The Kingdom of God- 4

Subtitle:  Living in the Kingdom of God

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 6, 2025.

We have talked about the means of entering the Kingdom.  We do so by putting our faith and trust in Jesus.  We trust in who he is as the Lord and Savior.  It is he who has taken our sins upon himself so that we can be free from them.  He is giving us a taste of eternal life through the Holy Spirit, and will raise us up in the Resurrection of the Righteous in order to make us a completed testimony of His eternal life.

We are citizens of this strange, spiritual kingdom, that is very much unlike any other kingdom on this earth.  Today, we will look at what it means, what it looks like, to living in this spiritual kingdom.

Let’s look at some passages.

The Holy Spirit gives us life (Romans 8:11-14)

In this chapter, Paul is describing how our spiritual life is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Verse 14 lays out the reality that we can only become the sons of God through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This is part of the life giving work of God’s Spirit.

He first leads us to see who Jesus is and our need to trust in him for salvation.  When a person responds with faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit does a real work of making us spiritually alive.  Thus, the Spirit works to put the life of Christ in front of us, and He does a spiritual work of making us a new creation, born from above.

This is foundational to our new life in this new kingdom.  I can know for certain, I can have faith in the fact, that the Spirit of God is giving me life, and will continue to supply spiritual life to me.  No newborn baby brings themselves into existence.  God is the One who makes us spiritually alive.  However, in the case of spiritual birth, there is a cooperation between God and the one becoming a spiritual newborn.  Thus, by our faith in Jesus, God gives us spiritual life.  Also, by our continued faith in Jesus, the Spirit continues to lead us in this new spiritual life.  Over time, this spiritual nourishment causes us to become more and more spiritually mature.

This is what Paul is talking about in verse 12.  He uses the idea of a debt on the heels of all the life that the Spirit of God is giving us.  The Spirit has brought us to Jesus, made us spiritually alive, and continues to nourish us with spiritual life daily.  We are in debt to this great act of love. 

On the other hand, some people live as if they are in debt to their flesh.  What has the flesh ever done for us?  The flesh drew us into sin and bondage.  It makes us guilty before God and without any power to save ourselves.    A Christian knows that the gracious work of God’s Spirit is giving us life over the top of a life of the flesh that only brought death into our lives.

Now, this is not a debt in the sense that we need to pay it off in order to come into the Kingdom, etc.  Rather, Christ died for us so that we might live.  We owe him our lives, so we live life for his purposes.  The Holy Spirit supplies that spiritual nourishment for us to do this work and become more like Jesus, a maturing process.  This is a debt of love that is never intended to be “paid off.”  He first loved us.  We will never fully reciprocate that love.  Yet, He still loves us!

Paul’s point is that a Christian should no longer live in order to satisfy the lusts of their flesh.  This self-focused life is a part of our old life before Christ.  We are to put those lusts to death, and choose to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We are led by the Holy Spirit in putting our fleshly desires, and the deeds that flow out of them, to death and replacing them with life-giving righteousness.

If you pay attention to the argument throughout the chapter, you will see that Paul has more in mind in verse 11 than spiritual birth and spiritual maturity.  He is looking ahead to a point in the future when Jesus Christ will resurrect the righteous by that same Spirit that raised him from the dead.  Paul is reminding us that this is a real spiritual work that impacts not only how we live today, but also our eternal future.  Our Christian life on this mortal plane will some day come to an end in death.  Our bodies will be laid in the grave, but our spirits will go to be with Jesus in heaven.  There we will await the day of resurrection.  When that occurs, we will receive a glorified body that does not grow old and die.  We will be immortal as Jesus is.  This is pictured as an inheritance that has been reserved for us by God.

Think of it.  If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then you have nothing to worry about.  The Spirit is our source of life, even if our mortal bodies die.  We will live eternally in perfect fellowship with God.  We have fellowship now, but it is not perfect yet.  When we step into the eternal state, we will not have to take God by faith.  Instead, we will dwell with Him within His blazing glory and immediate presence.

Notice that Paul is using battle imagery here.  We do not fight against people and put human enemies to death.  Rather, we battle against our fleshly lusts, which are easily stirred up by this world and wicked spiritual forces.  Even bringing the Gospel to others can be seen as setting captives free from slavery in a wicked kingdom.

This may feel like a hopeless battle, but we are not doing this alone.  The more I learn to rely upon the Holy Spirit’s help, the better I will do at removing sin and replacing it with the righteousness of Jesus.

Our heart is like a garden.  In this mortal life, we will always have to weed out these lusts. We would like to believe that we could weed the garden of our heart so well that we never had a stray thought or desire ever again.  This is not the case.  You will not be perfect and complete like that until the resurrection.  Yet, we should take heart.  The task of putting our lusts to death becomes easier with daily focus.  Once a garden has been weeded, it requires much less energy if we check it every day.  However, if you “take a break from weeding,” or only periodically have a fit of weeding, you can expect that it will be spiritually taxing all of the time. 

Matthew 7:24-25.  At the end of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus gave us a different image of this same thing.  Our life is pictured as the building of a house.  If we build our life by trusting in the teaching of Jesus, then our house, our life, will withstand the coming storm.  However, if we do not build our life upon the teachings of Jesus, then our house will be destroyed by the coming storm.

The storm can be applied to the difficulties of this life.  The cares and difficulties of life can test our faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus.  They come along and test just how well we have been building.  Yet, I do believe that Jesus has a different storm in mind.  He is speaking of the time of judgment after this life is done.  We will stand before God.  This is the ultimate test of whether our house will stand or not.  My house is all of the ways that I have lived and the reasons for why I have done what I have done.  Only those who have truly listened to Jesus will survive it.  Of course, none of us do it perfectly.  Jesus is not talking about a person who never made a mistake.  In fact, building can sometimes be analogous to warfare.  You wrestle with the imperfection of the building materials in order to get things in a good relationship to one another.  A perfect house that has no imperfections, subtle or otherwise, doesn’t exist.  However, many good houses do exist.  No matter how beautiful the house, if it is not built upon the foundation of the teachings of Jesus, it will not survive the Judgment.  These two images of a spiritual battle and a spiritual building are both important and simply two different ways of looking at the same thing.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to Jesus

As a disciple of Jesus, we need to stay close to the master so that we can learn from him.  A disciple is devoted to the master and his wisdom, his way of life.

A disciple will be a student of the Bible.  In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul encourages Timothy in the work ahead of him.  He speaks of the “sacred writings” that Timothy had known from his youth.  In verse 16, he refers to these sacred writings as the Scriptures.  Of course, Paul is talking about the Old Testament (note: the New Testament was being written at that time).  The same is true of the New Testament, but let’s put that point aside.

Paul wants Timothy to remember that the Bible is given to us to do several things in our life.  He first points to the teaching we receive through the Bible.  The disciples of the days of Jesus were taught directly by him.  Each day, he would take time to teach them his way of living versus the way they had been living on their own.  We do not have the luxury of this same relationship.  Of course, Jesus teaches us through the Holy Spirit, but he is not physically in our lives.  Thus, the Word of God becomes even more critical for us.  The Bible is a confirmed and sure teaching from God through Jesus and his apostles.  We don’t have to guess at how to live for Jesus.  We can read it and obey.

All Christians should make sure that they are reading the Bible each day.  The Spirit of God will help it to be profitable to us spiritually.  It teaches us those things that we don’t know.  Not all of us were like Timothy, being taught the Bible by a mom when we were young.  It will take time to learn what Christ wants us to learn.  However, a little each day will slowly build up over time.  We will not just grow in what we understand, but then the Holy Spirit will teach us how to live those things out in our life.

