“And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.” (Luke 4:42-44)
Scripture is replete with promises that God has made to His people. One of the great promises is that He will establish a Righteous Kingdom. This, as Jesus taught, was the purpose for which He was sent. When Christ told Pilate that “My kingdom is not of this world” He made it very clear that His Kingdom was not what we see around us. I very much praise God for that. Rather than focus on what it is not, however, I would like to focus on what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us as to what it is. I will let you decide if we are currently in Christ’s Kingdom.
Who will reign? God had promised the Jewish people a Messiah. It was God’s promise of hope that He would restore a righteous Kingdom for His people. That promise was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who was promised from the foundation of the world, to redeem man from sin and its consequences, and to restore the kingdom that was lost because of sin, and reign over all the earth. In the Psalm 2, the Father speaking to the Son, says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:8). That promise will be fulfilled as Jesus Christ shall reign from sea to sea, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. There is yet more good news because the saints of the Most High God shall partake of His reign with Him (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). Scripture does much to describe the Kingdom that we are to long for.
Jesus will rule His Kingdom with an “iron rod”.
Jesus directed us to pray to the Father ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Our praying should be for Christ to return and to establish His earthly kingdom, to put down sin and enforce obedience to God’s will. The Lord will then “rule them with a rod of iron”. He will rule His earthly Kingdom as in Heaven. He will rule with a rod of iron.
“and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” (Revelation 2:27)
“and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” (Isaiah 30:14)
“and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.” (Jeremiah 9:11)
Christ’s Kingdom is a time of “regeneration”.
“So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:29)
It is a time of “refreshing”.
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” (Acts 3:19)
God’s Kingdom is a coming time of Peace.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
“He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Micah 4:3)
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:16)
“Of 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 this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:7)
It will be a time when Satan is bound and no longer free to roam the earth.
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.” (Revelation 20:1-3)
Psalm 72 – the essence of the promises – Peter in Acts Chapter 2 preached that David well understood that a righteous King would reign according to the Covenant that God had made with him. David, “Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.” (Acts 2:30-31) The king that is here attested to in Psalm 72 could only be the King of Kings, the only one that could rule a kingdom which is here described.
The coming Messiah’s Kingdom will be one ruled by a Righteous King. He will judge the people righteously and the poor with justice. His reign will be one of righteous prosperity and He will “defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!”
In His days the righteous will flourish and peace will abound. This King will rule from sea to sea and all kings will bow down to Him and all nations serve Him. He will deliver the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He will have pity on the weak and the needy, and He will save the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he will redeem their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
I will leave it for you to judge whether we are now in this kingdom. I will leave it for you to judge whether there is currently reigning a righteous King who is reigning with an iron scepter or rod of iron. I will leave it for you to judge whether Satan is bound in this age.
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