Now that we’ve looked at many of the kingdom texts from the Old Testament, today we’ll get into the New Testament and see what Jesus and the apostles taught about the kingdom. We’ll examine the titles of Jesus, a couple of his parables, some texts from Paul and James, and conclude in Revelation. In this lecture, we’ll restrict our focus to just those verses that speak of the kingdom as future. We’ll come back to the other kingdom scriptures in the New Testament in subsequent lectures.
This is lecture 5 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College. To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.
Notes:
My goal is to cruise through the New Testament and look at texts pertaining to the coming kingdom (Matthew to Revelation)
defining Messiah/Christ: the one God anoints to rule over the kingdom
- Mark 15.32 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
defining Son of Man: the one Daniel saw in a vision to whom God gave the kingdom
- Daniel 7.13-14 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
defining Son of David: the promised descendant to rule on the throne of David forever
- triumphal entry
- Matthew 21.9 “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
- Mark 11.9-10 “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
- Luke 19.38 “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
- John 12.13 “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
defining Son of God: same as God’s messiah (2 Sam 7.14) and God’s creation (Luke 1)
- John 1.49 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
- Luke 1.35 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy– the Son of God.
Jesus clearly believed in a coming (future) kingdom
- Matthew 5.3-5 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- “kingdom of heaven” is only in Matthew (32x) and is identical to “kingdom of God” cf. Mat 19.23 vs. 24
- this is as powerful as it is terse
- bottom line: if you inherit the earth, you aren’t floating around in heaven
Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
They [the meek] show by every word and gesture that they do not belong to this earth. Leave heaven to them, says the world in its pity, that is where they belong. But Jesus says: “They shall inherit the earth.” To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, the very earth belongs. Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who here have utterly renounced it, who
