The Shape of the Kingdom of God

“The Shape of the Kingdom of God”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church –Sunday, March 12, 2017
Text: Matthew 4:23-25 // Series: Your Kingdom Come

Welcome here to Jericho Ridge.  In 2017, we are emphasizing two things as a community.  We’re building a foundation of prayer and we’re having conversations of care for and with each other.  And so we’ve spent the last two months digging deeper in our teaching times on Sunday mornings into the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. And when we came to the phrase “Your Kingdom Come” we happened to have John Smed with us as a guest preacher who leads a ministry we’ve been working with called “Prayer Current”.  And John said as he started into his preaching that morning “It was nice of Brad to ask me to preach the hardest sermon in the New Testament!  Defining the Kingdom of God!”  I’m getting a bit of a bad rap asking the guests to do all the heavy lifting around here!

But as I began to think more about John’s statement that the Kingdom of God is the hardest thing to define in the New Testament, I realized how true that really is. The story of the Bible is, in some ways, a description of the unfolding nature of the God's kingdom.  We see God at work in the Old Testament, drawing people to Himself.  When we come to Jesus, we see that the kingdom of God was one of the main topics Jesus talked about. “The word “kingdom” is found fifty-five times in Matthew, twenty times in Mark, forty-six times in Luke and five times in John.”  This is not a minor sub heading.  And yet if you were asked to describe or define the Kingdom of God, could you do it?  What is the Kingdom of God?

The challenge is further exacerbated by the fact that I hear kingdom language bantered about all the time. For example, someone might rightly say “we have a team from our church down in Guatemala this week doing kingdom work.” Or maybe “Thank you for your helping advance the kingdom of God here in our city.”  Or reflecting on an evangelistic crusade someone might way “people gave their hearts to Jesus and entered the Kingdom.”  But despite how much Christians talk about the "kingdom", defining it is actually harder than you might expect!

Let’s do some out-loud brainstorming together here this morning.  Back off of the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of heaven for a minute and just think about a kingdom, say the Kingdom of Denmark, or any old kingdom.  What needs to be present in order for there to be a kingdom?  No wrong answers.  Just free association here.

This is good stuff.  In order to have a kingdom, you need a king.  You need a way of governing / outcomes or goals. You need people to rule over.  You need laws or guidelines.  You need some kind of territory or land.  So we understand some of things that make up a kingdom.

Now what I want us to do is take some of these understandings and begin to hold them up to what the New Testament and in particular the book of Matthew highlights as the shape of the Kingdom of God.        

To do this well is going to take us some time because it kind of is one of the hardest things to define in the Bible.  So we're moving into a new teaching series called “YOUR KINGDOM COME” which will take us through this season of Lent, Easter and Pentecost and will wrap up at the end of June.  As we gather each weekend, we will explore together the many, many places in the Bible where this curious phrase shows up and we’ll begin to learn and live out the principles that God’s Kingdom runs on.  We’ll have lots of help as we explore this from various angles as we’ve asked a number of people within Jericho to preach and we’ll hear stories of people who are coming into membership here and how they see God’s Kingdom coming and God’s will being done in their lives as it is in heaven.    

But we still have our problem of Defining The Kingdom.  What do we mean when we use the phrase Kingdom of God?  One of my favourite authors and theologians Scot McKnight wrote a book entitled “The Kingdom Conspiracy” and in this book, he highlights what he sees as a common problem.  That is that people tend to take whatever they are doing or their unique theological bent and then the co-opt the language of the Kingdom to justify or sanctify their personal perspectives.  McKnight uses a unique metaphor to help us understand what is happening in this discussion in the Christian movement in the Western world. 

He says that this is like the difference between the skinny jeans crowd and the pleated pants crowds.  The pleated pants people like their kakis and things to be all proper and well defined and neatly ironed out.  The skinny jeans are more free spirits, concerned with not just talking about stuff but getting out and doing things   

When it comes to the kingdom of God, the pleated pants crew are very keen to discuss the question: where is the kingdom of God?  Jesus said it was here, it was close and yet He also noted that there is a future nature to it.  So the pleated pants people, all very proper theologians, have come into this discussion rigorously trained, use fancy phrases like “realized eschatological realities” They talk about how the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated and yet not fully consummated.”  Great. Super interesting. Fully true. BUT how does that help me understand what God wants you and I and us to be about this week? 

