The Secret Message of Jesus
The Kingdom is Here; the Kingdom is Yet to Come.
Matthew 6:10
What was Jesus’ Message? – talk to you neighbour
What did you come up with?
Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
Matthew 4:23
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Matthew 9:35
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
Matthew 10:5&7
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “…As you go, preach this message: ’The kingdom of heaven is near.’”
Luke 9:2
and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Luke 9:10-11
Then he took (the apostles) with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
If you do a word search on preach, teach, message… in the Gospels you will find that most of the times that Jesus message is described, the message is that the Kingdom of heaven is near, or it is called the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, or the God News of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Most Christians, when asked what was Jesus’ message, if they are able to answer at all, answer by talking about how God loves us deeply and how we need forgiveness from God and how God forgives us by his grace and through our faith in Jesus’ death on the cross; which pays for the offence of our sin. This is a good and true answer, except that it is a message about Jesus. If we were to boil down Jesus’ message to a couple words, it is this: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”
Last week we started in this series called “The Secret Message of Jesus” and I told you that the Secret message, is not something that has been hidden by some great conspiracy, It is hidden only because we have often failed to see it.
The Secret Message is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Last week I spent a bit of time trying to define the Kingdom of God. It is not defined by geography like earthly kingdoms, but it is defined by who is King – who is in charge. The Kingdom of God is the realm of God. The Kingdom of God is what the world would look like if God had his way.
Last week I read you a description of the Kingdom of Heaven in its fullness from Isaiah 65. This week, I’ll reads it to you from Revelation 21 & 22
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." …
…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. Rev 21:1-5, 22-27, 22:1-5
Sounds amazing eh? But what about how Jesus talks about the kingdom – that it is near, that it is here, that it is among you…? Johns vision is some time in the future, but Jesus message is now! What’s up with that?
The people of Jesus Day have an understanding about the Kingdom that many Christians still have today. That the Messiah would immediately inaugurate a completed Kingdom. If you diagram it, it looks like this:
The New Testament teaches a modification on this diagram, and it looks like this:
We live at a time when both ages, or both kingdoms hold sway. We live in a age when we can decide which kingdom we can live in.
This is where we come to the Scripture that I wanted to speak from today
It’s a passage that most us who are my age or older will know by heart because we repeated it every morning before school when we were kids.
Lets say it together (King James Version)
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Praying for the Kingdom
I want to centre on verse 10
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
With the diagram of the kingdom in mind, In this prayer, we may be praying the same prayer that John prays in Revelation, when he says, “Amen, come Lord Jesus.” But the Lord’s prayer is a prayer for here and now. It deals with the reality of our daily lives.
When we pray “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are asking God to make the top line a little more bold in this world.
We can get more specific about praying for the kingdom of heaven to come here and now.
If heaven is a place were all people live in harmony with God and with each other, we pray that the people that we know will live in harmony with God and with each other. We can pray the same for people we don’t know all around the world
If heaven is a place where there is peace and people don’t kill each other, we can pray that the killing will stop in places like Darfur, and Iraq and Afghanistan.
We can look at any situation that we find our self in, or any situation we become aware of and think “what would this look like in the Kingdom of Heaven, what would this look like if God had his way here?” and we can pray that way. Pray for the Kingdom to come in your home, your work, our city, country, world.
Don’t get discouraged. I remember getting discouraged in University. I prayed daily for the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Of course, in those three years, Apartheid did not fall and I became discouraged in my prayers. Apartheid did fall in the years soon after – and I still failed to make the connection between my prayers and the end of Apartheid. Until one day when Bishop Tutu was visiting Canada – he was being interviewed on the CBC and he said, “Do you know why South Africa did not become another Rwanda? It was because you prayed, thank you for your prayers.”
Pray for the kingdom top come & pray big & pray small.
We shouldn’t think that we always know God’s will for any situation though, (We’ve done some terrible things in the name of the Kingdom of Heaven) we need to get the Kingdom into our minds as well.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
If you aren’t sure what the Kingdom looks like in any situation, or it is not obvious, ask God to show you, and then pray what he shows you, or go with what you do know: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Partnering for the Kingdom
I heard this story of Mother Theresa a while back. A Priest had gone to visit with her, he spent some time ministering in her houses of the dying in Calcutta, and at one point he was able to pray with here alone. They were in a room together and they ended up praying the Lord’s prayer:
They prayed,
" ’Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
And then he had trouble following Mother Theresa, she prayed
Give them today … The priest started to interrupt since the old saint was saying it wrong, but she carried on louder and stronger,
“Give them today their daily bread through us.”
…
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
The priest left the meeting with a rather bewildered look on his face. The nun at the door said top him “She changed the “Our Father” again didn’t she?”
“Yes,” he said
“She always does that,” she says, shakes her head and walks away.
I think Mother Theresa had it right, even if she was a little bold to change the prayer. God often invites us to pray for something, and then invites us to partner with him to see the answer of that Prayer.
In Matthew 9:35-38, it says this: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The chapter ends there, but the story continues (there were no chapters or verses in the original, they were placed there for ease of reading – the words are inspired, not the numbers)
So immediately after inviting the disciples to pray for more workers, this is what happens:
“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. … these twelve he sent out with the following instructions… As you go proclaim this message: ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near’ heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. - Matthew 10:1,5,7-8
He invites them to pray, and then invites them to partner in the answer to that prayers. So pray for the kingdom to come in every sphere of your life, but work to see the kingdom come in those areas that you have influence – in your job, your home, neighbourhood, city, and world. Ask, what would this place look like in heaven? Pray to that end, and work to that end – seek the kingdom first
