Dr. Rodney Plunket

I want to begin this morning by reading three verses to you from the Old Testament (OT).  As I read, please be especially attentive to the ways the throne of Israel’s king is described.  The first verse that I will read records words spoken by King David.

And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many, he has chosen my son Solomon to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel (1 Chronicles [1Chr] 28:5).

Notice the phrase “the throne of the kingdom of the Lord.”  The phrase, “the Lord” has back of it the personal name of God, the name Yahweh.  So here Israel is being referred to as “the kingdom of Yahweh,” and the throne of the king of Israel is described as the throne of Yahweh’s kingdom.

The next verse we will read is also from 1 Chronicles.  This verse reports David’s son, Solomon, taking his place upon his father’s throne.

Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, succeeding his father David as king; he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him (1Chr 29:23).

This verse actually refers to the throne of Solomon as “the throne of the Lord/the throne of Yahweh.”

The final verse regarding the throne reports words spoken by the queen of Sheba when she came to visit King Solomon.  She says,

Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God.  Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness (2 Chronicles 9:8).

Here, a non-Israelite ruler recognizes whose throne the throne of Israel really is.  She refers to it as “his throne,” and the pronoun “his” clearly refers back to “the Lord/Yahweh your God.”

These descriptions of the throne of Israel reveal the ideal to which the king of Israel was called.  He was to be a king with a genuine connection to Yahweh the God of Israel.  The authority of the king was grounded on the ultimate authority and will of Yahweh God.

Now let’s return to Psalm (Psa) 110, the psalm which served as our Scripture reading this morning.  In verse (v) 1 of that psalm we read,

          The Lord says to my lord,

                    “Sit at my right hand

          until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The first occurrence of the English word “Lord” begins with a capitalized “L” and then follows with three smaller capital letters.  That word has back of it the Hebrew name “Yahweh.”  Yahweh is the God of Israel’s personal name.  The second occurrence of the English word “lord” has no capitals.  Back of it is the Hebrew word }aœd≈o®n.  This word “is used in reference to an earthly lord over 300 times and to a divine lord about 30 times.”[1]  Here it refers to a king, a king who is being invited by God to sit at God’s right hand.

Now please look at v 2 of that psalm.

          The Lord sends out from Zion

                    your mighty scepter.

                    Rule in the midst of your foes.

Here it is reported that Yahweh “sends out from Zion” the “mighty scepter” of the king.  I think the Encyclopædia Britannica gives an appropriate view of the scepter; it refers to it as “the staff through which the rule is carried out.”[2]  Notice that it is the king’s scepter; but it is Yahweh, it is God who sends that scepter out from Zion.  It is Yahweh who commands the king, “Rule in the midst of your foes.”  This psalm strikingly conveys that the ideal king of God’s people will be a king through whom God rules.  God will command the king, and the king will do as God wills.  To put it simply, the ideal king will perfectly obey the will of God.  He will know that his throne is really the throne of Yahweh.  He will know that his kingdom is really the Kingdom of Yahweh, the Kingdom of God.

By the time of Jesus, it had been hundreds of years since a Judean king from the line of David had ruled the nation of Judah.  Psa 110 may have been written when there was a king; we do not know when it was written.  The superscription at the top of the psalm, which is rendered, “Of David,” can also be rendered “To David.”  In other words, this psalm may have been written with a sit­ting king of the line of David in mind.  But even if something like that is the case, this psalm certainly was not understood that way by the time of Jesus.  This psalm was viewed as a declaration of David to the king in his line who actually would be the ideal king and who would usher in the fully consummated Kingdom of God.  Such a view is supported by Jesus in Matthew 22:41-46 and in the parallels of that passage in both Mark and Luke.  In other words, whatever its original intention, this psalm does in fact express the real desire of David for an ideal king to sit on his throne, a throne so completely controlled by the will of God that it is at the right hand of God.

The New Testament (NT) loudly proclaims that Jesus is the one who sits on that throne.  Jesus is that ideal king, and Jesus is the one who is ushering in the fully consummated Kingdom of God.  Psalm 110 is the OT passage most often cited in the NT.  The NT portion of this morning’s Scripture reading is one of those citations.  In Hebrews 10:12-13 we read,

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.”

This NT passage and many others make boldly declare that Jesus is the one who fulfils David’s dream as expressed in Psa 110.  Jesus is the perfect king who is totally guided by the will of God.  In John [Jn] 5:19 Jesus gives voice to this perfect obedience He says, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”  And listen to a similar statement of Jesus in Jn 14:10, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

And what is Jesus’ favorite “sermon topic”?  In Mark and Luke it is the Kingdom of God, in Matthew it is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is another way of referring to the same reality.  (Matthew may have used the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” because of a Jewish caution about trivializing God by a too easy use of God’s title).  I am not sure how to define Jesus’ favorite “sermon topic” in John’s Gospel, but He does make strong statements regarding the Kingdom of God in John 3:3, 5; 18:36.  In addition, Jesus talks quite a lot about “eternal life,” and the meaning of that phrase has much overlap with the meaning of the phrase “Kingdom of God” in the other Gospels.

