The Gradual Kingdom

Some Christians believe that the kingdom of God is not for now but for a later time, and that when it comes, it will come suddenly. But the New Testament speaks of it in a very different way. Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). He was announcing the good news that the kingdom of God had now come into the world. And it has never left.

Now let’s take a look at the nature of the kingdom, whether it comes suddenly, as some people think, or gradually. In keeping with the way Jesus began His ministry, the parables He taught are mostly about the kingdom of God. The parables in Matthew 13 are explicitly about the kingdom, and in them we can see something of how it comes.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?”

He said to them, “An enemy has done this.”

The servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up?”

But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)

First, notice that the kingdom is likened to a seed that is sown. That is a very good indication that the kingdom of God comes gradually because that is the nature of a seed. No one sows a seed and expects it to sprout immediately into a full-grown plant. That happens over time.

Notice also that in this parable the man sowed seed and then he slept. The day passed into night and the man went to bed. “While he slept” his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. The presence of “while” indicates the passage of time.

Then, when the grain sprouted and the crop began to come up, the tares also appeared. This did not happen immediately but gradually, as is the manner of seeds. They do not suddenly shoot up as full-grown plants. They sprout and then they continue to develop. The problem here was that the tares were also sprouting. The servants came to the master and wanted to rip the tares out of the ground. But the master did not permit them to do that because he did not want the wheat to be damaged in the process.

Now look at what the master said: “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers” (v. 30). There is a process of growth and a period of waiting between the time the seed sprouts and the time of harvest comes. It is not all at once but happens gradually, over time. That is exactly how it is with the kingdom of God, because this is a parable that is explicitly about the kingdom.

Another brief parable follows in Matthew 13:31-32: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Here again, the kingdom is likened to a seed. Again notice that there is a process of growth, indicated by the words “when it is grown.” This shows the passage of time. Also, note that it “becomes” a tree. It is not sown as a tree but as a seed. However, as it grows, at some point it develops into the form of a tree, and one day becomes large enough to host the birds of the air. This is how it is with the kingdom of God. It began as a seed and has been gradually growing up into a tree that is large enough for the nations of the world to come and find a home.

A third, very brief parable follows, but this time the kingdom is likened to leaven. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened” (v. 33). Here again, we see that the kingdom comes gradually, just as leaven gradually works its way throughout the dough until the whole lump is completely leavened. This does not happen instantly but gradually.

In Mark 4, we find another “seed” parable about the kingdom: “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

The man sows the seed, but it does not immediately sprout into a plant ready for harvest. It is the season of sowing, not of reaping. Days and nights pass. The seed sprouts and then grows (the man does not know how it happens, he just sows the seed). Note the progression — first, the blade, then the head, then after that the full grain, then the grain ripens, and then it is ready for harvest. It all happens gradually, not all at once. That is what the kingdom of God is like. It does not come suddenly but gradually: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head, then the grain ripens and it is ready for harvest.

The kingdom of God has already been sown in the earth, and though we cannot say exactly where we are in the process, it is clear that we are not yet at harvest time — that will not come until the end of this present age when King Jesus returns. All we know is that we are living somewhere in between the season of sowing the kingdom and the season when it is fully ripened and ready for harvest. That is, we are in the season when the kingdom grows and increases. It happens gradually, not suddenly.

The seed has been sown and the kingdom has begun in the world, though it may not always seem that way to us. However, regardless of how things may appear to us at any given moment, the truth remains that it has already begun and continues to grow and increase, because that is what taught. What we observe in the world must eventually line up with the truth of the Word.

So, whatever we might read in the daily newspapers or see on CNN or Fox News, it does not at all disprove what Jesus taught in His parables. It does not mean that the “seed” of the kingdom has not yet been sown or that the “wheat” is not yet present and growing in the world. It only shows that harvest time has not yet come and that the tares are still growing along with the wheat.

A Kingdom Narrative of the Gospel

The Gospel According to Mark tells us that the Lord Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14). I believe there is only one gospel and that it is the announcement that the kingdom of God has come, and Jesus is the one God has anointed to be King. Someone asked me, then, how I would share the gospel of the kingdom of God with a 24-year old at a Starbucks.

In such a conversation, I might look for it to go somewhat along these lines: I would listen to whatever he has to say. Sooner or later, he will talk about how messed up things are. It will probably not take too long for him to get to that — he’s a 24-year-old. He is not thinking about the next life, he is thinking about how messed up this life is. That will most likely be the point of his greatest concern and lead to the point of his greatest need.

That’s when we can discuss the nature of the world, and I will point out that God did not create it for the mess that we see, but that God created the world, and us, to reflect His glory and goodness. That’s what Genesis 1 is about. In the beginning, God — who exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — created the heavens and the earth, and it was all good. Then He said, “Let Us make man in Our image and according to Our likeness … and let them have dominion over all the earth.” We were meant to bear the image of God, to be His “icon” in the world — to show off His goodness all over creation and bring all of creation into alignment with the splendor of heaven.

However, man rebelled against God and decided to do things his own way. He disconnected from the life and goodness and glory of God, and that’s when everything hit the fan. Even creation itself got messed up, because man had dominion over it and now man was messed up himself. It affected us all, which is why the Bible says that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

But God immediately had a plan to rescue mankind from this mess and restore creation. It began with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the book of Genesis. God created a nation from them, Israel, to bring forth this rescue into the world, to every nation and people. But even the nation God created got messed up. So God promised that He would raise up a King from out of this nation who would rescue it and all the other nations of the world. This is the Messiah, which means “Anointed One.” And this is what the Old Testament is about — God promised through His prophets that this Messiah would come and set everything right in the world. The Messiah would bring the kingdom of God into the world and would Himself be King.

This is where the New Testament begins, where the promise begins to be fulfilled. The Son of God, who created the world, came into the world. He became flesh and dwelt among us to get personal with us. His name is Jesus and He is the Messiah God promised, the one God anointed to be King.

Jesus came preaching the gospel, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come. Return to God and believe the good news.” He taught us about the kingdom. [This would be a good place to talk about the nature of the kingdom, for example, in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of Jesus, and the healing ministry of Jesus.]

Jesus said that whoever would trust in Him would enter into “eternal life,” which is the life of God’s kingdom both now and forever. And He said that if we seek this kingdom — the rule and reign of God to set everything right — and make it our priority in everything, everything else would be taken care of.

