Well, Revelation chapter 11, I'm going to read for you verses 14 to the end of the chapter, and then we'll go from there. Revelation chapter 11, verses 14 to 19. Hear now the word of the Lord. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast, and because thou hast taken thy great power and hast begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy bondservants of prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth. And the temple of God, which is in heaven, was opened. the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm What we are doing here in Revelation 11 at the end is we are entering into the second half of the book so it's a very important section of Let me give you quickly a recap of where we have been so far in the book of Revelation. In chapter 1, if you'll remember, it was basically introductory. It was declaring really how the book of Revelation was going to unfold. That which was, that which is, and that which is to come. All of this is showing us the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ Himself and setting forth the situation necessary for the rest of the book. Chapters two and three were the seven churches. In fact, you're going to see that number seven frequently. We already have seven churches of that time during the time of the writing. And he gives warnings to them. He gives instruction to them and he gives promises. In chapters 4 and 5, then, is a transition zone where it moves into heaven, and we see this vision of what heaven is. We see the glory of heaven. We see the glory, more importantly, of God. We see that there is a scroll that needs to be opened. It's a scroll that has these seals, seven on them, and no one is able to open them. But on that scroll is the final plan of God, the unfolding of His purposes. John begins to weep until he finds out that there is no need to weep, because Jesus, through His death and resurrection, is made worthy to open the judgments of God. In verses 7-9 then, we see the seven seals unfolding, each one breaking, each one being read, and each one the events happening upon the earth. We also see in chapter 7-9, at the breaking of the seventh seal, there now become seven trumpets. And we talked about the fact that a trumpet is something that heralds war and judgment and doom even. And as each one of these trumpets are sounded, new events start to unfold, terrible events. We saw the unleashing of demonic hordes We saw, again, the judgment of God and how seriously He takes that judgment. And all the way through chapter 9, we saw all but one trumpet being sounded. And then we entered into this interlude that we've been in, in chapters 10 and 11, where there's this pause where key information is being given and an indication that the seventh trumpet will be sounded. And that's what we just read in verse 15. that the seventh angel sounded, and that would be that seventh trumpet, and this then begins to set into motion the final events leading to the end. Now we're still in this interlude, and chapters 12 and 13 and 14 are also going to be part of that interlude. Chapter 16 is where I believe the bowls are emptied out, and there's seven of them. And they will happen in a very quick succession where we see, again, the wrath of God descending and being poured out upon the people. And they will continue to rebel, and they will continue to do what you and I would do apart from the grace of God, shake our fists, be angry and bitter toward God. But right now we're in this interlude. Key information is happening. And then we're going to transition in chapter 12 into 15 to a new interlude. It's just a different set of information that's going to cover large amounts of history. And I think you'll find it to be very interesting. So here we find yourself at this hinge verse, if you will. Not hinge verse but passage. It's where the whole book begins to make that transition to the final events And so from here on out what you're going to be seeing is actually a lot of information happening in a very short period of time all leading up to the return of Jesus Christ and then ultimately entrance into the eternal state where all things are wrapped up and God rings and Now we're introduced in this passage to a new idea, a key idea that is very important and we saw it in verse 15. Voices in heaven, loud voices, excited voices, joyful voices if you will, are all saying that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. This idea that we are introduced here is kingdom. I want you to notice quickly just some little details. We'll look at this more in detail next week, Lord willing. But first there's the sounding of the trumpet, the final trumpet. And what follows is a result of the trumpet sounding. And the result of that is that now all of heaven breaks out in rejoicing, and there's Thanksgiving going on, and these people, or these angels, are declaring, we only know them as voices, as declaring that the kingdom of the world has now become the kingdom of God. It belongs to the Father and the Son, and then it speaks of them in a unified manner as He, regarding the reign, that He shall reign. And so, at the time of the sounding of this trumpet, a massive change is to occur in all of reality. The kingdom of this world now becomes God's kingdom. And so the challenge in all of this, and it was a great challenge for me, is what all of this means. How do I talk about the Kingdom of God? We could just deal with this passage and yet then walk away and not really know what we're talking about still. What does it mean when we say the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of our Lord, the Kingdom of Heaven? Terms that the Bible uses. For some of you, I know you have a good grasp of this. And for some of you, you'll say, well, this is kind of repetitious or unnecessary. I already know it. And for you, I would only ask that you would hear and make certain that you do know the doctrines connected to the kingdom of God. But for others