"The Kingdom in Context of the Whole Scripture" by Paul Lamicela

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Good morning and welcome to this, uh, talk again this morning, um, here at Strength to Strength. We are excited to have, uh, Dr. Paul Amatello with us, and, uh, we, uh, welcomed him to explore the place that the Kingdom of God has within Scripture, uh, the title being "The Kingdom in Context of the Whole Scripture." I'm excited to hear this talk. So sometimes we use kingdom as a buzzword, perhaps paired with a few proof texts from the Gospels. But what did Jesus really mean when he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand? Hint: we have to dig into the Old Testament to get the full picture, and doing so will bring a richer, deeper, more compelling dimension to our own lives in Jesus' Kingdom.

So, um, Dr. Paul Amatello has a passion for showing students how all Scripture is connected as one grand story, and, uh, I'm excited about this because this is a fascinating thing that I enjoy about Scripture. He holds a PhD in biblical theology and has taught classes of his own, as well as at College Bible Institute and other venues for the past 10 years. He and his wife, Laura, live in the Lancaster PA area with their son, Gianvanni, I think I'm saying that almost right. Check out upcoming classes at Lancaster Anabaptist Study Center. So on the, uh, web page for this talk, we do have a link to that study center, but maybe we'll have, uh, Paul, when he opens up here, just give us a brief description of, of what that is and, uh, what goes on there.

So also, another thing to let you know is on the web page for this talk, we have a download for the talk here and a handout, and you can just click the link and it'll take you to a PDF for this talk. So if you want to do that during this talk to follow along, um, you'll probably find that helpful. Also, we'll have a link for this talk in the chat so that you can find that download, um, just below the description for this talk.

All right, well, uh, we'll have a word of prayer here, and then we'll hand it over to you, Paul. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, uh, beautiful morning. We thank you for another day to serve and honor you and to learn more about, um, your kingdom and, uh, your will for your kingdom. We thank you for this opportunity to sit together and listen to this, um, talk on the kingdom and, uh, and how it's connected through Scripture. Lord, just watch over Paul. Give him wisdom, courage, and strength as he delivers this to us. And may we be listening with, uh, devoted, undistracted attention and, uh, learn as much as we can. Help us, Lord, to just, um, plant these truths from your Scripture deep in our hearts so that it is part of our whole being and that we can go out and serve you better and represent you better in the, uh, world that we are living in, that we could be ambassadors, little, um, stars of light in this dark world, pointing to you and your glory, and, uh, so that more souls could be able to enjoy this for themselves as well, and that your name could be spread abroad the whole earth.

So again, we ask your blessing on this, uh, meeting this morning, and as this, uh, talk is listened to in the future, just bless any listeners with your grace and your, uh, um, Holy Spirit. We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Yeah, it's all yours, Paul.

Well, thank you. Uh, thank you for having me this morning. I'm, uh, excited to kind of get to know a little bit more of your, your group here, uh, interact with you. Um, of course, Zoom is, uh, is a harder venue to for interaction, and I'm kind of used to classrooms where people can kind of raise their hand and ask questions. Um, so I'm, I'm, I know there's a time for a Q&A at the end, but I'm quite happy if, if somebody has a burning question or something that they want to put in the chat, uh, throughout. Um, this way I at least have a sense that I'm talking to actual people. Um, but, uh, before we get started here, I just want to, uh, mention a little bit more about some of the stuff we are working on in Lancaster.

So we are, um, under the banner of Lancaster Anabaptist Study Center. Um, we're, we're we have a vision for, um, this, this combination of academic depth and in-person community. I think these are two things that really should go together, but, uh, and I think they're, like, more important than ever, um, for young people in our circles, for everyone, but, uh, especially young people in a world that's becoming increasingly fragmented. Uh, our young people, I mean, all of us, even, even not super young people, are experiencing more sort of, um, fragmentation, lack of community, and also loss of, um, an increasing shallowness, I think. Um, our, our phones are making us shallower people and, uh, people who are, are more prone to rage bait and less to slow, um, the slow formation that comes from sitting with other, other people, reading, thinking, praying, eating together.

