My friend John recently told me he’s been a Christian for fifteen years but only recently discovered what the Bible actually means by “the kingdom of God.” He’s not alone. I’ve met countless believers who can recite John 3:16 from memory but couldn’t explain what Jesus meant when he said, “The kingdom of God has come near.”
This matters more than we might think. Because when Jesus stood on that Galilean hillside and commissioned his ragtag band of disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, he wasn’t just issuing marching orders for a religious movement. He was announcing something far more profound: that God’s kingdom—already breaking into the world through his life, death, and resurrection—would continue to expand until that day when his reign would be fully realized.
Understanding this changes everything about how we approach what we call the Great Commission.
The Kingdom Jesus Actually Preached
Here’s what strikes me when I read the Gospels: Jesus talks about the kingdom of God constantly. It’s not one theme among many—it’s the theme. Mark summarizes Jesus’s entire message in a single sentence: “The kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.”
But what did he mean? For most of my early Christian life, I assumed “the kingdom” was basically a synonym for heaven—the place we go when we die if we’ve prayed the right prayer. The problem is, that’s not what Jesus taught.
When Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, forgave sins, and ate with the people polite society avoided, he was demonstrating that God’s reign had arrived and was actively overturning the powers of evil, disease, and death. The kingdom wasn’t a distant destination but a present reality breaking into the world through him.
Scholars like NT Wright help us see, the biblical story doesn’t end with souls escaping earth to live in heaven. It moves toward the renewal of creation—heaven and earth united under God’s rule.
Jesus didn’t come to help us leave earth behind; he came to bring heaven’s reality to earth—and then he invited us to join him in the work.
The Beautiful Tension
But here’s where it gets interesting—and honestly, where it gets real. The New Testament presents us with a paradox. The kingdom has come—but not fully. Jesus defeated sin, death, and evil at the cross—but these forces still operate in the world. We have been saved—yet we still await complete redemption.
Think about your own experience as a Christian. Why do you experience genuine victory over certain sins while still struggling with others? Why have you seen remarkable answers to prayer while also facing prayers that seem to bounce off the ceiling? Why do you experience authentic community and love in the church while still encountering division and pettiness?
You’re living in what theologians call “the overlap”—that space where this present broken age and God’s coming kingdom intersect. The kingdom has arrived through Jesus, but it hasn’t yet come in its fullness. We live between the inauguration and the consummation, between the “already” and the “not yet.”
Here’s what the overlap looks like in real time: You’re in a small group where people from completely different backgrounds—different races, different economic situations, different generations—are genuinely loving each other, confessing sins, praying together. It’s beautiful. It’s a foretaste of the reconciled humanity God is creating. That’s the “already.” But then someone shares about their prodigal son who won’t return their calls, or their ongoing battle with anxiety, or their loneliness that prayer doesn’t seem to touch. That’s the “not yet.” Both are real. The kingdom has come—you can see it in that room. The kingdom is coming—because everyone in that room is still groaning for full redemption.
This isn’t a cop-out or an excuse for mediocrity. It’s the actual shape of Christian existence in the world as it currently is. And it fundamentally reshapes how we understand what it means to make disciples.
So if this is the reality we’re living in—this beautiful, difficult overlap—what does it actually mean to make disciples?
Beyond “Getting People Saved”
Here’s where we need to be honest: we’ve often reduced the Great Commission to a singular focus on evangelism, understood primarily as getting people to make a decision for Christ. Walk an aisle. Pray a prayer. Sign a card. Mission accomplished.
But read Matthew 28 again. Jesus doesn’t say, “Go and get people saved.” He says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The emphasis falls on disciples—learners and followers who are being transformed into Christ’s image and learning to live as kingdom citizens.
When we understand that Jesus’s central message was the kingdom of God, the Great Commission takes on deeper dimensions. We’re not just inviting people to accept a religious proposition; we’re inviting them to enter God’s kingdom, to align their lives with God’s purposes, to become part of the new humanity God is creating with a life mission greater than anything they can obtain on their own or in this world alone.
This means discipleship involves the whole person in all of life. It’s not just about getting your theology straight or having consistent quiet times (though those matter). It means learning to follow Jesus in your marriage, your work, your bank account, your entertainment choices, your politics, your suffering. It means being formed into communities that embody kingdom values and demonstrate what reconciled humanity looks like.
