After 400 years of silence, a man named John came up out of the wilderness with a message. The message was a simple one: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). As simple as the message was, it was a drastic change from the message of the previous centuries. For all these years, the Jews had heard the prophecies of Isaiah, of Daniel, of Malachi and others, saying that a kingdom and a Messiah were coming. Now, they had someone telling them that not only were these things coming, but that they were “at hand,” or near.

Shortly after John began preaching this message, another man, Jesus of Nazareth, began preaching the same message. He went one step further than John, however. John spoke of one who was coming, “who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals” (Lk. 3:16). Jesus, on the other hand, made allusions (and to His disciples, direct statements) to the fact that not only was a kingdom coming and not only was a Messiah coming, but that it was His kingdom coming and He was the Messiah! This Jesus performed signs and miracles to show that He was sent by God, even performing miracles not seen before of any prophet (cf. Jn. 9:32).

It was during this time that Jesus preached the now-famous “sermon on the mount.” This sermon presents the principles under which citizens of this coming kingdom will live. It gives the entrance requirements into this kingdom. It tells of those who will try to seem as part of the kingdom, but who are really not. It lays out the priorities of a kingdom citizen.

After more than three years of teaching about this kingdom, including numerous parables describing what the kingdom would be like, this Jesus went to the cross. Many have decided that Jesus tried unsuccessfully to set up His kingdom on earth. Notice what Jesus said about the kingdom to His apostles:

I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. –Mt. 16:18-19

Jesus was not talking about two separate entities, the kingdom and the church. If He were, why would He give Peter the keys of something that was not going to happen during Peter’s lifetime? For that matter, why mention the kingdom if they are not the same thing? Given that the two are the same, observe what Jesus said about the church: “the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Many believe (based on a poor choice of words in the King James Version) that this statement talks about Satan not being able to overcome it (i.e., “the gates of Hell”). Hades simply refers to the realm of the dead. Jesus is telling His apostles, who will shortly see Him die, that death is not going to stop the coming of the kingdom!

In fact, shortly after Jesus died on the cross, He arose again. The resurrection of Jesus was so hard to cover up that the Jewish rulers had to bribe the guards at the tomb to give self-incriminating testimony to Pilate just to produce any kind of a cover story. He appeared to His apostles for a period of about 40 days, finally meeting with them to tell them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8).

The kingdom, at that time, had not yet come into existence. However, the teaching of Jesus, especially the Lord’s mountain message, played a pivotal role in announcing its coming and preparing man to enter it.

[serialposts]

Jesus was different in that he made a break from the teachings of the rabbis. This is most evident in the second half of Matthew 5. But Jesus’ teaching didn’t just come out of nowhere. He did not appear out of thin air and begin delivering a completely new message that had never been heard before. The sermon on the mount, or the Lord’s mountain message, was a keystone in Jesus’ ministry on earth. Some have called it “the constitution of the kingdom of heaven.” Indeed, the message comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, a ministry marked by the call for repentance, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17).

But what is this kingdom? Is it just something that God came up with one day, or is it part of God’s eternal purpose?

We see no later than Daniel 2 the first prophecies about a coming kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had a dream. That dream was of a statue of several different parts. Daniel, by God’s revelation, told Nebuchadnezzar that the statue represented a succession of kingdoms. He said that in the days of the fourth kingdom, “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan. 2:44). Historically, Rome was the fourth kingdom.

Many have tried to use the image to argue for a fifth, later kingdom in the days of which God will set up His kingdom. Some argue for a modern power like the UN or the European Union. Some argue for a restored Israel. Some argue for “the antichrist.” They separate the legs of iron from the feet of iron and clay. Notice carefully, however, the language of the text:

• v. 40: “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron”
• v. 41: “it will be a divided kingdom” – notice that this is in reference to the feet of iron and clay. Grammatically, “it” can only refer to this fourth kingdom. The text has not introduced another kingdom to which “it” can refer.
• v. 44: “In the days of those kings” – which kings? The most recent reference to kings or a kingdom is to the fourth kingdom. There is no fifth kingdom in days of which God can set up His own kingdom. God’s kingdom must come in the time of this fourth kingdom, Rome.

The days of Rome have long passed. For this prophecy to be true, God’s kingdom must have already been established. In our next article, we will look at more immediate proclamations of the kingdom’s coming.

[serialposts]