The Bible is also profitable for reproving us.  This is the idea of convincing us, or proving something to us.  This is a natural part of all learning.  It is not enough to be able to regurgitate an answer on a paper test.  We have to be convinced of the truth, the wisdom, of Christ in order to live life as he commands.

The Bible is also good for correction.  It can correct bad ideas, poor choices, and bad habits that we have built up through the years.

Lastly, Paul mentions that it is profitable for training in righteousness.  There are two ditches that Christians can fall into in this area of righteousness.  We can make the mistake of thinking that our salvation and hope is based upon how well we live righteously.  We can focus on lists of things that we can’t do and things we can do.  The emphasis is that it is all on me.  The other mistake is the opposite.  This view basically surrenders to the point that we cannot be righteous like Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross to be my righteousness.  Therefore, I shouldn’t diminish his perfect work by trying to do righteousness myself. 

This sounds better and sees everything resting upon Jesus.  However, it misses one thing: the purpose of God.  God did not set us free from our sins so that we could just go on sinning, but now without consequences (tongue-in-cheek “Praise the Lord!).  Yes, only the righteousness of Jesus can pay the price of our sins and save us.  Yet, God saved us in order for us to be trained in the righteousness of Jesus.  Training involves a lot of messing up, but also, getting up and going back into the battle of learning.

Some people shy away from this out of a strange sense of trying not to diminish God.  They are stuck in seeing all righteousness about being saved.  However, once we have been made alive in Jesus, we can now follow the Spirit as He leads us to do the righteousness of Christ.

Why do Christians do the things they do?  If we are simply doing good things so that our Christian friends will remark how much like Jesus we are (for social image), then we are only trying to live a Christian life from the leading of our flesh.   Getting our name on a building and feeling good about ourselves around other Christians are not the “good works” for which the Holy Spirit is equipping us.  A true disciple of Christ does what they do because the Spirit of God is prompting them as they read the Word and in other ways that we will see.  They are being led by the Spirit out of love for Christ.  This is what makes their works acceptable to God.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.  This is given to us in the Bible.  Thus, the Bible can be seen as our textbook, and life can be seen as our homework.  Yet, there is another area that is important for a disciple.

A disciple will be a person of prayer.  Philippians 4:6-7 points to the importance of prayer for the disciple.  Prayer is communication with God.  It may seem strange at first because God is Spirit and speaks to us in ways different than we have experienced.  In truth, we should prayerfully read the Word of God.  It is a spiritual book breathed forth by God through faithful men.  We should not think that we can understand it without God’s help.  “Lord, help me to hear what you are saying to me today.  Lead me; guide me, and help me to live for you!  Give me some homework today so that I know what I should be working on.”  This is how we should approach the Bible.

That said, a disciple of Jesus needs to set aside time to pray.  There are different kinds of prayer.  This passage really focuses on 2.  An acronym that is used for types of prayer is ACTS:  prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (Petitions). 

Paul is focusing on the anxiety that believers can have in this life.  He points to our ability to request, or petition, God for the things we need, or at least, we think we need.  The believer who lays such requests before God should also do so with a heart of Thanksgiving.  Paul sees this as a great source of peace for the believer.

Requests by their very nature can easily deteriorate into whining and complaining.  We can grow angry with God when He doesn’t do exactly what we want, or even does the opposite.  This is why Thanksgiving is so important, as well as prayers of adoration and confession.  These kind of prayers keep us grounded in the truth of who we are when we approach God to ask Him for something.  In the end, we are the recipients of His great love.  Before you ask God for anything, make sure that you take time to thank Him for all that you have.  In fact, a thankful heart never treats a request as a means for God to prove His loyalty and love.  Jesus proved the heart of the Father at the cross.  Prayers of Thanksgiving ground our requests in the goodness and faithfulness of God.  Like a child, we can ask our heavenly Father.  Yet, we can also rest in the knowledge that that request will be filtered through His love and wisdom.

Intercession is prayer for someone else.  This too is the kind of prayer that helps ground requests to ourselves in something other than fleshly desires.  As we pray for others, we also see ourselves in them.  We recognize why God may say no to us at times.  He might even say yes, but not now.  Regardless, it is ours to make our request known, and then to rest in the peace that His Holy Spirit wants to give to us.  This peace will guard our hearts and minds from the thoughts and fears that we can have.  Thoughts and fears like Eve had when she listened to the serpent.  “God doesn’t really care about you.  He only wants to hold you back from something good.”  This is a lie that the serpent spun for our first parents, and he is still spinning that yarn to this day.  Have you ever believed it?

Prayer is the ground where we humble ourselves and talk with God.  No one prayer time will fix all our questions and problems.  It is a daily and lifelong communion with Him that will only be perfected as we go into eternity.  If we don’t spend time touching base with the master, then we will not become more like him.  Thus, it is not enough to read about Jesus.  We need to spend time in prayer talking with him.

A disciple will take their place in the family of God.  In Hebrew 10:24-25, the writer tells believers not to forsake the assembling together.  He even points out that some people in those days were doing exactly that.  They became believers, joined the Church for a season and then, they walked away.

This can be for various reasons.  Some people are walking away from Jesus, and so, walking away from the his Church is the natural second action.  Others convince themselves that they still believe in Jesus, but they think they don’t need other believers.  Perhaps, someone said something that hurt them.  Or, maybe, they are just reclusive.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that part of being together is to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds.”  We should be prayerfully considering how we can encourage other believers, and they should be prayerfully considering how to encourage me. 

This is what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do.  Thus, a person who walks away from a body of believers is refusing the leading of the Spirit.  Of course, there are some churches that you may need to flee.  They are a cult or have allowed the flesh to corrupt the leadership and activity of the church.  Regardless, we need to go somewhere.  You can say that you can’t find a place, but that is usually a cop-out.  The Holy Spirit will lead you somewhere, and that somewhere will not be a place peopled by perfect Christians who never make a mistake.

Why will you not step up and let the Lord work through those relationships to make you more like Jesus and to make them more like Jesus?  The answer is in our flesh.  The solution is in dying to the desires of our flesh and saying yes to the desires of Jesus.

The Church is like a family, a family of God.  We have to learn how to say that we are sorry.  We have to learn how to say that we forgive.  This is not easy, and we can be stubborn.  Yet, may God help us to become quicker and quicker at yielding to the teachings of Jesus.  There is life in it.

When we humble ourselves through prayer, we may with frustration say that we don’t see what God sees in those other people.  However, the Holy Spirit will remind us that we also don’t see what God saw in us.

When we give mercy to others (even undeservedly), we are actually making the case for why others should have mercy on us.  If you don’t have mercy on others, do not think that you will receive mercy from God when you stand before Him on Judgment Day.

All of this to say that a true disciple will learn to take their place in the body of Christ.  They will learn to receive and give stimulus that leads us all to love others and to do the good works that God has for us to do.

Of course, this is a hard thing to do.  It can be intimidating and uncomfortable.  We may even fear doing it.  However, this is God’s signature.  You were made to be able to do things far beyond your comfort level.  Every little boy who thinks about growing up and working 40 to 60 hours a week can balk at growing up.  Every teenage girl who thinks about giving birth to a baby and raising a child can be intimidated at the thought.  However, God made little boys and little girls to grow up into men and women.  It may be scary, but there is a greater good in it that we can’t understand until we’ve done it.

