Defining the Kingdom – Part 3

It’s holding on to things that we think are accurate, things that sound as if they’re correct or what and how we think things should be.

We all pick up things either consciously or subconsciously from sources other than directly from God’s Word.

There’s a huge quantity of information available today that’s simply at odds with God’s Word, especially on the internet and doubly especially on social media and YouTube.

It seems people can get a large following so easily on these resources by publishing the sensational and pandering to people’s unwillingness to just pick up their Bible and check things out. It seems like these formats have become the new Bible Study format, which can be a good thing, but it’s up to each one of us to make sure that what we’re hearing is actually God’s Word. By that I mean the whole Word, The whole counsel of God, not doctrines built on a selected few verses, especially when they’re taken out of context.

This all fits exactly with scripture where the great Apostle Paul says in 2^nd Timothy 4:3-4,

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

Today, our study may put pressure on some of our preconceptions but we’re going to be looking only at what God’s Word says and although it takes study and effort to pull out the great truths of the Bible it’s always the first and last source of truth.

Numbers 23:19 says,

God is not a man that He should lie nor a son of man that He should change His mind.

So far in this sideline or interlude to our study of the Gospel of Matthew we’ve seen that there’ll be a Kingdom set up on earth, heaven on earth, after the horrific period of time we know of as the Great tribulation.

But what about the Body of Christ, The Church?

How do we, the called out believers, that body of people who have believed and trusted in the salvation of God through Jesus Christ, how do we fit into the picture of this coming Kingdom?

Well, one things for certain. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Body of Christ have completely different destinies.

The trouble is that its almost impossible to see these differences in just a couple of Bible verses. There’s a background, a jigsaw puzzle if you like, of which all the pieces have been readily available for thousands of years.

So, to understand the different destiny of the Body of Christ from that of the Kingdom of Heaven we need to look at those puzzle pieces and bring them together to form the whole picture.

The starting point is with something that not everyone’s familiar with, dispensations or ages. It’s almost impossible to get our puzzle together without those key pieces, the dispensations.

If you’ll recall, we’ve spoken before about the dispensations of the Bible, or time slots if you like. A dispensation is a period of time during which God deals with the human race in a particular way. It also refers to man’s administration or the stewardship of God’s plan of salvation throughout history.

For example, in I Corinthians chapter 9 verse 17, where Paul writes,

For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. 

The King James version, along with a number of others, translates this verse,

For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

In both cases Paul’s saying that the administration, or stewardship of this part of God’s plan was entrusted to him.

In Ephesians 1:10 Paul says,

That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth—in Him. 

Some other translations have the word “dispensation” here as “divine plan”. The overall meaning is the same.

Then we go to Colossians 1:24-26,

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 

Bible translators are about evenly divided here with the word dispensation and stewardship both being used, but the overall meaning is the same and that is that God has given Paul a ministry, a stewardship over a particular dispensation or age and that stewardship is a ministry to the Gentiles in the Body of Christ.

It’s very interesting to note that the term “The Body of Christ” only ever appears in Paul’s writings.

From Adam in the Garden of Eden down through to today we see these dispensations or periods of time or ages during which God deals with the human race in a particular way.

The Age of Innocence – Man and Woman are created innocent and enjoy unrestricted fellowship with God. This dispensation ends with sin and death as the man and woman disobey God.

The Age of Conscience – This is the dispensation where conscience guides man’s life and blood sacrifices are given to cover man’s consciousness of sin.

The Age of Human Government – is the dispensation of man governing themselves. Capital punishment is introduced, and man is scattered over the earth at the Tower of Babel.

The Age of Promise – Here God makes an everlasting covenant with Abraham with many blessings promised to Abraham’s heirs who believed and who obeyed the terms of the covenant.

The Age of Law – God makes a covenant with Israel that governed all aspects of life and exposed man’s sin nature and how impossible it was for man’s works to please God.

