The world as it will be unfolds slowly. The leaven works through the loaf slowly and quietly. The mustard seed grows silently and takes its sweet time. The world to come is in fact coming, but not on our timetable.
There are two kinds of unbelief. One doesn’t want the new world to come at all—and tries to keep or retain the old ways. The other is the revolutionary form of unbelief, which demands that its particular fevered utopia must come by this time tomorrow. The first error is that of the pagan past, the second error is that of the futuristic heretic. Both of them hate wisdom, and therefore are worldviews that love and embrace death.
One wants to keep us in the death from which Jesus delivered our world, and the other wants to introduce a new form of death. In contrast to this, Jesus, the Lord of life, came into this world to transform it. Jesus came to bring everlasting life, a life which has been spreading slowly (but steadily) since it was first introduced just outside Jerusalem, that first resurrection morning. That life has been growing ever since—Sunday by Sunday, the worship of the true God has been expanding.
But this is not a quantitative expansion. It is qualitative. The kingdom is alive. The kingdom teems with life. Because the people of the kingdom will live forever, and are alive now, it follows that they will eat. What nourishes us? The answer is the body of the Lord Jesus, and the blood of the new covenant. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.