The Kingdom of God

Note: “I AM” is the English translation of the Hebrew name of God (Ex. 3.14), and that is  the name I use when it occurs in the Old Testament. 

How do we go about dealing with the kingdom of God as a subject in the Bible? What is  the kingdom of God? We usually think of a kingdom as territory ruled by a king or queen,  such as England. There is truth in that, but the fundamental meaning of the word is  sovereignty. The kingdom of God is the sovereignty of God. He is sovereign over  everything. This includes territory – God rules over all territory, material and spiritual,  Heaven and the creation. In this sense the kingdom is a place, but it is every place. He  allows spirits and people to act on their own volition – we have free will – but he has veto  power. For example, he allowed Satan to take all that Job had, but would not allow him  to touch Job himself. Then he allowed Satan to touch Job, but he could not take his life.  God causes or allows everything that takes place, but he can say no to anything he  chooses. He is sovereign over everything. And God is a God of purpose. Everything he  does has purpose. In allowing Satan to take all that Job had and then to touch Job himself,  he brought Job from the point of being a righteous man, blameless and righteous like no  one else on earth, to being a man who knew God. He had heard of God and believed and  followed him. Then, through his suffering and arguing with God, he saw God and  repented. God took a good man and made him a spiritual man. Eph. 1.11 tells us that God  is the one “working all things according to the counsel of his will.” All things. 

What I have just written is something of a definition of the kingdom of God, but let us  see if we can get to the real heart of the matter. Mt. 6.33, which we will mention later, says  that we are to “seek first his kingdom and righteousness.” But what exactly is it we are  to seek? What does that mean? It means first for us as individuals that we are to see God’s  sovereignty in our own lives, that is, the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. Then it means  to coming of the rule of God over this world. Rev. 11.15 speaks of the kingdom of the  world. Jn. 14.30 calls Satan “the ruler of the world,” and 2 Cor. 4.4, “the god of this age.”  Except under his overarching sovereignty God does not rule this world at present. Satan  does. But Rev. 11.15 says that “the kingdom of the world [will] become our Lord’s and  his Christ’s.” There is coming a day when Satan will no longer rule this world, but he will  be banished and the Lord Jesus will sit on the throne of this world for a thousand years,  and then into eternity. 

We are to seek that rule. How do we do that? First, by seeking the lordship of Christ in  our own lives, but then by “¹²looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, 

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because of which the skies will be destroyed, being set afire, and the elements will melt,  being burned up? ¹³But we are looking for new skies and a new earth according to his  promise, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pt. 3.12-13). And how do we look for and  hasten the coming of the day of God? The previous verse, 2 Pt. 3.11 tells us, “All these  things being thus destroyed, what kinds of persons is it necessary for you to be in holy  conduct and proper worship?” We live the right kind of life, “in holy conduct and proper  worship,” the worship of God in awe and in Spirit and in truth. We do the will of God  for us. We study his word. We share the good news with others, personally and by  supporting the spread of the good news throughout the world. We pray for the coming  of the day of God. We cannot change the world, but we can do our part to prepare a way  for the coming of the Lord. 

And what is the day of God? It is not one day, but a period of time, beginning, I suspect,  with the rapture of the overcomers and the great tribulation, when God begins to judge  the world and draw this evil age to a close, and it extends through the second coming of  Christ and his millennial reign. 

The millennium will be a time of the righteous rule of Christ, but there will still be sin  and evil, as we see in the fact that there will be a final rebellion against God after the  thousand years when Satan is released from the abyss and raises up one last army to  challenge God. Rev. 20.9 reads, “And they went up on the breadth of the earth and  encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from Heaven  and consumed them.” That will be then end of Satan in this world. 

Then, Peter tells us, “the skies will be destroyed, being set afire, and the elements will  melt, being burned up? ¹³But we are looking for new skies and a new earth according to  his promise, in which righteousness dwells” (see also Is. 65.17 and 66.22). This will be the  purifying of every trace of sin and evil from this universe that makes way for nothing but  righteousness. 

Ultimately, the kingdom of God is his sovereignty in his righteous rule over his people in all of Heaven and the universe, and it is all about his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus,  having his proper place on the throne. 

Now let us turn to passages of Scripture that deal with the kingdom of God and see what  we can learn. As important as the concept is and as many as are the millennial passages  in the Old Testament, there are only a few verses that actually contain the words  “kingdom of God” or a definite reference to it. When we say “millennial kingdom,” we  do not mean a separate kingdom. The millennial kingdom is an aspect of the kingdom of  God. It is the thousand year period after the return of the Lord Jesus. The kingdom or 

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sovereignty of God is eternal, past and future. The Bible teaches that there are ages and  the millennium is one of those ages, the age to come of Mt. 12.32, Mk. 10.30, Lk. 18.30 and  20.35, and Heb. 6.5.  

A passage that we should consider is the first mention of God’s kingdom as such in the  Old Testament, and a passage that I consider to be one of the very few absolutely foundational statements in the Bible. It is Ex. 19.5-6: “Now therefore, if you will obey my  voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you will be my own possession from among  all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a  holy nation.” This passage shows that before ever the Levitical priesthood was raised up  in Israel, God desired a kingdom of priests, a kingdom in which all of his people could  come into his very presence. The Levitical priesthood was brought in because the people  were afraid of God and asked Moses for it: “You speak to us and we will listen, but don’t  let God speak to us or we will die” (Ex. 20.19). In addition, we are told in Num. 25 of the  playing the harlot of the Israelite men with the Moabite women, something forbidden by  God. God sent a plague, but when Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, saw an Israelite man  going into a tent with a Moabite woman and followed them into the tent with a spear and  pierced them both through. Then the plague was stopped, with 24,000 left dead. Because  of his zeal for God, Phinehas and his seed were given the perpetual priesthood in Israel.  Thus ends the kingdom of priests. But it came back when the Lord Jesus was named a  High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Gen. 14.17-20, Ps. 110.4, Heb. 5.6 and 10, 6.20,  and chapter 7). We as Christians are the priesthood according to the order of  Melchizedek. We are all priests, the royal priesthood of 1 Pt. 2.9, the kingdom of priests  of Rev. 1.6, 5.10 (modern translations). And Isaiah has a wonderful little word in 61.1:  “”But you will be called the priests of I AM. Men will call you the ministers of our God.”  In the end God will have his kingdom of priests among the Jews as well as Christians.  All of his people will live in the Holy of Holies, in the very presence of God. 

There is a very interesting statement in 1 Chron. 28.5. As David neared the end of his life  he said, “And of all my sons (for I AM has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon  my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of I AM over Israel.” I AM raised up the  nation of Israel beginning with Abraham to be his chosen people on the earth who would  be his witness in the world. They were to represent him and be a light to the Gentiles (Is.  42.6, 49.6). Thus Israel was the first manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth. They  were to be a kingdom of priests. The kingdom of God was more, of course, but it was  “the kingdom of I AM over Israel.” We know that Israel failed in that calling, with all its  terrible results. 

In 1 Chron. 29.11 David prayed, “Yours, I AM, is the greatness and the power and the  glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is 

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yours. Yours is the kingdom, I AM, and you are exalted as head above all.” David  proclaims the universal sovereignty of God, as we saw in our first paragraph. 

In the psalms we read more about the kingdom. Ps. 45.6 reads, “Your throne, God, is  forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” God’s  kingdom is eternal, and it is also upright, just, righteous. This truth reminds us of Is. 65.17 and 66.22 and 2 Pt. 3.13: “new skies and a new earth. The word “kingdom” is not used in  these verses, but they refer to the millennial kingdom. Ps. 103.19 adds, “I AM has  established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all.” Again we see his  universal sovereignty. And Ps. 145.11-13 adds, “They will speak of the glory of your  kingdom and talk of your power, ¹²to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and  the glory of the majesty of his kingdom. ¹³Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and  your dominion endures throughout all generations.” 

A very well-known passage is Is. 9.6-7: 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be  upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonder, Counsellor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of his government and of  peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to  establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from then on and forever. The zeal of I AM of hosts will perform this. 

Passages such as these deal with the millennial kingdom and on into eternity. 

Daniel has a good bit to say about the kingdom of God. In 2.44, after he had interpreted  Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statue as referring to four kingdoms that would  rule the known world of that day, Daniel says, “And in the days of those kings the God  of Heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty  be left to another people, but it will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and  it will stand for ever.” This last kingdom is the kingdom of God. When he says that this  kingdom will be set up he does not mean that it has not always existed, for it is eternal,  but that it will take visible authority over all other kingdoms. 

In Dan. 4.3 none other than Nebuchadnezzar says of God, “How great are his signs and  how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion  is from generation to generation.” Whatever his status with God was, what he says is  true!

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Continuing with Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel writes in 5.21 about the king’s time as like a  beast, 

… he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts’,  and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed with grass like oxen and  his body was wet with the dew of the sky until he knew that the Most High God  rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whomsoever he will. 

Even though there are earthly kingdoms the Most High God rules over all, and those who  rule over those kingdoms are there at the pleasure of God. 

One of the great passages of Scripture pictures the end of this age when the crucified and  resurrected Lord appears before the throne of God to receive his millennial kingdom. In  Dan. 7.13-14 we read 

I saw in the night visions, and look, there came with the clouds of the skies one  like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near  before him. ¹⁴And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that  all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an  eternal dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom that which will not  be destroyed. 

These verses are quoted in Mt. 24.30 and 26.64 and in parallels in Mark and Luke, and in  Rev. 1.7, of the return of the Lord Jesus to take the throne of the earth. Daniel continues  in 7.18: “But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess the  kingdom forever, even for ever and ever.” Here we see that the Lord’s people will possess  the kingdom with him. This continues in v. 22: the antichrist will wage war against the  saints “until the Ancient of Days comes and judgment is given to the saints of the Most  High, and the time comes that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Then is vs. 26-27 we  read, 

But the judgment will be set and they will take away his dominion to consume and  to destroy it to the end. ²⁷And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of  the kingdoms under all the skies will be given to the people of the saints of the  Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and all dominions will serve and  obey him. 

