REVIEW
            A couple of weeks ago we began a new series which I am entitling “The Gospel of the Kingdom.” And in this teaching, we are becoming established in the fact that the kingdom of God is the gospel message. So, the reason we began with the message of the kingdom itself is because in order for us to see the significance of this subject, we need to see the emphasis placed on it by everyone from Jesus to the apostles after Him.
Now in part one of this series, we began in the beginning of the New Testament and saw what the Lord Jesus Himself’s message was throughout His earthly ministry. So, we looked in the four Gospels and saw what He placed the emphasis on—clearly seeing that His message was the kingdom of God. Yes, time and time again throughout the Gospels we see the Lord saying, “The kingdom is like this” and “The kingdom is like that.” In fact, we learned that throughout the four Gospels, Jesus uses the phrases “kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, His kingdom, etc.” over 80 times! So, yes, even though He spent time talking about other subjects, all of Jesus’ teachings were absolutely kingdom centered. Therefore, we can correctly conclude that the kingdom of God was Jesus’ message!
We looked at a Scripture where the very purpose of Jesus’ ministry was clearly described: In Luke 4:42-43, Jesus responded to the people who wanted Him to stay by saying, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Notice that He said He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also. In other words, we learned from Jesus’ own mouth what Jesus preached. So, there should be no argument regarding this—Jesus’ “sermon” was the kingdom of God! Then we learned from this passage of Scripture that Jesus said that He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also because it was for this purpose that He was sent. In other words, not only was the kingdom of God His message, declaring this message was His very purpose for being sent by His Father!
Then we looked back at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and saw Him preaching the kingdom of God: In Mark 1:14, when Jesus began His three-year mission we are told— “… after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,” So, we learned that this is the first thing we see Jesus doing after His ministry began— “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” Therefore, Jesus did indeed come preaching the gospel, but was the good news that he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God? According to these Scriptures, the good news that He proclaimed was the kingdom of God! Then we learned what this gospel was that Jesus was preaching in the following verse when we are told specifically what He was saying: This verse says, “and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”
So, what I wanted you to realize in this first message on the gospel of the kingdom was how the kingdom of God was the gist of what Jesus came to proclaim to His chosen people. And if Jesus emphasized the kingdom of God in His life and ministry, I think we ought to as well. Amen? Yes, we should embrace this kingdom mentality in our lives because, when we come to see things from this perspective, it will change how we view life in this world and what Christianity is all about. It’s all about the gospel of the kingdom of God!
But last week, we moved on into talking about how the kingdom of God was not just Jesus’ message; it was (and still is) the message of the entire New Testament. Yes, we saw others from John the Baptist to the apostle Paul also declaring the message of God’s kingdom in their ministries.
            We began in Luke 16:16 where Jesus made a profound statement: In it, He perfectly described the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments. Jesus said, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”
We first learned that when Jesus referred to “the law and the prophets,” this was just the terminology that the Jews used in their day to describe what we refer to as the “Old Testament.” The reason for this is because to the Jewish mind (whom Jesus was preaching to), the Scriptures pertaining to their covenant mainly consisted of the law (i.e. The books of Moses) and the prophets (i.e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, the minor prophets, etc.). So, essentially Jesus was saying, “The Old Testament was until John …” Until John who? Until John the Baptist! So, the thought Luke was conveying was— “until John the Baptist came on the scene.”
We learned that when John the Baptist arose in the wilderness preaching repentance, Jesus was saying that this is when the preaching of what would lead us into the New Covenant began to be declared. But, of course, Jesus did not call it the New Testament or the New Covenant, did He? So, what did He call it? Well, let’s look at that verse again: “Since that time (since the time the Old Testament had been declared and since the time John came on the scene) the kingdom of God has been preached…” So, just as Jesus referred to the Old Testament as “the law and the prophets,” He also used a different terminology to refer to the New Testament message. And what terminology was that? He simply called it the kingdom of God!
So, we gathered from all of this that, again, the kingdom of God is not just a message of the New Covenant; the kingdom of God is the message of the New Covenant! We know this because in this verse the message proclaimed after the Old Testament is called the kingdom of God! Amen.   
We then looked specifically at what John the Baptist came on the scene preaching and learned that while his message certainly was one of repentance, he didn’t just come saying, “Repent!”; he came telling the Jewish people what they were to turn unto—the kingdom: We saw in Matthew 3:1-2 that his message was— “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” So, he didn’t just say, “Repent!”; He told them why to repent. Yes, preaching repentance, in and of itself, is incomplete if we do not also preach what we are repenting unto.
Then, as we had already discussed in part one of this series, not only did John begin the New Testament with this message, but Jesus followed Him with essentially the same word for word message. But this message did not stop with Jesus either! We saw how He passed this message on to His disciples to preach as well. In fact, we learned that He did not wait to give them this message until His ministry was complete either. No, He gave it to them to proclaim while His ministry was in its prime. We learned that He gave the message of the kingdom to His twelve disciples and then, shortly after that, He commissioned the seventy disciples to proclaim it as well.
So, this message of the kingdom of God was obviously all throughout the four Gospels, but what about the Book of Acts? So, I then took you through some verses in the Book of Acts to verify that the message of the New Covenant never changed after Jesus was raised from the dead.
We saw in Acts chapter one that He spent 40 days on the earth teaching His disciples. But in Acts 1:3, we saw what Luke said that He spent those 40 days teaching them: He said it was “things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” That is interesting, isn’t it? Now mind you, He spent 40 days teaching them of the things pertaining to God’s kingdom. Now that is a lot of teaching on one subject, isn’t it? 40 days!?! That might be something like me saying, “We are going to spend 40 Sundays teaching things pertaining to God’s kingdom.” And one might wonder— “How could he possibly spend that length of time talking about just this one subject?” Well, what helps one to understand how Jesus was able to do that was the terminology that Luke used: Notice that Jesus taught them the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The words “pertaining to” literally describe things “concerning or about.” What would these things be that pertained to God’s kingdom? Everything! You see, every other subject that we spend time emphasizing in the church today such as grace, faith, love, peace, joy, righteousness, the Holy Spirit, etc. are all things that pertain to the pure New Testament message of the kingdom of God. That, my friends, is a powerful statement of truth!
You see, one could be tempted to think— “Wow! How wonderful it would be to be one of Jesus’ disciples during those 40 days? I wonder what those teachings were about? I wish I could have been there to know what they were learning.” Well, the truth is—you don’t have to wonder about Jesus was teaching them! Why? Because the Holy Spirit was good enough to inspire these men to share those things pertaining to the kingdom of God through their epistles! Amen. So, what we have written through the letters of the church contain a lot of what Jesus taught from the time of His resurrection to his ascension.
So, this explains to us why we don’t see a lot specifically about the kingdom in the epistles because all of the references the epistles make to the gospel being something other than the kingdom are simply just referring to things concerning the kingdom. In other words, all of the other topics of focus that we see in, for instance, the Pauline Epistles, are simply things pertaining to the New Testament message of the kingdom of God. For example, one of the most often used references to the gospel by the apostle Paul is the gospel of Christ or the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, this is actually the most common description of the gospel used in the New Testament (after that, the “gospel of the kingdom of God,” the next is the “gospel of God”). But what I want you to realize is that when Paul refers to the good news as the gospel of Christ, he has not varied from Jesus’ message in the least.
I made the point last week that many mistakenly use the word “Christ” as either Jesus’ surname or even His last name (i.e. Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ). It is sad to say, but countless Christians do not even understand what it means to say that Jesus is the Christ. But if we understand the basic definition of this word “Christ,” we can understand who and what Jesus truly is and also understand what the gospel truly is: And we learned that Christ literally means “the anointed one to be king.” Therefore, Christ means King.
So, we learned that when Paul made repeated references to the gospel of Christ, what He was literally proclaiming was the gospel of the King! He was preaching the good news that there was One born on this earth to be King of all kings! He was teaching the good news that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead on the third day to reign forever and ever as King of all kings and Lord of all lords! He was proclaiming the same gospel that Jesus began proclaiming—albeit, Jesus did not come to glorify Himself! But Paul’s gospel magnified a different aspect of the kingdom—it’s King! And this in no way varied from Jesus’ gospel, but simply was the fulfillment of it! Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom itself and Paul came proclaiming the good news of the King of this kingdom! It all built upon each other!
And in the Acts of the Holy Spirit, we can continue to see how this message continued beyond the ones who had actually walked with Jesus: We saw in Acts 8:12 how the kingdom of God was proclaimed by Philip the Evangelist. We then saw how the apostle Paul himself preached the kingdom of God (See Acts 19:8 & 20:24-25) …
Now I stated last week that what put the cherry on top for me concerning the kingdom of God being the New Testament message was what the very last verse in the entire Book of Acts said: If you look at the very end of the Book of Acts when Paul was speaking to the Jews during his stay in Rome on his way to being brought before Caesar, guess what he was ministering to them? You guessed it: He was preaching the kingdom of God!
So, notice that in the very last verse of recorded New Testament church history the kingdom of God was being preached (Acts 28:31). So, just as the New Testament began with the kingdom of God being preached (Luke 16:16), we see the same message being proclaimed at the end of the history chronicling the New Testament! Therefore, we can clearly see that the kingdom of God was the first message of the New Testament with John the Baptist and it was the last message of the New Testament with the apostle Paul!
Friends, the gospel of the kingdom is the alpha and the omega of New Testament doctrine! It is the first and the last regarding New Covenant truth. It is the first gospel being proclaimed and it is the last gospel being proclaimed! There is no other message of the New Covenant than the kingdom of God. Everything else we hear preached and taught from the New Testament Scriptures are simply things pertaining to this gospel.
But we noticed how the Book of Acts does not end with the resounding “Amen!” that many of the books of the New Testament end with. Why is this? It is because the Acts of the Holy Spirit have not ceased! The history of the New Testament is still being written today! So, what does this mean regarding what we have been talking about? It means that the New Testament message of the kingdom of God is still supposed to be being proclaimed today and will be, even to the end of time! Then we will have our “Amen!”
And we saw that this is why Jesus said what He did in Matthew 24:14: In this verse, He brings all of these truths together and paints a clear picture of what we are saying: In this verse, Jesus tells us that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come. So, this verse confirms to us that the gospel of the kingdom is the church’s message today as well, and will continue to be until Jesus returns, because Jesus said that it must be preached to the ends of the earth before the end will come. This implies that the kingdom of God is to be the gospel even in these last days, all the way up to the end prophesied in the Revelation.
THE BOOK OF THE COMING KINGDOM
Now then, since we have clearly established that the kingdom of God is the message of the New Testament, we need to understand that this is only half of the truth. The whole truth is that the kingdom of God is not just the message of the New Testament; the kingdom of God is actually the message of the Bible itself—for it has been well said that the entire Bible itself could be described as “The Book of the Coming Kingdom of God.”
Friends, the fact is, if we do not understand kingdoms, it will be downright impossible for us to understand the Bible and its complete message. The reason being is that even the Old Testament leads us through the story of God establishing a kingdom. But it did not stop there: As we just saw, the New Testament continues this same gospel of God’s kingdom with the entrance of the Christ—the King of the Jews.
You see, the Old Testament, in and of itself is incomplete. Yes, it held signposts that pointed to God’s will of a kingdom. Yes, it proclaimed the good news of God’s Messiah and His entrance that would free them from their bondage. But this good news of an everlasting kingdom was not fulfilled until the New Testament was given.
So, what I would like for us to begin doing now is to take a brief journey through the Old Testament as we just did through the New Testament in the last couple of weeks and see how Jehovah’s gospel has always been about a promised kingdom. But this week, I want to particularly look at God’s chosen people—the kingdom of Israel—and see how this kingdom message was proclaimed both to them and through them. And what we will find is that the gospel which we heard about already is no different than the gospel that they heard and that they experienced in measure.
Let’s begin with the calling of the Father of us all—the Father of faith, Abraham. 
THE FATHER OF MANY NATIONS
Early in the first Book of the Old Testament—the Book of Genesis—we see God calling a man named Abram out of his country and kin in order to build a new and great nation out of him. We see that the Lord eventually gave this man of faith the name “Abraham”—which means “the father of many nations.” This was the beginning of God reestablishing the kingdom that was lost in the fall of Adam (a point I believe we will visit next week), which would eventually be given the name of the kingdom of Israel.
And then, throughout the rest of the Old Testament, we basically have the recorded history of God’s chosen kingdom: From Genesis to Esther, we have chronicled for us the glories and failures of the kingdom of Israel from a historical perspective. Then, from Isaiah to Malachi, we have the prophecies given to the nation of Israel about how He wanted His kingdom to operate. He also declared through His prophets how He was going to establish His everlasting kingdom through their promised Messiah.  
You see, this is the reason that you see the gospel of the kingdom so freely proclaimed by John the Baptist and, after that, Jesus in the beginning of the New Testament. Have you noticed that you never see the Jews responding to the messages of either John or Jesus with, “What is all this kingdom stuff you are talking about?” No, you never see a response like that because they knew and understood God’s concept of a kingdom. Why? It was because His kingdom was emphasized throughout the Old Testament! It was a promise made to Abraham and this gospel was consistently proclaimed throughout the law and the prophets. It was the promise for which the nation of Israel hoped in!
In fact, in Luke 3:15 we see that God’s chosen people were expectant of the kingdom of God when John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness. This means that they were eagerly looking for the manifestation of God’s promise of a kingdom. This is also the reason why their leaders asked John as to whether he was the Christ or not. So, I can assure you that they would not have been looking for God to establish His kingdom and sending His King unless this is the message that they were used to hearing in their Scriptures. Why? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (See Romans 10:17). Not only that but hope also comes through the Holy Scriptures as well (See Romans 15:4). Yes, friends, even the Old Testament contained a gospel which fueled the faith and hope of God’s chosen people.
THE ROYAL GOSPEL
 As a matter of fact, did you know that the gospel that was proclaimed to us was declared in the Old Testament as well? Many Christians have never seen this. The reason why so many have not seen this is because they do not themselves understand what the gospel truly is. But if one understands that the good news is God’s kingdom, then they would see how it could have been declared in the Old as well as the New Testament. The difference between the gospel in both the Old and New Testament is that, in the Old Testament, the gospel of the kingdom was prophesied as yet to come and was illustrated through a natural kingdom—Israel; in the New Testament the gospel of the kingdom is revealed as already here now while still being partly yet to come!
             So, let’s look a little deeper into how this same gospel that has been preached under our new and better Covenant is the same gospel that was heard by those before and during the Old Covenant?
Again, let’s start with Abraham: Galatians 3:8 reveals to us that Abraham had the gospel preached to Him. It says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
This Scripture makes it very clear what the gospel was that Abraham heard: It was that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed! More specifically, God gave him a more detailed gospel in Genesis 17:6 by promising Him— “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.” Who were these “kings”? Of course, we know that the Lord was referring to Israel’s kings such as Saul, David, Solomon, all the way to the King of kings, Jesus Christ!
You see, Jesus showed us that Abraham actually saw His day and rejoiced in it (See John 8:56). Abraham knew the plan that God had for us and heard the same good news which we have heard. Therefore, these promises that God made to Abraham are the foundation to the good news of the kingdom of God.
You see, Abraham—the Father of faith—was chosen to be the representative of the whole kingdom of believers. And, likewise, the promised land of Canaan—was chosen to be the representative of the whole earth itself. The end result of all of this is that all of the earth shall be the inheritance of the sons of the kingdom. Hallelujah!
How about the sons and daughters of Abraham? Did the children of Israel hear the good news as well? Absolutely!
Hebrews 4:2 says, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them…” This verse was speaking specifically about the children of Israel during their journey through the wilderness.
So, what was the gospel that they heard? Well, notice how the authors of Hebrews said it was the same gospel that was preached to us. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they heard the totality of the message that we have heard about Jesus and all that His death, burial and resurrection would accomplish, but it was evidently a similar good news of the kingdom. If you consider the context, the good news was a promise of entering enter His rest—which was of course to them, the Land of Promise, Canaan. But I believe the good news that they heard is best described in Exodus 6:6-8 when God told Moses to tell the children of Israel— “I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’”
Therefore, the good news that the children of Israel heard ranged from the deliverance from their oppressors—the Egyptians—all the way to their obtaining the Promised Land to establish and build a kingdom in.
Of course, we understand in hindsight the gospel that they heard was in type and shadow form because the land that God was going to give them as a heritage was a representation of our eternal “Promised Land,” the kingdom of God. You could say that their Promised Land was a type of the Promised Kingdom of God that we see fulfilled through the New Testament Scriptures. 
But we see this gospel of a kingdom and its Messiah even being declared through the prophets:  
In the Book of Isaiah, we have a prophecy of the gospel that we even have repeated in New Testament Scriptures: Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good tidings, that publishes peace, that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says, your God reigns.” What do these bringers of good news say? They say, “Your God reigns!” That sounds like kingdom talk, does it not? So, the gospel of the kingdom was prophesied! These good news bearers would declare— Our God reigns! In other words, our Lord and God reigns as King! God’s kingdom is at hand and His Messiah, Jesus Christ, reigns as King over it! Amen! 
But what we need to realize is that Isaiah 52:7 was not declared first to us; it was declared to the nation of Israel before a New Covenant had even been realized. So, although we know it to be a prophecy concerning our New Covenant, it was a truth that was relevant for them as well. So, since this was proclaimed in the Old Testament as “the gospel” this shows us that it is not just our gospel but was also the gospel of the Jewish believers as well.
But Isaiah was not the only prophet to prophesy concerning God’s promised kingdom; you see this gospel threaded all throughout the writings of the Old Testament. We saw how it began with Abraham, was passed on throughout the many generations of the children of Israel, and was forecasted through God’s prophets.
            THE EVER-INCREASING KINGDOM
But perhaps the most detailed prophecy concerning God’s good news of a kingdom is found in the Book of Daniel. So, I want us to now spend some time focusing on this powerful prophecy of God’s kingdom that we are living in the fulfillment of today:
In the Book of Daniel, we have one of the most concentrated focuses on the kingdom of God in the entire Old Testament. In fact, the theme of this prophetical book is the sovereignty of the kingdom of God over all the other kingdoms of the earth—past, present, and future.
In Daniel chapter two, we see that King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which none of his wise men and sorcerers could describe, much less interpret. And when Daniel was brought before the king, he correctly explained the dream he had down to the very last detail: In his interpretation of the king’s dream, Daniel described what we discover to be the kingdom of God. We read in Daniel 2:34-35 what the dream entailed: “…a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” 
First of all, notice that the kingdom of God is described here as a stone: This is an obvious reference to the Lord Jesus Christ because, in various places, the Scriptures describe Him as the Rock. Probably one of the more popular Scriptures concerning this description of Jesus is found in the Psalms: David said in Psalm 118:22— “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Jesus affirmed in the gospels that this prophecy was indeed about Him.
We know from Matthew 16:15-18 that when Jesus asked His disciples who He was, Peter replied— “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus’ reply to Peter’s inspired declaration was, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter (Grk. petros - a small stone that came from a larger rock), and on this rock (Grk. petra - refers to a large boulder, and likely the larger rock that the “petros” came from) I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.”
You see, the confession of Jesus as King and as the Son of the Living God is the foundation on which the church is built. So, Jesus is, in essence, that chief cornerstone that His church is founded on. Peter was not the rock that the church was built on, Jesus was. Peter was just a smaller rock (Grk. petros) that became what we would now call a “Christian” when he confessed that Jesus was the “Christ.”
Later in his first epistle, Peter revealed to us the lesson He learned that day from the Lord: He said, “Coming to Him (Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious” (First Peter 2:4). You see, Jesus is the living stone (the living chief cornerstone, that is) and as Peter went on to say, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house …” So, when we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become a “petros” (i.e. a Peter) too and are built upon the “petra”—our chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
So, Jesus was obviously the stone spoken of in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, but notice the rest of Daniel’s description of his dream. Daniel saw specifically that this stone was “cut out without hands”: The phrase “cut out” describes something that was set apart for a specific purpose even though it was already there. You see, Jesus has always existed. As God the Son, He was before all things and all things were created through Him. Therefore, He already existed as the Word before He came in the flesh. But although He was eternal, He was “cut out” of God’s everlasting kingdom up in heaven—chosen and set apart for God’s eternal purpose here on the earth. As Peter went on to say in First Peter 2:6 in quoting the prophet Isaiah— “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone (Again, a reference to Jesus as that stone), elect, precious. And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame (i.e. ashamed or disappointed).” What this verse is saying is that in that Great Day when God’s kingdom is established here on the earth, we will not be disappointed that we made the decisions that we did to seek first His kingdom now because hope in His kingdom never disappoints.
But notice that this verse also said that He was elected by God and precious to Him. The word “elect” means “chosen” and the word “precious” simply means “valuable or costly.” This describes that “cut out” stone King Nebuchadnezzar saw from God’s perspective. Jesus was chosen, precious, and hand-picked by God to do what He did.
But notice that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream not only described this stone as cut out, but it revealed it as cut out without hands. By using the terminology “without hands” we can see that this was not man’s doing, but solely God’s doing. David prophesied this as well in Psalm 118 because after he said what he did about the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, he said, “This was the Lord’s doing; It was marvelous in our eyes” (vs. 23). You see, Jesus’ election—His virgin birth to His resurrection from the dead—was all God’s doing. Man cannot take any credit for so great a salvation. It was all accomplished without any help from us, and it is a marvelous thing! 
Daniel went on to explain that this stone, which was cut out without hands, struck the image and broke it into pieces. It crushed it until it became like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away and no trace of them was found. This too was prophesied through the mouth of our Savior: When Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22— “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”– He also added another statement which we can clearly see perfectly coincides with this prophecy in the book of Daniel. He said, “Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder” (Luke 20:18).
You know, there is a big difference between something fragile falling on a large boulder and a boulder falling on something fragile. Am I right? If say a glass falls on a large boulder, it will obviously break into many pieces. However, if a large boulder falls on the glass, it will do more than break it into a few pieces. It will grind that glass into powder. And from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, we know what the stone is going to fall on and grind to powder: It will be the kingdoms of this world that have rejected His Lordship. Yes, swift destruction awaits all those who reject the King and His kingdom’s rule in this life. As Daniel saw, they will become like chaff from the summer threshing floor.
In his explanation of the dream, Daniel went on to say that this stone then became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So, after the Rock of Ages struck these other nations and brought them to naught, it grew and became a great mountain which eventually covered the whole earth.
You see, Jesus and His kingdom started out as a cut-out stone—seemingly small and insignificant. But, as the living stone that He is, His kingdom grew and became a great mountain because of all the other living stones who are being added daily. This will continue until the end of the age when that mountain—the spiritual house which is being built up (See First Peter 2:4)— fills the whole earth. Of course, this will continue to occur as we fulfill our great commission to preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout the whole earth. Yet it will not be ultimately fulfilled until Jesus returns to destroy His enemies and brings with Him the new heavens and the new earth- the New Jerusalem. Praise God for that Day!
For those who are learned in the Scriptures, this picture of God’s kingdom filling the whole earth should sound very familiar. It sounds a lot like Jesus’ parables concerning the kingdom of God, doesn’t it? In Jesus’ parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven, He described the kingdom of God as starting off small but becoming increasingly greater—covering and filling the whole earth.
Friends, this is God’s ultimate plan for His kingdom. It is for it to grow up like the mustard seed—from being one of the world’s smallest seeds to becoming one its greatest trees! It is for it to spread like leaven—like leaven infiltrates the meal- until it leavens the whole lump!
God’s royal gospel is this hope of an everlasting kingdom that will fill the earth, where righteousness and peace will dwell, and where Jesus Christ will reign over all! Our hope is that, although we are still in those beginning stages of God’s kingdom becoming that great mountain that fills the whole earth for everyone to see, we will see our Rock who was cut out without hands become that great mountain that is seen and confessed by all men! Hallelujah!       
So, from the promise given to Abraham to the prophecy given through Daniel, we can clearly see that this gospel of the kingdom has always been God’s good news to His chosen people! In fact, when He originally created man, His initial plan was to give him dominion over all His creation. This was God’s purpose for mankind then and it is no different now… He wants us in His kingdom and ruling and reigning with Him forever! This is the everlasting gospel! It is the royal gospel!
THE SHADOW OF THE KINGDOM
Now we know in hindsight that although the Jewish nation was well schooled in these different Scriptures concerning the kingdom which was to come, they had an incorrect interpretation of the gospel that they heard.
The reason for their misinterpretation was because they only saw God’s kingdom coming in the natural, physical realm. In other words, they supposed the kingdom of God was exclusively an earthly kingdom. And this is eventually how they would miss their promised Messiah. They missed what God was doing through His Christ—the Lord Jesus—because they missed the fact that His kingdom was not of this world and must first be established in the hearts of men. This was a major obstacle that created doubts in the hearts of the majority of Israel and, of course, subsequently what led to the crucifixion of their King and Christ.
So, yes, it is God’s will for His kingdom to reign in both realms and this physical world is important to Him. But the problem was that the Jew’s mind was veiled. They only saw the importance of His kingdom being established in this physical world. 
In fact, even the most excellent Jews only saw God’s kingdom from this natural perspective because even John the Baptist doubted whether Jesus was the Christ or not after He had sufficient evidence that He was the Chosen One. And why did John doubt? Of course, there are many opinions given as to what caused his doubts, but to me, it is rather obvious. It was because he was not seeing Jesus establishing His kingdom in the natural like all of the Jewish people assumed the Christ was sent to do. But the fact was that Jesus did not come to deliver them from their natural oppressors, the Romans; He came to free them from their unknown spiritual oppressor, the devil.
This natural way of thinking was the great pitfall in God’s chosen people during Jesus’ ministry and it remains to be in much of God’s church today. Let me explain: You see, many born again believers today still read the Old Testament through the same veil that the Jews did. They only see the things that were written before through a carnal and naturalistic mentality. They only see the Old Testament as a history book and even place themselves back under the law of the Old Covenant. But what we need to understand is that the primary purpose of the Old Testament is to reveal spiritual realities to us in a natural way! Let me explain: The apostle Paul taught us that the things of the Old Testament were simply types and shadows of that which was to come. He taught us that the real-life examples that we have recorded beforehand were meant to illustrate the realities of the spiritual realm.
Therefore, God desired to mirror His spiritual kingdom in and through His chosen representatives—Israel. In other words, the real-life events that were written in the Old Covenant about God’s chosen kingdom are meant to illustrate to us how God’s everlasting kingdom operates.    
Now there are many different examples we have of this in the Old Covenant, but what I believe to be one of the best descriptions of the kingdom of God is the example of King David versus King Saul. The reason I see this story as so prophetic regarding how God’s eternal kingdom would start out through His Christ is because it illustrates how the Son of David’s reign would begin.
You see, while Saul was still the king of Israel, David was anointed as king by Samuel behind the scenes. Not only that, but David had a small band of followers in comparison to the rest of Saul’s kingdom. Likewise, in the kingdom of God, Satan is still temporarily the “god (i.e. king) of this world”, but Jesus has been anointed King of all kings and is awaiting the kingdom to fully be delivered to Him by His Father. And just as David, Jesus also has a small band of followers now acknowledging Him as the Christ—the Anointed King—while Satan still has the majority of the kingdoms of this world bowing their knee to his rule. But the day is coming, praise God, that just as it did in David’s day, where the kingdom will be handed over to our King and the new heavens and the new earth are established here on the earth and His kingdom will fully come! Hallelujah!   
This is just one little typology found in the Old Testament that illustrates the kingdom of God, but we need to understand that there are numerous examples given to us in the Old Covenant that reveal God’s kingdom to us. We just have to renew our minds to this true gospel and then let the Lord reveal them to us. Yes, all of these examples of the Old Testament, although true and real life stories that actually happened, are simply types and shadows meant to exhort, encourage, and instruct us in how God wants His kingdom to operate.
God intended for us to learn from the good kings like David, Solomon, Josiah & Jehoshaphat and also from the bad kings like Ahab, Rehoboam, and Hezekiah. All of these examples were recorded for our admonition so that we could learn the concept of God’s kingdom and how we are to rule and reign with Him as kings in it.
THE KING OF THE JEWS
Did you know that God’s original plan for Israel was for Him to be their King? He never intended them to be like the other nations and have a man rule over them. Perhaps this is the reason they had so many problems as a nation. God Himself wanted to be their King. But like so many of God’s people today still do, they wanted to be like the world and have a man rule and reign over them.
This is the primary difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. The world looks to man. It wants to exalt a person in the place of God and place them on a pedestal. The fact of the matter is that they do this because they want an idol. They want a graven image that, in comparison to God, cannot speak and cannot hear. Then, when they do find their “king”, they look for a “Saul.” They look for the one who looks the part—one who is tall, handsome, and a great orator—one who appeals to the lusts of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and their pride. In other words, they seek for these “kings” because of their carnality.
And do you know why they oftentimes do this? It is because they want someone else who will lead them. They want a man who will hear from God for them. They want a man who will rule the kingdom for them. Simply put, they want a man who will do their part for them.
But, oh no, this is not God’s plan! His plan from the beginning was that He be our King—where we do not need someone else teach us, but His Spirit teaches us all things; where we do not need someone else to instruct us to know God, but we all know Him from the least to the greatest; where we all are able to enter into the holy of holies, personally dine with the Holy One of Israel, and have a one on one relationship with Him; where we all rule and reign with Him as joint heirs of the King of king’s inheritance. This is the heritage of us all!
And this is what God intended from the beginning. He imagined His kingdom that you and I now walk in as being ruled by and demonstrated through all of His children. For we are born (again) for this very purpose and in this very hour. Let us begin now the process of ruling and reigning with Him here on the earth now. Amen. 