The Age of Grace or the Church Age – This is the present dispensation where God shows His great love and grace to man by redeeming him with His own blood and bringing in a new covenant written on the hearts of all who believe by faith. Those who believe and accept His salvation by faith become sons of God and become part of the Body of Christ, The Church, of which Christ is the head. As a side note God has always dealt with rebellious mankind through His Grace or we would have been wiped out as race long ago.

The Kingdom Age or The Millennial Kingdom of Christ – This is the dispensation that we’ve talked so much about in the last few episodes. The soon coming return of Christ to reign on the earth where He Himself will rule for 1000 years. Peace and righteousness will reign. It’s the reign of Heaven over the earth.

This Kingdom will fulfill the prophecy to the Jewish nation that Christ will return and be their King. We, the Church, will reign with Him.

Satan is bound during this 1,000 year period which ends with the final judgment of Revelation 20:11-14, with what’s known as the Great White Throne judgement.

The old world is destroyed by fire, and the eternal New Heaven and New Earth of Revelation 21 and 22 will begin.

The Bible becomes very confusing unless we recognise these portions of time or dispensations or ages in which God deals with the human race in particular ways.

To disregard these ages is like taking all the events that have happened through the Bible like the fall of man, the flood, the tower of babel, the reign of the kings such as David and Solomon, the captivities of Israel, the coming of Christ, The church, and the Kingdom of Heaven etc., and putting them all into a huge blender. After blending them for a while an unrecognisable substance is poured out and it’s no longer possible to separate individual events or see the importance of each one of them in God’s plan. Everything’s just sort of all lumped together.

We never see God working that way, not in His creation, nor in His Word. With God everything’s perfectly ordered and sequenced.

Now if we go back to our ages and see the Age or the Dispensation of Law, beginning at the time where Israel comes out of Egypt, we see Moses on Mt Sinai and God giving him the Law which included the ten Commandments which was the directions of God for the nation.

They were also given instructions on how to deal with sin, and how to approach God through the priesthood with sacrifices.  That was all part of their directions.  And as long as they maintained that God’s wrath didn’t really fall.

Then, after 1,500 years, their Messiah appeared fulfilling all the promises of God.  He was the whole reason the Law was given.

After 1,500 years of practicing the religion of Law, or Judaism, now God comes in with extra responsibility for Israel, and that was to recognise that Jesus of Nazareth was the Promised Messiah.

The Messiah promised to Israel!

Look at Romans 15:8 and this is the Apostle Paul writing some years after the promised Messiah had come.,

Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant, or minister, to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 

We’ve got to read this carefully. So, who was He, Jesus, a minister to? The circumcision!  Israel!  The Jew!

We mustn’t miss that.  He was a minister to Israel, and what was the purpose?

To confirm, or to fulfill, to bring to reality, the promises made to the fathers.

So, who were the Fathers?  Old Testament Israel – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then on up to David and Solomon and the Prophets, Isaiah, Jermiah, Ezekiel etc., etc.

Every one of them was looking forward to the time when God would send a Redeemer, a Messiah, and a King to the Nation of Israel to fulfill all the promises.

These promises were primarily this glorious earthly Kingdom that Israel was looking for.  Solomon’s Kingdom was just a little preview, a foretaste, of the glory that was waiting for Israel.

But they’d need to be obedient and believe Who their Messiah was when He came.

When Christ came should Israel have known who He was?  Absolutely, they should have!  The Old Testament was full of prophecy relating to His coming.  The miracles proved it. But did they recognise Him?

For the most part – no.

Let’s look at Matthew 16 verse 1 to 3 again and we see how the Jews were always looking for signs and then we see Jesus’s answer,

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 

He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Do you see what He’s telling them?

He’s saying, “You hypocrites, you can foretell tomorrow’s weather, yet you can’t discern the signs of the times?”

He was referring to His own presence.

Behind what the Lord is saying is that the signs of His coming were just as plain, just as recognisable as the red sky in the morning, sailors warning, red sky at night sailor’s delight signs.

They should’ve understood that they were now in the fourth of Daniel’s empires. The Babylonians had come and gone, so had the Medes and the Persians, and the Greeks, and now the Romans were there.

