Understanding the Kingdom of God (Part I): A Key to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

I want you to hold Matthew

5. Those first couple of chapters that we

were at reverses that we were read this

morning.

In your mind as we get into this

sermon

because it has a lot to do with

kingdom, and that's what we're gonna be talking

about today is the kingdom of God.

And what that means. And so I know

that I tend to throw that phrase around,

the kingdom or the kingdom of God or

the kingdom of heaven quite a bit, And,

that doesn't always make sense to everybody. So

this morning, we're gonna spend a little time

unpacking what that means and just kinda do

a overview of that theme

biblical.

I should say, I owe a great deal

of this to nt right and to the

bible project who both have excellent resources on

all of this stuff. And if you want

to think deeply about this or the sermon

on the mount, a go look up the

bible project. They are very good

and they've got some...

I I would say maybe not deep thinking

in terms of, like, an exhaustive study if

you're gonna go do your dis rotation on

it, but it's good

good material very accessible and and helps to

clarify

what I might not get super clear.

And it's free.

Unless you have a conscience.

And then you have to I'm like, oh,

lord. Okay. I'll give them money.

Now I have to now I have to

pay the money because I made it sound

like I do that, but I haven't yet.

It has been free so far.

Alright.

Let's pray before I just discredit myself any

brother.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your rest

action in our lives.

We think you that you've not given up

on us. We ask that This morning as

we trace this theme of kingdom,

through the old testament and up into the

time of Jesus

that you would help us to be applying

this to our hearts.

Teach us what we need to learn Lord

about who you are and what that says

about who we are

about what you've done and about what that

says about what we do

as a response.

Father, we love you, and we thank you

for your love for us.

We ask that the words of my mouth

and the meditation of all of our hearts

will be pleasing to you in this time.

Amen.

Alright. So like I say, I think about

the word kingdom a lot.

I think it... And more probably as time

goes on, like, as as my life moves

forward it, I keep thinking this phrase kingdom,

it comes up, and I see it. More

and more everywhere. When I think about death

and dying, I start thinking in terms of

the kingdom.

When I think about disciples ship, I think

about the kingdom of God. When I think

about all hunger or justice or

reconciliation or restoration,

I think about the kingdom of God.

When I think about family, I think about

the kingdom of God.

It's 1 of those concepts that has managed

to kind of sneak its way and to

pretty much every sphere of my thinking. And

because I probably overuse the term or

I'm you know, if I'm not over using

it, I think it's at least safe to

say there are times when I'm not adding

clarity to what that is in the conversations

when I use that term without explaining. So

this morning, I thought Let's just kinda go

over and take a look at what this

is because it's a really

foundational fundamental part of who we are as

the church and as believers and as Christians.

So I do get to the question outright

occasionally as well, though. And I thought today,

let's just unpack this theme. And so,

because it's a major theme in the bible

and it stretches from really, if you wanted

to, you could stretch it all the way

back to Eden to revelation So it's like,

cover to cover 1 of these concepts that

works its way through the Bible.

And the better that we understand that concept

of kingdom. The better that we're actually going

to understand Jesus who comes into the middle

of this story and brings definition to it.

Not only who Jesus was, but what he

was doing

and why he was doing it, the way

that he was doing it.

And this is our

primary tasks as disciples of Jesus, as followers

of Jesus, it's our job to understand who

Jesus was,

what he was doing

why he did it the way that he

did it,

all in the hopes that we could do

it like him, that we would be light

Christ that we would be little Christians, little

Christ.

To the world around us. This is the

goal of Christ's first disciples and it's still

our goal as disciples of Christ

Now when we hear the word kingdom outside

of any sort of, like, church or biblical

concept. But I think if you're like me,

you probably conjure up thoughts of, you know,

knights and shining armor and Camelot and King

Arthur and all of this other kind of

stuff. And it's not wrong to think that.

I mean, I think the people that were,

you know, I'm just gonna go out on

a branch here and say,

Camelot

fictional. It's not a it's not actually existing

in history, but But it does. The concept

the the heart of Camelot does exist and

what they're driving at really is like, what

it looks like for a good king to

rule over his dominion

as the way that god intended to, And

it's it's the playing out of, like, what

that would look like if we could be

writing all of the wrong. So there's a

certain value set that goes with Camelot and

with King Arthur and all of these things.

