There are moments when a room changes because somebody
has entered it.

Have you ever experienced that?

The furniture did not moved.
The walls have not changed.
Yet the atmosphere is different because a person of authority is
now present.

That is the claim at the heart of the Gospel.

In Jesus Christ, the King has entered the room.

The Kingdom of God is not a minor theme in the ministry of
Jesus.

It is the controlling announcement of his preaching.

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Jesus did not arrive merely offering helpful religious advice.

He announced that God was acting, God was reigning…
and the long-promised King had come.

I invite you to open your bible with me to Mark 1:14-15.

“Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where
he preached God's Good News.
‘The time promised by God has come at last!’ he announced.

‘The Kingdom of God is near!

Repent of your sins and believe the
Good News!"

When you read the Gospel of Mark… You discover that Mark
began writing about Jesus after he became an adult.

There is no Bethlehem in the first chapter… No angels with
Good tidings of great joy.

Mark begins writing about Jesus' public ministry beneath the
shadow of John the Baptist arrest.

​

Herod appears to hold onto power.
Rome occupies the land.

Faithful people have waited through centuries of oppression and
apparent silence.

Into that world Jesus makes an announcement-
“The time promised by God has come at last!”

Jesus is not talking about clock time.

He is talking about an appointed moment.

Jesus is declaring that God's promised moment has arrived.

The emphasis is not first about territory but it is mainly about the
nearness, the kingship and His ruling authority.
It has the force of something that has drawn near and remains
near.

God's reign is no longer only a distant expectation.

​

It has arrived in the person and ministry of Jesus.

That announcement also includes the same message that came
from John the Baptist: “Repent of your sins and believe the Good
News.”

Matthew, in his gospel… Matthew put much of Jesus’ early
ministry into one verse for us.

Matthew 4:23: “Jesus travelled throughout the region of Galilee,
teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News
about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and
illness.”

Matthew summarizes Jesus' Galilean ministry:

His teaching, and proclaiming the Good News and also healing so many people.

Jesus' healings were signs that the rightful King was confronting
the disorder of sin, of sickness and of demonic oppression.

​

We must never reduce the Kingdom to talk.
We are called to proclaim Christ…

We are called To pray for the sick,

We are called to confront injustice,

We are called to care for the broken and to be confident that the
Holy Spirit will demonstrate the compassion of the King.

Daniel in the Old Testament also wrote about the Kingdom of
God. Listen to his words from Daniel 7:13-14…
“As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of
man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the
Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given
authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world,
so that people of every race and nation and language would obey
him. His rule is eternal. It will never end. His
kingdom will never be destroyed.”

Daniel received this vision during the Babylonian exile, when
pagan empires seemed to be invincible.

In Daniel 7, evil kingdoms are pictured as beasts.

​

Then a humanfigure appears: It says… “someone like the son of man.”
Jesus repeatedly called himself the Son of Man.

He was identifying himself with Daniel's promised ruler.

The carpenter from Nazareth is the eternal King before whom
every empire, every government and every person must
eventually bow.

Matthew 6:33 says…   But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount while
addressing people’s anxiety about food, clothing and tomorrow.

He did not deny ordinary needs.

He challenged their right to become our master.

​

To seek the Kingdom is not as complicated as people sometimes
make it… To seek the Kingdom of
God is to arrange life around what God values.

The world of today trains us to seek visibility, comfort, security
and approval.

Jesus calls us to a higher priority:
seek the reign of God first.

Before asking whether a choice will advance our wants, we
should ask whether it will honor our King.

Colossians 1:13 says: “For He has rescued us from the kingdom
of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.”

It appears that Paul never visited the city of Colosse.
He wrote this letter while he was in a Roman prison… and he did
write later about his desire to go to that city… but there is no
evidence that he was ever at that church.

Paul wrote to believers in Colossae, a city surrounded by
competing spiritual claims.

They had tried to blend together old
pagan beliefs and Jewish laws and Christianity…

Verse 13 says: “For He has rescued us from the kingdom of
darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.”

When Paul used that word “Transferred”… he is talking about
moving people from one realm or allegiance to another.

Salvation is a person being rescue from the authority of darkness
and moved into the Kingdom of God.

So, that is telling us that the Christian life is much more than
adding Jesus to an existing lifestyle.

It is a transfer of allegiance.

Jesus becomes Savior and Lord.

Jesus told us that The Kingdom Is Already Among Us.

​

Turn in your bibles to I Corinthians chapter 15.
Chapter 15 is an important chapter in the bible.
In this chapter, Paul gives evidence proving the resurrection.
He writes of what that resurrection means for not only himself…
but for all the world.

1 Corinthians 15 verses 50-53:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit
incorruption.  51  Behold, I tell you a  [a] mystery: We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed—  52  in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.  53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality.

The church in Corinth was shaped by Greek ideas that often
treated the body as something inferior.

Paul insists that Christian hope is not escape from creation.
The Christian hope is resurrection and transformation.

