Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God. It’s how he described his ministry at the beginning of all four gospels.

• From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” – Matthew 4:17
• Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” – Mark 1:14-15
• But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” – Luke 4:43
• Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” – John 3:3

Think of the kingdom of heaven as heaven, and Jesus as the King, who’s just come to earth. Then this list of all the verbs used with “the kingdom” in the New Testament make sense:

• 16x enter the kingdom
• 16x the kingdom is given / belongs to you
• 11x preach / proclaim the kingdom
• 9x the kingdom is coming / wait for the kingdom
• 7x inherit the kingdom
• 7x the kingdom is near / at hand
• 6x see / know the kingdom
• 5x receive the kingdom
• 2x the kingdom has come upon you
• 1x seek, recline, made us to be, eat, partake, restored, workers, called, worthy, thrown out, son of, gathered out of, shine in, disciple of, keys of

Who’s kingdom are we talking about when we use phrases like these (which are not in the Bible)? Are we really just talking about our own churches and ministries?

• 0x build the kingdom
• 0x grow the kingdom
• 0x extend the kingdom
• 0x advance the kingdom
• 0x further the kingdom

We have been welcoming some Afghan refugees to Canada this past month. They are working through letting go of how things worked in Afghanistan, and receiving their new Canadian home. The verbs in the first list apply to them. They can receive Canada, tell others about Canada, see Canada, enter Canada, etc.

But we’re not expecting them to build Canada, grow Canada, extend Canada or advance Canada. Those verbs don’t make any sense. Likewise, the kingdom of God is doing fine without us working on making it bigger or better. And like the Afghans, we can fully enter into our new citizenship and receive all that God has for us.