Kingdom Conflict

If you have ever lived with ten people under one roof then you know how important it is to cooperate with each other. Even little things, like getting into the bathroom, have the potential to be explosive. Fortunately we have been blessed with the presence of an eleventh “Person” around our house; God helps us to all live together in peace.

Jesus came preaching the message that the Kingdom of God had come. Jesus said “At last the time has come” or as the KJV says “The time is fulfilled” (see Mark 1:15 NLT). In other words Jesus was making it clear that what the Old Testament prophets had prophesied was now taking place; God’s word was coming to pass. The Kingdom had come.

The religious leaders knew that if what Jesus said was true then Jesus must be God’s promised Messiah. But Jesus didn’t look like the Messiah they were expecting; they were looking for a Messiah to come and forcibly kick out the Romans and make the kingdom of Israel great again. Their problem was all the miracles that Jesus had done; how could Jesus cast out demons and perform signs and wonders? Their solution: Jesus did not do these things with God’s power but with Satan’s power.

• [23] Jesus called them over and said to them by way of illustration, “How can Satan cast out Satan? [24] A kingdom at war with itself will collapse.”
  Mark 3:23-24 (NLT)

Jesus pointed out the flaw in their logic. If Jesus was casting out demons by Satan’s power then the devil was shooting himself in the foot and it was only a matter of time until Satan would destroy his entire kingdom. The only other option was that Jesus had in fact announced the coming of God’s Kingdom and proved the arrival of the Kingdom with signs and wonders through the power of God.

What Jesus said and did makes it clear that the Kingdom of God stands in opposition to the dominion of Satan. God’s kingdom would not be established through an earthly kingdom in Israel or anyplace else. The Kingdom of God was a spiritual reality that had come to destroy Satan’s rule in this world and the evidence pointed to the reality that Jesus was triumphing over the devil; demons were cast out, the sick recovered.

Jesus continues to show that the Kingdom of God has come and Satan is defeated. Jesus still heals the sick; He still has authority over demons. No kingdom is divided against itself. If we want to stand with Jesus, then lets discover ways to oppose the works of evil that are evident around us. Jesus has established the Kingdom of God with power and authority.