The True Gospel of the Kingdom of God

Well, good morning again, brethren. And it's wonderful to be able to be up here and to see you and to listen to you sing, and be able to worship God and thank God for the incredible blessings. That last song, in many ways, is remarkably killing. Because, you know, the more we are close to God, the more we draw close to our Father and our elder brother, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the more peaceful, the more calm, the more able are we to manage the difficulties that we do face in this life.

I wanted to cover something today that certainly is not brand new, but it's a reminder that we have a mission. We have a job in proclaiming the gospel to the world. Now, many churches think that they are doing that. And yet, what kind of gospel are they teaching? You often see gospel preaching or gospel singing, mostly just talking about some kind of church-related singing or preaching or teaching. And yet, is that exactly the gospel that Jesus brought to the earth?

Too many times, and certainly there is not bad or wrong to have a focus on what Jesus did as He came to the earth and extended forgiveness to mankind. We never want to overlook that, or we don't want to miss the benefit of enjoying a relationship with God and with His Son, Jesus Christ. But see, the message that Jesus brought was not solely about Himself. It was about what?

About His coming Kingdom. Here in John 18, you see Pilate talking to Jesus. This is actually right toward the end of his life, and as he appeared before Pilate, in verse John 18, verse 33, Pilate summoned Jesus and said, Are you the king of the Jews? Because that's what he'd been told. And Jesus said, Well, are you asking this of your own, or have somebody else tell you that? Pilate said in verse 35, Am I a Jew?

Your own nation and your chief priest have handed you over to me. What have you done? He was looking at it purely from a physical standpoint, and he didn't comprehend, nor did those who were handing Jesus over. They didn't comprehend exactly who He was. But Jesus said in verse 36, My Kingdom. So what did Jesus talk about? Well, He talked about His Kingdom. Whenever we think back to what we read in Matthew 13, there are more than half a dozen parables about the Kingdom.

And of course, in many other places, you find statements about and inspiration and instruction about the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that's coming. A Kingdom that we are seeking. A Kingdom that we want to be a part of. But it's a Kingdom that is yet to be established and set up here on earth, and yet we are in preparation for that Kingdom. He says, My Kingdom is not from this world. So I'm not the ruler over Judea, or I'm not the Roman Caesar.

I'm not any of the other authorities that they would have recognized at that time. He says, My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were from this world, then My followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My Kingdom is not from here. And Pilate said, So you are a king. And Jesus said, You say that I'm a king. He was saying correctly, rightly, you are saying that I am a king. And certainly He is the King of the Kingdom.

And for this I was born. For this cause I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice. And then, of course, Pilate is confused. And he says, Well, what is truth? Well, Jesus, I just told you the truth. The truth is that I am the King of the Kingdom of God. The truth is that I have come to introduce that Kingdom. Not to install it, but to introduce it. And certainly that's what we see throughout then, the pages of what we find in the New Testament, the writings of Paul, the writings of the other Gospel writers.

They all point out that we are growing to be a part of the Kingdom. Here in 1 Corinthians 15, in this book, Paul is trying to help the people in Corinth and all of us today to realize, you know, we're flesh and blood right now. We've got a lot of things to overcome. We don't need to be divided.

They were. They were quite conflicted, quite divided, quite confused in some ways. But Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 49, Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, this physical fleshly image, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. We will ultimately have a spirit life with God. And in verse 50, I'm saying this, brethren, or what I am saying, brethren, is this. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. See, we're not yet full participants in the Kingdom that will be established when Christ returns.

And yet, we look forward to that time. We yearn for that. We're told to seek that time. Here in John 3, John chapter 3, it says, As Jesus talked to Nicodemus, who came to him, and, you know, he was puzzled about how magnificent this man was, and Nicodemus was one of the leaders of the Jewish community. And he came to Jesus privately. He didn't want to advertise that he was going to see him. But he came to him, and Jesus explained here in chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus said, See, here Jesus talks about a process.

A process of, in essence, receiving initially the Holy Spirit of God, which, of course, in the book of Acts, we see that beginning on a wider scale, with Peter's preaching after the day of Pentecost, or on the day of Pentecost. And yet here, Jesus talks about that, not only that initial receipt of the Holy Spirit, but the growth and development period, which essentially is the rest of our life. However long that is, in some cases that can be shorter, in some cases it is longer.

