Archived Message
March 2007: Jesus And His Kingdom
Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.When Jesus was ready to begin the final work as the Messiah, He announced it with 'Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' . Many believe that this dimension of the kingdom of heaven has not been taught with the importance and significance Jesus Himself gave to it. Maybe we stop too soon at the gospel message of salvation and forget to include the gospel of the kingdom of heaven whereby we enter at the time of our redemption and gain entry by our new citizenship. The gospel, the good news, of the kingdom was uppermost in the message that Jesus brought;
Mat 4:23 And Jesus went around all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.
I love this aspect of Jesus bringing Heaven down to Earth to give us a taste of the good things that will be the eternal blessed state of all that believe on Him.
When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus 'are you really a king?' Jesus answered 'you are right in what you have said for I was born a king.' Pilate said to the crowd 'behold your king' , they said 'away with him, crucify him' . 'Shall I crucify your King?' asked Pilate. The chief priests answered, 'We have no king except Caesar' . (which was a lie because they called their God the King of the Israel as we have read in Isaiah 43:15). So Pilate, just to show them what he thought of them, wrote a title and put it on the cross. This is the notice 'JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.' (Joh 19:20) and many of the Jews read this title, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it had been written in Hebrew, in Greek, in Latin.(so every one would know!) (Joh 19:21) so then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Don't write, The King of the Jews, but that he said, I am King of the Jews. And the Pilate gave his famous answer (Joh 19:22) "What I have written, I have written."
I decided to do the law of first reference on the word 'king' . This states that where we first find a word then we can relate back to its usage and definition for all future uses in the rest of God's word.
Can you imagine my shock to find that the first reference to a king is not of God as King but of a whole group of squabbling men who had made themselves kings of various places.
The first time we meet 'kings' they are human kings and they are all fighting each other!
We have here an account of the first war that we ever read of in scripture.
Gen 14:1 And it happened in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal king of the nations;
Gen 14:2 they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
Gen 14:3 All these were joined together to the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea. (Shinar or Babylon is where Nimrod began his kingdom,(Gen 10:8).
I thought "Dear Lord, what does this show us, they have all made themselves kings instead of You the only King. What can we learn from this?"
We can learn that a king has to have dominion over the place where he reigns otherwise he is not king by definition. A king must rule over a place and people and everything within his sphere of dominion. If a person wants to be king in this world he has to fight to keep control. We can learn that man had exalted himself to the position of lord over this earth. The problem was that not everyone could be lord at the same time over the same area. This jostling for kingship has been one of the direst problems of mankind. How many millions of lives and wasted property have been sacrificed to these self-made gods of lost and forgotten kingdoms. One rises and another falls.
We can learn that there is some desire in mankind that wants to be a ruler. This desire to be in control is probably a throwback to the authority that Adam had. The sad thing is that this desire has been perverted to try and get back a planet that is out of control. It is an attempt to hold in the reins of life that has run away from the control of mankind. We can only hang on as the world speeds along like a racehorse out of control. There have been many good kings who have ruled to the best of their ability but eventually they stumble and fall.
We can learn that different kings have different rules and regulations, which are not universally accepted so they are continually in opposition. Just like the nations of today. One king or government cannot agree with another and so the cycle of mistrust and ever-present threat of war goes on and on.
If you keep looking for the word 'king' you will find dozens of them. They are everywhere. I can see that the Word of God is showing us that the world is packed full of self-ruling groups. I was wondering if I would ever find a reference to the creator as King.
It is found indirectly in this verse:
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
The word 'kingdom' says that God was their King. The subjects were to be special, a kingdom of priests. Every citizen is only as good as the king and his kingdom. The better the king the better the subjects in every area of life.
The garden of Eden was a province of the universal Kingdom of God.
God told Adam to rule over Eden and Adam was given the Royal decrees as to how this should be carried out. As we well know, Adam decided to initiate a different set of decrees given by a ruler of a different king - the king of darkness. Man could no longer be allowed to walk in that place of God's presence and so we humans lost our Royal authority and territory and became slaves to the tyranny of the prince of darkness and brought a curse upon ourselves and on the Earth.
The taking back of a lost kingdom requires a battle.
When Jesus was born into this world, guess who was watching over Him? Luke 2:13. His army of angels. An angel gave to the shepherds the good tidings of Jesus' birth for all people and just then a ' Host' of angels appeared also. If you look at the Greek word for 'Host' you will read 'stratias' which means an army. The battle for planet Earth had begun in earnest!
A true King is not a usurper.
He is King and always shall be forever and ever amen!
Joh 18:37 Pilate then said to Him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say it that I am a king. To this end I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.
Jesus was not coming to take over and then say I am King, no, He is the King coming back to His lost territory. They asked Jesus will the kingdom be restored now back to Israel. Jesus said it was not for them to know. They did not understand the higher meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven. Heaven is the throne of this earth and the earth is just the domain of heavens' rule. (Heaven is my throne and Earth my footstool. Is.66:1. Acts7:49).
When Adam switched allegiance, the Kingdom of Heaven lost only a part of the universal domain. All that remained was for God to formulate a plan to get it back. That plan was to get back His human creation heart by heart and His creation of Earth with its whole realm of nature.
The nature of the battle was different.
Jesus told Pilate 'my kingdom is not of this world' . In other words if it was just a plain battle to see who was strongest then God would just do it. The battle was for the hearts of His humans, for their unfeigned allegiance to Him as King of the Universe. Going in there and defeating Satan in a pitched battle was no problem. Jesus had to wrestle the allegiance of mankind from Satan. Mankind had again to do the will of God. Jesus as our example showed us how to do it in the garden of Gethsemane 'not my will but yours' , this is true repentance, turning from self will to God's will.
The Church of Jesus the King is to be His estate.
The area of His dominion is where ever His body the Church is. We do well to think on this fact that Jesus is the King and He owns (you were bought at a price of His blood), controls (all authority has been given to Him) and governs ( the Holy spirit will give you instructions). Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you. Have you seen yourself as part of the ruling class of saints. The saints will judge the world and even angels.1Cor 6:2,3.
We are all involved in this war to recover the Earth from a cruel usurper.
But remember it is not a physical solution. 2Cor 10:3-5. and remember our armour. Eph. 6:17.
There should be no internal fighting.
'A kingdom divided will fall'. Gal 5:14-17. The law of love will not allow us to fight one another.
We are to be a part of a united army of the kingdom of God and only when the final victory is called will we be able to rest from this battle.
Our Kingdom is unshakable.
Heb12:27 For this reason, receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace, by which we may serve God pleasingly, with reverence and awe;
What attracts me most to the gospel of the kingdom is that it is from above, it comes down to the earth through the lives of kingdom people. It is above human divisions or denominations. Every Christian group is subject to the King and His Kingdom decrees. There is no way for one group to take superiority over another. There are no slaves, only subjects who serve in the same kingly manner and attitude of Jesus the King of kings.
If you are not part of this great Kingdom, then I suggest you bow before the King, ask Him to forgive your sins and accept His offer of forgiveness.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Ivan.
Ivan Harrison
(Pastor of The Open Door Church, Lawnton, Queensland, Australia).
For correspondence on matters relating to this message e-mail me at pastorivan@livingconnections.com. I am very interested in hearing from you.