Episode 38
The Kingdom Was The Message Then. It Still Is Today
What if the primary message of Jesus wasn’t personal salvation or the afterlife, but something far bigger—something present and active right now? This episode dives deep into the oft-overlooked theme of the kingdom of God, exploring what Jesus really meant when he talked about the kingdom over a hundred times in the Gospels. Discover why this message is still central today, how it changes our understanding of faith, and what it looks like to live as a citizen of the kingdom right where you are. If you’re ready to rethink what it means to follow Jesus, this episode will challenge and inspire you.
"The kingdom of God is wherever God is allowed to rule and reign." - Tim Winders
Access all show and episode resources HERE
Episode Resources:
- NT90 Hub – This is the central website for the 90-day New Testament reading plan, with downloadable, printable plans, background information, and links to all episodes and resources.
Episode Highlights:
00:00 Kingdom Central Message
00:41 Series Setup and Reading Plan
02:15 Episode Focus Kingdom Today
05:20 Jesus and Kingdom Priority
09:17 Kingdom Means Reign
11:56 Where God Is Allowed
15:25 Kingdom At Hand Now
19:17 Apostles Preached Kingdom
21:59 Already Transferred In
25:18 Kingdom Keeps Expanding
26:21 From Customers to Citizens
29:12 Kingdom Living Practices
30:14 No Temple No Priest Class
32:16 Letters as Kingdom Instructions
32:46 End Times Means Action
34:00 Kingdom Ethics Checklist
36:36 Hope Beyond Escape
42:09 Kingdom Already Here
44:26 Grief Over Lost Rapture
45:52 Reading Scripture In Context
46:55 What Kingdom Meant Then
48:33 Modern Misread Consequences
49:50 Kingdom Hope Today
50:14 Four Areas Of Impact
50:29 People Over Tribalism
51:09 No New Priest Class
52:11 Politics Under King Jesus
53:24 Kingdom At Work
55:01 Kingdom Message Recap
55:58 Next Episode Women Leaders
56:57 Read And Count Kingdom
58:40 Final Challenge And Sendoff
Transcript
Jesus talked about the kingdom of God more than any other subject, more than sin.
Speaker:More than repentance.
Speaker:More than prayer, more than love.
Speaker:Over 100 times In the Gospels alone, it was one of his first statements.
Speaker:It was his last 40 days with his disciples.
Speaker:After the resurrection, it was the final line of the Book of Acts.
Speaker:Somewhere along the way we changed the subject, but the original
Speaker:message is still there, and it is better than what replaced it.
Speaker:Welcome to Seek, go Create.
Speaker:I'm Tim Winders.
Speaker:I recently read the entire New Testament in 90 days in the order that it was
Speaker:written, not the order in the Bible, not the order that most of us have
Speaker:that we've read for years and years.
Speaker:This was the order that the letters actually went out to the people that
Speaker:were reading it to the audience.
Speaker:What I found was really challenging to me, surprised me at times.
Speaker:It really just opened up a lot of doors for me to think in different ways,
Speaker:change the way I understand scripture.
Speaker:In many ways, this series is sort of a follow up where I share those discoveries
Speaker:with you and I'm really just sharing them.
Speaker:I'm not trying to create doctrine or dogma, but I am
Speaker:saying, this is what I found.
Speaker:Some things that are in the scriptures, some things that
Speaker:are not in the scriptures.
Speaker:If you would like to do what I did, I really encourage you.
Speaker:To do that, the reading plan is free.
Speaker:just go to K2 m Foundation slash NT 90.
Speaker:You could download it, you could read along, you could read at
Speaker:your own pace, see what you find.
Speaker:The link is down in the show notes.
Speaker:Again, a lot of what the series is all about here are topics, items, things that
Speaker:came up while I was reading it in context.
Speaker:I challenge you to do the same.
Speaker:I think it'll be very helpful to your spiritual growth and your ability
Speaker:to understand, especially the New Testament, but the Bible in context.
Speaker:Alright, now this episode is one of my favorites.
Speaker:The title that I've given it is The Kingdom, was the Message then, and it
Speaker:still is the message today and really speaking about the Kingdom of God
Speaker:and what I wanna do, this is sort of picking up, it's a little bit of a.
Speaker:The next step after the last episode we did where we talked about the Bible as a
Speaker:love story betrothal, you know, the home that was built, unfaithfulness divorce, a
Speaker:new covenant of bridegroom across the 70 ad event, and then a wedding at the end.
Speaker:And then at the end of that episode, if you haven't listened
Speaker:to it, maybe circle back at some point I closed with a question.
Speaker:If the old marriage is over and the new one is already underway, then what is
Speaker:God actually doing now 2000 years later?
Speaker:How do we fit into that story, especially if much of what we saw occurred.
Speaker:During that timeframe, during that first century.
Speaker:So This episode is the first part of the answer, and the answer starts
Speaker:with a word we do not use very much in church, even though Jesus used it
Speaker:constantly in that word is the kingdom.
Speaker:And I'll even say that probably in our society and culture today, we don't really
Speaker:even understand that word that much.
Speaker:I did a few years back, I was in Bible school, I did a detailed study
Speaker:on the Kingdom of God, Matthew 6 33.
Speaker:Jesus says, seek you first the kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all
Speaker:these things will be added unto you.
Speaker:And so I kind of took that as a challenge.
Speaker:I studied it, it really took me a few years.
Speaker:I'll share a few things about that here in this episode.
Speaker:But, in Olivet Tree where I did the searches and some of the research, kingdom
Speaker:of God actually appears 69 times in the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven, which is
Speaker:fairly interchangeable, appears 31 times.
Speaker:That's 100, 100 plus references.
Speaker:And when you look at the 104 plus verses that contain those references,
Speaker:Jesus is the speaker in 74.