Now, Jesus was not unopposed in this. The enemy of God, who fooled man away in the first place, was desperate to stop God’s destiny for the world. Sometimes he is called “satan,” sometimes “the devil.” And there are a number of what the Bible calls “principalities and powers,” the demonic forces and influences that stand behind every oppressive regime, government and expression of evil in the world.

But they were no match for God and no match for His Messiah. The great conflict took place at the cross, where Jesus the Messiah not only dealt with our sin and our sinfulness, He disarmed the “principalities and powers.” Through His death, He broke the power of the one who has the power of death (that is, the devil). Three days later, God raised Messiah from the dead. He is called the “firstborn from the dead” and the “firstborn over all creation.” With the principalities and powers disarmed, and Messiah raised from the dead, new creation has begun, and all who belong to Messiah, through faith in Him, are part of that new creation. Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee that all who belong to Him will also be raised from the dead when He returns.

The kingdom of God has come to set things right in this broken world, and Jesus is the King. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs now to Him, and He sent His disciples out to tell the whole world, to teach all the nations all that Jesus taught them. But the world is still messed up in many ways because the kingdom is a work in progress. Jesus told parables about how the kingdom starts small and grows big. One day it will be here in all its fullness, when King Jesus returns. It has already begun but is not yet done, and we are living in between the times.

God’s purpose is to gather everything in heaven and on earth together as one and reconcile all things to Himself through King Jesus. And King Jesus is calling the whole world to become a part of His kingdom, to trust in Him and walk in His ways.

All Authority to the God-Man

Someone asked how Jesus could be “given” all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Did He not, as God, always possess that authority?

We need to remember that Jesus is fully human as well as fully divine. He is the God-man. In His divinity, He has always existed, without beginning or end, as the Son of God. But His human nature had a beginning in time and space. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1-2, 14).

Now notice, in Matthew 28:18, that Jesus said that all authority “has been given” to Him in heaven and on earth. This indicates that there was a time when that was not so. That is, as the God-man, He did not always possess all authority in heaven and earth. In His divinity, Yes, but in His humanity, No.

In Philippians 2, we see something else that was given to Him. Because of the cross, and through the resurrection, Jesus the Messiah has been “given” the “name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Paul is really saying the same thing here that Jesus said in Matthew 28:18. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him; the highest name has been given to Him, so that all in heaven and on earth must bow before Him and confess that He is Lord.

Notice also, that this is not authority yet to be given, or a name yet to be given. In both places, the word for “given” is in the aorist tense, signifying completed action, a done deal. All this fulfills a very important prophecy in Daniel 7:13-14:

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.

Here we see the prophetic significance of the phrase by which Jesus often referred to Himself, “the Son of Man.” It does not mean merely that Jesus is human, but it identifies Him as the divinely chosen man, who was to be given full authority over the earth. Compare this passage also with how the Lord’s Prayer ends: “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

So it is not simply as God that Jesus has been given these things. It is as the God-man, because of the great victory He won on the cross over sin and death and the principalities and powers, and by the vindication He received when God raised Him from the dead. Here is a breath-taking realization: The One who rules and reigns over heaven and earth is fully human as well as fully divine.

Carrying the Kingdom of God

As believers in King Jesus the Messiah, we bring the kingdom of God wherever we go and it addresses every part of life in every part of the world. The apostle John said, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). That is quite an amazing thing, especially when many Christians seem to think quite the opposite, that the darkness is getting darker and the true light is fading away. But in the overlap of the ages, the age of God’s kingdom breaking into this present evil age, it is this present age with all its darkness that is passing away and God’s kingdom with all its light that is continually increasing.

In Isaiah 9, the messianic prophecy of the Child that is born and the Son that is given, it says that “of the increase of His government and peace will be no end” (vv. 6-7). That Child has been born and that Son has been given. All authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and His government (His kingdom) will continue to increase until it fills the whole earth.

In recent days, we have seen the disturbances in Libya, Egypt and Syria. But because the kingdom of God has come into the world we have some powerful ways to address that. For one thing, in our worship when we proclaim that Jesus is Lord over all, we are not just doing our own little thing in our own little space. We are announcing the Lordship of Jesus in the heavenlies, including to the principalities and powers (the demonic influences behind all the political, religious, cultural and economic oppressions). Paul said that God is making His manifold wisdom known to the principalities and powers — through the Church! (Ephesians 3:10).

For another thing, we have the very powerful way King Jesus taught us to pray: Kingdom of God, come! Will of God, be done on earth as it is in heaven (my paraphrase). So in this present situation, for example, my prayer is, “Kingdom of God, come into Libya, Egypt and Syria. Will of God, be done in Libya, Egypt and Syria just it is being done in heaven.” Because Jesus is Lord and King over all those. They belong to is domain, His kingdom.

I also pray that the Father will give them a revelation of the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. I keep hearing reports about an amazing thing that has been happening in Muslim countries and communities. Many Muslims have been having dreams and visions of Jesus — they are clear that it is Jesus, not Mohammed, that they are seeing — and because of this they seek out Christians to learn more about Him. Many have come to know the Lord Jesus through way. On one of my other blogs, I have curated some links to what is happening with many Muslims, how they are coming to the Lord Jesus because of dreams and visions, healings and other miracles: Muslims Come to Jesus. I pray for the Lord to continue and increase that.

We also have the Holy Spirit, to bear the fruit of the Spirit and gifts of the Spirit wherever we go. This is a manifestation that God’s kingdom has truly begun and is now present in the world.

And we have the Great Commission. The Lord Jesus announced that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, and then He commissioned the disciples to go out into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them about Him and all that He taught (Matthew 28:18-20). In other words, to go out and announce that the kingdom of God has come and Jesus is the King of heaven and earth.

Within that discipleship, we bring the influence of God’s kingdom to bear in every aspect of life. Including government, religion, media, family education, business, arts and entertainment — these are the seven “mountains” of the Seven Mountain Strategy movement. The kingdom of God has something to say about all of these because it comes to redeem every part of life.

Seeing the kingdom of God at work in the world and participating with Him in that work is very exciting. I live now with great expectation of what God is going to do next. Not a dread that things will get darker and darker and that the true light will fade but a joyful anticipation of the darkness fading more and more as the light of King Jesus and His kingdom increases more and more on the earth. I’ve never been more passionate about the gospel than I am now.

The Sermon of the Kingdom

Someone asked about the Sermon on the Mount, whether it is for today. I call it “The Sermon of the Kingdom,” because it is the announcement that the kingdom of God has now come into the world. In Matthew 4, “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (v. 23). Then just a few verse later, beginning in Matthew 5 and on through to Matthew 7, we see what that preaching looked like.

