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Your LOOP Friends
God with Us (The Central Theme) pt.2
All Scripture reference taken from the New Living Translation
Here we are in part 2 of our “God with Us” series…
Last month we started this series giving an overview of the theology behind Christianity, by answering some questions we have had at one time or another when it comes to topics such as the trinity, why the need for a Savior, how did it all start, and what’s the deal with God anyway…
And how do we take all that information and present it in a way that is engaging when talking to someone who has questions?
The entire message last month was centered around the message of reconciliation, which is a topic we are going to keep on the forefront for the next several issues.
Today, we are going to look at what Jesus talked about the most… The topic that was the central theme to His message… To His existence here on earth…
What did He talk about more than anything? Heaven, Hell, money, forgiveness, serving, kindness, loving one another…
These are all good topics… But the central theme to Jesus’ message… The topic He talked about the most was the Kingdom of God, also known as the Kingdom of Heaven…
It is also the central theme throughout the entire bible from Genesis to Revelation!
The Old Testament gives us a building anticipation of the Kingdom that is to come…
While the New Testament reveals the arrival of the Kingdom through Jesus, while also connecting the covenants and prophecies from the Old Testament into one narrative of God’s divine rule and reign.
You will often hear me use the word, “Kingdom,” or Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven,” as we in the Vineyard try to model the example of ministry Jesus gives us
Keep in mind that Jesus is a King… He is the King… And unlike those in earthly authority, Jesus doesn’t hold His Lordship over us…
He is a King who serves us… He serves those who put their faith in Him…
The servant leadership style that Jesus displays for us is not something we typically experience… But Jesus does not operate in a typical manner…
In our modern language we don’t use the word kingdom, and we don’t really have kings anymore…
We would say, nation, or country… President or leader…
But there is an unseen world around us in the supernatural that we must be aware of, as there is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light…
And the sooner we come to terms with this, the better off we will be…
As followers of Jesus, we live in both the natural and supernatural realms…
The natural, being our earthly existence where we live and interact with other people…
And the supernatural realm where the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven operates as well as the kingdom of darkness…
There are times when the supernatural realm of God’s Kingdom intersects with our natural realm… And the same can be said for the kingdom of darkness…
As Christians, this is a natural part of our existence here on earth…
So, I wonder, could this be why Jesus made this the central theme to His teachings
He wanted us to know how the Kingdom of God operates more than anything else!
Jesus had a cousin by the name of John the Baptist… John was also a miracle child, and his purpose was to prepare the hearts of people for the arrival of the Messiah… The arrival of Jesus…
Matthew 3:2 – His message was, “Repent of your sins, turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
One could say that there may have been a building anticipation of the Messiah to come…
Or at least some type of anticipation for the Kingdom of God to do something, as God had been silent for 400 years up to the arrival of Jesus…
Much like we have a buidling anticipation of the Rapture, or the return of Jesus…
So then along comes Jesus and He is publicly baptized by His cousin, John…
The Holy Spirit of God descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove and then a voice from the heavens says, “This is My dearly loved Son in whom I am well pleased!”
Then Jesus disappears in the wilderness to pray and fast for 40 days in preparation for His public ministry…
In preparation to carry out the will of the Father… The mission He has come to earth for..
After His prayer and fasting we read this in the Gospel of Mark…
Mark 1:14-15 – … Jesus went into Galilee, where He preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” He announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
The Kingdom of God is near He says… There is but a thin veil that separates our natural realm from the supernatural realm of God’s Kingdom!
Let’s look at another example of Jesus exclaiming the importance of preaching the Good News of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Luke…
Jesus had spent an entire evening… Maybe even all night… Praying for the sick and demon possessed… He healed them all and sets them free as we read that people from the village Peter lived brought the sick and demon possessed to Him…
Luke 4:42-44 – At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.
Jesus had a mission to get the Good News of the Kingdom to as many places as possible because that is why He was sent…
His mission was to reconcile people back to God by presenting them with the Good News of the Kingdom and He could not do that effectively by staying in one place too long!
The Vineyard Association worldwide also has a mission of being committed to proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and joining God’s Holy Spirit in what He is doing through healing, social justice, and delivering those held captive by evil…
We have booklets available throughout the foyer put out by Vineyard USA titled, “Core Value & Beliefs” if you’d like to learn more about who we are as a movement.