It's something that God determines. But ultimately, we will be born into the kingdom of God, or inherit the kingdom whenever Christ returns, or if we're still alive at that time, we will be raised in a resurrection. Or if we've already died, we're raised in a resurrection. If we're still alive, then we are changed.

And of course, we know that we're to seek first the kingdom of God. So why is it that there's so much confusion that people have about the kingdom of God? Many people think that they are the kingdom of God, that whatever church they go to is the kingdom of God. And see, we are anticipating that, but we also believe what the Spirit of God gives us understanding to believe and what the Word of God actually tells us. Because it does tell us, because this was the message that Jesus gave.

See, He preached what the true gospel is. He would say in Matthew 24 that the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to all the whole world as a witness. And then the end is going to come. So we have a job. We have a responsibility to do that. In the gospels, you see Jesus teaching about this. I mean, it's written about what He did and what He said. Like I said, many people are confused about it, but we're not. Why are we not? Well, because we believe what God says, for one thing.

Why are we not confused? This shouldn't be a topic that would be confusing, I think, to any of us. Well, because we observe the law of God, we celebrate the festivals of God. The focus of the Feast of Tabernacles is the kingdom of God on earth. We celebrate that every year. We go through that every year. And yet, we have to be reminded and continually think about the fact that we are preparing, we are growing to be a part of the coming kingdom that Christ is going to install on earth when He returns.

And we read about Zechariah 14 and about the nations actually learning to come to allow the rule of God in their lives. That's what in the latter part of Zechariah 14 it talks about. Well, people are going to be told about the Feast. Some are going to come up. Some aren't. Man, he says, we'll work with them until they get their attention a little more. And they eventually learn, no, you have to obey God. You have to follow God's instructions.

And see, whenever I say the rule of God in our lives, you know, that is what conversion is about. That is a change from our carnal, hostile, angry, resistive nature, the one that Satan, the prince of the power of the air and the God of the world, this world interjects, deceives the whole world in all of us. We come out of that and then we pursue the rule of God in our life. We pursue in surrender. See, James 4 talks about submitting ourselves to God. Most of us can quote many of these verses.

Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Draw close to God and God will draw close to you. See, that started out with submit yourself to God. Submit yourself to the rule of God in your life. And then that's how we are, in essence, growing toward eventually being born into the kingdom. Inherit the kingdom. Enter the kingdom that will be set up whenever Christ returns. I want to point this out in just two ways, one of which directly what Jesus said and another what Paul preached.

Because clearly, you know, what Jesus said is what we go on, but you also find that the apostles were sent to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and they were teaching about the kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And yet Paul was going to teach that or preach that to a Gentile world who knew very little. They were, you know, not really familiar as much with the Old Testament. You know, the world of the people around Israel at the time, you know, the people of Judah.

They were familiar with that, but the Greek world wasn't. That's where Paul was preaching to the Gentiles. He was talking to people in Italy and people in Greece and people in Turkey today. What do we find there today? Well, many of them are overcome by a Muslim world. Many of them are overcome by the Catholic world, which of course professes to be Christian. And yet, you know, is it really following the Word of God? Is it really following the kingdom of God as we understand it? Well, first of all, what did Jesus say? Here in Luke 16, Luke 16, you see Luke just stating, chapter 16, verse 16, the law and the prophets were in effect until John came, and since then the kingdom or the gospel of the kingdom of God, good news, of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. I think some of the translations of that are a little, they vary a little of that, but the focus of what it is that, you know, the preaching that Jesus gave was about the kingdom of God. It was about what His kingdom is like, what His kingdom is, how it is a goal, how we are to be motivated toward that. If we just jump back to Mark chapter 1, you see in Mark chapter 1, verse 1, beginning of the good news in verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So obviously the gospel is certainly about Jesus or about what He said. And in verse 14, now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, the gospel of the kingdom, saying that time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near or is at hand repent and believe that gospel. See, what kind of gospel are we supposed to believe? Well, about the rule of God, the rule of Christ as He returns to the earth. And so, you know, we're in preparation for that as we follow through today. You know, we follow through in our obedience and responsiveness to God. If we drop back to Matthew chapter 4, we can go to each one of the accounts of Christ's life and see His message was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. In Matthew chapter 4, in verse 23, it says, Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness among the people. You know, He did that in order, you know, in a sense, to draw a crowd. He did that to show mercy. He did that to show love, and to show that, you know, He's a power through which you can eventually be a part of the kingdom. Let's see, His message was the gospel of the kingdom in chapter 9. Chapter 9, verse 35.