That I think does... It certainly does har

back to what we're trying to learn in

the Bible.

We're trying to see

what are the values of that kingdom? What

what does the king value and what does

he send his knights out to go do?

Right? What what is important to him? What's

important to living inside of that kingdom? What

kind of things are they willing to die

for? What kind of things are they willing

to risk their lives for? What are they

willing to do in order to make and

establish this kingdom kingdom And and what will

they not tolerate? What won't they say is

okay. And so this concept of kingdom actually

does... Apply to the Bible, and the bible

uses it. You know, Authors to talk about

the armor of God. They're not referring to

camelot, but they're referring to Rome, and the

empires that they lived in. And of course,

they live in kingdoms and their experience of

this is

pretty normal. And while Rome is an empire

while they're there not technically a kingdom I

suppose, but it's an empire, the concept is

all the same. Rome has a set of

values that it's saying, this is who we

are. This is what we stand for. This

is what we do.

Why we do it and the way that

we're going to do it the way that

we're doing it. And so they're going to

bring a lot of really good and beautiful

things to the world. Right? Like, you're gonna

get Aqua ducks. You're gonna get running water,

and that is good for the health of

all the people. That is a that is

a really nice thing. For people, but they're

gonna do it at the cost of, like,

en people to do that. Right? The amount

of people that die

in order to provide these kind of things

that give their lives

to something like, you know, building a gym,

or building a a big bath house or

building 1 of these is incredible. It's staggering.

And so there's this value set behind it.

That says this at all cost and not

this, And God's kingdom is constantly

in attention with the kingdoms that are around

it. Right? The people of Israel, they do

become a kingdom eventually, but they're at attention

with the kingdoms around them.

So

as hinted that earlier,

the concept of god's kingdom does go all

the way back to the garden of Eden.

And it's a place where God's clearly on

the throne. Right? God is with his people,

and he's dwelling in harmony with them. Adam

and Eve, they're created in God's image. They're

representing God and the way that they were

made to represent him, and they're representing them

in how they steward the garden, how they

care for the animals, how they treat 1

another. They're living out.

This reality of, you know, God's perfect dwelling

place or his kingdom in a sense. It

was put briefly a place where God and

humanity lived together.

Reconcile.

He was their God and they were his

people. Of course, it doesn't take long for

that to go sideways, and we're pretty familiar

with that. Adam, and you take the fruit.

They take the 1 thing that God did

forbid. Right? The 1 don't do, they did.

And that value of the kingdom was trans.

Because in choosing the fruit, Adam and eve

decided they wanted to actually be their own

king. They said, actually, I I want to

be in charge of how I

make my decisions. I I get to decide

what's good or not good. Right? That's my

job to do now.

They wanna rule their lives according to what

they thought best, not what God tells them.

And this is the beginning of the separation

then the rebellion that we currently understand all

too well.

So as a consequence,

Adam don't eve leave the garden and and

they're prohibited from coming back into it. Now

they're outside of this, like, perfect kingdom. Right?

This perfect rule and reign of God. The

kingdom is closed,

and they still speak with God and they

have a relationship with them, but it's forever

tainted marred or affected by this sin and

disobedience, which is passed on to their own

children, and through them is a condition that

we also have inherited.

Who doesn't

want to have knowledge of good and evil

after all.

That's the name of the tree that they

take the fruit from. Right? The tree nausea

is a good and evil.

Who doesn't want that. I think we all

kinda do

This sin separates them and us from the

fullness of relationship that they had previously enjoyed

with God and it grieve God deeply.

It also brings death just like God said

it would bring death. Right?

Which also grieve God,

And it's not to say that the key

right on the spot. Right and live boom

they're dead and the story closes because that

would not be a very good story. And

it probably wouldn't have survived this long if

that were the case.

But the death that Adam and Eve die

happens on a much deeper level, and I'm

the kingdom

experiences a death as well. Right?

It's more than just a physical death. It's...