The pleated pants crowd also really wants the Bible to answer the question “where is the kingdom?  And sometimes, this gets them into weird places.  The pleated pants people can get excited about involvement with politics and redeeming culture and so we have odd things like the wedding between religious and political conservativism with a view to see the Kingdom of God more fully realized. We’ll talk more about the Kingdom of God and politics in a few weeks. 

But as a kind of general observation, when you hear the pleated plants crowd use the language of the Kingdom of God, The ‘Pleated Pants’ crowd usually means EVANGELISM “redemptive moments” such as personal salvation, restoring some aspect of culture that has been tainted

On the opposite side of the question of defining the Kingdom of God, we have the skinny jeans, ministry hipster types.  This is a gross over-generalization but stick with me for a minute.  The people in the skinny jeans crowd empathize that the kingdom of God breaks into our reality when justice is done.  When people who are poor get fed, when kids become better educated and schools go up in the Fraser Institute ranking, when Creation is cared for and the common good is advanced, then God’s Kingdom is coming and His will is being done here on earth as it is in heaven.  So when ‘Skinny Jeans’ people use the term to describe JUSTICE “good deeds done by good people (Christian or not) in the public sector for the common good” (McKnight)

Very, very different definitions of the Kingdom of God!  Very different places that these two groups spend their time and money.  Very, very different visions for what the people of God and the church should be up to.  So we’re left to wrestle with the question: which is it?  What should define the shape of the Kingdom of God?  If you don’t talk openly about this stuff, what we end up with in the church are skinny jeans people, pleated pants people and everyone with ruffled feathers & hurt feelings!  Because people feel deeply and passionately about where we as the church should be spending our energy.  Should we be saving souls or running soup kitchens? When we go into the High school of the hospital, are we going in with the ultimate vision of doing Evangelism or doing justice?

I think that one of things to understand is that this is not a new dilemma. The church has been arguing about this for at least 3 centuries.  So we’re not going to solved it in one Sunday J.  But I do want this morning to help us understand the contours, the beginning shape of the Kingdom.  Because if we get our definition of the Kingdom of God wrong or it’s off base, we begin to spend time, resources, and efforts on that particular expression of the Kingdom. As our own Al Thiessen is so fond of saying “you have to think correctly in order to act correctly!”  So it really is worth defining our terms.  Are we doing “kingdom” work when we mow a neighbours lawn?  Are we reflecting the priorities of the Kingdom when we say “I don’t think I need to go to church regularly.  I do lots of “kingdom” work at my job during my week so I need a break from it on the weekends!  

One of the things I want you to catch clearly this morning is that when you want to define a term that shows up in the Bible, let the Bible speak for itself.  This is one of the reasons we do Life Journaling here at Jericho Ridge: go straight to the source text. We’re going to look at where this phrase get used in the Bible.  

One of the most helpful places is that Jesus uses this phrase a lot.  So we’re going to focus the bulk of this series on how Jesus defines and shapes the Kingdom of God.  In the gospel of Matthew Jesus is continuously using the phrase. The kingdom of God is like…. The Kingdom of heaven is…  In fact, we’re going to see in this series that the kingdom of God was the main theme of Jesus’ teaching.  So instead of allowing our own biases and social and political or cultural agendas drive the conversation on the Kingdom, we need to let Jesus, who is the King, define and shape our definition and our understanding of the kingdom because it’s His kingdom! So what did Jesus say that would help us better understand the kingdom of God? 

Today we’re going to look at the first two times and the phrase is used in Matthew’s gospel.  We’re going to see both skinny jeans and pleated pants dynamics at work: because Jesus was concerned with both evangelism and works of justice.  Turn with me to Matthew 4…Jesus is at the very start of His public ministry.  He has been baptized, he has been tempted and He begins a public preaching ministry.  And in Matthew 4:17, we get a window into the content of His sermons.  You guessed it: they are about the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus on the Kingdom

“From then on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’” (Matthew 4:17 NLT)

We don’t get a full picture of the Kingdom of God but we do see several aspects of if that begin to emerge here in the teaching ministry of Jesus.  We see that The Kingdom of God involves…

A dimension of proclamation.  Declaration.  Jesus was teaching, He was preaching. Sometimes I hear people quote St. Francis of Assisi as saying “preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words!”   What I think they are usually driving at is the notion of letting your life speak.  Acting and living in a way that is consistent with the truth and the vision of the Kingdom of God.  This is a helpful piece of the puzzle but it is only a piece.  The kingdom involves proclamation and declaration.  Using words!  If you are not using words to explain your actions or to back up your behaviours, then you are not preaching the full gospel.  People in Willoughby and Clayton are not going to figure out their way into heaven by simply watching you be a nice person day in and day out.  The kingdom of God needs to be proclaimed and declared.  That’s a way that we can participate in kingdom work.  Not belligerently, but as God gives opportunity.   

