The Kingdom of God: The Presentness of the Kingdom by Dr Gordon Fee, Lesson 2a

The series we are doing, as you will recall from last evening, is on the Kingdom of God and the teaching of Jesus. It is a series that does not conveniently package, necessarily at least, into blocks of four hours.

So we are right in the middle. But in order for us to get up to this place where we are right at this moment, let's see if we can recapitulate in less than three minutes what we did last night. Remember, the first thing that we indicated was how crucial understanding the Kingdom of God is if we are going to understand Jesus.

It is all the evidence in the Gospels that leads us to the same conclusion that whatever else Jesus was about, he was about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Since that is true, it becomes imperative for us then to understand what that means.

So you remember we went to Mark's little summary in Mark 1 .15 and began with the first sentence, the time is fulfilled. Spent a large part of our time last evening showing how the Messianic expectations, the hope for the end that had arisen in Judaism, how it had finally come into focus in the time of John the Baptist and then Jesus.

Then what we did was to look at the second sentence in that summary, the Kingdom of God is at hand. The first thing we did was to show that the term Kingdom of God does not mean what one might ordinarily think it means in our languages that tend to use that phrase to have to do with a realm, a place, a geographical or spatial term.

Rather we suggested that all of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that it has to do primarily with the rule of God, God's reign, the time when God exercises his rule in the affairs of mankind. Now right at that point we were indicating that the difficulty that we have is then when Jesus says this time of God's rule, the Kingdom of God is at hand.

What can that mean? And our problem is that of course the language at hand means that it was there. It was there in a presentness in the ministry of Jesus. Our problem with that is that the teaching of Jesus itself is full of ambiguity.

On the one hand there are those considerable number of sayings that we took about 10 -15 minutes with last night indicating that the Kingdom of God is still a future event. It has to do with the time in the future when there's going to be the great reversal of the order of life for example.

When the great banquet that the people who don't expect to be there are going to be there sitting at table. The coming of the Son of Man yet in the future. The requirement of watchfulness. Those and many many other sayings that indicate that for Jesus himself the Kingdom of God was still a future event.

Now we were right at the point where we were going to emphasize that just as importantly and significantly and this is where the difficulty lies. It is equally clear that for Jesus himself the Kingdom of God was in fact a present reality.

Now that's what we want to begin with tonight. The presentness of the Kingdom in the ministry of Jesus. Let us begin with a couple of texts that make this absolutely certain. The first of these is in Luke 17 verses 20 and 21.

A text that we'll make note of. I happen to have the RSV in front of me and we'll hear what it says because I think this is the proper understanding of the text. Being asked by the Pharisees, and you'll notice now the question, when is the Kingdom of God coming?

Remember you don't ask where is it? Or when you do ask where is it you mean where is it in terms of when is it breaking on the scene? Where do I go out to see it happening in terms of a time coming? Their question is when the Kingdom of God was coming.

Jesus answered them, the Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Now we're going to have to come back and deal with that idea a little bit later in this evening. But it's of considerable significance that you hear that.

The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say, lo here it is or there. For Jesus said, behold the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Now the King James Version translated that within you.

The New International Version perpetuates that translation. The Kingdom of God is within you. The word can mean either within or among. The problem is which does it mean? And it is very very difficult for me to imagine that Jesus meant the Kingdom of God is within you.

For a couple of reasons. First of all there is not another hint of any kind in the entire teaching of Jesus that would even remotely suggest such an idea. That spiritualizes the Kingdom in a way that is radically foreign to the teaching of Jesus.

He doesn't think of the Kingdom as some spiritual idea. Furthermore, the whole context of this is Jesus is speaking to Pharisees. It is nearly impossible to imagine that Jesus would have said to a group of Pharisees, now look, don't go running around here and there looking for the Kingdom because the Kingdom of God is within you.

And that is to absolutely miss the point of the text. What he is trying to say to the Pharisees is, that don't go running around every place when somebody says there is evidence of the Kingdom out here and there and everywhere else.

The next time somebody crosses the Jordan with a group of 400 people ready to march on Rome, don't go running out there to say the Kingdom of God is here. Because Jesus says the Kingdom of God is already in your midst.

It's already actively at work among you. Now, there can be no text that is more clear than that one in terms of the fact of the presentness of the Kingdom. But there are other texts that make it equally clear.

