Am I born again: The Kingdom of God - part 3:

Hello To All:

If Nicodemus was not converted to Messiah, then Jesus would have been in error for rebuking him.  If Nicodemus was not converted to Messiah; and if Nicodemus was not expecting the return of Messiah to establish His Kingdom: then, he would not have had any sense of the physical realities of the kingdom of God.  Since we know and believe that Jesus Christ is the Truth, we also must recognize that He is without sin and without error. Thus, we are compelled to believe that all of the responses of Jesus to Nicodemus, including His rebuke of Nicodemus, testify to the truth that Nicodemus was a believer in Messiah; and thus, ultimately, a believer in Jesus Christ.

With the above paragraph, the concluding paragraph from the previous essay, we begin this essay: as we continue our quest for the truth and our continued striving for victorious discipleship in Jesus Christ.

Please note the phrase - "the return of Messiah to establish His Kingdom" - and the context of the phrase, as it appears in the above paragraph.  The context of the Messiah's Kingdom is in the physical realms.  This was the primary thesis for the previous essay.  The thesis being: The kingdom of God, as referenced in the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus of  Nazareth, is a kingdom in the physical realms.  This is not a reference to the spiritual kingdom of the New Testament Church of Jesus Christ.

Is everyone paying attention to, and comprehending what was just stated in the above paragraph?  Let me restate this, in a slightly different way.  The nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, the people created by God to be His chosen people, the people who are the Jews; are a people who have an identifiable physical presence in a physical world; who once were a physical kingdom of God; and who throughout history have been looking for the re-establishment of the physical kingdom of God.

If the above thesis is correctly stated and true, then we should be able to find evidence of this truth, in the King's Book.  Join me, as we take a journey through the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin at a moment in history, just prior to the return of Jesus Christ, to the throne room of our heavenly Father - the Lord God Almighty.  We find the following written at Acts 1:1-11:

1. "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,"
2. "Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:"
3. "To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:"
4. "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me."
5. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
6. "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"
7. "And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power."
8. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
9. "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."
10. "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;"
11. "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven , shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

Let us begin our examination of this text, by looking at the last verse and the referenced return of Jesus Christ.  As Christians, we most often think of the return of Jesus Christ, in the context of His returning for the church, that He established on the day of Pentecost.  If this is where our thinking is, then, once again, we have fallen victim to a narrow, me centered kind of approach to understanding the meaning of the King's Book.  We need to pull back.  We need to see the big picture - the fullness of God's unfolding plan for all of His people - both Jews and Gentiles.

Jesus Christ is the Messiah for everyone.  God has a covenant relationship with the Jews.  God also has a covenant relationship with the Gentiles.  Both covenants, ultimately, lead to salvation in and through the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  The first covenant is with physical Israel, the chosen people of God; and is a covenant promise centered on a physical kingdom of God.  The second covenant is with spiritual Israel, the Gentiles, which includes all of the peoples of the world, who are converted to Jesus Christ, apart from the chosen people of  physical Israel; and this is a covenant promise centered on the spiritual kingdom of God.  At the final return of Jesus Christ, both covenant promises and both kingdoms - the physical kingdom and the spiritual kingdom - will become one kingdom of God under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

If we are willing, we can see the essence of these truths in verse 6 of our text.  It is written: "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"  As we consider this verse, let us be reminded that the gathered disciples are Jews, with a very Jewish sense of history and destiny.  They are, in every way, an example of physical Israel.  But, they are also the infant church of Jesus Christ - soon to be established on the day of Pentecost.  We have, in these gathered disciples, during their last physical meeting with our Lord Jesus Christ, a momentary merging of the physical kingdom of God and the spiritual kingdom of God - a picture of a future time when we shall all be one, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.  Can we say thank you Jesus?

Between now, and the next time that we meet, I invite you to give a great deal of prayerful consideration to verse 6 and it's context, and what this can teach us about what it means to be: "born again."

Until next time, my beloved brethren, in Christ Jesus, I continue to be:

Your servant and your fellow pilgrim,
Elder Theophilus