In Mic. 4 tells about the last days, and in v. 8 we read, “And you, Tower of the flock, the  hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come. Yes, the former dominion will come, the  kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” The Tower of the flock is the Lord Jesus, the seed 

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of David whose palace was on Mt. Zion. To him will come the kingdom, the former  dominion over which David ruled. 

So we see that the kingdom of God, his universal sovereignty, which is eternal, was first  manifested on earth in Israel, and will come into its greatest glory when the Son of God  and Son of David sits on the throne of David, the throne of the daughter of Jerusalem,  which is Israel. The kingdom will have come full circle. And not only will the Lord Jesus  be the King in Jerusalem, but over the whole world. 

Now let us turn to the New Testament. The word “kingdom” occurs about 159 times in  the New Testament. Matthew has the most, 56, and is considered to be the Good News  of the Kingdom. The three synoptic accounts of the Good News, Matthew, Mark, and  Luke, have 119 occurrences. John has only 4. That leaves only 36 for the rest of the New  Testament. The three accounts of the Good News have 68 chapters. The rest of the New  Testament has 192: 68 chapters, 119 occurrences; 192 chapters, 40 occurrences. It is clear  that the large majority of the passages on the kingdom are in the three synoptic accounts  of the Good News. But there are significant verses in the rest of the New Testament. All  Scripture is significant! A great many of the uses of this word are in the teachings of the  Lord Jesus, such as the parables, several of which occur in more than one account of the  Good News, and a number of verses with the term “kingdom” have parallels in one or  more of the accounts of the Good News. That would account to some extent for the larger  usage in these four books. 

Perhaps the best place to begin our study is at the beginning. In Mt. 3.2 John the Baptist  came preaching and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has come near.”  The term “kingdom of the heavens” appears only in Matthew. Some believe that there is  a difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the heavens. I would say  that they are the same, the use of “heavens” in Matthew indicating that the origin and  nature of the kingdom is heavenly and spiritual, not earthly or worldly or material. That  coming near of the kingdom is the same as the coming near of the Lord Jesus, who would  appear soon after John the Baptist when he came to him for baptism in this same chapter  3 of Matthew. The kingdom comes near anywhere the Lord comes near. 

In Mt. 4.8-10 (Lk. 4.5-8) we read of one of the temptations of the Lord Jesus by Satan after  the Lord’s baptism. Satan showed the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and told him  that he would give them to him if he would fall down and worship him. This was an  effort to get the Lord to gain the crown without the cross, but the cross was the will of  God. The Lord knew that, of course, and he replied to Satan, “Go, Satan, for it is written,  ‘You shall worship I AM your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” The Lord did not  come to gain a kingdom. He came to do the will of his Father and he held true to that 

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purpose no matter what, including the cross. Indeed the cross was the will of God, as Mk.  10.45 tells: He came “to give his life a ransom for many.” The result of his unbending  obedience? He gained a kingdom. 

Then in chapter 4 of Matthew, after the Lord’s baptism and temptation, he himself started  preaching exactly the same thing that John did, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens  has come near.” Then v. 23 says that he went about teaching and preaching the good  news of the kingdom, as well as healing people. That healing was certainly good news  for those who were healed and their families, but there is much greater good news to be  unfolded. 

We touched on the heavenly origin and nature of the kingdom of God. The kingdom  came near in the Lord Jesus to the Jewish people. The Jews were very much bound to this  earth. Everything about Judaism had to do with earthly things. They had a sacrificial  system that offered animals and other things to God at the tabernacle or temple, a  building around which all their worship centered and took place. They had feasts and  festivals which had to be observed in Jerusalem in connection with the temple. All the  promises of God to the Jews had to do with earthly things, their land – the land was  everything – their health, their crops, their safety from worldly enemies. By the time the  Lord Jesus appeared, Israel was no longer a free, self-governing nation, but was under  the boot of the Romans. One of their fondest hopes was a Messiah who would drive out  the hated Romans and make Israel a great earthly kingdom again. 

We see this in Jn. 11.47-48: “Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the  Sanhedrin and were saying, ‘What are we doing, for this man is doing many signs? If we  should leave him alone thus, all will believe into him and the Romans will come and will  take away both our place and nation.’” Their concern was their earthly well-being, and  indeed the Sadducees did not believe there was resurrection, angel or spirit (Acts 23.8). 

In Mk. 15.43 we are told that Joseph of Arimathea was expecting the kingdom. In all  likelihood it was an earthy kingdom he was looking for. Lk. 19.11 says that when the  Lord was speaking to the crowds in Jericho, because he was nearing Jerusalem they  thought the kingdom of God was about to appear immediately. Jn. 6.15 tells us that after  the Lord’s feeding of the five thousand, some of the people were trying to take him by  force and make him king. They liked a king who fed them. This is also an earthly  kingdom. Even the disciples did not get it until Pentecost. In Acts 1.6 they asked Jesus,  “Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” They were looking  for an earthly kingdom. 

We said that God made a spiritual man of Job. This making a spiritual man of Job gives  us a clue to the nature of the kingdom. It is spiritual. In Jn. 18.36 the Lord says to Pilate, 

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“My kingdom is not of this world.” Rom. 14.17 tells us that “the kingdom of God is not  eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” These are  spiritual values, not earthly. In 1 Cor. 15.50 we learn that “flesh and blood cannot inherit  the kingdom of God.” It is spiritual and heavenly. We must have an incorruptible,  spiritual body to inherit the kingdom of God. We see in Col. 1.13 that God “delivered us  from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his  love.” That word “authority” is very important. Some translations have it as “power” or  “domain,” but the Greek word is “authority.” There is a difference. Power is the brute  strength to do something. Authority is the right to do it. Before we were saved we were  sinners, slaves to Satan. He had authority over us, a right to us, within the bounds set by  God as noted above. But God transferred us from Satan’s authority to his own in the  kingdom of the Son of his love. This is all spiritual. We are still in the world, but we are  not of it. We are of a heavenly kingdom. In 2 Tim. 4.18 Paul writes of “his heavenly  kingdom.” 

The Revelation brings us to the end of this age. In 11.15, great voices in Heaven were  saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his  Christ.” Rev. 12.10 adds, “And I heard a great voice in Heaven saying, ‘Now the salvation  and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come,  for the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been  cast down.’” These great voices are in Heaven. Satan is a spirit. God is Spirit. The  kingdom of God is not of this world, though it will take it over and rule over it as Dan.  4.26 says, “The heavens rule.” All of this is heavenly, spiritual. 

There was a proper time for the kingdom to come. Mk. 1.15 says, “The time has been  fulfilled and the kingdom has come near.” We are not told much about why the time was  right. In Gen. 15.13-16 and Ex. 12.40 we learn that Israel would go into slavery in Egypt  for 430 years. “And in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the  Amorite is not yet complete.” The Amorites were the strongest of the tribes in Canaan,  the land that Israel was to conquer as their promised land. God was not yet ready to  destroy the Amorites because their iniquity was not yet complete, so Israel had to wait  for the right time. We see one clue here as to how God designs his timetable. He will  destroy the wicked who do not repent, but he will not do it till the iniquity is full. Paul  writes in 1 Thess. 2.16 of Jews who “always fill up their sins.” In 1 Tim. 4.2, we read of  people “seared in their own conscience with a hot iron,” people who have ignored their sense of  wrong continually to the point that they no longer have a conscience. Their iniquity is full. By  some measure known only to God he makes such decisions. 

Some believe that two reasons that it was the right time for the Lord Jesus to come are  one, Rome had conquered all its known earth and thus there was the Pax Romana, the 

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Peace of Rome, an advantageous time for such an event, and two, the Greek language  was widespread throughout the Roman Empire, which was helpful to communication.  Our New Testament was written in Greek, even though most if not all of it was written  by Jews. Whether or not these facts have to do with God’s timing we have no proof, but  when compared with his waiting for the iniquity of the Amorite to be full, it makes sense.  The point is that God has his timetable, and the first third of the first century A.D. was  his time for the coming of the Lord Jesus, and thus for the kingdom of God to come near.  A verse that relates to this is Gal. 4.4, where Paul writes, “But when the fullness of the  time came, God sent forth his Son….” In Eph. 1.10 Paul writes of the fullness of the times,  although this verse appears to have to do with the end of the age. That is also on God’s  timetable. 

There is also a proper way for the kingdom to come. In Mt. 4.8-10 (Lk. 4.5-8) we read of  one of the temptations of the Lord Jesus by Satan after the Lord’s baptism. Satan showed  the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and told him that he would give them to him if  he would fall down and worship him. This was an effort to get the Lord to gain the crown  without the cross, but the cross was the will of God. The Lord knew that, of course, and  he replied to Satan, “Go, Satan, for it is written, ‘You shall worship I AM your God, and  him alone shall you serve.’” If the Lord Jesus had taken Satan’s offer all would have been  lost and we have no idea what the outcome would have been, but he chose to take God’s  way, the way of the cross, and in the end, “The kingdom of the world has become the  kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” There is no crown without the cross. That applies  to us also. The Lord who went to the cross said to us, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let  him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever may wish to save his life will  lose it, but whoever may lose his life for my sake will find it. For what will a man be profited if  he gain the whole world, but forfeit his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life” (Mt.  16.24-26). [Note: the Greek word for “life” in this passage is the same as the word “soul,” psuche,  which can mean either “soul” or “life.”] 

Parables 

One of the outstanding features of the three accounts of the Good News, Matthew, Mark,  and Luke, is the parables, many of which are parables of the kingdom. Someone has said  that the parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. The Lord Jesus used these  stories to teach about the kingdom. Mt. 13 is the great parable chapter in the New  Testament. We will go through it and fill in with Mark and Luke. It is of interest that the  Good News According to John has no parables of the kingdom, and the word “kingdom” occurs in only two passages of John. My plan in this article is not to go into a detailed  explanation of the parables, but to give the main point. I suggest that the reader read the  verses indicated before proceeding with each parable. This chapter of Matthew shows 

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the Lord giving special teaching on the course of the kingdom from his time on earth until  the end of the age. 

