IS FLUENCY MY GOD | PART 4

PART 4

YOUR KINGDOM COME:

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I didn’t “grow up in the church” - what ever that means. But I’ve been going to church long enough to know that the phrase “God’s Kingdom” is spoken more often than it is understood. It’s one of those stand-by, catch-all phrases that can be peppered throughout dialogue to make it sound more spiritual and well-informed than it is - and I know all of this because I’ve done just that.

But what does it actually mean to refer to “God’s Kingdom”? Is God’s Kingdom the Church? Is it a coming era? Is it a Book-of-Revelation thing? Or is it some distant, fantastical, literal place with clouds and harps?

Sadly, no matter how much I learn about the reality of God, my mind wants to jump to the latter description. Maybe that’s just the hard-pressed image that television has imprinted within me - but in any case, it’s too important of a matter to allow for so much confusion. 

As with all of these posts, I don’t claim that I can fully encompass a topic or perfectly explain a concept. I try to write with a “it’s more than this, but not less than this” mindset. 

Scripture is full of kingdom-related diction: kings, thrones, armies. And imagine how much that must have resonated with people during Jesus’s time on earth; contextually, the Jewish common folk in the region of Galilee lived in a time of confusing rule. Rome held ultimate authority over Judea - likewise, a governor was assigned to oversee the region. Under the umbrella of Roman reign existed, in the case of Galilee, a state-appointed kingship held by Herod. Meanwhile, the Jews were obligated to follow mandates made by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that can be compared to a local government. And to further complicate things, both Scripture and extrabiblical sources suggest that tension had grown between Jewish leaders and Rome. The common people were then left to make sense of their position in such a convoluted chain of command. 

But imagine the hope that must have filled these hearts when Jesus spoke to them about a coming Kingdom of God. No wonder the disciples were eager to hear more about it. Consider Jesus’s descriptions of the Kingdom of God: like a mustard seed that grows exponentially (Mark 4:30-33), leaven that pervades throughout flour (Matthew 13:30), and a master who pays laborers mercifully and abundantly (Matthew 20:1-16). This is an awfully gracious description considering that Jesus could have simply said “the Kingdom of God is beyond your ability to comprehend”.

Scripture speaks largely and often about the Kingdom of God. And not simply what it is, but what it will be. The religions of the world try to make sense of the world. But to follow Jesus is to worship, obey, and uphold a relationship with the Maker of the world - regardless of how much or little sense you can make of the world He has made. And in HIs love for us, He has given us His word. 

Part of that library of literature is the book of Revelation. Now let me clarify that there are many interpretations of the book of Revelation, many of which are based on dangerous, awful theology. Other interpretations are difficult to confirm or deny and, to complicate things, may only differ slightly among many variations. I say this to emphasize that you must read Revelation for yourself. And more than that, most people feel overwhelmed by such thick text. But instead of allowing the text to confuse you, pray that the Spirit would speak to your heart.

That in mind, it would be a daunting task to try to exegete the entire book of Revelation with my lay knowledge. So instead, I’d like to simply share a part of what Scripture says.

1 - Satan will be defeated.

Revelation 20:7-10 lays out Satan’s final defeat: “…the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there dat and night forever and ever.” But notice the word “them” in verse 10. “Them” refers to the “saints”, that is to say, the children of God. Make no mistake: if you are not running toward God, you are running toward the deception of the devil’s hand. We often think of ‘the devil’ as he is depicted in television - red with horns. In reality, he’s willing to be whatever he needs to be to be enough for you to turn from God. This excerpt from Revelation is merely a sliver of what it says about Satan, the beast, and the false prophet - and it’s beyond this post to go into detail about them.

But what you need to get from this is that the future for Satan is already laid out: he, like all adversaries of God, will be defeated.

2 - God will judge all.

“Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.”  Revelation 20:11-15

We Christians like to think that, because we are ‘saved’, we don’t have to own our actions as someone would if they were not ‘saved’. Yes, all who are not in Christ are already condemned just as Christ was condemned in the place of those He has saved - but you, I, and everyone we have ever known will stand before the Great White Throne and own our actions (dang, I could have made that really rhyme if I wanted to). We don’t often think or talk about it, but salvation and judgement are two different events. And as frightening as that is, take comfort in that Jesus has paid for our shortcomings. While countless souls will be unable to give an account before God that is spotless enough to earn salvation, those in Christ have been given the spotlessness of Christ and have no need to fear the judgment. Except for Christians still alive when Jesus returns, everyone will experience the first death. But nobody in Christ will taste the second death.

3 - Everything will be new. 

This is the part that so many people misunderstand. We often think that we live, we die, we go to Heaven, and that’s it. In reality, we don’t ultimately end up going to be at home with God. Rather, He brings a new home to us in which He will reign, He will dwell with us, and He will be the very light that illuminates the Kingdom (Revelation 21:23). Yes, at the present age, a believer goes to the presence of the Lord when absent from the body (2 Corinthians 5:8); that’s where we get the idea of ‘going to Heaven’ when we die. But there is coming a new heaven and earth as explain in Revelation 21:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

Theological hat now set aside: 

To the non-Christian reading this, I realize how this must come across. It may sound too fantastical to be real; but it is. Nothing I can say can truly convince any skeptic that this will all happen. And to anyone who is both skeptical AND a Christian: if you have believed in all the things that Jesus has done that earthly reasoning insists can not happen, what wager is there in putting faith in God and believing that He will bring about these things?

There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding everything mentioned in this post. Nobody knows every detail about the coming of the Kingdom. Let’s bring it back to the context of the model prayer in Matthew 6. The first half of verse ten says “may your kingdom come”. If you read the entirety of Revelation and then come back to this little line, you’ll have a much heavier perspective. But in the end, we still have the question of “what does this line mean?”. All that I’ve just spoken about is, in an ultimate sense, the final coming of the Kingdom. However, why would Jesus teach us to pray the bringing of God’s Kingdom when it is only God who can carry out such a thing? Surely He does not need our permission or our aid.

But consider everything we’ve seen so far in this series: “Our Father in Heaven / hallowed be your name” - We’re praying to God the Father and for Him to be seen as bigger and greater than all else. We’re praying with the mindset of “You, God, are above me and I am for You”. Perhaps praying for God’s Kingdom to come has much less to do with any ability of our own to do the final bringing of His Kingdom and much more to do with the submission of our own will to His in order for us to live out our time on earth as a citizen of a Kingdom that is coming — and less like a prisoner of the kingdom that is fading away.

[END OF PART 4 OF SERIES]
[POST MIRRORED FROM THESTUTTERINGCHRISTIAN.COM]

The Stuttering Christian