Can You See the Kingdom
1. There was a man of the Pharisees, Í named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Can You See the Kingdom?
John 3:1-15
I really do think that my first order of business today is defining to word “kingdom”. I want you to understand what a kingdom is, and how it operates. Webster says a kingdom is; “a politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government headed by a king or queen”. It is a realm. A territory. It is a system of order.
The reason that many of us here today don’t understand a kingdom is because we’ve never been under the Monarchy system. For all of us here today, all that we’ve ever known is Democracy. In a Democracy, everybody is free to do what they want to do. But in a Monarchy, the people are lead and control by the wishes and will of the King or Queen. Everybody in a Monarchy must do what the King or Queen orders them to do or they will be punished.
In every kingdom there must be a King. What is so dynamic about kings is that they don’t give orders to the people themselves, but they sent a representative to rule over the people. This person is normally called a governor. Every body in that kingdom is ordered by the governor. But the governor is only carrying out the wishes of the King. When a person disobeys the rules of the governor, the governor has the authority to punish that person.
During the time of Jesus, Israel was under the control of the Romans. The king of Rome didn’t ever come to Israel, but he sent a Governor, The Herods, and Pilate, were governors of Israel. Israel had to do what the king of Rome wanted and the governor was there to make sure those orders were carried out. Anyone who broke those rule were brutally punished to death.
Actually we have many kingdoms setup all around us inside of our Democratic system today. I need to just break them down to a low form so that everyone can be able to see what I’m talking about.
Our political system is a kingdom. First in charge are the Government officials. All States officials are operating under the rules of the government officials, and the local government is obeying the rules of each state.
Our sports system is a kingdom. The King or Queen is the Owners. The governing authority is the Head Coach and everyone else on the team has to do what the Coach commands.
Our Labor system is a kingdom. The King or Queen is the Owner of the business. That owner doesn’t go out into the work force and give commands. He hires a boss man, or leadman, or foreman that goes out and gives the orders. The orders that he gives is primarily the wishes of the owner. The workers must obey those orders.
Our educational system is a kingdom. There is the Superintendent of Education who is the King or Queen. But he/she doesn’t go to each class room and teach the children. He hires someone to do that. The teachers are the governors. They give the orders to the students. But everything is actually coming down from the Superintendent. If any child fails to follow orders, he/she gets suspended.
Now from an earthly point of view. Our Churches are kingdoms. Christ is the head of the church. The pastors are the undershepherds, so therefore, they are the governors, and the members are to be lead by the pastors.
The one thing that I believe God is trying to teach us today is OBEDIENCE. All of us need to learn how to become obedient to the wishes of our King. Each one of us in here right now has a King before you.
Keep in mind while we are talking about this that Satan has tried to duplicate everything that God has established. That means that if God has established Kingdoms, Satan got some kingdoms too.
That why you’ve got some good pastors and you’ve got some bad ones.
You’ve got some good teachers and you’ve got some bad ones.
You’ve got some good bosses and you’ve got some bad ones.
You’ve got some good coaches and you’ve got some bad ones.
You’ve got some good politicians and you’ve got some bad one.
Now it would be a mistake on your part to try and narrow the kingdom down or even narrow the person down to being good or bad. Because there are some good folks in some bad kingdoms, and they are some bad folks in some good kingdoms. We can’t separate them. Because Jesus commanded us to let the wheat and tare grow together, on the day of harvest, He’ll do the separating.
I’ve said before, church will never be like it has in the pass. That is because God is moving us from the church age to the Kingdom age. As I said on late week, God wants us to live right now, the way that we will live when we get to heaven. Jesus said to His disciples, that they should pray to God that His kingdom will come.
Watch this now,
IN the church, we have duties and responsibilities,
But in the kingdom, the king is responsible for everyone, so that everyone can have delight and joy. Didn’t Jesus say, “I’ve come that your joy might be full”?
In the church, we have to pay tithes and offerings,
But in the kingdom, we learn how to invest, and reap the benefits of our own investments. That’s why the Bible teaches us about sowing and reaping.
In the Garden of Eden, God planted a beautiful garden, and placed man there as the governor to oversee it. All the man had to do was to obey what God had established. I could carry that further, but I don’t want to get away from where I’m going with this.
Why didn’t it ever rain in the Garden? This beautiful garden had to get water from somewhere. It is because there were four rivers that ran through the garden, and these rivers supplied the garden with everything it needed. Not just one, but four.
They didn’t need money then for there was nothing to buy. All they needed was water, and there was an abundance of it. Today, let’s not kid ourselves, we need money to survive. The problem is with us today; we think that money is evil. Money itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil.
We think if a preacher talk about it too much, he is only out for money. WE will condemn the preacher if he talks about money. He needs to preach the Word, he doesn’t have any business talking about money. God forbid if he ask for a raise.
How many of us today have more than one source of income. Most of us have one job and we are struggling to make it. Do you know that God has given every born again saint an entrepreneur spirit. Everything that we put our hands too, God wants to bless it!
Deut. 8:18 says, “But thou shall remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day”. Many of us believe that we are supposed to be poor. Some of us actually think that makes us better if we are in a poor situation. When God commanded us to be lowly-minded, He was not talking about in finances. He was talking about pride.