Let’s talk a bit about the phrase “Kingdom of God.”  When I was growing up, I was taught that the phrase, the Kingdom of God, in the NT referred to the Church.  In fact, I was told that it was inappropriate to pray the Lord’s Prayer as it is found in the Gospels.  When I came to the part that says, “Your Kingdom come,” I was told to pray “Your Kingdom has come,” because the Church is already here.

Let me note four NT passages to expose the problems with the perspective that the Church and the Kingdom are the same.  First, such a view fails to realize the nature of the portion of the Lord’s Prayer that says,

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

       on earth as it is in heaven.

The line “Your Kingdom come” is most naturally read as being paired with “Your will be done.”  In other words, you will know that the kingdom has come when God’s will is done in all of God’s creation.  No one could argue that such is the case now, and yet the Church is present now.

The second passage is the one from Hebrews that served as our Scripture reading and that I cited earlier.  Please listen again to Hebrews 10:12-13:

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.”

Most scholars are quite certain that the Book of Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians.  Scholars have done a great deal of study regarding the Kingdom of God concept among the Jews during the time of Jesus, and one of the things that is clear is that the Jews would definitely not consider that the Kingdom of God is fully present until all enemies were made a footstool for the feet of God’s chosen king.  The Church was present at the time of the writing of Hebrews, but Hebrews 10:13 could not be clearer about the fact that the king is still “waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’”  The Kingdom and the Church are not the same.

The third passage is in the Gospel of Luke, a passage that my brother, Bryan Keeling, and I studied together just two days ago.  In Luke 17:20-21 we read,

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say,  ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

People can actually say that “here is the Church” and “there is the Church.”  The Greek word which we translate as “church” simply means an assembly of people.  An assembly of people is easy to see.  You can even count how many people there are in the assembly, just like we count how many people there are in our worship assemblies every Sunday.  But Jesus here makes clear that the Kingdom is not like that.  The Kingdom of God is within people.

The fourth passage is in 2 Thessalonians.  In 2 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul addresses this letter.  He writes, “To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  He is writing to the people who make up the church/the assembly of disciples in that city.  Now look with me at verses 4 & 5 of that same chapter:

Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.

Notice, they are already in the Church; but they are being made “worthy of the kingdom of God.”  The Kingdom and the Church are not the same thing.

However, the Church and the Kingdom are related.  It is the Church that longs for and proclaims the Kingdom of God.  We declare that The Day is coming when Jesus, God’s anointed king, will come and all enemies will be put under his feet forever.  Justice, righteousness, and peace will be fully realized.  The will of God will “be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Yes, the Church longs for the Kingdom; but it would never claim to be that Kingdom because it knows its failings all too well.

How important is the theme of the Kingdom of God in the NT.  Well the Greek word for kingdom is used 162 times in the NT, and most of those usages refer to the Kingdom of God.  But the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke use that word 121 of those times, so a good question is how important is this theme in the NT as a whole.

There are many ways to show the importance of the kingdom throughout the NT, but let me stick to one.  Have you ever thought about the title that Jesus most often wears?  He wears it so often that it comes to be treated in the NT like a part of His name.  That title is Christ.  What does “Christ” mean?  It means, “anointed one,” and in Jesus’ case it specifically refers to the fact that He has been anointed by God to serve as the king who sits at the right hand of God.  That word, “Christ,” is used 529 times in the NT, and only the little short letter of 3 John, with only fifteen verses, does not use it.  “Christ” is found in every other book of the NT, and every time the NT attaches that title to Jesus it is making a bold confession, a bold declaration.  It is proclaiming that Jesus is the king who sits at the right hand of God and who welds the power of God to bring into being God’s powerful kingdom.

So what is the Kingdom?  It is the reign or the rule of God.  It is within us when we receive God’s Holy Spirit and allow that Spirit to shape and transform us.  It is within the Church inasmuch as that assembly bows in obedience to God and honors the king who sits at God’s right hand.  It is within the Church inasmuch as that assembly displays the love and the holiness of our God and of His king, King Jesus.

Let’s stop now and share together in a responsive Scripture reading as Jon Horne leads us.  This reading gives us a listen into heaven and allows us to hear the joy of heaven as it announces that God reigns.

[After the responsive Scripture reading, we sang the song, “You Are My King.”  That song led to the remainder of the sermon].

In our responsive reading we have just declared that “the Lord our God the Almighty Reigns.”  This passage portrays the time when the Kingdom of God is present in fully consummated form.

Notice that in association with that reign is a supper.  It is “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  Jesus is that Lamb; He is the Lamb of God who was “slaughtered” and who by His “blood . . . ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  The supper referred to here is the supper on the occasion of the marriage of Jesus to His Bride, “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10).

Now we are about to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  That Supper is a meal which Christians eat in anticipation of that supper to come, “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

So as we eat let’s focus our minds on that heavenly meal.  Let’s celebrate that time to come when God will reign in the fully consummated Kingdom of Heaven.  Let’s pray.

[After the Lord’s Supper].

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