The Heart of the Kingdom

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
Mark 1:15

The gospel according to Jesus is that the kingdom of God is here. All throughout scripture God has been slowly illuminating what this kingdom represents. When Jesus steps into creation it is on giant leap for mankind. The kingdom is how God is taking His creation and reigning, ruling, and conquering within it. But there is one further step within this kingdom message that many scholars have left in the dust: ‘How’ this kingdom reigning is being established. I do believe it is this very occurrence that is at the core, the very heart of the kingdom.

It is the throne of God and that He has seated the Christ at His right hand. God shares His throne with the resurrected Messiah. It is on this throne where God says in Revelation “Behold, I am making all things new.” He doesn’t say, “all new things” – but “all things new.”

The throne of God carries a lot of weight throughout the entirety of scripture. Some may want to argue that God is to be at the core. This may be true in certain ways – however, when we talk about the kingdom, we are discussing relational methods. Kingdom language is ‘how’ God is working His will within creation. It is the mechanics of what God is doing. It is not enough to talk about God alone as being the core of the kingdom. The throne, as the core, is how creation is established – how it is to behave. The throne is about what is to govern all of creation. It does not take much knowledge to understand that the throne is the highest peak of authority. It is where the king sits to make judgments and rulings. Psalm 89:14 states that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne and any throne established among God’s people (such as King David's throne) is to be one of righteousness and justice as well (Proverbs 16:12).

In Ephesians 1:15-19, Paul prays that God would give his readers three things:
1). A spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him (1:17).
2). The eyes of their heart may be enlightened, so that they will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (1:18).
3). To know what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (1:19).

Continuing reading in 1:19-21, these blessings come through what God has done through Jesus when He raised him from the dead and seated him at His right hand in the heavenly places. This position at God’s right hand (Christ’s enthronement) is “FAR above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He (God) put all things in subjection under his (Jesus’) feet.”

The very means of the throne: true righteousness and justice – now has new creation (the resurrected Messiah) seated upon it. The divine and creation are intimately interwoven within the being of the Messiah. God has stepped onto the very battlefield where sin and death reign – in creation and the flesh itself through Jesus of Nazareth and conquered it through the his life, death, resurrection and enthronement.

Not only is Jesus seated at the right hand of God – but in the heavenlies or heavenly places. This is where realms collide: both the spiritual and of the flesh. The heavenly places are of the created order. Here is where the believers receive their blessings Paul mentions in his prayer. They are spiritual blessings – not material blessings. It is in the heavenly places where chaos also is located (however one must be careful when speaking of ‘location’ in regards to realms in the notion of them being far off). This chaos is what Jesus is conquering along with the cooperation of the church. Yes, the church.

The church too has a role to play in all of this. Continue reading what Paul says in 1:22-23 – God ‘gave Him (Jesus) as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.’ The blessings the church receive are not simply for themselves but to use them for the glory of God because the church is also seated in Christ (Eph. 2:6).

If the church is seated with Christ, in Christ – what does this mean for the church? It means the church needs to examine what kind of enthronement they are seated upon. Let us return to God’s throne. The throne which has its foundation established in righteousness and justice is now being shared not only with the resurrected Messiah – but all those who follow God, who are in Christ: the church. The church has a role: to follow the Christ who is at work in them with POWER, righteousness and justice in order to reign, rule and conquer with God who is making all things new.

It can be argued that the church is not seated in the same ‘position’ as Christ. Rather the church is seated among Christ. This is a problem for some because it seems to convey having the same ‘status’ as it were with Christ. I would argue it’s more complicated than that. First of all we are seated ‘in’ Christ. Where is Christ seated? Again, the language of the throne and kingdom is for our work with God. We also need to keep in mind that the throne is more than likely not literal. It is to convey images of rule and authority. God uses language we can understand – but His actual throne in heaven would transcend anything we could imagine. Therefore, we should be careful when we are speaking about literal positioning. The enthronement of Christ is for God to bring His followers to share in His rule. For the church to ignore this position God has brought us into is to ignore God’s purpose for His people and what they are elected to accomplish. I have barely touched upon this subject. I wanted to at least bring this to light if you (the reader) have not meditated upon these things. If we to not examine our purpose in Christ - where he is now – we are not grasping the purpose God has for us in His kingdom.

In closing, examine one more passage from Jesus in Revelation 3:20-22;
'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'