you to look with me in the Word of God the scripture reading today beginning at the fourth chapter of the prophecy of Micah and the first five verses and then moving on from there but beginning at Micah chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 and it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will establish will be established as the chief of the mountains It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will scream to it. And many nations will come and say, come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us about his ways and that we may walk in his path. For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war. And each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Though all his people walk each in the name of his God, as for us, We will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever. And then moving over to the seventh chapter of this same book of Micah, verses 7 through 13 and 18 to 20. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is light for me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him. Until he pleads my case and executes justice for me, he will bring me out to the light and I will see his righteousness. Then my enemy will see and shame will cover her who said to me, where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look on her. At that time, she will be trampled down like mire of the street It will be a day for building your walls. On that day, will your boundary be extended? It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt even to the Euphrates, even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain, and the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants on account of the fruit of their deeds. Who is a god like thee who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt give proof to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which thou didst swear to our forefathers from the days of old. And then to the same text for this morning from the gospel according to Saint Mark chapter 1 and verses 14 and 15 Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15 and after John had been taken into custody Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and and believe in the gospel. Therein's the reading from God's Holy Word. For better or for worse, whenever a visiting preacher fills the pulpit, there is a good possibility that his message will be very much like one that he's recently used, unless circumstances would be such to dictate a special message in preparation. And that is complicated by the fact that in my own case, I have been involved in a series of sermons, and one in a series doesn't always fit into a particular one-shot guest appearance. All that notwithstanding, I've chosen to share with you a theme from that series, a theme which, to me in and of itself, is exciting and certainly relevant to the Church of Jesus Christ today. And so this morning what you're getting is number 7 in a series of about 28 sermons on the life of Christ. But hopefully it will be self-contained in and of itself. One note about the use of scripture. I have increasingly come to see the value of, at least within our congregation, of the worshiping congregation being able to see the word as it is applied in the course of the message. And so I will invite you from time to time to follow with me in your Bibles, or in the few Bibles if you're unarmed, and I should also add my own congregation lets me know if I begin to quit without giving them time to find a particular passage, so I will try to avoid that problem by pausing long enough for you to be with me at these points as we go along. In the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, Immediately after the account of the temptation of Jesus, we come to what is our theme for this morning, namely the gospel of the kingdom. Following the preparation, the birth, the childhood, the baptism, and the temptation of Jesus, we come explicitly to what has been implied of much of this glorious and royal beginning of our Savior's earthly sojourn. In Mark 1, verse 14 and 15, we get this theme. After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Every new idea that has ever burst forth upon the world has had its watchword. Always there has been some word or some phrase in which the genius of the thing has been concentrated or focused upon. Some word or phrase to display on the banners that are shown to the world when it went marching into the world to conquer the world with an idea. Islam had its watchword. God is God and Muhammad is his prophet. The French Revolution had its watchword. liberty, equality, fraternity. The democratic ideal had a watchword, government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The student volunteer missionary union had a watchword, the evangelism of the world in this generation. And the list could go on and on with such events and such causes that parade across the world. Now, every new idea that has stirred the hearts of man has created its own watchword, something to wave like a flag and to rally the rank and file to support it. Now, the greatest idea that has ever been born upon the earth is the Christian idea. And Christianity came with a watchword, magnificent, mighty, and imperial. And that watchword was the kingdom of God. Every great leader that has ever