Lesson 2- Defining THE Kingdom of God

The first lesson in this series How to Identify THE Church showed just how relevant this study is in the modern world.  Now for the study itself, let’s get to the bare bones.

What is the Kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is a concept with lost meaning.  This phrase gets thrown around by the professor and the janitor so much so that few know what the kingdom really represents.  A family of three went to church one Sunday.  The preacher stood up and said he was going to preach about the kingdom of God.  The child envisioned a castle surrounded by expansive land as far as the eye could see.  The father immediately thought back to a Sunday school lesson which taught about Christ coming back to earth, setting up His kingdom in Jerusalem, and reigning for 1,000 years.  The mother simply supposed the preacher would teach about the church, nothing more, nothing less.  Any three of these visions may come to the mind of people when they think of the kingdom, but without considering the integrity of any single one of these views- STOP.  Back up.  Consider the Bible.

“The kingdom of God,” finds itself first mentioned in the Bible at Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God…”  Just prior to this account, Matthew says that Jesus, “Began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,'” (Matthew 4:17).  The phrasing in Matthew 4:17 is slightly different but the idea is the same.  Some suppose that the kingdom finds its beginnings here in the first gospel at the phrase’s first occurrence.  Here lies the weakness of simple word studies.  Looking up every occurrence of a word or phrase can be helpful, but that alone does not make for a comprehensive understanding.  Word studies are sometimes like a young boy in the weight room doing nothing but curls.  Any athlete or strength coach will say, “Curls are for girls,” realizing that curls in isolation do little to strengthen the whole man.  So we will stop curling the phrase “kingdom of God” and start with a well rounded exercise that will reveal the phrase’s raw and foundational meaning.

 

Back to the Basics

Psalm 103:19

The Lord has established His throne  in heaven

And His kingdom  rules over all.

Psalm 145:11

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,

And talk of Your power

Psalm 145:13 

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion  endures throughout all generations

All three of these psalms incorporate the use of synonymous parallelism.  This is a very common Hebrew literary device where the second line restates the first line in synonymous terms.  The phrases throne, power, dominion, and kingdom all share the same idea.  The prophet Daniel sums this idea up in one sentence when explaining Nebuchadnezzar’s terrifying dream.  Nebuchadnezzar was ruler of the entire known world.  Every morning this king would look in the mirror and ask, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”  On this particular night the mirror (Daniel) said, “The Most High (God) rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men,” (Daniel 4:17)  The message for Nebuchadnezzar boiled down to this: you only reign because the almighty God allows you to reign.  The book of Daniel in general was written to remind Jews in Babylonian and Persian captivity that God reigns.  In short, we learn this important definition from all of that-

the Kingdom of God = the Reign of God

This is the broadest definition of the kingdom of God.  There is a more narrow definition given in scripture that will be examined in the next lesson, but learn this concept before going any further.

Features of God’s Reign

From beginning to end, the Bible reveals at least five features about the reign of God.

God’s reign is Supreme (Isaiah 45:5).  Apart from Yahweh there is no God.  The earthly rulers that do exist only exist by the mercy of God.

God’s reign is Eternal (Jeremiah 10:10).  This is not a concept unique to the New Testament.  Before time existed, God existed, and He reigned.

God’s reign is Universal (Job 12:7-10).  There is no one or thing, dead or alive that can say it is not ruled by God.  What do Osama Bin Laden, George Washington, and the girl next door have in common?  God is the ruler of each one whether they submit to that rule or not.

God’s reign is Active (Revelation 11:15-19).  God reigns over you this very second just as much as He did Nebuchadnezzar.  Remember this the next time you take the breath He gave you and use it to sin.  Just like Osama Bin Laden, you will remember it was God’s breath the second your body dies.

God’s reign is Delegated (Genesis 1:26-28).  In the creation, God told Adam to subdue the earth and have dominion over every living thing.  God delegated His authority to Adam.  Subsequently, Paul reveals that the governing authorities of this world get their authority from God’s allowance (Romans 13:1-4).  This last feature is important to the next lesson (*hint *hint).

Perhaps your understanding of the kingdom of God has been transformed.  The next lesson will add some flesh to the bare bones and show how this concept leads in to the church.  If you learned something, please comment below, share the article on Facebook, and/or send me a message through the Five Minute Bible Study Facebook Page.

Next Lesson- THE church: a kingdom within a kingdom