of you, I know not so that you don't know much about it at all. For some of you, this might even be the very first time you've ever really heard anything about it. And so I'm trying to figure a way in this message to straddle both of those realities and lay out a bit of the nature of the Kingdom of God. It is an incredibly important doctrine. It's not something that we really should pass by. In fact, I would argue that it is the theme of the Bible. I was talking with Matt Miller yesterday about that, and there are so many books out there, and they're excellent books usually, that talk about what is that unifying theme of the Bible. And some would say the unifying theme is the love of God, the holiness of God, the sovereignty of God. God is creator. There are all kinds of ways that people will approach it, and then they'll take you through the entire Bible and try to show you how that theme constantly crops up. And in all of them, they're good works. I find none of them are persuasive, however. Ultimately, they're having to force some aspect from the text into the theme, because they're trying to make one theme capture it. But I think there is one theme that does capture the essence of the whole Bible, and that is the kingdom of God. Because it does capture the beginning and the end of it, and it does capture everything in the middle. In the beginning, Moses wrote in Genesis 1, in the beginning God created what? The heavens and the earth. And just right there with that simple statement, you have the declaration that God is king. In fact, the idea of God as creator is something that crops up over and over and over in the Old and the New Testament. And the reason it crops up is because God being the creator of all things, therefore makes him Lord over all things. Nothing is above him. Nothing stands beside him. There is not like the Eastern idea of yin and yang, the good and evil, and that they're basically of equal powers and they're constantly wrestling back and forth. God sits above that, and we saw that in Revelation 4, right? We saw Him seated on His throne, and His throne sits upon the crystal sea, and we talked about the idea, the symbolism of that. That the sea represents chaos, and sin, and brokenness. Beneath him is all of creation in this chaotic reality that you and I live in day in day and day out and above it is seated God That's what's built into this were of this phrase in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and Then you go all the way to the end of the Bible in Revelation 22, and you have this wonderful message where it says that God shall reign forever and ever and And so we have the Bible ending with the idea of the reigning of God. In fact, I would argue that the creation of God is really the foundation of the story of the Bible. So for some of you, you struggle, maybe, how do I tell my friend, my neighbor, my family member about Jesus Christ? How do I bring the gospel, the good news of how one can be right with God, how one can be saved? How do I do it? And I would say to you frequently, it's the story of the Bible. Just tell them the story. We're all in the story. We're all living out that story. Everybody that you meet is trying to figure out why things are the way they are. Think about what the story of the Bible says. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we have the story of the creation, where God is established as the One who has made all things. And therefore, God is King over all of creation. He rules it as He pleases. In Genesis 3, we have the fall of humanity and this creation. Here we have mankind rebelling against the King, right? This is where we see that humanity as Eve, and more importantly, as Adam, that through Him sin and death enters into the world, because they did not stay in the correct place. They had been established by God to be His, if you will, vice-regents. They were to be the ones who would model to all of creation the will and purposes of their king and creator, God. And instead they went their own way. And instead they did their own thing. And with that brings this broken, twistedness into all of creation. I would commend to you Matt's sermon Last week, as I thought, he did an excellent job of really, again, explicating the cost and the reality of what it is to live in a broken and sinful world. But all you're seeing in that is not just sin, but you see a rebellion against the king. Then in chapter 3, verse 15 of Genesis, all the way to the end of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, you have a promise. You have the promise that's said in so many different ways, but all of it saying the same thing, that God will establish His rule again. That He will establish His rule over His creation, and that He will destroy His enemies, and He will establish His King. Isaiah does a wonderful job of talking about this King. There's one who will sit on the throne of David. There's one who will rule in all righteousness And so now all of the Old Testament is anticipating this time even in the midst of darkness Sin rebellion folly everything that you see that happens in your life You just see on a major big scale in the Old Testament. It's just a reflection of what you know to be true and Then you go into the New Testament and you have the idea of redemption in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the letters. Whether they're written by Paul, or John, or Jude, it doesn't matter. They're all having the same message built into them. That Jesus is the King. That Jesus enters into this age, this world, and through His death, and through His resurrection, He sets into motion the unfolding of God's kingdom. If you ever want to do an interesting study, just look at the narratives talking about his birth and the announcement of his birth and what the angels are saying, what Mary is saying, what all of them are saying. They're all drawing from the Old Testament hope of the coming of the new king. And now they are being