Uh, and so these are, these are these two things that we want to, that we want to marry, um, deep learning and deep community. Uh, and so we're hosting, so kind of we posted different, different things. We've done a pastor training, uh, class. There's, there's that side of things that we're, um, that I'm we're trying to do, but also, um, classes for classes for young people. So this summer we've got a two-week study term happening in downtown Lancaster, um, where there will be, um, it'll be a, a shared meals, low-tech environment, um, kind of a no-phone, no, no-screen classroom type of thing.

Um, we will be sharing, yeah, like I said, sharing some meals together. I'll be teaching a class on the Book of Revelation, which I'm, uh, kind of excited about. And then, um, a friend of mine, Dr. Darren Penn, who's a scholar of English literature, will be doing a seminar-style class, um, exploring different works of literature that are produced in suffering and crisis, uh, movements, um, from the ancient Greeks to the Romantics to the Modernists. So if you like literature, this is great. And these are two courses that all students who attend this will be taking. They're different, and yet they, they dovetail, um, in a way.

So yeah, and there will be, um, we'll have shared times of liturgy and prayer and song together. Um, and, and so yeah, the, the goal, the heart, is to create a space where young people can slow down, um, pray, eat, discuss, have, like, deep discussions, um, learn Scripture, learn, uh, wrestle with other texts, um, literary, literature texts that help us to think through what does it mean to be a human, what does it mean to be a Christian, what does it mean to live faithfully in a chaotic era, how do we prepare well for, for the suffering that's inevitable in our lives, and especially for us as Christians, um, and to form, form friendships and to catch a little vision of what, um, how, how we can form more healthy habits in our own lives and, and settings.

So, uh, if that sounds interesting to any of you, um, please spread the word. Please sign up. Uh, early registrations ending at the end of April. Uh, if you're near the Lancaster area, we have these one-evening events that we call Supper and Study, where we just get together for a meal, uh, around a table and, uh, discuss a little, just have a little dinner discussion, and then have a little mini class afterwards and a time of prayer and, and singing. So those are little preview, one-evening preview events that, uh, you're welcome to, to come to as well.

So, um, that is my, that is my pitch, but please do, um, do spread the word, do look into this, uh, more, and, and if there's people in your life that you think would benefit, then, uh, sign up.

So with, with that, I'm not a salesman, and I'm, yeah, if I operated on a commission-only basis in my job, I would hate it. So with, but it's something I do believe in. So, uh, yeah, I'm excited to, to share it with you guys. All right, now let's go into what you actually came here for, um, which was, which is talking about the Kingdom of God.

So the, the Kingdom, I think, as, as Justin, um, hinted at in the, in the little intro, the word Kingdom, the phrase Kingdom of God, is a, it potentially a bit of a buzzword in, in some of our circles, right? It's something we like to talk about, uh, Kingdom this, Kingdom that, Kingdom of God. And as any, any phrase like that that gets used a lot, sometimes buzzwords actually start, um, we start forgetting what those words actually mean. Uh, they just become sort of a, a, you know, a word that we say. Um, or, or for example, when we look, when we open the Gospel and we come to the, you know, we come to the words at the beginning of Mark or Matthew that says, "Jesus went around proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God."

Well, what does that mean? What did Jesus just make that up? And I think often we get this, this sense that, like, it's sort of an out of the blue, like, huh, interesting, Jesus, like, started talking about the Kingdom of God, and this was like a new thought or a original to him or something like that.

Um, and I want to suggest today that, that, um, using this phrase as just a, you know, an empty buzzword or thinking of Jesus as proclaiming the Kingdom of God as though that were some sort of idea that came out of the blue causes us to really miss, uh, so much of what Jesus himself is trying to evoke, uh, what the Gospel authors mean when they say that Jesus went around proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Um, maybe, maybe I'll ask you this, these preliminary, um, questions. If somebody, and I don't know, I hopefully wait a minute. There we go. Now you can see my screen again, I think. Um, yes. Um, if I, if I had you all in a room, I would say, uh, I would have you, I would have you talk about this.

But, um, yeah, what comes to mind? What, what's kind of the immediate thing that comes to your mind, um, when you think of the Kingdom of God? What Bible passage comes to mind? Or when someone comes to you and says, "Hey, I, I hear you guys talk about the Kingdom of God all the time. Can you, like, explain this, uh, in, you know, 90 seconds or whatever?" Where would you go? So I'm going to give you 30 seconds not to talk about it here, but just to just to think about that. What, what's kind of what's the Bible passage that comes to your mind, or what's the main thought that comes to your mind?

