The Kingdom of God
“The First Priority”
Matthew 6:33
Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGRLTR-i0d8
We are continuing in our series on the Kingdom of God this morning in the message entitled, The First Priority.” The reason for this series is that we have all these different subjects within Christianity, but nothing that connects them together. We teach on salvation, justification, redemption, sanctification, atonement, heaven, hell, evil, faith, grace, mercy, hope, idolatry, judgment, obedience, and the list just keep on going.
But as I have mentioned in previous messages, these are just dots on a page with nothing that connects them, nothing to reveal the picture of God’s overall plan and purpose. Yet, in the Bible, there is one connective thread that brings these together, and that is the Kingdom of God.
Today we’ll be looking at what Jesus said about how God’s Kingdom should not only be our priority, but how nothing should come before it, hence, our first priority.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
Jesus brings to a head what He was teaching about, that is, our need not to worry or be anxious about what the world worries or is anxious about. It’s part of a much larger sermon Jesus gave, known as the Sermon on the Mount.
During the sermon, Jesus makes this general statement summing up His entire position, which is the essence of the Christian message.
Now the reason we’re exploring this so intently is because of the confusion that exists about the Kingdom of God and Christianity. Because if we take our understanding from what the newspapers and books say, then we’re going to get all messed up, which is exactly what has happened.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the essentials of the very proclamation that He stated and that we looked at the other week in our message, “The Kingdom Proclamation.”
There are, however, several general principles that Jesus also brings out in this statement that we need to look at. And at its core, this is what it says.
Gospel Message Differs From Everything Else
The gospel message is different from what humanity thinks and believes is important, and it challenges those beliefs.
Notice what Jesus said just prior to this.
“Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” (Matthew 6:31-32a NKJV)
Judaism divides the world into two groups, the Jews and everyone else, those who have the right religion and those who don’t, those who live by God’s law and those who live outside of it. And so, you have two classes of people, the Jews and the Gentiles, or everyone else.
Today, the Gentiles would be considered those who don’t know God as revealed in the Bible. They trust in religion or their own thoughts and ideas about who God is and life in general.
Therefore, what Jesus teaches is altogether different from their point of view. His teaching differs from everything that man has ever thought.
This is a very important distinction, because what it says is that the Christian way of life is different and stands apart from the world.
The next point of emphasis is Jesus’s wording, which reveals that belief in Him is very radical from the world’s perspective. Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” This is the first thing that we should do. It is of top priority and should come before everything else.
This differs from the world’s line of thought. What we could say is that the world is looking in the wrong direction. Humanity doesn’t need to be patched up; instead, we need a radical change, which is what Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7) In other words, humanity needs a brand-new start, which is what we looked at in our last message entitled, “New Birth Required.”
Christianity and Kingdom living should be a way of life. It isn’t a lifestyle or some philosophy of life. Therefore, it demands a total commitment. It doesn’t ask to be understood; rather, it demands to be obeyed.
To know the truth and blessing of Kingdom living, we must give our lives over to it. The Bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) We will never know how good the Lord is until we’ve tasted His goodness and the Kingdom of God for ourselves.
Theoretical knowledge will not work. There are a lot of scholars that have a lot of biblical knowledge, but don’t know Jesus. There are also many people who know the Bible better than we do, but don’t know the Lord God of the Bible. And so, Jesus is calling for a commitment, not head knowledge, but a heart relationship.
We can see such a commitment in what Jesus calls for His disciples to do.
He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NKJV)
Once the cross is on our shoulders, there’s no turning back. Therefore, Jesus is calling for a commitment to a way of life that is the opposite of what the world offers, and it involves our total abandonment to it.
With these general principles in place, we can now look more fully at what Jesus said is our priority, which is to seek first the Kingdom of God. But in doing that, what we’ll realize is that humanity’s view of life is false.
Humanity’s View of Life is False
Sorrow, pain, and unhappiness fill our world because of its false view of life. How we view life determines how we live, and if our view is wrong, then everything else will be wrong.
Prior to Jesus talking about our need to seek first the Kingdom of God, He says that if our understanding is off, then everything else will be off as well. He does so in His teaching about the eye being the lamp of the body.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.” (Matthew 6:23 NKJV)
If the lens is wrong, then we will see nothing clearly. The tragedy of the world is that its view of life is altogether faulty, and that’s because it’s putting everything else first before God and His word.
We proclaim who we are by our priorities, so it doesn’t matter what we say; our actions proclaim what we believe.
Let me illustrate. Our attendance at church illustrates our belief. There are many reasons people use for not going to church. Being tired, it’s our only day off, families in town, or the big game is on TV. And while I’m not trying to be legalistic, people can tell what we say we believe by our priorities. It’s where the rubber of our faith meets the road of life.
Think about it this way: if we’re invited to see the President of the United States, or the King of England, or go to the Super bowl, would we use these same excuses? Would we say we’re too tired and it’s our only day off?
The world, therefore, is in its present problems because it’s putting the wrong thing first. Jesus looks at a few of these for us.
