In chapter four, we began discussing what our dearest Lord Jesus Christ referred to as the “Gospel of the Kingdom” or the “Word of the Kingdom”, otherwise called the Kingdom-word – Matt. 24:14; Matt. 13:19.
Specifically, we considered five of twelve features of this Gospel. In this final chapter, we will continue the count from chapter four, by taking a look at the rest of the characteristics of the Word of the Kingdom.
6. The Gospel of the Kingdom takes us to the mandate of mankind before the fall in the Garden of Eden i.e. to have dominion or kingdom on earth – Matt.19:8b; Gen. 1:26.
Actually, there is no dis-connection between the first mandate of God for mankind which is to have dominion or be in charge on earth, and the Kingdom message of Jesus.
You know, to have dominion and to have kingdom is functionally the same thing. Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ came as the Last Adam to make us overwhelmingly succeed where the first Adam failed.
7. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God goes beyond the believer as a son of God, to the believer as God’s regent in life – Rom. 5:17; 1 Pet.2:9; 2 Cor.5:20a.
In the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord clearly taught that God was our Heavenly Father and King. So, we are His sons/daughters and His Royal representatives or ambassadors in a physical world.
8. This gospel goes beyond God as our Father to God as our King – Matt. 6:9- 10a.
When you have a father who is a king, you have to learn to relate with him in both ways, depending on what you are ‘looking for’ – Heb. 5:7-8.
For example, it is because to God your Father belongs the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever that He can deliver you from all evil.
Yes, the Kingship of God refers to His Sovereignty.
In other words, God rightly does what He likes and cannot be manipulated or controlled by anyone.
So, God’s people need to understand that He made them for His pleasure, not for ours – Rev. 4:11; Col. 1:16.
This will make them take whatever God allows to come their way graciously, knowing that it is serving a higher royal purpose – Rom. 8:28.
Yes, being a sovereign, God works all things together for good according to His purpose, not ours.
9. The Gospel of the Kingdom goes beyond the idea of escaping from your current difficulties to Heaven, to the idea of overcoming the difficulties of earth – Jn.16:33; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21.
10. The Good news of the Kingdom of God goes beyond the Church as the Kingdom of God, to the earth as His Kingdom – Matt.13:38, 41.
Beloved Servant of God, no king is happy when you limit his kingdom, because his kingdom is his treasure since it ministers to his essence as a king. So is it with God.
The earth is God’s physical Kingdom and Heaven is His spiritual Kingdom – Matt.5:34-35. If there is no earthly Kingdom, Apostle Paul would not refer to a “Heavenly Kingdom” in 2 Tim. 4:18.
You know, the Kingdom of God existed before the Church and will continue even after the Church-age.
Actually God wants His Kingdom to be in the Church on earth as it is in Heaven – Lk. 12:32; Eph. 1:10; Col. 3:1-3.
Dear servant of God, the Church is to be an assembly of ruling or Kingdom people through whom God’s spiritual Kingdom is realized on His physical earth, including in the Church-on-earth herself – Matt. 16:16-19. It is all because believers, unlike God, are a hundred percent spiritual and a hundred percent physical.
Now, to bring about God’s rule or influence and what He has ordained on earth, the Church or believer’s must practically live out their estate of being a hundred percent spiritual and a hundred percent physical, not one without the other, or in different proportions.
You know, this is how Jesus will live when He comes physically for the second time on earth.
He will be fully a spiritual King and a physical King to ‘kingdomize’ the whole earth.
This is what the Church or believers are to be now – 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6.
The Church needs the Kingdom of God or what God has ordained her self – Lk.12:30-32.
11. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God goes be-yond Satan as our enemy to religion as an enemy – Mk.7:13.
You know, Satan is defeated and so He hides behind religion as an operational opposition because it can-not be fully defeated now – Jas. 3:15; 2 Cor. 11:14.
It is because as long as mankind lives on this earth, they would have a choice between their ways of pleasing God, which is the religion system and God’s ways through which we will please Him, being the Kingdom system or arrangement.
Now, your attitude to the religion system is to expose it and leave it alone, for people to decide between that and the Kingdom system of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12. The Gospel of God’s Kingdom goes beyond our love for God to God’s love for us -1 Jn. 4:19.
Dear Servant of God, religion focuses you on the love you should have for God and your sacrifice for God’s sake. The Kingdom of God however, focuses you on God’s love and sacrifice for you.
When you know and believe God’s love and sacrifice for you, you will love Him properly.
Yes, you cannot love God as expected without focusing on God’s love for you. And the best demonstration of God’s love and sacrifice is the dying of Jesus on the Cross – Jn. 3:16; 15:13.
The Kingdom-word and maturity
Beloved, the total of twelve features that we have discussed in the last two chapters form the Gospel that Jesus preached and taught.
This Gospel of the Kingdom is an important maturity-message because it brings in the end, a ‘time of maturity’ – Matt. 24:14.
So, our dearest Lord and Savior Jesus Christ prophesied that this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in “all the world” (or the orderly arrangement of men) with the aim that all people-groups would experience it, before the end of the Church-age.
Again, our Jesus said in the Great Commission for us to teach “all” that He commanded.
This way, you will be free from the “blood of all men” – Acts 20:24, 26. Yes, our Jesus commands you to do so as His Servant, because that is how to finish the Ministry He gave you with joy.
