The New Age of the Kingdom

This past Sunday, we saw how much freight can be carried in so few words.  When you study the gospel of John closely and as a whole, you realize that when John uses phrases like "in that day", he is likely speaking of the New Age of the Kingdom.  In order to help us better see what he's talking (i.e. the "freight" behind it), we used a chart to picture the eschatological relationships he is describing.  "Eschatology" comes from two Greek words- eschatos & logos, and means "the doctrine of the last things."  We normally understand that to mean events which are still to happen in God's plan to fully establish the Kingdom of God on earth.  But we saw that it also really includes helping us understand our present place in God's plans for history.  In other words, it helps us make sense of our "now" in light of God's big picture of the past, present, and future.  So to see that big picture more clearly, here is the chart that I used during the sermon for you to ponder, study, and pray in light of.  You may want to just click here and download it as pdf to better see it. 

One thing you may immediately notice is that all of our current preoccupation with "the last days" is really misplaced.  The emphasis in our Christian lives ought to be on living in the power of the Age to Come that has broken in through Christ's incarnation, life, death, and resurrection.  The emphasis ought to be on living Kingdom focused lives right now; not on when the 2nd coming is coming!  Rather than focusing on when are "the last days" coming, we need to realize that they began 2000 years ago with the coming of Christ!  Instead, let us "live now in the light of the Lord" (Is. 2:5), and so live lives empowered by the Spirit of the resurrected Christ to live and labor for the realization of the Kingdom of God!