The Kingdom Is at Hand

Let's go back to Mark 1, where we started here this morning. Mark 1. Verse 14, speaking, of course, of John the Baptist. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. What does he mean by the kingdom of God is at hand? Obviously, the time was fulfilled, and that there were certain prophecies about the first coming of the Messiah that were fulfilled.

He fulfilled those things. After this point, he lived his life, did his ministry, and of course, he was crucified and resurrected. So how could the kingdom of God be at hand when it's not here yet? What did he mean by that? Well, this morning we saw that Jesus' life and death and resurrection, he became Savior. Through that process, he defeated Satan, he became the high priest, and he established his church. The establishment of the church is what we want to really talk about here this afternoon. I have a map that I want to show you.

First, let's go to Luke 24. Remember how I said in the first seminar, when you take the entire Old Testament, it takes place in a small area. People come and go from that area, but it's all around the Jerusalem. It's all around where God's people are going to be, so that the Messiah could come. But something happens after Jesus' resurrection. He brings his disciples together. Now remember, most of the disciples at the very beginning, well, all of the twelve, were Jews.

In fact, the earliest Christians were just considered a Jewish sect, just one group part of Judaism. But he gives them a commission here that tells that they must go beyond what is the normal confines of Israel. Luke 24, 44. Jesus says to them, These are the words in which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things might be fulfilled, which was written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me.

He says, I told you about those prophecies, and as they happened, I explained them to you, as he explained them to his disciples. And if you read through the Gospels, you will see how he explained it to them and how it was fulfilled.

He says, I did that. And he opened their understanding, verse 45, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. And he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ, the Messiah Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. Now, His death and resurrection for our sins must produce a human response, verse 47, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning and Jerusalem.

He said to all nations. He didn't say simply to all Jews dispersed through the nations. Something new was happening in God's plan to create and establish the Kingdom of God on this earth. From this point forward, He was going to begin to plant the seeds of the Kingdom. Now, you and I, and this is what makes this difficult, for those who respond to Jesus Christ. For those who say, Okay, I'm actually going to give my life here to God, and I'm going to live this way, and I'm going to submit to God's rule of my life, we become participants in a Kingdom submitting to its rules, submitting to its way of life, while still living physically in a Kingdom ruled by Satan.

In fact, none of us can fully participate in the Kingdom of God as long as we are physical human beings. Paul said that, 1 Corinthians. If you have a Bible, let's go to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. This is known as the resurrection chapter, where the Apostle Paul talks about the resurrection. He talks about a Christ's return, how people will be changed, and they will be given spirit bodies. People say, Well, what's a spirit body? I don't know. I don't have one, but I sure want to get one. And the older I get, the more I want to get one. And he says that we're going to receive a spirit body.

And in verse 50, he says, Now this I say, brother, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. He says, you and I can't fully participate in the kingdom of God until we're no longer physical. So we're between those two points. The points where we talked about this calling, we're going to talk more about that this afternoon, where God plants the seed, and the seed grows.

The seed is completed. Now, if you've ever planted anything in your life, you know that it goes through a process. It starts with a seed. The seed gets planted, and then eventually you have a full mature plant. The plant doesn't look anything like the seed. Now, it's interesting. That's the analogy in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the apostle Paul uses to talk about becoming a spirit being, receiving a spirit body.

He says, God starts with a seed and produces a plant, and they don't even look like each other. It's like two different things. So God's kingdom does exist. It exists throughout the universe. God still rules the universe, except for this little planet where for a short period of time, He lets, He allows Satan to rule. We talked about that. And you are now being called, if you respond to that call, to participate in God's kingdom now, even though you're living in an occupied territory.

In very many ways, that's what it's like to be a Christian. In very many ways, it's like you live in an occupied territory, and that you're a citizen of another country. And so God begins to call people and assemble them together and say, I am going to do my purpose, my plan, through you. And there's two parts to that purpose. It is to become part of the ecclesia in order to grow and change and become a child of God, and it is to share that with others. There's two parts to it. To become like Jesus Christ, and then to share that information with others. The Apostle Peter described what it is to be part of this group of called-out ones, this assembly where God is planting the seeds of the kingdom.