The fact that many of us are “church folk” instead of “kingdom citizens” we curse ourselves when we don’t use that power to get wealth. If the devil got people owning banks, owning restaurants, and owning housing apartments, why can’t the church do that? They got more than one steam of income, what’s wrong with us having these things.
Why can’t we own a bank, put it right here on Logan’s Hill, lend to the people of our community and allow them to invest right back into the church that owns the bank? It would help the church as well as many of our people that are struggling. (Bank of America).
You do know that in the book of Deutronomy, God was establishing many covenants with His children. IN chapter 28:12, He said, “….and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow”. God intends for His children to be well taken care of.
Why can’t we be owners? Why can’t we invest? When you invest, you are to expect a return on your investment. The only thing that we are concern about today is paying tithes, which is good, but there is something far greater than just tithing. If you’ve got a successful farmer, most of the time you will discover that he has more than one field.
In our text, 1. There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing, supernatural acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”
3. Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—I’m pointing to God’s kingdom.”
If you will search your bible in depth, you will discover that all that Jesus ever really taught was the Kingdom of God. He didn’t teach healing, He didn’t teach deliverance, He didn’t teach prosperity, because He understands the Kingdom. All of that is included within the Kingdom. When you are an obedient child, God has the responsibility of taking care of you. That’s why He said in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all of your cares upon me”.
Jesus said, “Unless a person is born from above. That means that unless he realizes that his orders come from above, he cannot SEE the kingdom of God. Now that word “SEE” is the key to this entire passage. In the Greek this word simply means to perceive. It means to understand. But most importantly, it means to experience.
Unless you are born again, you can’t perceive the Kingdom.
Unless you are born again, you can’t understand the Kingdom.
Unless you are born again, you can’t experience the Kingdom.
Now that word “See” is an action verb. Meaning that the Kingdom is there, and the only way that you can go see it, the only way that you can visit it is that you must be born again. You must go after it, in order to become a part of it. It’s not going to come to you, you must go to it. That’s why God said we are to draw nigh to Him, and then He will draw nigh to us. So this morning when I ask the question, “Can you see the kingdom” what I’m really asking is can you go to it?
4. How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?
5-6 Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
Nicodemus really is asking, how can we go to the kingdom. If we weren’t born right the first time, there is no way that we can be born from our mother a second time, because we are old and all grown up. Understand that Nicodemus was talking earthly, while Jesus was talking Spiritual.
Jesus got deep with verse five and six. He says, anybody who has been born again, must be a person that submits to the will of the King. The original creator. Actually, in the Garden of Eden, God’s spirit rested upon Adam and Eve. They walked with God daily, they had constant communion with Him until they disobeyed God. Then the Spirit had to leave. They alienated themselves from the King, because they disobeyed the governor.
Jesus said, we must be born of the water and of the Spirit. Now the word water here doesn’t mean baptism like we had this morning. That is only a ritual. That is only a process that we go through to say that we are moving into a new way of life. We are washing away the old and we are coming up out of the water into a new. That’s all that is.
But here in this scripture when Jesus says water, He means the Word of God. Every one who is born again must be transformed by the Word of God, and lead by the Spirit of God. The Word, God’s spoken word is to change us from what we use to be, to what God wants us to be. And the Spirit, is like the wind. We can’t see it, but we can hear it.
Now in the Spiritual world, Jesus is the King. He’s King of kings and Lord of lords. The Spirit is our governor. He is giving us the commands of Jesus. Jesus said He will not speak of himself, but of the one who sent Him. We are only to follow the command of the Holy Spirit.
Get this now, the Holy Spirit is to teach us how to live like Jesus wants us to live, how to dress like Jesus wants us to dress, how to talk like Jesus wants us to talk. How to be holy just like Jesus is Holy. When we don’t do as the Holy Spirit commands us we will be punished.
So today we need to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit.
That’s why it is important for us to be filled with the Spirit.
He will teach us how to love one another.
He will teach us how to fellowship with one another.
I wonder, can you see the kingdom today.
The bible behooves every one of us to get right, while we still got a chance.
If death would come by your house tonight, I wonder can you see the kingdom.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you do good.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you come to church all the time.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you teach a Sunday school class.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you bring a sermon every Sunday morning.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you talk about Jesus on your job.
You can’t get in the kingdom just because you know somebody, who know somebody.
You can’t get in the kingdom because you’ve got a praying Mother or Father.
The Only way to get into God’s kingdom is that you must be born again.
You must know who Jesus is.
You must understand that He died for you.
Right now you ought in invite the Holy Spirit to rule in your heart.
You ought to have some joy in your life.
Joys are flowing like a river since the comforter has come;
He abides with us forever, makes the trusting heart His home.
Chorus: Blessed quietness, holy quietness—what assurance in my soul! On the stormy sea He speaks peace to me—how the billows cease to roll!
7-8 “So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”
9 Nicodemus asked, “What do you mean by this? How does this happen?”
10–12 Jesus said, “You’re a respected teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully. I’m speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don’t believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can’t see, the things of God?
13–15 “No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.