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The great theme of Jesus’ teaching was that, with his appearance, something extraordinary had happened: God was acting in history in a new and unprecedented way. Jesus used many ways to talk about this new intervention of God. The commonest involved the idea of ‘the Kingdom of God’. The gospels mention the Kingdom over eighty times and it is the subject of nearly two-thirds of Jesus’ parables. Jesus saw the coming of the Kingdom as the basis of the Good News – the Gospel.
UNDERSTANDING THE KINGDOM
It is easiest to understand the Kingdom of God by seeing it as God’s way of putting the world right, as his rescue programme for the human race. Because of our rebellion against God, we are separated from him. Our attempt to ‘go it alone’ has been a catastrophe: instead of gaining freedom, we have found ourselves enslaved to evil. Although God could have just crushed this rebellion by force, he didn’t. Instead, he launched an alternative strategy, a long and costly process of trying to bring the human race back to himself. The Bible identifies three phases to this great labour of love: a phase of preparation and then two phases of the Kingdom. The phase of preparation is long over and the first phase of the Kingdom, begun by Jesus coming to our world, still continues today. The second phase of the Kingdom will begin with Jesus’ return in what is called ‘the Second Coming’ and it will last for ever.
The ‘Phase of Preparation’ is what we read about in the Old Testament. In it, we see how God prepared the way for his kingdom. He chose a people, Israel, and taught them about himself and what his standards were. Towards the end of this long period of preparation, God made promises of a new kingdom that would be different and far greater than any of the earthly and limited kingdoms that Israel had so far known. One of a number of prophecies about the Kingdom in the book of Daniel says this: ‘During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it will stand for ever.’ This new kingdom would be one that would challenge and defeat all the other kingdoms and empires of the world.
For centuries after Daniel these other kings and kingdoms continued to crush God’s people underfoot. Finally, John the Baptist came with the startling declaration that at last the Kingdom was ‘at hand’.
History was about to enter a new phase.
Phase One: the present Kingdom of God
Jesus’ announcement of the coming of the Kingdom was a declaration that the time of preparation was over. In his ministry of teaching, healing and deliverance from evil, the Kingdom was beginning. People could now enter the Kingdom and Jesus saw his Spirit-empowered actions as a visible proof that the Kingdom was present. Much of Jesus’ teaching applies to this phase of the Kingdom and therefore applies to us now.
As the parable of the mustard seed taught, the Kingdom is at present hidden and easy to overlook. This apparent insignificance of the Kingdom posed problems for some of Jesus’ hearers; they expected something more dramatic. Jesus taught that the Kingdom’s appearance as something weak and vulnerable is deceptive; it is, in fact, a powerful and active force for change in lives and situations. Like yeast in dough, it works slowly and silently. In spite of its apparent insignificance, the Kingdom is unstoppable because it is God’s work, and his authority and power are behind it. Unlike the Old Testament kingdoms, the Kingdom of God knows neither geographic boundaries nor ethnic or racial restrictions; its extent is global and people from all nations will enter it. In this present phase, the Kingdom is open for all to enter it.
Precisely because the Kingdom represents God’s power at work, it is actively opposed by the devil’s forces. This world is the scene of a fierce and persistent spiritual battle, largely unseen by us, between the Kingdom and its enemies. As part of that battle, the coming of the Kingdom stirs up all sorts of things, both good and evil: not everything that claims to be part of the Kingdom is genuine and comes from God. In this phase of the Kingdom, the authentic and the counterfeit coexist.
The New Testament makes it clear that the Kingdom of God is centred on Jesus. He preaches the Kingdom, brings it into being and leads it. He is still at the heart of the Kingdom. Today, as in the past, people only enter the Kingdom by finding the king, Jesus.
Phase Two: the future Kingdom of God
Jesus did not limit his teaching to this first period of the Kingdom. He also talked about a second phase, the final glorious coming of the Kingdom. Although Jesus only gave limited teaching on this future time, the general picture is clear.
This second phase will begin when Jesus returns from heaven: an event that will be sudden, unexpected and unmistakeable. It will bring with it the judgement of good and evil and the final destruction of the Devil. As a result, this eternal and glorious Kingdom will be totally free from all that is evil and wrong. This phase of the Kingdom will be very different to the present but the images Jesus gives indicate that it is a wonderful place where people from all over the world are gathered in peace and joy.
Yet the coming of the Kingdom in this final state will also mark the end of the invitation to enter: with Jesus’ return, the door that is open at present will be closed.
The idea of the eternal Kingdom ought to affect how we live and ought also to transform our idea of death. For the follower of Jesus, death is not an end; it is instead a direct short cut to the excitement, joy and glory of the eternal Kingdom.