Just give you a few seconds of silence to think about that.

Now, uh, I don't know if, I mean, if you want, you can put this in the chat. Um, if any of you want to, to suggest what you think of or what you, you know, no obligation, but you can. I don't know if I can can I see the chat and this and have a screenshot of this name? Oh, here it is.

It's kind of I should know Zoom better than I do, but I actually don't use it that much. Okay. Okay. Sermon on the Mount. Right. Um, that's, that's a pretty common that's a pretty common first, first thought, um, for some reason.

Um, yeah, I'm sure there's I'm sure probably a lot of, a lot of people would say that. There's probably a few other passages that you'd think of. Maybe some of you would have said, "Ah, Brian, you said Isaiah." Jumping ahead. Yes. Yes.

Um, right. That's, that's hugely important, and that's part of where we're going to go. But yeah, um, uh, okay, good. So we've got some Old Testament stuff happening here. That's, that's good. Um, and I want to suggest that, um, that it is so important for us when we think of the Kingdom of God that we don't just think of an abstraction. I think often we can use the phrase Kingdom of God, uh, and be like, "Ah, what does that mean? Hmm, kingdom, kingdom." We read it in the Gospels, kingdom. I don't know. Let's see. A kingdom has a king. It has laws. It has subjects and has a realm. That's usually what a kingdom has.

So let's fill in the blanks. Uh, let's see. Kingdom of God. Well, I guess God is the king or Jesus is the king. Laws, that would be like the Sermon on the Mount. Uh, subjects would be God's people, Jesus' people, and then the realm would be maybe the church or our hearts or something. Well, none of those answers are particularly wrong. Like, they're not theologically wrong necessarily, but they are so truncated. They're, they're missing so much of what that phrase actually means because it's, it's an abstraction. It's us saying, "Ah, the idea of kingdom usually means something to us, and let's just fill in this abstract, make it this abstract, um, abstract idea of kingdom that we just fill in from what we generally think a kingdom is."

But that is not what Jesus is evoking. It misses so much of what Jesus is evoking.

So the theme of the Kingdom of God is huger than maybe a lot of us think. Yes, it includes the Sermon on the Mount, but it includes so much more of the Bible story than just sort of an abstracted or a truncated version. The theme of the Kingdom of God starts, in fact, not in Matthew 5, not even in Matthew 1, but in Genesis 1.

And then the prophets, as Brian has, uh, has, has hinted at already, are loom huge in what Jesus meant when he came and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. So what we're going to do is I want to walk us through not everything. This is a this is going to be an abbreviated version of, uh, something that usually takes two and a half hours. Um, so, um, we're just going to touch on a few highlights, um, in the Bible's theme of the theme of the Kingdom of God, how it develops across the story of the Bible, and, and therefore, uh, I want I want at the end of this, I want us to be kind of hit with, "Oh, wow, a much deeper, richer, and bigger, um, understanding of what, what it means that Jesus both proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God and then launched the, uh, the fulfillment of the, the promised kingdom."

So the Kingdom of God starts on in Genesis 1 with, um, sorry, uh, in Genesis 1 with God creating a world and then setting his image bearers, humans, male and female, created in the image of God in order to what? To rule.

Um, the Kingdom of God in creation is supposed to be God's kingdom being the whole, the whole earth. Um, and humans, yes, God rules over the earth, yes, but his design and creation is that humans rule it under him, for him, that we are his vice regent. That's, that's what it means to be made in his image and likeness. It means to represent him as a king and a queen over creation, to mediate his presence to the rest of the world, to rule the world well on his behalf, to make the whole earth like the Garden of Eden, to spread God's kingdom, God's, God's, uh, joy and presence across the whole, the whole earth. So there's one scholar, um, Jeremy Treat, who wrote a fantastic book called Crucified King that traces the, the, uh, the intersection of the theme of kingdom and the theme of atonement in the Bible storyline.

Uh, he writes this, that the that God's kingdom in creation, the design for the kingdom in creation, is God's reign through his servant kings over creation. So the Kingdom of God, to understand everything else in the Bible about what God's kingdom is and is supposed to be and will be, we have to first, first understand that all of the rest of that is mere, is really getting back, bringing back what God's original intent was.

