Another nice diagram, Andrew. Your description of the kingdom relates to your view of the parousia, reflected in judgment on Jerusalem and Rome(?), as said to be an event which has already occurred - the eschatological guarantor of the church’s protection and survival.

I see the NT presenting the kingdom as something much more dynamic. It centres in the first place on Jesus. His announcement in Mark 1:14 proclaims a realised event: "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near (engizen - at hand). Repent and believe the good news!" We could quibble about the precise meaning of engizo, and whether it meant something about to occur (like the parousia), or something that was already occurring - but arguably it means both - and that the time had been fulfilled with the appearance of Jesus in person, and it would be fulfilled in all his actions (not just one of them). I have argued this more thoroughly in my post on Christ and Eschatology.

To illustrate the view that the kingdom had already arrived in the person of Jesus, we see that this kingdom, unlike the national, warrior kingdoms of Israel and the OT, is characterised by supernatural activity - in its authority - Mark 1:17-18, the casting out of demons - Mark 1:21-28, healings - Mark 1:29-34, authority over creation - Mark 4:35-41, raisings from the dead - Mark 5:21-43, and the evidence in the whole of Mark of a clash between two kingdoms.

This acivity of the kingdom is summarised in Matthew 12:28 - "But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." There is an equivalence between the activity of the Spirit and the kingdom of God.

This equivalence is further illustrated by Jesus’s reply to those who came from John the Baptist, asking if he was the expected messiah, "the one who was to come", or if they should expect someone else. This confusion is highly instructive. John was influenced, presumably, by Israel’s nationalistic expectations of a messiah who would overthrow the pagans, and impose a kingdom similar to the OT exemplar of David. Jesus’s reply is even more instructive - and he points to a kingdom modelled on that foretold by Isaiah - Matthew 11:4-6 containing direct allusions to Isaiah 35 and 61.

In short, the kingdom which Jesus came to inaugurate is supernaturally inspired, is closely associated with the work of the Holy Spirit (which becomes even more pronounced in the statements in Acts 1 as forerunners to Pentecost), is dynamic in its operation, and has been continuously demonstrated throughout history to the present day.

The kingdom doesn’t so much guarantee protection of the church, as guarantee and demonstrate its victory over the opposing powers. This victory comes about in surprising ways - with death and martyrdom sometimes being the prime engine of further victory and growth.

It goes without saying that the greatest victory of the kingdom can be seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus - since these events guaranteed the new creation, and are the source, in the person of Jesus himself and his identification with the church, of its life and continuation. 

Kingdom is only a metaphor for something for which words are probably inadequate. The OT example of kingdom likewise falls far short of the developed understanding of kingdom which came in the NT. The NT gives us a forward vision of what the kingdom will ultimately look like: when the kingdom is "handed over to God the Father" and he becomes "all in all" - 1 Corinthians 15:24, 28. But we are still in the realm of metaphor, and it would be unwise to interpret this as the termination of the kingdom. Rather, it is a picture of the kingdom’s completeness - over the whole earth.

From a missional point of view then, the kingdom can be seen as the confirmation in works and wonders of the words of the gospel - which proclaims the person and acts of Jesus. That is how it appears in Acts, but with the qualification that sometimes the wonders themselves were the sole expression of the kingdom - bringing literal sight to the blind, healing for the sick, and a variety of expressions of new life. Today, these expressions are complemented by a wide spectrum of possibilities - in the arts, music, literature, drama, political and community activity, social justice movements, environmental awareness and action, and so on. All these things have significance for the kingdom when they point to the person of Jesus as its fons et origo, its future completion, and the one who would draw all people to himself.