It begins with the Beatitudes. This was not a new code of ethics that Jesus was offering. It was an announcement, the declaration of blessing because the kingdom of heaven had now come to earth. The beatitudes begin and end with express reference to the kingdom (Matthew 5:3, 10), and all in between are implicitly about the kingdom. These are not instructions about how one gets “saved” and enters into the kingdom. But they announce that, for all who have been looking and longing for the kingdom of God and the fulfillment of what God promised throughout the Old Testament, that kingdom has now come.

Then in a series of paradigms, Jesus teaches about what the coming of the kingdom means in relation to the Torah. He did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). What God required was not merely the external behavior that the law required, but something much deeper, concerning the heart. That was something the Law could never satisfy. That is why God promised, in Ezekiel 36, that He would come and gather Israel from among the nations and do an internal work in them:

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

This was a promise God made about the end time, the age of His kingdom in the earth. A new heart and a new spirit — God’s own Spirit — placed in them, enabling them to keep His laws and statutes from the heart. This is the righteousness that God requires, the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). It is the righteousness that comes from the heart — the new heart and new spirit that God gives, with the Spirit of God Himself enabling it.

This is why Paul, in Galatians 5:22-23, contrasts the fruit of the Spirit not only with the “works of the flesh” but also with the Law. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” The Law could never produce in us the fruit that the Holy Spirit can. The Holy Spirit, who is God at work in us to create the desire for His will and enabling us to do His good will (Philippians 2:13), brings forth in us the kind of fruit, the kind of righteousness God is looking for.

Now, don’t get me wrong here — every believer in the Lord Jesus is accounted as righteous because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. But the Holy Spirit works in us to manifest or reveal that righteousness in and through us.

So the Sermon on the Mount is very much about the kingdom of God, and the kingdom has now begun and is presently in the earth. We can see this because God has given every believer a new heart and His own Spirit to produce in us what the Law of Moses never could. The kingdom has already begun, though it is not yet complete, and will not be until King Jesus comes again. We live in between the time of the kingdom as it has already come and the kingdom as it has yet to come.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Already Begun, Not Yet Done

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15). Jesus was announcing that the kingdom of God, long ago promised in the Old Testament, had now come.

After the cross and the resurrection, and before He ascended to heaven to sit on His throne at the right hand of the Father, the place of ruling and reigning, Jesus declared to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus was announcing that He was now King over heaven and earth.

What happened in between was about how the kingdom came into the world and Jesus became the King. That is why the Gospels spend so much time on the kingdom of God (a.k.a. the “kingdom of heaven,” in Matthew). That is why Jesus spent so much time teaching about the kingdom of God and demonstrating it through healings and exorcisms and other miracles.

So the kingdom of God has begun in the earth. However, it has not yet arrived in all its fullness. That will not happen until King Jesus returns. We are living in between the times of its inauguration and its final fulfillment. Some refer to this reality as “already/not yet.” I call it, “Already begun, not yet done.” As the apostle John said, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). This present age has been invaded by the age of God’s kingdom and is already in the process of passing away. The age of God’s kingdom has already begun to shine, and its light continues to increase as more and more people turn to the Lord Jesus.

Phil the Jailer

Okay, so his name wasn’t really Phil. We don’t actually know what his name was, and though his story has often been told, he has always been referred to simply as The Philippian Jailer. But I like “Phil,” for short. Phil was likely a Roman soldier who retired to Philippi, a prominent Roman colony in Macedonia, and was made “keeper of the prison.” He was the warden. The jailer.

When Paul and Silas had been stripped and beaten for preaching about King Jesus the Messiah and for casting a demonic spirit out of a slave girl and destroying the profit potential for her masters, the magistrates threw them into prison, giving Phil strict orders to “keep them securely” (Acts 16:23). So Phil took them into the deepest part of the prison, where they were placed in stocks.

He went to sleep that night secure in the knowledge that his prisoners would have no chance of escape. But a little after midnight, he was awakened by a tremendous shaking. An earthquake (v. 26).

Phil dashed down to see what had happened (his house was probably joined next to the prison). When he got there he saw that all the doors had been shaken open and the chains busted loose. Surely all the prisoners had gotten away, including Paul and Silas. That would not just be a career ender — there would be severe penalties to follow. Severe. So, like a good Roman soldier, Phil thought to do the “honorable” thing, the least distasteful thing. He drew out his sword and was about to end his life with it (v. 27).

“Do yourself no harm,” a voice from the dark called out, “for we are all here” (v. 28). Phil called for a light, went in and saw Paul and Silas — his two most important prisoners. They did not run, after all. They did not even try.

Earlier that day, the slave girl with the python spirit had identified them as those who proclaimed “the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). Phil would have known of this since it was what got them thrown into his prison in the first place. And he most likely heard some of the things they were singing and preaching in their dungeon cell — the good news that Jesus the Messiah and the kingdom of God had come into the world. Now he connected the dots and realized that they had something he desperately wanted. So he went for it. He led them out of the dungeon and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (v. 30). It was a direct question, a “big picture” question: How do I get in on this King and this kingdom you’ve been announcing?

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and your household” they said (v. 31). A direct question deserves a direct answer. It would need some unpacking, of course, so Phil brought Paul and Silas into his house, where they spoke “the word of the Lord” to him and his whole household (v. 32).

What does it mean to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”? It is not merely giving intellectual assent to a proposition, it is a call to believe on a person. What does it mean to believe on this person? It means we are entrust ourselves to Him — all of who we are entrusted to all of who He is. Who, then, is this person to whom we are called to entrust ourselves? The Lord Jesus Christ — and every part of that reveals who He is.

• He is Lord. That is, He is God, the Son. He has been “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:4 NASB).
• He is Savior. The name “Jesus” literally means “Savior.” That is why the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph, concerning Mary, “She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
• He is God’s Anointed King. “Christ” is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Both literally mean “Anointed.” We see the significance of this in Psalm 2, where God speaks of His Son as the one He has anointed to be King over Israel and all the nations.

To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then, is to entrust ourselves to Him as God and Savior and King. The promise for this is that “you will be saved.” King Jesus the Messiah came into the world to deliver His people, Israel, reconcile us all to the Father and put things right in the world. We enter into that by receiving Him, entrusting ourselves to Him.