Speaker:Of those, that's 71% For someone who likes to do some math like that, more
Speaker:than sin, more than repentance, more than prayer, more than love, more
Speaker:than all of those listen to this, more than all of those combined.
Speaker:I'm not saying those aren't important.
Speaker:We've touched on many of those already in the, in the series
Speaker:that we're doing, but I, I think we have to look at context here.
Speaker:If something is mentioned that much, it must mean something.
Speaker:So let's look at Mark one 14 through 15.
Speaker:One of Jesus's first public statements, one sentence.
Speaker:The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Speaker:Repent and believe in the gospel.
Speaker:The good news is that the kingdom has arrived, and of course it arrived.
Speaker:With his arrival on the scene in Luke 4 43, I must preach the good news of the
Speaker:kingdom of God to the other towns as well for I was sent for this purpose.
Speaker:Kind of fascinating there.
Speaker:If one is asked, what was the purpose for Jesus coming, he actually says he
Speaker:was sent for the purpose of preaching, the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:The kingdom is why he came.
Speaker:And then the one I just mentioned earlier, Matthew 6 33, seek
Speaker:first the kingdom of God.
Speaker:Did Jesus put anything else first?
Speaker:I can't find it.
Speaker:So no, this is.
Speaker:This is a priority.
Speaker:And the Greek word for seek is eo.
Speaker:It means to strive, to find, to pursue, not passive, not just sort
Speaker:of accept it and take it as is.
Speaker:It is pursue.
Speaker:It is to go after the kingdom of God and then to do it first is proton
Speaker:emphatically before everything else.
Speaker:So I think, if we're gonna take Jesus at what he says, then
Speaker:let's go to Acts one, three.
Speaker:After the resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with the disciples, quote,
Speaker:speaking about the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:End quote.
Speaker:That was the curriculum.
Speaker:That was the primary thing that they said that he did when he was resurrected
Speaker:and came back to spend 40 days with the group that he was discipling and teaching
Speaker:what they will do after he ascended.
Speaker:That was sort of instructional in Acts 28 31, the last.
Speaker:Line of the book of Acts, Luke is discussing Paul being in Rome, under
Speaker:house arrest, and he says, Paul is proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Speaker:The message that launched in Galilee reached the capital of the empire in Rome.
Speaker:Same subject.
Speaker:And so it must be important if you only had the red letters,
Speaker:that's all you had to read.
Speaker:The kingdom would be the primary subject, not, don't get upset at me here.
Speaker:Not personal salvation, not going to heaven when you die.
Speaker:The kingdom.
Speaker:That is the primary topic of the New Testament.
Speaker:So if it is, then we need to kinda do a little bit of research on it and let's
Speaker:discuss what the kingdom actually meant so that we can understand it a little bit.
Speaker:Again, that was kind of the trigger for my study that I did.
Speaker:If, if Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God, then my thinking
Speaker:was, hmm, maybe I should do that.
Speaker:And to do that, maybe I need to try to understand what it is.
Speaker:Now, one key thing that I'm gonna mention right here, and we'll get into
Speaker:it as we go through this, it is a rain.
Speaker:It is not a place, it's not a location.
Speaker:Going back to the first century.
Speaker:It was then not later.
Speaker:And we're going to look at that here over the next few minutes.
Speaker:So we need to sort of reframe the word or understand what the word means
Speaker:because as I said earlier, I really don't think, especially those of us who
Speaker:live in what we would call a republic or a democracy, I don't know that
Speaker:we understand the kingdom with the king and we are subject to the king.
Speaker:And it is a kingdom without boundaries, without geographic
Speaker:locations or anything like that.
Speaker:So let's look at it.
Speaker:Most of us hear kingdom and we, we try to picture a place,
Speaker:a location, a destination.
Speaker:That's not really what the word meant.
Speaker:The Greek word is by Celia.
Speaker:Baier, I hope I pronounce that right.
Speaker:It means royal dominion and rain.
Speaker:Less about geography.
Speaker:I guess it could have a geography, but it doesn't really seem to,
Speaker:when Jesus speaks about it, it's more about who is on the throne and
Speaker:then who is part of the kingdom.
Speaker:Again, I, I'd said this earlier, I did a real detailed study.
Speaker:What I did was I took every scripture, all 104 scriptures
Speaker:that mentioned the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:Kingdom of Heaven, a few years ago.
Speaker:It's actually close to 10 plus years ago now.
Speaker:It was in my second year of Bible school.
Speaker:And I, this was an independent study.
Speaker:I wasn't doing it for any project or anything.
Speaker:I just felt like I needed to do it on my own.
Speaker:And it was, over the course of a few years, I took each of the, scriptures.
Speaker:I wrote it out long form.
Speaker:I studied the Greek.
Speaker:I wrote out some of the Greek words, not that I understood them any better,
Speaker:but it sort of helped me a little bit.
Speaker:And I kinda meditated.
Speaker:I kind of did some research on each one, and I really attempted
Speaker:to understand what the kingdom of God really, really was and is.
Speaker:And here's.
Speaker:Something.
Speaker:I don't think this is gonna be controversial, but here's the working
Speaker:definition, the kinda the definition that I came up with so that I could
Speaker:understand the kingdom of God better.
Speaker:So here goes the kingdom of God is wherever God is allowed to rule.
Speaker:And reign.
Speaker:Now I've gotta tell you, I know that some of you are going to be
Speaker:uncomfortable with that word aloud.
Speaker:I know it might bother you.
Speaker:Some of you're going, well, God is sovereign.
Speaker:He wants to rule in reign.
Speaker:He can rule and reign.
Speaker:Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker:But there are scriptures and there are patterns.
Speaker:And it seems as if the nature of God is not to do that with groups of people.
Speaker:And I've got an example or two I'll show you in just a second, and it, no,
Speaker:it might bother you and that's fine.
