The Impact of the Kingdom of God

The Impact of the Kingdom of God

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”… ²³ And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. Matt 4:17, 23

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record that Jesus began his ministry proclaiming and demonstrating the good news of the kingdom and announcing that the kingdom of God had drawn near. As we read through the gospels, the kingdom of God is a constant theme in Jesus’ teaching. Here are just a few examples:

• Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.
• Jesus told many parables explaining what the kingdom of God is “like”
• Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God
• Jesus told us it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom
• Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world

The “kingdom of God” was a central theme in Jesus’ ministry and it makes me wonder why we don’t hear more messages on the kingdom of God in the church today. I wonder if in part that’s because, living in a democratic republic we find it hard to relate to the concept of kingdom, it seems far removed from our daily lives. And if we were honest, we prefer democracy to monarchy, at least an earthly monarchy.

But we can’t really understand who Jesus is or what he came to do unless we grapple with his understanding of the kingdom of God. For Jesus, the message of the kingdom was at the core of his message and ministry and the gospel he brought was the gospel of the kingdom. As we continue our series Bracing for Impact, it seems appropriate to consider the impact of the kingdom of God as it invaded this world and collided with the kingdom of Satan in the Person of Jesus.

Jesus’ statement that the kingdom of God is at hand (or has drawn near) is such a powerful statement. All the power, glory, majesty, authority, and rulership of God’s kingdom was right there, right among them, drawn so very near to them, in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the King of heaven, and the fullness of the kingdom of God was contained in Jesus.

To understand the impact of what that really means, let’s go back to the basics. We in America may not think in terms of kingdom, but we live in terms of kingdom because just like we live our lives within the atmosphere of the earth, we live our lives within the realm of kingdom. And that’s not good news…

1. There are ultimately only two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan

I say ultimately because mankind has its kingdoms. There were kings and kingdoms in the Old Testament, there are kings and kingdoms today. But while there are earthly kings and kingdoms, no earthly king or kingdom is the ultimate ruling power in this world. Their rule is subservient to the devil’s rule. I say that because John writes that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). When the devil tempted Jesus, one of his temptations was to show Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offer to give them all to him if he would but worship the devil. He wouldn’t have authority to offer all the kingdoms of the world unless he had ultimate authority over all of them.

When Adam and Eve listened to the devil’s voice and disobeyed God’s voice, in a very real way they gave the rulership of the world to Satan. Sin is the domain of Satan, and with the entrance of sin came sickness and death, evil, brokenness, and all the misery we see in the world today. As sure as the earth’s gravitational pull keeps our feet anchored firmly on earth, the world’s rulership pull kept our lives anchored firmly in Satan’skingdom.

So while we here in America may not think in terms of kingdom, we live in terms of kingdom, because we were born as subjects of a kingdom and that kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. That’s the bad news. Now comes the good news…

2. The Kingdom of God invaded the kingdom of Satan to take back for God what had been lost

This past Wednesday, during his press conference, President Biden while warning against a Russian invasion against the Ukraine, created an uproar by seemingly giving Russia the ok to make a “minor incursion” into the Ukraine, a statement the administration later scurried to walk back.

Jesus didn’t come to make a “minor incursion” into the kingdom of Satan, he came to invade, to clash, to collide – to impact! – the kingdom of Satan in order to conquer, bind and plunder from Satan’s kingdom, taking back for God what had been lost.

²² Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. ²³ And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” ²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” ²⁵ Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. ²⁶ And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? ²⁷ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹ Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Matt 12:22-29

It says this man was “brought” to Jesus. He was demon-possessed -the ESV translates it “demon-oppressed” but the word means demon-possessed – he was blind and he was mute and his friends couldn’t do anything to help him, so they brought him to Jesus.

Imagine for a moment the torment this man lived every day. Possessed by Satan – tormented day and night by the devil. Owned and controlled by Satan and made to do things he didn’t want to do. And he lived in this private hell cut off from the outside world, unable to see, unable to speak. He lived in the dark domain of Satan and no power on earth could loosen Satan’s grip on his soul.

But Jesus didn’t confront the devil with an earthly power. He confronted him with the full force and power of the kingdom of God. Listen, can I brag on Jesus a bit? Don’t think, wow, Jesus was just one man and Satan had all his demonic hordes on his side. It seems lopsided and it was. There was no real battle. Jesus is the king of heaven and all the power of heaven resided in his Person. Jesus didn’t need his angels to back up his power – he created every angel. He created every demon too.