“You will be saved,” they said, “and your household.” This promise of salvation is not just for some elite group or certain kinds of people. It is offered to everyone — Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, slave or free, old or young. So there they were, Paul and Silas, telling everyone in the Jailer household about King Jesus.

Then Phil took them out by the water, where he washed all their wounds from the beating they had received the day before. That must have got them talking about baptism because the next thing that happened was that Paul and Silas baptized Phil and his family in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (v. 33). Phil brought them into his home and gave them some food, “and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household” (v. 34).

Phil rejoiced. The Greek word is agalliao, which literally means to “jump for joy.” Hours earlier, he was ready to kill himself, but now he was full of joy — wild, exuberant joy. As we go on to study Paul’s letter to the Jesus believers at Philippi, we will see that joy is a common theme. With Jesus, there is always joy.

So Phil the Jailer and his household joined Lydia the Seller of Purple and her household, and possibly several prisoners and the slave girl who was delivered from a demonic spirit, to become the first fellowship of King Jesus followers at Philippi and in Macedonia.

Focus Questions

1. Paul added, “and your household.” He did not do that with Lydia, though her whole household came to the Lord. So why did he add it here?
2. At what point in this progression of events do you think Phil began to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
3. How do you suppose Phil’s life changed after this? In his home? In his work? In his city?

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Size Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

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Gospel and Kingdom Fulfillment

The more I read the Bible, the more I see what a rich tapestry it is, intricately woven together into a grand design from beginning to end. I see this in the Gospel According to Luke, even from the very first verse, where Luke lays out his purpose. “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us …” (Luke 1:1). It is there in the word “fulfilled.” What he writes is about fulfillment. It is an indication that what we have here is not a brand new story but the continuation, leading to completion, of an old, old story, one that God began with the creation of the heavens and the earth. What is fulfilled is the trajectory of that story, and all the promises God made concerning the Messiah who would come to rule and reign and set everything right in the world.

• We find this echoed when the angel of the Lord comes to the aged Zechariah and announces that he and his wife Elizabeth (also old, and barren) would have a son. This son (John the Baptist) would turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, that he would, in the words of Malachi, “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children” (Luke 1:16-17, quoting Malachi 4:6).
• We see it again when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would bring forth a Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and His name would be Jesus (which means “Yahweh saves”). He would sit on the throne of King David, to whom He was heir. “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33).
• We hear it in the song Mary sang, magnifying the Lord because He had now come to rescue His people and set things right in the world, in fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham and the fathers of Israel” (Luke 1:46-56).
• We hear it again in the song Zechariah sang over his newborn son, John, about how the Lord had remembered His covenant promises to Abraham and the fathers of Israel (Luke 1:68-79).
• We hear it in the song the angels sang when they announced the good news to the shepherds, about the birth of the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord, in the city of King David. The time of God’s messianic peace was at hand (Luke 2:10-14).
• We hear it once more in the song Simeon sang as he held the infant Jesus in his arms. His eyes were now beholding the salvation which God had prepared for all peoples. God’s promise was beginning to be fulfilled, right before his eyes (Luke 2:29-35).
• We see it in Anna, a prophetess who was standing nearby at the time. She had long been looking for “redemption in Jerusalem,” and now here He was in their midst (Luke 2:36-38).
• We see it again in the witness of John the Baptist, who came in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD” (Luke 3:4-6, quoting from Isaiah 40). This Messiah, soon to come, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and also with fire (Luke 3:16-17). He would gather in the “wheat” (the just) and burn the “chaff” (the wicked). All this in fulfillment of major prophetic themes and promises in the Old Testament.
• We see it when Jesus was baptized of John (Luke 3:21-22). The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and the voice of the Father said, “You are My beloved son; in You I am well pleased.” This echoes the messianic passage in Isaiah 42:1, “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him.”
• We read it in the genealogy Luke gives, where he traces the lineage of Jesus all the way back through King David, all the way back through Abraham, all the way back to Adam, and from Adam to God (Luke 3:23-38).
• We see it when, after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tested by the devil. “If You are the Son of God …” came the taunts, and the offer of all the kingdoms of the world — on the devil’s terms. But Jesus the Messiah would fulfill God’s promise only in God’s way (Luke 4:1-13).

This brings us to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He returned from the wilderness “in the power of the Spirit” and began preaching in the synagogues of Galilee and the surrounding regions (Luke 4:14). Mark’s account puts it this way: After the temptation in the wilderness, John was put in prison, and “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:14-15). Matthew’s account shows Jesus, after the temptation, coming to Galilee with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). A fuller explanation is given in Matthew 5, in what we call the Sermon on the Mount (I like to call it The Sermon of Heaven on Earth, which is what the kingdom of God is about). It begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

Luke, however, chose to use a different moment to highlight Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom. After the temptation, when Jesus began preaching in Galilee and the regions, He came to Nazareth, his home town. On the Sabbath day, He went into the synagogue, where He was invited to give a Scripture lesson. They handed Him the scroll of Isaiah, which He opened up to the portion we know as Isaiah 61 (there were no chapter and verse divisions in those days):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

(Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)

It was a passage about the messianic age and the one anointed with the Spirit of God. It was about good news for the poor, healing the broken, freeing the captive and oppressed. It was about the time of God’s favor, of God’s kingdom coming into the world, with God’s anointed King establishing righteousness (that is, setting everything right).

Jesus closed the scroll, handed it to the attendant and sat down — the sign that He was about to give the lesson. All eyes were on Him as He began to teach:

Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

This was a stunning announcement, and from one of their own, the son of Joseph the carpenter. Jesus knew that many of them would not be willing to accept it, because it did not come in the way and the form they wanted. But He also knew that, though many in Israel would reject it, many Gentiles would gladly welcome it. And that morning, He told the congregation as much. This infuriated them and they wanted to throw him over the cliff — literally.

But He somehow passed through their midst unscathed, and He went to other towns to preach the message. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43).

There is fulfillment all the way through. But we will stop here for now.

Dynamics of the Kingdom of God

Christians often speak of the kingdom of God as something that we bring in or advance in the world. But the New Testament uses different language to speak of the dynamics of the kingdom. First, it is God’s kingdom. It comes from and belongs to Him. It comes into the world as a matter of God’s grace and the initiative is always His. Our part is to respond to it in faith. Let’s examine some of the dynamics.

