Has The Kingdom Of God Already Come? Many believe the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, will come in the future, yet Jesus said it would come in the lifetime of his disciples. Did Christ establish his kingdom in the first century?

The Kingdom of the Lord is one of the most primary themes of the Bible. God desires to reign over the hearts and lives of men. It was rebellion against God’s authority that led to the fall of man and our ruined state from which Christ had to redeem us and to be restored and reconciled to God.

It means more than the forgiveness of sin and the promise of going to heaven one day, but it also means that we submit to God and his authority, which in this age has been given to Jesus Christ, his son, and therefore we honor Jesus as the Lord and as the king over all kings. There’s much confusion about the Kingdom of the Lord today.

What kind of kingdom is it? Is it here or is it yet to come? Are all men part of it or is it made up only of certain people?

Matthew 4:12-17 says, “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.“

Jesus came preaching the good news of his coming kingdom, that it was at hand. Well, was it or are we still waiting for it?

Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom, the word kingdom merely referring to Christ’s reign in the earth or the rule of God over men. The message of John and Jesus was simple. The long awaited kingdom of the Messiah was at hand. That’s Bible language. The Rule of God was about to commence. It was imminent, but there’s a great deal of confusion about that. There was in Jesus’ day and people are still confused about it today. The confusion is not over the fact that the Messiah would rule over a kingdom. Nearly all who believe that Jesus is the Messiah believe that he is a king. The confusion is over the concept of his rule, the nature of his kingdom, and when the kingdom came or will come.

Well, let’s look at the great misunderstanding that people had about the kingdom and Jesus.

His own day. The prophets had all told of upcoming messianic king who would one day rule on the throne that David once occupied and the greatest hope of the Jews was that their king would come and deliver them. But what did that mean to them? David and Solomon represented the glory days of Israel to the ancient Jew. Israel was sovereign, secure, and prosperous during those early years, but it didn’t remain that way for long. After Solomon died and his son took over the throne, the kingdom was divided. You have the northern tribes, and then you had Judah. Well, trouble would follow God’s people from then on. Because they sinned and rebelled against the Lord, God handed them over to their enemies. God’s people became captives and servants.

There was, for example, the long period where the Jews were carried off to Babylon and held captive there and they’re beloved and holy city of Jerusalem was laid waste.The walls werebroken down and their temple destroyed. They eventually returned from Babylon. But it wasn’t the same during the intertestamental period. That is the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, also called the “Second Temple Period”.

They came under the rule of the Romans. In fact, not very long before Jesus was born and their political fate shaped and molded their concept of the promised Messiah. In fact, it changed their concept of the Promised Messiah during that period of time, instead of anticipating a messiah who would break the fetters of sin from their hearts and souls, they were looking for a messiah or leader who would break the yoke of the Roman Caesar from off their necks. They resented the rule of the Romans, particularly paying taxes to the Roman government and tired of being subjects to other kings. They yearned to have their sovereignty back, so that was the mindset of the Jewish people during those last years of the intertestamental period and at the time that Jesus was born into the world.

It’s essential that we understand that historical basis.

That’s what they were wanting. That’s what they were expecting in a messiah, and in his attendant kingdom. They envisioned a powerful leader who would arise and lead their liberation from the Roman government and make them a sovereign nation, again. They misunderstood all of their prophets and God’s promises about a kingdom. So with these misconceptions in place when John the Baptist came before Jesus, heralding the soon coming kingdom, the news was met with excitement by many. John told the people to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins in anticipation of the Messiah and his kingdom, for it was at hand. We read about how he baptized multitudes of people who responded to his preaching.

Notice in Matthew 3:1-6, the Bible says, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”

So John, being the harbinger of the Christ, says the kingdom is at hand. It is near, the long awaited promise is about to come to pass. Now, had you lived in John’s time and heard him preach, “the kingdom is at hand,” how would you have interpreted that?

And regardless of what you thought the kingdom represented, wouldn’t you have understood that whatever it is, it is about to be established. How else would they have interpreted John Statement? The kingdom is at hand.

It’s very hard to imagine them hearing John preach and then envisioning a kingdom that was still thousands of years away. In the lifetime of John, the kingdom was near and then John fulfills his ministry. He steps aside, he’s put into prison, and Jesus begins his ministry.

