Kingdom Part 2

Kingdom Part 2 1/10/16

Announcements:

Don’t forget your domain maps! Bring them next Sunday 1/17/16 and give turn them in.

 

BEFORE ACTS: Journey to the Resurrection! A study through targeted passages in Luke leading us to the celebration of the resurrection.

 

It begins February 14 and runs through Easter on March 27.

 

1. Make Easter special
2. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lenten-preparations-for-good-friday-and-easter
3. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lenten-lights
4. Read the “Solid Joys” post on your iPhone or Android app each night at dinner during the season of Lent.

 

 

Matthew 9:32-38

“As they were going away, behold, a demon- oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

 

-See the conflict between the kingdom of darkness oppressing image bearers (the mute man) and domains of society (Pharisees as a ruling political party) and the good news of the kingdom healing and releasing from the curse.

 

-See the abundant work and few laborers.

 

-See the command of the Lord to ask him to send laborers!

 

Matthew 13:47-50

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

 

The kingdom will catch up all kinds into it’s net and there will be some bad fish in the nets, but Jesus will sort them out at the restoration of all things.

 

There are weeds among the wheat. We can’t make the weeds go away, but Jesus will. So we seek to be patient and obedient and careful with the harvest so we don’t root up good wheat with weeds.

 

Weeds don’t necessarily cause problems. Weeds are not wolves. Weeds look good on the outside but are fruitless and choke out the fruit of others.

 

In the kingdom, we will have weeds. Jesus will sort them out.

 

Matthew 13:31-32

“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

 

The kingdom is unassuming and full of power. It’s meek.

 

The kingdom is fruitful. The kingdom maximizes potential. The kingdom takes it’s two talents and multiplies them to four.

 

Matthew 13:33

“He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’”

 

The kingdom is supernatural. The kingdom is kind of magical (please don’t judge me for saying that).

 

The kingdom works when we are not aware that the kingdom is working. The rule of the kingdom is like the gradual dawning of spring after 100 years of winter in Narnia. It’s steady and thorough.

 

So, we persevere and wait patiently.

 

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn….Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears let him hear.”

 

The kingdom rule of Jesus will have fakers all over the place and those fakers may not be overt, but they are like those who cast out demons in Jesus name and don’t know Jesus. They work for Jesus but in order to earn his favor not because they’ve received a new heart of flesh in regeneration.

 

Ephesians 1:7-10

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

 

 

The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ kingdom come and the breaking of the curse of the fall and overthrow of Satan’s little and temporary kingdom to be finally overthrown when Jesus returns.

 

-The good news of the kingdom is more than salvation from sin. It is that, but salvation from sin is just the entry into the larger work of the kingdom!

 

-The culture of rescue from hell as the goal of the gospel has not only short sighted the work of the church, but it has pillaged discipleship for the church.

 

The good news of the kingdom makes salvation possible for all who will believe and gives those who believe a mission to subvert the work of Satan through making disciples and engaging the domains of society in all nations and establishing the church as the outpost[1] and community of the kingdom by the Spirit’s power as we wait for Jesus to return, complete the kingdom’s establishment and completely bring Satan’s work to an end.

 

Implications of the kingdom

If the kingdom of Jesus Christ has come, and if we are wheat and sheep not weeds and goats, and if we have all wisdom and insight to know the plan of God to unite all things in Christ then there are some implications for us as the community of the kingdom.

 

We must be Missional

We have to be about Jesus’ mission not our mission. Everything we do must have the mission in mind. We must be about correcting the fall and bringing all things back under the rule of Jesus Christ.

 

We must be about taking the rule of Christ out and seeking to establish the rule of Christ in every way possible.

 

Missional is go and establish as well as invite to come and see.

 

Missional Living Redeems all Vocations as Holy!

 

Missional Living Attempts to “seek the kingdom” in Everything and follow Jesus’s Leading!

1. Seek the rule of Jesus in your finances
2. Seek the rule of Jesus in your parenting
3. Seek the rule of Jesus in your marriage
4. Seek the rule of Jesus in fellowship with TRC people
5. Seek the rule of Jesus in your bible reading
6. Seek the rule of Jesus in your praying
7. Seek the rule of Jesus in your outreach/evangelism (Hudson Taylor’s spiritual secret!)

 

We must be incarnational/present

Jesus was present. We must be ambassadors of Christ who are present.

 

We must fill our domains of society and bring them back under the rule of Jesus Christ through our presence in those domains.

 

This is personal and corporate.

You have a domain you operate it. Every single person in the church can’t establish a line item in the budget for his or her personal ministry and get everyone involved in it. Some work can be dealt with that way. Most works cannot.

 

Much of the church’s work is you and I engaging our domain with the support of our RL group behind us in prayer and personal upholding.

 

This is a life-long mission.

This is not something you may ever see the end of. You may die trying to see the kingdom come in your domain. You may see the kingdom already in your domain. You may need to maintain and hold on in faithful maintenance. Either way, your mission is life-long.

 

We must be Alive/Abiding/ (used to say “organic”)

The kingdom does not advance by man’s schemes. The kingdom happens as a supernatural move of the Spirit in spiritually thriving people. The job of the church is not to manufacture movements but to join them.

 

We have to have eyes that see and ears that hear and be ready to obey.

 

We must be Contextual

The kingdom always invades a context and brings it under the rule of Christ and takes the Constitution of the Kingdom, the bible, and makes it the rule of that context in redeeming it for Christ.

 

This is why the bible never prescribes a model for church or ministry. This is why a church should never prescribe a model for itself or its ministries. The community of the kingdom fits in and transforms from the inside out.

 

We must make sure we don’t fall into the trap of thinking our preference is THE model. The model is the kingdom. We must strive to outdo one another in showing honor, allow for conscience, and let the Spirit dictate the “how to”.

 

This requires experimentation, failure, and trial and error. According to Alan Hirsh 65%-75% of American culture is completely un-engaged and in need of the church morphing into their context. Do we have that in us?

 

We must be Glocal

Acts 1:8

The kingdom is not isolated to the local church. The local church is a manifestation of the kingdom and the kingdom is global. The kingdom mobilizes the local and takes it global to expand the kingdom.

 

We must be Evolving

The kingdom is always growing and taking in more formerly held enemy territory. The community of the kingdom must be flexible enough to incorporate that kind of growth.

 

Example: What is it going to look like when the church is truly reaching the unreached? What is the church going to look like when it’s incorporating those who are cross-cultural in our own town?

 

Post-modernity is segmented by sub-cultures not a culture as a whole. Therefore, the church has to reach those subcultures somehow. They are separated from the life of God. How are we going to do that? Will attraction models work? Will we need to think about cell church or house church?

 

We are alive in one of the most exciting times of church history. How are we going to live out the advance of the gospel of the kingdom?

 

Worship

Psalm 147:1 “Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.”

 

[1] The implications of the church being an outpost are huge. It means that the church is launching missions to those not in the purpose of the outpost. The purpose of the outpost is to establish the rule of Jesus. This affects not only our message but our strategy. The outpost must take the form of what it is trying to reach into or risk become irrelevant to it’s target.