arisen among the sons of men has been possessed by one master thought. Always there has been that one thought that has gripped the man like a passion. One truth that is burned in the sky like the sun does in those northern polar regions in the summertime when it neither sets nor rises. It's in the sky continually. Socrates had his master thought, the immortality of the soul. Buddha had a master thought the renunciation of life Napoleon had a master thought the domination of Europe Luther had a master thought the freedom of the individual from spiritual tyranny Every great leader that has powered above the sons of men has had some thought that has held and haunted and dominated him in his life one thought that drove him through the tight grip of everyday concerns that weigh most of us down. Now, the greatest leader that has ever led the host of humanity is Jesus Christ. And Jesus, like all others in this respect, came to us with a master thought, glorious and thrilling, world-shaking and world-transforming, and Christ's master thought was the Kingdom of God. In the Gospels themselves, the name Kingdom of God, or its equivalent, occurs over 100 times. Our text from Mark chapter 1 tells us that the first sermon of Jesus's earthly ministry had for its subject, that time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Now, the last sermon of Jesus' earthly ministry, or the last sermon, perhaps I should say, had this same great theme. If you want to look with me to the book of Acts, chapter 1 and verse 3, you can see this same theme at the conclusion of Jesus' ministry. When Jesus came back to his own for a time after Calvary, what was his message? Acts 1, verse 3. To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And if the beginning and the end of Christ's ministry struck that one note primarily, it was sounded throughout his earthly ministry as well. Think of the parable. Are you aware that nearly one-third of the parables deal with the Kingdom of God explicitly? The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground. What is the Kingdom of God like? It is like a grain of mustard seed. To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like leaven. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchantman seeking good pearls. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that is cast upon the sea. The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. The realm of heaven is like a man who sold good seed in his field. And these and other parables speak of the kingdom. Think of Christ's commission to his followers. We find it in Luke chapter 10, verses 8 to 11. Luke chapter 10, verses 8 through 11. And whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat what is set before you. And heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near." Here we have a watchword of the gospel, the evangelist. But what does it mean? What did Jesus mean by it when he used And the danger, of course, is that we want to read in our own ideas to something like this. But we must ask not what does the Kingdom of God mean in the popular usage, not what do we think it ought to mean, but what did Jesus mean by it? And we seek to ascertain that this morning under three main headings. First of all, the Kingdom and Judaism. What was the understanding of the Kingdom in Judaism of Jesus' day? And then secondly, to see the kingdom of God as the rule of God in the heart, and to see the kingdom as the rule of God in the world. These three main headings then. First of all, the kingdom and Judaism. It's important to understand, I think, that while the details and the true understanding of the kingdom were to a large extent original with Jesus, the name itself was not original. To Jewish ears, kingdom of God had a familiar sound. And in the Jewish writings, it had a prominent place. To take only one instance out of many, there is a great cry that breaks out in the book of Daniel. And I would invite you, if you want to see this, in Daniel chapter 7, verse 14. Daniel chapter 7 and verse 14. This is just one of many references in the Old Testament which speak of the kingdom. And to him, a prophecy here relating to Christ, to him was given a dominion, glory, and a kingdom that the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Now to understand Jesus' position, it is important to observe that in the generation immediately before Jesus, two things had happened to this Jewish thought about the kingdom. On the one hand, Jewish thought about the kingdom was suddenly intensified. There was a distinct emphasis on the kingdom and what it meant brought about by the direct result of foreign dominion and oppression. For with Rome's heel upon Israel's throat, the only hope was that God would strike and usher in his kingdom. And they were anticipating and hoping something like this would happen. On the other hand, it had become completely secularized. material splendors, political power, secular benefits. These were the things that the popular mind was set upon, and all these spiritual expectations were shoved aside. Even the men that Jesus chose for his disciples found it hard to break away from that kind of prevailing notion. And when James and John were demanding that they have the best places in the kingdom of God, or when After the resurrection, the disciples said, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It showed how deeply rooted the earthly, political, unspiritual ideas of the kingdom were, even among the disciples. In short, the kingdom of God had come to be a slogan for Jewish nationalism. Now, modern history shows us how strong the nationalistic spirit can be. a Hitler in Germany, a Gandhi in India, untold nations of Africa, where nationalism burns, and each of them fostering the nationalistic spirit and fanning the blaze. Now, nationalism has a place. There is a place for us to celebrate our own national heritage, but God never meant it to be an end in itself. God looks to his people to develop that which will be supranational, non-exclusive, world-embracing. Never in the whole course of history has the nationalistic spirit been stronger than in the Judaism of Jesus' day. How is it, a woman said unto Jesus, that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? And the evangelist adds a note in parentheses in the text there, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. That was what Jewish nationalism had become. It had entrenched itself even into the temple, the last place that it should have been present. There, between the outer court of the Gentiles and the inner court of the Jews, stood a barrier, and written on that barrier were these words, let no foreigner enter within. Whosoever is taken so doing will himself be the cause that death overtakes him. And when the Jewish mind dreamed of its Messiah, it was a kind of a super Judas Maccabeus that they were looking for, a Jewish revolutionary of the second century before Christ, one who would march the way down the road with drawn sword and conquer the foreign oppressor and set up the kind of kingdom they had in mind. Only the name was there, awaiting for the day when it would be reborn and taken over by Jesus. And that day arrived and Jesus found the name waiting and he took it and he transformed it beyond recognition and he made it central to his whole message. Jesus put so much into it and brought so much out of it in the different aspects that it's difficult to reduce its meaning to a single formula or definition. But clearly, there were two main lines along which all of his thoughts of the kingdom ran. On the one hand, he thought of it as the rule of God in the hearts of men. And on the other hand, he thought of it as the rule of God in the world. And to these two aspects, we now turn. The one aspect of the kingdom was to see it as the rule of God in the heart. And when Jesus proclaimed this and made it the foundation stone of his gospel, he was really drawing three vital distinctions, every one of which would cut to the root of the prevailing notions of popular conceptions about the kingdom. If the kingdom was the rule of God in the heart of men, first of all, the kingdom of God was moral and not nationalistic. If it was the rule of God in the heart of man, it was secondly, spiritual and not material. And thirdly, it was actual, not ideal. It was really there. First of all, then, it was moral and not nationalistic. Jesus told his fellow countrymen bluntly that they had mistaken the enemy. They thought the enemy was Rome, those foreign legions who were marching up and down the roads that crisscrossed across their nation. And Jesus told them the enemy they ought to fear and fight was the devil. The legions of evil go marching through the sanctities of the soul. There was the enemy. And again and again he came back to that. Not the national thing so much, but the heart. How can one enter into a strong man's house, he said, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man. Then he will spoil the house. Well, who was the strong man that Jesus was speaking of here? Not Caesar. but Satan. And Jesus added that if up and down the land broken lives were being healed and devils cast out, it was a sign that he, the Christ of God, had already bound the strong man. That the kingdom of Satan was breaking up. That his power had been crushed and the kingdom of God was now coming into its own. But never did Jesus make this clearer than when he stood before Pius. My kingdom is not of this world, he said. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting, but my kingdom is not of this world. And it is one of the strange curiosities of history that whereas Rome, acting in the person of Pilate, crucified Jesus, allegedly at least, because she could no longer allow the setting up of any rival kingdom, any rival earthly kingdom. And that was what was charged that Jesus was doing. The Jews, on the other hand, crucified Jesus because they didn't want passionately to see him set up that kingdom, and they knew now that that was the one thing that Jesus would never do. My kingdom is not of this world. That signed the death warrant of Jewish nationalism, and it signed Jesus' death warrant also. Away with him, they cried, this king who will not rule, But Christ's rule, which is God's rule, is in the heart. It is in the secret places of a man's moral life. The kingdom, says Jesus, is moral and not nationalistic. Well, secondly, it's spiritual and not material. It was not only an earthly kingdom on which the Jews had their hearts set, it was also an age of material good things. God's kingdom would lift them out of want and the struggle they were in and set them