Now and Not Yet Pt. 1 Kingdom is Now

Welcome

Welcome everyone

It is exciting to see everyone again, starting school term again.

For the next 3 weeks we are going to be unpacking a topic that may be the a top contender for hardest real life conversations.

For these discussions we will be using Ps 23 as our anchor passage. David who wrote this clearly had walked through what we all have to walk through and that is real life.

In the course of walking through this with God, God developed in the character and the wisdom of what walking through real life with God is like.

How do we know this? Many of Davids most intimate thoughts and feelings towards God are collected in the book of Psalms.

What we are going to do through this next 3 weeks is keep everything we talk about anchored in the real life, This is one of those teachings we need etched into our very hearts.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 NIV

A psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Worship

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Now and Not yet

Over the next 3 weeks we are going unpack this essential teaching.

Now you might say, Shawn…the concept is easily understood.

Jesus came, started something and He will come back to finish it.

In the most oversimplified way of looking at things, that is true and that is what we are talking about.

Here is the rub.

Who knows what is the most common and most heartfelt objection to Christianity is?

Lets explore this?

Ask the question and see what people say.

Suffering

The answer is: Suffering

This is true for me, every single time i have had a conversation with someone who is opposed (and I mean opposed, not just those that haven’t yet considered Christianity, but those who oppose it), suffering has always been at the core of it. Always.

Now to be fair usually that is not how it initially presents.

Someone may lead with things like inconsistencies in the Bible or how could someone come back from the dead, but if you are able to dig deeper, it is almost always suffering.

It will go something like this, if God is all good and all powerful, why is there suffering or it will go like this, if I follow your God I will suffer because I am not able to do those things in life that bring me happiness like sexual immorality.

For the record, these are summaries of conversations that I have actually had with many people and these are their real objections.

For fun, as I am learning to better use AI, I asked AI to find the best arguments against Christianity. It is interesting with AI but it will almost always take your side of things, so I set up this conversation as if I were the Atheist and this other friend of mine was a Christian and I was having AI give me the objections to argue my Christian friend. I would then respond to the objections the AI.

At the end of this, and it shocked me the AI actually recommended that I (The Atheist) pursue God.

The interesting thing is that AI posited that suffering was the main issue of consequence.

The reality is that the Now and the Not Yet of the Kingdom impacts and directs how we as Christians answer and deal with Suffering and this is why it is one of the most important concepts that we can wrestle with as believers today.

I promise you, our communities are wrestling with this and coming up with all kinds of answers and people and things to blame.

For example, there is suffering because of Climate Change, so let’s mine up all the lithium to make everything electric, or make all the steel and concrete for wind farms that neither of these will create a net positive

Or there is suffering because Men are or are not in charge, so let’s make masculinity repugnant and force Diversity over competency

Or the opposite there is suffering because Women are or are not in charge, so let’s make femininity shameful and force women to whatever we think is best this decade.

The same could be said about almost any other political hot topic from LGBTQ issues, Gender issues, geo-political issues, police issues, race issues, etc. etc.

The real issue is that there is suffering and the world is truly grasping at straws for answers on what is causing it, how we should respond to it, and how we make it go away.

1. Suffering is part of non-order and chaos

Remember when we talked in Genesis and I said the role of humanity as Archetype in Adam and Eve is to be order-bringers. As images of God we are to continue in God’s work to bring order to creation. It is part of our deepest identity and role is to be order-bringers, it is central to our very being. Awesome, problem…we actually don’t know how and just like how Genesis tells us, humans ultimately only added to the chaos and suffering by trying to bring order their way. The same is true now that hasn’t really changed.

So what is God’s answer to this? Covenant.

Specifically the inauguration of the Kingdom through Covenant

2. Kingdom of Covenant not Domination

So the objection that if God is all powerful and all good, why doesn’t He just remove all the evil and suffering. The reality is that doesn’t work. Humans have been doing kingdoms of domination since before human written history, that has failed to bring order and an end to suffering.

When Jesus started bringing His Kingdom He did it like this:

Mark 1:14–15 NLT

14 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. 15 “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!”

Mark will go on to account that soon after that Jesus called some disciples, went to Synagogue, cast out a disruptive demon, went to Simon house, healed his Mother-in-Law and then was so popular that:

Mark 1:32–34 NLT

32 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak.

So Jesus didn’t dominate the people (even though we know people are part of the problem), in fact, He set them free. The reality of the Kingdom now is that healing and deliverance happen now. This was the evidence of what Jesus was proclaiming in words.

Kingdom Now realities:

Jesus forms Kingdom communities (called the disciples)

Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom in words (called for people to repent, trust and be in relationship with God)

Jesus demonstrated the Gospel of the Kingdom in action (sacrificially loving others, healing them, delivering them)

So let’s be real, does this work? Yes, did people get healed? Yes, they did. Did people get delivered, Yes they did. Does that still happen now, yes it does.

3. We are to continue bringing the Kingdom Now

Jesus gave us a mission:

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Remember Jesus set for us a living example, He did not leave for us a manifesto, He lived a life that we are to emulate, He showed us how to bring the Kingdom Now.

Continue to create Kingdom Communities

Continue to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom urging people to repent and trust God

Continue to demonstrate the Gospel of the Kingdom by serving, healing and delivering

This is what it means that the Kingdom is Now, that Repentance, Relationship, Healing and Deliverance are available now and that we as Images of God, Disciples of Jesus can truly do what we were made to do and bring order in a way that does not only create more chaos and disorder!

Right if we are being honest, how good is it when Kingdom communities come together? So good, when we adhere to the teachings of Jesus, do what we ought and don’t do what we ought not to do. It is awesome and wonderful, a fountain of blessing.

But, what happens when sometimes people don’t get healed?

This is why this is only Part 1.

In the Vineyard, we say, we can guarantee someone won’t get healed by never praying for them. When we do pray for them, sometimes they don’t get healed and this is what we will discuss next week in the Kingdom is Not Yet.

What we need to remember is that the Kingdom is Now, it is a present reality every single place a disciple finds themself.

What does this mean for me?

It means you have a purpose, not just any purpose but the purpose you were made for. We are all images of God, we are all by nature order-bringers, said another way we are Kingdom-bringers. Whose Kingdom will you bring?

Yours? You could follow in the long line of people who have brought their own kingdoms to this world

Or you can bring God’s Kingdom and see the lives and the environment around you transform in ways you could never imagine. Being and behaving like an Image of God is truly the most fulfilling activity we could ever participate in.

We need to remember that Jesus is with us through this whole time, He is never far from us.