In the end, it is the same as our salvation.  A disciple who has faith in Jesus will trust that Jesus will help them to join other Christians and live for him.  Somehow and someway, we can become family by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.

These are not the only ways to show our devotion to Jesus.  However, they are very important things that we need to embrace by the Spirit’s help.  May God help us to be devoted followers of Jesus!

Kingdom of God 4 audio

The Kingdom of God- 3

Subtitle:  How to Enter the Kingdom of God

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 30, 2025.

Last week, we talked about the distinction between the present Kingdom of God and the future phase of that Kingdom at the Second Coming of Jesus.  This present phase is predominantly spiritual, but it makes an outward difference in our lives.  This is a strange kingdom that is not like any kingdoms of this world.  It is not limited to particular borders, and though it is world-wide, it is not an empire that forces nations into compliance.  Jesus is a different kind of king reigning over a different kind of kingdom, a Kingdom of God.

In Matthew’s account of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus is presented as King Messiah calling people into his kingdom.  He is also presented as the New Moses, sent to set up the New Covenant with God.

Israel was under a true bondage.   Yes, the Romans had them under their boot.  However, their biggest bondage was spiritual.  They had a king who wasn’t even from the tribe of Judah.  The priesthood and leaders of the Sanhedrin had developed a corrupt system under the color of law, but working counter to the purposes of God.  The spiritual Pharaoh of this world kept them in servitude to his purposes every bit as much as was the case before the exodus.  Those who would follow Jesus would escape by God’s strong right arm.

An Israelite who was in Egypt when Moses appeared had a choice to make.  They could follow Moses out into the desert, risking death in one form or another, or they could stay in Egypt and not rock the boat.  Even when we want free from some things, we can fear what might happen.  They had worked out a compromise with their situation.  They knew exactly what to expect from the Egyptians.  The comfort of the devil we know can outweigh any promises of God to bring us into a better kingdom.  Yet, the only way they could have participated in the kingdom that God was promising was to follow Moses, the one He had sent.

The same is true of Jesus.  He was initiating a kingdom that would be different than what national Israel had become.  Those who wanted to participate in it would need to listen to him and follow him.  This is the template for entering the Kingdom of God.  We can even recognize that God did powerful signs and wonders with Moses and again with Jesus in order to help them to have faith for such a choice.

So, as we look at entering the Kingdom of God, let me just say this.  Entering the Kingdom now is prerequisite for entering the next phase of the Kingdom at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Let’s look at some passages.

Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus used this parable to challenge the religious leaders of his day.  The tax collectors and prostitutes (among others) of their day were like the first son.  They were not interested in being a part of the Father’s work and the fruitfulness He intended.  However, now they were regretting (repenting of) their callous response to the Father.  Now, they were believing God and entering the Kingdom. 

The religious leaders on the other hand were like the second son.  They had responded in their life like they were going to do the work of the Father, but they have not actually done it.

This would have seemed to be a false analogy to them.  However, Jesus points to the prophet, John the Baptist.  His message was a simple one.  It is hard to say that there was something wrong with it.  “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”  He also quoted a passage in Isaiah to highlight their need to get ready for Messiah.  Messiah was coming and they would want to be spiritually ready for him.  Many people in Israel responded to John’s teaching.  They recognized that they were not ready.  They needed cleansing in their life in order to be ready. 

Why wouldn’t the religious leaders like this message?  It is because he called them to repentance as well.  Just read Matthew 3:7-12.  They were a brood of snakes who had no clue about the wrath of God that was about to pour out upon Israel.  The Messiah was coming as the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.  This baptism would be life to those who repented and believed, but it would be a fiery destruction for those who did not.  These religious leaders would not acknowledge John as a prophet, and therefore believe his message, because he dared to speak to them as if they were not right with God.

Thus, they refused to do the work of God, i.e., to believe upon the One He had sent.  This is the key to entering the Kingdom.  Repentance has two components to it.  It involves a change of mind that is spurred by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  I realize that I have been rejecting the way of God and trying to forge my own way.  This change of mind about our way (and God’s way) leads to the second component: turning away from our sin and towards the way of the Lord.  These tax collectors and prostitutes were not just believing that Jesus was the Messiah.  They were also walking away from lives of sin and turning towards living out the words of Jesus.

Jesus is the litmus test for all mankind.  You can say that you love God, but what you do with Jesus and his teachings will reveal exactly what is in your heart.  Of course, no person is perfect in following Jesus.  We do not get into the Kingdom because we have a perfect record of obeying the words of Jesus.  It is his perfect performance that provides a place of grace by which we can spiritually grow to become like him, little by little.

These religious leaders probably fell into different categories.  Some of them really did think they were doing what they were supposed to do.  They had been taught by others that this system was God’s system, and that they were God’s faithful representatives.  However, they had to ignore all kinds of spiritual red flags that would have surfaced as they read the Scriptures.  On the other hand, there were most likely some of these men who really had no faith in God.  They simply had learned how to harness the system to their benefit.

The problem with self-justification is that it doesn’t serve you well in the end.  It only serves to blind you to the grace of God.  We would all do well to sleuth out the self-justifications that we are using to avoid obeying God.

Thus, Jesus points out that those who were believing in him, putting their trust in who he was and what he taught, were entering the Kingdom of God.

John 6:27-28

The work of God and the will of God are the same thing in this passage.  Jesus had performed a miraculous feeding of thousands in the wilderness around the Sea of Galilee.  He had then left the area at night without their knowledge.  Many of these people searched along the Sea of Galilee for Jesus, until they found him in Capernaum.

In this passage, Jesus is not mad that they worked so hard to find him.  Rather, he is pointing out that they were not as interested in what he was teaching as they were about a free lunch and a spectacle to see.  Jesus is challenging them to work for spiritual food that can give them everlasting life.  Again, it is not about the act itself.  It is about the internal intention of the doer.  Jesus wants us to come to him and learn.  However, he wants us to do it for the right reasons.

There are many today who have attached themselves to the Kingdom of God.  They call themselves Christians, but they are really looking for a free lunch.  They see it as a ticket to something in the natural: wealth, friends, good times, clean fun, etc.  However, their flesh resists the word of God making any real change in their life.  They are like the religious leaders of the days of Jesus, thinking they are good with God and incensed that anyone would say they need to repent.

This passage spells out exactly what God is asking of us.  “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  This word for believe means to trust in him, to put the full weight of our life upon him.  It is far more than just believing that he existed, or that he is the Messiah.  It is about trusting that he is the Word of God to us, that we do or don’t listen to him at our own peril.

Even though it is true that putting our faith in Jesus is how we enter the Kingdom of God, we wouldn’t be able to do that if it weren’t for God’s grace.  It is He who has formulated a plan for redeeming us out of our sins.  It is He who sent Jesus to be the perfect image of Him and the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  It is He who wants us to trust in Jesus, promising to forgive us of our sins if we do.  Entering the Kingdom is a cooperation between what God does and how we respond.

Some people try to minimize our choice by saying that it threatens the sovereignty of God.  An example of their argument is this.  “You can’t really have a choice, otherwise God isn’t sovereign.”  Of course, that turns sovereignty on its head.  It is a human telling God that He can’t create humans with the ability to choose, even when they are stuck in sins.  If God truly is sovereign, then He can do whatever He wants.  A humble reading of the Scriptures will always see the absolute challenge from God to take hold of the salvation that He has made available to us.  God’s Word can be boiled down to His hand reaching down to us and saying, “Why will you die?  Take hold of My Hand!”