They were actually living in that sign.

The Romans ruled over Jerusalem and that was the number one sign that should’ve told them that this was the time to look for the Messiah.  But they didn’t have a clue.

They should’ve been able to foretell who He was and what He was doing on the basis of the Scriptures.  But they couldn’t.

It’s the same way today.  We’re living under the exact same kind of circumstances.  The signs of the times are everywhere but few people are awake enough to see them.

What’s the number one sign that points to us living in the end times and that Christ’s coming is not that far off?

Israel’s back in the land!

That should be screaming at everybody. The Jews have miraculously come back to the Land

After the diaspora, the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD when the Jews dispersed among every nation under heaven, they’re now back in their own land against all odds.  They should never have succeeded.  But they did!

They didn’t do it of course.  God did it!  Because the Word says, “after you’ve been scattered to every nation under heaven, you will return.”

That’s in Deuteronomy written by Moses 3,500 years ago and now here it is.  The number one sign of the times – Israel back in the land.

No matter how much Israel’s opposed and how much they’re hated, by every nation surrounding them and the repeated attempts of those nations to annihilate them yet they’re there.  Despite the hatred towards them from the inept and useless United Nations, there they are, prosperous and strong, because they’re there by God’s design.

That doesn’t mean they’re anywhere near that promised Kingdom yet. Nor does it mean they’re back in the entire land that was promised. Not at all!

They’re still as hardheaded and in denial and rejection of their Messiah as they were when He walked amongst them. And they won’t have peace and freedom from their enemies until after things have deteriorated far, far more than today.

They won’t have what’s been unconditionally promised to them by God until they recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah Who’s already come. Thankfully, one day, maybe not too far off, they will do this.

There are other signs.

The understanding of end time scriptures, although not spoken of much in churches, has become much more of a topic today than it ever was. That started to take root in the early 20^th century.

There’s also a massive upsurge in New Age philosophies and the occult. Millions of people, especially younger ones are coming under their influence.

Of course, very few people in the 1960s, 70s, and even the 80s could have imagined a world full of technology that’s capable of ruling the entire global money system and from a device as small as a laptop computer. Or an almost foolproof methos of personal identification that has the possibilities to allow or deny a person access to the necessities of life.

So now we see that Christ was the minister of the circumcision, the Jews, for the truth of God.

Now, to put our puzzle pieces together to get the big picture.

We want to see the Body of Christ clearly and how it will be called out from this world before the setting up of the promised Kingdom of Heaven.

To do this we’ll need to go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, because unless we understand Israel’s role in God’s economy or The Kingdom of God, we’ll never understand the Bible or our place, as the Body of Christ, in it.

Israel’s the key player.  They have been from day one, and they will be on into eternity, and we mustn’t forget that.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis were God dealing with one race of people. And it wasn’t a pretty picture. There’s hardly a single good point in the first eleven chapters. After Adam and Eve were created, the first thing they did was rebel.  We don’t know how long they were in the Garden before they rebelled, but they did. They’re disobedient, and they’re cast out of the Garden.

Then the kids come along, and one kills the other and then it’s just one awful thing after another.  It just kept getting worse and worse and until God finally destroyed all but eight of the population in the flood.

Then after the flood, God starts again with Noah and his three sons and their wives.  It still doesn’t get any better, because 200 years later they’re gathered at the Tower of Babel.

That was another great rebellion against God, with mankind establishing of their own human gods and goddesses and beginning to worship these idols, a practice that’s never stopped right up till today.

Then after another 200 years, where everything just continues to spiral downhill, God steps in once more and brings out one man, Abram.   And here’s the big change in Scripture.

From chapter 12 of Genesis, until we go into eternity, Israel becomes the focus of all of God’s dealings with the human race.

They’re at the core of everything.  And of course, Satan knew that then and he knows it today.

As a result, he’s been attacking that nation ceaselessly ever since, trying to destroy them.

Satan knows if he can knock out Israel, then God’s program for the human race falls apart.