ENTERING THE KINGDOM
The importance of the Kingdom
The gospels make it clear that nothing is more important than belonging to the Kingdom: to enter it is to gain ‘eternal life’ and it is to ‘be saved’. In one of Jesus’ parables, we read that the Kingdom ‘is like a pearl merchant in search of choice pearls.
When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!’ The Kingdom is so valuable that no expense or sacrifice is too great to enter it. Another of Jesus’ sayings sums up the importance of the Kingdom:’ And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?’
If to be in this future Kingdom will be to know unspeakable joy, to miss it will be to suffer unspeakable loss. No language is adequate to express the sorrow of failing to enter the Kingdom. To lose the Kingdom is to lose everything for ever.
How to enter the Kingdom
One of the most remarkable things about the Kingdom is that it is free. We cannot earn the Kingdom; we can only receive it as a gift. Jesus says to his disciples: ‘It gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.’ It is no wonder the announcement of the Kingdom is called ‘the Good News’.
But to gain the Kingdom requires action. The parable of the pearl of great value does not just teach that the Kingdom is valuable; it teaches that you have to act to get into it. Jesus talked about the Kingdom as having a narrow gate that needs to be searched for.
So how is the Kingdom entered? The basis of entry is to have an obedient trust in Jesus, the King. The gospels tell how, when some parents brought their little children to Jesus to be blessed, he used the infants to make a point: ‘the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who does not have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God.’ To have such a faith is to have a simple, personal trust in Jesus. Luke gives an example of this when he tells us how, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, one of the criminals being crucified next to him turned to him and said ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’ Jesus’ reply was ‘I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ That simple trust alone was enough for Jesus to be able to promise him forgiveness.
Yet because being in the Kingdom is to be under the rule of the King, two other conditions exist.
The first is repentance, the complete rejection of and turning away from everything that is wrong and opposed to the Kingdom. Announcing the coming of the Kingdom, Jesus says ‘Turn from your sins and believe this Good News!’ To repent is to choose to reject anything that will get in the way of the Kingdom. Bad actions and bad desires: all must be discarded. If the seeds of God’s Kingdom are to grow in our lives, then all the old weeds need to be cleared away first.
The second is commitment. To enter the Kingdom also involves taking Jesus as king of our lives. It means being committed to him as Lord and being obedient to his rule. This may sound like giving up our freedom, but the gospels make it clear that outside the Kingdom, no one is free. Because we are all ruled by our own desires and the pressures placed upon us, to come into the Kingdom is to be liberated. Using an image from how animals were harnessed, Jesus said: ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.’
This commitment to follow Jesus into the Kingdom has to be sustained. Jesus warned that there would be those who, although they received the news of the Kingdom with joy, would fail to continue in it. Their commitment would be found to be merely one of words and inadequate to deal with life’s pressures or temptations. Life in the Kingdom is not a hundred-metre dash; it is more like a marathon.
So while the Kingdom is free, it makes demands. It is precisely because of these demands that Jesus cautioned those who were interested in the Kingdom to think things through seriously before following him. In any conflict of priorities, the Kingdom must come first.
LIVING IN THE KINGDOM
Jesus saw entering the Kingdom as something so fundamental and life-changing that it is like being born again. And, like being born, it is a beginning rather than an ending. Much of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom was on how to live as a citizen of the Kingdom.
Two errors have been made about Jesus’ teaching on how to live the life of the Kingdom. The first is to imagine that trying to be good grants you entry into the Kingdom. That is wrong: the clear teaching of Jesus is that the Kingdom is a gift, not a reward. The second error is to think that entry into the Kingdom excludes the need to try to be good. It doesn’t: Jesus expected his followers to live out lives that were good, pure and moral. Being good is neither an entry requirement to the Kingdom nor an optional extra for those who live in it.
Jesus saw living in the Kingdom as something that was drastically new. The newness of the Kingdom shows itself in many areas.
A new relationship to God
Jesus said very little about God that was not already found in the Old Testament. He revealed only two new things about God, yet both were of earth-shaking significance.
Firstly, Jesus taught that God could be known as ‘Father’. He addressed God as such in his prayers and he taught his disciples to use the same term in their own prayers. In fact, the Aramaic term he used, Abba, which can be translated as ‘Daddy’, ‘Dad’ or ‘Dear Father’, was so characteristic of Jesus that twenty or more years later, even Greek-speaking Christians knew and used it. Jesus’ use of the term ‘Father’ for God, with its overtones of closeness and confidence, was revolutionary. In the Jewish faith of his day, God could be known as ‘Lord’ or ‘King’ but he had become a distant figure who was rarely, if ever, addressed as ‘Father’. Jesus taught that this ease of access to God as Father was not simply for him alone: it was the privilege of all his followers too. The prayer that Jesus gave his followers as a pattern to base their own praying on – the Lord’s Prayer – begins ‘Our Father.’ All those who have come to God through Jesus are God’s children and can have a relationship of trust and confidence with God.
