THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Many people have heard the term “kingdom of heaven,” but few really understand what it is. While some believe that the “kingdom of God” and the “kingdom of heaven” are referring to different things, it is clear that both phrases are referring to the same thing. Jesus when teaching about the kingdom made no distinction between the two terms but seemed to consider them synonymous. Throughout the entire Bible, the kingdom of God was the central message! John the Baptist preached it, Jesus preached it, and the apostles preached it. The coming kingdom of heaven is the message that God wants to make known to every person on earth. The crucial question is: Will you be a part of it?

A lot of people think of the “kingdom of heaven” as heaven. And in a sense it is, but in reality it is much, much more than that. The “kingdom of heaven” begins here on earth. It began the day the “King of kings” was born, Jesus Christ. We will not reach that kingdom in heaven until we “see” the kingdom of God here on earth. Jesus stated, “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Jesus came preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus taught while he was here about the kingdom of God – and He spoke about it a lot. He talked about the way His followers could bring heaven to earth. He even taught the disciples to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Heaven is not spatially determined, it is not “up there” while we are “down here,” nor is it to be thought of in terms of time. We think of earth as now, that is, this life. Heaven then, is later – heaven is what comes after death. The more we study Jesus’ ministry the more we realize that he proclaimed the reign of God as something that was “already and not yet” present. Throughout the gospels Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God, sometimes as coming in the future, and sometimes as a present reality. So which is it? How can we understand the apparently divergent themes in Jesus’ preaching of the reign of God? Could it be that Jesus simply contradicted Himself? Did he speak of the kingdom as present and future without realizing it? I doubt it. It’s likely that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as somehow both future and present, and that He knew what He was doing.

Jesus taught while he was physically here that the kingdom of heaven is a silent, invisible, spiritual kingdom which lies all about us, encompassing us, enclosing us, embracing us, waiting for us to recognize it. When we enter the kingdom of heaven we recognize that kingdom, we believe it, we act upon its reality. Jesus, in the Beatitudes, gave us the clue to entering. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,“ (Matthew 5:3). Heaven is not merely future, heaven is also present. Heaven is equally real as earth.

Jesus told Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, “Except a man be born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). When we repent of our sins, are baptized in Jesus Name, and experience new birth through the Holy Ghost, we enter into the kingdom of heaven. We voluntarily place ourselves under the laws and authority of the coming kingdom of God. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). So there is this sense of us being “translated” into the kingdom when we commit our lives to God and begin living as He instructs. Our primary allegiance is transferred from the kingdoms of this world to God’s Kingdom. We are then subject to different laws (God’s laws) and belong to a different community (the Church of God). 

“But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…” Hebrews 12:22-24

Jesus taught many parables that he likened to the kingdom of heaven. We need to make sure that our description of the kingdom is compatible with the description Jesus gave. Jesus often preached about the kingdom of God—but what did He say? 

Through the parables He taught about the grace of God, and also namely the severity of God. This then led us on to see the importance of obedience to God. Some people do not understand the importance of obedience, because they do not understand the severity of God. There is something else many fail to appreciate, and that’s the enormous value of the kingdom of God. People in every nation may possess these true riches if they enter into God’s kingdom. The parables that Jesus told reflect the great value of belonging to the world-wide kingdom of God. NOTHING is worth having, that would rob us of that place.

Jesus told two short parables about the value of the kingdom, one about hidden treasure (Mat. 13:44), and the pearl of great price (Mat. 13:45-46). The similarities of these parables make it clear they teach the same lesson—the kingdom of heaven is of inestimable value. Both parables involve a man who sold all he had to possess the kingdom. The treasure and the pearl represent Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers. And while we cannot pay for salvation by selling all our worldly goods, once we have found that prize, we are willing to give up everything to possess it. 

The most important thing we need to know about the kingdom of heaven is how we get there in the first place—and when Jesus described the kingdom, that is what he talked about. (Consider the parables in Matthew 25) Through the teachings of Jesus we can know how to enter this kingdom, how to live in this kingdom, and how to work in this kingdom, here now on earth! When we die and enter into heaven eternally it will not be unfamiliar. We will already be familiar with the kingdom of God because we entered it here on earth. You won’t be afraid of God because you came to know him, here on earth.

The “kingdom of heaven” is not just the kingdom that exists in heaven, but also the reign of God over both heaven and earth.