Of course, even our response to that is helped along by the grace of God.  When we take hold of His Hand, we find underneath of us the Everlasting Arms of God holding us up.  Entering the Kingdom is not just a choice of man, but also a choice of God.  His Holy Spirit not only transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, but He also makes our spirit come alive.  We are spiritually new babies, born into a Kingdom that has older siblings to help us grow.

John 3:5-6; 14-15

In this context, one of those religious leaders, named Nicodemus, had come to Jesus late at night.  He was bucking the trend of his peers, but didn’t want them to know that he was having second thoughts.  He knew that only Messiah could do what Jesus was doing, but he was perplexed by what Jesus taught.

In this passage, Jesus explains that natural birth is not enough to bring someone into the Kingdom.  It takes a spiritual birth.  It has to be an operation of the Holy Spirit that convicts a man to believe God and do what He is saying.  A person who refuses to do this remains dead spiritually, but a person who does is made spiritually alive, born again (or born from above).

As Jesus is explaining the need for a spiritual birth, he points to an event in Israel’s history to illustrate what he means.

 Numbers 21 tells a brief story of Israel in the wilderness.  They were complaining against God and even calling the manna that He supplied “worthless bread.”  God then sent poisonous serpents into their camp.  Many people were dying from the serpent bites.  When they came to Moses repenting and asking what they should do, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  Those who are bitten could look upon the serpent and be healed.

This might seem strange.  Why would God make such a weird requirement of them?  When we compare this to what Jesus is talking about, spiritual birth, it is understandable.  They had sinned and were suffering the effects of their sins.  However,  the root of their sin was a lack of faith in God’s leadership and intentions for them.  Looking upon the serpent would be both simple (no great righteous work of their own) and an act of faith.

We see this in the story of Namaan the Syrian general who had leprosy.  The prophet told him to dip in the Jordan seven times and he would be healed.  Namaan did not want to do it at first.  He was headed home, incensed that the prophet didn’t come out to see him.  Yet, his servant talked him into doing it because it was a simple thing to do.

There is no healing properties in a bronze snake, but it represented something that they would not be inclined to go look at.  They would have to trust the Word of God through Moses.  It was their faith that allowed them to live.  Spiritual birth is similar.  We are all bitten by sin and dying from it.  Unless we look upon Jesus with simple trust in him, we will die in our sins.  Spiritual birth is listening to the Holy Spirit and doing what He is calling you to do.  It is saying no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit.  The Spirit is calling all men everywhere to put their trust in a crucified Lord.  This seems silly to our flesh, but it is the requirement of the Lord in order to receive eternal life.  When people put their trust in Jesus (look upon him), a real spiritual work of the Holy Spirit is done in their life.  They are made to be spiritually alive.

Let’s go back to Matthew 21 where Jesus tells a parable.

Matthew 21:33-42

Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who plants a vineyard.  It goes to great expense to set it up and create protections around it.  He then leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  At vintage time, he sent servants in order to receive its fruit.  Yet, the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.  The landowner sent more servants, but they did the same again.  Then, the landowner sent his son believing that they would surely respect his son.  However, when they saw the son, the wicked vinedressers killed him so that they could steal the inheritance.

After telling this story, Jesus asks the religious leaders what the landowner would do.  They answered rightly that the landowner would come and destroy them.  He would then lease the vineyard to others who would render to him the fruits of the vineyard in the proper season.

Of course, this story is about them.  They are the wicked vinedressers who are killing the prophets that God sent to them.  Last of all, they are even now preparing to kill Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesus then points them to Psalm 118:22.  There, the psalmist speaks of the builders rejecting a stone that then is chosen to be the chief cornerstone by the Lord.  The message is the same.  Those who were supposed to be leading Israel to be fruitful for the purposes of God were not doing that.  Those who were supposed to be building Israel into a great temple unto God the Father were rejecting the very rock of Israel that the Father had sent to be the Chief Cornerstone.

This is not so much about Israel as it is about the religious leaders of Israel.  They were being fired by God.  He was raising up new vinedressers from among Israel and even from among the Gentiles.  They would do a better job.  These vinedressers would be Jews and Gentiles working together.

It is important to see that the present phase of the Kingdom is about fruitfulness.  God wants those who have put their faith in Jesus to be fruitful and to help the Church be fruitful.  When Christ returns, will he find a harvest of righteousness and strong believers still trusting in him?  Or, will he find us drinking with the sinners and beating His servants?

Many have served Jesus and died through the centuries.  Yet, Jesus will resurrect all the righteous who have died and all of the righteous who are still alive.  These will then enter into the next phase of the Kingdom of God.

Are you in the Kingdom now?  Put your faith in Jesus and turn from your sin.  Live your life for His purposes instead of pleasing yourself.  This will give you a place in the Kingdom of God today, and an inheritance in the future phase when Christ returns to take over the kingdoms of this world.

Kingdom 3 audio

The Kingdom of God- 2

Subtitle:  Now But Not Yet Fully

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 23, 2025.

Next week, we are going to talk about how a person enters into the kingdom of God.  But, before we do that, we need to deal with something that was a surprise when it was revealed.

In some ways, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as something that people could and were entering in his day, but in other places, the Kingdom of God seems to be something that is still future.  The subtitle of today’s sermon is relaying the fact that the Kingdom of God is right now, but also, not fully here.  To say it in another way, the Kingdom of God is already present on the earth, but not yet complete.

Let’s look at some passages.

Passages that speak of the Kingdom as a present reality

Our first passage is Luke 17:20-21.  We have there a question posed to Jesus by the Pharisees. They wanted to know when the Kingdom of God would come.

The Pharisees as a group did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah.  Definitely, there were some who secretly believed, and others who would believe after the resurrection of Jesus.  Yet, we should not suppose that this is a question that is asked out of a sincere desire to hear the wisdom of Jesus.   Their question probably represents an adversarial intent.  They are fishing for him to make his views clear so that they can then use his words against him.

We should keep this in mind when analyzing the answer that Jesus gives.  Jesus always gave truth to these men, but it was in a way that would be missed (or even dismissed) while they remained unbelieving.

The first point made by Jesus is that the Kingdom doesn’t “come with observation.”  The verb is actually present tense here.  Thus, the Kingdom is not coming (presently) with observation.

What is meant by the phrase “with observation?”  Some versions translate this as “with signs.”  This seems contradictory because the biggest sign that the Kingdom had arrived was staring them in the face.  Jesus did many signs before the people, whether casting out demons, healings, and his powerful teachings of repentance.  If the Anointed teacher from God was here, then the Kingdom was surely on his heels. 

Yet, though some of the actions of Jesus may have fit what they expected, many of his actions did not.  They were looking for one from the line of David to rise up, make a rightful claim to the throne, lead an army against Rome, and establish Israel above the nations.  These are the things they expected, or were seeking to observe.  The Kingdom was presently coming, but not in the way that they were expecting, not in that kind of way.  This would not be a replay of David.

Jesus then states, “For indeed, the Kingdom of God is within you” (NKJV).  “For indeed” is translating the word look, or behold.  It is exclamatory and calls a person’s attention to something they are missing.  If they had eyes to see, they would recognize the Kingdom.

The translation “within you” is unfortunate.  You will notice that many other translations will give the translation “among you.”  Why the difference?

