For the next several weeks, I plan to preach a series of lessons on the topic of the kingdom of heaven, and I hope to give you all a fresh perspective on a very biblical topic.  In the weeks ahead, we’re going to talk about heaven, about heaven’s connection to earth, and how all of that affects the way we live our Christian lives.  I hope that you will find this material both challenging and motivational.

But, this morning, to start things off, I just want to talk about the kingdom of God.  One of the most important themes that runs throughout the scriptures is the concept of the kingdom.  Unfortunately, the idea of a kingdom is a bit foreign to us because we don’t have kings in our country, so we don’t have kingdoms. 

In fact, the most famous kingdom in our country is a make-believe place called the Magic Kingdom which is found in Disney World.  Can you imagine what it would be like if the whole world was the Magic Kingdom?  Think about it.  Everything would be clean, everybody would be nice, the only object would be having fun, and life would be full of excitements and thrills.

There would, however, be a couple of  problems if this world was the Magic Kingdom. First of all, most of the world couldn’t afford to get in.  But the other problem is this: Has it ever occurred to you that in the Magic Kingdom there is no king?

            Well, the Bible tells us about another kingdom that does have a king. Unlike the Magic Kingdom, this is not a make-believe place, it’s a real kingdom. Unlike the Magic Kingdom which you can see with your eyes, you can’t see this kingdom.  And unlike the Magic Kingdom, which will someday disappear, this kingdom will last for all eternity.

The kingdom we read about in scripture is the kingdom of God.  It is a kingdom where Jesus Christ is King. 

Even when we go back into the Old Testament, we find that the concept of the kingdom was at the very heart of Jewish thought.  Beginning with King Saul, the nation of God’s people formed a kingdom.  But that kingdom eventually divided into two separate kingdoms, and neither one of those two kingdoms did a very good job of recognizing God as their true king.

And so, the prophets looked forward to the establishment of another kingdom.  For example, Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”  (Isaiah 9:7, NIV).

And so, for centuries, the Jewish people looked forward to that coming kingdom.  The kingdom is coming, God’s kingdom is coming!  So, you can imagine the excitement that was generated by John the Baptist when he began preaching and his sermon was summed up in one sentence – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). 

And then, when Jesus began teaching shortly after that, his message was also summed up in the same way – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17).  And, in fact, everything Jesus taught centered around the kingdom of God.  That phrase is found 61 times in the gospels.  Jesus said the reason he came to this earth was to introduce the kingdom of God.  He said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:43)

And so, as you read through the gospels, you find that many of Jesus’ parables were about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, which incidentally are simply two different terms for the same thing.  Matthew tends to use the phrase “kingdom of heaven” because he was writing to Jews who were more comfortable with that terminology, while Mark and Luke preferred to use the phrase “kingdom of God”.  But they both refer to the same thing.  The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God, so don’t be confused if I sometimes use one term and other times I use the other.  In the scriptures they refer to the same thing.

And so, in his parables, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, the kingdom of heaven is like a man planting seed, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field, the kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins waiting for a bridegroom, and so on. 

And we have sometimes taught that the “kingdom” in the New Testament is equivalent to the “church” so that every time Jesus mentions the kingdom, he’s talking about the church.  And there are definitely some passages where those two terms are used interchangeably.  For example, in Matthew 16, Jesus said to Peter, “on this rock I will build my church” and then he says right after that, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19).  I don’t think Jesus is talking about two different things there; I think he’s talking about the same thing.  The church is the kingdom of heaven.

In Mark 9, Jesus said to his apostles, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1).  I think it’s clear that Jesus was talking about the establishment of the church in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came upon them with power.  The church is the kingdom of God.

But we have often made the mistake of thinking that every time the word “kingdom” appears in scripture, it’s talking about the church.  So, for example, when we look at Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6, what is sometimes called the Lord’s Prayer, I have often heard it taught that Christians can’t pray this prayer anymore because part of the prayer says, “Thy kingdom come.”  And kingdom equals church, so Jesus was praying for the church to come, and since the church has already come, we can’t pray for that anymore.

The only problem with that view is that there are many scriptures where it is evident that kingdom doesn’t equal church.  For example, in Matthew 25 where Jesus describes the last day when the sheep will be divided from the goats and Jesus will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34).  We all understand that we are not going to inherit the church on the Day of Judgment, and so we understand that, in this passage, when Jesus uses the word “kingdom”, he’s talking about heaven.