told that he is here. And finally, you come then into the end of the Bible, in the restoration, which is simply what Revelation is. Jesus returns as King to rule in truth and righteousness, and that this then merges into the eternal kingdom, where we just said earlier in Revelation 22, He will reign forever and ever. So that's my argument, and I could make it a longer argument, but that suffices. that I think that really the unifying theme from beginning to end is the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which is nothing more, nothing less than the Kingdom of God. What's interesting though about the Kingdom of God and what makes it a hard doctrine for people to learn is that it never is mentioned in the Old Testament, ever. So you're left with, well, how do we talk about the kingdom of God when the vast majority of the Bible doesn't even mention this idea of the kingdom of God? And then you go into the New Testament and you see in the very early pages of the New Testament in the Gospels, the Kingdom of God becomes front and center. How did that happen? I think it's chapter 3 that John the Baptist, who comes as the first prophet in 400 years, he comes and his opening message is repent, turn, turn away from your sin, turn back to God. He says repent. Why? For the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven, they're interchangeable. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And in simply that proclamation of that simple message, people begin to flock to him. And he begins to teach and rebuke and baptize and correct. Right after that, we have Jesus coming into his earthly public ministry. And what is his opening lines? His opening line is the same one, repent. He looks at the people of Israel and he says, you need to change. You need to turn your mind and heart away from the things that you are holding on to and turn them back to the true and living God. You need to repent. Why? For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What is fascinating about this is, again, never in the Old Testament is it mentioned. Ever. Now, 400 years after Malachi is written, they come on the scene and they start talking about the kingdom of heaven like everyone should know what they're talking about, and everyone does know what they're talking about. There's this presumption that the people would know what is meant by that. Not only that, but there's a presumption that there is a level of anticipation. about the kingdom of God. And finally, there's a presumption that there was a proper response to the announcing of it. That if the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the only right thing for us to do is to repent. We need to get ourselves right with God. We need to orient our minds toward the reality that we're no longer waiting for the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of God is literally at the door and the threshold ready to unfold. which of course brings new complexities to the doctrine. Though it's never defined in any specific manner, Jesus gives us several helpful illustrations as well to describe this kingdom. If you want To see them yourselves, you can turn to Matthew 13. Not now, but I'll just make reference to it. In Matthew 13, Jesus is speaking in parables. Now remember, the parable is not just an illustration. A parable is designed to bring truth to specific people, but hide that truth from others. and that Jesus is actually hiding the truth from those who are in active rebellion, and at that same time, teaching those who are His. And in it, He gives several parables, and they're all saying that the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, is like. Like this, like that. Remember the parable of the soils. The parable of the soil speaks of the word of the kingdom being cast out. The word is also, you could say it this way, the gospel. Because the good news is not just that Jesus died on the cross that you might have life, but the good news is that Jesus is king. That he rules over his enemies. That He conquers them in that death and resurrection of Him. And so this gospel of the kingdom is going out and it falls on various kinds of soils. And this soil is really the heart of humanity. And these different types of people hear the gospel. hear the word of the kingdom of heaven, and they respond to it in various ways. But the hard, hard heart is one that's like a hard-packed dirt, and Satan himself comes and snatches the word of the kingdom away. So it's good news. It's good news. And yet it's a word, and it is a message that has mixed responses to it. The kingdom of God is also described as being that in the beginning that there will be both true and false citizens of it. This is in the parable of the tare and the wheat. Those of you that are familiar with it, you already know this. Those of you who are not, tare is a type of plant and it looks just like wheat. when it's young and it's growing. And so there's no way that you can tell the difference between it and wheat. And when you plant the wheat, there's going to be care seeds in there too. And some of those are going. You can't root them up. Because you don't know if you're pulling up wheat or you're pulling up tare. And his point is that you're going to have to let it come to its fruition, and then on the day of the harvest, that's when you'll know. Because once they come to seed and become to maturity, you can tell what is truly wheat and what is tare. And so the idea is that at least for a period of time, the kingdom of God is going to be mixed with true and false citizens. We have the parable of the mustard seed as well in that chapter. Here is the idea that the kingdom of God is perceived as this tiny little seed of the mustard tree, and that when it's planted, as it grows, it will eventually grow and now become a place of life and abundance. The shade will bring comfort. It will be a place where the birds of the air can rest and roost. And the image here is that it