Jesus went about the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. When He saw the crowds in verse 36, He had compassion because they were like many people today. They were confused.

They were harassed. They seemed helpless. They seemed like sheep without a shepherd. And so then He said, the harvest is plenteous, and the laborers are few. You ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest. See, that's what we find the condition of the world is today. For the most part, people who you often even see on television or in any way reported magazines or newspapers or otherwise, you know, they don't have the contentment or the peace or the goal, because all of us have a goal of being a part of the kingdom, of being a part of being a servant in the kingdom.

Because clearly that's what Christ is saying. He's saying, follow my example, and my example is serving one another. And so there's a lot of different verses that we could go to for this. In Luke, let's look at a couple of verses there. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, starting in verse 42. Luke 4, verse 42, at daybreak. He went into a private place, a deserted place, and the crowds were looking for Him.

When they reached Him, they wanted to prevent Him from leaving, and He said, What did Jesus say in verse 43? I must proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God to the other cities as well, for I was sent for this purpose. You know, that's incredibly clear that as He would later talk to Pilate, and Pilate would be asking, Are you the king of the Jews? He says, Well, I'm a king. I'm the king of the kingdom of God.

But nobody really understands that right now. And yet this is what He said even prior to that, even when He would go to synagogues and teach, He would teach the good news of the kingdom, the kingdom of God. In chapter 8, verse 1, Luke 8, verse 1, Soon after He went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Again, there's so many different references about what it was that Jesus taught. And of course, what it was, He would direct His church to teach. And clearly, we'll see that Paul would be teaching as well. Let's use one other verse here in Acts. Acts chapter 1, of course, is leading up to the day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that would be shared with a much wider group of people that God would choose to draw to understand the Word of God.

See, in essence, brethren, that's where we are. We understand the Word of God. And do we understand every bit of it? Well, much of it. There may be something that's not quite clear to us as yet. There may be areas of the Bible that we're not familiar with at all, because, you know, if you haven't read them recently, I'm bemoaning my memory anymore because I just don't remember stuff like I used to.

Not near as many things, not where they are. But if I've read it recently, oh yeah, well, I remember having read that before. And yet, you know, God is continually, you know, providing us a focus and a motivation. Here in Acts chapter 1, in verse 3, it says, "...after his suffering, Jesus presented himself alive by many convincing proofs, appearing to them..." So, primarily to the disciples. "...appearing to them during forty days, and speaking about..." What?

"...speaking about the kingdom of God." I went back to try to see the different accounts of where Jesus interacted with his disciples. You know, some of them, there were most of them there, and later Thomas was there. And you can read pretty easily in John 21 about him interacting with the disciples, and when they went out and are fishing, and of course, they figure out, well, Jesus better fish them than the rest of us, because he actually knows where to fish. You know, we've been fishing all night, we haven't caught anything, and then he says, fish over there, and of course, that gives you an idea of who really is involved in catching the fish.

Well, the one who is drawing people, if he refers to people in that way, he's the one who draws us. The Father draws us to Jesus Christ. But clearly, you know, I read through those, and I don't see him talking about the Kingdom of God, and yet he was telling his disciples, you know, you have a mission, you are going to verify who I am.

You are my witnesses of what? Well, of my rulership in the Kingdom, my leadership that you are to follow. And so, if we drop down to verse 6, so when they had come together, they ask him, Lord, is this a time when you are going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?

