Wednesday 21 October 2015

Kingdom of God

The kingdom of God is a term used in the Bible to represent the rule of God over His people. Its a rule with Jesus Christ as the king and people as its members. Jesus Christ came to this earth to initiate this kingdom and will come back for the second time for the complete establishment of His kingdom. At his first coming, he initiated this kingdom on earth, and is waiting for it to spread. At present, its an invisible kingdom, established in the hearts of the believers.

We see the term 'kingdom of heaven' or 'kingdom of God' 31 times in the gospel of Matthew and around 82 times in all the 4 gospels - almost 17 chapters out of 28 chapters of Matthew mentions about the Kingdom of heaven. So it’s a topic of importance.

What is this kingdom of heaven/God?

  • Starting with John the Baptist: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Mt 3:1)
  • Then Jesus Christ : (Mt 4:17) – Jesus began to preach “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near”
  • Then the beatitudes (Mt 5) - What kind of people are blessed in the kingdom of heaven?
  •  Importance of the kingdom of God (Mat 6:33) : “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…”
  •  Jesus sends disciples to preach (Mt 10 : 5) “As you go, preach this message –Kingdom of heaven is near”. 
  • Beginning of the Kingdom of heaven, Prophets until John prophesied it (Mt 11:7): Begun at the time of John the Baptist (repentance phase started from him.)
  • Jesus changes the mode of preaching about Kingdom of heaven: From common language to parables. Intending that only those who want to hear should understand. (Mt 13) In this discourse he told them around 7 parables describing how to enter, nature and future programs about the kingdom of heaven.
  •  Jesus tells Peter that I will give you/disciples the keys of kingdom of heaven: (Mt 16:19) “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven…”
  •   Jesus continues to preach about the different aspects (present and future) of the kingdom of heaven through parables till chapter 25

It is the kingdom prophesied by the OT prophets, preached by the John the Baptist, established by Jesus Christ, continued by the disciples and by believers through the church. The complete fulfillment is at the time of second coming of Christ and will continue through the 1000 years reign and then eternally. 

Presently, we are in the kingdom of God. We can see this in Luke 17:20,21.

v20) Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
v21) nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

It's an invisible kingdom now, established in the hearts of the believers. The final culmination or establishment of the kingdom will be at the second coming of Christ. 

Currently, God's kingdom is spread and established through the church. God has established church in order to set this invisible kingdom of God on earth. In Matt 16:19, we see Jesus says to the disciples that "I will give you keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven". Later we see, it is the church which the apostles have established and strained for. 

Christ explains in Matt 13, what is the nature of this kingdom, how it is established, how it will be in this world, how it will grow, how its people influence others and when the members of his kingdom is cleansed. He is explaining the nature of the kingdom of God through parables. Each parable in the Matthew 13, talks some characteristic of the kingdom of God. In order to understand the nature of this kingdom, we need to dive deep into the parables. 

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