Jesus Christ's Kingdom of God

Okay, we'll start the sermon now. I had a request, as we had our little box there last week, that anybody that first wanted to come up and put what they'd like to hear about this week, I would give the sermon on. So I did that because actually the question was...that one...Jesus' sermon on the Kingdom of God. So I have put together a sermon that I hope you will have a deeper understanding of the Christ vision and why He spoke so much about the Kingdom of God. So what would you call Jesus Christ? A dedicated leader? A respected prophet is what the nation of Islam calls Jesus Christ. The Hindus, perhaps, would call Him a holy man. To Jewish leaders, He was a heretic, a false prophet, a drunkard, a friend to both tax collectors and women of the night. If a totally neutral person, uneducated in any type of theology, were given the first five books of the New Testament with a request to explain the personage of Jesus Christ and the one thing that made Him tick, what would they say? What would they honestly say? That person, that purveyor of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts, would in all likelihood come to an inevitable conclusion. Jesus Christ was a fanatic. He was a zealot. And some might even say that Jesus Christ had obsessive compulsive tendencies. I think we can all relate to each one of us. And you'd say to yourself, well, that sounds like He had a mental disorder. One of the things that you find in the study of human nature and of humans is we all have a little bit of obsessive compulsive tendencies in our lives. We all have passions and desires that we would do many things to get outside the box to do or become entertained or taught by our obsessions or to enjoy our obsessions. Jesus Christ was human. That's why I make that statement. And I make that statement because of the sheer volume of references Jesus Christ made about the kingdom of God. He not only talked about the kingdom of God, He also put it in another term, the free kingdom, He mentioned. He also mentioned the kingdom of heaven and He also said, my Father's kingdom. I'd like you to check out a biblical concordance sometime. Check out a biblical concordance. And you will find that Christ speaks a lot about the kingdom. Kingdom this, kingdom that, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. Jesus Christ never stopped speaking, preaching, and teaching about the kingdom of God. He was very consistent in that teaching. And He taught about a kingdom so vivid and clear in His mind that He just had to paint the most visually stimulating portrait of a mind-boggling millennial reign, royal reign, destined for the future. This was done through His telling of parables. Hyperbole, metaphors, and some of the most compelling stories that have lasted over 2,000 years. And are included in some of our English literature today. And He did all this because it not only confounded part of His audience, it enticed part of His audience and His followers. As some came to hear this great speaker talk about things they had not heard, teach them in a way they had never been taught before, but some did not understand. And Jesus Christ was actually asked, why do you speak in parables? And He said, so people did not understand. We sound so strange. Here's this great teacher. Sounds like a paradox. But you have to understand, as we see in the Scriptures, those thousands upon thousands and thousands and thousands of people who came to hear Christ, came to listen to Christ, many came just to be healed and to fill their bellies with food. He actually made that statement.

His message was so hidden and yet clear to listeners, hidden to those who had other things on their mind, and clear to those who are in tune, to something bigger than themselves. It was clear to those who hungered for righteousness. They were filled, as the Scripture says. They came to hear His amazing story, as you also see that the Pharisees, they did not come to be filled. Scribes, Sadducees, they came to pick things apart. They came to bring not only a negative attitude, but a satanic mindset of evil.

We saw two Pharisees, actually they did hunger and thirst for righteousness, who actually did turn, as we see in the Bible, Joseph, Arimathea, Nicodemus. But there were dozens of others who did not.

Those who understood the 120 who gathered after Jesus Christ's death on the day of Pentecost, they were visionaries. They were visionaries of a literal kingdom that Jesus Christ had been talking about, not figurative. A literal kingdom that they were actually longing for and looking forward to.

I'd like to take you back now, if you turn to the book of Matthew. And I want to take a little journey through Jesus Christ's words. And at the very first of Matthew, in chapter 4, right after he had his temptation of Christ by Satan, and he overcame those temptations. In Matthew 4, he comes down to Matthew 4 and verse 17, as the first recorded words by Matthew as Jesus Christ launched his ministry. And they were what? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. First message. First thing he talked about. The kingdom of God.