It's it's an experiential reality.

It's a death to innocence. It's a death

to trust.

It's a death to their full assurance of

the goodness of the Lord.

And in this sense,

this death is also

the birth,

of cy

of mistrust, of doubt,

of fear of all of these things that

mark this other kingdom that they were building

into

God sets about to reconcile this for humanity

and in his love, he launches us into

the rest of the story of scripture.

The big story of the many books that

make up the bible is ultimately the story

of god,

reconciling his people back to himself until 1

day he has restored us back to be

who he created us to be,

living as he created us to live,

and doing what we were created to do

in the way that he created us to

do it. Does that sound familiar?

That's the same definition of disciples that we

gave earlier to Jesus. Right?

So we're all track.

So after Adam and E, we're introduced to

Noah, and we see the ramp and broken

ness of God's creation don't worry. I know

what you're thinking. You're thinking is he gonna

do the whole thing today. And I'm not.

We don't have time.

But we get to we get to know,

And I wanna just touch on some of

these really quickly because I think they're important

for our understanding I really need to establish

this. I think, in the old testament as

a as a theme. So

with Noah,

and we see, you know, the the broken

ness of God's creation everywhere, and we see

these... 2 kingdoms kind of at war and

competition with each other. And we see after

the flood, the first of many recreation narratives

in the Bible. Which reminds us of the

original creation story of God, who's hovering over

the chaos waters, and he's separating the waters,

you know, previously, it was rain and the

waters of the earth, they all become 1,

and we have this, like, 1 water. And

now at this

recreation moment, god is separating the waters above

from the waters below.

Dry land is coming out of them. Right?

They come off of the arc onto dry

land. The first thing that noah it does

is he plants a garden, like a a

vineyard. Right?

And the it's... We have a picture of,

like, let's do this again. Let's try this

again. And the original readers, if you're reading

it as the jews were reading it, they're

gonna see this thing

here, and you're gonna have lots more examples

of that actually throughout the scriptures. It's a

very interesting thing.

But this is also supposed to sound familiar.

We hear the story in the way that

Jewish audience heard it, and we're hearing this

repeated theme of god's trying again. He's rebuilding

things he's recreating things he's giving us another

chance,

will we be able to live inside of

the? And it lasts, like 0 time at

all,

Before Noah is drunk on his own wine,

and then there's a bunch of deb battery

that happens, and the whole things gets broken,

and and then we see this like long

laying out of, like, what it's gonna be

like. But before all of that, god bless

Noah and his family

with an already familiar

be fruitful and multiply. We heard that before

too. Right?

And he makes a covenant with him, and

then the new covenant he makes with Noah,

We see again, God's commitment to reconciling humanity

and reconciling this relationship that he has with

his creation at any cost.

He literally at the end of it. When

he's hanging up his bow. He's hanging up,

it's it's not like a a rainbow, like,

I mean, it is a rainbow.

But we're supposed to hear This is God's

war bow.

Right? This is, like, the bow that he

goes to war with his enemy. He hangs

the bow up, in the heavens and he

promises that he never again is he gonna

wipe out the earth in this way.

But notice

who the bow is pointing at.

It's like god saying I hate death and

I love you.

Death is always gonna have some part to

play in this relationship now

because of the sin,

so let's do something about that. And then

he points the bow at himself. And again,

this theme is repeated throughout the scriptures. It's

in the covenant with Abraham. You'll see God

standing in the place of, like, I'm am

going to take this thing, and we don't

have, like I said, time this morning for

the full retailing, but 1 of the major

themes running throughout the length of the Bible,

is the concept of God restoring

humanity through his chosen people Israel, so we

can all once again dwell together with God

in the way that we were attended to.

We're going back to Eden. The old testament

also a story of Israel's sporadic obedience

and frequent dis disobedience.

Their frequent failures acting as a vehicle through

which God would bring this peace to Earth

once again.

They want a king. Israel demands a king.

