Your Kingdom Come
Nathanael Szobody on The Kingdom of heaven is not primarily refered to as the future return of Christ but the present and active work of his word through his people.
In Matthew 13 Jesus tells many parables about the kingdom of heaven. In the parable of the sower the seed is called the “word of the kingdom.” In the parable of the weeds the man who sowed good seed is representative of the kingdom; in the parable of the mustard seed the seed itself is called the kingdom; in the parable of the pearl of great value the merchant who searches is said to be like the kingdom of heaven; in the parable of the net the kingdom is said to be like the net which gathers up. So we see that the kingdom is the work of the word that seeks out and saves.
in Revelation it is written “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
This kingdom is not something we only observe, cheer, pray about; it is us. We were made into this kingdom, because from creation God’s plan is to bring about his dominion and rule on earth through man. To pray for God’s kingom to come is very personal indeed.
However this kingdom is not ruled by bureaucracy and officials, but by the sacrifice of priests (in God’s kingdom there is no seperation of church and state!); “..and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and father.” The kingdom is characterized by sacrifice! (seems to be a reacurring theme.) Hebrews makes it clear that there are no longer any sacrifices of rams and bulls, for they were never efficacious in and of themselves but only through faith in the One to come. Rather there is only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the great High Priest who entered once and for all into the holy places to offer the only acceptable sacrifice of his very self.
Therefore if we are to be priests it can only be through that one sufficient sacrifice; as it is written, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by is blood and made us a kingdom, priests…” We are only priests through that blood, for the only way that we approach the throne of the king is because the high priest has gone before us (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Do we then have nothing to do as priests if the sacrifice has already been made? The sacrifice has truly been made, but that one sacrifice was made in order to restore man to his place of reflecting the image of God by continual sacrifice! Since the rule of God is characterized by the offering up of oneself for the sake of another; since that is our calling, then it was fitting that it be by that ultimate sacrifice that we are thus restored to his kingdom and empowered to pour out our lives once again. For in baptism we were united with this death in order to share in his life. The death and life are not contradictory, rather the greatest of paradoxes: the life is characterized, and in fact only exists, in the giving of it. And the greatest sacrifice of life in this sinful world results in death. It is therefore apropriate that before his crucifiction Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world–but it most certainly is in this world.
Therefore since we have been empowered to be priests and offer sacrifices, so we do offer them–sacrifices of our life for the praise and glory of God. As it is said in Romans 12:1, that our acceptable worship is the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices. This is the worship that is acceptable to God because is is the sacrifice of the Great High Priest dwelling in us. It is the sustenance of created life in this priestly kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy.
Comments ( 5 )
- How do you relate the Kingdom of Heaven with "The New Heaven and New Earth" - or rather with the Heaven that we look forwared to?
- How does the parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27) fit into this
- How does Jesus statements at the Lords Supper (Luke 22:14-19) fit in?
- Luke 22:28-30?
- Luke 23:42-43
It seems to me, at a casual glance, I certainly haven't put as much thought into as you have, that (especially if you are not only equating the Kingdom of God with it's growth hear and now but also with the future "Heaven") that there are far more versus that speak of the future Kingdom to come while at the same time recognizing that in some way, shape, or form, the Kingdom is currently here and "in the process" of comming.I was careful to use the word 'primarily'. Certainly Christ's kindom has been established, is being established and will be fully realized in his second coming with the creation of a new heavens and a new earth.
This can be better understood when we see the nature of God's rule. As said above, it is characterized by sacrifice. This sacrifice is not random or simply a sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice, but a pouring out of the self for the sustenance of created design--which is the definition of love.
Man's created design was to enjoy a present and continual communion with God within this context of sacrifice. Therefore God's kingdom is the realization of that loving presence with man through the sacrifice of his son; the living word; the seed which gives life.
So indeed this kingdom is already established on earth in that Christ has reconciled all of humanity to himself and those who are given faith in Christ are thus partakers of the kingdom. We also pray that his kingdom come because it is through us that the kingdom is continually being established on earth--and the whole point of the Lord's prayer is not to present petitions to God for his daddy-do list, but to continually establish a right relationship between himself and the saint who prays that prayer.
Now this presence is not fully realized because we remain in this sinful world with our sinful natures, but we look forward with hope, believing that one day God will create a new heavens and a new earth where we will enjoy full communion with him.
It is in the context of this future realization of what we already have in essence that the parable of the ten minas can be understood.
