Acts 1:6

‘They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, “Lord, do you at this time restore the kingly rule to Israel?” ’

‘Lord.’ What a different view they had of Jesus now. He was no more ‘teacher’ or Rabbi’ or even ‘Master’. He was ‘Lord’. In the words of Thomas, ‘My Lord and my God’ (John 20:28). Yet even so they did not understand what the Lordship meant for the world.

For the disciples still had a very physical view of the coming kingdom. We have seen this coming out in the request of John and James to take their seats on the right and left hand of Jesus in the coming kingdom (John 10:35-41). Now that He was risen they still seem to have held on to the view that Jesus was here to establish an earthly kingdom, ruled over by Him, presumably by force of arms, although now from His position of invulnerability as One Who had conquered death. And they were seemingly ready and waiting to join with Him in the enterprise. They had been waiting for His move all the time when He was on earth. They thought that perhaps it was now about to happen once the Spirit of the Lord had come on them as he had on Gideon and others of old in order to inspire them to successful warfare.

But as He did with John and James, Jesus here simply deflected the question and refused to enter into discussion on the matter. He pointed out that His people must not allow themselves to be taken up with speculation about any coming earthly kingdom but must rather concentrate on the matter in hand, which was to act as His witnesses and make the world aware of Him and what He had accomplished through His cross and resurrection, making them aware that He was now both Lord and Christ. They must go out and proclaim that the Kingly Rule of God was already here, and that all must submit to it. Wherever a man submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ he entered under the Kingly Rule of God. This did not forbid all thought on the matter, but it was certainly a warning that neither they nor we should allow such speculation to hinder the main purpose of the worldwide church, which is to establish God’s Kingly Rule on earth over all His true people with a view to their finally enjoying it in its fullness in Heaven. Some believe that there will yet be an earthly kingdom which they call the Millennium (a word never mentioned in Scripture). But the New Testament never mentions such an idea and it arises from a failure to recognise that ‘a thousand years’ is simply an indication of a period which is in God’s hands and the length of which is not known.