All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95) published by The Lockman Foundation

In my last article, I gave an overview of the apostles’ teaching on the conflict between the Lord’s kingdom, and Satan’s kingdom. We examined three main aspects of it. First, we noted the fact that Satan’s kingdom over unbelievers is still in force throughout the world, although it’s becoming increasingly weaker. Second, we saw that the Lord Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension brought the preliminary defeat of Satan and his reign, so that he’s now fighting a losing battle that will inevitably result in his total destruction. Finally, we studied the primary spheres of our battle with Satan’s kingdom as soldiers of Christ, pointing out that we possess all we need to make great strides against the control that our foes have over the world.

One thing that I failed to give great attention to is the nature of the Lord’s kingdom. How exactly did it begin? What did it look like when Jesus began to establish His kingdom on earth? Who were the first subjects of His kingdom? And what did He promise about His kingdom? All these questions can be answered by studying the four Gospels in the New Testament. However, the Gospel of Luke in particular, as well as its sequel, Acts, have arguably the strongest emphasis on God’s kingdom. Therefore, by confining ourselves to Luke’s records, we will gain tremendous insights into the nature of God’s kingdom, its establishment, and its advancement. Two passages suffice to show that Luke has an intense interest in God’s kingdom in his writings. These verses serve as parts of the two bookends of his Acts of the Apostles. First, in his introduction to Acts, Luke explains the subject matter of Jesus’s final teaching to His apostles:

“To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over . . . forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)

While Luke begins Acts with the Lord speaking about God’s kingdom, he ends the book by describing Paul as living like this in Rome:

“And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God . . .” (Acts 28:30-31a)

When we read through Luke’s Gospel, it’s no surprise that we find God’s kingdom either described or specifically mentioned dozens of times. Although not explicitly mentioned in the beginning, God’s kingdom is clearly being foreshadowed and described in the narratives of Zacharias, Mary, the early life of Jesus, and the preaching of John the Baptist. Once we reach chapter 4, the invasion of God’s kingdom begins with Jesus’s conflict with Satan, His teaching, and His performance of miracles. From the end of this chapter and onward, God’s kingdom is a repeating and developing theme.

In this article, we’ll engage in a survey of the Gospel of Luke’s descriptions of God’s kingdom. We’ll focus on five aspects of the kingdom in Luke:

  1. It’s the grand subject of the Lord’s and apostles’ preaching.
  2. It’s seen through the Lord’s works of power.
  3. It’s shown as the sphere of the Lord’s people and redemption.
  4. It satisfies all of people’s eternal longings, but at the cost of temporal comforts.
  5. It will be fully established at the end of this age.

God’s Kingdom is the Grand Subject of the Lord’s and Apostles’ Preaching

Shortly after Jesus begins His public teaching and miracle service in Galilee, He comes to Capernaum, Peter’s hometown. After a long night of performing miracles, the town asks Him to stay there. His reply contains in His own words the subject of His preaching:

“But He said to them, ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.’” (4:43)

The Greek word that’s translated “preach” here is euangelizo, which literally means “announce good news,” so what Jesus said was that He had to share the good news of the kingdom of God. Why was it good news? Because God’s heavenly, redemptive, and righteousness-promoting reign had now begun to manifest itself through Jesus’s teaching and works. In addition, we must pay attention to the fact that God sent Jesus for the very purpose of announcing the arrival of His kingdom.

After Jesus has made great progress in His public teaching and miracle service, and has gained a close band of followers, including the apostles, Luke begins a new phase of the Lord’s work. The introduction to this phase is described in more intense language than Jesus used to describe the beginning of His preaching in the towns of Galilee. To begin chapter 8 of his Gospel, Luke describes Jesus’s entry into a new phase by writing,

“Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.” (8:1a)

In this short description, Luke heightens the intensity of the Lord’s preaching service by starting with the term, “proclaiming.” The Greek word translated, “proclaiming,” means “crying out as a king’s herald.” Hence, not only is Jesus announcing the good news of God’s kingdom, but He’s also now publicly and openly preaching the arrival of the kingdom. This probably indicates that, whereas before this point Jesus had mainly confined Himself to explaining God’s kingdom in synagogues, now He was teaching and preaching wherever He had a crowd to speak to.

