Enter & See

This week we are continuing / / “The Kingdom Is...”, our series on the Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus talks a lot about this Kingdom, and really interchanges God & Heaven quite a bit. If you see the Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of Heaven, it’s pretty clear that Jesus was talking about the same thing.

In one of his conversation he actually uses both. It’s in the gospel of Matthew 19:23-24, Jesus says this to his disciples, / / “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven… That word heaven is ouranos, which literally means the heavens, the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it, but also means The region above the sidereal heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings.

But then Jesus continues in his conversation to his disciples, / / “I’ll say it again - it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

God, being theos, which means a deity, a god, especially the supreme Divinity. So, here we are very specifically speaking about the Godhead, the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And this is in the same conversation, with nothing between. Jesus says, The Kingdom of Heaven, and then The Kingdom of God, talking of the same thing, same place, same context.

But, you’ll only see this in the book of Matthew. Matthew is the only book of the four gospels that does this. Mark, Luke & John do not use the word Heaven, only the Kingdom of God.

This is not so abnormal, because there are differences in the books of the gospel of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, all cover the life, ministry and death of Jesus, but because they are from different people’s perspectives, you see differences in the focus, in the writing style, both because of the person writing it, and for the sake of the audience reading it.

/ / Matthew’s audience was the Jews and the purpose he wrote for was to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal King.

/ / Mark was writing to the Christians in Rome and his focus was more to present the person, work, and teachings of Jesus.

/ / Luke was writing primarily to Gentiles, and he is the only known Gentile, or non-Jewish author in the New Testament. He was also a Doctor, so you see a difference in how he treats certain things and the focus of his writing was to provide an accurate account of the life of Jesus.

And / / John was writing to new Christians or those who were searching and not yet believers. When you read John you get this feeling of him writing to prove absolutely that Jesus is the Son of God and that the purpose of His coming was that we as humanity to could receive eternal life. Think of John 3:16, that verse is only in the book of John and it’s the most powerful expression of God’s love & Jesus purpose on the earth. / / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

It’s the no one left behind, no one left out, all inclusive nature of God’s love bundled up in this little expression, “Everyone who believes...” And it’s beautiful, because this is the heart of God, that no one should be left out. That everyone... all of us have the opportunity to believe, we just all need to make that choice to believe, to follow after Jesus, regardless of our past, our lives and the rest of the stuff we might need to deal with and maybe get rid of, Jesus gives life to those who come to him!

SO, Kingdom of Heaven, only used by Matthew, Kingdom of God, used interchangeably by Matthew. In fact, this passage we read in Matthew 19 has 2 parallel verses. It’s found in Mark 10 and Luke 18 and in both of those accounts where Matthew says Kingdom of Heaven, and then Kingdom of God, both Mark & Luke say Kingdom of God both times, they use the word theos, God.

So, Did Matthew hear wrong? Maybe Jesus is in heaven right now saying, “Matthew, did I stutter?” No, of course not, what’s the context of this scripture? Who is Matthew writing to? If he’s writing to the Jewish community they have been talking about the Kingdom of God for thousands of years.

Think of it this way. I mentioned this last week. People were getting confused with why Jesus had come. They had hoped he was going to take the throne of David again and restore the nation of Israel. They had hoped this was the once and future Kingdom of God on this earth that the prophets of the Old Testament had talked about.

But many times Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of God that we experience in the here and now that is NOT a physical kingdom, is NOT represented by national boundaries, but is the rule and reign of God through all of space & time. It is the rulership of God. It is this beautiful moment of encountering His divinity - His God character.

But Matthew is also not negating there is a future coming Kingdom of God. He even talks about it in that passage in Matthew 19, in vs 28 he says, / / I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And that is a line that Mark & Luke chose not to put in there books. Why? We have to ask, is it relevant to their audience?

Remember, Mark is writing to the Christians in Rome - a mixed bunch of both Jews and Gentiles.

Luke is writing directly to Gentiles, non-Jewish people.