I am going to reverse the order in which Matthew sets forth the parables just a bit.  Chapter 13 beings with the parable of the sower. Then the disciples ask the Lord why he  speaks in parables and the Lord tells them why. Then he explains the parable of the sower. I am going to do his explanation of why he teaches in parables before proceeding  with the parable of the sower. There was a specific reason why he so taught, and Matthew  first tells us that, and his explanation brings out a vital point in his account of the Good  News, and in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus. I will quote the entire passage here,  Mt. 13.10-17 (Mk. 4.10-12, Lk. 8.9-10). 

And as they went along the disciples said to him, “Why do you speak in parables  to them?” But answering he said to them, “To you it has been given to know the  mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given. For  whoever has, it will be given to him and he will have abundance. But whoever  does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Because of this I speak in  parables to them, because seeing they are not seeing and hearing they are not  hearing or understanding, and in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which  says, 

“By hearing you will hear and not understand, 

And seeing you will see and not perceive. 

For the heart of this people has become dull, [lit., “fat”] 

And with he ears they heard with difficulty, [lit., “with heaviness] 

And they closed their eyes, 

That they might not see with the eyes 

And hear with the ears 

And understand with the heart and turn, 

And I will heal them. [Matthew’s quotation of Is. 6.9-10] 

But blessed [happy] are your eyes because they see and your ears because they  hear. For amen I say to you that many prophets and righteous men wanted to see  what you see and did not see, and to hear what you hear and did not hear. 

Matthew tells us in v. 10 that the disciples asked Jesus why he taught in parables. They  did not understand the parables or why they were used, and that is just the point. The  Lord’s answer to their question contains a sobering lesson:

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To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but  to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him it will be given and he will  have abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from  him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, so that seeing they may not see  and hearing they may not hear or understand. 

Then the Lord quotes Is. 6.9-10 as a biblical support for what he has just said. These  statements by the Lord make it appear that he is deliberately concealing the truth from  people. At first, that seems an impossibility, but when we study the passage in Isaiah as  well as the development of the theme of judgment in Matthew, we see that that is exactly  what the Lord is doing. The verses from Isaiah occur in the well-known chapter in which  Isaiah had the vision of the Lord in the temple, confessed his sin, and had his lips cleansed  by the burning coal. Then he received his call from God to his prophetic ministry. In  giving him his commission, God said to him,  

Go and tell this people, “Hear indeed, but do not understand, and see indeed, but  do not perceive. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and  shut their eyes so that they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and do not  understand with their heart and turn and be healed.” 

The key words in this passage are “so that … not,” as it is also in its quotation in Matthew.  In other words, the purpose of Isaiah’s mission to the Jews was to prevent them from  repenting and being healed by concealing the truth from them. The reason for this was  that they had rejected God for so long that God had finally put them under the judgment  of spiritual blindness and deafness so that they could have no less a man of God in their  midst than Isaiah and they would be unable to see or hear God through his man. 

The same was the case with the Lord Jesus. Not only did the Jews have the long Old  Testament history of rejecting God, but now they had also rejected John the Baptist and  the Son of God himself. Thus the Lord pronounced judgment on them, not the fiery  judgment of war or hell, but the living judgment of being unable to see or hear God even  in his greatest spokesmen, even in his own Son. What a fearful condition these people  brought themselves into! They had no further opportunity of repentance, for they were  under God’s judgment of spiritual blindness and deafness. We see a similar judgment in  2 Thess. 2.11: God sending a “working of deception” on those who follow antichrist. See  also 1 Kings 22.19-23. 

Thus the parables reveal the kingdom to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, but  conceal it from those who do not. The parables present the mysteries of the kingdom. A  mystery in the Bible is not a difficult puzzle that can be figured out with the help of 

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enough clues and much intellectual effort, but a truth that can be known only by  revelation, and that God intends to reveal at his time. But of course, only those who can  receive revelation will understand the mystery. 

There are mysteries of the kingdom. The kingdom itself was no mystery in the New  Testament, for it had been abundantly revealed in the Old Testament. Every Jew was  looking for the kingdom. That is one reason the Lord Jesus stirred up such excitement.  But there were truths about the kingdom that were not revealed in the Old Testament,  and the Lord proposes to reveal them, or some of them, now through the parables to  those who have eyes and ears. Those who do not will hear good stories. 

V. 12 indicates that those who have faith will receive more, namely, understanding, the  revelation of the mysteries, and a place in the kingdom if they are faithful to it. Those  who do not have faith will lose even what they have, the hearing of the parables and the  opportunity to repent. In fact, they had already lost the opportunity to repent. Judgment  was settled. Then the Lord explains the judgment that was revealed first in Isaiah and  was brought to ultimate fulfillment in his own ministry. Then he closes his explanation  of why he speaks in parables with vs. 16-17. Many do not have eyes to see or ears to hear  because they have brought judgment on themselves, but blessed are the eyes and ears of  the disciples. Moses received prophecy of the Seed of the woman, but he never saw the  Seed. The disciples did. David was promised a man on his throne forever, but he never  saw the King of the Jews. The disciples did. Isaiah had the greatest revelations of the  Messiah in the Old Testament, but he never saw the Messiah. The disciples did. All the  great men and women of the Old Testament did not see what those twelve humble  fishermen, tax collectors, and so on saw. They saw the Lord, and they recognized him. 

In Mt. 13.3-9 (Mk. 4.3-9, Lk. 8.5-8) the Lord Jesus gives the parable of the sower, and in vs. 18-23 (Mk. 4.14-29, Lk. 8.11-15) he explains the parable. The explanation is that the  seeds are the words of the kingdom, which the Lord himself was sowing at that very  time. The four kinds of ground are four kinds of hearts that hear the word. Those by the  way are those who have no interest in or understanding of spiritual things. As soon as  they hear the good news, Satan, the birds, takes it away and it comes to nothing. 

The rocky ground represents people, like the crowds in the days of the Lord’s ministry  on earth, who are joyful at the good news, but have no desire to pay a cost to follow the  Lord. They respond at once to such good news, but as soon as trial comes along, they  realize there is a price to pay and wither away. They want the benefits, but not the cost.  They want the crown, but not the cross.

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Those who are likened to thorny ground are those who receive the word and it comes up,  but they allow the worry of this age and the deceit of riches to choke the word. They do  not allow the word to have its full effect in their lives because they spend their time  worrying instead of trusting God’s word, worrying about how to pay the bills, about  health, about all the cares of this life. And they fall prey to the idea that money is the  answer to life. They do not have time for the word because they are too busy trying to  gain wealth. Thus the word is choked out and never comes to fruition. 

Finally, there is the good soil, plowed and prepared to receive the seed. It comes up and  bears fruit. Even so, there are varying amounts of fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty,  and some thirty. Not all fruitful Christians are equally fruitful. 

Thus we have revealed the first mystery of the kingdom. During the age between his  rejection by the Jews and the second coming of the King, the kingdom is no longer a  matter of accepting a man as the outward king, but of receiving the word in the heart. It  is no longer physical, but spiritual. We are dealing with the kingdom as it is on earth  during this age, not the millennial kingdom. 

Mt. 13.24-30 sets forth the parable of the weeds among the wheat. The explanation, in vs.  36-43, is that God will not try to remove the weeds from the wheat in this age, but at the  end of this age he will send his angels to separate the two and throw the weeds into the  fire. “Then the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let the one  having ears hear.” Good and evil will coexist in this age and will be separated at the  return of the Lord. 

The parables of the mustard seed and of leaven are told in vs. 31-33 (Mk. 4.30-32, Lk. 8.19- 19). The Lord did not give an explanation of these parables, so we are left to try to  determine their meaning from the teachings of Scripture. These two parables have often  been taken to mean that the kingdom would have a small beginning, but would grow to  fill the earth, with the further implication that the world would be Christianized by the  gradual growth of the kingdom. This way of thinking became especially popular in the  nineteenth century when the Darwinian theory of evolution came out. Darwin’s theory  applied to nature, but certain philosophers and theologians applied it to morals and  religion. They developed the idea that sinful man would develop into a moral creature  so that eventually the world would become the kingdom of God by evolution, like a small  seed growing into a great tree or a bit of leaven leavening three measures of meal. 

In the first place, if these men had read their Bibles carefully, they would have seen that  it clearly states that the world will not evolve into the kingdom, but will become so only 

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after the violent intervention of the Lord himself to judge evil and cast it out, establishing  a millennial reign of righteousness. 

In the second place, these parables actually extend the thought of the parable of the weeds  and wheat. It is true that a mustard seed is very small, but it is not true that it grows into  a tree. A mustard plant is small. Thus the growth of the mustard seed into a tree is  abnormal growth. What began with a Jewish Rabbi and twelve disciples, none of whom  had anything in this world, has become a series of colossal organizations with great  wealth, massive cathedrals, and huge membership rolls. There were none of these in the  New Testament. The organization was simple: elders governed local bodies of Christians  while those with various ministries exercised them, not as clergy, but as servants of the  body. There was no wealth: collections had to be taken to relieve the poor. There were no  church buildings at all that we know of: the first local churches met in homes insofar as  their meeting places are mentioned at all (Rom. 16.5, 1 Cor. 16.19, Col. 4.15, Phm. 2). There  were no rolls. Every born again person was in the church. 

The fact that makes it clear that the Lord was dealing with the abnormal growth of what  outwardly appeared to be the kingdom is his statement that the birds of the sky nested  in the branches of this tree. In Mt. 13.4 and 19 we learn that the birds are the devil or his  demons. The ones who initially snatched away the seed to prevent people from coming  to the Lord at all ends up nesting in the branches of Christendom! 

