The King and His Kingdom

The book of Matthew is about the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to earth demonstrating the Kingdom of God. 

God is the King. As Lord and King, His ultimate desire is to reign over His Kingdom with all authority and power. The Kingdom of God, by definition, is where God reigns. God has provided mankind with free will, and if a person receives Jesus as their Savior, they daily choose the degree to which they will operate in the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is not a physical place in which we can see with our natural senses; it is an atmosphere, a condition. Luke 17:20-21 says the Kingdom of God is within us or among us. 

The Kingdom is not bound by space or time- John 1:1-5. Jesus has always existed. He is the creator and He is life. He defines what life is. Before the earth was formed the Kingdom of God existed. Before creation, everything that is true about God simply is- “I AM.” 

The Kingdom of God is the full expression of who God is- Hebrews 12:28-29. God is a consuming fire- God consumes whatever is not like Him with His presence, power, and grace.

Attributes of the Kingdom 

God is love- This is who God is and not an attribute or characteristic of God. He is love that cannot be changed by who you are or what you do. Therefore, we can say His Kingdom is built on His love, which is a synonym for The Word, and Jesus Christ. As God is love, our comprehension and receiving are not based on our emotional state of feeling or perception. The Apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians for us, the Church, that we grow in the understanding, wisdom, and revelation of God’s love more each day.

God is complete power. He speaks things into existence. Love and power are two sides of the same coin. Jesus had compassion and then released power. Power and love hold His creation in harmony. 

God is the God of peace- this is the attribute of God that moves in and overwhelms those things that are overwhelming you. 

God is righteous- righteousness. This is the blueprint of how God designed things. When things are right (as they were created to be) they are righteous. We think of the law as prescriptive: this is how you should act. But the law is descriptive: here are how things are in a right functioning world.

God is life- the Kingdom is defined by life. There were never tears, sadness, sorrow, or fear in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is defined by life. Life existed before this physical world. God is the Spirit of all life, and He is the one that puts life in us (John 1:4; 10:10). When Jesus told stories about the Kingdom, He was not describing a physical place on earth; He was describing the place ruled by God. The Kingdom is “the place I grew up.”

Back to the Beginning 

One of the Kingdom parables is in Matthew 22:1-14. The Kingdom is like a wedding feast for the King’s son. The King has a bride for His son. This is part of the reason for creation. At the end of days, we, the Church, will be the bride of Christ ruling with Christ in the Kingdom. 

Man and woman were created to be stewards of creation. Man represents to earth what God is to the Kingdom. He has dominion over creation. He is created in God’s image. Earth is a physical replica of the spiritual Kingdom. Man is king over the earth. What is true about God and the Kingdom should be true about mankind and the earth. 

Genesis 2:7-9 describes life the way it was meant to be. Man became a living soul. His source was the spirit of life. His foundation was God. Adam and Eve could see in a way we cannot. The fruit of these two trees was life and the knowledge of good and evil. They could see life! They could see the physical and spiritual realities as one. Genesis 3:6 says the fruit was “pleasing to the eye.” That is the same phrase as what Moses saw at the burning bush. It is the sight of the material and the spiritual wrapped in one experience. 

Genesis 3 reveals the problem Jesus came to solve. When they ate the fruit, they changed their source and their foundation. They exchanged life for knowledge. The life of God was exchanged for knowledge of good and evil. Their foundation went from God to self. The result was that they could no longer see the spiritual and material as one.

When they disconnected from the source of life, they immediately felt profound emptiness and vulnerability. The question became “How do I feel alive?” Their first insight was the need for covering. This is the condition of humans today. The knowledge of evil lets me know something is wrong, but the knowledge of good can’t fix it. Satan attacks through good and evil. The knowledge of evil- you should have not done what you did. The knowledge of good- you need to try harder to do better. 

Sin is death in us- disconnected from our source. We try to return to the source through our own knowledge. All world religions do this. The solution is part of the problem. The knowledge of good (what I ought to do) is often the enemy of life. 

What are some ways humans try to fill the emptiness in their lives apart from God? Religion elevates knowledge instead of offering life, as each religion is based on a series of prescribed rules; whereas, with God, we have a living, loving relationship. 

The Solution

The solution is Jesus Christ. We must return to our source of life. John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus is the source of life. Life will not be stopped. It flows through us as believers. It is quantitative- you can have more or less of it. Where that life occurs is called the Kingdom. When we are plugged back into the source we are in the Kingdom of God.

In Matthew 3:2, John says “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near.” Repentance is the Greek word “metanoeo.” It means to “think differently afterwards.” This doesn’t mean changing the content of what you are thinking; it means changing the way you think. We change from thinking with knowledge of good and evil to thinking with our spirit and heart. The fruit of the new way of thinking is turning my life around (how we view repentance today). 

The Kingdom of heaven is near- This is not a reference to time; it is a geographical reference. The Kingdom is within your reach. Jesus repeats the message in 4:17. 

Humans look for the source of life in all sorts of things. Jesus came to reveal those things as false and give us real life. It is not good enough to have knowledge of the source. We must plug into the source. Satan has a short time on this earth where he rules this earth. He tries to keep everyone in bondage to the knowledge of good and evil. The earth was in decline until the coming of Jesus. Jesus introduced life into a world of knowledge. This is the source of spiritual warfare. 

Jesus restores what has always been there. He restores us to what we were created to be. We receive life and He gives life. This is the Kingdom. Plug into the source instead of knowledge about the source. Repent- change the way you see. Jesus came to do for you what you can’t do for yourself. He changes you from the inside out. He is the power of God to you, in you, and through you. He changes the way you see.

Prayer

[Prayer from Pastor George Pearsons]

Heavenly Father, I boldly declare that Jesus Christ and His Kingdom are the highest priorities in my life. You are my Source of all the SUPPLY I will ever need. I release my faith for the goods and services I need. Colossians 1:13 tells me that “[the Father] has delivered and drawn me to You, from the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred me into the Kingdom of the Son of Your love” (AMPC). Thank You for Your provision and supply. 

A quote from Creflo Dollar:

“El Shaddai will demonstrate provisional miracles that are contrary to natural events.”

Amen to that!