Where is the Kingdom?
November 7, 2010
Matthew 9:13 NKJ
But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."Mark Lowery, a Christian comedian with the Bill Gaither Vocal Band sold out Carnegie Hall in New York and in the vein of Bill Gaither made a video and CD. He had several guests on the show, but Mark was top billing.
At the end of his show he talked about what did Mary know as she raised Jesus, the Son of God. He asked questions like, “Did Mary ever have to tell Him go clean up his room?”, “Did Mary ever have to send Him to his room for what she thought was misbehavior?”
I have listened to the CD with the question “When did Jesus really become aware of His mission”, “When did Jesus start planning His Mission”. Great leaders are great planners. When George Washington crossed the Delaware river to defeat the German Hessians at Trenton, he had to plan carefully. General Norman Schwarzkopf’s plans and plan execution of the invasion of Kuwait required great planning. Likewise, as early as twelve years old, it seems Jesus was aware of a great mission ahead of him, and knew it involved planning.
It is an easy step to believe that Jesus thought about how to start His mission, perhaps for years. Jesus was a scholar of the Torah, its prophecy, and what it taught. If there is one thing He knew, it was that mankind is sinful. He came to understand that mankind is in a personal battle of choosing between God and evil. Over and over in the OT, even though the Hebrews lived as God’s chosen people, they turned their backs on God, lived in sin, got in trouble, and then turned back to God. Then they repented, were forgiven of their sinful ways, and lived in God’s glory.... for a while. That process continues for us today as we are not living in God’s will.
It was the same battle in Jesus’ day for the Israelites. A part of the battle for Jesus’ day was the very people who controlled the teachings of the day and the Temple. What Jesus railed against was religion that had become a forced worshiping of the law of the Torah, not the Real worship of God. Jesus came to realize that the most important issue of the day was as John the Baptist taught on the river Jordan, the need for repentance.
When Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit into the desert for His time of fasting, discernment, and prayer on how to conduct His ministry, He had many temptations on how to start and conduct His ministry. He fended off the evil of the temptations with Torah scripture. As a great leader, as the Greatest Leader who ever walked this earth, as He was perfect in the knowledge that people have come to know through the ages. He lived the prophecy (Matthew 4:13-14) and in verse 17, he began as John preached: “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’." His earthly ministry began, ended, continues today and hinges on one word to us, “Repent”.
The most fundamental need for mankind is repentance, and it always will be... until God call us home. Left to our own devices, it seems many people like living in sin. We do and can become so self centered that we do not even realize our sinfulness. Oh, many become successful, but we drive ourselves while living in sin, thinking how great we are, wanting more and more, stretching our limits, until eventually our lives turn messy and we ask God to “bless our mess.” Then, we repent.
True repentance involves one first step.... to the opposite direction where we were going. We must first recognize that we are in fact sinners, repent of our sinful ways, and then turn around asking God through the Holy Spirit to forgive us and lead us. Finally, we must follow Him.
God’s merciful desire is to forgive us. It is not enough to say we are sorry. We must truly repent. If we do not change our behaviors, it does not do much good to say we are sorry. In true repentance comes a change in behavior. Then, as Jesus said, we can be in the Kingdom of God.
And Where is the Kingdom?
Our Lord Jesus Christ tell us where the Kingdom of God is! In the Lords prayer there is a petition:
“Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,”
Where ever the the Will of God is being done, there also is the Kingdom of God.
This line is known as a literary parallelism. The second part helps amplifies the first.
This is what that line means:
Where ever the Will of God is being done,
There too is the God’s Kingdom!
“Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!”
Matthew 4:17
Thanks be to God.
God is a God of Change! God’s Intentional Will is for us to Repent! Be forgiven and live in the Kingdom!
Pray for your Change. Continually pray daily for forgiveness of your sins and then continually experience God’s Kingdom He has for you, Here and NOW!
To God be the Glory.
God's kingdom lies within each one of His children.
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