REVIEW
Last week, I made the statement that in a year full of surprises, where many of the things we have put our trust in, in this life, have been shaken, I believe the Lord has put on my heart for us to focus in 2021 on that which cannot be shaken, something that’s everlasting, and we are promised will never, ever end—the kingdom of God.
            You see, we are promised in the Bible that the things of this world will be shaken. That means that we can expect that all the things that are physically created and can be seen are temporary and, therefore, will be shaken up and eventually removed. Yes, the truth is that all of these physical, natural things that we call “real” are really just temporal. But we are also promised that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken! It is said to be forever and ever and from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 45:6 & Daniel 4:3). Yes, it will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44), but will remain from now throughout all eternity.
            Church, this is something that ought to create a peace that surpasses all understanding even when the storms of life are raging. This is something that ought to produce joy unspeakable and full of glory even when the world around us seems to be falling apart. This is the foundation of our faith and our hope! And I believe the Lord would have us set our sights on His kingdom and seek it first in every area of our lives. I believe He wants our hearts filled with the knowledge and revelation of His kingdom because it is the message—which is what I want us to continue looking at today.
Now the reason we began with the message of the kingdom itself is because in order for us to see the significance of this subject, we need to see the emphasis placed on it by everyone from Jesus to the apostles after Him. So, let’s continue this week talking about the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Let’s begin by reviewing what we learned last week:
We began last week in the beginning of the New Testament and saw what the message was of the Master Himself throughout His earthly ministry. So, we looked at the four Gospels and saw what He placed the emphasis on, and we clearly saw that His message was the kingdom of God. Yes, time and time again throughout the Gospels we see the Lord saying, “The kingdom is like this” and “The kingdom is like that.” In fact, we learned that throughout the four Gospels, Jesus uses the phrases “kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, His kingdom, etc.” over 80 times!
For example, we saw that even in some of Jesus’ most popular teachings, the kingdom was what was emphasized: We saw Him talking about the kingdom of God twice in what is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer when He began with instructions for us to pray that God’s kingdom come and concluded with us glorifying God that His is the kingdom. We saw that He even used it to describe the very seed that is sown in the hearts of men in His Parable of the Sower when, in Matthew’s account, He called the seed “the word of the kingdom” (See Matthew 13:19). That is significant because in Mark’s & Luke’s Gospels, the seed is simply referred to as the Word of God. But Matthew makes sure to call the Word of God, the Word of His kingdom.
So, yes, even though He spent time talking about other subjects, all of Jesus’ teachings were absolutely kingdom centered. Therefore, we can correctly conclude that the kingdom of God was Jesus’ message!
We looked at a Scripture where the very purpose of Jesus’ ministry was clearly described: In Luke 4:42-43, Jesus responded to the people who wanted Him to stay by saying, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Notice that He said He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also. In other words, we learned from Jesus’ own mouth what Jesus preached. So, there should be no argument regarding this; Jesus’ “sermon” was the kingdom of God! Then we learned from this passage of Scripture that Jesus said that He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because it was for this purpose that He was sent. In other words, not only was the kingdom of God His message, declaring this message was His very purpose for being sent! Wow! So, we learned that the kingdom of God was and is and forevermore shall be Jesus’ message!
Then we looked back at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and saw Him preaching the kingdom of God: In Mark 1:14, when Jesus began His three-year mission we are told— “… after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,”
So, we learned that this is the first thing we see Jesus doing after His ministry began— “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” So, Jesus actually practiced what He would end up preaching later in His ministry when He told His followers to seek first the kingdom of God (See Matthew 6:33) because Jesus sought first the kingdom in His ministry!
So, we also learned that Jesus did indeed come preaching the gospel, but was the good news that he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God? According to these Scriptures, the good news that He proclaimed was the kingdom of God!
For example, we saw from Luke 4:18 that the Spirit of God was upon Jesus and had specifically anointed Him to preach the gospel to the poor. So, He described from the Book of Isaiah how God had empowered Him through the Holy Spirit to preach the “gospel” to the poor. But what was the good news He proclaimed to the poor? Well, in Luke 6:20 He describes what this good news that He preached to the poor was when He said, “Blessed are you poor …” (Why were they blessed?) “… for yours is the kingdom of God.” So, the good news to them was— “You guys are blessed because God’s kingdom is available to you!”
So, we saw that this was what Jesus was both anointed to preach and His very purpose for being sent—to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God! Amen?
Then we learned what this gospel was that Jesus was preaching in Mark 1:15 when we are told specifically what He was saying: This verse says, “and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”
The first thing was— “The time is fulfilled …” Now we need to know that this was absolutely good news to the Jewish people! Why? Because they were looking for the time when their Savior—their Messiah—would be sent to them to deliver them as the prophets had promised. In fact, at the time Jesus came, there was a time of spiritual bankruptcy not only in Israel but even in the pagan, Gentile world. So, for Jesus to come on the scene and say, “The time is fulfilled!” was exciting news to the say the least!
Then Jesus went on to say, “and the kingdom of God is at hand …” So, the good news of the kingdom of God can clearly be seen here that it was “at hand.” We learned what it means for something to be “at hand.” It describes something to be near or close to one’s reach. It denotes soon in time or imminent. So, we learned that Jesus’ message was that— “It’s time and the kingdom is imminent!”
Now by Him saying that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand shows us that we are not just talking about something that is going to happen in the future. No, because the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is here now! Now there is a time where the kingdom will come and be fully manifested here on the earth (We will get into that in the coming weeks), but in the person and power of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is here now!
Then Jesus went on to say in Mark 1:15— “Repent, and believe in the gospel!” Now we will go into this word “repent” in more detail this week as it is an important word in regard to God’s kingdom, but we saw that Jesus was encouraging God’s people to both repent and believe in the gospel. The gospel of what? The good news of the kingdom—that it is now, and is available to all who will believe it.
So, what I wanted you to realize last week is how the kingdom of God was the gist of what Jesus came to proclaim to His brethren. And if Jesus emphasized the kingdom of God in His life and ministry, I think we ought to as well. Yes, we should embrace this kingdom mentality in our lives because, when we come to see things from this perspective, it will change how we view life in this world and what Christianity is all about. Amen? It’s all about the gospel of the kingdom of God!
THE NEW TESTAMENT MESSAGE
But this week, I want us to move on into talking about how the kingdom of God was not just Jesus’ message; it was (and still is) the message of the entire New Testament.
You see, while it should be enough that Jesus Christ Himself spent His entire ministry declaring this specific gospel, we can even see others from John the Baptist to the apostle Paul declaring the message of God’s kingdom in their ministries. So, that’s what I want us to look at today—how the message of the kingdom of God was not just Jesus’ gospel to the Jews, but it was and is the same gospel that the Holy Spirit has given us all under this new and better covenant.
            Speaking of covenants, let’s open our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke and look at a powerful verse that clearly teaches us how the kingdom of God is the message of the New Testament. In Luke 16:16 we have a statement that Jesus made that perfectly describes the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments. It says, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”
You see, first of all, when Jesus referred to “the law and the prophets” this was just the terminology that the Jews used in their day to describe what we refer to as the “Old Testament.” The reason for this is because to the Jewish mind (who Jesus was preaching to) the Scriptures pertaining to their covenant mainly consisted of the law (i.e. The books of Moses) and the prophets (i.e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, the minor prophets, etc.). Of course, there were other books that chronicled their history such as Joshua, First and Second Chronicles, First and Second Kings, and others that consisted of their poetry like Psalms and Proverbs, but the terminology that they used to describe what we call the “Old Testament” as a whole was “the law and the prophets.” So essentially Jesus was saying, “The Old Testament was until John …” Until John who? Until John the Baptist! Or the thought the Holy Spirit through Luke was conveying was— “until John the Baptist came on the scene.”
You see, when John the Baptist arose in the wilderness preaching repentance, Jesus was saying that this is when the preaching of what would lead us into the New Covenant began to be declared. But, of course, Jesus did not call it the New Testament or the New Covenant, did He? So, what did He call it? Well, let’s look at that verse again: “Since that time (since the time the Old Testament had been declared and since the time John came on the scene) the kingdom of God has been preached…” So, just as Jesus referred to the Old Testament as “the law and the prophets” He also used a different terminology to refer to the New Testament message. And what terminology was that? He simply called it the kingdom of God!
So, what can we gather from this? Again, we can see that the kingdom of God is not just a message of the New Covenant; the kingdom of God is the message of the New Covenant! We know this because in this verse the message proclaimed after the Old Testament is called the kingdom of God! Amen.   
REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND!
 
