Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 24 – A Preliminary and Limited Kingdom
The church age lasted from the resurrection of Jesus to the right hand of God until His Second Coming. Thus was the church age preliminary to the kingdom of God in the same way that pregnancy is preliminary to birth.
During the church age, Jesus’ authority was limited to spiritual Israel. This authority was a downpayment on His inheritance. In the Second Coming, He would receive the fullness of His inheritance. In other words, the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God secured a nation for Him to govern; in His Second Coming, however, He received authority over all the nations.
This takeover of the nations was prophesied in the second Psalm:
Psalm 2:6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Psalm 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Psalm 2:8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
“I have installed…” speaks to Jesus at the right hand of God, reigning over all believers in the church age. “I will surely give…” speaks to Jesus receiving authority over all the nations at the Second Coming.
For this reason, the apostles, by their preaching, were calling people to faith so that they could enter the kingdom of the Son – which was the one true church.
Colossians 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
This kingdom was but a prelude to the coming of the kingdom of God. Thus…
the church age = the kingdom of the Son
the eternal age = the kingdom of God
I’ll say it again: At the Second Coming, Jesus gave up the kingdom of Israel for the kingdom of all the nations.
Here’s Paul’s description of that process.
1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
1 Corinthians 15:24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
1 Corinthians 15:25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
1 Corinthians 15:27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
1 Corinthians 15:28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
The kingdom that Jesus was handing over was the kingdom of the church (spiritual Israel). That put God in a position to bequeath all that was His to His Son.
Thus the tension between the authority of Christ and the authority of God was resolved in the Second Coming when Jesus surrendered His kingdom in order to receive – as His full inheritance – all kingdoms.
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