John 18 on this Sunday, when almost all of Christendom celebrates the triumphal entry of Christ. Celebrates his arrival into Jerusalem. We also acknowledging that arrival will continue to deal with the question of Kingdom. For that is, what is triumphal entry was all about. The King had come into his city. We know that as he arrived at that city, he also wept. For the city did not recognize the arrival of their King. And that issue of his being King continues to be vetted now in his trial with Pilate, as he continues to discover that there is a lack of understanding not only among the Jews, but now also we find among the Gentiles as they are represented in the person of Pilate. John 18 verses 33 through 36. This is God's Word. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting. That I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world. May the Lord bless the reading of his Word, the hearing of his people. If you want to get involved in an intense and often divisive debate, bring up the topic of the kingdom of God. Bring up the topic of your view of the kingdom of God and when it arrives or when it arrives, how it arrives or how it arrived, ask someone if a king needs a kingdom. Can Jesus be a king if there is not actually a kingdom now? If so, is he a king in exile? Is Jesus in exile sitting at the right hand of God or is Jesus reigning over a kingdom? Some understand the kingdom of God as being present and visible with an emphasis being upon visible. That is, present in this world with a right of rule even over the civil magistrate or civil government. This is certainly the position of Rome. Historically, Rome has asserted pressure on kings and sovereigns. There was the Holy Roman Empire as part of their governance and rule they collected taxes and they've even waged war. Some have replaced the theology of the kingdom of God with this emphasis on witness, covenant and judgment with a social gospel choosing to establish a kingdom based upon a social work in this world and in this time. Some understand the kingdom is something that's still future. They don't see any reason to view the kingdom as something that is present or in the present tense, and instead they're awaiting the return of Christ and a literal thousand year millennial reign which will then be established. And so until that time there is no actual kingdom. And so in that view, while most would probably bulk at the description, they have to adopt a view that if Jesus is king he is indeed in exile for his kingdom is not here. Still others to which most reformed and covenantal thinkers belong teach that the kingdom is in fact very present and that it is spiritual in nature. And it awaits only the judgment at the second coming of Christ at his parasyah for consummation. So the kingdom has been inaugurated but awaits consummation. That is the language that is so typically used. So we could say that among probably us here as well as the church in general there are people who might describe themselves as pre-mill, as historic pre-mill, pre-mill, post-trib, post-mill, all-mill. And then of course pan-mill, that's the group who called themselves pan-millennialists to choose not to worry too much about how the kingdom will come because they assume it will all pan out in the end. That's hilarious isn't it? The concept of the kingdom is essential if we are to understand the gospel. We can't disregard it. We can't ignore it. We can't say that this only belongs to the halls of seminaries and theological giants because our idea of the kingdom will be how we express the gospel. We can't separate the two. Our understanding of the kingdom of God gives expression to our presentation of the gospel. The phrase kingdom of God is usually in both the Old Testament and in Jesus' teaching connected with coming judgment. Therefore there is a sense of urgency in the work of the church that holds to a strong kingdom theology because of the impending judgment that comes along with the kingdom of God. It's so central in our understanding that even on this very day we prayed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Committing ourselves to the idea that as God through Christ is ruling in the heavens so that same rule would find expression here among His people. We are going to take the gospel seriously. We are going to take the church seriously and understand the kingdom of God as it finds expression in the church. Then we have to come to understand the answers that Jesus gave to Pilate in John 1836 when he said simply my kingdom is not of this world. Does that mean his kingdom is not in this world or that his kingdom is quantifiably and qualitatively different from this world, the word world being used as an expression of the present tense physical governments of this world? Our Westminster Confession of Faith is a silent on the issue of kingdom. In chapter 30 of paragraph 1 and 2 of that the entire structure of our church government and authority of the church rests on the very real and present kingdom of God. In other words, if the church is to have any authority in life and over the members of the church it depends not upon the consent of the govern but upon the kingdom of God and the authority of God which is then