It is the same with the leaven. Leaven is always a symbol of evil in the New Testament, in the Lord’s warning to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees in Mt. 16.11- 12, of Herod in Mk. 8.15 and in Paul’s command to clean out the old leaven and be  unleavened in 1 Cor. 5.7-8. If leaven was to be taken as a symbol of the gradual benign  influence of the kingdom in this parable, it would be the only place in the Bible where it  is so used. Rather is its meaning to be found in its symbolizing evil. What outwardly  appeared to be the kingdom, man’s religion, would be leavened with the evils of false  doctrine and practice. And is this not true even in our day when anything can be preached  from so-called Christian pulpits? What appears to be the kingdom is full of evil. So we  learn that the kingdom is not only a matter of the heart and will have an outward  appearance that will contain both saved and lost people, but within the kingdom will  grow an abnormal, grotesque thing called Christendom, and it will be full of evil. Only  God can sort it out. 

Like these two parables, the parables of the treasure hidden in a field and of the pearl  merchant in Mt. 13.44-46 do not have an explanation. Students of the parables are not in  agreement as to their meaning.

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The simplest meaning is always attractive. Some elaborate interpretations of these  parables have been given, but usually something can be found that does not fit. The  simple understanding is that in the midst of all the confusion, worldliness, and manmade  works of Christendom, there is nonetheless the reality of the kingdom, the real thing, the  rule of God in one’s life with its promise of millennial blessing, and it is worth everything.  That is certainly true, but whether or not it is the proper interpretation of these parables  is open to debate. 

Because this understanding is true and simple, it is indeed attractive. However, it takes  the approach of not assigning a meaning to each element in the story, just taking the  whole impression created as conveying the meaning, while in the other parables, the  elements do have their own meanings. The sower is the Son of Man, the field is the world,  and so forth. Thus it would seem that consistency would require that the elements of  these two parables have meanings. 

Perhaps the best interpretation that meets this requirement is that the field is indeed the  world, the treasure is the Lord’s people, the man who found the treasure is the Lord Jesus,  and his selling of all that he has to buy the field is his sacrificial death. In the same way,  the pearl is the Lord’s people, and his selling of all to buy it is his death. He bought the  field, the world. That is, all the world was offered salvation by his death, though not all  take it, only that part constituting the treasure doing so. With this interpretation, we see  that the reality of the kingdom, not its outward appearance, is such that the Lord  considered it worth everything to secure. Its value to him shows what ought to be its  value to us. 

One might argue that the fact that the man found the treasure in the field, an obvious  accidental discovery, is against this understanding. Perhaps it is, but it may also be that  the kingdom is like this situation, not exactly the same, but like it. The emphasis is not on  the accidental discovery, but on the extreme value of the treasure. Of course, the passage  in Matthew does not actually say that the discovery was accidental. Maybe the man had  heard of it and was looking for it. Or perhaps to counteract the notion that the discovery  was accidental, the Lord tells a second story to show that in fact he was seeking a people  all along. And perhaps the discovery of the treasure was not accidental after all. Perhaps  the man had heard that there was a treasure there and was looking for it. When he found  it he bought the field. 

Whatever interpretation of these stories one may consider correct, the absolute value of  the kingdom is at the heart of their teaching. The kingdom is indeed worth everything,  both to the Lord and to us.

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The parable of the dragnet in vs. 42-50 is similar to the parable of the weeds and the  wheat. It seems to be primarily a repetition of the truth taught in that parable, that there  will be a mixture in the outward kingdom during this age, but that there will be a  separation made by angels at the end. There is, however, a slight difference. The parable  of the weeds and wheat stresses the separation at the end by the angels, and the parable  of the dragnet stresses the gathering in during this age and then the separation at the end.  This is the time during which the dragnet is cast by the preaching and sharing of the good  news. The preaching and sharing draw in all sorts, just as the seed being sown fell on all  kinds of ground. There some were eaten by birds. Others sprang up, but quickly  withered. Other seeds sprang up, but were choked by the world. Others fell into good  ground and produced a crop. Here all kinds of fish are drawn in, and it is only at the end  that they will be separated by those competent to do so. When we share the good news  and people respond, it is not for us to decide whether or not they are genuine, but to go  on casting the net. The Lord knows who are his. 

In Mt. 18.21-35 we read of Peter asking the Lord how many times he should forgive his  brother who sins against him. Seven? Peter was being very generous in being willing to  forgive seven times, for some of the Jewish Rabbis said that one should forgive three  times and no more. But the Lord says in v. 22 to forgive seventy times seven. Does that  mean that one is to keep count and when the brother sins the four hundred and ninety first time, he is not to be forgiven? If that is what one thinks, he misses the whole point.  What the Lord was really saying was, forgive your brother as many times as God has  forgiven you. 

Then the Lord uses hyperbole in telling Peter the parable of the slave who owed his king  an enormous amount of money, the equivalent of the pay for 150,000 years of labor for a  day laborer at that time. The king demamded the money and when the slave could not  pay, the king ordered him and his wife and children to be sold and the debt repaid. The  slave begged for mercy, promising to pay, and the king was compassionate and forgave  the debt. Then the slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one  hundred denarii, about one hundred days wages for a day laborer. He demanded  payment. When the second slave begged for mercy and promised to repay, the first slave  had him thrown into debtors’ prison. The other slaves told the king, so he had the first  slave brought back in, rebuked him, and handed him over to the torturers until he repaid  the entire debt. 

The point is stated by the Lord in v. 35: that is the way God will deal with us if we do not  forgive our brothers from our heart. It is obvious that the king is God, and that the first  slave is all of us who have been forgiven by him. Our debt was so great that we could not  even begin to repay it. Which of us could repay 150,000 years worth of labor. That is a 

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measure of our sin-debt to God. Yet he forgave us the entire debt strictly on the basis of  his grace and mercy, with no merit whatsoever on our part. 

The second slave is a brother who sins against us. We ought to show him the same mercy  God showed toward us and forgive him, in any amount and as many times as need be.  No one will ever sin against us as much as we have sinned against God, so we will never  have to worry about forgiving too much. 

One of the vital points of this passage is seen in v. 23: the kingdom of the heavens is like  this story. The Lord is not addressing lost people, telling them they must forgive to be  forgiven. That would be salvation by works. He is addressing Christians, telling them  that as Christians they must forgive their brothers and sisters who sin against them if  they expect God not to hold their deeds against them when giving rewards in the  kingdom. Chapter 18 deals with the kind of people who are ruled by the Lord now in the  hiddenness of the kingdom, and who will receive rewards openly in the heavenly  kingdom at the return of the Lord. One characteristic of such people is that they forgive  as they have been forgiven by God. In dealing with the matter of those who have sinned  against us, let us be generous, not like Peter, but like our merciful God. 

Does this not hit home? How many times have we all had to go back to God with the  same sin, committed over and over until we have lost count, and ask forgiveness yet  again? Has he ever refused us? Never! We cannot count the times he has forgiven us, and  we are to show the same measure of mercy toward those who sin against us. 

Mt. 20.1-16 tells us that the kingdom of the heavens is like a householder who went out  early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He hired laborers at 6:00 and 9:00  a.m., at noon, and at 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. Then he paid them all the same amount. The  laborers hired early, of course, did not like the latecomers getting the same pay. The  householder said that he could do what he pleased with his own money. Thus, concludes  the Lord Jesus, “So the last will be first, and the first, last.” 

What are we to make of this parable? It seems at first to indicate that all who belong to  the lord will receive the same reward in the kingdom, no matter how long they served  the Lord or how hard they worked. But that conclusion would disagree with the  Scriptures in general, which teach that there are indeed rewards in the kingdom based  on works. What then does the Lord mean? 

Keep in mind that the story illustrates the principle that many who are first will be last,  and last, first, and that it grows out of Peter’s boasting that the disciples have left  everything for the Lord and thus deserve some reward in the kingdom. Yes, the Lord 

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says, there is reward in the kingdom, but the rewards in the kingdom do not grow out  of what the workers deserve, but purely from the grace of God. It is true that our salvation  is only by grace, with no reference whatever to works on our part, and that there are  rewards in the kingdom based on works. But the point the Lord wants us to grasp in this  connection is that even the rewards are the result of grace. Everything flows from the 

grace of God. The very fact that we desire to work for him and gain a reward at his  appearing is grace. Why do we have that desire when others do not? It is grace. 

Go back to the parable of forgiveness in Mt. 18.23-34. How much did the king forgive the  first slave? A million dollars or more. Did the slave ever earn enough working for his  king to pay back that much? Of course not. Whatever he may have earned would only  have been applied to his account. The king owed him nothing. That is the way it is with  us, as revealed by the parable of the householder and his workers: God does not owe us  anything. Whatever we may earn by our works for him does not put him in our debt, but  at best only reduces our debt to him, though, of course, it does not even do that. It would  only be applied to our account, if God kept the account. But by his grace he does not,  having canceled the debt entirely. Yet we are still in God’s debt beyond our  comprehension. Oh, the grace of God. He owes us nothing, yet he allows us to work for  him and pays us our wages. 

Part of the point of the parable, of course, is that those who take the first place, that is, are  proud of their service like Peter, will find themselves put last, and those who humbly  serve the Lord with no thought of how valuable to him they are, will find themselves first  when the Lord returns. We may put too high a value on our service to the Lord. May he  deliver us from that, helping us to see that the very fact that we do serve him is the result  of his grace, that he does not need us and owes us nothing, but that in his grace he uses  us and rewards us. 

This parable is a parable of grace, even in works, and the Lord says that the kingdom is  like this. In the kingdom there are works for reward, but when all the works are done,  the laborers deserve nothing and receive only from the Lord’s grace. Let us not begrudge  someone else his reward because we think we are before him in our service to the Lord.  If we think that way, we reveal that we consider ourselves one of the first, and we will be  put last. Let us not be concerned with being first or last, but with responding to the  abundant grace of our God with grateful service to him. How worthy he is of all our  service, and of our eternal praise! 

Mk. 4.26-29 presents the parable of the seed growing secretly. It is somewhat like the  parable of the sower, but it puts the emphasis on the fact that we do not know what makes  the seed grow, first in the ground unseen, and then as a visible plant. The planter of the 

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seed sleps at night and goes about his day, not worrying about the crop. But when it  ripens, he harvests it. The point seems to be that we are to go about our duty of sowing  the seed, which is proclaiming and sharing the good news, but knowing that we cannot  make it grow and produce a crop. God will see to that. The harvest will come in his time. 