So, since this message began with John the Baptist, let’s now look specifically at what he came on the scene preaching and then we will look at how this theme continued through the preaching and teaching of others throughout the New Testament …
In Matthew 3:1-2, we see Matthew’s description of John’s grand entrance. He says, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
You see, if you asked most believers what John the Baptist’s message was, most would tell you that he preached repentance. Now let me first say that repentance certainly was a significant part of what he was called to preach (as we can see by this verse we just looked at, in that repentance was referred to first). Also, because we saw him come, “baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (See Mark 1:4).
So, while repentance was certainly a part of the message he was called to preach, it was not his complete message: Notice how Matthew 3:2 tells us that he was saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He didn’t just say, “Repent!” He told them why to repent. 
You see, I feel we have a misconception of what repentance really is: Most people believe that repentance could be simply described as feeling sorry for some sin we committed and, therefore, crying to the Lord about how bad we’ve been, pleading with him to give us mercy and forgiveness. But, no, repentance is not just the sorrow we feel for what we’ve done wrong; repentance is an action we take once we realize either our thinking or behavior has been wrong. Yes, to repent just literally means to turn and change directions from what is wrong to what is right. Therefore, how could one preach repentance and not also declare what we are to turn unto? In other words, for us to truly preach repentance, we must also describe what we are to turn to and not just what we are to turn from, right?
Now what we are turning from is important to identify: If you asked people what it is that we turn from, you would generally get the answer of “sin.” But did you know that “sin” is not just doing something bad; sin is doing something wrong (as opposed to right). There is a difference.
You see, sin is described as a transgression, trespassing, and lawlessness, right? All of those terms denote that a law is being broken and one is simply not doing what is right. That means that there is a right thing to do, right? As the Scriptures teach us— “to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (See James 4:17).
My point is that we ought not to look at sin as just doing immoral, bad things; we ought to look at sin as it is simply defined— “missing the mark.” Missing what mark? The mark is the plan, purpose, design, and way of the kingdom of God—that is, as thinking or doing anything that is contrary to the righteousness of God’s kingdom.
Church, that is what is right, and when we do anything outside of the way of His kingdom, it is missing the mark of the kingdom and, therefore, sin. This is why it is also important for the message of repentance to contain what we are turning unto and not just what we are turning from. Yes, preaching repentance, in and of itself, is incomplete if we do not also preach what we are repenting unto.
Therefore, we see the reason for John’s full message: Yes, he declared repentance, but then he declared why he told them to repent— “For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So, we can see that John’s message was not just repentance; his message was actually that the kingdom of God was available for those who would turn unto it. Do you see that?     
THE KINGDOM TO BE CONTINUED
Then, as we have already discussed, not only did John begin the New Testament with this message, but Jesus followed Him with essentially the same word for word message:
We are told in Matthew 4:17— “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” From what time? Well, if you back up to verse 12, Matthew explains when he said— “Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison …” So, we can see that at the time Jesus heard John was imprisoned, He began to proclaim the exact same message, word for word. Therefore, it seems rather obvious to me that Jesus was simply not wanting the New Testament message to wane because, when John was imprisoned and unable to continue preaching the kingdom of heaven, Jesus began “from that time” to preach the exact same message as John— “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Now, on a side note, the question might have been raised by now as to why in the previous two Scriptures we have referred to that John and Jesus were preaching the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, what is the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven?
The answer is rather simple: There is no difference! The kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven! They are synonymous terms. How do I know this, you ask? It is because only the gospel of Matthew uses the terminology “the kingdom of heaven.” In all of the other 3 gospels, the writers call it the kingdom of God. And in several instances, where the same account is being shared by the different gospel writers, one will use the terminology “kingdom of God” while Matthew refers to it as the “kingdom of heaven.” So just from that one point, they clearly are referring to the same thing.
The reason Matthew refers to it as the kingdom of heaven is because, number one, he was a Jew, and his gospel was written primarily to a Jewish audience. Therefore, from a Jewish perspective, they used and understood a different terminology than the audiences who were primarily made up of Gentiles in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke (FYI – John’s Gospel rarely made reference to the kingdom of God at all).  
So based on these facts, we can see that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are synonymous terms. But my point is that Jesus’ message began simply being a continuation of His cousin, John’s, message. But then that message took on a different form and became the gospel of the kingdom. We see this just a few verses later in Matthew 4:23 when we are told that Jesus went about all Galilee healing people and “preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (as we learned last week).    
FROM THE TWELVE TO THE SEVENTY
 