Closely related to this, is that the kingdom of God needs not only to be heralded or proclaimed and declared, it also needs to be received.  In other words, there is Action required on the part of the hearer.  Sometimes I hear people talking about how they have shared the gospel time and time and time again with a friend or family member and that person just doesn’t seem to get it. 

The discouraged Christian feels like they have done the declaration part and they grow concerned that maybe they did it wrong or maybe the Kingdom didn’t get explained as clearly as needed and so they heap guilt on themselves and begin to say “well, I’m just not good at that evangelism thing!  I’d better leave that to the professionals like the pastors or the evangelists!”  Friends, don’t forget that while you have a part to play in the declaration, there is also a response and action needed on the part of the hearer.  It’s not all about you and your witness! 

Here’s the word of encouragement I want you to hear today: Consider that not everyone who listened to Jesus preach walked away from those encounters as a full member or participant in the kingdom of God.  Why? Because the Kingdom might be near & well proclaimed, but listeners still have to choose to enter it.  Volitionally. The kingdom doesn’t force itself into anyone’s life without consent.  So if Jesus couldn’t save everybody, what makes you so confident that you can?    

The other thing to remember is that you and I don’t get to be the gatekeepers of the Kingdom of God.  We’re going to see as we get into this series that some people who think they are “in” should be much less confident of their standing and some people who we may thing are on the “outs” may not be as far away as you and I think.  Some people may act and choose repentance and faith which makes them a participant in the kingdom of God but they may not do it in the way or in the places or spaces that you and I see.  There’s a hiddenness to the Kingdom coming that makes it a challenge to police. 

I remember, for example, my parents starting to go back to church as a young child and my dad in practical way really wrestling with the notion that you could pray outside of a church building and God would hear you.  To him, kingdom stuff like prayer only happened on Sundays from 10:30 Am till noon.  And if you didn’t talk to God inside of that window of time, you missed the boat!  So it was a shock to him that God could listen to him if he wasn’t in a pew.  But one Monday evening, he knelt beside our old ratty couch in the living room and said “God, I want to choose to be part of your kingdom.”  It happened quietly and without a bunch of “just right” background worship music playing or an altar call.  I share that to say don’t grow weary or discouraged if you don’t see people flocking into the kingdom in the way you might want them to.   Sometimes the real kingdom action is happening where & when you and I aren’t looking.  Don’t grow weary.  Keep on praying.  Keep on inviting.  Keep on sharing & trusting the Spirit to move             

Two more things to note here in Jesus’ initial introduction to the Kingdom of God:

There’s a clear indicator that the Kingdom of God involves Ethics: touches not just my mind but behaviour.   Entrance into and participation in the kingdom requires a change in my behaviour, not just my thinking.  I’m to repent of my sins and turn to God.  We’re going to see as we go through this series and trace them theme of the Kingdom throughout Scripture that repentance is not just a one-time event but an ongoing posture and a process.  We need to keep on repenting. 

Fourth thing we see in this verse as Jesus announces and defines the shape of the Kingdom of God is that it does have an imminence to it.  Imminence: it is near or close (not just out there).  God is not just interested in eternal things.  He is not just thinking about your soul and getting you and others to heaven.  The kingdom of God will also touch and break into and make demands on the here and now.  In some places, the church has been guilty of a kind of eternal escapism. Just get your ticket into the kingdom by praying the prayer and you’re good.  Jesus here reminds us that the kingdom of heaven is not solely about ethereal otherworldly stuff: it is also about what God is doing in the here & now.    

 We see this highlighted even more clearly just a few verses later in Matthew 4.  Look with me at 4:23 where after Jesus calls some of his first disciples to come and follow Him, it says that

“Jesus traveled 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. 24 News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

A few quick observations on Jesus’ definition of the kingdom here in Matthew 4. 

