"It's That but Not This: What the Kingdom of God is Not"

Christianity— Way of Living or Living Way?

Hebrews 10:19-22 says:

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

Many years ago, when we lived in London, I had occasion once to go into a great department store. I urgently wanted a certain article and I was in a desperate hurry. As often happens under such conditions, I discovered on inquiry that the thing of which I was in search could only be had on the fifth floor of the establishment. Looking around for a stairway, I immediately started my hasty and laborious ascent. I climbed one staircase, then another, then another, then another, then another, and finally arrived, panting and perspiring, on the fifth floor. My feelings can better be imagined than described when, glancing along the department, I saw, a few yards off, a moving escalator, then rather a novelty, which, unknown to me, had just been installed. Standing on it was a bulbous old lady, who, a basket on either arm, was being borne effortlessly to the top!

That graphically illustrates the difference between a way of living and a living way. Which of these is Christianity? Well, actually, it is both! But if you ask me which it is primarily I shall tell you that it must be to you a living way before it can viably be a way of living.

Let me amplify this a little in three directions.

1. Christianity is a way of living ethically, but a living way evangelically.

“Conduct is three-fourths of life” (Matthew Arnold).

The two are counteractive in Christian experience. No one can exemplify Christianity as a way of living unless he first of all experiences it as a living way, and no one can truly experience it as a living way without exemplifying it as a way of living.

2. Christianity is a way of living individually, but a living way ecclesiastically.

In one sense there is nothing more privately personal than Christianity, and yet John Wesley was undoubtedly right when he declared that the New Testament knows nothing of a solitary religion. At the human level it is in the church that one finds the impetus and impulse personally to live in the Christian way.

3. Christianity is a way of living politically, but a living way eschatologically.

Napoleon, as is well known, placed the Bible in the political section of his personal library. He was right. That is where it belongs.

“He who thinks that politics has nothing to do with religion knows neither the nature of true politics nor of true religion.” (Mahatma Ghandi).

This is the paradox of the Christian’s position in relation to world affairs. He is to work for the improvement of things almost as if God did not exist, all the while knowing that, apart from the intervention of the living God, no real improvement is possible at all.

Ian MacPherson, Usable Outlines and Illustrations, Dollar Sermon Library Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976), 51–52.

Context of John Chapter 18

Judas, our villain of the New Testament has set out to betray Jesus to prove to the Zealots that he indeed is the Messiah come to free the Jews from Roman occupation. Jesus and the disciples dismissed to Gethsemane to pray as they often did. Under the backdrop of the night sky, Judas arrives with Roman and temple guards to betray, but to their surprise, Jesus steps out to meet them. He identifies himself, the guards fell back, self-fulfilled his own statement, Simon gets “his pound of flesh” by slicing Malchus’ ear, Jesus telling Peter this is his cup to drink. He is taken to the house of the high priest Annas for the first kangaroo court, while outside Peter, the disciple who would die for Jesus is busy standing around a fire denying him. These learned men and teachers of the law acted as inquisitors of Christ and his conversations, but Jesus was petty and told them ask those who heard him. Then, he was sent to Caiaphas, the high priest for the second of four such kangaroo courts. Meanwhile, Peter is still denying his Lord, and before the rooster crowed twice, Peter has fulfilled what Jesus told him at the table. Jesus’ arrives at Pilate by way of Caiaphas in the wee hours of the morning. Pilate sensed the plot and asked why they brought him and they said he was a criminal. Jews were not permitted to execute someone, but the blood thirsty Romans would execute a Jew for sport. Pilate agrees to talk to Jesus and asked if he was the King of the Jews. Jesus answered his question with a question, and Pilate stated that it was not him, but his own people that brought him. Pilate asked the two most important questions during his trial: (1) Why? What have you done, and (2) What is truth? Those two questions opened the door for Jesus to preach the kingdom of God to Pilate himself.

The Kingdom of God is not a Physical Place/The Kingdom of God has a Different Operating System

John 18:36: “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

Even here at this kangaroo court trial, an opportunity was presented to introduce gospel to the Gentile governor Pilate. One never knows when a moment presents itself to teach others about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not a physical place that one can say here it is or there it is.

The fundamental attribute of Jesus’ kingdom is that it is not derived from this world.

Kingdom (basileia) - this denotes the fact that God is king, i.e. the divine kingship, just as “kingdom” in secular usage implies “rule” or “government” (though “kingdom of heaven” is not merely a religious application of this usage but is an abstract construction of “God is king.”