As for Jesus' statement at the Lord's supper, about not drinking of the fruit of the vine until his kingdom comes, there are two ways that I see of understanding it. First it may be contended that the kingdom was established when Jesus died and rose again offering. Therefore he was saying that this was the last time he would drink of the cup until his death.
The second interpretation is that he is refering to the final restoration of all things when we will be present with him. This makes sense as well, because presence with God is at times depicted as a feast.
Either way it is the cup of his presence, and the seriousness that he attaches to it in this statement is yet another reason to take his word's of institution seriously ("This is my body...this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood") and understand them to be indicative of a real presence at the table of the Lord's supper. It is a small feast in this established kingdom that looks forward to that eternal feast of his presence in the fully realized kingdom.
For your point 4 Jesus' statement can be taken either way as well. He says "I assign to you twelve thrones" speaking in the present tense. This could be refering to the apostles earhtly ministry of preaching the gospel to all peoples and declaring ('judging') all those who are a part of the true Israel, i.e. those who walk in the footsteps of the father Abraham, to be free from sin and death through Jesus Christ.
This could also be speaking of Christ's second return. But we are also told that Jesus will be the one to judge all peoples (Matt 3:12, II Cor 5:10), so it is hard for me to understand how this is consistent with what we are revealed concerning the end times. That is not to say that I reject that enterpretation, only that I do not understand it.
For 5, Jesus word's to the the thief on the cross are an assurance that he will indeed be present with him that very day, for God's kingdom is his life giving presence.
I maintain the point of this post; when God's kingdom is spoken of, though there are references to its future fulness as Christians we should primarily look to what it means for our current relationship with him now as we participate in that kingdom. See also Our Father Who Art in Heaven and Hallowed Be Your Name
Let me know what you think!
I can back that up with a loud AMEN! :-)
It was my misunderstanding of the original post "The Kingdom of heaven is not primarily refered to as the future return of Christ ", wherein I thought you were proposing that if one were to perform a word study on the phrase "Kingdom of Heaven", one would literally find more references to the here and now than references to the Kingdom comming.
But again, I certainly agree with your summary statement, and in light of it your opening statement rings much more soundly.
John3:16
That being said, I shuffled them into different categories based on my "gut feel" for whether it was literally referring to Current Transition, Future, or I just couldn't make pick.
The interesting thing I found was that according to the ESV, the "Kingdom of Heaven" is explicitely used in Matthew, and its use there fully supports your proposition! :-)
Kingdom of Heaven
Current Transition (18)
Matthew 3:2
Matthew 4:17
Matthew 10:7
Matthew 11:12
Matthew 13:11
Matthew 13:24
Matthew 13:31
Matthew 13:33
Matthew 13:44
Matthew 13:45
Matthew 13:47
Matthew 13:52
Matthew 18:1
Matthew 18:23
Matthew 20:1
Matthew 22:2
Matthew 23:13
Matthew 25:1
Future (11)
Matthew 5:19
Matthew 5:20
Matthew 7:21
Matthew 8:11
Matthew 11:11
Matthew 16:19
Matthew 18:3
Matthew 18:4
Matthew 19:12
Matthew 19:14
Matthew 19:23
Undetermined (2)
Matthew 5:3
Matthew 5:10
Kingdom of God
Current Transition (18)
Matthew 12:28
Matthew 21:43
Mark 1:15
Mark 4:26
Mark 4:30
Mark 9:1
Mark 10:24
Luke 9:27
Luke 9:62
Luke 10:9
Luke 10:11
Luke 11:20
Luke 13:18
Luke 13:20
Luke 17:21
Luke 21:31
Romans 14:17
I Corinthians 4:20
Future (40)
Matthew 6:33
Matthew 19:24
Matthew 21:31
Mark 4:11
Mark 9:47
Mark 10:14
Mark 10:15
Mark 10:23
Mark 10:25
Mark 12:34
Mark 14:25
Mark 15:43
Luke 9:2
Luke 9:11
Luke 9:60
Luke 13:28
Luke 13:29
Luke 14:15
Luke 17:20
Luke 18:17
Luke 18:24
Luke 18:25
Luke 18:29
Luke 19:11
Luke 22:16
Luke 22:18
Luke 23:51
John 3:3
John 3:5
Acts 1:3
Acts 14:22
Acts 19:8
Acts 28:23
Acts 28:31
I Corinthians 6:9
I Corinthians 6:10
I Corinthians 15:50
Galatians 5:21
Colossians 4:11
II Thessalonians 1:5
Undetermined (8)
Luke 4:43
Luke 6:20
Luke 7:28
Luke 8:1
Luke 8:10
Luke 16:16
Luke 18:16
Acts 8:12