be as patient with her as possible, so we were reading through the gospel of Matthew together. I was waiting to see what would happen when we got to Matthew chapter 13. Here Jesus teaches his view of the nature of the coming kingdom. What did Jesus say the kingdom was like? What would he compare it to?
Jesus spoke the parable of the sower sowing on the 1) roadside 2) rocky places 3) thorns 4) good soil. The crowds didn’t get it. So Jesus said, “Jesus answered them, “ To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” (Matt. 13:11). I asked her after reading this together, is this the idea of the kingdom you have? She said “no” not in this sense. We read the next parable together, “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.” (Matt. 13:24-30). So after reading this parable of the wheat and tares, is this your view of the coming kingdom? Again, she said “No”, not in this sense. We finished all seven Parables of the kingdom in chapter 13. Again I repeated my overall question to her. “Your general view of Jesus returning to set up an earthly kingdom that would last 1000 years, does this fit what Jesus said the kingdom would be like? “No” she said, not like this.
Dear reader, do you see the kingdom like Jesus did, in his sense of the word “kingdom”? Paul agreed with Jesus when he wrote, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Therefore the church at Colossae were already in that kingdom that Jesus set up. You can be in that kingdom today! Obey Jesus as king. His church is the kingdom of God on earth. Dan Peters
- The_KingdomWORD.docx (9.12 kB)