And then, as you go through and read Matthew 5, 6, and 7, greatest sermon ever given, the Sermon on the Mount, all through there. It's this time, time after time after time, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. Interchangeable. But it was a kingdom. A kingdom so great, he wanted people to understand it if they really cared about it.

But many, as you see, did not. Even today, the message of the kingdom is preached. There are those who hear it, who care, and will dig into it. And there are those who pass it by.

They don't really think they need it. You remember Matthew 5 and verse 4, as he starts out the Beatitudes. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And then he goes all through the Beatitudes, but he stops in the middle to make sure they kind of understand that, guess what? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The kingdom was coming back to the earth.

But it would be for a future time. And he even ended the Beatitudes, which was blessed are the persecuted, for they shall what? Inherit. They shall what? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's that big. A few weeks ago, I gave a sermon on prayer. And that incredible prayer on the Sermon on the Mount, where he said, this is how you should pray. And he says, pray thy kingdom come. Try and tell his followers. You need to pray that that kingdom comes, because it is great. It is awesome when it gets here. And it's interesting because the original Greek actually puts that sentence as, pray your kingdom comes so that God's will can be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Finally, there would be righteous rulers. Finally, there would be peace. But I'd like you to go to Matthew 7 with me now. Matthew 7 and verse 21. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. So he's saying right there, not everyone, just because you go, oh, Lord, and just because you appear righteous, oh, Lord, put your hands up. Do all this stuff? No. He said, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven, and he says, many will say to me in that day. What day? The day he returns when Christ comes back. We'll say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? We've cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name. We appear righteous. And he says then, I will declare to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. I don't know who you are and why it is and he know. It says right there, you workers of iniquity, you who practice lawlessness, you who say, there are no laws, I don't have to keep anything. I just have to love Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You see it all through the world. It would be a sad awakening. Some of the words I would never want to hear for Christ to say when he returns in all his glory, all his power to set up his kingdom, I don't know you, Mary. I don't know you. I don't know you, Rocco. Louis? Who? Don't even know him. Parables. There are 45 parables in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There's only like really one in John, per se. Because as we know, John was written 30, 35 years after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And so John basically didn't really give that many parables since they were already written in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Many times they were doubled and tripled. Same story, told from a different angle. But he instructed us in many ways what it would take to be in that kingdom. He gave us instructions on how we could, in the book of John, be in that kingdom. Louis, would you help me just a second here? Would you come up and... Bruce, do you mind handing this out? I'd like you to have one of these, if you'll hand one to everyone. Is that why you have them? You don't have to look them up. By the fact, they're in chronological order. These are the parables of Jesus Christ, all on one sheet of paper, all broken up by all your verses, everything you need from Matthew and Mark and Luke. And he even stuck the one in John in John 10. I'd like you to have this so you can look at this. I'd like you to take this and study it sometime. It makes my point that Jesus Christ's passion, the passion of the Christ, was the Kingdom of God. And as you can look here, you will see how many. And even those that it does not say, Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God, you'll find that most of those are actually talking about the Kingdom. I find it to be very interesting as we look as God is trying to instruct us on the Kingdom of God.

So let's, since we're in Matthew, I'd like you to turn over to Matthew 16. Matthew 16. Perhaps we'll go through this again. I went through it about four or five years ago, or four years ago when I came here. Matthew 16.

Verse 28. Tell the story, he said, Most assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom. Oh, they're going to live forever, or going to live for 2,000 years. No. Then you see in chapter 17 the transfiguration, where those three men, two sons of thunder and Peter, got an actual glimpse, this vision, this transfiguration, of what the Kingdom would be like, and with Christ came in all his glory. And he also transfigured so they could see this vision of who would be there with him, Moses and Elijah. But he said, some of you here, you won't see death till you see the Son coming in his Kingdom. A little confusing to them, until a little bit later. He was painting this picture. He wanted them to open up their minds. Expand their minds.