• The kingdom of God has come. Mark tells us that Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). In saying, “The time is fulfilled,” He was announcing that the wait was over. “The kingdom of God is at hand,” means that it has now come into the world. The proper response is to turn to God and believe the good news about His kingdom, and God’s Anointed King, Jesus.
• We seek the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Greek word for “seek” does not speak of a casual activity but of an intense and focused one. The kingdom of God has come and we are to make it our priority in everything. In one of His parables, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46). Seeking the kingdom of God is about our purpose and priority.
• The kingdom of God is anticipated yet unexpected. Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). The idea of the Greek word phthano is that what was previously anticipated has now come. Ironically, though, for those who are unprepared for it, the kingdom comes suddenly and unexpectedly. So the J. B. Phillips translation puts it this way: “But if I am expelling devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has swept over you unawares!” On the other hand, there are some who, though they do not expect the kingdom, are ready to receive it. In another of His parables, Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). The man was not looking for it, but coming upon it, he recognized its value and gave everything for it.
• The kingdom of God is given to us. Jesus said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). It is an inheritance we receive from the Father. When Jesus returns to judge the nations, He will say to those at His right hand, who received His brothers and sisters and the message of the gospel, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
• We receive the kingdom of God. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). The Greek word for “receiving” is paralambano, from para, what is near, and lambano, to take hold. Receiving the kingdom means taking it unto ourselves. It is not passive but active. The kingdom is given to us, but we respond to it by taking hold of it.
• The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12 NIV). There is a parallel passage in Luke: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached [Greek, euaggelizo, ‘gospeled’], and everyone is pressing into it” (Luke 16:16). The kingdom of God continues to press into the world, and those ready to receive the good news about it are pressing into it.
• We proclaim the kingdom. The end of the book of Acts finds Paul under house arrest in Rome, but still continuing his ministry there. “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31). The word for “preach” here means to announce or proclaim. In the Great Commission, Jesus announced that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. Then He sent out His disciples to announce the good news to all the world and make disciples of all nations.

The kingdom of God has come into the world because of God’s grace and initiative. It is His kingdom but is given to us as an inheritance. The nature of the kingdom is that it starts small, like a seed, but increases until it pervades everything. Our part is to believe the good news of the kingdom and turn to the King, to take hold of the kingdom, seek the rule and reign of God in everything and proclaim it wherever we go.

Defining the Gospel of the Kingdom

Someone asked me what “the gospel of the kingdom of God” is. Here is a brief answer.

To see what the gospel of the kingdom of God is, let’s look where the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus came preaching it (Mark 1:14). We find it in the very next verse, where Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The promises of God and the expectations of the prophets in the Old Testament were all about the coming age of God’s kingdom. When Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled,” He was announcing that the wait is over. When He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” He was saying that it was now coming into the world.

The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God. It is the will of God being done earth as it is in heaven, just as Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:10). Jesus preached and taught about the kingdom, what it is about, what it looks like, and He even manifested the kingdom itself through healing diseases, expelling demons and through the other miracles He performed — they revealed the power of God and the kingdom of God.

The end result of the kingdom will be that all things in heaven and on earth will be gathered together into one in Jesus, God’s anointed King (Ephesians 1:10). And all things in heaven and on earth will be reconciled to God by King Jesus, having made peace through the blood of the Cross (Colossians 1:20).

We are not yet at that point, and the kingdom has not yet come in all its fullness. That will not happen until King Jesus returns. But it has already begun. We are presently living in between the times of the beginning of the kingdom and its complete fulfillment. As the apostle John said, “The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

Now, within the good news of the kingdom of God, God has provided a plan of salvation by which we can enter into the kingdom and have eternal life (which is the life of the age to come, that is, the life of the kingdom of God). We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, God's Anointed King. We enter into the kingdom of God by being “born again” through faith in King Jesus (John 3:3). But the plan of salvation is only part of the gospel. The gospel is bigger than whether you and I go to heaven when we die, it is as big as the kingdom of God. Eternal life is not just about the age to come, it is about this life as well, because the age to come, the age of God's kingdom, has already broken through into this present age.

The Priority of His Presence

Therefore do not worry, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear … But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:31, 33)

Jesus spoke these words in His “Sermon on the Mount” (which I like to call “The Sermon of Heaven on Earth”). But they are reminiscent of the words spoken by Haggai the prophet to the governmental and religious leaders of Judah. Judah was the southern portion of the divided kingdom of Israel. After years of exile in Babylonian captivity, they were finally allowed to return to their homeland (though still under foreign rule).

Work on the restoration of the temple at Jerusalem began, but then stalled for about 15 years because of Persian politics. In that time, the Jews apparently were content to do without it. They had their lives to lead and personal concerns to attend to. They had gotten used to the way things were under the Babylonian system, thinking the way the Gentiles think. And the house of the LORD went neglected.

But the temple of God was never about a building, it was about a presence — the Presence. It was God’s dwelling place among His people, His home on earth. It was the place they knew they could always find Him. To be content without the temple was to be content without the presence of God in their lives.
So God spoke to His people by Haggai the prophet: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4). He challenged them to take a good long look at themselves and the shape they were in: “Consider your ways.”

You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.

(Haggai 1:6)

In neglecting God, they were ignoring the source of their provision and prosperity, their sustenance and security. God challenged them again to take a hard look at themselves and then to do something about it. “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified” (vv. 7-8).

This was on the first day of the sixth month. By the twenty-fourth day of the month, work on the house of the LORD resumed. Three months later, the word of the LORD came to them again:

Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid — consider it: Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you. (Haggai 2:18-19)

This was not the day things began to change for them — that happened three months earlier, when they decided to make the glory of God their priority. But this was the day the change was confirmed and began to manifest: “From this day I will bless you.”

On this same day, God spoke once more, this time with powerful prophetic force that signaled the time of full and final deliverance for His people.

I will shake heaven and earth.
I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms;
I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.
I will overthrow the chariots
And those who ride in them;
The horses and their riders shall come down.

(Haggai 2:21-22)

By the time of Jesus, they were still waiting for this prophecy to be fulfilled, for the kingdom of God to be established on the earth. It is hard for me to imagine that Jesus did not have the word of the LORD through Haggai in mind when He spoke these words in His sermon on the mount:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:25-33)

The way of the world is to worry about how we will eat, what we will wear, where we will live. It is the mindset of Babylonian captivity. It is a system that is passing away because the kingdom of God has come into the world, in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy.

Our job now is to seek His kingdom (that is, His rule and reign) and His righteousness (that is, His way of doing and setting things right) — the priority of His presence and glory in everything we do. When that becomes our focus we will not have to worry about anything else; God will take care of us. Keep your eyes on King Jesus and follow Him.

