Paper 170 Overview: The Kingdom of Heaven

On March 11, Jesus delivered his final sermon at Pella, focusing on the kingdom of heaven, a concept that had been widely misunderstood among his followers. In this pivotal address, Jesus thoroughly explained the various interpretations of the kingdom, emphasizing that it was primarily a spiritual reality centered on the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of all people, rather than an earthly political establishment. He described the kingdom as both a present inner spiritual experience and a future divine ideal, while distinguishing it from the institutional church that would later develop.

The original spiritual concept Jesus taught was gradually transformed after his departure as his followers created a social organization (the church) which increasingly supplanted his vision of a spiritual brotherhood. Jesus had taught that the kingdom exists within the heart of each believer as they live out the will of God through loving service, whereas his followers eventually postponed the kingdom concept to a future era. Despite this misunderstanding, Jesus' fundamental teachings about the kingdom as a personal spiritual experience remain vital and will someday be rediscovered beyond the institutional structures that developed.

On Saturday afternoon, March 11, Jesus delivered what would be his final sermon at Pella, a comprehensive discourse on the kingdom of heaven that stands as one of the most significant addresses of his public ministry. He was well aware of the confusion that existed in the minds of his apostles and disciples regarding the meaning of the terms "kingdom of heaven" and "kingdom of God," which he used interchangeably. The deeply ingrained Jewish expectation of a temporal king made it difficult for his followers to grasp the spiritual nature of the kingdom he described.

Though Jesus initially avoided directly opposing the traditional concept of the kingdom, in this sermon he sought to clarify its spiritual dimensions from every possible angle. The narrative of this discourse includes not only what Jesus said on that particular afternoon but also incorporates statements he had made on previous occasions and remarks he shared privately with the apostles during evening discussions that same day. Additionally, the account includes comments about the subsequent development of the kingdom concept and its relationship to the later Christian church.

Throughout Hebrew scripture, the concept of the kingdom of God was presented in two primary ways: as a present reality and as a future hope that would be fully realized with the appearance of the Messiah. This dual perspective was the foundation of John the Baptist's teaching about the kingdom. Jesus and his apostles taught both of these aspects, but they competed with two other prominent kingdom concepts of that era—the later Jewish expectation of a supernatural worldwide kingdom and the Persian teachings about the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Before Jesus arrived on earth, the Jews had combined and confused all these kingdom ideas into their apocalyptic vision of the Messiah establishing Jewish triumph and God's eternal rule on earth. By choosing to utilize the concept of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus appropriated the most vital elements from both Jewish and Persian religious traditions. Throughout history, the kingdom has been understood in four distinct ways: the Jewish concept, the Persian concept, Jesus' personal experience concept of "the kingdom within," and the composite concepts developed by the founders of Christianity. Jesus always emphasized the kingdom as a personal experience of relationship with God and service to others, even as this understanding was often lost in later interpretations.

Jesus made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with and center upon two fundamental concepts: the truth of God's fatherhood and the corresponding reality of human brotherhood. He taught that accepting these truths would liberate people from fear and enrich human living with several important spiritual endowments. These included new courage and spiritual power, greater confidence and consolation, a new standard of moral values, emphasis on spiritual realities over material concerns, and the understanding that eternal realities are the reward for righteous earthly striving.

The Master attempted to translate the kingdom concept into the ideal of doing God's will, trying to persuade his followers to abandon the term "kingdom of God" in favor of "the will of God." Though unsuccessful in this effort, Jesus desired to replace the idea of a kingdom with king and subjects with the concept of a heavenly family with a Father and liberated children serving one another. Jesus taught that the kingdom exists in two phases: first, as the supreme desire to do God's will on earth, manifesting in improved ethical and moral conduct; and second, as the heavenly goal for believers where love for God is perfected and God's will is done more divinely.

Jesus consistently tried to impress upon his apostles and disciples that they needed to develop, through faith, a righteousness exceeding the rule-bound righteousness displayed by some scribes and Pharisees. While teaching that simple childlike faith is the key to entering the kingdom, Jesus also emphasized that after entering, believers must ascend progressive steps of righteousness to grow into mature sons of God. The reception of God's forgiveness involves four key steps: forgiving others, loving neighbors as oneself, practicing the highest ethical standards, and developing true righteousness as the natural result of such love.

The true inner religion of the kingdom naturally manifests itself in practical avenues of social service, with ethics being the result rather than the cause of religion. Jesus measured the righteousness of any action by its motive, with the highest forms of good being unconscious expressions of love. The religion of the kingdom is personal and individual, yet its fruits are familial and social in nature. By teaching that the kingdom exists within the individual, Jesus initiated a new social order based on spiritual righteousness rather than mere improved social and material conditions, emphasizing enhanced spiritual values that characterize improved human relationships and advancing spiritual attainments.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus never provided a precise definition of the kingdom, instead discussing different aspects of it in various contexts. In his Sabbath afternoon sermon, he noted at least five phases or epochs of the kingdom: the personal spiritual experience of individual believers with God; the enlarging brotherhood of believers exhibiting enhanced morals and ethics; the supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings; the prospect of more perfect fulfillment of God's will in a new social order; and finally, the kingdom in its fullness during the future spiritual age of light and life on earth.

Jesus emphasized five cardinal features of the gospel of the kingdom: the pre-eminence of the individual, the will as the determining factor in human experience, spiritual fellowship with God the Father, the satisfaction of loving service to humanity, and the transcendence of spiritual values over material aspects of human personality. The world has never seriously attempted to implement Jesus' dynamic ideas and divine ideals about the kingdom of heaven. Although Jesus mentioned a future phase of the kingdom and promised to return to earth someday, he never explicitly connected these two concepts. His apostles, however, linked these teachings, leading many believers throughout history to live in expectation of his immediate second coming to establish the kingdom in its fullness.

In the centuries following Jesus' life, the concept of the kingdom of heaven was significantly influenced by Greek idealism, which viewed the physical world as a shadow of spiritual realities. A major transition occurred when the Messiah of the kingdom became transformed into the Redeemer of the church, a religious and social organization that developed through Paul's work and incorporated Jesus' teachings along with ideas from Philo and Persian doctrines of good and evil. Jesus' original concept of the kingdom was fundamentally altered by two major tendencies: Jewish believers continued to expect his imminent return to establish a world-wide kingdom, while gentile Christians increasingly accepted Paul's concept of Jesus as Redeemer of the church.

The church itself, as a social outgrowth of the kingdom concept, was natural and even desirable, but it ultimately supplanted Jesus' spiritual vision of the kingdom. The church became a formal institution rather than the individually spirit-led brotherhood Jesus had envisioned. While Jesus foresaw that social organizations would develop from his teachings, he intended these to appear as natural fruits of the inner spiritual experience of believers, not as substitutes for the kingdom itself. Although his ideal concept largely failed to materialize, the spiritual essence of Jesus' teaching remains alive in advanced religions and will eventually emerge from its institutional "cocoon," just as a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis in the process of metamorphosis.