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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman One
Kingdom - Two Arrivals Jesus told Pilate that
His kingdom was not from this world, and if it was, His disciples would
fight to prevent His arrest (John 18:36).
From this I learn that Jesus' kingdom is non-earthly, meaning
spiritual. I learn that He and
those in His kingdom operate much differently than those in worldly
nations who fight for political primacy.
Jesus' kingdom cannot be seen with human eyes (Luke 17:20 - 21).
Those wishing to enter it must be able to see it through spiritual
eyes as spiritually born humans (John 3:3 - 5).
Jesus also said that His
Kingdom is near (Mark 1:15, Luke 9:27).
It was near because He, the kingdom's king, was literally near His
audience, many of whom would be alive to see its soon arrival to earth
(Mark 9:1). So when did the Kingdom
of God
arrive on earth? Jesus said that the
Spirit of Truth who lived among the disciples would soon live in them
(John 14:17). When that day
came, as Jesus told Nicodemus, the disciples would enter God's kingdom.
Prior to that day, though, Jesus must be glorified (John 7:39)
which I understand happened at His return to His heavenly throne (Acts 1:9
- 11). Just before Jesus'
ascent to heaven He met up with His disciples.
He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit"
(John 20:22). I believe this
incident was what I call a prophetic portrayal, that is, a physical
illustration that pointed to the actual day the disciples would receive
the Holy Spirit into their very being.
Prophets often used such prophetic portrayals to help illustrate
their prediction. The prophet
Agabus, for example, tied his hands and feet with Paul's belt to help
illustrate his prediction that Paul would be arrested when he arrived in Jerusalem
(Acts 21:11). The predicted reception
of the Holy Spirit into the lives of the disciples was realized when a
mighty wind, the mighty breath of God, filled their lives (Acts 2:1-4).
It was just as Jesus illustrated in His prophetic portrayal when He
breathed on the disciples. The
moment the disciples received the Holy Spirit was the moment they entered
the Kingdom
of God. It was also the moment the
spiritual Kingdom
of God
entered the world as was demonstrated in the Spirit-filled lives of the
believers. Yes, unbelievers
can't see the spiritual Kingdom
of God
(Luke 17:20 - 21) but they sure saw it demonstrated in the lives of the
disciples, but there is more. Jesus concluded talking
about certain end-time events by saying that when you see these events
taking place, know that the Kingdom
of God
is near (Luke 21:31). If the Kingdom
of God
came to earth as seen in Acts 2, when and how will it come again?
God's invisible and spiritual kingdom first came to earth in the
lives of the believers, as seen in Acts 2. God's
visible and material kingdom will come to earth when Jesus returns to
establish it. Maybe it's then
when Jesus will once again drink from the cup of wine as He predicted at
the Last Supper (Mark 14:25) which just might be at the Marriage Supper of
the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). As Christians, we have
dual citizenship. We are
citizens of both an earthly nation and the heavenly nation.
Our heavenly citizenship takes priority (Matthew 6:33) as was
demonstrated by Jesus before Pilate. This
is very important today when many claiming to be Christians are confusing
God's kingdom with earthly kingdom thinking.
To be clear, there is one Kingdom
of God, with two arrivals to earth. Until
its second arrival we represent God's Kingdom to all nations (Mathew
28:18) with our Holy Spirit filled lives that demonstrate a clear
distinction between earthly kingdoms and God's kingdom.
May this be true in your life.
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