"The Kingdom of God Has Come" Elder Bob Vibe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iKmKvY-8cg

The Kingdom of God Has Come

August 22, 2023

Elder Bob Vibe 

When God created man in His own image, God gave man dominion over all the earth and everything on the earth as recorded in Genesis (1:26-31).  Many theologians believe that when Adam sinned, man’s dominion over the earth was lost and that dominion came under the control of his tempter, Satan.  That is why Satan is known as the god of this world.  Proof that Satan became the god of the earth is revealed in Luke chapter 4 during the time that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan.  Verse 5 begins, “The devil, taking Him (Jesus) up upon a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, I will give you all this power and their glory, for it has been delivered to me.  And I can give it to whomever I will.  If, You then, will worship me, all will be Yours.”  Naturally, Jesus rebuked the devil and refused to give in to his temptations.

            One of the outcomes of Jesus dying on the cross as the sacrifice for all sin, was to defeat the devil to take back the authority and dominion of the earth.  The Apostle Paul wrote (Col 2:15) that Jesus “disarmed the authorities and powers and made an open show of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”  To put it simply, Jesus took back the authority and dominion of this earth from Satan and gave that authority to us, the Body of Christ.  In Ephesians, (1:22-23) Paul states, “He (the Father) put all things in subjection under His (Jesus) feet and made Him (Jesus) the head over all things for the church, which is His body the fullness of Him who fills all things in all ways.”

            Since Jesus knew that all authority and power would be subject to Him as a result of His sacrifice on the cross, He purposed to not only teach about the Kingdom of God, but also to demonstrate how the Kingdom of God would work in the hearts and lives of believers.  The kingdom of God was the central teaching of Jesus to his disciples.  In Matthew (4:17), after the account of His temptation by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus began His ministry by preaching and declaring the arrival of this kingdom by saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” When the earthly ministry of Jesus concluded and He appeared to His disciples before His ascension, He ended it by speaking to the disciples about the kingdom of God, as recorded in the book of Acts (1:3).  His preaching about the kingdom of God was of such importance that He said (Luke 4:43), “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 

          In John chapter 3, a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, came to Jesus at night and acknowledged that God must be with Jesus because of all the signs or miracles Jesus did.  In response, in verse 3 Jesus said, “unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was saying, so Jesus clarified what He meant by saying in verse 5, “unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  The world does not understand the things of the kingdom of God because they are hidden from them.  However, every believer born into the kingdom of God can see and understand the principles of the Kingdom of God.

The fact that the teachings of the Kingdom of God were at the heart of the Lord’s work is shown in Scripture, which also reveals that He spoke of the kingdom as existing then, and now; not to arrive at some distant time and place.  In the account in Luke (17:20-21), when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, He replied, “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 in our midst or within you.”  Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about their life, what they will eat, what they will wear, or their body.  He then tells them the ultimate importance of the kingdom of God by stating in both Luke (12:21) and Matthew (6:33), “Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  “All these things” referred to what we eat, what we wear, and the basic needs of life.

Jesus continues to emphasize the importance of seeking the kingdom of God by saying: “Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, your heart is also.”  Jesus continues in Luke 12 explaining to His disciples the importance of being faithful servants, being about the Father’s business as we wait for His return.  So, what is the message for us?  First, if we recognize that God’s Kingdom is within us, we should acknowledge that it is a treasure worth our total devotion.  Second, that devotion is played out in our being faithful servants, doing the Father’s business, in the same way Jesus taught His disciples by sharing the Word and ministering to those in need.

This teaching about the kingdom of God was a radical departure from the religious teachings of the day.  Jesus was telling His disciples that God’s Kingdom was in their midst, actually inside of every believer, and that it is of such importance that we should seek it first and foremost, not worrying about the needs of daily life because God is faithful to provide as we serve Him.  I speak these words and realize how much of our time is spent on working to supply basic needs and earthly desires.  Somehow, we Christians have missed the importance of what Jesus told His disciples about the kingdom of God.  Few of us make it the number one priority of our lives.

