God’s Kingdom

Jesus was talking to a large crowd and his disciples (Mark 8:34) when He said that some of them would see God’s Kingdom come with power. I can just imagine how excited they must have been – this is what they have been waiting for all along!

Mark 9:1 (WEBBE): ¹He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death until they see God’s Kingdom come with power.”

The Pharisees certainly heard about this too. Most of the Pharisees didn’t understand Jesus’ teachings, because they were so radically different from what they were accustomed to. So when they asked Jesus about the Kindgom, they had a worldly Kingdom in mind.

Luke 17:20-21 (WEBBE): ²⁰Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation; ²¹neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.”

Jesus answered them that God’s Kingdom can’t be seen with worldly perception. As Matthew Henry puts it in his Commentary on the Whole Bible: “For it has not an external show, as other kingdoms have, the advancements and revolutions of which are taken notice of by the nations of the earth, and fill the newspapers; so they expected this kingdom of God would do.”

So how then would the “Kingdom come with power” if it is not a worldly kingdom? When the disciples were asking Jesus (just before He was taken up to Heaven) when the Kingdom would come, He explained that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them.

Acts 1:7-8 (WEBBE): ⁷He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Even though God’s Kingdom is not physically established everywhere on Earth yet, we have received power by the Holy Spirit. This is normal for a child of God – somebody that has been translated out of darkness into the Kingdom.

Colossians 1:13 (WEBBE): [The Father] ¹³who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,

Jesus was willing to pay such a tremendously high price, not just so that we can go to Heaven some day, but in order to make it possible for all believers to receive the Holy Spirit right now.

John 14:12-17 (WEBBE): ¹²Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. ¹³Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. ¹⁵If you love me, keep my commandments. ¹⁶I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, that he may be with you forever: ¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.

What should the Kingdom look like in our lives?

Romans 14:17 (WEBBE): ¹⁷for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Power, righteousness, peace, joy. Yes, those are all things that I want! If we walk in relationship with God, every day, and seek first His Kingdom, that WILL be our reality!