The Kingdom of God: What It Is Not

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For the next few Sundays, we’ll be looking at the central vision of Jesus, the Kingdom of God.

Knowing and understanding what Jesus meant when he talked about the Kingdom is crucial in our day, with talk and signs of Christian Nationalism out there.

To know and understand what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom, is good to rule out first what the kingdom is NOT. Seeing what something fully is, often begins by noting what that something is NOT.

So, this morning we begin our look at the kingdom of God by asking what the kingdom is NOT?

To answer, I’ll be relying heavily on scripture. Scripture is crucial to differentiate the original vision of Jesus from the vision of powerful men with their lust for more power. We want to make sure we’re getting the real Jesus with his real vision of the kingdom, and not some syncretic version of it.

Syncretic, what is that? Syncretic means to make a new worldvliew by mishmashing different worldviews together. In our case, syncretic means taking the original, spiritual vision of Jesus, based on love, and mishmashing it with a newer, American political vision, one based on power. The syncretic practice means we have something new, yet foreign to the original vision of Jesus.

The only way to counteract the syncretic vision of Christian nationalism is to have a clear understanding of Jesus’ vision. Christians cannot afford to be biblically illiterate. We need to know our Bible! We need to know it enough to point to or quote a specific scripture and say, hey, wait, this is not what Jesus thought or taught according to the gospels!

Alright, let's get to our question. What is the kingdom NOT?

    1. It is not a worldly kingdom.

John 18 tells us this pretty straightforwardly.

The context of John 18 is this: Jesus is before Pilate who has immensely worldly power. He holds the power over whether someone lives or dies. He's trying Jesus and the tension is palatable. With Jesus before him, Pilate, confused, goes to the Jewish authorities and insists that they take care of Jesus’s wrongdoing themselves. But the Jewish authorities basically tell Pilate, we would, but we can’t put him to death. Only you can do that. So, knowing how angry they are with Jesus, he goes back to Jesus.

Verse 33 begins the rest of the story:

 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 

How can you get clearer than that. Jesus says twice – my kingdom is not of this world!

We’re then given a glimpse of the operating principle that will reign in this kingdom. When Pilate again asks, so you a king? Jesus answers

“You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

For Jesus, it is truth, namely the truth of love, that will be the operating principle in the kingdom. Worldly power, well, it has a hard time with truth. Worldly power especially has a hard time with the truth of love. Instead, worldly power is in the business of making up its own truth, a truth that is always changing and open to interpretation if you have the money, the fame, the power. Hence, Pilate’s response to Jesus saying he testifies to the truth. Pilate seems to scoff and retort, “What is truth?”

    2. The kingdom is also NOT other-worldly

Luke 17 makes this clear. In this chapter, Jesus again is talking with the Pharisees and again about the kingdom. It is his central vision after all. Here’s verses 20 and 21 of Luke 17.

Now when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

The kingdom is within you! Right here, right now, within the you that lives on this beautiful blue earth is found the kingdom of God.

Wait a minute, you say. Didn’t you just say and show that the kingdom is not of this world. How can it be within me as a humble earthling?

Yes, it is a paradox, I’ll admit. But there’s spiritual power in paradox.

If the kingdom is not of THIS world, then it isn’t confined to the strict dualisms of yes or no, black or white, this world or not this world. The truth of the kingdom rises above easy answers and binary thinking.

The kingdom is not of this world, but is also not other-worldly. It transcends earthly logic.

We do have an inkling of an answer to this riddle that the kingdom is other-worldly yet here within me.

The kingdom begins in heaven, but it is to be actualized on earth.

Every service we recite the Lord’s Prayer. That the kingdom of heaven is to be actualized on earth is right there in our most famous prayer.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

But for the kingdom to come and God’s will be done, it must begin with Christ in us.

With Christ in us living through us, we will live godly, love-infused lives. With Christ in us living through us, we will help wipe away tears. With Christ in us living through us, we will help end senseless, preventable deaths. With Christ in us living through us, we will help ease grief, sorrow, and hurt.

The kingdom begins with Christ in us!

We are all called to actualize the kingdom within us. When we do this, we forge communities of God that ripple outward.

    3. The kingdom is NOT for GOATS.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so sports are on our mind.

Sports fans love to talk about GOATs – the Greatest of All Time athletes. Many NFL fans, for example, are saying if Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs win today, their 3rd straight championship, we might have to start discussing Mahomes as the new GOAT instead of Tom Brady who never had a 3-Peat. Mahomes can be the new Greatest of all time.

This is this-world talk. And yes it is all in good fun and perfectly fine.

But in the kingdom of God, there’s not talk of GOATs. The last will be first. The least will be the greatest!

There’s another kind of goats that won’t make it, initially anyway. GOAT nations. Jesus explains this rather clearly. And so I close with Jesus’ words that tell who in the end will be included and not included in the kingdom. Matthew 25:31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when [did this all happen?] … And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the ages-long fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was [all this?] …’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go straight away into [ages of punishment] but the righteous into [ages after ages of life].”

 

 

 

 

 

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