They wanna be like the other kingdoms. They

wanna be like the other nations, so they

want a king, and god grants in this

through samuel despite

prophetic warnings to the contrary you're going. This

is not a good idea, but okay if

you insist,

again, a story of occasional success

and triumph, but frequent failure,

the now official kingdom of God is quickly

divided it doesn't last very long. You go

through those kings, most of them are not

great. Right? And and the and the ways

that they're not great. They're catastrophic

not great. And then the ways that the

good ones are good, it's just... You're always

feeling like, man, this is just not enough.

They need a good king, which is why

David is so celebrated, but it's only, you

know, a generation after David that boom. It

goes the kingdom. It's gone like it's divided.

And now

this kingdom, this place that they thought, maybe,

you know, in Jerusalem. And God's holy city

in this temple that we've built for God

God will dwell with us. He will be

our God. We will be as people, but

their own sinful ness, Their own broken ness

prevents this from happening.

And all of a sudden,

this kingdom that they've built up. This this

center point for where God would be able

to extend his rule and reign and sovereignty

and bring peace the whole Earth is lost.

The city's lost, the temple is sacked by

the enemy,

and Israel, god's people

go into exile.

The constant longing of the people

in exile is for god to restore the

kingdom. That's what they hope for the most.

And what we hear so often repeated by

the prophets during that time, are promises of

God, like, I will be their God, and

they will be my people.

No longer will they teach their neighbor or

say to 1 another, know the Lord because

they will all know me from the least

of them to the greatest declares the Lord.

That's in Jeremiah 31.

This is har back again to what it

was like when Adam and Eve could walk

with the Lord in cool of the garden.

They just knew him. They didn't have to...

What's he like? What it gonna be like?

I like this in C s Lewis book.

The great divorce. He goes up to this

kind of intermediate state. I don't know what

it is. Place between heaven and hell, and

there's this artist there, and he has painted

these beautiful pictures, and he is he has

open people's eyes on earth to the greatness

and glory of god, and he's like, I'm

gonna do the same thing in the kingdom

of heaven. Or in in heaven, and he's

like,

well, they could just look at God

and

do it that way. And it goes, well,

and then like, I I have a thing.

I'm important here. I matter. Right? And goes,

well, actually no. You don't. What you did

was really important Was a beautiful gift, and

it was an active worship to the lord

on earth while you were doing it when

we were all looking us through a glass

dim. But here now, we we get to

see and behold him. This is the eventual

long for hope that we have is that

we will behold god face to faith, and

this is what the prophets are declined. They

will just know the Lord. They're all know

me. From the least to the greatest declares

the Lord.

And we hear and there the echoes of

Eden. And again, an Ezekiel God declares my

dwelling place will be with them. I will

be their God, and they will be my

people. And the nations will know that I

the Lord make Israel holy when my sanctuary

is among them forever.

Now imagine this while those sanctuary is destroyed

jerusalem gone, they're living in exile, and they're

just longing for this day when God's gonna

establish his kingdom.

There's a calling forward to a time when

god is going to establish his rule and

reign and he's gonna bless the whole world

through Israel just as he promised abraham him.

And then Daniel,

focus here a little bit more this morning.

The language of kingdom is really explicit. The

book of Daniel writes about Israel's exile, out

of the kingdom of Israel and into the

kingdom of Babylon.

It's... I mean, they're the great enemies. Right?

And the and they have done just these

atrocious things. And it's a story of Daniel

the,

and the rule and reign of God in

the middle of the rule and reign of

the Babylon, the median

the persians,

and all these kings and rulers that they're

living with in Babylon,

Consistently throughout the book the sent to the

power and authority of those earthly kings

is given boundaries by an invisible god.

And these guys are, like, unstoppable tyrant. They

are like, absolutely Mega,

like, they they say a thing and people's

lives hang on the balance. You don't defy

their power or authority and yet throughout the

book, where... To understand that God is actually

pulling all of the strings here. God is

actually in control of Israel and of Babylon

while he's outside of the temple.

Consistently, we see this displayed.

The god who alone tells him what their

dreams mean. He closes the mouse of lions.

He does all of these things that the

kings can't explain or understand They can't... They

don't have access to what God can do.

The god who

is

saving Israel in the middle of all of

this stuff.

In fact, Daniel gets pretty bras and speaking

to the kings.

