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.

Fear

This is a rather long post, but I got involved the other day with a friend whose life is controlled by fear....and he is a Christian. This just shouldn't be.
Franklin Roosevelt is quoted having said in a famous radio broadcast, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” And although that is a wonderful platitude that is meant to inspire courage and trust in a time that our country was facing a great crisis, it really means nothing.
We all have fear at some point in our lives, and if we don’t we are stupid. There is nothing wrong with having fear, but it is knowing what to do in times of fear that is important. Anyone who tells you that they have never been afraid has spent their entire life in a very sheltered condition, and they are afraid to leave that place of shelter….so they know fear too!
Peter the Apostle was a man who for the most part didn’t have much fear. If he had a pickup truck he probably would have had one of those stickers in the back window that said, “NO FEAR” Peter was a man who also was, to say the least, a bit impetuous. We all remember the story of Jesus walking on the sea;
Mt 14:25-31
25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."
28 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."
29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
Like I said, Peter was an impetuous guy. But let’s look at the entire scene. It was the 4th watch of the night. That means it was somewhere between 3 and 6 AM. It was dark and they were in a wind tossed sea and though it doesn’t show it in these selected verses just before this, it says that the wind was contrary, which means that it was against them.
Verse 30 says that the wind was “boisterous” and the word used here is a word that means very powerful or mighty. So here’s a bunch of guys in a fishing boat in a huge lake in the middle of the night and a very powerful wind is tossing their boat around while they are trying to sail across the big lake (the sea of Galilee) to the other side. It doesn’t say it, but there must have been a moon, for they were able to see Jesus.
And when they did see Him, they became afraid. Imagine that. Here they are in the middle of the night on a lake and someone comes toward you walking on the water. Not something you see every day. Fear struck them and I imagine their skin was crawling and there was nowhere to run. At least if they were on land, they could all take off, but not in the water.
Now Jesus knew that they were afraid, otherwise He wouldn’t have said, “Don’t be afraid.” But the word that is written that is interpreted, “be of good cheer” is a word that implies comfort, like a mother comforting a child. “It’s OK sweetie, everything is alright.” There is another word that is very close to this one that means “to exercise courage” but this one means to have courage, don’t be afraid and is just a word conveying comfort. And then He uses the familiar phrase ego emi, which can mean “I am or I exist or it is I”. Remember, that’s the phrase that Jesus used when the Pharisees all wanted to stone Him.
Anyway, back to the boat. It has always struck me as strange that Peter said, “If it’s you, Lord, just tell me to come and I’ll come.” I know that John was in the boat that night. And He wrote later to “test the spirits, whether they are of God.” (John 4:1) I wonder if this is what Peter was doing. Anyway Peter asked and Jesus invited. This may have been Peter the impetuous or just Peter waiting to exercise his faith. Because when Jesus did say, “Come” and nothing more, Peter got out of the boat. Now we hear much about how he sank, but always remember that Peter was the only one who stepped out of the boat. To have faith like that, to trust in anyone to do what we would normally see as impossible is to overcome fear. Because the best way to remove fear is to have trust in someone who you know will protect you.
Fear can overcome our faith and in so very many situations. We as humans can have so many fears. Fear of being alone, fear of death, fear of rejection, fear of being misunderstood, fear of pain, not having financial security, failure, the unknown, not knowing God’s will or even knowing God’s will, man, or even scarier…woman. And the scariest thing of all…..Relationships.
Some people have one of these fears. Some have many. To have even one would be difficult, but to have a bunch of these and to live within the confines of these kinds of prisons is to say the least, horrible. I can guarantee that God does not want us to live like that.
So how do we overcome fear? Perhaps it would be easier to discuss how we manage to invite fear into our lives. Now please understand that fear is not altogether a bad thing. God built it into our very being so that we would become cautious. If you’re out walking in a dangerous place, it’s a good thing to be cautious. A little fear will contribute to that caution. Be safe. But if your fear makes you curl up in a ball and lie in the ground then your fear has overcome you.
We all have fear in our lives and that's alright. Fear is nothing of which we should be ashamed. It is how we handle that fear that is important.There are so many things in this world that may spawn fear, but it is up to us to discover the truth of who is in control. And that is the key. This key has a few different notches in it that all work together to open the lock that is held together by fear.
The first is truth. Truth is not whatever you think it might be, not what you think it is. Truth is what it is. Jesus was quite clear and spoke with not the slightest trace of ambiguity when He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” He is the truth and there can only be one truth. We must never lose sight of that.
The second notch is faith. It’s that two edged sword of which I have spoken so often. Not merely believing in that which is not seen but making that unseen believable by your actions and deeds. When people can see Jesus in you they can see Jesus. When you know the truth, your faith is made clear in your life.
And the last notch is trust. We must learn to trust the one who has brought us the truth. And if you truly have faith, if you really own faith in that truth then your trust will be wholeheartedly in Him. It’s really easy to speak this, but to know that the truth is in your heart can only come to light by how that truth is revealed in you. It could be that if you have fear operating in your life, then you really don’t trust in God. Your faith is not where it needs to be because the truth you understand is not the truth that Christ has revealed.
Fear is a tool of the devil. It is used by him to keep you from operating at the fullness in which God desires you to operate. It is meant to keep you from being filled with the Holy Spirit and developing fully your relationship with God. It used by the enemy to make you believe a lie.
God woulld prefer to be involved in helping you overcome your fear, but we have to have a relationship with Him in order to have that happen. Our relationship with God must begin when we wake up and when we have that first cup of coffee and when we are going to work, and when we are doing the most enjoyable things we can do. He wants to share with us those times as well as the times of difficulty and suffering and pain and fear. He wants to be involved in our lives in a way that will give us the fullness of whom He is, in a way that will give us the fullness of who we can become, and it can only happen when we lose our fear due to our relationship with Him.
You have His word on it.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

