020. The Kingdom of God is Near

Text :         Mark 1:14-15

Topic:        How the kingdom of God is both now and not yet.

Big Idea:   The kingdom of God is present reality all around and a vision that we work towards in the future.

Thoughts taken from Adam Hamilton’s message.  He also wrote ‘Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic’.

Jesus said in

pp   Mark 1:14,15   “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand (the kingdom of God is near). Repent and believe in the Gospel (the Good News!).”

That was Jesus’ message.  I think, that everything - else in the four gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is a way of illustrating what that means. 

It's a way of teaching what life in the kingdom looks like, what it means to live as a servant of the King, who the King is, and how we enter the kingdom of God. -- Even the miracles that Jesus performs are meant to be examples of what life is like in the kingdom of God—wholeness and healing and fullness of life. All of this is illustrating the central point of Jesus' preaching—the kingdom of God is at hand, or has come near. 

We need to be
pp    Understanding the kingdom of God in today's world.

Today we want to ask the question: What is the kingdom of God? Those of you who have been Christians for any length of time probably have some idea as to what the kingdom of God is. But, the more you think about it, the more you wonder: Is that all there is to the
kingdom of God, or is there more? Biblical scholars and theologians have devoted entire lifetimes to focusing on this one theme, trying to understand what it looks like. ----

A kingdom -  is ruled -  by a king.   In the first century, the king was the ultimate authority, and there were a lot of kings. There were kings, and then there were emperors. The Caesar had control over an entire empire. There were kings who controlled various regions and reported to the emperor. Had Jesus lived in another part of the Roman Empire, he might have talked about God as the emperor, and he would have talked about the empire of God. But he talks about the kingdom of God.

 The king, for the people of Israel, was the highest authority. The king ruled completely and sovereignly over his kingdom. He was responsible for everything within the boundaries of that kingdom. He was responsible for the safety and protection of his citizens, but, he was also able to claim them as his subjects. He could ask them to do anything he wanted them to do, and they had to do it. If they failed to do it, they were living -  in -  rebellion; they could be killed. All of their property ultimately belonged to the king. Everything within the bounds of that kingdom belonged to the king. So, when Jesus looks for an analogy—a way of talking about who God is and what authority God exercises over us—he chooses the highest authority figure known to human beings. He says: God is above all of those earthly kings. 

 The Book of Revelation says that Jesus is the King over all kings and the Lord over all lords, and he rules God's kingdom. God's kingdom is expansive; it includes all of creation. God rules over the entire cosmos. God created this little planet, and people used to think the Earth was the center of the universe. Today, we know it's not the center of the universe. We know that we're on the third planet from the Sun. Our sun is a star that's not that magnificent, in a galaxy filled with hundreds of millions of stars like our sun. We're just one galaxy among hundreds of millions of galaxies out there. God reigns over all the vastness of space. He fills it all. God is omnipresent— which means everywhere at once. And yet, on this one particular planet, God chose to create not only life, but human beings—creatures who are able to think, reason, love, and hate. The Bible says that He created us in his own image, in His own likeness.  He created us with the capacity to do great good - or -  to do great harm. We are not robots.  He gave us the ability to make choices—to choose to follow God or to reject God. 

Can you imagine what a risk it was for God to create beings that could actually turn their back on what He intended? God is King, whether you choose to be his subject or not. Your deciding that you don't want to follow Him doesn't in any way diminish the fact that God rules over everything. It just means that you live in rebellion to the King. That's the story of humankind—a story of our rebellion against the King.

 The King we have over us chooses not to force us to follow his commands; instead, He tries to woo us. He tries to lead us and guide us like a shepherd.  He wants us to follow Him out of love for Him. We find the climax of the story, in God, the King of the cosmos, choosing to step into human skin on our planet. How amazing it is that the God who oversees the vastness of the universe says: I will walk among them, in skin just like them, and I will perhaps be able to lead them, show them, and help them understand. 

Jesus comes and walks among us. For 30 years, he's in Nazareth, preparing. He's a carpenter. Then he comes preaching the good news of the kingdom of God—that God reigns and rules over everything, so follow Him and live according to Him.  His miracles demonstrate the power of the kingdom of God. He reaches out to people who are lost, and shows us the principles of the kingdom of God. He gives the Beatitudes, (good attitudes), which are in direct contrast to the values of a world in rebellion.

