Sermon
The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God - Part 1
January 24, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

For you that have been a part of our church family for many years know that my normal approach to preaching is what we call expository preaching. I take a book of the Bible and just go through it word by word, almost verse by verse, but when we came to the Fall instead of going back to the book of John, I felt deeply impressed that it was important -- and the reason being is because we have had a number of new folks joining our church family -- that we go back and review the basic doctrines of our faith. So we did that before the Christmas season. We talked about heaven and we talked about stewardship; we talked about servanthood. We talked about so many things that become the very basic truths of our faith.

And then came the Christmas vacation and as I was thinking and praying I realized that there was one doctrine that I hadn't touched upon that is exceedingly important, and I think the reason for me probably not to approach it prior to Christmas is because it's a subject so vast that to try to cover it is extremely difficult, and that's the doctrine of the kingdom of God. Most likely you would agree with me that very seldom do we hear a sermon on the kingdom of God. We hear sermons about aspects of the kingdom, but I think that in the minds of most Christians they hear the term we pray -- Our Father which art in heaven hollowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come Thy will be done. We reference it in our prayers, but if someone asked us, what really is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? I think most people in the body of Christ would have an extremely difficult time trying to give an explanation.

And I'll tell you why folks, because I'm going to show you in just a moment how intense the subject really is. And because it covers so many aspects that theologians have questioned in quandary over many of the aspects of the kingdom and for some it's one of those subjects that you just don't take as a subject and talk about in the pulpit. So what I want to do is tonight...we may not even get to the sermon because this afternoon I thought what I'm going to do is go through the gospels and I'm going to mark in my Bible the verses that relate to the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, and then we'll just only take one of the gospels the gospel of Matthew. It's a subject that is referred to 130 times it just the four gospels, and on almost every page you'll find the phrase the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. What is it?

Well let's take our notes, and in the first part of our notes I have taken a passage out of Mark and this will introduce us to the term. It says: "Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these."

So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. "And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "YOU ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD." But after that no one dared question Him."

You're not far from the kingdom. What is the kingdom? I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles, and you may wish to take something to mark your Bible because of going to take you through the gospel of Matthew and we are going to reference each occasion when the subject or the term the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven appears. And when I finish reading all of these you will understand how vast, how cumbersome is the concept of the kingdom. So let's turn in our Bibles back to Matthew's gospel and be ready to start marking, and I'll tell you the verses and read them for you. They each contain reference to the kingdom of God.

There is no reference in chapter 1. There is no reference in chapter 2, but when we come to chapter 3 of Matthew here it is: "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight." So immediately we are confronted with the fact that the message that John the Baptist preached was the message of the kingdom of heaven.

Maybe I should stop here just for a moment. You'll notice that Matthew uses the term kingdom of heaven. Mark and John and Luke use the term the kingdom of God. They are interchangeable because when you go back into the original you'll find that Matthew is very, very cautious to use terms that reference Jehovah God. Because as Jewish people and the Jews to whom he wrote it was a word it was a title that you didn't use. They used the word Lord, and thus, Matthew uses the term heaven which in its original has the same reference, its interchangeable, with God and so it's either the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God.

Now I'm aware that some theologians...some of you may have a Bible with extracurricular notes down the side and that theologian will try to differentiate between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. It's doing an injustice to the word of God because they are interchangeable. And so John the Baptist's message was preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's all there is in chapter 3.

Let's go to chapter 4. Look at verse 17: "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."" So now we learn that the subject that Jesus wanted to talk about was the kingdom, and that was his message -- Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Go to verse 23 of chapter 4: "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." Again, the heart of his preaching was the gospel of the kingdom.

Look at chapter 5, verse 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Look at verse 10: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Look at verse 19: "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." So in this brief passage of chapter 5 you'll notice it has reference three times.

Let's go to chapter 6. Look at verse 9: " In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven." look at verse 13, it concludes: " For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

Look at verse 33, Matthew 6:33, and I think this is exceedingly important as it relates to the subject. It says: "But..." Now I pause. I must know what the kingdom is if I'm going to fulfill the requirement where Jesus says the very priority of your life is to seek the kingdom of God. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." So it's imperative that we understand what the kingdom is if that's what we're going to seek and that's what we're instructed to seek after as followers of Christ.

Let's go to chapter 7. Look at verse 21: "Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

We go to chapter 8. Look at verse 11: "And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Let's go on in our Bible. In chapter 9 it appears again in verse 35: "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." Again, if that's the basic message of Jesus -- the gospel of the kingdom -- and we're instructed as Christians to make it the priority of our life's ambition is to seek first that kingdom, you now understand how important it is to know what the kingdom is.

