REVIEW
So, we are currently on a series on the kingdom of God entitled “The Mysteries of the Kingdom.” And in this series of teachings, we are covering the various parables that Jesus taught throughout His earthly ministry which illustrate to us how His kingdom operates. In other words, in these examples Jesus gave us we can learn how the kingdom of God works and start having these principles work for us instead of against us. You see, the truth is, just like we have natural laws that we must live by in this world in order to not only thrive but also survive, there are laws in God’s kingdom that we must learn to live by if we are to see God’s best produced in our lives. And I am convinced that many of God’s people do not experience His perfect will for their lives because they have failed to operate under the laws that govern His kingdom. Some are simply ignorant concerning these principles while others are simply not doers of the Word. But the fact remains that God has set His kingdom up under certain principles and it is our job to walk in them. When we do, we will get God’s results. When we do not, we will get the world’s results. Therefore, over the course of this series, we will look at the various parables Jesus taught in His earthly ministry in order to learn how God’s kingdom operates so that we can function under its laws. Jesus called this the mystery of the kingdom—that is, the hidden principles that govern how God’s kingdom works and operates, and He taught this mystery through these many different parables. So, last week, we began looking at the first parable of God’s kingdom that Jesus taught at His “Sermon by the Sea” called the Parable of the Sower. And I made the point that this is one of the several times that Jesus used the illustration of seedtime and harvest to show us how the kingdom of God operates. Now by virtue of the fact that this is one of the most oft used examples of the kingdom of God by our Lord, we can understand that the law of seedtime and harvest is the predominant principle governing God’s kingdom. Therefore, I believe we should place great significance on this kingdom principle simply because Jesus emphasized the law of seedtime and harvest time and time again. Now there is a reason that Jesus began with this particular parable in this chapter. And I believe it is because the Parable of the Sower is the most important parable concerning God’s kingdom. You see, Jesus responded to His disciples’ question about this parable by asking them— “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4:13) By asking these questions, Jesus was not saying they should understand this parable because it is the simplest to comprehend. No, He is asking the question— “How will you understand all the parables?”—because the Parable of the Sower is a foundational, fundamental parable. In other words, it is the foundational principle of the kingdom and must be understood in order to go further in God’s kingdom. Yes, saints, this principle of seedtime and harvest and how growth occurs in the kingdom of God is essential to producing fruit that endures in God’s kingdom. So, what we saw was from this parable last week is that there was a sower, and Jesus said, “he went out to sow” (See Mark 4:2). That means that this guy was not just someone who sowed from time to time, but he had made a profession out of it. Not only that, but he went out for the purpose of sowing seed. In other words, there was no indifference in this guy. He knew who he was and what he wanted to do. So, the point I made from this is that, have you ever noticed that you don’t just automatically have roses, lilies, watermelons, tomatoes, etc. growing in your yard? No, as a general rule, things we desire and are beneficial do not just automatically spring up in our gardens. But, on the other hand, undesirable plants and vegetation such as weeds, briars, tares, etc. seem to just spring up everywhere on their own, don’t they? Well, this illustrates to us how things work in God’s kingdom: Did you know that all we have to do to be carnal, selfish, walk in the flesh and produce the fruit of this world is NOTHING? On the other hand, in order to produce good fruit and to see the things we desire growing in our garden we have to be intentional, deliberate and purposeful to sow them into our garden. Amen? Therefore, we need to see ourselves as “sowers” and live purposeful lives of going to and fro sowing seed wherever we go. But what I see happening in so many Christians is that they oftentimes want to see change, but they are basically doing the same thing—they are looking in their back yard and wondering why we don’t have desirable fruit growing there. Church, there are spiritual laws that we must abide by. And we learned that the first step to abiding by the law of sowing & reaping is knowing what the seed is because it all starts with the seed. We saw how Jesus began His interpretation of the Parable of the Sower by saying, “The sower sows the Word.” (Verse 14). Therefore, the seed that produces fruit in the kingdom of God is the Word of God. And this sparked a very good point—namely, that we need to know specifically what kind of seed we are planting. In other words, what is the Word that we are planting? It is not good enough to just be general. We need to be specific and sow specific seed that we want a harvest in. In other words, we need to purpose in our heart to sow seed to where it’s not a passing thought of “Oh yeah, I guess I need to sow something today. Let’s see what I have left.” No! You need to purpose in your heart what you are sowing and guard that seed that’s in the soil. Amen! I made the point last week that sometimes people don’t receive what they need because they are not specific enough. You wouldn’t go into a nursery and just grab a bunch of misc. seeds to sow in your garden or field, would you? You wouldn’t say, “Oh, this looks like a seed. That’s what I need” and take it to go plant. No, you would search out specific seed that you need. But when it comes to picking out the seed, I believe a better way is to ask the Holy Spirit to pick out the seed for you. So, don’t just go about searching out the Scriptures alone. Let the Holy Spirit guide you into all the truth and let Him point you towards the specific seed that you need. In fact, what you would do is you would look at the packaging or tag of the seed for the image of the fruit, vegetable, or flower that you want to grow. So, you look for the fruit’s image when selecting the specific seed. Likewise, this is what we must do in the spirit; we must see the image of the desired result—so that the image of hope is painted in our heart. You know, people say things like, “Well, I’m just trusting God.” To do what? How are you trusting Him? What is your trust based on? We need to be specific in our faith! No, when we are planting a garden, we are very specific in what we do: We prepare the ground. We buy specific seed. We systematically sow it. We then guard our garden—sometimes with some pretty extreme measures. We go through certain concentrated and calculated steps to get the fruit, flower, vegetables, etc. we want. And that includes choosing the specific seed for the fruit we want to see. So why would we do it any different in God’s kingdom? Saints, I’ll tell you, we need to become more deliberate, purposeful and intentional in what we are sowing into our lives—because as a general rule our lives are a today of what we planted yesterday! Amen! Saints, always remember, bad fruit comes naturally; good fruit comes intentionally. In other words, things we don’t desire come naturally; things we do desire come deliberately. Friends, everything in God’s kingdom operates according to this principle: First, we have the seed, and the seed must be God-given. It cannot begin with man. The hand of the Lord must begin anything and everything that is produced in God’s kingdom. It has to be this way because God’s kingdom is always initiated by God and never by man. So, God gave us the seed: He gave us Jesus and this gospel of the kingdom! He gave to us what we could never have earned. He put in our hand the seed and said, “Now sow this seed that I have entrusted to you on good ground and watch it produce what it was sent to accomplish! And that is the wonderful promise concerning this gospel of the kingdom: It is that this seed is no respecter of persons. It does not produce differently for one than it does for the other. No, that seed is programmed to produce after its own kind. That means that we all have the same opportunity afforded to us. Verily, verily, I say unto you: His Word will not return void but will accomplish what He sent it to accomplish and to prosper in the thing for which He sent it to do. God, in His sovereignty, has given us a choice. And He gave us this choice by first giving us the ability to choose—that is, by giving us the seed. The seeds are now in our hands, church. Let’s start sowing them! THE SEED VERSUS THE SOIL So now, let’s move into the other part of Jesus’ Parable of the Sower—and, in my opinion, it is the biggest part: The reason I believe this to be the greater part is because, again, I made the point last week that in describing what the seed is, Jesus was quick and to the point, Jesus essentially describing the seed as “the Word of God’s kingdom.” And that’s all He had to say about that (in my best Forrest Gump impersonation). But when it came to the ground that the seed was sown into, Jesus was much more descriptive and specific. Yes, He spent exponentially more time describing the four types of ground than He did the seed that was being sown into them. And do you know why? It is because the seed is not the problem! It doesn’t require a lot of explanation. The seed is the seed, and just as there is generally not a lot of understanding about seeds from the average person, pretty much everyone knows how to get them to do what they do. Likewise, we do not have to necessarily know how the Word of God works; all we need to know is that it does work and start planting it. But the point Jesus was making in His Parable of the Sower, and a point we are going to make here today, is that while the Word will do its part and is certainly not the issue, there is another variable and that is generally where we run into problems. And that variable is US—that is, our hearts. But while I want us to transition from the seed to the ground today, we need never forget the importance of the seed—because with no seed will come no fruit; I don’t care how rich your soil is. For example, there are a lot of Christians out there who have wonderful hearts. They are good people. They love the Lord. But, unfortunately, they never learn about the seed and how it works, and therefore, don’t receive God’s best in their life. And this what confuses people—they don’t understand how someone who has a good heart doesn’t receive God’s promises. Herein lies the issue though. It’s not a problem with the soil; it’s the failure of the soil to receive the seed and allow it to produce its fruit. So, you see, the seed is the most important aspect of this law of the kingdom. But, again, the fact remains that Jesus spent much more time in this parable teaching us about the condition of the ground. Now there is no doubting the importance of the part that good soil plays in the production of a seed. Good soil is an integral part of that seed performing what it is programmed to produce. Likewise, good ground is a necessity in the life of a Christian in order to see the seed of God’s Word grow outwardly. Notice in this parable, how the same seed was sown on four different types of ground—We have the wayside ground, the stony ground, the thorny ground, and what Jesus called the good ground. And Jesus made the point in the explanation of His parable that the ground represents our heart (See Mark 4:15 & Luke 8:15). Therefore, the heart was undoubtedly the determining factor on what kind of fruit was borne, correct? The same seed was sown in every type of ground, but only a certain type of ground bore a great harvest. In fact, in this parable Jesus illustrates to us the four different types of believers who come to hear the Word. Now, these are not unbelievers; these are people who actually wanted to come hear the Word of God. But only one of these four types of hearts produced fruit that remained. Do you know what that teaches us? It teaches us that only 25% of the people who come to actually hear the Word will be fruitful. I want to be in the Top 25, amen!?! I don’t want to be the wayside, stony or thorny ground. Do you? No, I want to be in the good ground category! (In fact, amongst that 25% of Christians, Jesus taught us that there would even be varying degrees of fruitfulness—some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred). OVERSEEING OUR HEART So, what does this teach us? It teaches us the absolute importance of guarding our heart with all diligence (See Proverbs 4:23). You see, according to Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, our hearts are like a garden that the Word is sown into. Therefore, we must guard our heart like we would guard our gardens from the various pests that would try to devour our seed and crop. Any of us who have ever had a garden understand fully well that it takes work to keep a productive garden. In many cases, if you do not spray it down with insecticides or put a fence around it, different kinds of bugs and animals will devour your harvest. Likewise, our hearts are like the garden and we must keep it with all diligence. Let’s now look at this phrase from Proverbs 4:23— “Keep your heart with all diligence”: The word “keep” literally means “to guard, watch, protect and preserve.” It describes keeping something in a safe, secret place, and then, guarding that place. So, Solomon was saying that we are to keep our heart in a safe and secret place similar to how we would keep our wallet, checkbook, or jewelry in a safe and secret place. Did you know that in the world an extremely valuable jewel is oftentimes placed in a high security vault with all kinds of motion detectors, etc.? And they do this for a rock which only has temporal value! How much more, should we apply this same kind of diligence to guarding our own heart, which has eternal value? Notice what Solomon goes on to say: He says that we are to guard our heart “with all diligence.” Actually, the Hebrew word for “diligence” here means “keeping or guarding; to keep in custody or to imprison.” It is translated “ward” the most in the King James Version. So that’s right—It has the same meaning as the word “guard” at the beginning of this verse! So, what the first portion of this verse literally says is— “Guard your heart above everything else you guard!” In other words, the Holy Spirit through Solomon was saying that the most important thing you have to guard is your heart! Therefore, guard your heart more than you would guard your most valuable possessions! And the good news is—God has given us the ability to do so! We are the “bishop” of our own hearts! Not God. And not the devil. We are the ones who control what condition our hearts get in. For example, when it comes to our children and grandchildren, it is our responsibility to guard their hearts if they are under our supervision and we are their custodian. In other words, we have the responsibility to determine what they are watching, what they are listening to, etc. Their hearts are in our hands. However, once one comes of age, their heart is their own responsibility, and they must guard it with all diligence. You see, the earth’s soil does not discern what seeds are sown into it and then decide which ones to produce. It does not say, “I don’t want to produce these corn seeds that are planted in me. I think I will just produce tomatoes instead.” No, it does not have the ability to discern between good seed and bad seed. The earth will simply produce the fruit of whatever seed that is planted in it. And our hearts are no different: Just like the earth’s soil, our hearts will just accept whatever seed we allow to be sown into it and then begin to produce the fruit of that seed. The Scriptures teach us that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. I would add that just as it is deceitful; it can also be deceived above all things. This is why it is so important that we watch what is sown into our hearts! Those seeds will determine what kind of garden we possess in our lives. Bad seeds=Bad fruit. Good seeds=Good fruit. It is just that simple. This is why we must learn to guard our own hearts like we were to guard our children’s hearts. Hebrews 12:15 teaches us that we are the “bishop” of our own heart: In it, we are told— “looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” Now these roots of bitterness that defile people spring up from the heart—that is, from the ground within us. But no one can sow these tares in us without our permission. We either voluntarily or involuntarily give permission for these seeds to get sown in our hearts. And it works both ways—either for our good or for our detriment. This is why we are told— “looking carefully …” These words come from the Greek word episkopos. And this is the word translated as “bishop” elsewhere. Now a “bishop” described an “overseer” of a church or churches—that is, he would “look over” a church to make sure things were being done decently and in order, that no false doctrine was entering in, etc. This was simply another term to describe a pastor and the role he has in “shepherding the flock.” Considering this example, just like it is my job to “oversee” High Point Church and make sure things remain in order, it is all of our jobs to “oversee” our own hearts and make sure they remain in a good, healthy condition. Church, we are in charge of our garden. Yes, as the Lord created Adam and put him in the garden to both tend and keep it (See Genesis 2:8-15), likewise God has now put the garden in us to both tend and keep it. This is why we are entitling this message today— “Guarding Your Garden.” But the fact is that all of our garden’s start out good. No one is born with a wicked, perverted, and corrupt heart (at least from an earthly point of view). The truth is people’s hearts become like the wayside, stony, and thorny ground because of things we are exposed to in life and the choices we make through those experiences. So, while we could spend weeks and even months talking about all four of these types of ground, what I want us to do today is just talk about the good ground. If you want more information on the other types of grounds that did not produce fruit that remained, I have resources on that. But as for what the Lord has for us today, I simply felt led to emphasize the good ground—the one we all aspire to be. But before we begin looking at the specific characteristics of the heart called “good ground,” I want you to see the main difference between the good ground and the other 3 types of ground … THE LEAST PRODUCE THE GREATEST When it comes to these four different conditions of our heart, there is an important point that I have learned from my mentor and father of the faith, Andrew Wommack, that we all need to understand: The good ground (which is the type of heart that produced the best harvest) was not the ground that had the most; it was the ground that had the least. This is an important lesson because, so many times when we think of being fruitful for the Lord, we associate our fruitfulness with being talented, smart, strong, etc. In other words, we think it is the Christians who have the most going for them in the natural that are going to produce the greater harvest, but this simply is not the case. In this case, it was the ground that did not have the distractions or other things to be dependent on that bore a hundredfold harvest. This is good news for many of us out there who do not have a lot going for us according to the flesh. There are many believers who think because they do not have a lot of talents, they do not have an education, or they don’t have much money that they are incapable of being fruitful for God when, in reality, Jesus taught that these are those who have the greater potential of producing for God. You see, it is the ones who have all of these things that will have the harder time producing because they have more to overcome: For example, if they are very educated, they will have more of a temptation to lean to their own understanding. If they are wealthy, then they will have more of a temptation to be distracted by their riches and possessions. And the list goes on and on. But those who lack these things, they will have less distractions and less opportunity for the dependency on other things. Therefore, it works in one’s favor to have the lack of talents, possessions, knowledge, etc. This is why the Bible repeatedly makes mention of God calling the weak, dishonorable, poor, etc. It is because these are the ones who will respond to this call for fruitfulness. This is why the Bible also makes mention of those who are the least being the greatest in the kingdom of God. It is because these are the ones who will produce the greatest harvest for the kingdom. This is the kind of heart that God can use. Now I am not saying that those who are educated, wealthy, or gifted are incapable of being fruitful. That is not at all the case. This principle that I have been sharing about the least producing the greatest is not an absolute. It is just the tendency. If you have a lot of money, you can make a conscious decision to guard your heart from being distracted and still produce a hundredfold harvest. If you have a lot of additional knowledge, you can choose to not lean on your intellect and esteem the knowledge of God more than the knowledge of this world. There will always be the opportunity, no matter what our lot in life is, to make the right decisions and become fruitful for God. But, generally, it is the heart that has the least amount of clutter that will produce more fruit for God’s kingdom because this condition of ground is more “open” and, therefore, conducive to bearing a harvest. When these stones, thorns, etc. exist they can lead one to being double-minded and not completely devoted to the seed that was planted in them. WHAT DOES THE GOOD GROUND DO DIFFERENT? Now as we have mentioned already, there are three accounts of this Parable of the Sower and each of them use slightly different terminology. And that is certainly the case with Jesus’ interpretation of the good ground. So, as we look at all three Gospel accounts, we see that there are three key words Jesus used that are all key contributors to making one’s heart good ground … 1. They “understand” it! (i.e., they realize it) (Matthew 13:23) 2. They “accept” it! (i.e., they receive it) (Mark 4:20) 3. They “keep” it! (i.e., they hold on to it) (Luke 8:15) So, the first key is one’s ability to “understand” it. And this is more referring to realizing that what we are hearing is the gospel of God—that is, seeing the light of it. You know, the apostle Paul taught how the god of this age has blinded the eyes of them who do not believe. He describes it as a spiritual veil that is placed over the eyes of those who are perishing. (See Second Corinthians 4:3-4) He goes on to say that because of this veil that leaves them blind, the light of the gospel isn’t able to shine on their hearts. Now this is the extreme that affects the unbelievers, but similar things can happen to believers too! Based on the condition of our hearts, we can be limited in how much light we see from the Word we are hearing. And, saints, this one thing is the foundation of being unfruitful in the kingdom. You see, if we do not realize that the Word we are hearing, reading etc. is, in fact, the Word of God, then it is not going to affect us like it should. In other words, if we hear the Word and that truth does not penetrate our hearts because we don’t see it as in fact “Truth,” then we likely will not let it change us. Friends, understanding, seeing and realizing that this Book is the actual infallible Words of Almighty God is what will cause us to grope for it! But if we don’t see this and we see the Scriptures no different than other books and its principles as no different than other philosophies, we are doomed to be fruitless. But, on the flipside, when you “understand” that what you are hearing is the Way, the Truth and the Life, then you will do what? As Mark’s gospel said, you will “accept” it. In other words, valuing it will cause you to receive and welcome it! And, church, there are so many Scriptures that teach us the importance of “receiving” the Word of God—a point we have made already in this teaching. But, as Luke’s gospel says, another fruit of those who understand and accept God’s Word is that they “hold on to it and keep it.” Now this is an important point because it is not good enough to just realize and receive the Word—because once you have it, the devil is going to try and take it away from you. This is when you have to “hold fast” to the things you have—because the devil is trying to take away things from us. So, after we have heard and received something initially, we do not need to hear it less; we actually need to hear it more! Amen! And this is how you keep it in the midst of your heart, where the devil cannot snatch it away. Saints, when we do these three things: we understand it, accept it and keep it, something powerful occurs! As the apostle Paul said to the Church of Thessalonica in First Thessalonians 2:13- “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” I just love the Amplified Bible’s exposition of this last phrase: It says- “exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it.” Trey’s Amplified Bible today would say, “exercising its superhuman power in those who understand and accept and keep it.” Amen! So, just as everything begins with a seed, the condition of the soil is important too. Yes, while the seed of God’s Word is how God’s kingdom began, the kingdom of God all has to do with the heart. You see, when you study the Scriptures, you come to find out the heart is what God is after. He is looking for people with perfect hearts. He seeks out those who are after His own heart. And He desires a people who will believe with all their heart and love Him with all their heart. God looks at the heart and He is looking for the perfect heart—that is, the perfect ground for producing God’s perfect seed.