Mt. 25.14-30 and Lk. 19.11-27 record two parables that are very similar, but there is also  a difference. The parable in Matthew really begins with v. 13, which is also the end of the  parable of the ten virgins: “Stay awake therefore, for you do not know the day or the  hour.” The Lord is telling those who heard the parable of the the virgins to be on the alert  so as not to be like the five foolish virgins. But then he proceeds to tell the same people  another story. This story is not about being invited to the marriage feast of the Lord, but  about rewards in the kingdom. Two of the slavess doubled their money while the lord  was gone. One hid his in fear of losing it. When the lord returned he said to the two,  “Good, you good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few. I will put you over  many. Enter into the joy of your lord.” They were rewarded for their good service in his  absence. To the one who hid his money he said, “Evil and lazy slave, you knew that I  reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not scatter. It was necessary for you  therefore to give my money to the bankers, and having come I would have received what  is mine with interest.” Then he said to his slaves to take the one piece of money from him  and give it the one who had turned five into ten. The he said to “throw the worthless  slave out into the outer darkness. There will there be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Some would say that this last slave was lost and was thrown into hell, but I do not believe  that. He was the Lord’s slave. The outer darkness is the darkness outside the wedding  hall. This one is a Christian who lost his reward, and perhaps would not be in the  millennial kingdom at all, as some believe. It is clear that the lord in the story is the Lord,  Jesus, and the scene is the judgment seat of Christ after his return. 

The similar parable in Luke is basically the same except that it also includes people who  hated the lord and sent after him a delegation to say to those he went to receive a kingdom  from, “We do not want this one to reign over us.” When he returns as king he rewards his  slaves who have increased his money and rebukes the one who hid it. Then we have his  response to tbose hated him and did not want him to reign. He had them killed. I believe  the slaves, as in the parable in Mattew, were Christians, but those who hated him were  lost people. Is it not true that most of the Jews to whom he came rejected him? After his  death and resurrection he departed to Heaven to receive a kingdom. When he comes back  as King he will reward his people, or deny a reward, but those who hated him and  rejected him will be cast into hell. 

These two parables of Matthew and Luke are very sobering.

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So what are the mysteries of the kingdom? One is its hiddenness in this world. Satan is the  ruler of this world and the god of this age. This world appears to be anything but under  the sovereignty of God. Nevertheless God is sovereign over all. One of the mysteries of  the kingdom is that the seed is growing secretly. The number of those coming into the  kingdom is constantly growing. Their maturity in Christ is constantly increasing. One  day when the Lord Jesus bursts out of the eastern sky in a blaze of glory to take his place  on the throne of this world, every eye will see the kingdom of God and realize that the  kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11.15).  Praise him! He has been sovereign all along. 

Another is that in this age entering the kingdom is not a visible thing, but receiving the  Lord Jesus into one’s heart. Another is the coexistence of good and evil, wheat and weeds,  with only God able to separate the two. Another is the seed growing secretly. It perhaps  appears that the world is growing more and more evil. Either it is or people are more  open with their evil. But the seeds planted by the Lord and his people are growing  secretly and the kingdom will appear in its time. Another is the matter of forgiveness. It  is a matter of the worthiness of one for the kingdom. If we, who have been forgiven so  much, will not forgive others, how can we be worthy of the kingdom. Many people think  that anyone who sins should be dealt with harshly and made to pay. Does that seem right  in the knowledge of the way God has forgiven us of so much more than others have done  to us? Another mystery of the kingdom is that everything about it is a matter of grace.  The Bible makes much of rewards in the kingdom, but it also makes it clear that even our  rewards are by grace. Do we earn a reward? Yes, but why did we do the Lord’s work in  the first place? Grace. Like the laborers in the vineyard, no matter how much we work  for the Lord, he does not owe us anything. Our debt to him is immeasurably more than  what he might “owe” us. It is all grace. 

On the negative side is the matter of judicial blindness. It is possible to reject God to the  point that a person gets beyond the possibility of repentanace. God can blind a person to  the truth so that he cannot and will not repent and will be lost. We saw this with the  Amorites. We saw it in 1 Tim. 4.2. This is a fearful prospect. 

How To Enter The Kingdom Of God 

How does one enter the kingdom of God? The first and essential step toward entering,  whether it be now while we are still on earth or at death or at the return of Christ, is to  receive the King. In Jn. 3.3 and 5 the Lord tells Nicodemus that unless one is born from  above, born of water and the Spirit, he can neither see nor enter the kingdom. Just as we  were born into the world physically we must be born into the heavenly, spiritual world.  That is done by trusting in Christ as Savior (Eph. 2.8-9). We saw in 1 Cor. 15.50 that we 

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must have an incorruptible, spiritual body to inherit the kingdom of God. The new birth  comes at once when one places trust in Christ, but the incorruptible body comes at the  return of Christ when the dead in Christ are raised and those who are the Lord’s and still  alive at his coming (1 Cor. 15.42, 44, 51-52, Phil. 3.20-21) are caught up to meet him in the  air (1 Thess. 4.16-17). This inheriting of the kingdom in a new body refers to the millennial  kingdom at the return of Christ. 

We should note here that entering the kingdom has this twofold usage. As we just saw,  one enters the kingdom in this world and age when he trusts Christ as Savior. The  kingdom also refers to the millennial kingdom when the Lord Jesus takes the throne of  this world at his second coming, and our place in that aspect of the kingdom is contingent  on our works in this life as we will deal with presently when we come to Rewards. We  will see both of these usages as we continue. And over all is the eternal kingdom of God. 

Mt. 5.3 in the Beatitudes says that one must be poor in spirit. The one who is poor in spirit  knows that he is poor in spirit. If a person thinks he is rich in spirit it is rather certain that  he is not. The closer we get to the Lord the more his light shines on what we really are. In  the same passage in Mt. 5.20 the Lord says, “For I say to you that unless your  righteousness abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into  the kingdom of the heavens.” The Pharisees tried to keep the letter of the law, including  their traditions, but in Mt. 15.8 the Lord says, “This people draws near with their mouth  and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” The New Testament way  is love. The Lord Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one  another” (Jn. 13.34). Paul wrote in Rom. 13.8, “Owe no one anything but to love one  another, for the one who loves the other has fulfilled the law,” and goes on to say in v.  10, “Love works no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul  wrote, “For all law is fulfilled in one word, in ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”  (Gal. 5.14) James adds, “But if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You  shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.” (3.8) And Paul touched one of the  high points of the Bible when he wrote, “And I show you a yet more surpassing way,”  then went on to pen that magnificent chapter on love, 1 Cor. 13. And isn’t it interesting  that it is the Old Covenant itself that says, “You shall love I AM your God with all your  heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Dt. 6.5), and, “… you shall love  your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19.18), and that the Lord Jesus quoted these very verses  in answering the question, “Which is the first commandment of all?” (Mk. 12.28)? In his  report of this encounter, Matthew adds that the Lord Jesus also said, “On these two  commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (22.40). Love God and love your  neighbor and you will keep the law without knowing it. That will gain entry into the  millennial kingdom.

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As a contrast, the Lord says in Mt. 8.11-12, “But I say to you that many from east [rising  of the sun] and west will come and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the  kingdom of the heavens, but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer  darkness. There will there be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” These sons of the kingdom  are Jews who reject the Lord Jesus. That is a way not to get into the kingdom. 

Mt. 11.12 and its parallel in Lk. 16.16 with differences, are very interesting. Most versions  translate Mt. 11.12 as, “The kingdom of the heavens suffers violence,” but the word  translated “suffers violence” can also mean “exerts force.” It seems to me unlikely that  the kingdom, which is the sovereignty of God, can suffer violence. I would think the verse  should be translated, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of the  heavens exerts force and men of force take it by force.” That is, the sovereignty of God  has ever been at war with Satan, though it is not a real war because Satan has no chance  of winning, but God lets him do his best to train and strengthen his, God’s, people.  Compare Job again. It is really we Christians who are at war with Satan, as Paul says in  Eph. 6.11-12: “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the  schemes of the devil, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the  rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the  spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” He adds in 2 Tim. 2.3, “Suffer hardship with me  as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Satan opposes our efforts to enter the kingdom, so we  have to take the kingdom by force, as a soldier at war. This again refers to the millennial  kingdom. We do not gain initial salvation by fighting Satan, but by trusting the Lord  Jesus. Always remember that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, even if they  do us wrong. They are opposed by Satan as we are and desperately need the Lord. Our  attitude toward other people is to pray for them and try to lead them to the Lord. Lk.  16.16 does not have the part about the kingdom exerting force, but it does say that men  of force take it by force. That is a part of entering the millennial kingdom. 

In Mt. 16.13-18 the Lord asks the disciples who men say he is and asks who they say he  is. Peter gives his famous answer, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” In v. 19  he tells Peter that he will give him the keys to the kingdom. Some say that this made Peter  the pope and that he has authority over who gets into the kingdom. Peter was never a  pope, nor is the idea of a pope Christian. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church (Eph. 1.22, 4.15, Col. 1.18). There is no earthly head. The church’s headquarters are in  Heaven. And Peter has no say in who gets saved. That is between God and every  individual. No man can save or refuse to save anyone. The Lord Jesus is the only Savior.  When the Lord said he was giving Peter the keys of the kingdom he meant that on the  day of Pentecost Peter would open the door of the kingdom by his sermon of that day  and all who will may enter, from then until now. The doors are open. Enter in by trusting  the Lord Jesus as Savior. This has to do with initial salvation in this age.

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In the story of the rich young ruler in Mt. 19, the Lord Jesus says in vs. 23-24, “Amen I  say to you that it is with difficulty that a rich man will enter into the kingdom of the  heavens. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle  than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” This is another look at how not to  enter the kingdom. It was not because the young man was rich, but because his money  was his god. There is only one God. 

