Intro the Kingdom

Good morning church!

As you saw in the video, we are starting a new series called “The Kingdom.” This is a common theme that runs throughout the whole Bible. We talk about it a lot… Kingdom of Heaven. Kingdom of God. Kingdom living. And Kingdom disciples is a class that we offer here.

There is a lot of talk about the Kingdom, but do we really understand it?

As I said, this language can be found throughout the Bible, however, there is one particular book that speaks of it a little more than the others. It’s from a particular part in the book of Matthew we will be studying for a few weeks.

There are four written accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. We call those the “GOSPELS.” The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When you read these four accounts, you will notice they are not identical. They tell different stories and focus on different things. We teach here that this is because each of them wasn’t writing to tell us WHAT Jesus DID, they were showing us WHO Jesus IS!

Each one of the Gospel writers focuses on a different angle of Jesus. For Matthew, he focuses on the coming of God’s Kingdom and Jesus as the King of that kingdom.

in Matthew 4, Jesus begins to call his closest disciples to follow him and his ministry begins to take off!

Read along with me in

Matthew 4:17 CSB

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Pray

1. The Kingdom is not just HEAVEN

We often look at the Kingdom as an idea that we will experience one day. We will know what Jesus meant by the kingdom when we die or Christ returns, but that’s not the case! I would argue that a future idea is NOT what Jesus is referring to here! Jesus is declaring that there is a real way to experience and live in the kingdom while you are on earth!

NOW, yes, it won’t be the perfect experience that we will have when we are fully in God’s presence one day, BUT it is a TASTE!

There are many things that Jesus and his disciples speak about in the NT that are like this. They are what we call the

We call this the NOW and the NOT YET

We will not experience the kingdom in its fullness during this time on earth, HOWEVER that doesn’t mean we can’t experience part of it! THere is a way to live that will allow the kingdom to be experienced on earth (more on that in the coming weeks!)

2. The Kingdom is GOOD NEWS

Matthew 4:23 CSB

Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

The Greek Word for Good News is… Anybody know?

It’s not Gospel! That actually comes from the German. The Greek word is...

Greek Word for Good News: EUANGELION

We often think of this as just a declaration of Jesus’ death burial and resurrection. But here, Jesus is proclaiming GOOD NEWS before any of those things happen!

That’s because there is a grander narrative than just what we think of as the Gospel going on. From the very beginning, God chose man to be his partner and to rule the world in love and care and that the glory of God would be known among the nations through the actions of humans.

The real Good News is that God still desires that and is actively working to allow us to continue that.

That may be a new idea to you, but we will talk more about it in the coming days too! I promise! Don’t miss a week.

3. The Kingdom is revealed in Jesus’ TEACHING and his POWER

Matthew 9:35 CSB

Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.

This looks familiar doesn’t it?

It’s nearly identical to 4:23.

Why would Matthew do this? A bad writer? Redundancy?

AGAIN, Matthew is conveying a message. He is using these two statements as book ends to a very important section.

Matthew says that Jesus...

- Taught in the synagogues

- Preached the good news of the kingdom

- Healed every disease and sickness

The Kingdom of God is best understood in light of both of these: Jesus’ teaching AND his power.

Many people live like one is more important than the other...

Teaching>Power

This is a legalistic person

Teaching<Power

This is a charismatic person

Neither is good! We need to study the teachings of God and trust his power to work in us and through us! The Kingdom of God is experienced and lived out at the intersection of those two things!

What about you? Do you lean one of these two ways? As we study the teachings of Jesus over the next several weeks, I want to challenge you to also read about the