Let's go on, chapter 10 verse 5 is saying...He's giving instructions to the twelve, he says: "These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."" So it's the assignment given to the disciples. Now, John the Baptist made it his message, Christ made it his message and now he's saying to his disciples, as you go make sure you preach the gospel of the kingdom.

Let's go on. Is there anything more in chapter 10? No. We come to chapter 11 verse 11. Look at what it says: "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions..." So there he says the kingdom of God suffers violence and only violent men take it by force. A fascinating verse, isn't it?

Let's go on. Look at Chapter 12. Now here's a situation where in verse 22 it says: "Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub (or by Satan), the ruler of the demons."

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad."

Here's Jesus he's being accused of casting out demons through the power of Satan. And Jesus rebuffs that and said, listen, if I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has arrived. And we know that in his ministry he cast out demons, and so he's making the proclamation the kingdom has come. It's arrived, and I have come to spoil Satan's house. Interesting, isn't it?

Let's go on. Go to chapter 13, and here you'll find it all the way through it. It's the chapter on the parables. Look at verse 10: "And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given."" So Jesus admits that the truth about the kingdom is a mystery, and only certain people will understand it.

Let's go on. Look at verse 18: "Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside."

Look at verse 24: "Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field..." Let's go on. Look at verse 31: "Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field..." Look at verse 33: "Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.""

Look at verse 38: "The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. Look at verse 41: "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Look at verse 44: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Look at verse 45: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls..." Look at verse 47: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind..." Look at verse 52: "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old."

Do you see how vast the subject is becoming? Let's go on. I don't think there's anything at chapter 14, and I haven't marked anything in chapter 15, but look at chapter 16 verse 18. You remember it's the great confession, but we have to go back to verse 13 to get the setting. "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.""

Look at verse 28: "Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." It gets more complicated almost every verse we read, doesn't it?

Let's go to chapter 18 verse 1: "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Let's go to verse 23: "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants." We have the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Look at chapter 19 verse 12. Isn't it interesting just to go chapter by chapter and you see this subject just comes up constantly. Look at verse 11: "But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.""

Let's go on. Look at verse 23: "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."" You'll notice he used the terms enter the kingdom of heaven and enter the kingdom of God interchangeably.

Look at verse 1 in chapter 20: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard."

We come to chapter 21, and look at what we have in chapter 21. Go with me to verse 28 to start it. "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, "Son, go, work today in my vineyard." He answered and said, "I will not," but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, "I go, sir," but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to Him, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.""

Look at verse 43: "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." Now what's the implied? The implied is that the kingdom of God belonged to someone else or some other people. When Jesus comes he takes it from them and gives it away. Tremendous theology and I don't have time to start on that one tonight.

Look at chapter 22: "The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son..."

Go to chapter 23. You'll notice folks, if we had time and we went back and read each portion, the concept of the kingdom ties together almost every subject in the gospel of Matthew. Look at what it says in verse 13 of chapter 23: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."

Let's go to chapter 24 verse 14, it says: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." Implying that just before the coming of Christ the world will be filled with the knowledge of his kingdom.

Look at chapter 25, "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." There you have the parable of the five wise and the five foolish. Look at verse 14. Here again it starts another one, the parable of the ten talents. "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them." And now you have the parable of the talents.
Each subject as he introduces it he says the kingdom of God is like unto.

Go with me to verse 34: "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.""

And thus, I think those are all the references we have in the gospel of Matthew. Go with me to Luke and I want to show you something very interesting. Luke 17, the subject is still the kingdom. Because if we went through Mark and Luke and John, remember this subject would come up 130 times. Look at what it says in verse 20 of Luke 17: "Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them..." So you can see now it's the concern of the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they're wondering about this whole matter of the kingdom. They're saying, when will it come?

Look at what Jesus says, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation..." In other words, it's not a visible thing, so it's not material, it's not physical. "...nor will they say, "See here!" or "See there!" For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." So now he is taking the concept of the kingdom and he's telling us that the kingdom of God is within us.

Let's go to one more. Let's go to John chapter 18. Do you see now folks when we say you don't hear any sermons on the kingdom per se, because almost everything in the New Testament is on the subject? Go with me to John 18:33, "Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered him, "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.""

The last verse we read he said my kingdom is within you, and Jesus said my kingdom isn't an earthly kingdom. My kingdom, if I had my kingdom here, I'd ask my servants to fight so that I should not be delivered to you. Now let's go to Acts. It's a tremendously interesting subject. Do you see what I'm saying, when you talk about the kingdom it's the theme of the New Testament.

