Believe the Gospel

Good to see you all, and welcome to our visitors. We have a couple of interesting presentations here for you this morning. For those of you who have been in the church, you know about the Kingdom of God, but we're going to talk about the Kingdom of God. And for those of you who are visiting here as part of the seminar program, we want to talk about two of probably the most misunderstood concepts in Christianity today. We're going to organize this. The first part of this service today will be about an hour long, and we'll talk about the Kingdom of God, and what it really means, and what Jesus Christ talked about. The central theme of His entire message when He was on earth was the Kingdom of God. So we're going to go through the Scriptures, and we're going to see exactly what He talked about. And then the second part, we're going to talk a little bit about the first requirement there is to be in that Kingdom of God if you believe in Him and if you want to do and be where He wants to be. Let's open with a Scripture here that everyone knows, found back in Isaiah 9 and verse 6. It says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgments and justice from that time forward, even forever. Jesus Christ was born. He was the Messiah that the world had been waiting for. When He came to earth the first time, He lived, He died for our sins, but He didn't come, as the people of the Old Testament times thought, to establish the Kingdom at that time. You remember back in Acts 1, even as He was ascending into heaven after He'd been resurrected, the people then asked, Are will you now establish the Kingdom of God? And He said no. His purpose in coming the first time was to die for our sins, and then He was resurrected to give us the hope of eternal life, and He's coming back to set up His Kingdom. Even Jesus Christ, when He prayed and told us to pray after a manor, when He opened the prayer in the very beginning, He said, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. It was something that He was focused on, and for the next three and a half years while He was on earth and down through the ages, or a couple thousand years since then, as we read the Bible, we see everything focused on the coming Kingdom of God. That's where the focus is. That's what Christ's focus was. That's what the entire Bible's premise is, is to look forward to the Kingdom of God, His rule on this earth. This morning, in this first session here, we're going to answer a few questions by the time we're done with this. What exactly is the gospel that Jesus Christ preached? Because it's a misunderstood concept in the world today. A lot of people talk about Jesus Christ and say, That's the gospel about Him, but that isn't the gospel He preached. He commanded His church that the gospel that He preached would be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. It was the gospel about the coming Kingdom of God. We're going to answer the question, What is the Kingdom of God?

Because there's a lot of misconception in the world today about what the Kingdom of God is, and we'll go through three or four of the most common misconceptions and show you from the Bible what exactly is the Kingdom of God that Jesus Christ was speaking about.

Where will it be? It's another huge misconception of the world today. Where will His Kingdom be? He said, Thy Kingdom come. Where is He going to establish it? And then what do you have to do? What is God looking for you to do if you want to be part of that Kingdom?

Because He gives salvation. It's a gift of His, but there are some things that He is looking for for us. In the second part of the service this morning, we'll talk about that and talk about what Christ is looking for and what we must do.

Back at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus Christ talked about the Kingdom of God as He did throughout it. Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

That's what He talked about. And saying, the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the gospel. The Kingdom of God, that's what He was talking about. And that gospel of the Kingdom of God is in the Bible from Genesis 1.1 all the way through the end of the Bible. From the very beginning of the books of the Bible, you can see that this is what the world and God was focused on.

Back in Daniel, of course, there's a famous prophecy that prophesies what the world will be like, the four kingdoms of the world. Back in Daniel 2, verses 36-43. I won't take the time to read that, but you can look at it when you get home. When Nebuchadnezzar sees and has the vision of the statue with the head of gold, and the rest and down through the statue is prophesying four world-ruling kingdoms, and you have them in the graphic there.

Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel told him, he was the head of gold. The first world-ruling kingdom was Babylon, and you can see the states that it was on the earth during. He was later conquered by Persia, the beads in Persians, and that was the breast of silver. After that kingdom, Wayne Greece came in, and then finally the Roman Empire, and Revelation tells us that there will be seven resurrections of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, in its first form, ceased to exist in 476 AD, but bound through the ages. You can see where it has been resurrected a number of times, and there's a coming resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire that yet lies ahead of us. But Daniel and Vision was labeled to lay out from God what the history of the world would be. All these Gentile kingdoms would be on the earth leading right up until the time of Jesus Christ's return. And it has happened exactly, exactly the way God said it would. One empire right after another. And we're living down at a time where the toes, where the legs of the toes of mixed with iron and clay are. And the time of that kingdom, when you get down to the bathroom of the statue, is the time the Christ will return and end the time of the Gentiles and usher in His kingdom. Daniel 2.44 says, In the days of those kings, the kings that are there at the end of the time of the earth, the time just ahead of us, those kings, the God of heaven, will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. He'll smash the kingdoms of this earth. They'll be gone forever and He is coming back to establish His kingdom. The thing the world has been focused on, or God has been focused on, since the foundation of the world. He says in Matthew, the kingdom has been prepared since the foundation of the world. It's all there. It has all been focused on allowing man to live out his time on earth, based on the choice that Adam and Eve made. And then Christ will come back to set up His kingdom. Now, if you have your Bibles, let's go back to Acts 3 and look at a few verses there. Acts 3 and verse 18, this is of course after the day of Pentecost, when the New Testament church was meeting and received the Holy Spirit of God, and they went out preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And you remember that as people heard the gospel, they were baptized, and 3,000 people were added in one day. Verse 18 of Acts 3, as Peter is speaking, he says this, "...those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ would suffer, it has been thus fulfilled." The prophets of the Old Testament all talked about Jesus Christ coming to earth, suffering and dying for our sins. All the prophets talked about that. Verse 19, he says, "...repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, or the time of restitution, the time that all things can be made new again." Repent. "...that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of restitution of all things may come from the presence of the Lord, a time we look forward to that Jesus Christ will come and He will restore the earth." And under his rule, a kingdom will be established that will promote and produce everything that mankind has always wanted. The peace, the calm, the security, the plenty. Not for just a few nations, but for all the nations of the earth. Verse 20.

Well, let's read 19 again and finish the whole sentence. "...Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration..." Well, there's restitution in the old King James. "...whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things. Jesus Christ would live, He would die, He would go back to be with God the Father in heaven, and He would be there until the time for Him to come back down to earth to establish His kingdom. Which," it says in verse 21, "...God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets, since the world began." Since the world began. The Old Testament times, the world at that time, and God's people were focused on His coming. They thought that when He came the first time, He would establish the kingdom, but that wasn't His purpose for coming the first time. His purpose was to set an example, live a way of life that we live, die that our sins may be forgiven, be resurrected that we might have the hope of eternal life. He's coming back the second time to establish His kingdom. Verse 22, "...for Moses truly said to the fathers, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things whatever He says to you.

And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people." That prophet that Moses was speaking of was Jesus Christ. Him we listen to. If we want salvation, if we want what God has to offer, if we want eternal life, if we want the gift He gives us, there's only one way to that. And that's through the prophet that was foretold in Deuteronomy, the prophet that is Jesus Christ. Verse 24, "...yes in all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, he says, and of the covenant which God made with your father, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sends him to bless you, and turning away everyone from their iniquities." Since the world began, Jesus Christ was prophesied to come. Since the world began, the kingdom of God that He is returning to set up has been waited for to be established. Back among some of the Old Testament prophets in Zechariah 14, it talks about Christ's return to earth. Zechariah 14, verse 4, "...in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." And verse 9 says, "...he will be king over all the earth." Not just king over one nation, or king over a couple nations, he will be king over all the earth when he returns. The time yet ahead of us. Revelation 11, New Testament. Kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. A kingdom to replace all the other kingdoms of the earth that have come and gone one by one in the course of world history. Those kingdoms, when they started, thought they would be the one to last forever.

But one by one they waned, one by one they were defeated. One kingdom under Jesus Christ will come and it will be established forever and ever.

Let's turn to Zechariah 14. Zechariah is the third to last book in the Old Testament.