We read in Mt. 21.43, “Because of this I say to you that the kingdom will be taken from  you and given to a nation producing its fruits.” This verse occurs in the context of the  Lord Jesus being rejected by the Jews. A similar verse is Lk. 13.28: “There will be the  weeping and the gnashing of the teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and  all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you being cast out.” Because the nation of  Israel would not receive the kingdom from him, it would be taken from them and given  to a nation producing its fruits. That nation is the church, which would produce the fruits  of the kingdom. That is a way of entering the millennial kingdom. Produce its fruits,  leading the lost to Christ, ministering to those needy in any way, serving the Lord in  whatever way he leads. Remember, the Jews were looking for a visible earthly kingdom.  The Lord says that that visible kingdom will come at the end of the age at his return, not  in the present evil age. 

In Mk. 10.15 the Lord says, “Amen I say to you, whoever should not receive the kingdom  of God as a child may not enter into it.” The way of entry into the kingdom is childlike  faith, complete trust in the Lord, being aware of one’s weakness and need, and humility. I would think this entering of the kingdom would refer to both initial salvation and the  millennial kingdom. 

Peter tells us in his first epistle, 1.10-11, “Therefore rather, brothers, be diligent to make  your calling and election sure, for doing these things you might never stumble. For thus  entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly  supplied to you.” Diligence in our relationship with God and our service to him make a  way into the millennial kingdom. 

Rewards 

We have been seeing that this matter of entering the kingdom has two sides. The first is  that when we are born from above we enter the kingdom, the sovereignty of God, and  are his subjects. But there is a body of Scripture that indicates that entering into the  millennial kingdom when the Lord Jesus reigns over this world is a matter of reward. It  must be gained by our faithfulness and obedience to God in this life. There are differing  views of this possibility. Some believe that all Christians will be present in the millennial 

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kingdom. Some believe that a Christian can be left out of the millennial kingdom entirely.  I tend toward the former view, that all Christian will be there, but I do believe that there  are rewards in the kingdom. Scripture on this matter of rewards is extensive. Some  passages do not use the word kingdom, but all of those to be cited refer to events that will  take place in the millennial kingdom. 

[The following section is taken from my work, Mega Grace. I will note the end by marking  it “End.”] 

One of the most frequently repeated statements in the Bible is the one that says we will  be repaid for our works, whether they are good or bad. There are at least six verses in the  Old Testament that say this or ask a question about it and at least eleven in the New  Testament. We will quote one Old Testament verse and list the others. Then we will turn  to the New Testament. Jer. 17.10 mg. reads, 

I, I AM, search the heart, 

I test the mind,  

To give to each man according to his ways, 

According the fruit of his doings. 

Other verses are 2 Sam. 3.39, Ps. 28.4, 62.12, Prov. 24.12, and Eccl. 12.14. 

In Mt. 16.27 the Lord Jesus says, “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father  with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his work.” Taken by itself,  this statement sounds as though the Lord means that we will be saved or lost according  to our works. This thought continues with Paul in Rom. 2.6 and 2 Tim. 4.14 when he  quotes Ps. 62.12 and Prov. 24.12: “[God] will repay each one according to his works.”  Then we come to 1 Cor. 3.10-15 and we begin to see what is being taught. Paul says that  he has laid a foundation for the church and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Then he says  that whatever each Christian builds on that foundation will one day be tried by fire. If  our works amount to wood, hay, and straw, they will be burned up, but if they amount  to gold, silver, and precious stones, they will be proved by the fire. Those whose works  are proved will receive a reward. Then v. 15 really answers our question: “If any man’s  work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as through fire.” So we  see that we are dealing with rewards in the millennial kingdom for the Lord’s people  according to their works in this life, not with whether or not one is saved or lost. One is  saved by grace through faith alone. One is rewarded according to his works. 

Paul writes in Rom. 14.10 and 12, “For we will all stand at the judgment seat of God….  So then each of us will give account to God concerning himself.” He continues in 2 Cor. 

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5.10 to tell us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one  may receive back the things done through the body, according to the things he has done,  whether good or bad.” He is writing to Christians and is telling them there are rewards  in the coming kingdom for the Lord’s people, according to their works. It should be very  sobering to us to know that we as Christians will have to appear before the judgment seat  of Christ, not to be saved or lost, for that is settled, but to give account for what we have  done with the grace he has given us in this life. 

Also very sobering is Peter’s word in 1 Pt. 1.17-19: 

And if you call Father the one who judges without partiality according to each  one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay [on earth],  knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold,  from your futile conduct handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood  as of a lamb unblemished and spotless – of Christ. 

This word “fear” does not mean that we are to be afraid of God as though he were an  angry God just hoping we will do something wrong so he can punish us. Rather it refers  to the fear of God, that awareness of what God can do to wrongdoers, but more especially  to the fear of hurting God by sinning against him because we love him, as we would fear  to hurt someone in our family whom we love. And it refers to the reverence in which we  hold God and the things of God. Heb. 10.29 applies here: “How much greater punishment  do you think he deserves who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has considered  as common the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the  Spirit of grace?” Peter bases his exhortation on the fact that we have been redeemed with  something of the highest level of holiness, the precious blood of Christ, shed because of  what we have done. How can we treat such high holiness lightly or even with contempt?  Live your life, not afraid of God, but in holy fear that you will trample on something holy.  God give us grace indeed. 

In Rev. 2.23 we read Christ’s warning to the church in Thyatira: “… and all the churches  will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts [see Jer. 17.10, quoted above],  and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.” You are aware that the seven  churches in Asia symbolize the entire church, seven being a number of completeness, and  that the Lord Jesus is walking among these churches looking for the testimony of Jesus.  He finds no fault with only two churches, and he fully commends only one. All of them  that he finds fault with are warned of various judgments if they do not repent and turn  away from their evil deeds. This is his word to Thyatira, and thus to all in the church: “…  and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.”

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In Rev. 20.12-13 we read of the great white throne judgment of God after the millennial  reign of Christ and the final rebellion of Satan and his followers: 

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books  were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the  dead were judged from the things written in the books according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and hades gave up the  dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one, according to their works. 

These people are not Christians, for all Christians will have been either still living at the  beginning of or raised from the dead before the millennial reign of Christ. This verse  shows us that the lost as well as the saved will be judged, and punished according to their  works. The punishment will fit the crime, we might say. 

The final reference to this subject in Scripture is found in Rev. 22.12: “Behold, I am coming  quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one as his work is.” When the Lord  Jesus says he is coming quickly, he does not so much mean that he is coming soon, though  other passages indicate that, but that when he does come, whenever it may be, it will be  lightning fast with no warning. There will be no time to get ready when it happens. You  are ready or not and that is it. Be wise – make sure you are ready now, for even if the  Lord does not come in our lifetime, we will all die, which amounts to the same thing. We  will have to face the Lord as we are at that moment. I do not mean that if we happen to  sin just before we die, we will be in trouble, and if not we will not be, but that how we  have lived our lives up to that point is what matters. Remember, we are not dealing with  salvation, but with reward. Watch and pray. Be ready at every moment. 

So we see that Christians are forgiven for their sins and saved by the free grace of God to  those who have faith, but then there are rewards for our works in this life. Just what does  the reward consist of? We surely do not know entirely, for there are depths in God that  we have no idea of, but the Scriptures do tell us something about rewards. We read of the  crown of righteousness, laid up for Paul because he had fought the good fight, finished  the course, and kept the faith (2 Tim. 4.7-8); the crown of life, waiting for the one who  perseveres under trial and loves the Lord (Ja. 1.12), and who is faithful unto death (Rev.  2.10); and the unfading crown of glory, prepared for elders who shepherd the flock as  servants and examples (1 Pt. 5.1-4). Wonderful rewards, these, especially if they are to be  cast before the throne in worship and thanksgiving. What greater reward than to have  something to give to the Lord in gratitude for all he has done for us? Well – there is a  greater reward.

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In 2 Cor. 11.2 Paul writes, “I am jealous for you with God’s jealousy, for I betrothed you  to one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ.” In New Testament times betrothal  was similar to our engagement, but it was more legally binding. If a betrothed couple  ended the betrothal, it was considered a divorce even though they had not been married  or lived together. We see an example in Joseph when “he decided to divorce [Mary]  quietly” when she became pregnant after their betrothal, but before their marriage. Of  course, the Lord intervened in this case, telling Joseph in a dream that he should marry  Mary because her baby was of the Holy Spirit. 

The point is that we have been betrothed to Christ. We are to become his bride and his  wife. We should have the same desire as Paul to be presented to Christ a pure virgin. One  of the more wonderful passages of Scripture is Rev. 19.6-9: 

And I heard something like a voice of a great multitude and something like a voice  of many waters and something like a voice of strong thunders saying, “Hallelujah,  for the Lord our God the almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the  glory to him, for the marriage of the little Lamb has come and his wife has made  herself ready. And it was given to her that she might clothe herself in fine linen,  bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” And he said  to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the  little Lamb.’” 

This great announcement comes at the end of this age when Christ is about to return. We  see that those who have made themselves ready by their righteous deeds in this life are  allowed to clothe themselves with the wedding garment for the marriage supper as the  corporate wife of the Lamb. Then she will reign with him as the wife of the King for a  thousand years, and then into eternity. Can we imagine a more intimate and beautiful  picture? Lord, hasten the day! In Mt. 26.29 (Mk. 14.25, Lk. 22.16) the Lord Jesus said, “But  I say to you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now until that day when I  drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.” Perhaps that will occur at the  marriage supper and we will be blessed to take the Lord’s Supper with the Lord himself  visibly present. 

Mt. 22.1-14 tells the story of a marriage feast given by a king for his son. When the invited  guests would not come, the king said they were not worthy and sent his slaves out to  bring in anyone they could find, evil or good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in he saw one man not wearing a wedding garment, and he  asked him, “Friend, how did you enter here when you did not have a wedding garment?”  The man was speechless and the king had him thrown out with harsh words, “When you  have bound him foot and hand throw him out into the outer darkness.” I believe Jesus 

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spoke the next words himself, rather than the king in the story: “There will be weeping  and gnashing of teeth there, for many are called, but few chosen.” 