Speaker:I think y'all might have figured out by now that Tim has a tendency
Speaker:to think just a little bit differently than everyone else.
Speaker:And I don't follow tradition and I sort of like to just bust that stuff up.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:I'm also willing to admit I could be wrong.
Speaker:I'm okay with that.
Speaker:This is just something that I've used to define it so I could.
Speaker:Kind of wrap my head around it a little bit more, but here's why I chose it.
Speaker:Let's go back to First Samuel eight, seven.
Speaker:Many of you probably know the story.
Speaker:It was when Israel looked around at all of the areas and countries and
Speaker:kingdoms around them, and they all had a king, and they only had a prophet.
Speaker:They had Samuel and the people of Israel basically demanded a human king.
Speaker:And God and Samuel went to God and mentioned that, and God told
Speaker:Samuel this, this is a quote from God in, one Samuel, eight, seven.
Speaker:They have not rejected you speaking to Samuel.
Speaker:They have rejected me from being king over them Now.
Speaker:W. My interpretation is the nation of Israel did not allow God who
Speaker:wanted to rule and reign over them.
Speaker:They didn't allow him to rule and reign over them.
Speaker:He was not allowed to reign, and we see examples of that in other places.
Speaker:Let's look at Matthew 2337.
Speaker:Jesus said how often I wanted to gather your children together
Speaker:and you were not willing.
Speaker:You didn't allow me to.
Speaker:The invitation was real.
Speaker:The refusal was real.
Speaker:God never stops being sovereign, but some people use this
Speaker:term that God's a gentleman.
Speaker:I'm not sure that I'll use that word, but there are certain things
Speaker:that it seems as if he allows us.
Speaker:To kinda go down this path.
Speaker:I don't know if it's to learn a lesson or to prove a point.
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:I'm not gonna pretend to figure out that I understand the total nature of God,
Speaker:but I do know that it seems as if the kingdom of God is that, that that place,
Speaker:wherever God is allowed to rule and reign, and I could back that up with scripture.
Speaker:So anyway, the kingdom, the experience of his rule shows up.
Speaker:Wherever people seem to say yes to it.
Speaker:And again, the Bible is full of stories where they unfortunately
Speaker:said, no, that's not what we wanna do.
Speaker:And we're gonna talk about that as this episode unfolds.
Speaker:When Jesus said the kingdom of God is at hand, he was not saying heaven
Speaker:is about to drop out of the sky.
Speaker:He was saying the rain of God is arriving almost as if, almost as
Speaker:if heaven is coming and meeting Earth and joining with Earth.
Speaker:As he stepped onto that place in the Middle East, it was almost like he was
Speaker:bringing that with him and it was going to commingle, interact with this, this
Speaker:place which is earth, almost like an.
Speaker:Sort of a Garden of Eden.
Speaker:We'll see different things later as we get into Revelation
Speaker:that we've talked about before.
Speaker:But anyway, the reign of God is arriving.
Speaker:That's what Jesus said.
Speaker:The one true king is taking his place in that kingdom in Luke 1720 through 21.
Speaker:The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say,
Speaker:look, here it is, or there for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
Speaker:Jesus was speaking them as he was standing there in their midst.
Speaker:Not a place on a map, a reality that shows up.
Speaker:Wherever the king is at work and present and you know, the timing was not distant.
Speaker:Many people speak of some kind of distant future kingdom of God.
Speaker:The phrase that Jesus uses over and over is at hand.
Speaker:We looked in previous episodes that he talked about this generation.
Speaker:This generation was obviously very immediate and now, and being
Speaker:at hand is near, it's arrived.
Speaker:It's within reach.
Speaker:The Greek word is ekin, E-G-G-I-K-E-N.
Speaker:I may not have pronounced that right, but it means near arrived
Speaker:within reach in Matthew 1628.
Speaker:The quote here is there are some standing here who will not taste death
Speaker:until they see the son of man coming.
Speaker:In his kingdom inside a lifetime.
Speaker:He spoke at many other times, this generation that was in a previous
Speaker:episode, not 2000 years later.
Speaker:Then to that group of people that was standing in front of him, he
Speaker:probably spoke that around 30 AD roughly give or take a year or so,
Speaker:and we now know historically that he came with that 70 ad event.
Speaker:That was the judgment on Israel and Jerusalem that destroyed the
Speaker:temple that he spoke about in the vet discourse in Matthew 24.
Speaker:We've been talking about that.
Speaker:Circle back and look at those episodes where we mentioned that
Speaker:after the resurrection, we mentioned this earlier in Acts one, three.
Speaker:It tells us that Jesus spent 40 days speaking about the kingdom.
Speaker:That was the final teaching and curriculum that he wanted to share with his
Speaker:disciples, with those that he knew would be going out and sharing the gospel.
Speaker:The good news, the message.
Speaker:It was the message of the kingdom.
Speaker:His kingdom, the kingdom of God.
Speaker:It wasn't about eschatology charts or the future.
Speaker:It was the kingdom.
Speaker:The kingdom of God.
Speaker:So let's talk about kind of the timing of the kingdom and, and
Speaker:what it meant and what it means.
Speaker:The apostles basically carried that kingdom from that message, or fir
Speaker:from that first portion in Acts.
Speaker:So let's kind of move a little bit ahead here.
Speaker:Let's look at Acts.
Speaker:Eight 12.
Speaker:I'll try to give as much scripture as possible to back this up so it's
Speaker:not just Tim trying to tell a story here about the kingdom of God.
Speaker:There is plenty of scripture, and in many ways, like we talked about
Speaker:in the previous episode, the story of the entire Bible is a love story.
Speaker:The story of the New Testament is the kingdom of God and that piece
Speaker:that it has in that bigger story.
Speaker:Acts eight 12, Philip in Samaria says, good news about the kingdom of God.
