How we understand the kingdom of God tells us a lot about how we understand Jesus. In the Gospels, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is not simply a future hope to await, but a present reality to embrace and participate in through Jesus Christ. Our kingdom Theology should be missiological, not eschatological. Italian immigrants didn’t sit around New York City wishing they could go to Italy. They had 10,000 Italians living in the same Manhattan neighborhood in 1910. They knew what united them, and they stayed united. The neighborhood became known for its Italian culture. It didn’t need to be Italy because the people were of Italy. The global Church doesn’t need to be heaven because we are of heaven.
“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Mk 1:15). Tyndale House Publishers.
If the time God promised came about two thousand years ago, why do we still look ahead with nervous anticipation for the day justification will come? Christ rose from the dead. We don’t need something new because we have something very, very old. The God of All Ages has called us righteous. The blood of the Messiah has washed us white as snow. The kingdom of God is nearer than we can possibly imagine.
Many of us may look at the news and think things are only getting worse, but shortly after Jesus’ ascension, approximately 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem. By modern numbers, it’s much harder to argue. Around the world in 2025, the Christian population was about 2.645 billion, with membership at about 2.49 billion. About 22.4 million full Bibles were distributed in over 776 languages. In my denomination, 10,316 students and volunteers attended the Nazarene Youth Conference in July, 2026. At the time of writing, the Union holds 208 of 630 seats in the German parliament—representing the largest group. This Union is between the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union. In April 2025, Barna reported that 66% of American adults said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus that remained important in their lives, up 12 percentage points from 2021. This is an estimated 30 million American adults added in just 4 years. Detractors can look at the percentages of the total population, but doing so takes away the fact that there are about ten times as many Christians now as there were people in AD 30-33—if that isn’t God’s kingdom coming. I don’t know what it would be.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 17:20–21). (2025). Crossway Bibles.
Jesus tells the Pharisees they won’t recognize the kingdom because it isn’t what they expect. They probably expected an army of angels to not only defeat Satan and his forces but also the Romans. Jesus didn’t care what state their government was in; he only cared about the state of their hearts. They could live under pagan Roman rule for another thousand years, and God’s kingdom would still be among them. God’s kingdom depends on only one thing: God’s presence. Jesus told them that the kingdom had arrived because He had arrived. God in the flesh was among them. Our Creator walked alongside His creation. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was sent to dwell with God’s people. Unlike Jesus during His earthly ministry, He wasn’t confined to a physical body. He can be with all of us at all times. This should drive us to go into places where the kingdom is not present and allow God to use us to bring it there. God didn’t call us merely to be citizens but to be ambassadors. We are the ones the King of Kings sent to proclaim His goodness, His truth, His justice, and His majesty around the globe.
Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”
“How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?” Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (Jn 3:3–6). NavPress.
The kingdom of God is a new creation. Jesus came to make things new and right. The world was a mess, and Jesus came to fix it. To ultimately correct what sin and death had broken, He had to die on the cross, rise from the grave, ascend to Heaven, and sit at the right hand of the Father. For humanity to join in new creation, we have to be reborn. The only way to enter the kingdom of God is to be baptized by the Spirit. Christ died so that we could be made new. To believe what Jesus said about the kingdom is to go into the world, be holy and set apart, and bring others with you. Jesus tried to get Nicodemus to join Him, but he was too blinded by his power and tradition to repent and come home to the Father.
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ro 14:17–19). Tyndale House Publishers.
Paul tells us that this is a kingdom defined by how we live, not by what we have or where we are. We live with goodness, peace, and joy and serve Jesus with that attitude. That is how people know we are God’s people. We do this because it pleases God. We want to please the One who loved us enough to create us, die for us, and redeem us. It really is as simple as that.
Most importantly, serving Christ means continuing to live out the Great Commission. If we ignore the instruction to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel, it does not matter how much goodness, peace, or joy we have. We are missing the mark.
Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Mt 6:9–13). (2021). Friendship Press.
When Jesus taught His followers to pray, He taught that they would pray for the Father’s kingdom to come and His will to be done, and that God would also supply their daily sustenance. If the kingdom is to come and His will is to be done, we need to cast off the lie of self-sufficiency and serve our Lord. The kingdom of God is not about what we can do or what we have; it is about who God is. When we recognize His presence around us, we realize what Jesus meant when He said that the kingdom had already arrived.
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