One of them, for example, is Luke 16, 16. Again, a text that has some difficulties in it. But the point I'm trying to make right at this moment is not difficult. The Law and the Prophets were until John.

Since then, the good news... Now, notice the way this divides history. Remember our little this age and the age to come? And the Law and the Prophets were until John. Jesus says now from John's time until the moment he spoke these words, he said, The Kingdom of God is being preached.

And everyone enters it violently. Now, you understand whatever that means. And we'll come back to that. I think there's an answer to that. But the point I'm trying to make is that it is being preached and people are entering it.

It is now something those who are hearing Jesus are entering in the proclamation of Jesus. So, again, the Kingdom of God is a present reality in a text like this. Now, there is one other set of texts that are equally clear and, in this case, are particularly significant.

This is a group of texts. I'm trying to locate these now. One of them, I think, is in Luke 11, 18. Suddenly, it occurs to me that I can't put my finger on the exact place. No, it's 11, 20. It's in the Beelzebul Controversy.

Now, the Beelzebul Controversy is taken up, you remember, with regard to Jesus' authority to cast out demons. And what Jesus is saying to them, If I cast out demons... You're accusing me of casting out demons by Satan.

He says now, that's ridiculous. That means a kingdom is divided against itself and cannot stand. Besides, if I cast out demons by Satan, by whom do your people cast them out? Since there were exorcisms that were going on in Judaism with regularity.

But he says, you've got another alternative. If I, by the finger or Spirit of God, cast out demons, that means the Kingdom of God has come present upon you. Now, that's the choice you have. If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons, that means God's Kingdom has come present in your midst.

Now, very closely related to that kind of text is the one in Matthew 11, verses 2 to 5. You remember that John the Baptist is having difficulty with Jesus. And I'm going to come back and comment on that in a few moments also.

And he finally sends some of his disciples to Jesus. He says, are you the coming one or do we look for somebody else? And Jesus says, go back and tell John what you see and hear. And what he in effect does is takes the promises out of Isaiah 61 .1 and says, these things are now happening.

And so let no one be offended in me. Blessed is the one who is not offended in me. And what he uses as evidence is the reversal of order, the overthrow of Satan's reign, the blind sea, the lame walk, the oppressed are being set free, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

This, Jesus says, is the evidence that Isaiah 61 .1 is being fulfilled in your hearing, which is exactly the point that is made in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4 .16 and following, where on this particular day, they open to the prophet Isaiah.

And this is a clearly messianic text that has to do with the great coming day of the Lord, which is going to be evidenced by the Spirit of God upon the Messiah and the great reversal. The blind sea, the lame walk, the oppressed are set free, the prisoners are set free, and the poor are hearing the good news from God.

And Jesus says, this day, this is being fulfilled in your hearing. Now, all of those texts together, plus a number of other kinds of evidence, indicate that for Jesus Himself, the kingdom of God was in fact a present reality in His own ministry.

As we suggested last night in conclusion in a hurry, that was for Him partly evidenced in the fact of His eating with sinners. Remember, one of the great truths of the coming of the rule of God was going to be the great reversal.

And the great reversal is the people that expected to be in are going to end up being out, and those who don't expect it are going to be in. And a part of that was the messianic banquet motif. It is in this context that Jesus regularly places His sitting at table with tax collectors, prostitutes, people, and those two tend to be at the very bottom of the rung of the category sinners in the view of the Pharisees.

And Jesus is eating with them. And His view of eating with them is now is not a time for fasting. Now is a time for feasting because the bridegroom is with them. There will come a time for fasting. But now is feasting time.

Now we are celebrating the coming of the rule of God and the overthrow or the beginning of the overthrow of Satan's reign. Now the most significant event in the ministry of Jesus or events in the ministry of Jesus that for Him indicated the presentness of the kingdom was in fact the engaging of the holy war in terms of the Messiah taking on Satan on Satan's turf and overthrowing Satan in his rule.

This is the great significance of that word that Jesus says to John the Baptist's disciples. The overthrow is now taking place. Don't be offended in me. Or more significantly in the Beelzebul controversy.

This comes out more clearly I think in Mark's version of that controversy in Mark chapter 3 somewhere around verses 22 and following. And you remember that at the conclusion of the Beelzebul controversy we have this rather remarkable little parable by Jesus.

