Archive for January, 2010

The Foundation of the Kingdom of God

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

The Apostle John records for us a key exchange between a member of the educated religious elite and authority … and some poor carpenter from the armpit of the world who had never gone to one of their schools.

Realizing that Jesus was indeed someone of spiritual authority, Nicodemus came to him in the middle of the night.  Jesus’ message was one of source and end.

Jesus realized, because of where he actually came from (not Nazareth), that source was important.  Source determines end.

So he begins to teach Nicodemus this by basically saying, “In order see the Kingdom of God, you must change your source.”

Of course the recorded words are: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus reacts with an understandable amazement.  What do you mean?  So Jesus further explains.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus is clearly stating, and not even implying: there was something eternally inadequate in the first birth.  So what must change is the source of things, not just to adjust the things themselves.

Nicodemus’ lack of understanding, despite his immense education and social position, serves to be an example of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus points this out.

“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”

Many Christians and Christian teaching proves how much we misunderstand this, as well.  We use the term “born again” and the resulting testimony in the lives of those who claim it is so far from a “born again” life that the term is a byword and a mockery.

Let’s first understand exactly what Jesus is saying.  Because without this understanding, we can’t really have revelation about the Kingdom of God at all.  We are blind men who claim to see, which is a dangerous thing.  Everything else rests in this one concept:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This understanding will change how you read the whole of the New Testament, and then in that reality, help you to properly appreciate the Old Testament as well.

Jesus is essentially telling Nicodemus that all that he is about is worthless.  It is all by the flesh.  He is, by flesh and blood, a Jew, but that does not enable someone to see the Kingdom of God.  Nicodemus is highly educated in the scriptures and theology.  But that won’t help him see the Kingdom.  Nicodemus is a person of some authority and position, and assuming he is also a person of wealth and stature, but these things don’t give you a better position to see the Kingdom.

The only solution is to count all such things as what they are, rubbish, and plead with God to be born a second time, to be given a life that so transcends such things as to make them worth nothing.  Because without the ability to see the Kingdom of God, they have no worth in and of themselves.

The solution is to change the source from one of flesh to one of spirit.  Then one can see spiritual things.

In the next chapter Jesus makes it clear that “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.”  That the place of worship will not matter, this mountain or another one, but the source of the worship matters.

Why?  Because of its end.  Paul tells us that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.”  The things of the flesh, the things that are by nature temporary, will not inherit the Kingdom of God: nationality, personality, talents, personal achievements, all things that are temporary will end.  The end of the flesh is destruction.

Paul further exemplifies this in Philippians by listing how many things could give him confidence “in the flesh”: his Jewish heritage, his circumcision, his religious education, his legalistic following of the Law.  Paul of all people realized that those things meant nothing.  He had them and was violently opposed to the Kingdom.

So he counted all those things as rubbish, as crap, as nothing, so that he could have Christ and Him alone and a life of true righteous living by faith in God.

The promise given to us is the Spirit.  God did the necessary thing, the promised thing in a New Covenant, where he made available not just repentance and forgiveness, but an opportunity to be born from a different source, a spiritual one.

Jesus’ good confession before Pilate?  “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  It is made of different stuff.

Without understanding the difference between spiritual and fleshly foundations, there can be no revelation or participation in the Kingdom of God.  A life of the Spirit will look drastically different and beyond the understanding of the world.  “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

That’s an absolutely all-inclusive statement.  A truly “born again” life will be led and motivated and empowered by the One unseen.  That will be the testimony of a truly “born again” person.

This is the foundation of the revelation of the Kingdom of God.  No wonder so many misunderstand and misrepresent it.

Peace.

Posted in misc messages | No Comments »

Seeking First the Kingdom — One Aspect

Monday, January 11th, 2010

For those  of us who claim to love and follow Jesus with all our hearts, one statement bears repeated meditation:  Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking of two different perspectives.  The first perspective is the worldly one where your focus is worrying about your own provision (what you will eat, what you will wear, etc.).  The true and right perspective, in contrast, is a focus on the Kingdom of God and the righteousness that results from that focus.

You prove the focus on the Kingdom or your own worldly needs by the choices you make.  The choices you make prove where your priorities lie, not your words or pieces of paper you may have signed.  Proverbs lets us know that even a child is known for what he does.

One of the many aspects of seeking first the Kingdom of God is making your local fellowship a priority.  Jesus spent the bulk of His time with a select few people.  Sure He ministered and called the multitudes, but there was a special relationship with those that, although they also annoyed Him, ministered to Him as He intimately discipled them.  Jesus even testifies in Luke how they “have continued with Me in my trials.”

Every believer needs a local fellowship that they are intimate with and live life with as a family.  This by nature goes beyond your natural family.  Jesus said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?  Those who do the will of my Father.”  Do we really believe this?  Do we really believe that our true family is our spiritual one, not the one of blood?  Hebrews tells the Church to encourage one another daily to keep from unbelief.  The first church in Acts spent all day every day with one another.

The fact that we live differently than the testimony of those that turned the world upside down should not cause us to seek to justify our own lifestyle but to seek the higher way.

This isn’t about a mental belief but a true conviction that determines our perspective and, by extension, how we make choices.

