The Kingdom Among Us.

The Kingdom Among Us.

Good Morning Friends,

We do not think of Jesus as smart, but kind. People do not think of Christ as the most intelligent man to ever live nor as a warrior king but he is that too. Dallas Willard put it this way, “We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. You can almost be as stupid as a cabbage as long as you doubt.” So today I hope you choose to see that knowing God is the most important thing that can take place in a person’s life. I hope you see that the reasoning of fallen man has, in the desire to control and the will of pride, unfortunately embraced a culture that rejects God’s due place in our life. Friends, the reality is that we were created with a nature to worship and live for the purpose of sharing in the divine conspiracy of The Kingdom Among Us.

Scripture: Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.’ I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet,
or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Psalm 2:1-12 (NRSV)

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

Philippians 2:5 (NRSV)

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Colossians 1:13 (NRSV)

The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.”

Matthew 13:13 (NRSV)

The Guilt of Humankind

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

Romans 1:18-21 (NRSV)

Message: We have a smorgasbord of scripture to feast on today so I will attempt to keep the message short. Here is the deal, God’s plan and process of overcoming evil with good through history is the story line if we choose to see it. It starts with a tree in the garden and ends with a tree healing the nations in the city of God. And at the epicenter of it all is the tree on which Christ died. But it, like the Big Bang, did not appear big but small and it really had no bang. Jesus did not go back to Pilot and Sanhedrin and tell them off. The whole thing was to be small like a mustard seed…unseen like the work of yeast growing and penetrating. By necessity the King had to be hidden in history so the kingdom could develop. Paul figured this out and understood. If we read Paul as a professor talking about psychology and social issues you will get it too. Christ is to be seen in world history holding everything together. Friends, if there is no God anything goes. If there is no freedom to choose then our character never develops. The problem is that if we are not rooted in the knowledge of God we get lost…we misses out on love. Friends, the Kingdom is among us. The knowledge of it is communal. If God loves then we can trust God. It is as simple as that.

Pray thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Pray we come to grip with reality. Pray our belief of truth is in harmony with the reality of a community of love here on earth. Pray we realize that human efforts trying to succeed without God is a confusion. Pray we know and experience a God who is willing to walk with us and give up power for a time so that we might experience not an illusion or just the visible world but something that joins the social with the spiritual to heal and love us into transformation. Pray we realize that the kingdom must grow slow like a mustard plant so our moral growth can keep up. Pray we are empowered to do God’s will. Pray we experience God.

Blessings,

John Lawson