 What did humanity do with Jesus? We crowned Him, of course, with a crown – a crown of thorns.   We crowned Him king and nailed Him to a cross. But even this was a part of the plan. As we looked at the Cross, we could see for the first time the extent of our rebellion and the extent of Christ's love. In His death and resurrection, we realized that our hearts might be changed, and we might begin to live as a part of His kingdom. 

There are three senses in which Jesus uses the term "the kingdom of God," and we're going to try to unpack those three senses. --- When you read what Jesus says about the kingdom of God, you may find it's not this idea that Jesus is talking about; but it's that idea. Plug in the right
understanding, and suddenly the parable or teaching of Jesus makes sense. 

 
So firstly,
pp   1.  The kingdom of God is a present reality.

I want to illustrate the first sense of the kingdom of God.  Delphine and I like to go hiking – along the beach, through the bush, over the mountains.  There are some great views when we’re on the mountains.  We sit down for a drink and some food while we take in the view.  Maybe we can see for 100kms – fantastic! 

Then our eyes go to the ground at our feet.  There, right at our feet, is a miniature world before us, teeming with life and activity and energy. All sorts of insects are bouncing around and flitting to and fro. There are things that we can see, and things that we can barely see, and things that only a microscope can see. —These little dots of life all around us.
 

You begin to think about the miniature world below in light of the kingdom of God. The little creatures living on that one patch of ground may never move more than two or three metres away from that spot. They can't see the mountains. They can't see the grandeur all around them. All they can see is their one little square metre—the pebbles and grass around them. --- If they were conscious beings, that would be the extent of their universe. ---  This is the first sense of the kingdom of God: God rules and reigns over everything, whether you acknowledge it or not. God is the force behind all the smallest particles on our planet and all the vastness of space. God rules over everything. God is present everywhere. There is nowhere that God is not. At this moment, God is all around and God's kingdom is all around, and everything obeys certain principles that God Himself has set in motion. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God in this first sense, he is talking about living with the recognition that God reigns over
everything right now, right here. All around us, God reigns.

 You need to wake up in the morning and remind yourself of this. We get so used to living in this world that we think this is all there is—what we can see and feel and touch. But you know, don't you, that everything is transient and will pass away?  If you live in the nicest home on Bribie, you are going to find that one day, fifty years from now, your home will possibly be torn down and turned into housing units or something.  Each one of us in this room are going to die one day. We're going to be laid in the ground. After a period of time, our bodies are going to be
returned to dust. A hundred years from now, nobody's going to remember us. You think this is all there is? We're on this tiny little outpost in a tiny little part of the Milky Way galaxy in the vastness of the cosmos. You've seen the Hubble telescope pictures. You think it's all about us? That's not how it works.


You need to somehow change your perspective and begin to see that God reigns—that you are a part of His kingdom.---- The single most important thing is that I live according to His
kingdom. When you and I begin to live according to the rules of God's kingdom, we find that life begins to go differently for us because we're living, not according to the rebellious standards of the world, but according to standards of God's kingdom. 

 God's kingdom is all around you. There's nowhere you go where God doesn't reign. You either choose to recognize the truthfulness of that and live accordingly, or you choose to live in rebellion, rejecting the truth. If you choose the latter, you will find that your life doesn't go quite the way God intended. We're meant to recognize that the reign of God is all around us and to live accordingly --- and to live beautifully, to live wonderfully! -----    

Now secondly,
pp   2.  The kingdom of God is a vision for the future. 

The knowledge that God's kingdom is all around us is not meant to lead us to ignore the world, saying, "None of the problems in the world really matter because I live in the kingdom of God." ---Instead, it's meant to compel us to try to help this world look more like the kingdom of God. We live in rebellion, and the world lives in rebellion, so we see a lot of things in our world that are broken and reflective of our brokenness. But we pray to God and we say

pp  "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

In teaching us to pray this prayer, Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God not only as a present reality, but as a
future vision. He's saying the kingdom of God, if it was fully realized on this earth, would mean a great deal. 

How would today's world be different if God's reign was recognized by all of humanity?