It's a kind of a parabolic statement. That a strong man can keep his house until a stronger man comes and binds the strong man. And when that happens then the stronger man having bound the strong man can spoil his house.

Now in that saying there can be no question as to who is who. Satan is the strong man. He has in fact bound people by demonic possession and by oppression. Jesus is God's stronger man who has come and who has bound the strong man and is in the process of spoiling his house.

And the point Jesus is making is that every single person who has been delivered from the power of Satan by the casting out of demons and by the healing of sickness. And you understand in the Hebrew mind those things join together.

That is the demonic and sickness are seen to have ultimately the same source. Sickness comes because of the presence and power of Satan. Remember that was a part of the evidence from last night's little diagram.

This age and the age to come. One of the evidences of this age is the prevalence of sickness. People dying always with all kinds of sickness. Jesus sees his ministry of casting out demons and healing the sick as the evidence that God's stronger man has come and has bound the strong man and is in the process of overthrowing his house.

So that's the point of the saying in Luke 10 18. Where he says I beheld Satan fall from heaven. And this comes after the 72. You remember I've returned and said wow we were really in it. Demons were being cast out in the name of Jesus.

And he says well behold I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. That isn't referring to some primeval fall of Satan. That's referring to the fact that Satan has been bound by the ministry of Jesus and is in the process of being done in.

Of being destroyed.

Nonetheless don't rejoice in that. Rejoice your names are in heaven Jesus said. But the point of that text at this point of course is the overthrow of Satan that is being evidenced by Jesus own ministry.

And you understand that in the New Testament Jesus does not perform miracles because he's God. In the New Testament the evidence is very clear. He performed miracles because the spirit and the power of God were with him.

To use the language of the Bible. The power of God was present with him to heal. Or to use Luke's language in the gospel. He went forth in the power of the spirit. And it is the coming of the spirit that is this evidence in Jesus as Messiah.

The Messiah is the one who is going to uniquely be the one who had the spirit. As the text in Isaiah regularly remind us. And precisely because he was the unique bearer of the spirit. This was the evidence that the age of the spirit was dawning.

That the new age was coming. Now that is a point that I should have made last night and did not. One of the things that happens when you speak off the top of your head. One of the things that happened in that Old Testament expectation.

Was a looking for the age to come as an age of the spirit. In fact the coming of the spirit was going to be the one thing that was going to mark the division of the ages. This age remember is Satan's age.

It's going to be brought to a conclusion by the coming age. And this is going to be the kingdom of God. And it is going to be evidenced above everything else by spirit. Now I don't want to go into this in too great detail.

But this is absolutely crucial to understanding the Apostle Paul. And the rest of the New Testament, Luke obviously also. But what happened was of course that everybody came to believe. That the prophets spoke because they were inspired by the spirit.

Evidence of that comes very easily in the language. For example is it in 1st 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter. The holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. That isn't something somebody is trying to prove.

You understand? He's not trying to prove biblical inspiration. All he's trying to just say is what everybody believed. That the prophets spoke because they spoke by the power of the spirit. What happened is at the end of the time of the prophetic period.

This time when the gloom began to settle in Israel. They began to look for the spirit to come in fullness. But they looked for that to come at the end. And in the process there happened in Israel the concept of what we call the time of the quenched spirit.

Evidence for this lies in all kinds of documents. Josephus mentions it. It's mentioned in one of the Maccabees. It is mentioned even in one of the latter prophecies of the Old Testament in Zechariah.

You remember?

That in Zechariah 12, 13 somewhere in there. It says and if a young man grows up in that day and says I'm a prophet. His parents should slay him through. Because there is going to be no prophetic voice in the land.

There is a time of the quieting or to use the language of scholarship. It is the time of the quenched spirit. There is no spirit of God speaking in the land. What happened then is that the prophecy of Joel was looked upon as a totally eschatological event.

That is not something that was going to happen in history but was pushed out to the age to come. So that at the final end, at the end of time there was going to be the fulfillment of the Joel prophecy.

And of course the point of the Joel prophecy is not just a prophet here and there. But all of God's people are going to be prophets. Old, young, men, women. And to make sure that it goes to the ultimate of the pecking order of human beings.