In 2 Peter 2, I'm sorry, 1 Peter 2. I don't know why I said 2 Peter. I ate too much pimento cheese. I just want to go to sleep. I like to never make stuff for that. Like for me, I feed all this lean food and good food for me. So I get to stuff myself with this stuff. Anyway, 1 Peter 2, verse 9. Here's what Peter says to the church. This first letter of what we call the first epistle, the first letter of Peter, he writes a letter to the church at large.

Many of Paul's letters are written to specific congregations. Peter writes to a large number of churches, and he tells them in verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. He says the church is the beginning of the kingdom of God. It's not here yet, but this is where it starts. This is where the seeds are planted. We're becoming a nation, even though we live within a nation, if you will.

If we live within a world that's controlled by Satan. He says a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. You must be called into this, called into what God is doing, so he may be directly involved in your life, and you must respond to that call. We have the choice not to respond. He says who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

The church that God is creating, and it's interesting when you look at so many churches, they become a church of people that are all the same. If you look at a church in a certain neighborhood, usually all the people who go to that church are from that neighborhood, and they're the same. They think the same, they act the same. The church of God is supposed to be a mixture of all kinds of people.

It's to go to the world. It's to spread out to everybody and say who wishes, who desires to be part of what God is doing, who desires to repent, who desires to let God rule their lives. First 11 is very interesting. Peter says, beloved, I thank you as sojourners and pilgrims. This is what it's like to become part of the ecclesia.

Jesus came to found this church. What is it like to be a true Christian on this earth? It's like you're a pilgrim. It's like you really don't quite belong. To grasp hold of true Christianity is to be out of step with society all the time. It's to feel a little bit out of place all the time.

To function within society, but to know that you don't belong there, that you actually you are part of something greater that's coming. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. Peter says, we have to make sure that we become the holy people that God wants us to become. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles or among the nations.

See, they were scattered throughout the nations now. The church was all over the place. And he says, wherever you are, let your conduct be right before God. That when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The day of visitation. When Jesus comes, he says, looking forward to that time when the kingdom of God is set on this earth, people will glorify God because they will say, oh, those people were living the way God wanted them to live. Those people were part of God's plan. That neighbor of mine, who I thought was a little wacky, was following God. I get that, though. I thought they were always just a little bit too religious, you know?

Took this religion thing a little too serious. I understand now. And they praise God because of it. God did not just call you to stay just as you are. There's an old theme that used to run through a lot of the tent meetings back years ago. Jesus is calling you just the way you are. It's not true. God doesn't want us to stay just the way we are. God wants us to become His children. My dad, I was very close to my dad.

When I was a child, I wanted to walk like dad, talk like dad, act like dad. I still have all kinds of quirky little things I do because why? My dad did it that way. Actually, some of them don't make any sense, except that's the way he did it. Right? God has children who want to be like Him. They see their brother Jesus Christ, and they want to walk like Him, and talk like Him, and act like Him, and think like Him. They want to be part of that family.

That's not an easy road to walk because it goes against their own human nature. It's not easy to be that way. It's a lifelong dedication. It's a lifelong commitment, and it's a lifelong time of letting God work with you, and sometimes it's painful.

Sometimes it's painful. God makes us look at the parts of us that aren't unacceptable to Him. We're not acceptable to God the way we are, so He's going to change us. See, it's not like He says, well, you're unacceptable to us, so forget you. God says, no, come to me, child.

I mean, He has to spank you a little bit. I mean, He has to send you to your room once in a while, but I will teach you how to live, and how to be happy, and how to be my child. The idea that you can be, have a father-child relationship with the Creator of the universe is almost beyond imagination, especially if you came from a background where you were abused as a child. You know, maybe your dad abused you, and it's like, well, how in the world can I look at God as a father when I see what my father did? This isn't your father, your physical father.

This isn't your Creator, God. The relationship He was to have with you is one of perfect love, the perfect justice, because Christ died for us. How much should we want to not sin because of that price? Look at Philippians chapter 3. Here's how the apostle Paul talks about what happens when we respond to this calling, to come into the assembly, the ecclesia that he is creating. Look at Philippians 3.20. He says, For our citizenship is in heaven. I mentioned this last time, but I'll mention it again. People ask me if I'm a Republican or a Democrat or an independent.

