“The Kingdom of God”
1 Chronicles 22:6-10
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Introduction: Today I want us to think about the Kingdom of God. Of course one way we know about this idea through the Lord’s Prayer that we say every Sunday: We say, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” We also know about because Jesus talked about it often. What you might not realize is that God’s original purpose was not a kingdom, but a theocracy. Meaning, that God wanted to rule over His people directly, without any human king.
There came a point in time, however, that the people wanted a king; they wanted an earthly ruler. In doing this, really they were rejecting God. The prophet Samuel warned them that a human king would become oppressive and would not lead them in the right way. But they persisted, and so God gave the people what they wanted. Even though the king was to be the servant of God, it didn’t take long for sin to overcome the kings, and they sought out power, and wealth, and their own ideals; not God’s. So the prophets began to speak of a more ideal kingdom. What would that kingdom look like?
I. God’s Kingdom would be righteous- (Jeremiah 23:5; John 1:14; Hebrews 4:15; Romans 4:5-8)
First, this kingdom would be righteous. Of course, for a kingdom to be
righteous, it had to have help, because the kings of the day, the leaders of the day could not bring about a righteous kingdom. So the prophets began to speak of the coming Messiah, who would rule over the people with justice. We see this spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 23:5- “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’” Of course, this was a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. Christ is from the line of David, referred to as a “righteous branch.” But not only from David’s line, but also come upon the scene like David; starting from a humble beginning, then growing to prominence (David was a shepherd who became the king; Jesus was born to a carpenter, in a stable, a very humble beginning).
He is a righteous branch, because Jesus is righteous. Really, Jesus is the only righteous one. No one else could bring about righteousness to the Kingdom, because no one else could live a righteous life like Christ. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus exhibits the “glory of the One and Only.” Hebrews 4:15 says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” So Jesus is the righteous One, as the scriptures attest to, come to bring righteousness back to the Kingdom of God.
But Jesus was not to be an earthly king to rule over the people. The confusion came when the people thought that Jesus’ reign was going to be here on earth. They believed that Jesus would establish Israel as the dominant nation, and Jesus would reign over her. They did not understand that to do this would be short lived, because setting up a kingdom on earth would not bring them salvation. Jesus was bringing back righteousness through His sacrifice. By giving Himself up to the cross, Jesus could bring to us His righteousness; impart onto us His righteousness. We could be righteous then in a spiritual sense, not an earthly sense. Christ’s rule would be spiritual, not earthly. He would be our king, but not physically here on earth.
We see this whole idea of righteousness imparted to us in Romans 4:5-8, “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Illus. Think for a moment about a role model you have, or have had. Maybe this role model was a parent, or a teacher, or a coach, or your minister. They were your role models because they modeled behavior that you wanted to follow; you wanted to be like them, or act like them…. While it is good to have role models, and while having Jesus as a role model would be good, Jesus is more than just a role model. Jesus doesn’t just show us how to live right; Jesus doesn’t just help us to behave less sinfully. Jesus removes our sin, and by doing this imparts His righteousness to us!
IN THIS WAY JESUS MAKES THE KINGDOM OF GOD RIGHTEOUS! Because of our sin, the Kingdom of God will not be righteous here on earth, but it will be righteous again in heaven. Yet, while we are here on earth, the more who choose to follow Jesus, the more the Kingdom of God, here on earth, will be righteous; more like it is meant to be and as it is in heaven.
II. God’s Kingdom being peaceful- (Matt. 10:34-39; 1 Corinthians 15:26)
Second, the Kingdom of God was to be peaceful. If you look at the history of
Israel, including the time of King David’s reign, you would see that there were many wars. These wars caused all kinds of unrest in the land and for the people. We see that as a response to this, David names his son Solomon, which means peace. In our passage this morning, we see that David is giving a charge to Solomon to build a house to the Lord. This house was to be built by David, but God forbade it because of all the blood that was spilt during David’s reign.
Solomon’s reign was to be one of peace. Solomon was to establish this peace in the kingdom again. Solomon gives himself over to this work. But the work began to be for him the place he sought fulfillment. As I read for you a couple of weeks ago, from Ecclesiastes, he built many things, but they did not satisfy. That is because the work we do, if it is not for God, will not satisfy us or bring us peace. And in the end, even if someone like Solomon seeks to establish peace, inevitably there will be conflict again.