The last component of the preaching of the kingdom is that, in imitation of Jesus, the apostles also preached on God’s kingdom. This is shown when Luke describes Jesus’s commissioning of His apostles to engage in short-term mission work. Luke says,

“And He called the twelve together . . . And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.” (9:1-2)

Here again, Luke is saying that Jesus sent the apostles to herald God’s kingdom, like a king’s messengers would announce the soon-arrival of a king. In this case, the King was Jesus, and He had already begun to exercise His reign, as we’ll see.

God’s Kingdom is Seen through the Lord’s Works of Power

Our next concern is to demonstrate how God’s kingdom is manifested in Luke. Although denied by some Christians, Jesus Himself said multiple times that His righteous works were proofs that He was in the process of establishing His kingdom. One clear statement to this effect is His promise to His disciples that some of them would see the kingdom itself before dying:

“’But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.’” (9:27)

The meaning of this assertion is partly understood by the event that follows it. Luke records that, a week after Jesus said this, He took three of His disciples to the top of a mountain, and appeared to them in a heavenly, glorious, form. This was merely a taste of what God’s kingdom would eventually be like, but the less spectacular works of Jesus were also manifestations of the kingdom.

When the Lord sends out seventy of His disciples to do the things that He was doing, He instructs them to “heal those in [the city you enter (v. 8)] who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (10:9). Here, we clearly see that the nearness of God’s kingdom is revealed through the miraculous healing of people by Jesus’s representatives.

Similarly, Jesus Himself explains the significance of His exorcisms of demons in terms of its exercise of God’s kingdom in the next chapter, after being accused of doing exorcisms through Satan’s power:

“’But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (11:20)

Clearly, Jesus was casting out demons “by the finger of God,” or by His power. Therefore, God’s kingdom had come upon the Jews. Jesus makes this point again in His explanation to the Pharisees of the imminency of God’s kingdom in 17:20-21:

“Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.’”

The Lord’s point in saying that the coming of God’s kingdom wouldn’t be accompanied by “signs” wasn’t that it had no signs at all. Rather, He was clarifying that God’s kingdom had already begun to come, since it was “in [their] midst,” through Jesus and His disciples.

Besides being manifested by miracles and the work of Jesus, it remains to analyze the Gospel’s description of the kingdom’s subjects, and its nature.

God’s Kingdom is the Sphere of the Lord’s People and Redemption

The question of who is a part of God’s kingdom is clearly answered by Luke’s Gospel. The first promise of God’s kingdom for a specific kind of people is found in Jesus’s first long discourse in the Gospel, which has historically been called “The Sermon on the Plain.” In this sermon, Jesus begins His description of His true followers by telling them,

“’Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’” (6:20b)

Although Matthew’s parallel record of this blessing in the Sermon on the Mount clarifies that the “poverty” of Jesus’s disciples is ultimately “poverty of spirit,” Luke’s straightforward account of this blessing shouldn’t be ignored. Since Jesus goes on to pronounce a woe to those who are “rich” in verse 24, Jesus clearly means what He says when He blesses His disciples because they are “poor.” The reason for this distinction made based on wealth is that it’s simply a fact that Jesus’s disciples were “poor,” and most of His enemies were “rich.” Yet, the poverty of Jesus’s disciples was an outward symbol of their inner recognition of their spiritual poverty in themselves. Thus, Jesus calls His disciples “blessed” because, though they possess little earthly wealth, they do have a place in God’s kingdom, which will provide them with spiritual and eternal wealth.

Next, Jesus describes the blessedness of the subjects of God’s kingdom in comparison to John the baptizer in His explanation of John’s role, and his relationship to God’s kingdom. He sums it up like this:

“’I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’” (7:28)

What Jesus says here is quite astonishing, and enlightening. First, He implicitly describes John the baptizer, His main announcer, as being “born of women.” And among everyone who falls into that category, He says that no one is greater than John, or more important. However, he contrasts those “born of women” with those who are “in the kingdom of God” when He emphasizes the greatness of the kingdom’s subjects. Contrasting not only John and the “least” in God’s kingdom, but also everyone “among those born of women” with the subjects of the kingdom, He says that even the least important person in God’s kingdom is more important than John. Why? Clearly not because of anything inherent within them, since they too are born of women! And yet Jesus puts them in an entirely different category of living in God’s kingdom. This is the only reason why such people are more important than John – because John wasn’t in God’s kingdom, and they are.

