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The Restoration of the Kingdom of God
Introduction: When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he began with, “Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The prayer was that the world hold up God’s name as holy, that God’s rule and kingship would be received in the hearts of all men, and that God’s will would be perfectly done on earth as it is in heaven. We do not yet see the fulfillment all of these requests, but if those requests happened, we would call that restoration.
Of course, the kingdom of God came when Jesus took the throne in heaven (Acts 2:34), but that was only the beginning. He must reign until all enemies are put under his feet.
This introduces for us the purpose and message of the kingdom. Simply put, when we think of the kingdom of Christ, we should be thinking of restoration.
- Restoration: What God Planned & We Lost
- Genesis 1:27 “In the image of God”
- Genesis 1:28 “Have dominion over the earth”
- Genesis 2:2-3 “Rest”
- Genesis 2:8-10 The Garden filled with life: “everything pleasant to the sight and good for food…the tree of life…a river of life”
- Genesis 2:24 One with God: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:31-32).
- Psalm 8:5-8 follows up with the promises in the beginning reminding us of the amazing promises God made: “You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”
- Hebrews 2:5-11 gives the explanation that we need to understand these promises:
- “It is not to angels that God subjected the world to come…”
- “You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet”
- “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control”
- “At present, we do not see everything in subjection to him…But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor”
- “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering…”
- “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all are one”
- The Restoration of the Kingdom
- Most of the time when we read or speak about the kingdom of God/Christ, we think in terms of Jesus ushering in a new kingdom, as if there was no previous kingdom of God. God has always reigned on his throne. Cf. Psalm 9:7 “The Lord sits enthroned forever…” Psalm 103:19 “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
- Amos 9:11-12 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord.” You will notice that the prophecy begins its fulfillment in the messianic age (Act 15:13-18), but continues into eternity (vs. 13-15).
- Acts 1:6-8 “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
- Acts 3:19-21 “…whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” Note: Peter does not say that we wait still Jesus returns in which we just all go to heaven. It is the restoring of all things that was the interest of the prophets.
- Restoration: the Defeat of the Kingdom of Satan
- Genesis 3:15 introduces the battle between Satan and the woman through whom comes the offspring who will crush the head of the Serpent.
- Psalm 2 summarizes the battle over who will rule. This battle is still going on but will end with the defeat of the rulers. Notice verse 8 will take place after the nations are dashed in pieces. As in many of the prophecies, we see future fulfillments in both the messianic age and in age to come. But from the present into eternity, it is still the Kingdom.
- Psalm 110:1, 5-7 pictures the reign of the Messiah culminating in the complete shattering of the evil kings and judgment on the nations that rebel.
- Revelation 12 details this same picture stating in verse 7-8: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.” The defeat of Satan is seen in verse 10 when Jesus conquers death and is enthroned as God’s King.
- Ultimate Purpose and Blessing of the Restored Kingdom
- Daniel 7:13-14, 26-27 We see echoes of where we started in this lesson. Jesus is enthroned, crushes the enemies, and then “the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Daniel’s picture seems to perfectly reflect the prayer of Jesus: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
- Isaiah 25:1-9 The blessings of the restored Kingdom. Consider the things that have not yet been fulfilled:
- Note that the “world city” is no more. It is a heap and will never be rebuilt.
- A feast of rich food for all peoples: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.” (Matt. 8:11-12).
- Death and thus the fear of death has been removed from all nations and swallowed up forever.
- Finally, “we have waited for him.” Indeed, and we still wait, but will be rewarded when the restoration is complete.
- The kingdom is “everlasting.” When we read the above prophecies, we could see some things that were fulfilled with the coming of the Messiah and still being fulfilled to this day (people coming out of darkness into the light, etc.). However, we also saw things in the prophets that extend into eternity. In other words, when we think of the Lord’s kingdom, we should not see only what is present this side of the final judgment. God’s kingdom and the descriptions of it extend into eternity.
- Revelation 3:20-21 “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
- Revelation 21:1-6 What was pictured from the beginning and in the tabernacle/temple scene, in the prophets, and in the NT (2 Cor. 6:16) – God comes down to dwell with his people. Cf. John 14:1-2 “I go away to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.”
- Revelation 22:1-5 “They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” Notice in this text that all that we lost in the Garden have now been restored, but now and escalation that is far greater.
- Why is this important for us today? From Old to New, God has used these principles of the coming glory as a motivation to cease sin and pursue the glory to come. We need to fill ourselves with the glory of eating a “feast of rich food.”
And by the way, it should be absolutely clear by what we have studied in this lesson, it is not possible to make “kingdom” and “church” the same. - The final invitation of Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come; let the one who desire to take the water of life without price.”
Berry Kercheville