The Kingdom and the Resurrection
Over the last couple of weeks the Lord has been stirring my heart to begin writing about the kingdom of God and its implications for the church and the earth at large. As I was contemplating doing that last night, I remembered that Jesus spent forty days after the resurrection teaching the apostles about the kingdom and I just felt stirred to spend the next forty days looking into the kingdom of God. What is it? Why is it important? How does it relate to the church? What are the principles by which it operates? These are questions that I think we don’t really search out in a deep way, and I want begin to tackle these and more in this next little season.
I think it’s appropriate, though, to begin with this realization—the apostles were being taught about the kingdom of God by a man who had been raised from the dead. I’ve just been hashing over that thought for a bit, and the implications are stunning. The very resurrection of His body was a whole discourse to these men about the nature of the kingdom. We handle the kingdom like it’s a normal thing that everyone has access to. But the disciples spent forty days discussing the implications of kingdom life with their king who still had nail piercings through His hands. Even after forty days of teaching by this resurrected king the apostles had not realized that Christ had no plans of taking over the Roman Empire. They had not realized what Christ told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this realm,” (John 18:36). This seems like an elementary statement but most of church history is full of us confusing the two realms.
This kingdom that we’ve been called to partake of is one of another order. Though it will resemble kingdoms we’ve seen it will be totally different. Speaking of the resurrected body that Jesus received and we will receive in the age to come, Paul says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory,” (1 Corinthians 15:39-41). The point of all of this is that the kingdom we will receive will have a different type of glory than anything we can imagine on earth. In order to rightly usher in and pray down the kingdom of God into the earth we must begin to understand what it looks like when it operates in our lives and breaks into the lives of the lost and dying.
I want us to begin to pursue the reality of the kingdom in our lives. But I want us to pursue it knowing that it will be incredibly different than anything else we’ve ever experienced. It will be of a supernatural order above anything we’ve ever experienced. Let’s not just get the words in our vocabulary. Let’s begin to experience the reality of the kingdom in our every day life. Let’s live life before a king who conquered death for us. Let’s pursue the supernatural aspect of the kingdom that is available to us. We’ll look more at what it looks like in the next few weeks—but our resurrected king has a promise for us—“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom,” (Luke 12:32).
I think it’s appropriate, though, to begin with this realization—the apostles were being taught about the kingdom of God by a man who had been raised from the dead. I’ve just been hashing over that thought for a bit, and the implications are stunning. The very resurrection of His body was a whole discourse to these men about the nature of the kingdom. We handle the kingdom like it’s a normal thing that everyone has access to. But the disciples spent forty days discussing the implications of kingdom life with their king who still had nail piercings through His hands. Even after forty days of teaching by this resurrected king the apostles had not realized that Christ had no plans of taking over the Roman Empire. They had not realized what Christ told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this realm,” (John 18:36). This seems like an elementary statement but most of church history is full of us confusing the two realms.
This kingdom that we’ve been called to partake of is one of another order. Though it will resemble kingdoms we’ve seen it will be totally different. Speaking of the resurrected body that Jesus received and we will receive in the age to come, Paul says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory,” (1 Corinthians 15:39-41). The point of all of this is that the kingdom we will receive will have a different type of glory than anything we can imagine on earth. In order to rightly usher in and pray down the kingdom of God into the earth we must begin to understand what it looks like when it operates in our lives and breaks into the lives of the lost and dying.
I want us to begin to pursue the reality of the kingdom in our lives. But I want us to pursue it knowing that it will be incredibly different than anything else we’ve ever experienced. It will be of a supernatural order above anything we’ve ever experienced. Let’s not just get the words in our vocabulary. Let’s begin to experience the reality of the kingdom in our every day life. Let’s live life before a king who conquered death for us. Let’s pursue the supernatural aspect of the kingdom that is available to us. We’ll look more at what it looks like in the next few weeks—but our resurrected king has a promise for us—“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom,” (Luke 12:32).
posted by Travis at 8:26 AM
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