He says the God of heaven,

well, he he interprets Ne Dream. Right? And

Ne nes, if you're familiar with veggie tales,

you'll maybe remember Ne.

If that's how you read the old testament.

But he tells another your magic to you

are the king of kings.

The God of heaven has given you

dominion and power and might and glory. In

your hands, he has placed all mankind and

the beasts of the field and the birds

of the sky. Wherever they live, he has

made you, ruler

over them all. You see what he's doing

there. He's flattering him, but he's also, like,

don't get confused about where this is all

coming from Ne Desert.

Book of Daniels a picture of God's power

and authority,

even when he has no throne, no city,

no temple. God is sovereign.

And the kings of the earth still look

to God for wisdom.

Ne has a dream of this great tree.

Right? And all of the animals of the

land they come and take refuge under its

branches, and this is this beautiful thing.

But then, in the middle of the dream

an angel comes down from heaven an cuts

down the tree and he leaves only a

stump and he's all bound up. Daniel's

interpretation, you Ne. Your majesty. You are that

tree.

And then we get another contrasting glimpse of

how God's kingdom

differs from all earthly kingdoms. Daniel tells Ne

desert 7 times will pass for you. Until

you acknowledge that the most high is sovereign

over all kingdoms on earth

and gives them to anyone he wishes

your kingdom will be restored when you acknowledge

that heaven rules.

Therefore, your majesty,

reno your sins by doing what is right

and your wicked by being kind to the

oppressed.

That's kind of a para of Daniel 4

there at the end.

All kingdoms on earth. God is sovereign over

all of them, and this is gonna go

on up a until you can acknowledge that

until you can pro preclude that because This

has all gone straight to his head. He

can't see this. This is the big problem,

but this whole book of Daniel is really

trying to communicate to Israel. Even when your

in Babylon,

God is on the throne.

Even when Ne is on the throne,

God is on the throne. Even when darius

is on the throne. God is on the

throne. Even when Be is on the throne,

God is always on the throne. He's is

never off of the throne. And they have

to get this into their minds. They have

to understand that this kingdom is not necessarily

going to be bound by a physical

vacation. It's not going to be, like, here's

the thing that you can put walls up

around and then fight battles over, and then

then only then, will the kingdom of god

be established. This kingdom of God transcend all

of that.

Finally, after Daniel and Tu his dream, ne

quickly goes off the deep end, and he

has his moment out in the wilderness, and

it's a good story. I won't spoil it,

but After all that happens, Ne returns from

his own exile, and he has apparently fully

learned the lesson, and he proclaimed. This comes

out of of his mouth. Now I ne

can has praise and ex and glorify the

king of Heaven because everything he does is

right and all his ways are just... And

those who walk and pride, he is able

to humble.

Now for lack of time, I'm gonna ask

you to trust me that this theme repeats

it... Itself, not only throughout the book of

Daniel with ne darius bo are. And it

ends actually speaking prophetic of future kingdoms as

well that the israelites are going to be

subjected by. The But key for all of

this is that the israelites remember

God's sovereignty over every earthly kingdom despite the

outward appearances.

They need to know this. They need to

leave Babylon

understanding that God is always on the throne,

and that his kingdom works differently.

Then earthly kingdoms.

God gives Daniel a really key vision in

chapter 7, and it's a vision of warring

kingdoms

and in the midst of them comes the

son of man,

who approaches the ancient of days, with God,

and who has given, quote, authority, glory

and sovereign power all nations and people of

every language worship shipped him, as he's seeing

in vision. Right? His dominion is an ever

lasting dominion that will not pass away and

his kingdom is 1 that will never be

destroyed.

Later on, the dream is interpreted. The ancient

Days comes and he pronounce his judgment in

favor, the holy people of the most high

and it says, a time came when they

possessed the kingdom.

This is what they're looking forward to. This

is what they're sitting in the midst of

exile,

longing for God's kingdom.

And that kingdom represents righteousness. It represents h.