Um, when Jesus, when, when the prophets, when Jesus, when we still, still, you know, um, look forward to the kingdom that is here now and is coming, uh, we're what we're saying is God, when we well, I'll put it this way. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven," we're asking for God to continue to finish the process of restoring this, his kingdom design in creation. It goes all the way back to Genesis 1. And the, the coming of the kingdom in redemption is a restoration of, of that, of that kingdom.

So, um, part of that process, part of that process of restoring the kingdom, so obviously Adam and Eve decided, "Well, yeah, being God's vice regents is cool, but you know what would be even cooler? Being the high kings ourselves, not having to rule under God, but just like, wouldn't it be awesome if we could just run the world?" And as we, uh, keep seeing, when we try to run the world as our own top kings, we don't do so well. Um, and that is what, uh, Adam and Eve and every generation keeps finding out the hard way. Um, so this leads Adam and Eve's rebellion, their, their act of treason. They're saying, "No, no, we want this not to be God's kingdom, but to be our kingdom, not God's kingdom that we rule on his behalf, but our kingdom that we rule on our behalf."

This starts the process of redemption. This starts the process of God do, you know, embarking on this long journey to bring his kingdom back in redemptive history on earth as in heaven. So this takes us to, um, I'm going to jump forward to Israel because part of how God is, is intends to, intended in the Old Testament to bring back his kingdom, to re, to reestablish his kingdom on earth, this place where he could live among his people with them as his vice regents over a blessed land, right? So the same elements, God ruling in blessing over a land that hopefully eventually will span the whole earth again, uh, with humans as his vice regents.

Um, this is what he's, this is what he's doing with Israel. And this is why Israel is called a kingdom of priests. Um, so Israel, uh, God, you know, we're skipping Abraham, but God chooses this people. He redeems them from slavery in Egypt, and he, and he, and he calls them a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. What does that mean?

Uh, well, to be a, to be a kingdom of priests, what does it mean to be a priest in the ancient world? There's kind of two main elements, there's two main parts of what it means to be a priest. Firstly, priests have special access to God's, to the presence of a God, right? A priest is somebody who gets to get to go into a temple and, and, uh, get closer to the presence of a God than anybody else does.

So if Israel is a kingdom of priests, kind of fundamentally, maybe most of, you know, significantly what that means is that they will have God's presence walking in their midst. And, uh, the Old Test, the Torah uses this phrase, um, that that God's presence will walk among them through the tabernacle, which is the same language that's used in Genesis 2 when God walked among Adam and Eve in the garden, right? So Israel will get to experience something closer to Garden of Eden again, God's presence in their midst.

They, unlike all the rest of the nations, will have God in the middle of them, um, blessing them, being there for them. So being a kingdom of priests means special access to God's presence. But then secondarily, it also, if you're a priest, you yes, you have special access to the God's presence, but then you also get to mediate, uh, that you live a life that's devoted to the service of the God. Uh, and it means that you get to then mediate God's presence to others, right? If you're a priest, I have kind of a dual responsibility. I get to go close to the God, uh, but then I also get to mediate and represent the God to the people that I'm a priest to, for, right?

So we see this, obviously, in in Israel's priesthood. You know, you have Aaron and the other priests. They get to go into the tabernacle, uh, and approach God. But then they go out and they, they mediate God's presence to the people. They represent God to the rest of the people. And this is what Israel is supposed to do. This is what it means for them to be a kingdom of priests. At this stage in redemptive history, this is part of how God is pointing forward to and starting the process of bringing back his kingdom, uh, on earth as in heaven, uh, is for Israel to be this people that have God's presence among them in a unique way.

None of the rest of the nations have this. But then in, in return, they are called to represent Yahweh to the nations around them. And while this isn't missions per se, uh, they're not called to go out and, and, and, uh, you know, go out as missionaries to Babylon or whatever.

The, the, the way, the, the very placement of them in the land that they're given points us to this. So this map comes out of a, a book by a scholar named Cindy Parker called, uh, called, um, uh, I'm blanking on the name of the, of the book. But if you note here, my red, if you can see this, this red circle, um, highlights the land of Canaan, the promised land. And the question is like, why did God put Israel in that space, that spot? There were other lands that were, in some ways, you could argue better, depending on what you're trying to do. So Egypt has the Nile River. That's nice because it gives you food security.