Speaker:In Acts 19 eight, Paul is in Ephesus three months, and he was reasoning and
Speaker:persuading them about the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:Acts 2025, Paul to the Ephesian elder said, I went
Speaker:about proclaiming the kingdom.
Speaker:In Acts 28 31, the Book of Acts ends the last scripture that we just said earlier.
Speaker:He's proclaiming the kingdom while he is under house arrest.
Speaker:That is the last line in the book of Acts, not the cross alone, not just the
Speaker:resurrection alone, the kingdom, the expanding and growing kingdom, the present
Speaker:kingdom, and it was already in place.
Speaker:It wasn't something they were necessarily waiting on.
Speaker:So important because in many theologies, in many systems that are
Speaker:taught now, there is this, I guess this theory or this, belief that the
Speaker:kingdom wasn't then, it hasn't been for the last few thousand years that
Speaker:whatever might be coming is something that will be coming and that kingdom
Speaker:will then be ushered in after that.
Speaker:What the scripture says when you read it in context, it actually
Speaker:says it was there then and that is what we wanna look at now.
Speaker:It's something that most people have never heard.
Speaker:I know I didn't until I immersed myself in it and then went through this New
Speaker:Testament reading in order and context.
Speaker:Alright, let's look at Colossians one 13.
Speaker:Listen to the.
Speaker:Tense of these next few verses.
Speaker:In Colossians one 13, he has delivered us from the domain of
Speaker:darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.
Speaker:Past tense, completed.
Speaker:Action.
Speaker:This was, this was written in the early sixties ad, okay?
Speaker:This was not something that was hundreds or thousands of years later.
Speaker:It was then 30 something years after the cross, just a few years before
Speaker:the destruction of the temple.
Speaker:Let's look at Hebrews 1228, written about AD 63.
Speaker:Let us Hebrews 1228.
Speaker:Again, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
Speaker:present tense, then in the early sixties of the first century, and
Speaker:then let's go to Revelation one, six.
Speaker:I've got that timestamped written around 68 ad, so about five years after Hebrews.
Speaker:Jesus, and this is what it says.
Speaker:Jesus made us a kingdom priests to his God and Father.
Speaker:That's past tense.
Speaker:Now here's another one, one Peter two, nine.
Speaker:You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
Speaker:kingdom present tense identity.
Speaker:That was first Peter speaking to people in the mid sixties, that
Speaker:they were present tense, a royal priesthood and a holy nation.
Speaker:The kingdom is not a waiting room according to these verses.
Speaker:If you are in Christ.
Speaker:You are already in the kingdom.
Speaker:You have already been transferred.
Speaker:You have stamped your citizenship and your passport as a
Speaker:citizen of the kingdom of God.
Speaker:Now, is that kingdom continuing to grow and expand?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We'll talk about that in just a moment, but these people in
Speaker:the sixties of the first century were part of the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:The only question that we have that they had, and we're gonna look at this in
Speaker:just a little bit, is whether your living like it or not, because it's interesting.
Speaker:If you don't know, you're in the kingdom.
Speaker:Then it might be difficult for you to act and live like you're in that kingdom.
Speaker:You've got a passport that says you're in it, but you never use
Speaker:that passport to go to that country so that you can live it out.
Speaker:So, uh, we'll look at that in just a moment.
Speaker:The kingdom is still growing.
Speaker:Jesus described that.
Speaker:He said it, he says it's like a mustard seed in Matthew 1331 through 32.
Speaker:It's like leave in dough.
Speaker:That's continuing to expand in Matthew 1333.
Speaker:It arrived and it keeps expanding.
Speaker:Wherever people say yes to the king.
Speaker:It is a kingdom that has no geographic boundaries.
Speaker:It's not as if we can overpopulate a country or a nation.
Speaker:It has plenty of space for everyone to be welcomed into to get that
Speaker:passport into that kingdom.
Speaker:but here's what's interesting.
Speaker:The default posture is not you're hoping to get in someday.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:You are already in, you're already in it.
Speaker:Act like it, receive that citizenship.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's talk about kinda some things that have changed and
Speaker:why we may struggle with this.
Speaker:We're not gonna get into a ton of detail here, but somewhere between that Acts
Speaker:28, that was probably in the early sixties of the first century, and then
Speaker:those last few books that were written in the New Testament that were up until
Speaker:the 70 ad event that occurred somewhere between there and the modern altar
Speaker:call that we all experienced today.
Speaker:The subject changed for some reason over church history.
Speaker:There was this evolution that occurred, and I've talked a little bit about it
Speaker:in the past, but how it happened is a longer story we're not gonna get again.
Speaker:We're not going to get into that here, but the result is that the kingdom,
Speaker:which was that big message of the New Testament, it sort of became only about
Speaker:the afterlife heaven and the gospel got shrunk to a personal transaction.
Speaker:The original message, as we've been talking about, was much bigger
Speaker:and it was much better, and it is still right there in the text.
Speaker:We just stopped reading it in context as the main point.
Speaker:Thy Kingdom come that Jesus spoke, you know, in the first, second, third
Speaker:year of his ministry in the, you know, late twenties, early thirties, that
Speaker:we kinda look at it as some hopeful thing for something in the future.
Speaker:Jesus spoke it then and it came shortly after that.
Speaker:We say it on Sundays and then we go back to talking about something else.
Speaker:Instead of really looking at the scripture and realizing the kingdom came, it's been
Speaker:expanding and we live and can operate in it on a daily basis now and today.
Speaker:Okay, now let's look at something that's a bit of a shift, because if you're a
Speaker:citizen instead of what I'm going to call a customer, then things change.
Speaker:Things are different.
Speaker:Citizens operate differently than just tourists that show up somewhere or
Speaker:customers, and many of us have become customers in the modern church world that
Speaker:exist today, but we really need to be thinking more like citizens and let's look
Speaker:at what changes when you are already in.