The Life of the Age to Come

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. (John 6:47)

Jesus says that those who believe in Him have everlasting, or eternal, life. Eternal life is not just about quantity of life, it’s about the quality of that life. That is, eternal life is not just life that lasts a really, really long time (eternity, in fact). It is the life of the age to come. That is it’s quality — it is not the life that comes from the present age (which is passing away) but the life of the coming one.

The Greek has it as zoen aionion. Zoe speaks of life. Aionion comes from aion, which speaks of an age (like eon). Eternal life is the life that is of the age. Which age? The age to come, which is the age of God’s kingdom, the Messianic age, the age of the resurrection.

In the Gospels, the life of the age to come is associated with the kingdom of God. For example, in Mark 9, Jesus speaks of entering life (verses 43 and 45). In the same section and under the same paradigm, He speaks of entering the kingdom of God (verse 47). In context, it is clear that both phrases refer to the same thing.

In Mark 10, we have the story of the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (v. 17). Jesus dealt with the young man, telling him, “Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (v. 21). The young man went away in sorrow, because he had many possessions and was unwilling to give them up. Jesus then said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” (v. 23). He said the same basic thing again in verse 24 and once more in verse 25. All three times, He spoke of it as the “kingdom of God. The rich young man asked about eternal life; Jesus answered his question, but in terms of the kingdom of God.

The disciples were stunned by this, and Peter started in, “See, we have left all and followed You” (v. 28). Jesus cut him short and said,

Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.

Eternal life — just what the rich young man came seeking. It is the life of the age to come, the life of the kingdom of God.

In John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). And again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). Being born again speaks of a new life, indeed, of a new quality of life. It has to do with the kingdom of God, and with the Spirit of God. When we come down to verse 15, Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” (a Messianic reference) and of how He must be “lifted up” (a reference to the cross), “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then in verse 16, we have that famous passage: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (“Eternal life” and “everlasting life” are the same words in the Greek.) Again we see that eternal life is the life of the kingdom of God.

Though it is the life of the age to come, it is the present possession of all who belong to King Jesus the Messiah. Notice that in John 6:47, Jesus says that whoever believes in Him has (present tense) eternal life. It has already begun because the kingdom of God has come into the world. Jesus announced it at the beginning of His ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus is Himself the king — that is the significance of the His, Messiah (literally, “Anointed One”). It means that Jesus is the one God has anointed to be king over His kingdom.

The kingdom of God has come into the world and has been growing ever since. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12, NIV). The apostle John wrote, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

We live between the times — the time of God’s kingdom coming into the world (through Jesus the Messiah) and the time it will be revealed in all its fullness (when King Jesus comes again). We enter into that kingdom by the new birth, being “born again” by the Spirit of God, through faith in King Jesus. This is eternal life, the life of God’s kingdom age, the age to come which has already begun for us in King Jesus.

Transformed by the Image of the Son

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

This has always been God’s plan for those who belong to Him, that we be conformed to the image of His Son. To be “conformed” means to have the same form as something, to be just like it. What we are conformed to here is the “image” of Jesus.

The use of “image” is very significant, especially in regard to God’s plan from the beginning. The Greek word is eikon. In English, we spell it as icon. An icon is a representative image. Click on an icon on your computer screen, for example, and you bring up the program that is represented by it. The icon and the thing it represents go together. Indeed, the icon derives its meaning from the thing it represents.

Now think back to what God did in the beginning, when He created the heavens and the earth. After He made everything else and saw that it was good, He said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). In the Septuagint, the earliest translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek, the word used for “image” is eikon. Man was created to be the icon of God, to be like Him and represent Him on the earth. That is why, according to the rest of this verse, God gave man dominion: “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” We were all created as icons and meant to have dominion, to be kings and queens who reflect the glory of God on earth.

Of course, we know that Adam blew it all when he rebelled against God, and that affected not only us but all of creation. But that is why Jesus came, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image [eikon] of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). He is God become flesh and is the perfect representative of the Father on earth. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

So when Paul speaks of God’s plan to conform us to the image of the Son, Jesus, it is all about restoring us to the purpose God originally had for us at creation — to be His image, to be like Him and represent Him over all the earth.

When does this happen? I believe it has already happened for those are born again, born from above by the Spirit of God, through faith in Jesus the Messiah. We received a new identity as “sons of God” (John 1:12). We received the Holy Spirit dwelling within us — Jesus Himself dwelling in us by His Spirit (Romans 8:9-10). We became part of the new creation, and the old thing that we were passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). In this new identity, this new life, this new creation, we are now conformed to the image of Jesus, the Son of God.

That is what we really and truly are inwardly. But there is a tension between that and what we are outwardly. The apostle John recognized this tension when he said, “Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). When Jesus comes again, we shall see Him as He is, and we shall also see ourselves as we truly are in Him — we shall see that we are like Him.

Paul also recognizes this same tension between what we are inwardly and what we outwardly. In Romans 12:2, he says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). If we let the world around us press us into its mold and shape us according to its own fallen image, our lives will not accurately reflect the new life and identity we have in Jesus.

What we need is to be transformed, changed from the inside out so that what we are outwardly matches up with what we are inwardly. This transformation is a process. That is, it happens over time. It is not something we can do ourselves. It is something He must do. It happens by the renewing of our minds, but even this is the work of God. Our part is simply to yield to Him and let Him transform us, letting Him renew our thoughts and our ways by His thoughts and His ways. The more we allow Him to work in us in this way, the more our outward lives will reflect who we really are inwardly in Jesus the Messiah. (See also Not Conformed — Transformed and Exploring the Mind of God.)

The Promised Kingdom

Nicodemus came to Jesus and recognized Him as “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2). Jesus spoke to him about the gospel of the kingdom of God. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God, His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. God had long promised His people, Israel, that He would anoint a King would come and rule over Israel and the nations. Jesus recognized Nicodemus as a “teacher of Israel” (v. 11), and as such, Nicodemus would have been aware of the various prophesies of the kingdom, such as the following, from Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed.