“Flesh and blood” in verse 50 is a Jewish expression for mortal
humanity in its present condition.

But when Paul writes about incorruptible, he is writing about a life
that is no longer subject to decay.

God's completed Kingdom requires resurrection bodies fitted for
everlasting life.

 

Max Lucado wrote, “Because of the resurrection, everything
changes.”

Indeed it does.

Death no longer has the final word.

Ageing, disability, grief and the cemetery do not define the

conclusion of the believer's story.

King Jesus will raise his people and renew his creation.

In the book of Revelation… The judgments of God are defined
and separated by the opening of 7 seals… then by 7 trumpets
and then by 7 bowls of judgments that are all poured upon the
earth. It certainly appears that each judgment is worse than the
one before it.

But right in the middle of the judgments of God… at the last
trumpet … things change and there is an announcement…

Revelation 11:15: “The world has now become the Kingdom of
our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”

Revelation was written to churches living beneath the shadow of
an evil power.

Revelation unveils the reality of the world.

The government is not the ultimate power.
Jesus is Lord.

The final future is not an endless contest between equal powers.

Every human government will give way to the righteous reign of
Christ.

That gives disciples courage.

We do not surrender to despair, and we do not worship political
power.

We labor faithfully because history is moving towards
Jesus.

Here is the wonder of the Kingdom:
the King conquered by giving himself.

We have all rejected God's rule.

Sin is not only breaking rules;
it is attempting to occupy God's throne.

We have sought our own kingdom, defended our own sovereignty
and placed ourselves at the centre.

​

Jesus, the true King, lived the life of perfect obedience we have
not lived. At the cross he carried our sin and received its
judgment.

He died in our place.

​

He was buried.

On the third day God raised him bodily from the dead.

The cross reveals the love of the King.

The empty tomb declares the victory of the King.

The ascension announces the throne of the King.

The promised return will reveal the Kingdom of the King.

You do not enter this Kingdom through nationality, morality or
church attendance.

Jesus says, “Repent of your sins and believe the Good News.”
Turn from self-rule.

Place your trust in the crucified and risen Lord.

Receive his forgiveness, his Spirit and his new life.

I said earlier…
To seek the Kingdom is not as complicated as people sometimes
make it…

And make no mistake about it…
Seeking the Kingdom of God is not just for people who are 1 st
making a decision to follow Christ.

Seeking the Kingdom is for all of us.

We all need to daily seek the presence of God.

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We all need to daily to seek the face of God.

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To become God chasers.

So how do we do that?

Five quick ways.

First, surrender the throne.

Name the area where you resist Christ's authority: Maybe it is a
relationship, or money, or ambition, or forgiveness or your future.

Say, “Jesus… your will before mine.”

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Second, seek the Kingdom first.

Before making a major decision, ask:
What choice most clearly honors Jesus and serves his purposes?

Third, become a sign of the Kingdom.

Carry righteousness wherever you go take peace and Spirit-given
joy into your home, your church,
your workplace and community.

Serve somebody who cannot repay you.

Pray for healing.

​

Defend dignity.

Share the Gospel.

Fourth, refuse counterfeit kingdoms.

Do not give ultimate loyalty to a political party, to a nation, to your
job, or to anything that the world has to offer.

Respect earthly authorities,
but worship only Jesus.

Fifth,

live with resurrection hope.

Your labor in the Lord is not wasted.

Your ageing body is not your final body.

The grave is not your final address.

Christ will return…
the dead will be raised and the Kingdom will be completely
revealed.

I took a walk through the cemetery a couple of days ago.
As I walked… I thought about the many people that I knew who
are buried there.

But just their bodies… just their shells… the important part…
the part that made them who they are…
All of that is already with God.

The Apostle Paul told us that to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord.

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So not much today in the cemetery…
But all that is going to change someday.

​

Someday… we will not
be calling it a cemetery – we will call it a resurrection land.

Because at some point in time… God is going to resurrect the
bodies of the people in His family…
He is going to split those graves open and the souls of the saints
will be reunited with their new body… a body that will never see
sickness, pain or death again.

If you want to read more about the resurrections – 
read 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

There… Paul called the resurrection of Jesus the 1 st fruits of all
those who are waiting for that day.

Paul also told us about the order of events on that great day.
It is in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4…
Paul wrote… For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord.
18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

My conclusion about the Kingdom of God is simple…

The King Is Here and the King Is Coming.

The Kingdom of God is God's reign.

It has drawn near in Jesus.

It is active among us through the Holy Spirit.

It will fill creation when Christ returns.

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The King has entered the room.

We cannot remain neutral.

We can resist his rule or receive his mercy.

We can build our fragile little kingdoms,
or surrender to the Kingdom that will never be destroyed.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
His cross has dealt with sin.
His resurrection has broken death.
His Spirit is at work.
His Kingdom is coming.
So repent, believe, seek first the Kingdom