Everywhere the King Is, There Is The Kingdom

I've been writing about seeking God's kingdom for a week now, and I'm sure a question you might have is, "What and where is God's kingdom?' If it's mentioned a number of times in the Bible, what exactly is the kingdom? Does it refer to heaven? Is it a place on earth? Or is it something else entirely?

As I shared in yesterday's post, Seek First God's Kingdom, Jesus never explicitly defined the concept of God's kingdom in any of the gospels. However, he focused on it in the majority of his teachings. The first thing he preached when he began his earthly ministry was "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." So why didn't Jesus define the concept of God's kingdom? We can't be sure, because Jesus didn't tell us that either. 

But what Jesus did want people to know is that the importance of God's kingdom is linked to the kingship of God. If God is King of the earth, the world and the universe, and his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom will endure forever, then everywhere and everything is a part of his kingdom. Eternity is a part of his kingdom, heaven is a part of his kingdom, and the world is a part of his kingdom. What Jesus wanted the disciples and crowds to focus on (and wants us to focus on as well) is that if there is a kingdom, and it's important, then there is a King that is even more important. 

If the kingdom of God is at hand, then the King is near. 

There's a song that I was listening to recently by Tim Timmons called "Awake Our Souls." Tim sings a line in that song and says, "Everywhere the King is, there is the kingdom."

Jesus talked about God's kingdom to point people towards the King. He shared about God's kingdom so that others would know that God's reign and his kingdom are very different from the crumbling kingdoms and kings of the world. God is the ultimate king of everything. Every kingdom belongs to him. Every earthly dominion ultimately belongs to him as well. Jesus came to proclaim these things, and he lived the perfect life in submission to his Heavenly Father and to his King. 

Jesus perfectly served the sovereign God, and we rebel from God's dominion over our lives. Jesus died so that we, the rebels of the kingdom, could be made right with the King. We deserved death for our treason, but Jesus went willingly to the cross. He died so that the King would forgive our rebellion, so that we could be made clean, forgiven, and enter into the joy of our King, being welcomed into his enduring kingdom and becoming a part of the royal family. That is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. 

The reality then is that the Son of the King, the Most High, went willing to the cross to die for rebels of the kingdom. Not just the Son, but Jesus was also the very King himself. The King of Glory took the form of flesh as Jesus, the Son of God, and went to the cross willingly. The King gave up his life for his rebel subjects to welcome them into his kingdom with open arms.

Knowing the King is more important than knowing the precise details about the kingdom. Everywhere the King is, there is the kingdom. God owns everything, and is everywhere, therefore there is not an atom that escapes the sovereignty and dominion of God. If God is everywhere, and the kingdom is everywhere, how does that impact the way that we live our lives?

Join me tomorrow as we focus on how the reality of God's kingship and his kingdom affect our lives. 

This post is part of a 31 day series called Seeking the Kingdom.
​You can view the rest of the posts from the series here.