07-05 Kingdom of Heaven

It is also known as the Kingdom of God and is a central theme of Jesus’ teachings. It is thought to be the main content of Jesus’ preaching in the Gospel of Matthew. The Kingdom of Heaven described a process, a course of events, whereby God begins to govern or to act as King or Lord, an action, therefore by which God manifests his being God in the world of men. Christ states to Peter in Matthew 16.17-19, 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.

We find in Scripture that there are two kingdoms. Christ discusses with his apostles. He tells Peter in the above passage that he will have the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Then Christ tells Paul that he will have the keys of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is heaven of earth in this physical life. The kingdom of God is heaven in the spiritual form. Paul has a top-down ministry, with Peter having a bottom-up one. Let us take a look at the kingdom of heaven. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

Acts 28 as 30-31. The phrase kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are both used in the Bible to refer to God’s rule, but they have slightly different meanings and origins. The phrase kingdom of God is used in the New Testament, often by Jesus Christ, to refer to God’s spiritual realm and his rule over all creation. It can also refer to the fulfilment of God’s will on earth. The phrase has its roots in the Old Testament and was launched by Christ’s public ministry. The phrase kingdom of heaven is used in the Gospel of Matthew to describe the process by which God begins to rule or act as king on earth.

It’s thought to be the main content of Jesus’s preaching in Matthew. The phrase focuses on God’s rule over the earth and is based on the idea that heaven is a place where God’s will is done. Some interpreters believe that the phrase kingdom of heaven was used by Matthew to refer to the millennial kingdom, while the other New Testament authors use the phrase kingdom of God to refer to the universal kingdom. However, others believe that the two phrases are simply different ways of referring to the same thing. Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 3 of 1. Although the precise phrase is not found there, the kingdom of heaven is basically an Old Testament concept. David declares that the Lord is king forever and ever. Psalm 10, 16. And 29 is 10, this kingdom is everlasting and that his dominion endures throughout all generations. Psalm 145, 13. Daniel speaks of the God of heaven who will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Daniel 2, 44, and Ezekiel 37, 25. A kingdom that is an everlasting kingdom, Daniel 4, 3. The God of heaven is the king of heaven and the heavenly kingdom is God’s kingdom.

Matthew uses the phrase kingdom of heaven 32 times and is the only gospel writer who uses it at all. The other three use the kingdom of God. It is probable that Matthew used kingdom of heaven because it was more understandable to his primarily Jewish readers. Jews would not speak God’s name, Yahweh, or Jehovah, and would often substitute heaven when referring to him, much as we do in such expressions as, heaven smiled on me today. There is no significant difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. The one phrase emphasizes the sovereign ruler of the kingdom and the other emphasizes the kingdom itself, but they are the same kingdom.

Matthew 19, 23-24, confirms the equality of the phrases by using them interchangeably. The kingdom has two aspects, the outer and the inner, both of which are spoken of in the Gospels. Those aspects are evident as one moves through Matthew. In the broadest sense, the kingdom includes everyone who professes to acknowledge God. Jesus’ parable of the Sower represents the kingdom as including both genuine and superficial believers, Matthew 13, verses 3-23, and in his following parable, verses 24-30, as including both wheat, true believers, and tares, false believers. That is the outer kingdom, the one we can see but cannot accurately evaluate ourselves, because we cannot know people’s hearts.

The other kingdom is the inner, the kingdom that includes only true believers, only those who, as John the Baptist proclaimed, repent and are converted. God rules over both aspects of the kingdom and he will one day finally separate the superficial from the real. Meanwhile, he allows the pretenders to identify themselves outwardly with his kingdom. God’s kingly rule over the hearts of men and over the world may be thought of as having a number of phases. The first is the prophesied kingdom, such as that foretold by Daniel. The second phase is the present kingdom, the one that existed at the time of John the Baptist and that he mentions.

It is the kingdom that both John and Jesus spoke of as being at hand. The third phase may be referred to as the interim kingdom, the kingdom that resulted because of Israel’s rejection of her king. The king returned to heaven and his kingdom on earth now exists only in a mystery form. Christ is Lord of the earth in the sense of his being its creator and its ultimate ruler, but he does not presently exercise his full divine will over the earth. He is, so to speak, in a voluntary exile in heaven until it is time for him to return again.

He reigns only in the hearts of those who know him as saviour and lord. For those, the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, Romans 14 verse 17. The fourth phase can be described as the manifest kingdom, in which Christ will rule physically, directly and fully on earth for a thousand years, the millennium. In that kingdom, he will rule both externally and internally, externally over all mankind, and internally in the hearts of those who belong to him by faith. The fifth and final phase is the eternal kingdom of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, which will be abundantly supplied to all of his own, 2 Peter 1 verse 11.

Had God’s people Israel accepted their king when he first came to them, there would be no interim kingdom. The kingdom at hand would have become the kingdom of a thousand years, which, in turn, would have ushered in the eternal kingdom. But because they killed the forerunner of the king, and then the king himself, the millennial kingdom, and consequently the eternal kingdom, were sovereignly postponed. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the Kingdom of Heaven. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world.

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