My answer always is, I'm a monarchist. I believe in a king, and I vote for him. No, he's a king without my vote. I follow my king. Our citizenship is in heaven. Now, we have a dual citizenship. Some of you here have a dual citizenship because some of you may be from Mexico and the United States.

I know two or three people here who either have an Australian citizenship and an American citizenship or an English citizenship and an American citizenship. But you have another citizenship that overrides every other citizenship we may have. We have a citizenship in heaven. We are citizens of a kingdom that is not here yet but is coming. And we are to represent that kingdom to everybody we meet, including the idiots that cut you off in traffic.

We are to represent that kingdom. This is the calling. It's not just come as you are except Jesus. Somehow you're forgiven and now go live life the way you wanted to. That's what this is all about. It is about adoption as a child. It is about citizenship. It is about commitment. It is about giving God everything. It is about dominion. Who rules your life? You? I guarantee you, if you think you rule your life, Satan does.

Does God rule your life? How much are you willing to hold back? What are you willing to hold back? What are you willing not to give to God? Back in Philippians 3, verse 20, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior. He's already the Savior. Now He's got to come back. The Lord, the Master, the King, Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working day which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Just like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, He's going to change His body when He returns at the resurrection. We will see God as He is. So how does this calling take place? How does this calling take place? You know, God calls people just like He picked Abraham, just like He picked Moses.

I mean, the first thing Moses said was, not me. He said, oh yes, you. Well, look, I can't even talk. I stutter. Okay, I'll send Aaron your brother along. He can talk for you. I mean, every objection Moses came up with God fixed and said, you don't understand Moses. I'm calling you to do this. Are you really going to turn me down? If God's calling you, the question is, are you going to turn him down? Are you going to turn down the Creator of the universe who is saying, come repent, submit to my rule in your life and I will make you what you were originally created to be, which is my kid.

Are you willing to turn that down? Many people do. How does this calling take place? Jesus answered that in a parable. Let's go to Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Verse 3. It says, He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and some birds came and devoured them. Now, you have to picture in your head that we do this by machines today, but they would prepare a field and a person would literally go out with a bag of seed and throw it out.

You know, just throw it all over and throw it in so that it's prepared and it'll grow up. You can get a whole field of wheat that way. So the ground's prepared. He's going out and he's throwing out the seed. He says, This is how, or this is the parable that he's giving. He says, Some seed fell by the wayside, and birds came and ate it. Of course it does.

Everything my wife plants, not everything, because she's become diligent. It's an amazing warfare going on between my wife and the squirrels in the backyard. Because everything she plants, they dig up and they eat before it can come up.

And she's done it. She grows things by going out there and chasing those squirrels off all the time.

He says, Birds come and eat the seed, because it's not fallen in deep into the ground yet. It's still laying on the top. Some tell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear let him hear. Now you read on, the disciples came to him and said, we have no idea what you just taught those people. What does that mean?

And so he gives them the explanation starting in verse 18.

Jesus says, therefore, hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, the word of the kingdom, the word that human beings are under the bondage of a harsh tyrant, but God is going to free them through the first coming of the Christ to die and the second coming of the Christ to conquer Satan and establish God's kingdom on this earth. He says, when anyone hears that message, the message we're talking about today, and does not understand it, he says, when the wicked one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart, this is he who receives seed, by the way, son. He said, sometimes that seed goes out. This is how God throws out the seed. He throws it out, and it sort of lays on top of somebody's mind, and they sort of don't get it. They don't really understand it, and Satan comes along and says, you don't really want that, and takes it away.

Much of the seed that God throws out never even penetrates a person's mind. Verse 20, when he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he is no rude in himself, but endures only for a while, though in tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. He said, there's another kind of person that receives this seed, the seeding of the kingdom that's going on, the growing of an ecclesia that's going on. He says, there's other people who get it, and it's like, yes, I see this. I know this. This is what God wants in my life, and God wants to do something with me, and I can have a relationship with God. But when they have to realize, wait a minute, there's a price to be paid. God actually expects me to obey Him. Faith is not easy.