If we take “the Kingdom of God is within you” to be a statement about a spiritual nature of the Kingdom, we would be able to find many passages in the New Testament that back this up.  The Christians did not try to take over the nation of Israel or establish a capital city with a king on a throne in those days.  Christ’s rule was realized within their hearts and minds.  By the Spirit, they were connecting to the King and living out his purpose and plan in this life.

Yet, in the context, Jesus is not talking to believers.  He cannot be saying that the Kingdom is spiritually in the hearts of these unbelieving Pharisees.  This brings us to a secondary notion of “within you.”  The you here is plural.  Within is most likely not referring to within them individually, but rather, in the midst of the group.   Jesus was even then right in their midst, within them as a group.  Yet, they couldn’t see him for who he was.  This is not a statement of the Kingdom’s spiritual nature, but rather an answer to their question.  It is here right now in your midst, and yet, you cannot see it!

There is no way around this passage.  Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God was already in the midst of the nation of Israel in his day.  He also taught that it was not coming in the outward way that they were expecting.  It would not be a nation like they were used to seeing nations.

We should resist the temptation to refer to this as simply a spiritual kingdom.  Rather, it is a kingdom on this earth unlike any kingdom before it.  It’s King (Jesus) resides and sits on a heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father.  He sends forth his Holy Spirit to draw people unto him and to dwell within his followers.  When we read the Word of God, we cannot observe the Holy Spirit applying it to our heart and speaking within our inner man, but it is very real.  We can’t see executive orders from Jesus to the angelic world and to his people on earth, but they are real nonetheless.  In fact, the followers of Jesus do very real things on the earth in response to a very real spiritual work within them.  Not everything done in Christ’s name is stirred up by his Spirit.  Yet, we cannot deny that the New Testament presents a real king operating by the Spirit in the hearts of his followers.  This is the Kingdom of God in the present age.

This helps us understand the words of Jesus before Pilate in John 18:36.  He tells Pilate that his Kingdom (notice he doesn’t deny its reality) “is not of this world…If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews…”  Jesus is a King over a very real Kingdom, but it is not of this world.  Don’t read that phrase as if it means it isn’t in this world.  Just as believers are born of the Spirit and are no longer of this world, so the Kingdom Jesus is creating is not of the world.  It is not like it, but even more, the world is not its source.  This is a Kingdom that God the Father is originating.  All other Kingdoms were created by mortal men and displayed a particular way of operating.  This Kingdom is not at all like those kingdoms.  This is why they didn’t fight to save Jesus.  His Kingdom is not worldly and focused on worldly attainment.  Rather, his Kingdom is directed by the Father for higher purposes that the world, and those who think like the world, cannot understand.

Luke 11:19-20 gives us another statement of the Kingdom’s present reality.   Again, Jesus is speaking to Pharisees who do not want to believe that he is Messiah.  Of course, they would have to explain the power Jesus displayed in casting out demons.  Jesus knew that some of them were saying in their minds that he was able to do this because he was in league with the prince of demons, Beelzebub.  Thus, it was a satanic ruse to get people to follow Jesus.  This really was the only option for unbelievers because there was too much undeniable evidence for these exorcism.  Men who had been tormented and tormented a whole region for years were suddenly in their right mind at the command of Jesus.

Jesus points out that this logic can be used against their own students who performed exorcisms.   Casting out a demon cannot in itself be proof that a person is in league with the devil.  You would need something else to establish that.

Of course, these disciples did not have the power and success-rate of Jesus, not even close!  Yet, Jesus is mercifully showing them the error in their logic.  However, their error in logic is not driven by inability to use logic.  Rather, it is driven by their unwillingness to accept that Jesus is (was) their Messiah.

Jesus statement at the end drives the main point home.  “If I cast out demons with the finger of God…”  It is put as a conditional because this is what they are struggling with.  Of course, Jesus knows that he does this with the finger of God.  This is not some admission that he isn’t sure how he is doing this.  The finger of God language comes from Exodus 8, when Moses stood before Pharaoh and his magicians.  They were able to duplicate some of the first miracles, but they eventually tell Pharaoh that Moses was not using magical arts.  This was the very finger of God working with him.  They could not do what God was doing through Moses.  By the way, Jesus is most likely implying to the Pharisees that their disciples are equivalent to Pharaoh’s magicians, and he is equivalent (actually greater) to Moses.  He was the prophet like Moses that they were told was coming (Deuteronomy 18).    When God shows up, there is no comparison between what men can do through ritual and reliance upon fallen spirits, and what He does through His people. 

Back to the statement of Jesus.  “If I cast out demons with the finger of God, behold, the Kingdom of God has come upon you!”  Jesus is challenging them to quit resisting the Holy Spirit and open their eyes.  They are hardening their hearts much like Pharaoh did.  Here it is!  Embrace it!  The King is in front of them displaying the power of the Kingdom over every evil thing, and they are blind to it.

Matthew 21:28-32.  This passage deals with the an issue that was similar with John’s ministry.  By what authority did John baptize people and tell them to ready themselves for Messiah?  Also, by what authority was Jesus doing what he was doing?  Jesus challenges them about John because they were unwilling to state categorically that John was not sent by God as a true prophet.  This was a political unwillingness because John was popular with the people.

Jesus then asks a question about two sons who were asked by their father to go work in his vineyard.  The first said that he wouldn’t do it, but later he regretted it and went to work in the vineyard.  The second son, however, said that he would go, but he never went into the vineyard to do the work.  The question is simple.  Which of the two sons did the will of their father?  The obvious answer is that it was the first son who was unwilling at first, but later did the work.  He then gives a powerful statement that would help them to see what the two sons represented.  “I say to you that tax collectors and harlots [enter] the kingdom of God before you.  He then goes on to connect their entering the Kingdom to believing in John. 

There is more here than I have time this morning.  In one way the two classes of sinners listed are like the first son.  They had rejected God’s purpose for their life and were doing their own thing.  However, the ministry of John the Baptist (and now Jesus) had caused them to regret this.  They believed and were doing “the work” that God had always asked of Israel: trust in Me and believe on My Anointed One when he comes.  However, the Pharisees through their lives were telling God that they were all about doing His work.  Yet, they refuse to embrace John, the Messiah’s forerunner (herald), and the Messiah himself.

We could also invert this by only focusing on John’s prophetic message as the Father’s call to go into the vineyard to work.  These Pharisees were refusing to believe John and now they are refusing to believe the One John pointed out as Messiah.  They could “regret it” and do the work, but they are continuing in their rejection of the Father’s will.  It is still possible that they could repent and do the will of the Father.  Our ability to do God’s will is not prevented by previous failure, though it definitely influences us. 

We should note that the verb in verse 31 is present tense.  Tax collectors and harlots were presently entering the Kingdom ahead of them.  The construction is not about any particular tax collector or harlot.  Therefore, it is not so much a statement about that very moment, but about those days, whether yesterday, today, or tomorrow.  People were entering the Kingdom at that time, and not because they were dying and “going to heaven.”  They were entering by doing what the Father was telling them to do, which was to repent and believe upon the Messiah who is Jesus of Nazareth!

Let’s go next to a passage in Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  Colossians 1:13-14.  Paul writes to the Colossians that “[The Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Paul had been one of those stubborn Pharisees who kicked against the goading of God to believe in Jesus.  He had given lip-service to doing God’s work, but when it came down to it, he was resisting and not doing it.  Yet, God broke through to his heart, and he finally embraced Jesus as the Christ.