will ultimately, starting small, it will ultimately overwhelm all other kingdoms. And you see that here in Revelation 11. And then finally, there's another parable of the leaven. This is the idea that just like, and many of you know I used to be a baker, you would have these huge pots where you'd mix all of your various flour and salt and everything else, but you always put in the yeast, the leaven. And it was only a couple of tablespoons. And you would mix it up, and you'd bring it to its right temperature, and just leave it alone. And within about a half an hour, it's all grown, and it's now fully leavened. In fact, I remember once I had this big pot of the dough. And they're big. And I remember bending over it. And what the yeast is doing is, as it replicates, it's giving us CO2. I don't know if you knew that. And as it does that, it slowly puffs everything up and makes bread so nice and squishy and tasty. But it's CO2, carbon dioxide. And so I bent over it without thinking and I punched it down because you have to punch it down and then raise it a second time. And all of that CO2 was released as I was breathing. And I sucked in a whole lungful of CO2, and I thought I was going to die. I fell to the ground. I couldn't breathe for like 30 seconds or so. I learned a lesson that day. But the one thing I learned was in a half hour, a whole lot of CO2 can be produced by two tablespoons of yeast. And that's the point of this parable. You put a little bit of leaven into the whole lump of dough, and you let it do its thing. And eventually, the entire dough will be leavened. In the same way, he says, the kingdom of God inexorably exerts its power and its reality until it ultimately overcomes everything. So that's kind of the essence of the Kingdom of God in various ways. What I want to do today, then, is build off of that and give a broad, and I mean very broad, message on the nature of the Kingdom of God. And that way, hopefully, next week when we come back together, we can appreciate what really is going on in verses 15 to verse 19. The way we're going to look at this is in John 18. If you'll turn to John 18, we'll start there. What we have is the unfolding of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Here, what we have is Jesus has been brought before Pilate, who is essentially the judge responsible for that part of the Roman kingdom. The Jews have brought Jesus on trumped-up charges. And now, in verse 33, Pilate therefore entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to them, or him, are you what? The king of the Jews. Here is the issue, is that the rumor and the charge against him is that he is fomenting rebellion against the Roman government. Who is the king? It is Caesar. He is the Lord. And now here, and nobody wanted to be in the Roman government, nobody wanted to be assigned Israel. Israel was filled with just a bunch of annoying, hot-headed people who at the moment's notice would rebel and start fighting over anything. It's much like everything else in the Middle East, that all you have to do is look a little funny, and all of a sudden you have a full-scale riot going on. And the last thing that the Roman government needs is some guy showing up on the scene saying, I'm the king of the Jews, because they all understood that there was an anticipation of the coming king. And in that, they also understood that the Jews grasped that when the true king came, that they would be able to overcome and overwhelm their enemies. Now, they understood that wrongly, in a sense, but it is a true statement. And so they knew that if somebody came and people believed that he was the king of the Jews, that he would become the flashpoint and everybody would begin to rebel. And so the enemies of Jesus, who were Jews themselves, are saying, this is what he's saying, and he is therefore one that you need to kill and get rid of before he creates the problems. In verse 35, Pilate says, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you up to me. What have you done? And now Jesus finally answers the question, and he answers it bluntly. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. And so in this very important passage, this is a time where some of you will remember Peter has already denied knowing Jesus or being connected to Jesus three times. Pilate is judging him, trying to determine what to do with this man. He has no real interest in killing him, but he is also going to deal with things in a politically expedient manner. And here Jesus makes a very, very bold, but also very important claim in verse 36. He doesn't deny being king, but notice that he is not a king of this world. Another way to understand that term world there would be age or realm. This realm, this world, this earthly stage, he says, is not my realm. It's not my age, it's not my world. I am not the king of this place. And that, in fact, is true. The Scripture is clear that the world is broken and fallen. It's sinful. It's in rebellion. And the god of this age, the Bible says, is Satan. That sin and death are the great powers under which all things sit. And he says, this is not my world. And yet, the good news is that Jesus entered into this world, right? that Jesus took on flesh, that He took on the likeness of sinful man, that He bore our sin, that He suffered and died, that He bore the wrath that was God's wrath upon us. He says, this world is not mine, it's passing away. It will be destroyed. And into this age, God sent Jesus. What we have here is this sharp demarcation, if you will, a sharp line between two kingdoms. That which is the kingdom of this age, this world, this realm, and one that belongs to Jesus, that's not of this age. The kingdom of this world, the Bible would describe as representing the old. that which is the old, that belongs to sin and death. And the kingdom of God, also the kingdom of our Lord, of Christ, of heaven, they're all used in different ways in the Bible, is the second kingdom, the other