Look at Acts chapter 1 verse 4: "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" So the last question that Jesus is asked before he ascends back to heaven by his audience, Jesus, what about this kingdom? Are you going to restore it to Israel?

Go with me now to Romans chapter 14. What is that kingdom? Look at what it says in verse 17. Paul gives us his answer, Romans 14:17, "...for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking..." So it's not physical. "...but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." That's Paul's definition of the kingdom.

Now you say, pastor, why did you go through all of that? I wanted you to see how vast the subject is, because it's the theme of the Scriptures. Go with me to Acts chapter 28. Paul, remember he's sitting there in prison, what's he going to talk about? Look at what he talks about in the last verse of Acts 28. "Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God..."

So you've got John coming, that's his subject, Jesus has the subject of the kingdom, the disciples preach about the kingdom, the parables are about the kingdom, and Paul preaches the kingdom. And the last subject that he talks about in prison is the kingdom of heaven. You say, Pastor, you've really got my curiosity. I went back over many years of sermons and I have never preached a series on the parables of the kingdom, because the parables of the kingdom are the gospel of the kingdom. So if we learn the content of the parables and the themes of the parables and their message, we'll understand what the kingdom is all about. And I think we have to learn about that through the parables.

Now let's go back to our notes. That's the first time I've ever gone through one whole gospel and pointed out all the verses on that same subject, and I trust that you marked your Bible and you go back and re-read those. I started our lesson out tonight by saying: Longfellow could take a worthless sheet of paper, write a poem on it, and make it worth $6,000.00. That's genius. Rockefeller could sign his name to a piece of paper and make it worth millions of dollars, and that's capital. Uncle Sam can take gold, stamp an eagle on it, and make it worth $20.00. That's money.

But God can take a worthless sinful life, wash it in the blood of Christ, put His Spirit within, and make it a blessing to humanity, a child of eternity, and a citizen of heaven, and that is salvation. And when that happens, we join the words of praise with the Apostle Paul when he says: "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."

Paul says that when you and I became Christians God took us out of the kingdom of Satan and he translated us into the kingdom of his Son. So if we are Christians tonight we know one thing, we are children of the kingdom. We understand Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world; my kingdom is within you. So it's spiritual. And when you come to the heart of it, you can answer, what is the kingdom? It's the rule and reign of God in a human life where he takes that life and transforms it into his Christ-likeness. The kingdom of God is the rule of God within our hearts.

Now what I'd like for you to do...you say, then why did those Jewish people...what was their concept of the kingdom? And here is the great tension that you find in the Gospels. When Jesus talked about the kingdom he was talking about something spiritual -- the rule of God within the human heart brought about by the Christ, the Messiah, who would die on a cross for the sins of mankind and transform us into children of God. That's what Jesus was talking about. But the Jewish people of his day had a different concept of the kingdom. Theirs was an earthly kingdom. And the great frustration of the nation of Israel that brought the ultimate culmination of nailing Jesus to a cross is because they rejected the King and his message of the kingdom, and they nailed that King, King Jesus, to the cross. It was the rejection of his message.

Go with me to page 3. I just want to give you some history and you'll understand why the Jewish people conceived it to be a physical kingdom. Down in the middle of the page: To get the whole picture, we really have to go back to the beginning pages of Biblical history. Twenty-five hundred years before Christ, Abraham became the beginning of a nation. For fifteen hundred years, there was no king but God. Going when God sent them, doing what God commanded them to do, ready to serve at His command, Abraham's descendants grew to become a great nation.

Approximately one thousand years before Christ, Saul became the first king of the Israelites. A young man with many talents, Saul could have been a great king, but impatience, disobedience and jealousy brought his kingship to an end in suicide. Then David came to the throne. His colorful kingship lasted thirty-three years. He found Israel a collection of tribes but he left it a strong nation with the city of David, Jerusalem, to be her capitol. A man of great courage, a born leader of men, David, the king, evidenced great capacity to forgive and show gratitude. He was a man after God's own heart.

David's rule was followed by Solomon, and although Solomon was one of the wisest of men, he was guilty of the most ruinous folly. He was a builder of buildings and cities and he lived in luxury beyond the imaginations of men. Ignoring the lessons of the past, Solomon made alliances with ungodly nations which proved to be disastrous. The marriages of the daughters of the foreign kings who brought their idols into the king's house destroyed the purity of Solomon's religion and diluted Israel's faith in the true God. And after forty years of kingship, Solomon died, but he had sown seeds of discontent, and he had watered them with his selfishness, and the harvest was a divided kingdom after his death.

