INTRODUCTION – SOME BASIC OBSERVATIONS

(1) WHAT IS THE BIBLE?  What is it NOT? It is not just a collection of men’s ideas about God. The Bible is much greater than that. It is God’s disclosure or revelation of Himself – His nature and His purposes – through His dealings with mankind in general, the people of old Israel especially, and supremely through His Son Jesus of Nazareth, declared and shown to be the Messiah Saviour of the world.  

(2) Jesus Christ believed that the Old Testament was about Him and His ministry – see Luke 24:25-27 and 44,45, then John 5:39,40. Let’s read them.

(3) The Bible is both human and divine. It was written by men but inspired by God - ‘men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:21). – (Greek: like a ship carried along by the wind). ‘All Scripture is God breathed…’ (2 Tim.3:16).

(4) But the revelation of God’s purposes in the Bible is progressive – it develops and expands as the story of the Bible unfolds from its first pages. Our task is to investigate ways of understanding that development – of how God gradually reveals the way He is going to achieve His purposes – through Jesus Christ.

(5) Most, if not all, the big ideas in the New Testament have their roots in the Old Testament eg redemption, sacrifice, atonement, grace, mercy, wisdom, righteousness, light and darkness, holiness, remnant, steadfast love, temple etc.

(6) But we are going to explore the two biggest common themes – Kingdom and Covenant, and in the process will reveal the amazing ways God has worked. So, first, we are going to seek out the KINGDOM theme in the whole Bible. We shall regard the two phrases ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ as interchangeable.

YOUR NOTES

We do not worship the Bible; We worship the God revealed in the Bible. We revere His character and purposes as revealed in the Bible. We seek to obey Him by believing the revealed Gospel and living for Jesus Christ His Son.

  And it is cumulative

  We ignore or discount the OT to our loss

3. (1) The words ‘Kingdom of God’ are only explicit twice in the Old Testament and those are in Daniel 7, vs.14,27 both of which are looking forward to ‘the end time’ when God’s judgement takes place and His kingdom is made complete and perfect. Let’s read Dan.7:13-17 and 27.  

(2) But the word ‘Kingdom’ associated with God is common and the concept of the ‘Kingdom of God’ is implicit in several ways in the OT. It hovers in the background and shows itself through all Israel’s hopes and expectations - in particular, and more explicitly, in the reign of David and God’s promises to him of a future everlasting kingdom with an everlasting king. God’s royal sovereignty is a central concept of the Psalms and prophets. Ps.68:20, 145:13; Is.40:10, 52:7.

(3) After the exile in Babylon when the People of Israel returned   to the Promised Land to rebuild it, and after the OT closes with the Book of Malachi, Jewish writers during the next 400 yrs used the phrase ‘the Kingdom of God’ to anticipate the glorious time when the Messiah would come.  That’s why Jesus chose to use the phrase – His hearers already knew the expression well. But that kingdom was not going to be what they expected and hoped for! In what way?

Look up Daniel 7:14,27