Before you can best understand God’s kingdom and His family, you must understand what God’s kingdom and family are NOT. God’s kingdom and His family are not a specific race of people. They are not a political party. They are not a corporation or a specific church denomination. God’s kingdom is spiritual and represented by the power of the person of the Holy Spirit. God’s family is a group of people who follow one King, Jesus. As was foretold, His kingdom started small in the first century, but has spread to every continent on the earth and is represented by His family all over the world. His family is the largest, and you don’t have to check your genealogical history to see if you are in it. You must be born again to join His family. More on that when you read on.
Here are a couple of true statements for clarification concerning God’s family:
1. Not everyone who identifies as a Christian is a part of God’s family, because far too many people call themselves Christians but don’t follow Jesus, the Christ.
2. Everyone who believes and follows King Jesus is a Christian (follower of Christ) and part of God’s family.
The best way to understand God’s kingdom and His family is by reading His word, the 66 books (39 of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament) known as the Bible (that we also call scripture or the scriptures). Since it takes an average reader somewhere between 70 and 80 hours to read the entire Bible, we will help provide the best summary we can. With that said, we encourage you to read the Bible, in its entirety, over and over, and discuss with faithful believers to best understand God, His kingdom, and His family. Are you wondering which Bible versions are good ones to read? Follow this link.
In the Bible, we learn that God created the universe, including the earth, which was uniquely created with human life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the first humans (Adam and Eve) fell because of wrongdoing in the Garden of Eden. They were tempted by the serpent known as Satan or the devil and gave in to his temptation. The fall of mankind meant that all future children would be prone to selfishness and wrongdoing. The fall of Adam and Eve (and by it the fall of the human race) brought the need for a Savior.
Little by little, the Bible begins to unveil the Savior we should be looking for. In the very first book, we learn that the foretold Savior will strike the serpent, Satan (Genesis 3 and Satan’s identity noted in Revelation 12). Many generations later, we learn that God chose the person of Abram (who’d later be renamed Abraham by God) and called him to leave his home and family and go to a place that God would give to him and his descendants (Genesis 12). The trouble was, Abraham didn’t have any descendants. So, God promised him that he would have a son (Genesis 18) who would bless all nations (at this point, there wasn’t a full understanding as to how this son would ultimately bless all the nations). 25 years after God’s promise to Abraham, Abraham’s wife, Sarah (who had aged beyond the time of childbearing), miraculously, conceived and gave birth to Isaac (yet he was to be a descendant of the ultimate promised son who would be born much later). Isaac’s wife Rebekah gave birth to the twins Esau and Jacob. Jacob was chosen by God to be the start of a nation of people who would be set apart, and this nation would be from whom the promised one would come. Jacob’s name was changed by God to be Israel. The people of Israel were chosen to bring forth the promised descendant, the promised Son, who would bless all the nations.
Israel had 12 sons, and the 4th son, Judah, was chosen (Genesis 49) for a kingly blessing (a blessing that indicated the promised son would be a king and his kingdom would have no end). Israel’s 11th son, Joseph, provided a place for Israel and his entire family (grandchildren and great-grandchildren), which had grown to 70 people. They stayed in Egypt for 430 years and ended up being enslaved by the Egyptians.
They were also chosen to receive the law. This law was presented to them by the person who led the nation out of Egypt. His name was Moses, and God used Him through many miraculous signs to lead the people of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. Moses’ work (by the power of God) to guide the people out of the land of slavery into the Promised Land was a shadow and type of the work King Jesus would ultimately accomplish. In Moses farewell address to the people of Israel (after they’d been brought out of Israel by God’s mighty hand), he let them know that a mighty Prophet, like him, was coming, and everyone needed to listen to Him or suffer severe consequences.
Then several hundred years later, God chose a man named David, who had become the second national king of Israel, to be the family through which His promised Son would come. During this time and afterward, the coming Son was spoken of in multiple ways, two of them being the coming “Son of David,” and another being the “Anointed One” or “Messiah,” which is also known as “Christ”. David wrote many Psalms, and in one (Psalm 110), he confirmed that the Messiah or his Lord (Master) would not only be a king but a priest in the order of the mysterious person called Melchizedek (the priest who blessed Abraham in Genesis 14). This now revealed that who they should be looking for in this promised Son was a Prophet, Priest, and King. What had yet to be revealed at that time is that this great Prophet, Priest, and King would come in the form of a humble servant.
Over 200 years later (in the 8th century B.C.), a prophet named Isaiah foretold of what this coming Son would do. He indicated this Son would come as a suffering servant who would give His life for the sins of the world (Isaiah 53). This suffering servant would be perfect, but would take the wrongdoing of the world upon Himself. Then, another couple of centuries passed, and a prophet by the name Daniel entered the picture. He and his family were captured by the king of Babylon, exiled to the land of Babylon, and forced into servitude. Early in Daniel’s service (which was also early in the 6th century B.C.), King Nebuchadnezzar had a terrifying dream of a great statue made of various types of metal (Daniel 2). Nebuchadnezzar told his wise men and diviners that they must tell him the dream that he had and its interpretation. All the wise men and diviners who were present told the king that this was an impossible request. So, the king put forth a command to kill all the wise men and diviners in his kingdom.
When the executioner came to Daniel’s home (for Daniel was one of the wise men in forced servitude and wasn’t present when the king made the command), Daniel asked why the king so urgently called for the mass execution. When Daniel found out, he told the official to let the king know that he (Daniel) would both tell the king and interpret his dream. The problem was that Daniel didn’t know what the dream was or its interpretation. So, Daniel and 3 of his close friends prayed for God to reveal the dream to him, and God did. Then Daniel appeared before Nebuchadnezzar and told him the dream and its interpretation. Daniel revealed to the king that he saw a great image that had a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze, and lower legs of iron, and feet that were made of iron mixed with clay. He also told the king that while he was looking at this great statue, he saw a rock that was cut out of a mountain, not by human hands. That rock struck the statue on the feet.