What did Jesus preach? Well, Mark 1:14-15, tells us, ” Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

Repent and believe the gospel. So Jesus picks up the message, started by John. He says, “the time is fulfilled.” In other words, it’s now time. This kingdom that God has been promising you for hundreds of years is at hand. The time is right now.

There are many, many people who believe that the time wasn’t right. In fact, most preachers you hear today not only contend that the kingdom still has not come 2000 years after Jesus spoke these words, they’re even suggesting or implying that the rejection that Jesus faced by the Jews meant that God delayed the kingdom until another and still future time.

“If only the Jews would have received Jesus as their messiah, then he would have established the kingdom then,” they say. But because they instead rejected him all the time, while it just wasn’t right. And their doctrine of dispensational, pre-millennialism says that one day the Jews will receive him, and that will be the time that he finally takes up his rule and sets up his kingdom.

But what did Jesus say? He said, “the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is at hand.” Nothing takes God by surprise. Nothing caught Jesus unawares. He’s omniscient.

God knew that the Jewish nation would reject his son, and yet the apostle Paul would later say that, in the fullness of time, that is when the time was right, God sent his son into the world, made of a woman, Galatians 4:4.

So Jesus came exactly when God determined that he would come. God’s calendar was not off by one day, and when Jesus came, he said, it’s time. The time is fulfilled. Prophecy was being fulfilled, all of the pieces were being put into place and the kingdom he says is at hand.

Now again, would anyone listening to Jesus say, “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand” Would anyone walk away thinking Jesus was promising something that was still at least 2000 years away from fulfillment.

Who could believe it? No. They may have misunderstood what Jesus meant by a kingdom and they did, but they understood that whatever the kingdom is, it was very near. It was imminent.

Then we see in Matthew 10:5-7, that Jesus sent out the twelve “and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Well, there it is again. Nothing has changed. And then in Luke 10:1-9, Jesus sends the seventy out to preach from city to city and he instructs them in Verse Nine, to heal the sick, but are there in and say unto them, “the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”

Now the sad thing is most of them were going to miss out on the kingdom, but that didn’t prevent Jesus from doing what he said he would do. Over and over and over again. Inspiration says at that time, 2000 years ago in the first century, “the kingdom is at hand.”

The kingdom is nigh unto those people. Now, friend, think about how preposterous it is to suggest that the rejection of the Jewish leaders somehow took the Lord by surprise and that he had to alter the longstanding plan of God and put the church in the place of the kingdom. God sends Jesus in the fullness of time.

He comes saying, “the time is fulfilled. Get ready. The kingdom is at hand. It is nigh unto you or near you.” But all of the sudden things go sour and God has to back up and delay the promised kingdom.

I have more faith in the forknowledge and wisdom of God than to believe such a thing. Not only did John and then Jesus, and then Jesus’ disciples come saying “the kingdom was at hand,” but long before, the Old Testament prophets prophesied the timing of the kingdom.

Hundreds of years before Jesus even came, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write of the very seasoned in time when the kingdom would come and the Holy Spirit guiding the Old Testament prophets was very specific about this. And if they would only heed their own scriptures, they would have recognized what all was taking place when Jesus came.

For example, the prophecy of Daniel 600 years before Jesus was born, Daniel was carried off to Babylon. And while he was there, the king had a dream about this powerful man or great image of a man, that had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze legs of iron and feet of clay.

Well, that perplexed King Nebuchadnezzar, and so he called on Daniel to interpret this dream for him. In Daniel Chapter two, verses 31 through 44, Daniel explains that this man with five parts represented five great kingdom arrows that would arise and he begins by describing the Babylonian Empire that was in power at that time.

He said it was a powerful empire represented by the head of gold, but he said there was a kingdom coming after that one, a lesser kingdom. That according to Daniel Chapter Eight and verse 20 was Medo-Persian that later rose in 539 BC. That was the chest and arms of silver and Nebuchadnezzar his dream.

And then in 330 BC we see the rise of Greece.

