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JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14-15

Jesus spoke repeatedly of the arrival of God’s kingdom, both present and future as “good news”. What did He mean by “good news”? What was the good news He announced by His coming? When the Romans arrived on the scene in the already-occupied-by-Greece land of Israel, for the Jews it was bad news. The presence of the Roman authorities was not only an affront to their sovereignty as a nation and their freedom as a people, but it also brought with it many forms of suffering.

They could never forget that they were an occupied nation. The Romans were everywhere, waiting to clamp down on them and quell any signs of rebellion. The people were subjected to severe taxation which left many of them impoverished and resentful of their overlords and those of their own people who worked for them. What’s more, their religious hierarchy were in cahoots with Rome, benefitting handsomely from applying whatever pressure was necessary to keep the peace.

Jesus’s announcement of good news might have sent His disciples’ pulses racing but for one thing – He made no attempt to deal with the Romans. In fact He practised and taught the opposite; He healed people indiscriminately, in response to their faith and not according to their race; He taught His disciples to love their enemies, and to submit to their overlords. That did not sit well with the religious zealots who were more than eager to get rid of the Romans by whatever means it took.

So, if the good news was not about ridding Israel of Roman occupation and re-establishing the glory of the Davidic kingdom, what was it about? To understand His message, we must go back to the Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied of a day that was to come when Jerusalem would be restored after the devastation of captivity. He offered good news to the people of Zion.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say in Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. (Isa. 52:7-8)

“Your God reigns!” That was the good news but what did it mean and when would this happen? God would finally dealt with their core problem – sin – and deliver them once for all from the ravages of sin through His Suffering Servant. Isaiah graphically described, in fifteen verses (Isa 52:13- 53: 12) the nature of this deliverance – the sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty so that the guilty may be forgiven and be reconciled to God.

Inherent in Jesus’s message of good news was the restoration of God’s authority over His people when their sin was atoned for and removed once for all. This was not about Rome. This was about an occupation far more sinister and far-reaching than Rome’s. Their hearts were occupied by a usurper whose power over them had to be destroyed by exposing his deception and breaking his hold over them so that they could return to the God who had called them into a covenant with Him.

Jesus announced that the time had come for this to be accomplished. God was at hand to establish His reign in their hearts once again. Through them, He would extend it into every corner of society and every part of the globe until Jesus returns to dispose of the devil and establish His eternal kingdom on earth.

Adam and Eve sold out to the deceiver who aspired to usurp God’s place as Lord! Over the millennia, the devil has done everything in his power to own and keep this title by enslaving the human race through the sin, sorrow and suffering that came with their disobedience. The good news Jesus brought was truly “good news”. God said, “Enough is enough! Satan has had his day and now the time for deliverance has come.”

God’s reign is intended to restore righteousness and justice in the earth where evil reigns and destroys. When Jesus is acknowledged as Lord by every person who has ever lived and every angelic being, good or evil, Satan and all evil will finally be disposed of to the place where he belongs. All creation will know that Jesus is Lord and not the devil or any of the false gods he has hidden behind from the beginning of time.

The new era of the kingdom of God was ushered in when Jesus came, which He demonstrated by His words and works. The kingdom of God is among us now, but not yet in its fullness. It will only come fully when Jesus returns to reign over His redeemed people and a renewed and restored earth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM

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NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Mark 12:32-34

It’s a pity we meet characters in the Bible who appear for a moment and then disappear forever and no-one knows what happened to them. This man would be worth following up if we could. His response to Jesus’ answer to his question suggests that he was either being terribly sarcastic or that he was beginning to understand what Jesus represented.

Was he a secret supporter who was trying to show up the Pharisee’ and religion scholars’ hypocrisy?  Perhaps he knew what Jesus’ answer would be but he wanted Him to verbalise it for His opponents to hear. Was this concept dawning on him through following, watching and listening to Jesus?

What did Jesus recognise in this man’s reply? Was his question a cover-up for a hunger in his heart which he would not admit but was nevertheless real to him?  I wonder how he perceived “loving God”. Perhaps Samuel’s words to Saul were in his mind when he responded to Jesus: “To obey is better than sacrifice.”

Jesus connected with this man. He assured him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” What would the final step be that he had to take in order to experience kingdom life? To acknowledge Jesus to be the Son of God and to commit to following Him as his only Master would have put him on the right way to the Father.

