A BRIEF LOOK AT SOME OF THE KEY WORDS IN THE BIBLE
Bible Corner - No. 19 KINGDOM OF GOD
In the centuries immediately prior to the coming of Jesus, the Jewish people were sustained by the hope that their troubles would soon be ended by the intervention of God. He would raise up a leader (The Anointed One' or 'Messiah') who would subdue the powers of evil and rule in righteousness. Imagine then the amazement when Jesus announced that this Kingdom of God was no longer some future event but had now arrived (Mark 1:15) But where was the Messiah? How could there be a Kingdom without the central figure - the ruler? It was in the synagogue at Nazareth that Jesus gave the broad hint that he was that person; only to be furiously rejected by the congregartion. He did not fit their narrow expectations! (see Luke 4:16-30).
Much of the rest of Jesus' ministry was spent explaining the nature of the Kingdom. Among other things he taught that:
*It was not a Kingdom involving territory or some Utopia or new social order but a Kingdom of relationships centred on the God who was the Father of those who turned to him in childlike trust (Matthew 18:3).
*No-one could 'extend' or 'build' the Kingdom; it was God's creation alone.
*Thus it could only be entered by those who responded to God's invitation (Matthew 11:28-30; 22:1-14).
*To belong to the Kingdom involved a new pattern of living, typified by the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5-7).
*The power of the Kingdom would be released through the Cross, Resurrection and Gift of the Spirit (Mark 9:1).
*Although the Kingdom had come, it was yet to come in its fulness (Matthew 6:10).
Howard Rady
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