passed to the church to rule. In chapter 30 the first paragraph the Lord Jesus as king and head of his church had there an appointed a government in the hand of church officers distinct from the civil magistrate. So here we find the teaching concerning the church that there is a government that's distinct from the civil government. We might say a separation of church and state though there we're not meaning the moral law of God has no influence or no place in the civil government of man but we're saying there should be no confusion between the government that belongs to the church of our Lord Jesus Christ who is king and head and the government which man has created and organized for his own governing of society. It continues in paragraph 2 to these officers the keys of the kingdom are committed by virtue thereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins to shut the kingdom against the impenetant both by the word and censures as occasion shall require. These powers are not notional powers these are this is not figurative language this is very real and specific language concerning not the privileges of those who were in leadership in the church but the commission that is handed to them by God who is sovereign over his people and has established Christ Jesus as king who has committed to the church as his body in unity with him. The power and authority that belongs to the reign of Christ in his kingdom but if we don't have a view that the kingdom is present then we have a grace period an interesting use of the word grace given that when that we are excusing ourselves from the authority of God in his rule over his people. The writers of the Westminster Confession base the authority of the church on the reality of the present kingdom of God. So the question for us is this what difference does it make whether the kingdom is present now or coming later in the Lord's prayer we acknowledge it has to do with obedience to God's will. It will be done in earth as it is in heaven and so we can understand that in the most practical sense if the kingdom is present then we must be an obedient people that is in fact what we have prayed Lord make your will to be accomplished on earth as it is just as it is in heaven. In the most practical sense we can look at Matthew 6 25 through 34 and these verses we are exhorted not to worry about clothing not to worry about what we will eat or drink Jesus presses the issue pointing out God's providence over the natural world and charges them with having too little faith making them act like the Gentile unbelievers of the world who do worry about their clothing who do worry about what they will eat. And then Jesus says as he concludes this teaching about their anxiety as being a symptom of a lack of trust and a sovereign and providential God he says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God so as our obedience measured by a perpetual seeking with no expectation of finding or should we expect that in seeking the kingdom it can be found or to put it another way the seeking separators from unbelievers or the finding separators from unbelievers. I think if you ponder that you'll find fundamentally that's a way of describing most Christian experience. Are we separate because we are going to church seeking the kingdom and they just don't and so and therefore we can be a people who might not seek this Sunday because we were seeking last Sunday and we'll come back and we'll seek again next Sunday. We're looking for it and we can't be expected to be looking all the time or are we a people with a citizenship and an obligation to gather because God has commanded us to gather. It all depends if the king is present or yet to come. If the king is present then we dare not forsake the assembling that is required that is commanded by our king. But if he is yet to come then certainly he will appreciate our transitory seeking our seasonal seeking our looking today and not looking tomorrow because if we look just a little bit then that shows we have an interest in the arrival of the kingdom but if the kingdom is already here then how does it appear looking at it from a different perspective. It appears as a people who are wishy-washy who are double-minded, who are not yet ready to leave the world and to enter into the gates of the kingdom of God. On Palm Sunday when Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem as her king was he really her king or is he still simply an heir to the throne. If the people were hushed and the rocks cried out would creation testify to his potential or to his arrival. Well what would have happened if the rocks had cried out? Would they have cried out the king has arrived or would they have cried out see Jerusalem your king who will come. The spring of 1935 Charles Herald Dodd or as he is more commonly known in his writings C.H. Dodd gave a series of lectures at Yale Divinity School looking closely at all the parables of Jesus as they related to the kingdom and we will not try to cover them all in our time this morning. I mentioned a few of them parable of the talents is a kingdom parable. The parable of the sewer and the four soils is a kingdom parable. The parable of the ten virgins with the lamps is a kingdom