When Jesus came, not only did he seek to bring righteousness to the world, but He also sought to bring peace. Isaiah tells us that one of Jesus’ messianic titles was “the Prince of Peace.” And yet Jesus knew that even with His being here in the world, there could not be peace when so many did not seek peace. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-39, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn " 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. 37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
These don’t exactly sound like words of peace; do they? How could Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, speak about turning people against one another? What Jesus is saying here, is that the way to peace and peaceful living is by giving yourself fully over to Him. If anything or anyone is more important than Jesus, then those who aren’t following Jesus will be in conflict with those who are. In fact, they will be in conflict with themselves as well, because they will not have peace without having a relationship with Jesus.
For God’s kingdom to have peace, people must all be living together in Christ, completely sold out to Christ. Because this is not happening, people are not at peace within themselves, with each other, or nations with other nations. Peace will not exist here on this earth because of sin, and sinful leaders. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15:26 tells us that the last enemy to be defeated is death. The peace of the Kingdom of God will be seen in heaven, where the Prince of Peace resides and where we will go after we die.
III. God’s Kingdom was to be stable-
As originally planned, God’s kingdom was to be stable. God did not create
His world and His people to be in chaos but to have stability. That is one of the reasons Samuel tried to dissuade the people from having a king like other nations. You think they would have seen the chaos the other nations were in, and understood that God needed to be their king. But they wanted to have a king, and with a king came instability.
If you were to read through the book of 1 and 2 Kings, you would see that the thrones of Israel and Judah were mostly unstable, and fairly brief. Kings fought against kings, and nations fought against nations. Kings were unjust to their people and were overcome with the desire for power and possessions. Because of this many who were put on the throne by God turned against God because they didn’t want to live for God and be subject to God. Consequently there was much unrest.
If you were to follow the nation of Israel you would see that they did not have stability either because of their sin. Sometimes they just went astray from the Lord and from God’s ways, and God gave them over to other nations. Other times they chose to believe in other gods or join themselves with other nations. Again, this caused unrest in the nation itself and in the life of the people.
When Jesus comes on the scene, Israel is under the rule of the Romans and the roman kings. As with His coming as a king, Jesus also came to bring stability to the people, but not a stability based on earthly rule. The stability is to be found in our relationship with Christ. If Christ is our Lord, then we know whom we belong to, we know how we are to live, and we know where we will go when we die. This is the stability we have; the stability of the Kingdom of God.
However if you think of the Kingdom of God in Messianic terms, meaning the Kingdom that Jesus is setting up for all eternity, you see the stability comes in Jesus preparing the way by His death and resurrection. The Kingdom is not just subject to a particular people or land, but includes all who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. The foundation of the Kingdom is Jesus Himself, which gives it all the stability it needs!
IV. God’s Kingdom impacts our lives- (John 14:13)
As I’ve talked about the Kingdom of God, up to this point you might wonder
what all this has to do with you. If you are interested in having a general understanding of the Kingdom of God, this might be of interest to you. But what does this say to us in a practical way? Why do we need to care about what the Kingdom of God was supposed to be, what it became, and how it has fallen short?
This is all very important because our world has so much evil, and conflict, and instability. We understand this has all come about because of the sin in individuals, in leaders and in nations. Most people are concerned with the world we live in because it is so unstable. When the economic downfall hit a couple of years ago, it caused great concern for everyone; and in many ways still brings concern. It reminded us of the instability of the world we live in.
Understanding the Kingdom of God helps us to live with an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective takes into account the past, the present, AND the future. In the past, we see the kingdom of God existing through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and existing through the prophets and through the kings. In understanding it in the present, Jesus wanted us to know that the Kingdom of God was a present reality in Christ; it is here and now. And yet, the Kingdom of God also has future implications. There is an aspect of the Kingdom of God that still is to come; a meaning for when the end times would come; when heaven and earth would be done away with and a new heaven would come about.
We need to understand the Kingdom of God because it should shape our daily life. It should shape our life by our giving our unconditional faith to Jesus Christ. In John 14:13 Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” We see that the Kingdom of God has fallen short because the people did not obey God’s rule and God’s reign; both by demanding an earthly king, and by the kings who were set up to govern the people turning away from God.
