Good Morning Friends,
To have a kingdom, one needs a King. Yet most of the kings in Scripture were a sorry lot, even when God used them for divine purposes. Earthly leaders inevitably disappoint us because the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed is unlike the kingdoms we build.
Perhaps our calling is not to wait idly for Jesus to return and put everything right, nor to place too much hope in political power, but to let Jesus rule our hearts now. We pray for our leaders and seek the good of our communities, but our ultimate allegiance belongs to Christ.
So, Do You Feel the Gospel of the Kingdom of God Creating Something New for You and Society?
Scripture Summaries:
Luke 17:20–25 – Jesus tells the Pharisees that God’s Kingdom will not arrive as a political spectacle people can point to and say, “There it is!” The Kingdom is already among them in Jesus himself. Yet its final fulfillment will be unmistakable, following suffering and rejection.
Philemon 7–20 – Paul appeals to Philemon to receive Onesimus no longer simply as a slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ. The Gospel changes relationships, replacing status and obligation with reconciliation, freedom, and love.
Mark 1:14–15 – Jesus begins his ministry announcing that the appointed time has arrived: the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Therefore, repent, believe the good news, and begin living within God’s new reality.
Message: Our task is to work for Christ’s Kingdom as though his return were generations away while remaining ready should he return tonight. We live between the already and the not yet: God’s Kingdom has arrived in Jesus and is present through the Holy Spirit, but it has not yet reached its final fulfillment.
The Kingdom begins when the King comes to rule our hearts.
That rule changes us. Paul’s letter to Philemon gives us a beautiful example. Paul does not command Philemon through force. He appeals through love. Onesimus, once defined by his social condition, is now to be received as a brother.
That is what the Gospel does. It creates something new.
Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God has come near.” His Kingdom grows like a seed, spreads like leaven, and is worth more than a costly pearl. It advances not primarily through political power, wealth, or national might but through people whose lives are being transformed by Christ.
Israel learned painfully that no earthly kingdom can substitute for God’s rule. Kings fail. Nations rise and fall. Even religious institutions can lose their way. Yet God preserves a people willing to seek his Kingdom and become servants of his purposes.
The same question confronts us. Will we measure our well-being primarily by prosperity, political influence, and security? Or will we seek the greater salvation revealed in Jesus?
When Christ reigns within us, something begins happening around us. Enemies can become brothers and sisters. The hungry are fed. The lonely receive companionship. The broken encounter mercy. Injustice is challenged. Forgiveness replaces resentment. Seeds of God’s new creation begin appearing in ordinary human lives.
And So, Jesus has not abandoned his world, and neither has his Kingdom. The Kingdom is moving through history whenever Christ’s people allow the Spirit to transform them into servants of God’s love.
We cannot manufacture the Kingdom, but neither can we abandon its mission.
Jesus sends us into the world with the Gospel. Like Onesimus, Philemon, and Paul, we become participants in something new: a community in which old barriers are overcome because Christ is Lord.
So perhaps we should ask not simply, “When will the Kingdom come?”
Rather ask: Where is Jesus asking me to let him reign today?
And then, through us, God’s Kingdom may become visible one act of love, mercy, reconciliation, justice, and forgiveness at a time.
Pray we experience the Kingdom of God within us through a living relationship with Christ. Pray we recognize that Christ rules not through coercion but through transforming love.
Pray that God’s Kingdom grows within our hearts like a seed planted in good soil, producing fruit for the healing of people, communities, nations, and creation.
Pray for the hungry to be fed, the weary to receive rest, the lonely to hear a word of comfort, injustice to give way to righteousness, and those trapped by sin to discover freedom.
Pray that we will not place our ultimate hope in earthly kingdoms but will faithfully serve within them while remembering where our true allegiance lies.
And pray that Jesus will rule our hearts today as we await the day when God’s Kingdom comes in all its fullness.
Blessings,
John Lawson