See, they had an idea about the Kingdom. They had some comprehension of what he was talking about, because clearly he was teaching them about the Kingdom of God, what it said in verse 3. But in verse 6, they said, are you installing it now? And he said, it's not for you to know the times and periods of Father are set by His own authority, but you are going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

See, this was how he taught the Kingdom of God. He proclaimed a life beyond the grave. He proclaimed the development period. You could say the gestational period for all of us as little begun. We have begun. We started as God gave us His Spirit, and we have a lot of growing to do, and ultimately we will be born into God's family and into His Kingdom. So you see many things that Christ said that would support preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Let's see what Paul said. Because Paul preached not only to the Jews, beyond the Jews. He would first go to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. But his primary focus was to the Gentile world. So here in 1 Corinthians 6, let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. And of course this, in a sense, takes us through the New Testament, through the Gospels, through the writings of Paul.

And you can find this supported, of course, even in the latter books of the New Testament. But here in 1 Corinthians 6, you know, he actually, in several of these instructive letters to the churches, he actually says you need to be sure to be growing. You need to be sure not only to be obedient, but you need to be growing. And so we have more to do. It's not enough just to believe.

We have to have a response. We have to obey. So here in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, do you know, or do you not know, that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? So here he says, all you have to do is obey? No. Or excuse me, is to believe?

No, you have to obey as well. Do you not, don't be deceived. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, automites, thieves, the greedy, the drunkards, the revilers, robbers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. So again, Paul's focus was about the kingdom of God, but it was also on obeying. It was on living a life that is guided by the rule of God.

That's why Paul would write in Romans 8 about how the carnal mind is hostile toward God. It's enmity toward God, and it is not subject to God's law. See, that's a description you can never get away from. That's where all of us have been. But God is changing that. He's changing that because He is in the process of converting us. He essentially says the same thing here in Galatians 5. Galatians chapter 5, you see a section here about the works of the flesh and then the works of the spirit, and of course it contrasts, or the fruit of the spirit, I guess it is.

It contrasts the difference. But here in Galatians 5 verse 19, it says, The works of the flesh are obvious. Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, things like these. I'm warning you, as I warned you to before, those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, that's what we're told to be using as a motivation or as a goal, inherit the kingdom of God. But he says, unless we choose to obey, unless we choose to be under the rule of God today, how can we expect to be in the kingdom of God in the future? Here in Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5, of course he's telling them, you know, you need to live a life that you could describe as a new life, and he even gives some rules for a new life in chapter 4.

But in chapter 5, in verse 5, he says, be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person or one who is greedy, that is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And so his instruction is consistent. Actually, we can go on over to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 11, may you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints and the light.

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of our sins. Here he says, that is your Christian life. You've been rescued, you've been drawn out of sin, you've been set on the path to eternal life, you've been set on the path to be a part of his kingdom, the kingdom of his Son.

Now here's a couple of verses if we go back to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 19, this is clearly what Paul was preaching whenever he went, whether it was to Ephesus or in Corinth or up in Thessalonica, even in Rome. But in Acts chapter 19, Paul's in Ephesus, and it says in verse 8, he entered the synagogue, and for three months he spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. And some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the way before the congregation. He left them taking the disciples with him and argued daily in the lecture hall of Terenas.

This continued for two years. See, that was a focus of what Paul would be teaching, the kingdom of God. And yet some of them would refuse, some of them would resist that, some of them did not want to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Some of them certainly didn't, many didn't want to embrace what Paul's message was. That didn't change the message, as we're going to see in chapter 20. You see him, as he was speaking to, he had gathered the elders that were around Ephesus, he had drowned them out to the seacoast in Miletus, and he was greeting them or meeting with them before he was going to take off and leave.

Here in Acts chapter 20, he says in verse 24, I don't count my life of any value to myself if only I can finish the course and finish the ministry that I receive from the Lord to testify to the good news of God's grace. And now here he described it a little bit differently, but clearly that's a part of the message, a part of the message that God wants us to understand because it is by His grace that we've been drawn to know the truth of God.

Now, he said in verse 25, I know that none of you, among whom I've gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. See, he knew he was leaving. He knew he would not return. He knew he would not be able to teach them and to work with them and to love them as he had done for actually several years of his ministry had been in Ephesus or with these elders who were working with the saints who made up the church there.