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THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM
PART TWO – IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE SEED REVIEW So, last week, I began a new series on the kingdom of God entitled “The Mysteries of the Kingdom”—because, in my opinion, one of the most important things you and I can learn about God’s kingdom is how it operates. Yes, it is critical that we learn how things work in the kingdom of God. You see, I have come to realize that this is one of the areas that most Christians are most ignorant in. But we need to understand that there are specific laws/principles that govern how His kingdom operates and that God is not just up in heaven arbitrarily doing everything He wants to do when He wants to do it. No, there is the law of sowing & reaping. Therefore, there is the role & responsibility we have in seeing His kingdom come and His will being done. But, unfortunately, most Christians do not realize this. So essentially what is happening is they are living in the wilderness, depending on God to regularly perform miracles that meet their needs. But what they need is to move on into Canaan Land where they can sow in the promised land God has caused them to inherit and reap the benefits. This is where God intends for His children to dwell, but this is why the Lord through the prophet Hosea declared that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” You see, the truth is, just like we have natural laws that we must live by in this world in order to not only thrive but also survive, there are laws in God’s kingdom that we must learn to live by if we are to see God’s best produced in our lives. I am convinced that many of God’s people do not experience His perfect will for their lives because they have failed to operate under the laws that govern His kingdom. Some are simply ignorant concerning these principles while others are simply not doers of the Word. But the fact remains that God has set His kingdom up under certain principles and it is our job to walk in them just as He does Himself. When we do, we will get God’s results. When we do not, we will get the world’s results. So, it for this reason that last week we began looking at what Jesus taught us about the kingdom of God—so that we can see how He said that it works so that we can get better results in our lives. Therefore, over the next several weeks, I want us to look at the various parables Jesus taught in His earthly ministry in order to learn how God’s kingdom operates so that we can function under its laws. Jesus called this the mystery of the kingdom—that is, the hidden principles that govern how God’s kingdom works and operates, and He taught this mystery through these many different parables. So, what we did last week was we began in Matthew chapter 13 where we have the most concise teaching by Jesus concerning these mysteries of the kingdom of God. But what we looked at is who the revelation of these mysteries was reserved for, and we saw that Jesus told His disciples— “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven …” We learned that the “you” here was Jesus’ disciples and not just your casual believer who comes to church once a week and never seeks the Lord on their own. It was not just those who showed some interest in the things of God, but those who wholeheartedly sought them. No, these mysteries of the kingdom were not revealed to those who showed some interest in His teachings; they were revealed to those who had left all to follow Him—His disciples! We learned that the Greek word that was used to translate this word “mysteries” is the word musterian. This word described something that had been kept secret for ages but had now been disclosed to a certain group of people. Therefore, it is a secret known only to the initiated and something that required special revelation to know it. For this reason, it actually was a word used to describe the secrets only shared within a fraternal group or organization. Therefore, it was those who are true disciples who are the ones initiated into the secret things of the kingdom of God. Now the reason we made this point is because if we want to truly understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, we must adopt the lifestyle of a disciple because it was just these committed and dedicated believers who would be able to receive these marvelous secrets. Yes, becoming a disciple of the Word of God’s kingdom is a foundational key to understanding its mysteries and secret principles. We also learned that the reason the casual hearer does not have God’s mysteries revealed to them is not because God is withholding the truth from them because they are not doing this or that. No, as we see Jesus saying in verses 12-13, it is because they disqualify themselves from knowing the truth through closing their eyes, ears, and hearts to it. So, it is not God who is withholding these mysteries from man; it is man who withholds them from himself. Church, this is why it is so important that we maintain the heart of a disciple when it comes to the mysteries of God’s kingdom by seeking out those treasures and staying hungry for the truth. And we saw that the Word of God has a lot to say about things like hungering and thirsting for the things of God and seeking after them with all of our hearts: We looked at a couple of passages of Scripture in the Book of Proverbs and saw how wisdom reveals the benefits for those who wholeheartedly seek the Word of His kingdom. And by far the greatest benefit is that we come to know the mysteries of His kingdom! Amen. THE LAW OF SEEDTIME & HARVEST So now, let’s begin this week looking at these parables that Jesus taught us concerning the kingdom of God: And as we begin looking at the various parables that Jesus taught us concerning the kingdom of God, one thing that you will notice is that He uses the illustration of seedtime and harvest time and time again. Now by virtue of the fact that this is one of the most oft used examples of the kingdom of God by our Lord, we can understand that the law of seedtime and harvest is the predominant principle governing God’s kingdom. Therefore, I believe we should place great significance on this kingdom principle simply because Jesus emphasized the law of seedtime and harvest time and time again. But did you know that it wasn’t just Jesus who established this as a kingdom law, but God Himself clearly showed us that the law of seedtime and harvest is how things are going to work here on the earth? He sure did! In the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth, we are told that He created all things to reproduce after their own kind: It “began” with the earth itself – In Genesis 1:10, we are told— “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so.” And it still is so—All the plants, trees, flowers, grass, etc. reproduces “according to its kind” after this law of seedtime & harvest. But it didn’t stop there: After creating every living creature on the fifth day, God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:22). How many of you know that this describes seedtime & harvest as well? That’s right—every living creature is a product of seedtime & harvest too. And if all creatures are reproduced from a seed, then we must know that it is the same even with us: We see on day six that when God made man on day six, He created him to follow the same principle of “being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth.” (See Genesis 1:28). That means mankind was created to reproduce after its own kind too, just like the plants and just like the animals. Therefore, everything from the most insignificant plant to the most well-know person are products of this law of seedtime & harvest. And as the Lord said to Noah in Genesis 8:22— “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” That means that we can count on the law of seedtime & harvest just like we count on varying temperatures, different seasons, daytime and nighttime. But someone might say— “Yeah well, that’s how things might work in this world, but that doesn’t mean that’s how it works in God’s kingdom.” But that’s where they are wrong. You see, everything in this natural, physical world reflects how things work in God’s kingdom (aside from all of the curse & sin found in this world). Yes, the earth and how it operates is the Lord’s taste. So, that means that all of the natural laws that we live under here on the earth, are God given principles. For example, we have the law of gravity, which governs how a lot of things on this world operate, and we learn quickly how to let gravity work for us and not against us. Therefore, if God says that the law of seedtime & harvest will govern things on this planet, then that is because that same law governs things in His kingdom. This is why I like to refer to the law of seedtime and harvest as the principle of the kingdom. This is why Jesus taught about the kingdom of God through these natural examples. So, let’s get into one of these parables that teach us about this kingdom principle this week. And I’ll give you one guess which one we will start with (Anyone who knows me and has sat up under my teachings for some time ought to be able to get this). We are going to start with same parable Jesus started with— The Parable of the Sower. THE KINGDOM FUNDAMENTALS As we saw last week in Matthew’s account, Jesus begins His “Sermon by the Sea” by giving them the Parable of the Sower. This parable is, of course, what led to the question which Jesus’ disciples asked as to why He spoke to the crowds in parables (See last week’s message). Now there is a reason that Jesus began with this particular parable in this chapter. And I believe it is because the Parable of the Sower is the most important parable concerning God’s kingdom. Again, because in it contains the kingdom principle. One of the reasons that I believe that this parable is the most important parable of the kingdom of God is because of an important point found in Mark’s account. So, let’s look over there where we find that Jesus responded to His disciples’ question regarding this parable by asking them— “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4:13) By asking these questions, Jesus was not saying they should understand this parable because it is the simplest to comprehend. No, He is asking the question— “How will you understand all the parables?”—because the Parable of the Sower is a foundational, fundamental parable. In other words, it is the foundational principle of the kingdom and must be understood in order to go further in the kingdom of God. Yes, saints, this principle of seedtime and harvest and how growth occurs in the kingdom of God is essential to producing fruit that endures in God’s kingdom. Amen! And the reason Jesus saw this parable as so foundational is twofold:
Now those are two very important foundational truths, are they not? So, let’s look at how this foundational parable does indeed illustrate these two extremely important truths by looking at the beginning of this chapter where Jesus gives them His Parable of the Sower. THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER In Mark 4:2, we are told— “Then He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:” Now Jesus specifically taught them 10 parables on that day. You don't see that if you read just one of the gospels, but if you combine Matthew, Mark, & Luke's accounts together, you will see that there were actually ten kingdom parables in all that Jesus taught them on that particular day. Then in Mark 4:3, Jesus said, “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.” Now notice the first word in this verse— "Listen": How many of you know that is a Word from God for some people? The Bible says to be quick to hear and slow to speak (James 1:19) but I guess most people are dyslexic because they read it the opposite—they think that we are to be quick to speak and slow to hear. And the truth is—this is the reason why so many know as little as they do. Then notice the next word Jesus said— "Behold": So, after telling us to “listen,” Jesus says "Look!"—For the word “behold” means “to look.” So, Jesus essentially told His hearers to “Listen and Look!” We know that everything Jesus said was important and should be heeded, but when the Master Himself says to “Listen & Look,” you have to know that this is something we need to hear and see in our hearts. Amen? Then notice how Jesus went on to say, "A sower went out to sow …” (Verse 3). And I want you to see how the sower was intentional. Yes, he went out specifically for the purpose of sowing to get a harvest. Have you ever noticed that you don’t just automatically have roses, lilies, watermelons, tomatoes, etc. growing in your yard? No, as a general rule, things we desire and are beneficial do not just automatically spring up in our gardens. But, on the other hand, undesirable plants and vegetation such as weeds, briars, tares etc. seem to just spring up everywhere on their own, don’t they? Well, this illustrates to us how things work in God’s kingdom: Did you know that all we have to do to be carnal, selfish, walk in the flesh and produce the fruit of this world is NOTHING? On the other hand, in order to produce good fruit and to see the things we desire growing in our garden we have to be intentional, deliberate and purposeful to sow them into our garden. Amen? Therefore, we need to see ourselves as “sowers” and live purposeful lives of going to and fro sowing seed wherever we go. But what I see happening in so many Christians is that they oftentimes want to see change, but they are basically doing the same thing—they are looking in their back yard and wondering why we don’t have desirable fruit growing there. Church, there are spiritual laws that we must abide by. But so many try to live their lives contrary. They want to live on the seeds sown by the man of God or others who will teach them, pray for them etc. But this is not how one will see consistent results in God’s kingdom. If we want to see abiding fruit in our lives, we need to learn to sow to the Spirit ourselves and not depend on the work of another person. And that is what I believe this parable is teaching us. So, beginning in verse 4, Jesus then gives the people His Parable of the Sower saying, “And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Verses 4-8). We will get into more of the details of this parable next week, but I do want us to move into the very first part of Jesus’ interpretation of it, a very simple statement that contains many powerful truths. Notice that Jesus began His interpretation of the Parable of the Sower by saying, “The sower sows the Word.” (Verse 14). Now the significance of this statement is so vital to understanding how the kingdom begins and continues to operate—because it all starts with a seed. EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A SEED Church, everything starts with a seed! Everything! You started with a seed. Each and every one of us started out as the seed from our father and then when that seed was “planted” in your mother, you were conceived. It is the same spiritually—The new creation that we were born again as, started with a seed. The apostle Peter elaborates on this in his first epistle: First Peter 1:23 says that we have been born again of incorruptible seed not corruptible seed, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. In other words, a born-again experience (that which is necessary to obtain salvation) occurs when we hear the Word concerning Jesus and that incorruptible seed is planted in our hearts. Now Peter had another kind of seed in mind here: He is referring not to a seed of a plant, but to the seed of a man … The Greek word used in this verse for “seed” is sperma—which is obviously where we get our word “sperm” from. Peter was saying that just as we are physically born after the seed of a man is planted in the womb of a woman, likewise we are spiritually born again after the seed of God is planted in our hearts. Yes, the analogy is correct— When one is born again, he or she has received God’s spiritual seed! Now we understand that the seed of a man is the carrier of all the nature and attributes of the man that it originated from. Therefore, it should not surprise us that the seed of God that we receive when we hear and receive the gospel contains the nature and attributes of our Heavenly Father! Wow! That is a powerful truth! Therefore, when we receive the truth of God’s Word, we become born again. This is when God’s divine nature is placed within us—when we receive God’s “seed.” This means that we have received His divine DNA! (Quick little nugget: Did you know they say DNA actually forms letters and words? We are created by His Word!) When we were born again, we received a new nature that will compel us to grow up to be like our Daddy. Just like we grew up to resemble our natural parents in appearance and personality, likewise we will grow up to resemble our Heavenly Father in spiritual appearance and personality. It is in our spiritual DNA! And this seed of God has no death abiding in it—only life everlasting! Therefore, we are born again of an incorruptible seed because the Word of God lives and abides forever! Hallelujah! We now have eternal life! So, I say all of this to say that everything from our physical birth to our spiritual rebirth began with a seed, and this is how all fruit begins—with a seed. Amen! Therefore, if these two awesome miracles originate with a seed, how much more will other miracles begin with a seed? Amen! SPECIFIC SEED So, again, what did Jesus say the seed is? In Mark 4:14, He says that the seed is the Word. Now in Luke’s Gospel, he says the seed is the Word of God (See Luke 8:11). Now Matthew’s gospel details it a little differently— He calls it, “the word of the kingdom” (See Matthew 13:19) So, when you combine these 3 accounts together, Jesus was saying the seed is “the Word of God’s kingdom.” Now I bring this out because it sparks a very good point: We need to know specifically what kind of seed we are planting. In other words, what is the Word that we are planting? It is not good enough to just be general. We need to be specific and sow specific seed that we want a harvest in. In other words, we need to purpose in our heart to sow seed to where it’s not a passing thought of “Oh yeah, I guess I need to sow something today. Let’s see what I have left.” No! You need to purpose in your heart what you are sowing and guard that seed that’s in the soil. Amen! You see, sometimes people don’t receive what they need because they are not specific enough. You wouldn’t go into a nursery and just grab a bunch of misc. seeds to sow in your garden or field, would you? You wouldn’t say, “Oh, this looks like a seed. That’s what I need” and take it to go plant. No, you would search out specific seed that you need. But when it comes to picking out the seed, I believe a better way is to ask the Holy Spirit to pick out the seed for you. So, don’t just go about searching out the Scriptures alone. Let the Holy Spirit guide you into all the truth and let Him point you towards the specific seed that you need. In fact, what you would do is you would look at the packaging or tag of the seed for the image of the fruit, vegetable, or flower that you want to grow. So, you look for the fruit’s image when selecting the specific seed. Likewise, this is what we must do in the spirit; we must see the image of the desired result—so that the image of hope is painted in our heart. You know, people say things like, “Well, I’m just trusting God.” To do what? How are you trusting Him? What is your trust based on? We need to be specific in our faith! For example, you will hear people say, “Well, I am just waiting on God!” and what they think that means is that they are waiting on God to do it for them. But no, when David said, “Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage…” (Psalm 27:13), he was not saying we are just passively waiting on God to do whatever He wants to do. No, He is talking about waiting on the Lord in faith and hope! Not a hope that is wishful thinking, but with Bible hope which means to confidently expect. Well, how can we expect like this? How about when you have sown the seed and you are just waiting from it to pop out of the ground? Amen! This is waiting in faith, because you know the seed has been planted, so you know that there is a harvest coming! It’s just a matter of time! No, when we are planting a garden, we prepare the ground. We buy specific seed. We systematically sow it. We then guard our garden—sometimes with some pretty extreme measures. We go through certain concentrated and calculated steps to get the fruit, flower, vegetables, etc. we want. And that includes choosing the specific seed for the fruit we want to see. So why would we do it any different in God’s kingdom? Saints, I’ll tell you, we need to become more deliberate, purposeful and intentional in what we are sowing into our lives—because as a general rule our lives are a today of what we planted yesterday! Amen! But, as we have already made the point of, you don’t have to be calculated, purposeful, deliberate or intentional to grow weeds, briars and other unwanted plants in your yard, field or garden? All you have to do to produce undesirable fruit is nothing! But good things like cotton, wheat, watermelons, grapes, etc. don’t grow by accident in your yard. It just doesn’t happen! Saints, always remember, bad fruit comes naturally; good fruit comes intentionally. In other words, things we don’t desire come naturally; things we do desire come deliberately. So, we’ve seen that God’s Word is seed, and if we want a specific harvest, we need specific seed to sow! Say, if we need healing, we need to sow God’s Word concerning healing. What we need faith for and we want to see produced in our life, we need to sow in that specific area. For example, finding God’s promises concerning healing and sowing that specific “word” into our situation. Say, we need a turnaround in our finances: We need to, of course, sow towards the kingdom of God in order to see an increase in our finances. But then we need to water that seed. How? By the washing of water by the Word. Amen? Camp on God’s promises concerning our needs being met and God’s will concerning our finances and sow those specific Words into our hearts. This even works with our mental & emotional state: Say, you deal with a lot of depression and anxiety & even have been diagnosed with some sort of sickness of the soul. You can find plenty in God’s Word that promises you “prosperity of the soul.” Amen! God’s Word promises us that He restores our soul (Psalm 23:3). It tells us that just as much as Jesus paid for our sins and sickness, He also paid for our peace (Isaiah 53:5). He has given us not only a spirit of power & love, but also of “sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). These are His promises! So, we need to become strategic and very purposeful regarding what we are sowing in our lives. And since Jesus told us that the seed is God’s Word, then we need to find the promises of God’s Word that we want to see the fruit of and begin to sow those Scriptures into, first, our hearts. You see, the seed that was sown in this parable—the seed that produced tremendous results in the life of those with good ground—was the Word of God. But more specifically, it was not just the Word of God that we were born again by. In Matthew’s account, Jesus said that it was “the word of the kingdom.” This goes back to the point we made that the gospel that we are called to share, the New Testament message, is the gospel of the kingdom of God. In other words, it is the message that we are called to share the lost and dying world around us—that God’s kingdom is here now and is available to all of them who will believe in the gospel of the New Testament. But that was not the end result: In this Parable of the Sower, the Word of God and of His kingdom was not just sent to get us born again; it was also sent to cause to grow into mature sons and daughters of the kingdom. Thank you, Jesus! You see, as Jesus went on to say in the Parable of the Sower, there were different kinds of hearts that this gospel of the kingdom was sown onto. And depending on the condition of that heart, it would produce different results. In other words, God’s Word not only produced change on the inside of those with good ground; God’s Word effected change on the outside of those with hearts of good ground. What I mean is, they produced fruit to maturity. So, God’s Word is not just sown in our hearts so that we would be reborn and have God’s kingdom birthed within us; His Word is meant to produce God’s kingdom in a tangible and visible way in our lives. And, friends, this is produced in our lives through the natural example we have seen in the world from the very beginning—seedtime and harvest. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE KINGDOM Friends, everything in God’s kingdom operates according to this principle. First, we have the seed. A seed must be God-given. Man has tried to duplicate and clone seeds but to no avail. Sure, they have been successful in cloning something that looks like a seed, but when planted, this man-made seed has no life in itself and does not produce. Why? It is because it has no life in it. We can make something that looks like a seed, but we cannot reproduce the principle of life that is contained in a seed. Likewise, God’s kingdom begins with a God-given seed. It cannot begin with man. The hand of the Lord must begin anything and everything that is produced in God’s kingdom. It has to be this way because God’s kingdom is always initiated by God and never by man. So, God gave us the seed: He gave us Jesus and this gospel of the kingdom! He gave to us what we could never have earned. He put in our hand the seed and said, “Now sow this seed that I have entrusted to you on good ground and watch it produce what it was sent to accomplish! And that is the wonderful promise concerning this gospel of the kingdom: It is that this seed is no respecter of persons. It does not produce differently for one that it does for the other. No, that seed is programmed to produce after its own kind. That means that we all have the same opportunity afforded to us. Verily, verily, I say unto you: His Word will not return void but will accomplish what He sent it to accomplish and to prosper in the thing for which He sent it to do. That’s right, through His righteousness and justice, God has given each of us the same opportunity to bear a harvest. It is all a matter of what we choose to do with the seed that He has freely given us. God, in His sovereignty, has given us a choice. And He gave us this choice by first giving us the ability to choose—that is, by giving us the seed. The keys are now in your hands, saints. God has given you the keys to the kingdom! Let’s use those keys! INTRODUCTION
So, we learned in the last series some very important facts concerning God’s kingdom. We learned what it is, where it is, and when it is. And through answering these questions, we learned that a kingdom is the literal place where a king has dominion, and that is any people or place where a king has rule and His will is being done. Therefore, the kingdom of God is any moment where God’s will is accomplished in someone’s life whether that be through a change of direction or a change in situation. Then we learned last week that although His kingdom has come and is in our midst, it will not be fully realized and manifested until Jesus returns to establish His kingdom on the earth. So, His kingdom is here in our midst right now, spiritually speaking, but our hope is that it will be consummated in this physical world soon and very soon. Friends, this is the gospel that is to be preached to the ends of the earth—that His kingdom is at hand and can be tasted here now on the earth as we invite the King of kings to reign in our lives. Then it does not end there: The good news gets even better as we understand that the best is yet to come! We now have the hope that we will experience the complete manifestation of His kingdom here on the earth. This is the gospel! It is the message of our new and better covenant. This is why it is so important to know what the kingdom of God is, when it is, and where it is. But, in my opinion, one of the most important things you and I can learn about God’s kingdom is not just what it is, where it is, or when it is; I believe the best lesson we can learn concerning God’s kingdom is how it is. In other words, learning what God’s kingdom looks like and how it operates is one of the most important lessons that we can learn concerning it. You see, I have come to realize that this is one of the areas that most Christians are the most ignorant of—how the kingdom of God works. And religion has even helped us to believe incorrectly concerning God’s kingdom. For example, it has taught many, many believers to think that it’s all up to God. So, when they have a need, at best they cry out to Him, begging and pleading with Him to meet that need. And while there is certainly not anything wrong with prayer and God absolutely wants us to ask Him for things, I have found that there are certain kingdom principles that these Christians do not understand. Yes, there are specific laws/principles that govern how His kingdom operates, and God is not just up in heaven arbitrarily doing everything He wants to do when He wants to do it. No, there is the law of sowing & reaping. There is the role & responsibility we have in seeing His kingdom come and His will being done. But, unfortunately, most Christians do not realize this. The truth is, just like we have natural laws that we must live by in this world in order to not only thrive but also survive, there are laws in God’s kingdom that we must learn to live by if we are to see God’s best produced in our lives. I am convinced that many of God’s people do not experience His perfect will for their lives because they have failed to operate under the laws that govern His kingdom. Some are simply ignorant concerning these principles while others are simply not doers of the Word. But the fact remains that God has set His kingdom up under certain principles and it is our job to walk in them just as He does Himself. When we do, we will get God’s results. When we do not, we will get the world’s results. Plain and simple. So, it for this reason that we are going to look at what Jesus taught us about the kingdom of God and see how He said that it works so that we can get better results in our lives. Yes, over the next several weeks, I want us to learn how God’s kingdom operates in order that we might learn to function under its laws. Jesus called this the mystery of the kingdom—that is, the hidden principles that govern how God’s kingdom works and operates. And He taught this mystery through many different parables. Now did you realize that Jesus spent nearly all of His ministry teaching people what God’s kingdom is like? Yes, constantly throughout the gospels, we see Him teaching through parables saying, “The kingdom is like this” and “The kingdom is like that.” Jesus used all sorts of natural examples to paint a picture of His Father’s kingdom and to illustrate to His disciples how it operates. This is why I am firmly convinced that understanding how God’s kingdom works is one of the most important lessons we could learn concerning His kingdom—simply because Jesus spent some much time explaining this. So, let’s look over at Matthew chapter 13 where we have the most concise teaching of Jesus concerning these mysteries of the kingdom of God. In this chapter, Jesus gives parable after parable attempting to describe and illustrate what God’s kingdom is like and how it operates. DISCIPLES OF THE WORD Let’s begin in verse 10 when after Jesus gave the people who had gathered on the shore the Parable of the Sower, His disciples came to Him and asked them why He spoke to the crowds in parables. Jesus’ response is so important for us to understand. “He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” Now it is so important for us to realize whom Jesus was addressing here. It was not just your casual believer who comes to church once a week and never seeks the Lord on their own. It was not just those who showed some interest in the things of God, but those who wholeheartedly sought them. And how do I know this? It is because the “them” that Jesus said that this mystery of the kingdom have not been given to were those who indeed came to hear Him! In other words, it was not those who shunned Him and turned a deaf ear to Him that these mysteries were hidden from! No, these mysteries of the kingdom were not revealed to those who actually showed some interest in His teachings; they were revealed to those who had left all to follow Him—His disciples! You see, those whom Jesus said that these mysteries of the kingdom were given to were those who were fully committed and sold out to hearing the Truth and seeing Him in action. The mystery was reserved for those who had pledged their life to following God’s Word. In fact, the Greek word that was used to translate this word “mysteries” is the word musterian. This word described something that had been kept secret for ages but had now been disclosed to a certain group of people. Therefore, it is a secret known only to the initiated and something that required special revelation to know it. For this reason, it actually was a word used to describe the secrets only shared within a fraternal group or organization. So, this means that those who are true disciples are the ones initiated into the secret things of the kingdom of God. It is not your average “nod to God” crowd who will know the mysteries of the kingdom; it is the disciplined follower who has these truths revealed to them. Now why do I make this point? It is because if we want to truly understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, we must adopt the lifestyle of a disciple because it was just these committed and dedicated believers who would be able to receive these marvelous secrets. Yes, becoming a disciple of the Word of God’s kingdom is a foundational key to understanding its mysteries and secret principles. Didn’t the Gospel of John say that in the beginning was “the Word”—speaking of Jesus (See John 1:1)? So, a disciple of the Word would be one who does much more than just casually read the Bible. It would describe someone who commits their time to following God’s Word. It describes the person who disciplines themselves to reading, studying, and meditating the Scriptures. And it is this “disciple” of God’s Word that has these mysteries of the kingdom revealed to them. KNOWING GOD’S WAYS A great example of this is found in Numbers chapter 12: In verses 1-2, we see the offense that Moses’ own kin took against him because he married an Ethiopian woman—which then turned into a root of bitterness that caused them to murmur, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” You see, bitterness and offense usually begin by an action or word of some sort—which in this case was when Moses married someone of a different nationality. And here it morphed into questioning who the ones are that “hear from God.” Church, these are things we need to guard our heart against lest we open ourselves up to the same thing Aaron & Miriam did. Amen? Then we see in verse 3 that familiar verse that teaches us that Moses was the humblest man on the face of the earth at that time—which is very telling because that shows us that Moses wasn’t puffed up and haughty about the position God had given him and the relationship he had with God. And then in verses 4-5, we see God calling the three of them out on the carpet to address this issue, and in verse 6-8 told them like it was: “He said, ‘Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?’” So, the Lord made it clear how Moses had been given even a greater privilege than the prophets—because while they could hear from God in a dream or a vision, Moses had a face-to-face relationship with his Creator. And because of this fellowship with God, the Lord said that He spoke to him “plainly, and not in dark sayings.” Might we say that the mysteries of the kingdom were revealed to Him and God didn’t speak to him in parables? Sounds like the same thing to me. You see, it was said of Moses that while the children of Israel saw God’s “acts,” Moses knew His ways. In other words, they saw what God did, but Moses saw why He did what He did. There is a big difference there. But again, why was Moses able know the mysterious ways of God—because He was a disciple of the Lord in every sense of the word. God said here that He was “faithful in all His house.” That means that Moses was wholeheartedly sold out to knowing and following Him. Yes, He was committed. He was a disciplined follower of the Lord. Therefore, he was qualified to know the mysteries of God “plainly.” Amen. You see, there is a difference between your average Christian and a disciple just as there was between your average Israelite and Moses: A disciple of the Word is one who leaves everything behind—all the distractions and the weights of life and is completely committed to Jesus. But you see, to become disciples of Jesus, you also must be a disciple of God’s Word because Jesus and the Word of God are one in the same (See John 1:1)! Therefore, we need to become disciples of the Word of God—that is, a people that abide with and in the Word of God and forsake all that would distract or would vie for our attention. You see, these disciples of Jesus were continuously with the Word, hearing and hearing and hearing His teaching. This is why they had “ears to hear” and, therefore, were enabled “to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Wow! Do you see that? It takes a committal of one’s time, efforts, and energy to truly dig up the treasures of God’s Word! One of the most important things in gaining knowledge, revelation, and wisdom is having a desire in your heart for it. Yes, if you really want it bad enough, you will invest your time in it! FOR WHOEVER HAS Now the reason the casual hearer does not have God’s mysteries revealed to them is not because God is withholding the truth from them because they are not doing this or that. No, as we see Jesus going on to say, it is because they disqualify themselves from knowing the truth through closing their eyes, ears, and hearts to it. In verse 12, Jesus begins with the word “For.” This means that beginning in this verse, Jesus was about to give His disciples the reason why it had been given to them to know the mystery of the kingdom and to the others, it had not been given. Let’s take a look at these verses … Verse 12 says, “For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” Now the questions one should ask when attempting to interpret this verse is: “Whoever has what?” and “Whoever does not have what?” Well, if you back up to verse 9 where Jesus concluded his Parable of the Sower, you will find your answer: Jesus said, “He who has (Has what?) ears to hear, let him hear.” So, when you consider the context, it makes verse 12 easier to understand: Let’s translate it with this truth we have just seen in verse 9— “For whoever has (ears to hear), to him more will be given (i.e. the ability to hear), and he will have abundance (of the revelation of God’s mysteries); but whoever does not have (ears to hear), even what he has (i.e. the ability to hear) will be taken away from him.” So, you see, it is not God who is withholding these mysteries from man; it is man who withholds them from himself. So, we should not blame God for our ignorance or even beg Him to show us these mysteries; we should position ourselves to understanding these mysteries by continuing in His Word. And as Jesus said in John 8:31-32, as we abide in His Word, we are His disciples indeed. Then we shall know the truth and the truth will make us free. Notice that it is when we make the decision to continue in His Word that we shall know the truth. Saints, it is not all up to God; it is up to us to decide that we will become His disciples. Then, beginning in verse 13, Jesus begins to explain why these others are not able to obtain the secrets contained in His parables of the kingdom. It is because seeing, they do not see, and because hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. Again, it is not that God is withholding truth from them, but as the Prophet Isaiah forecasted, their eyes they have closed and their ears are hard of hearing—all because their hearts had become calloused and hardened through allowing themselves to become more sensitive to the world than to the things of God. Saints, this is why it is so important that we maintain the heart of a disciple when it comes to the mysteries of God’s kingdom by seeking out those treasures and staying hungry for the truth. This is the heart that gains an abundance of revelation and discovers the glorious mysteries of the kingdom of the Christ. Amen. THE TREASURES OF THE KINGDOM You know, the Word of God has a lot to say about things like hungering and thirsting for the things of God and seeking after them with all of our hearts (Compare Matthew 5:6 & Jeremiah 29:11-13). The condition of our hearts is the real key to everything in the Christian life. The more I learn and grow in my understanding of the kingdom of God, the more I see just how simple the things of God are. They are so simple that even a child can get its results. The church today has complicated things so much by believing that you have to go through these three or seven steps, but the kingdom of God does not operate in steps; the kingdom of God has to do with the heart! You see, our hearts have the ability to transform us to whatever we set them on. So, if we want to see success in the kingdom of God, our heart has to be set on the things of God. Regarding the Word, if there is not a real desire in your heart to understand the Word, you won’t really apply yourself to it. There is no substitute for hungering and thirsting for the Word. You will obtain whatever you really desire in your heart! Again, whatever you devote yourself to is what your soul will adapt to. In the Book of Proverbs, Solomon gives us some great descriptions of this subject of valuing the Word of God that really shows us some characteristics of the person who has set his or her heart on the Word of God. Let’s begin in Proverbs 4:20-23: He begins instructing us by saying, “My Son …” Now this is a very important point when it comes to how we read and study the Word: You see, we read this like it is Solomon (the author of Proverbs) speaking to one of his sons, but we need to understand the truth contained in Second Timothy 3:16 which says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Therefore, this doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction that seemingly Solomon was giving to his son must also be the instruction that our Heavenly Father is giving to us His children! Why? Because He wants us to be fully equipped for everything life will throw at us, so that is why He instructs us like a father would. Saints, this is how we need to read God’s Word—like our Heavenly Father is addressing us personally. Also, read it like it is God’s love letter to you—like a husband is addressing His bride. What I am saying is personalize it! Make it an intimate thing as you read the Word! So, this passage begins by saying, “give attention to my words”: This “giving attention” describes the giving of one’s undivided attention to something. Another way of saying this is that you are honoring and respecting God’s Words through paying attention and listening attentively. Then he says next, “incline your ear to my sayings.” This phrase describes putting yourself in a better position to hear like tilting your head towards the one speaking. Do you know what this phrase denotes? It denotes that there must be distractions present because if we have to put ourselves in a position to hear better, there must be a lot of commotion going on around us. And this commotion comes from the world. You see, in the world that we live in, there are many things that will vie for our attention—such as television, relationships, our careers, etc. Therefore, we have to discipline ourselves to shut out the distractions—give attention to God’s Word and put ourselves in a better position to hear what the voice of truth is saying. But someone will inevitably say, “But Trey, I just don’t have the time to do this!” Well, first of all, let me say that you make time for what is important to you. But I also understand that there are certain responsibilities that we have to take care of while we are in this world and that is when you have to get creative. Perhaps verse 21 will explain this … In verse 21 he goes on to say, “Do not let them depart from your eyes.” Just as with the ears spoken of in the previous verse, this is referring to the eyes of our heart and not just our physical eyes. You see, you cannot continuously be “physically” looking at your Bible all day because you have responsibilities to attend to. But there are some practical things that you can do … As the Lord taught His chosen people Israel, you can put the Word all