OK, Genesis 12:1-3,

Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 

I will make you a great nation (which of course is Israel); I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; (And now here’s the promise that brings us, you and me, into the picture) And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Now let’s jump to Genesis chapter 15 verse 7 and we see the humanity of this man, Abram.

He was just as human as we are.  Gods just promised him all these things. He said to Abram:

“I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” 

Now remember, they’re already standing in the land of Canaan, and God says, “I’ll give you this land to inherit it.”

Then in verse 8 Abram said,

“Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” 

“How do I know You’ll do what You say?”

Well, God says, I’ll deed it to you.

So, you come down to the end of the chapter, verse 18, God goes through the process of transferring the title deed as the ancients did it. And we read,

On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates. 

God deeded the whole Middle East, from the Nile River to the Euphrates, to Israel. That’s the word of God. It’s His promise.

That’s what all the Old Testament promises rest on.  That this whole Middle East was deeded to the man Abram, and that it was to be the homeland of the Jew for as long as this planet functions.  And that’s never been rescinded. That promise is as real today as it was the day it was made; you and I can be certain of that.

This is the land from where the King will reign over The kingdom of Heaven from Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

So, to understand how this amazing dispensation that we live in today, The Age of Grace, came about which will then lead us to understand where we as the Body of Christ fit into God’s plan, we need to go back to the last dispensation for a moment, The Age of the Law.

We’ll look at Exodus chapter 19 where the nation of Israel has just come out of Egypt.  This is where they became a Nation and now they’re gathered around the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai.  Moses has gone up to meet with the Lord face to face.  We read about it in Exodus 19:3

And Moses went up to God, (that is up into Mount Sinai) and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 

In other words, the whole Nation of the Twelve Tribes.

Now God says in verse 4,

‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.”

In other words, He brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea miraculously, and then brought them down around Mount Sinai.

Verse 5,

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 

Now, this should ring a bell relating to Adam and Eve.

What were they to do in regard to that forbidden tree? Be obedient. And were they? No! It wasn’t the eating of the fruit that would destroy them, it was disobedience, rebellion against God’s Word.

Now it’s the same way with Israel.

If they’re obedient to His Voice and keep His covenant, that’s the Ten Commandments and all that’s associated with them that He’s going to give them in chapter 20, the next chapter, then they, the Nation Israel, will be a special treasure, a jewel above all people.

Here we see the Sovereignty of God declare Israel as the favoured Nation, the Nation that’s above all other nations in every category imaginable.

The reason God can do it is because He’s Sovereign. “For all the earth is Mine, I can do what I want”, He says.

Exodus 19;6 is the key verse.

And you (remember, that’s Israel) shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you (Moses) shall speak to the children of Israel.” 

Now, What do you need in order to have a kingdom?  A king!  What’s the king without a kingdom?  A King of Nothing.  And what’s a kingdom without a king?  Well, it can’t be a Kingdom can it?

So, you’ve got to bring the two together. Here Israel is promised to be a kingdom, but later in that promise there’ll be king coming.

Now let’s jump to Zechariah chapter 14 and it’s so plain it’s very hard to miss it.

Zechariah 14:9,

And the LORD (Now remember, that’s all capitalized, so that’s Jehovah, or God the Son, Israel’s Messiah.) The Lord shall (that means a day in the future from this writing) The Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,” And His name one. 

How could it be clearer? He isn’t yet, but He’s going to. He’s going to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over planet earth.

It’ll be a completely renovated surface of the earth. Yes, it’ll still orbit around the sun.  It’s still going to be functioning as a planet, but the surface is going to be totally renovated.

God Himself will Plow everything under and from it’ll come that glorious 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ on a renovated, regenerated, earth.

For those of us who recognise the power of God. For those of us that see His power and majesty all around us in every created thing we have no problem with this at all.

Let’s read the verse once more.

Zechariah 14:9

And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,” And His name one. 

What does “In that day” refer to? That time starting with His Second Coming to the Mount of Olives. Of course, this fits perfectly with Revelation 19 verse 16,

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 

 

Now we come back to Matthew were we see Christ appear at His first coming.