“Schnackenburg argued further that basileia here does not even refer to kingdom but is “a designation of function (‘kingship’).”

The kingdom of God is not the same thing as heaven. We often confuse the two because Matthew uses the phrase kingdom of heaven. But Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience which was cautious of overly using the name of God and thereby inadvertently taking God’s name in vain. The word heaven is a substitute for the name of God in the phrase. Throughout church history, heaven as one’s final destination became the main focus of evangelism and salvation. Instead of hope being placed in the bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20), it was placed in a disembodied state after death….I’ll Fly Away…The ethical teachings of God’s kingdom can hardly be applied if it is only for when you die. Jesus provided Pilate the reason why Pilate shouldn’t be threatened by the physical presence of a kingdom. When the priest asked him if he was the king, he accepted their statement, so there was some plausibility in their accusation of Him before Pilate. Jesus’ kingdom is not a piece of land on earth or involved in earthly power and domination.

Jesus did not interpret the title Messiah as implying earthly domination and national leadership against the suzerainty of Rome; and this was the gravamen of the charge brought against Him. Jesus is speaking to the powerful, governing authority at the time. Jesus acknowledges that he has a kingdom, but that it doesn’t operate the same way worldly kingdoms operate.

World here is kosmos, meaning the system of practices and standards associated with secular society (that is, without reference to any demands or requirements of God)--”world system, world’s standards, world.”

Practical application: Parent’s rules, standards, and systems and how they differ from house to house.

“The rules you have for your house will not work in God’s house as your house and “His” house are completely different.”

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Worldly kingdoms are lead by the power brokers, politicians, and dictators, hellbent on domination and violence for their own glory. The kingdom of God has a different ethic. Although this kingdom does not have its source in the world, it is nonetheless active in the world. But since it is related to God, it draws its power from a source external to the world. It would not do battle with the Romans by means of earthly weapons. Jesus’ kingdom had its origin and strength external to the world, and therefore his followers would not take up arms to prevent his being “handed over.” Peter’s way in John 18:10 was not the way of Jesus. It is a task of one of transformation in the world (John 20:31) so that its citizens will authentically represent God or heaven here on earth.

Jesus’ answer provided Pilate the reason why the Jewish leaders were nervous and why Pilate should be unconcerned…it would not do battle with the Romans by means of earthly weapons. Jesus’ kingdom had its origin and strength external to the world, and therefore his followers would not take up arms to prevent his being “handed over.” Peter’s way in John 18:10 was not the way of the kingdom.

Context of Acts Chapter 1

Luke, the companion of Paul continues his writing to his friend Theophilus, and he shifts narratives to the resurrected Jesus. Jesus’ proves his resurrection over the next forty days, and here Luke highlights the fact that he is speaking about the kingdom of God. Jesus instructs his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He conducts the last earthly business meeting with the disciples at the Sea of Galilee right before his ascension, clears up minor concerns with two major instructions to “wait” and “witness” in verse 8. The angels clears up the confusion about Jesus’ return as the two men in white tells the gazing apostles that Jesus would return like they saw him leave. Peter, the leader of the apostles gathers the apostles and other disciples to the upper room for a period of prayer so they can replace Judas as foretold in Psalm 69:25

Psalm 69:25 ESV

May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.

The Kingdom of God does not revolve around speculation but around God’s purpose and timing…

Acts 1:7: “He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

The disciples who would become the apostles of the Lord Jesus still misunderstood the earthly ministry of Jesus as evidenced by their line of questioning.

Jesus corrected the disciples by directing them away from the question about “times or dates.” These are matters wholly within God’s own purposes and authority. During his earthly life Jesus had denied such knowledge even for himself (Mark 13:32).

They took his leaving as the beginning of restoring Israel’s earthly kingdom to power and prominence.

Church history also has a checkered track record of interpreting the kingdom of God, implying that Christians bring it about by their own works, laws, and earthly power.

Yes, the kingdom of Israel will be restored according to God’s timeline because the Father is the only one who has the authority to decide. These are matter wholly within God’s own purposes and authority. In denying such knowledge to the disciples, the hope in the Parousia is not abandoned.

Jesus did not reject the concept of the “restoration of Israel.” Instead, he “depoliticized it” with the call to a worldwide mission. The disciples were to be the true, “restored” Israel, fulfilling its mission tone a “light for the Gentiles” so that God’s salvation might reach “to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

The Lord’s return does not revolve around such speculation but around God’s own purposes, and those purposes, and those purposes embrace the salvation of the world.

The surest route to the Parousia is the evangelization of the world.