Do they need to know about the Jews sitting on the thrones in heaven judging the Jews? No, so it’s not relevant. I had a teacher who would often say, to the point of posters hanging on the wall, Context is King. It matters so much! So, don’t get thrown off by whether or not Matthew says Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven, and hopefully that explains a bit why the other books don’t follow that same pattern.

Today I want to talk about what Jesus calls “Enter & See”. Jesus says this many times to some effect or another, You cannot ENTER the Kingdom unless... You cannot SEE the Kingdom unless... and when I think of those two words what that says to me is Jesus is talking about / / Our Position & Our Experience.

Where we are - we’ve entered the Kingdom. What happens? We see something, we experience something. So, let’s look at a few things this morning.

/ / 1. The Kingdom of God is RELATIONSHIP

Let’s go to Matthew 7 this morning and starting in vs 15. This is Jesus teaching. He says:

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter...

Now, if you read to this point you might think, ok, sounds like this is a works mentality, I have to DO to receive. Only those who actually DO the will of my Father in heaven will enter. But listen to how Jesus continues sharing.

/ / On judgement day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never KNEW YOU. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”

See, / / the Kingdom of God is not about what you can ACCOMPLISH or DO for God.

Jesus, in this little analogy of trees producing good or bad fruit is distinguishing between those who profess to be Christians, and those who actually follow him.

I think we’ve all met people who wear a title but don’t actually live what the title means. In fact, we even have a word we attach to religion to qualify that very thing. We say someone is a Practicing Christian, or a Practicing Catholic. There are even those who are Practicing Jews. Because there are Jewish by birth that don’t consider themselves Jewish by religious practice.

Jesus is basically saying here, Do or do not, there is no try, ok, maybe not quite like that, but, He is saying, you either are, or you aren’t, and that’s not determined by what you can or cannot DO, but rather who you are connected to, and there’s a difference, and it matters.

The people he’s describing as “false prophets” are those who would claim to be speaking on God’s behalf, being a representation of God on this earth, and honestly, that is the duty and mandate of every single Christian, to be a representation of God in this earth. But Jesus calls this particular group of people he’s talking about vicious wolves that come to you looking and acting like harmless sheep.

And you would think, wow, they’re doing all this great stuff for God, but interestingly enough, Jesus doesn’t endorse religious ministry over relationship. He’s not interested in our good deeds if they don’t come from a good heart. The heart of the person matters more.

There is also a focus here on the visible, or what we might call charismatic expressions of Christianity, that pail in comparison to a life of dedication and relationship to Jesus Christ. External demonstrations seem to prove very little to Jesus here. And the challenge for all of us is that there is something sort of UNglamorous about simple devotion and obedience, isn’t there?

And so Jesus says, / / Only those who ACTUALLY do the will of my Father… So what is the / / will of His Father?

That’s a bigger question than we’ll answer today, but simply, let’s ask, first, what’s the great commandment?

/ / You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:36

And Jesus said in John 13:34, / / So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

What do both of those say? That our connection to God is to be the absolute primary focus of our lives.

/ / You can’t love LIKE GOD if I haven’t learned to be loved BY GOD!

For me to love you AS Jesus has loved me requires me to receive that love from Him first. It’s impossible to do that any other way. It’s like sitting down with someone, giving them the task first, and then about to explain it to them and show them how to do it, but they’ve already taken off running, and you just know they’re going to fail because they needed to stick around and wait to see how it’s done first. None of us have done that, right? None of us have kids that have done that to us, right?

Listen to this. Jesus has this large group of people following him after he’s fed 5000 men, plus women and children with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. And he says in John 6:26, / / “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

The only work God wants....Believe.

The word believe, or / / pisteuo which means to believe and commit to, to trust, to be committed to…

/ / To Enter & SEE (experience) the Kingdom of God, starts, continues and ends with our relationship with God himself.

It’s about our commitment to Jesus Christ, the invitation to allow Him to love us and lead us into this kingdom.

Jesus actually continues from this, “I never knew you” thought by saying in Matthew 7:24, / / Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise.

or in Luke 6:47, / / “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise, and break against that house, it stands firm because it was well built.”