Jesus understood that the Kingdom of God included…

• Announcing Good News

The message of the Kingdom of God is a message about or of Good news.  That means that when we announce the kingdom, we need to also be aware of both the content and the tone in which we announce it.  Scaring people into quick decisionsism by telling them about how horrible hell is and how they don’t’ want to go there is a one-sided, technique driven way to announce Good News about the Kingdom.  But on the flip side, truncating the Good News and making it light and culturally palatable / relevant with smoke machines and pyrotechnics isn’t particularly helpful or healthy either.  Jesus is going to begin teaching more in chapter 5 on the Kingdom and the Good News about the kingdom is that participation in it can mean suffering and persecuted but this is still the Kingdom.

Another thing to clearly note here is that the kingdom of God is concerned with

 Healing: Meets physical needs; not just spiritual

Jesus heals people from diseases and also from demonic oppression.  He doesn’t just preaching intriguing and interesting intellectual messages.  Part of the work that God has called us to here at Jericho is to be a place of healing.  Healing for those damaged by religion.  Healing for those places of brokenness and woundedness that plague each of us in our moments of honesty.  So don’t ever get the idea that you have to be perfectly healed up or have your stuff together to participate in the life of the kingdom of God.  There are no perfect people allowed here at Jericho Ridge: just people who need healing in some part of our lives and who are willing to walk with others who also need healing. 

You see, when people experience healing and transformation, they have a natural desire to begin

• Telling others about what you have experienced

This is how the Kingdom spreads or advances.  In very natural ways as you share respectfully with others what God is doing and has done in your life.  What is God teaching and showing you these days about his heart and character and where is He giving you opportunities to share that with others?  You may be learning about how to handle grief or a challenging health or relationship situation.  And then when a co-worker or a fellow student at school expresses how they are having a hard time with a family member being in hospital, you can gently and with wisdom and grace share with them how God is shaping you. 

The final thing to note here about the kingdom is that it is a barrier-busting phenomenon.  Already in his early ministry Jesus is reaching beyond the boundaries of a single culture or ethnicity.  The kingdom of God includes

• Multiple people groups, nations, languages

This is why kingdom people are often found crossing racial or socio-economic lines.  They are the ones caring for people who are poor or who are advocating that different ethnic groups or sexual orientations be treated with respect. 

So here’s the big idea I want us to walk away with today…  Actually, it’s a two part idea so I’m kind of cheating by sneaking in two things in one slide.

The Call of the Kingdom is a Two-Part Call this is from our C of F as MB:

We “understand the gospel in terms of both evangelism and social concern.  We must without reservation call people to repentance and reformation of life in Jesus. We must… live out the social implications of the good news by caring for those in need and proclaiming God’s peace and justice in the wider community” (Confession of Faith, Commentary * Pastoral application, Article 7, page 85)

Here at Jericho, I’m not willing for us to get dragged into a false dichotomy.  To get pulled into the pleated pants camp or the skinny jeans camp.  When our team is in Guatemala this week, building homes, they declare with full boldness and humility the full gospel of Jesus Christ.  When we choose a local partner like Wagner Hills, we want to make sure that they are not just tending to social ills or additions but that they are holistic and care about the soul and the body and the mind.  This is what we see in Jesus here in Matthew’s gospel.  He proclaims and declares the Kingdom of God that it He proclaims and declares good news BUT he also heals every kind of diseases.   

So what does this mean for you & I? There are 2 implications of this 2 part call…

1. Be careful what you slap the label “kingdom” on (watch your language!)
   • It is about both transformation and liberation

Don’t just take your theological hobby horse or your activities and call them “kingdom work”.  In this discussion, recognize that each of us..

• (?) What is my natural strength & inclination? What elements do I need to work more on to bring balance to my understanding & actions?

The second implication might be a bit harder to swallow…

2. It’s not your Kingdom (so you don’t get to “establish” or “build” or “grow” it!)  
   • The Kingdom is a Divine act, not a human accomplishment (even by really dedicated Christians)

The kingdom of God isn’t a realm which we set up. However noble may be the idea of laboring to establish the kingdom of God, the Biblical terminology is completely inconsistent with the language of modern liberal theology. The kingdom is a divine act, not a human accomplishment not even the accomplishment of really, really dedicated Christians.

• ?) Where are areas that I am tempted to believe and act as if I am responsible for the kingdom?

And discussion of the kingdom should always lead us to a profound place of humility and so Pastor Wally is going to come and lead us as we prepare out hearts for a time of communion.