Sermon - April 11, 2010

From Here to Kingdom Come:  The Proprietor and the Plan
Exodus 19: 1-7 , Acts 1:1-3, Matthew 13:45-46 

    What do you do the week after Easter? Unlike Christmas, we don't have a lot of decorations to put away; maybe a little Easter grass, plastic eggs and finish up the jelly beans. I found a website that has 49 recipes for jelly beans! Myself, I rest up and look after things that were laid aside through Holy Week. Get back on some sort of routine. How does Holy Week affect every week?​ How does Easter Sunday impact every day?
  The book of Acts begins as Luke's letter to Theophilus, in which he summarizes his book, the Gospel According to Luke. He writes of Jesus: After His suffering, He showed Himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. vs. 3 The week after Easter and for the following forty days, Jesus continued His ministry among His disciples. It seems to me that after all Jesus had suffered, having died, and being resurrected to life, the things he talked about were things that were most important to Him. Luke does not say Jesus spoke of heaven. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God – something most of us know little about. So for the next few weeks, we are going to look at the Kingdom of God. The Prayer Jesus taught us to pray alludes to God's Kingdom. It will be our outline beginning with “Our Father who Art In heaven.”
   God, as Father, is the originator of all creation: the universe, the world, and ourselves. God established His Kingdom in Heaven with an eye to extending His heavenly Kingdom on Earth.  He began with a garden. When He created humanity, God said, “Let us make make man (the species) in our image... So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female, He created them.” Gn. 2:27 Then God blessed the couple and told them to fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and every living creature that moves on the ground. The King of the universe gave us an earthly mandate: dominion over the earth.  To dominate means to rule, govern, control, manage, or exercise authority. God gave us rulership, not ownership. As it is God's creation, God is sovereign and retains ownership over His creation. Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord's and the everything in it, the world and all who live in it.  In a sense, we are under a lease agreement,  a covenant.
   God gave a dominion over the earth and all that is in it. God did not give man dominion over heaven. God did not give man dominion over people.  God did not give man a religion about Him, but a relationship with Himself.
    In his book Rediscovering the Kingdom, Dr. Myles Munroe calls it a dominion mandate.  There was a qualification, terms of the covenant. Look at the terms given Adam:-You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not at from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. Gn. 2:16-17 To paraphrase: As long as you obey me and do not eat of the fruit of the tree at the center of the garden, you can manage this planet all you want, for as long as you want.
    But the desire to have it all, to eat of the forbidden tree, overcame Eve and through Eve Adam. The serpent slyly tempted Eve by making her doubt herself, and doubt God. You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The Serpent lied. First lie: they would die both physically and spiritually. Second lie, Adam and Eve were already like God, created in God's image. But Eve took the bait and shared it with Adam. At that moment, they lost the Kingdom.
   Treason is perhaps the greatest crime committed in any kingdom or nation. It is the worst form of betrayal.  It is the only crime that without question, is punishable by death.
   The greatest trust awarded by a government or kingdom confers on its citizens the authority and right to be ambassadors, to represent its interests. Adam represented the Kingdom of heaven's government on earth. Sin entered the world, not through just a personal act of disobedience – eating the forbidden fruit – but an act of treason, breaching the conditions of the mandate, an ultimate betrayal deserving of death. In a sense, by their actions, Adam and Eve declared their independence from God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and severed their relationship with the Creator, the King of Heaven. They lost the most important relationship of all and disqualified themselves – all of humanity through their generations – from being representative of heaven on earth.
   The Kingdom of God was traded off for loss of position, self-consciousness and shame, fear of authority, loss of domination over nature, frustration in work, pain and discomfort, and the need for human accountability. But God offered hope. To the serpent God dictates: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers:  he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. The offspring of woman who crushed the head of the serpent Satan, was Jesus, crucified, and resurrected.
   Our greatest need as human beings is retrieving what we have lost: not a religion, or even heaven, but the Kingdom of God. God's restoration and redemption plan is focused upon the re-establishment of His kingdom on earth.  That was the proposed assignment of the promised Messiah, Jesus. And when Jesus was raised from the dead, that's all He talked about.
   “Religion” Myles Munroe writes, “is simply man's search for God. No matter how committed, dedicated, loyal, faithful, zealous, active or complex our religious pursuit may be, as long as man is still searching, dissatisfied and desirous for more, he has not yet found the Kingdom.”  Jesus never said, “blessed are the religious,” but “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”Mt. 5: 3.  In God's wisdom, by design, we were created for relationship and partnership with God to dominate, to rule, to manage the earth within the Kingdom of heaven. We may attempt to fill that void with substitutes, be it religions acts, work, milk, Kool-Aid, chocolate, liquor, drugs, immorality, whatever. But until we recognize our need of God, our poverty in spirit, we won't discover the vast beauty and power of God's Kingdom.