over your home. For example, you can write some Scriptures on sticky notes and put them on your bathroom mirror or the dash of the car. You can listen to teaching CD’s while you are getting ready in the morning and while you lay down at night. You can listen to the Bible on tape while you are in the car. There are many ways that you can keep the Word of God ever before you, but the best way is to do what Solomon said next— “keep them in the midst of your heart.” Why is this the best way to keep the Word before your eyes? Because if you get it in the middle of your heart, you are giving His Word the proper place and value in your life and then you can effectively meditate on the Word without having to have your Bible open in front of you. Now let’s go over to Proverbs chapter two where Solomon gives us a similar exhortation as we just covered in chapter four. What I like about the following passage of Scripture is that Solomon gives us a progression that needs to take place before we will increase in the knowledge and understanding of the Word. In Proverbs 2:1, he starts off by saying, “My son, if you receive my words”: Again, these are the Words of a Father being written to His son (and daughter). So, as with all Scripture, we need to be sure we read this verse this way—as our Heavenly Father talking specifically to you and expressing His will and prayer for you. Now this word “receive” in Proverbs 2:1 describes accepting His Word as opposed to rejecting it. You see, it is important that we keep a teachable heart and do not reject wisdom as it constantly cries out to us. He goes on to say, “treasure my commands within you.” You see, it is not good enough to just accept God’s Word; you also have to treasure it in your heart—that is, making it one of the most valuable things in your heart. Then in verse 2, he says, “so that you incline your ear to wisdom.” The prior two things—receiving and treasuring His Word—will make your inner ear attentive to wisdom’s voice (which is how to apply the Word you’ve received and treasured to your daily circumstances). Praise God! That’s good stuff! But that is not all that receiving and treasuring His Word does … It will also produce understanding because Solomon then goes on to say, “… And apply your heart to understanding.” The word “apply” means to “stretch out or extend.” So, when you receive His Word and then treasure His Word in your heart, you will put yourself in a better position to grow in wisdom and you will also extend yourself towards understanding it. Hallelujah!!! In other words, Wisdom and understanding are a result of receiving and treasuring God’s Word in your heart. Then in verses 3-4, Solomon gives a couple of descriptions of how hungry we should be for the Word: He says in verse three— “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding …” First of all, this verse denotes a sense of urgency and desire, similar to a baby’s cry when he is hungry. You see, this phrase indicates having a total dependency upon Him and a need for help, and we express this heartfelt attitude through prayer. You need to cry out for it with such a hunger—like a baby cries out for milk! First Peter 2:3 says that we are to desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby. We need to be this hungry for the Word that we “cry out” and “lift up our voice” to the Lord for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding! Verse 4 goes on to say, “If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures …” You know, nothing valuable is ever found on the surface. Far too many people give up when seeking the kingdom because they struggle at the beginning. They say, “This is too hard to understand!” and just quit. But if we seek and search for the truth like this verse says, there won’t be quit in us. I liken this to someone telling you, you have silver and treasures buried in your yard. You wouldn’t just go dig with a shovel for a couple of hours and then quit, would you? No, you would go rent a backhoe or something! You will dig deep—like Jesus taught us in the difference between the hearers of the Word and the doers of the Word. That is why we must dig deep into God’s Word—that is, putting forth effort and desiring the truth like it is actually buried treasure. When we get this hungry for understanding, look at what Solomon says happens in verse 5— “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” If you want to find the knowledge of God, you have to get this passionate about God’s Word! You need to seek for the truth like you would for hidden treasures! It all comes down to hunger and value. If our hearts are in this condition, we will absolutely, positively find the knowledge of His kingdom that is buried in the Word of God! CONCLUSION So, we have learned today that knowing and understanding the mysteries of the kingdom is available to all of us, but it won’t be obtained by everyone—because these secrets are reserved for the disciples of Christ, not just your nominal Christian. Yes, it is the serious and dedicated who will discover the riches of this mystery! So, let’s decide today that we will be among the few who will follow after—earnestly hungering and desiring for—the Word of God’s kingdom. As we are promised, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. Those who seek His face with all of their hearts, they will find Him. This is the foundation key to unlocking these mysteries in our hearts, church! Our eyes we must open. Our ears must be listening. Then, and only then, will we come to know the truth of God’s kingdom and let those truths make us free. Let’s do it! Now we began a new series on the kingdom of God a few weeks ago which I’ve entitled “Defining the Kingdom of God.” And in this second mini-series on God’s kingdom, we are answering questions such as what the kingdom of God is, when the kingdom of God is, and where the kingdom of God is.
We began by answering the question—What is the kingdom of God? And we learned that a kingdom is a king’s domain or where he has dominion. We also saw that the place where he has dominion is the place where his will is being done. Therefore, we learned that the kingdom of God is any person or place where God is ruling and where His will is being done. Therefore, it is where there is no sickness, disease, poverty, sin, depression, etc. That means that anywhere or anyone that submits to the will of the King by either repenting of their wrong beliefs and behaviors or by receiving the freedom, healing, and deliverance that His kingdom has to offer is, at that moment, experiencing the rule and dominion of God. Then, two weeks ago, we continued defining what the kingdom of God is by looking at a good modern-day definition one might have for God’s kingdom— "God’s government.” So, what we did is we began defining the various forms of government that we have in this world today in order to see in them various aspects of God’s kingdom and how it operates, and we learned a lot about God’s kingdom as a result. For example, we saw that while God’s kingdom absolutely works like a monarchy, it also has some aspects of democracy in it, as the King has chosen us to be His representatives here on the earth, and as His ambassadors, we have been given much more authority than we realize. If you missed that one, I’d highly encourage you to go back and listen/watch it. And last week, we continued defining the kingdom of God by looking at a great summarization of the kingdom given by Old Testament scholar Graeme Goldsworthy: He said, the kingdom of God is "God's people in God's place under God's rule." We noticed that in this description of the kingdom, that the term “God’s” is used three times. That’s because God’s kingdom is exactly that—it’s God’s! It’s His rule, His reign, and His dominion! And according to this definition— It’s God’s people! It’s God’s place! Therefore, the kingdom of God is God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule. And that’s the important part because being under God’s rule means that God’s people & places follow His “rules” and not their own. So, we learned that “God’s people” are not just the Jews and they are not just us Christians. Sure, both Jewish and Gentile believers are most certainly God’s people, but the point we made is that just because someone is born through a certain lineage or maybe goes to the synagogue or church, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are God’s people. No, we saw that according to God’s estimation—His people are the sons of the kingdom who emulate the will and nature of their Father. So, no, the true subjects of the kingdom are not just those who claim to be so; it’s those who show it by the fruit in their life. We then learned that “God’s place” is anywhere the King’s will is being done. So, God’s place is not necessarily a physical place. As Jesus taught the woman at the well—it’s not in Jerusalem or on that mountain that one ought to worship. Rather, it is in spirit and in truth—meaning, it’s not a physical place that God seeks for us to worship in; it’s a spiritual place. (See John 4:16-24) Therefore, the kingdom of God is any place where truth resides. It is that spiritual place where God lives and where He rules & reigns in truth. Then we went over to Luke chapter 17 and learned from this verse both the people & place where the King and His kingdom resides: In verses 20-21, Jesus answered and said unto the Pharisees— “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” So, while the Pharisees were asking when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus essentially answered another question: Jesus taught them “Where the kingdom of God is.” This question arose from the religious leaders because of their common misunderstanding of what the kingdom of God was. They only saw the establishment of the kingdom of God as a physical thing. So, Jesus was saying that not only will you not be able to physically see the kingdom of God yourself (i.e. observation), but you will not have anybody else come to you saying, “Look, it’s over here” or “Look, it’s over there.” The point Jesus was making was that His kingdom is not visible now. So, we saw that if it was not visible, then that must mean it is invisible, right? That is what Jesus alluded to in His next statement— “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” As we’ve made the point of a couple of times already, Jesus was not saying that the kingdom of God is on the inside of you to these Pharisees. In fact, the opposite was actually true as Jesus told them that they were full of dead men’s bones in another place. But we saw last week that while this was not true for them, it is most certainly true for us because we, as God’s born again, children, have had a part of heaven move into our spirits. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us—the earnest of our inheritance. We have God’s very own righteousness and all the fruits of His Spirit resident within our inner man. We have God’s exceedingly great power dwelling on the inside of us. Yes, we have all of these aspects of God within us. So, where is God’s kingdom? It is where God’s people are! It is where God’s place is! It is where He rules, reigns, and has dominion! Now that certainly describes the third heavens, where God dwells. But God’s kingdom is not limited to just the kingdom of heaven. It is wherever heaven is! So, guess where that can be? That can be YOU! You can be the place that the kingdom of heaven dwells in. And the good news is—that is exactly what began the moment we all repented, called on the name of the Lord, and were born again—the kingdom of heaven moved in! So, now, even though it might not have been true for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the kingdom of God truly is within us—those who have been born again, are sons of God, and follow after the will of our Father and King. Yes, we are God’s people! We are God’s place! Amen. We are where God’s kingdom is supposed to be! But the fact is, even though the kingdom is within all who are truly God’s people & place, as a general rule, it will not be touched by our physical senses. Why? Because it is a spiritual kingdom—which is the point Jesus was making to the Pharisees. Certainly, there will be times that His kingdom will come on the earth as it is in heaven. Absolutely, there will be times where we will (and should) taste of the powers of the kingdom to come (See Hebrews 6:5). But the fullness of His kingdom is right now with us, as it is a reality in the spiritual realm. But someone might ask, “But doesn’t the Bible also show us that God will physically establish His kingdom here on the earth? Aren’t there Scriptures that speak of Christ returning and bringing His kingdom with Him?” That’s correct, and that is what I want us to spend this week talking about: The next question I want us to answer is: When is the kingdom of God? WHEN IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD? This question might seem a little odd, but it is another extremely important one to answer concerning God’s kingdom because as we have just seen in Luke chapter 17 there are some Scriptures that refer to His kingdom as a present reality, but there are others that put it off in the future. In fact, there are many truths in the New Testament that in some places seem to say that we already possess something and then in other places seem to put these promises off in the future. Let’s take our salvation, for instance: There are a multitude of Scriptures that refer to how we are now, presently saved. Of this, there is no doubt. But there are also Scriptures that refer to the hope of our salvation—putting our salvation somewhere off in the future. So, which is it? Are we saved now, or will we be saved in the future? The answer is—they both are true! The moment we call on the name of the Lord, the Bible teaches us we are saved. For example, the Word of God says in verses like John 3:36 & First John 5:13 that we now have everlasting, eternal life. That means that this life is not pushed off in the future, but that we now currently possess it. And we here know that this eternal, everlasting life is knowing God (See John 17:3)—which can obviously be experienced both now and the future. So, we have this eternal life right now even though the Bible also implies a future promise of everlasting life. Yes, at that moment and in the twinkling of an eye, when we were born again, we were made a new creation in Christ and have escaped the corruption of this world through our faith. That is settled. So how can other Scriptures put our salvation off in the future? The answer to this question is simple: It is because we are a three-part being! We are a spirit, soul, and body (See First Thessalonians 5:23). What we need to understand is that, in relation to our whole man, only one-third of us has technically already experienced salvation. The other two parts are in the process of being “saved” and will receive salvation when Jesus returns at the end of the age. PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE Allow me to illustrate this to you by the Scripture I just alluded to—Second Corinthians 5:17: It says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” Now this verse says that as we come into Christ (which describes the new birth and our being “saved”) we become a new creation. Then Paul goes on to say that when this happens, immediately old things pass away and all things become new. Now let me ask you a question: What part of us is this referring to? We know that it cannot be talking about our bodies because if we were overweight, had wrinkles, or were balding before we received Jesus, then we would still be overweight, wrinkled, and bald after we received Jesus. In other words, nothing physically passed away when we were saved, and nothing became new naturally in that moment that we were born again. Now our physical body is easy to describe, but the soul is oftentimes misunderstood: Our soul, although very similar to our spirit, is separate and distinct from our spirit. Our soul is our inner man. It describes our mental and emotional faculties. It is our personality and what makes us an individual and unique. So, understanding this, we also know that Second Corinthians 5:17 could not be referring to our souls because our personality did not immediately change when we were saved either. We were not suddenly smarter than we were before we were born again. All the emotional hang-ups that we might have had before salvation did not immediately pass away in that moment. So, what does this lead us to conclude? It is that the part of us that was “saved” was definitely not our soul and the part of us that became a new creation in Christ could not have been our body! Therefore, the part of us where old things have passed away and all things became new had to have been our spirit. Yes, it is our old man—the unregenerate spirit that we were all born with—that passed away, and it is in our new man—the regenerated spirit that we were born again with—that all things were made new. Praise the Lord! So, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it is our spirit that is completely saved, delivered, and redeemed! It is completely transformed where all the old things passed away and all things are made new and originated from God Himself! But that leaves the other two parts of us—our soul and our body! What about them? When will they be saved? Well, these other two parts of us are what the Bible is referring to when it puts our salvation off in the future. You see, the Word of God says that our souls are in process of being “saved” and renewed day by day. This occurs as our minds are transformed by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit is invited to saturate our inner being. All of this will be culminated when we believe to the saving of the soul at the end of our race of faith. The Bible also gives us the answer regarding our bodies: Our outward man will be saved when that great trumpet blows, and our corruptible body will be transformed into Jesus’ glorious body. This is what we call the resurrection and the glorification of our bodies! In that great and glorious Day, we will experience in our body what we have already experienced in our spirits. Hallelujah! This is how Scriptures like Romans 8:24 can say that we were saved in this hope. It is because it is not referring to our spirits, which have already been saved; it is referring to the redemption of our body (See verse 23). Therefore, we always need to consider the context in order to understand what God’s Word is referring to when it speaks of our salvation. But another great example of what I am referring to here is the truth concerning God’s promise of the healing of our bodies: It is without question that healing has already been provided through Jesus for those who are His. In Isaiah 53:4, it was prophesied concerning the Christ that “Surely, He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” You might say, “Trey, my version does not use the words ‘sicknesses’ and ‘pains’ here; It says, ‘griefs’ and ‘sorrows.’” Well, this is when it’s important to know how to look up the words in the original language. But in this instance, you don’t have to know Hebrew or Greek to know what these words actually mean—because in the Gospel of Matthew, when quoting Isaiah 53:4, it said that Jesus Himself, took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. And in the context, he was specifically referring to physical sicknesses and physical diseases because Matthew said that when Jesus physically healed the people, this fulfilled Isaiah 53:4 (See Matthew 8:16-17). On top of that, if you look up the Hebrew words in Isaiah 53:4, you will find that sicknesses and pains are clearly what are being referred to. Therefore, you have to conclude that this verse in Isaiah is referring to Jesus actually bearing our sicknesses and carrying our pains. Then in Isaiah’s prophecy, he goes on to say that by His (Jesus’) stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5), and one cannot just assume he was talking about being healed from spiritual sicknesses as so many do. Why? For one, it is because we just saw how he was referring to physical pain and disease in the previous verse. I for one, do not ascribe the reference to healing to our spiritual condition anyways, because from the verse we just looked at in Second Corinthians 5:17, what transpired in us spiritually is not a “making us better.” No, it is a making us completely new! Yes, it is actually raising us from the dead, not just healing our current condition! Amen. Now the awesome reality is that in First Peter 2:24, when quoting this verse in Isaiah 53:5, the apostle Peter did not just say by His stripes we are healed; he said by His stripes we were healed! The reason Peter said our healing is in the past tense is because he was looking back at the Cross where our healing has already been provided. My brothers and sisters, you can search the Scriptures and you will find that the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our bodies are promised in the same breath. In other words, they are usually referred to in the same context, thus putting them in the same salvation package. Jesus not only went to the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins, but also for the healing of our bodies. He not only died for our salvation from sin, but also for the salvation of our bodies! Therefore, just as forgiveness, redemption, salvation has already been provided through His blood, likewise healing, soundness, and wholeness have already been provided through His stripes. Praise the name of Jesus! So healing is already ours! Again, by His stripes we were healed! It is already a spiritual reality in our life! Amen! But that is not enough, is it? is not enough to just have healing provided for us through the atonement because we need to experience that healing from time to time in our physical bodies as well. Amen? In other words, we need that reality of healing manifested in our bodies when it is needed and not just have it as a spiritual reality. And this is my point today: The kingdom of God might be within us—meaning it certainly is in our midst and in the spirits of all who have been born again, but we need it manifested in the natural realm around us as well! We need His kingdom to come out of the heavenly realm where it currently resides and brought into the natural realm where we currently live! We need to touch, taste, see, and handle this power that has already been made available to us! But as I have made the point of already, as much of the kingdom that we see manifested in our