parable. When looking at the parables of Jesus as a whole Dodd said this quote, was all this wealth of loving observation and imaginative rendering of nature and common life used merely to adorn moral generalities? Was the Jesus of the Gospels just an imminently sound and practical teacher who patiently led simple minds to appreciate the great enduring common places of morals and religion? This is not the impression conveyed by the Gospels as a whole in quote. In other words he's asking if the parables Jesus taught were simply to teach a Christian ethic, simply to convey a moral way of life. Were they examples, were they allegories to show us how we ought to understand and perceive of the ethic and the law of God and of God's grace? Or were they intending to communicate the actual establishment of the kingdom of God? I hope that at this point you're beginning to realize at least this that whichever side you fall on that question will direct how you live your life as a Christian. Just how seriously you take the gospel, just how seriously you take the Lordship of Christ, just how seriously you take the church, even the church to which you have given vows unto the Lord of membership. Think for a moment of how many times Jesus began his teaching with the words, the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like a seed growing in secret. It's like leaven which a little will affect the entire loaf. It's like a great feast or a costly pearl or a dragnet or laborers in the vineyard. Jesus, entire ministry, seemed to be focusing on the concept of communicating the truths about the kingdom, the kingdom of God. This much we can say then, from the opening of Jesus' ministry, when John preached, repent for the kingdom of God as a hand, a sentiment and a message which Jesus Himself repeated. Through Samaria, when Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand. Through the triumphal entry and the interrogation before Pilate, Jesus centered Himself on the proclamation of the kingdom throughout. Regrettably, in our presentation of the gospel, you will rarely hear reference to the kingdom, to the kingdom of God and yet Jesus found that the gospel itself was simply the vessel from which the message of the kingdom was sent. Our first application is that if we are to understand the sum of Jesus' teaching and the gospel itself, we must understand the kingdom. So that brings to us a couple of questions. We're going to understand it. So one thing to say you must understand it, another to actually understand it, we would say what kind of kingdom is it? Is this a kingdom that we can see? Is this a kingdom that is supposed to change the world in which we live? Is it a secret kingdom? Is it an invisible kingdom? And what exactly are we talking about when we say the kingdom of God is present, whenever two are more gathered, Jesus is there with them. Is he there with them because his kingdom is present, or is that a special visitation only in those times of worship? The word kingdom points to some place or some community discovered by a king in the most basic sense. If we say that there is a kingdom, we mean that there is some thing, some place that must exist. There can't simply be the idea of a kingdom and there be a real kingdom. There must be a kingdom. Even the Aramaic term, Malkuth, used so frequently by the Jews, means kingly rule, or reign, or sovereignty. How can there be a king if there is no rule? How can there be a king if there is no reign? If there is no sovereignty over his people, how can there be a sovereign if there is no rule? So to say kingdom of God means that God is reigning as a king, just as in the prayer, when we say, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But those who listen to Jesus struggled because the signs of a kingdom ruled by God were not so clearly discernible in their time. They struggled with Jesus' message because they couldn't see that the kingdom was arriving in the way that they expected it to arrive, because with the righteous king comes both freedom by the oppressed and justice that is judgment. Against the oppressors, John the Baptist showed us the tension emerging in Jesus' teaching when he asked in Matthew 11 whether Jesus is the one all of Jewish history has been anticipating or if there was one that was yet to come. John's confusion was resulting from his own expectation. He rightly discern that there would be blessing that comes with the kingdom and also judgment to come with the kingdom. And he was seeing some blessing but he was lacking any perception of judgment that came with the great day of the Lord and the arrival of the kingdom of God. And so he wondered, is this in fact the one that we have been waiting for because only half of the equation is present. There's blessing but there is no judgment that would signify the consummation of the arrival of the kingdom of God. I would submit to you that that same distortion or that same misunderstanding is present today. People assume that since the judgment has not occurred, therefore the kingdom of God has not arrived but didn't Jesus answer that very question that John the Baptist himself posed. So on the one hand if John the Baptist was confused, I suppose we could say