The Only Kingdom Satan Fears

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

This isn’t a stupid question.  After all Jesus has been raised from the dead and He was now promising the outpouring of the Spirit.  These were signs that the messianic era was upon them.  And as such they assumed that this would mean that Israel would be rescued from Roman power and would be restored as a national powerhouse.

This wasn’t merely selfish.  They probably believed that God’s righteousness would reign and that His glory would begin to fill the earth.  Actually they were asking for the same kingdom that was previously offered to Jesus (Matthew 4:8-10).  Russell Moore posits what this kingdom would look like when he says:

Jesus [would be directing] the kingdoms of the world however he wanted.  No more babies would be miscarried.  No more women would die in childbirth.  Ended immediately would be all human slavery, all genocide, all disease, all poverty, all torture, and all ecological catastrophes…There would be no world of divorce courts and abortion clinics and electric chairs and pornographic images.  Whatever is troubling you right now would be gone, centuries before you were ever conceived.  This sounds like paradise.  (Moore, Tempted and Tried , 152)

This is in part what the disciples were asking for.  But Jesus responds, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority”.  (In other words a kingdom like this is still coming).  Jesus continues, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. 

There is something that must necessarily precede that coming kingdom.  That “something” is the proclamation of the gospel: the centuries long proclamation of believers spilling their blood and proclaiming the gospel with their lives and their lips.  This proclamation must precede that coming kingdom because it is not the kingdom that matters as much as the King.  Satan isn’t worried about a “Christian” nation/kingdom or king.  Satan is worried about the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Russell Moore explains far better than I could:

“Satan…doesn’t fear Christianity.  He certainly doesn’t fear “Christian values.”  Satan fears Christ.  Remember that Satan holds power only through accusation and condemnation.  As long as there is no atoning sacrifice for sin, Satan is quite willing to allow conformity to external law, even to the law of Christ ruling visibly over nations from Jerusalem.  The accuser simply wants his opportunity to indict his human would-be supplanting powers before the judgment seat, with no shed blood to redeem them back”  (Moore, Tempted and Tried , 152)

The kingdom that Satan fears and is set out to destroy is not the one the disciples were longing for in Acts 1:6.  The kingdom that Satan fears is the Spirit-empowered, gospel-birthed, kingdom that comes from Acts 1:8.  The kingdom the disciples imagine (and any kingdom we could dream of) pales in comparison to this one. 

Yet, I find myself here 2,000 years later longing more for an Acts 1:6 kingdom than an Acts 1:8 kingdom.  I find myself striving for that “kingdom to Israel” more than the one that conquers God-belittling idolatry even to the ends of the earth. 

Lord, move in my heart to strive for the kingdom that Satan fears.  Help me to not settle for sacred substitutes.  Thank you that you have given your Spirit that conquers my wayward passions and redirects me to focus on the only kingdom that Satan fears.