Jesus’ coming changes everything. Salvation meets individuals, changes families, heals communities, brings justice, and sets the course of nations.

• The church is the

of God’s work in the world. However, there is another way that the Scriptures talk about this work: the kingdom of God.
• How would you define the Kingdom of God?

// Matthew 6:33 | But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
// Mark 10:25 | It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
// Luke 4:43 (approx. 45 mentions) | but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
// John 3:3 | Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
// Acts 8:12 | But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Defining the Kingdom of God

• Article 9 (The Kingdom of God) >> The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
• The kingdom of God is about God as the Sovereign King of His creation. His royal

is over all. This reality is manifested through His church as they submit to the Lordship of Jesus, preach the Gospel of the Kingdom & await the return of Christ where the fullness of the Kingdom will be restored.
• Abraham Kuyper >> There is not one square inch in the whole domain of human existence as to which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry out, “Mine.”
• The kingdom of God is advanced, not when Christians hold political office or wield societal influence or build large buildings, but as individuals

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to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
• G.E. Ladd >> The Kingdom is primarily the dynamic reign or kingly rule of God, and, derivatively, the sphere in which the rule is experienced.
• Wayne Grudem >> the kingdom manifests itself through the church, and thereby the future reign of God breaks into the present (it is “already” here: Matt. 12:28; Rom. 14:17; and “not yet” here fully: Matt. 25:34; 1 Cor. 6:9 – 10).
• The kingdom of God was inaugurated with the

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of Jesus. At the beginning of His ministry, He quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:18-19 | “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The Kingdom is advancing and will fully come when the King returns.

• Article 10 (Last Things) >> God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
• The Kingdom of God, according to evangelical theology, refers to the reign of God over the hearts and lives of individuals in the present age and the eventual culmination of God’s rule over all creation in the

. It is characterized by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, as taught by Jesus Christ and described in the Scriptures.”
• Rapture, millenial reign, different approaches to the end times – they all fall under the reality that the King is

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. We don’t endorse any particular system these can be a distraction from the fact that we are supposed to advance the Kingdom of God now.

For Agape, the Community Care Village is our call to advance the Kingdom of God in our community.

• It is about evaluating the

of individuals in our community, beholding the brokenness, and rallying resources to bring healing.
• But how is this healing found? It is found through the

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of Jesus Christ. Simply meeting physical, emotional, or material needs does not advance the kingdom of God. We do not build the kingdom of God by giving people a more comfortable earthly life while ignoring eternity. We build the kingdom of God by harnessing the opportunities manifested by meeting these material needs.

The Kingdom of God is here now and we have a role in advancing it. However, the Kingdom is also coming in its fullness when our King returns.