Zechariah 14 and verse 16 talks about the time after Jesus Christ has come back and He has established His kingdom on earth and people are beginning to learn His way. And verse 16 talks about one of the holy days of God. Verse 16 says, It shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem in that climactic battle that everyone has heard of, called Armageddon, everyone that came up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. They'll go there to worship Him. And so the Church of God, when He keeps the Feast of Tabernacles, that pictures the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ, His millennial reign on earth, the time that all the world will be filled with the knowledge of God and people will have and be living by the Holy Spirit, a time when the dysfunction of this world, the time the conflict of this world, the time of the tears and sorrow that mark this world and the wars and everything else not good about this world will disappear. And it will disappear because people will begin living by the law of God, not by the law of their own making. Isaiah has some beautiful prophecies about that coming Kingdom. He says, In the latter days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains, on the top of all those nations. It will be the peak of where the government is. In the latter days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills. It will be the premier government.

That's where people will look and all nations will flow to it. Not just a couple nations, all nations on earth will flow to His Kingdom. From Africa, South America, all the seven continents all flow to it. And all nations will be taught His ways, Jesus Christ's ways, because He is the King of the earth. Many people will come and say, Come, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways and we'll walk in His paths. Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, lived His life as an example for us. And in His Kingdom, people will live by the laws and the way He walked on earth.

What are His ways? What are His ways? Isaiah 26, verse 8 tells us, Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your laws, we wait for You, Your name, and renown are the desire of our hearts.

Your way of life, including the Ten Commandments, including the written law. That's the way of life, the way Christ lived. And in John, John, who was a good friend of Jesus Christ, who walked with Him for three and a half years, he tells us that if we're going to be in the Kingdom, if we want what He has to offer, we need to walk as He walked. First John 2, verse 3 says, Now, by this we know that we know Him, Jesus Christ, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and doesn't keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. When Christ was on earth, He kept the written law exactly the way God had intended it to be lived. In verse 2, verse 6, it says, He who says He abides in Christ ought to walk just as He walked. He's our example. He's the King. It'll be His government that reigns on the earth. We need to know what Jesus Christ preached.

We need to know what He said that we should follow. We need to understand His word implicitly if we want the eternity and all the good things that He says He will bring to earth.

And if we believe He is God, then we are absolutely sure that His Kingdom will come and that it will be established exactly as He said it would be. When we look forward to the Kingdom of God, there are so many, many things in the Old Testament that talk about the time and what it will be like in that Kingdom, a time where children will play in the streets again. We look around us in our country today, and it's not unusual for us to look at the news at the evening and find some child who was out on the streets, and someone just picked them up and whisked them away. So when you read the verses in Jeremiah talking about children will play in the streets again. People will sit out in their yards again, and they won't be afraid. And everything that we've lost as a society and everything the world has lost, as part of just living that has been taken away in the last few decades, will be restored. Isaiah 2, verse 2, He will judge between the nations and rebuke many people.

They will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. There won't be debates, but if there were debates, it wouldn't be on how much of the defense budget be, because there won't be a need for those things under Christ's rule. It will be a world best dedicated to peace with one king, one king ruling the world. How peace is achieved. Psalm 119. David said, Great Peace have those who love your law. Who don't just keep it, but who love it? Because they see the results of that way of life. They see how tremendous it is and the results of living a way of life that leads to peace, love, and all the fruits of the spirit that are listed in Galatians 5. Isaiah 65 says, They won't hurt or destroy all my holy mountain. All my holy kingdom, because mountain refers to that. A time of peace coming on the earth. A time that we can't probably even imagine, since we live in a world that is just defined by war and conflict. Now, what is going on in this nation and that nation? And of course, in that time, it will be a land of plenty as well. Peace is one thing that everyone would like to see, but everything good will be in the kingdom of God. Everything good. Crops will grow. The world will be replenished. You read through Isaiah 35 and the prophecies that are there. And it is just spectacular. When you look at the things and what will happen to the earth when Christ returns, and it is restored to the condition that it should be in. Avis 9.13, a prophecy for the time after Christ returns, it says, Behold, the days are coming. It says, The Eternal, When the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows seeds, the mountains will drip with wine. A time where there won't be famine in some parts of the earth and more than plenty in others, unless the behavior of the nations dictate that. It will be a land of plenty for all people. A time when you look through the Bible, and when you read the prophecies that are there, no one, that's thinking clearly, wouldn't want to be part of that kingdom.