Possessions and Wealth
?“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19 NKJV)
Wealth is one of humanity’s chief priorities because, according to the world, wealth is power. But Jesus says it isn’t God’s way; rather, it’s the way of the Gentiles; it’s the way of this world, but not the way of the Kingdom.
A little later, Jesus said we cannot serve the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. What Jesus is saying is that we can't have these sorts of mixed priorities.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (that is, money or possessions).” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)
Basic Necessities
“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25 NKJV)
What’s interesting is that there are several top-rated reality shows and entire networks devoted to these very things. We’ve got reality shows where people compete to be top designer or top chef, and they are on T.V. channels that promote only these things, like HGTV, an the Food channel.
Money, food, drink, and clothing, these are the things that Jesus says that people live for, and it’s no different today, maybe even more.
What Jesus is saying is that the tragedy of life and the problem of our world is that humanity is living and thinking they’re only physical beings. Therefore, we gear our entire attention towards the physical realm.
Jesus said, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:27 NKJV)
Earlier, Jesus said, “Don’t worry about your life.” No one can add an extra inch to their height, at least not naturally, nor can we add one more second to our lives. And people have been stressing about these very things from the beginning.
Now, I’m not saying we’re not to take care of our bodies. God has given humanity the way to help treat many diseases, but our time on earth is not in our hands, rather it’s in God’s hands. Therefore, we’re not to make our existence our top priority.
What Jesus is saying is that all this stuff, and its accumulation, leads to slavery, because it leads to anxiety, worry, and fear. What Jesus is saying is not to worry or have an anxiety attack over these things.
But for me, it seems like we live in an age of anxiety, and that’s because all this stuff we buy and say we need doesn’t satisfy.
Therefore, the world’s chief problem is that it has the wrong view on what makes up life, which has messed up humanity’s priorities. Humanity’s chief need, therefore, is to get a true and right picture of God, and then of humanity.
Jesus never said, “Don’t do all that other stuff,” rather He said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
We need to stop thinking of ourselves as physical beings. We’re more than that; we’re also spiritual beings.
Our bodies are finite and destined to die, but our souls and spirits are infinite, therefore this is where our priorities should lie, and what we need to focus on. God has created us in His image and likeness; therefore, this is what we should pay attention to.
We’re to get our minds off our desires and start thinking about God as our creator and sustainer. Jesus confirms this when He tells us to behold the birds of the air and how God takes care of them.
In Matthew 6:26 He said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
What happens when we don’t seek God first is that we make ourselves out to be our own gods, or we make gods out of all this other stuff, and we end up worshipping and serving the creation more than the creator.
This is why the world is in such big trouble. We put ourselves and our kingdoms before God, hence wars and violence. This is what the Apostle James brings out.
“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? … You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:1, 3 NKJV)
To seek first God’s kingdom means we should seek the rule and reign of God in our lives. By seeking first after God’s kingdom and His righteousness means we are under His government and not man’s. And while we are to obey those who are in authority over us, and the laws of the land, the rule and reign of God should always be our first priority.
Further, by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, what this means is that God’s kingdom isn’t coming; rather, it’s already here, and God sent Jesus into this world to establish it. And then one day, He will return and judge the world according to His righteousness.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” (Romans 1:18-19 NKJV)
God isn’t judging us based upon our own righteousness because we don’t have any. The Bible makes this clear, saying that no one is righteousness enough for God, and that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, or short of God’s holy and righteous standards for life. (Romans 3:10, 23)
Rather, God is judging us based upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That’s why we are to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.
Jesus came into this world to give us the righteousness we could never achieve on our own. Jesus is the only one who is righteous as He is not only the righteous servant of God, but His name going to be, “The Lord our Righteousness.” (Isaiah 53:11, Jeremiah 23:6)
It is, therefore, through faith in Jesus Christ that we become the righteousness of God.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:12 NKJV)
Conclusion
For me, the most wonderful aspect of this verse about seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is that it means that because of His sacrifice, He forgave our sins. Jesus took our place and died the death we deserve. And because He did, we can have a different view of what Jesus said about “all these things.”
Before, we lived to eat, drink, and clothe ourselves, but now, while we still eat, drink, and clothe ourselves, we no longer live for them.
Now we have a new view of life, where we’re no longer eager for the stuff, instead we’re eager to know God, and that’s because we are His children and citizens of His kingdom. And what that means is that He is no longer our judge, rather He is our Heavenly Father.
And from this recognition, a teutonic shift has taken place in how we think, for we no longer have a mind centered upon the world, instead, we now have a mind that is not only centered on Christ, but even better, we have the mind of Christ.
The world and all the stuff are temporary, while God’s kingdom and His righteousness are eternal. We’re pilgrims passing through. As pilgrims, we know that death ushers us into God’s glorious presence and an eternity with Him.
And so, Jesus gives to us our priorities, and that is God’s kingdom and righteousness. Everything else comes after that. Nothing else matters in this life, not food, clothing, money, possessions, not even life itself. Nothing else matters but our relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
So, let’s stop worrying about all this other stuff; and instead, let’s get our lives right with God and enter His kingdom and His righteousness. Let’s seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first. Let’s make it our first and top priority. ?????