Speaker:And this is kinda where I believe it's extremely positive.
Speaker:If you're already in the kingdom, then the question changes.
Speaker:It isn't how do I get in or how do I stay in, it's, how do I live like
Speaker:a citizen with the full benefits of citizenship where I already am?
Speaker:Jesus answered that question constantly.
Speaker:Love God.
Speaker:Love your neighbor.
Speaker:Forgive.
Speaker:Serve instead of dominating.
Speaker:Seek the kingdom first.
Speaker:Make peace bear fruit steward what you have been given.
Speaker:These are, those are not bonus level Christianity things.
Speaker:That is the life of a kingdom citizen.
Speaker:Notice what is not on that list.
Speaker:Attendance, tithing as a command, voting a certain way, completing
Speaker:some kind of membership class.
Speaker:Not one of those is on the list that Jesus, that Jesus shared.
Speaker:The kingdom does not require a building.
Speaker:The temple is gone a few years later in 70 ad it's gone.
Speaker:There is no temple and we've spent thousands of years attempting to
Speaker:rebuild it and get back into a temple.
Speaker:It is not there.
Speaker:I'm not saying we don't have to have it, but it is not a requirement.
Speaker:The kingdom of God is everywhere that we are.
Speaker:The temple is gone.
Speaker:And you are in the temple now.
Speaker:It says that in one Corinthians three 16, the kingdom does not require,
Speaker:this is very, very important.
Speaker:It does not require a professional paid priest class of people every believer.
Speaker:Is a priest.
Speaker:It says in one Peter two, nine, the access to the king is direct.
Speaker:You do not have to go through someone to get.
Speaker:To the king.
Speaker:You do not have to give repentance or forgiveness to a priest.
Speaker:You do not have to go through a pastor, preacher, teacher.
Speaker:I'm not not, I'm not saying that those are bad.
Speaker:They are not required, and we have put them in a place where many of them we
Speaker:believe are required to get to God.
Speaker:It's also, we spoke about this in the previous episode, why we think
Speaker:often that the building or the person that's doing the teaching, preaching
Speaker:and sharing is the access to God.
Speaker:That is not the case.
Speaker:There is nothing in scripture that says that in the New Testament, the kingdom
Speaker:shows up wherever citizens live, like citizens of the kingdom of God in the
Speaker:workplace, at the dinner table in your neighborhood, a single conversation
Speaker:where forgiveness wins and pride loses.
Speaker:That is what Kingdom conversations look like.
Speaker:Now, let's look at a few instructions that we have, because now if we
Speaker:understand that, we can look at some of the letters and some of the, some
Speaker:of the later books of the Bible.
Speaker:We've already mentioned some things that Jesus said.
Speaker:We can look at some of these items and we can see those now as really
Speaker:what they, what they were, and that was instructions for Kingdom living.
Speaker:That's where we could start taking those things in context and saying, this applies
Speaker:to us because this is Kingdom living.
Speaker:So let's look at some of these and, we're just gonna try to hit some of
Speaker:these real quickly so that we understand what Kingdom Living looks like.
Speaker:Here's the point, even when these writers believed that the end was
Speaker:near and they spoke about it often,
Speaker:The instructions were not to hunker down in wait.
Speaker:they weren't saying it's gonna get horrible, you know, you gotta
Speaker:just hunker down, you know, get a bunch of canned goods and, and
Speaker:you know, hide in the basement.
Speaker:That's not what they were saying.
Speaker:They were to live like citizens right now in the fifties and the
Speaker:sixties when things got pretty darn rough in the first century.
Speaker:Let's look at first Peter four, seven through 10.
Speaker:Peter says it plainly, the end of all things is at hand.
Speaker:And then his very next words are not about escape.
Speaker:They are instructions.
Speaker:Listen to what he says.
Speaker:Be self controlled.
Speaker:Pray above all.
Speaker:Keep loving one another.
Speaker:Earnestly use your gifts to serve each other.
Speaker:The end is near.
Speaker:So love.
Speaker:Harder.
Speaker:That's what Peter says there.
Speaker:Romans 12, nine through 21.
Speaker:Paul's Kingdom, citizen Field, manual love without hypocrisy.
Speaker:Bless those who persecute you.
Speaker:Do not repay evil for evil.
Speaker:Overcome evil with good.
Speaker:If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
Speaker:And then Paul again in Galatians 5 22 through 23, this would've
Speaker:been in the late forties.
Speaker:The fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
Speaker:goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.
Speaker:Self-control, not a checklist.
Speaker:It's a description of what grows when the king is running things and when we, as
Speaker:the subjects of the king are submitting to the king and living the kingdom life.
Speaker:Those are the things we should be seeing, and it should be very visible.
Speaker:Philippians two, three through four, count others more significant than yourselves.
Speaker:Look to their interests, not just your own.
Speaker:That is kingdom economics, and that is just four of them.
Speaker:There's many more in one Peter three, eight to nine.
Speaker:Colossians three, 12 through 14.
Speaker:Ephesians four, one through three.
Speaker:Same message.
Speaker:I won't go through those.
Speaker:You could look those up.
Speaker:Unity, compassion, humility, forgiveness, love.
Speaker:Above all, every letter.
Speaker:Every writer, same instructions.
Speaker:Notice the pattern.
Speaker:Every one of these writers believed they were living in the final
Speaker:chapter, the end of the age.
Speaker:The end times, not one of them said, just wait it out.
Speaker:Every one of them said, live like a citizen.
Speaker:Love people serve.
Speaker:Forgive.
Speaker:Right Now, today, the instructions were never about surviving until the exit.
Speaker:They were about representing the king and the kingdom while you are here.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:That's still the instruction today.
Speaker:That is what continues from that New Testament story that in many
Speaker:ways ended in 70 ad, but that is the carryover that we have.
