God's Big Picture: The Present Kingdom
God's Big Picture • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:44
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· 221 viewsJesus is the fulfilment of the Kingdom! It's exciting having spent 5 weeks looking at how the big story of the Bible holds together to finally arrive at the pinacle of that story, Jesus! Seeing Jesus in the context of the Old Testament helps us see more clearly who he is and how he can indeed be God's saviour!
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A twist or an unexpected occurrence
A twist or an unexpected occurrence
Sixth Sense
Old Bruce Willis movie (1999)!
If you haven’t seen it you’re 20 years too late and I’m going to wreck it for you with no feelings of personal guilt.
Basically you watch the whole movie thinking Bruce Willis is helping this child who sees dead people, only to realise at the end the child really does see dead people and Bruce Willis is actually dead. Brilliant. Totally unexpected. Totally ruined for you if you haven’t already seen the movie.
What we see today in Jesus is a bit of a twist. One man brings the kingdom of God in himself and we recieve that through faith. That’s not exactly what we’re expecting. Certainly it wasn’t what the people of Jesus’ day were expecting. They were expecting the rebuilding of the nation of Israel. But actually what comes is a better and more brilliant fulfilment of all the promises of God. And actually, just like the 6th Sense. After it’s happened. After we see who Jesus is and what he does. Just like after we realise Willis is dead, We can see that if we’d had eyes to see it was there for us to notice the whole time.
OT ends with the Prophets - Judgement and Hope.
OT ends with the Prophets - Judgement and Hope.
The OT ends in anticipation. Though they may be back in the land, spiritually speaking they are still in exile, waiting for God to return to them and fulfil all the promises of hope the prophet’s have reminded them off. The last prophet in the OT Malachi says:
1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
How does the NT start?
Mark
2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ ”
Mark tells us that this is John the Baptist
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And then Jesus comes and proclaims
15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The time has come!
The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe.
The hope the prophets foretold is come.
Not by God returning to a box in a rebuilt temple
But by God coming in the flesh.
In John’s gospel we read
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
“made his dwelling among us” literally tabernacled among us.
God comes to be with us in Jesus.
And it is in Jesus that all that the OT was looking forward to is fulfilled.
Vaughn Roberts
“All the promises of the kingdom of God are fulfilled in Christ; he is God’s people, GOd’s place and God’s rule and blessing.”
Let’s have a look and see how it is that Jesus does this:
God’s People
God’s People
We’ve seen how God’s people have failed.
Adam in the garden of eden in Gen 1, failed in his role as the man God created in his image to rule. Kicked out of the garden.
Israel, called to be God’s holy people failed to obey the law and were sent into exile.
Jesus succeeds where Adam and Israel failed:
True Adam
He is a real human being in every way. He was a baby, he slept, wept, got tired. He even died.
He has ancestors. Luke 3 and start of Matthew’s gospel.
But unlike Adam he does not sin.
He never succumbs to temptation.
He is the only one who perfectly obeys God, his Father. He is therefore the only person to have lived who does not deserve to be banished from God’s presence as we’ve seen happen to humanity time and time again since the garden of eden.
Paul talks about Jesus in these terms in Romans 5.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
True Israel
In Matthew’s gospel we read how Jesus flees to Egypt for safety, to avoid being killed by Herod. Sound like God’s people fleeing to Egypt to avoid dying in a famine? (Jospeh and his brothers in Genesis).
Matthew says
15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Jesus is called back to the promised land by God, just as Israel was.
Jesus is then tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Just as Israel was. Yet unlike Israel who build a golden calf and fail to trust God again and again.
Jesus does not fail.
Then as Jesus returns from the wilderness at the end of Matthew 4. He calls his first disciples. He calls 12 disciples. Sound familiar? He is making a deliberate statement.
This is the foundation of the new covenant people of God. Just as the twelve tribes of Israel were the foundation of the Old covenant people of God.
Later in Matthew Jesus says
Matthew 21:43
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
The people of Israel have continued to reject God. Just as they have throughout the OT. God is no longer going to fulfil his promise to Abraham through all of his descendants. But through one. Jesus. And through him will Abraham give birth to a spiritual nation of all tribes and tongues. Jew or Gentile who trust in Jesus by faith.
Paul says:
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
God’s place
God’s place
How does Jesus fulfil this promise of the kingdom?
Remember Adam and Eve in the garden enjoyed God’s presence with them. So too did the Israelites did in the Tabernacle/Temple.
Jesus is not just the true human being. He is also the true God. In Christ, God himself has come near to us.
The true temple/tabernacle
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
He tabernacled among us.
But also in Jesus’ ministry we see this fleshed out more.
When Jesus clears the temple his is challenged by what authority he cleared the temple of the corruption.
Jesus says
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
What did Jesus mean? John helpfully spells it out
21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
Jesus is the temple. The place where people go to meet with God.
In fact in John 7:37-38 at the festival of booths Jesus says he is the one who will cause living water to flow from those who believe in him. He is connecting himself to the prophecy of Ezekiel 47. That the new temple would have a river which flowed and bought life to all.
God’s rule and blessing
God’s rule and blessing
New covenant
Jesus comes he tells us in Matthew to fulfil the law.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Jesus obeys the law perfectly and therefore does not need to face the curse of judgment that comes all all lawbreakers. Remember this is what Moses warns the people about in Deuteronomy. Keep my commands - blessing. Break them - curse. The prophets reinforce this. You have kept them, remember God said, curse, judgment.
But Jesus is cursed. He does die. In fact he dies in one fo the worst and cursed ways possible.
22 If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
When Jesus dies on the cross Paul tells us
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Jesus dies a cursed death so that we can live a blessed life.
He dies to deal with the problem that has never been dealt with. Sin.
He puts it to death on the cross and then Jew or Gentile through faith in Christ are empowered to live a new life by the Spirit.
(Pentecost is the fulfilment of that promise).
And when we trust in Jesus we recieve the promise of blessing. The promise of peace with God. The promise of rest.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Adam and Even knew this blessing of being in God’s presence and enjoying his rest. His presence.
Israel knew something of it in the promised land with David and Solomon as king. God dwelling in the tabernacle/temple and the people enjoy God’s blessing and rest from war.
But none of that compares to the blessing you and I can enjoy in Jesus.
In Jesus we move from death to life.
The Spirit has made us into a new creation in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
We enjoy the rest of forgiveness and restored relationship with God. And we await a time when this is made complete in Jesus’ second coming.
God’s King
God’s King
Jesus’ message is one of the kingdom.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The Kingdom of God has come near because God’s King is here.
3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus is the king whom God promised to David back in 2 Samuel 7 would rule on the throne forever.
When Jesus is crucified his is mockingly called the King of the Jews. For this is who he claimed to be. And though it was sign placed on his head to mock. It was a sign that spoke such truth. For on the cross the King died for you and me.
God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.
God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.
Jesus is God’s person. God’s place. The bringing of God’s rule and blessing.
We are not. We are like Adam and Eve and Israel. Guilty of sin, no longer God’s people, not in God’s place. Not following God’s rule or enjoying God’s blessing.
But in Christ we experience what has been called the great exchange. A substitution.
Martin Luther writes:
“That is the mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied Himself of His righteousness that He might clothe us with it, and fill us with it. And He has taken our evils upon Himself that He might deliver us from them… in the same manner as He grieved and suffered in our sins, and was confounded, in the same manner we rejoice and glory in His righteousness.”
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
The road out of judgment and into hope that the prophets foretold is Jesus.
He takes the judgment we deserve so that we can live in the Kingdom of God.
So that we can be God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.
Is Jesus your king?