If we are not careful, one of the difficulties we can have as believers in Christ is a tendency to overemphasize the Kingdom of Heaven. Over time, so much doctrine has crept into the Church that is focused on Heaven. We have begun to drift away from our drive to see the Kingdom of Heaven come to the Earth. But we cannot forget that Christ left the Earth with a promise of return. The Messianic Kingdom prophesied in scripture and promised to David—the Kingdom of God—will be coming to Earth!
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Show Notes:
People talk often about the End Time and the return of the Lord. So, as the Lord returns, He is not establishing the Church. He comes to establish His Kingdom.
The Church is something that transitions us through this time while He is in Heaven receiving and establishing the Kingdom there to bring it here. It is a time of challenge and testing. At some point, we will stand before Him at His return and we will account for our days here on this Earth.
The Kingdom first is established in Heaven and then is brought forth onto the Earth. We call this the Second Coming. When the Messiah comes, He will set up an earthly Kingdom. That’s all that we see in the Hebrew Scriptures. So, when the people hear Yeshua say He is the Messiah, they were expecting that He would immediately establish that throne of David and restore it on the Earth today. They had no concept of a Kingdom elsewhere.
Key Verses:
- 1 Chronicles 17:11–12. “I will set up one of your descendants after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.”
- Psalm 89:3–4. “I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations.”
- Acts 1:11. “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
Quotes:
- “Christ Himself teaching us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on this Earth as it is in heaven’ serves to initiate the reality of His kingdom manifesting on this Earth, and it is also a constant reminder to us that our focus as believers is to be on His kingdom coming.”
- “He gives believers in every generation things that will be a test to them to find out how they will function within this great Kingdom upon His return, so we must be as faithful as we can to the Lord in what He’s given to us.”
- “We have this promise in the Scriptures that Yeshua goes into Heaven only to return to us and establish this great Kingdom on Earth.”
Takeaways:
- Keep in mind that Christ’s Kingdom is not derived from this Earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is established in Heaven.
- Keep in mind that the Kingdom of Heaven comes from Heaven and is colonized into the Earth. This is why Christ must first ascend into the heavens—because the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of Heaven—and then He brings it to the Earth.
- Keep in mind that the throne of David is to be occupied on this Earth by Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, in Jerusalem—as promised to David by God and spoken of by the prophets.
- Keep in mind that one day all the kingdoms of this Earth will become the kingdoms of Almighty God and of the Messiah, Yeshua, forever and ever. As believers, every day we should cry out to God: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on this Earth as it is in heaven.”