What comes to mind for you when someone speaks to you about the kingdom of God? In the Scriptures we find the kingdom of God as a central focus in a way which is often absent from our Christian faith. We have generally lost sight of what the kingdom of God is all about. When we do speak about the kingdom of God, it is usually in the context of conversion, of someone entering the kingdom, of finding salvation, and in this way we speak about "extending" the kingdom. Alternatively, we can think of the kingdom of God as the church, the body of all believers who are part of the kingdom. Or we might think of the kingdom of God as something which will not be established until the return of Christ when he comes to set up his rule on earth.

While all of these ways of thinking have something of the kingdom of God in mind, they are not really what the Scriptures speak about when the kingdom is being discussed. Let us have a look again at the Scriptures to see what we can learn about the kingdom of God, and the relevance it has for our lives here and now.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when Jesus began to preach, his message was simple: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." What did he mean? Well, there is very little explanation given by Matthew as to what the kingdom of heaven was. For our purposes the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same. The Jews did not like to speak too freely about God, so they used "heaven" as a substitute.

The message of Jesus was focused on the coming of the kingdom of God, and Matthew presents Jesus not as the one who saves us from sin, not as the one who works miracles of healing, but as the King sent by God to reclaim his kingdom, and his miracles and his teaching were to proclaim and to demonstrate the kingdom. What is the kingdom of God? What was it that Jesus sought to establish?

The kingdom of God is not a new concept for the New Testament. When Jesus began to preach the good news that in him the Kingdom had arrived, he did not explain himself at all. He assumed that those to whom he spoke would understand what the kingdom of God was all about. True, they misunderstood its character and the way in which it would be manifested, but they had no misunderstanding of what the kingdom of God meant. For example, Psalm 47 is a celebration of the kingly rule of God.

Clap your hands, all you nations, shout to God with cries of joy.
How awesome is the Lord most high, the great king over all the earth!
He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet.
He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
The Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
Sing praises to our King, sing praises.

For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.
God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.
The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God, he is greatly exalted.

Lift up your heads, O you gates, be lifted up, you ancient doors,
That the king of glory may come in.
Who is this king of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift them up, you ancient doors,
That the king of glory may come in.
Who is he, this king of glory?
The Lord almighty, he is the king of glory.

I will exalt you, my God the king; I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you, and extol your name for ever and ever.
* * *
All you have made will praise you, O Lord, your saints will extol you.
They will tell of the glory of your kingdom, and speak of your might,
so that all men may know of your mighty acts,
and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

We find more about the kingdom of God in the prophets, and other passages in the Old Testament. So when Jesus came preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand, the Jews didn’t ask him, what is this kingdom you are talking about? They either believed and repented, or scoffed at him, not because they didn’t believe in the kingdom of God, but because they could see no sign of imminence of the kingdom of God. After all, the Romans were still in control, Herod the Idumean was still on the throne, and there was no sign of a change. So what was this fellow ranting about? The signs of the coming of the kingdom are nowhere to be seen. But that is where they were wrong, not because they did not believe that there was a kingdom of God, but because they had misunderstood what that kingdom was all about, and so the signs of the kingdom did not convince them at all - they expected quite different signs than the ones Jesus gave them. But the fact remains, the kingdom of God was not a new idea to them; they simply misunderstood what it would be like.

So then, what is the kingdom of God? Simply put, the kingdom of God is the righteous and just rule of the Creator over all that he has brought into being. To understand the kingdom of God we need to be clear about the Biblical teaching concerning the creation. The Old Testament introduces the whole story of redemption by proclaiming the creation as God’s handiwork. All that exists was brought into being by God, and as their creator, he has the right of absolute rule over them. There is nothing that exists that falls outside the rule of God, for there is nothing which God has not brought into being. We might think that we have invented or designed or built many things, which we have brought into being, not God. We have wonders of technology, medical marvels, democratic political systems, prestigious educational institutions, extensive transportation networks, communications systems, computers, and many more things that human beings have devised and built. But none of these things could exist if God had not provided for the possibility, the opportunities, the very means by which they function! There is nothing that exists that God has not created, even though we have made something of that creation through our abilities and skills. But where did those abilities and skills come from? Not from ourselves - we cannot decide we are going to be gifted at anything. Not from our genes, not from our parents, not from nature. All our abilities and skills come from God, and he has enabled us to develop all these marvellous things. Why have we done this? Because God has called us and commissioned us to do so.