Those three things, this is the very foundation of our relationship with the Kingdom of God:

/ / Come to Jesus

Listen to His Teaching

Follow what He said

The Kingdom of God starts with relationship!

/ / 2. The Kingdom of God is EXPERIENCED

So, when Jesus says to ENTER & SEE, I take that as Our Position & Our Experience.

We enter the Kingdom, that positions us to See the Kingdom, to experience it. But here’s the thing, the Kingdom of God is not the only kingdom at work in the earth, and it’s not the only kingdom vying for your attention and devotion.

We’re going to read from Matthew 12, but this is also found in Mark 3 and Luke 11

Starting in vs 22, / / Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see...

“He healed the man...” is putting it a bit lightly here. Luke 11:14 says, / / One day Jesus cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak, and when the demon was gone, the man began to speak.

Alright, back to Matthew 12:23, / / The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”

But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle they said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.”

Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive. And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger - someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.”

Again, Luke takes it home in how he writes this in 11:21, For when a strong man like Satan is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe - UNTIL SOMEONE EVEN STRONGER ATTACKS AND OVERPOWERS HIM, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings.”

And what was the point Jesus is making… Matthew 12:28 / / The Kingdom of God has arrived among you!

Most of the other translations say it this way, / / The Kingdom of God has come upon you.

There’s a bit of a transition point here. First of all, up to this point Matthew has mostly said Kingdom of Heaven, but this, only for the second time now he’s writing kingdom of God directly connected to Spirit of God. Defining very clearly that his power comes from God. He is not doing this by any other method or source, but by the Spirit of God because of the Kingdom of God.

Remember, I think this might be the most important thing we need to remember when talking about the Kingdom of God. In all of its complexity, the simplicity of the Kingdom of God is that it is the Domain of the King. It is submitting to his rule and reign, understanding He is King, and we are under HIS authority, which also means His covering, His protection, His provision.

Second, John and Jesus had been preaching the Kingdom is at hand, or the Kingdom is near… But now Jesus is saying the Kingdom has arrived! The Kingdom has come upon you.

You are no longer waiting for it. / / The Kingdom is HERE & NOW!

This also shows the authority of Jesus displayed. Jesus says, You have your own exorcists. So this is already happening. Jesus is considered a Rabbi, he’s considered a teacher. They’ve seen him do other miracles. But what’s different between him and other people doing what he’s doing? His authority. After Jesus heals this man it says, the crowd was amazed!

There was something different about the ministry of Jesus. Matthew 7:29 says, / / …the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority - quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

Jesus was doing something new. Up to this point they had teachers they could listen to, but Jesus was bringing them an experience.

In Luke 10 Jesus chooses 72 of the disciples that have been following him and learning from him, and he sends them out to minister like He has been ministering, healing people, casting out demons. And in his instructions he says in vs 9 / / Heal the Sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’

The word near is / / eggizo and it means to make near, to approach, to bring near and join one thing to another.

Near doesn’t mean close at hand, it is an invitation to come very close.

I don’t speak like this, it’s a little to olde English for me, but if I were to say to my wife, “Love, come draw near to me.” Would any of you think I mean, I want you close but I need you to be 6 ft socially distanced? No, of course not, that is an invitation to get hugged and loved. The same with this word. It’s not, “The Kingdom is out there.” it’s “The Kingdom is close enough to touch, to experience, it’s right up against you.”

In Matthew 12 when Jesus says, / / “If by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God has come upon you”, the word is / / epi and it means to superimpose, or the superimposition of time, place & order… Just for clarity’s sake here, superimpose means to place or lay over or above something.

I don’t know about you, but / / I want The Spirit of God to superimpose the Kingdom of God over my life!

So, let’s ask the question:

/ / Is there anything we can do to POSITION ourselves to EXPERIENCE the Kingdom?

