Your Kingdom Come Part 3: Prophesied and Present

The Bible: one story, one author, one hero, one king.

Before the Creation of the World

Imagine the depth of parental love an 18 year old experiences when loving parents give them a ‘launch-into-life’ cheque they began saving for before their child was even conceived.  An intensity of love that existed even before the object of that love was brought into being.

Before the world was created God the Father conspired with God the Son to set apart their greatest treasure – themselves – for us.

‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to adoption into sonship through Jesus Christ…’  (Ephesians 1:4-5)

‘[Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last days for your sake.’  (1 Peter 1:20)

God’s pre-eternal plan was Father & Son conspiring together to give us themselves – the Son in Jesus and the Father through Jesus.

The Moment We Have Been Waiting For

The Prophesied Kingdom, from Ezra to Malachi is those who announced its arrival.  The Present Kingdom (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) is the historical accounts of the one who completely completes what God promised before creation.

The Prophesied Kingdom (Ezra-Malachi)

These are those who constantly tell us to look to God’s promises and not to ourselves.

·      The Prophets who spoke.  Some spoke a lot and are called major or longer prophets (like Jeremiah or Isaiah).  Some spoke less and are called the minor or shorter prophets (like Amos or Obadiah).

·    The Poets & Sages who wrote.  Often in poetry.  Like Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

·    The Practitioners who did.  Like Ezra and Nehemiah who together rebuilt destroyed Jerusalem.

In different ways they announce the same thing.  That the promise is not yet (forth-telling Israel’s failure) but the promise will come (fore-telling Israel’s future).  They announce:

Judgement: Our failure is devastating

All people everywhere have chosen to live outside of God’s kingdom and by failure, rebellion and foolishness break his heart.  Because he loves his world he must hold us to account.  And that accounting is devastating.  Jesus the most loving man in all the world says it is better to tear out an eye or sever a limb than experience it.  He says it is like the valley of ‘Gehenna’: the historic place of human sacrifice, now the town dump for corpses and offal and trash and excrement populated by half-wild dogs and hyena packs scrounging for food against the bloated pythons that infested the place.  (cf Mark 9:43-48)

Hope: God’s future is delightful

The prophets, poets and practitioners however look beyond our failure to God’s future.  And it is beautiful.  They want us to know and feel hope.

‘See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.’ (Isaiah 65:17-21)

God Himself

But this delightful future – planned by God before time even began – can not be achieved by us.  God himself must come – and the prophets constantly remind us of that.  In Isaiah we get a three-sided portrait of this God-and-man moment.

In Chapters 1-39, Emmanuel: God living as one of us.

‘…the Lord himself will give you a sign; the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel [which means God with us]…For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’  (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7)

In Chapters 40-55, the Suffering Servant: God substituting himself for us.

‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ (Isaiah 53:5-6)

In Chapters 56-66, the Warrior King: God victorious and reigning over us.

‘He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.  He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.  According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due.  From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.  For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.’ (Isaiah 59:16-19)

And Then…Nothing?

After these prophets and poets and practitioners….400 years of anticipation building silence, waiting and wondering and longing and expecting.

The Present Kingdom (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)

This is the record of the one who completely completes all God’s promises – Jesus.  The historical accounts of when God kept his plan and promise and came into his world.  And he came just as Isaiah saw he would:

As Emmanuel: God living amongst us.

‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)’  (Matthew 1:23)

As the Suffering Servant: God substituting himself for us.

‘For even [I] did not come to be served but to serve and to offer my life as a ransom for many.’  (Mark 10:45)

As the Warrior King: God victorious and ruling over us.

‘He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.’ (Matthew 28:6)

‘[God] raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority and dominion…’  (Ephesians 1:20-21)

God planned it from before the creation of the world.  The prophets told it through 1000 years of history in word and action.  Jesus completely completes it as God himself in the world, for the world and over the world.  God with us.