            So now we feel comfortable saying that the kingdom is always either the church or it’s heaven, it’s one of those two things.  But again, there are many verses where neither the church nor heaven is being talked about, and we have pretty much just ignored those verses (or at least not really thought much about them) because they don’t fit into our neat little package.

            For example, there’s a very familiar passage in Matthew 6:33, where Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Now, that’s a familiar verse.  We quote it a lot.  We sing it a lot.  But what does the “kingdom of God” mean in that verse?  Is Jesus saying, “Seek the church first along with God’s righteousness”?  No, that doesn’t even make any sense.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            In Luke 9, Jesus called his twelve apostles and “sent them out to proclaim [preach] the kingdom of God and to heal.”( Luke 9:2).  What exactly did they preach?  Did they preach about the church?  That doesn’t seem very likely because they didn’t even know what the church was.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            Later in Luke 9, there was another man that Jesus encountered just walking down the road who wanted to follow Jesus but he asked to bury his father first.  Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60).  What was Jesus telling him he needed to preach?  Was it the church?  That hardly seems possible since this man just met Jesus.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            In Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy men to preach in cities and villages.  Among his many instructions were these words, “Heal the sick…and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:9).   Notice, their message wasn’t that the kingdom of God will come near to them.  No, their message was that the kingdom of God had come near to them.  But the church hadn’t come near to them.  Heaven hadn’t come near.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            In Luke 11, Jesus was accused of working for Satan and he said that it wouldn’t make sense for Satan to cast out demons because he’d be fighting against himself.  Then he said, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:20).  “The kingdom of God has come upon you.”  The church hadn’t come upon them.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            In Luke 17, Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20-21).  But the church wasn’t in the midst of them.  Heaven wasn’t in the midst of them.  So, what is the kingdom of God in that passage?

            There are a lot of other examples that I could give, but I hope that these are sufficient for you to see that the “kingdom” in the scriptures doesn’t always refer to the church, and it doesn’t always refer to heaven.  So, we keep coming back to this question — what is the kingdom of God?

I think the best way to answer that question is to look at another way of translating the word “kingdom”.  The Greek word used in the New Testament is the word “baseleia” and it can be translated as “kingdom”, “reign”, “sovereignty” or “power”.  Let me suggest to you that it might be helpful to view the kingdom of God as “God’s reign” or “those whom God reigns over”.

Now this is a concept that the Jews were very familiar with, although they didn’t fully understand what it would look like.  But the Jewish people always believed that God was going to redeem the world by bringing it under his reign.  In fact, the Jews had been praying Jesus’ prayer for the kingdom to come for centuries. 

For most of us, “thy kingdom come” has always sounded like a prayer for the church to arrive.  But it’s more of a prayer to expand God’s reign, to bring all people into relationship with God so that they might submit themselves to his authority and do his will.   

There’s a song that we sometimes sing that expresses this idea well.  It’s entitled, “Lord, Reign in Me”.  The words of that song say, “Over all the earth, you reign on high, every mountain stream, every sunset sky.  But my one request, Lord, my only aim, is that you reign in me again.”

That song does a good job of pointing out that God already reigns over all this earth.  He is King of everything.  But not everyone has acknowledged God as their king.  So, we pray that God will reign in our hearts, and we pray that God’s reign will come into the lives of people we know and love, and we pray that God’s reign will come into the lives of everyone on the face of this earth – “Thy kingdom come!”

So, we look forward to the coming kingdom, or the reign of God in the future.  But Jesus indicated that God’s reign came to this earth during his ministry.  As we saw earlier, Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17).  Some translations (NLT, ISV, NET, GW, etc.) read, “The kingdom of God is near.”

But that term “near” can be a bit misleading, because it makes it sound like Jesus is saying the kingdom is coming soon – it’s not far off.  It’s not here yet, but it won’t be long.

But the Greek word for near, “engidzo” means “to join one thing to another”.  It’s the equivalent of a  Hebrew word which means “near” in the sense of “intimately near”.  For example, in Isaiah 8:3, we read that the prophet Isaiah came “near” to his wife, and she conceived a son.  You can’t get much nearer than that.  It is the joining of two things together.  That word “near” means to be with someone in a very close and intimate way.

So, when Jesus said that the kingdom of God was near, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking he’s saying, “it’s not quite here yet” but it will be in another two or three years.  No, Jesus said, “When I came to this earth, the kingdom of God came near in the same way that a husband comes near his wife.”  Heaven and earth connected.  Heaven and earth were joined together in a way that they never had been before.