Speaker:Kingdom instruction
Speaker:Now this is very important.
Speaker:If all of that is the case and much of what is written in the New Testament
Speaker:occurred leading up to those events of 70 ad, then what do we have to hope for and
Speaker:to live for today, 2000 plus years later?
Speaker:Alright, this is interesting to me, and I must admit I have been somewhat.
Speaker:I don't wanna say fascinated, um, surprised taken back by
Speaker:this, uh, this conversation here.
Speaker:And I, and I'm, I'm not gonna be arguing in this situation, but I'm gonna be
Speaker:naming what I've seen people feel and bring up as I've been discussing this
Speaker:topic really for a few years now, but especially as I've gotten into reading
Speaker:the New Testament in context and showing what the text actually says.
Speaker:So I want to go kind slow here, and I want you to really follow along and attempt to
Speaker:get where my heart is coming from here.
Speaker:this is very important because I know what some of you are thinking.
Speaker:If the kingdom is already here and it has been for 2000 plus years and we're
Speaker:already in it, all of us are living in it.
Speaker:If we've accepted what happened at the cross and we've made our citizenship
Speaker:of being in God's kingdom known, that sounds great, but it also raises a
Speaker:question that's sometimes harder to say out loud when people first hear
Speaker:that the New Testament writers were talking about their own generation and
Speaker:that the promises and the prophecies were fulfilled in the first century.
Speaker:The first reaction that many people have is often grief.
Speaker:They're bothered, they're upset.
Speaker:Many people are mad.
Speaker:If you wanna see that anger, go to my social media feed.
Speaker:When you start saying that there is not going to be some kind of future
Speaker:event, a rapture or something.
Speaker:Many people get mad because you are robbing them of something that they
Speaker:have been hoping for for years, for their entire, life of believing.
Speaker:And I've seen it happen.
Speaker:I've experienced it a little bit myself as this unfolded, but my process
Speaker:of going through this has been sort of slow and methodical and deep.
Speaker:But people that I love have felt it.
Speaker:The question sounds something like this, if all these events have occurred and
Speaker:there isn't some second coming event, that's a rapture and we're gonna leave
Speaker:here before tribulation and all those things talked about in the New Testament
Speaker:aren't future items that we're looking at, news stories that is being predicted,
Speaker:then what do we have to hope for?
Speaker:That's what I've been hoping for all my life.
Speaker:I thought Jesus was gonna come back and fix this mess if it
Speaker:already happened, what is left?
Speaker:And that is an honest reaction.
Speaker:I get it and I want to take it seriously because it tells us something important
Speaker:about what we were taught to hope for.
Speaker:I will not say that we were deceived.
Speaker:I will not say that we were brainwashed, but we have been led to believe
Speaker:something that is not in the Bible, and that is very clear when you
Speaker:read it in the proper context and definitely in order for most of us, the
Speaker:hope we were given was an exit plan.
Speaker:We're just going along and we.
Speaker:Now and every generation for the last few hundred years have said this.
Speaker:We are going to be the ones.
Speaker:Things are so bad now that we are going to be taken outta here.
Speaker:Things are then gonna get really bad and a bunch of stuff's gonna happen.
Speaker:We're gonna interpret all that stuff from Revelation and it's gonna get really bad.
Speaker:And then there's going to be some kind of.
Speaker:new plan, new Jerusalem that's going to arrive.
Speaker:Jesus come back.
Speaker:Jesus comes back.
Speaker:Raptors the church, destroys the world and takes us somewhere else.
Speaker:The mess days we leave.
Speaker:That was the promise, but that's not in the Bible.
Speaker:That was never the promise of the kingdom.
Speaker:The kingdom promise was not, I will come and get you out of here.
Speaker:It was my reign is here and you are part of it.
Speaker:We've already looked at those scriptures.
Speaker:We've seen those, those are two completely different kinds of hope.
Speaker:One says, hold on.
Speaker:Endure.
Speaker:Wait it out.
Speaker:There's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker:I gotta come back and take care of it.
Speaker:The other says.
Speaker:You are already a citizen, you're a king, you're a priest of
Speaker:something that cannot be shaken.
Speaker:Live like it, build like it love, like it.
Speaker:Write.
Speaker:Now, Hebrews 1228, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker:I wanna remind you, that was written about 33 years after the cross in 63 ad. Are
Speaker:receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker:Not that there will be a group 2000 years from now that are going to
Speaker:receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker:It was present tense for them, not we will receive, we are receiving.
Speaker:Going back to Colossians one 13, let's relate it again to this topic.
Speaker:He has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son.
Speaker:Already done.
Speaker:It happened.
Speaker:It happened then in Colossians in the early sixties.
Speaker:And yes, there is life beyond this body.
Speaker:I'm not saying there is no heaven.
Speaker:There is nothing beyond.
Speaker:When we stop breathing and our heart stops beating here, Paul says so
Speaker:plainly to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Speaker:Two Corinthians five, eight.
Speaker:Jesus told the man beside him on the cross today, you will be
Speaker:with me in paradise in Luke 2343.
Speaker:One of those.
Speaker:Beautiful scenes in the, in the Bible, so that hope is real.
Speaker:There is a future beyond the life on this earth, in this body.
Speaker:Nobody's taken that away, but even that hope is not really an escape plan.
Speaker:It's the next chapter of a life that already started.
Speaker:We really don't see anyone like Paul and others.
Speaker:Speaking a lot about what happens after they leave that body.
Speaker:Paul mentions it a few times.
Speaker:Peter says he knows it's coming, but they don't really talk about all
Speaker:they're here for is to get to the old buy and buy so that they could
Speaker:punch their ticket and go to heaven.
Speaker:They really are talking about the kingdom.
Speaker:The kingdom life you are living now does not end when your body gives out.
