In verse one of Chapter 9 of Mark, Jesus tells the disciples that some of them will “see the kingdom of God come with power.” What is the kingdom of God? What were the disciples expecting?
Jesus began his ministry preaching about the kingdom of God. Mark 1:14-15. “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said, “The kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!”” The kingdom of God has come near. This would have been an exciting statement for the Jews. The concept of the Kingdom of God was tied closely to that of the Messiah. We saw in the last chapter how they Jews were expecting a different kind of Messiah, now we see that Jesus is bringing a different kind of kingdom.
Daniel had prophesied about this several hundred years before. Daniel 7:13-14/27. Daniel had (very accurately) predicted that they Jews would be ruled over by four different empires: the Babylonians, the Medio-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Then he said a new kingdom would appear. It would wipe away the others and fill the whole earth and last forever. The kingdom of God.
We saw in the last chapter the disciples had some preconceived notions of what a Messiah was supposed to be. Peter couldn’t grasp a Messiah who suffered. Now Jesus is overturning their expectations about the kingdom. Despite the popular hope, Jesus said that his kingdom was internal, not external. He was not coming to bring political freedom from the Roman empire. As he said before Pilot in John 18:36, his kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom, in fact, was nothing like the kingdoms of the world.
The kingdoms of the world are all about the powerful dominating the weak. Those with the power make the rules. Jesus’s kingdom was different. His kingdom would change the world.
The Pharisees asked Jesus one time when the kingdom was supposed to come. Jesus answered that the kingdom does not come with your careful watching (Luke 17:20). The kingdom of God is within you. It begins in the heart. It is new life in the Spirit. He told the Jewish leader Nicodemas that you can’t enter the kingdom of God unless you have been born of the Spirit (or born again). In fact, he said, you can’t even see it if you aren’t born again. You can’t perceive it.
When we are born again, we change. This is really the only way to change the world. No amount of laws or governance can fix the issues in the world. The real issue is in the heart. Take racism, for example. It was a real issue in Jesus’s time like today. There was a deep seeded antagonism between the Jews and Samaritans. They despised each other. You can make laws that stop discrimination. You can provide every protection of the law for minorities, but unless you change the people’s hearts, you will never overcome the issue. Why is it that decades after the civil rights movement, racism is still alive in the United States? People’s hearts have not been changed. That is why we need Jesus. His kingdom is our only hope.
Paul explains the kingdom of God further in Romans 14:17. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is the outworking of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the life he brings to us. If we miss that, we miss everything.
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