At the beginning of 2011 God told us that He was going to do a new thing here and a lot of things changed since!
The 1st few months of 2011 we were away from you, but when we got out of hospital the Lord again spoke to us saying that there is a harvest here in Anjung and it's going to be plentiful!
It's not ready yet but it will be soon and until that time there is work to be done! And this town here, Anjung, this is the corner of His field He has brought us to and He's brought us here for such a time as this!!!
And it was with this in mind that we spent time looking at the origins, birth, life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus and the promise of His future return for His people, just so we could focus on Him, on Jesus the Captain of Salvation, the Author and finisher of our faith!
And while a Christian in name alone is no Christian at all, we will begin today to look at the teachings of Jesus in more detail, we will look through the Sermon on the Mount to see how Christians, how children of God, how we are to live lives that will make a difference in this community. That will make an impact upon it, an impact upon our family and friends and neighbours.
We will spend time looking at these teachings, studying them, meditating upon them, praying through them so we too can be like that wise builder who built his house upon rock, so that we too can be a light shining in the darkness that engulfs us!
But before we can get to the Sermon on the Mount we must begin where Jesus began- with a call to the Kingdom! 'Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'
And we must begin here because the Sermon on the Mount that mandate for Kingdom living is for Christians. It was preached to Christians and preached for Christians! It's not an evangelistic sermon, it's not a sermon meant for unbelievers, it's not meant for those outside of the Kingdom of God!
For what we find in these chapters of Matthew, what we find in this sermon are God's instructions for Kingdom living.
So before we come to the Sermon on the Mount, before we can learn about living in the Kingdom then surely we must first be IN the Kingdom! We must first be part of it!
If you go a an plane somewhere, whether it's for a business trip or a holiday, whether you fly to Jeju or across to the other side of the earth, the 1st thing that will happen when everyone is sitting in their seats, is the safety demonstration.
The air stewardesses will take their position in the aisles and begin 'In case of an emergency, the exits are here, here, here and here. If the cabin pressure drops then an oxygen mask will fall from the overhead baggage compartment, give it a tug and put it on. Do yourself first before helping anyone else...'
This is how we are to behave on a plane if there is an emergency. But those instructions, that drill is performed only for those on the plane! You don't walk into the airport and as soon as you go through the doors see a group of stewardesses doing their little dance about safety because it doesn't apply to everyone!
It doesn't apply to those just dropping people off. It doesn't apply to the workers there or to those people who just like to spend their days sitting in airports looking at the airplanes. It doesn't apply to those who are OUTSIDE of the airplane!!
Kingdom living is the same! The Sermon on the Mount is the same! It doesn't apply to those outside of the Kingdom of God!!!
So the 1st thing we see in the ministry of Jesus is this proclamation, is this call to the Kingdom of God- 'Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand'
This was the message of John the Baptist before Him, it was the first thing Jesus preached and it was His concern throughout His ministry! And so it is our concern today.
And the 1st thing we need to ask is this 'What is the Kingdom of God?' or 'What does Jesus mean by the Kingdom of God?'
And, I know when we hear the word kingdom we may think of territory or land, like the United Kingdom of Great Britain, but that's not what Jesus is talking about here. Yes a time will come when all the earth will be His and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, but that time wasn't then and it isn't now.
So He's not talking about territory but rather He's talking about sovereignty and dominion. He's talking about power and authority and rule.
Every kingdom needs a king, and the King of the Kingdom of heaven is none other than Jesus Himself! He's been here 30 years, and up to this point nothing much has happened. And what I mean by that is that up till now nothing much is known about Jesus.
His birth is recorded, but nothing of His childhood, teens and adulthood until now except for those few verses in Luke where Mary and joseph lost Him and found Him in the synagogue.
But now, after 30 years, and anyone who is 30 or under will know that it took or takes a long time to get to 30, only now does Jesus, the King of kings begin to proclaim 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand'
Why? Because this is the start of his ministry and now the people will begin to see His power and authority exercised on the earth. It is now that people will begin to see Jesus undo the work of the kingdom that is here now, the kingdom of Satan!
We begin to see the sick healed. We begin to see the demon possessed delivered. We even see the dead raise to life! (Luke 11:20 'But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you') And if we look back a couple of verses we even read about Jesus' defeat of Satan in the wilderness!
So Jesus is saying the Kingdom of heaven is near, over the next few years you are going to see some amazing things! I am going to exercise My authority as the King of kings over Satan and his kingdom of darkness and you will see some stuff!
Then the Holy Spirit is going to come and you will see even greater things! All this silence, all this evil, all this darkness is coming to an end! I'm going to take my place and rule absolutely! Satan and all in his kingdom I'm going to banish in hell and I will rule with My people for eternity!
Now, if you want to be part of that, if you want to be part of My Kingdom, if you want to live in peace and joy and happiness, if you want to be set free from the bondages of sin then repent of your sins, bow your knee before Me in submittance and enter!
And that's the condition to enter His Kingdom! Repentance! 'Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'
And repentance means simply 'to change one's mind' or 'to turn back'.
Up until now these people were in a dark place. There were no Spirit filled prophets to proclaim the words of God like there were before! No more Samules or Elijahs or Elishas. No more Isaiahs or Jeremiahs or Hoseas. For 400 years the Lord had been silent.
And the religious leaders had strayed far from the spirit of the law of God! We see that in the way Jesus spoke to and treated them. 'You hypocrites!'; 'a brood of vipers!'; 'Woe to you!'
The people were living in darkness! They were away from God! They were outside of His Kingdom! They didn't belong to Him!
And so He comes and He says repent! Turn from your sins, turn from the path to destruction that you're walking on and come back to Me! Those promises from God of a Messiah, for a Saviour- here I am! Turn back to Me!
And that's the same message He is proclaiming today! The Kingdom of God is at hand, we are going to see His power here! We are going to see His authority exercised here! We are going to see the works of sin and Satan reversed here! The Kingdom of God is at hand! If you want to be part of it, repent! Turn to Him, bow your knee before Him and worship the King og kings and Lord of all!