Even on my female slaves in those days. Well I pour out of my spirit. Now everybody in the new age is going to be prophet. According to the biblical hope and the biblical expression. Now what happened was that since there was a quieted or a time of no spirit.

You remember the mentioned people we mentioned last night called the apocalyptists. The thing that is common of all of these apocalyptic writers is that they wrote not under their own name. But under the name of somebody from antiquity.

They wrote in the name of Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Baruch, you name it. They wrote under somebody else's name.

We call that pseudepigraphy.

But the reason for their doing that is not because they were trying to put something over on somebody that was a lie. The reason for their doing that is they wanted to speak prophetically. But they couldn't speak prophetically because there was no spirit in the land.

So that the only way they could speak to their present age. Was to go back and in the name of somebody who did have the spirit. Speak in that person's name. So the people, the ancient worthies, the people of the spirit. Are now speaking in this age precisely because there is no spirit in the land.

Now it is into this kind of context. That you'll have to understand the prophecy of for example John the Baptist. Who says no I'm not it. And the clearest evidence that I'm not it is all I'm doing is baptizing in the mere poultry element water.

It's preparatory.

It doesn't mean zip compared to the real thing. And the real thing he says is evidenced by spirit. When the Messiah comes he is going to usher in the messianic age. Now John didn't say it that way.

How did he say it?

He said when the Messiah comes he is going to do what? Baptize in Holy Spirit and power. And that was John's way of announcing. And the reason he used the word baptism is because that was what he was doing.

In contrast to what he was doing baptizing in water. There is going to come the Messiah and he is going to baptize alright. But when he does it he is going to baptize the real thing. He is going to usher in the age to come by the coming of the spirit.

Now you understand the significance therefore of the event in the river for Jesus. When it says the spirit came upon him. And it was the spirit that drove him into the desert. It was the spirit that brought him into Galilee.

And everything that he did he did by the spirit we are told in the gospels.

Why?

Because it is the coming of the spirit upon Jesus that authenticated him as Messiah and evidenced the coming of the new age. The new age had dawned in the coming of Jesus. Well now that's where all of the problems lie.

How can something be both present and future at the same time? And especially something as cataclysmic and dynamic as the coming new age of God that all God's people at all these years have been looking for.

Well that brings us to a little section then of this lecture that we will have to call the mystery of the kingdom. The mystery of the kingdom. Now the mystery of the kingdom is the language of Jesus. What becomes clear in the teaching of Jesus is that there are two things about his ministry that come under the category of finally being the new thing he did with regard to teaching about the kingdom or the meaning of the kingdom of God.

Now one of those and this is the one that we've already spent some time with so I'm not going to spend a lot of time elaborating. One of those has to do with the fact that the new age in fact came present in Jesus himself.

Now what I mean by that is that that is so contrary to their expectations. To put it in the language of the American black comedian Flip Wilson their problem with the kingdom or with Jesus is what they saw was what they got.

What you see is what you get and what they see is not what they're expecting. What are they expecting? What are their categories? Power, triumph, signs, big. The bigger the more genuinely it must be God's thing.

God you know only does things big. Only.

And I mean big like big, big, big, big, big.

Kawhi! God's in it. It's got to be so big you can't miss it. Splash, triumph, power, glory and whatever else is going to mean is going to mean that God is going to come and smash those hated enemies of ours and you know run their noses in the dirt.

Going to get rid of those blankety blank Romans. When God comes on the scene he is going to smash the enemy and exalt his people Israel. Now what they see is what they get and what they see hardly fits their expectations.

This is such mixed company that many of you won't catch some of my American jokes. But I have a very close friend who calls this kind of attitude the hardening of the categories. That comes from a, there's a sickness for those of you who are non-Americans.

There's a sickness or an illness called hardening of the arteries. And he has just said this is hardening of the categories.

Well, that's really what it is.

Their categories are so hardened that they simply, they're looking for a square and they get a triangle and they can't fit it. It just doesn't square.

Nothing works.

He doesn't come the way you would expect him to come. I mean, what in the world is this peasant carpenter from Nazareth doing walking around Galilee with his motley crew of outsiders who don't have any influence, no money, no power in any way, shape or form to get his program going.

What has he got to do with God's kingdom?

That's the problem. That's the mystery of the kingdom.

The mystery of the kingdom is what they're getting is not what they're expecting. They're looking for God's king to come with a triumphant white horse and all of his army and he's going to just do his thing and do it big.