Then Daniel revealed to the king the interpretation of what he saw. He told him that he, the king of Babylon, represented the head of gold and that the chest and arms of silver represented another kingdom that would take over Babylon in the future. The belly and thighs of bronze represented the 3rd conquering kingdom, with the lower legs of iron, and the feet of iron mixed with clay represented the 4th kingdom. The rock, not cut by human hands, that struck the feet, represented the kingdom of God that would come during the time of the 4th kingdom and would start small but would spread over the entire earth and would have no end.
So, God had revealed to the prophet Daniel a time marker of when to start looking for the arrival of the kingdom of God. Any historian can quickly identify the 4 kingdoms represented in the dream since the first kingdom (Babylon) was already identified. The second kingdom was the Medo-Persian Empire. The kingdom that conquered the Persians was Greece. The kingdom that conquered Greece was Rome (Rome represented the 4th kingdom in the dream of the king). Greece was fully conquered by Rome in 146 B.C. So, Daniel, hundreds of years before it happened, revealed that the kingdom of God would arrive during the Roman Empire. But that’s not all. Daniel also revealed that the coming King (the Anointed One/ Messiah), the King of God’s Kingdom, would come and be put to death before Jerusalem was destroyed. When was Jerusalem destroyed? It was destroyed in A.D. 70. Did the King (of God’s kingdom) announce that God’s kingdom had arrived, and was He put to death after 146 B.C. (the first time marker), but before A.D. 70? Absolutely!
Jesus (the Anointed One/ Messiah/ Christ) announced the arrival of God’s kingdom (Mark 1) in approximately A.D. 27. He proclaimed God’s kingdom throughout His ministry (which was about 3 ½ years). He called everyone to repent (change their direction toward following Him as King, as Lord). He told His disciples that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets (the law and the prophets represent the Old Covenant/ Testament). He demonstrated power over the elements and God’s creation by calming a storm, walking on water, multiplying fish and bread, and turning water into wine. He demonstrated power over disease by healing leprosy, paralysis, blindness, fever, dumbness, deafness, and all other manner of ailments. He demonstrated power over Satan and His forces by healing demonic physical ailments and driving out demons who possessed people, while the demonic forces demonstrated they were terrified of Him. He demonstrated that He had superior wisdom and discernment as He showed He knew the thoughts of men and women, wisely answered questions, and expounded on how all should understand God’s word. He demonstrated power over death by raising multiple people from the dead, including a man named Lazarus who was in the grave for 4 days! Before Jesus was crucified, He was asked by Pontius Pilate (the Roman Governor) if He was a king. Jesus confirmed His kingship but also clarified that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18).
Yet most of the leaders of the people of Israel were not looking for a spiritual kingdom with a spiritual king. They wanted a physical kingdom that would free them from the power of Roman oppression. Jesus came to bring so much more. In fulfilling the role as the Prophet who Moses said would come, Jesus came to complete a different type of Exodus. While Moses, by God’s power, delivered the people from physical Egypt (physical slavery) so that his successor Joshua could lead them into the Promised Land, Jesus delivered the people from spiritual Egypt (being enslaved by sin), so that they could enter into the fulfilled Promised Land, God’s kingdom and His family. When Jesus was crucified, on the day of the feast of Passover, in A.D. 30, He completed a very different Passover. During Moses ministry, God passed over the houses of Israel because they had placed lamb’s blood on their doorpost (vertical) and lintel (horizontal post) at God’s command. The Egyptians were not covered by the blood and were severely judged. When you place your faith in the “Lamb of God,” Jesus, your sins are passed over, and the judgment that you would have received was paid for by Jesus’ sacrificial death.
But Jesus didn’t remain in the grave! He fulfilled the Old Testament/ Covenant and ushered in the New Testament/ Covenant by the power of His resurrection on the 3rd day. He showed Himself to many disciples over a period of 40 days. He told them to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. Then He ascended into the sky to sit on His throne until all His enemies are placed under His feet with the promise that He would return. Jesus had told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem for a little longer so that the promise of the person of the Holy Spirit would come upon them.
On the 50th day after Jesus’ resurrection, during a national festival of Israel (known as Pentecost), the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, and they began to speak in new languages, which amazed the people who heard them. They were amazed because the people who heard them all spoke different dialects, and yet they heard them each in their own language. During the very first Pentecost (during the time of Moses), the people were punished for their disobedience, and about 3,000 people died (Exodus 32). During the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, about 3,000 people believed, repented (changed their direction to follow Jesus), and received the incredible gift of the person of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The first massive expansion of God’s kingdom and family had begun.
Remember that we referred to the miracle of being “born again” earlier? That is what happened to the approximate 3,000 people who believed (at the festival of Pentecost) in the finished work of Jesus, repented, and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Being born again means being born of the Spirit. Once the Holy Spirit is in you, He can transform your heart and mind to become more like your King, Jesus. This doesn’t mean that you suddenly become perfect, but with the person of the Holy Spirit, you have received the power to overcome the practice of wrongdoing and begin to follow in the footsteps of your King. This is the process of sanctification (your mind and heart are transforming to be inclined to follow your King). When you’ve become a part of the kingdom of God, this does not set well with the kingdom of darkness. You can expect opposition from the world and from satanic forces, not to mention the old desires that wish to draw you back in. You are part of the army of God, but the army of darkness still desires to have you. But, since you have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, you know that you have all the power needed to resist the powers of darkness.
Just like Jesus’ 1st-century disciples, we are called to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28) to bring people out of the family of darkness into the family of God. Are you in God’s family?