Chapter 17, verse 1, now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John. His brother brought them up on a high mountain by themselves and was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. This will be Jesus Christ and his followers when they are transfigured.

If I can use that word. They will be literally here in the Kingdom. This was a transfiguration so they could have a vision of this time. And why did he do that? He said, Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him. So here, Peter, James and John were actually given this vision. The other nine disciples were not. Why would he have this? Well, James happened to be the first one that was martyred within a few years after Christ's death. Peter would also be martyred.

And so, John would be left after all the other disciples were dead. To continue on the writing, to continue to help us to see just how important the Kingdom of God was to Jesus Christ. I'd like you to turn over to Mark 4. Mark 4 as we take this journey through, and I am by no means exhausting anywhere near the Scriptures. And in Mark 4 and verse 26, Mark 4 and verse 26, and he said, the Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. Verse 30, he said, to what shall we liken the Kingdom of God, or with what parable shall we picture it? He was always telling stories so that you could have a greater vision. You could have a greater understanding. He talked to farmers, he talked to fishermen, he talked to anyone and everyone, and he's talking to us today. And trying to tell us his focus was on the coming Kingdom of God. Should ours not be on the coming Kingdom? Luke, let's go over to Luke, Luke 8. Luke 8.

Luke 8. And he tells about in verse 4 through 10, he tells about the sower and what's necessary. And he says, when a great boltitude gathered and others came to him from every city, he spoke by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled on the ground, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on the rock as soon as it sprang up.

It withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and thorns sprang up and choked it. Others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop of a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried. You get that? A lot of people just read out, read right through that. But he's trying to tell us that he said, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear. He isn't saying, oh please listen to me. He's saying you need to hear this.

This is big. This is important. Mammoth. Verse 9. Then his disciples asked him, saying, what does this parable mean? So here, they were trying to listen and they didn't understand. What are you talking about? Sowing seed and all this kind of stuff. He was trying to tell them, you're going to have to be attuned to the spiritual, to a coming kingdom, not the here and now.

Then he said to you, it has been given to know the mysteries. Actually, the Greek word means secret or hidden truths. To you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to the rest, it is given in parables. Seeing, they may not see, and hearing, they may not understand. If you're here today, you understand. And hopefully, you understand why others don't understand. Jesus Christ said, unless a father draws you, you can't come to me.

Unless the father draws you, sorry, it's not your time. There will be a time, but it's not now. Luke 9. Let's go over just a little bit. Luke 9. Verse 57. This was brought up the other night at the Bible study, in case you want to tell your daughter where she can find this bruce. And Luke 9 and verse 57. Now, it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.

Kind of remind you of these altar calls. We used to have them back in Tennessee, where they would have this big production at this church, and people would come in and give their heart to the Lord. And some of them were alcoholic, some of them were not very good people. And they'd come up and make this big scene, and then guess what? After the evangelists left, a week later, they were back drinking and carrying on, cheating everyone and everything else. A lot of people say that. I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

Then he said to another, follow me! But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury the dead. But you go and preach. What? Kingdom of God. This is what it's about. This is more than the physical. This supersedes any physical of why we're here, taking up space on this earth and breathing air. It's not just about this little time. Go and preach the kingdom of God. And another said to him, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me go and bid them farewell, who at my house.

But Jesus said to him, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Does that mean, oh, he doesn't want you to take care of anything, everything? Yeah, he details. But he's saying, once you have put your hand to the plow and look back. Because if you have ever seen a plow and you need to run a plow, I have with a tractor, never with a mule. Does anybody run with a mule? No. I run with a tractor many times, ran a plow.

And when you're plowing, you've got to keep those rows so it turns the ground over, just in the right way so you don't have big spots missing. The thing is, you have to stay focused on that ferrule that's right on the side that you've already gone through. And stay close, and you have to focus and just make your turns. And so everything turns out right in the field.