And if we look at the very end of the book of Acts here, this, of course, is toward the end of Paul's life. He is in Rome. In a sense, he's in house arrest. He seems to have quite a bit of freedom to do what he felt like he needed to do. But here in Acts chapter 28, he says in verse 23, they had set a day to meet with him. When they came to Paul at his lodging, in great numbers from morning until evening, he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

And some were convinced by what he said, and others refused to believe. And yet, rather than all of us, have received the message of the kingdom of God. We believe in the rule of God, and we grow in that. And yet, all of us seek the kingdom of God, and that's yielding to a rule from God that's explained in his word. You can read in verse 24 here about Paul testifying to the kingdom of God, but if you drop down to verse 28, he says, Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen.

And so, even though some of the Jews wouldn't listen, many of the Gentiles would. And it says in verse 30, he lived there the next couple of years, two whole years, at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

It appears that Paul had an ability or capacity to reach out to people, whoever would come, whoever would listen to what he had to say, but clearly not only did Jesus teach the kingdom of God, but Paul taught that as well. So, I hope in going through this that we're simply reminded that we are looking forward to a time, and this is actually, I was able to catch the telecast yesterday. I usually forget and don't think about it on Friday morning at 7.30, and I know you can listen to them anytime you want, but I happen to be looking at the right thing at the right time and realize, oh, this is about to come on.

And I could watch the telecast, and Darris McNeely was going over some things that are prophesied events that are to lead up to the return of Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of God. That's what our message is. That's what the message of the Church is. That's what we believe. And yet, what he described was it really doesn't do you much good. It doesn't do you much good to know all the prophetic what's going to happen. We can show you what the Bible says, what it is that we are seeing today that appears to be leading up to that.

But what really would do you some good is responding, being motivated by that message to seek that kingdom. And of course, this is what we see here in Acts chapter 14, another time when Paul was appealing. He was going back through some of the churches that he had established earlier. He was going back to see how they were doing.

And in verse 21, they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples. Or after they had done that, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch. And there he strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying it is through many or much tribulation, many persecutions that you must enter the kingdom of God.

What can we expect in this age? What can we expect after embracing the rule of God in our lives and embracing the kingdom? What can we expect? Well, it is through much tribulation that you can enter the kingdom of God. That's a time that we're living through right now, a time that is the rest of our lives, however long that is. We yearn for the conclusion of this age and for the introduction of Christ's rule on earth. Let's see, He's ruling in our lives today. And of course, you know, we see in Revelation 20 the establishment of that kingdom as He returns in chapter 19.

He deposes Satan or binds him as he has been deceiving the nations. In verse 4 of chapter 20, He says, I saw thrones and those seated on them. They were given authority, authority to judge. See, that's what we're being prepared to do, to serve in that way. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the Word of God. And so over the centuries there are people who have lived and died with an awareness and a focus on the kingdom.

They had not worshiped the beast or its image, they had not received His mark on their forehand or their hand, and they came to life. And so most of these would be resurrected. There might be some who would yet be alive and would fit that category, but those who are going to be resurrected, they came to life and they reigned with Christ a thousand years.

And it says in verse 5, the last part, this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in that first resurrection over which the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him a thousand years. Now God talks about the priests teaching the way of God. See, we read one verse, talks about the way, the way that is yielded to God, in submission to God, in respect of God's law, in respect of honoring Him and then teaching others to honor God.

As I mentioned in Zechariah 14, people are going to learn to follow God. They're going to learn to respect God's ways. And yet, as we are converted today, then we are respecting, we are learning to respect the ways of God.

And of course, ultimately, we are to fulfill what it says in Matthew 24, 14. At the end of the age, the kingdom of God is going to be preached. It has got to be preached, and the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the world as a witness, and then the end will come. So, Brandon, we have a job to do, a job that is focused on God's kingdom. It's focused on yieldedness to His rule in our lives today and our development and growth.

And for us to be of good cheer. We are in preparation, and we want to be grateful for that and be able to benefit from an understanding of what the kingdom is about. Not simply about Jesus, just believing in Jesus, but far beyond that. That certainly is a starting point, but ultimately it's about His rule and His kingdom that He is going to restore to the earth or bring to the earth His government that needs to be restored. He's going to establish that so that all can be learning and be taught that true way of life, which He describes in His work.