Holiday weekends are made for something different. My something different was to take a ride on a motorcycle to help raise a little money for Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child. (Yeah, I know. Suffering for the children) We rode through the beautiful mountains of Eastern Arizona, past Sunrise Ski Area through the towns of Eagar and Springerville and looped back to Show Low. Around here, we call it the great circle route. The only problem was that it was raining, not all the way, sometimes it was hailing. At the time it was hailing, I was behind the others a bit (rest area break) so to play catch up I was going fast. I don't know if you've ever encountered hail on a motorcycle, but little bits of ice pelting you at 75-80 mph is a very different experience. Oddly enough, the ride was still very enjoyable. It may be one of those things that you tell your grandchilderen about and embellish so that there are monsters and evil involved and yet we came out victorious. I told one friend who was riding with us to put on my tombstone, "It seemed like a good idea at the time"
We all have those moments in life where we embark on something with the noblest of intentions and whatever it is becomes more tedious than originally anticipated. We just carry on because the inconvenience is still not greater than the goal for which we strive. I wonder if Jesus thought that what he was doing was more than He originally bargained for as He carried that cross up the hill that day. Obviously not, for He completed His mission. I'm sure He was aware of the pain, the suffering, the horrendous sacrifice He was making even though there would be those who would not appreciate His sacrifice and gain from that noble deed even though the reward for acknowledging this incredible gift is eternal life. (Ok there's a little more to it than that)
It is always, at the very least, impolite to not thank someone for their gift to you. But so many, in their ignorance, go beyond that to even mock the Son of God and those who believe in that precious gift. How sad, especially when the gift was given for everyone who lives. My sincere prayer is that no one would meet Jesus one day (and we all will) and when He asks why you didn't believe in the gift of God your answer is, "Seemed like a good idea at the time." What an eternally wrong statement.
I was once on that side of the fence. I am so glad we serve a merciful God. You think about some very different things while on a motorcycle.