The Kingdom of God (1)

“‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Ex 19:4-6)
 
Review
For the last few weeks, we talked about the relationship between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the kingdom of God. The entire story of the Bible can be summarized as the story of God establishing His kingdom in the world through His people.
 
First, God created Adam and Eve in His image so that they could rule over all the creatures He had made, but they failed because of their sin and rebellion against Him. But God didn’t give up on building His kingdom on earth, and He made covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, and others and reigned through His covenanted people.
 
And, when the set time came, God sent His only Son as the promised Messiah and Savior who would inaugurate the kingdom of God in earnest. Jesus did a lot of things on earth to show that the kingdom of God had really come with Him.
 
He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom of God and taught important lessons about it wherever He went. And by perfectly seeking and following God’s will and submitting His whole life to it, Jesus exemplified the most important principle for living in the kingdom of God.
 
Because the most important element of the kingdom of God is His will, we can’t live in the kingdom unless we acknowledge His ultimate sovereignty and authority over our lives and surrender to Him. That was the reason Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden. They disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 
Even though Jesus did many things on earth, the most important work He did for the kingdom of God was to die on the cross, shedding His blood as a ransom for our sins. That’s where the gospel of Jesus Christ, with its central themes of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the gospel of the kingdom of God, with its central theme that God reigns through His people, come together.
 
The greatest obstacle to God's establishment of His kingdom on earth is sin because sin is a rejection of God, a disregard for His will, and a disobedience to His word. Sin deceives us by saying that we are the Lords of our lives, not God. Sin causes us to put our will above God’s will and therefore leads us to live apart from God’s will. So, sin is the greatest enemy of the kingdom of God.
 
The reason Jesus came to the world and died on the cross was to set us free from sin. He achieved perfect salvation through His death and resurrection in order to make us God’s people who are purified, justified, and sanctified. By His precious blood and the work of the Holy Spirit, we can truly live for the kingdom of God, overcoming our sinful nature and weaknesses.
 
So, salvation is important, but it is not the end in itself. What we must know as Christians is that there’s a greater purpose Jesus wanted to achieve by saving us from sin through His sacrifice, which is to make us true people of God who seek His will and His kingdom first and live for it.
 
So, the kingdom of God already began in earnest with the first coming of Jesus Christ. It is coming now through those who believe in Jesus and follow God’s will as His people, and it will perfectly come true on earth when He comes back. In other words, the kingdom of God has already begun but it is not yet complete.
 
So, we now live in the tension period between the “already” and the “not yet”, which causes us to feel a gap between the kingdom of God that will perfectly come true in the future and the kingdom of God we’re experiencing now. It’s not easy to perceive God’s reign in the world in the face of the many evil things happening on earth.
 
Some Christians say that they don’t have to fight against these things because they can’t perfectly solve these problems, which will all go away when Jesus returns. Another group of Christians are active in social issues and fight for justice, believing that they can eventually build God’s kingdom by doing so. These are the two extreme ways to respond to the gap between “already” and “not yet”.
 
But, we should have a biblical point of view about the problems we face in the world and how we should deal with them. It’s called biblical realism. We shouldn’t be silent about the problems happening around the world, but at the same time, we shouldn’t think that we can perfectly bring the kingdom of God on earth on our own.
 
The most important biblical stance for us to have as kingdom people is to humbly acknowledge what we can't do, while doing our best to do what we can, no matter how small our actions might seem. This is reflected in Reinhold Niebuhr’s prayer.
 
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
— Reinhold Niebuhr
 
Even though we can’t solve the problem of world hunger on our own, we can at least support one child. 733 million people are malnourished. But, the world’s Christian population is expected to reach 2.63 billion this year, which means that if every Christian supported one of these people, world hunger would no longer be an issue.
 
Imagine how the world would change if everyone who calls themselves a Christian lived for the kingdom of God. The world would be more like the kingdom of God. That’s the calling we’ve received from God. We’re called to build and expand His kingdom in every corner of the world by fighting against evil, helping the needy, and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
I said that the three elements that make up the kingdom of God are people, territory, and sovereignty. The kingdom of God is wherever His people are, striving to make His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
 
As people of the kingdom of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we receive the blessings and privileges of that kingdom along with the obligation and responsibility to work for it.
 
If a country grants citizenship to a large number of foreigners, but they are not patriotic to the country and do not fulfill their responsibilities and duties as citizens, the country will not function properly.
 
Likewise, it is troublesome when we are given citizenship in the kingdom of God, but we are not interested in the ways, principles, and values of the kingdom, and we just go our own way with our own ideas, values, and dreams. But sadly, that's what's happening in many churches and Christian lives right now.
 
While there are many people who call themselves believers in Jesus and saved, it is difficult to find true Christians who are genuinely living as people of the kingdom of God, seeking the kingdom and God’s will first, and striving to fulfill their duties as people of the kingdom of God. They only want blessings and privileges while neglecting their duties. How can we call them true Christians? How would God see them? He would not see them as fit for the kingdom of God.
 
The kingdom of God is not just built by His proclamation. Even though God has ultimate sovereignty in His kingdom, He still needs people who devote their lives to it. God really wants us to be good, sincere, and faithful people in His kingdom.
 
He has given us everything we need to be that kind of people. To set us free from sin, Christ died on the cross. To allow us to overcome our weaknesses and to empower us, God sent the Holy Spirit as our Helper. To let us know His will, God revealed Himself through the Scriptures. In God, we find every resource we need to live as kingdom people.
 
So, let us not give up the fight we’re to fight through our faith in Jesus. Rather, let’s remember what great blessings and privileges God has given us and continue to live lives worthy of the calling we received as citizens of the kingdom of God.
 