It's what we all dream about. It's what people in the world who don't even know the Bible dream about. A time when there will be a time of peace, plenty for everyone. And when people can become what they're destined to become, and not be shackled by governments, shackled by things that keep them down and repressing them. When Christ came to earth, he said, he's here to break forth the yoke that keeps us tied down. And when we understand Christ's message, when we understand his way of life, when we understand his kingdom, and we respond to his call that all of us have if we're sitting here today, when we do that, it opens up a time of liberty and a time of possibility where God can work with people and make them all that they can be, just like he'll make the world more beautiful than we can even imagine it being. It's a time that lies ahead of us. It's a time that everyone needs to know. It's what Christ spent his time talking about on earth, his kingdom to come. Let's talk about what a kingdom is, just so that we are clear here of what it is that Jesus Christ is returning to set up. Whenever we talk about kingdom, and you can look this up in your government books, you remember it from your social studies courses, the Bible talks about it the same way. What Christ is returning to set up is a kingdom, and a kingdom or a government consists of four parts. A government has a constitution, and it has a ruling family. In America, we have a president who's our leader, but in the government of a kingdom, the leader is Jesus Christ and God the Father.

Kingdom has a territory. In the United States, you all know what the territory is. You know what it looks like, the boundaries of our kingdom that we live in here. The territory of the kingdom of God is the entire earth. It expands everywhere. It's not limited by sea. It's not limited by mountain. It's not limited by man. And of course, I threw in their universe because we'll talk a little bit about the kingdom that is in heaven today.

It has subjects. It can't have a kingdom. It can't have a government. It can't have territory unless you have people that are in there. The people that are part of God's kingdom are all of mankind that are living at that time. Every person will live under the rule of Jesus Christ. Every person will abide by His laws. Every person will receive His blessings and know what His truth is. And there's a system of law. Here in America, we have a Constitution. Other countries have the same documents of government that they abide by. The kingdom of God has the same thing. It's this Bible. You want to know what the Constitution of the kingdom of God is? It's sitting there in your lap. If God says we live by every word that's in that Bible, and the people living in the kingdom will live by every word of Jesus Christ. And it is a lifestyle, a lifestyle that God is looking for us to live. And as we read through the Bible, we learn that way of life. And as we're led by Him, we see the fruits of the Spirit, listening to Galatians 5, 22, become part of our life and part of the people and the church that God has made us part of. So that's the kingdom that Christ is returning to earth to set up. It's a literal world ruling of kingdom. The Bible is clear about that. If you read the Bible for what it says, it is a kingdom coming to earth, not just something of the imagination that many churches in the world teach about today. And it's coming to earth. When Christ prayed, He said, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, and it's coming to earth. And Jesus said, Thy kingdom will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is where His kingdom will be. But so many today don't understand the plain words of Jesus Christ. They have other ideas of what that kingdom must be because they don't see, like the people in Acts 1, did you come to establish the kingdom? And He said, no, but He will return. And people don't believe that. Let's talk about some of the things that you might hear in the world today about what the kingdom of God is, and let's dispel those and see exactly what the Bible says the kingdom of God is. First of all, the kingdom of God is not going to heaven. As many people say, you live on earth, you die, that's the kingdom of heaven, you live a good life, you go up to heaven. Absolutely not true.