lives and in the world around us, it is only being tasted in part. In that Day when Jesus splits those eastern skies and brings that which is perfect—namely, the kingdom of God along with the new heavens and the new earth—then we will see the fullness of His kingdom and fully and consistently experience the kingdom of God! This will be the Day in which we are saved completely—spirit, soul, and body. This will be the Day in which we are healed completely—where there will not be even the trace of sickness, disease, and infirmity anymore. This will be the Day in which we are fully partaking of all the things that we are simply tasting here on the earth right now! Hallelujah! So here is what we can rightfully conclude from this: The kingdom of God is here with us now! It currently resides in both the spirit within us and in the spiritual realm around us. It is here now! It is within us! But this is not the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. It is just a taste of that which is to come! When Jesus came the first time, He established His kingdom in our hearts. When Jesus comes the second time, He will establish His kingdom on the earth. In other words, when Jesus returns, He will establish His kingdom physically here on the earth. He has already established it spiritually, but in that Day, He will establish it physically. Church, the kingdom of God is not in a particular place or in a particular time. It is yesterday, today, and forevermore! It is any place or people where God’s will is being done and where His rule and dominion is being experienced. We can see a manifestation of His kingdom any time a person is enlightened to the truth and repents from their error. Why? It is because His rule is being acknowledged. We can see a demonstration of His kingdom any time a place is saturated with the glory of God and joy is experienced by all. Why? It is because His will is being accomplished. It does not matter when or where—God’s kingdom can be tasted and demonstrated because it is in our midst all of the time and is available for us to partake of by faith. So, His kingdom is now, but as much as the kingdom of God can be touched and tasted by us now, it is only being experienced in part. The Day is coming when that which is perfect (i.e. His kingdom) will come and will complete in the natural the good work that has already begun in the spiritual realm. This will occur when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and all things are made new. WHAT, WHERE AND WHEN IS THE KINGDOM? So, as we now wrap up our defining of the kingdom of God, what can we conclude from all of this? We can see that the kingdom of God is any people or any place where the King of kings has dominion and where His will is being done. It is His government, it is His people, and it is His place. Yes, the kingdom of God is where God rules and where He reigns. It is not a physical place per se, but it is a spiritual kingdom that certainly does manifest itself in the physical realm as well. However, it is first and foremost a spiritual kingdom that is all around us—the glory of the King covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. However, we can touch and taste it by faith now through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can see God’s rule established as both the sinner and the saint come into the realization of the truth of God’s Word and begin to walk in the light of it. We can physically observe God’s dominion as we witness the power of Christ release people from the bondage of sin, sickness, and evil spirits. And not only that, but we can have the hope that His kingdom will come in fullness & power. So when the King returns, He will establish His kingdom here on the earth as it is in heaven. Then, all sickness, disease, poverty, pain, suffering, oppression, etc. will cease, and the lion and the lamb will lay down together in perfect peace. We can, church, say “Look here!” and “Look there!” and witness the kingdom of God as we begin to demonstrate the kingdom through the preaching of the Word and the practice of the Word! We can taste of the kingdom to come in measure with the hope and certainty that it will come in fullness and abundance soon and very soon. This is the kingdom of God on the earth today and tomorrow! So, we say, “Lord, Let your kingdom come! Let Your will be done, in our midst, as it is in heaven right now and in the future!” Amen! Now we began a new series on the kingdom of God a few weeks ago which I’ve entitled “Defining the Kingdom of God.” And in this second mini-series on God’s kingdom, we are answering questions such as what the kingdom of God is, when the kingdom of God is, and where the kingdom of God is.
So, we began two weeks ago answering the first question—What is the kingdom of God: We started by first looking at the English word “kingdom,” and we learned that the word “kingdom” comes from two words— the words “king” and “dom.” The word “dom” is where we get words like “dome, domain, or dominion” from. So, by this basic practice of looking at the word’s origin we can see that a kingdom is a “king’s domain,” or you could say, a place where a “king” has “dominion.” Therefore, we learned that a kingdom is where a king has rule or where he governs a group of people. Then we saw that the kingdom of God is a place or people where God’s will is being done, because if a king rules or has dominion over something, then his will should be being done there. So, if this “kingdom” is the kingdom of God, then it is the place where God is King and where His will is being done. And we saw that the perfect example of where His will is being done is in heaven. So, we learned that what we see happening in heaven is what God’s kingdom looks like. So, what do we see is taking place in heaven right now? Is there any sickness? Is there any pain or infirmity? Is there the presence of demons and evil spirits? Are people living in sin and rebellion against the will of the King? No, no, no! There is nothing but perfect love, peace that passes all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory! There is complete and perfect order—no confusion and no division. This is what God’s kingdom looks like! And we also learned that God’s will is that His will be done here on the earth now! His will is that His kingdom come on the earth right now like it is in heaven! In other words, He wants His kingdom’s “dominion” to be seen and experienced here on the earth today. We do not have to wait until tomorrow. We do not have to wait until the “sweet by and by.” We can see His kingdom demonstrated in the here and now! Therefore, anywhere or anyone that submits to the will of the King by either repenting from their wrong beliefs and behaviors or by receiving the freedom, healing, and deliverance that His kingdom has to offer is experiencing the rule and dominion of God. Yes, that is when the kingdom of God has come near to someone! It is that simple. That means that when we see someone healed, we’ve seen a manifestation of His kingdom here on the earth! When we see someone delivered from demonic control, we’ve caught a glimpse of the way God’s kingdom is! Yes, when we see someone loved so beautifully, blessed so extravagantly, or freed so abundantly, we have seen the kingdom of God come! Therefore, the kingdom of God is where the devil, his kingdom, and the curse are no longer present and reigning in people’s lives. Then, last week, we continued defining what the kingdom of God is, by looking at a good modern-day definition one might have for God’s kingdom—"God’s government.” So, what we did is we began defining the various forms of government that we have in this world today in order to see in them various aspects of God’s kingdom and how it operates. Now the first thing we learned is that any form of government is only as good as the ones who are making the decisions. So, even with the republic/democracy that we use here in the United States—that is obviously one of the best systems of government we have in the world today—there can still be problems if the people of our nation become immoral. No, none of the governments we could choose to operate under are better than the others if those in authority are wicked, but each is only as good as the character, integrity, wisdom and goodness of the one(s) with the power and authority. But the fact is that all forms of government can be good if those in authority and who have the power are good. Likewise, all of them can be bad if the authority is bad. And the good news is that the government that we are talking about here today does indeed have a good and wise leader. In fact, it has a triune leader like these church governments are three—Father God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. He alone is wise! He alone is good! And there is no one else that you would rather have in authority other than Him—for He is a loving leader. So, the good news we heard last week is that God’s government—His kingdom—has perfect leadership! The One who reigns over His kingdom is alone wise, absolutely just, and infinitely good. There is no unrighteousness in Him, and everything He does is done in love! So, His government is the best! There is nothing missing and nothing broken in it! It is “shalom” to say the least! So, what we did is we looked at a few different examples of government systems such as a monarchy, theocracy, and democracy. We even looked at other forms of governments like communism, socialism, and colonialism. And we learned from all of them that God’s government can be seen in many of the ways in which they operate. For example, we saw that there are two types of monarchies— a constitutional monarchy and an absolute monarchy: Constitutional monarchies limit the monarch's (i.e. king’s) power as outlined in the constitution, while absolute monarchies give him unlimited power. So, we saw that the kingdom of God is both! The kingdom was and is an absolute monarchy in that the self-existent, omnipotent God is “absolutely” sovereign. That means He has and always will be the top of the food chain—meaning there is no one higher than the Most High God! Amen. However, God—in His absolute sovereignty—chose to have a constitution written for His kingdom! And by doing so, He made the “absolute” decision to limit Himself to His Word! Glory to God! Therefore, we have a constitution that our King has bound Himself to that makes all of His promises Yes and Amen. Of course, I’m referring to the Word of God! We also saw from the example of communism/socialism that God’s kingdom is a perfect mixture of both equality and capitalism because in it, we see it functioning on both a rewards basis and we see God delving out certain things equally. Yes, we see the prospect of every believer laying up more treasures for themselves in heaven based on how they steward their giftings and life in general here on the earth. But we also see that there is a certain sense of commonality in that we all have received the same new birth, the same Holy Spirit, the same amount of faith, etc. We also saw that in a democracy—which literally describes “people ruling power”—there is a semblance of this in God’s kingdom because even though we do not have free-reign, we do have a free-will. And God has delegated His authority and power to us as His church to advance the kingdom of God here on the earth. So, while the kingdom of God certainly operates more like a monarchy than anything else; there are hints of a democracy in there as God has given us the earth to have dominion over in His stead. And as we made the point of last week, the kingdom of God even operates a little like colonialism in that it also involves the expansion of a nation's rule beyond its own borders. Therefore, God’s kingdom has aspects of “colonialism” in it in that its goal is to destroy the works of its enemy, the devil, and establish its culture, economy, and government order. And, church, that is what God has put us here to do—to plunder Satan’s turf and destroy His works! We are the church—that body of believers who have been delegated the authority to do things in the King’s name and see God’s kingdom come on the earth even as it is in heaven. So, with all that said, I believe a great definition of the kingdom of God is the following summarization given by Old Testament scholar Graeme Goldsworthy: He said, the kingdom of God is "God's people in God's place under God's rule." Notice that in this description of the kingdom, you see the term “God’s” three times. That’s because God’s kingdom is exactly that—it’s God’s! It’s His rule, His reign, and His dominion! And according to this definition— It’s God’s people! It’s God’s place! And it’s God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule! And that’s the important part. GOD’S PEOPLE So, let’s start with the “God’s people” part: Now who is this? Are we talking about the Jews? Are we talking about the church? Who are God’s people? Well, the truth is—God’s people are neither Jew nor Gentile according to the flesh. God’s people are those who do the will of God—irrespective of their natural lineage. For example, both John the Baptist and Jesus condemned this notion of the Jews that they were Abraham’s children and the chosen people of God saying, “Do not say that we have Abraham as our father, for God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones.” (Luke 3:8). Jesus told similar religious leaders that while they were certainly Abraham’s descendants, that didn’t mean they were children of Abraham—for a son would do the same works as their father (See John 8:31-44). So, God’s people are not those who are physically born into it, nor are they those who lay claim to it. No, according to God’s estimation—His people are the sons of the kingdom who emulate the will and nature of their Father. So, no, the true subjects of the kingdom are not just those who claim to be so; it’s those who show it by the fruit in their life. They are not just those who claim to be Christians or go to church. God’s people are those who are, first, born again, and then follow in the footsteps of their Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. These are those who are truly “God’s people.” You know, I once heard a very wise minister say, “If you do not understand the kingdom of God, you will not understand salvation.” This is such a powerful statement that has always stuck with me. The reason this is so important to understand is because, as is the case with so many believers, they only embrace Jesus as their Savior and willfully ignore the importance of making Him their Lord. However, the truth is that He cannot be one without being the other. In other words, it is impossible to receive our entrance into the kingdom without accepting His Kingship (i.e. His rule and authority over their lives). In one instance, Jesus said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do the things which I say” (Luke 6:46). Do you know why this is so ridiculous? It is because the word “Lord” means “Master,” and to call Him “Master” implies that He actually is the authority over our lives. Therefore, we do what He tells us to do—both individually and through His Word. You see, Jesus actually equated gaining salvation with entering the Kingdom (Matthew 19:16, 23-24), and He explained the loss of salvation in terms of rejection from the kingdom (Luke 13:28). This is why repentance was and still is such a big deal in the church today. And it’s not about people feeling bad about their sins, etc. It’s about aligning ourselves with the King’s way of doing and being right—that is, us seeking first the kingdom of God in our lives. Along those lines, this is why it has nothing to do with our feelings. You and I do a lot of things here in our nation that we might not always feel like doing, right? So, we do what we are commanded because we honor the King and respect His Lordship in our lives, plain and simple. GOD’S PLACE So, now let’s look at the second thing our definition said—It’s God’s people in God’s place: What and where is God’s place? It goes back to the definition we’ve already given of the kingdom—it is where the King’s will is being done. So again, God’s place is not necessarily a physical place. As Jesus taught the woman at the well—it’s not in Jerusalem or on that mountain that one ought to worship. Rather, it is in spirit and in truth—meaning, it’s not a physical place that God seeks for us to worship in; it’s a spiritual place. (See John 4:16-24) Do you remember the account in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would come? Jesus answered and said unto them— “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21) This question arose from the religious leaders because of their common misunderstanding of what the kingdom of God was. They only saw the establishment of the kingdom of God as a physical thing. So, although their question— “When would the kingdom of God come?”—was a legitimate question; it was a carnal question. In their minds, the kingdom that God was sending was a natural kingdom. But what they failed to see was that God would first establish His kingdom in the spirit realm rather than in the physical realm. This is why Jesus answered them directly with— “The kingdom of God does not come with observation…” The word “observation” literally means “optical evidence”—or you could say that the kingdom of God would not necessarily have any visible evidence. So, Jesus was saying that you cannot see it, and then He reiterated that statement with— “…nor will they say, ‘See here’ or ‘See there!’” In other words, not only will you not be able to physically see it yourself, but you will not have anybody else come to you saying, “Look, it’s over here” or “Look, it’s over there.” The point Jesus was making was that His kingdom is not visible now. So, if it was not visible, then that must mean it is invisible, right? That is what Jesus alluded to in His next statement— “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” As we’ve made the point of beforehand, this particular phrase has confused many believers. On the surface and with the particular wording that is used with the King James and New King James versions, it seems to be saying that the Kingdom of God is on the inside of you. Now there is some truth to this statement in the New Covenant because we have a part of heaven that has moved into our spirits. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us—the earnest of our inheritance. We have God’s very own righteousness and all the fruits of His Spirit resident within our inner man. We have God’s exceedingly great power dwelling on the inside of us. And the list could go on and on. So, it is not false to say that certain elements of the kingdom of God are resident on the inside of us. However, this was absolutely, positively not what Jesus was saying in this verse! You may be thinking— “How can you be so sure, Pastor?” I know this because of who Jesus was talking to! Who was it that He was addressing when He said, “the kingdom of God is within you”? It was the Pharisees! They were the ones who asked him the question in the first place (See verse 20a), and we know for a fact that they did not have the kingdom of God on the inside of them! In fact, many of them actually had the kingdom of darkness within them! But even if Jesus would have been talking to His disciples, it still could not be interpreted this way because they had not even been regenerated yet. No, Jesus must have been saying something else when He said to them that the kingdom of God was within them. So, what was it He was saying? The Greek word that was used here to translate “within” is the word entoi. This little Greek prefix meant more than just “to be inside.” It also described to be “in the sphere of” or “in the midst of.” Many times, in the Greek language, it depends on the context of the scripture as to how it is to be interpreted. And in Luke chapter 17, it would be better translated “in the midst of” because to say that the kingdom of God was “on the inside of” these Pharisees makes no sense considering the context. So now we must ask the question: What did Jesus mean by saying, “For indeed the kingdom of God is in the midst of you?” Let’s think back for a moment to His previous statements: He first of all made the point that they, nor anybody else, will be able to physically see the kingdom of God. So then when He immediately says that the kingdom is in your midst, what do you think He meant? Allow me to interpret Jesus’ statements this way: “Even though you cannot see the kingdom of God, it is already in your midst.” In other words, “It is not a natural kingdom (yet) that you can physically see or point out, but rather, it is a spiritual kingdom that is already all around you whether you can see it or not!” Amen! And my point in bringing this Scripture to our attention is because this helps us answer the question—What is the kingdom of God? Why? It is because the kingdom of God is first and foremost a spiritual kingdom that, as a general rule, will not be touched with our physical senses. So, where is God’s place? Most would say that it’s in heaven, and they would be correct. But the kingdom of God is not just a physical or spiritual place. It is wherever heaven is. It’s wherever His will is being done. So, guess where that can be? That can be YOU! You can be the place that the kingdom of heaven dwells in. And the good news is—that is exactly what began the moment we all repented, called on the name of the Lord, and were born again! Heaven moved in! So, now, even though it might not have been true for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the kingdom of God truly is within us—those who have been born again, are sons of God, and follow after the will of our Father and King. Amen. This is why the definition of the kingdom of God that we are looking at today says that it is “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.” The kingdom of God is ultimately any people or any place that is under God’s rule—meaning, God is King and Christ is Lord. That means that while the kingdom of God is certainly not everywhere, it can be anywhere. May this be us all the time and every where we go. So, we began a new series on the kingdom of God last week which I’ve entitled “Defining the Kingdom of God”—because, as I made the point of last week, before we can carry the gospel of the kingdom into the world, we need to know what it is we are carrying. And that is the point of this new series of teachings—it is to define what the kingdom of God actually is. On top of that, we will come to understand not only what it is, but when and where it is.
