As we saw in our September issue John the Baptist and Jesus both preached the kingdom of God or Heaven. We also saw that no one asked what this kingdom was when John and Jesus said repent for the kingdom is at hand.
The Jewish people in the biblical times were taught about a coming kingdom long before both Jesus or John were born. The truth is that this kingdom was revealed in the old testament as part of Israel's hope and ever since then God's people looked for this coming kingdom.
This subject of the coming kingdom was a topic Jesus talked about just about everywhere he went.
He loved to teach about this coming kingdom.
Matthew 4:1-17 1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. 12Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying 15The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.17From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Here we see at the onset of Jesus ministry he began preaching the Kingdom. He continued to teach about the kingdom through out his life. Look at Acts 1.
Acts 1:1-3 1The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
After his death and resurrection look what he continued to teach to his disciples. There you have it: the book ends of the ministry of Jesus Christ he began with the kingdom and he ended with the kingdom teaching.
There is something else I want you to see: the Book of Acts begins with the kingdom teaching.
Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.Acts 19:8-10 8And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. 9But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 10And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
The kingdom was preached through out the book of Acts.
Acts 28:30-31 30And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
And the book of Acts ends with the kingdom teaching! Did you know that every church epistle mentions the kingdom teaching?
Did you know every church epistle with the exception of Philippians uses the words kingdom of God or his kingdom, etcetera? And Philippians makes reference to the kingdom of God several times through out the book.
Now let's go back into the Old Testament and I will begin to unravel for you one of the greatest subjects in the entire word of God: the kingdom of God.
First of all when the Bible speaks of the kingdom of God in the New Testament, the Greek word for kingdom is the word basileia which means "a royal power, kingship, dominion, a kingdom, or the territory subject to the rule of a king."
Thayer's writes on the subject of the kingdom of God:
"Relying principally on the prophecies of Daniel — who had declared it to be the purpose of God that, after four vast and mighty kingdoms had succeeded one other and the last of them shown itself hostile to the people of God, at length its despotism shoed be broken, and the empire of the world pass over for ever to the holy people of God."
The story of man's fall is related in Genesis chapter 3. The serpent was cursed for misquoting God's word and tempting Eve to disobey it. The man and woman were punished for their disobedience. But a ray of hope comes into this dark picture when God says to the serpent: "I will put enmity (hatred, opposition) between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it (the woman's seed) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15).
A "seed" means a descendant or child, but it can also refer to the people associated with the particular "seed". Here we have the first prophecy of a promised seed that would bruise the head of the serpent (the devil).
Genesis 1:27-28 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
In the beginning Adam was given rulership over the earth. God told him and Eve to subdue the earth and be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion. The word dominion means "to rule." Adam was God's under ruler here on the earth.
NIV Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Here in the NIV we read, "Rule over every living creature!" Who rules ? Many different answers may fit here I would like to suggest a king is one who could rule.
It is also interesting to note that Jesus is referred to as the last Adam.
1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Adam lost his rulership over the earth.
To be continued …ÿ
Note: All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. NIV indicates The New International Version, NLT indicates the New Living Translation, NAS indicates the New American Standard version, NKJV indicates the New King James Version, ASV means the American Standard Version, NJB means the New Jerusalem Bible, BBE means the Bible in Basic English, DBY means the Darby translation, NAU means the American Standard Version, 1995 Edition, and NAB means the New American Bible translation. For more information, go to the Works Cited page.