God's intention in creating this earth was to see it developed and its potential unfolded by the human beings he formed to serve him as his caretakers and stewards. Every human being carries out the tasks they have been given not on their own account, not because other people have called them to do so, but because God calls all of us as his stewards to care for the creation, to look after it, to develop it and explore it, so that his glory may be seen in and through it and what we have made of it. None of our tasks, none of our activities, whatever they are, education, sport, the arts, housekeeping, repairing motor vehicles, horticulture, caring for the sick and the elderly, mowing the grass and weeding the vegetables, all human activities are part of our task of caring for the creation as stewards of God, receiving the calling and authority to do so from Christ, the king of all creation.

The doctrine of creation is not something that simply hangs in the background, but is the basis and context in which God is carrying out his work of redemption. Why is this? It is because redemption is introduced for the sake of creation. Why is God redeeming the creation? Because we who were created as the stewards of God’s creation have rebelled against our sovereign Lord and chosen instead to serve ourselves and the imitation gods we invent. The consequences of this rebellion extend as far as human influence can reach. Every part of the creation we touch bears the marring of human rebellion, and because the whole of creation lies under our power, there are no limits to the dire effects of our sin.

Whether we like it or not, we remain the stewards of God’s creation. He has not replaced us with any other stewards after we broke covenant with God. But instead of caring for the creation as God intended us to do, we have gone our own way, despoiling, consuming, polluting, exhausting all that we can get our hands on. We use the powers which God gave us for caring for the creation for his glory, not as God intended, but in whatever ways our rebellious hearts devise.

But God loved his creation so much that he did not leave it victim to his rebellious and disobedient human stewards. Nor did he leave us, who spurned our very maker, to go our own way. Instead, God instituted the most costly plan of redemption that could be devised: he himself took on humanity with the express intention of dying in our place. He came who was the king of all creation to die at the hands of his subjects, put to death in mockery and derision as "the king of the Jews," even though he was not their king only, but the king of the whole world.

Having spent his years of ministry proclaiming that in him the kingdom of God was being restored, with the rightful king again being given the obedience he was due by his subjects, this king entered Jerusalem not to take the seat of government; not to receive proper respect and honour as the one who alone is entitled to rule in Israel and in every other land, but to the shouts of adulation from a crowd that was as fickle as it was enthusiastic. This crowd that greeted his arrival in Jerusalem with cries of "Hosanna," recognised in some limited way that he was a claimant to the throne of David, and John’s Gospel even reports that the crowd shouted, "Blessed is the King of Israel." But it was only a short time later that the same crowd came before Pilate and insisted that they had "no king but Caesar." Such is the fickleness of humankind. What courage, what determination, what commitment can this be, which changes its kings so lightly and so often.

Yet this is the path that God chose for himself in order to win back to his allegiance the very ones who had spurned him for so long. In order to save us from death, the cessation of fellowship with God, he came to die instead so that we, and thus all the creation under our care, might be delivered from the power of death which power comes from sin.

Jesus is the Creator God, come in the flesh to redeem his fallen creation. He came to win back we who had turned away from him, and to restore to its true character all that which has been corrupted by us and through us and because of us. Jesus did not die to save only human beings from their sin; he died so that all that had been affected by sin could be restored. The creation itself is redeemed in Christ. Nothing that God made has been abandoned so that sin could have its awful sway. The death of Christ brought renewal to the entire creation.

Christians often have the idea that after the return of Christ, the world will be destroyed by fire and all that currently exists will be burnt up. What point is there then in getting involved in caring for the environment, or preserving our historical buildings, or putting effort into politics, or research, or development of new technology? Isn’t this all a waste of time if Christ is to return soon? Won’t all these things which we are putting our efforts into be destroyed? The only problem is, this is not a Biblical perspective. Not only will the earth not be destroyed, it will in fact be enhanced and glorified to make it fit for God’s own dwelling-place.

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