THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND

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For three years Jesus had preached that the kingdom was at hand.  However, after three years of preaching, the kingdom had not come.  When the Pharisees attacked Jesus and demanded to know when it would come Jesus told them where and  how it would come.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:20-21).

The kingdom of God was nothing like what the Pharisees imagined.  They were looking for a world ruling physical kingdom like the nation of Rome which would fight and conquer Rome and rule the world.  Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world.  There are only two worlds–God’s and man’s.  If Jesus’ kingdom is not of this physical material world, it must be of the eternal spirit world.  His servants were not called to fight a physical battle, but a spiritual battle against Satan and all spiritual wickedness (Eph. 6:12).  Paul was fighting the same spiritual battle.  He said “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling dowan of strong holds” (2 Cor. 10:3-4).  The kingdom of God is not something that could be seen (observed) with physical eyes.  Jesus said “…The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). By this we understand the kingdom of God can not be a physical kingdom.  It is eternal and thus can not be physical, for “. . . the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).  Daniel foretold there would be no end to the kingdom God would set up during the Roman rule.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever  (Dan. 2:44).

God informs us the earth itself is not eternal (2 Pet. 3:7, 10-13). The angel Gabriel predicted there would be no end to Jesus kingdom (Luke 1:30-33).  His kingdom must be an unseen spiritual kingdom for no physical kingdom can be eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).

Physical kingdoms are made up of physical bodies, physical laws and physical places which will be destroyed.  God’s eternal kingdom is made up of souls, spiritual laws and spiritual places which will never be destroyed.  The stone was cut out of the mountain without hands (Dan. 2:34).  God, not man, set up this kingdom.  God’s kingdom “shall never be destroyed . . . but it shall stand for ever” (Dan. 2:44).

The King (Messiah, Christ) of the Kingdom

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Some confess that “Jesus is the Christ” but do not fully understand what they are confessing.  The Bible defines the words Messiah and Christ as being the same thing.  John translated the word Messiah when he recorded Andrew as informing Peter, “We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ” (John 1:41).  To the Jews, the words Christ (Greek) and Messiah (Hebrew) were literally translated “the anointed one” which was another word for a king.  Jewish kings were crowned by being anointed.  Samuel anointed Saul and David as kings by using the oil of anointing.  When he was going to ‘anoint’ David as king in the place of king Saul, he saw Eliab and said, “surely the Lord’s anointed is before him” (1 Sam. 16:6). David referred to king Saul as the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam. 24:5,6). Thus the Messiah or Christ was the king of the kingdom which God had promised to set up.  The scriptures identify these two words together.

If the Jews could find the king, (the Messiah, the Christ), they could find the kingdom. When the chief priests asked if Jesus were the Christ, they wanted to know if he were the king of the kingdom of God (Luke 22:67).  They did not believe his confession that he was the Christ, the king of Israel.  However, when they sought to justify themselves for wanting to crucify Christ, they accused him of making himself king of a kingdom that was seeking to destroy the Roman government.  Jesus told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36).  Pilate understood that Jesus was no threat to the Roman government.  He then put the sign over Christ that he was the King of the Jews (Luke 23:38).  Jesus confessed that he was the king (Matt. 27:11).

WORLD RULING KINGDOMS

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Kingdom Image Metal Nation Reigned Reference
First Richest Head gold Babylon 606 BC to536 BC Dan 2:38
Second Inferior Shoulders silver Medo-Persia 536 BCto329 BC Dan 2:39Dan 8:20
Third Thighs brass Greece 329 BCto55 C Dan 2:39Dan 8:21
FourthCruel LegsFeet + Toes ironiron + clay Rome 55 BC to no later than 475 AD Dan 2:40
Fifth Love Stone became a mountain stone God’s Kingdom Began to grow in 33 AD    NO End Dan 2:44 

THE KINGDOM PREDICTED

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The prediction of God’s kingdom is most clearly described in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth (Dan. 2:31-35).

The great image was totally destroyed by the stone that was cut out without hands.  The entire image was carried away by the wind and the stone grew into a great mountain and filled the entire earth. Daniel gave the interpretation.  The image represented four kingdoms “which shall bear rule over all the earth.”  The stone cut out without hands is God’s kingdom.  God’s kingdom destroyed the four kingdoms that bore rule over all the earth and became a mountain which filled the whole earth.  Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, the first of those four kingdoms which ruled the world.  Nebuchadnezzar ruled the world in (606 BC).

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise (Dan. 2:39-40).

We know the second and third kingdoms which ruled the world were the Medo-Persia empire (536 BC) and the Grecian empire which began in 329 BC under Alexander the Great (Dan. 8:20,21).   The fourth kingdom was Rome which ruled the world from 55 BC to 475 AD.  God promised that during the reign of this fourth kingdom (Rome) that he would set up his eternal kingdom that would never be destroyed.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure (Dan. 2:44-45).

The stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, was God’s kingdom.  His kingdom would break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms – Chaldea, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.  This is the reason that the Jews were anxious for the kingdom to come.  Rome began to rule the world 55 years before Jesus was born.  It was a very cruel oppressive ruling empire which the Jews bitterly hated.  When Jesus foretold that the kingdom was at hand, the Jews were ready to escape from Rome’s oppressive hand.  They were looking for the king (Messiah, Christ) of the kingdom.

Where is the Kingdom?

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John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2), the apostles (Matt. 10:7) and Jesus (Matt. 4:17), all predicted that “the kingdom of heaven was at hand.”  Jesus told some of his disciples they would not die till they had seen the kingdom of God come.   “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1). The expression ‘at hand’ indicates a short time.  It is supremely sad that most believe Jesus’ prediction failed.  Moses said:

And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him (Deut. 18:21-23).

If Jesus’ prediction failed, he is a false prophet. If he were not wrong, then the kingdom has already come. His prediction did not fail.  The kingdom came in the lifetime of some of those who were standing there as he predicted.  If the kingdom came, why do men not find it?  Most Christians, like the Jews, are still looking for the kingdom.  Strange, but most believe Jesus is the king of the kingdom, and they believe he has been a king for 2000 years, but with no citizens to be king over!  What a pitiful king that would be!  But Jesus does have citizens in his kingdom.  Paul testified that the kingdom had already come. He said that God: “… hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:13).  Paul and the Colossians had been translated into the kingdom of Christ.  The apostle John testifies: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9).  The kingdom must have come because Paul, John and the Colossians were in it. Where is the kingdom now and when did it come?