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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 76. Purpose of the Kingdom
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Purpose of the Kingdom
God's own ideal for man was not a kingdom, but a family. Eden was a prophecy in miniature. All the world was to be a garden of Eden. God and man were to live together in sweetest, most intimate fellowship. The family is God's ideal for us; not a kingdom but a family, with its home in a garden, and Himself as Father-mother in the midst; its atmosphere, love; its music the rhythm of our free wills with His. Sweeter music never filled human ear.
Things got so bad outside of God's garden that a messenger-nation to all the others was created. But it was not planned that it should be a kingdom on the common model of the nations. It was to be a God-Kingdom. That is the king, or ruler, was to be God Himself. The wilderness life was an illustration of it. He Himself was present in a form the people could understand, and was guiding and shaping all their life.
But the Hebrews were discontented, and wanted a king "like all the nations." God has always had such difficulty wooing us up to His level. The lure of common custom has tremendous hold upon us all. And with His infinite patience God comes to their level, where no principle is involved. An ordinary kingdom was granted. From this on all the plans and promises glow with the glory of the coming Kingdom. And with matchless wisdom and grace, God's own plan, and His promises to David concerning his royal house, are blended. The coming King is of the line of David, and yet He is the Son of God Himself ruling in the midst of His people. It will be a God-Kingdom on the original model.
But even this Kingdom is not God's original ideal. That was a family, not a Kingdom; the relationship is much more intimate and tender. The Kingdom is not the final thing. It is not an end; it is a means to an end. The plan of the Hebrew nation was that it should be the messenger of light to all the race. The coming Hebrew God-Kingdom is to be a messenger of the Light to all the race. When its work is fully accomplished, and every bit of darkness destroyed, the Kingdom will be turned over to the Father.
Then the first ideal, God's own heart ideal, will be realized. "He shall dwell with" men, as the Father in His family. The two ideals of human life shall be blended into one in the family home. The garden will become a city, but it is a garden-city, all the sweet simplicity and nature-life of the garden, and all the maturity of the city, shall be joined in that wondrous garden-city and city-garden.
This makes clear the purpose of the Kingdom; it is to be a means of worldwide evangelization, and of putting down all opposition. There are two periods of worldwide evangelization in our Lord's planning. The present is the period of world evangelization by the Church. This is the true objective of the Church, and the one main purpose of its existence. This Church evangelizing is preparatory to the Kingdom evangelizing. The witness is now to be borne out to all men, in order to bring in the Kingdom time of world evangelization, under wholly different conditions.
The purpose of the present time in missionary work is not to build up Western institutions on Oriental or other heathen soil; not merely the creating of a native Church, self-supporting and self-propagating; not the permeating of the common fabric of life among non-Christian peoples with Christian civilization ideals; not even in ministering to the bodily needs of men, unspeakably blessed as that is in itself.
These may be methods used by the Church in its wisdom, or may come as powerful but incidental results of the Gospel-witnessing. But the end in view is the carrying to all men, everywhere, of the message of a crucified and risen Christ, as the one means of deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. The carrying is to be on the principle of "let him that heareth say 'come.'" The Church on heathen soil is to be first and chief a witnessing Church. In so far as these things named are means of taking Christ to men, and bringing Him living and warm into their personal lives, and sending them out to others beyond, they are indeed blessed. In so far as they do not, they are missing the prime aim, blessed as they may be in themselves. The taking of Christ to men everywhere prepares the way for the Kingdom evangelization.
The Kingdom witnessing and evangelizing will be under vastly different conditions. Then the evil one will be removed from the scene of earth activity. Our Lord Jesus Himself in open glory will be visibly present, and at work among men. The redeemed ones of earth, clothed in resurrection bodies, will be actively at work, with all present limitations gone. There will be the nation of the Jews—Pauls in spirit—with their familiarity with all the earth, their rare linguistic ability, their peculiar adaptation to all sorts of circumstances, their undiscourageable aggressiveness, at work under the guidance and sway of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself shall be poured out upon "all flesh." What vastly different conditions these are that will mark the Kingdom period of worldwide evangelization!
The Gospel days were sample days of the Kingdom. Our Lord was wooing the Jew nation to accept their King by revealing partly what the Kingdom would be like. Healing was common in the Gospel days. In the Church time, it has been a gift for some few who could be trusted with it; and a privilege for those accepting it for themselves by simple faith. It will again be a common thing when the Kingdom comes.
From the time when John the Herald began preaching until our Lord's death the Kingdom suffered violence by those who wanted to use it for their own purposes, and at length men of violence took it—in the person of the King—took it by force. [Note: Mat_11:12.] Those who wanted to follow the King were obliged to face bitterest opposition. [Note: Luk_16:16.]
This will be all changed when the King is here in glory and power. Our Lord said that there had been no greater man than John the Baptist, but he who was reckoned little in the Kingdom would be greater than he. [Note: Mat_11:11.] There are three sorts of true greatness, of character, of opportunity in service, and of privileges enjoyed. Clearly the greatness referred to here would not be that of character, but of privileges enjoyed, and of opportunities to serve. The least in the Kingdom will be greater in this regard than the Herald of the Kingdom, who was persecuted, imprisoned, and beheaded. So wondrous will be the Kingdom time in opportunity of service, and in its unparalleled privileges.