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Consumed with the Kingdom

I keep hearing Jesus say over and over, the Kingdom, the Kingdom, the Kingdom (52x in Matthew’s Gospel). I've never noticed how much he spoke about it. We must know what he means or we breeze through said texts with no notion about what he wanted to tell us.


In the U.S. when we think of a kingdom we think Disney, as in Magic Kingdom. We revolted against England to escape the king. We are “free” people. We don't want a king telling us what to do. 


When Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he was speaking about his coming perfect rule over his people. He initially spoke only to the Jews but then sent his men to tell the World. In Acts 10 the centurion Cornilus and his family became the first Gentile converts to Christ and that expansion of the Kingdom theme has continued to the ends of the earth. 


The Kingdom for Jesus was presented to the Jews over 2000 years ago and according to plan, they rejected it. Notice that I said, “according to plan”. It was actually according to plan that the Jews rejected the kingdom. If it wasn't it would have happened then and there. Though, in a way, it did happen then and there as mentioned in a previous blog post. 


For Jesus the kingdom was presented and won at the cross when he died. His death won the day over sin and even death itself. Strange but true. The Devil’s best shot at killing the Messiah was the cross and it was exactly that cross that won the day and gained the kingdom. Paul states in Ephesians 4:8 that Jesus”... led captivity captive”. John MacArthur’s note on this text states, “After such a triumph, the king would bring home the spoils and the prisoners. Here Paul depicts Christ returning from his battle on earth back into the glory of the heavenly city with the trophies of his great victory at Calvary.”


At this moment in the heavenly throne room Jesus sits enthroned in all of his Glory. When Satan is loosed for a little while at Jesus’ return the final battle will be a quicker victory than Tampa’s over the Chiefs. It will be no contest as Destruction will reign on all survivors. The kingdom is coming. On that you can depend. When? No one knows. But its coming. The question that you have to ask yourself is, “Am I ready to be a subject of the King?”
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