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The King of Heaven and Earth

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Who will recognize this King?

John 18:37 – Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Matthew 28:18-20 – Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jude 1 – Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen

What is a kingdom?

George Eldon Ladd – We must ask the most fundamental question: what is the meaning of “kingdom“? The modern answer to this question loses the key of meaning to this ancient Biblical truth. In our western idiom, a kingdom is primarily a realm over which a king exercises his authority. The second meaning of a kingdom is the people belonging to a given realm. The exclusive application of either of these two ideas to the Biblical teaching of the Kingdom leads us astray from a correct understanding of the Biblical truth. We must set aside our modern idiom if we are to understand Biblical terminology.

At this point Webster’s dictionary provides us with a clue when it gives as its first definition: “The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; dominion; monarchy; kingship. Archaic.“ From the viewpoint of modern linguistic usage, this definition may be archaic; but it is precisely this archaism which is necessary to understand the ancient Biblical teaching. The primary meaning of both the Hebrew word malkuth in the Old Testament and of the Greek word basileia in the New Testament is the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king. A basileia may indeed be a realm over which a sovereign exercises his authority; and it may be the people who belong to that realm and over whom authority is exercised; but these are secondary and derived meanings. First of all, a kingdom is the authority to rule, the sovereignty of the king. When the word refers to God‘s kingdom, it always refers to his reign, his rule, his sovereignty, and not to the realm in which it is exercised.

The kingdom of God is his kingship, his rule, his authority. We must “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness“ – His sway, His rule, His reign in our lives. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” this prayer is a petition for God to reign, to manifest His kingly sovereignty and power, to put to flight every enemy of righteousness and of His divine rule, that God alone may be King over all the world.