There is much dispute about the meaning of this story with regard to the man who did  not have a wedding garment. Many say that he was not a saved man at all, but was found  to be an interloper, as with the weeds and wheat in the parable of the Lord Jesus. If this  is true, the outer darkness the man in Mt. 22.1-14 was cast into was hell, but I do not  believe that is true. This seems to me to confuse two different periods. The separation of  saved and lost (wheat and weeds) occurs at the very coming of Christ (Rev. 14.14-20,  where the saved are harvested and the lost, the grapes, are picked and thrown into the  winepress of the wrath of God). But the wedding feast occurs in the kingdom on earth  after Jesus has touched earth and established his millennial rule over the earth. No  unsaved person could be there. Those who are alive but lost at the return of Christ are  cast into hell at that point (Mt. 25.41, where the lost, the goats, are not nations, but  individual Gentiles). The outer darkness the man with no wedding garment was cast into  was the darkness outside the wedding hall, not hell. 

Some might object that a saved person could not be weeping and gnashing his teeth at  the return of Christ. Oh? We looked at 1 Cor. 3.15 earlier in this chapter. Let’s quote it  again: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as  through fire” (emphasis mine). What does it mean that a Christian, absolutely stated here  as saved, will suffer loss? It means he will lose something in the millennial kingdom of  God on earth by not having woven his wedding garment. He will lose the opportunity of  sharing in the marriage feast of the little Lamb and of reigning with him in the millennium  as his wife. He will miss that most wonderful of blessings in that age: the highest intimacy  with Christ. I believe there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at that realization. This  is the millennial kingdom. It is in Rev. 21.4, after the millennium, that all tears are wiped  away. We are trained now by reigning over our circumstances and by carrying out our  assignments from the Lord. Those who do not accept this discipline will suffer loss in the  kingdom. 

That, I believe, is the primary reward of those who weave their wedding garments in this  age by their righteous deeds. And do not forget that regarding the crowns of  righteousness, life, and glory mentioned above, the Lord Jesus said, “Hold fast what you  have that no one take your crown.” (Rev. 3.11) Those crowns can be lost (compare 2 Sam.  1.10). Watch and pray, that “you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God” (2  Thess. 1.5; see also Lk. 20.35 and 1 Thess. 2.12). 

Some of you will be worried at what has just been dealt with. You will think that you could never  be good enough to gain such a reward. You are absolutely right. But remember grace. You cannot 

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live well as a Christian and attain the kingdom and be a part of the wife of the Lamb any more  than you could save yourself. It is all by grace. You will not get there on your own. Christ will get  you there if that is your genuine desire and you live in obedience to him, knowing that you will  have failures along the way, but knowing also that the God of all grace will forgive the failures,  even use them for our good, and knowing that you are not trusting in your efforts to get there,  but in his grace and almighty power. You have to try. You cannot just sit there and wait for God  to pick you up and move you. But you do not trust in your trying, but in his coming into your  trying and making up for your weakness. That is grace. [End.] 

On this matter of rewards, Mt. 5.19 says, “Whoever therefore sets aside one of the least of  these commandments, and so teaches men, will be called least in the kingdom of the  heavens, but he who does and teaches them, this one will be called great in the kingdom  of the heavens.” This verse does not use the word “rewards,” but the recognizing of least  and greatest in the kingdom implies reward. Along this same line, Mt. 18.1-4 reads, 

At that hour the disciples came to Jesus saying, “Who then is greatest in the  kingdom of the heavens?” And having called a child he stood it in the midst of  them and said, “Amen I say to you, Unless you turn and become as the children,  you will not enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Whoever therefore humbles  himself as this child, this one is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens.” 

Again we have “greatest in the kingdom,” but instead of least we have “will not enter  into the kingdom.” This might lend support to those who believe that some Christians  will not enter the millennial kingdom at all. We are saved by grace, not by humbling  ourselves. 

On this matter of greatest in the kingdom we have Mt. 20.20-21: “Then the mother of the  sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, bowing and asking something from him.  Now he said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She said to him, ‘Say that these two sons of mine  may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your kingdom.’” (See Mk. 10.35-37.)  This request shows a complete misunderstanding of the kingdom. The one who wishes  to be great in the kingdom will not be great. Mt. 23.11-12 says, “But the greatest of you  will be your servant. Now whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles  himself will be exalted.” Mk. 10.43-44 reads, “But it so not so among you, but whoever  would wish to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever would wish  to be first among you will be slave of all.” And who is the servant of all and the slave of  all? The Lord Jesus. He is greatest in the kingdom. In Lk. 12.37 he says, “Amen I say to  you that he [referring to himself] will gird himself and have them recline and having  come he will serve them.” The Lord will be greatest of all because HE is servant of all and  slave of all, and will be in the millennial kingdom. We do not need to be concerned about 

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our place in the kingdom. Just be a servant of the Lord and his people and rewards will  take care of themselves. 

Mt. 25.1-12 tells the parable of the ten virgins. Five were prudent and five were foolish.  The five prudent took extra oil for their lamps and the five foolish did not. The Lord  delayed, this statement referring to the second coming of Jesus, and all ten virgins fell  asleep. At midnight there was a cry, “Look! The bridegroom. Come out to meet him.” 

The virgins awoke and trimmed their lamps. The five foolish realized that their oil had  burned out and asked the five prudent, who had brought extra oil, to give them some of  theirs. They said no, there would not be enough. While the five foolish were out to buy  oil, “the bridegroom came and those who were ready entered with him into the marriage  feast, and the door was shut.” When the five foolish came and knocked and asked to be  let in the bridegroom said, “Amen I say to you, I do not know you.” 

I believe that all these virgins were saved. They would not be called virgins otherwise.  They all had oil, the Holy Spirit, the one who saves by entering our dead spirits (Eph.  2.1). This shows clearly that some Christians will not be at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  Those who have followed the Lord closely and lived in faith and obedience have  increased their supply of oil by the fullness of the Holy Spirit and will be ready for the  midnight call. Those who do not will not. 

Lk. 22.28-30 is very interesting in this connection. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples,  “Now you are those having remained with me in my trials, and I am making a covenant  with you as my Father made a covenant with me – a kingdom – that you may eat and  drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes  of Israel.” I have taken a bit of liberty in translation. The word usually translated “give”  or “grant” I have translated “make a covenant.” The Greek verb is the word from which  we get the noun “covenant,” a very important word in the Bible. God’s relationship with  the Jews was made by covenant in the Old Testament. He promised a new covenant in  Jer. 31, and the book of Hebrews makes much of this new covenant. The Lord Jesus did  not just make a casual remark to his disciples. He did not just make a promise. He gave  it the force of a covenant between God and man, indeed, between God and his Son – “that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones  judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” What a reward for those who remained with him in  his trials (see Jn. 6.66). 

Most if not all people who want to enter the kingdom do not wish to suffer, but in Acts  14.22 we read that Paul said to some of those he had led to the Lord that “through many  tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” We have seen that we are opposed  by Satan and that he will do all he can to prevent us from entering the kingdom. We will 

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find hardships all along the kingdom way, but if we endure, “we will also reign with  him” in his kingdom (2 Tim. 2.12). Rom. 8.17 is along this same line: “… if indeed we  suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.” 

We read in 2 Thess. 1.3-5: 

We ought to give thanks to God always for you, brothers, just as it is fitting,  because your faith is increasing exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to  one another is abounding, so that we ourselves boast in you in the churches of God about your perseverance and faith in all of your persecutions and in the  tribulations that you are enduring, an indication of the righteous judgment of God for you to be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also are  suffering. 

“Worthy of the kingdom of God.” “Worthy” indicates more than salvation by grace  through faith. No one is worthy of salvation. It is a free gift of God to underserving  sinners. Paul says here that the Thessalonians are worthy of the kingdom because of their  faith, love, and endurance in trial. Worthiness of the kingdom is a reward, indicating that  only the worthy will be there or that there will be levels of reward, with some perhaps  having their works of wood, hay, and straw burned up. 

The Lord Jesus said to his disciples in Lk. 18.29-30, “Amen I say to you that there is no  one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the  kingdom of God who would not receive many times more in this time, and in the coming  age eternal life.” The eternal life is a gift of grace to be received now and fully realized in  the age to come, but the multiple blessings listed are for this age. I believe the Lord is  saying that those who have left things and people for the kingdom receive the entire body  of Christ as home, wife, brothers, parents, and children. We are to take care of one  another. And I would say that such behavior merits reward in the kingdom along with  eternal life. 

A somewhat difficult passage is 1 Cor. 6.5-11. I will not quote the entire passage, but just  verses 9-11: 

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not  be deceived. Neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor the voluptuous  nor homosexuals nor thieves nor coveters nor drunkards nor revilers nor  swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And such were some of you, but you  washed yourselves, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord  Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

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The unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom. Paul gives a list of types of unrighteous  people who will not inherit the kingdom. Then he says that “such were some of you.” He  is not saying that they will not inherit the kingdom because of that, but that they have  stopped being those kinds of people by washing themselves (Eph. 5.26), being sanctified,  being justified. There will be all these kinds of people in the kingdom who have repented  and turned to the Lord. But there is a warning here: if any of these Christian people go  back to these ways, they will not lose their salvation, but they also will not inherit the  kingdom, meaning either that they will not be in the kingdom at all, or that they will be  there, but will lose their rewards. Gal. 5.19-21 has a similar warning, as does Eph. 5.5. 

Ja. 2.5 says, “Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God not choose the poor in this world  to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those loving him?” James  is not saying that a rich man could not inherit the kingdom. He may have had in mind  the Lord’s statement that it is hard for a rich person to inherit the kingdom, but also that  most of the early Christians were poor in worldly wealth. And there were more non Christian poor in the world than Christian, and still are. We are not saved and do not 

inherit the kingdom by being poor. We do inherit the millennial kingdom by being rich  in faith and love for God.  