There is a heaven. God the Father has His throne in it. Jesus Christ is sitting at His right hand. There are angels, there are 24 elders, there are other beings in heaven, but mankind does not go to heaven after He dies. That's not where the kingdom of God that Jesus Christ was speaking about is today. In John 3, verse 12, in Jesus Christ's very own words, He says, no one, and underscore that, no one has ascended to heaven, but He who came down from heaven, and that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. No one. I don't know how much clearer you can be. No one has ascended into heaven. So if you hear someone talking about going to heaven and that's the kingdom of God, keep that verse in mind. In Jesus Christ's own word, that's not what the kingdom of heaven is. No one has ascended to heaven. In Acts 2, the very chapter we were in before, the chapter before, where the New Testament church that had received the Spirit of God and they were out preaching to people, Peter says, let me speak freely with you of the patriarch David, King David, a man after God's own heart, is what he says. Let me speak freely with you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried. He's dead, just like we will all die. He's dead and buried. David did not ascend into the heavens. He is just dead, waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, waiting for the time of the resurrection that will happen for all mankind, because every single man who has lived will be resurrected. I won't get into the resurrections that are discussed in the Bible and back in Revelation 20, but there's a resurrection of those who are the first fruits, who died in Christ, that have his Holy Spirit, and then a resurrection of every other single person who lived during the time of whoever lived, because it's not God's purpose to call everyone at this time. You know that there's billions of people who have lived who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, yet there's only one way to salvation, and that's only through Jesus Christ. The only way, it says in Acts 4, 12. No other way. Can't cheat the system. Can't figure out a way around it. Only one way through Jesus Christ. And yet billions of people have lived and died, never heard the name of Jesus Christ. They'll have a chance. God will open their minds in the second resurrection, it says in Revelation 20, verse 4, and they will have a chance to understand the same things that you understand today. And they'll have a chance to choose the way of life, choose God, choose Jesus Christ, and have an opportunity to receive the gift of eternal life and salvation, just like we do.

Well, when people talk about the Kingdom of God being going to heaven, you know that's not the answer. And you can show it from the very own words in your very own Bible. That's not what the Kingdom of God is. Other people will say the Kingdom of God is the Church, but that's what Jesus Christ was talking about. That He established His Church, so that's the Kingdom of God on earth today. No, that's not true either. In Matthew 16, verse 18, Christ did establish His Church. He did say, upon this rock, referring to Himself, upon this rock I will build my church. It was a new church, and that was the church through which He would train people to be in His Kingdom, the people that He would call. That church had some tremendous purposes. If you've got your Bibles, turn back to Ephesians 4.

In Ephesians, it'll talk about His body, but in Colossians 1, verse 18, it tells us that the body of Christ is the church that He founded when He was on earth. In Ephesians 4, verse 4, it says there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who was above all and through all and in you all. Just one church that Jesus Christ founded, just one church that does the commission that He said His church would do. That is, prepare people for His Kingdom, teach them to observe all things that He observed, live the way He lived on earth, and that church would also be preaching the true gospel of the Kingdom of God, not ignoring the gospel of the Kingdom of God, but understanding it and preaching it. And in that church, as we come down in verse 11, He tells us what would be happening in that church and what the purpose of it was. In verse 11, He says, He, Christ, gave some to the apostles, some prophets, evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the work of service, because that's what the word ministry means. To equip them with what they need for the work of service, for the edifying, or the building up of the body or the church of Christ. Building them up, getting them ready, helping them live the way of life that will be in the Kingdom, because He's got a purpose for the people in His church. He's preparing them for why life will be in His Kingdom.

In verse 13, it says, "...till we all, everyone that He puts into His church, everyone that He calls in that response to His call, till we all come to the unity of the face." Because there's only one way of life, that we all come to the unity of the face and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, living our life, allowing Him to cleanse us and purify us day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, getting us ready to work with Him in His coming Kingdom. To a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what His church does. He's the head of His church. His Holy Spirit leads the church. But is the Kingdom of God the church?

No. It's His church, but the Kingdom of God is a separate, world-ruling Kingdom that He will establish when He returns. Now, the word church, as you'll read in Matthew 16 verse 18, comes from the Greek word ekklesia. And that word ekklesia means called out ones. People that He calls, that He opens their minds to understand. And His purpose in this time is to put those people into His church and develop them. Christ only spoke that word twice in Matthew, only two times. It was a body that He began when He was on earth, that He's the foundation of, and that church would last until the time that He returns. In Revelation 1 verse 12 and 20, you see a picture of Jesus Christ standing in the midst of the lampstand of His seven churches that extend from the time He started it when He was on earth until the time He returns.

But the word kingdom comes from the Greek word basilia. It literally means a territory subject to the rule of a king. Just like that graphic I put up here before that showed the four parts of the kingdom. When Christ spoke of a kingdom, He wasn't speaking of the church.