The Kingdom of God understanding should also guide our lives by leading us to follow a biblically defined leadership. A biblically defined leadership guides us to choose leaders based on the qualifications God gives us in the Bible, and by seeking God for guidance on whom He wants us to choose. Leadership needs to be given to those men and women who are full of the Spirit of wisdom.
The Kingdom of God understanding should give us a concern for the poor and oppressed. Jesus was always concerned with the poor, and was always concerned with justice. When we see people struggling, we need to seek to honor God by caring for those in need. This requires us to humble ourselves before God and seek out how to meet these needs; even if it is uncomfortable for us.
Conclusion: We tend to look to leaders to make things right for us; better for us. That is what Israel hoped. But the truth is, the only leader that we should follow is God. We should look to God to understand what He wants for our lives, our church, our country, our world. We would be much better off if this was the case. Unfortunately, we have too many leaders who do not seek to follow God, and thus we live in a world void of peace and stability.
Story: Once there was a man who asked for a flower and a butterfly…
But instead God gave him a cactus and a caterpillar.
The man was sad and didn’t understand why his request was misunderstood.
Then he thought, ‘Oh well, God has too many people to care for, and
decided not to question it. After some time the man chose to check up on the
cactus, only to discover that out of the thorny, ugly cactus had grown
a beautiful flower, and the caterpillar had become a beautiful butterfly.
God always does things right. His way is always the best way. Even when we mess it up, God’s Kingdom is about making it right.
If you have asked God for one thing, and gotten another, you can be sure that God has gotten it right. Today’s thorn can become tomorrow’s flower.
While the world has messed up the Kingdom of God, but not allowing God to rule over us, God has made it right in the end: The thorn is Christ’s death;
the flower is Christ’s resurrection. The thorn is the evil in the world, the flower is the love and peace we bring to it as Christ’s followers. The thorn is that there is great instability. The flower is that we have eternal life with Christ. The Kingdom of God is here, but even more, will be eternally experienced in heaven. Amen.
1 Chronicles 22:6-10
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Introduction: Today I want us to think about the Kingdom of God. Of course one way we know about this idea through the Lord’s Prayer that we say every Sunday: We say, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” We also know about because Jesus talked about it often. What you might not realize is that God’s original purpose was not a kingdom, but a theocracy. Meaning, that God wanted to rule over His people directly, without any human king.
There came a point in time, however, that the people wanted a king; they wanted an earthly ruler. In doing this, really they were rejecting God. The prophet Samuel warned them that a human king would become oppressive and would not lead them in the right way. But they persisted, and so God gave the people what they wanted. Even though the king was to be the servant of God, it didn’t take long for sin to overcome the kings, and they sought out power, and wealth, and their own ideals; not God’s. So the prophets began to speak of a more ideal kingdom. What would that kingdom look like?
I. God’s Kingdom would be righteous- (Jeremiah 23:5; John 1:14; Hebrews 4:15; Romans 4:5-8)
First, this kingdom would be righteous. Of course, for a kingdom to be
righteous, it had to have help, because the kings of the day, the leaders of the day could not bring about a righteous kingdom. So the prophets began to speak of the coming Messiah, who would rule over the people with justice. We see this spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 23:5- “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’” Of course, this was a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. Christ is from the line of David, referred to as a “righteous branch.” But not only from David’s line, but also come upon the scene like David; starting from a humble beginning, then growing to prominence (David was a shepherd who became the king; Jesus was born to a carpenter, in a stable, a very humble beginning).
He is a righteous branch, because Jesus is righteous. Really, Jesus is the only righteous one. No one else could bring about righteousness to the Kingdom, because no one else could live a righteous life like Christ. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus exhibits the “glory of the One and Only.” Hebrews 4:15 says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” So Jesus is the righteous One, as the scriptures attest to, come to bring righteousness back to the Kingdom of God.
