The Message of the Kingdom of God
The Metanarrative of Scripture?
METANARRATIVE: “an overarching account or interpretation of events and circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s beliefs and gives meaning to their experiences.”
For centuries, if not millennia, scholars and church leaders have attempted to pull together the “big story” of the Bible. Many if not most have landed on the story of the cross and redemption. This would be warranted by such a statement in scripture made by the man who is responsible for two-thirds of the writings of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, when he said:
1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
So it isn’t hard to see why many church leaders have landed on the conclusion that “this is what it’s all about.” We’re just supposed to get people saved. Get them out of hell and into heaven.
The problem with this conclusion is that if you read Paul’s writings and the account of his ministry in Acts, this topic doesn’t occupy the bulk of his content. He, in fact, knows about way more than just this crucial event, and has indeed much more to say.
Acts 20:24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (and what is the gospel?) 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
Paul is clearly focused on preaching “the whole counsel of God”, not exclusively the crucifixion. We can see that the message of the kingdom is the emphasis of the Apostle Paul because the very last verses of the book of Acts, which documents his life and ministry, bear witness to this:
Acts 28:30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
As a consequence of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the penultimate event in human history, it is the message of the kingdom that takes center stage. The book of Acts records that Jesus spent forty days teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God. The disciples were in awe of this message, leading them to plead with Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)
In addition to Paul, it was the message of the Apostle Peter (Acts 2:30). It was the message of the evangelist Phillip:
Acts 8:4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ . . . . 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women . . . 14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God
The message of the Kingdom and the Great King is the word of God.
IT IS THE MESSAGE.
The message of the Kingdom is even the primary story revolving around the cross. Think about it, why was Jesus crucified? Let’s take a walk through the Gospel of Matthew, known as the gospel of the Kingdom of God, to gain even more clarity on this central message:
Matthew 2:2 saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." (obviously this was taken literally, it prompts Herod to murder babies)
Matthew 5:34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
These verses set the context for what happens at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus:
Matthew 21:5 "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'"
Matthew 27:11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so." (there is nothing ambiguous in Jesus’ reply, he affirms pilots question)
Matthew 27:29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
Matthew 27:37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."
Matthew 27:42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
You see? Even if we were to conclude that the message of the cross was the grand metanarrative of scripture, that doesn’t allow us to escape the evidence. Even the message of the cross, at the end of the day, is the message of the Kingdom of God in that it pertains to the controversy around the claim that Jesus was and is a literal king of an earthly realm. And he will suffer no rivals.
This claim wasn’t declared in the counsel of men. When Jesus instructed Pilot at his trial before him, “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), he meant that it wasn’t being established according to earthly human decrees and methods. On the contrary, the order came straight from the counsel of heaven:
Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. . . . 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Jesus, outside of time and space and human consort, has been eternally and sovereignly selected to be both God incarnate in human flesh and king over all of the nations of the earth. It was decided by the uncreated God and announced by his own heavenly beings, not decided by human beings. There is no vote. This renders all of the politics of the earth irrelevant and futile. That is what makes the message of the kingdom so controversial, it makes a mockery of humans grasping for power and glory.
Psalm 2
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
But what about the Old Testament?
On this question, consider what author Thomas J. Ramsdell says in a summary fashion:
To refer to the source of this idea of the kingdom of God, as found in the Old Testament Scriptures, perhaps the most striking expressions are found in the writings of Daniel. Some of them are as follows: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nation, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Other prophets in earlier times had written in the same strain. We read in Micah, " I will make the halting a remnant and the far-scattered a strong nation. And Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion henceforth and forever." And Jeremiah prophesies, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth.”1
The message is so vital to understanding what God is trying to communicate throughout history that the bible begins with the message of the Kingdom of God:
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion (rule) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And it ends with the message of the Kingdom of God:
Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing (the remedy of the injuries to the nations suffered from the curse of the fall) of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
The implications of this message are twofold. As imagers of God, we are to function as his representatives on the earth to govern the nations as a reflection of how God would govern himself. As the church, the body of Christ, we are an extension of the God-man-King Christ Jesus, charged with the announcement and execution of his sovereign directives to every corner of the planet.
Discipleship here and now is the training ground where we are having the image of God repaired and developed in us, so that when the time comes for the healing of the nations (Rev 22:2), we will be capable of applying the same healing we have received. This subject will be the focus of Part 2 of this series.
But until then, we must understand the hour we are in. The King is coming, and he has instructed us that, while this message has been underdeveloped in the body of Christ, it will be the message the Holy Spirit will raise up for emphasis in the global church before he arrives:
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
The Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew Thomas J. Ramsdell The Biblical World, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Aug., 1894), pp. 124-133