Jesus walked into the kingdom of Satan through the front door as a frontal assault on the kingdom of Satan, a full on clash between kingdoms, and Jesus bound Satan, incapacitated him, entered his house, his kingdom and walked freely around, taking whatever he wanted. And what he wanted were the souls lost to God by sin and Satan.

Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom and demonstrated that good news by giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the power to walk and leap to the lame, new skin to the leper, and words to the mute. This was the kingdom of God demonstrated and it was good news! Jesus set free demon-possessed people, including the child whose father was desperate to see his son healed, and the man whose soul was somehow so open to the kingdom of darkness that a legion of demons had taken up residence within him. A legion was the largest military unit the Roman military had, comprised of over 4000 soldiers. A lot of demons held this man. Jesus cast them out with a word.

All these events were clashes between two kingdoms. Jesus said, if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons than the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus said I have come to conquer and bind up the strong man and rob him blind, taking back what was lost to God. Taking back men, women, and children, precious souls who because of sin were under the rulership of the devil. The outward manifestation of that was often things like physical sickness or inner torment, but sin had stamped every single human being’s passport as a citizen of the kingdom of darkness.

Jesus came to change that!

Not all sickness and infirmity is demonic in its source. In this case it was, but in many cases in the gospels it wasn’t. We live in a fallen world that includes terrible infirmities like blindness, deafness, and inability to speak; cancer and malformations and crippling diseases of all types. The misery of this fallen world extends to mental illness, and hunger, and poverty, and other such afflictions. These things aren’t necessarily or even usually the direct work of the demonic. We live in a fallen world.

But indirectly all the misery in the world, from physical to mental to emotional to relational, is all under the domain of Satan’s kingdom and is the result of his governance. There is no goodness in the devil’s governance because there’s no goodness in the devil – not one molecule of goodness or compassion or honesty or love. That’s why the Bible calls his kingdom the “domain of darkness”.

Into that darkness, Jesus brought the good news of the kingdom! He demonstrated that good news in visible and physical ways but the greater good news is the inner and eternal work he did to take back what had been lost to God – souls. Precious, lost, souls. The outer infirmities that Jesus healed mirrored the soul infirmities that sin had inflicted on all of us. Once we were spiritually blind and couldn’t see God’s goodness or glory. Once we were deaf and couldn’t hear the truth. Once we were crippled and couldn’t walk morally upright in the image of God the way we were created to.

Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom and that good news is built on the strong foundation, not of what we do for God, or what God does in us, but what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We’ll get to what God does in us next week, but let’s marvel at what God has done for us through the power of King Jesus!

3. Jesus came to transfer our citizenship from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God

¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col. 1:12-14

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:32

Every person healed by Jesus would eventually grow old and frail and sick again. Every person Jesus raised from the dead would die again. One person wrote that the reason Jesus didn’t raise too many people from the dead (I think the gospels record four instances of Jesus raising the dead) is because it’s no great gift to have to die twice!

Sent by the Father, Jesus came to qualify us for heaven and to deliver us from hell.

When we lived on Long Island, for a number of years I worked for a landscape company in Southampton. There is a golf course there called the Sebonic Golf Club that is one of the world’s finest golf courses, designed by Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus. But before you pack your golf clubs and plan a trip there, to be qualified to be a member you need the recommendation of a member and a $650,000 membership fee.

The qualifications to enter the kingdom of God are far higher. In order to enter the kingdom of God, you must be morally and righteously perfect by God’s standards. If you think it would be impossible for you to save up $650,000 to play a round of golf, it’s a lot more doable than saving up perfect righteousness to enter the kingdom. God’s standard is not only perfect moral righteousness, and perfect obedience to His will, but it also needs to extend for all your life. Even if you could be perfect from this day forward (and none of us could), your past sins have already disqualified you from ever entering heaven.

The good news of the kingdom isn’t what God does in you, or what you do for God, it’s what God has done for you and me. He (the Father) has qualified us to enter His kingdom through His Son Jesus Christ. And it was His good pleasure to do so! He has delivered us from the kingdom of Satan and transferred our citizenship to the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of heaven. How? Jesus paid the price. He paid for our sins, so that they could be forgiven. He paid the price of perfect righteousness, linking his moral bank to ours, so that when God looks at our account, He sees the righteousness of Christ. We don’t earn entrance into the kingdom of God, but it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom!

The good news of the kingdom is that all who believe in Jesus and place their trust in him are freed from Satan’s grip, delivered from his dark, miserable, hellish domain, and transferred to the kingdom of the Son God loves.

Praise God for the impact of the kingdom of God on our eternal destinies through our Savior and King Jesus Christ!