Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from July 18, “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven Is At Hand”
We are citizens of an eternal kingdom, and our king is all powerful and the very definition of good. The New Testament is full of references to the kingdom of God. WE use the words, but do we know what they mean?
Our culture doesn’t care much for kings. We do fawn over British royalty, which doesn’t make much since to me since we fought a war to get away from them, but they are more like movie stars to us. We have an entirely different opinion of anyone who actually tries to tell us what to do. So I wonder if our terminology sounds particularly strange to someone unfamiliar with the Christian subculture. Then it really gets weird when we start talking about reigning with him.
The Jews of Jesus’ day would have had a different response. They were looking for a messiah. They were looking for a new king who would come in and bring them deliverance from their roman oppressors. When John the baptist and then Jesus Himself began to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven, they didn’t hear the things they might have expected. Jesus seemed to turn the whole concept of a kingdom upside down. His message was one of hope, but also one that demanded a response. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
As Jesus began His ministry with this message, so we will begin our study of the kingdom of Heaven. His kingdom operates differently than anything we know from this world. He has set the example. Our king gave His life for us.