Jesus made no attempt to pursue him, to sit down and explain stuff to him or to try to convince him to follow Him. The evidence was unfolding before his eyes and it was up to him to weigh it up and make a judgement for himself. Once he had been brought into contact with Jesus, he could not remain neutral. Being in the very presence of the Master would have affected him forever. It was up to him to open his heart and receive the revelation of truth that surrounded him, and move into a new realm of living, or to do nothing and waste his potential to become a mature son of God.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE FATHER’S BLESSING

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THE FATHER’S BLESSING

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16

What is it about fatherhood that either makes or breaks a child? What is it about a father’s blessing that sets a child free to fulfil his potential? Jesus simply taught and demonstrated this quality of fatherhood throughout His public ministry. Since it was His primary mission to reveal the Father, the way He treated the “dregs” of society would open up people’s understanding to the heart of the Father.

What the religious leaders modelled was the exact opposite of the Father’s attitude to people. They presented a god who put people on trial in relation to their behaviour. Everything was judged on the grounds of rule-breaking. They only accepted the people who thought and behaved as they did. They created a class of people who were exclusive and contemptuous of all other people who did not fulfil their expectations.

Jesus, on the other hand, modelled a true father who loves unconditionally and accepts all people as His sons. He affirms every person regardless of what they have done, as long as they have faith in Him. In that environment of total acceptance and unconditional love, a person has room enough to be himself and to learn, through mistakes and imperfections, how to be a son. Through fellowship with the Father and under the mentorship of Jesus and the nurturing of the Holy Spirit, they mature into spiritual adulthood in order to partner with the Father in the business of the kingdom.

Jesus Himself, on the threshold of His public ministry at His baptism, received the confirmation and assurance of the Father’s love and full acceptance that carried Him through to the completion of His mission. He was so secure in the Father’s love that He constantly spoke about it in His conflict with the religious leaders. This loving acceptance was the driving force and guiding light of His whole life.

A father’s blessing, then, is not just a once-off act but an attitude – the daily, loving, non-judgmental acceptance of his child that creates the environment for learning, growth and development into secure and responsible adulthood.

It is tragic that the church has lost its perspective. People are judged or accepted on the grounds of whether they are “in” or “out”.  Why is this? Is it because there has come a gradual separation, through centuries of erroneous understanding and preaching, between “the gospel” and the kingdom of God? The church in many cases, has become a place of judgment instead of a place of safety. “Gospel” preaching is equated with evangelism and tends to focus on how to get to heaven. It’s mostly about how to get one’s sins forgiven so that one can escape hell and go to heaven when one dies. That is NOT what Jesus taught. He taught that the kingdom of God is here. He invited all people to enter in order to experience His life here and now and to be restored to ECHAD with Him.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ALL BY ITSELF

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ALL BY ITSELF

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29

This parable is vital to remember because it takes the labour out of ministry in the kingdom of God. Everything in life begins in seed form. Every believer has been entrusted with the seed of the kingdom which is God’s word. It is constantly being scattered by speaking it, reading it, or living it. The important thing to remember is that it has the power within itself to germinate and grow.

The measure of its fruitfulness does not lie within the seed but with the soil into which it falls. The farmer’s task is to prepare the soil, sow the seed, care for the soil and wait for the harvest. There is nothing he can do to the seed to make it grow because its power to reproduce lies within itself.

So what does this mean to us? If we want a harvest, we have two responsibilities: to prepare the soil through prayer and teaching and to sow the seed in our own lives and in the lives of others by teaching, preaching and speaking the word.

It is not our opinion or interpretation that counts. It is God’s word that is the seed. It is the “sperm” that fuses with our lives and produces new life. It is the nutrient that nourishes our new lives and causes our understanding of truth to grow and mature. It is the truth about God, ourselves and the world we live in that gradually replaces all our wrong notions and mistaken ideas, transforming the way we think until God’s thoughts and desires become our own.

We become what we think; we think what we believe and we become what we believe. Hence it is vital that we keep feeding our minds with the truth so that we leave no room for lies and deception to breed in us. The more we read, meditate, inwardly digest and obey the Word of God, the greater will be the harvest of righteousness in our lives and the power to transform other lives by sowing the Word.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE- IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE

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IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE

“‘What society sees and calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous.

God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John; now it’s all kingdom of God – the glad news and compelling invitation to every man and woman.'” Luke 16:16.

