Kingdom Come (Part 2)

Introduction (Luke 4:16-21)

English Standard Version Chapter 4

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

18  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In our last time together we started a series on eschatology, a series about last things. I pointed out that as we reached the end of Matthew 25, Jesus taught, that at his second coming, would also come final judgement, and that this runs contrary to much of the popular eschatology taught today. That popular eschatology teaches that when Christ returns there will be instead an intervening thousand year period of time before that judgement, usually called the millennial kingdom. And that the sole reason for inserting a thousand year gap between Christ’s second coming and his final judgement is to accommodate two verses in Revelation chapter 20, that describe Satan as being thrown into a bottomless pit and bound for a thousand years. And the assumption is that Revelation 20 is 1) chronologically after Christ’s second coming, and 2) describes a literal thousand year binding of Satan.

Now, I spent most of our time together in the last sermon arguing against that interpretation, and I encourage you go to our website and listen to that message if you haven’t already, because I’m going to try and abstain from repeating myself too much here this morning. But I argued that this popular understanding of Revelation 20 runs headlong into Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 that his second coming is marked by the final judgement. Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that there is any contradiction between Matthew 25 and Revelation 20, but only that our popular understanding of Revelation 20 seems to contradict what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 25. The premillennialist resolves the issue by simply inserting what they believe John is describing in Revelation 20 into what Jesus teaches in Matthew 25, they insert a thousand year period of time. The premillennialist argues that Revelation 20 should inform our understanding of Matthew 25.

The analogy of faith

Now, why should we object to their attempt to harmonize these two texts in this way? Isn’t this a valid method of interpreting Scripture, to use Scripture to interpret Scripture? Well, yes, what we call the analogy of faith, or the analogy of Scripture tells us that our method of interpreting the Bible should be to interpret Scripture with Scripture. And we do this because the assumption is that the Bible does not contain contradictions, therefore if we have trouble reconciling one text with another we know that it isn’t a contradiction within the Bible itself, but a problem with our own understanding of the text. That’s why the analogy of scripture also teaches us that when reconciling two texts that appear to be in opposition to one another that we must understand the unclear passages with clear scriptures.

So, what I’m saying is that the premillennialist wrongly uses Revelation 20 to inform his understanding of Matthew 25. That, instead, Matthew 25 should be text that informs our understanding of Revelation 20. And the reason being is that Matthew 25 is a much clearer passage concerning the second coming of Christ than Revelation 20. I pointed out in our last time together that Revelation is predominately a prophetic book, full of symbols and apocalyptic language, which can make it much harder to understand, whereas Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 is much more straightforward and didactic (i.e. instructive), it’s clearer. Therefore, I submit to you that it should be our knee jerk reaction to let Matthew 25 interpret passages like Revelation 20.

In fact, every other passage in the NT that describes Christ’s second coming, outside of the Book of Revelation, never teaches a thousand year reign of Christ between his second coming and the final judgement. The premillennialist has to infer it, he has to insert it, based on his prior understanding of Revelation 20. Therefore, my argument is that we should reconsider our understanding of Revelation 20, rather than our understanding of every other NT text that describes Jesus’ second coming. I’m arguing that these other texts should inform our understanding of Revelation 20.

NT teaching on the second coming

Let me give you just a couple of examples. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:22-25. Now, here in chapter 15, the Apostle Paul is countering the assertion that there will be no future resurrection of the dead, and as he makes his argument he refers to the events surrounding Jesus’ second coming, he says there in verse 22,

1 Corinthians 15:22–25 (ESV)

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

Now, if you take off your premillennial glasses which assume a thousand year reign after his coming then you only see two events, his first coming and his second coming, and when he comes the second time then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to his Father, for in the meantime he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet.

And then turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. Here the Apostle Peter describes the day of the Lord, at his second coming. Again, notice how this event is described and what activities are associated with Jesus’ second coming. Read with me starting there in verse 10,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Then read verse 13,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So, in Peter’s mind the second coming will be 1) unexpected (like a thief), 2) will be immediately followed by the heavens and the earth passing away, and 3) all of our works being exposed (the idea here, of course, is judgement, that we’ll all be held accountable for what we’ve done). Again, Peter does not imply any sort of thousand year period between Christ’s coming and the judgement, when the heavens and earth pass away. And he doesn’t point us to look forward to a thousand year reign of Christ on the earth, but rather he points us to the promise of a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