But I want you to know that the gospel of the kingdom did not end with Jesus either: He passed this message on to His disciples to preach as well. In fact, He did not wait to give them this message until His ministry was complete either. No, He gave it to them to proclaim while His ministry was in its prime. Let’s look at a few of these references …
In Matthew 10:7 and Luke 9:2 we see how Jesus commissioned the twelve to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom as well. Luke’s account puts it this way: “Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:1-2).
But then again, it was not just limited to Jesus’ closest disciples:  In just the next chapter, we see how He commissioned the seventy disciples to proclaim it as well. Luke 10:1 refers to how He appointed the seventy others also to go two by two into the cities where He Himself was about to go, and, in verse 9, He said— “And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
One very important connection we can see in these passages of Scripture where Jesus sent out His disciples—from the twelve to the seventy—is that the preaching of the kingdom of God was tied to the healing of the sick. As a matter of fact, what we see in Luke 10:9 is that the kingdom message they were to proclaim was that “the kingdom of God has come near to you” (referring to the power of God that they just experienced in their midst prior to the message being proclaimed). In other words, the healing was evidently done first and then the preaching of the kingdom was then to explain what just occurred. 
You see, the reason that these two things are connected is that when we come not in just the wisdom of words but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, we are making manifest to those we are preaching to that they are experiencing just a taste of what the kingdom of God’s intent is—to destroy and dethrone the works of the devil and establish the reign of God’s kingdom in that person’s life!
This is why signs and wonders should follow the preaching of God’s kingdom because it is evidence to those who either experience first-hand or witness the supernatural power of God that God’s kingdom is being manifest in those lives.  Therefore, we should not come just telling people what the kingdom of God is; we should come showing them what it is! For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power (First Corinthians 4:20)!
THINGS PERTAINING TO THE KINGDOM
So, someone might be thinking at this point, “Okay, so I get that the kingdom of God was first John’s message, then it was Jesus’ message, and then Jesus had His disciples to proclaim it as well while He was still on the earth, but I do not hear too much about the kingdom of God after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. In fact, the gospel is usually referred to as something other than the kingdom of God. So, how would you explain that?” If this is a question that has arisen in you by now, I want to tell you—You are absolutely correct in saying that the kingdom of God is not specifically referred to as the gospel after Jesus was raised from the dead. But allow me to take you through some verses in the Book of Acts to verify that the message of the New Covenant never changed after Jesus sat down at the right hand of God.
In Acts chapter one, after Jesus was raised from the dead, we are told that He spent 40 days on the earth teaching His disciples. But notice in Acts 1:3 what Luke said that He spent those 40 days teaching them. He said it was “things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” That is interesting, isn’t it? Now mind you, He spent 40 days teaching them of the things pertaining to God’s kingdom. Now that is a lot of teaching on one subject, isn’t it? 40 days!?! That might be something like me saying, “We are going to spend 40 Sundays teaching things pertaining to God’s kingdom.” (Don’t tempt me to do that, by the way)
One might wonder— “How could he possibly spend that length of time talking about just this one subject?” Well, what helps one to understand how Jesus was able to do that was the terminology that Luke used: Notice that Jesus taught them the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The words “pertaining to” literally describe things “concerning or about.” What would these things be that pertained to God’s kingdom? Everything! You see, every other subject that we spend time emphasizing in the church today such as grace, faith, love, peace, joy, righteousness, the Holy Spirit, etc. are all things that pertain to the pure New Testament message of the kingdom of God. That, my friends, is a powerful statement of truth!
You see, one could be tempted to think— “Wow! How wonderful it would be to be one of Jesus’ disciples during those 40 days? I wonder what those teachings were about? I wish I could have been there to know what they were learning.” Well, the truth is—you don’t have to wonder about Jesus was teaching them! Why? Because the Holy Spirit was good enough to inspire these men to share those things pertaining to the kingdom of God through their epistles! Amen. So, what we have written through the letters of the church contain a lot of what Jesus taught from the time of His resurrection to his ascension.
So, going back to the comment I foresaw just a moment ago about how, specifically the epistles, do not have much to say about the kingdom of God, this explains why. It is because all of the references the epistles make to the gospel being something other than the kingdom are simply just referring to things concerning the kingdom. In other words, all of the other topics of focus that we see in, for instance, the Pauline Epistles, are simply things pertaining to the New Testament message of the kingdom of God. 
For instance, one of the most often used references to the gospel by the apostle Paul is the gospel of Christ or the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, this is actually the most common description of the gospel used in the New Testament (after that, the “gospel of the kingdom of God,” the next is the “gospel of God”). But what I want you to realize is that when Paul refers to the good news as the gospel of Christ, he has not varied from Jesus’ message in the least.
Many mistakenly use the word “Christ” as either Jesus’ surname or even His last name (i.e. Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ). It is sad to say, but countless Christians do not even understand what it means to say that Jesus is the Christ. But if we understand the basic definition of this word “Christ,” we can understand who and what Jesus truly is and also understand what the gospel truly is.
I want us to recall two things: One is that we just referred to how Jesus was “anointed” to preach the good news of the kingdom to the poor. Secondly, we just referred to Jesus’ purpose in Luke 4:43 when He said that it was for the purpose of preaching the kingdom of God that He was sent to the earth. Well, do you remember Jesus’ conversation with Pilate—how when Pilate asked Him if He was the King of the Jews or not? What was Jesus’ response? In John 18:37 Jesus responded— “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause was I born, and for this cause I have come into the world …” Here, Jesus says that His purpose for being made manifest in the flesh and on this earth, was to become King.
And, friends, this is what we are saying every time we refer to Jesus as Christ: The word “Christ” literally means the “anointed one.” Anointed for what? Anointed to be king! So, when we refer to Jesus as Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ, we are literally saying, “King Jesus” or “Jesus the King.” Hallelujah! So, when we see how Jesus was anointed to preach the good news to the poor, we can literally see why Jesus was anointed: It was to proclaim that the King of all kings had come, and His kingdom was being made available for whosoever will turn unto it! This was His whole purpose for coming! To be born King of the Jews and to inherit a kingdom which should never end and knows no bounds! All praise to the King of all kings!
So, when Paul made repeated references to the gospel of Christ, what He was literally proclaiming was the gospel of the King! He was preaching the good news that there was One born on this earth to be King of all kings! He was teaching the good news that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead on the third day to reign forever and ever as King of all kings and Lord of all lords! He was proclaiming the same gospel that Jesus began proclaiming—albeit, Jesus did not come to glorify Himself! But Paul’s gospel magnified a different aspect of the kingdom—it’s King! And this in no way varied from Jesus’ gospel, but simply was the fulfillment of it! Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom itself and Paul came proclaiming the good news of the King of this kingdom! It all built upon each other!
So, we need to understand that when we hear of all of these other terms and subjects such as the Son of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the love of God, etc. we are hearing of things pertaining to the New Testament’s complete gospel—the kingdom of God.
Allow me to elaborate on how these other subjects pertain to the kingdom of God:

• Jesus is the King of the kingdom!
• Faith is the currency of the kingdom!
• Grace is the provision of the kingdom!
• Love is the life of the kingdom!
• The Word is the constitution of the kingdom!
• The Holy Spirit is the power of the kingdom!
• Salvation is the employment and benefits of the kingdom!
• Righteousness, Peace, and Joy are the ways of the kingdom!

Of course, we can go into much greater detail on all of these and, I can assure you, we will! But I briefly wanted to show you how all these things revolve around the gospel of the kingdom of God. But back now to the Book of Acts …
In the Acts of the Holy Spirit, we can continue to see how this message continued beyond the ones who had actually walked with Jesus: We see in Acts 8:12 how the kingdom of God was proclaimed by Philip the Evangelist. Do you know what this tells us? It tells us that Jesus’ disciples evidently passed on this message to those who would come to the faith afterwards because Philip was not one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus. 
And as we already made the point of, the apostle Paul himself preached the kingdom of God (See Acts 19:8 & 20:24-25) …
In Acts 19:8 we are told how, when he was in Ephesus, he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. Now, again, just like we saw with Jesus in Acts chapter one, notice how long Paul reasoned and persuaded with these Jews in the synagogue during his tenure in Ephesus—three months! And what did Luke say in this verse was his focal point, the message that he spent close to 90 days teaching and preaching? It was the kingdom of God! That is a long time to teach on one subject, my friends! But, after seeing in Acts 1:3, that Jesus spoke of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God for 40 days, it is easier to understand when we see that he spent 90 days reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.
Friends, this was what Paul’s ministry consisted of! God had given him the wonderful revelation of many of the things pertaining to and concerning the kingdom of God such as faith, grace, and the Christ Himself. Therefore, he spent much of his ministry teaching the whole counsel of the kingdom of God, as we go on to see him doing to the elders in Ephesus (See Acts 20:17-27).
Now notice in verse 24 that Paul said that his plan was to finish his race and the ministry which he had received from the Lord Jesus. And what was this ministry? He goes on to say, “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
Someone might say, “See there! Paul’s gospel was the grace of God, not the kingdom of God!” Well, read the next verse. In verse 25 he continues saying, “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.” So, yes, while Paul certainly was given the ministry of proclaiming the good news of God’s grace, he clarifies in this verse that the heart of what he had gone preaching was the message of God’s kingdom. This simply echoes the truth I mentioned earlier that the message of the New Testament is the kingdom of God and the good news like grace are simply things that pertain to this gospel of the kingdom.
Therefore, the apostle Paul was given the stewardship in this mystery of the kingdom, and his ministry was to do as Jesus did after His resurrection—to preach and teach the things pertaining to the kingdom of God!
THE KINGDOM TO BE CONTINUED
Now this is what put the cherry on top for me concerning the kingdom of God being the New Testament message …
If you look at the very end of the Book of Acts when Paul was speaking to the Jews during his stay in Rome on his way to being brought before Caesar, guess what he was ministering to them? You guessed it: He was preaching the kingdom of God!
When Paul was initially brought to Rome, we are told how he called together the most prominent Jews and then many more came to him at his lodging place. And we see how he explained and testified of the kingdom of God and Christ Jesus from early morning all the way until evening (verses 17-23). Then we are told in the last two verses of the Book of Acts—which is the history of the early New Testament church, mind you— that he “dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, receiving all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (See Acts 28:30-31).
Now notice that in the very last verse of recorded New Testament church history the kingdom of God was being preached (Acts 28:31). So just as the New Testament began with the kingdom of God being preached (Luke 16:16), we see the same message being proclaimed at the end of the history chronicling the New Testament! Therefore, we can clearly see that the kingdom of God was the first message of the New Testament with John the Baptist and it was the last message of the New Testament with the apostle Paul!
Friends, the gospel of the kingdom is the alpha and the omega of New Testament doctrine! It is the first and the last regarding New Covenant truth. It is the first gospel being proclaimed and it is the last gospel being proclaimed! There is no other message of the New Covenant than the kingdom of God. Everything else we hear preached and taught from the New Testament Scriptures are simply things pertaining to this gospel.
But notice how the Book of Acts does not end with the resounding “Amen!” that many of the books of the New Testament end with. Why is this? It is because the Acts of the Holy Spirit have not ceased! The history of the New Testament is still being written today!
So, what does this mean regarding what we have been talking about? It means that the New Testament message of the kingdom of God is still supposed to be being proclaimed today and will be, even to the end of time! Then we will have our “Amen!”
Regarding this, for anyone who is not yet convinced that the gospel of the kingdom is to be our message as well, Matthew 24:14 brings all of these truths together and paints a clear picture of what we are saying: In this verse, Jesus tells us that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come.
So, this verse confirms to us that the gospel of the kingdom is the church’s message today as well, and will continue to be until Jesus returns, because Jesus said that it must be preached to the ends of the earth before the end will come. This implies that the kingdom of God is to be the gospel even in these last days, all the way up to the end prophesied in the Revelation.
Friends, this gospel has not been preached to the ends of the earth. In fact, I don’t believe it has been taught in our local churches much less across the globe. This needs to change. We need to get back to the basics of the Bible and find out what our message is supposed to be. And we can find this out simply by looking at what the Master preached and what we see threaded throughout the history of the early church. But in order to correctly proclaim this gospel, we need to understand what the kingdom of God is, when it is, how it operates, etc. So that is what this series will do. We are going to define the kingdom of God. We are going to describe how it works. We are going to look at all of these other things that we emphasize today and see how they fit into this gospel of the kingdom.
So, buckle up and enjoy the ride as we journey through the New Testament’s message—through the gospel itself—because, again, the kingdom of God is not just a message of the New Testament; the kingdom of God is the message of the New Testament! Amen.

AN UNSHAKEABLE KINGDOM
In a year full of surprises, where many of the securities, routines, and other things we have put our trust in have in this life have been shaken, I believe the Lord put it on my heart for us to focus on something during this new year that cannot be shaken, something that’s everlasting, and we are promised will never, ever end.
            You see, in Hebrews 12:25-28, we are told that the Lord will once more shake all things on the earth and in the heavens. That means that we can expect that all the things that have been physically created will be shaken up and eventually removed. But we are also told in these verses that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken—and because this is on the horizon, the way we live now is of the utmost importance. 
            Church, this is something that ought to create a peace that surpasses all understanding even when the storms of life are raging. This is something that ought to produce joy unspeakable and full of glory even when the world around us seems to be falling apart. This is the foundation of our faith and hope—knowing that there is something unseen that it is truly eternal. 
            You see, the Lord told us that the things of this world—its nations, its rulers, and all that goes along with it—will pass away. Nothing that is seen is forever. In fact, all of these physical, natural things that we call “real” are really just temporal.
            But there is a kingdom that we are told will not be shaken. It is said to be forever and ever and from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 45:6 & Daniel 4:3). Yes, it will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44), but will remain from now throughout all eternity. Of course, I speak of the kingdom of God.
            So, while we certainly are to seek change in the world around us and pray for His eternal kingdom to come manifest itself in the world around us now, our hope is ultimately not in these temporal things; our hope is in the everlasting kingdom of God that we have the pleasure of being a part of right now. 
            Church, I believe the Lord would have us set our sights on His kingdom and seek it first in every area of our lives. I believe He wants our hearts filled with the knowledge and revelation of His kingdom because it is the message—which is what I want us to begin looking at today. I want us to begin this week talking about The Gospel of the Kingdom.
            The reason I want us to begin with the message is because in order for us to see the significance of this subject, we need to see the emphasis placed on it by everyone from Jesus to the apostles after Him.
 