down in a world of good things. Now you will remember that there was actually a point in Jesus's life where he was considered, or where he considered and was tempted with the possibility of making use of the materialistic hope in God's service. Make these stones bread, the devil said to him. Appeal to men at their lower level and then they will be ready to move to this higher plateau. Start by making them comfortable. And then they will have an ear for the gospel. But Jesus turned it down. All that he said would only obscure his message and complicate his challenge. As Paul said in Romans 14, 17, For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In today's terms, this means that all of the social reform in the world, taken by itself, will not bring in the kingdom. that the primary and essential work of God's grace is in the inner man, for which improvement of outward circumstances can never be substituted. Put it another way, you will never make a utopia out of regenerate conditions but unregenerate hearts. You cannot build a city of God out of men who have not been converted and redeemed. It'll never happen. And everyone should know that true religion, has mighty social results. And it is those who themselves have found God who will be the first to join every crusade for the betterment of human conditions. Get the spiritual side of things right, and you will surely be helping to put the material side right. But the fact remains, the kingdom of God, said Jesus, is not coming with signs to be observed. It is within you. And out of the heart flow the issues of life. In its innermost nature, then, the kingdom is spiritual and not material. And then it is actual. It is not ideal. If it is in the heart of man, it's here now. It's not some ideal out there somewhere yet to come. The Jews could only dream of a kingdom. Jesus said it's already here. One Sabbath in the synagogue of his hometown in Nazareth, he read aloud to the assembled congregation that great prophecy of Isaiah in which the blessing the blessed coming of the kingdom was foretold, and how the brokenhearted would be healed, and how the captive would be delivered from their bondage, and how the blind would be given sight, and then Jesus closed the book of Scripture. And he began, today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. What a tremendous moment that must have been. And another day, when talking in private to his disciples, Blessed, he said, are the eyes which see the things that you see. Things for which kings and prophets in olden times yearned, and they peered into the deep future, and they strained their eyes to try to see, and they never saw it. And yet you see them, these splendors of the kingdom. Again and again in the gospel, Jesus strikes home to men's hearts this amazing discovery that the kingdom they dream about has in some sense already arrived. It's here now for those whose eyes are open to see it, whose spiritual vision is clear. The kingdom, said Jesus, is actual, not ideal. During the time when the Covenanters were being persecuted in Scotland and the congregation were scattered across the land, one of the great Scots cried out, where is the Church of God in Scotland today? I'll tell you where the Church is, he said. It is where a praying young man or woman is at Dykeside in Scotland. That's where the church is. If we ask, where is the kingdom of God today? Here is the gospel answer. It is wherever a man or a woman has made Jesus Christ the Lord of their life and has accepted that rule in their life. That's where the kingdom of God is. And that is the real explanation of the sudden happiness that comes into a man when he makes that great decision. It is the other world, the eternal kingdom, breaking in in this world into time and coming above the surface in a man's life. The kingdom of God is there. Now besides the kingdom of God is the rule of God in the heart. The kingdom is also the rule of God in the world. This was the other main line along which Jesus' thoughts of a kingdom ran. The kingdom was the rule of God in the heart, but it was also the rule of God in the world. And here again, Christ was drawing those three great distinctions. If the kingdom was the rule of God in the world, it followed first that the kingdom of God was social, not individualistic. Secondly, that the kingdom of God was universal and not local. And thirdly, that the kingdom of God was awaiting a final consummation and was not yet fully realized. It was social, not individualistic. The very nature, the very name implies that. It was called a kingdom, was it not? It might indeed have its roots in a solitary, separate soul that had been redeemed. Christianity always has its roots there. But its aim was nothing less than a redeemed society. A new order out of humanity. A family fellowship of the sons and the daughters of God. And as this was Christ's program and manifesto, it follows, and the United Testimony of the Gospels make this very clear, that any religion which consists merely or mainly in getting one's own soul saved, which begins and ends with that, is something quite different from Christ's religion, something inferior to Christ's religion. which never accepted individualism unwild or a parochialism of a self-centered salvation. Now, if there is a place in Christianity for desperate