What an important truth Jesus highlighted in this one statement, something that many of us believers do not seem to have grasped! Firstly, the Old Testament, with its dealings with Israel, is the indispensable foundation for understanding the entire message of the Bible. Many Christians believe that they can do away with it and read only the New Testament, but that’s foolish. It’s like reading a mystery story from the middle of the book.

Secondly, the Old Testament, important as it is, is not the whole story. God had a certain way of dealing with His people because they were His chosen vehicle through whom Messiah would come. His Law was the expression of His perfect nature. It was never intended to refashion His people into His image. It was intended to show them what He required and how impossible it was to live up to His standard by purely human effort.

Thirdly, God was developing a culture which would lay the foundation for understanding His entire recovery plan. All the rituals surrounding the sacrificial system, for example, were to prepare them to understand the once-for-all atoning sacrifice of His Son. The laws regarding clean and unclean would teach them the seriousness of sin, its contagious nature and the need for cleansing through a blood sacrifice.

The cultural practices surrounding courtship and marriage taught them how God was wooing them as His bride and preparing them for an eternal ‘marriage’ relationship of intimacy and oneness with them/ These and many more laws and practices laid the foundation for receiving and understanding the person and work of Jesus when He came.

Imagine for a moment if God had sent Jesus, unprepared for and unannounced, into a country like India with its myriad gods, or into a Muslim country with its rigid system of Sharia law. How would the people have received Him?

What Jesus was emphasizing was that His coming changed everything. All of the types and shadows of the Old Testament system were fulfilled in Him. He is the substance of which these things were the picture. John the Baptist was the cut-off point, the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, because he was not gazing at Messiah from a distance but actually introducing Him to the world. Short as his ministry was, it brought into sharp focus everything the preceding prophets had foretold.

This is where many of God’s people have gone wrong. There is a blurring of the difference between the Old and New Covenants and hence, unbiblical ideas and practices are perpetuated through misunderstanding. Let me highlight just two.

Firstly, in our understanding of prayer. A movement has grown up around the world which functions mainly on Old Testament ideas. People are taught to do ‘prayer walks’ and ‘Jericho marches’, to ‘take authority’ over principalities and powers, to identify and pull down ‘altars’ and to ‘bind’ the devil and his demons wherever the ‘spirit of’ this or that is identified. The favourite one, of course, is the ‘Jezebel’ spirit.

A thorough search of the Book of Acts does not reveal any of these practices. Instead, there is a confidence in the power of the cross through which Jesus defeated the devil, publicly exposed and disgraced him, stripped him of his weapons and set people free from his deception. The simple proclamation of Jesus as the Christ and as Lord, and the command  to repent and turn to Him as the truth, set people free to begin a new life under a new Master in the kingdom of God.

Paul’s ministry in Ephesus is a case in point. Ephesus was the centre of the powerful idolatrous cult of Diana-worship. Paul’s preaching lost the silversmiths business, caused a riot and eventually transformed the city. The new believers brought their witchcraft paraphernalia and made a bonfire of it in the middle of the city. No prayer walking, no pulling down of altars, no taking authority over demons – just the simple proclamation of the Word transformed lives and destroyed the power of Diana.

Secondly, the way we understand ‘deliverance’ is faulty. Satan works through deception. His stance is that he has the power to control people, which is a lie. Neither God nor Satan have the power to control the will of man. We give power through whatever we believe. If we believe Satan’s lies, we open ourselves to his influence.

Satan’s source of power was exposed at the cross. Jesus showed the world that He did not have to respond to the worst that human beings could do to an innocent man by reacting in a sinful way. “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…” 1 Peter 2:23, 24 (NIV).  

The way of ‘deliverance’ is the way of truth – expose Satan’s lies and replace them with truth. The need for deliverance implies that we are victims, needing to be rescued rather than people who need to take responsibility for what we think and believe. Confronting the devil is far less effective than helping the victim to accept responsibility for what he thinks, and to receive and believe the truth which renders the devil’s lies powerless and sends his demons packing. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” 1 Peter 5:8,9a (NIV).

So what was Jesus saying? The Old Testament era closed with the ministry of John. Jesus ushered in the new era of the kingdom of God. Everything changed when Messiah came. The power of the kingdom of God lies in the truth, embodied by Jesus and empowered by His Spirit and His Word. Now repent – change your mind and believe the good news that Jesus is in charge, no longer the devil!