By Joseph Tkach
The theme for this year's Festival of Tabernacles is "Celebrating the Kingdom of God."
Simply put, when we celebrate the kingdom, what is it that we are celebrating? Do we celebrate something in the distant future? Do we celebrate something that is only a hope that things will get better?
I believe that we have much to celebrate right now!
For decades, we viewed the kingdom of God as a future time of great glory and great rewards after the return of Christ. This vision of better things to come encouraged us to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
This belief in a future kingdom of great power and glory is a valid belief. We believe it as fervently as we ever did before.
But there is more! There are aspects of God's kingdom that we already enjoy. We already have eternal life. We are already experiencing salvation. We already have the life of Christ in us. We already have the Holy Spirit living in us.
We already have an earnest or down payment of the good things to come. We have already been paid, so to speak, some of the goods. We are already participating in some aspects of the kingdom (see box below right).
We have many, many reasons to celebrate--not just for what is promised for the future, but for the good things we already have! And these good things are just a tiny fraction of the good things Christ is preparing for us.
The kingdom of God exists right now, and we can celebrate it--even as we also celebrate the greater glory that it will be.
Jesus talked a great deal about the kingdom of God, often in parables. He described God's kingdom as a place of grace, growth and judgment.
For example, he said that the kingdom of God is like a man who was given something to work with. It is like a woman who mixed yeast into some dough so that it might get larger. It is like seeds that were given, expected to grow and then judged on whether they bore fruit. It is like a master who returns to see how his servants worked.
These parables describe something that is going on right now, and something that will be in our future.
In one of Jesus' most interesting sayings, he said, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it" (Matthew 11:12).
The kingdom has been forcefully advancing!
But how? What had Jesus been doing? He had been preaching, healing and casting out demons.
Even prostitutes and white-collar criminals were entering the kingdom! How did they do it? By repenting and believing (Matthew 21:31-32).
Whenever a sinner repents, the angels rejoice. They are celebrating --celebrating that people are entering the kingdom of God--celebrating that more people have accepted the King-- celebrating that the kingdom is growing in influence--celebrating that the kingdom is advancing!
We today also have reason to celebrate! People are entering the kingdom--people who will be with us for eternity. We will have friendships forever as a wonderful reward from preaching the gospel today.
One of our slogans is, "Making a difference for the kingdom of God." Now, how can we make a difference for the kingdom? We can make a difference now by preaching the gospel, by leading people to faith in Christ, by leading them to repentance and trust in him as Savior. Then they will enter the kingdom, and the kingdom will advance and grow. This is how we can make a difference for the kingdom of God!
We can make a difference in the way we treat one another, too. In the way we treat our families, in the way we worship together, in our attitudes and in our actions, we are preaching about the kingdom of God. We are reflecting life the way God wants it.
We can make a difference in our own lives, too. We can't turn the world upside down this year or the next, but we can turn our hearts toward the Lord. This helps the kingdom grow in our own lives. This helps us respond to our King the way we ought, so that he is working in and through us.
What confidence we can have that he who paid such a big price for us, he who began a wonderful work in us, he who has already brought us into his unshakable kingdom, will surely help us through the hardships so that we eat and drink with him in his glorious kingdom forever.
We have much to celebrate, as well as work to do, for the kingdom of God.
Sept. 16, 1997, WN, page three
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