The Kingdom of God

"The Kingdom of God"......what a very interesting phrase. The phrase itself appears 70 times in the bible. All in the New Testament. 5 X in Matthew, 15 in Mark, 2 in John, 33 whopping times in Luke, 7 in Acts (which also was written by Luke) so Luke accounts for 40 of the total appearances. And Paul mentions the phrase 8 times in 5 different books. The total number of times Jesus is mentioned speaking this phrase was 46 times. So it's no wonder why the disciples used it so much. But Luke was an after the fact disciple. He wasn't one of the twelve. Yet he records it more than any of the others and he also records Jesus using it more than any of the others. So from all this, I must deduct that either it was a popular phrase in 1st century Israel or Luke just was taken with it and decided it was so descriptive of what Jesus was attempting to get across to the masses that he would use it a lot. But Jesus is recorded making a particular statement regarding the Kingdom of God that has always intrigued me. He said in Luke 17: Luke 17:20-21 20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." So here we have the Pharisees once again attempting to either confuse Jesus or discredit Him. They were the ones who knew about God and the prophets and they didn't want this carpenter to make claims that were unfounded. They may have been trying to get Him to say something on which they could jump. But never forget that they were looking for Messiah and they were expecting a political or military leader to arise to throw out evil Rome and come to the rescue of the downtrodden, not a spiritual leader who simply ignored the things of the political world. Now someone who only was concerned with the Kingdom of God. Here's a little exercise that may help you to understand what it is to be in the kingdom of God.....or else it may drive you absolutely nuts. Try to describe your spirit. Do you even believe that you have a spirit? Do you think that your spirit is separate from your soul? If they're different how are they different? And if those two are different, how are they different from our physical body? Now if you have a good idea in your mind about that, think about this....how is your spirit different from the person sitting next to you or in front of you? You can easily see how your physical body is different, but does your spirit look different as well? How would your spirit differ from the spirit of some great hero of the church? Would it look different from Paul's spirit? How so? How about Mother Teresa's? These are just some things to dwell on when you consider what it is like in the kingdom of God. One final one....What will Jesus look like when you meet Him face to face? The church leaders of Jesus' day did not expect Him to look the way he did. They wanted a warrior who would take out the Romans. He is not at all what they expected, yet they were very well versed in what and who He should be. I think we will all be surprised when we find out the truth of things. Today we look for the Lord's return and many are disappointed that He has not done so as of yet and no two Christians will agree on what that will look like. In fact I'm always surprised when I find two Christians agreeing on anything. But I would say to those who look for Him in the air...."The kingdom of God is within you". Jesus basically said you won't find it by seeing it right in front of you. Remember this was the same One Who said "seek and you will find." He also said 3 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matt 13:13 So we must interpret from this that there is a way other than seeing and hearing to discover the things of God, the Kingdom of God. We sang this morning about the eyes of our heart. Now of course our hearts don't have eyes, but we all do have spiritual eyes that are, or at least should be attuned to the spiritual world. But what exactly is the Kingdom of God? If God is the creator of all things, then doesn't the Kingdom of God include all things? Well, from this I would say at least everything that's in you. Well of course God's kingdom includes everything in the universe, although He has given up rule of this earth to our enemy and hasn't he done just a fine job with that. What we must understand is that we are not of this world, even though we live in this world. We belong to the kingdom of God. We have spoken for quite some time about our relationship with God and how by having a deep close relationship with Him we can take on His very personality and develop some of His marvelous traits, ending in the most important part of Him, love. To accomplish that would certainly be to live in the kingdom of God. When Jesus spoke of living water, we must consider what exactly that meant. It's found in two places, the first being when He met the woman at the well. She was surprised that He being a Jew would even speak to her because she was a Samaritan, a dreaded half breed. But instead He said this: John 4:10 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." Well she quickly asked where do you get this stuff? His answer was simple: John 4:13-14 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." Well maybe not so simple. This must have confused her a great deal. But what Jesus was saying to her then and to us today is that this is the water that we drink in the Kingdom of God. It is knowledge of God. It's refreshing because no matter what your situation, it can bring a peace like no other place. It strengthens you in a way nothing else can and it prepares you like nothing else can for any situation. I believe that Jesus prepared His disciples for revolution, but not in the traditional sense of revolution. If the kingdom of God was that for which we were to strive, then winning the war, winning the revolution would be found within ourselves as well. The revolution is a battle that is enjoined by ourselves, against ourselves and is won, in part, by drinking some living water. That Living water is a wonderful thing, and can only be obtained in one place. But I told you that the bible speaks of living water in two different places. The second one is a little later in: John 7:37-38 37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Now the first one was about receiving living water and this one is about an outflow of living water. But lest we be conflicted about this at all, John explains what Jesus means by this. John 7:39 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. You see we cannot receive Jesus unless the Holy Spirit, God Himself is involved and we cannot give Jesus unless God, the Holy Spirit is involved. Our spirit is unable to do anything apart from Christ. But it is even more than that. We are unable to live in the Spirit unless God be involved. Now you may well ask, "How is it possible that we can live in this world and not be of this world?" and I believe that's a fair question. When I asked you what you think your spirit looked like, it was to make you think about that because it should look different now than before you knew Christ. Jesus said the Holy Spirit, this living water would do this: John 16:13 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. But the goal is not that we get new information, but that we see things differently and therefore our hearts are different and our spirits are different. Paul was so convinced of this change that he said we need not even consider each other in the flesh, but in the spirit alone. 2 Cor 5:16-17 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. This should excite you and make you jump for joy that we are not in the flesh, but that we have been changed into spiritual beings by merely drinking some living water. This should excite you that life is happening all around you and no matter when Jesus is returning, we are one day closer to that. And it should excite you that you have the possibility to have a close relationship with the King of Kings, not in some pie in the sky sort of transcendental manner, but a one on one relationship that will help you overcome all the difficulties you encounter in this life and enable you to draw others to God by what you have learned and to give them some of that living water and lead them forward into the kingdom of God. You have His word on it.