/ / I. Become Poor

Nope, not talking about money here. Jesus, in his famous “Sermon on the Mount” is teaching what we call the BeAttitudes and he starts with this one in Matthew 5:3, / / God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Now, if you want a more in-depth look at the BeAttitudes you can actually go on our Website or YouTube page and we did a series called Just Be… last year where we spent a few weeks looking at the BeAttitudes which go from Matthew 5:3-11, and that is available to you along with all of our other services.

Ok, so if we’re not talking money here, what does this verse mean?

Well, first of all let’s look at another translation, because the NLT which we read says, God blesses those who are poor, but most other translations say, / / Blessed are the poor in spirit...

So really we’re asking, what does it mean to be poor in spirit?

Now, first things first, no one wants to be poor, and we certainly don’t like admitting that we are and so in the first BeAttitude, Jesus is actually tackling two things: our / / Self-Awareness and our Pride.

/ / Am I willing to look at my life and say, “I am poor in spirit.”

/ / And am I willing to say, “I don’t want to be, but I know I can’t change it, God has to.”

Now this is a bit of a side note, but I was amazed when I realized what God has done. I literally went back to my sermon from almost a year ago and copied those two lines word for word. And this was our prayer, “Lord, teach us and help us to recognize we are poor in spirit.”

If you’ve been around THIS year you know I’ve been very open with my own personal journey of addiction to food. That I’ve been going to Addiction Recovery meetings for more than 6 months now. And so I’ve been following the steps of AA, obviously adapted to fit my situation, and get this... If you don’t know this, this blew my mind… the first 3 steps of AA, or any program built off of AA are:

/ / We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable

/ / Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

/ / Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

So, last year I preach that To be Poor in Spirit is to become self-aware that we have a problem, that we don’t have what it takes, and we can’t change it, and to become humble enough to admit we must have God to change it.

And where do I land this year...

Here’s what Poor in spirit is: / / Poor in spirit is recognizing that the solution to our problems is not becoming perfect ourselves, but it is falling on the perfectness of God himself.

/ / It is not picking ourselves up, it is being lifted by his grace.

What does this have to do with the Kingdom of God, or Receiving the Kingdom, because Jesus said, God blesses those who are poor, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. How is it ours?

See, when you recognize that you can’t do this on your own, and you are lacking in your life what you need and that it can ONLY come from God alone, because of HIS grace, and you humble yourself, you tell Him you need HIS help, you are in effect placing yourself UNDER His authority and mercy, so that He can look after you and provide for what it is that you lack.

Being / / Poor in Spirit is continually recognizing our need for the authority and rule of God in our lives.

That is how you enter and stay in the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of HIS rule and authority, and as soon as you take that authority back, you’re saying, “I got this....my kingdom.”

/ / II. Do Right

Jesus mentions the Kingdom of God one more time in the BeAttitudes. Matthew 5:10, / / God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Again, if you want a more in depth, you can go back to our Just Be series from last year on this particular verse, but today our focus is on how this verse shows us a way to experience the Kingdom of God.

There’s two parts of this verse. Doing Right and Being Persecuted.

A lot of people misread the word persecuted. We can easily think of this as the persecuted church in places like China or the middle east where they are forced to smuggle bibles in, forced to hide and pray and worship in caves, or hide in their homes because of physical persecution. And sometimes we ask, how is it that people experience such amazing things in those churches, the presence of God, healing, such a passion for Jesus…well, the Kingdom of God is theirs...

Then there’s the other side of things were people would swear they are being persecuted, but in all actuality they are simply just experiencing the consequences of their own actions. A friend once told me, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...”

But what about us, does this apply to us at all? We’re certainly not persecuted are we?

Well, let’s look at the word for a moment, the Greek word is / / dioko and it means to make to run or flee, put to flight, to drive away, to persecute… which means to be the subject of hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race, or political or religious beliefs.

I don’t know about you, / / but for a lot of Christians they are finding it increasingly difficult to voice their moral stance from Scripture and their beliefs in the bible for fear of hostility, ill-treatment and being driven away...

So, Jesus says that God blesses those who do right. or, how the ESV translates it, / / Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Righteousness means the state of him who is as he ought to be, the condition acceptable by God.