On the matter of entering the kingdom and rewards in the kingdom, a number of  passages use the word “inherit.” Mt. 25.34 says, “Then the King will say to those on his  right, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the  foundation of the world.’” This is a special case. This word is addressed to Gentiles who  are alive on the earth when the Lord comes back. We are told in 1 Cor. 10.32 that there  are three kinds of people in the world, Jews, Greeks (= Gentiles), and the church of God.  The dead in Christ will be raised at his coming and be raptured with those Christians still  alive at his coming to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4.16-17). The Jews will be dealt  with also, which we will touch on later. What about the Gentiles. Paul shows us in Rom.  2.12-16 that salvation is a matter of the heart. There have been and are millions, if not  more, Gentiles who have never heard of the Lord Jesus, from ancient history right down  to this day. Are they all going to hell because they did not accept Jesus when they never  knew about him? I think not. This passage in Matthew tells us that the Gentiles who are  alive on earth at the Lord’s second coming will be divided into two groups, sheep and  goats. The sheep will inherit the kingdom. The goats will be sent to the eternal fire  prepared for the devil and his angels. Those whose hearts are right will inherit the kingdom. It may be that these saved Gentiles will be on the earth rather than in Heaven.  That I do not know.

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Various Passages 

There are several verses in the New Testament that show us facts about the kingdom that  are not part of a group of passages on the same subject. I will list these in the order in  which they occur. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus tells us to pray for the kingdom to come (Mt.  6.10). I believe this is a prayer for the return of Christ and the end of this age with all its  evil so that as God’s will is done in Heaven it will be done on earth. 

In Mt. 6.33 the Lord says that we are to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness. We dealt  with the meaning of this statement earlier, and now the Lord adds that if we do so seek  we need not worry about our needs in this life, for God will add those to us. See also Phil.  4.19 in this regard. 

Mt. 7.21-23 is a bit difficult to interpret. It reads, 

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of the  heavens, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in the heavens. Many  will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in  your name cast out demons and in your name do many powerful works?” And  then I will confess to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work  lawlessness.” 

These people appear to be false prophets who pretended to serve the Lord, but did not  in reality. He warned of these in v. 15 of this same chapter: “Beware of the false prophets,”  and of false Christs and false prophets in Mt. 24.24. These false prophets will not enter  the kingdom at all. 

Mt. 12.28 says, “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come  upon you.” This is paralleled by Lk. 11.20. Her we see the power of the kingdom of God displayed  through the miraculous works of the Lord Jesus. The kingdom is a kingdom of power, of almighty  power.  

Mt. 24.14 tells us that “this Good News of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited  earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” 

In Lk. 1.33 the angel Gabriel, in telling Mary of the birth and career of the Lord Jesus, says  to her that his kingdom will have no end. It is eternal. 

One aspect of the Lord’s ministry on earth was to preach the kingdom, and he says in Lk.  4.43, “And to the other cities I must preach the kingdom of God, for I was sent for this.”

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Another passage that is a bit difficult of interpretation is Lk. 17.20-21: “Now having been  asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God is coming, he answered them and said,  ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with observation, nor will they say, “Look here or  there,” but look, the kingdom of God is ?.’” The kingdom of God is where? The Greek  word can mean “within,” meaning that it is within the heart of a person, or “in your  midst,” that is, present in the person of the Lord Jesus. Both could be true, but which one  did the Lord mean? Perhaps both. 

In Lk. 23.42-43 we read of one of the thieves who was crucified with the Lord and said,  “’Jesus, remember me whenever you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him,  ‘Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” The Bible is not entirely clear  on Paradise. Some believe that it is a side of hades, the abode of the dead, where the  righteous await the end of the age, but based on Rev. 2.7 and 22.2 I believe that Paradise  is Heaven or in Heaven. Whatever answer you prefer to this question, the thief was saved  and that demonstrates that a person can be saved at the very last minute by genuine  repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. That man entered the kingdom. 

At the close of Acts in 28.23 and 31 we learn that Paul ended his days, as we suppose,  testifying about and preaching the kingdom of God. I believe he would have included  both the entering of the kingdom now in this life and the coming millennial kingdom.  Prepare for the millennium by entering the kingdom now by faith and by walking with  the Lord in faith and obedience, 

Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 4.20 that “the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Anyone  can say anything, but does he have the power to back up what he says? This reminds me  of 2 Cor. 10.10-11: “For, ‘The epistles,’ they indeed say, ‘are weighty and strong, but the  presence of the body is weak and the speech contemptible.’ Let such a one consider this,  that such as we are in word through epistles being absent, so also are we in deed being  present.” I believe that Paul had the power of the kingdom of God standing behind his  words. This line of thought shows us that the power of the kingdom can be and is  manifested in this world. Satan is the ruler of this world (Jn. 12.31) and the god of this  age (2 Cor. 4.4), but the God has power over him and Satan can go only so far as God  allows, as we saw in our opening remarks. 

Col. 4.11 speaks of “workers together for the kingdom of God.” That we all should be.  We can do our part in bringing about the day when the kingdom appears visibly in this  world at the return of the Lord Jesus. As 2 Pt. 3.12 puts it, “… looking for and hastening  the coming of the day of God.”

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The book of Hebrews refers to the kingdom of God only twice, but both instances tell us  something of importance about it. In 1.8 we see that the scepter of the kingdom of God is  a scepter of justice. We live in a world where there is often very little justice. The rulers  of this world often use their power for their own benefit, not for justice. The strong  defraud the weak. But there is justice in the kingdom of God. Our King gave himself, his  very life, for us rather than using us to enrich himself. The Bible teaches that when he  returns there will be judgment of the guilty and justice for the righteous. Justice will reign  in the kingdom of God. 

The other statement about the kingdom in Hebrews occurs in 12.28 and tells us that it is  “a kingdom which cannot be shaken.” We have an almighty God. Nothing can shake him  and nothing can shake his kingdom. We are living in a day when many things in this  world are being shaken. This shows the approach of the kingdom of God which will  shake everything which is not of him, shake it to bits. But the kingdom of God, the  sovereignty of God, will stand unshaken and will rule forever in righteousness. 

We read in 2 Tim 4.1, “I charge you solemnly before Christ Jesus, the one about to judge  living and dead, and by the appearing of him and of his kingdom….” Paul is dealing here  with his instructions to Timothy, but he begins by saying that the Lord Jesus is “the one  about to judge living and dead, and by the appearing of him and of his kingdom.” This  indicates that at the end of this age, when he returns, the Lord will judge the world. First  he will judge by his very appearing, his presence. Can you imagine what it will be when  the lightning flashes from east to west and Heaven opens and the Lord Jesus appears to  everyone on earth? Mt. 24.30 says, “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in  the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see ‘the Son of Man  coming on the clouds of the sky’ with power and much glory.” All of us will mourn,  knowing that it was ours sins that nailed our Lord to the cross, but then there will great  rejoicing when we realize that that very death that we caused also saved us. But for those  who have rejected the Lord Jesus it will be judgment. Just the sight of him will be  judgment by his appearing. 

And the Lord Jesus will judge by his kingdom. When all the world realizes that he is  indeed King of kings and Lord of lords and he will establish that kingdom of justice of  Heb. 1.8 it will judgment to all who have been unjust. Yes, the kingdom of God will be  glory to his people and judgment to the lost. That is why the day of the Lord is called “a  day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2.2), and why  Is. 13.9 says, “Look, the day of I AM is coming, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to  make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.” Yes, the coming of the  kingdom will be a day of great rejoicing and of great terror.

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Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15.24 about “the end, when he hands the kingdom over to the God  and Father when he will have annulled all rule and all authority and power.” Verse 23  deals with the resurrection of the dead in Christ at his coming before the millennium.  Then this v. 24 goes to the end of the millennium. It is then that the final rebellion against  God takes place, as we see in Rev. 20.7-15, and fire comes down from Heaven and  devours the wicked. Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire. The lost dead will be judged  before the great white throne. Then comes that wonderful verse 14: “Then death and  hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” That is the end of death and mourning. All praise  to God! The Lord Jesus has conquered all and he hands the kingdom of God over to the  God and Father. This is not the end of the reign of the Lord Jesus His kingdom is forever (Dan. 7.14). He is being the ever submissive Son who recognizes the sovereignty of his  Father God. 

How should we sum up? As we saw at the beginning, the kingdom of God is not first of  all a place, but God’s sovereignty, his supreme authority. He is almighty, and almighty  means ALL-mighty. But we do not see the kingdom of God in this age. It coexists with  evil and is hidden. But in the age to come, the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus, it  will be the visible kingdom in which righteousness dwells (2 Pt. 3.13). 

The kingdom is worth any price. What we might gain in this world by avoiding the  kingdom we will lose in the end. The kingdom is eternal. 

We are to be laborers for the kingdom. 

We are not to live for this age, but for the kingdom of God. We should be kingdom minded, focused on the kingdom, looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  Of course, that comes under our ultimate focus, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all about him. 

Now, having all this information about the kingdom of God, let us get down to brass  tacks. What does this really mean in our lives? There is a cosmic battle going on in the  universe right now between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Apparently  some think that the outcome is in doubt. Who will win, God or Satan? Let me be very  clear. The outcome is not in doubt. Read the book of Revelation. God wins. The real issue  is people. Will they be saved or lost? Will they count for God or not? Many Christians do  not count much for God. Paul deals with carnal or fleshly Christians in 1 Cor. 2.14-3.3.  These are people who have been saved, but are not really counting for the Lord in this  world. They deal with temporal matters, not spiritual, if they deal much with Christianity  at all. They squabble over questions that cannot be answered in this age. They choose up  sides as to which Christian leader they are loyal to. “I say this, that each of you says, ‘I  am of Paul. I am of Apollos? I am of Cephas. I am of Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?” 

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(1 Cor. 1.12-13) Some are dropouts, never attending worship services or taking part in  church matters and ministry. Some have never shared the good news with a lost person. 

This is the issue. We dealt with rewards at length. Will your works survive the fire at the  judgment seat of Christ or will they be burned up? Will mine? 

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with  others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose.  “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice  if you share it or any part of it. Old Testament quotations are the author’s update of the  American Standard Version. New Testament translations are the author’s.

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