When it costs you a life of somebody, a child or somebody who dies, and you don't know why, faith is not easy when you lose a job. Faith is not easy when people persecute you. Faith is not easy when you don't understand what God is doing.

Faith is not easy when you're sick and you don't know why God doesn't heal you.

And he said, people just give up. And the seed just goes away. It just disintegrates.

Verse 22, Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and becomes unfruitful. Here's a person who receives it, who grows in that person, and that person begins to respond to God, and that person begins to have a relationship with God. That person begins to want to be part of the kingdom.

That person accepts Jesus Christ as a Savior.

And then that person just gets too busy. Too many other important things like television, or having a new car, or status, or money, or whatever. And he says, it just chokes it out.

Verse 23, And he who received the seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. Now, I want you to understand, the idea that we accept Jesus and nothing changes in our lives is not the teaching of the Bible. Verse 22 says, here's a person who receives the seed, it starts to grow, gets so involved in the world that they give it up, and they become unfruitful. In verse 23, he says, we know that the root, that seed is really in that person because their lives change. Christianity is about life-changing decisions.

It's about life-changing commitments. It's about life-changing citizenship. It's about life-changing relationship with God. Anything less than that is cheap Christianity.

Anything less than that is not what God wants for you.

Because God wants you to have expensive Christianity, so expensive he paid the price of his son for it. That's what he wants. There's a real price for this. God paid it. Are we willing to pay it? So this is how the seeding process takes place. God throws out seeds, and they land.

Some people take that seed and want that seed, and it grows, and it produces something in their lives. I said a minute ago that there's a difference between professing Jesus and truly being this Christian. I didn't make that up. Jesus says that.

In the Sermon on the Mount, let's go to Matthew 7. In the Sermon on the Mount, which explains so much of how this Kingdom of God works in our lives now. Read Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

But at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says one of the most harsh things he says in his entire ministry. And he's saying it about those whom he calls, who come to him. But their lives don't change.

They're basically the same person they used to be simply called a Christian.

You know, well, I'm a Christian now. I'm still a liar and a thief. You know, I still spend my time watching X-ray to movies and I still spend my time tricking people. I still spend my time thinking wrong thoughts and I still spend my time just being a rotten person. But I'm now a Christian since I've declared myself a Christian because I even accepted Jesus. Is that what this is about?

Here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in verse 19, Jesus says, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus said to really be in relationship with the Father or with Him, something happens.

We must submit to that. We must grow from it. We must become His children, not in name, but in reality. Verse 20 says, therefore, by their fruits you will know them.

Then verse 20 is just a frightening statement made by Jesus Christ.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of my Father in heaven.

That He will say to me in that day, that day is a reference prophetically to the end times when Jesus returns. Jesus says, in the day that He returns, many people will say to Him, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? Here are people who will say, but we were Christians.

Now, this worries me, because I look at the Scripture and I think, am I submitting to my King the way I should? Every time I read that thought comes into my mind.

Am I submitting to my King? Because I don't want to hear my King say this.

I don't want to hear this for anything in the world.

Verse 23, Jesus says, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

He goes on to say that someone who hears his sayings and doesn't respond to them is like a man who builds a house in sand and wind comes along and blows his house down. He says, those who listen to what he teaches and doesn't, lives by it, responds to it. He says, you build your house on a rock, the winds come and your house will survive. What kind of ground are you?

If God is thrown a seed into your life, the seed of his kingdom, what kind of ground are you? Stony ground, shallow ground, ground with thorns, good ground, because that's the real question that's being asked today.

Has God thrown you the seed of the kingdom where it can grow? And what kind of ground are you? It's the question he asked of all of us at some time or another.

