[8] And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. [9] But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. [10] And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.1
[Paul] went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.
Men [and] brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus;
The place in the Scripture which he read was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer [is] silent, So He opened not His mouth. . . . Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, . . . These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily [to find out] whether these things were so.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man [and] mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. . . . he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
Perhaps one of the most striking features of Jesus’ kingdom is that it appears not to be the kind of kingdom prophesied in the OT and expected by Judaism2
Mark 10:45 depicts Jesus as beginning to fulfill the Daniel prophecy [7:13] in an apparently different way than prophesied . . . in a hitherto unexpected manner3
The word [mystery] . . . when so linked with OT allusions, is used to indicate that prophecy is beginning fulfillment but in an unexpected manner in comparison to the way Old Testament readers might have expected4
The design of John [the Baptist]’s preaching was to turn the people from their sins and to prepare the for the coming of] Messiah (not only their changed lives, but by getting them to change their minds about the type of coming kingdom it was to be5
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (2 Pet. 3:16).6
I am a Christian because of the Old Testament. Without the Old Testament, I don’t know if I could believe the New Testament. . . . How do I know that Jesus is the Messiah if I don’t have all the predictions of the Old Testament defining Him when He shows up? . . . You can’t possibly tell me that God didn’t mean what He said. That is one of the reasons why I’m an originalist. It’s very popular in Christianity today to say, the Old Testament is interpreted by the New Testament. That’s not true. Because if that’s the case, then nobody in the Old Testament had any idea what was going on! . . . That’s not revelation, that’s obfuscation, that’s just a pile of riddles.7
The primary difference between the post- and amillennial view on the one hand and the premillennial view on the other as regards the Kingdom has to do with whether or not the Kingdom is spiritual in nature, now present in the hearts of men, the outward manifestation of which is the Church, or whether it is political and economic, absent from the earth at the present time but to be established in outward form when Christ returns.8
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed [it was] very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
We can have no quarrel with the dictum of writers who insist that the Kingdom is a ‘spiritual’ matter, unless they insist upon a definition which is exclusively Platonic, or if they are so foolish as to deny that a spiritual kingdom can function tangibly in a world of sense experience. As a matter of fact, it would be wrong to say that the Kingdom of Old Testament prophecy is basically ‘spiritual,’ yet a Kingdom producing tangible effects in every area of human life.9
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
Lord, will You [ever] restore the kingdom to Israel?
Many passages in the OT reveal aspects of the kingdom of God. We only have time to touch on a few.
Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”
And the LORD shall be King over all the earth.
Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Are you the coming One, or do we look for another?
Endnotes:
1. | NKJV, Acts 19:8-10 |
2. | BEALE, 431 (emphasis mine) |
3. | BEALE, 195 (emphasis mine) |
4. | BEALE, 202 (emphasis mine) |
5. | Ref-1350, 670 (emphasis mine) |
6. | Ref-0902, 3:604 |
7. | MACARTHUR, December 2, 2018 |
8. | Ref-0864, 284 (emphasis mine) |
9. | Ref-0183, 221 |
10. | Ref-0038, 1:791 (Ps. 2:3, emphasis mine) |
Sources:
BEALE | [G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology. |
MACARTHUR | John MacArthur on the Ben Shapiro Show, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak-Rv08N_1Q] |
NKJV | Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. |
Ref-0038 | John Walvoord and Roy. B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Wheaton, IL: SP Publications, 1983). |
Ref-0183 | Alva J. McClain, The Greatness Of The Kingdom (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1974, c1959). |
Ref-0864 | Loraine Boettner, The Millennium, ID=2008092001. |
Ref-0902 | Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom (n.p.: 1819-1893). |
Ref-1350 | Gareth L. Reese, New Testament History: Acts (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1976). ISBN:0-89900-055-Xd. |