Living In The Kingdom of God

Introduction

- maybe it would be best for me to introduce our subject

by asking you a question (not expecting you to answer)

- are we living in the kingdom of God today?

- not an easy question to answer

- might respond "no" - why would Jesus instruct us in the

Lord's prayer to pray "Thy kingdom come"

- might answer "yes" - thinking of Col. 1:13 - "Who has

delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath

translated us into the kingdom of his dear son"

- the bottom line answer to the question is "No, but..."

- in other words - when the Bible speaks of the kingdom of

God and the kingdom heaven, normally it is referring to the

millennial kingdom - thats something that is to happen in

the future - we'll be talking about that for the rest of

the evening

- however, we always need to keep in mind, that God, in some

senses, has in the past, is now, will always rule this

world

- Psalm 103:19 - The Lord has prepared his throne in the

heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all

- Psalm 145:13 - Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and thy dominion endureth throught the

generations

- cf. Dan. 4:17, 25, 32, 35, 6:27

- the point is - though we're going to be talking about a

millennial kingdom that is still out in the future, we

can't fall into the trap of thinking "If only God would

take control of this world..."

- the reason is, that kind of thinking often leads to

justifying sinful thoughts and sinful acts

- "Well, I know I shouldn't have cursed at my boss, but

you should have heard what he said to me - if only

God would take control of this world"

- see, just because we're talking about a future

kingdom, we can't forget that God has never abdicated

his control

- thy kindom is an everlasting kingdom

- you might ask - how is God exercising that control today?

1) Providence - Psalm 148:5-8 (read)

def. - the control of God over the events of this world

through natural means

- if God didn't do that - most of us would be dead -

ILLUS - car switching

2) Preservation - Col. 1:17 - "And he is before all

things, and by him all things consist"

- world is held together by natural means

- He made a world that is consistent

- so, even though we'll be studying about a coming time when

God will directly rule and reign, that doesn't mean that

things are somehow out of his control today

- I think we heard a good example of that Sunday about

the Russin believers - God put me here

- with that in mind, lets look at Rev. 20

- you remember that last week one of our pastors spoke to us about

the final event of the tribulation - the battle of

Armageddon

- at the end of that battle, the antichrist and the false

prophet are cast into hell, the lake of fire

- they are the first inhabitants of that place - we'll talk

more about that next week

- now we're going to read about how the kingdom begins

- read 20:1-6

- tonight, I want to take the remaining time to answer these

three questions

- what is the millennium?

- why should we be expecting one?

- what should that mean to me today?

I. What is the Millennium?

- we need to say that the word millennium never occurs in

the Bible

- its just like the word rapture - the actual word is

never found - but the concept of course is taught in

many places in the Scripture

- the word millennium is actually a Latin word

- "mille" - thousand

- "annum" - year

- that concept is taught six times in Rev. 20:1-7 alone

- def. - 1000 year rule of Christ on this earth following

the tribulation

II. Why Should We Be Expecting A Millennial Kingdom?

A. O.T. prophecies

- the Bible is chock-full of passages that promise

Israel a kingdom ruled by the Messiah

1. Gen. 12:2-3 (to Abraham) - I will make of thee a

great nation, and I will bless thee, and make

thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse

them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the

families of the earth be blessed

- point is - those promises made to Abraham have

not been completely fulfilled

- that becomes more apparant as the prophecies

are developed

2. Num. 24:17-19 - (Baalam's prophecy) - I shall see

him but not now, I shall behold him, but not

near: there shall come a star out of Jacob,

and a sceptor shall rise out of Israel...out

of Jacob shall he come who shall have dominion

- again, those prophecies made to Israel have

not been fulfilled

3. II Sam. 7:16, cf. Heb. 1:5 - "And thine house and

thine kingdom shall be established forever

before thee; and thy throne shall be

established forever"

4. I Chron. 17:11-14, cf. Luke 1:31, 33 - "And it

shall come to pass, when thy days are ended,

that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I

will raise up thy seed after thee, who shall be

of thy sons; and I will establish thy kingdom.