Before He appears, we have John the Baptist, the herald.  He’s going to announce to the Nation of Israel that their King is in their midst.

Israel has now been under the Law, Temple worship, and Judaism for 1,500 years.  Now the Messiah makes His appearance in strict accordance with hundreds of prophecies.

Matthew 3:1-2

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 

What’s he talking about?  The earthly kingdom that Zechariah was just talking about and over which the Son of God, Israel’s Messiah, will rule and reign.

It’s finally ready to come about.

So, now Israel is at a major crossroad.

Are they going to believe it?  Are they going to accept it?  Or are they going to reject it?

We can liken this to Kadesh-Barnea when Israel came to the border of the Promised Land.

What did God tell them?  There’s Promised Land.  It’s all yours, with all its production and all of its farming land and orchards and pastures, a land flowing with milk and honey. That means everything that it would take to produce huge amounts of dairy milk.

That would require fresh water and grass and all the other things that it takes to produce milk, and what does it take to produce honey?  Flowers and blooms and all the things that bees can use.  Well, you put all that together and what kind of a landscape does it give you?  Beautiful!  Productive!

So that’s what they were looking at.  But did they take it?  No!

In unbelief they said, thanks, but no thanks. And they went back into the desert and died like flies. How sad is that story?

But here, they’re confronted again.

The King’s in their midst, can they believe it?

No, they can’t believe it, and so they turned God’s promise down again.  The whole concept then of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry was to prove to the Nation of Israel who He was.

This’s why He performed the miracles – to prove that He was the Promised Messiah.

But Israel wouldn’t buy it and they rejected Him, they rejected their promised Kingdom, they just rejected it all, but most of all, they rejected God.

Now let’s move to the Book of Acts.

Let’s look at chapter 1 verse 6.  The Lord’s just been resurrected and spent 40 days in His resurrected body with the apostles, on the roadways of ancient Israel from Galilee to Jerusalem.

He was proving that He’s alive, that He was the Son of God with all of His power.  Even now, after the religious leaders murdered Him, He’s still able to be the King promised to Israel.

After those 40 days are over, they’re all assembled up on the Mount of Olives with Him.

Of course, they don’t know that He’s going to suddenly take off from their midst and go back to glory, but they’re talking here on the Mount of Olives at the end of the 40 days, and we read in verse 6 of Acts 1,

Therefore, when they had come together (that’s Jesus and the Eleven. Remember Judas is dead.), they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

They ask, Lord, are you ready to bring in the Kingdom?

Well, He couldn’t as long as Israel was in unbelief.  Because the whole thing is tied to Israel’s recognising who He is.  Otherwise, He can’t bring it about. Now in verse 7, Jesus doesn’t ridicule their question.  It was a valid question.  Look at  what He says.

Acts 1:7

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  

Today we’d say, it’s not for you to know the where and when.

Now, let’s go to chapter 2 of Acts.

The Lord has now ascended back to Glory.  He’s established with the Eleven that He’s alive and well and He can still fulfill the promise of a Kingdom.

It was a Jewish feast day, the Feast of Pentecost; and Jews have gathered from every nation in the then known world to come to the Temple for the Feast, as they did for all the feasts throughout the year.  So, we have this mass meeting of Jews from every nation and then we have the miracle of Pentecost.

Acts 2:5

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 

Now, these were devout according to the Law, remember. They’re keeping the Temple worship, the sacrifices, all of it and we need to carefully note that they’re from every nation under heaven.

In other words, from as far away as India and Persia, which is present day Iran, and from what’s present day Arabia and present day Iraq, which were Babylon and Syria and Egypt and North Africa.

They’d gathered from every part of the then known world for this Feast of Pentecost.

But they’re all Jews. Jews from every nation under heaven.

Next time we’re going to place more of our puzzle pieces together so the picture of where the Body of Christs fits in with the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven becomes recognisable.

Until them may God bless you richly my friends.