The Kingdom
Eternal Christmas
Wildwind Community Church
December 12, 2010
David Flowers
Isaiah 26:1-9 (NIV)
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust.
6 Feet trample it down-- the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.
7 The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.
8 Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you...
Last week we talked about the world that Jesus came into – a world of darkness and of light, of brokenness and of beauty. We saw how God did not, and does not, wait until the darkness is gone before coming to us. Today I want to talk to you about what it is that Jesus brought with him when he came.
Jesus came announcing one thing – the kingdom of God. This was his message.
Mark 1:15 (NKJV)
15 ..."The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. What was the gospel? Well, as most of you know, gospel means “good news,” and the good news was and is that the kingdom of God is at hand!
So the gospel, the good news, is the availability of the kingdom of God to every person on earth.
Luke 2:10 (NIV)
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for some of all the people.
Jesus also said this about the kingdom:
Luke 17:20-21 (MSG)
20 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, "The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar.
21 Nor when someone says, ’Look here!’ or, ’There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you."
The kingdom is already among you – it is here right now. The gospel, the message of Jesus, my friends, was not about going to heaven when you die. It was about entering into a certain state of being that is eternal, so that when you die, you simply remain in that state of being only in another form. Now that sounds really trippy, so let me explain it this way. Let’s say that I were to begin working out really, really hard tomorrow (because that’s the day we always start a new workout plan, right? Tomorrow!), and over the next few months develop a rock-hard body. (Wait for laughs to subside.). That new body would belong to me, and I would be in that state wherever I went. I’d take my new body with me not only to the gym, but to church, and to band practice, and to the movies – it would be with me everywhere because it would be part of me. In the same way, the kingdom of God is part of us and we can learn to live in it right now. And when we do that, since it is within us, we take it with us everywhere we go – including into eternity. If we are living in God’s kingdom now, then after we die we just continue living in God’s kingdom. Make sense? We enter the kingdom of God right now while we live – we learn to experience the peace and joy and love and hope that characterize that kingdom, and that’s it. Once I get my Mr. Universe body, I don’t need to worry that one day I show up to church and left my awesome body at home. It is assured of being with me everywhere I go, and it cannot be anywhere else other than where I am.
So it is with the kingdom of God. Jesus went around announcing, “The kingdom of God is at hand – it is available – it is close enough for you to touch – it is in you and around you – it is potential and promise, and you can begin living in that kingdom immediately.”
Now we’ve covered what the message of Jesus was, so let’s look a little more closely at the kingdom of God itself. I’ll start with a heady definition, then I’ll explain it clearly for you. The kingdom of God is the range of God’s effective will. Heady enough for you? The range of God’s effective will, in other words, the kingdom of God is the place where what God says is what goes. The kingdom of God is the place where God’s will is done. There is a point in all of our lives when our lives are decidedly NOT within the range of God’s effective will, right? A point where God’s will is not routinely and naturally done in our lives, and the reason for that is because we are quite preoccupied with making sure OUR will is done, and that OUR kingdom comes! That is the world Jesus came into 2000 years ago – a world where most people were actively living not in God’s kingdom, but in their own, not doing God’s will, but their own. A world very much like we still live in today, of course. It was into this world, divided into millions of tiny, individual kingdoms, that Jesus came to say, “I have amazing news for you. There is really only one kingdom that is going to last, and it’s the kingdom of God, and you can live in that kingdom beginning immediately.”
Of course this was not particularly welcome news at the time, and it’s not particularly welcome news now. Because we don’t have to think very hard about the phrase “thy kingdom come” before we realize that its necessary counter-part is “My kingdom go!” And that is in fact what Jesus meant when he said, “The kingdom of God is at hand – repent!” “Repent” is the “My kingdom go,” part. Repentance is where I see the futility of running my own little private kingdom, come to understand how short-lived it is (just 80 years or so, really), and how meaningless it is to derive my sense of value from running this little one-person kingdom, and I decide that instead of being the ruler of my own little one-person kingdom, I will allow God to annex it and make it part of HIS kingdom. That is repentance.
Now what IS your kingdom, precisely? Well, if God’s kingdom is the range of his effective will – everything God has say over and everyplace where God’s will is done, then your kingdom is the range of your effective will – everything you have say over and every place where your will is done. A woman’s purse is part of her kingdom and if a man wants to find that out, all he has to do is go digging in there. Wrath will surely rain down. It is hers – part of her kingdom. Touch that purse without her permission and you haven’t simply placed your hand in some random faux leather bag – you have deeply violated a human being. And it is in the wiring of a man’s soul that his wife and children are part of his kingdom, not in a property sense, but a responsibility sense. All anyone has to do to find this out is to make a threat against a man’s wife or one of his children, and his wrath will surely rain down. My kingdom is the range of things that I call mine and have responsibility and say over – my body, my property and belongings, the four human beings God has given me to protect and provide for, and of course my actions, decisions, and opinions. That’s why you can find yourself feeling so angry and threatened by someone who simply disagrees with you. It can sometimes feel like they are walking their dog onto your lawn and leaving doody all over it. Your opinions and emotions are YOU!
The gospel, the good news, is that God wants your kingdom to be part of his kingdom. He wants your property and your possessions and your actions and your decisions, and your opinions and your goals and your aspirations. Why? Because God possesses in himself what you do not possess and can never possess, which is the power and the resources to make something real and eternal out of your kingdom!
What does that mean? Well, that’s pretty simple. What is it we seek in each of our own little kingdoms? We’re just trying to be – what? HAPPY. We just want to be happy. So we use our possessions to bring us happiness. We use our careers to bring us happiness. We try to make decisions and take actions that make us happy. We even want/need/expect other people to make us happy. The huge problem, of course, is that with billions of people each running their own little kingdom, we begin to bump into each other. What makes me happy may very well make you miserable. The result is conflict – between people, between organizations, and between political parties, governments, and nations. We can’t live peacefully with 7 billion kingdoms run by 7 billion kings and queens. We will surely make each other miserable constantly, and that is in fact what happens every minute of every day and why the evening news is always bad.
And so God says, here’s the deal. I can run your kingdom better than you can – far better. I can run it in a way that you can live in peace, and I can remove your sense of anxiety over not having enough, and what will happen in your future. Furthermore, eventually I want to unite all kingdoms under my one rule – then kingdoms and queendoms are no longer enemies, competing against each other – we are subjects of the same king, who reigns in love, and not only desires the good of each one of his 7 billion subjects, but has the power to bring about the good of each one of them without causing any other one of them to suffer because of it. Can we do that? Of course not.
So Jesus’ one message was, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” God’s peace, and power, and love, and joy, and simplicity, and freedom, and joy, and mercy, and grace, and forgiveness – they are all available to you right now and you can begin at this moment to see these things become realities in your life. There actually is a way to get what it is that you most deeply desire – it does not lie within your power, but within God’s, and God desires your peace and happiness. You can live in God’s kingdom, but not if you will not repent, which is to say, give up your claim over your own kingdom. Thy kingdom come, my kingdom go. That sounds painful, and indeed it sometimes can be. Whether to continue to manage our own kingdoms or to choose to enter into and live in the kingdom of God is a huge question each of us must work through on our own. So I leave you with these words of wisdom and encouragement this morning.
1 John 2:16-17 (MSG)
16 Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.
17 The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants (chooses to live in the kingdom of God) is set for eternity. (parentheses mine)
