When Will The Reign Of Christ End?
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INTRODUCTION
When writing a book, an author commonly develops themes in the first chapter that repeat throughout the drama but only find their resolution in the final chapter. This is precisely what God has done in the epic tale He has constructed called man. When God began His story, He created the first man and called Adam. God designed that man as the pinnacle of His creation, enlivened that man with His own breath, and placed him in a garden palace to rule and have dominion over the creatures. God installed this man as His viceroy, and along with his newly crafted queen, Adam was called to be fruitful in his labors, to multiply humans to fill the earth and extend God's dominion to every square inch of the planet to the glory of God. And while Adam failed in this mission, this was the paradigmatic chapter God used to launch into His story.
Knowing this, it should not be surprising that God brings all of these themes together in beautiful, victorious harmony in the final chapter we are now living in. For instance, He raised a true and better Adam, Jesus, to succeed where Adam failed. Unlike Adam, who fell into the depths of sin, Jesus would ascend as the pinnacle of a new creation, high and lifted up, with a name above all names, to sit as God's true and better viceroy. Like Adam, who was called to rule in a garden, Jesus ascended into paradise and sat at the right hand of God to be fruitful in His labors, to multiply disciples across the nations, and to bring the unruly world under the rule of Almighty God. Unlike Adam, who fell at the feet of the serpent, Christ crushed the serpent under His feet and has been plundering that dragon's kingdom ever since. This final chapter that we are living in, where Christ redeems everything lost in the fall of Adam, is the last and concluding chapter in God's grand masterpiece. This means you are living in the end times. Let me explain.
Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about how the book of Acts, especially in the events of Pentecost, prepares us for the fact that the end times are events that have already begun. This works itself out in two specific ways. First, the last days rightly refer to the final waning years of the Old Covenant era, where the temple, the priesthood, and Mosaic Judaism all came to a cataclysmic end with the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Those were the last days of the Old Covenant, and when they were over, that chapter was closed forever and for good. Yet, on the other hand, the end times also refer to the beginning of a new era inaugurated in the first century. This is a final end-time epoch of earth's history, a concluding chapter encompassing the entire reign of Christ, who will bring all things under His Lordship or under His feet.
Thus, the end times describe a unique forty-year period, a window of time, that occurred in the first century, where two distinct covenantal eras overlapped in the nation of Judah. At the same time that the Apostle Paul was preaching the Christian Gospel in Galatia, the high priests were offering sacrifices in Jerusalem. These two eras had overlapped. The penultimate chapter had yet to conclude before the final chapter began. During those forty years, between the ascension of our Lord in AD 30 and the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70, both the New and Old Covenant eras existed simultaneously. One was nose-diving into its last and final hours, while the other was soaring to life, evidence that God's final chapter of history had begun.
Today, I want us to build upon that foundation by seeing two things. First, I want us to clearly see how Jesus came into His reign and is in that reign right now. Second, without venturing into the bizarre and weird, I want to show how we can know precisely when His reign will be complete. With that, let us continue in Peter's great sermon, recorded in Acts chapter 2:32-36.
Luke tells us:
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."' 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 2:32-36
WHEN DOES THE REIGN OF CHRIST BEGIN?
As this passage tells us, Jesus' reign begins the moment He ascends and sits upon the throne. We are not waiting for a future millennial Kingdom of Jesus. He is also not currently in heaven twiddling His thumbs. He is reigning over His empire now, and the armies of hell are shuddering because of it. How do we know this?
For one, Luke tells us that Christ was exalted up unto the right hand of God in the resurrection and ascension. Jesus' exaltation should be seen as His elevation above all men and His coronation to rule. For instance, being at the king's right hand symbolized unparalleled authority. Men who were elevated to such a position would be considered the vice-regent, the second in command, with power over all men, save the King. In a sense, this is the position unto which God appointed Adam. Yet, Adam's obedience puttered out, and fell into rebellion, before he reached his throne. Not so with Jesus Christ, who entered into the form of man and was obedient to the point of death, even the cursed death of a cross. And because of this, God has lifted Him up to the highest position to reign over the race of men as our King, Lord, and Messiah.
We also know this is true because it fulfills the prophecy of Daniel 7. There, Daniel tells us:
"I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came UP to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. - Daniel 7:13-14 (Emphasis mine)
Daniel envisions a moment in Jesus' life where He will ascend with the clouds of heaven, going up in exaltation to the Ancient of days, which happened as He ascended into the clouds, leaving His disciples gawking at the sky from a street corner in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Jesus Himself told us that this was the correct interpretation of Daniel's prophecy when He quoted it before Caiphas, reminding the wicked high priest that he would be alive to see Jesus not only resurrected but also ascended (Matthew 26:62-66). Daniel proves when the Lord ascends to the throne room of Yahweh, He will be given a Kingdom that will never end. It will never pass away. It will never be destroyed. That kingdom is the Kingdom Jesus is currently reigning over, called the Church, and it is Jesus' role in redemption to extend that kingdom's dominion, to advance her boundaries, and to promote her vision, until the entire earth falls inside her borders and submits to her worldview.
