Zach Amick Discussion Questions

Explain how the kingdom is both a present experience and a future hope. What do we already have and what do we still hope for?

To answer this question simply, we already have the kingdom and we are still hoping for the kingdom! What we have at present is His presence. The promise of God being with us and walking among us was realized when the Word became flesh. Jesus, the Son of God, who is God, came and walked among men. The King came into creation, and with Him came His kingdom and He has made it possible for us to enter into it. We do so when we believe in Him, His work, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. This ascension is why we are still hoping for the kingdom however. Had the king stayed, then surely His kingdom would have been established in a physical reality, but I think that probably would not have worked out well for us who hadn’t yet heard the Gospel. So for now the kingdom exists in a spiritual sense, still very real and present, but it is being manifested through the hearts and lives of the saints.
It is like a King has gone to a land in the midst of rebellion and/or oppression and given a final peace offering and made those who recognize the true King to be His ambassadors. Then He returned home, vowing to come back to completely liberate and subdue His kingdom. We are those ambassadors, recognizing that all creation truly belongs to the one through whom it was made and urging people to turn back to Him before He returns on a war horse with a robe dipped in blood.



James Eschatology

James has a fair bit to say in regards to eschatology as he has sprinkled end times teaching throughout his letter instructing exiled Jewish believers how to live appropriately. Perhaps one of the most important things to notice when looking at the overall letter is how James used end times teaching as motivation, purpose, hope, and reason for encouraging others in godly living. James appropriately ties the result of final judgement to our faith in Christ and he tells us that we can know if our faith is good by the works that we do. James helps us by teaching us about the kind of people who will inherit the Kingdom, and those who will not inherit the Kingdom. He helps us to understand the means through which we may experience mercy, and the attitudes that will disqualify us from it. Yet he inspires us to remain humble by reminding us that only God is the Judge, and to remain steadfast because the coming of the Lord is near.

Your description of the “now and not yet” is a fantastic illustration of what the Kingdom is. It’s easy to understand, and I imagine it would be easy to explain to someone had never heard it, too. I particularly love the way you said how Jesus is a king who has come to offer a peace offering, yet he’s going to return to subdue His kingdom. That’s a delightfully simple, yet still accurate, way of describing the second coming. “The kingdom has come, and will come” is not too different from saying, “Jesus came and will come back”. It’s not a paradox, it’s just two steps of the process.