He was speaking of the literal world-ruling kingdom that has a government, that has a territory, that has subjects, and that has law. And in Matthew alone, He uses that Greek word basilia 54 times. He was focused on the kingdom of God. That's what He was here to preach. That's what He wants His people that He calls to be focused on, the kingdom of God, and to be led by Him to that kingdom. Now, you can probably come up with some other verses, but in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20, it tells us that we're ambassadors for Jesus Christ, ambassadors for Him.

Now, we have ambassadors in our world today. We had an ambassador just assassinated back not too long ago. What an ambassador does in our government is the same thing that an ambassador that Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians. When ambassadors go to a foreign country, they live the way of life. We'll speak for the United States of the United States.

They're there to represent the way life is in the United States. They're that representative on Earth so that when people see that ambassador, they should get a good picture of what the United States is like. Likewise, us. We're ambassadors for Jesus Christ. He is coming to establish His kingdom, a government on Earth. We're ambassadors of what that way of life will be like. So, He expects us to be peaceful, loving people. He expects us, as He works with us and as His Holy Spirit leads us, to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit that we see in Galatians 5. The love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and faith. That when people see us, they should see a picture in the way we live. And, of course, this happens over time. None of us are perfect. They see a picture of the way of life that Christ is bringing to Earth. So, someone asks, is the kingdom or tells you the kingdom of God? Is His church? Not true. One church that Jesus Christ established. But the kingdom that He spoke of is not the same as the church.

Is the kingdom in heaven? Yes, there is a kingdom in heaven. Christ would use the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God interchangeably. When He was speaking of those things, they were one and the same. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven or God is presently in heaven. We can look at that kingdom and we can see pictures of it where God has taken people envisioned to His throne room. John was taken there in Revelation. Ezekiel was taken there in Ezekiel 1. Isaiah was taken there in Isaiah. And they got pictures or they envisioned God showed them what life was like up there. And every time we see a glimpse of the kingdom in heaven today, and we see the angels that are there, and we hear about or read about the 24 elders, what do we find? We find a kingdom that's peaceful. They're all working together. We find there's great joy. They're praising God. There's always happiness up there. And we see them all focused on what God's project is now, and that is the coming kingdom of God led by Jesus Christ.

When we see the kingdom of heaven, we see a picture of the way it will be, the attitudes that are there, the unity, the working together, the cooperation, the happiness, the joy, and the plenty that can only result when you follow God.

There's a kingdom in heaven today, but what is coming to earth is Christ's literal kingdom, as we've talked about, and you have those verses that we've read through before.

Is there a kingdom in heaven? Yes, but he is bringing the kingdom of heaven and establishing it on earth when he returns. Some people will say the kingdom of God is in your heart. It's just a feeling that you have when you're called, when you're baptized, and it's just a feeling you have in your heart. Many of them will place it on this scripture that in Luke. Luke 17, verse 20 says, when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Christ answered them and said, the kingdom of God doesn't come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there.

For indeed, the verse says, the kingdom of God is within you.

And many people will say, see, it's just the Spirit of God living in us.

And if you read those verses without looking back at what the literal context or what the Greek words are, you could see where they might come to that conclusion. But so many times in the Bible to understand the real meaning of the verse, we have to go back and look at the language that it was originally written in and see what those words mean. And in this case, of course, the New Testament was written in Greek. We have to go back to the original Greek manuscripts, and we find a word that's translated from the Greek to the English within. And in Luke 17 verse 20, there's a word, Greek word, entos, E-N-T-O-S. And the Greek word, entos, is appropriately translated within in some cases. Now, the more they understand about languages, the more, I guess, deep the meaning becomes. And there's nuances in various languages and how they're translated that we have to understand today. So when you look in the Old King James version sometime of the Bible, you'll see a word that's different than what's in the New King James version. And sometimes the New King James actually has a better version of that word because they understand now more what it means. But here in Luke 17 verse 20, there's a Greek word, entos, C-N-T-O-S. If the subject of entos is singular, if I'm just talking to one person, if I'm just talking to my wife and I talk about and use the word entos, it does mean within. But if I'm talking to a group of you people and I'm talking about and I use the word entos, it has a different meaning. When I'm talking to a group of people, it means among. A slight difference. Let's go back to Luke 17 verse 20 and see what the subject here is that Christ was talking about. When he was asked by the Pharisees, it was his audience, a group of people speaking to him. When the kingdom of God would come, he said, it won't come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within or is entos you. He was speaking to a group of people, not just one person. So the appropriate translation of that verse using the Greek word entos is, for indeed the kingdom of God is among you, using the principles of translation from the Greek language. So the kingdom of God is among you.