You don't have to worry about droughts and famines and stuff. Uh, you've got other lands that also have rivers or other natural resources. But the land of Canaan is like a weird, it's a weird place. Um, yeah, it's nice, but it, it doesn't have all the same resources and geography that you would need if you're going to be this big conquering nation. And Dr. Parker points out that, um, and other scholars point out that, that the reason why God puts, uh, Israel here is, is because, uh, not because of its natural resources, but because it is smack in the center of the ancient trade routes. That, as you see from these gray arrows on the, on the, uh, the picture here, um, all the, the one thing it has going for it, if you, I mean, if you like this kind of thing, is all the nations have to travel through Israel to the land of Canaan to get to do trade, to kind of, you know, the ancient truckers from Egypt have to like, uh, you know, drive through, drive through the land of Canaan on their way to bringing, to bring goods to Assyria.

And when Babylon wants to go and fight, you know, Egypt, they have to go through the land of Canaan. And so the idea is that if, if Israel is, is devoted to God as they should be, if they're functioning as a kingdom of priests, then, then when the nations keep coming through their lands to do their trade and to make their, to make war with each other, they're supposed to, when they, when they, when the trucker from Egypt stops at a Bucky's in the land of Canaan, he's supposed to be like, "Man, there's something different about these people. There's something, um, something, something's up here." And why?

And start realizing it's something about their God. And they're, they're the presence of the God with them is making these people different, making these people, um, serve each other in better ways, making these people treat me as a stranger better, making people, I don't know. And through that, the knowledge of God is supposed to spread. This is what it means for Israel to be a kingdom of priests, um, in this, in this, uh, in this time period. Uh, Cindy Parker writes that the, the through giving them this land means that Israel was never, never supposed to be a world-dominating empire, but a world-influencing people.

Uh, this is what it means for the kingdom of God to, uh, to keep coming. And notice, I think, um, um, that throughout this whole story, right, this is not an abstraction. This is not what is a kingdom. Well, it's something with laws and God as a king. It's the story of a very particular people that God is, um, um, that God is, is making his kingdom in a very particular place, uh, at a particular time. And that's the way God's kingdom, you know, keeps going. It's not an abstraction. It's something that comes in a very particular story.

So the most important figure, one of the most important figures in this theme of the kingdom of God is David. So once we get to the figure of David, um, from this point on, actually, uh, so God chooses David to be king over his kingdom.

And in 2 Samuel 7, God makes with David a covenant, a promise that your line will always be on the, well, will be an everlasting line. There might be sometimes where a Davidic king is not on the throne, but that dynasty will go, will be everlasting.

And from this point on, uh, we can no longer talk about the kingdom of God apart from David and the, and the promise, God's promise to David. Scott Hahn, a biblical scholar, writes that from this point on, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of David. And that seems maybe a little shocking at first, um, but it's true. It's true. The kingdom of God, again, is not an abstraction. Uh, it, from this point on, will be the kingdom that, that is reigned over by a son of David.

Uh, God's kingdom from here on out becomes inseparable from the hope of a future Davidic king. And we see, we can read passages from 1st and 2nd Chronicles that speak of how the, uh, David and his descendants, like Solomon, 1st Chronicles 28:5, God has chosen Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord.

David and the Davidic king sits on the throne of the kingdom of God, right? Which seems weird in a way until you remember that God's, that God's kingdom has always, the from, from creation, been about God reigning through humans as vice regents over his kingdom. And then it makes more sense.

Now, we get to another figure that we, uh, we know, we know pretty well, but I think that we often think of him as, we just, we know his story so well that we just think of how bad he turned out. And this is Solomon. And I want us to back up and pretend that we don't know the ending to Solomon, to the Solomon story, um, because I think the text kind of wants to give us, there are hints throughout the whole, even in the early chapters of the Solomon story that this guy might not end well. But in other ways, there's these, there's this, uh, this deep, this deep feeling of the text taking us to this big high.