But if you dare look back, you're going to get way over here. And you're not going to stay straight. And that's what Jesus Christ is telling his followers. If you follow me, follow me! Don't be like one of these Friday night confessions.

Go out on Friday night, come back in, and it's like, drink too much, carrying on. Oh, God, I'm never going to do this again. My head's hurting. Sick.

And then the next day, oh, feel pretty good on Saturday night. Well, you know what I'm doing? Let's go! Yeah, man, I feel good! Let's get back in the ballgame.

Oh, Jesus Christ is talking the same way to us. Once you go down this path, once you know the truth, because he said, once you know the truth, the truth will set you free. You're not tied up with all this other stuff. Once you know the truth, you know why you're here. You know the big questions in life. You know the answers to those questions. Don't look back and go, well, you know, I kind of like this way, but you know, I kind of look back. I had some good times back then. Jesus Christ said, no, if you're going to follow me, follow me. If you're not, don't follow me at all. I want commitment. I will give, be committed to you, but I ask that you be committed to me, because guess what? It's a marriage. It's a marriage, and it's a serious commitment. So no one having put his hand to the plow and look back is fit for the kingdom of God. Pretty blunt. Pretty blunt. He's serious about the kingdom of God. I'd like you to go to chapter 10. Chapter 10 is an interesting story.

Chapter 10 and verse 9.

Here he sent 70 of his disciples out, and they did these incredible things, and they went to these villages. They split up by twos, and they healed people, and they did all these amazing works. They preached the gospel. They did everything you could ask.

And they came back, and they were so excited, because they had done all these things.

And what did Jesus Christ?

He says, And heal the sick who are there, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.

And so people today even say, Oh, well, the church is the kingdom. We've had that before. Different churches, oh, it's the kingdom. Or, the kingdom is now because it's inside you. Or, the kingdom of now is just everybody, because you treat everybody good. That's the kingdom of God. He gives an example here. No, he's saying, the kingdom of God has come near you. You're able to see that in the kingdom of God, there will be incredible healings. There won't be sickness.

And you must realize it. As he says in verse 11, Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you. And we need to realize when we pray, when we study, when we fast, when we read His Word, when we keep His Sabbath, when we keep the holidays, when we do this stuff, the kingdom of God is near us.

Because we understand it. We understand that all these things do, they picture becoming millennial reign of Christ. This is what He's saying. You can experience some of this now, but it will be fully felt when He returns.

And that's why some people have even stated that a third of this book is all prophecy in the Bible. And so much of it tells what's going to happen when Jesus Christ does return. He even spends a whole chapter, Matthew 24, telling about it, about what to look for before His return.

Let me turn to chapter 12 of Luke.

Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12.

Makes this incredible statement in chapter 12.

Verse 32.

He says in verse 31, But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's... What? Good pleasure. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He wants to give you this kingdom. He wants you to be a part of this kingdom. But it does take commitment.

You can't have it. And what is a Burger King? Have it your way. Not happening. Okay. You can have the kingdom, but you're going to have it God's way. Jesus Christ's way.

Verse 40. Here's a message to us. Luke 12 verse 40. Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect.

Don't be thinking, well, I can get my act together next year. Wait a minute. I'll get religious just before I die.

Give me a deathbed confession. I think I'll be good at that. It's not going to fly. That's not what he's talking. He said, therefore, you be ready.

They are having a memorial service today for a guy that Mary and I both know, know his family, spent time, he was a deacon in the Marfreesboro, Tennessee church, who just died in his sleep at 62 years of age this week.

None of us know. None of us know. Are you ready?

That's what he says. Let's go to John 18. John 18.

So we begin to wrap this up. John 18. Get towards after the high priestly prayer, and we get to the end. And John 18.

And verse 36.