Here, Paul is writing to the Colossians about something that has happened.  This is not something that is going to happen in the future.  This idea that God was presently transferring people from under the bondage of the power of darkness into the “Kingdom of the Son of His love…”  The Father had placed them in the Kingdom of Messiah Jesus.  This was not a geographical thing with a literal border.  This is a spiritual transfer that happens in the heart.

Let’s now turn to several passages that speak of the Kingdom of God as a future reality in some way.  This may look like a contradiction upon first glance.  But, a careful look will show that it is not a true contradiction.  It may not have been satisfying to many of the Pharisees  in the first century, but it was not contradictory.  Essentially, there are some ways in which the Kingdom is now, but there are other ways in which the Kingdom is still in the future.

Passages that speak of the Kingdom as a future reality

Matthew 28:11-12.  In this passage, we have a Roman centurion who has great faith that Jesus can heal his servant on command without ever going to his house. 

We can limit God through our lack of true understanding.  This is so in the case of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda.  When Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed, all he could think of was how unable he was to get into the pool when it stirred.  His mind could not fathom that a pool was not necessary if God wanted him healed.  Jesus was willing to go to the centurions house and lay hands upon the servant, but the man protested that he was not worthy of Jesus coming to his house.

Jesus was amazed that this gentile had more faith than most Jews.  The grounds for this amazement has nothing about our ability to have faith.  Jews are not genetically predisposed to having faith at higher levels than gentiles.  Rather, the Jews have a history and records of many ancestors who believed God for impossible things.  They had a whole history of God doing impossible things.  They of all people shouldn’t have even blinked at demonstrating such faith.  Yet, precious few of them did so.

Jesus takes advantage of this gentile’s amazing faith to make a statement about the Kingdom.  “[M]any will come (future tense) from east and west, and sit down (future tense) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness.”  Jesus is telling us that there is a time in the future where believing gentiles will come from all around the world and sit with Abraham and the other patriarchs “in the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Now, we showed last week how the Kingdom of Heaven is just another way of talking about the Kingdom of God.  These “sons of the Kingdom” thought that their genetic descent from Abraham was a golden ticket into the Kingdom when it came.  Yet, Jesus is telling them that they and their golden ticket will find themselves shut out of the Kingdom while Gentiles come in and fellowship with the Patriarchs who were their ancestors.  Again, Jesus is pointing to something that would happen in the future.

Some Christians will interpret this spiritually versus literally.  They reason this way.  First, Jesus said his Kingdom is spiritual.  Second, this means that people are coming to him spiritually and fellowshipping with Abraham in the sense that they are believing just like he did.  It can even be extended to a heavenly meaning.  Many gentiles will die and go to heaven where they can sit down with Abraham and the patriarchs, while the unbelieving Jews will be shut out.

The problem with such interpretations is that they take a thread of truth and make themselves the judge of what God’s Word means.  They either treat everything as spiritual, i.e., nothing is literal, or they treat only the things they like as literal and the rest are metaphorical.  If I only take it literally when I agree with it, that is a problem.  Who is in charge of what the Bible means?  Me?  A religious hierarchy?

Of course, we all have to come to a decision about what the Word means.  However, we need to do so humbly and without limitations upon what God can mean and say.  When you read, ask God to give you wisdom and understanding.  Be humble.

Let me ask you a question.  The first coming of Jesus, was it all spiritual or was there some literal things about it?  Was Jesus the literal son of a literal virgin?  Yet, Jesus set them free from spiritual bondage rather than from the gentile powers.  We must beware of letting a spiritual truth cause us to reject any literal fulfillment.  Most often God is doing both spiritual and literal things.  They can both be true at the same time, or true at different points in time.

This begs the question.  Is the Kingdom of God only a spiritual thing that only take place in a spiritual place?  In this passage, Jesus presents a real common to life scene of believing gentiles sitting down with Abraham in the Kingdom.

Let’s look at another passage.  Matthew 19:27-28.  Peter asks Jesus what they who had left everything and followed him would have as a reward.  Jesus points to a time called the “Regeneration,” in which “the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory.”  He then states that those who have followed him (the Twelve disciples who were faithful to the end) would also sit on twelves thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

The Regeneration is a rare word in the New Testament.  It has the sense of renewal, but this appears to be more than just a spiritual renewal in this passage.  Jesus equates the renewal with him sitting on his throne of glory.  This is a clear reference to the Messianic prophecies that speak of the Messiah renewing all things.  It should not be equated with the New Birth, though some do this. 

The tendency to spiritualize this passage does not come from the passage, but from a person’s prior persuasion.  Jesus is looking forward to a time in the future when all things will be renewed and he will sit on a throne of glory.  At that time, the twelve disciples would sit on 12 thrones judging the tribes of Israel (Judas was replaced by Matthias in Acts 1:15-26).  That seems to be a very clear statement about a literal reign of Jesus and the Disciples.

Some will say that the disciples did reign in the sense that they had authority in the new Church of Jesus.  They will also treat the thrones as symbolic of their authority.  The 12 tribes of Israel, then become symbolic of the various groups of Christians throughout the world, or Jews who believed in the first century.

Of course, it is true that the Apostles had authority to lay down the foundation of the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints.  However, we are left asking why a person would not simply understand it for what it says.  It makes most sense of a statement about a future time when God has restored the righteous through resurrection and setting up a literal kingdom on this earth that has literal thrones.

Now, from 135 AD to 1948 AD (1,813 years), there was no nation of Israel.  Christians would read this and recognize that there wasn’t a nation of Israel.  It was easy to read it and think that it couldn’t be literal.  There is no Israel.  It generally was seen as a replacement thing.  “National Israel is gone and we the “spiritual” Israel have taken their place.  Yet, 1948 blew this out of the water.  Why would God allow Israel to come back into existence?

For far too long, much of the Church has given up the expectation of a returning Jesus setting up an observable kingdom on the earth, one in which the nation of Israel would be “resurrected” from the dead.  This happened to the nation in the natural in 1948, but will also happen to the people of Israel spiritually in the future.

What we have here is Jesus looking forward to a time in which the Kingdom does become observable.  It presently is not observable in that kind of way (Jesus on a throne, the Disciples ruling in Israel, etc.).  However, one day it will be.

In fact, the throne of his glory is given more definition in Matthew 25:31-32.  The throne of Christ’s glory is connect to his coming in glory with the holy angles with him.  This is clearly about the Second Coming.  He speaks of all the nations (those who have survived to that point) being gathered before him and separated like sheep from goats. 

This is a very recognizable point.  The first coming of the Christ did not look like a conquering king.  His was a victory and a kingdom that was spiritual and over the hearts of men (Jew and Gentile).  Yet, his Second Coming will be quite different.  This is shown in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. 

We could try and spiritualize even the Second Coming of Christ.  He comes gloriously when his messengers (heavenly and earthly) bring the glorious truth of God into the lives of those who embrace it and believe.  That same word is a judgment and destruction against those who reject it.

In the end, we need to let Jesus tell us what is going to happen, rather than we being the one determining what will happen.

In Acts 1:6-7, the disciples ask Jesus if it is time for the Kingdom to be restored to Israel.  Now, they are not disbelieving what Jesus said earlier.  They are simply asking if the future time had finally come.  Note that a lot of things had happened.  Jesus had been rejected by the rulers of Israel, executed on a cross, and resurrected from the dead.  We can forgive them for thinking that perhaps God had finished making His point, and now it was time to go into the observable aspect of the Kingdom.