When we talk about the Kingdom… The Kingdom of God… We must understand that it is not of this natural world we live in… And it does not operate in conjunction with human logic…
The Kingdom of God is unique… It is unlike any kingdom we’ve read about in history books or seen in movies…
It’s a Kingdom without borders and it supersedes all cultures, races, and classes…
There are no exclusions!
As Christians it is important that we have a clear understanding of what Jesus taught… What He offers… And what it means to follow Him…
This means it would be good for us to understand the Kingdom in which He is from.
Just what is the Kingdom of God? What makes it so different… And how do we even participate in it since we are all called to join God in what He is doing around us?
The Kingdom of God is a supernatural realm of divine rule that is over all things…
Let’s take a look at some theological viewpoints three different people give us out of their experience with God and how His Kingdom operates…
King Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king of Babylon had this to say after experiencing a miraculous move of God (3 men in the fire and the fourth “man” appears) …
And his comment makes the connection of our earthly realm and God’s overarching divine rule and reign of all things…
Daniel 4:3 – How great are His signs, how powerful His wonders!
His kingdom will last forever, His rule through all generations
And then we have King David, a king of Israel, who is a man described as a man after God’s own heart wrote these words in…
Psalm 145:13-15a – For Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. The Lord always keeps His promises; He is gracious in all He does. The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. The eyes of all look to You in hope…
This passage, much like King Nebuchadnezzar’s, speaks of God’s everlasting Kingdom… A Kingdom that never ends and rules from generation to generation…
But in addition to that, it also speaks of the never-ending characteristics of grace, mercy, compassion, and help we receive from the divine rule of God’s Kingdom!
And then there are the words of the Apostle Paul in…
Colossians 1:16 – For through Him (Jesus) God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him.
And now we see there is more to the structure of God’s Kingdom, as there are levels of thrones and rulers and dominions in the unseen world…
But also, keep in mind that everything was created through Jesus and for Him…
Even though we have a force of darkness to contend with, it is still subject to the rule and law of how the Kingdom of God operates in the unseen world.
For those who don’t know, the Apostle Paul was once a Jewish religious leader who spent all his energy persecuting Christians… He hated followers of Jesus!
He was highly educated, but used the name of God to do very bad things to believers because He believed Jesus was a false prophet…
I say this because, yes, there are people who do bad things in the name of God…
There are people who misrepresent the church, and Christianity…
And unfortunately, those experiences are often used by some to discredit the church, or Christianity…
And I wish that was never the case… It’s a fact that it does happen…
But that is not the kind of Kingdom Jesus preached about and modeled while He lived among mankind…
While Paul (At the time he went by Saul of Tarsus) was persecuting Christians after Jesus ascended into heaven…
He has this radical encounter with Jesus and becomes a believer…
He then leads the mission in the birth of the early church and writes most of the New Testament…
Many people have been hurt and/or deceived by someone who misrepresented Jesus… Misrepresented the way the Kingdom of God operates… (Intentionally)
When we look at the life Jesus modeled when He walked the earth… And when we read the letters Paul wrote to the different churches he established… (And others)
We see people who lived out their faith and modeled what it looks like to be fully committed to God…
Fully committed to the Kingdom is a person whose life and actions are motivated by love, and whose decisions are rooted in wisdom, justice, mercy, and compassion for all…
They strive at creating communities and forming bonds with others while extending grace and forgiveness…
As this is what the divine rule and reign of God’s Kingdom looks like here on earth.
This is what it looks like when God rules and reigns in our hearts… When His divine ways become who we are… It becomes a way of life… It becomes our identity!
It’s a Kingdom that treats everyone with dignity and respect, as those representing the Kingdom understand the importance of representing Jesus…
Who walked the earth as an extension of the Father’s love for mankind…
And to reveal to us the original intentions of how God intended for life here on earth to be like…
And now, anyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus is to live according to the standards of God’s Kingdom…
Ephesians 4:2-3 -Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
Ephesians 5:1-2 – Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do… Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us…
This is what Kingdom living looks like… This is how we represent the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth!
In Closing…
The Kingdom of Heaven and how it operates becomes a way of life for those who are fully committed, as it is what gives us purpose and meaning…
Because of what God has done for us, we have grace for others…
Because we know that no matter what people do, or how people treat us…
God is at work reconciling them back to Himself through Jesus…
If we look at the world around us through the eyes of Jesus… If we filter everything through the Scriptures…
We will be the people God created us to be… Living out our Kingdom purpose here on earth…
Ephesians 4:32 – … Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”