He shall build me a house, and I will establish

his throne forever. I will be his father, and

he shall be my son; and I will not take my mercy

away from him, as I took it from him that was

before thee. But I will settle him in my

kingdom forever, and his throne will be

established forevermore.

5. Psalm 89:3-4, 34-37 - Read (great verses)

note: this is just a small sample of literally

hundreds of verses on this subject. If you

are interested in doing further research,

please see Pastor Viars

- point is - the Bible predicts in many, many places

that a kingdom is coming which will be established

forever, where the Lord Jesus christ will directly

rule and reign over all the earth.

- obviously, these promises have not yet been

fulfilled, so you would think that everyone would

believe that those promises still have to be

fulfilled yet in the future.

- but the truth is, not everybody sees the issue of

the coming kingdom the same way. Thats why Marc

Blackwell talked about the Russian pastors quizzing

him about what he believed. Let's talk about:

B. Various Positions on the Coming Kingdom

- there are three primary choices

1. amillennial - ("a" - negative = no millennium)

2. postmillennial - ("post" - after = Christ will

return after the millenium)

3.pre-millennial - ("pre" - before = Christ will

return before the millennium)

- we are pre-millennial - we believe Jesus will return to

the earth prior to the millennium to set up his 1000

year reign

- a post-millennialist believes that it is the job of the

church to usher in the millennium. This position isn't

that popular, but what do you think a church like that

would emphasize heavily? (social issues - because

Christ can't come back until the church gets the world

cleaned up)

- amillennialists - most presbyterians, people who would

call themselves reformed would fit into this group,

believe that the church is the fulfillment of OT

Isreal, and that there will be no literal kingdom

- you might say, how is it that good people with the same

Bible can differ so much on these issues?

- answer is - hermeneutics (how we interpret the Bible)

- I want to talk about that a little bit tonight,

because our subject presents a good example of the

differences

- there are at least three different ways to interpret

the Scripture

C. How O.T. Prophecies Are Interpreted

1. literal or normal method

- God said what He meant and meant He said

a. if the plain sense makes good sense, seek no

other sense

b. still leaves room for figures of speech

Psalm 72:6 - (read 1-6)

- passage is about the coming King

- just because we believe in interpreting

Scripture literally, we don't believe

that Christ is somehow going to appear

like rain

- the writer is using imagery

- INPUT - what is the image? (see next

verse) - What does rain do to grass?

(makes it flourish)

- point is - Christ rulership in the

Millennial kingdom will make everyone

and everything flourish

- INPUT - have we ceased interpreting the

Scripture literally when we handle the

passage that way? (no, its a literal

figure of speech)

2. spiritualizing method

a. God was not speaking literally in the OT

prophecies

b. the NT church is the same as Israel

INPUT - what difficulty would you see with

this in light of this (Roman Numeral)

point we're making? (the promises

have not been fulfilled in Israel,

so who do they apply to?)

- let me show you how this method would

affect Psalm 72:6. They would say that

this verse was fulfilled on the day of

Pentecost when the church was born.

- grass - church at Pentecost

- mown - unsanctified state of the

disciples

- rain - gift of the Holy Spirit

- of course the problem with all this is -

who decides? Scripture can mean anything

I want it to mean. If a particular verse

doesn't fit my lifestyle, I can just

spiritualize it to mean something else.

3. critical method

a. Bible is merely a collection of human

writings which contain error

b. the OT prophecies were meant to be taken

literally, but they were wrong

D. Diagrams - draw circles

Liberal - takes promises literally, but promises are

wrong

Amil - Bible is true but not literal

Pre-Mil. - Bible is true and should be taken

literally

- POINT - clearly the book of Revelation and the OT

promises predict that Jesus will return to this

earth and set up a literal kingdom that will

last 1000 years

- let me just say quickly that there are a number of

other reasons why we believe in a literal coming

kingdom

- we've already looked at:

- predictions in the book of Revelation

- Old Testament promises

E. God's Future Plan For Israel

- Rom. 11:1 - I say then, hath God cast away his

people? God forbid.