Now, the New Living Translation, that's newer than the King James Version, translated this verse that way. The kingdom of God is already among you. The English Standard Version says, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And you can see what Christ is saying to them. The kingdom of God, he didn't say is within you. The kingdom of God is among you.

It's in your midst. Do you follow what he was saying? He is the coming king of the kingdom. He knew what his mission on earth was and what his mission at that time was. The kingdom of God, the coming king of the earth was among them at that time. And he was in the midst of them, standing there and talking to them. They didn't understand what he said, but we understand it today.

The kingdom of God is among you. The kingdom of God is in your midst. Well, he wasn't talking about them. Clearly, from all the interaction that Christ had with the Pharisees, he certainly wasn't telling them, you know, the kingdom of God is within you because he challenged them on just about every level of how they were living their life. And he encouraged them, live the way of the life of the kingdom.

Don't live this way. Follow the principles that Jesus Christ said. He's the king of the kingdom. So clearly, he wasn't talking about that the kingdom of God was in them, but the kingdom of God, there are the coming king of kings and Lord of lords was in their midst or among them.

Does God want us to live and worship him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind? Absolutely. And if we're going to be in his kingdom, then we will love him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind. He will write his law on our minds and in our hearts.

That's not to say any of that is not the appropriate principle. It is. And if it's not written on our hearts, we won't be there. But to say that the kingdom of God is only what's in our heart is not the case. The kingdom of God is a literal, world-ruling kingdom that Jesus spoke of that he will be coming back. He will be conquering the kings of the earth. He will be establishing his kingdom on earth. And that kingdom was supremely important to him. When you think of what he did, how much he loved us, what he did, and the suffering that he went, so that that kingdom could come, you know how important it is.

And in case we don't, you know, he left us some verses that would tell us just how important that kingdom should be to us. In Matthew 6, verse 33, he says, seek first the kingdom of God. Put everything else behind, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things, all the things that you need and all the necessities of life will be added unto you.

But seek first his kingdom. And then a couple of paragraphs or a couple of parables. He highlighted again when he was talking about the coming kingdom of God. He said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field. And when that man found that treasure, he sold all that he had so that he would be able to keep that field. Similar to the parable in verse 45, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he found one pearl of great price, he sold all that he had and bought it. He was willing to give up everything so that he could hold on to that pearl of great price, the promise of the coming kingdom of God, because he could see how valuable it was.

And that's a kingdom that will last forever and ever and ever. That's the kingdom that Christ has called you and me to be part of and everyone that receives that response to his call. And it's his will that everyone would be in that kingdom.

It's nothing we can earn. We can't go out by all the things that we do.

We can't twist God's arms by what we do to be in that kingdom. He says in Luke 12 verse 32, don't fear, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

It's his to give. Salvation is his to give. Forgiveness is his to give.

The kingdom he wants everyone to be in. He wants to give everyone eternal life.

But there are things that we have to do to show him that we want that. In Matthew 7 verse 21, it says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, not everyone who says they follow God, not everyone who just calls on his name, shall enter that kingdom of heaven.

But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, that's who will be there. Those who show God, they want that kingdom by the way they live now and the way they respond to him now. And show him that that kingdom is so important to him that they're willing to give up anything that's near and dear to them to follow his ways because what they want is what he wants to give, and that's his kingdom.

Let's take a break. Let's say for, say, 15 minutes, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about some of the things that Christ himself said over and over in his message, what we need to do if we want to be part of that kingdom. So I think we have some snacks up here and some coffee.

Why don't we take a... why don't we plan to be back at 10 after 12? That'll give us 12 minutes if that's okay.