Last week we looked at the prophecies of the kingdom of God and how Jesus began to fulfill the prophecies. In his teachings, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, he declared that he was fulfilling the Old Testament law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17) which included a new way to live that seems upside-down to the world.
When Jesus was crucified his disciples were crushed. His death dashed their dreams of the kingdom. But when he rose from the dead they were ecstatic for surely now he would establish the kingdom. And so the apostles asked Jesus “are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6, NIV). He said he would not tell them when the kingdom would be restored, but he did say the Holy Spirit would come on them so they could be his witnesses to the world (Acts 1:8). They were probably thinking that this would be okay; they were just happy that Jesus was with them.
I’m sure the apostles were shocked when Jesus promptly ascended to heaven and they were left wondering what would happen to the kingdom. Was it on hold? Would it keep spreading? What would the kingdom look like while Jesus was gone?
The Son became human so that he begin the offensive to lead his people to recapture the earth. During this time when the old age overlaps with the age of the kingdom we are Jesus’ messengers inviting others to migrate from the Enemy’s kingdom and become citizens of the kingdom of God. Thus, believers pray the God’s kingdom will come (Matt. 6:10) and we still seek his kingdom (Matt. 6:33). We know that one day humans will spread throughout the earth in perfect holiness and love. This was the mission given Adam which God will fulfill in the next age. God appointed us to develop nature, arts, sciences, and communities, but we can only do this in a partial way until Jesus returns.
Summarizing, there had to be a human who was perfect and perfectly united to God to rescue and gather God’s chosen earth-governors and lead them to reestablish a new earth-society. God the Son emptied himself and was born a human in order to redeem humans for their original roles in God’s creation. Jesus lived a new Adam life, defeated Satan, was perfected by his sufferings and proved himself worthy to be the human-king over all the earth. Now Jesus is orchestrating the mission given to the first Adam by directing his followers. The mission is to complete the return of God’s Eden, in other words, his kingdom.
Next week we will look at our roles in the kingdom.
