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The Daily Word of Righteousness
We Christians Do Not Understand the Gospel!, #8
And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)
Every parable of the Lord Jesus had to do with the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom that comes down to us from Heaven. There is no parable concerning our going to Heaven. The four Gospel accounts describe the Savior-King of the Kingdom as He went about revealing the power of the Kingdom and teaching us that the Kingdom of God is first born in us and then will be manifested in external, visible form, in the Day of the Lord.
But didn't all this change after the Lord was crucified and raised from the dead? Why would it change? Does God keep changing His mind about what He is doing?
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: (Acts 1:3)
"Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Of course! This is what the Scriptures proclaim.
If the Kingdom of Heaven announced in the Book of Matthew is a kingdom of Gentiles in Heaven, as some are teaching, why did the Lord speak to His Jewish Apostles about the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of Heaven? After the Lord was raised from the dead He certainly would have been emphasizing the heavenly kingdom (if there were one)! But the resurrected Jesus spoke of the things pertaining to the one Kingdom of God.
Notice the first question that the disciples asked the risen Lord:
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)
The issue was, and yet is, the Kingdom.
The Lord, understanding that they did not realize the Kingdom could not come until the nobility of the Kingdom, the royal priesthood, had been formed, answered their question by informing them that they would first go to the ends of the earth bearing witness of His atoning death and triumphant resurrection.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Does the Book of Acts reveal that we now are in a new "dispensation," a change in God's plan for His righteous Kingdom, or does the Good News of the Kingdom continue to be preached?
But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. (Acts 8:12)
Was Philip careful to tell the Jews they would be part of an earthly kingdom and to tell the Gentiles that they would be part of a heavenly kingdom?
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
To be continued.