Discipleship isn’t preparation for someday; it’s participation in what God is doing today.
What We’re Actually Offering
If the kingdom is “already” here, then we have something real to offer people now—not just pie in the sky when you die.
We can offer genuine forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Through the gospel, you can know with confidence—not wishful thinking—that your sins are forgiven, that you’re adopted as God’s child, that nothing can separate you from his love. This is present reality.
We can invite people into authentic community. When the church functions as it should, it offers a foretaste of the reconciled humanity God is creating. Across barriers of race, class, and background, we’re united in Christ. This kind of radical community itself becomes a witness to the kingdom.
We can help people discover their calling and purpose. In God’s kingdom, every person matters and has gifts to contribute. You’re not saved to sit in pews and consume religious goods; you’re empowered by the Spirit to participate in God’s mission.
And we can teach people to experience God’s presence and power—not in some hyped-up way that promises health and wealth, but in the genuine way that Scripture describes as normal Christian experience. Prayer as communion with God. Worship as entering his presence. The Spirit’s gifts empowering our witness and service.
This holistic vision means that caring for the poor, working for justice, pursuing reconciliation, and stewarding creation aren’t distractions from “real ministry.” They’re authentic expressions of the kingdom Jesus announced. When we feed the hungry, we’re demonstrating that in God’s kingdom there will be no hunger. When we work for racial reconciliation, we’re displaying the future reality where people from every tribe and nation worship together.
But Not Yet Home
Living in the “not yet” means maintaining hope while being honest about struggle. The kingdom hasn’t fully come. Evil still operates. People still suffer. Prayers still go unanswered. Death still reigns. For now.
Part of mature discipleship involves creating space for lament, doubt, and hard questions. When suffering seems meaningless, when evil appears to triumph, when God seems silent, we don’t have to paste on fake smiles and pretend everything is fine. The Psalms teach us that honest wrestling with God is part of authentic faith.
But hope changes how we live now. When you know that God will make all things new, that every tear will be wiped away, that justice will ultimately prevail, that death itself will be defeated—this knowledge transforms how you face present suffering and injustice. Hope doesn’t mean passivity; it means active engagement sustained by confident expectation of God’s future.
Hope isn’t denial that things are broken; it’s defiance that declares broken won’t be the final word.
This is why Christians have historically been able to face persecution, serve sacrificially, and persist in the face of discouragement. Not because we’re stronger, but because we know the end of the story. The kingdom is coming in its fullness, and nothing can stop it.
The Mission Before Us
So what does this mean practically for making disciples?
It means we teach people to live in this tension—celebrating real transformation while acknowledging ongoing struggle. We pray boldly for healing while accepting that not everyone is healed in this age. We work passionately for justice while recognizing that perfect justice awaits Christ’s return.
It means we address the whole of life from a kingdom perspective. What does following Jesus look like in your specific job? How do you handle money as a kingdom citizen? What does it mean to be a kingdom parent, spouse, neighbor? These aren’t secondary questions—they’re at the heart of what it means to live under God’s reign.
It means we create communities where people can experience something of the kingdom now—genuine relationships, mutual care, shared mission—while pointing toward its future fullness.
And it means we live with confidence that the one who commissioned us is with us always, to the very end of the age. Not an impossible task, because the kingdom has come and God’s Spirit empowers us. Not an already-accomplished task, because the kingdom has not yet fully arrived. But a glorious task—participating in God’s mission to renew all things through Christ.
An Invitation to Reality
The Great Commission isn’t ultimately about religious activity or church growth metrics. It’s about inviting people into the most real thing there is: God’s kingdom breaking into the world, transforming lives, creating community, bringing hope, and moving toward that day when heaven and earth are finally united under Christ’s loving rule.
This is what we’re offering when we make disciples. Not just information about God, but participation in his redemptive work. Not just preparation for heaven someday, but entrance into kingdom life now. Not just individual salvation, but incorporation into the new humanity God is creating. Not just a decision but a new way of living where you and I go out and become a part of the mission of making disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
Between the times, in the overlap, we remain faithful to the commission. Going. Baptizing. Teaching. Making disciples who learn to live in the beautiful, difficult, hope-filled tension of the already and not yet.
The kingdom has come. The kingdom is coming. And we get to be part of it.