Um, it's like, wow, maybe, maybe, maybe Solomon is the Messiah. I think we should be kind of thinking that, wow, this is the zenith, the high point of God's kingdom coming back in the Old Testament. We have, um, the son of David. You know, God had promised David this unending throne and that his son would be, would rule over God's kingdom for him. We have, um, him, Solomon is this wise, this very wise king. And the, and 1st Kings goes out of its way to talk about how Solomon is wiser than, than, you know, all these other famous YouTubers of the day or whatever. He's, um, you know, he has God's wisdom. Uh, he rules the people well.

The people have peace. They prosper. Wealth, the wealth of the nations pours into God's capital city. Uh, God's temple is set up and his presence is there in this more permanent fashion in the, in the temple instead of the tabernacle.

Um, Israel's fame spreads to the rest of the world. The nations come in to hear the wisdom of the king that's ruling over God's kingdom. And the story, there's the, the capstone of this part of the story is, of course, the coming of the Queen of Sheba, who hears this Gentile ruler coming to see what has sort of the envy of the world. She's, she hears the, she's like, man, I hear about all the stuff that's going on in, in Jerusalem.

And she's stunned by the beauty, the wealth, the wisdom of Solomon, uh, and realizes that this is all, this is the doing of Israel's God. Here is God's kingdom in the Old Testament at its, at its zenith, right? A kingdom of priests, a witness to the nations, God's people in God's place under God's rule. That's Graham Goldsworthy's little summary of the kingdom of God coming in redemptive history. Um, this is a high point. This is what we're supposed to be looking for. The restoration of creation, kind of a blessed land with a human, uh, humans ruling as they're supposed to under God, the nations being blessed.

And it's that then that crashes and burns as, as Solomon does the same type of thing to what Adam and Eve did and decides, you know what, being a vice regent is great, but kind of making all my own decisions and figuring out what's right, what's good and bad is, is, is even better. Uh, and that, that decision and the, the decision of Israel, the, the future, uh, descendants of David, to end up taking Israel in kind of into the same place that, uh, Adam and Eve ended up in, right, for their treason, getting them booted out of the garden, getting them booted out of the land into exile.

And it's here that, in exile, that the theme, the hope of the kingdom of God and, uh, the specific language of the good news of the kingdom of God really takes shape. It's against all the backdrop of the story so far: creation, Israel, David, Solomon, the kings, leading God's people into exile.

But Israel holding on, the prophets holding on to this hope that, no, no, God's kingdom will come. God will restore creation. He will bring Eden back again. He will rule over his people again in blessing and restore his people through a future son of David. Uh, this explodes in Isaiah, in, uh, in the prophets. So in Isaiah, we read all about, uh, and we're going to look at a couple passages here in a minute, um, all about, uh, God, the, the, the, the hope, the promise of God returning to his people to redeem them, to restore them, to change their hearts, to make them not stubborn anymore, to forgive their sins, and to send a new David.

Ezekiel chapter 34, uh, is this, is this amazing passage where God, um, God announces judgment on the shepherd, the bad rulers of Israel. He calls them shepherds. And he, um, he says that, um, he says, "Look, you guys, you're supposed to be shepherding my people and, and caring for the flock, but you seem to get your job description messed up because you're, you're eating them. You're barbecuing them as lamb chops instead of shepherding them." And God says, "Um, so I'm going to, I'm going to depose you.

And I someday, I, the, my people, my sheep are scattered. They're, they're, they're sick and you haven't healed them. They're lost and you haven't searched them out." And so God says, "All right, I myself am going to come. And I will seek the lost sheep and I will bring them back and I will shepherd them." And it, and that passage ends by saying, "And I will send my servant David to shepherd them." And so this, this passage leaves you with this weird wondering, like, who's actually coming back? What does it mean that the kingdom of God's going to be restored? Is Yahweh himself coming to shepherd his people? Or is this new David figure coming?

Or is it some weird, in some weird sense, this coming of the new David is somehow closely tied to the coming of Yahweh? And this, of course, sets up for what will happen in the Gospel. Um, so the, the hope of the prophets, the expectation of the prophets is God will come back to reign over us in blessing again, to restore us, to change us, to forgive us, to bring in the nations, and to restore creation. That is the hope of the coming kingdom of God. The kingdom of God in the new, in the New Testament is another way of saying that the age of fulfillment, the age that the dawn of the vision of the prophets of God's restoration is coming true.