It represents justice. It represents peace. It represents

people being fed, and there's not there's not

sq there's is unity and reconciliation, It represents

all of these things. It's not just power

and authority and control, and now we get

to hold the guns. It's like, no. Nobody

has to hold the guns because there's no

need for any of that stuff anymore because

God's kingdom has been established.

Now,

the israelites cling to that promise. They're expecting

the sun man to come to liberate them

from the oppressive kingdoms of earth.

And

for that time when God himself will establish

his kingdom and the holy people of the

most high will take possession of it. That's

what they're looking forward to.

And then they go into 400 years of

silence,

and God doesn't say anything.

For really long time, you gotta think about

400 years that that's a older than Canada.

That's a long time for people to shape

an opinion to shape to shape a culture

to shape a of a, kind of feeling

about who god is about

the values that they're going to live out.

It's also as long as they spend

in in slavery in Egypt as well. Right?

And this is how long it takes them

to come out of this

mentality of, like, we're still slaves in Egypt.

It's a long time in the desert. You

know, you get the israelites, as they say,

out to Egypt, but it takes a lot

longer to get Egypt out of the Israelites.

It's the same thing. These guys are 400

years of silence. And they're waiting on hanging

on these promises, and they're seeing

some pretty incredible kingdoms and empires spring up.

Seeing the Sal. They're seeing

Alexander the Great. They're seeing the Roman empire.

They're seeing told me. They're seeing this whole

lake. They're they're seeing the world start to

really flex its muscles. And, I mean, Rome

is still

major influence on our culture today. It's still

a huge part of how we shape our

own society, the things that we value, the

way that we structure our government, this the

the... Philosophy that we kinda hold to, democracy.

The whole thing is like, we've got Rome.

It's still here. I mean, that's a significant

kingdom.

So for 400 years, they're watching how the

kingdoms of earth work,

and they're clinging to that promise,

and they're expecting the son of man to

come and liberate them,

and then they hear nothing, and then Jesus

comes onto the scene.

And the first thing Jesus does after his

baptism,

and then temptation in the desert. The first

thing he does in Matthew's gospel he goes

around, and he begins to preach this really

radical message, which Matthew sums up in Matthew

Matthew 4:17

4

verse 17. It says, as From that time

on,

Jesus began to rep preach.

Repent.

Why?

For the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Times coming.

The kingdom that you all been longing for,

the kingdom is coming,

and it's here.

There's a mic drop moment for people.

Because Jesus is just this like, he is

not a king like they would be expecting

a king. He's not gonna be the guy

that overthrow the government. He doesn't look like

Alexander The great. He doesn't look like sister.

He doesn't look like any of these people

who have, like gained prestige and military power.

He doesn't have tons of influence. He doesn't

have these things. And yet

from this

place of humility,

comes the messiah.

And Jesus is claiming

the kingdom of Heaven has come near. And

then just shortly after that in chapter 5

He... I mean, he goes around to all

the people. He's healing people. He's kind of

demonstrating

his sovereignty over the earth and everything in

it and he's saying in a sense, I'm

the king. Here's this new kingdom is coming,

and I'm actually the king.

And that doesn't not a lot of people

get that,

as they're watching Jesus life unfold, and it's

a tricky message to understand, but the people

that do follow him there's great crowds of

gentile, and it's typically not a real religious

thing, but they're going, yeah. You know what?

Because Rome,

you know, my uncle and brother and so

and so and so and so they all

died building the stupid a and the sewer

system for these guys. And Jesus is proclaiming

something, like, when you're hurt, when you're, you

know, when you're not able to work when

you're not useful to Roam anymore, what's Rome

got to do with you. What's wrong care

about you.

What are they gonna invest in you? Not

a lot.

But Jesus kingdom is a little different than

that. Fact it's radically different than that. It's

completely the opposite of Rome.

And so when we're looking for kingdoms,

were tempted to miss it because a lot

of years of kingdoms have coming gone, and

we're pretty close to our American neighbors to

the south who have a a pretty good

king and we got a pretty good thing

going on ourselves.