Rehoboam, his son, came to the throne. Soon a revolt, and the northern ten tribes split from the kingdom, and Jeroboam became their king. Known as the Northern Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Israel, its capitol was Sheckem, and later at Samaria. The other was called the Southern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Judah and its capitol was Jerusalem. The split happened in the year of 962 B.C. It was a cleavage never to be healed. History will always credit this tragedy to a man who rejected the advice of experience, who refused to right a wrong when it was within his power to do so, who gave no thought to how his actions would effect future generations - his name, Rehoboam.

The end came for the Northern Kingdom in the year of 721 B.C., two hundred and forty years after the split. Palestine lay between two great empires, Egypt to the south, and Assyria to the north, thus always liable to be caught in the middle when these two kingdoms decided to vie for power. And it was under Shalmaneasar when the Assyrians came against Samaria. After three years of battle, the Northern Kingdom was totally obliterated from history. A nation that forgets God's benefits, ignores His messengers and their message, and replaces true worship with idolatry will always end in shame and obscurity.

The Southern Kingdom now, that's the two tribes to the south, became an object of desire once the Northern Kingdom was captured. The Babylonian Empire had succeeded the Assyrian. The nation of Egypt decided to make war with the Babylonians, and the Southern Kingdom was caught in the fray. Egypt's power waned, Babylonian strength increased, and in the year of 596 B.C., most of the people living in Jerusalem were carried off to Babylon in exile. In 586 B.C., the city of David was laid to total destruction by the armies of Nebuchandnessar. The Southern Kingdom ceased to exist.

Thus, from that point on in history, except for the brief era under the Maccabeans, the Jewish nation served other nations...their kingdom did not exist. Centuries of servitude, oppression and tears, and bloodshed caused their hearts to yearn for peace and their minds to dream of a day when God would break into history and subject every nation to the Jews so that Jerusalem would be the capital of the world and every nation would admit Jewish sovereignty. It was the dream of the Golden Age.

It was to be a time of plenty when all men had enough and none too little, when man and animal would live in peace, and the day when the Jewish nation would become the master and ruler of the world. Their concept of the kingdom was nationalistic. Christ's concept of the kingdom was spiritual. Here was the great misunderstanding that eventuated at Calvary. They dreamed and that dream was still alive in their hearts. They longed for that day when once again all the beauty of David's kingdom would be restored and Israel would become the capital of the world, and their foes would fall at their feet. That's what they dreamed about.

They wanted Jesus to be that man to defeat Roman and to bring that kingdom into existence, and Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is within the hearts of men and women. It was a concept of a literal physical kingdom in conflict with Christ's teaching of a spiritual kingdom, and it ended at the cross.

Now we understand the great tension of the Gospels. It was their concept of a national kingdom wrestling with Jesus' concept of a spiritual life in those who believe. I have to stop there. That lays the foundation now. What we want to do next week...I want to take some of those concepts of the kingdom and we're going to talk about how do you get into the kingdom. And the Lord willing, then for the next few nights we want to talk about lessons from the parables of the kingdom. And my prayer is when we get through these brief lessons you'll be able to say I now understand a little better what the kingdom is all about. That's my prayer. Amen?

Father in heaven, Your word is so exciting, so vast. We've learned tonight of a subject that most of us have read our New Testaments page after page and we didn't realize the concept of the kingdom ties the New Testament together. And it's your kingdom that we are to seek first above everything else in life, and unless we do your will we're not a part of your kingdom. Lord Jesus, I pray that as we study together over the next few weeks you'll make the truths of these scriptures we read this evening very, very clear to our hearts and our minds. But we want to close this evening with an expression of gratitude, Lord Jesus, that you came to us when we were sinners lost and undone and through your gracious Gospel brought to us by various ways we learned of your love. You placed a faith within our hearts to believe, and we ask you to forgive us Lord Jesus and to be our Savior and to be our God.

And Paul tells us when that took place you translated us out of the kingdom of darkness and you made us part of your internal kingdom, Lord Jesus. We're children of the kingdom this evening because you reign within our hearts at your Holy Spirit guides our lives. We're grateful that even though we may not understand the great mystery of it all, we know one thing, we belong to you Lord Jesus, and we are a part of your kingdom, and we thank you for that. I ask you Lord Jesus to bless these wonderful people who've come tonight to worship and to learn. Bless them individually and as a family.

As we sit here tonight, my thoughts already are projecting into tomorrow when many services will take place in this sanctuary, and I'm asking you by your wonderful Holy Spirit to come and fill this place with your glory and your presence and your power. And may there come a yearning in the hearts of every person who is not a part of your kingdom to want to join your kingdom by receiving you Lord Jesus as their King. Thank you Lord Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen. God bless you folks.