kingdom. Go, if you would, to Colossians. Colossians, chapter 1. Paul is making a wonderful prayer. We don't have the time to look at the prayer in its entirety. But he is in the process of giving thanks in verse 12 to the Father. Why is he thanking the Father? Because he has qualified us, the Christian, to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Now he begins to explicate that. He starts to say what that means. For this reason, he delivered us from what? The domain or the authority of darkness? and he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. So here again we have these two realms, these two worlds, these two kingdoms. We have the realm, the kingdom that is defined as darkness, And we have the kingdom, which is of his beloved son. And then he describes that. In whom? In Jesus, whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so here we have this wonderful picture of this transference that occurs. Jesus says, I'm not of this world. I'm not of this kingdom of this world. I'm not the king of this world. It's not mine. Mine is a different one. And here we see how that works out. That as the king, what happens is that when one has his faith in Jesus Christ, when one is a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ, there's something more than just salvation that occurs. There is a transference of citizenship. that no longer are you the citizen of this world. The hardship of that, of course, is that you still live in this world. But now the Bible describes you as an alien and a stranger. You are a visitor to this world. You don't belong in this world. And so the language and the wisdom that we speak is foolishness to this world. And we'll look at 1 Corinthians in a moment. Those of you that have my notes. So this kingdom of this world is one where when we speak and we talk to people about the story of the gospel, the story of the Bible, of creation and fall and redemption and restoration, all of that, when we talk about the promises given to us, all of that is going into the ears of people who don't belong to the world that we belong to, the realm, the kingdom. And that's why oftentimes it sounds troubling. In fact, I don't know if this would be helpful or not. I'll try. But when you listen to some of the words and statements that are being said, publicly now, blatantly, even by our elected officials, that are literally contrary to our Constitution, right? Where we should suspend due process, that we should suspend certain rights of our citizens. If you know your rights as a citizen, it can be alarming. It can be very alarming. And you're like, where are these coming from? And why are these people allowed to say the things that they're saying that are openly treasonous in many ways? And what can happen is, in a sense, you can become very outraged. And your stomach can get tied up into a knot, right? Because you're hearing things that do not belong to the United States. And they are not the things that maybe you fought for. I know it kills my father who fought in World War II. It just kills him as he watches the stuff that's going on, as he thinks about the thousands and thousands and thousands of men that he personally witnessed die. And he's like, this is wrong. If you don't like it, go, you know, the classic thing, if you don't like it here, then move. Well, that reaction that you have, perhaps, as you hear things that are contrary to what our nation is founded upon, is exactly what the world hears when you start talking to them about Jesus Christ. It makes sense to you But it doesn't make sense to them. Because what you are asking them to do is to literally repent, change their mind and their whole hope and their delight, and turn it to a whole different realm. A realm that does not work like this realm. They're being told to be ones who don't defend their rights. do good to their enemies, who give a cup of cold water to those who hate them, who pray for those who persecute them, those who do not put their hope and trust in their money, who are not men and women who pursue their reputation or their power. It is utterly, totally countercultural. It's revolutionary what you are asking them to do if you are rightly giving the gospel. That's the imagery and that's the language that we're really doing here. So in Acts 26, Paul is before a king. And he's giving his story. his story of his conversion from an enemy of Jesus Christ to a preacher of Jesus Christ. He talks about how he was on his way to persecute in verse 14, and Jesus comes and confronts him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads And then I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But arise and stand on your feet for this purpose I have appeared to you. What purpose? To appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. For what purpose? for this purpose, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion, the kingdom, see that kingdom language? And from the dominion of Satan to God, for what purpose, what goal, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified, set apart by faith in me. The message he is giving, the message you are giving is not just a happy message, it's a radical message, a revolutionary one. It is saying you need to abandon everything that you think is true and normal and right and think differently, radically different, because you are now citizens of a whole different kingdom with a whole different king. I don't think we get that a lot of times. I think that it messes up how we evangelize, honestly. I think mom and dads, when you're talking to your kids, sometimes you fail to remember that you're asking your children to believe in something that is radically different. And mom and dads, sometimes you're trying to straddle and be friends with both kingdoms when you can't. You just can't. And so you give these very, very, very mixed messages to your children as to what it is that they believe and what you believe. And when you're talking to your friends