Excerpt from The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by O. Palmer Robertson

Pages 123-125

• The kingdom associated with the coming of Jesus is intimately connected with the promised kingdom of the old covenant that God made with Israel. In the beginning of his gospel, Luke indicates that the Lord would give Jesus “the throne of his father David,” and that his rule over the house of Jacob ( Israel) would never end (Luke 1:32-33). Clearly Jesus’ kingdom would have continuity with the covenants of old.
  
• The kingdom of God as presented in Luke’s gospel would be realized progressively. The coming rule of the Messiah had been prophesied earlier, but it actually began only after the ministry of John the Baptist. It was only after the time of John that the good news of the kingdom was being preached (Luke 16:16). Furthermore, the least in the kingdom of God was to be viewed as greater than John (7:28). Jesus declared that he had come to proclaim the good news of the presence of the kingdom (4:43; 8:1). He passed on to his disciples the same privilege of announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God (9:2, 60; 10:9, 11). If the question arose as to whether the kingdom was only “near” or actually had come, Jesus made the point quite explicitly: “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:21 NASB). The presence of Jesus establishes the present reality of the kingdom of god. IF the king has come, the kingdom must be present.

At the same time, the kingdom in an important sense had not yet come. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2), which implied that the kingdom remained to be fully realized. As he approached the end of his ministry, Jesus taught his disciples about the signs that would mark the coming of the kingdom (21:31). He would not ear or drink with his disciples again until the kingdom had come (22:16, 18), which implies that the full realization o the kingdom of God is still in the future.

• The kingdom that Jesus brought should not be understood as belonging exclusively to the ethnic descendants of Israel. Although this point is not stressed in Luke’s gospel, it is nonetheless a part of Jesus’’ teaching. While the people of Israel had the privilege of witnessing the ministry of Jesus, many of them would be thrown out of the kingdom of God. At the same time, “people will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28-29; cf. Matt. 8:8-12). This teaching about the universal scope of the kingdom fits right into the programmatic realization of the kingdom as reported in the book of Acts.

So the message of Jesus about the kingdom of God as recorded in Luke’s gospel helps to explain the experience of Christ’s rule as reported in the book of Acts. This kingdom would represent the realization of the covenant promises given to the patriarchs in general and David in particular. It would come into its fullness in stages. Eventually it would encompass the Gentile nations spread all across the earth.

• Luke’s gospel also anticipates the distinctiveness of God’s kingdom in Acts by emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, the “holy one” born of her would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). John characterized Jesus’ ministry as a baptizing in the Holy Spirit, and so Jesus began his ministry by being baptized in the Spirit himself (3:16, 22). Only Luke indicates that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” as he was led into the wilderness to be tested as the second Israel, and only he notes that Jesus returned triumphantly after his temptation “in the power of the Spirit” (4:1, 14). Only Luke records Jesus’ opening sermon in Nazareth, where he claimed to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy by having the Spirit of the Lord upon him (4:18). Only Luke states that Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit: (10:21). Only Luke records Jesus’ announcement that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who asked him (11:13.)

Luke’s distinctive emphasis on the working of the Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus provides a natural basis for understanding the central role of the Spirit in the messianic kingdom as it comes to light in the book of Acts. If Jesus was made holy by the Spirit, his people will become holy by the same Spirit. If he was baptized in the Spirit at the beginning of his ministry, then they may expect to have the same experience. If he was led by the Spirit, preached in the Spirit, and ministered in the power of the Spirit, then would not the citizens of his kingdom experience similar manifestations of the Spirit? OF course, the uniqueness of Christ must be maintained. But since he had experienced these manifestations of the Spirit, the citizens of his kingdom could also expect to participate in the workings of the Spirit.

Page 137

The term kingdom occurs only six times in Acts after the initial question of the disciples. But the distribution of these references is significant. At each critical moment in the narrative, reference is made to the coming of the kingdom: when the power of the gospel is displayed in Samaria (Acts 8:12), when Paul provides an explanation for the suffering of believers at the end of his first missionary journey (Acts 14:22), during the three months and the additional two years of his ministry in Ephesus (Acts 19:8, 10; 20:25), and after he finally arrives in Rome (Acts 28:23, 31). At each of these new stages in the advancement of the gospel, reference is made to the presence of the kingdom of God.

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Excerpt from The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by O. Palmer Robertson

"Palmer Robertson provides a fresh and brilliant insight into the content of God’s promises of redemption to Old Testament Israel and their relevance to the Christian church. This is an exciting read." - R. C. SPROUL "

Dr. Robertson has addressed this perennial, much disputed topic in a fashion that is not only both incisive and engaging but also, to this reader at least, thoroughly convincing. My hope is that this book will serve to unite Christians today in affirming his concluding propositions." RICHARD B. GAFFIN -