WHEN DOES THE REIGN OF CHRIST END?
This brings us to an important question. If we are in the last days right now, how long will these last days continue? Are the last days soon to run out? Or do we have another ten thousand years to go? These are important and very interesting questions.
In our passage today, Peter quotes Psalm 110 to show us that Jesus "must reign," which signifies that Jesus will be in a state of ongoing rule until the end comes. There will not be any lapses in His government, no coups, no overturned elections, or failed dominion voting systems. Our King will reign unabated and unencumbered until the very end, bringing us to the question: when will the reign of Christ on this earth end?
Now, there are several ways to answer that question. One would be correct to say that Christ will reign until every elect Christian is regenerated, and then the end will come. This is absolutely true. There is not a single person who was elect before the foundations of the world, who will not come to regeneration by the Spirit. If God chose them, they will come. So, when the last elect believer is saved in space in time, then most assuredly, the end will come.
Another way to examine this question is how Peter addresses it in his sermon in Acts chapter 2. There, he tells us that Jesus' reign will continue from the moment it began at His ascension and heavenly enthronement until Jesus puts all of His enemies under His feet. Did you catch that? Peter teaches us that His reign must continue until every enemy is put down. And since Satan has already been put under the feet of Christ in His resurrection (Mark 3:22-27; Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15; Revelation 20:1-3) and since Jesus proclaimed all authority in heaven and on earth now belong to Him (Matthew 28:18), it may be tempting to think Jesus has no more enemies to put down and that the end could happen any time as if it has been imminent for more than 2000 years, but this is not true.
We must remember that when Jesus announced His supreme Lordship and authority over the cosmos in Matthew 28:18, in the very next verse, He commanded His disciples to live in that authority by taking the Gospel to all the nations and baptizing them in the Triune name (Matthew 28:19). Jesus would not have told us to go and spread His dominion among the nations if He had already brought them under His Lordship. He told us that He has been given all authority and power over them, yes and amen! And that they belong to Him as His inheritance; this is undeniable! But even while belonging to Him, we can clearly see they are still in wicked rebellion against Him.
Imagine it like this: suppose you had the money to buy Los Angeles County and everything in it, and so you did. All the buildings, the neighborhoods, the houses, the studios, the people, and everything within that county now came under your ownership. At that moment, everything would belong to you, but you could not imagine everything within that county would align with your vision. After you purchase it, your work would be to align every organization, bank, business, and household with your vision. To do this, you would likely begin with a small team of people who represented you, who would go out into the community to convince more people to come up under your vision, and then you would empower those new converts to go and do the same thing until the entire county not only belonged to you but looked like you. This is what Jesus has done. By His resurrection, all of the cosmos came under His ownership. Christ has sent His representatives, His disciples, into the world to align this wayward planet with His plans and vision. When we understand this, we begin to see what it means for Jesus to put all His enemies under His feet. His vision for the world is that it looks like Him. He prayed that God's Kingdom would come on earth as it already has come in heaven, and it is this vision that Jesus is enacting in the world that He purchased. Thus, an enemy of Christ is anything that does not purport with His opinion. An enemy of Christ is anything or anyone who stands opposed to His plans. So, in this, we can confidently say He must reign until all the nations on earth surrender or be destroyed. He must reign until all abortions cease and every abortion provider repents or is thrown headlong into hell. He must reign until every aberrant form of sexuality in this rotten world is conformed with His Father's vision. He must reign until all brothels are closed and marriage is esteemed. He must reign until the media stops peddling lies and division and would be willing to end each broadcast with The Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed. He must reign until there are no ghettos in Chicago, there is no swamp in Washington, and there is no depravity in Hollywood. He must reign until child is catechized and every family on earth comes under His Lordship and covenant blessings.
While I cannot give you an exact year when all of this and more will happen, I can look around and see that there is a tremendous amount of work left to be done!
CONCLUSION
Throughout the last 2000 years, the Church has been obediently taking the Gospel to the world and to the nations, calling for them to come under the Lordship of Christ. Wherever the world parts ways with Jesus is where we have been called to serve. And when all the nations on earth finally bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, when all rebellion is squashed, when all the families on earth are blessed in the seed of Abraham's covenant, or are put under His titanic feet in cursing, then the end will come. When He has sufficiently put away all foreign and domestic enemies, all hate and malice, chaos and confusion, sin and misery, and brought the world into His global reign of peace, then and only then will the end come. Not a moment sooner.
Isaiah tells us:
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. - Isaiah 9:7
God will zealously accomplish His plan. It does not need to make sense to you. It does not matter if you find it hard to believe. The zeal of Yahweh will accomplish His plan, which is to spread His government and shalom to every square inch of the world. Until that time, the end will not yet come. And since the end is not yet here, grab your hammer and your nail and get to work in building Christendom.