and your neighbors and your family, you're trying to you're trying to keep it simple and soft and gentle, but you're not asking them ultimately that what we're really asking you to do is to rebel against everything, you know, to be normal and right and good in this age. What we do, and I've said this many times, I'll say it again, what we do every time we gather on a Sunday is that we are metaphorically shaking our fist toward this world, this age. We are saying whatever you're telling us is good is not true. It's not the ultimate good. Whatever you say we need is not true. We have a different hope. We have a different anticipation. We have a different purpose. We have a different God, a different king, and a different kingdom. That's what you're doing. That's why you sing the songs you sing. That's why you take the Lord's Supper and proclaim His death. That's why you send your kids off to Sunday school. Whether you knew that or not is a separate issue, but that's why you're doing those things. because you are a different people belonging to a different king and your words and your actions and your passions and your money and your time should reflect that. And the reason that we do not get excited about passages like Revelation 11, where it says, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and his Christ. The reason we don't get excited about that is that we are very, very, very happy in this kingdom. And we love this kingdom far more than we ought to. No rebuke in that. And so let me make it very abundantly clear, I am the first and foremost of that. It is my struggle, it is my burden, just like it is yours, to shake that off each and every day. This is why we preach the gospel to ourselves, not just so that we might remind ourselves as we're weighed down with our own weaknesses, failings, sin. But we're reminding ourselves we don't belong here. We don't belong here. Every time you start thinking, I need more money, I need more of this, I need bigger of that, I need shinier of this, whatever it is, every time we get into that thinking, rather than in light of the promise of the coming kingdom, how then do I live? In Matthew 6, he tells us about how insidious the pursuit of money is, right? Those of you that know Matthew 6? He says that if your eye is pure or clear, it's good. But if it's dark, it's very dark. And the idea of the imagery in that context is what it is that you set your mind and your heart and your eyes upon as delightful. And in the context, he says it's black, it's dark when you set your mind and your heart upon the money and the riches and the amassing of it. And I need more, I need more, I need more. And then you start to get old. And then you die. And you leave whatever you labored your whole life for and you leave it behind. And then you create up, in our nation at least, because we have so many people who have so much money set aside, we create up a people who then create in our children, without even intending to, a heart of lust. Because all they can do is think about, mom and dad are gonna die. And when they die, I get X amount. I'm telling you guys I'm talking to the younger ones for some of you, you know, I'm talking to you As we amass and as we develop all of these things are remodeling a Mindset and a heart that says I belong to a different kingdom That's why it's such a big doctrine. It captures everything and Now, when we talk about then the kingdom of God, we talk about it in this sense. There's let me just give you three very quick points. When we talk about the kingdom of God, grasp that it's complex, very complex. So if you run into somebody who's going to tell you how the kingdom of God is and he's going to tell you how it works and what it is and what it isn't in 10-15 minutes, you already know that he or she doesn't know what they're talking about. Because you can't define it that simply. You can begin to open it up and you can crack the lid, if you will, and look at it and say, okay, that's some helpful stuff. But trust me, I hope you will, it's very complex. It covers massive amounts of information. And so you need to keep things in balance, and it's not easy, because sometimes you're going to read in the Bible and you're going to see the kingdom as being described as always having existed, and then elsewhere you'll see it talking about it having a specific beginning. Well, which is true? Well, both of them are. And you have to just work out how that works and why that is. Sometimes you're going to see that the kingdom of God is described in purely future terms, and other times it exists right now. Sometimes you're going to find the Bible describing this world as being under the domain of Satan, which we've just seen. And yet other times it's described as belonging fully to the Lord. We don't have the time to look at those two passages, but I can make reference to them. Just think about these two ideas. The kingdom is said to be among the Jews in Luke chapter 17 verse 21 Jesus is talking to Pharisees who are not believers. They're they're enemies of Jesus Christ And he says do you not recognize this that the kingdom of God is in your midst? He's among you. It's among you. How is the kingdom of God in their midst while the king is there? Jesus is the king And so wherever Jesus is at, the kingdom is present. And they couldn't grasp it, they couldn't see that he truly is the promised one. At the same time that Jesus is telling the Pharisees, can you not see that the kingdom of God is among you? He's also telling us when we pray, pray this way in Matthew 6, thy kingdom come. He's asking that we pray that God's kingdom would come, but it's already here. It's among us. Which one is it? It's both. It's both. And so grasp that there's a complexity to it that is not easy. Also recognize that there are different aspects to this kingdom. When I talk about aspects, I always picture a gem, a diamond, and you have these different facets. You can also, I find it useful