From this verse, we can see that God’s kingdom is a work of God that is separate from John the baptizer, and after his service. We can also conclude that becoming a part of God’s kingdom removes a person from the category of being “born of women.” If they’re not born of women, then from whom are they born? The Gospel of John gives us the answer in chapter 3. Jesus tells Nicodemus that it’s only those who are “born from above” who can “enter the kingdom of God.” Therefore, from Jesus’s words here in Luke, we find the teaching that being a subject of God’s kingdom requires you to be born again, from the Father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, as a part of God’s kingdom, a man is in a special position of privilege and honor.

Although entering God’s kingdom requires a supernatural work of the Spirit, it also requires supreme resolve. Jesus makes this clear when He warns someone who promises to follow Him on the condition of seeing off his family that “’No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Obviously, what the Lord is teaching is that seeking to serve God’s kingdom must be wholehearted, and without regret. One must passionately forsake his current, earthly, life, to become a subject of the kingdom.

Although the kingdom began with very few true subjects, since its demands are nothing short of impossible apart from God’s grace, Jesus promises in Luke that it is by nature a growing, and conquering, force. He does this in the only two parables in Luke specifically picturing God’s kingdom. Luke writes,

“So He was saying, ‘What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and THE BIRDS OF THE AIR NESTED IN ITS BRANCHES.’ And again He said, ‘To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.’” (13:18-21)

The clear theme between these two parables is that, although God’s kingdom started small, it will eventually be a dominating, and pervasive, power. The first parable emphasizes, based on the Old Testament in verse 19, that many people will eventually inhabit the kingdom. This is communicated by the picture of “the birds of the air” nesting in the “branches” of the kingdom. On the other hand, the second parable emphasizes that God’s kingdom will eventually be all-encompassing. In other words, just like a little leaven spreading to every part of a lump of dough, so also God’s kingdom will eventually spread in its effect on every aspect of the world. Thus, it will be fulfilled what is foretold in Revelation 11:15b:

“’The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’”

But how does God’s kingdom benefit its subjects, and what must they do to be blessed by it? We’ll consider this next.

God’s Kingdom Satisfies All of People’s Eternal Longings at an Earthly Cost

It’s evident that, since God’s kingdom is manifested by “good news,” by miracles of healing, by the exorcise of demons, and by the good teaching and deeds of Jesus and His apostles, that it’s the invasion of God’s gracious redemption into this evil and corrupted world. But how is it to be received, and why do people need its power to control them?

One of the greatest depictions of the kingdom’s importance and availability is given in the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples in Luke 11. The first line in verse 2 reads,

“’Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.’”

The second sentence is evidently a request, despite its archaic grammar. Therefore, the Lord was teaching His disciples to ask the Father to send His kingdom to earth. And notice that it’s the first main request of the prayer. Thus, we see that the coming of God’s kingdom is one of His most important concerns, after the “hallowing” of His name. This is because the goal of all history is to restore God’s kingdom to the earth.

Not only is God’s kingdom to be prayed for, but it’s also to be wholeheartedly sought after by any means possible. Jesus gives this comforting promise to His disciples in His teaching on being preoccupied with material goods:

“’And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.’” (12:29-31)

God’s kingdom here isn’t seen as simply a spiritual condition, but as a state in which even material things will be provided. And yet, material things can’t be the concern of those who would truly seek to be fully a part of God’s kingdom. Jesus emphatically forbids “seeking” the things of this world, including food and drink. This only leaves one thing to seek – God’s kingdom. And yet, since physical things are still needed in this life, Jesus promises that seeking God’s kingdom as someone’s primary occupation will result in him receiving all his physical necessities. Such is the preeminence of God’s kingdom in the believer’s life.

Another way in which Jesus describes the right attitude toward God’s kingdom is found in His description of many of the Jews’ reaction to its presentation in 16:16:

“’The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.’”

Here, there’s an additional contrast made between the old age and this new kingdom age. The contrast is made in response to the Pharisees’ hostility toward Jesus’s teaching. Therefore, Jesus’s point in emphasizing that “everyone,” or most of the common Jews, were “forcing his way into” God’s kingdom was to chastise the Pharisees for being obsessed with “the Law and the Prophets,” and rejecting the kingdom. This being the case, Jesus was at least partly praising the zeal and diligence of those who were seeking God’s kingdom by “forcing” themselves into it. If anyone would be a part of God’s kingdom, he must seek it in such a way that he can described as forcing himself into it.