Secondly, a key part of Jesus’ teaching about God was the awesome claim that he, Jesus, was God. This is something so important that we will look carefully at it in the next chapter.
New standards
Jesus set new standards for his people. Rather than just repeat the Old Testament Law as it was understood in his day, he took it, cleaned away all the things that had been added to it and reapplied it. This is seen in a passage in Matthew’s Gospel that has become known as the Sermon on the Mount. The problem with the Law was that it was easy to treat it as something that only dealt with actions. So the sixth of the Ten Commandments stated: ‘you shall not murder’. Most people looked at that and ticked it off as a commandment they had fulfilled: then, as now, few people committed actual murder. Yet Jesus took the commandment deeper than just actions, applying it also to the mind, and condemned anger as the root of murder. He did the same with adultery and condemned lust as its root. Religion had been based on actions, but Jesus brought motives and desires under God’s judgement. He believed the people of the Kingdom were not simply to perform good acts; they were to be good. As Jesus himself said, only good trees can produce good fruit. With Jesus, religious purity was no longer about external actions; it was about internal attitudes.
Jesus also broadened the Law. The Law had become limited to being good and kind to friends and relatives. Jesus taught this was inadequate: you had to love even your enemies.
Jesus summarized the standards of the Kingdom like this: ‘“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’
Jesus set a high standard for life. Critics have alleged that he set his standard so high that it is impossible. Such a view overlooks three things. The first is that Jesus and his followers considered the Kingdom ‘good news’, so they didn’t see it as something that produced only failures. The second is that Jesus’ followers know God as a loving heavenly Father who forgives those who acknowledge with sorrow their failure to keep his standards and who encourages them to try again. The third is that God gives his people the gift of his Holy Spirit to help them live out life in the Kingdom. In John’s Gospel we read how, in the middle of telling the disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus explained to them that they could only bear fruit (that is, live good lives) if they remained in him: ‘for a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.’ The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to be a helper who will allow us to be related in this ‘fruitful’ way to Jesus. Receiving the Spirit, obeying his guidance and knowing his empowering is what enables us to live the sort of lives that God wants.
New lifestyle
The gospels record many of Jesus’ instructions on how life in the Kingdom is to be lived. His teaching describes the following characteristics of those who are in the Kingdom: Integrity. The citizens of the Kingdom are those who are totally trustworthy. They do what they promise and do not need to make oaths or vows to strengthen their promises. Consistency. Jesus’ followers practise what they preach and do not concentrate on trivial matters at the expense of major ones. The hypocrisy and distorted faith that characterized some of Jesus’ contemporaries should be absent in the Kingdom. Prayer. Those who are in God’s kingdom pray with faith and confidence for themselves, for others and for the coming of God’s kingdom. Their praying is not a matter of self-glorifying public performance or of empty words but is simple and sincere. Forgiveness. Because God has freely forgiven those who are in the Kingdom, they forgive others. There is no place for revenge in the Kingdom. Humility. No one gets into the Kingdom on their own merits, so there are no grounds for boasting and no basis for pride or self-importance. For similar reasons, there should be no critical and loveless judging of others. Service. There is to be no arrogance or sense of superiority among those who live in God’s kingdom: instead, there should be the desire to serve one another. Jesus saw himself as a servant and expected his followers to imitate his example. A right attitude to wealth and possessions. Jesus spoke a good deal about how we handle possessions and money. He pointed out that although both are good things, they pose dangers. They provide a misleading illusion of security and can all too easily become preoccupations that get in the way of loving God. Those in the Kingdom are to hold lightly to both wealth and possessions and be prepared to give them away. Love for one another. The Kingdom is to be made up of people who care for one another. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus said this to his followers:’ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.’ Joy. Those in the Kingdom should be joyful. After all, they are secure in the knowledge that God cares for them. Hope. Those who are in the Kingdom can be confident in the future. The Kingdom that is already here and enjoyed is just a foretaste of that great and eternal Kingdom whose coming is certain. Mixed with that hope is also a longing. The Lord’s Prayer has an important line in it: ‘May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.’
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a memorable portrait of the character of those who belong to the Kingdom:
‘God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.
God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them.
God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full.
God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.’
The character that Jesus described as being appropriate to the Kingdom surprised and astounded his hearers. It has not lost its shock value.
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