What we learned, that’s the third kingdom. According to Chapter Eight and verse 20, one that’s the belly and the thighs of bronze, and then come the legs of iron. And in 63 BC, the Roman Empire emerges, which was empowered during the days of Jesus and which later divided into several parts, which is why he did represents the feet that were made of iron, and clay,the Roman Empire.

So what is the point in all of this? What did Daniel say would happen when these kingdoms arose in history? Well, listen to Daniel, those kingdoms’ days that he talks about there and the vision were numbered.

Daniel Chapter two and verse 35 tells us then was the iron and the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away. That no place was found for them.

And the Bible says, the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now look down at verse 44, he says, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 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 these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”

Now, when would the kingdom come? In the days of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that will never be destroyed would come during the days of the Roman Empire. A kingdom that would be superior to all other kingdoms.

Fast forward more than 600 years and look at Hebrews 12:28 “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Well, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A kingdom which will stand forever. A kingdom that will not be destroyed.

The writer of Hebrews didn’t say, “One of these days a kingdom will come.” The saints then to whom he was writing had received or were receiving a kingdom.

If the first century Christians were receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and Daniel says, the indestructible kingdom will come in the days of the kings leading up to the first century, the Roman Empire, can’t we conclude that the kingdom came during the first century? Yes, we can and if we believed the prophecy of Daniel, we must.

Jesus told the people in Mark 9:1, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”

That which Daniel said would come during the days of those kings culminating in the Roman empire, Jesus said, “some of you which stand here will not taste death until they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power.”

When would it come? He says, in the lifetime of some of those to whom Jesus was speaking not thousands of years later, but before some of them tasted of death, some of them died before it came, but Jesus says, some of them did not. They were still alive. Well, that means it wasn’t very far away. So when did it come? When was the kingdom established?

Notice Jesus says that it would come during their lifetime and it would come with power. Do we ever read of any of these people to whom Jesus was speaking seeing power from heaven? Sure we do.

Let’s narrow it down. Jesus said the kingdom would come in their lifetime with power. We read in Luke 24:49 just before ascending back to heaven, Jesus told his same disciples who were with him, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”

Well, when did that happen? Go forward a few days and one chapter to Acts 2:1-4 and Luke says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Well, there’s your power that was brought by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the promise of the Father. What did Jesus say would come with power? He said the kingdom would come with power.

When did it come? On the day of Pentecost. When was that?

In the first century around the year33 AD. What kingdom was in power at that time? Rome, Caesar, the fourth in this line of Kingdoms, of which Daniel said, and in the days of those kings, God would establish a kingdom that would stand forever, would never be destroyed.

So the Holy Spirit came with power upon the disciples on the day of pentecost. Jesus said, in your lifetime the kingdom would come with power, but some will say, “well, that was the church that came on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two.” That was the church. they say, not the kingdom.

Look at Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So yes, Jesus built his church and it came in the lifetime of his disciples, but then he goes on to say, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,” v.19.

Christ’s church would be established and Peter would use the keys of entrance to the kingdom. Well, so you see the church and the kingdom are used in an interchangeable way.

Isn’t that exactly what happened on pentecost? The church was established and Peter preached the first Gospel sermon that saw more than 3000 people baptized into Christ, saved from their sins and added to the church. With that in mind, look at what Paul says in Colossians 1:12-13, because it is exactly parallel with what happened on pentecost in Acts chapter two.

Paul says, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

When they were made free from sin, they were translated into the kingdom when they received the remission of their sins. In Acts Chapter 2, the Bible says, “the Lord added them to the church.”

You see, the kingdom came 2000 years ago and you can be in it today.

The doctrine of dispensational, pre-millennialism, which is so popular, so widely embraced, so often taught by the televangelists, is patently false. It misunderstands the very nature of the kingdom, just as the Jews in Jesus’ own day, misunderstood it.

Understand the kingdom. Don’t forget the Jews had a conception in their mind of the messianic kingdom, but that view, that concept was shaped and molded by the political landscape of their day and the oppression that they had suffered for so long.

So the kingdom that they were now hoping for was not necessarily the kingdom that God promised. Even his disciples did not have a very clear understanding of the kingdom and Jesus had to remind them in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s not like other kingdoms.

The psalmist says, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” (Psalm 119:104). The Bible is the revelation of God to man and you simply can’t live for God until you know something about the word of God.

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