Colossians 1 is very interesting. Here the Apostle Paul talks about the reward, the reward of submitting to this calling, the reward of understanding what it is and grasping it and grabbing hold of it, becoming just that tiny little part that each one of us is in this mosaic that God is creating of his plan. You know, the plan of God from far looks like a giant tapestry. You ever go up and look at the back of a giant tapestry, beautiful picture, and the back of it is just threads. It makes no sense for the back. Well, you and I are little threads in what God's doing. It may not seem a lot, make a lot of sense to you day by day at times, but when we are right with God, we're a thread to the tapestry. From where he looks at, it's an incredible historical picture. And what an honor it is to be a little thread in what God is doing. Colossians 1.9. Here Paul writes to the church at Colossae. He says, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful, at every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all patience and on suffering with joy, and giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and conveyed us into the kingdom of his son, of his love, and whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, qualified to become partakers of the inheritance of the saints. You know what the inheritance of the saints is according to the Scripture? It's a very simple concept. What is the inheritance of the saints? You know, we get a certain land or a certain amount of wealth. It's all things.

Okay, what's not included in it? What is not included in all?

The inheritance of the children of God is everything that is God's.

I tell my son, you know, when I die, you get my little house, my 50 different translations of the Bible. I say, wow, great! You get all things?

When God says he gives to his children an inheritance, it is all things.

That's the goal of this, to be with God in his family, with Jesus Christ, and all things.

What is the universe? That's the universe! Does that include the moon? I get that's all things.

Alpha Centauri, that's all things. It's all things!

Whatever is God's will be his family, will belong to his family.

Now, of course, to receive that inheritance, you have to let God have dominion in your life.

We have to allow God to reign in our lives, literally rule everything we do, to rule in our thoughts, in our actions, in our relationships. To be like Jesus Christ, even when being like Jesus Christ means you're out of step with the rest of the world, or you're persecuted, or bad things happen. Because all things is worth it. Because God is worth it. Because Jesus Christ is worth it. And that relationship is worth whatever sacrifice is asked of us. What kind of ground are you? Go to the last scripture. Let's go to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55.

This is the message that has to go out. This is the message that we started in Luke, right? Go and tell all nations this. And this is it. God is planting the seeds of the kingdom.

The kingdom is coming. Do you want to be part of it? Here's the seed.

What are you going to do with that seed?

Isaiah 55 verse 6, the prophet says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Not after the seed is gone.

Not after the seed has been picked up by the birds. Not after the seed has deteriorated. Not after the seed has been choked out by thorns. Seek God while he yet may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. Go back to what we were intended to be in relationship with our Father, in relationship with our Creator. Go back to what we were intended to be. Go back to Eden. And he will have mercy on him. And to our God, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

God says, For my thoughts, and verse 8, are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my way, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You and I could have never made up this tapestry of what God is doing. You and I, even as part of it, can't see what God is doing. Only from his viewpoint, standing back, looking at the tapestry of history, from the foundation of the earth, there was a plan. From the very beginning, as we said this morning in Genesis 3.15, he said, This is how I'm going to do this. And he did it through Abraham, and he did it through Isaac, and Jacob, and Sarah. And he did it right up through the whole history of Israel and Judah. He did it when Jesus came. He then said, Okay, we take the next step in this, because the time has been fulfilled for these things. We're going to do some different things now. We're going to the world. We're going to tell everybody. We're going to pick people from all over, and these people are going to come together. And they're going to tell others about it, because their lives are changed. When we get to the place where we no longer want to tell other people about the Kingdom of God, it's because it's become so complacent in our lives that we are no longer excited about the Kingdom of God, and that's a scary place to be. When we get to the place where we're ashamed of representing Jesus Christ, it's a scary place to be. Christ is returning. God is throwing out seed.

God is preparing people to serve Jesus Christ when He returns, because you read in Revelation, what happens to the saints when they're changed? They serve with Jesus Christ in changing the world. Are you an idealist? You like the idea of changing the world? You're frustrated because you can't do it? There's a way you can help change the world. You have to learn how to. There's a price to be paid.

There's a life to be lived and learning.

And when Jesus Christ returns, you can help Him change the world. Buy into that dream. You've got quite a life ahead of you.

We don't tell people about that dream because we don't believe in ourselves.

We have forgotten it.

To receive a seed from God, the seed of the kingdom, is a great act of mercy and grace on His part.

To ignore that grace or somehow accept the seed and not let fruit come out, not accept the duties of citizenship, responsibilities of family, can have eternal consequences.

God is spreading seeds. And the question I want to leave with you today is what kind of ground are you?