MY TESTIMONY OF THE KINGDOM
            Let me begin by sharing with you a brief testimony of how the Lord showed me the things I will be sharing with you:
You know, when I was young in the Lord, I had the Lord do some things in me that today I am very thankful for. Like us all, during my spiritual formative years, I had developed some belief systems through what I was being taught by others. Like a baby, we would eat what someone else decided to feed us. So, I had sat under some very good, solid teaching, but I had allowed other’s revelation to become my truth.
            But there was a point in my walk when I was sitting in church one morning (just like you are today) and while my pastor was teaching me, I heard the Lord say in my heart, “I am uprooting all of the preconceived ideas you have about Me and My Word.” Immediately, I knew exactly what He was preparing me for. He was about to begin teaching me and building a new foundation of truth in my life!
            So, I began reading & studying the Bible through a completely different lens and seeing things that I had never seen before. It is amazing what would happen if we let the Word determine what we believe and not just try to find what we believe in the Word. As one minister very poetically said, “We need believe what we read instead of reading what we believe.”
And one of the first things that I remember the Lord began to show me was how we can see threaded throughout the pages of our New Testament the subject of hope. I mean, my eyes were opened to seeing that the things that I saw us emphasizing in our modern-day church—things like prosperity, healing, and living a better life now—were not at all the focus of the early, First Century church. It became crystal clear to me that the things they were focused on were not the current things of this world; they were focused on their future in the next world.
So, I had this abstract view of what this hope entailed. I knew it was of something grand and glorious that we had to look forward to beyond this temporal life we have here on the earth, but it was not totally clear to me what this message of hope was. Sure, I could have told you it was “heaven” but there seemed to be more to it than that because I read in my Bible that heaven would come to earth, and we would rule & reign with Him on this new heaven and new earth.
Well, it came to pass a few years after this that I went to Bible College—and while those around me were getting a revelation of things like grace, the unconditional love of God, etc.—the Lord cleared up that abstract painting of our hope and showed me specifically what our hope is:
There was an instructor named Don Krow, who is no longer with Andrew Wommack’s ministry there in Colorado, who held an elective class (so that means not everyone was required to take this class) on the subject of the kingdom of God. And church, I’ll tell you—as we went through the Bible and studied this subject, my eyes were opened! I saw the skeleton of what the Lord had begun teaching me of our hope have God’s breath come over it and life was being added to it. Now those bones had meat on them, and a great army was being built in my spirit—the army of God’s everlasting kingdom! Amen!    
So, what I want us to start out doing as we set out to tackle this huge subject is establish that this subject of the kingdom is indeed as big as it is. Yes, as previously stated, I want us to begin by looking at just how much of an emphasis is placed on this subject first in the gospels, then in the rest of the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament. I want us to begin by asking questions like— What is the message that it proclaimed throughout the Bible’s pages? What did the apostles teach the churches? What did the Master—Jesus Christ—Himself preach?
WHAT DID JESUS PREACH?
And the latter is what I think we would do good to look at first: I would like us to look at the beginning of the New Testament and see what the message was of the Master Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, throughout His earthly ministry. Yes, let’s look in the Four Gospels and see what He placed the emphasis on.
Specifically, I want us to answer the following question: What did Jesus preach? This is an important question to ask ourselves because we must believe that we should emphasize what Jesus emphasized, right? Don’t you suppose that Jesus knew what was the most important and timely message for all people for all time? Of course, He did! He came to manifest God’s Word to us, for He was and evermore shall be the Living Word of God. 
Now if you took a poll of what Christians believed Jesus preached, you would probably have things like “grace, love, or simply acceptance” as what most people believe Jesus taught. But did you know that although Jesus did talk about and demonstrate many of these different topics that I just mentioned throughout His ministry, they were not what He spent the majority of His time preaching and teaching?
So, what did Jesus preach? What was the one subject that we see Him spending almost all of His time declaring and proclaiming? The answer is: His message was the kingdom of God!
Time and time again throughout the Gospels we see the Lord saying, “The kingdom is like this” and “The kingdom is like that.” In fact, throughout the Four Gospels, Jesus uses the phrases “kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, His kingdom, etc.” over 80 times! That’s a lot, church!
For example, in even some of Jesus’ most popular teachings, we see the kingdom emphasized: We see Him talking about the kingdom of God twice in what is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer when He began with instructions for us to pray that God’s kingdom come and concluded with us glorifying God that His is the kingdom. He even used it to describe the very seed that is sown in the hearts of men in His Parable of the Sower when, in Matthew’s account, He called the seed “the word of the kingdom” (See Matthew 13:19). That is significant because in Mark’s & Luke’s Gospels, the seed is simply referred to as the Word of God. But Matthew makes sure to call the Word of God, the Word of His kingdom.
So, yes, even though He spent time talking about other subjects, all of Jesus’ teachings were kingdom centered. Therefore, we can correctly conclude that the kingdom of God was Jesus’ message!
I want you to see another Scripture where the very purpose of Jesus’ ministry is clearly described: We see in Luke 4:42-43, when Jesus was in the city of Capernaum, a city of Galilee, that the people tried to keep Him from leaving them. Then Jesus responded by saying, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Here in verse 43, we have two very intriguing statements by Jesus:
Number one—Notice that He said He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also. What must He preach? He must preach the kingdom of God! In other words, we see here in Luke 4:43 from His own mouth what Jesus preached. So, there should be no argument regarding this; Jesus’ “sermon” was the kingdom of God!
Number two—Notice the second phrase: He said that He must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because it was for this purpose that He was sent. In other words, not only was the kingdom of God His message, declaring this message was His very purpose for being sent! Wow! This means that the reason that you see Jesus emphasizing the kingdom of God throughout His ministry was because it was why His Father sent Him to the earth. Now we can see from other Scriptures what Jesus’ purpose was. Like for instance He came to destroy the works of the devil, to save sinners, etc., but we cannot deny that Jesus Himself said that His purpose for being sent was to proclaim God’s kingdom. 
So, the kingdom of God was and is and forevermore shall be Jesus’ message! It is what He proclaimed all throughout His ministry, but let’s go back to the beginning. No, not the Book of Genesis, but the genesis of Jesus’ ministry—because there are some wonderful truths we can learn from what Jesus started out proclaiming …  
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
Even from the very beginning of His ministry we see Him preaching the kingdom of God… In Mark 1:14 when Jesus began His three-year mission we are told— “… after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,”
Now I want you to notice that this is the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry according to Mark’s Gospel. Therefore, it’s the very first thing Jesus did after His baptism by John, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, and Him being tempted by the devil in the wilderness after fasting for those forty days and forty nights. In fact, Matthew’s gospel says that it was when He heard that his cousin, John the Baptist, was put in prison that He went to Galilee to begin His ministry (See Matthew 4:12).
But my point is—this is the first thing we see Jesus doing. It was what He began His ministry with— “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” So, Jesus practiced what He would end up preaching later in His ministry when He told His followers to seek first the kingdom of God (See Matthew 6:33). Jesus likewise sought it first in His ministry!
I want you to notice how Matthew puts it: In Matthew 4:23 (also compare Matthew 9:35) we are told— “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”
So, we can see from just these two passages of Scripture that Jesus’ ministry began with this message. But what we can also see is the kingdom of God was His gospel! Notice again how the gospel writers called it “the gospel of the kingdom.”
You see, Jesus did indeed come preaching the gospel, but what was the good news that he preached? According to these Scriptures, the good news that He proclaimed was the kingdom of God!
For example, Jesus said in Luke 4:18 that the Spirit of God was upon Him and had anointed Him to preach the gospel to the poor. So, He described from the Book of Isaiah how God had empowered Him through the Holy Spirit to preach the “gospel” to the poor. But what was the good news He proclaimed to the poor? Well, in Luke 6:20 He describes what this good news that He preached to the poor was when He said, “Blessed are you poor …” (Why were they blessed?) “… for yours is the kingdom of God.” So, the good news to them was— “You guys are blessed because God’s kingdom is available to you!”
So, this was what Jesus was both anointed to preach and His very purpose for being sent—to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God! Amen?
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
You see, the word “gospel” comes from the Greek word evangelion where we get our words “evangelism” or “evangelist” from. This word “gospel” was derived from the old English expression “good spell,” meaning “good tale” or “good news.” And in Jesus’ day it denoted “news that was too good to be true.” But in this word’s broadest sense, it referred to a message given by a king or a favorable report about a significant event. Therefore, our “gospel” is the favorable report originally brought to us by our King—the Lord Jesus Christ! He came to proclaim to us God’s wonderful plan of redemption and His awesome purpose to make us co-heirs with Him in the kingdom of God. So, the kingdom of God being opened up to all who believe on its King is the good news that Jesus came to proclaim.
You know, there are a lot of different ideas of what the gospel is. Everyone has been impacted by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection in different ways, and that’s wonderful. But it is also important that we understand from a Biblical perspective what the good news entails. Like, for example, many believers in an attempt to evangelize go out asking unbelievers if they want to be saved. Well, what if they asked— “Saved from what?”? And then if we responded with something like— “Well, hell, of course” and they were to respond to that answer with “Why do I need to be saved from that?” what would we tell them? Do we know what we are saved from and do we know what we are saved unto? I don’t think a lot of believers know the answers to these things.
That’s why we need to know what the gospel truly is! So that it’s not some general thing to us that we’ve never come to fully understand.
Well, back in Mark chapter 1, I believe we have a little description of what the gospel of the kingdom entailed: Notice that after Mark tells us in verse 14 that Jesus went into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, that he says in verse 15 – “and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”
So, this is what Jesus was specifically saying when preaching the gospel of the kingdom: The first thing was— “The time is fulfilled …” Now you need to know that this was absolutely good news to the Jewish people! Why? Because they were looking for the time when their Savior—their Messiah—would be sent to them to deliver them as the prophets had promised. In fact, at the time Jesus came, there was time of spiritual bankruptcy not only in Israel but even the pagan, Gentile world.
That is why the Bible teaches us in Galatians 4:4 that Jesus was sent by the Father when “the fullness of time had come.” That describes Him being sent at the right and perfect time—meaning, Jesus was sent to the earth at a very strategic time. And one of the things that made it the perfect time was this spiritually dry time-period where the Word of the Lord was not as prevalent as it had been and the signs, wonders, and miracles that were done before were nowhere to be seen.
So, for Jesus to come on the scene and say, “The time is fulfilled!” was exciting news to the say the least!
Then Jesus went on to say, “and the kingdom of God is at hand …” So, the good news of the kingdom of God can clearly be seen here that it was “at hand.” What does it mean for something to be “at hand”? Well, it describes something be near or close to one’s reach. It denotes soon in time or imminent. The Greek word for “is at hand” means to bring near, approach, and to join one thing to another.
So, Jesus’ message was that— “It’s time and the kingdom is imminent!”
Now by Him saying that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand shows us that we are not just talking about something that it going to happen in the future. No, because the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is here now! Now there is a time where the kingdom will come and be fully manifested here on the earth (We will get into that in the coming weeks), but in the person and power of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is here now!
Let’s look at a passage of Scripture that answers the question of when the kingdom of God would come: In Luke 17:20, we are told— “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said …” Now before we get into Jesus’ response that answers this question, it is important for us to know who He was addressing. Notice it is the Pharisees who asked this question, and then Luke says that Jesus answered them.
Now we know who these rascals were, don’t we? These were the guys whose motives were evil and would wind up being the very ones who would have Jesus crucified. So, when Jesus gives them the response He did, it ought to make us question what He meant. Notice what He said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation.” This means that you won’t be able to see it with your physical eyeballs. Now sure, you can see the effects of it on the physical world around us, but seeing it in its entirety and full manifestation is not how we will first see it. Then He went on to say in verse 21-- “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or “See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.’”
Now on the surface it would seem like Jesus was saying, “The kingdom of God is on the inside of you,” but that could not be true based on who He was talking to, right? In fact, even if He would have said this to His disciples it couldn’t have been true because they had not been born again yet and they did not have the Holy Spirit yet dwelling in them. Now while it is true to a certain degree for us today because we have the new birth and the Holy Spirit, when Jesus said this, He had to have meant something else—because, again, who was He addressing? The Pharisees, and they certainly were not full of kingdom of God! In fact, they were the ones (along with the scribes) whom Jesus said were full of dead men’s bones (See Matthew 23:27)! So, there was nothing of the kingdom of God dwelling in their physical bodies.
No, when you study out this phrase— “The kingdom of God is within you”—you’ll find that the word “within” can be translated “in the sphere of” or “in the midst of.” In other words, just as it can mean something that is actually inside of something else, it can also describe something being in the presence of something else. And it’s rather clear that this is what Jesus was saying here. Just as He would tell His disciples to go heal the sick and cast out demons, and then tell those who witnessed these things that the kingdom of God had come near them, this is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees—that because Jesus Himself was before them, His truth was proclaimed to them, and the demonstration of the power of God was being manifested around them, the kingdom of God was in their midst. Therefore, the kingdom was at hand! Amen!      
Then Jesus went on to say in Mark 1:15— “Repent, and believe in the gospel!” Now we will come this word “repent” in more detail next week as it is an important word in regard to God’s kingdom, but I want you to notice that Jesus was encouraging God’s people to both repent and believe in the gospel. The gospel of what? The good news of the kingdom—that it is now and available to all who will believe it.
And that’s what I see the Lord encouraging all of us here today with—to believe in this gospel of the kingdom! That is here with us! It is at hand! It is imminent! And we can experience it in and through our lives!
Romans 10:14-17 teaches us this— “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Let’s look at these verses in a different light today: Might we say, “How then shall they call on the kingdom in which they have not believed? And how shall they believe in this gospel of the kingdom of which they have not heard? And how shall they hear about it without someone preaching it? And how shall they preach it unless they are sent to do so? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace (that is, peace between God and man, between His kingdom and those who receive it), who bring glad tidings of the good things of His kingdom!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel of the kingdom. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our good report of the kingdom?’ So then faith for this kingdom comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (A better translation would be “Christ”—which means “the One anointed to be King”).
Church, in Matthew 24:14, Jesus clearly states— “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” So, while it is clear that we are getting close to the end, I believe the Lord wants our message to more accurately reflect His message in these end-times. Amen?
Now next week, we will learn that the kingdom of God was not just Jesus’ message; the kingdom of God is the New Testament message! But today, I wanted you to see how it was the gist of what Jesus came to proclaim to His brethren. And if Jesus emphasized the kingdom of God in His life and ministry, I think we ought to as well. Yes, we should embrace this kingdom-mentality in our lives because when we come to see things from this perspective, it will change how we view life in this world and what Christianity is all about. Amen? It’s all about the gospel of the kingdom of God!

