7 ’The Kingdom’

 Last week in our sermon we looked at Jesus proclamation and understanding of himself as the long awaited Jewish saviour or Messiah and we stated, you will remember that in this understanding Jesus radically re-interpreted the most commonly held Jewish interpretation of this role, that of the ‘Warrior King’. And we will expand this theme again today as we look at Jesus understanding of the Kingdom of God.

Right from the very start of his ministry Jesus claimed to be bringing in the Kingdom of God the first and foremost role of Gods Messiah, however as we suggested last week, Jesus also completely re-evaluated Israel’s traditionally held view of the kingdom, which was basically an apocalyptic view a view which led them to see the Messiah coming as an agent of Gods wrath against the evil of the world, an agent who would destroy, condemn and then recreate Gods universe creating a picture of the Kingdom of God similar to the sort of picture we find in the NT in the book of revelation. The Kingdom then in this view was an ‘end time’ creation a new situation which would come into being under the complete rule of God, only when all evil had been destroyed, all corruption put right and all suffering healed. The Kingdom of God then in this view equalled the re-creation of the universe and the extinction by force of all that is the enemy of God.

In the Sermon on the Mount however, right at the beginning of his ministry we see Jesus encouraging his followers to Love their enemies, to pray for those who persecuted them and for them to be peace makers rather than to take revenge, to destroy or to conquer!

Rather than seek to stir up an ‘end time’ revolution, Jesus counselled unity forgiveness and Peace.

For Jesus then even at the very beginning of his ministry the kingdom was not coming in by the sword (as Israel had hoped) but by the power of forgiveness and love. The Kingdom was not seen as the conquering of a physical or geographical place but as the influencing by God, by his presence and spirit within people’s hearts.

The term ‘The Kingdom of God’ then for Jesus referred to the establishment of a new situation where Gods Rule, presence, power and authority become present immediately within the lives of individuals who then in turn develop into a Christ dominated community.

So in present terms when we become a Christian and allow God to become involved directly within our lives, when he comes to live intimately with us by his Spirits presence we according to this teaching of Christ, step ‘into’, or become a member of, his kingdom present not one day at the end of time but now today.

Jesus brings back Gods Kingdom but not by way of violent revolution but by way of leading people back to a new type of communion with God a communion where God becomes King in our lives and this we receive by Faith.  

In the teaching of Jesus then to summarise:

The Kingdom of God on earth for Jesus is that place where Gods rule as King is accepted, and where the Holy Spirit lives and moves to bring the presence and power of God, it is an individual experience which leads to a place of community… which leads to the formation of the the kingdom land if you like which is…US….The Christian church… we live in the Kingdom and we are the place where the Kingdom is present. 

This is ultimately why being part of the Church as opposed to being a ‘private’ Christian is so important. This is the place where God lives in a most unique way.

There are of course a number of characteristics or benefits of the Kingdom which we should look at under a heading such as this however I thought that in order to save our brains a little we would look in detail at only one: The one which I have called the ‘New relationship:’

To his first disciples Jesus was a great teacher, a prophet, a revolutionary and a miracle worker Charisma must have flowed out of every pore of his body but none of these aspects of their relationship to him was, I believe, the one that intrigued them the most, none of these were the reason they stayed, followed and eventually died in his service.

By far the most appealing aspect of their experience with Jesus, I believe, must have been the incredible intimacy with God that they felt when in his presence, Jesus himself described this aspect of his charisma as being like “Spirit and life” to his disciples.

When they were with him they felt as if they were in the presence of God.  And it was this aspect of their relationship with Jesus that they so missed after his crucifixion, Jesus warned them not to worry promising ‘another comforter’ the Holy Spirit but when he was gone and the presence gone they fell apart….To them experiencing God in this way was the fulfilment of the promise the confirmation that the Kingdom had come and without it they were lost and stayed lost until this experience returned…and it returned…. at Pentecost when the Spirit came to re-initiate the connection.

The ‘new’ relationship with God then was what set their experience of Jesus apart from anything they had ever known before and put most simply and because of Pentecost that is exactly what we should be experiencing today, because it is this which most characterises our membership as God children of his Kingdom.

The central aspect of the kingdom coming was God coming to us and the whole purpose of the spirits coming on the day of Pentecost was not as Pentecostalism would teach to give the disciples a ‘second blessing’ and the gift of speaking in spiritual tongues. But as it states in the passage, to fulfil the O/T prophecy of Joel where God had promised Israel that one day he would come back to them and initiate a completely new type of relationship with his people; (READ JOEL)

“I will write my laws in their hearts, all will know me from the greatest to the least” Pentecost then was the event which initiated the possibility of an intimate communion with the divine for everyone.

The Spirit came to Christ’s new Church and gave it, its birth as the place where God now lives, moves and has his being, as the place of the Kingdom.

And since Pentecost it is this aspect which defines the Church and which makes it completely unique and as Christians we join this Church by becoming a part of this new experience initiated by our own Spiritual new birth at our conversion to Faith in Christ. So we ‘know’ God, we experience him by his Spirits presence and through this “God writes his laws in our hearts and all of us know him from the greatest to the least” 

We are ‘Born Again’, ‘Sons (and daughters) of God’, we are a ‘New Creation’, we are ‘the body of Christ’ and so on.

We have entered into the Kingdom of God.

So all of us here today can be and should be part of this new situation…we all can be and should be in communion with God through Jesus Christ…we can be and should be Sons and Daughters of God, his loved children born not of a human decision or a Husbands will but born of God…….

We are the Kingdom and the kingdom can be within us let us embrace Christ in this way today fall on our knees ask him into our hearts join his new world and worship him.