Jesus, The Messiah, Reigns

One of the greatest tragedies of history is the rejection of Jesus as the Christ by the majority of the Jewish peoples of the 1st Century. Indeed, to this very day, the Jews are still waiting for their Messiah.

Why did they reject Jesus as their Anointed King? It was because they had studied the messianic prophecies with carnal minds and came to the false conclusion that their Messiah would be a mighty conqueror of the gentile nations who would re-establish David’s throne in a great palace in Jerusalem. The Messiah would release the Jews from servitude to heathen masters and, instead, cause the heathen to bow before and become slaves to the world-dominating Jewish Kingdom.

When Jesus failed to live-up to their carnal expectations, they rejected Him in derision. How awfully sad.

It is almost as sad to realize that there are many professing Christians who have made almost the very same error as the misguided Jews. There are people today who still believe that Jesus’ kingdom is still future. They believe that His kingdom has yet to be established and that, when it is ushered-in, Jesus will sit on a physical throne in the physical city of Jerusalem and reign over a world-wide physical kingdom.

This view is unBiblical. The Scriptures plainly teach that JESUS NOW REIGNS AS KING OVER HIS KINGDOM, SITTING UPON THE THRONE OF DAVID. Every Old Testament prophecy relating to the Kingdom of the Messiah has been or is now being fulfilled.

Let’s study the Scriptures:

1.The Time of the Establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.

The prophet Daniel has provided us with the chronology of when Christ’s divine kingdom would be established. The Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar had a prophetic vision which spoke of four kingdoms, in the form of a statue, which would exist prior to the coming of the kingdom of God (Daniel 2:36-45). The first kingdom was the Babylonian, the second was the Medo-Persian, the third was the Greek, and the fourth was the Roman.

A "stone" struck the portion of the statue representing the Roman kingdom or empire and the stone "became a great mountain and filled the whole earth". The stone is identified as the kingdom of God.

Thus, we are to expect the Kingdom of God to be established during the period of the Roman Empire.

It is no coincidence that the Messiah-King Jesus appeared during the time of the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1-7; 3:1). For, Jesus preached, "THE TIME IS FULFILLED, AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND (Mark 1:14-15)."

Jesus further narrowed the time-frame of when the kingdom would be established when He boldly asserted to the Jewish people that "there are those standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power (Mark 9:1)".

Evidence points to the fact that Jesus began to reign as King after His resurrection when He ascended to the Father’s right hand. The powerful events that took place on Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, were proofs of the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.

2.David’s throne is in Heaven at the Father’s right hand.

All would agree that the Messiah would rule His kingdom sitting on the throne of David (Psalm 89:3-4; Isaiah 9:6-7). That this would be the case with Jesus was confirmed to Mary by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31-33).

The Apostle Peter states that these prophecies were fulfilled when, after the resurrection, Jesus sat down upon the throne at God’s right hand - "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David....because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne. He looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.... Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:29-32, 36)."

Thus, we see that Jesus is now sitting on David’s throne, at the Father’s right hand, as Lord and Christ (Messianic king).

There are two reasons why David’s throne is not currently - nor in the future can be - on the earth:

A. God decreed that the descendants of unfaithful King Jeconiah would never rule in Judah again.

King Jeconiah was the last royal descendant of David to rule in Judah before the Jewish Nation was carried-off into Babylonian Captivity. Jeconiah or Coniah was unfaithful to God’s purposes, therefore, God decreed that none of his descendants would ever be allowed to sit and rule "IN JUDAH" (Jeremiah 22:24-30).

According to Matthew 1:11, Jesus is a descendant of Jeconiah. Thus, Jesus could never sit on a throne in physical Jerusalem IN JUDAH. Instead, Jesus sits on David’s throne, which has been transferred to God’s right hand.