Jesus: The King Comes With His Kingdom
Entering Conversation
This is the final scheduled week of our Spring Term! Take a moment to talk together about your group’s plan for the summer, whether you will continue to meet in any way, how often, etc. Depending on your group, make sure expectations are clear and members feel free to step away for the summer.
Read this Sermon Recap
Chapter 3: Jesus
This is the 4th sermon in our 6-part series on the Story of the Kingdom. We’ve seen already how the kingdom was first established at Creation, but God’s rule was rejected at the Fall. Even in the mess of our own making, God came and called the people of Israel to himself, intending for them to demonstrate His intentions for humanity as a kingdom of priests. But Israel, too, rejected the good rule of God in favor of self-rule, to their own harm.
Just as God spoke in the beginning to create all things, just as God’s promise to Abraham brought a new nation (Israel) into being, so God’s word continues to accomplish his purposes. In Jesus, we encounter the Word made flesh, who came to announce that the kingdom of God arrived in his very person.
The kingdom as revealed in Jesus is presented by the 4 gospel writers, each with a different emphasis. Four perspectives, but one story, like different camera angles of the same event.
Matthew shows us the kingdom of heaven taking root. If at the fall, the fabric of heaven and earth was ripped into 2 pieces, Jesus now unites heaven to earth again. Matthew shows Jesus preaching on the mountainside, presenting a re-imagined vision of the kingdom, then inviting us to join Jesus in praying, “May your kingdom come…”
Mark’s view of the kingdom arrives like a powerful thunderstorm. Mark introduces Jesus as the “son of God”, a title which was only used in the 1st century for Rome’s Caesar – a clear confrontation. But Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of Man. Far from being a merely humble title, this identity points back to the prophecies of Daniel 7, showing the Son of Man receiving an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14).
Jesus uses his authority and power not to rule, but to serve. Not to overthrow the Roman Empire, but to crush the more insidious empire of autonomy within human hearts. Provocatively, Mark’s gospel ends feeling unfinished, as if to ask the reader what will you do in light of this kingdom announced by Jesus.
In Luke’s gospel, we encounter a kingdom that is for those in the margins. We meet Mary, a Jewish teenage girl who marvels at what God has chosen to do through her. Throughout, we see how the kingdom of God is brought by Jesus to those in the cultural margins: a Roman ruler, a widow’s son, many women disciples, children held up as models of faith.
Even Zacchaeus, a corrupt rich man who gained wealth by exploiting the Jewish people, isn’t canceled from a distance. Jesus draws near to him and draws him to himself. We are confronted with the scandal of grace, with the unsettling vision of a kingdom that announces a revolutionary gospel.
Finally, in John, we encounter the beauty of life in the kingdom. Eternal life is not about duration, but rather dimension. The gospel is not about merely having our sins forgiven, but about entering the kingdom of God and learning to live in it.
In every one of these portrayals, we encounter the one persistent, tender voice of Jesus saying, “Come, follow me.”
This Evenings Practice
Use your time this week to listen to each other, to hear how you are encountering and processing this story of the kingdom. Feel free to use any of the following if it is helpful:
What stood out to you on Sunday or in this series?
Has anything challenged the way you have understood what it means to be a follower of Jesus?
Where do you see the kingdom of heaven taking root in your everyday life?
Have you felt confronted in any way by the image of Jesus as king?
Is the vision of Jesus’ kingdom re-drawing any boundary lines for you?
Is there a place where you feel Jesus calling to you?