- point is that God's plan for Israel is not over

- we've seen that all through this study of

Revelation.

- point is - if God still has aplan for Israel,

there has to be a place for that plan to be

carried out, and that place is the millenial

kingdom

F. NT predictions

- many verses in the NT predict a literal coming

kingdom

1. II Tim. 4:1 - I charge thee therefore, before God

and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the

living and the dead at his appearing and his

kingdom

2. II Tim. 4:18 - And the Lord shall deliver me from

every evil work, and will preserve me unto his

heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and

ever, Amen.

3. II Peter 1:10-11 - Wherefore the rather,

brethren, give diligence to make your calling

and election sure, for if ye do these things,

ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall

be ministered unto you abundantly into the

everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

This is just a partial listing of verses. Many mor

could be added.

III. How Should Expecting A Millennial Kingdom Affect Us

Now?

- Jesus wanted John to reveal this information about the

coming millennial kingdom because He wanted it to have

a certain effect on the Revelation churches, and on us

as well

A. exemplify kingdom living here and now

- I mentioned a passage earlier that I'd like us to

think about now

- Col. 1:12-13 (read)

- I think that one of the reasons there is confusion

over this kingdom of God issue is because there are

verses like this one that clearly speak of us living

in the kingdom of God now

- thats true, at least in the sense that we are

personally related to the king, the Lord Jesus Christ

- in essence, we have said voluntarily what every

person in the millennial kingdom, at least at the

outset will say, that is that we want to submit to

the rulership of the king

- its not just Jesus Christ--its the Lord Jesus Christ

- and we want to submit to His leadership now

- let me ask you tonight - are you in submission to the

Lordship of Christ in your life

- now I hope your answer to that question would be -

PV, I have some trouble with the way that question is

phrased

- I purposely asked it that way to get us thinking

- perhaps a better way to ask it would be - are

you growing by submitting more and more of

your life and lifestyle to the Lordship of

Christ?

- lets just pick some areas that check out:

1) if we looked at the way you made a recent

decision, would we conclude that you had been

translated into the kingdom of His dear Son?

2) if we brought your car radio in and listened to

it, would we conclude that Jesus is the Lord?

3) if we examined your desires and life goals...

4) what about your view of integrity...the

importance of telling the truth

5) your impact on your family

- question is - would an examination of your lifestyle

reveal that you are conforming more and more of your

thinking and more and more of your behavior to the

Lordship of Christ?

- would those around say - that person is living for

someone different than theirself

B. Helps us achieve a balance between

evangelism/discipleship/family issues & social and

civic responsibilities

- there's no question that the word of God places

responsibilities on us as citizens

- we're to pray for government, be informed about

issues, vote intelligently and faithfully, some

may even seek public office - there's no question

about that

- but if you're like me - the problem is finding the

balance between civic and social responsibilities

and other issues such as evangelism, discipleship,

and family

- the reason for that is - it would be very easy to

spend every available minute on some social or

political concern

- is this true for you, too - all I have to do is

read the editorial page and I'm exercised about any

number of things

- point is - while social and civic responsibility is

important, at best its polishing the brass on a

sinking ship

- the church's job is not to usher in the kingdom

- yet I could tell you of individuals from other

places who are always off on some social crusade

but never have any time for evangelism

- never have any time for discipleship

- never have any time for family

- you may have wondered, why doesn't our church get

involved in this action and this coalition - why

didn't we have "earth day" and all the rest

- answer would be that we're involved in all we can

and still do justice to the "majors", that is the

things that God surely wants us to be involved in

C. Gives opportunity to believe the promises of God

- sometimes I wonder if one of the reasons the folks

who spiritualize the Bible do so is because they

aren't sure God could literally pull his promises off

- next week we're going to look more specifically at

what this millennial kingdom will be like, but even

what we've studied so far