Well, as I intended to teach on something else today, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart to share something different a week or so ago. Today, I want us to camp on the subject of financial stewardship and positioning ourselves under the economy of the kingdom of God.
 
Now some of the things we will learn today are not popular topics in most churches. The moment you broach the subject of finances and giving, many people check out, not wanting to hear about these things. And understandably so, because there has been a certain amount of misuse and abuse of this subject in the body of Christ. But how many of you know that you don’t throw the baby out with the dirty bath water? No, just because there are some who would pervert these truths, there is still a reality and relevance to them that we would do good to remind ourselves of periodically.
 
Now I do want to make clear to you one thing—we are not talking about the proper stewardship of our finances today because the church is hurting financially, and we need people to step it up in their giving. I know that’s why a lot of churches periodically emphasize these things, but that is not why we are talking about them today. The truth is that we have been blessed at our church this year to where even when we set our budget at the beginning of 2020 for a normal year, not knowing of the things that would befall us this year with the pandemic and all, we still came out with positive cash flow and were not in the red at all. I’m sure there are a lot of churches and ministries out there who cannot say that in 2020. But do you know why HPC has this testimony? Yes, it was because we have a group of people who call this their church home that give and are generous, but the main reason we have been blessed this past year is due to the fact that High Point Church itself gives and is generous. That’s right—our church (your church) does exactly what you will learn today, and we are blessed because of it.
 
So, don’t entertain the thought for a minute that this message has a hidden motive behind it. No, I can assure you that it is a God-inspired message meant to help you position yourself for that same blessing of living under God’s economy.
 
Now what do I mean when I refer to God’s economy. Well, an “economy” is defined as “the wealth and resources of a country or region, especially in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.” So, I refer to the economy of God because God certainly has His own riches in glory. Yes, His kingdom has a system and management of His resources. Therefore, it behooves us to live under His system and not this world’s economic system.    
 
I believe the Holy Spirit has put this on my heart this week, not because we are failing at it or because we need some admonishment in this area. I believe this is an area that this church, as a general rule, excels at. No, I believe He is leading me to talk to us about these things this week because He wants us to prepare and position ourselves for something that is on the horizon.
 
You see, with the uncertainties we’ve experienced in 2020, I think we could all see there being other things coming up in 2021 and beyond. I am not trying to prophesy negative things, but the truth is we are headed towards the last of the last days. And these times promise to be a bumpy ride for some—and this will certainly include the economies of this world. Therefore, it is imperative that you and I sow the right kind of seed now for the harvest we will need tomorrow. Yes, we need to start operating under God’s economic system if we have not done so already so that if and when this world’s economy around us fails, we have built our foundation on and put our trust in something spiritual, eternal, and unfailing. Amen?   
 
Now what we are doing here today with giving to others is certainly part of this. The use of our resources, time, and energy to bless and honor others is something that helps position us for the honor of God in our own lives. And one of the reasons why we do this annual thing called First Fruits Sunday is to help everyone realize that this should not just be a once-a-year thing, but we are to live our lives being a blessing to others in the body of Christ.
 
But this is just one way we enter God’s economic system of blessing: What I had on my heart to do today is talk about the various things that you and I can do so that we have the right frame of mind and mentality that positions us for His blessings. Of course, this will include a few types of giving, but before I get into this, I want us to first look at one of the most important aspects of positioning ourselves in God’s economy—the way we see ourselves.
 
A BLESSED MENTALITY
 
Church, this is so much more important than many of us realize. An oft used Scripture here is “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) Well, do you reckon that it could work this way in the financial arena? Do you think that if we think contrary to the way God thinks of us in our finances, that it could impede us experiencing what God wills for us? Absolutely! Someone might say, “Prove it!” Just look around you! Most Christians are not experiencing everything God desires for them, right? So, I guarantee you that this would include our finances as well.
 
So, let’s talk a little about the mentality that we need to have regarding ourselves and financial increase by going over to Galatians 3:13-14: Now we’ve spent months talking about how we were redeemed from the curse of the law a few years ago and we saw how this certainly included poverty & lack. But in verse 14, we see how not only have we been redeemed from the curse of the law; we have been redeemed for the blessing of Abraham.
 
So, what is this blessing of Abraham? Many read this to say, “the blessings of Abraham”—thinking that being blessed is just having a lot of stuff. But this is something that we need to renew our minds to because there is a difference between being “blessed” and having “blessings.” Being blessed is the empowerment to prosper and obtain blessings, but the blessings are not the root of the blessing. They are simply the fruit of the blessing.
 
We are told in Proverbs 10:22— “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and adds no sorrow to it.” Notice that in this Scripture, the blessing of the Lord is separated from riches. We, likewise, need to separate the two because the blessing is not wealth; it is the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).
 
You see, the blessing of the Lord is an intangible thing. If our house were to burn down today, we are still blessed. Abraham’s blessing is not a donkey, a camel, a tent, etc. It is the root of the things he possessed. So, the blessing of the Lord is an intangible thing that affects tangible things. To the Jews, they understood the blessing because they grew up in it. We here don’t understand as well. We like to label blessings as things, but they did not see it that way. 
 
A great example of the blessing is found in the life of Joseph…
 
In Genesis chapter 39, after Joseph was sold by his brothers, it starts off by saying, “Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.” Have you felt like you are “down there?” So, picture what was happening here: Joseph was in his lowest state. He had just been betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery for 20 shekels of silver (Sounds familiar, huh? i.e. Jesus was sold out for 30 pieces of silver by Judas). Now he, being stripped of his tunic of many colors, was standing stripped of his coat that represented his favor, being sold into slavery. So for all intents and purposes, Joseph looked as though he had been stripped of all favor and had hit rock bottom being sold into slavery. But then in Genesis 39:2 we are told that the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man! Mind you, this statement was on the heels of him being in the lowest place of his life.
 
So here is the lesson we need to learn from this: Even if everything in our life seems to be falling apart and we are in our lowest state, God is still with us and, therefore, He still sees us as prosperous! Amen! Therefore, we need to see ourselves the same—as blessed and prosperous! Our circumstances do not determine whether or not we are blessed; God’s Word determines that we are blessed! Amen!
 
The Greek word for “blessing” is eulogia—which is derived from the word logos meaning “word.” So, you cannot separate God’s Word from His blessing. And until we learn to receive God’s Word, we won’t be blessed. His Words are what blesses us—that is, us putting faith in His Words! The blessing of the Lord works in our lives as we mix faith with it.  
 
You see, saints, Abram had the Lord speak blessings over his life before he ever saw the manifestation of them: In Genesis 12:1, God “had said” these things to him, and He has also said many things to us! He has promised us that the blessing of Abraham is on our lives, that He wills for us to prosper in all things and be in health, that He has pleasure in the prosperity of His servants, etc., etc., etc. But like it was with Abram, we will not see the manifestation of them until we start seeing ourselves as blessed!
 
You see, even though Abram certainly saw the blessing of the Lord in his life, he had to have his name changed from Abram to “Abraham” in order for the ultimate fruit of the blessing to begin coming into fruition in his life. In other words, God had to change this man’s identity before he could receive the promise! Likewise, we need to change our identity as well! We need to start seeing ourselves as a blessed, highly favored, and prosperous man or woman of God. Then when that new identity is formed within us, we change our confession: no longer am I just “Lonnie Willis Dickerson III” identifying myself by my old name; now I am “Trey Blessed Dickerson!”
 
Saints, this is how real this needs to become to us—that just as we are Trey, Robert, Minton or Shannon; we are blessed! It is who we are! We are just as much blessed as we are who we are! Amen! That is what God’s Word says that we are in the kingdom of God. Therefore, in God’s economy, we are not paupers; we are a prosperous people—extremely wealthy spiritually and blessed beyond measure.
 
So, since we are the blessed of the Lord, let’s talk about what blessed people do—they give! And they don’t just give like a person who is struggling to make ends meet. No, they give like they always wanted to give when they hit that golden ticket. Church, I am here to tell you today that we have that golden ticket! It’s the blessing of the Lord! Now people who believe they are blessed give like they are blessed!
 
Which goes along with the first point I want to make concerning how we give. Blessed people honor the Lord and others with their giving.
 
It’s all about HONOR, church! Everything from our giving to the Lord—His representatives and His works—is to be done in honor—that is, as us preferring, valuing, and esteeming that person or thing we are giving to.
 
Hopefully, that is how many of you felt today—like you were valuable and important because someone thought of you and took of their time and resources to do something for you. That is the way the recipients of all of our giving ought to feel when we do something for them.
 
You see, what the Lord is primarily interested in is not what we give, but how we give it.
 
Proverbs 3:9-10 clearly teaches us how He wants us to give— “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”
 
Now that’s a pretty awesome promise, isn’t it? Now our “barn” might be our bank accounts and our “vats” are synonymous with our businesses. So, how many of you would like to see your bank accounts filled with plenty and your businesses overflowing with new business, ideas, etc.? I’m sure we all would!
 
Well, these verses teach us how to do this, and it is not through just simple giving. Verse 9 says, “Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase.” The key word in this verse is found in the word “honor.” In other words, we are to value, esteem, and respect Him, first, with our possessions. That means that when we give something to Him, we don’t do it half-heartedly. We give our highest and our best to Him. Just as the Lord had to correct the children of Israel—don’t give sacrifices that are not really sacrifices. Why? Because that is dishonorable! 
 
One of my favorite examples of honorable giving is in the story of Cain and Abel: We all know the story of how God respected Abel’s offering and did not respect Cain’s offering and much debate has been made as to why. Well, I believe that Hebrews 11:4 tells us the reason why: it was because Abel gave his offering in faith. Genesis 4:4 says that Abel gave the firstborn of his flock (i.e. the first and, therefore, the best) and of their fat (i.e. their richest parts), but Genesis 4:3 said that Cain “in the process of time” gave of the fruit of the ground. The phrase “in the process of time” literally meant “at the end of days.” So, I believe the problem with Cain’s sacrifice was that it was not a sacrifice at all. He came to sacrifice to God when it was convenient for him. I believe he offered to God what he had left over and what he could spare, unlike Abel who gave the first and the best. You could put it this way: Abel gave sacrificially and honorably, while Cain gave conveniently and dishonorably. This was the big difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering. 
 
You see, just because someone gives something to someone else doesn’t necessarily mean that it honored them. I think we all could probably say that we’ve received something from someone that didn’t make us feel special and important. Take, for example, a waiter or a waitress—just because someone left them a tip doesn’t necessarily mean they were blessed by it. But when that server is left a tip that is substantially larger than the standard 15%, it creates what is called a “Wow” experience and thereby honors them. That’s the way our giving should be. I’m not saying that it always has to be above and beyond what is expected, but I am saying that if we are giving like God gives, then it should wow people more times than not. That’s what we should aspire to give like—like HIM.
 
So, I say this to say that it’s all about honoring the Lord in our giving and not following some rule or formula that we feel compelled to follow. When we give this way—cheerfully, willingly, and honorably—we will position ourselves for God’s best in our lives because He Himself said, “If you honor Me, I will honor you.”   
 
But Solomon didn’t just say to honor the Lord with our possessions; he also said to honor Him with the first fruits of all our increase. So, let’s talk about this blessed and honorable giving with what we are doing here today—First Fruits.
 
FIRST FRUITS
 
This particular type of giving is generally used interchangeably with the tithe by many people, but this could not be totally true because there was a distinction made between them under the Old Covenant.
 
You see, the tithe is the “tenth” of all our increase, wherein the first fruits is the giving of the first harvest totally.  So, when you tithe, you are giving ten percent of all of the increase that you get—whether that be the first, second, third or last harvest.  But with your first fruits, you are giving the first lump sum of increase that you have.  Let me explain:  A good example of what the Bible means by “first-fruits” would be say, for instance, I was unemployed and then God gave me an awesome job.  Well, in our day and time, since most of us are not farmers, the salary that I receive from that job would be my increase from the Lord.  So, the “first-fruit” of my increase would be my first paycheck, right?  So how could I honor the Lord through the principle of first fruits? It would be by me giving my first entire paycheck to the Lord.  Tithing would just be giving of ten percent of that paycheck, not the entire thing. 
 
So, you see, tithing and first fruits are similar but they are not the same.  First fruits can almost be best described as “the annual tithe.”  It is first of the year, month, season, etc. as opposed to the first 10% of every single increase.
 
Let me give you another couple of examples of first fruits:  Say I had asked the Lord to help me eliminate any and all debt in my life, and then a brother or sister in Christ approached me and said that the Lord told them to give me $500 a month until I paid off all my debts.  In that instance, my “first fruit” of that would be the initial gift of $500.   Or, say that I was believing the Lord for the money to buy a new car and someone sent me a check out of the blue for $250.  What would my “first-fruit” be of what I was believing the Lord for?  Of course, it would have been the first harvest of $250.  Do you understand what I mean by first fruits?  It is simply defined as the first, and consequently, the best harvest!
 
Now the Bible has much to say about the giving of first fruits.  It was instituted in the Law as a commandment but, just as it is with the tithe, it is not a commandment any longer.  It is now a principle that we should willingly abide by in order to honor the Lord.  However, this is again, not anything that we have to do.  It is simply a principle of giving that honors the Lord and releases even a greater harvest in our lives.
 
