Is Christ really returning to establish His universal kingdom of peace and prosperity; to reign upon the earth for a thousand years from Jerusalem? Stay tuned. Let us see what the Bible says.
What a joy it is to have you with us for another program In Search of the Lord's Way. Ours is a program dedicated to searching the Scriptures for God's way to be a Christian and to live the best way that mankind has ever known.
In the long ago God spoke through one of His prophets saying, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." That is Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. Well, it must be obvious to most of us that we need a better way than the chaotic way we are pursuing now in which every one goes his or her own way and does his or her own thing as it pleases. If we are really serious about a better life and a better society, we might try the Lord's way, don't you think?
Last week we attempted to answer a viewer's question, but we soon saw that one short program of this kind just didn't allow sufficient time. So, again today we are searching the Scriptures for the answer to his question, "Is my Lord and Savior going to establish a kingdom in Jerusalem when He comes?" We have given today's program the title, "More about Christ's Kingdom." If you would like a copy of either or both of these messages in printed form, on a CD or audio cassette tape, please send your request to us now. Our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Or toll-free telephone number for your use is 1-800-321-8633. Let us hear from you this week. Ok?
Today we are reading from the Gospel of Mark and we will be reading two verses from chapter one, verses 14 and 15. “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.” Now let’s go to God in prayer. Father in heaven, we are so thankful for the clear revelation we have in Your word of the establishment of the kingdom and the great messages of the kingdom that are such an inspiration to all of us. Help us in our study today to glean the most from these verses. In Jesus’ lovely name we pray, Amen!
From our Lord's personal preaching, as we read about it in the gospels-- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) it is obvious that He considered it to be a vital part of His earthly ministry to establish a kingdom and reign over it as a King. And, for centuries the great prophets of the Old Testament foretold the coming of the Messiah who would establish the kingdom of God and reign over it as King. And when Jesus made His claim to being the Messiah, the establishment of a world community of believers over which He would reign as king became an absolute necessity.
To deny that that was the intent and purpose of His earthly ministry, or at least one of the purposes, or to deny that He did so, would be to disclaim Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ of God. Matthew indicates that right soon after His baptism by John in the River Jordan, and His wilderness temptation in Judea, that Jesus returned to Galilee and began to preach and to say, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." That is Matthew 4:17. Then, in verse twenty-three he says again that "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel (or the good news) of the kingdom." Luke gives it the same treatment. He says, "He [that is meaning Jesus] went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1).
And, our text in Mark's gospel says, "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Tell me: what did Jesus preach about the kingdom that made it such a glad-- good news message? Well, for centuries the Jews had been reading their Old Testament scriptures and eagerly and anxiously looking forward to the coming of the Messiah who would establish the kingdom of God among them, rule over them as is said in those prophecies. Now comes Jesus saying, "The time is fulfilled." Can you imagine the excitement that kind of preaching would generate? Their prophecies were going to be fulfilled before their very eyes. Generations of their foreparents had looked for and lived for and eagerly and anxiously waited for what they were going to be blessed to see and experience! God's plan for redemption was to occur in their very own generation! And to enforce His promise, He added, "The kingdom of God is at hand." The time is approaching!
On another occasion He said to them, "I tell you truly." Now wait a minute. Jesus says, "I am telling you the truth." He always told the truth, didn't He? He is the very embodiment of truth. He is truth incarnate. So why does He say, "I am telling you the truth?" Because He wants to emphasize what He is about to say as clear, plain, unmistakable, absolute truth. He doesn't want us to miss it. Do you suppose He knew there would be a generation of people like ours, who would say "there is no such thing as absolute truth?" He must have, friend! He must have known, too, that there would be some who would be hard to convince. What is that truth? Here it is, listen: "There are some standing here (now-- not our 20th century generation, but their generation, right there while He was speaking to them), there are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God." Oh my! That is Luke chapter 9, verse 27. My friend, they were going to live to see the kingdom of God established! You had the Lord’s word on that. What great news! Did it happen?
Well, some preachers are saying, "No, it didn't happen; Christ's plan was thwarted when the Jews crucified Him, and He postponed the establishment of His kingdom until His return-- well, not the next time, but the third time." They tell us that when He comes again, He will rapture the redeemed out of the world to rescue them from great tribulation of seven years, after which He will come again (that would be the third time, wouldn’t it) and establish His kingdom to reign for a thousand years upon the earth. But, it isn't so, is it now? Not if these Scriptures are true. Some of these people who heard Jesus preach did live to see the kingdom in existence and to be a part of it. Though, the Holy Spirit says to the church at Colosse-- there in that first century-- God had already delivered them from the power of darkness, and had translated them into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13). And, the writer of Hebrews said, we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, or moved. That is Hebrews. 12:28. And, John exiled on the lonely isle of Patmos for preaching the Gospel said, "I was in the kingdom on the Lord's Day" (Revelation 1:9). Oh, that is good news to you and me, my friend also, because when we became Christians, we too were delivered from the reign of darkness and translated into the reign of God's dear Son. Right now, in our own lives!
