The King and His Kingdom

As a follower of Jesus Christ, the significance of the Kingdom of God must be embraced. A kingdom is the domain in which the rule and reign of a king is a sovereign—the realm in which his authority and power are exercised over those in the kingdom. Jesus is not only our Savior and Lord, but also the King in His Kingdom.

The gospel is the good news of the Kingdom. It is what was promised by the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Seven hundred years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Isaiah wrote, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he … will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” (Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV)

One hundred years after Isaiah’s prophecy, Daniel saw that “… the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44 NIV)

Later, Daniel had a vision and wrote, “… I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven … He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14 NIV)

This Kingdom is spoken of over 100 times in the New Testament Scriptures. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he said, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. …The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David … his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:30-33 excerpts NIV)

When John the Baptist came out of the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance, he began to proclaim the coming of this promised kingdom.

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:1-2 NIV)

After John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod, Jesus himself began to preach the message of the kingdom.

“From that time on Jesus began to preach the good news of the kingdom. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” “… Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:17, 23 NIV)

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He instructed them to petition God for the coming of His kingdom.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)

Notice the phrase “your will be done.” Jesus warned that not everyone that says “Lord, Lord” would enter the kingdom of heaven. It underscores the imperative of us understanding what the will of God is in order that we can obey his will. The subjects of the kingdom (followers of Jesus) live by the rules of the king.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21 NIV)

Again, notice the phrase “but the one who does the will of my Father.” Isn’t it the Father’s will that we prophesy, cast out demons, and do miracles in the name of Jesus? Yes, but there must be something beyond these powerful works that capture that which is the will of the Father. What is he looking for from us?

I believe the answer is found in Jesus’ response to them.

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV)

What had these workers (ministers) of lawlessness missed that was so consequential? From looking at the context of what Jesus was saying, it appears that they had strayed from the “straight and narrow.” (Matthew 7:14)

Would this be a list of legalistic requirements that they had failed to follow? How had they done such good things—prophesying, driving out demons and working miracles—all in the name of Jesus, but missed doing the will of God? What was the missing component that Jesus referred to in his warning?

A clue could be found in what Jesus has just said that summarized the Law and Prophets.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12 NIV)

Paul makes clear that love is the component that God has always been looking for in His people.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10 NIV)

In his gospel account, Luke tells us what Jesus said at the last supper—the Passover meal—on the night before He was crucified. Jesus announced the long promised New Covenant.

“In the same way, after the supper he (Jesus) took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” (Luke 22:20 NIV)

In so doing, Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy given by Jeremiah six hundred years earlier.

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31 NIV)

Then after reiterating that he would soon be leaving his disciples, Jesus gave them a new commandment to go with the new covenant.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)

Later that evening, Jesus owned that new commandment as “my commandment.”

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 ESV)

The new covenant and new commandment that Jesus announced at the last supper were intended to be inextricably linked together for all Christian history. Tragically, the new commandment was separated from the new covenant in large part since the end of the second century! None of our historic Christian creeds and confessions of faith mention the new commandment. I estimated that 90% of churches in the western world make no mention of Jesus’ Commandment in their statements of faith and practice.¹ In my surveys of Christians, when asked “What is Jesus’ Commandment?,” only one in twenty Bible believing Christians answered, “Love one another as Jesus has loved me.”

We all embrace what has been called the “Great Commission” recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. Here Jesus, the promised King in the Kingdom, tells us that he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. As a major part of this mission, we are told to teach disciples to “obey everything I have commanded you,” yet we have largely failed to teach the only commandment Jesus owned as “my commandment”—the new commandment!

There are a lot of good things we can do in our practice of Christianity and yet miss the one thing that is our mark of authenticity—obedience to the King’s commandment to love one another as He has loved us.

Of the seven churches listed in Revelation, we have the most biblical history of the church in Ephesus. The Apostle Paul spent nearly three years ministering in that city and the whole province was impacted by the message of the gospel.

Years later during his imprisonment in Rome, Paul writes them a letter we have today—Ephesians. In it, he tells what has motivated him to pray for them.

“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Ephesians 1:15-16 NIV)

Notice two things that caught Paul’s attention and motivated him to continued prayer for them, (1) “your faith in the Lord Jesus” and (2) “your love for all God’s people.”

We know from reading Paul’s letter to the churches in Colossae, Thessalonica, and Philippi that he always looked for these two marks of authenticity. But what is unique about the church at Ephesus is that it is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor that are included in Revelation, the last book in the Bible.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” (Revelation 2:1 NIV)

They are then commended for a long list of amazing deeds—hard work, perseverance, intolerance of wicked people, testing and rejecting false apostles, enduring hardship for Jesus’ name and not growing weary.

Wow! After that list, what could possibly need correcting in the church at Ephesus?

Turns out they were missing one thing—obedience to Jesus’ new commandment! They had failed to guard the King’s commandment to love one another as He had loved them.

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken (abandoned—ESV) the love you had at first.” (Revelation 2:4 NIV)

They had gotten busy “doing Christianity” and had forsaken the love they once had for one another. Remember what Paul had commended them for some 30 years earlier? “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Ephesians 1:15-16 NIV)

What is the remedy?

“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:5 NIV)

They needed to return to the deeds that expressed their love for one another—“your love for all God’s people!” Remember what Jesus said at the last supper?

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)

Church historian and apologist Tertullian expressed what obedience to Jesus’ commandment looked like late in the second century.

“…we have our treasure-chest … to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church … it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another …”

Tertullian

How do we recover the King’s command in our day? How important is this command in the revival that we are now praying for? We must listen to Jesus! He said that we can’t even enter the Kingdom unless we become like little children.

“He (Jesus) called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-4 NIV)

Scientific research shows that little children tend to use the right side of their brain for the first several years of their life. (The left-brain is the analytical and linear side of our thinking process.) Of “right-brain” thinkers, Lauren Martin writes, “They feel more deeply, thus, they love more deeply. Right-brained people follow their feelings more than their heads and ponder every feeling and new emotion they experience.”²

Could that be part of the reason Jesus said we need to become like little children to enter the kingdom? For many, discipleship has become largely a “left-brain” exercise—knowing the right things about God and the Bible. Thankfully, there is a significant shift in our day—writers and teachers that are calling the church back to using both sides of our brain.

We read in the last book of the New Testament the ultimate outcome in battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom Jesus rules over.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15b NIV)

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must embrace the significance of the King, His Kingdom and obedience to His commandment—“Love one another as I have loved you!” (John 15:12b ESV)