(Psalm 1:1-2)

Yahweh’s Anointed is the Messiah (“Messiah” means Anointed One; in Greek, it is Christos). God says of Him, “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion” (v. 6). This is the Son, to whom God says,

You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession. (vv. 7-8)

The one God calls “My Son” is the Messiah, the one anointed to be King. Not just king over Israel, but over all the nations of the earth. The prophecies about Messiah are about the kingdom of God inhabiting all the earth. Isaiah spoke of a coming messianic king and a kingdom of ever increasing dominion and endless peace.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7)

This is the gospel God promised would be announced. Isaiah tells of those who would bring the good news, and also what the content of that good news would be:

How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation*,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”

(Isaiah 52:7)

The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, uses the word for “evangelize,” to gospel or to preach the gospel, twice in this verse. It is a proclamation of peace and salvation, and the content is about the kingdom. It is the declaration, “Your God reigns!” (*The Hebrew word for “salvation” here is yeshuah, which as a name is Yeshua, the name of Jesus in Hebrew.)

Daniel also prophesies of the promised kingdom and the “Son of Man” (which is how Jesus often referred to Himself), to whom would be given everlasting dominion over all the nations of the world.

I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

(Daniel 7:13-14)

Jesus not only announced, from the beginning of His ministry and throughout, that the kingdom of God was at hand. At the end of His ministry, He declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). The promised kingdom, the rule and reign of God on earth, had begun.

Nicodemus would have known about the promised kingdom, though he did not recognize that he was in the presence of the King. The question he would ask, however, was not about the kingdom. What perplexed him was why Jesus would be talking to him about being “born again.” There is another important prophesy about the kingdom that he apparently had not understood. We will look at that in the next post.

Taking Hold of the King

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. (John 16:15)

Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. (John 6:21)

Two different groups. Two different responses to Jesus. The first group tried to “take Him by force” — they wanted to make Him king, but they tried to do it by force. The second group “willingly received Him.”

The first group was from among those who had just been fed by the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes. Afterwards they watched the disciples gather up the leftovers, twelve baskets full of scraps from what had originally been five barley loaves. “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world,” they said (v. 14), a reference to a prophecy from Moses about the Messiah who would come and rule over Israel.

These men were tired of the Roman oppression that had plagued Israel and were ready to do something about it. When they witnessed the miracle of bread Jesus performed in the wilderness — think Moses and the manna in the wilderness — they intended to “take Him by force.” The Greek word, harpazo, means to seize violently. They wanted to press Him into their political agenda, to use Him for their own plans. Jesus, however, perceived what they were about and would not allow Himself to be squeezed into their purposes.

The second group was the disciples. When Jesus went up into the mountain, the disciples went down to the sea where they got into a boat and set out toward Capernaum. It was now evening and Jesus had not yet come down. As the darkness fell, a strong wind came and the sea rose up. They had had been rowing hard for about three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the water, heading toward the boat. They were fearful, but Jesus comforted them, saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they “willingly received” Him into the boat.

The Greek word for “receive” is lambano. It means to “take hold,” not seize violently or take by force, but as something that has been offered. Jesus had come and made Himself known to them. He offered them His presence. They gladly embraced this opportunity and took hold of Him, welcoming Him into the boat.

Now let’s compare the two groups. The first one wanted a kingdom. Jesus came announcing the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). And indeed, Jesus came too be king. But the first group wanted to make Jesus and the kingdom all about themselves, their agenda, their timetable. They wanted it when and where and however it suited their own concerns. They would take Jesus by force, if necessary, to make Him be the king. But that was not a decision for them to make, and Jesus would not be their puppet.

The second group, the disciples, also wanted to see the kingdom. They, too, had witnessed the miracle of bread in the wilderness — they had been a part of it! They saw Jesus up close. They loved Him, followed Him, did whatever He told them. They did not try to force Jesus into anything. They understood that the kingdom, whatever it was, would be about Him and would be worth everything they had. They might have been reluctant to leave Him behind at nightfall and were certainly afraid when they saw His shadowy figure walking toward them on the water, but they were very glad when He identified Himself to them and they received Him into the boat.

The difference, then, is this: The first group wanted the kingdom; the second group, the disciples, wanted the King. It is the difference between taking hold by faith and trying to take hold by force. King Jesus will always respond to faith.

We are Receiving a Kingdom

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Hebrews 12:28)

Jesus came into the world preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15), and He said that it is the Father’s desire to give us the kingdom. The author of Hebrews says that we are receiving that kingdom.

Note the tense. It is not “we have received,” as if it has fully arrived and we have taken complete possession of it, nor is it, “we will receive,” as if it is all and only in the future. But it is “are receiving,” and that speaks of something that has already begun, is now in progress and will one day be complete.

It pleases God to give us His kingdom. That must have something to do with faith, since without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). We receive this kingdom by faith, that is, by believing what God has said and living by it. As we do, it will begin to manifest more and more in our lives and in the world. The author of Hebrews, in his context, shows us something of what this kingdom means:

You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels in festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to God who is the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to Jesus (mediator of a new covenant), and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24 HCSB)

• We have come to Mount Zion. This is where God has chosen to dwell and manifest His presence among His people.
• We have come to the city of the living God. This is the city Abraham was seeking, the city “which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Now we have come to that city and Paul reminds us, “You are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).
• We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem speaks of a higher realm. In the Jewish mind, this represented the expectation of a future age. Now we have come to that city and the reality of heaven is already breaking into the world.
• We have come to myriads of angels in festive gathering. The angels of God are now gathered together in a joyful convocation, a festival of praise because God has done what He promised, King Jesus has come into the world to redeem humanity and creation, and has ascended to the throne of God.
• We have come to the assembly of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. “Firstborn” shows that we have a Father, God, and that He has an inheritance for us, which is His kingdom. It is not just for us individually, but together as an assembly, a community of faith. Our names are written together on the citizen rolls of heaven. Paul says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”: (Ephesians 2:19). “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
• We have come to God who is the judge of all. “Judge” speaks of God’s sovereign rule and authority over all. He is the one who sets all things right in the world and that is what His kingdom is about.
• We have come to the spirits of righteous people made perfect. This speaks of our communion together, a connection stronger than death, even with those who have gone before us and no longer walk this planet. While we are still in the process of reckoning ourselves dead to sin but alive to God (Romans 6:11), they have been made thoroughly and completely perfect in Jesus the Messiah. “Perfected at last!” is the sense of the text.
• We have come to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant. Jesus is the reason for how we have come to all these things. All the blessing of the kingdom is summed up in the new covenant, of which He is the mediator.
• We have come to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel. This is the heart of the covenant: the shedding of blood, demonstrating the surety of the promise. In the new covenant Jesus mediates for us with the Father, Jesus is the sacrifice — He gives us Himself. This covenant, and the blood by which in which it was cut, speaks incomparable things for us, more than any other blood ever could. The blood of Abel cried out for revenge, but the blood of Jesus speaks of the redemption and restoration of humanity and all creation.