Remember how many times in the ministry of Jesus they ask him the question, show us a sign, show us a sign, show us a sign. Why do they keep asking that of Jesus? Because they've got their minds made up as to how the Messiah is going to function and what they get in Jesus is something that is so completely different from that.

And it's not that they're believing that he's the Messiah. Their problem is that he does so many things with authority they can't put it together. Here is a person who in his own name teaches, in his own name casts out demons, who has all the power and authority in a certain level, in a certain way he's going about things,.

But he does everything wrong, everything wrong.

He hasn't done one single thing right. He doesn't get born in the right place. He doesn't get, you know, he isn't raised in the right place. He doesn't go to the right schools. He doesn't do anything right.

And then of all things he goes around with the wrong kind of people. He doesn't even hobnob with the religious. He hobnobs with the poor, the outcasts, sinners.

I mean nothing about him is right.

That's why John the Baptist finally sends some disciples and says, Hey, are you the coming one? Or do we start looking for somebody else? You've got to take seriously that John the Baptist had serious doubts about Jesus.

And the reason is because John had hardening of the categories too. He couldn't believe that Jesus could have been the Messiah no matter what had happened in the river. Because Jesus simply didn't fit.

Remember John's great words of announcement of judgment? The winnowing fork is in his hand. I mean John's ready for God to do something with real action.

And Jesus never does anything right.

Even his disciples who get clued in along the way, even they don't quite dig it. Remember, he goes through one town and he's rejected. And what did the disciples say?

Fire from heaven.

Boy, let's...

I mean, we're with the big guy now.

Let's see some big action.

I mean, even after he tries to communicate to them the way it really is. Remember, and that was the point we made yesterday morning, not in this set of tapes, but in the Marken context. I don't want to go back all the way back through that because we already did that.

But remember, when finally Jesus discloses the nature of his Messiahship, that he's going to be a suffering servant. I mean, there's no way they can believe God's powerful Messiah is going to be a suffering servant.

Remember, Paul says, Jews seek signs. Greeks seek wisdom. We preach... Paul, you have got to be out of your head. We preach a crucified Messiah.

You can't have a crucified Messiah.

You understand, that's a contradiction in terms. A Messiah, yes. A crucified person, yes. But that's 180 degrees on the opposite ends of the circle. Those two could never get together. That's like saying fried ice.

You can't have fried ice. You can't have a crucified Messiah. Messiah means power, triumph, glory. Crucifixion is the ultimate pitch. That was the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to a human being.

The worst!

It is the ultimate expression of degradation and weakness. No God in his right mind would have ever gotten mixed up in that kind of business. That's the problem with God. He doesn't think like us. You know, he didn't consult us for wisdom.

If he'd only consulted us for wisdom, we could have given him a program that would have set the thing up and got people on his side. And I'd have no problem. I could set up a program and get the world to go after Jesus.

I'd have no trouble with that at all, anywhere.

Just take this room. Count off by fours.

One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Okay? All the way around. Ones right here, twos, threes, fours. Okay? Put the ones right out here in the middle. And say, the rest of you watch.

Here's what happens to people who don't obey God.

That's the end of the ones.

You're not going to have any trouble with the twos. Come on.

When they say jump, you jump.

I mean, by sticking a sword at people's throats.

That's how he conquered. It wasn't on the truth.

It was on the basis of sticking swords in their necks. Anybody to follow God and think they're going to get their head lopped off along the way? Well, not everybody, but you know, the majority of people.

I mean, you're not going to have any trouble. I mean, why didn't he act just a little bit more like a God?

In the world, is this Jesus doing?

Who goes around and everything he does is all wrong and everything is in weakness. I mean, who's going to get anybody to follow him by his being crucified? A crucified Messiah. Can you imagine such a thing?

It's unthinkable.

Besides all that, when your Bible says, Cursed by God is everybody that hangs on a tree, you've got double indemnity. I mean, not only is it stupid, but the Bible's against it. God himself is against it.

I mean, you've got trouble in your hands trying to preach a crucified Messiah in that world. Greeks, Jews want signs.

Greeks want wisdom.

And we preach a crucified Messiah. And it's a stumbling block to those seeking signs, and it's foolishness to those asking for wisdom. But for those who are being saved, it is Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.