A question we might ask ourselves is this: Were these teachings about the kingdom of God mere theoretical principles, or were these teachings given to always work in everyday life?  As we study the teaching of Jesus, we discover that these are principles or laws that exist within God’s Kingdom.  They are real, practical, and are just as relevant in our daily lives today as when Jesus spoke them 2000 years ago.

When Christ came as the Messiah, He was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and the realization of the promises of God toward His people.  This is a central truth of Christianity.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians (1:20): “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘yes’ in Christ.”  When coming as Messiah, Jesus brought the kingdom of God with Him and He left tangible evidence of that kingdom in our hands when He was taken up and gave the Disciples the command to “make disciples of all nations, teaching them everything that He had commanded them.” (Matthew 28:20). 

The early Disciples understood their command to teach about the kingdom of God as revealed in Acts, chapter 8 where we have the account of Philip and Simon the sorcerer.  It states (verse 12), “But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”  In addition, (Acts 28:31) we have several accounts of the Apostle Paul explaining and declaring the kingdom of God.  Scripture states, “Boldly and without hindrance he (Apostle Paul) preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the teachings such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, Jesus made many promises about the kingdom to come, but He also taught the Disciples to live in the kingdom of God’s present revelation.  He told them to trust in God not only for their spiritual food, but for their earthly needs as well.  In teaching about the kingdom of God, Jesus was declaring that He had brought His kingdom to earth, that He was going to open its gates, and that He was going to explain how it works. 

One important characteristic about this kingdom that is difficult for us to grasp is that it is an invisible kingdom that coexists among a visible kingdom.  The visible kingdom is the earthly kingdom that is bound by God’s natural laws such as gravity.  The invisible kingdom is the kingdom of God that isn’t visible, but just as real, and even more powerful.  It is the kingdom in which God resides and is now in every believer’s heart.  Some of the laws or principles of the kingdom of God taught by Jesus include the law of unity, the law of use, the law of perseverance, the law of reciprocity, the law of responsibility, the law of greatness, just to name a few.

The people in Jesus’ day wanted tangible proof and evidence that God’s kingdom had come.  They wanted to see signs and miracles; they wanted to eat of the bread multiplied from a few loaves and drink the wine He changed from water; they even wanted assurances that their king would set up an earthly kingdom, ruling over the Roman oppressors.  They were just as ignorant of the presence of the kingdom of God as the servant of Elisha as recorded in 2 Kings chapter 6.  Most of you are familiar with the account so I will just summarize the circumstances of the event.    

During a time when the Prophet Elisha and his servant were out in the countryside, this servant woke up one morning and saw Syrian troops ready to close in on both from every side, and he yelled, “We’re surrounded.”  He looked for signs of God’s presence but didn’t see any visible signs until the Prophet Elisha opened his spiritual eyes and showed him chariots of fire and the heavenly host which were all around them, protecting them both.  As the prophet had said in verse 16, “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

Too many times, we are as blind as Elisha’s servant to what God is doing all around us.  The message of the Bible is that we can and should look from this visible world…a world that is finite and filled with impossibilities, to the invisible world of the Kingdom of God, a world that is infinite and filled with limitless possibilities.  Jesus spoke of these limitless possibilities when speaking of the difficulty of a rich man entering the Kingdom, when He said in Matthew (19:26) “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Again, in Mark, (chapter 9), when Jesus is questioned by a man who asked Jesus if He could help him by casting a demon out of his son, Jesus replied, “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Three of the apostles had a foretaste of the complete unveiling of the invisible kingdom at the Transfiguration.  What had been real but invisible to the Disciples, was made visible for just a short time.  The law, represented by Moses; and the prophets, represented by Elijah, were fulfilled; and the Son of Man (Jesus) came visibly in His kingdom, in power and glory.  Jesus was careful not to claim preeminence in this kingdom by saying that He only did what He saw the Father doing.  Even He was subject to the Father’s will.