But Jesus was not to be an earthly king to rule over the people. The confusion came when the people thought that Jesus’ reign was going to be here on earth. They believed that Jesus would establish Israel as the dominant nation, and Jesus would reign over her. They did not understand that to do this would be short lived, because setting up a kingdom on earth would not bring them salvation. Jesus was bringing back righteousness through His sacrifice. By giving Himself up to the cross, Jesus could bring to us His righteousness; impart onto us His righteousness. We could be righteous then in a spiritual sense, not an earthly sense. Christ’s rule would be spiritual, not earthly. He would be our king, but not physically here on earth.
We see this whole idea of righteousness imparted to us in Romans 4:5-8, “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Illus. Think for a moment about a role model you have, or have had. Maybe this role model was a parent, or a teacher, or a coach, or your minister. They were your role models because they modeled behavior that you wanted to follow; you wanted to be like them, or act like them…. While it is good to have role models, and while having Jesus as a role model would be good, Jesus is more than just a role model. Jesus doesn’t just show us how to live right; Jesus doesn’t just help us to behave less sinfully. Jesus removes our sin, and by doing this imparts His righteousness to us!
IN THIS WAY JESUS MAKES THE KINGDOM OF GOD RIGHTEOUS! Because of our sin, the Kingdom of God will not be righteous here on earth, but it will be righteous again in heaven. Yet, while we are here on earth, the more who choose to follow Jesus, the more the Kingdom of God, here on earth, will be righteous; more like it is meant to be and as it is in heaven.
II. God’s Kingdom being peaceful- (Matt. 10:34-39; 1 Corinthians 15:26)
Second, the Kingdom of God was to be peaceful. If you look at the history of
Israel, including the time of King David’s reign, you would see that there were many wars. These wars caused all kinds of unrest in the land and for the people. We see that as a response to this, David names his son Solomon, which means peace. In our passage this morning, we see that David is giving a charge to Solomon to build a house to the Lord. This house was to be built by David, but God forbade it because of all the blood that was spilt during David’s reign.
Solomon’s reign was to be one of peace. Solomon was to establish this peace in the kingdom again. Solomon gives himself over to this work. But the work began to be for him the place he sought fulfillment. As I read for you a couple of weeks ago, from Ecclesiastes, he built many things, but they did not satisfy. That is because the work we do, if it is not for God, will not satisfy us or bring us peace. And in the end, even if someone like Solomon seeks to establish peace, inevitably there will be conflict again.
When Jesus came, not only did he seek to bring righteousness to the world, but He also sought to bring peace. Isaiah tells us that one of Jesus’ messianic titles was “the Prince of Peace.” And yet Jesus knew that even with His being here in the world, there could not be peace when so many did not seek peace. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-39, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn " 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. 37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
These don’t exactly sound like words of peace; do they? How could Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, speak about turning people against one another? What Jesus is saying here, is that the way to peace and peaceful living is by giving yourself fully over to Him. If anything or anyone is more important than Jesus, then those who aren’t following Jesus will be in conflict with those who are. In fact, they will be in conflict with themselves as well, because they will not have peace without having a relationship with Jesus.
For God’s kingdom to have peace, people must all be living together in Christ, completely sold out to Christ. Because this is not happening, people are not at peace within themselves, with each other, or nations with other nations. Peace will not exist here on this earth because of sin, and sinful leaders. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15:26 tells us that the last enemy to be defeated is death. The peace of the Kingdom of God will be seen in heaven, where the Prince of Peace resides and where we will go after we die.
III. God’s Kingdom was to be stable-
As originally planned, God’s kingdom was to be stable. God did not create
His world and His people to be in chaos but to have stability. That is one of the reasons Samuel tried to dissuade the people from having a king like other nations. You think they would have seen the chaos the other nations were in, and understood that God needed to be their king. But they wanted to have a king, and with a king came instability.
If you were to read through the book of 1 and 2 Kings, you would see that the thrones of Israel and Judah were mostly unstable, and fairly brief. Kings fought against kings, and nations fought against nations. Kings were unjust to their people and were overcome with the desire for power and possessions. Because of this many who were put on the throne by God turned against God because they didn’t want to live for God and be subject to God. Consequently there was much unrest.
If you were to follow the nation of Israel you would see that they did not have stability either because of their sin. Sometimes they just went astray from the Lord and from God’s ways, and God gave them over to other nations. Other times they chose to believe in other gods or join themselves with other nations. Again, this caused unrest in the nation itself and in the life of the people.