to think of a statue or something that you can hold in your hand and you can look at it this way and that, and you can just get these different perspectives. But realizing that they're all just different perspectives or aspects of looking at the same thing. One aspect is that it is a universal kingdom. This is the idea that God is sovereign over all things, and the Bible is clear about that. In the beginning, God did create the heavens and the earth. He is king. And so we see that over and over again. Psalm 22 says, For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. Well, that's an active reality that God is ruling as king over the nations. And so that's a valid aspect, but it's not the only aspect. There's also what is often called the mediatorial kingdom. This is the idea that God rules over this world through divinely appointed humans. The easiest one to point to there, we could look at several, but the easiest is King David. With King David in Israel he made a covenant and he said that your offspring shall reign and rule and sit on this throne and I will establish your throne forever. This will make more sense in just a moment. Finally, there's an aspect that we often see in the New Testament, and that is that there is an aspect of the spiritual kingdom. It's not only spiritual, there's physical aspects as well, but there's a redemptive aspect of the kingdom. And we saw that in Colossians, where we are regained and we're saved, and at that moment that we're saved from our sin, we're also transferred into this spiritual reality, this kingdom that belongs to the Father. It's an aspect of the kingdom of God where God is drawing people to Himself. They are people who claim Jesus as Lord or King. So that moves me to the people who belong to the kingdom. And I think Romans 1 is a good place. Romans 1. Paul is starting this very important book with these words. In his introduction, he says, Paul, And he describes himself three ways. One, a bondservant or a slave of Christ Jesus. Second, called as an apostle. And then notice the third one, he's set apart for the gospel of God, God's good news he's been set apart to bring. That's that third point he then begins to develop. What is meant by the gospel of God, God's gospel? Well, in verse 2 he explains it. Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. What's he talking about? Remember at the beginning I said that an aspect of the kingdom of God is seen in the story of God in the Bible. And one of them is a promise that starting in Genesis 3.15 we have the promise that God will destroy Satan and all the way through the Old Testament is this anticipation that God will send forth The one who will be the king who will reign in righteousness and destroy these enemies that you and I can't defy Well, that's what he's talking about here the gospel that was promised in the Old Testament What is it about what is this promise what is this message that the prophets wrote of well, it's concerning in verse 3 who is His son, right? His son, Jesus Christ. Well, what about him? He was born of a descendant of David. Remember that promise that I just said. God promised David that you will have someone on that throne forever and ever. And the Old Testament spoke of the coming of one who would sit on the throne of David, who would reign forever. The one who will be the true king. But he must come from the lineage of David and here he's saying this is the one the one who is God's son is born of a descendant of David according to the flesh and who is declared the son of God with power by resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness Jesus Christ our Lord It is that gospel The gospel that God is faithful to His promise, that the story that started in the beginning is still being unfolded, but it is all built and established and founded upon the person of Jesus Christ, the King. The King. So you don't have a president, and if you don't like Trump and you say, he's not your president, I don't care, that doesn't matter anyhow. You don't have one. You have a King. You live in a nation that has a president. But beloved, you're not a citizen of America. You are the citizen of the kingdom. And the better that you grasp that, the better you'll make decisions and the better that you will talk and the better you will act. So the people who belong to His kingdom are those who believe in Him, in the King, in Jesus. They're not men of great wisdom or great power. They're not people of greatness, per se, in the eyes of this kingdom. In fact, at the point of Christ's ministry, they were fishermen and tax collectors who were despised. They were former prostitutes. They were you and I. They were sinners, they were wicked men and women, they were bad people. In fact, you can't even become a citizen of the kingdom of God unless you first grasp that you're evil. How counter-revolutionary is that? How crazy is that? He's not coming to fix your problems. He's not here to make you happy. He first declares you must see yourself as what you really are, a wicked individual in absolute rebellion to the sovereign God. And until you get that, you cannot even come to me. Because what you are doing when you come to Jesus Christ in faith, you're not just reciting facts about the gospel, you are declaring this is my life and I bow before it. And we keep trying to make the gospel a way that fixes everything, makes us happy, heals our diseases, and we don't grasp that that's not how it works. All of that will be resolved in the end at the resurrection, but not now. In 1 Corinthians 6, look how counter-cultural this is. Chapter 6, verse 9, When he says that he's saying you should know this, you know, he says, do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Now, I just said that you have to come to him as unrighteous, as wicked. And he says, if you are unrighteous, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. So he's talking kingdom terms here again. And then he