During His time with the Disciples, Jesus became upset and scolded His Disciples often for not following His examples of the miraculous and understanding that the invisible kingdom was on the scene.  In Matthew (8:23-27), the disciples and Jesus were in a boat during a violent storm and huge waves were beating against their boat.  They turned to Jesus in fear of their lives, and said, “Lord. save us!  We are perishing!”  Jesus responded by saying, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  Jesus spoke just as sternly to Peter when he responded to the command of Jesus “to come” by walking on the water, as recorded in Matthew (14:22-31).  As Peter began to walk on the water, he became afraid and cried out to the Lord to save him.  Jesus replied, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Instead of believing that he was capable of walking on the water at the command of Jesus, Peter doubted, and began to sink.  Jesus was trying to teach His Disciples throughout His three-year earthly ministry to have faith in God and His spoken Word.

In Matthew (17:14-21), a man brings his demon possessed child to Jesus to be set free because the Disciples could not cast out the demon.  After Jesus had rebuked the demon and healed the boy, the Disciples asked why they were unable to set him free.  He replied, “Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible to you.”  A similar statement was made by Jesus in Mark (11:22-25).  After cursing a fig tree that had no fruit to eat, and after passing by it the next day, Peter said, “The fig tree you cursed is dead.”  Jesus responds with a simple, yet profound statement about how we are to manifest the power of God in the invisible world.  He said, “Have faith in God.” 

In the beginning of Hebrews chapter 11, we are given the definition of faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  It is not talking about natural hopes for things that are of the flesh or things for personal pleasure, but hope that God has placed in us for furthering the kingdom of God on this earth.  It is a hope that your prayers for the sick will result in complete healing; hope that your lost loved ones will become born again; hope that those who are in bondage to drugs or other substance abuse will be delivered; hope that loved ones in peril will be kept safe; hope that God will meet all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  It is a complete confidence and proof in things that are not seen with the naked eye but seen through our eyes of faith, knowing that God is always faithful.

As Christians, we know that having faith in God is foundational in our relationship with God.  We understand that it is by faith in Jesus Christ, that we are saved and justified, by grace, as spoken by the Apostle Paul in Galatians (2:16) and Ephesians (2:8).  However, looking at the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles in the New Testament, we will see that our faith in God is also the means by which we bring the invisible world of the kingdom of God into this visible world.  Throughout the Scriptures, faith in God was present at miraculous healings, deliverance from demonic oppression, and even raising the dead.  We are told by the Apostles that we are to live by faith in God, faith in the one who rules the invisible world, and not to live by sight or what we see around us (2Corinthians 5:7).  It is important that Christians grasp this in today’s world.  We are also told in Hebrews (11:6): “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him.”

The next question is this:  if faith in God is so important in releasing the kingdom of God in our lives, how can we increase our faith?  The Apostle Paul (Romans 10:17) writes, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”  Peter (I Peter 2:2) adds, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that by it you may grow.”  Scripture is very clear, in order for our faith to grow, and for babes in Christ to grow to mature adults, we need to feed upon the Word of God regularly.  Why?  Because the new creation, which is Spirit, must be fed Spiritual food.

The American Bible Society reported in 2021 that only 11% of Americans read the Bible every day, and another 5% 4-6 times a week, with another 9% 2-3 times per week.  In addition, 42% of Americans read the Bible less than once a year or never at all.  In contrast, Lifeway Research in 2019 revealed that among Protestant churchgoers, 32% read the Bible daily.  I pray that every believer would see the benefit in reading the Scriptures whenever they can so that their faith in God can increase and produce fruit for the kingdom of God.

Our faith in God should have its foundation in the integrity of God’s Word because God cannot lie.  His Word is Truth.  When we believe it, or put our faith in His Word, and then act upon what we believe, we will produce the kind of fruit we read about in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts.  Part of our privilege and calling as the Body of Christ on this earth, is to contend for His will to be done in the lives of people we meet.  The Kingdom has come!  Let us open its gates, through our faith in God, and pray its provision into people’s lives so that doing what was impossible in the visible world becomes possible and normal in our everyday Christian life.

Amen!