We Believe In Jesus: The RedeemerSample

 Inaugurating the Kingdom of God: Matthew 12:28

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people longed for the day when God would bring his kingdom to earth in a dramatic way, completely destroying their enemies, and establishing them in everlasting lives of blessing. This was the day when humanity’s original mandate would finally be fulfilled. God would completely restore his creation, and his will would be done on earth just as perfectly as it is already done in heaven.

When the Old Testament prophets talked about this restoration of Israel, humanity and creation, they often called it the “day of the Lord” or the “last days.” They also identified the messiah or Christ as the key figure that would lead God’s kingdom in the last days. And according to the New Testament, Jesus, the Son of God, is the long-awaited Messiah who came to establish God’s kingdom on earth.

Jesus taught that he had brought the kingdom of God to earth in his day. For example, in Matthew 12:28, he said, “The kingdom of God has come upon you,” meaning that it was already there. And in Luke 16:16, he again taught that people were already entering the kingdom of God, when he said, “Everyone is forcing his way into it.” 

Sadly, many people in Jesus’ day rejected the idea that the kingdom of God had already come, because they expected it to be an undeniable earthly reality that would be acknowledged by all — an obvious and physical overthrow of the entire world order. But Jesus taught that the kingdom had come in a different sort of way.

This is what he said in Luke 17:20 and 21:

The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.

To be sure, Jesus hasn’t brought in the kingdom of God in all its fullness. He has only begun that work. As Jesus taught in his parables in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 13, the kingdom of God is like seed that grows over time, or yeast or leaven that causes bread to rise over time. In line with these parables, we might say that the kingdom has been planted, but that the day of harvest won’t happen until Jesus returns in the future.