For many Christians, worldly concerns take precedence over treating their local fellowship like a family.  But Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us.  The greatest expression of the Kingdom of God is in His people, and if your investment and focus and priority is there, these other worldly concerns will be taken care of.

A couple more scriptures before we get a little practical.  Jesus says that those that give up these worldly things (houses, lands, family) for Him will receive a hundred fold in THIS LIFE and in THE LIFE TO COME.  So often we hold onto these worldly concerns under a pseudo Christian idea of being a “good steward” and miss the greatest return investment we could imagine.  Ask any investor how much you should invest in an opportunity that truly guarantees a hundredfold profit … they would say everything.

In the parable of the soils, one of the plants was choked out by “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches”.  This creates an unfruitful plant.  And it can be scary what Jesus does with unfruitful plants.

In the search for the things of this world, many allow themselves to be drawn away from the spiritual family God has for them.  This happens with new jobs that make more more money and take more time.  This happens with new houses that are just a little too far now from the fellowship you felt so intimate with.  All because worldly concerns took precedence.

I wish I could find it now, but I heard a sermon once that I still remember vividly.  This pastor said that his church lost more people to their front yards than to sin.  He explained the process.  A man buys a house, usually claiming God’s blessing in his life.  This house is big and nice.  In order to pay for this house, this man has to work a good amount of time during the week, so he doesn’t have time available for the Body and barely enough time for his own family.  Then he’s got the house itself to take care of.  The only time he has to work on the house is on the weekends, so he doesn’t have time to come to Sunday worship times, either.

In some search to have “better things” in life for himself and his family, this man has essentially hid his talent in the ground instead of investing in the most sure way of acquiring true, spiritual and eternal wealth.  You never lose the eternal investments.

Sometimes the new house of the new job takes people physically away from where they fellowship.  The drive, the traffic, becomes too far and people become slowly less involved and have to start “looking for a new church home” … all because they chose to buy a new house.

I’m going to say something that many people won’t agree with and/or won’t like, but it is true.  You shouldn’t choose where to live based on your job or where your physical family lives or the area of town you like or where you found a great deal on the perfect house.  You should choose where you live based on where God has called you to fellowship with other believers as an intimate spiritual family.  This is one very important and overlooked aspect of seeking first the Kingdom.  You must then have faith that other things will “be added to you”.  Instead we seek the worldly things first and think the Kingdom of God and fellowship will be added to us.   Doesn’t work that way.

On to some random thoughts before I close.

So much of our Christian subculture defines us by our flesh and temporal things, and it is tragic.  Many ministries have separate programs based on worldly designations.  Young marrieds.  Singles.  Divorced.  Widows.  Youth.  The elders.  Children.  Personalities.  Political ideas.  Even most churches are racially homogenus.  The larger Christian culture is so segregated that some people actually feel uncomfortable with others not like them.  And they are even encouraged to seek such segregation out by spiritual leaders I can only assume think they are doing something good.

We prove nothing spiritual by being attracted to others who are like us in the flesh. What speaks of Heaven is a people who no longer know one another after the flesh but by the Spirit.  This should be our testimony, but sadly for many, it isn’t.  In fact, giving validity to these concerns keeps us from being spiritually fruitful.  You want to see God teach you and see real discipleship happen in the Body?  Embrace relationships with people who are not like you in the world but are fully committed to Christ and living out the Kingdom and Heaven on earth.  I guarantee it will be uncomfortable, but you’ll end up having a spiritual family based on spiritual things and not because you both like football.

I’ve known people that once they find their spouse, the Body sees less of them, if they see them at all.  Once they have children and a family, the Body must then get squeezed in here and there.  Often in search of being a good father or mother or husband or wife, the Body of Christ gets the raw end of the deal.  Should never happen.

Believe it or not, but this principle works here, too.  You want to be a good husband and father, wife or mother?  Raise your children and love your wife  in context of the Body of Christ as your intimate family.  Include them in your search of the Kingdom above all else.  I speak from experience when I say that the spiritual reward in your family is worth it.

What does it mean to have a hundredfold return on your investment?  This doesn’t mean that if you give money to a ministry God will make you monetarily wealthy.  God might make you monetarily wealthy as you obey Him and seek Him, but that’s not the main principle here.  If you choose the Body over your own career advancement or upward mobility in housing or some other idea of American suburban success, you get more than you gave up.

It is one of the principles of the Kingdom that you cannot give more than you get.  Becca and I have spiritual family around the world, people we feel just as close to, if not closer, than our own family.  We have a fellowship now that fills homes and, more importantly, our hearts with love and support and challenge and encouragement and even rebuke at times.  There are homes around the world that are as open to us as our own physical family might be, if not more.

I’ve lost my job and my family has not wanted for a thing.  The Body has been more of a support to us than the government ever could be.

I can tell you with all honesty that I will probably not die materially wealthy, but I am the richest man I know.

As a final aside, I know many of my military friends might be frustrated with some of this teaching because much of their choices are made for them, especially where they are stationed.  But for many of you, I know you well enough, that those choices you do have prove that you understand this more than you think.  And when the time comes that even that choice is open for you to make, remember the things I’ve said if they ring true to you.

Congrats if you made it to the end of this post!  It was a long one.  Love God and His people above all else.

Peace.

Posted in misc messages, shared life | No Comments »