This would have  been a prime opportunity for Jesus to explain to these guys that it would never be an observable kingdom (i.e., only in a spiritual way).  Yet, Jesus doesn’t explain to them that they are supposed to go back and spiritualize everything he said about the Kingdom.   However, Jesus tells them that it is not for them to know when this would happen.  It was only for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and remain faithful to God’s plan for now.  The Kingdom would continue being present, but in a more spiritual way, until the time that God the Father was ready to move to the next phase, a more observable phase.

We could end with Revelation 19:11-20.  Up to verse 16, we could easily apply this completely to the first century with a spiritual interpretation alone.  Jesus has come.  The sharp sword from his mouth is symbolic for the Word of God that he was delivering.  He rules over the nations today, and his judgments are happening like a rod of iron.  The word of God is striking those of the lost who refuse to believe, and thus, they are spiritually slain by it.

However, at verse 17, we are given a description of a great supper of God that is put on for the birds of the air.  The overall picture is that of Jesus coming back to the earth in order to deal with the wicked governmental powers that have not only persecuted his people, but have also bound the whole earth under a beastly system that is antichrist.

Though we could spiritualize this too, we would be hard-pressed to see any way that the wicked governmental powers are being judged  by Christ and removed so that His kingdom could move forward with the righteous, resurrected believers.

On the flip-side, we do see a literal need for Jesus to come back physically and literally remove them.

There are many other passages that we could go through, showing a present or future aspect to the Kingdom of God.  The challenge for believers today is to understand that we are a part of a real and present Kingdom of God right now.  We need to cooperate with the Lord Jesus by pursuing his word and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We need to do what the early Church did by telling everyone who Jesus is, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Yet, we also need to understand that we are not just doing the same thing over and over again.  We are not just being faithful in our mortal life so that we can enter a spiritual kingdom that is forever in the heavens.  No.  The emphasis on the New Testament is not us going to be with God, but rather, God coming down to be with us.

History is headed to a climax, and the times of the Gentiles will come to an end.  We will reach the great “until” of prophecy, as the Lord Jesus literally comes back riding the clouds of heaven.  Of course, there is room for metaphor and spiritual meanings, but that does not mean we should reject any interpretations that also allow for literal meaning.

The Kingdom is now, but not yet fully what it is promised to be!

Now But Not Yet Fully audio

The Kingdom of God- 1

Subtitle:  Introduction

Various Passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 16, 2025.

As we finished the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we saw how the Kingdom of God was an important theme.  The book began with Luke describing the teaching of Jesus to his disciples, after the resurrection, as “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).  Three verses later, the disciples ask Jesus this question.  “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Of course, our Lord told them that it wasn’t for them to know the times and the seasons.  Rather, it was for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be enabled to take the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth.

Let me point out what Jesus didn’t say.  He didn’t say that their notion of a kingdom being restored to Israel was ludicrous or unfounded.  He didn’t lecture regarding the kingdom prophecies of the Old Testament that they were all intended to be read only symbolically, or spiritually.  Instead, he tells them that they are not supposed to worry about the timing of God’s seasons.

Of course, the book of Acts ends in chapter 28 with two more bookend-mentions of the Kingdom of God.  Paul explained and testified to the Jewish leaders of Rome concerning the Kingdom of God.  The book then ends with the statement that Paul was “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ…”

A person may be tempted to ask the question, “What about the Gospel?”.  However, we saw in our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount that the Gospel is essentially about the Kingdom. 

Matthew 4:23 says, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”  In Matthew 4:17, Jesus taught the crowds that they needed to repent because the Kingdom of heaven was at hand, or near.  This was true because Messiah the King (i.e., Jesus) was finally in Israel.  Later, Jesus rebuked the chief priest by telling them that “tax collectors and harlots are entering into the Kingdom of God before you.”

Thus, we can see that Jesus is telling them that the Kingdom and its King are at hand.  Yet, they need to enter it.  In fact, people who appeared to be disqualified from the Kingdom were finding the way to enter into the Kingdom at that time.  Of course, that way is to put your faith completely in God’s Anointed King, Jesus.  At its essence, the Kingdom is a reference to the King that administers it.  This is what the famous beatitudes of Matthew 5 emphasize.  Those who had been persecuted and were poor in spirit were told by Jesus that they were blessed because the Kingdom of heaven was theirs.  The King was there encouraging those who had ears to hear in Israel that their ability to participate in the Kingdom was not negatively affected by these things, but in fact, it seems to be in their favor! 

Matthew clearly shows Jesus as King Messiah giving his teaching (instructions) to those of Israel who wanted to be his citizens (his disciples).  The King is hear and they could enter the Kingdom!.

Let’s look at some passages.

The King/Kindom concept in the Old Testament

Psalm 29:10 pictures God seated on his throne during the flood.  The probability that the author means the flood during the time of Noah is extremely high here, in fact, hard to seriously question.  The Flood was a scary time for humans as a whole.  However, most of life throughout most of history has been difficult and scary for the average human.  Yet, the kings and kingdoms of the world are a cut above the average human.  At the Flood, kings and their kingdoms were just as powerless as the peasants who perished with them.  While the kings and kingdoms of men were washed away, never to return, God’s rule was not touched by the great destructive chaos on the earth. 

Of course, God’s heart is touched by the great destruction.  It was precisely because God cared for humanity that the Flood came.  Wickedness had filled the earth with violence.  The average experience was a boot in the face, death of loved ones, and death of self.  God was touched by the heinous violence that was playing out everyday upon the powerless by the powerful.  

Yet, God brings a remnant through the flood so that humanity is not extinguished, and His purpose for us would be obtained.

Yes, God is angry with the wicked, but His anger is not like our anger.  Human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.  However, God’s anger is pure and gracious.  It always has the redemption of humans at its core, and it is generally triggered by our treatment of one another.

The chaos of the flood, or even the chaos of those wicked kingdoms that existed before the flood, could attack or affect God on His throne.  His rule is absolute and cannot be harmed by the rebellion of the wicked.

Psalm 47:7-9 speaks of God in the terms of a great Emperor.  He is the King of all the earth (the kings of the earth).  He is King over all things.  He has always been King; He is King today; He always will be King.  The “shields of the earth” is a reference to kings and their governments.  They are supposed to be a shield to their people, but wickedness quickly infiltrates even the best of human kingdoms.  These kings and kingdoms all answer to God.  For the Christian, there is no question that God is King over all things.  By the way, He is also presented as King of the heavens as well, but that is not the place of our concern.

So, we can speak of the Kingdom of God as the simple reality that God has always been and always will be the Sovereign over all of creation.  We can call this the Universal Kingdom of God.

We may quibble over the things that are allowed to happen within His rule over the earth, but we do so because we don’t understand what He understands.  If a person finds themselves continually blaming God for all that is wrong on this planet and in their life, they need to read the Word of God and pray for understanding from the Spirit of God.  Our minds have been shaped by this world and by our flesh in a certain way of interpreting these things.  Our ability to hear what our Creator and Redeemer is trying to teach us and say to us needs His help.  It also needs us to be humble and ask for His help.  He is our loving Heavenly Father.  We will never benefit ourselves by trying to make Him the bad guy.

God is our King, but He is much more than that.  In some ways, it seems obligatory to trumpet the kingship of God and argue against anything that appears to diminish it.  However, I ask you to bear with me for a few moments.  When it comes to God’s Kingship compared to anyone on earth or even the devil, His Kingship cannot be questioned.  But, when it comes to contemplating all that God is, His Kingship is a subset, or facet, of Who He is.