Speaker:It just appears if you read the New Testament in context, it just continues.
Speaker:It's just a continuation.
Speaker:You're not waiting to begin living in the kingdom.
Speaker:You're already in it.
Speaker:The grief people feel I know.
Speaker:It is real.
Speaker:My wife and I had this conversation many times as I was going through this journey.
Speaker:She was somewhat involved with this journey and she sat in tears one
Speaker:morning when we were having coffee.
Speaker:When I was saying, you know, as I read this New Testament and
Speaker:context, and I'm really getting into Revelation, the end of the days, the
Speaker:end of the age, this stuff happened.
Speaker:If you look at history, it has happened.
Speaker:And she says, but what do we have to hope for?
Speaker:She was grieving about it.
Speaker:So if you are, I'm trying to let you know, I'm compassionate for that.
Speaker:But isn't it more important if the scripture, if the Bible is our
Speaker:foundation and we really do believe it is that word of God, it is that
Speaker:message that God has given to us.
Speaker:That we read it in context and understand that we are in that kingdom.
Speaker:I think that grief though, is for a story that was never in the text.
Speaker:It re, it really has been developed and made up over time.
Speaker:The escape plan was added later.
Speaker:We know we've said that that was added in the early 18 hundreds.
Speaker:The kingdom was always the hope and the kingdom is not a someday it is right now.
Speaker:That never stops.
Speaker:Alright?
Speaker:So if we've got that and we know that most people how we kinda
Speaker:got here, most people I did it.
Speaker:Maybe you've done it.
Speaker:We read the Bible backwards.
Speaker:We don't read it in context.
Speaker:We start with today and then we drag the text backwards trying to make it
Speaker:fit what's going on in our world today.
Speaker:But there's better.
Speaker:There are better ways to do it.
Speaker:We've been doing it as we've read in context, looking at what did it mean then?
Speaker:Who is it written to?
Speaker:What actually breaks and goes wrong when we try to force it to today without
Speaker:understanding, but like we're doing here by looking at what is kingdom living?
Speaker:What does it still mean for us when we let the context.
Speaker:Do the work.
Speaker:What does that mean for us?
Speaker:So let's look at what the kingdom meant then so that we can look
Speaker:at what does it mean for us.
Speaker:First century Jews heard Kingdom of God.
Speaker:As a political announcement, I've said this earlier, there were two kingdoms.
Speaker:In existence when Jesus stepped in and said the kingdom of God is at hand.
Speaker:There was that World Kingdom, which was Rome, and then there was that
Speaker:covenant kingdom, which existed at that time, which was, the, the nation
Speaker:of Israel and the what we now call the Old Covenant, the Sinai Covenant.
Speaker:So it was really a political announcement.
Speaker:The reign of the God of Israel is arriving.
Speaker:Things are about to change.
Speaker:The Promised King is in the process of taking his throne.
Speaker:Gentiles heard kingdom against Caesar.
Speaker:Caesar was called Lord Savior, son of God.
Speaker:That's what they called Caesar.
Speaker:The followers of Jesus used those exact.
Speaker:Words about him.
Speaker:It was a direct challenge when you said that about Jesus.
Speaker:It was a direct challenge to the Roman emperor.
Speaker:Nobody heard Kingdom as heaven when you die.
Speaker:They heard the arrival of a reign with real implications.
Speaker:We even see the disciples thinking that Jesus was gonna set up some
Speaker:kind of kingdom and they were fighting amongst themselves for
Speaker:positions within that kingdom.
Speaker:They did have it wrong.
Speaker:The kingdom did look a little different than they thought, but they really
Speaker:did think a new kingdom is coming.
Speaker:Now let's look at where the modern people, we misread and we sort of
Speaker:mess up the text when we do this.
Speaker:When we source kingdom to mean the place you go after you die,
Speaker:the urgency collapses at hand.
Speaker:Means nothing to us in your midst becomes a sort of a riddle.
Speaker:It just doesn't make sense.
Speaker:Already transferred.
Speaker:Makes no sense at all.
Speaker:And also, the ethics kind of collapse too.
Speaker:If the kingdom is only later, none of its claims apply right
Speaker:now or right then or now.
Speaker:For us, the context does not.
Speaker:Erase the personal dimension of it.
Speaker:It actually restores it, in my opinion.
Speaker:It makes it more powerful.
Speaker:The kingdom includes you that ever growing, that now Everlasting Kingdom
Speaker:that's been in place for 2000 years, it doesn't just stop with you.
Speaker:We step into it and it has been going on and it will continue
Speaker:regardless of the condition or state that we are in living on this.
Speaker:Earth or beyond this Earth.
Speaker:Alright, so let's, start wrapping this up with what it still means for us.
Speaker:There's some bigger topics here, but I'm gonna try to address at least
Speaker:a few of them because I do want us to start looking at, if we've been
Speaker:looking at context and all that went on with the New Testament in that first
Speaker:century, let's start pulling 2000 years later, what it still means for us.
Speaker:And, really there's four areas that I wanna look at here.
Speaker:And, this is sort of the hope section is kinda what I wanna look at.
Speaker:And, here's the first one.
Speaker:And I believe this is kind of foundational and we know that
Speaker:this is what Jesus spoke about.
Speaker:It's how we treat.
Speaker:People.
Speaker:Kingdom citizenship means every person carries the image of the king.
Speaker:We represent the king.
Speaker:tribal lines, political labels, religious camps.
Speaker:That's what the Pharisees did.
Speaker:Jesus spoke against that.
Speaker:Jesus erased.
Speaker:Those lines.
Speaker:There really are no barriers and divisions once you step into the kingdom of God.
Speaker:There's a lot more to that, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Speaker:It also impacts how we do what many call religion.
Speaker:If the kingdom is here and the veil has been torn, we do not need a new
Speaker:priest class or even a new temple.