Regardless of what is happening in the world, the kingdom of God, which we are now receiving, cannot be shaken. Rather, it is already breaking into this present age to shake the world, as God sets things right in and through those who believe Him and receive King Jesus by grace through faith.

It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us His kingdom, and those who receive the king receive the kingdom.

A Kingdom that Starts Small and Finishes Big

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13:31-33)

In these two parables, Jesus teaches us about the dynamics of the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. In the first one, we see how the mustard seed, though it is very small, becomes a plant large enough to be a tree. In the second, we see how a tiny bit of leaven works through a large batch of dough (about half a bushel or more, as much as a woman could knead by herself).

The kingdom of Heaven on Earth starts small and finishes big. That was a surprising twist on Jewish expectations. They knew the kingdom would be large and glorious, and they expected that it would burst onto the scene in a great display of political power. What they were not expecting was a seed. But in Zechariah, the LORD tells us that the things of God do not come about by human power or might, but by His Spirit (4:6). Then He teaches us to not despise the day of “small things” (4:10).

The kingdom of Heaven on Earth operates by the power of the Spirit, which is not bound by physical limitations, so size is inconsequential. Even a tiny seed, when it is in the hand of the Lord, becomes a very powerful thing. In Luke 17:21, Jesus tells us that the kingdom is within, inside of us. How big can that be? Well, consider how much power is packed inside the atom. Though it is microscopically small on the outside, there is an amazing release of energy when it is split. You might say it is bigger on the inside than on the outside, if you were going just by appearances.

It is the same way with us. We are bigger on the inside that we are on the outside, because the kingdom of God is within — and that is enough to change the world. Paul says that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think, but he adds that it is according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). What power is that? His power, the power of His Spirit, the power of the kingdom within.

The kingdom of Heaven on Earth has already begun, and has been growing and expanding ever since. As it permeates, its influence is being felt all over the world. It has not yet risen in all its fullness, but it is always forcefully advancing, and will continue to do so until King Jesus returns. Then it will shine in all His glory.

The kingdom of Heaven on Earth starts as a small seed but becomes big enough to change your life and transform the world.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Finding All Things

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

Peace, prosperity, healing, success, significance, fulfillment of purpose, well-being, happiness, the meeting of all needs. These things are not found by looking for them; they are found when you cease searching for them and begin seeking the one thing that really matters — the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When you turn your heart toward that, everything else will be taken care of.

Here is how a few other translations put it:

But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition. (Bible in Basic English)

But make His Kingdom and righteousness your chief aim, and then these things shall all be given you in addition. (Weymouth’s New Testament)

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (The Message)

Set your heart on His kingdom and His goodness, and all these things will come to you as a matter of course. (Phillips New Testament in Modern English)

But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. (The Amplified Bible)

The kingdom of God is His rule and reign. The righteousness of God is His rightness — the way God does things, which is always appropriate and just and good. The world was created to operate according to the rule and reign of God and His righteousness, and when we line ourselves up with that, we are positioned to experience and enjoy all the blessing that naturally flows from it.

We find this same principle in operation in the Old Testament. For example, Deuteronomy 28:1-14 lists the rich blessings that come upon those who diligently obey the voice of the LORD and carefully observe all His commandments.

In the opening of Psalms, we find it expressed this way:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

(Psalm 1:1-3)

David sums it up this way:

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

(Psalm 37:3-4)

The world desperately strives after many things, but the one thing that matters, and from which all other good flows, is the rule and reign of God and His rightness.

(See also One Thing)

The Kingdom of God is Now Here

From the very beginning, and throughout His ministry, Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, that it was now present. After His baptism, and the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). In Mark’s Gospel, we read:

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

To say that the kingdom is “at hand” is to say that it is now here. The appropriate response it to repent and believe, to receive it by faith. This was the message He was sent to preach. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43).

When Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out to heal sicknesses, cast out demons, and to preach. What were they to preach? The kingdom of God:

Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (Luke 10:8-10).

The miracles and acts of deliverance were signs that the kingdom of God was present in their midst. Later in Luke’s Gospel, when He was accused of casting demons by the power of the devil, Jesus replied, “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

Jesus described the kingdom of God as a seed:

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the lest of all the seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in the branches. (Matthew 13:31-32)

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. (Matthew 13:33)

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-27)

To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is small than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade. (Mark 4:30-32)

The kingdom of God starts out as a seed that is sown, then it takes root and begins to grow, continually expanding. It becomes a tree shooting out large branches and starts to bear fruit. The fruit ripens and is harvested. That is how it is with the kingdom of God, and with everything that is sown into the kingdom. In another place, Jesus said,

Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not received a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)

Jesus is describing an exponential growth of the kingdom of God. Notice that it is “now in this time,” as well as in the life to come. Surprisingly, many Christians overlook the magnificent expansion of the kingdom “now in this time” and see only the persecutions.

Now, the gospel Jesus is talking about is the gospel of the kingdom of God, for that is the gospel He preached:

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. (Matthew 4:23)

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. (Matthew 9:35)

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

The kingdom of God has been growing and expanding ever since Jesus came into the world. Jesus said,

Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:11-12)

The NIV has this as, “The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it.” The kingdom of God is not in retreat; it is forcefully advancing, moving forward in a powerful way, becoming more and more what Jesus often described it as becoming.

The kingdom of God is here and now and is continually growing and expanding. We lay hold of this kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ, who has “delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13). The old kingdom of the present age, and the god of this age are passing way. The new kingdom, the kingdom of God, is advancing and increasing. The apostle John said, “Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

This forcefully advancing kingdom is present within everyone who believes in Jesus Christ: “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” (Luke 17:2-21).

It does not come militarily or politically. It is not marked on a map; nor can it be geographically contained. The kingdom of God is much more pervasive than that. It is within the people of God, and everywhere they go, that is where the kingdom is. Wherever Jesus is preached and the works of Jesus are being done, the kingdom is in manifestation. God is bringing it forth through His people.

The kingdom of God is not a symbolic kingdom, or a figurative one. It is a real kingdom — the dominion of the King, the rule and reign of God. It is here in this world and now in this time. It has not yet become all that it is going to become, but it has already begun. The seed has been planted and has been growing for two thousand years.