But the contents of the kingdom of heaven

has come near when Jesus is telling people

repent the kingdom heaven has come near, the

contents of what that is going to mean

and what that is going to look like,

but is the sermon on the mount. This

is where Jesus goes, this is the values,

the ethics, the understanding of what it looks

like to be behold and to and to

walk in this kingdom. This is what it

looks like to be 1 of the knights

of the... Or just a a citizen of

heaven. Right?

And so we're gonna start in the next

couple of weeks,

unpacking

the sermon on them mount, and I'm really

excited about it.

And here's the thing about the king to

Heaven though. Our expectation for it

often

can make us blind to it. We want

it so bad, and we've been so accustomed

to looking around to other competing kingdoms, and

we we see it especially. On a man.

It's an election time in the states. And

I'm I'm American, and I hear all about

it. You know, like, we're looking for, like,

we're looking for, like,

and captain America Jesus. You know what I

mean? Like, it's a real blending and sync

of like, of these 2 systems,

and they've... Jesus has done nothing but show

us that that doesn't exist. Like, you're not

gonna find the guy that's holding the rocket

launcher,

and wearing the to and sitting on the

cross. Right? You're either the 1 nailing into

the cross or you're the 1 on the

cross.

And Jesus shows us a pretty direct and

alarming way of the kingdom.

And most of the people that Jesus was

teaching about the king them didn't really get

it.

Certainly, those in a position of relative power

had a harder time getting it. Whether they

were the religious elite or the

mighty or the rich. Those who had the

most to lose are often the slowest to

give it up.

And so as we go into this sermon

series,

we have to recognize that most of us,

because we live in a very affluent part

of the world,

have a lot to lose

when we consider the kingdom of God.

Jesus kingdom

is for the meek,

and for the mourners.

They're not an influential bunch.

It's for the poor and spirit.

It's for the ones who's hunger for

righteousness,

whose hunger and thirst for righteousness

and justice

exceeds their hunger

for power and control,

and influence or money or the other promises

of our culture.

And because of this,

They don't become wealthy people. They don't tend

to become very influential people.

They're relegated off to the kind of corners

of history

and we don't hear a lot about them.

These

have found the pearl of great worth.

3 they have sold everything to obtain that

treasure hidden in a field

that nobody else can see.

They are the mustard seed.

They are the good soil upon which

the seed flourish is,

and this is the call of Christ.

Christ enters into the most powerful empire of

all of human history, arguably, I would stand

by it.

If you're an American watching this. I'm sorry.

Rome is all around us you guys. Roam

it's in our art. It's in our architecture.

It's in our language.

It's in our literature. It's in our laws,

We understand empire. We understand

we understand power and influence. We know what

it takes. If we wanna shape this culture,

we know how to do that. We've seen

it done before. We've seen the kinds of

things that shape this culture,

and

we're being asked not to believe it.

Jesus is showing us an alternative way.

We can't do this thing,

In the Canadian way or in the American

way or in the way of the empire,

we can't afford to do it because that's

not how it works.

We can't have our cake and eat it

too, unfortunately.

It would be really nice if we could.

But I don't think we can.

We are Roman

in a sense. We are empire.

But we are also told that we are

citizens

of a different kingdom of a heavenly kingdom,

and that we can live in these 2

kingdoms at the same time. We can be

citizens of the 1 and so journeys to

the other.

And that's the whole trick of living this

thing out.

How do we live out our beliefs? How

do we express these values? How do we

express this kingdom

to the people around us. And this is

I wanna close on this.

When Jesus is presenting this. This is the

very center of his teaching. That's what he's

going to do. He starts off saying,

repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Let me explain to you what the kingdom

of heaven looks like. If you're gonna follow

me, this is what you're following me into,

and then he gets himself crucified for his

troubles. He gives up everything he has. He

has all the power, and it is a

display of power and authority

to be crucified on the cross.

Is the greatest display of power and it

third because he has the authority power over

death itself, and he has gained that, and

he says, Now you too can face these

things. You have that kind of power and

authority to be able to face death to

be able to face person. Execution to be

able to face hunger and to be able

to face the injustices of this world as

a citizen of that world as a citizen

of heaven as a child of God, blessed

are the peace makers for they will be

called children of God. Right?

Blessed of the pure and heart for they

will see God.