A far different attitude is also necessary to have a part in God’s kingdom, according to Jesus. After having people bring their children to Him so He can bless them, and seeing the disciples trying to prevent them, the Lord states,

“’Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’” (18:17)

So, what is He saying about people’s reception of God’s kingdom? That we must empty our minds of all our previous knowledge and experience, and blindly accept the teaching of God’s kingdom? Of course not, since it requires thinking to understand its message in the gospel. Rather, what Jesus is enjoining is childlike humility and trust. In order to enter God’s kingdom, and become a subject of Jesus, you need to see yourself as needy, ignorant, and helpless apart from Jesus. Thus, you will be in a position to trust Him to provide you with salvation, leadership, and blessing through His kingdom.

A little farther in the same chapter, Jesus contrasts this childlike humility with the grown-up pride of the rich, which bars them from being a part of the kingdom. Although quite astonishing to our modern minds, Jesus’s point is crystal clear:

“And Jesus looked at him [the rich, young, ruler] and said, ‘How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’” (18:24-25)

The Lord’s words are not hyperbole, nor exaggeration. He’s saying that, just as it’s impossible for a camel to enter the eye of a needle, it’s even more impossible for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom. Why? Because their trust, hope, and security is placed in the possessions and wealth of this world, so there’s no room in their hearts for those things to be set on heavenly and eternal things. Only once a person’s trust, hope, security, and satisfaction is removed from earthly possessions will they be able to put their trust and hope in the God of Jesus’s kingdom.

Just a little further in the chapter, another contrast is made between trusting in earthly wealth to the neglect of eternal wealth, and forsaking earthly wealth to acquire eternal wealth. Just as we saw in the Lord’s injunction to seek God’s kingdom, here we see that leaving the earthly for the eternal will provide both the eternal and the earthly.

“And He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.’”

Jesus makes these claims in response to Peter’s complaint that he and the other disciples left their households to follow Him. Since they had forsaken all their earthly possessions, he was asking Jesus how they would benefit from God’s kingdom. The Lord’s reply is twofold. He first says that His followers’ loss of their earthly wealth will be more than made up for in earthly wealth. He declares that anyone who leaves their household and family to have a part in God’s kingdom will “receive many times as much at this time” (v. 30). That is, although the disciples had left their families to follow Jesus, they would receive more homes and family members during their earthly lives. How would this be? The reason is that, by joining God’s kingdom, they were also joining God’s family, and being made the brothers of all followers of Jesus. As such, they had now gained the homes and familial love of their fellow disciples in the kingdom. But, of course, Jesus’s promises get even better. Not only do disciples gain more family than they left behind in this life, but “in the age to come, eternal life.” Thus, the abandonment of one’s earthly ties in the pursuit of God’s kingdom bring both earthly life now, and eternal life in the next age.

It’s the manifestation of God’s kingdom in the next age that is the last main component of our subject described in Luke’s Gospel.

God’s Kingdom Will be Fully Established at the End of this Age

Although we’ve seen that Jesus’s public service was the beginning of God’s kingdom on earth, we also know that He taught that it is its nature to grow and expand. From this fact, and our knowledge that eventually the world will be made perfect, we know that there will eventually be a perfected manifestation of God’s kingdom on earth, which overtakes this age with the eternal age. The Gospel of Luke gives us a vivid glimpse of the consummation of the kingdom by describing two main characteristics of its final establishment – judgment and joy.

These two characteristics are set side by side in Jesus’s description of the condition of God’s kingdom at the end of time:

“’In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.’” (13:28-29)

In context, Jesus has just given a parable to show that the Jews’ opportunity to be reconciled to God was right then, while He was among them, and that they would be condemned if they refused to receive His offer of grace. Thus, He has just said they would be rejected if they refused salvation, and confined to a place outside of God’s kingdom. This is the place in which “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It’s the unbelieving Jews (with all unbelievers) who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth in agony and frustration. Part of what will torment them is their view of their faithful ancestors “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” living in God’s kingdom, while they are “being thrown out.” This will be the judgment that the completion of God’s kingdom on earth will bring to unbelievers.

In contrast to the judgment, the Lord adds that people will come from all the corners of the earth, and “will recline at the table in the kingdom of God” with Israel’s faithful ancestors and prophets. This is an ancient near Eastern way of saying that every people group will feast together in God’s kingdom.