Through Jesus Christ, we understand the power and the authority of God.  And every time someone who was sick was healed, God’s power and authority was made clear and the kingdom of God was near.  Every time a demon was cast out, God’s power and authority was made clear and the kingdom of God was near. 

Every Sabbath, the Jews remembered how Israel was redeemed from Egypt by the power of God.  And they would say, “Your people saw your kingdom as you separated the sea before Moses.”  What they meant by that was that when the Red Sea parted, God’s power was demonstrated in an amazing way.  It was as if a giant hand reached out of the sky and parted the waters, allowing the Israelites to walk across on dry land.  By performing that great miracle, God was showing his people (and his enemies) who is really in charge of the universe.  And that’s what the Jews mean when they say, “Your people saw your kingdom as you separated the sea before Moses.” 

In a similar way, when Jesus healed people, when Jesus cast out demons, God’s kingdom was seen in a greater way than ever before.  In fact, after Jesus cast out demons and the Jewish leaders accused him of working for Satan, listen again carefully to what Jesus said: “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:20).

The Jews would not have missed the significance of those words Jesus used.   Because Jesus was referring back to the story of the Exodus, to the scene where the Egyptian magicians had witnessed God’s power in the plagues and they exclaimed, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:19).  It was at that moment that Pharaoh’s men realized that they had been beaten. God’s power was way beyond any demonic force they could conjure up.  It is the finger of God!

Jesus says that’s the power that I have.  I have the ability to cast out demons by the finger of God.  The power of God is evident, the authority of God is evident, and the kingdom of God has come upon you!

This was Jesus’ way of introducing himself as the Messiah because all of the Jews expected the Messiah to bring God’s kingdom to this earth.

Remember Isaiah’s prophecy?  “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”  (Isaiah 9:7, NIV).

Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God — to open the way for all people to be a part of God’s people.  And when we enter into a relationship with God, we enter into “God’s reign”.

When we make the commitment to follow God, to obey his commandments, we are bowing down before God, and making him our king.  We proclaim our faith in God and we pledge to live under his reign. When we understand that, it makes perfect sense that Jesus would say, “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:21).

So, when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), he’s saying that those people who have acknowledged they don’t have the power within themselves to achieve righteousness, they are the ones who have the kingdom of heaven.  Because they acknowledge God’s right to reign over their lives.

And when Jesus said, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17), he was saying that we can’t approach the kingdom like self-reliant adults.  We have to have the attitude of a small child with a total dependence on God.  That’s when we have the kingdom of God.  That’s when God reigns in our hearts.

Remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler who turned down a chance to become one of his disciples?  He said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Luke 18:24).  Jesus wasn’t saying it’s hard for a rich man to get into the church.  But he’s saying if you have money, it’s hard to let God rule your life.  Here was a young man who was refusing to accept God’s kingship over his life right then.  How difficult it is to put God first when our life is filled with “stuff”.

When Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21), he was saying that we enthrone God in our hearts by doing what he asks us to do.

Once we begin to see the kingdom not as “the church”, but as God’s reign in our lives, it changes our perspective on the kind of life we live.  Because if I see the kingdom simply as the church, then once I’m baptized and I become a member of the church, I’m in the kingdom and there’s not much else I need to do. 

But if I see the kingdom as God reigning in my life, then every day I’m confronted with choices that make me answer the question, “Am I in the kingdom of God today?”  Is God reigning in my life?  Am I letting him make the decisions?  Am I letting him guide me? 

And if we see the kingdom that way, then we want to continue to pray fervently, “Father, thy kingdom come”.  In fact, I think in that prayer, Jesus is repeating what he says in the very next phrase.  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  Those two things are connected.  Because wherever God’s will is being done, the kingdom is there.  And wher­ever  the  kingdom  is, you’re going to find people doing God’s  will. 

So, that’s what we pray for.  We pray that God will rule in our hearts.  We pray that God will rule in the hearts of everyone on the face of this earth.  “Thy kingdom come!”

And so, this morning, I want to offer you an invitation.  It’s not an invitation to be a part of the church, because you may make the mistake of seeing that as just an opportunity to join up with a nice bunch of people that you enjoy being around.  No, my invitation this morning is for you to be a part of the kingdom.  It’s an invitation to let God truly reign in your life, to bow down before him and acknowledge his right to tell you what to do and how to live. 

Because, I’ll be honest, I think there are a lot more people interested in being a part of the church than there are people who are interested in being a part of God’s kingdom.

But perhaps this morning, it’s your desire to be a part of that kingdom.  Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again — of the water and the Spirit — he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3,5)

INVITATION