Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Friday, December 01, 2006 8:34:02 PM
The Kingdom Related to Present and Future – Part 1
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." [Matthew 13:30]
What did the Lord Jesus mean when He taught us to pray to our Father in heaven, ‘Thy kingdom come’? [Matthew 6:10] How does the kingdom come? When Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer to His disciples, the kingdom was already arrived. From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven had been forcefully advancing. [Matthew 11:12]
An advancing kingdom implies a coming over a course of time rather than a sudden advent. The kingdom parables of Matthew 13 compare the progress of the kingdom using figures chosen to represent a protracted process. The kingdom is like the mustard seed that grows gradually into the greatest of herbs, or like leaven hidden in the meal, or like wheat.
Wheat is planted as seed. Then a blade appears; afterwards the ear comes; still later come the full corn in the ear. A harvest is necessary; then gathering into the barn. When does the wheat come? It is ever coming and has only fully come when harvest is ended and the fruit of the field is all safe within the granary. Yet when the first light green hue covers a field, we may say the wheat has come. [Mark 4:26-29]
The only parables which suggest an instantaneous coming are those of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price which represent the kingdom coming to the heart of individual sinners. That kingdom comes to some who inadvertently stumble across it (treasure in the field), and to some who are diligently in search of it (pearl of great price).
The kingdom of God is ever coming from the first to the second advents of Christ. It is a process that covers many generations. The kingdom is still coming with forceful impetus. The coming began with the sudden public appearance of the Son of God preaching the gospel of the kingdom. The coming is terminated in the harvest which ‘is the end of the world.’ [Matthew 13:39] Then comes judgment and the final and complete expression of the kingdom which has no end. Tares are bundled and burned in a furnace of fire with ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth.’ Wheat is gathered into God’s barn, where the ‘righteous will shine forth as the sun’ in the Father’s continuing kingdom. [Matthew 13:41-43]
When we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ it is a desire expressed from our hearts for the continued forceful advancement of God’s cause on the earth. Included is our request for the change of men’s hearts to increase the population of the kingdom. Contained also in the petition is a longing for the supernatural defeat of sin and error with a consequent increase of truth and righteousness in the earth through His people’s functioning as salt and light. We must not exclude an expression of our earnest desire that the Lord would return from heaven with His holy angels to conduct the harvest and usher in the completed phase of the kingdom, wherein dwells righteousness.