Unlike the most common evangelism tactic in America, Jesus never went around promoting heaven as the selling point to bribe people into loving the father. There are many times Jesus preaches about the “Kingdom of God” and we assume, because of our cultural misinterpretations of the Word, that he is always speaking about the afterlife.

Jesus says to the crowd in Mark 9 “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” This is the promise of the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God on earth.

In Luke 17:20 He says “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

The Kingdom of God is The Bride loving and following the words of our Rabbi.

The Kingdom is Here!

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One of the reasons Christians seem to walk the world without joy is because they have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that it is very possible, it is the desire of God in fact, to intersect the Kingdom of God here on earth. Many times we walk around with our heads down, looking and feeling distant and dejected.

Jesus tells us that he is the physical manifestation of heaven on earth. In Matthew 12:28 He states “if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is among you.”

Jesus claimed that the Kingdom of God had come to earth through him. He then commissioned the church to be his bride and continue to to live in Christ and live in The Kingdom.

Revelations 1:6 states that Christ ” has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” When we live in harmony and love with each other in community, when we share and provide for each other, when we feed the poor, when we boldly proclaim the word of the Lord, when we live as examples of Jesus, we are the kingdom!

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Southern gospel songs have always discomforted me, and it’s not just because I don’t like country music. A few I remember singing in my southern baptist upbringing where:

“some glad morning when this life is over I’ll fly away”

“This world has been a wilderness,I’m ready for deliverance, Lord I’ve never been this homesick before!”

“When all sorrow has drifted away. I’ll be standin’ at the portals when the gates open wide. At the close of life’s long weary day”

Looking back, I think two things about the people who wrote these songs.

1) They must have had miserable lives.

2) They must not have read much scripture.

Something the writers do have right is that Heaven is our hope and our prize, not because we get to see out loved ones who have gone on before (another occuring theme) but because it means eternity in the presence of the Creator (Colossians 3:1). The one who created this world and the people and things around us and made all things good! (Titus 1:15, Acts 10-11)

A central theme in many southern gospel songs, and even creeps in to some sermons here and there is the misery and dreariness of this world. It is so pervasive that, when focused on, one can forget that it is quite possible to actually live in the kingdom here and now! (Luke 17:20-21)

We have hope in Christ, who was fully God and fully man, who came to earth, which was both symbolical and physical intersection of God and mankind. He taught and lived out the ways of the Father, dies, rose from the dead, and before He ascended into heaven, He assigned power to the disciples in His name. He then sends the Holy Spirit, God with us, allowing us to come together as the bride, live, share, and love well, and continue to live out and live in the Kingdom of God on earth.

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