Many
people have heard the term “kingdom of heaven,” but few really understand what
it is. While some believe that the “kingdom of God” and the “kingdom of heaven”
are referring to different things, it is clear that both phrases are referring
to the same thing. Jesus when teaching about the kingdom made no distinction
between the two terms but seemed to consider them synonymous. Throughout the
entire Bible, this was the central message! John the Baptist preached it, Jesus
preached it, and the apostles preached it. The coming kingdom of heaven is the message
that God wants to make known to every person on earth. The crucial question is:
Will you be a part of it?
A
lot of people think of the “kingdom of heaven” as heaven. And in a sense
it is, but in reality it is much, much more than that. The “kingdom of heaven”
begins here on earth. It began the day the “King of kings” was born, Jesus
Christ. We will not reach that kingdom in heaven until we “see” the kingdom of God
here on earth. Jesus stated, “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Jesus came preaching, “The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the
gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus taught while he was here about the kingdom of God –
and He spoke about it a lot. He talked about the way His followers could bring
heaven to earth. He even taught the disciples to pray “Your kingdom come, your
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Heaven is not spatially
determined, it is not “up there” while we are “down here,” nor is it to be
thought of in terms of time. We think of earth as now, that is, this life.
Heaven then, is later – heaven is what comes after death. The more we study
Jesus’ ministry the more we realize that he proclaimed the reign of God as
something that was “already and not yet” present. Throughout the gospels Jesus
proclaims the kingdom of God, sometimes as coming in the future, and sometimes
as a present reality. So which is it? How can we understand the apparently
divergent themes in Jesus’ preaching of the reign of God? Could it be that
Jesus simply contradicted Himself? Did he speak of the kingdom as present and
future without realizing it? I doubt it. It’s likely that Jesus proclaimed the
kingdom of God as somehow both future and present, and that He knew what He was
doing.
Jesus taught while he was physically here that the kingdom of heaven is
a silent, invisible, spiritual kingdom which lies all about us, encompassing
us, enclosing us, embracing us, waiting for us to recognize it. When we enter
the kingdom of heaven we recognize that kingdom, we believe it, we act upon its
reality. Jesus, in the Beatitudes, gave us the clue to entering. “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,“ (Matthew 5:3).
Heaven is not merely future, heaven is also present. Heaven is equally real as
earth.
Jesus told Nicodemus, a ruler of
the Jews, “Except a man be born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God” (John 3:5). When we repent of our sins, are baptized in Jesus
Name, and experience new birth through the Holy Ghost, we enter into the kingdom of heaven. We voluntarily place ourselves
under the laws and authority of the coming kingdom of God. “Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His
dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). So there is this sense of us being “translated”
into the kingdom when we commit our lives to God and begin living as He
instructs. Our primary allegiance is transferred from the kingdoms of this
world to God’s Kingdom. We are then subject to different laws (God’s laws) and
belong to a different community (the Church of God).
“But ye are come unto mount
Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant…” Hebrews 12:22-24
Jesus taught many parables that
he likened to the kingdom of heaven. We need to make sure that our description
of the kingdom is compatible with the description Jesus gave. Jesus often
preached about the kingdom of God—but what did He say?
Through the parables He taught about
the grace of God, and also namely the severity of God. This then led us on to
see the importance of obedience to God. Some people do not understand the
importance of obedience, because they do not understand the severity of God.
There is something else many fail to appreciate, and that’s the enormous value
of the kingdom of God. People in every nation may possess these true riches if
they enter into God’s kingdom. The parables that Jesus told reflect the great
value of belonging to the world-wide kingdom of God. Nothing is worth having, that would rob us of that place.
Jesus told two short parables
about the value of the kingdom, one about hidden treasure (Mat. 13:44), and the
pearl of great price (Mat. 13:45-46). The similarities of these parables make
it clear they teach the same lesson—the kingdom of heaven is of inestimable
value. Both parables involve a man who sold all he had to possess the kingdom.
The treasure and the pearl represent Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers.
And while we cannot pay for salvation by selling all our worldly goods, once we
have found that prize, we are willing to
give up everything to possess it.
The most important thing we need
to know about the kingdom of heaven is how we get there in the first place—and when Jesus described the kingdom, that
is what he talked about. (Consider the parables in Matthew 25) Through
the teachings of Jesus we can know how to enter this kingdom, how to live in
this kingdom, and how to work in this kingdom, here now on earth! When we
die and enter into heaven eternally it will not be unfamiliar. We will already
be familiar with the kingdom of God because we entered it here on earth. You
won’t be afraid of God because you came to know him, here on earth.
The “kingdom of heaven” is not
just the kingdom that exists in heaven, but also the reign of God over both
heaven and earth.
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