that if we're confused we're in good company but on the other hand Jesus supplied an answer. They reassured him, shouldn't we also be reassured by the same answer. In reply, Jesus quotes Old Testament prophecy to John about healing the blind, about causing the lame to walk. He was showing what his words and works made clear that John was right to look for both blessing and judgment but wrong to seek both at once. Jesus is telling him that the kingdom comes in two phases and that blessing will proceed judgment. John announced that the hope of God's visitation was soon to come and Jesus announced that the hope was being fulfilled. Jesus did also speak of a coming judgment at some length in Matthew 24 and in the parallel gospels. He warned that not one stone would be left upon another in the temple. He told them that in the world there would be tribulations, there would be false prophets, false Christs and signs from heaven and that all this would occur before even that generation had passed in Matthew 16, 28. There are some of you standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. For those who would advocate a kingdom still far off or at least future even if only as future as tomorrow they struggle with this verse. For Jesus here says there are some who are alive now who will not die until they see the kingdom of God, the Son of man coming in his kingdom. The destruction of Jerusalem in 80, 70 is described as but the beginning of birth pangs for the gospel to be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. The beginning of birth pangs, not the end of all things. Out of the destruction of Jerusalem the church is born with Jerusalem and all Old Testament understanding then pressed aside, not the covenants and not the promises of the Old Testament but the Old Testament misconceptions and trusting in the types and the shadows rather than the reality. All that now being set aside there is the spiritual life of the church of Christ that begins to emerge around the world. With the destruction of the temple the kingdom can rightly said to have come. First Corinthians 3, 16 and 17 speak of the church saying that she is God's temple and God's spirit dwells in her. She, the church, this bride of Christ, the one Christ Himself has established, is the temple of the Holy God and there is where He dwells. Why does He dwell there? Because there we find the expression of His kingdom. Because Jesus was ushering in the kingdom of God and words, deeds, and miracles and preaching the kingdom is so connected with the person of Jesus that Philip even equated to in Acts 8-12 when it says they believe Philip as He preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus. To preach the kingdom of God is to preach Christ. We can't separate the two. The kingdom itself is found in the person of Christ and the spirit of Christ dwells in His people. This helps us understand Jesus as teaching to the Pharisees when they ask Him when the kingdom would come. That's what they wanted to know. When will the kingdom come? That seems to be a question that even extends in the debate up to our very day. When is this kingdom going to come? And again, Jesus answers in Luke 17, verse 20 and 21. The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say, look, here it is, or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. In His very person, the kingdom of God was present. What does this mean to us? What does this mean to all men? Not only did Jesus bring the kingdom, but He embodies the kingdom. There is no kingdom to be discovered outside of the person of Jesus Christ. So if there is going to be a temple that is rebuilt in an effort to bring in the kingdom of God, that temple has been replaced by Christ. What else did He say when He said, tear this temple down and in three days I will build it up again. He was speaking of His own person. And yet, well-intentioned Christians, even today, will raise funds and will seek for the rebuilding of the temple which in the sovereign rule of God was destroyed. What are the evidences that the kingdom of God is present? We may have a phrase or a teaching here or there, but can we say that there is evidence that the kingdom of God is actually present? Yes, the scripture gives us abundant evidence of the kingdom of God being present. First and foremost, we would point to the defeat of Satan. In Matthew 12, 28 and Luke 11, 20, those record the great change in the spiritual realm in which we are made to dwell. If the finger of God that I can't, Jesus said, but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus was there saying that His power and authority to cast demons out to have rule over demons is demonstrating that the power of God and the kingdom of God has now come to displace the kingdom and the rule of Satan. When the 72 returned from their preaching journey, Jesus said to them that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. This complements the binding of Satan that is described in Revelation 20. This binding of Satan that comes with the kingdom of God, Jesus said, I saw him fall like lightning as you were out preaching the kingdom. The coming of the kingdom means that Christ has broken the yoke of Satan's oppressive rule over God's