Sermon Tone Analysis

The Kingdom of God

is something we used to talk about a lot — because it’s important.

Here’s why it’s important:

The Kingdom of God shows up 67 times in the New Testament.

And then you can add the 31 times that Kingdom of Heaven is used, and in those verses and a some new ones, there’s 30 times when Jesus and the Kingdom show up in the same verse, then 15 more times where “Thy Kingdom” or “Your Kingdom” or just Kingdom when it applies to God’s reign or Christ’s reign.

So I suppose that talking about the Kingdom of God should be important to us, for it was important to Jesus and to the early disciples.

I think one reason we don’t hear as much about the Kingdom of God these days is because there have been some pretty confused ideas about the Kingdom of God that have shown up in books and doctrinal statements and other things.

Because of Revelation 20:4, 6, many have focused on “The millenium” when the saints of God reign with Christ for 1,000 years.

That reign gets mixed up with the idea of the Kingdom of God, but it has nothing to do with that, and if you read it carefully, it really refers to those who had given up their lives for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

But for some reason, a whole lot of people who want to reign with Christ for 1,000 years don’t want to chance any persecution in the name of Jesus in the few years they live on earth now.

The Kingdom of God has nothing to do with whether or not we will be princes of Christ who judge the nations at the end of days.

That’s because . . .

The Kingdom of God is not an event of prophecy.

Because that would mean that God has abdicated his throne to rule all the universe until “Later.”

And, it is not an event of the day when the Son of Man, the Son of God is revealed, for that is a matter of our faith verses the world’s faithlessness, when Luke’s record of Jesus’ teaching on the Son of Man says,

That is not a rapture, by the way.

That is the reality that God chooses us in Jesus Christ His Son.

We might be living with someone who is not faithful to God’s perfect plan of salvation.

Like choosing a team for a pick-up game, “one will be taken and the other left” for God knows who he wants in His Kingdom: God wants His Children at His table.

That choice is about our choice of trusting in the forgiveness of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, and loving Him enough to obey Him.

So, even though there is a coming time when God will bind us to his Son forever,

The Kingdom of God is not an event of the end times.

Which is like what I just said about prophecy, but so many think that the Kingdom of God won’t show up until there is a bloody war of Armageddon when God’s side wins and Jesus sits on an earthly throne for 1000 years.

That can’t be the Kingdom of God, or if it is, somehow God is not King already, and somehow he steps back from ruling the universe for a few thousand years.

Here’s the short version of the sermon:

The Kingdom of God is about God’s rule.

Period.

But that does not mean just the stars, the sun, moon, earth and planets, nor just the beasts of the field or the fish in the sea or the birds in the air.

It does not mean just those who went to God’s Palace in Jerusalem, which we call the Temple, who are therefore in God’s Kingdom.

The basics of the Kingdom of God are fairly simple, so I want to help out with how the Church of God with which we are affiliated has interpreted the Kingdom.

This is in my September series of God’s Church is:, and each week I have added in this little line:

Let’s Talk About the Church

Because it’s important to know that we are. . .

…One Church by God’s design and creation.

We are a

…Bible-Centered Church

and not a political church.

We are neither conservative or liberal, as the Church of God, but we are centered on the revealed word of God, the record of God’s personal encounters with his people and the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments.

And because of that, we find in the Bible that as God’s Church, we are . . .

…Called to Holiness

which is less a matter of function and more a matter of form.

Holiness is possible because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, proofing our hearts for the sharing of His word by the practice of his people, working out what God has worked in.

And part of what God has worked in us is a heart for His kingdom.

Because the Christian who is not just saved but also sanctified:

…Lives in God’s Kingdom Now.

and that is part of this series on the church, because the church is not the land nor the building nor the name nor our gatherings, but the church is each one and every one of us who is saved by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Or, every blood-washed one, those who are saved and added to the church by God.

The second part of the short version of this message: When we are added to the church by God,

We Enter the Kingdom of God When We Make Jesus Lord of Our Lives.

So remember that the most important thing about the Kingdom of God is the most important thing about our eternal life: We must choose to believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we must choose to believe in the One the Father God sent.

The basics are still the basics:

God’s Church Lives in God’s Kingdom Now

because:

Jesus’ Main Theme is the Kingdom of God

From the very beginning of his ministry, we read this:

The international Dictionary of the Bible says the Kingdom of God “is a comprehensive term for the whole of Jesus’ teaching.

The Kingdom of God is Good News

Mat 4:23b “And he went throughout all Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom”

The Kingdom of God Comes With Power

Mat 4:23c “healing every disease and every affliction among the people.”

And as powerful as the teaching of the good news of the Kingdom of God is, we are also reminded:

And this reality will become more and more a part of the lives of Jesus’ followers, for Jesus himself said of us,

in Mark 9:1,

As Subjects of the King, Christians should

Pray for the Kingdom on Earth

The Kingdom of God already exists in Heaven, which is why the Kingdom of Heaven is used inter-changeably with the Kingdom of God.

Our prayer and actions should be to daily

Ask for the Kingdom to Come in Us

Ask for the Will of the King to be Done on Earth

Proclaim the Good News of Kingdom of God

Jesus Proclaimed the Kingdom

Jesus Sends Us to Proclaim the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is In the People of God

Jesus brings the Kingdom

The Subjects of the King Are the Church

The Church Lives in the Kingdom of God

The Church lives out the Kingdom of God on Earth