and urgent concern about one's soul, and there is, it's certainly there, there is also the place for the kingdom and thoughts of the kingdom. One Christian poet wrote, I will not cease from mental flight, nor shall my sword sleep in hand till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land. And the New England Puritans carried this idea as well. And remember, they were as concerned about individualistic salvation as any group of people have ever been, an individual pietist. But they had a holy zeal for establishing a new Jerusalem in the new world. Samuel Danforth in 1670 preached an election sermon, salvation, not politics. He preached a sermon entitled, New England's errand into the wilderness. Even earlier in 1630, John Winthrop preached a sermon on board the flagship Arbella crossing the Atlantic to the New World. And near the end of that sermon, he said, for we must consider that we shall be a city set up on a hill, and the eyes of all the people will be upon us. There was a social consciousness among all of God's people that God is the Lord of all creation, not just partial lordship. The kingdom, said Jesus, is the rule of God in the world. It is social and not individualistic. Likewise, it is universal and not local. The field is the world, said Jesus, describing the ground on which the gospel seed was sown. Again telling his men of the high responsibility of Christians, he said, you are the salt. Of what? Not the church, not their own family, not any one class or sector party. You are the salt of the earth. And again, describing the magnetic force of the gospel with which they were charged, they shall come from east and from west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God. Never did Jesus think of God's kingdom as an ark of refuge for just a few, to those which could escape with a sigh of relief from the rest of a ruined world. Jesus came not to snatch a few elect souls out of the lost and helpless world. He came to save the world, and he wants us to be busy with that task. Therefore, any church which is content to minister to the few who are already saved, to carry them safe to some desired haven and just leave all the rest, is distinctively failing Jesus Christ. To give significantly to the building fund or some like program and have little or no burden for the mission of world evangelism is not characteristic of members of the Church of Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God. The Church is here under Christ to claim nothing less than the whole world for God's Kingdom. And all of the spiritual forces of the unseen are backing up the men who are pledged to that mighty imperialism of the Kingdom of God. If we want to sense the power of God in our mission, then we need to have the vision for the kingdom that Jesus had, and his spirit will be there. The kingdom says Jesus is universal and not local. Well, the kingdom awaits a final consummation. It's not yet complete. Here's the great paradox of it all, that it is both present, it is real, not ideal, and yet it is future. It is present because, as we've seen, it is wherever there is a fully surrendered heart. But it's also future because the crowning glory is yet to come. We haven't seen that yet. Look with me, if you will, to Matthew, chapter 25, verse 31 and forward. Matthew, chapter 25, beginning at verse 31. But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. Then he will sit on his glorious throne, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world. What a promise. What a glory that awaits us who are in Christ Jesus. And whatever else that mighty second Advent hope that glowed and blazed away in Jesus' soul might mean, whatever else the second coming might mean, we know that at least it means this. that when man has done everything that he can possibly do to build an everlasting kingdom in this earth, it is God and God alone who can make that kingdom perfect. And that somehow and somewhere in ways beyond our present comprehension, God is going to come breaking in triumphantly And that age-long warfare between good and evil is not going to drag on indefinitely in an indecisive warfare, but that one day, it's going to end in victory for God, and on that day, the enemy will be dead beneath the feet of Christ forever. That, my friends, was the winning touch that Jesus struck. That was the eternal hope that he gave to the whole world, signed in his own name and guaranteed. That was what generated the great vision of the visionary with whose book the New Testament closes. And I want to close with that one verse of scripture in Revelation chapter 11 verse 15. Revelation chapter 11 and verse 15. The vision of a day when heaven itself would ring with a mighty tumult of victory and voices Their adoring and rejoicing would be this which is recorded in Revelation 11 15 the second half of that verse the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and He will reign forever and ever May we pray Almighty God as we humble ourselves before thee this day I We rejoice in the gospel of the kingdom. And Lord, even as we know the reigning of that kingdom in our individual lives, may we likewise know that the full realization is yet to come as together we sing praises to the ascended Christ, to that kingdom that will have no end and shall reign forever and ever. Amen.