So there are two or three, I'm going to look at two of the most important, kind of the background text for the good news in Isaiah, because this gets, this gets us back to the New Testament. So when Jesus goes around proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, as I've hinted at, this is not Jesus making up something interesting new.

Jesus is drawing that language, the good news of the kingdom of God, straight out of Isaiah and straight out of three passages in Isaiah, uh, in particular. So the word Gospel is another one of these buzzwords that we use a lot, that we sometimes don't really know where it comes from, what it means, how it's kind of taken on a life of its own.

But all usage of the word Gospel in the New Testament, in Paul and in Jesus, in the Gospels, um, are come from Isaiah. It's all, the good news is the proclamation that what Isaiah saw as coming is happening. So let's just look, let's just slow down for a minute and not look at all three, but just two of these passages in Isaiah, because they are crucial for the, for, um, the rest of this story of the kingdom of God. So Isaiah chapter 40, um, oh, I'm in Jeremiah. That's not going to help.

So this is, these are the passages Jesus has in mind and the Gospel authors have in mind when they tell us that Jesus came proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, the Gospel of the kingdom, if you will. Isaiah 40, "Comfort my people," says your God. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, her iniquity is pardoned. She's received from Yahweh's hand double for all her sins." And then a voice is crying out, "In the wilderness, prepare the way of Yahweh. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every mountain, valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low. The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

Okay, wow. Look, guys, get ready because God's coming back. God's, God's left us. He's abandoned us because we've rebelled against him and we're facing the curses of the covenant. But if we look forward, Isaiah is saying, we're, we're, we can, we're, we're going to, we're foreseeing this day when God's going to come back to us and restore us and live with us again, dwell in our midst, and fix us.

A voice, verse 6 says, "Cry out. I got some news for you to, to, to go and proclaim." Uh, and what is that? Verse 9, "Go up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news." Here's the language. Here's, this is the, this is Gospel. Okay? This is where the word Gospel comes from. "Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Uh, lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, what? Behold, look, look, your God." What does that mean? "Behold, Yahweh comes with might. His arm rules for him. His reward is with him. His recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young." What is the good news that this, uh, herald is supposed to proclaim? God is coming back. Look, God's coming back to, to, to restore his people, to shepherd us again, to, to restore our hearts. And if you, if we read the rest of Isaiah, this includes, um, forgiveness, of ultimate forgiveness of sins through the atonement of the suffering servant.

It includes making us, giving us, replacing those hard hearts with soft hearts. It includes bringing the Gentiles in to the, to the people of God. It includes the new heavens and the new earth. It includes judgment on God's enemies. All of that is, is, that's the good news. Yahweh's coming back. The good news that God reigns is not a good, it's not an abstract, "Hey, good news for you. God is in control of the world." No.

It is good news that after exile, God's coming back to his people Israel to restore them and to do all the things he's promised, he's been promising to do from the moments of the fall, uh, till now, that he's going to finally do it in fullness.

Isaiah 52 is the other passage that is really crucial for, um, for looking, thinking about what Jesus means by the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom of God and what the Gospels mean. How beautiful, Isaiah 52, verse 7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news." Here it is again, Gospel.

Um, who, good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, what is, what is this good news? Your God reigns, the kingdom of God, right? This is where we get the phrase, the good news, the Gospel of the kingdom. The good news that the kingdom of God is here. Again, not meaning, hey, God is a king. He has laws. You're, he has a people. No. The good news is that God has come back to restore his wayward people and to live among them, to bless them forever.

Your God reigns. What does this mean? The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice. Together they sing for joy. So it's kind of envisioning like, you know, these watchmen on the, the, the, the gates, the walls of Jerusalem looking out to see if there's any threats and armies coming as they're due every night. And they're, they're watching, they're looking out, and one day they see, they see like this big, you know, somebody coming, and they're like, uh-oh, this could be bad news. And then they realize, wait, this is what we've been waiting for. God's coming back. He's, he, the, the era of judgment is over, and he's coming back not just to get set us back into the kind of the best days under Solomon even, but to finally bring full forgiveness of sins, to finally fully change our, you know, change our hearts, to restore all things, and to, to bring his ultimate era of blessing, salvation, um, uh, and, and be with us forever.