So why do you think that God has given us the principle of giving our first fruits?  It is because God wants us to recognize where the harvests come from.  He wants us to be thankful for what He has given us and for us to show Him that our hope and trust is fully in Him.  You see, this type of giving requires a lot of faith—especially when you need that initial harvest to meet your needs.  But as the old saying goes— “You can’t out-give God!”  He will make sure you have all the grace you need when you put that kind of faith in Him.   
 
So, what we are doing here today is we are honoring the Lord on this, the first Sunday of this new year, by blessing one another.  No, we are not supposed to use our entire paycheck to bless our church family.  However, we are supposed to do whatever the Lord puts on our heart to do for one another.  Verily, verily, I say unto you:  It is always more blessed to give than to receive.  
 
But it’s also about faith and trust—which is where this next form of giving also comes in called the tithe. 
 
THE TITHE
 
The word tithe has almost become a religious cliché in many of our Christian circles. If you asked many believers what the word “tithe” really means most could not tell you. Sure, they know it relates to giving to the Lord and His church, but they believe “tithing” is giving any amount whatsoever.
 
The word used for “tithe” just literally means “the tenth.” So tithing describes the giving of a tenth of our increase; or you could say tithing is giving 10% of our income.
 
Therefore, technically you cannot “tithe” 20%, 30%, etc. The tithe is only a tenth and anything above and beyond that 10% would be classified as an offering. So, “tithing is not tipping." But this is what many believers do; they plunk some spare change they have in their wallet in the offering and leave thinking that was their "tithe." No, to tithe means we specifically gave a tenth of our increase, whether that be once a week or once a month etc. It is not putting a ten dollar bill in the offering like you were tipping a waiter (unless, of course, $10 was ten percent of your income for that period of time). 
 
Now there has been much debate in the Body of Christ concerning tithing. The debate revolves around whether we are commanded to tithe under the New Covenant or not. And let me first say that just because something was commanded under the Old Covenant does not mean that it isn’t at least a good principle for us to follow under the New Covenant. And in the case of the tithe, it did not even originate with the Law of Moses! Genesis 14:20 shows us that tithing began with Abram when he willingly gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils of his victory. Jacob was also evidently taught about the principle of tithing because he made a vow to God that he would give a tithe of everything he possessed upon his safe return (Genesis 28:22). The tithe was included into the Law of Moses many years after Abram had freely and willingly instigated it. This teaches us that the tithe is most definitely a good principle for us to abide by today seeing that it was practiced even before the law came.
 
I believe the problem with how tithing is presented in many churches today is that it is taught as law and, therefore, involves punishment if we fail to do it. The truth is that we are not under the Law of Moses or the Levitical Law anymore (Romans 6:14)! Christ fulfilled the law in our place! So, therefore, we are not to do any of the deeds of the law because we are seeking to be justified by God. We already are justified before God because we are in Christ Jesus! Therefore, we should now tithe, not because we are seeking God’s approval, but because we already have God’s approval! We should now tithe because we desire to honor Him with our increase just as Abram did. And although many of whom will read this do not believe they are tithing because they are trying to stay in God’s good graces, there is one way you can find out if you are tithing with this wrong motive: If you stop tithing for a month would you still have the same boldness to approach God with your needs? Some, if they were honest, would have to say no. Why? Because it has been hammered into us that if we do not “pay” our tithes that God is going to be mad at us! That, my friend, is the Old Covenant way of approaching God! Under the New Covenant we can approach God boldly—not because we tithe or do anything else for Him- but because Jesus did everything for us!
 
Another misconception in the Body of Christ concerning tithing is that we are cursed with a curse if we do not return a tenth of our increase to God. Many preach that if you do not “pay” your tithes that God will take it out in doctor’s bills! That is Old Covenant doctrine and extremely opposed to the Gospel! Galatians 3:13 tells us that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us! That curse that Malachi said came upon the Jews who did not give their tithes and offerings, was part of the curse of the law! And those that are in Christ are redeemed from the curse of the law! Do you know why God even instigated the curse of the law under the Old Covenant? It was given because they were like little children under a tutor (see Galatians 3:23-25). And just as little children need to be taught by discipline because they are not mature enough to understand why they should not do certain things, likewise, those under the Old Covenant were ignorant to spiritual things and had to be taught through discipline. You never spanked your children for not looking both ways before they cross the street because you just felt like it! No! You disciplined them because they were ignorant to the dangers and you were trying to protect them from getting hurt. But now we are no longer spiritually dead and ignorant, therefore, we do not need to be motivated by fear of discipline. How much sense would it make if you saw some teenager getting spanked by his or her parents for not looking both ways before crossing the road? That would be pathetic! Likewise, we are now to be motivated to do what God said in His Word, not because we are afraid of the consequences, but just because we know it is the right thing to do.      
 
So, am I saying that we are not to tithe under the New Covenant? Absolutely not! All I am saying is that we need to re-evaluate why we are tithing. Is it motivated by fear or love? And, sad to say, the way many churches are motivating their members to tithe falls under this same “law mentality.” And when believers get this “law mentality” it has the danger of turning into a “religious spirit.” Jesus was rebuking the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:23 when He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” Jesus told these religious leaders that they should have been tithing like they were. Why? Because tithing was a commandment to them and was beneficial to do. But His point was that there were more important things than just these external rituals they were abiding by. God sees justice, mercy, and faith as more important and valuable than tithing! Remember the Pharisee that Jesus said stood in the temple and bragged about his outward works (one being tithing) (Luke 18:12)? Jesus said that this kind of attitude stunk in the nostrils of God!
 
My point is that when you do tithe, you need to watch your motive and your attitude because, if you are not careful, you can develop this religious spirit that criticizes others since it is an outward work. If you ever boast about a religious deed you do it is because it is a work to you! (Ephesians 2:9) 
 
Under the New Covenant, it is very clear that we have only two commandments—that is, that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. (And, of course, by obeying these two commandments we will fulfill the rest of God’s righteous requirements.) This means that everything we do for the Lord should now be motivated by love and not by fear. So, if you are giving your tithe like you are paying off the mafia then adjustments need to be made in your heart. As a matter of fact, we could go a little deeper and say that if you are “paying” your tithes like you pay your electric bill then you are missing it as well.
 
You see, what I am saying is that we should not give our tithe because of some sense of obligation or to keep God’s power from being cut off in our life. We are totally unworthy in ourselves (whether we tithe or not) of receiving any of God’s blessings in our life. But, in Christ Jesus, we have been made worthy to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness—not by any good that we do but simply through our faith in the accomplishments of Jesus! 
 
Now let’s look at some familiar passages of Scripture that we use in reference to tithing found in Malachi chapter 3…
 
In verse 7, God was speaking through Malachi and He said that Israel had left His ordinances. These ordinances, we will see, was the giving of their tithes and offerings. In verse 8 He asked the question… “Will a man rob God?” Then He went on to say, “Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.” Many ministers refer back to these Scriptures to teach that if you do not “pay” your tithes that you are robbing God! And the way that they present it motivates the hearers to tithe out of fear. Under our new and better covenant, God does not want us to do anything motivated by fear. Everything we do for Him now is to be motivated by love and appreciation—especially our giving. Now why did God consider this “robbing” Him? It was because He made it clear that the tithe was His (Leviticus 27:30)! And if they spent what was His then that was considered stealing His money.
 
Now I am about to say something that will shock you at first but just hear me out and let me explain. I do not believe, under the New Covenant, that the tithe is the Lord’s! “What? How can you say that?” (someone might be thinking). The reason I can say that is because, under the New Covenant, we died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)! In other words, as Galatians 2:20 eloquently puts it, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” What does this have to do with 10% of our income being the Lord’s? I’m glad you asked. If we were buried with Jesus when we made Him our Savior and our Lord then we don’t own anything because we are dead! And since we are now in Christ, the life we are living is Him living through us! So, my point is that since we are dead and Christ is living through us, everything we possess is God’s! In other words, 10% is not the Lord’s anymore; now 100% is the Lord’s!
 
So now if it is all the Lord’s money then how do we know how much to give? The answer is we should be Spirit led and prompted. The catch in all this is that if you are not being led to give more under this new and better Covenant than what they were commanded to give under the old Covenant then you ain’t being led (pardon my bad English)!
 
Another question that arises in regard to tithing is “Where are we supposed to give it?” And, again, we can’t get legalistic about it. We can learn from the principles of the Old Testament but, in my opinion, we just need to be led where to give it. The law prescribed that the tithe was to be given to the Levites (which were those of the Tribe of Levi who were set apart to serve in the Lord’s house). It is difficult to understand what kind of ministers that the Levites were a type of under the New Covenant but one conclusion we can make is that they represent the minister that is in full-time ministry and does not have any other source of income. So how do we know if God would prefer for us to give it in our local church or to a traveling minister? Well, Deuteronomy 12:5-6 gives us some indications of this that might help us decide. It says that you tithe to the place that God has chosen to put His name for His dwelling place. First of all, when the Bible speaks of the name of God it is referring to the representation of God. In other words, it refers to His character, nature, power, and authority. So when the Word of God teaches us to tithe to the place where God has chosen to put His name, it is telling us to tithe to the place that God’s character, nature, authority, and power is represented. For example, He is talking about a church where they correctly represent His nature and character and where they believe in and demonstrate His authority and power. This would exclude many churches today that believe that the gifts passed away with the apostles and that God is a ruthless tyrant who only loves you when you are perfect. The other qualification is that the place we tithe to needs to be a place that God has chosen to put His name for His dwelling place. In other words, God’s presence and anointing need to be present there. Some churches you go into have just such an atmosphere that is charged with the presence of God. Some ministers just operate in and even usher the anointing of the Holy Ghost into a service. These are the churches and ministries that God has chosen for His dwelling place! So from these two principles we can learn that we need to tithe to the ministry that is rightly dividing the word of truth—accurately representing the nature and power of God—and also to the ministry that is anointed and carries the ark with it wherever it goes. Now, of course, this does not limit us to a local church but I personally like to give it to my local church because it is a consistent amount that they can budget and my offerings go to other ministries that I feel accurately represent the Lord and carry His presence.      
 
So, to wrap this all up, what I am saying is that we ought to tithe under the New Covenant but our motive needs to be pure. It needs to be pure, not because it is a commandment, but because it is a vehicle for showing our love and appreciation to God for all He has given us stewardship over. Tithing is just our way of willingly and from our heart honoring God! God is so good to us so we ought (Matthew 23:23) to return 10% off the top of our paycheck to Him! It is the least we could do for all He has given us! And I do mean—“the least we could do!” We should be willing to do so much more for Him than just 10%! And when we get full of the Spirit of God and fall so in love with Him then our giving a tithe of all we possess will not be hard at all. We will actually begin to rejoice when we have the opportunity to give, which is the attitude God wanted us to have from the beginning (See Deuteronomy chapter 12). The hardest thing we will face when we get that turned on to God will be not being able to give into everything we desire to. This is the attitude God wants us to have in our giving!  
 
Again, am I saying that we should not practice tithing? God forbid. I believe that the tithe is still a good guideline and principle for us to follow as a bare minimum. But we should be giving well above and beyond just the 10% of our income!
 
What I personally do is I practice tithing because I desire to honor God with a tenth of all the income He has graced me with. Then I give more to other ministries that I had on my heart to partner with and also to other different individuals and projects as they arise.
 
So, am I saying that we don’t have to tithe? Yes, I am! God does not want you to do anything if you do not want to! He wants your heart and not just your wallet! Am I saying that we shouldn’t tithe? No, I am not! I am saying that we should want to tithe! It should be our desire to give back to the Lord a portion of all that He has entrusted to us.
 
Now one thing that causes so many believers to stumble with tithing is that they think there is no way that they can give 10% of their income to the Lord because they wouldn't have enough to pay their bills with. Well, I can personally attest (as can many more of you out there) that when we honor the Lord with the first 10% of our increase, we will not lack.
 
You cannot out-give God, saints! And if you will step out in faith and obedience to this statute of God, God will cause that 90% to go further than the 100% did. In fact, tithing is one of the only things God actually tells us to try Him in (Malachi 3:10).
 
But I see the Lord as saying here, “Just trust Me.” We have to learn to trust the Lord in the area of our finances and we are fooling ourselves if we say we are trusting God, but are not giving Him at least a tenth of our increase.
 
You see, when you sow, you reap because you are proving that you truly do trust Him. I seriously doubt that one trusts God in the area of finances if they do not give. Because He lays out the principles in the Bible, whether they are commandments or not, that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. So if you believe and trust God, you will sow. It is that simple.
 
So I encourage you today, if you are not giving the Lord the first 10% of your increase because you feel like you can't or simply because you have never been taught to, step out in faith on God's Word today and say through your actions, "God, I am going to trust you in this. I am going to give you the opportunity to open up the windows of heaven and pour out the blessing on the other 90%. Yes, do yourself a favor and act on the Word of God—again, not to get something, but because of all you have received from the Lord and you want to honor Him in obedience. He is faithful who promised, who also will do it! 
 
And regarding this subject of giving, let me reiterate this to you: God does not need our money! He is not in lack! God just simply wants all our heart. And if He gets all our heart, then He will get at least 10% of our increase. It is that simple.
 
Again, loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is far more important than your gifts to Him (see Mark 12:33). Never forget this one truth: You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving! You can give money to the Lord without your heart being in it, but when God has all of your heart, He will have all of your wallet or pocketbook as a byproduct. This is why the gift you give because of your love for God is far more valuable than the gift by itself. God just wants our heart! 
 
OFFERINGS
 
So now let’s take a look at what the Word of God has to say about another type of giving called “offerings.”
 
Now allow me to first reiterate a point we have already made regarding the difference between the tithe and offerings. Again, the word tithe means “tenth.” So it is the first tenth of our increase. So an offering would be what then? It would be anything we give to the Lord outside of that first 10% of our increase. So, as we have made the point of, you cannot give say 1% of your income and call it your “tithe” since the tithe literally means 10%. No, what you gave in that situation is an “offering” not your “tithe.” 
 
Now the word “offering” in Webster’s dictionary is defined as “a sacrifice ceremonially offered as an act of worship.”
 
Notice the first word listed in our basic definition of an offering is— “sacrifice.” Although this is specifically referring to the offerings prescribed under the Old Covenant such as the burnt animal sacrifices, I believe that those offerings given under the Old Testament were, not only types and shadows of the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, but they were also examples of what our financial offerings to the Lord should be like.
 