people. Through death, Jesus has rendered him powerless who had the power of death, that is the devil. And by His resurrection, Jesus swallowed up death in victory and removed death's sting. A second evidence besides the defeat of Satan is that Jesus worked miracles, now often Jesus worked miracles that parallel with His preaching of the kingdom. Herman Ritterholtz, who has written a great deal about the kingdom of God, said that Jesus preached the kingdom with words and deeds. Now because disease is an effect of the fall and disease is an effect of Satan's dominion, in fact, when it talks about those who were possessed by demons, weren't they very often diseased ridden to people? And then they were cleansed not only by the evacuation of the demon but in their bodies as well. The effect of the fall of Satan's dominion meant that the healing of sicknesses and the casting out of demons are sure signs of the kingdom's arrival. Consider what these healings would point to. When Jesus healed the blind, he often accompanied with the healing, a teaching on the eyes of faith. When he healed the crippled, didn't he mention also the walking and righteousness? With the healing of the death, wasn't there implied there now a hearing and an understanding? When the leper was cleansed, weren't they cleansed of sin and shame in our understanding? And when the dead are raised, don't we understand being raised to a new life in Christ, even the miracles themselves pointed to the realities of the perfect establishment of the kingdom of God? Most particularly in the raising of Lazarus because it is the deliverance from death that the kingdom is most distinguished as being present. Thirdly, the preaching of the gospel itself. When John asked Jesus if he were the one referred to and referred to as miracles, Jesus also referred to the preaching of the gospel. What the Old Testament prophets foretold and the lawshadowed, Jesus preached as having arrived in the gospel. Jesus taught as one having authority and as teaching continually amazed them. Fourthly, there is the reality of salvation. Many times in the gospel, salvation is described as entering the kingdom. When you are saved, often it is described as entering into the kingdom of God, for example, in Matthew 5-20. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God. Matthew 18-23, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God in Mark 9-47. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. The kingdom is present because Jesus forgave and forgives sins. And in that forgiveness is salvation and salvation can also alternately be described as entering into the kingdom of God. And in 5th and finally, it is a spiritual kingdom. When the Pharisees ask when the kingdom was coming, Jesus said that it doesn't come with careful observation because it is within you. And when Pilate asks about the kingdom, Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. Jesus' kingdom is very real in the spiritual domain. And we who are living spirits are in it. Just as Jesus told His disciples in Mark 9-1, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Let's summarize and draw a couple of conclusions. First of all, we've established the kingdom of God arrived in the person of Jesus and that it is spiritual and that there were many evidences of several different types to prove it. While we didn't explore in any depth the notion of a thousand year future reign, we can be comfortable accepting that the thousand years of Revelation 20 begins with the binding of Satan. And that is already accomplished by Christ and stands for an indefinite period of time in which Christ rules if in fact he is ruling in a kingdom now which he is. Secondly, we can find guidance for our own living. From the prayer we so frequently recite in the words thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. To know God's will is to know how to live, for God's will is perfect and unchanging. As we were reading in Malachi this morning, God said, it's not I who have changed, it's not I who have forgotten anything, it's you who have been unfaithful to my will. As people of the kingdom, we are to live lives that are transformed by the gospel that has announced the kingdom's arrival. In every letter and in many of the gospels, from the Beatitudes to the fruits of the Spirit, the distinguished ethic of a Christian is described. It's not left to wonder what God's will is for us, it's left for us to read and to be transformed. This ethic doesn't earn or add to salvation of course because salvation is a gift from our king, but the Christian ethic does reflect God's rule on earth as it is in heaven. So what difference does it make whether the kingdom is present now or coming later? Do you want Satan defeated now or later? You want him bound now or later? Do you want the restrainer to be in place now or later? Do you want death and grade destroyed now? Are you okay with leaving that till later? Do you want the gift of life in your spirit now? Are you willing to hold off with the promissary note for that to be accomplished sometime later? Will you plan to be living as a citizen in Christ's kingdom now? Recognizing his lordship now? Or do you plan to begin to be obedient to the Lord later?