Many people who teach a future reign of Jesus in Jerusalem look to Revelation as proof of it. But every time the kingdom is mentioned in Revelation, it is mentioned as presently in existence. For example: Revelation chapter 1, verses 4 through 6 says, "John to the seven churches that are in Asia . . .to him who loves us and washed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom, priests to God." Just as surely as Christians are now priests-- a royal priesthood as Peter says in 1 Peter 2 and 9, the church is presently the kingdom of Christ. The same is true of Revelation 5 and 9 and 10; Revelation 11:15 and chapter 12 and verse 10. They all show the triumph of the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of the world because the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of Christ, pointing back to the cross, the resurrection of Christ, at which time all authority was given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18; Acts chapter 2, verses 33 through 36). Christ is (present tense, right now) King of Kings and Lord of Lords, my friend (Revelation 17 and 14; Revelation 19:16).
But the kingdom of Christ is not a physical, political entity with police forces and special judicial systems and standing armies and bounded by seas and rivers and mountain ranges; it is a spiritual kingdom. When Jesus was brought before Pilate for trial, the governor asked Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" And Jesus asked him, "Did you arrive at this conclusion yourself, or did someone tell you so?" Pilate said, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done?" And Jesus replied, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." Pilate asked Him again, "Are you a king then?" And Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." In other words, if the kingdom of Christ came to reign over us, if the kingdom of Christ was to reign, was what all the Jews had expected and hoped for-- and the kind that multitudes today still expect to be, a political, economic system with a police force and standing armies and all of that-- well, Pilate would have had a fight on his hand. "My servants would fight," Jesus said, and no doubt the Son of God would have prevailed, too. But, it didn't happen, friend, that way and Jesus assured Pilate that He was no challenge to Caesar in that regard. What kind of a kingdom is it then? The Holy Spirit says, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink (not prosperity); but righteousness, and joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14 and 17). Well, that is what Christ's kingdom is all about then, righteousness; it is a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy; not material possessions or world domination; not land ownership. If Jesus had come for that, He could have had it. The devil took him up into a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to Him, "All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4, verses 8 and 9). And, there is no doubt about it, Satan could have delivered. Jesus knew there would always be people who would hunger and thirst after righteousness, and in his kingdom, they shall be filled, He said (Matthew 5 and 6), because that is what it's all about, friend. Righteousness was originally spelled "rightwiseness," which expresses its real meaning-- being wise to the right and just things in life. That is the kingdom of Christ. Without the influence of Christ's kingdom, this world would be uninhabitable.
Another feature of the kingdom of Christ is that it cannot be shaken-- it is an unmovable kingdom. A passage we mentioned in Hebrews awhile ago (chapter 12, verse 28) says, "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
Hundreds of years earlier Daniel interpreted a dream for old King Nebuchadnezzar in which the king saw a vision of an image whose head was gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, and his legs of iron and his feet part of iron and part of clay. And Daniel said these represent four (specifically he says four) consecutive world empires beginning with Babylon, followed by Persia, then the Macedonians, and the fourth was Rome. And he said, "In the days of these kings (that would be the Roman kings) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." That is Daniel 2:44. To make sure there would be no misunderstanding the Holy Spirit pinpointed the time of it all in Luke chapter 3, verse 1 as the fifteenth year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar that John the Baptist-- then Jesus-- came preaching that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The angel promised Mary, "Behold thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give Him the throne of His father, David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Now, that is a familiar passage, isn't it, in Luke chapter 1, verses 31 through 33.
In answer to your question, sir, when Jesus comes-- and He is coming again, He will not come to establish that kingdom and begin His universal reign of a thousand years. He will end it. The dead will be raised. Christ will then deliver that kingdom up to the Father and God will become all in all. No! Let me say it again; No! He will not come to establish the kingdom here on earth. It is already here. When He comes again, He will take it to its eternal home in heaven. After proving the resurrection of the dead in the early verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul confidently affirms, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each one in his own order; Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end, (when-- at His coming, not seven years of tribulation followed by a thousand year reign, then the end) but the end when He delivers the kingdom up to God the Father..." (1 Corinthians 15:24 through 28) Let us pray. Holy Father, we are so thankful for these messages that You have given us and the assurance You have given us in Your kingdom that when Jesus comes He will deliver the kingdom and those who are citizens of it all into glory. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
The kingdom that Christ came to establish and reign over is a present reality, friend. It exists now. It is a reign of righteousness and peace and joy. It is a permanent thing; it will not be overthrown. And, when Jesus comes, it will be ushered into a state of even greater glory. My friend, are you a citizen of it? Nicodemus learned that citizenship in the kingdom of Christ is not by natural birth, as was true of his religious ties before. To be in Christ's kingdom a person must be born again of water and spirit (John 3:1 to 7). He must believe in Christ, not just give mental assent to his Deity, but lovingly and obediently put his faith and trust in Christ by being baptized in water. And having thereby made a commitment to Jesus, to follow him all the days of his life-- even unto his death he will remain so.
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Churches of Christ are not striving to be "just another denomination." We are not trying to be the only right denomination; we are not trying to be a denomination at all, friend. It is our desire to be the church you read about in your New Testament-- in faith-- in doctrine-- in worship-- in organization--in our personal life and loving one another-- well in every way. We don't have a catechism, or a confession of faith other than the word of God itself. That seems a bit strange to some people, but it's welcome news to others, and if so with you, why not call us to learn more?
If you would like a CD or an audio cassette tape of today's program titled, More About Christ's Kingdom, or if you would like also a copy of last week's, simply write us: In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371 Edmond, OK 73083. By internet it's searchtv@searchtv.org. Our toll free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. We pray you have been blessed by today's study and that you will join us again next week. We love you, now. God bless you.
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