The Kingdom of God

One of the major themes of the Bible is the kingdom of God. It is the gospel of the kingdom of God (Matthew 28:18-20), and not just the gospel of salvation.

Genesis 1:26-28; Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; John 3:3; Acts 1:3; 28:30-31; Hebrews 12:28; Revelation 11:15

The kingdom of God was the focus of the preaching and ministry of Jesus Christ, the apostles, and prophets. The gospel of the kingdom of God is about “Go, make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:18-20), not “Come and see how good my church is.”

Could it be that there is a fatal flaw in how we read our Bibles? Most, if not all, of us have been taught to read our Bibles from right (NT) to left (OT). In many places, an undue emphasis is placed on mastering the New Testament; the Old Testament is neglected as there is a common perception that it is the law and meant for Israel. The doctrinal errors of the replacement theology which devastatingly has replaced Israel with the church has compounded the problem. Yet, Jesus Himself frequently spoke and quoted from the Old Testament. When we neglect the Old Testament, nations do not show up on our radar. Yet, everything God spoke through Moses in the first five books of the Bible was addressed to a nation. There was no concept of an individual, or a private citizen. Everything God spoke, He spoke to a nation, a community. The individual was part of the community. In our world today, we major in individualism. When we read our Bibles we see through individualistic eyes, it is a me-gospel, and thereby nations do not figure on the radar. When the church misses the nations, it misses God’s heart, and the kingdom of God.

In Deuteronomy 15:4, God said that there would be no poor in the land. His people would lend and not borrow. There would be generosity towards the needy in the land. Fast forward to the reign of king Solomon, the son of David. In 2 Chronicles 9 and 1 Kings 10, the queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon, to assess for herself if what she heard of Solomon’s wisdom and wealth was true. Her testimony is recorded for us, that there were no needy people in the kingdom. Silver was as nothing because God had blessed Solomon with wisdom and wealth that was unparalleled. However, Jesus said in Matthew 12:42, “something greater than Solomon is here.” In Revelation 5:5 and 22:16, Jesus is referred to as the Root and Offspring of David. Why? As the King of kings, and Lord of lords, one day there would be no poor in His kingdom. The church is the instrument God uses to fulfill this. If Solomon represented history, Jesus fulfills the prophecy concerning the King and His kingdom. The Bible is both history and prophecy. This is why it is important to read the Old Testament (history) so that we grasp Jesus and the New Testament (prophecy).

In the book of Acts, we find that the early church understood this message of the kingdom of God and lived it out in their daily lives. The common denominators in Acts 2-6 are merchants, marketplace, trade, commerce and economics. Only merchants could afford to travel in those days.  Merchants were the fastest way to reach nations with the gospel. How do you think Indonesia became the country with the largest population of Muslims when Islam was birthed in the Middle East, thousands of miles away? Through trade, trade routes, and commerce. This is what we find in Acts 2 where merchants from fourteen nations were gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. They, and not the priests, became the early carriers of the gospel of the kingdom of God. They were marketplace people. When the kingdom of God advanced, there were no needy in the land. This is the testimony in Acts 4:34. The saving of souls, and the healings, were a natural outflow of the kingdom of God.

If you ask the average church goer today, they will say Acts 2 is about the saving of 3,000 souls; Acts 4 about the saving of 5,000 souls; Acts 8 about the Samaritans saved; Acts 10 about the Gentiles saved; Acts 16 about the Philippians saved; Acts 18 about the Corinthians saved; Acts 19 about the Ephesians saved. All of that is true, but for the early church, they understood that the emphasis was not merely souls saved or the healing but the discipling of all nations. God was working through merchants in the marketplace to extend the kingdom of God. Paul the apostle was himself a trader, selling his tents, expanding, and extending the kingdom of God; the tents were also a means of livelihood, but that was not the primary goal of his work and ministry. It was about the kingdom of God on the earth.

I would encourage each of you to take some time to ponder these Scriptures, meditate on them, and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you about the kingdom of God, and how you can be an active participant in “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”