The remainder of what the Gospel has to say explicitly about God’s kingdom focuses on this element of joyful feasting in the final state, since the rest of its descriptions are given in relation to the Lord’s last supper before His crucifixion. In His teaching during the meal, He speaks of the kingdom as bringing the fulfillment of His meal in the next age:

“And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.’” (22:15-18)

In these words, notice that He refers to the meal they were sharing as this Passover, not the Passover. Thus, He was not saying that the original Passover meal itself would be fulfilled in God’s kingdom, since He was transforming the Passover into His Supper, which Christians celebrate today. So, it’s the Lord’s Supper that will be “fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And how will it be fulfilled? By bringing to completion all the things for which Jesus suffered and died, including His fellowship with God’s chosen people. The direct way in which the Supper will be fulfilled is through “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9). This feasting is that which Jesus pictured in His description of the Jewish patriarchs and nations feasting together in the last passage. In addition, the Lord added that He would eventually drink wine when “the kingdom of God comes” (v. 18). Again, this coming of God’s kingdom is its arrival in fullness at the end of the age.

Lastly, the Lord begins to conclude His teachings to His apostles before His arrest by promising them that they will both feast and judge in the coming kingdom:

“’. . . and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’” (22:29-30)

Just as Jesus promised that all the nations would lay down at a table to eat in His kingdom, He also promises here that His apostles will share a meal with Him in His kingdom. More than this, He promises them that they will serve as judges of “the twelve tribes of Israel” (v. 30). At the very least, Jesus is looking forward to the final judgment, since it’s elsewhere said in the New Testament that “the saints will judge the world” (1 Cor. 6:2).

However, it’s likely that Jesus also has a symbolic meaning to His words that was fulfilled during the preparation for, and establishment of , the early assembly of Christ after Pentecost. The evidence for this consists in the fact that it’s said that the apostles “ate and drink” with Jesus after His resurrection (Acts 10:41), and that the apostles pronounced judgment on the Jews for their rejection of Messiah throughout the early days starting with Pentecost (Acts 2, etc.). Therefore, once again, we see that God’s kingdom isn’t relegated to the final state of world, but began with Jesus’s earthly service, and only came into fuller expression through the outpouring of the Spirit into the disciples. Therefore, we can rightly say that, whenever believers celebrate the Lord’s Supper today, they too are eating and drinking with the Lord in His kingdom. Nevertheless, we await the final fulfillment of this, when we will feast with Jesus in person on the new earth, where God’s kingdom will be perfect.

God’s Kingdom has Come, is Expanding, and will Dominate

From this survey of the nature and works of God’s kingdom in the Gospel of Luke, we’ve seen that it had a prominent place in the Lord’s earthly work, and in His plans for His people. The kingdom was the overarching theme of His and the apostles’ preaching. As we saw in Acts 28, it remained one of the main themes of even the apostle Paul’s preaching, well after Jesus ascended into heaven. Second, we gave much evidence that the kingdom was manifested most visibly through Jesus’s miracles, which He also enabled His apostles to perform. Third, Jesus defines the kingdom as God’s sphere of rulership through Him, which subjects the poor in spirit to His rule, resulting in the abandonment of their earth-bound lives, and the increase of their influence on the world around them through Jesus’s power and teaching. Fourth, Luke shows that the kingdom is the means by which God has brought salvation, redemption, blessing, and eternal life to the masses, but only when received with humility and dependent faith. Finally, Luke makes brief mentions of the fact that the kingdom will eventually take over the entire world in the age to come, where judgment will be executed on God’s enemies, and eternal pleasure and companionship with Jesus will be enjoyed by those who have submitted to the reign of Jesus in this life.

Brother or sister in Christ, do you acknowledge the power, presence, and prominence of God’s kingdom as much as the Gospel of Luke does?

Do you recognize that you are a subject of the Lord’s kingdom, and that you have the power to spread His reign through prayer and the use of God’s Word?

Do you see all unbelievers as slaves of Satan’s kingdom, and being in need of a change in thinking, trust, and allegiance?

Are you doing all you can to do the Lord’s kingdom will as if the full manifestation of His kingdom is on earth now?

Do you eagerly await the completion of God’s kingdom when Jesus returns, and creates the new earth?