As he is confronted by Pilate, just as here's Jesus' chance to just work his way right out of being sacrificed. But he's not about to. But even though he is faced with death, he's going to point out one thing. Jesus answered and said, My kingdom is not of this world. And ours is not of this world. It's not our world. We're just passing through it at this time. Our world's coming. Coming kingdom of God. The start of it is just a thousand years. Then it goes on for eternity.

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. So I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly. He couldn't say no. Christ could not lie. Yes, I'm a king. I'm going to be the king of kings. Where's the other kings? I'm looking at many.

The king of kings.

You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born. And for this cause I have come into the world. That I should bear witness of the truth.

I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth does what? Here's my voice. If you're going to be part of that kingdom, you're going to hear His voice. You're going to know these scriptures are going to pop out at you. You're just not going to read the Bible. You're going to study it. It's going to be like, Didn't get that one last week.

This is what it's about.

Let's turn over to Acts.

Acts 1.

Acts 1 and verse 6.

Acts 1 and verse 6 says, Therefore when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore?

What? The kingdom of Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall...

Power. You shall receive power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Everywhere.

Everywhere.

And that's why I guess I love Revelation 20 and verse 6, where it says, And they shall reign with Him for a thousand years. Revelation 20 verse 6. So He tells us how long? Because a thousand years is just the beginning, as we know. That's for later sermons. He tells us where, and it's going to be on this earth. And He tells us when this Kingdom is going to happen, when it's going to come about at His return. Makes it pretty clear. Pretty clear.

Christ spent the bulk of His three and a half years' ministry, preaching, teaching, and speaking about the coming Kingdom of God. And He gave us one encapsulating Scripture that we should all know. Some are very good at remembering Scriptures. Others, not very good at remembering Scriptures. Some people have it, some people don't.

But this is one you should. This is one that everyone in here can. And I think it's very important to Jesus Christ, because He gave it in the Sermon on the Mount.

It's Matthew 6.33. Matthew 6.33, just one line.

And to me, it was a very important line. To Jesus Christ, it's very important.

And it's about making the main thing the main thing.

Matthew 6, verse 33. Seek ye first! Seek you first! The what? Kingdom of God. And His righteousness. It's first, it was for Christ. He knew how great this would be. He came down and became flesh. He knew what it was to be divine. He knew what it was to be all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything. And He came down here, and guess what He did? After 30 years, He said, You don't want this as your reward. You want this. You want the Kingdom of God coming down here. Been there, done that.

And you want the Kingdom of God. You want it because it's so great. Remember, as I say many times, memory scripture for me, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. He said, Know it, eye is not seen, nor hear heard, nor has entered the heart of man the things that God has planned for those who despise Him.

It's for those who love Him. He said, You've never even dreamed it. You can't even believe it if you made it up in your brain.

You can't. That's something He wants us. That's why He spoke about the Kingdom. That's why He was so passionate, so zealous about the Kingdom. Is He wants us to get a picture of it. He wants us to be able to think about that when times are tough, and times will be tough. Times have been tough. He said, Don't think about that. Think about the Kingdom. Where there is no vision, my people perish.

That's what He's about.

Are we as passionate? Are we as zealous? Are we as obsessed with the Kingdom of God as our future King? The King of Kings was. Was and is about the Kingdom of God.

I want to look at, quote you one last scripture. You don't have to turn there. You can just write it down. Because I want you to understand it's not just about His Kingdom, because He makes that so clear.

It's about our Kingdom. Our Kingdom. Yes, He said it's the Kingdom of God. It's the Kingdom of Heaven. It's the Kingdom. But He also says in Matthew 25 and verse 34, Matthew 25, 34, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world. From the foundation to the world. It's our Kingdom. It's His Kingdom. Because we're family. We're God's family. And Christ, our elder brother, was just ringing the bell, calling out to His future brothers and sisters.

It's about the Kingdom. And sometimes the only way to have possession of something is to have an obsession for that something.

We need to make sure that our passion, our love, our desire to seek first the Kingdom of God is as strong as possible, as close as possible to our elder brother, Jesus Christ.

With Him it was about the Kingdom of God.