   The devil would have us bamboozled. We are sinners, make no mistake, but we are sinners whose birthright through the blood of Jesus Christ is to be heirs with Him, children of God. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave he right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. Jn. 1:12-13.
   Beginning the day after that first Easter, the apostles, disciples, followers,and believers, were  not called to live as Christian. That was a name of derision that pagans gave Christ-followers. Believers in Christ are children of the King of heaven, as sons, and heirs, representative of God through Christ on earth.
    God's strategy for extending His Kingdom on earth was to rule the visible world from the invisible realm of the Spirit. In other words, what is seen would be ruled by what is unseen through the vehicle of human beings.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Rm. 1:20
To accomplish His rule on earth, God put His Spirit into the spirit of man, people with physical bodies in a physical world.  Through our spirit, we communicate with the spirit of God.  That is prayer.  Through prayer, God communicates His will  from the invisible realm of His spirit. Through prayer we communicate in our spirits our needs in the physical realm in the name of Jesus. In our hearts, through the love of Christ, God communicates His will, his desire, His work. Through our hands, by the power of His Spirit, we accomplish what is in the mind of our invisible God.
   Our Father, who Art in Heaven, hallowed, holy is Thy Name. God is holy. His sons and daughters, heirs to the Kingdom, are made holy through the blood sacrificed by Jesus the only begotten Son. Through rebirth in Christ, confession and forgiveness of sins, we are cleansed and kept holy before God.
   In essence, Moses delivered this Spiritual truth from the heart of God  to the children of Israel,  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Ez. 19:5-6. Does that apply to us, believers in Christ, today. Absolutely. The Apostle Peter, Jesus right hand man, reiterates and underscores the same spiritual truth: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:8-9
    By God's design we were created to rule, not to be subjugated by oppression in any form. This is why wherever there has been oppression such as apartheid in South Africa, or communist ideology,or the repressive government in Iran or Iraq, when deliverance comes, the people rejoice like surging waters that have burst a dam.  At the fall of Saddam's regime thousands upon thousands of Iraqi's  rejoiced in the streets. Relationship with God in Christ is the  most liberating way to live. Jesus said, “I  no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:14-16. To everyone who seeks His Kingdom, loves His name, and obeys His voice,  in His love, God reveals His will, and His Presence, and His heart. Apostle Paul counsels Timothy to advise the Church, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Tim 1:7  At times I might feel like a scaredy cat, but I know inside of me resides the Lion of Judah.
   Knowing we are children of God, co-heirs with Christ, created and designed to communicate His Kingdom on Earth, drastically changes our perceptions of events, circumstances, and people, and our perspective on life, money, time, and pursuits. Look again at what Jesus tells us about the Kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Mt. 13:44
  Ancient Israel did not have banks such as we have. Banking was reserved for the very rich, and even at that, it was not altogether safe. People would bury their money and treasures for safe keeping. This is a little like some older folks today who hide their money under the mattress, or around the house. Palestine was frequently under warfare and enemies would sac homes, so the safest place was in the ground. Over time Palestine was honeycombed with treasure, so it was not uncommon for someone plowing a field to uncover someone else's treasure. Jesus describes a feasible situation. Some folks stumble on the Kingdom of God while doing something else, but it is so valuable, they sell everything to buy into it, and keep what they find.
  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.  vs. 45. A jeweler friend of mine once told me that at the time of Jesus, they did not have the means to dig and cut diamonds. The most valuable gem was the pearl. No wonder. Pearl diving was very risky business. They did not have the equipment we have today. Divers used only a heavy rock and rope to harvest pearls on beds 40 ft. below the surface. They tied one end of the rope to the waist, the other end to the rock for weight, jump out of a small boat, hold their breath and sink to the bottom. They risked sharks, morey eels, and other threatening creatures on the bottom to harvest oysters.  From every 1000 oysters they might reap one pearl.
   The pearl itself is a perfect representation of the Kingdom of God. It is the only gem that does not require any cutting or polishing by human hands. If cut or marred, it is worthless. The merchant of pearls sold everything he had, for the finest of all pearls. This speaks of the pursuit of God's Kingdom and the absolute joy in finding it. Both men sacrificed for the sake of their find, but neither grieved or regretted their sacrifice for the delight of what they had discovered.
   This painting by Daniel Bonnel visually depicts that discovery, the Kingdom of God, is ours through the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus. His Father, is our Father, who is in heaven; He is the owner of all there is, and has sent us as proprietors. The plan is that just as freely as we breathe the air and bask in the sunlight of earth, we dwell in and communicate the Kingdom of Heaven.
   We are sons and daughters of the most High God, ambassadors of His sovereign reign. In the love of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to fulfill our purpose. The Kingdom  is worth far more than pearls, far more than treasures, far more than life itself. It is worth everything we own, everything we are, everything, we hope to be, to live as the holy nation, the royal priesthood.  In this moment, ask the Lord for grace to give it all you've got, to be and bravely live what you are designed and created to be, the child of the King, the most High God.   Amen.  

     

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