Date: September 2006 Series: I want to be Left Behind (XXIII) Title: Kingdom in the Gospels & Acts

(continued from last month)

     When Jesus told Peter that He would have to suffer and die in Jerusalem, Peter (sold on currently popular man-made expectations) contradicted Him (Matthew 16:21-23).  When He told an adoring crowd of followers at Capernaum that He, like a Passover Lamb, would soon provide Himself as flesh and blood to be consumed (suggesting a sacrificial death), many turned away and followed Him no more (John 6:26-66).  Not long after this, a crowd welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem and openly called Him their Messianic king (John 12:12-19), but within a week one of the disciples had mistakenly betrayed Him (Matthew 27:1-5) and the crowd turned on Him and called for His death (John 18-19).  Why did this happen?  How could the Apostles be so confused about Him?  From our perspective it seems simple, yet many today cannot understand it.  Jesus identified the heart of the problem in His confrontation with Peter - the conceptual gulf that often exists between God’s interests/purposes and misguided human desires and expectations that develop (Matthew 16:23).  Like Peter, “end times” enthusiasts really need to hear Jesus on this issue, rather than try to correct Him!

     Asked when the kingdom of God was coming, Jesus declared that it was NOT coming with signs to be observed, but was already “in their midst” (Luke 17:20-21).

     A Far Country - To refute the popular expectation of an earthly monarchy about to appear, Jesus told another parable about a nobleman going to a far country to receive a kingdom and then return (Luke 19:11-27).  While absent, the nobleman’s servants have duties to perform and His enemies reject His authority.  When He returns, rather than govern His enemies by force, they are destroyed.  Thus, Jesus is king during His absence and is willing served by His subjects, but when He returns those who rejected His authority are destroyed rather than forced to live under a period of oppressive Messianic rule.  This is the same message we find in Psalm 2 - in spite of an opposing conspiracy (Acts 4:24-28), God installs His King anyway and then the nations are warned to honor the Son before He comes again in wrath!  Daniel 7:13-14 portrays the Messianic “Son of Man” approaching the Ancient of Days in the clouds of heaven and receiving kingly authority, as a result of which all people on earth should serve Him.  We live in that age - the nobleman has gone into a far country and received His authority and we are called to submit to Him now during His physical absence, for when He returns those who have refused His mercy and authority will be in a world of hurt (2Thessalonians 1:7-8).

     Kingdom lost - Although God had faithfully carried through on His promise to bring the Messiah from the lineage of the Jewish Patriarchs, centuries of Jewish rebellion and unwillingness to become the Divinely intended “holy nation and kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:5,6) finally did bring a heavy penalty – loss of their special claim on the kingdom (Matthew 21:33-45; 23:29-39).  Finally, standing before a Roman governor whose main concern would be maintaining Rome’s political status quo, Jesus declared that His kingdom “was not of this world/realm” (John 18:36-37) and Pilate understood that Jesus posed no threat to the outward political structure and made another attempt to release Him.

     The Kingdom in Acts - In the book of Acts, the first discussion of the Kingdom occurred during the 40 days after the resurrection while Jesus was meeting with Apostles (1:3-8).  While Jesus was trying to prepare them for the coming of the Holy Spirit and beginning of the world-wide “disciple-making” commission,” they brought up a question about “when” God was going to restore the Israelite kingdom - probably still assuming the popular Jewish expectation of a glorified Jewish kingdom ruled by the Messiah (1:6).  The question of “when” the kingdom was to come had already been answered (Mark 9:1; Luke 17:20-21), but the Apostles had not yet grasped this one.  Again, Jesus did not give much clear support to earthly kingdom expectations, but He seems to have merely deflected the question with a “that’s not something for you to worry about” answer (1:7) and refocused their attention on the worldwide mission ahead of them (1:8).  Although they asked “when” God would restore the Israelite kingdom, I am convinced the more appropriate questions would have been “does God have any intentions of ever restoring an earthly Israelite kingdom?” and “whose idea was the earthly Israelite monarchy in the first place?”  I think the Apostles were still working from erroneous Jewish “kingdom expectations” (as was Peter - Matthew 16:21-23) and this topic probably belongs in the “stuff they were not yet able to handle” category (John 16:12-13).  Rather than try to undue all of their misguided “end times” notions, Jesus simply pointed them back to what God wanted them to be concerned with - the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower them for international disciple-making!

     So, will God ever “restore the kingdom to Israel,” as they expected?  Personally, I really doubt it.  From what we have already discussed about the pedigree of the “earthly Jewish kingdom” program from its Old Testament roots, I don’t think it was ever God’s primary intention to give Israel a glorified earthly kingdom - that was their idea (Deuteronomy 17:14; 1Samuel 8).  God clearly identified His intentions for an Israelite kingdom back in Exodus 19:5-6, He wanted a holy and priestly nation/kingdom!  As for Israel and the kingdom, Jesus made a block-buster statement that few seem to notice - Israel’s claim on the kingdom of God was being taken away and given to another fruit-bearing nation (Matthew 21:43).  What nation is that?  Peter picked up the language of Exodus 19:5-6 and applied it to the church scattered throughout Asia Minor (1Peter 1:1; 2:9-10).  Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! (to be continued)