The Next Chapter - God's Big Picture, Ch 7

The Proclaimed Kingdom

The kingdom of God is multi-faceted. It is the kingdom established from creation (the past), the kingdom of the present and the kingdom to come. God is sovereign over all of it, having established it in the past by His omniscience and omnipotence, presently ruling over it in His absolute sovereign authority and soon perfecting it in the faithfulness of His character and nature. This is a theological term described as the "already and not yet". God is working but, in a very real sense, He has already worked it all out with the outcome of all things assured in the most minute detail imaginable. This was a large part of the message Jesus brought to His followers. He brought the kingdom near. He is the kingdom and He will be the kingdom to come.

This gives believers a hope and assurance. Even as we struggle to walk in holiness, at times, we are being perfected all the while being seen as perfect through the completed work of Christ on the cross. We are imperfect members of the present, imperfect kingdom and assured our status as perfected members of the coming, perfect kingdom. 

We don't have an accurate timeline as to when this will occur. Yet, we wait in assurance and anticipation that it will, indeed come. The time between Jesus' ascension with the promise of His return and His actual return is known in the Bible as the "last days". We have been in the last days since the ascension. Only by God's grace is this time extended while true believers proclaim the gospel. Meanwhile, we live in present kingdom and are called to participate in its proclamation. It's really the only reason the church is here, to proclaim Christ and His gospel.  

This proclamation is done by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, which is given to everyone who believes. It's not given in part or in stages, but in whole (Rom 8:9). There are no "haves" and "have nots" when speaking of the Spirit. There are certainly "fillings", times when believers are supernaturally inspired to minister the gospel and point toward Christ. But, the Spirit was poured out on "all men" (all nations instead of just one), starting in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then the rest of the world. The Book of Acts is the record of how this occurred, starting with Pentecost, in Jerusalem and ending in Rome.

Furthermore, the Spirit is given to proclaim the gospel, convict men and bring glory to the Son. The Spirit works in total union and harmony with the word of God, incessantly working to call people to Christ (Eph 6:17, 1 Pet 1:23). We are given the Spirit to do the work of the Spirit which is to bring glory to the Son.

Realizing the purpose of the work of the Spirit is to evangelize, calling people to Christ, any claim to the move of the Spirit or to being filled with the Spirit would, by necessity, be focused on bringing the lost to Jesus. This brings into question many of the contemporary claims to an outpouring of the Spirit, to healing services, to prophetic movements and such where the audience is exclusively made up of believers. 

Another aspect of the present kingdom and the proclamation of the gospel is that believers are promised a rough go of it. We experience the joy and peace of being in union with Christ (1 Pet 1:8-9) but are not yet in heaven and will likely suffer hardship while here on earth (1 Pet 1:6), much as Christ did. The world is supremely uncomfortable with the truth as was so capably demonstrated at Calvary. 

So, the Christian life is one of dynamic tension (Rom 8:23), eagerly awaiting a time when all tears will be wiped away, meanwhile having to live in a fallen, rebellious world for the sake of the gospel (2 Tim 4:7).

As such, we should not be derailed by hardship (James 1:2-4, 1 Pet 4:12), but encouraged that God's plan is working itself out in exactly the way He told us it would. The hardships are a reminder that the world is lost and desperate. They are the evidence of our salvation. As difficult and painful as they can be, they are the constant reminder that we were saved through the pain and suffering of our Lord. His resurrection and glorification are the seal on the promise that we will, one day, follow Him and be free from the tension and frustration of this world and assume our rightful citizenship in the next.