If you start at the beginning of the Bible and walk through it (concordance queries will be quicker), you will go a long way before you run into the concept that God is King and that He has a kingdom.  Think about the picture in Genesis 1 and 2.  In chapter 1, God is presented as an all-powerful Creator, Artisan, Craftsman Who brings all things into existence.  Humans can create things that didn’t exist before, but we cannot do it like God does.  We merely assimilate matter that already exists and already has properties conducive to the effect we want.  God, however, is the One who made that matter and gave it the properties that it has.

Yet, God made humans to be His image-bearers on the earth.  This concept from Genesis 1 is fleshed out further in Genesis 2.  God is presented not only as Adam’s Creator, but also his Father.  He brings Adam into existence.  Men and women can do a similar thing today through procreation.  However, our method is a shadow of God’s absolute power to create a human being.  Adam is to bear the image of his Heavenly Father by giving himself to the purpose that his Father gave him, and by doing it in a matter that is like his Father.  This is why we see relationship, communication, and care happening throughout the passage.  Adam’s Heavenly Father even  obtains a bride for him.  Thus, Adam’s fathering of the children he produces with Eve is to be a reflection of God’s greater Fathering. 

There are kingly aspects to who and what a father is.  However, it would be a strange father who ran his home solely as if he were the king of it.  If he made everything become about how the kids could serve his purposes, and even treated their disobedience and defiance in the same way that a king would treat such from a rebel citizen, then that would not be a good parent.  He would essentially be a tyrannical man imaging that God is a tyrant, which isn’t true.  It would be a false image.  No, a father has a much more complex identity then to simply call him king.  God is King of all things, but He is far more than that.  He is something far grander than that.  He is our Heavenly Father.

First Corinthians 15:24 and 28 speaks of Jesus and part of his purpose.  His is going to abolish all rule, authority, and power.  The idea is clarified in verse 28.  When all things are subjected to Jesus, then he will also be subjected to the Father, Who has subjected all things under Jesus.  The rulers, powers, and authorities that are subjected to Jesus are both human beings and spiritual beings.  In the end, no one but God the Father will have rule, authority, and power.

Yet, notice the end result that is highlighted in verse 28.  The point is not about God becoming the only King, Kingdom, Rule, Authority, etc…  The point is about God taking His rightful place as the “All in all.”  The Father is our everything, which is so much more than our King.  We could even say that He is so much more than a Father.  He is our Everything.

I will point out that the word for subjected here simply means to take your proper place under one who has authority and power.  It is put in a passive form.  Thus, it points to something being done to human power, spiritual powers, and finally Jesus.  Yet, we should not see that as something that is necessarily forced.  The wicked will have their rule, authority and power forcefully taken from them.  However, the righteous and the Lord Jesus do so as volunteers, even as sons, glad to do the will of the Father at the time of His choosing.  Paul is looking far ahead into the final state of all things.  Humans will not rule and have authority over each other.  This picture is not about domination and subjugation.  In fact, it is about destroying all such warped imaging.  It is about all things being in harmony, taking their proper place, with God and not about establishing God as King over all things.

What you find in Genesis is that the use of king and kingdom is used of rebellious humanity.  Genesis 10:10 tells us that Babylon was the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom.  His name means rebel.  Even his city building is reminiscent of Cain’s city building as he went into the land of Nod in Genesis 4.  These are not righteous men.  These are men who are trying to accomplish something in the face of God, in rebellion to God’s purpose and plan.  Kings and kingdoms arose among the wicked.  Yet, God knew that this would be.  He would use this sinful concept of power and authority in order to teach humanity a better way.

If you think about it, humans were given dominion over the earth by God.  However, there is no concept that we would have dominion over one another.  It was the sinful rebellion of humanity in league with fallen spiritual beings that created a world of “better men” harnessing the lesser men for the glory of humanity.  This realm of kings and kingdoms subjugating one another is, no doubt, at the heart of God’s description of the pre-Flood world.  “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Later in the same chapter, we are told, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

The sinful rebellion of mankind creates a sinful warped concept of authority and power.  What should have been a godly dominion over the earth turns into an ungodly domination of one another through violence.  This was not God’s purpose.  He never designed humanity to be ruled by our betters (an aristocracy).

Before we go any further, I want to take a few moments to stop and flesh out the difference between authority and power. 

Authority refers to the right that one being has to give commands, create things, possess things, etc.  If you think of the word “authorize,” then you can begin to appreciate that authority among humans is a reference to certain rights we have.  Where do these rights, authorities, come from?  All authority comes from God.  He is the foundation of all authority.  We can know this is logically true when we ask what gave God the right, the authority, to create all that He has?  The answer is that He did.  If anything that was created has any authority, it received it from the Creator who is the ground of all authority.

If you imagine the right you have over your own body, mind, and possessions.  It is God who alone can be the foundation of that right.  Authority is a moral concept of a person’s right.

Let’s now add the concept of power.  Those who have authority (let’s say to have a child) may not have the power to do so.  A man chained in a prison may have a God-given right to marry a woman and have children, but he lacks the power to be able to do so.  On the other hand, a person may lack authority and yet, have the power to do whatever they want.  It is not too hard to come up with examples of that.  However, not all power is about that kind of force.  The serpent in the Garden used the power of persuasion, deception, lies, and temptation in order to interfere in a relationship in which he had no authority.  Powerful beings and powerful people tend to step on the authority that God has given to others.

When God rescued the people of Israel from Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, it was connected back to His promise to Abraham.  God promised that He would make a nation out of Abraham.  That nation would be His chosen vessel to bless the nations.  However, any nations that cursed Israel would be cursed by God.  When Israel comes to the promised land of Canaan, they are the invading Kingdom of God that God is using to confront the extremely wicked societies that lived there.  If those nations, people, would recognize God’s hand upon Israel and respect it, they would not have to be cursed.  Think about Rahab in Jericho.  She respected God’s close connection to Israel and chose by faith to throw her lot in with Israel.  God blessed her because of that.

Of course, the Old Testament historical books and the prophetic books present Israel as failing in its mission to bring the light of God’s justice to the nations.  Even the line of David is depicted as a fallen tent, a fallen dynasty. Yet, God promised through the prophets that He was going to raise up an Anointed Servant of God.  This servant would succeed where Israel had failed. 

The book of Isaiah is a great place to see this, although there are many examples.  Read Isaiah 42:1 and the following.  “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen one in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”  This is the true purpose for which God raised up Israel in the first place.

Previously, in Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah prophesied of a special child that would be born.  This child would have titles that are incredible: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.  We are then told, “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  This special son of David would raise up the fallen tent of David and fulfill what those before  him had failed to do.  This is what Jesus is announcing when he shows up.  He is not announcing the overall truth that God has always been the King of heaven and earth.  He is announcing that the Kingdom that would be brought forth under King Messiah had arrived.  God was fulfilling His promise to the people of Israel.  It was time for them to follow that King into the Kingdom.

We are going to stop there for today.  However, I want to ask you this.  Have you put your faith completely in Jesus?  Are you living your life for Him and His purposes?  Of course, it is easy to say that we are.  However, life has a way of testing just how resolved we are.  This is why we gather on Sundays and other days.  This is why we pray together, read the Word of God together, and fellowship with other Christians.  We are being tested all the time and we are going to need more than just our own strength to continue to trust the Lord Jesus.  Don’t delay.  Press into the Kingdom of God by putting all of your trust in Jesus and the message He gave to His disciples.

KoG 1 audio