So, that is what we began doing last week: We started defining the kingdom of God, but we did so by first looking at the English word “kingdom.” And we saw that the word “kingdom” comes from two words— the words “king” and “dom.” The word “dom” is where we get words like “dome, domain, or dominion” from. So, by this basic practice of looking at the word’s origin we can see that a kingdom is a “king’s domain,” or you could say, a place where a “king” has “dominion.” Therefore, we learned that a kingdom is where a king has rule or where he governs a group of people. And if this “king’s domain” is the kingdom of God, then it is the domain or place where God is the King and, therefore, where He rules and has dominion. Then we answered the question—Where is it that God has dominion and where the King of kings rules? It is rather obvious that this is not everywhere—because there are a lot of people and places here on the earth where God does not seem to be ruling. Now I know there are a lot of people who wouldn’t say that because a majority of the church sees God as ultimately being in charge and control over everything on the earth, but that’s not completely true. How can I say that, you ask? I say that because His will is not being done everywhere and in every person on this planet. You see, the kingdom of God is a place or people where God’s will is being done, because if a king rules or governs something, then their will should be being done there, right? So, in light of all the sin, sickness, poverty, oppression, etc. that is occurring on the earth, we know God’s kingdom is not being manifested everywhere and in every person. Yes, God’s will is where life, blessing, peace, etc. are at! So, if there is death, the curse, depression, and any other oppression of the enemy, then God’s will is not being done in that situation. Therefore, the answer to that question we just asked—"Where is it that God has dominion and rules?”—is answered simply with—It is where the will of the King is being done. We then looked at that very familiar verse that qualifies this answer—Matthew 6:10: In Jesus’ Model Prayer, He said, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So, Jesus piggybacks the request for His will being done along with it. So, we might say, once His kingdom comes, His will can then be done. Why? It’s because with a kingdom comes the will of the king of that kingdom being done. So, if this “kingdom” is the kingdom of God, then it is the place where God is king and where His will is being done. Yes, it is where God has dominion and where He rules & reigns. Amen? So, if a kingdom has come where the will of the king is being done then we need to know what God’s will is in order to identify where His kingdom is, right? And we saw that Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” So, what we see happening in heaven is what God’s kingdom looks like. Yes, any Christian would have to agree that God’s will is absolutely being done in heaven. We could all agree on that, right? Now while most of us have never visited heaven and seen it with our own eyes, we have it described to us in the Word of God. So, what does the Bible show us is taking place in heaven right now? Is there any sickness? Is there any pain or infirmity? Is there the presence of demons and evil spirits? No! There is nothing but perfect love, peace that passes all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory! There is complete and perfect order—no confusion and no division. This is what God’s kingdom looks like! And the most liberating truth is that Jesus taught us to pray here in His Model Prayer for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done here on the earth as it is in heaven! Hallelujah! So evidently God’s will is that His will be done here on the earth now! His will is that His kingdom come on the earth right now like it is in heaven! In other words, He wants His kingdom’s “dominion” to be seen and experienced here on the earth today. We do not have to wait until tomorrow. We do not have to wait until the “sweet by and by.” We can see His kingdom demonstrated in the here and now! And this will be accomplished not only as we pray like the Master taught us to pray, but as we also begin to imitate Him by doing the works that He did as He walked on the earth. When we begin to walk in the instruction originally given to man in the Garden to subdue the earth and have dominion over all of His creation (Genesis 1:28), then we will see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth. Therefore, anywhere or anyone that submits to the will of the King by either repenting from their wrong beliefs and behaviors or by receiving the freedom, healing, and deliverance that His kingdom has to offer is experiencing the rule and dominion of God. It is that simple. Let me say it this way: Any person, place, or thing that bows their knee to the will of the King just experienced a manifestation of the kingdom of God. Therefore, when we see someone healed, we’ve seen a manifestation of His kingdom here on the earth! When we see someone delivered from demonic control, we’ve caught a glimpse of the way God’s kingdom is! Yes, when we see someone loved so beautifully, blessed so extravagantly, or freed so abundantly, we have seen the kingdom of God come in measure. And we saw that this is why the Lord told His disciples, when they healed the sick and cast out demons, to say to them--“The kingdom of God has come near to you!” (Luke 10:9) Why? It is because the rule and dominion of God’s kingdom was just manifested in those people’s lives. They just saw the will of the King of kings being done in their lives as Satan was dethroned in their spirits, souls, or bodies. This is why we see the signs we do accompanying Jesus’ ministry—because He didn’t just come to preach the kingdom of God, but to demonstrate it. So, when He blessed the poor, healed the sick, raised the dead to life again, broke demonic control, the kingdom of God is what was being experienced in those people’s lives that Jesus and His disciples touched. Amen! So, the kingdom of God is where the devil, his kingdom, and the curse are no longer present. It is where God has the dominion, and His will is being done! Therefore, the kingdom of God is anywhere the will of the king is being demonstrated and manifested. It’s not a physical place and it’s not something we can necessarily see with the physical eye. Saints, the kingdom of God is not just a place. There is no time and distance in the spirit realm. The kingdom of God is wherever the Lord, our King, is manifested and demonstrated through word and action. This is how God’s kingdom can be manifested on the earth today! I can assure you; His kingdom is already handily available to us right now. Thank you, Jesus! Now this week, I want us to continue defining what the kingdom of God is, by looking at a good modern-day definition one might have for God’s kingdom— "God’s government.” Yes, the kingdom of God might be described by us as the government of God. So, what I want us to do is begin defining the various forms of government that we have in this world today. So, let’s get right into it … A GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS GOOD AS … Now when it comes to the subject of different types of government, we have many different examples to pull from in our world today. One of our most common ones is a democracy—which we obviously have here in the United States. Now we love our democratic style of government sure, but as our second president, John Adams, was quoted as saying, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In other words, a democracy is only as good as the morality of the people of that government. Perhaps an easier way to understand the differences in various types of government is to look at the three main church governments that are used:
But the fact is that all three of these church governments can be affective if those in authority and who have the power are good. And the good news is that the government that we are talking about here today does indeed have a good and wise leader. In fact, it has a triune leader like these church governments are three—Father God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. He alone is wise! He alone is good! And there is no one else that you would rather have in authority other than Him—for He is a loving leader. So, my point is that it doesn’t matter what type of government you roll out there. If God is the One who is calling the shots, then it’ll work. Now I would venture to say that the majority of us here would advocate the democratic governmental system (no, not the political party, but the system of democracy itself), but like I said, if the vast majority of the people of that nation are immoral, foolish, wicked, etc. then democracy will destroy that nation. On the other hand, if the king or queen of an absolute monarchy governmental system—where they are in absolute control and call all the shots—is a wicked ruler, then the people of their kingdom will suffer. As Proverbs 29:2 states— “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Of course, this is coming from the mentality of kings & kingdoms because this is what they had in Israel when King Solomon wrote this, but did you know this is not just true for kingdoms, but also for a republic like us? Yes, this principle holds true whether we are referring to a monarchy or whether we are referring to a democracy. The truth is when the righteous (person or peoples) are in authority, the people (the people of that nation) rejoice! But when a wicked man (or men) rule(s), the people will groan. Why? Because the character and values of the person or persons with the power is what will determine the response of the nation itself. We actually see both ends of the spectrum of this illustrated in the Book of Esther because when Haman was given the authority from the king to put all the Jews to death in his kingdom, Mordecai and the rest of the Jewish people in the province who heard the king’s decree mourned and “groaned.” But later on in the story, when the table was flipped on Haman and Mordecai was put in charge, Esther 8:15 tells us that the people rejoiced and were glad. So, herein lies that principle—when good people are in charge, people are happy; when bad people are in charge, the people are not. Likewise, when righteousness is in control, the nation will be blessed, but when unrighteousness is, the nation will suffer. It doesn’t matter whether the position of authority is an individual or a group, when the wicked call the shots, the nation and its people will suffer for it. But, again, the good news is that God’s government—His kingdom—has perfect leadership! The One who reigns over His kingdom is alone wise, absolutely just, and infinitely good. There is no unrighteousness in Him, and everything He does is done in love! So, His government is the best! There is nothing missing and nothing broken in it! It is “shalom” to say the least! So, what I want us to do is look at a few different examples of government systems and see if we can find God’s perfect government style in any of them … MONARCHY Now out of all the governments that we have had in this world, the one that is most comparative to God’s kingdom is (you guessed it) a monarchy. This is obvious because a monarchy is the governmental system that kingdoms operate on. Now a “monarchy” is a power system that appoints a person as head of state for life or until abdication (renouncing or resigning the throne). Under this form of government, the position of authority traditionally passes down through a succession line related to one's bloodline and birth order within the ruling royal family, often limited by gender. This is, of course, what we see in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah where the throne was succeeded by the son of the prior king (generally the firstborn son, I might add). So, since God’s kingdom is more of a monarchy than anything else, how can we see God’s kingdom in this? Well, we know who the King of this kingdom is, right? Yes, it’s God, but more specifically, it is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s right—He has assumed the throne given to Him by His Heavenly Father! Like Solomon inherited the throne of His Father David, the Son of David has inherited the throne of God’s kingdom and forevermore shall be known as the King of kings! But as you’ve heard me say time and time again—Who are the kings that Jesus is king of? And the answer is YOU! Yes, you and I are His royal priesthood. And do you know how we are qualified to be His own kings and priests? It is because we were born (again) to be heirs of the throne too! Glory! Therefore, we are of His bloodline and born into the royal family! So, we are not kings in His kingdom because we’ve earned the right to; no, we were born into our position—not by works lest we should boast. So, as Mordecai said to Esther when encouraging her to be the voice for her people—Perhaps you have come to this kingdom and been made queen for such a time for this (See Esther 4:14). Likewise, we have been made kings for this day and hour that we live in. Now it is worthy of noting that there are two types of monarchies— a constitutional monarchy and an absolute monarchy: Constitutional monarchies limit the monarch's (i.e. king’s) power as outlined in the constitution, while absolute monarchies give him unlimited power. So, which type of monarchy is the kingdom of God? In truth, they both are! The kingdom was and is an absolute monarchy in that the self-existent, omnipotent God is “absolutely” sovereign. That means He has and always will be the top of the food chain—meaning there is no one higher than the Most High God! Amen. However, God—in His absolute sovereignty—chose to have a constitution written for His kingdom! And by doing so, He made the “absolute” decision to limit Himself to His Word! Glory to God! Therefore, we have a constitution that our King has bound Himself to that makes all of His promises Yes and Amen. I’m of course referring to the Word of God! Which leads me to another form of government that we see in our world that operates more on religious doctrine than on natural laws—a theocracy. THEOCRACY Now although God’s government operates more like a monarchy than anything else; it also works like a theocracy. You see, a theocracy refers to a form of government in which a specific religious ideology determines the leadership, laws, and customs. In most instances, there is little to no distinction between scriptural laws and natural legalities. In this type of government, religious clergy will typically occupy leadership roles, sometimes including the highest office in the nation. Perhaps one of the greatest real-life examples of a theocracy is the nation of Iran. It is perhaps the most important and powerful theocratic state in the world today. Its religious leaders rule the country, and among them is a "supreme leader" who serves as head of state, delegates authority to other religious leaders, and presides over the elected president. The Islamic faith's primary legal doctrine dictates the country's legal, judiciary, and administrative codes. So, how does God’s kingdom operate like this, you ask? It is because the beliefs behind Christianity is what the kingdom of God is based upon. Its laws are not like the legalities of any other—for they are based on the spiritual truths of God. And these truths are contained in that which is written—God’s Holy Word. Yes, God’s kingdom operates not on man-made rules and religion, but on what is written in its spiritual constitution—the Scriptures. Jesus taught us that it is the traditions of man that make the Word of God of no effect. So, we need to understand that God’s kingdom is based on the truth of the Word of God, not on what is truth to us and the things that satisfy our religious conscience. The kingdom of God is based on Christianity, the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints. Amen? COMMUNISM & SOCIALISM Now these next forms of government that we are a little more familiar with today are certainly frowned upon—and rightfully so because we have seen nothing but negative examples of them. Of course, I am referring to communism & socialism. While they might seem to be synonymous terms to a lot of people, there are actually some subtle differences: Communism is more of a centralized form of government led by a single party that is often authoritarian in its rule, oftentimes having this person labeled as a “dictator.” Essentially, what communism does is it replaces things like private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control. Therefore, citizens are part of a classless society that distributes goods and services as needed, which is handled by a government run by a dictator. Socialism, on the other hand, is a system of government that also encourages cooperation rather than competition among citizens. But in it, citizens communally own the means of production and distribution of goods and services, while a centralized government manages it. Each person benefits from and contributes to the system according to their needs and ability. So, the primary difference between the two is that while socialism is less rigid, in communism, the state has the control. In socialism, the people maintain commonality and have more of a say in matters. So, while they are certainly different, in most people’s minds, they are the same in that they both desire to eliminate capitalism from the equation. Now let me first say that God’s kingdom does not operate like these types of governments in most respects, in that we see it functioning on a rewards basis. Yes, we see the prospect of every believer laying up more treasures for themselves in heaven based on how they steward their giftings and life in general here on the earth. So, the kingdom of God certainly operates with more of the mentality of capitalism than it does communism. However, there is a certain sense of commonality in that we all have received “like, precious faith” (Second Peter 1:1). Yes, as Jesus taught us in the Parable of the Minas, all of the Lord’s servants have been given the same amount—which I believe to be the same new-birth, the same Holy Spirit, the same amount of faith, etc. But at the same time, Jesus also taught a similar parable called The Parable of the Talents, and in this one, everyone was distributed different amounts based on their abilities. So, my point is that while you might be able to find certain hints of these more communal types of governments in God’s government, God’s kingdom also practices capitalism to the max. However, you can still find in God’s kingdom certain philosophies & ideologies of these types of government. One of our greatest examples of how God’s kingdom might operate a little like this is found in the account we have in Acts chapter 2: You see, immediately after the Holy Spirit was poured out and the initial harvest of 3,000 souls came into the church, we see in verses 44-45— “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” All the way at the end of chapter 4, we see that the Church of Jerusalem continued to live in this communal way. Verses 32-35 say, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.” Now the difference between what the First Church was doing here and what socialism/communism attempts to do is that all the believers did this willingly. It was not being forced on them. Nor were they being compelled to do it. Everyone simply did it because they had in on their heart to do so. In other words, love was the motivating factor. The apostles were not demanding this of the people. We know this because when Ananias and Sapphire lied about the property they sold, Peter indicated that it was their own while it remained with them and it was in their control after it was sold (See Acts 5:4). That means that the apostles were not forcing this way of life upon the believers in Jerusalem. No, it was a genuine work of the Holy Spirit! You cannot legislate love, saints! In God’s kingdom, free will is a given. He wants us to give as we purpose in our heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. But when the Holy Spirit is in charge—as He obviously was with the First Church—this love, generosity, and great grace was obviously all over the body of Christ. So, they were willing to have all things in common with one another! But again, it wasn’t legislated; it was inspired! But my point is that God is righteous, just, and fair in how He distributes His spiritual resources. He is no respecter of persons in this respect. However, He is a respecter of faith and diligence. So, while everyone has been given the same capabilities; everyone must work out that salvation in order to multiply the minas He has evenly distributed to all. DEMOCRACY Finally, let’s now look at the government that we have had the privilege of being under here in the United States—the democratic governmental system. Yes, we are a system of government ruled by the people and for the people. You see, democracy is a form of government that allows the people to choose leadership. The primary goal is to govern through fair representation and prevent abuses of power. The result is a system that requires discourse, debate, and compromise to satisfy the broadest possible number of public interests, leading to majority rule. Democracies advocate for fair and free elections, civic participation, human rights protections, and law and order. As a matter of fact, this English word “democracy” actually originated from the Greek words demos and kratos. The word demos meant “people,” and the word kratos meant “ruling power.” So, when you combine these two words together, you get the basic definition of a democracy— “people ruling power.” In other words, a democracy is a government that is ruled by the people and for the people. But this is not how God’s kingdom operates. His kingdom is not ruled by the people. His kingdom is ruled by the King of kings! But, oh, how so many of God’s people live like the kingdom of God is a democracy. They think that they have a vote on how God’s kingdom will work. They might not say this, but in their actions, they profess it. But God’s kingdom does not operate like this. We are under God’s rule and reign, not our own. We are under His dominion, not our own. Now certainly we can choose life and death. We can choose blessing or cursing. We can choose whether we are going to submit to the rule of righteousness or to the rule of sin. Our King is not going to make us submit to His reign because He, in His perfect goodness, has given us a free will. But the bottom line is, if we are going to inherit the fruit of His kingdom and experience the abundance of life and blessings that are a part of His kingdom, then we must let the “King” have “dominion” in our lives. We do this by willingly submitting to the direction that His Holy Spirit is leading us in and also by complying with the precepts and commandments found in His Word. This is how we allow the King of kings to be Lord of our lives and how to receive the benefits that come as a result of living in His kingdom. But, again, it is important to understand this one point: The kingdom of God is not a democracy; it is more of a monarchy. God’s kingdom is ruled by royalty, being governed by the One True and Living God—the King of all kings! God’s kingdom is God-ruled, not God’s people-ruled! It is important that we understand this because although we do have a free-will in His kingdom, this does not mean that we have free-reign in His kingdom. There is a big difference between having a free-will and having free-reign. Having a free-will means that God has given us the ability to choose His reign or reject His reign in our life. But if we choose to reject Him, His ways, and His life then we are, in fact, choosing death. But on the other hand, if we choose to operate according to His principles and follow His lead, then we will reap the fruit of His kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy! Hallelujah! I, for one, will choose to let the Lord have free reign in my life! How about you? So, it is important for us, as God’s children, to understand that the government of God’s kingdom operates primarily as a monarchy—meaning that the supreme power of His kingdom is in His hands, the King, and will remain in His possession for His lifetime, which is obviously for all eternity since He is eternal life itself. WHAT IS THE CHURCH? However, even though God’s kingdom is not ultimately ruled by the people like a democracy or republic is, God has given us, His people, a certain amount of delegated authority similarly to how these people-ruled governments operate. You see, the King has delegated His authority here on the earth to a special group of “elected officials” similarly to how a republic or a democracy elects certain people by the people to speak for the people. And who are these “elected officials” in God’s kingdom? It is His church! We are His elect, chosen by God to exercise His authority here on the earth as ambassadors for Him! Hallelujah! You see, the Scriptures teach us that the heavens are the Lord’s but the earth He has given to the sons of men. This means that when God created the heavens and the earth in those seven days and placed man on the earth that He gave dominion of the earth to Adam. In other words, God created the earth for mankind, and His plan was for those created in His likeness and image to rule and reign over all the rest of His creation. But we know the story: Adam and Eve sinned by partaking of the forbidden fruit and gave away their delegated position of authority to Satan—thus making him the god of this world. But what the first Adam lost in his Fall, the last Adam regained through His resurrection! Hallelujah! Jesus sacked and plundered the gates of hell and took the keys to death, hell, and the grave! He took back the authority over the earth that we willingly gave away in the beginning. Then Jesus appeared to His disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Go, therefore…” (See Matthew 28:18) What He was saying in these verses was— “Friends, I have regained all the authority that the first Adam possessed in the beginning! Now, you go in my name, as my delegated representatives, and do greater works than even I have done! Take back possession of the full earth! Sack the kingdom of darkness and have dominion over all the works of the devil! Do all these things in My name and rule and reign in my place!” By giving us His name this means that He has delegated to us the authority to make decisions on what happens here on the earth in His place. Moreover, He has given us the actual responsibility to see to it that His will is done here on the earth. The earth is ours again to rule and reign, as it was in the beginning. This should not be a new concept to us for if you study the New Testament, you will find these truths contained in the actual terms that He uses to describe us. For instance, did you know that the word “church” actually described in their day a group of chosen and elected officials? It sure did. The Greek word for “church” is eklesia and literally means “called out (ones).” We actually see this definition of church used to describe us all throughout the New Testament when we are referred to as “chosen, called, and elect.” Let me give you an actual illustration of this word eklesia—the Greek word for “church”—from ancient Greek writings … Picture a castle sitting atop a mountain as it ruled over its kingdom below. Now in this illustration, the king realized that He needed a group of representatives in the cities below to mix with the people on his behalf. So, he “called out” a group of representatives to hear the plight of his people and to exercise authority in his stead. This “church” of the king operated as His ambassadors in their local villages of the kingdom with a certain sense of delegated authority to see the will of the king being done while He dwelt in his castle far above their villages. This is a perfect picture of God’s church! He called us out of this dark and perverse generation and chose us to be His ambassadors here on the earth. We are His elected officials here on the earth! We are His delegated authorities to represent Him and exercise dominion for Him! This is the purpose of the King’s church—to seek first the kingdom of God and play an integral role in the expansion of His kingdom while the King is away! The Bible says that we have been given an abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness that we might reign as kings here on the earth (See Romans 5:17 Amplified Bible)! The Bible calls us kings and priests unto our God (See Revelation 1:6)! So, although God’s kingdom is ultimately ruled by the King of kings, the earth has been delegated to us—His kings and priests—to rule and reign over. We are His elected officials, His legal representatives, and His chosen ambassadors left here on the earth to seek first His kingdom’s interests and His kingdom’s expansion. Therefore, the earth is “God’s people-ruled” similarly to how a democracy or republic operates. Nevertheless, God’s kingdom is ultimately a monarchy, being ruled by the King of the heavens and the earth. This, we must never forget. GOD IS NOT A DICTATOR However, so many in the church today, although they don’t believe in communism, still believe God is a dictator. They believe this by embracing the very erroneous doctrine of the sovereignty of God where it is taught that God is “in control” of all that occurs here on the earth. Nothing could be further from the truth! God is not some evil dictator who sits up in heaven sending hurricanes and earthquakes to teach His creation something. He is not killing our loved ones and stealing from our lives because it is all a part of His redemptive plan for us. No, He does not force His will on anyone! He gives us the choice to take up our cross and follow Him or to lay down our lives for His glory. He does not dictate circumstances in our life to conform us into the image of His Son. If He did, then He is not giving us the choice, but is forcing His will on our lives by being that great puppeteer who is manipulating us through our circumstances that He is arranging. No, although God’s kingdom is ruled by the sovereign (i.e. all powerful) God, He is not an evil dictator forcing His own agenda in our lives through stealing, killing, and destroying. He is a gracious King who supplies all of our need and takes the circumstances that the thief brings into our life and works them together for our good. This is the nature of the King of this everlasting kingdom! He is good! He is awesome! He is for us, not against us! COLONIALISM Now, finally, another form of government known as “colonialism” is when a nation extends its sovereignty over other territories. In other words, it involves the expansion of a nation's rule beyond its own borders. While colonialism generally leads to ruling over indigenous populations and exploiting its resources, the kingdom of God is only out to plunder the kingdom of darkness, not take from mankind. Like the colonizer typically installs its economy, culture, religious order, and government form to strengthen its authority in that geographic location, God’s kingdom seeks to do the same in this world. We have many different examples in the Word of God about how His kingdom is an ever-increasing kingdom and how it seeks to infiltrate all the world. Therefore, it has aspects of “colonialism” in it in that its goal is to destroy the works of its enemy, the devil, and establish its culture, economy, and government order. And, church, that is what God has put us here to do—to plunder Satan’s turf and destroy His works! We are the church—that body of believers who have been delegated the authority to do things in the King’s name and see God’s kingdom come on the earth even as it is in heaven. Let us rise up and take our rightful place—knowing who our King is, how His kingdom operates, and the authority we have to put all things under our feet. Amen and amen! So, I hope that you now see just how important the subject of God’s kingdom is regarding the message that God is trying to communicate throughout His Word. We have learned that the gospel of the kingdom is the key subject throughout the entire New Testament—from John the Baptist, to the Lord Jesus, all the way to the apostle Paul. We also learned that God’s kingdom was clearly taught and typified in the Old Testament as well. And most recently, we saw how the kingdom of God is revealed from the beginning to the ending of the Bible in the first two chapters of Genesis and the final two chapters of Revelation.
But, most importantly, what we should glean from the prior messages is that the gospel of kingdom of God that we hear threaded throughout the Bible is the same gospel we are called to carry to the ends of the earth. Yes, if it is the message of the Bible, then it is our message too! And Jesus confirmed this by saying that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world and then the end will come. So, if we are in those end times, then this is the message God has called us to preach to all of creation. Amen? But before we can carry the message of God’s kingdom, we need to know what it is we are carrying. Yes, we need to understand what this good news is because if we do not understand what the kingdom of God is ourselves, we will be totally unprepared to share this message of the New Testament with others. On top of this, we also need to understand when and where the kingdom of God is because these are important parts to sharing the gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the world. So, that is what we will begin doing this week— We are going to start defining the kingdom of God. We are going to answer questions like what, where, and when is the kingdom, and through this, we will get a better understanding of God’s kingdom ourselves and then will be able to explain it to others. So, what I want to begin doing this week is answer the first question regarding God’s kingdom— What is it? And I want to answer this question by defining the word “kingdom” itself … THE KING’S DOMINION Now I believe that the first step in defining the kingdom of God is by simply defining the word “kingdom” itself … The word “kingdom” comes from two words— the words “king” and “dom.” And the word “dom” is where we get words like “dome, domain, or dominion” from. So, by this basic practice of looking at the word’s origin we can see that a kingdom is a “king’s domain,” or you could say, a place where a “king” has “dominion.” Therefore, a kingdom is where a king has rule or where he governs a group of people. So, if this “king’s domain” is the kingdom of God, then it is the domain or place where God is the King and, therefore, where He rules and has dominion. THE KINGDOM CONCEPT But before we go any further, we need to understand that one of the disadvantages we have here in the United States of America to understanding what the kingdom of God is, is that we are not a “kingdom.” We are a democracy (more technically, a republic), not a monarchy. No, we are not ruled by a king, but by a system of government ruled by the people and for the people. We will cover this in more detail perhaps next week, but we need to understand that this is why the concept of a kingdom is not as easy for us to grasp. As a matter of fact, this English word “democracy” actually originated from the Greek words demos and kratos. The word demos meant “people,” and the word kratos meant “ruling power.” So, when you combine these two words together, you get the basic definition of a democracy— “people ruling power.” In other words, a democracy is a government that is ruled by the people and for the people. But this is not how God’s kingdom operates. His kingdom is not ruled by the people. His kingdom is ruled by the King of kings! WHERE THE KING HAS DOMINION Now all of that is easily understandable, but the question should arise—Where is it that God has dominion and where the King of kings rules? It is rather obvious that this is not everywhere—because there are a lot of people and places here on the earth where God does not seem to be ruling. Now I know there are a lot of people who wouldn’t say that because a majority of the church sees God as ultimately being in charge and control over everything on the earth, but that’s not completely true. How can I say that, you ask? I say that because His will is not being done everywhere and in every person on this planet. You see, the kingdom of God is a place or people where God’s will is being done, because if a king rules or governs something, then their will should be being done there, right? So, in light of all the sin, sickness, poverty, oppression, etc. that is occurring on the earth, we know God’s kingdom is not being manifest everywhere and in every person. Yes, God’s will is where life, blessing, peace, etc. are at! So, if there is death, the curse, depression, and any other oppression of the enemy, then God’s will is not being done in that situation. Therefore, the answer to that question we just asked—Where is it that God has dominion and rules?—is answered simply with—It is where the will of the King is being done. Let’s look at a very familiar verse in the Bible that qualifies this answer—Matthew 6:10: In Jesus’ Model Prayer, He said, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” First of all, Jesus taught us that our prayers need to begin with seeking first His kingdom. But then He piggybacks the request for His will being done along with it. So, we might say, once His kingdom comes, His will can then be done. Why? It’s because with a kingdom comes the will of the king of that kingdom being done. So, if this “kingdom” is the kingdom of God, then it is the place where God is king and where His will is being done. Yes, it is where God has dominion and where He rules & reigns. Amen? So, if a kingdom has come where the will of the king is being done then we need to know what God’s will is in order to identify where His kingdom is, right? Well, what did Jesus go on to say in His model prayer? He taught us to pray that God’s will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” So, what we see happening in heaven is what God’s kingdom looks like. Yes, any Christian would have to agree that God’s will is absolutely being done in heaven. We could all agree on that, right? Now while most of us have never visited heaven and seen it with our own eyes, we have it described to us in the Word of God. So, what does the Bible show us is taking place in heaven right now? Is there any sickness? Is there any pain or infirmity? Is there the presence of demons and evil spirits? No! There is nothing but perfect love, peace that passes all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory! There is complete and perfect order—no confusion and no division. This is what God’s kingdom looks like! And the most liberating truth is that Jesus taught us to pray here in His Model Prayer for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done here on the earth as it is in heaven! Hallelujah! So evidently God’s will is that His will be done here on the earth now! His will is that His kingdom come on the earth right now like it is in heaven! In other words, He wants His kingdom’s “dominion” to be seen and experienced here on the earth today. We do not have to wait until tomorrow. We do not have to wait until the “sweet by and by.” We can see His kingdom demonstrated in the here and now! And this will be accomplished not only as we pray like the Master taught us to pray, but as we also begin to imitate Him by doing the works that He did as He walked on the earth. When we begin to walk in the instruction originally given to man in the Garden to subdue the earth and have dominion over all of His creation (Genesis 1:28), then we will see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth. Therefore, anywhere or anyone that submits to the will of the King by either repenting from their wrong beliefs and behaviors or by receiving the freedom, healing, and deliverance that His kingdom has to offer is experiencing the rule and dominion of God. It is that simple. Let me say it this way: Any person, place, or thing that bows their knee to the will of the King just experienced a manifestation of the kingdom of God. Again, God’s kingdom looks like things do in heaven. Therefore, when we see someone healed, we’ve seen a manifestation of His kingdom here on the earth! When we see someone delivered from demonic control, we’ve caught a glimpse of the way God’s kingdom is! Yes, when we see someone loved so beautifully, blessed so extravagantly, or freed so abundantly, we have seen the kingdom of God come in measure. You see, the place or people where a king has “dominion” is not just demonstrated where people are adhering to His Word and walking in His precepts. This is certainly part of it, but it is not all there is to where the King’s rule is being demonstrated. The Bible teaches us that we are not to just come in the wisdom of words about His kingdom, but also in the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God’s kingdom. And when the kingdom of God is manifested through people being healed and delivered, we are witnessing a demonstration of our Lord’s rule and dominion. That is why the Lord told His disciples, when they healed the sick and casted out demons, to say to them--“The kingdom of God has come near to you!” (Luke 10:9) Why? It is because the rule and dominion of God’s kingdom was just manifested in those people’s lives. They just saw the will of the King of kings being done in their lives as Satan was dethroned in their spirits, souls, or bodies. This is why we see the signs we do accompanying Jesus’ ministry—because He didn’t just come to preach the kingdom of God, but to demonstrate it. So, when He blessed the poor, healed the sick, raised the dead to life again, broke demonic control, the kingdom of God is what was being experienced in those people’s lives that Jesus and His disciples touched. Amen! So, the kingdom of God is where the devil, his kingdom, and the curse are no longer present. It is where God has the dominion, and His will is being done! Therefore, the kingdom of God is anywhere the will of the king is being demonstrated and manifested. It’s not a physical place and it’s not something we can necessarily see with the physical eye. Saints, the kingdom of God is not just a place. There is no time and distance in the spirit realm. The kingdom of God is wherever the Lord, our King, is manifested and demonstrated through word and action. This is how God’s kingdom can be manifested on the earth today! I can assure you; His kingdom is already handily available to us right now. Thank you, Jesus! Friends, we have been chosen by God to exercise the will of the King here on the earth and introduce the kingdom of God to this lost and dying world we live in! The church’s purpose is to be His delegated authority here on the earth and manifest the kingdom here now! Let us arise and take our rightful position as His church and represent our King appropriately by taking the keys to the kingdom and unlocking the doors to His presence and power through our lives. Swing wide you, heavenly gates! Open up ye everlasting doors! And the King of glory will come in! Church, you are the gates and those doors that the King of glory wants to manifest Himself through! So open up your hearts and let the King and His kingdom come through you! Amen! REVIEW
