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
***
(Today’s Book Installment)
Living in the Kingdom of God
Chapter 9 – The King of the Kingdom of God Is Jesus Christ
What’s the most important element of a kingdom? Its king, of course!
The kingdom of God came about 4,000 years after Adam and Eve. One reason it took that long was that it was made for one king and one king only: Jesus. If the kingdom was to be, He must have been. God in the flesh.
In New Testament times, when John the Baptist and Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand, the people knew that the Messiah was at hand. For the prophets had made known that the Messiah was the king of God’s choosing.
Daniel 9:25 So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
Daniel 9:26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
Daniel spoke about both the kingdom and about the king (that is, the Messiah).
Even though the word for Messiah shows up about 40 times in the Hebrew Bible, this passage from Daniel is the only place you usually find the word “Messiah” in an English Bible. The rest of the occurrences are usually translated to “the Anointed.”
This expression – “the Anointed” – goes back to when the prophet Samuel anointed Israel’s first king: Saul. It happened just this simply:
1 Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?
From that point on, the king of Israel was known as the Lord’s Anointed. This practice was confirmed when Samuel anointed David to be Saul’s successor.
1 Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
Since the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek, the Greek word “Christ” came to replace the Hebrew word “Messiah.” (“Christ” was the Greek word for “Anointed.”)
John 1:41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).
Therefore, the terms “the Anointed,” the “Messiah,” or the “Christ” are interchangeable. They refer to the same person.
Jesus is not only called by all these names, He is also literally called “the king of Israel,” and “the King of the Jews.”
Jesus was the king of spiritual Israel throughout the church age. At the Second Coming, He became King of Kings.
The first step to living in the kingdom of God is recognizing that Jesus is its King.
***