And so break forth into, uh, yeah, together they sing for joy. For eye to eye, they see the return of Yahweh to Zion. The good news of the kingdom of God is the good news that Yahweh has returned to his people to bring about the ultimate age of fulfillment, to bring about this age. And then what is, what is at the very heart of that? Well, the next line in this, in Isaiah, is the suffering servant. At the very heart of the coming of the kingdom of God is, um, the, the atoning death of the servant to save God's people from their sins, to bring about full forgiveness of sins, and to bring about, um, yeah, cleansing of their hearts, um, the renewal, the change, the transformation of them from being hard-hearted people to soft-hearted people, um, the bringing in of the nations, the Gentiles, um, and even the restoration of creation itself.

So, uh, the kingdom of God is that. That is Isaiah's good news. That's what the, the Gospel is, is that God has come back to restore his people from the inside out, starting with forgiveness of sins, including transformation and a whole cosmic renewal. It's not an abstraction.

It's the, it's that the end, this story is coming to its, coming to its long-awaited end. So now we go back to the Gospels. And I think maybe with some of this background, we can, we see that, um, the kingdom, the theme of the kingdom of God doesn't start in Matthew 5. It includes that, but it doesn't start in Matthew 5. It starts in Matthew 1. The, the, the Gospel of Matthew opens with this line that says, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of Abraham, the son of David." Boom. Which means the new David is here, the long-awaited new David from, uh, from Ezekiel and Isaiah's visions is here.

Um, which means that Yahweh is coming back, which means that in Matthew's Gospel, this son of David will first and foremost save his people from their sins. Matthew's Gospel is book-ended. So if we want to know, what does it mean that the kingdom of God is here? The Gospel of Matthew is book-ended by this idea of the son of David, who is also the embodiment of Yahweh. He's the Immanuel, God with us and the son of David in one, uh, saving his people from their sins. That's what Matthew 1:21 says. And the end of Matthew's Gospel, the other part of the book-end, how does he do that? By, as Jesus says, shedding his blood for the forgiveness of sins.

That's like this foundational bit of what it means that the kingdom of God has come. And I think this brings an entirely new and rich and deeper meaning to Jesus' word, "The kingdom of God was at is at hand." When Jesus goes around and says, "The kingdom of God is at hand," he's not saying, "Hi, I'm the king. I have new laws to teach you." He's saying, "God in my, in me, God has come back to save you. God has come back to finally and fully forgive your sins through my sacrificial atoning death. The people of God will be reconstituted through their, um, around their king, not around ethnic boundaries. God's people will finally be given new hearts with which want to obey from the, from the heart.

And, uh, through these Jesus' healings, uh, and miracles, I'm going to show you what the whole creation will look like when the rest of this vision happens. The kingdom of God is at hand is good news because it is the, it is the incredible news that God is coming back to fulfill all his promises, to restore his people, and ultimately to, uh, to restore the world.

Um, like, it's kind of like what Jesus says in Luke 4 when he stands up in the tabernacle, in the synagogue, and reads this passage from Isaiah, and then he's like, "Yeah, actually, um, you know, here's my point of application today. This passage is coming true." And everyone's like, "What?" Um, that's, that's going on here. When he says, "The kingdom of God is at hand," he's saying that vision of Isaiah is starting to come true because I'm here now and it's time. The embodiment of Yahweh and David, the David's descendant, are here in one person.

And so if that's what the kingdom is, and there's so much, so much of the New Testament, the Gospels, in fact, the whole New Testament, the whole New Testament is simply unpacking what it means that Isaiah's vision is coming true. That's the entire New Testament, is simply that.

Um, but it's so multifaceted. So when I teach on the kingdom of God in my classes, um, we spend some time looking at Jesus' ministry of healing as part of the, the kingdom, the kingdom material. And I think this is something, when I talk about the kingdom being, our understanding of the kingdom being truncated, this is, this is part of what I mean, right? We think of, oh, certain teachings or certain parables of the kingdom or something like that. But if the kingdom is, uh, the announcement of the kingdom is the age of fulfillment has arrived, Isaiah's vision is coming true, God is finally bringing Eden back, then, uh, we see, oh my word, so much more is about the kingdom of God.