Kingdom inaugurated

In fact, back in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul indicated that when the end comes that he’ll deliver the kingdom over to his Father, so rather than the kingdom of God being inaugurated at Christ’s second coming, the kingdom will be consummated, it’ll be made complete at his second coming. The kingdom will be handed over to his Father at his second coming, not inaugurated. Which brings us to my next point, that the kingdom of God will not be inaugurated at Christ’s second coming, but rather the kingdom of God was inaugurated at his first coming. That the binding of Satan in Revelation 20 is descriptive of what happened in the heavens at Christ’s first coming. The binding of Satan from deceiving the nations is not a future event to look forward to, but rather a present reality that renders the kingdom of heaven unstoppable today.

And while the binding of Satan is not total, it’s such that the kingdom of heaven, which began like the smallest of seeds, a mustard seed, has grown to become the largest of the garden plants. Thousands of years later we can see the expanse of God’s kingdom throughout the world, that it has reached nearly every corner of the world and outlasted every earthly kingdom that has opposed it.

And as I said at the outset of this series, my argument is that the nature of the kingdom is at first, and primarily spiritual. That the thousand years described in Revelation 20 is symbolic of a large, undefined period of time, known only to our Father in heaven. However, I’m not arguing that the kingdom of heaven will remain spiritual, like Peter we look forward to his promise of a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. While the kingdom is of a spiritual nature today, we look forward to its consummation at Christ’s return, when that same kingdom will be made manifest upon the earth.

Now, I understand, if you’ve never heard this argument before, the idea of the millennial kingdom as a spiritual kingdom can seem altogether strange, in fact, some of you might be wondering right now if I’ve lost my marbles. As though, asserting that the millennial kingdom is spiritual somehow borders on denying it altogether.

But I ask that you consider with me, how Jesus and the rest of the NT describes the kingdom of heaven. Now, I’m sure most of you will be very family with most of these passages, but I want to you consider them in light of what I’m arguing, that the millennial kingdom was inaugurated at Christ’s first coming.

Kingdom of heaven is at hand

I’m sure you recall in Matthew chapter 3 when John the Baptist comes preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and what does he say? He says,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Then, how does Matthew and Mark describe Jesus at the beginning of his ministry? Well, in Matthew 4:17 he says,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Then, in Mark 1:14-15 we’re told that,

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Then, later in Matthew chapter 10, when Jesus sends out his disciples, he instructs them by saying,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

“Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.

And my point is this, that in a very real and present sense we’re taught that the first coming of Christ marked the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven.

Kingdom of God has come upon you

In fact, this was part of the significance behind his miracles, that they manifested the immediate presence of the kingdom of heaven, breaking into the natural world.

When Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of casting out demons by the power of Satan, do you remember how he responded to them? He said in Matthew 12:27-28 that,

English Standard Version Chapter 12

if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

You see, the significance of Jesus performing the miracles that he did was that they were evidence that the Scriptures had been fulfilled, that the kingdom had come.

In Luke 4:16-21 at the outset of Jesus ministry we’re told that,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

18  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

then in verse 21,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Do you feel the weight of what Jesus said here? You see, it’s important to realize that Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 61, a well known messianic text that described the ministry of the future Messiah. It described the things that he would do. That he would proclaim good news to the poor, that he would proclaim liberty to the captives, that he would recover the sight of the blind, and set at liberty those who were oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And then Jesus goes on to tell those in the synagogue that, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In other words, the Messiah has come, the son of David, the one who would sit on his throne has come. The one who would proclaim liberty to the captives, and set free those who are oppressed. And we know that at Christ’s ascension, after his resurrection, he ascended to the right hand of the Father to sit on his throne. That Jesus is reigning even now from heaven in the hearts of his people.

And while he was on earth his miracles, especially his exorcisms, were a manifestation of the kingdom of heaven invading “the realm of Satan to deal him a preliminary but decisive defeat.” (George Ladd, The Presence of the Future, p. 151)

Not an earthly kingdom

We talk often about how the Jews missed it, that they missed it, in part, because they were looking for a mere earthly kingdom, that the Jews were more concerned with being liberated from Rome than from the kingdom of darkness. Theologian, N.T. Wright, wrote, that to the Jews “if Pilate was still governing Judea, then the kingdom had not come. If the Temple was not rebuilt, then the kingdom had not come.” They had mere earthly expectations for the kingdom of God and its purposes.