When Jesus comes on the scene, Israel is under the rule of the Romans and the roman kings. As with His coming as a king, Jesus also came to bring stability to the people, but not a stability based on earthly rule. The stability is to be found in our relationship with Christ. If Christ is our Lord, then we know whom we belong to, we know how we are to live, and we know where we will go when we die. This is the stability we have; the stability of the Kingdom of God.
However if you think of the Kingdom of God in Messianic terms, meaning the Kingdom that Jesus is setting up for all eternity, you see the stability comes in Jesus preparing the way by His death and resurrection. The Kingdom is not just subject to a particular people or land, but includes all who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. The foundation of the Kingdom is Jesus Himself, which gives it all the stability it needs!
IV. God’s Kingdom impacts our lives- (John 14:13)
As I’ve talked about the Kingdom of God, up to this point you might wonder
what all this has to do with you. If you are interested in having a general understanding of the Kingdom of God, this might be of interest to you. But what does this say to us in a practical way? Why do we need to care about what the Kingdom of God was supposed to be, what it became, and how it has fallen short?
This is all very important because our world has so much evil, and conflict, and instability. We understand this has all come about because of the sin in individuals, in leaders and in nations. Most people are concerned with the world we live in because it is so unstable. When the economic downfall hit a couple of years ago, it caused great concern for everyone; and in many ways still brings concern. It reminded us of the instability of the world we live in.
Understanding the Kingdom of God helps us to live with an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective takes into account the past, the present, AND the future. In the past, we see the kingdom of God existing through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and existing through the prophets and through the kings. In understanding it in the present, Jesus wanted us to know that the Kingdom of God was a present reality in Christ; it is here and now. And yet, the Kingdom of God also has future implications. There is an aspect of the Kingdom of God that still is to come; a meaning for when the end times would come; when heaven and earth would be done away with and a new heaven would come about.
We need to understand the Kingdom of God because it should shape our daily life. It should shape our life by our giving our unconditional faith to Jesus Christ. In John 14:13 Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” We see that the Kingdom of God has fallen short because the people did not obey God’s rule and God’s reign; both by demanding an earthly king, and by the kings who were set up to govern the people turning away from God.
The Kingdom of God understanding should also guide our lives by leading us to follow a biblically defined leadership. A biblically defined leadership guides us to choose leaders based on the qualifications God gives us in the Bible, and by seeking God for guidance on whom He wants us to choose. Leadership needs to be given to those men and women who are full of the Spirit of wisdom.
The Kingdom of God understanding should give us a concern for the poor and oppressed. Jesus was always concerned with the poor, and was always concerned with justice. When we see people struggling, we need to seek to honor God by caring for those in need. This requires us to humble ourselves before God and seek out how to meet these needs; even if it is uncomfortable for us.
Conclusion: We tend to look to leaders to make things right for us; better for us. That is what Israel hoped. But the truth is, the only leader that we should follow is God. We should look to God to understand what He wants for our lives, our church, our country, our world. We would be much better off if this was the case. Unfortunately, we have too many leaders who do not seek to follow God, and thus we live in a world void of peace and stability.
Story: Once there was a man who asked for a flower and a butterfly…
But instead God gave him a cactus and a caterpillar.
The man was sad and didn’t understand why his request was misunderstood.
Then he thought, ‘Oh well, God has too many people to care for, and
decided not to question it. After some time the man chose to check up on the
cactus, only to discover that out of the thorny, ugly cactus had grown
a beautiful flower, and the caterpillar had become a beautiful butterfly.
God always does things right. His way is always the best way. Even when we mess it up, God’s Kingdom is about making it right.
If you have asked God for one thing, and gotten another, you can be sure that God has gotten it right. Today’s thorn can become tomorrow’s flower.
While the world has messed up the Kingdom of God, but not allowing God to rule over us, God has made it right in the end: The thorn is Christ’s death;
the flower is Christ’s resurrection. The thorn is the evil in the world, the flower is the love and peace we bring to it as Christ’s followers. The thorn is that there is great instability. The flower is that we have eternal life with Christ. The Kingdom of God is here, but even more, will be eternally experienced in heaven. Amen.
posted by Logan's Blog at 7:46 PM
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