We Are the Kingdom

Continuing his series on responding to politics in our world, minister Aaron Hill uses passages from a perhaps unexpected book. The book of Revelation, though it can be intimidating, often addresses the politics of the age in which it was written. John references Rome throughout the book, though it appears in the guise of Babylon. The imagery John uses to refer to the politics of Rome can be confusing and is sometimes misunderstood, but the Jewish people of the time would have understood it more readily that we would.
Political tensions may have prevented John for writing this letter in a straightforward manner; thus, he may have cloaked his message in imagery grounded in a Jewish temple context. Roman authorities might have been less likely to allow John’s letter to be sent had they recognized John’s negative comments about the Roman empire. Jewish readers, however, would have readily understood it.
In the first chapter of Revelation, we find out that God has made us a kingdom. We are the kingdom! Not a kingdom defined by geo-political boundaries, but a kingdom nonetheless, and Jesus is King and Lord and God of that kingdom, which is His church.