Speaker:Any practice that puts a human gatekeeper between a believer
Speaker:and the king is the old system.
Speaker:Attempting to come back.
Speaker:And we do not live within that system.
Speaker:That was the old covenant, the old system.
Speaker:And that is not what the kingdom is about.
Speaker:And Jesus said that that was really what the Sermon on the Mount was all about.
Speaker:He shook that to its core.
Speaker:And and that's powerful and we need to understand that.
Speaker:So how we do religion or how we interact, really it's how we remove religion and,
Speaker:and we don't really have religion now.
Speaker:We have a citizenship within a kingdom.
Speaker:And let's talk about one that might be a little bit controversial.
Speaker:Politics.
Speaker:Jesus' King, period.
Speaker:And that makes it relative to every earthly political loyalty.
Speaker:Over time, the Kingdom of Rome fell.
Speaker:All other kingdoms have fallen.
Speaker:Those of us, many of us listening to this, are in the United States of America.
Speaker:This may not be a popular statement.
Speaker:The United States Kingdom will fall.
Speaker:It will, it's only a matter of time.
Speaker:That's historical.
Speaker:We've seen that time and time again.
Speaker:The kingdom still stands.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Participate in where you live, vote, engage, care about people, but just
Speaker:do not confuse the kingdom of God with the political party or the leadership
Speaker:within a country that you're living in.
Speaker:The kingdom of God is bigger.
Speaker:It plays by different rules and it's, it's got a different.
Speaker:Leader, act like it and live like it.
Speaker:And then this is kinda my arena.
Speaker:Business and work kingdom leadership is foot washing as
Speaker:an identity, not a technique.
Speaker:Look at how you run your work, how you lead, how you live.
Speaker:Where does it look like Jesus?
Speaker:And then where does it look like that Roman Caesar kingdom.
Speaker:Unfortunately, I know many of us have this tendency to slip into that kingdom of the
Speaker:world mindset when it comes to business instead of bringing that citizenship
Speaker:that we have as Kingdom of God citizens into our workplace, into our businesses.
Speaker:I will tell you it's not easy.
Speaker:I've talked about it before here on the podcast.
Speaker:In fact, many ways what I've attempted to do over the last 300 or so episodes
Speaker:is talk about what that looks like by interviewing leaders that are,
Speaker:that are faith driven leaders, is kind of the term I've used.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The kingdom is not just a nice idea for later.
Speaker:It is a real reign with real implications for how you treat people today and how
Speaker:you do what they call religion this week.
Speaker:How you vote in the fall of the year, and how you led or interacted with people
Speaker:last week, and you will this next week in your workplace, in your business,
Speaker:wherever you live most of the time.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's, uh, let's just kind of finish up here.
Speaker:The kingdom was the message period.
Speaker:It was one of Jesus's first statements.
Speaker:It was his main topic.
Speaker:It was what he spent 40 days on after the resurrection.
Speaker:Like we said earlier, it was the last line in the book of Acts.
Speaker:Somewhere along the way we.
Speaker:Changed it, but the original message is still there and it is so much
Speaker:better than what we replaced it with.
Speaker:The hope was never an escape plan.
Speaker:It wasn't to be taken away from here, and Jesus come back and fix it.
Speaker:Jesus fixed it and established it 2000 years ago.
Speaker:The hope was always the king reigns and you have the
Speaker:opportunity to live in his kingdom.
Speaker:The question is how you're going to live there on a day today basis.
Speaker:Alright, the next episode, I gotta give you a glimpse of this.
Speaker:This one's gonna be fun.
Speaker:We're going to look at something.
Speaker:The New Testament shows clearly that the later church worked hard to hide.
Speaker:Women were leading.
Speaker:I actually believe this is powerful for the Kingdom of God.
Speaker:Women were leading.
Speaker:In the first century, church and women in many ways were second class citizens
Speaker:in Rome, and they were often second class citizens in that temple structure.
Speaker:The kingdom of God that Jesus brought, and we see this in the scriptures, but
Speaker:we've sort of suppressed it ourselves.
Speaker:They were leading, I believe they were writing, they were teaching, they
Speaker:were hosting gatherings in churches.
Speaker:They were being named as apostles.
Speaker:That is the fine episode that we're going to get into the next time.
Speaker:Here's what I wanna leave you with.
Speaker:Don't take my word for it.
Speaker:I've said this time and time again, read this for yourself.
Speaker:Start counting the word kingdom as you go.
Speaker:That is the message.
Speaker:By the time you finish the gospels, this subject will not be in
Speaker:question again, go get the reading plan that I've talked about here.
Speaker:It's at K two M Foundation slash NT 90.
Speaker:That is really a product of these studies that I've been doing, and then once
Speaker:I created it and then went back and did that myself, it has so emphasized
Speaker:the incredible hope that we have, not the fear, but the hope that we have
Speaker:of a mighty kingdom that Jesus Christ rules and reigns in and has been doing
Speaker:that for thousands of years, and we get to participate and live in that.
Speaker:I am confident that you will see that.
Speaker:If you read the New Testament and context in order, and you could get that reading
Speaker:plan at K two M Foundation slash NT 90.
Speaker:If you question it, please just read it.
Speaker:Do the study.
Speaker:It might take some time for this to grow inside you like that yeast, but as it
Speaker:does, you're going to be so hopeful.
Speaker:You'll see the world around you in such a different light.
Speaker:I can guarantee you I do.
Speaker:And so I challenge you to do that.
Speaker:Download it, start doing it, and if what you find doesn't match what you
Speaker:were taught, pay attention to that.
Speaker:This is Tim Winders.
Speaker:This is seek, go, create, keep digging, and keep pressing into the kingdom of God.
Speaker:It is powerful.
Speaker:Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Speaker:See you on the next episode.