Basically, / / Righteousness means to do, or to be made RIGHT.

So, living a life of righteousness is both being MADE right, and DOING what is right.

The perfect story to illustrate this is in John 8. This group of religious leaders go up to Jesus while he’s teaching a crowd, they put a woman in front of the whole crowd and say, “We just caught this woman in the act of adultery, and the law says we are supposed to stone her, what do you say?”

The bible says in John 8:6, / / They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord.” She said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Why do I believe this is the greatest display of righteousness? Because Jesus doesn’t say the sin is ok. He doesn’t permit sin. He doesn’t permit the breaking of the law. He doesn’t endorse her behavior. Instead he says, “I have MADE you righteous, now go and BE righteous. Here is the GIFT of righteousness…now go, live a LIFE of righteousness.” And that’s something only Jesus can give!

This BeAttitude is saying, If you want to enter the Kingdom of God, receive the righteousness of Christ, which comes through our believing in Him, and then live the life He’s called you in to by BEING righteous. We read last week, Jesus said, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless your righteousness is even BETTER than that of the pharisees, the religious leaders who did everything they could to keep every single one of their 613 laws. But that means nothing if you don’t receive the righteousness of Christ first.

/ / DOING right only means something if it’s not to try and be MADE right.

We aren’t made right by our actions, we’re made right by His actions. We do right as a response to his love for us, and in doing so, position ourselves to experience His Kingdom.

If you read the law, the instructions of God, the direction of Jesus, they always lead to life, always lead to His doing something in our lives. God doesn’t tell us what we should do because he wants to put a damper on our lives, he tells us what we should do because he knows best for us and is trying to lead us to life! By taking on His righteousness, which alleviates the pressure of getting it right, and by following what He says, we are led into the benefits of doing what is right, the Kingdom of Heaven!

/ / III. Receive Like A Child

Wrapping things up today, let’s look at Mark 10:13-16, / / One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

First, let’s just notice that again both aspects of what we’ve been talking about are here, to ENTER & SEE, and as I said earlier this is talking of both our position and experience.

So, we enter the Kingdom of God by faith and obedience. We believe, and we follow the words of Jesus, and here Jesus is saying to experience that Kingdom you have entered by faith, you must receive like a child.

hmm…what does that mean? Let me ask you a question. If you ask a child if they want a gift, what is the response?

Is there any reservation?

Do you have to talk the gift up?

Of course not. As soon as my daughter hears, “Hey Kaylee, come here, I got you something...” It’s like a panting dog for a treat....where is it, where is it, what is it, what did you get me???

Why? Because she trusts that what I have to give her is good.

Here’s where the connection is made. When you trust the person giving you the gift, you don’t have to understand the why, what or when, you simply trust that if the person is good, the gift will be good.

/ / If you trust that the person giving you the gift is good, you will trust that the gift itself is good.

My daughter knows I don’t give her bad gifts, so if I say I got her a gift, her instant response is anticipation of something great. This is why my favorite word is / / Hope, because hope means a confident expectation of a positive outcome.

Children, when they hear someone has something for them are overcome by a confident expectation in a positive outcome. And Jesus is saying, if you want to experience the Kingdom, have that kind of faith, have that kind of hope, have that kind of expectation, that you just believe Jesus is so good and would never give you anything but the best gifts, and if he promised you the kingdom, then the kingdom is something you want to receive.

Don’t doubt. Don’t hymn or haw. Don’t “think about it”… be like a child and go for it. Give it your all. Follow Jesus with your everything. Luke 12:32 says, / / For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the kingdom.

This is God’s desire. It’s his plan, that you experience the Kingdom.

I want you to pray this with me this morning.

God, I want to be excited and expectant like a child. I want to have hope, a confident expectation in a positive outcome. I want to experience Your Kingdom. I want to experience your rule and reign in my life. Because I trust you, and that means I can trust what you want to give me. Open my eyes to see the Kingdom. Open my heart to receive.