Get Real! Multiverse or the Kingdom of God?

What if you could change your life? That’s a typical marketing hook we see today.

It works because many people are indeed unhappy and discontented with their lives.

Looking at the conflict, brokenness, and injustice in the world, it’s also no wonder that many people have the desire to transform their lives. Some even want to change the world.

At the same time, we live in a post-modern world that tells us that there is no objective reality and truth is subjective and relative.

That leads to a proliferation of ideas and shared experiences on social media. With that, there seems to million possible ways available to a person to transform their lives, change the world or just escape from reality.

Can there be one Way, Truth and Life?

We see in our culture, we have moved from marvelling the wonders of our one universe to imagining the possibilities of the multiverse and metaverse.

On Tik-tok, there are some influencers who are sharing their “tips” on how one can shift to a different reality through various methods from hot showers to meditation to imagination in order to access an alternate world. Hashtag #shiftingrealities on TikTok has 3.9 billions views.

Recently, one metaverse company is offering “eternal life” as an avatar via using artificial intelligence if you give them your personal data.

It seems like many have a desire to escape the pains of the life and reality of death.

Before the multiverse and metaverse, we see others in isolation in their own world, others drown themselves with work, investment, games, TV dramas, gambling and even ministry to escape what they don’t want to face in the world.

What if I tell you the barrage of information and ideas that only satisfy us for a little while but will leave us even more thirsty are actually distracting us from the living water?

What if these many ways of escaping are actually blinding us and preventing us from having the single-hearted worship of the one and only true God?

If you are looking at an alternate reality to live in, why not live in the reality of God’s Kingdom?

Reality of God’s Kingdom

When Jesus came on earth, he said, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. When Jesus taught his disciples to prayed, he said, Your Kingdom come”. When questioned by Pilate, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world”.

So what is this kingdom? Is this the reality that can give us lasting peace and joy?

Now you may ask “isn’t the realm of God’s kingdom the whole world as we see it now?”, since we know God reigns everywhere, in all things.

However, from those verses mentioned, we can infer that the bible is talking about a Kingdom that is more specific.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim that the “Kingdom of God” is near, it is indeed near because the King has come to live among them.

When Jesus came, He inaugurated God’s kingdom but He didn’t consummate it.

In the consummation of the Kingdom, we will see a visible, universal submission to God’s reign, as the scriptures tells us, it is the time, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess will confess that Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of God”

However, the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ kingship is not just a future hope. Jesus proclaimed, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Christ is King in this very moment.

Martyn Lloyd Jones described the Kingdom of God this way:

‘The kingdom of God is among you’ and ‘within you’; the kingdom of God is in every true Christian. He reigns in the Church when she acknowledges Him truly. The kingdom has come, the kingdom is coming, the kingdom is yet to come. Now we must always bear that in mind. Whenever Christ is enthroned as King, the kingdom of God is come, so that, while we cannot say that He is ruling over all in the world at the present time, He is certainly ruling in that way in the hearts and lives of all His people.

Why is it a better Kingdom?

Now that we know the Kingdom is both now and in the future. Many of the blessings of the Kingdom can be experienced today, but there are also blessings yet to come.

But we must answer the question: How is the Kingdom of God, better than the kingdoms and realities of the world? Let me give you four reasons.

1)  First, let’s look at the King of this Kingdom.

Furthermore, in Philippians 2:6-8, it was written that Christ, 

Who, being in very nature  God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

He is a king who came to serve, not to be served. While we were God’s enemies and still sinners, Christ died for us!

The bible tells us, “God is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else”.

Is there any other king more worthy of our praise?

2)  Because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, people who live in the Kingdom are born-again and we receive a new heart. The power of sin in our lives is broken. We are forgiven and there is no more condemnation, and Christ’s righteousness lives in us.

Therefore Romans 14:7 tells us

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

3)   With our transformed hearts, we live in this kingdom by doing His will and that makes the kingdom looks upside- down to the world.

After all, it is a place where the ruler of the Kingdom, identifies with the poor and is a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows.

Following example of the King, in the kingdom whoever wants to become great, must be the servant. Our victory is found in denying ourselves and take up our cross.

In this upside kingdom, we see that the blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek and merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.

Those who humble themselves will be exalted.

People from different socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities can call each other brothers and sisters and lay down their lives for each other.

Isn’t this better than the grandest promise you have heard from any leader, politician or activist? What’s more important is that this a promise that will be fulfilled by our faithful God.

4) Lastly, the kingdom is an unshakeable kingdom. Nations, empires will come and go. Trends, arguments, and ideas that set itself up against the knowledge of God will fade away. But God’s dominion endures throughout all generations. The Word of God endures forever.

You cannot say that of the fantasy world that is conjured up by your own imagination or designed by man.

Conclusion

Indeed, the world we live in isn’t perfect or what we hope it would it be.

But that is no good reason for us to live in a fantasy, crytpo or virtual world that only gives us a false sense of hope or purpose, only for a while.

Hebrews tell us, “for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” 

Having said that, neither should we withdraw from the world and live in isolation because Jesus calls us to be the salt and light of the world.

John Calvin once said that it is the duty of the church make the invisible kingdom visible. We can show others the reality of the kingship of Christ through the way we lead our lives. And through our words and deeds, we testify that Christ is indeed King in every aspects of our lives. This is how the Kingdom of God will be manifest in this world before the second coming of our Lord.

Jesus did not mislead us to think it will be easy. He warned that there will be grief and anguish in the world and calls us to bear the cross.

In John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And He has given us the promise in Matthew 6:33, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So brothers and sister, let us not look to the metaverse or multiverse for answers, or put our hopes in any man or institutions that promises you a different world.    

We have one life in eternity. Make it real, make it matter, make it glorious, because we serve a great God.

Let us humble ourselves, and truly acknowledge the Creator of the Universe as our King and live in the reality of His eternal Kingdom.