Exodus and the Kingdom of God
Now, let’s continue to talk about the kingdom of God. We find an important first example of how God builds His kingdom in the exodus of the Israelites and their conquest of the land of Canaan.
 
As we discussed before, when God called Abraham, God promised to give him three things—a land, a nation, and a blessing. God promised that his descendants would be a great nation, and that they would occupy the land to which God was now leading Abraham. Abraham believed the Lord and went to the land of Canaan.
 
Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and gave him 12 sons who later became the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob led his entire family to immigrate to Egypt because of famine, and the people of Israel lived in Egypt for around 400 years, during which the Israelites were enslaved. God delivered them through Moses by sending 10 plagues and dividing the Red Sea. After the tenth plague, which caused the death of every first born son in Egypt, the Israelites were finally able to leave Egypt and began to make their way toward the land of Canaan—the land that God had promised their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
 
But the reason God led the Israelites out of Egypt wasn't just that they were suffering because of slavery. What He really wanted to do through the people of Israel was to build His kingdom in a land full of wickedness.
 
If God had told the Israelites to kill innocent Canaanites just to keep His promise to them, we would have a hard time seeing Him as a good God. An important aspect of the conquest of Canaan is the punishment of evil.
 
God said, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” (Lv 18:24-25)
 
What does the phrase ‘these ways’ refer to here? According to Leviticus 18, the wicked acts included sacrificing children in fire, incest, adultery, idolatry, same-sex intercourse, and bestiality. These wicked practices were pervasive in ancient Eastern cultures.
 
These acts were evil and unclean in the eyes of God. So God used the Israelites to punish the Canaanites, drive them out of the land, and establish in their place the kingdom of God based on His will. That's the essence of the Israelites' exodus and conquest of Canaan.
 
The land of Canaan wasn't God's kingdom; it was full of evil. But God was establishing His kingdom by conquering the land through the people of Israel. So, the battle in Canaan in a spiritual sense is God's counterattack against a sinful world, the expansion of His kingdom, and the spread of the blessing of salvation, where the problem of sin is solved and our relationship with God is restored.
 
This battle in Canaan and the expansion of God's kingdom are what God really demands of His people even now. God wants to build His kingdom on earth through those who refuse to follow the ways of the world and instead obey His commands.
 
So, for the Israelites to fulfill that role, their greatest need was to abandon the cultures, ways, and values of the world and fill their hearts and minds with the word of God instead. So God said,
 
“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God.” (Lv 18:3-4)
 
God also said,
“Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.” (Lv 18:30)
 
That's why God didn't take the Israelites to the promised land immediately after the exodus. God wanted them to have an identity as people of God's kingdom before they conquered Canaan.
 
God had them experience life in the wilderness first so that they could abandon their lives in Egypt. He also gave them His laws to follow so that when they took possession of the land of Canaan, they would not follow the Canaanites’ evil ways. That’s what the Israelites’ life in the wilderness was about.
 
Even though many things happened in the wilderness, the most important event occurred at Mount Sinai. When the Israelites arrived in the Desert of Sinai, God spoke to them through Moses.
 
“‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Ex 19:4-6)
 
This passage is really important because it covers the identity God wants His people to have as people of His kingdom, the role He wants them to play in the world, and how they could do it.
 
The Israelites are God’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. They are God’s possession because God chose them and brought them out of Egypt to make them His own people. He wanted them to be a kingdom of priests who would lead other nations to Him. In order for them to play that role, they had to be a holy nation that reflected God’s holiness through their lives.
 
There’s only one thing that God required of the Israelites to be His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. It is to fully obey Him and keep His commands.
 
That’s the most important principle that makes us people of the kingdom of God—obedience to God’s word. Only those who acknowledge God as their Lord can fully obey Him. And only those who know who He is can make Him the true Lord of their lives. That’s the reason we must never stop knowing Him, seeking His will, and following it.
 
That was what the Israelites experienced in the wilderness. God manifested Himself in various forms and signs. God gave them His law. God showed that He could provide the Israelites with all the things they needed so that they would only rely on Him. And lastly, God made a covenant with them with blood and His words.
 
God did all these things to let the Israelites know who He is and who they were so that they could be the kind of people He wanted them to be when they entered and conquered the promised land.
 
It's also what God expects of us now. Quoting from Exodus 19:4-6, the apostle Peter wrote,
 
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1Pt 2:9)
 
The reason God delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into His kingdom is to make us His holy people who declare His praises. What does this mean? Peter continued,
 
“Live such good lives among the pagans that… they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1Pt 2:12)
 
That’s the kind of life we’re called to live as Christians. We’re called to live good lives in accordance with God’s word so that those around us may be led to Him and glorify Him through our good deeds. I believe that’s how we should build the kingdom of God on earth by living holy lives in Him and bringing others to Him.
 
All right. We’ll continue to talk about the kingdom of God next week. Let’s wrap up with prayer.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for choosing us and making us Your people through Your word and the blood of the covenant Jesus shed on the cross.
 
We want to live as people of Your kingdom. We don’t want to be the kind of people who only seek blessings and neglect our duties. Rather, we want to be Your holy people who reflect Your holiness in our lives and a kingdom of priests who bring many others to You.
 
But we can’t do this alone. We need Your help and Your presence. Please have mercy on us. Teach us Your word and Your will and give us strength to follow it so that in everything we do, we may contribute to Your kingdom being established on earth.
 
We pray in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) What do you think are important virtues that people of the kingdom of God must have?
 
2) We’re called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What do you think that means? What are some things we need to work on in order to be these things?