Skip to main content

The Kingdom Of God In The Teaching Of Jesus

 * The Kingdom of God does not belong to this world (John 18:36). The Kingdom of God has come into this world (Mark 1:15). God's Kingdom cannot be identified with anything that belongs to this world. The church is not the Kingdom. The church is a signpost. It points us to the Kingdom. It is a sign that the Kingdom has broken into earthly existence.   
 * Jesus has come. The Kingdom has come. When Jesus says that the Kingdom is in the midst of us, He is speaking of His presence in our midst. Where Jesus is, there is the Kingdom. Jesus is the Kingdom.
 * In Christ's first coming, the Kingdom has come. In His Second Coming, the Kingdom will come. Jesus teaches us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come." He is directing our attention to the coming Kingdom. In Jesus' first coming, there is a real coming of the Kingdom. There is also this message, "There is more to come." When we pray, "Thy Kingdom come", we are praying, "Lord, lead us on, from the promise to the fulfilment." Jesus' first coming was a fulfilment. It fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. Jesus' first coming is more than a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. It's also a promise that points forward to the ultimate fulfilment, the coming of God's eternal Kingdom.
 * The supreme sign of the Kingdom is Jesus' resurrection. The resurrection follows on from the incarnation (Jesus living among us) and the atonement (Jesus dying for us). The resurrection is God's way of saying, "Jesus really is My Son. Jesus really is your Saviour and Lord." The resurrection also points us to the future.
 * The Kingdom has come. The Kingdom will come. This is the context within which we are to live the Christian life. We have received the Kingdom (Luke 12:32). We have entered the Kingdom (Mark 10:24). We have become sons of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:38). The Kingdom belongs to those who have come to Jesus with simple, childlike faith (Matthew 19:14). The Kingdom has come to us. This is real, but there is more to come. We have only begun to experience the power of God's Kingdom. We must always be longing for more of God, looking forward to the fullness that is still to come.
 * The Kingdom has come. This is Good News (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:15). Without this Good News, our life is built on sand. With this Good News, our life is built on the Rock, which is Jesus Christ. Building on Christ, we have hope for the future - hope that is more than hoping for the best, hope that is grounded in who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
 * Jesus calls us to put our faith in Him. He calls us to open hearts to Him This what Jesus means when He speaks about entering the Kingdom. We receive the Kingdom when we set aside our own self-righteousness and come as sinners to Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. We receive the Kingdom when we come to Jesus with simple and sincere faith (Mark 2:17; Matthew 18:3; Matthew 11:25). 
 * Jesus calls us to commit ourselves to Him. we are to live as His disciples. We are called to live a life that honours Him, a life upon which His blessing rests (Matthew 5:1-12). 
 * Jesus calls us to prepare ourselves for His return. We are to be grateful for His first coming. We are to have the attitude of gratitude. Thankful to the Lord for what He has done for us, we are to give ourselves in obedience to Him. We are to trust the Lord, and live in obedience to Him. This is the way of receiving joy. This is the way of bringing glory to God.        
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If We Are To Be True Followers Of Jesus...

"Be careful! Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" (Matthew 17:6), even after there is divine revelation (Matthew 16:17), the influence of evil can be felt (Matthew 16:23), The warning - "Be careful! Watch out... !" must never be forgotten. Satan is looking for an opportunity to lead us away from the Lord. We must hear what Jesus is saying to us about discipleship (Matthew 16:24), and we must commit  ourselves to Him (Matthew 16:25). There is nothing more important than this (Matthew 16:26). If we are to be true followers of Jesus, we must learn to live our lives in the light of eternity (Matthew 16:27). We are to seek revelations of God's eternal Kingdom, revelations which will send us back, from the mountain-top, to live each day for Jesus.
2 comments
Read more

The Lord has sent His Spirit of power to live in us.

We read about Elijah in his high-points of strength - the triumph over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-39) - and his low-points of weakness - he is ready to give up: “I’ve had enough now, Lord” (1 Kings 19:4). How did Elijah get into such a mess? He forgot this: “The Lord’s power was on Elijah” (1 Kings 18:46). In all life’s ups and downs, we must hold on to this: The Lord has sent His Spirit of power to live in us (2 Timothy 1:7). How are we to live in the power of the Spirit? We need to feed on the Word of God and drink in the Word of God (1 Kings 17:4). We need to pray that the Lord will send His showers of blessing (1 Kings 17:14). We are to live our life “according to the Word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:16). For our life of faith to be strong in the Lord, we need to listen attentively to the preaching of God’s Word (1 Kings 17:24).
Post a Comment
Read more

Strong words ...

“… watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned … By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people” (Romans 16:17-18). These are very strong words. They are words which have a great deal to say to the Church at a time when it seems that the voice of permissive society is threatening to drown out completely the voice of Holy Scripture.  When Paul addresses the problem of divisions among God’s people, He calls us to be faithful “to the teaching you have learned.” Behind Paul’s words concerning “the teaching you have learned”, there is something else: “according to the Scriptures.” We see this in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Paul begins by speaking about “the gospel which I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:1). As we look on to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, it becomes clear that he is not concerned with drawing attention to himself. What he is concerned about is this: “according to the Sc...
Post a Comment
Read more