So we have begun this year talking about what I believe is the most important subject in the Bible—the kingdom of God. And while I believe next week we will begin defining the kingdom of God by asking questions like “What is it?” and “When is it?”, it was necessary for us to answer the question— “Why is it?” So, this is how we have started covering this huge topic—by seeing how this message of the kingdom is threaded throughout the Scriptures. You see, in order for us to see the significance of this subject, we need to see the emphasis placed on it from Genesis to Revelation, wouldn’t we? So, that’s what we’ve been doing … In part one of this mini-series teaching on the Gospel of the Kingdom, we began in the beginning of the New Testament and saw what the Lord Jesus Himself’s gospel 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’ “sermon”! Then two weeks ago, 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. And we saw how others from John the Baptist to the apostle Paul were also declaring the message of God’s kingdom in their ministries because Jesus said in Luke 16:16 that “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 learned that this meant that the Old Testament was up until John the Baptist came on the scene, but since then, the message has been of God’s kingdom. So, we gathered from this 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! Church, it is obvious that 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. Then, last week, we saw 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.” 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 we did last week is we began taking a journey through the Old Testament as we did through the New Testament and saw how Jehovah’s gospel has always been about a promised kingdom. But particularly, we looked at God’s chosen people—the kingdom of Israel—and saw 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. We learned that throughout 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. But we specifically began with the calling of the Father of us all—the Father of faith, Abraham—and we saw how when God called him, He essentially gave him the gospel of the kingdom that “In you all the nations shall be blessed” (See Galatians 3:8). More specifically, we saw that 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. How about the sons and daughters of Abraham? Well, we saw that the children of Israel heard the good news as well in Hebrews 4:2 when we are told— “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 and God’s promise to give them rest in the Promised Land. Of course, we understand in hindsight that 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 saw that this gospel of a kingdom and its Messiah was even declared through the prophets: For example, in the Book of Isaiah, we looked at 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 we saw that Isaiah was not the only prophet to prophesy concerning God’s promised kingdom: we see a lot about God’s kingdom in the Book of Daniel. Yes, arguably the most detailed prophecy concerning God’s good news of a kingdom is found in the Book of Daniel. 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. We looked in detail at Daniel 2:34-35 where Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and we saw that God’s kingdom was illustrated by a stone that was cut out without hands and how that stone crushed that which represented the kingdoms of this world. Daniel explained 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). 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. 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! So, from the promise given to Abraham to the prophecy given through Daniel, we clearly saw 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! But we also found that in the Old Testament the kingdom of God is not just specifically referred to; it was also illustrated in the kings and kingdoms of Judah & Israel. 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. So, we saw that 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, we saw in Luke 3:15 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. Therefore, we saw that this gospel of the kingdom is all throughout the Old Testament, beginning in God’s calling of Abraham to the prophecies of the future in the major and minor prophets. So, now that we have established the fact that the kingdom of God was Jesus’ message, the message of the entire New Testament, and the message that Israel heard as well, let’s look at one more thing that will further establish us in that it’s all about God’s kingdom. You see, from the beginning of Genesis, God began establishing a kingdom through Adam in telling him to have dominion over all of His creation. Then at the end of the Book of Revelation, we see the restoration of Paradise on the earth as God’s kingdom descends from heaven. This is the story—the gospel, if you would—of the entire Bible: It is the good news of God’s kingdom. THE KINGDOM GARDEN So, let’s conclude this series on the Gospel of the Kingdom by looking back to the beginning—in the Book of Genesis. Today, I want us to look at the bookends of the Bible and see that establishing His kingdom on the earth has always been the Lord’s intention with His creation. In Genesis 1:26, we see that on day six, God created man. In it, we are told— “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” So, when God had this discussion amongst Himself to make man, He desired to create Him in His image and according to His likeness. That means that God made Adam to look like Him and be like Him—and the “be like Him” part is further described in this verse because He goes on to say, “let them have dominion …” The word “dominion” here literally means to “rule or reign.” It’s actually translated “rule” more times than it is “dominion.” So, the Lord’s very first mandate for mankind was to “rule and reign.” That sounds like more kingdom talk, doesn’t it? Yes, God’s will for man in the beginning was for him to rule & reign, having dominion over His creation. This goes back to what we have learned about us being the kings that Jesus is King of. God’s will & desire has always been for us to rule & reign as kings over His creation. It began this way on the sixth day of creation and was reinstituted by Jesus after His resurrection. Yes, His will has always been for those created in His image and likeness to be “like” Him and rule over their domain. Amen? Now the example of Adam in the Garden might not be one that we quickly associate with the kingdom of God because the imagery we have of Eden is a little different than what we might have of a kingdom. But what we need to understand is that God’s idea of a kingdom might be different than ours too. When we think of kingdoms, we might think of thrones, crowns, castles, etc., but when God thinks of His kingdom, He thinks of a place where He simply rules, reigns, and His will is being done. In other words, as Jesus taught us, His kingdom does not necessarily come with observation. It’s not about looks; it’s about the will of the King being done. So, you can see symptoms and manifestations of it, but it’s not something we will be able to fully see with the naked eye. You can have scepters & crowns, thrones & kings, but if the King’s desires are not being fulfilled, then that is not His kingdom. You see, the Jews were tempted to think this way, weren’t they? When expectantly looking for their Messiah, they looked for a Saul—someone who would look the part and check off all of those proverbial boxes of what a king was supposed to both look & act like. But the prophet Isaiah said concerning Jesus that there was no beauty that we should desire Him. In other words, Jesus was not going to look the part—and this didn’t just mean in regard to His physically appearance; I believe it also meant that he didn’t fit the bill of what their carnal eyes were looking for because He didn’t come initially doing what they pictured the Messiah doing. And this was partially the reason why they had a hard time receiving Him. Well, the problem with putting things in a box like this is we might miss the Lord and His kingdom like the majority of Israel did 2,000 years ago. His kingdom is not eating & drinking. It is not through physical observation by looking here or looking there. It is a spiritual kingdom which is manifested in this physical world around us with every heart that is made new and every work of the enemy that is decimated. Amen! This is why Jesus told His disciples to go about healing the sick, casting out demons, etc. and saying, “The kingdom of God has come near to you!” Why did He tell them to say this when destroying the works of the devil? It is because the King’s rule & reign is being manifested in those people’s lives! Hallelujah! Now granted, we might not have any other evidence of God’s kingdom when this happens, but that is what we are taught in the Scriptures—that the kingdom of God is evidenced in fruit like righteousness, peace, joy, healing, and deliverance. So, my point is that the kingdom of God was on full display in the Garden of Eden because God’s rule & reign was on perfect display by every need being met, no oppression of the devil present, and heaven on earth was being experienced. That, my friends, is the kingdom of God in full manifestation! And a big part of God’s kingdom that we see in the Garden is that dominion given to Adam. But notice what else God mandated him to do— In verse 28, the Lord then tells them— “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Now we obviously know that to be fruitful and multiply is referring to procreation but notice the next terminology God uses— “fill the earth and subdue it”: This phrase “fill the earth” sounds a little more like occupying the earth, doesn’t it? In fact, it sounds to me like a conquering kingdom that is taking ground over the face of the earth. But he didn’t just bless man with the mandate to fill the earth; He also said to “subdue” it. The word “subdue” literally means “to bring something into subjection and to make it subservient.” So, not only was mankind given the responsibility to procreate and fill the earth; he was also told to bring all of creation into subjection (i.e. to rule over it). Then in Genesis 2:15, we see God placing man in the Garden of Eden to “tend and keep it.” That shows us who was truly in authority and responsible for Eden—it was Adam. So, that answers a lot of questions folks have had over the years as to why God allowed Satan in the garden to tempt man in the first place. Well, we see here that it was Adam’s responsibility to both tend and keep the garden. The word “keep” here literally means to “guard.” So, Adam should have done something about the serpent. It was His job, not God’s! The Lord had delegated that authority over to him. So, the fact remains that it was Adam’s job to have dominion over his domain! This shows us that this has always been God’s intention for mankind—to have dominion, to guard our domain, and subdue it. As the Psalmist stated— “The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; the earth He has given to the children of men.” (Psalm 115:16). Therefore, the earth is ours, and it is up to mankind to properly rule & reign over it as God intended from the beginning. But even more important than that is that we, the church, establish God’s kingdom here, bringing heaven to earth. That is ultimately what He wills from us on the earth today! And lastly, what made the Garden of Eden paradise was the fact that God’s kingdom was present in both the physical and the spiritual. So, God’s intention has certainly always been to have His kingdom established in both the spiritual and the physical realms. We know this because it started out this way in Eden. The Garden was a perfect example of how God wanted His kingdom in both realms. Then, of course, through the temptation and fall of man, both were lost. Spiritual death was inherited by the son of man, and Adam and Eve lost their life in paradise. But then we see God beginning to reestablish His kingdom in the natural because that is what He had to work with. As we have seen, He began to do this through Abraham which eventually came to be called the kingdom of Israel. Then when Jesus came on the scene, He began to reestablish God’s kingdom in the spiritual realm—fully accomplishing it through His resurrection. But God still wills to see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And the day is coming when Jesus returns that He is going to restore the garden of God—His heavenly Jerusalem—on the earth and will have His perfect will done—a kingdom established in both the spiritual and the natural. And that is precisely what we see at the end of this Book—no, not at the end of Genesis, but the end of the Bible itself … KINGDOM CULMINATION As we’ve learned not so long ago, what the Lord created in the beginning is what He plans to restore at the end of time. Yes, what we will see today is God’s heart and the culmination of His will for His creation in the final two chapters of the Bible: It is to make all things new again! Interestingly enough, when you read Revelation chapter 21 & 22, you see God essentially restoring what He created in Genesis chapters 1 & 2. In other words, He will recreate in the end what He created in the beginning. No, it will not look completely the same, having the name Eden, but it will be paradise restored, nonetheless. Glory to God! And what this shows us is the way things were in Eden before the Fall and the way things are on the earth after Jesus’ return are God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will for His creation. Now Revelation 21:1 begins with the apostle John saying, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” Church, this is the Day we are to be looking forward to! It has been prophesied over and over of a new heavens and new earth where peace will be experienced, no more death, no more killing. Only paradise and promise will be experienced in those days! Now one thing John made sure to describe to us about what he saw is the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the earth (See Revelation 21:2). He described this city as a bride prepared for her husband. So, I don’t know if the wedding march will be being played when the holy city is coming down from heaven to the new earth, but what I can guarantee you is that the full measure of the same joy and excitement a husband experiences when he sees his bride coming down the aisle is going to be experienced in believers when they see the New Jerusalem descending to the earth. Hallelujah! Then in verses 3-8, John heard a loud voice describing several characteristics of this new heavenly Jerusalem that will reign over the new heavens and the new earth: The first thing we are told is that the tabernacle of God would now be with men and He would dwell with them. Again, God’s original and eternal plan is to come down and make His home with us! He did it in the Garden of Eden when He would come down and fellowship with man in the cool of the day, and He will do it again when Paradise is reestablished in the Millennium. This is God’s perfect will—to abide with us forever! This is undisputedly the greatest benefit of heaven being brought to the earth. Verse 4 goes on to say that He will wipe away every tear, that there shall be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain, because the former things have passed away. How awesome is that going to be!?! All of these things that were brought on by the curse of sin will die—that is, they will not be a part of this new everlasting kingdom. Glory! Then in verse 5, John sees where God said, “Behold, I make all things new.” This is what the Lord did for us through Jesus as it pertains to our salvation, and it is what He will ultimately do with His creation and for His creation. Amen. For example, in Second Corinthians 5:17— “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” That sounds an awful lot like what God said He would do with His original creation, doesn’t it? Yes, all of the old things (that is, the heavens and the earth that He created in the beginning) will pass away, and yes, all these things will become new! That’s the new heavens and the new earth—where righteousness dwells! This is the kingdom of God on full display! But the fact is, this process started in each of us the day we got saved: The old creation we were born into through the transgression of Adam passed away on the day we received Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. At that moment, you and I became a new creation where Jesus made all things new in our spirit. This left us in the position to hope in the same transformation to take place in our outward man that took place in our inward man. And this will be experienced around the same time that God makes all things new on this earth! Amen. Then, in verses 6-8, we see the Lord saying, “It is done!” Again, similar to what Jesus said when He hung on the Cross— “It is finished”—when this process of restoration and redemption began. So, we can now see that it is finished and it is done just like it was in the Garden. Amen. THE NEW JERUSALEM AND OTHER CITIES Now in the rest of Revelation chapter 21, we have this New Jerusalem described in glorious detail. And because we see John spend some nineteen verses describing what this city will look like, we need to know that this is a big part of what we have to look forward to. So, let’s look at a couple of distinguishing characteristics of this city of God’s kingdom that is to come … The dimension laid out to us in Revelation 21:15-16 equates to it being 1,400 miles in length, width, and height! This would stretch north and south from Canada to Mexico, and east and west from Macon, GA to Colorado Springs. If each story were a generous 12 feet high, this would give it 600,000 stories! That means that it could be anywhere from 600,000 – 1,200,000 stories, depending on the height of each story. (See illustration). Now a building’s greatest strength is its foundation, and the New Jerusalem was said to have not one foundation, but twelve, each decorated with a different gem (See Revelation 21:14, 19-20). John names twelve stones, eight of which correspond to the stones of the high priest’s breast-piece (See Exodus 28:17-20). Church, whatever God builds will last! (See Hebrews 11:8-10). Then, in verses 22-27, we see the glory of this New Jerusalem—that there will be no temple in this Jerusalem because the Father and Son will be its temple, there will be no need for the sun and moon there to illuminate it because the Lamb is its light, and the city’s gates will always remain open. Now as we move on to Revelation chapter 22, we see where John was shown a pure river (clear as crystal) of the water of life that proceeded from the throne of God. He saw the tree of life there. And then in verse 3 we see something that should excite us— “no more curse.” Glory! And in verse 5 we see that we shall reign with the Lamb forever and ever! You see, this concept of reigning with Christ is another thing not understood by many. Sure, we see Jesus as coming to reign, Him being the King of kings. But who are the kings He is king of? We are! He is the firstfruit of many brethren—so we, as sons of God, are meant to rule with Him. Yes, rule over sin, the curse, and death now in this life, but over the New Earth that will be created. Amen! Jesus taught us things that lead us to presume that many other cities will be on the New Earth—not just the New Jerusalem. We get this through Jesus’ stewardship parable, the Parable of the Minas, where He indicates we will be given cities to rule over as we faithfully steward what He’s given us in this life (see Luke 19:11-27). It is for this reason that I believe the New Earth will contain many different cities just like we have now. There will be the capital city of the New Jerusalem, but other cities given to His faithful servants to reign over in His stead. So, when we refer to this New Jerusalem you have to understand that this is, in fact, referring to the kingdom of God, which the city of Jerusalem on the earth today represents. So, even though the terminology might be different, the concept of God’s kingdom is the same. Church, this is the summarization of this, the Revelation of Jesus Christ—it is a promise that our King will return again, and He is bringing His kingdom with Him. All of us who serve Him now, will reign with Him then. This is our hope, and this is the message of the Bible! It is that the curse will die! His kingdom will come! A new heaven and a new earth will be created with a new capital city, the New Jerusalem. The Lord will dwell with us and there will be no more tears, only blessing! And we will enjoy what God intended in the beginning—heaven on earth. Even so, Come Lord Jesus, Come! 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:
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. |
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