You see, God instituted in the law many different kinds of offerings such as peace offerings, freewill offerings, drink offerings, etc. These can all be used as types and shadows of our financial offerings given under the New Covenant. One thing that we can learn about offerings from an Old Testament perspective is that there were a lot of them, and each of them had a specific purpose. For example, the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:3-17) was for the purpose of general atonement of sin, and there were certain animals that could be used for this type of offering. There was even a specific way for burning these offerings (i.e. overnight). Then you have a peace offering (Leviticus chapter 3) and it was more of a festive offering. It likewise required specific types of animals. And the list could go on and one—the Grain Offering, the Sin Offering, the Trespass Offering, etc. With each of these offerings, they were given very specific details on what was considered an acceptable type of offering for each of these, what their purpose was, and how these offerings were to be prepared.
 
In all of these myriad of details, I learn one very invaluable lesson: There are different kinds of financial offerings that we can give and each one can have its own specific purpose. For example, one type of financial offering in our day might be considered a “partnership offering”—that is, identifying a ministry that you believe in and making a pledge/commitment to giving regularly, a consistent amount into that ministry. Another could be a “seed offering”—which would be a one-time financial gift into a person or ministry for the specific purpose of planting a seed for a needed or desired harvest in your own life. Others might be a “missions offering” (i.e. giving into either a local or overseas mission), “project offering” (i.e. giving into a special project like a building fund etc.). And this list likewise could go on and on. But my point is that like it was under the Old Covenant, there are many different types of “offerings” we can give and each should have its own specific purpose and intention.   
 
Now back to the definition of the word “offering” that we saw: In Ephesians 5:2 the Apostle Paul says, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Friends, Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what an offering should look like because He was the best and most perfect offering ever! Why? Because He was a sacrifice! God gave His only begotten Son! He did not give just one of His sons that He could spare! No, He gave His very best and that which cost Him something! Another reason Jesus was the perfect offering was because He was pure and He had no blemish. He was totally void of spot and wrinkle!
 
So, the thing we can learn from these two examples is how our offerings can be offerings in which God is well-pleased:
 
First of all, as a general rule, our offerings need to be our very best gifts—something that cost us something. King David said in First Chronicles 21:24 that he would not give to God something that cost Him nothing! This means that our offerings should be our very best gifts that are a sacrifice to us.
 
Secondly, Jesus being a pure and undefiled sacrifice shows us how our offerings should be given with a good heart and void of impure motives. Our offerings should be totally clean and perfect. These kinds of offerings are the ones in which God is “well-pleased.”
 
Now do not misunderstand me, not all of our offerings need to be extreme sacrifices—such as, giving all that we have—but they should not be simply our pocket change either! We just need to understand that when we give offerings to a ministry or our local church, we are giving unto the Lord! It is not man that we are giving to! Sure, we are giving into His works that consist of other people, but in actuality, we are giving to God.
 
So, my point is that if we are giving to God, our gifts need to be honorable. In other words, they need to be a gift that is worthy of being presented to a King.
 
Saints, if you really want God to be well-pleased with your offerings, then they need to be given in faith—for faith is what pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) And it does not require a whole lot of faith for most people to pull a one dollar bill out of their wallet and plunk it in the offering.
 
So, am I saying that it is wrong to just give a buck? Of course not! First of all, giving just a dollar might require a lot of faith for some people in tougher financial situations, but what I am saying is that in order for your gifts to be “more excellent,” they need to require faith on your part to give them.
 
You see, God does not focus on amounts; He focuses on percentages! Do you remember the story in Luke chapter 21 of the poor widow who gave two mites? Jesus said that she gave more than all the rest of the people giving their offerings. Why? Because He said that all the rest gave out of their abundance—that is, they gave what they could spare—but she gave all her livelihood! This poor widow did not give more than everyone else from an amount standpoint; she gave more than everyone from a percentage standpoint. 
 
Saints, when Jesus looks at our offerings, He is looking from a percentage standpoint. Am I giving what I know I can spare or am I giving in faith? This is the question we should ask ourselves. And this is where Cain made his mistake. His offering was evidently not honoring God and required no faith on his part. Therefore, God did not accept it and we all know well what the end result of that story was.
 
Friends, let’s always make it a point that when we are giving an offering of some sort, to first understand that the Lord is ultimately who we are giving it to! Therefore, let’s make it a point to honor Him with that gift and give in faith! For with offerings like this, the Lord is well-pleased! Amen!
 
Now in the rest of Webster’s definition, he defines an offering as “a sacrifice ceremonially offered as an act of worship.” This shows us how when our offerings are given, they should always be offered as an act of worship.
 
How many times have we prepared an offering for the Lord and then, when offering time comes, we just plunk it in the collection box or offering plate without any thought? Sadly, we would have to say it has been more often than not. But, saints, what we need to understand is that when we give our offerings to the Lord it is to be a part of worship. In other words, our giving should be accompanied by a heart that is prostrate and in love with the Lord.
 
How do we do this? Well, this goes back to what we talked about earlier in this lesson on giving: giving cheerfully and with a heart of gratitude! I cannot reiterate to you how important this is to God. He does not need your offerings! He just wants all of you! So, when you give Him your offerings that come from a grateful heart He is well pleased. But when you just give an offering because you feel compelled to or simply out of habit without your heart being in it, then God is not impressed at all.
 
First Corinthians 13:3 tells us that we can give all our goods to the poor and give our body to be burned but if we are not motivated by love then it profits us nothing. My question was how can you give like this apart from love? And the answer is that you can just do these things out of duty or even greed. You might just feel obligated to give your money to the poor because you have somebody watching or you might just be willing to give of yourself because of the reward you will receive. These are wrong motivations! God wants us, as New Testament believers and full of His Spirit, to give out of our love for Him and His works, not because we will get something in return. No, He wants us to give, not because it will benefit us in any way, but just simply because we want to worship and honor Him through our giving! This is our high calling as born-again children of God—to worship the Lord with our offerings!  
 
Now I want to share with you some of the benefits of this kind of sacrificial and worshipful giving:
 
Do you remember the story of God asking Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice to Him? Many do not understand the results of Abraham’s obedience in that situation. God was in covenant with Abraham. So, therefore, God needed a man to be willing to give his only begotten son (his very best) so that the law of sowing and reaping would be fulfilled by God giving His only begotten Son. God was legally obligated to bless man’s obedience according to the law of sowing and reaping. Amen!
 
So, what is my point, you ask? My point is that when we, as covenant people of God, give God our very best then that same law of sowing and reaping will take effect in our lives. In other words, when we give sacrificial offerings and offerings that are full of love then we will reap and they will produce after their own kind! It bears repeating that when Second Corinthians 9:6 says, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Whatever manner in which we give to God is the manner in which God will give back to us! So the blessing in giving loving and sacrificial offerings unto God is that God will give back to us loving and sacrificial offerings.
 
And how many of you know that if God gives like this then it is going to be some extremely lavish giving!?! I’m talking about some ship sinking, net breaking, and cup overflowing kind of blessings! It has been well said that you cannot out-give God and that is so true. So even if this message makes you feel uncomfortable because it stretches you, get out of the boat! Start living in the faith zone and watch God pour out so many blessings on you that you do not have room enough to contain them! Amen!
 
ALMS
 
Now, I want us to move on to another type of giving that I consider to be just as important of a kind of giving as the prior three—that is, the giving of alms.
 
The giving of alms is commonly understood as being gifts given to the poor, and the reason I see this as being such an important type of giving is because of a powerful Scripture in the New Testament…
 
In Galatians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul was recounting his meeting of the other apostles in Jerusalem. In this passage of Scripture, he talked about how they gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship to the Gentiles. But Paul mentions something in verse 10 that has always stood out to me. He said, “They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.”
 
What a powerful verse, saints! You know, if you had just met another Christian and committed to him or her a huge responsibility, do you think that this statement would be the one thing that you would remind them of? To most believers, this wouldn’t have been atop the list of the most important charges they would give others. But to these apostles that had walked with Jesus, this was obviously a very important part of ministry.
 
Do you know why the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ made that admonition to Paul and Barnabas? It was because this was one of the focal points of Jesus’ ministry! Jesus gave so much to the poor that when Judas—the treasurer of Jesus’ ministry—got up from the table in the night time to go betray Jesus that the other disciples thought that he was probably told by Jesus to go give to the poor. Now for the other disciples to think that (especially in the night) shows us that this was obviously a regular practice of Jesus. In other words, Jesus was known for giving much to the poor at all hours of the day. And if this was Jesus’ way of operating, then this should be ours as well! Amen?
 
Now, oftentimes we read words in the Bible like “alms,” just seeing them through our religious goggles and never pursue their true meaning and significance.
 
The Greek word used for “alms” has a root in the word used for “mercy.” Therefore, this shows us how this type of giving is to be exhibited—in mercy. Now perhaps the best definition I have ever heard for mercy is “not getting what one does deserve.”
 
So, when we combine this definition with the root meaning for “alms” we see that when we give alms to the poor, we are not necessarily giving them what they deserve. I say this because sometimes people fail to meet other people’s needs because they don’t feel like the person deserves to have their needs met. Maybe the person did some stupid things to get themselves into that situation. Well, if the root meaning of the word “alms” is “mercy” then this does not mean that we are giving people what they deserve; we are giving them what they now need, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. In other words, we do not need to over scrutinize every poor person we help. No, we just are to see the need, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and do what seems good to do. That’s all. 
 
The Webster’s dictionary defines “alms” as “something (money or food) given freely to relieve the poor.” So, we can see from these definitions that alms are gifts that we give to the poor as a way of showing mercy on them.
 
I love how the dictionary adds the word “freely” in its definition of alms. This shows us that our gifts to the poor are not to have any strings attached. In other words, in order for it to be alms it has to be given out of goodwill and without any service expected from the recipient.
 
You see, so many times when we give, it is because we are looking for something in return. Many give their tithes or offerings to their church because they feel like the church will recognize them for it by returning the favor in some way. Others give to their fellow believers because they feel like they can repay them down the road. Then there are those that give to ministries just to receive a tax exemption at the end of the year. And there are many other different selfish reasons why Christians give to God’s works.
 
So, this is why I feel like giving to the poor is one of the greatest ways of giving. The reason is because the poor cannot return the favor! They will not be able to pay you back. They usually do not have enough notoriety that they can praise you in front of your peers. Now sure you can give to the poor for the sake of being seen by men, but the poor themselves will not be able to offer you much in return. This is one of the reasons why I believe giving to the poor is the most rewarding type of giving.
 
You see, the best two grounds to sow into are those who will not (your enemies) and those who cannot (the poor) repay you for your gifts to them! The reason I can say this is because when you are in no way recompensed for your giving from man then God becomes your complete recompensor! We should never give because of what we will receive in return, but the Bible is very clear that we can expect God to reward us for giving to those who cannot return the favor.
 
Now notice how Webster’s definition of “alms” purposely makes the point to say that alms are not just referring to money. It says that it can be either food or money.
 
You see, a lot of times we do not feel very comfortable in our day and time giving money to a beggar on the street because many will use it on drugs or alcohol. That is where we can apply this definition. We can always offer to buy them a meal or some groceries. And usually you can tell real quickly what they really wanted when you make them that offer. So, yes, we should still try and show love to those that are obviously just wanting money so that they can buy drugs and alcohol. And the way we do this is by providing them with their basic necessities and not by contributing to their habits in giving them money.
 
I have talked to so many believers that seem offended about the subject of giving to the poor because in our nation we have those that are living off welfare and are not interested in working to support their families. And while I definitely understand and agree that those kinds of people are not what God had in mind, we still have those out there who need our help. The Word of God has a lot to say about giving to the poor whether we like it or not so we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. We should actively be looking for those that are impoverished and that cannot help themselves. 
 
So, let’s look at some Scriptures that talk about giving alms to the poor:
 
Even though the word “alms” was not used in the Old Testament, the principle was taught and practiced by the Jewish people. There were numerous admonitions given in the law that commanded them to remember the poor, the widows, etc. I want us to take a look at some in particular that are found in the Book of Proverbs…
 
Proverbs 22:9 says, “He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.” A “generous eye” describes someone who is focused on being generous. Their whole mindset is: “how can I bless someone today that needs it?” In this Proverb, Solomon says that this person will be blessed. You see, sowing and reaping is simply a law! If you are focused on being a blessing, you will be blessed in return! Notice what Solomon goes on to say…“for (i.e. “this is the reason that person will be blessed”) he gives of his bread to the poor. When we purpose in our hearts to give of our substance to someone who needs it we will be blessed by the Lord in return. As Solomon says in Proverbs 19:17, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.” When we show compassion on people in need, God sees it like we are lending our possessions to Him! And the rest of Proverbs 19:17 says, “and He (God) will pay back what he has given.” This is the reason why the person with a generous eye will be blessed! It is because God pays us back! So many think that if they give alms like this that they are losing their money but we need to renew our minds to this truth—If we give to those in need then God will not allow us to run out! Proverbs 28:27 says, “He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses.” It is just this simple! If we give to the poor there is no way we will lack! But, on the other hand, this proverb says that if we hide our eyes (i.e. “are not focused on being a blessing”) we will have many curses.
 
So not having this generous eye has negative consequences that we do not want. God is very serious about this! He has compassion on those who are in need and He uses His body to meet those needs. We need to get our focus off ourselves and onto those that have it worse than us. This will not only cause our needs to be met, but it will also create in our hearts joy unspeakable and full of glory!      
 
CONCLUSION
 
So, these are the keys to living under God’s economy:
 
We need to see ourselves as the blessed of the Lord and possess this blessed mentality. As the Scriptures teach us—as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So, we must believe this in our hearts about ourselves. Then this will develop in us a propensity to be givers because that’s what blessed people do—they give.
 
Then we learned four ways in which we can give to God—first-fruits, the tithe, offerings, and alms. These four types of giving are all the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God for all of us. But the main thing we learned about giving is that the thing that is of the most importance is the heart and attitude which we give with …
 
God wants us to give cheerfully and willingly! He wants us to have the heart to honor Him in light of all He has done for us!
 
This is how you and I can position ourselves to live according to His riches in glory—by knowing who we are and act accordingly. Amen.