Would there be wars in a dozen different countries on our planet today if God's reign was recognized everywhere? There is enough food on this planet to feed everyone, but every day 21,000  people die from malnutrition and starvation-related diseases. One - every - four - seconds - mostly children.  ----  Would that happen if God's reign was recognized everywhere? Would our neighborhoods look different if God's reign was recognized everywhere? How would we run our Australian businesses? What kinds of scandals would be avoided in our country? What would be the single most
important thing in each of our lives if God's reign was recognized fully and completely? ---  I think it would be love and compassion --  not pride and the selfishness of me, me, me!

 But God's future kingdom is not yet realized, and since we live as those who are striving to be a part of that kingdom, we have our feet in two worlds—in the rebellious world and in the kingdom of God. When Jesus talks about the kingdom, he's also talking about a vision for the future. The kingdom of God is what you work towards in your life. It's what you strive for. 

Yet,

pp   Some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use.

Karl Marx, the communist and socialist, and author of the Communist Manifesto, talked about religion as the opiate of the people (a drug to suppress people’s reasoning). He thought that Christians focused people's attention on heaven—on ‘pie in the sky when you die’.  In his mind, that was of no use, because focusing on heaven meant little worry about the present earthly condition. And friends, to the degree that Christians have sometimes only focused on heaven, they have failed Jesus Christ. ---  Jesus cares very much about our world today and wants us to live like the kingdom was fully present today, and He wants us to work toward seeing the realization of the kingdom in the future. 

 The kingdom of God is a vision for my life and for your life. It's what we're supposed to be about. We need to get up in the morning and say: "God, how can you use me today? What can I do in
mission for you today as I seek to live as a citizen of your kingdom – an ambassador of Your kingdom?"   The kingdom of God is both a present reality all around us, and a vision that we work toward in our lives for the future. 

Now thirdly,

pp    3.  The kingdom of God is the climax of human history. 

Finally, the kingdom of God is the ultimate climax of human history. Sometimes, when Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God, He's speaking about a present reality somewhere else—a place where God's reign is completely experienced without any rebellion towards God.

The Bible tells us that the day will come when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, where the kingdom of our God will take the place of the kingdoms of this earth. The Book of Revelation says that in that day there will be no more sorrow, no more grief, no more death, no more pain, that God himself will be the light in the midst of that kingdom. There will be no one living in rebellion against Him, and His will, His desire for the world, will be perfectly completed. -----

 Just the thought of that promise of the kingdom gives us joy.  That's the hope we have as Christians—that one day we'll be in that place forever.
 
Friends, because of Jesus and His promise about the kingdom of God that can be somewhat present now, and certainly in the future, we are able to celebrate, because we have the hope of the kingdom of God. 

pp   (blue slide)
So, in summing up, there are three senses of the kingdom of God. 

The first sense is that the kingdom is all around you. There's nowhere that God doesn't reign, whether you recognize it or not, whether you rebel or not, so live in God's kingdom. Walk in his kingdom; walk according to God’s Ten Commandments, His Law of Love. -----

The second sense is that the kingdom of God is a vision for what the future could look like if our planet was not in rebellion. As Christians, we must work toward that vision and seek to make it a reality here and now. -----

The final sense is that the kingdom of God is our ultimate destination. It is our hope. It is the place we want to be one day, where there's no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more death. ----

In conclusion, I'll end this message the way Jesus ended His message when He preached that the kingdom of God is near.  He said, “The time - is - fulfilled, -  and the kingdom - of -  God - is near. -  Repent - and believe - in - the gospel.” --- the  Good News! ------

He said there were two responses we make to the kingdom. The first response is to repent. Repentance means you "think differently afterwards." Now that you know this fact of the kingdom of God, you begin to think differently. You see the world differently. You have a different perspective. You change how you think, and when you change how you think, you change - your - behavior. 

Jesus also says that we should believe the Good News. Many of us grew up in church backgrounds where the Good News wasn't good news, but bad news. Every week you felt guiltier after church than you felt when you walked in. God was someone to be terrified of in life. You didn't feel that your hearts were lifted up by the good news of the kingdom; you felt bad about it. But twice in this passage of Scripture we learn that the kingdom of God is the Good - News - of - God. 

It's good news that God reigns and that God's reign is all around us. It's good news that you have direction for your life and know where you should be going—that the future can be better than the past. It's good news that you have the hope that, when this life is over, you have eternal life in heaven and in the earth made new.  Our task - is simply - to trust - that it is so. 

Stand and pray.

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