Pastor Jeffrey Johnson rightly points out in one of his books that Jesus “was not interested in going to war with ‘flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’” (Jeffrey D. Johnson, The Five Points of Amillennialism, p. 65) In other words, Jesus came to face down the devil, that great red dragon of Revelation 12, not Cesar.

I love how Paul put it in Colossians 2:13-15,

Colossians 2:13–15 (ESV)

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the [demonic] rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [the cross].

And this is why the kingdom of heaven is first and foremost spiritual, because the curse of death is not first and foremost a physical problem. In the Garden of Eden, physical death was a result of spiritual death, therefore, to remedy the curse of death, one must first remedy our spiritual condition, which is why one must be born again (or born from above), resurrected unto spiritual life, then, and only then can physical death be destroyed. As the Apostle Paul pointed out in his letter to the Corinthians, that at Christ’s second coming “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26) This is why the spiritual aspect of the kingdom has come first, and then later the new heavens and earth. It’s why Jesus refused to be made an earthly king in John 6:15 when,

English Standard Version Chapter 6

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Spiritual kingdom

When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees in Luke 17:20 when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them,

English Standard Version Chapter 17

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

The prophet Daniel in Daniel 2:45 describes God’s kingdom as “a kingdom that will never be destroyed” and as “a stone cut from a mountain by no human hand.”

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 14:17 that,

English Standard Version Chapter 14

the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told Nicodemus, a Pharisee, in John chapter 3 that,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And Jesus would go on to say that,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You see, the kingdom of God is not built with human hands, it didn’t come in ways that can be observed, yet the kingdom is in our midst, vicariously through God’s people and the preaching of the Gosepl. For unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God, nor can he enter it.

I love Paul’s description of our salvation in Colossians 1:13, he says that God,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And in Philippians 3:20 he says that,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

And what I want you to see is that, even in this present evil age, Jesus is building his kingdom one soul at a time. Jeff Johnson described this well when he said in one of his books, that, “while the nations of the world are waging war against God’s anointed, God’s anointed are building His kingdom in their very midst. From every nation and people group, Christ is robbing Satan of his prisoners.” (Jeffrey Johnson, The Five Points of Amillennialism, p.68)

Remember what Jesus said back in Luke 4, while at the synagogue in Nazareth, when he read Isaiah 61,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

18  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

and

English Standard Version Chapter 4

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Gospel of the Kingdom, the greatest sign

You see, the Gospel is the greatest sign that the kingdom has come. That this is the year of the Lord’s favor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and good news to the poor. The forgiveness of sin is offered and guaranteed now because the kingdom has come.

That we have been given the keys to the kingdom, to preach the Gospel, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us, and that Jesus is with us always, even to the end of the age. The coming of the kingdom and Jesus’ death and resurrection are the grounds for his authority to send his disciples into all the world.

Ambassadors and aliens

The Apostle Paul also tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that we are “ambassadors for Christ,” that God makes his appeal through us. An ambassador is a diplomat sent by a nation as its official representative to a foreign country. Therefore, when we proclaim the gospel we’re representing Christ and the kingdom of heaven. We are the kingdom’s official ambassadors.

This is also why the Bible describes us as aliens and sojourners on this earth, because we’re citizens of a different kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world, a heavenly kingdom. And even now as we gather for worship on the Lord’s day, we become like an embassy of heaven, where a small portion of kingdom is represented upon the earth.

The kingdom is also made manifest as we submit our lives to Christ. Our obedience to our Lord bears witness to the kingdom of heaven. Our obedience to our king bears witness to the kingdom’s existence.

Conclusion

And the reality that the kingdom of heaven has come is powerful. It should instill within us hope and courage, knowing that our Lord reigns, that the devil has suffered a mortal blow. That though the kingdoms of this earth seek to destroy us, their efforts will fail. The kingdom of heaven has no walls or gates to topple, it’s a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, it’s a kingdom that has sustained even the most dangerous of earthly attacks and yet it still stands, and yet it grows, leaving not a single nation untouched by its reach.

Prayer

Lord, help us to see the grandeur of our redemption, the beautiful plan of salvation, to see the great lengths you have taken to redeem us. Thank you for giving us books like Revelation where we can look behind the curtain and see the great dragon thrown down, that the salvation and the power and kingdom of our God and the authority the Christ have come. Give us boldness and courage to be your witnesses on the earth. Give us courage to face hard circumstances, give us hope despite circumstances that seem hopeless. Amen.