This is who we are, and we have

to live that thing out inside of this

culture.

And we've done this thing and this is

a western way of thinking

we think about religion, we think about spirituality,

we think about Jesus or Christianity in terms

of a logical set of propositions. And when

we share and evan,

or when we're, you know, doing this

evangelical or you Eli or how you wanna

say that the Greek word of...

Evan

when we're doing that, that word means good

news. Right? People would run in and say,

you know, There's a king. There's a new

kingdom and a new king and they're bringing

an evangelion. They're bringing the good news.

And Jesus comes and they pick up on

this, You know, when when Daniel is talking

about this good news of the kingdom, the

Sep translate it as even Eli.

Evangelion. That's how it translates. It uses that

same word. Good news.

And so this is what we're coming into.

This is what we're sharing. But we tend

to think of good news as like a

thesis,

and we're like, I gotta tell people all

of these proposition of truths. But more than

that,

The people that get it that Jesus talking

to are the people who have nothing and

they're willing to give it all up to

follow Jesus.

And there's this radical new way of what

it looks like to be alive and to

interact with this world around us, and it

looks a lot like laying ourselves down in

front of it,

of subject ourselves to crucifixion of of putting

going the whole distance of and and trusting

God and obedience in the midst of this

chaos and the crazy that we live in,

and we live in it.

That's evan.

When we do that thing. We pro

the greatness of God. We pro the sovereignty

of god over all of this when we

face that stuff with confidence,

knowing that god can provide for us that

he can take care of us and that

he is still

on the throne, no matter whose

elected into what position God

is on the throne.

And we have to ask ourselves, because Canada

is now post nation,

and we're faced with the same question that

god's holy people have always been faced with

are we going to scramble for power and

influence?

Are we gonna play by the rules of

earthly kingdoms

or of God's kingdom?

What will the kingdom of heaven teach us

about how god structures this church?

How we structures our relationship?

With the town and the culture and the

politics around us?

How do we treat power and authority, who's

important?

To us, who has influence? Who do we

care about?

Where do we spend our time money and

talents?

What do we invest in

Who is rich?

Who is poor?

These are all questions we need to be

asking.

And for this, I'm very excited about the

upcoming series on the sermon on the mount

because it's going to be a sustained reflection

on these things. And so I'd invite all

of us,

in the weeks ahead to just

dive into that thing, allow it to challenge

you,

allow this thing to settle you, It's a

very important

thing to have on unsettled us because it's

really at the center of what crisis is

trying to teach us.

And when we live there,

we experience God. We experience the power and

sufficiency of God

and God is on the throne.

Let's great.

Father, we thank you for your sovereignty.

We thank you for loving us for restoring

us for bringing us

back into this

kingdom

of setting before us a vision for the

for your kingdom for your glory,

for your good.

Think you that we can see it even

now,

spring up around us

and in cups of cool water

when we visit those

who are sick or in prison.

It's in these small acts of justice and

righteousness.

Of reconciling people to you

that we see you that we see your

kingdom

and we thank you god that

despite all the kingdoms of the world,

yours has persisted,

yours will last. It's not going anywhere.

You are still on the throne.

Here are praise this morning and be pleased

we ask in Jesus name.

Amen.

Let's stand and sing praise the Lord.

Hope

in

god

Pray for.

Father we thank you.

Thank you again for the gift of your

son. Thank you that you are on the

throne that we can have confidence in this.

Help us to remind each other of this

as we go out, would you remind us,

Lord that it doesn't need to be a

great thing, but the opportunities for your kingdom

lie all around us.

Opportunities to invest and who you've called us

to be to to be who you say

we are and to do the things you

tell us to do in the way that

you've created us to do them.

God thank you for giving us your son.

As a guide as a way of showing

and for your spirit who teaches us and

moves us into these things.

Help us to claim your goodness,

your sovereignty,

your power and your might, and the way

that we give our lives up for the

world around us.

Help us to follow you, Lord. We ask

in Jesus name.

Amen.

Be blessed. You are dismissed. Happy Sunday.

And

keep

and

keep

make his face on,

pawn

we agree

amen.

And thousand

generations

your