says, do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, these are people who are involved in sexual activity outside of marriage. Idolaters, that is anybody who puts anything as ultimate good over God, which is huge. Nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the homosexual. And now we're like, yeah, well, we agree with that. And then we get into the awkward ones for many. Nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God. It's all kingdom, right? None of them will enter into this kingdom. And such were some of you. See, you come to Jesus wicked. Such were some of you, but you were washed and you were sanctified, made holy, set apart, but you were justified, declared to be right in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. You see, to be a people of the kingdom is I come wicked and God saves me and washes me clean and puts me then into this kingdom. But it's not trying to tell you how this age is supposed to be. It's not saying, see, we need to defeat the homosexual agenda. That's what we need to do. OK. So you defeat it as a Christian. And you become known as that man or woman who's absolutely opposed to that agenda. Well, I'm opposed to the agenda itself. But so what? What do you achieve? Are you going to oppose the swindlers agenda? We have one in the White House. I mean, what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? If we're going to look for our salvation in this world, we can't. Our job is not to fix this kingdom. This kingdom is passing away. We belong to a different kingdom. And that is where none of these are to be. So if we want to be functioning as proper citizens of this kingdom, these are the things that we, not they, we need to be done away with. We don't have these things. And we don't fool ourselves into thinking we can be these things and be part of the kingdom. To be a citizen, then, of this kingdom has certain consequences attached to it. Just turn your Bible backwards to 1 Corinthians 1. I didn't put it here. I meant to, but I forgot to state it. First, the first thing you have to do is see that Christ is truth and that what He speaks is truth. In 1 Corinthians 1, 18 to 31 is what I want to read. We don't have time. Let me get to chapter 2. Just jot, if you will, 1 Corinthians 1, 18 to 31. But here he is talking about that there's two types of wisdom. A wisdom of this age, of this kingdom, and God's wisdom. And this world and this kingdom sees God's wisdom as foolishness. And so in verses 1 through 8 of chapter 2, he says, When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For this reason, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came with this message, Jesus. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Why? So that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. In other words, he says, I know the message I gave to you looked and sounded stupid. I know it looked weak. I know it sounded foolish. I understood that. I didn't try to change my message and make it all full of wisdom and wow and awesome quotes from various philosophers and really showing you that we are a smart people, we Christians. He said, I understood it. But I also came in weakness and in trembling, and I preach to you, Jesus Christ, because I know that even though as a people, though this world will see it as foolishness, those who are his will see it as salvation. The Spirit of God will bring about their salvation. And so I just want the power of God to be seen. He says, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are the mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age or kingdom or the rulers of this age who are passing away. You have to grasp that the message that you believe and the message that you share is a different message, and it contains what we call truth and salvation, and there's no way around that. And you have to embrace it. James talks about this wisdom. He says, Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, and the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and lie against the truth. Why? Because this wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but it's earthly and natural and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. That is the wisdom that comes from the people who belong to the true kingdom. You are to be known as a gentle, peaceable, kind, merciful person. Is that your reputation? It also means that you follow Christ and not yourself. To be a child of this kingdom, that means that you obey the words of Jesus when He says, follow Me. He looks at people in John 8, verse 31, it says that many people came and believed in Him. And you're like, well, John 3, verse 16, whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. There you go, boom, Christians, And then that's what verse 30 says. Verse 31 of John 8 says this, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples or followers of me. Jesus is unimpressed with people to say, I believe. He calls them to follow. That's what you and I are being called. So much so that in 1st Peter 2, he tells us that we, when we are facing suffering, not for doing wrong, but for doing right, when we talk to people about this kingdom and the King, Jesus Christ, and people mistreat us and treat us harshly, he says, use Jesus as your example. And don't utter threats, don't become bitter, don't commit sin, don't lie, just be faithful. That's at the heart of the gospel. Jesus, or God, has faithfully kept His promise to make all things right, that God has faithfully sent His Son into this world who conquers our enemies that we cannot defeat, sin, Satan, and death. That Jesus shall return and establish His kingdom, and we are waiting for that. that all of creation will be renewed and cleansed and never again will sin or death or Satan be named or Remembered that is our hope beloved not here Don't listen to that whisper. It's always present And so the gospel the call of the gospel is to come to believe to bow and to follow Jesus Christ your King