Jesus came preaching that a Kingdom of God, and he was
saying the Kingdom of God has come not into you, and he would invite the people
to be a part of that Kingdom.
Somehow between then and now it became popular to think
that God's Kingdom and heaven and everything about what God is inviting us to,
is applying to something way off in the distant parts of the universe, or even
beyond that universe, and way off in the distant future. But Christ invites us
into something that is for us now, a Kingdom that we enter into now, and be a
part of now, and that extends then into these other remote places they will not
be going for a long time.
[Listen to the audio for this sermon]
preached extemporaneously at Briensburg UMC on September 15, 2019.
preached extemporaneously at Briensburg UMC on September 15, 2019.
The expanse of the universe and the life of the world to come, are things that are going on in the future. The Kingdom of God is now, and
we're all invited to be a part of it.
And it's in him. They saw must struggle about how if you
go off to the highest mountains, God is there down to the lowest depths.
Wherever you might go. Paul wrote about how in him we live, and move and have
our being.
Then we had Emerson and I tried to memorize this last
night, so we'll see how I do. I think Arby, just...
"What lies behind us..." "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny
matters compared to what lies within us," Emerson. Praise the Lord and thank you for the prompts.
Well, John wrote in his letter "Greater is he that is
in me than he that is in the world." And then in Revelation he wrote that
God said "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with people."
So, over and over the Bible testifies to what Jesus is
saying right here in this passage, challenging the thinking of those who wanted
to put it off somewhere unreachable. Because if it's unreachable, then it's
also not a problem, if we don't go into it. And this is kind of a little bit of
the argument, if love can't be expressed in its fullness and perfection,
then some people think that we shouldn't even try at all.
And what Jesus is saying is "Come on in now, the
Kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is among you." And he invites to be a part of that kingdom now, to see the realities of who we are,
ourselves, and who the people around us are. To experience that presence and
that joy.
So, the Kingdom of God is the kingdom of
love. That's God's law. And there are a lot of ways to look at the Bible
and people look at the Bible in a lot of ways. But Jesus taught us to look at
the Bible through the lens of love. And if we do that, we're going to have a
whole different perspective that we view our whole faith from.
Then, anybody who looks at it from any other perspective.
Whatever that may be. Whosoever verses, or whatever opinions, or whatever views
that somebody has as they read the sacred pages. If they're not reading them
from the perspective of God is love, that the basis of understanding the
scriptures is love as Jesus taught. That the commandment of God is to love one
another as Christ has loved us. They're going to have a different perspective,
and there's really no use in arguing about it. Because they're going to have a
whole different approach to the scriptures, which is going to mean a whole
different outcome on how you're going to understand.
So, Christ invites us to
this prism: The view of love in every word that we read, in every
psalm that we sing, in our prayers, in our fellowship in our evangelism.
I don't know if I told you but I appointed Mitch as our Evangelism Chairperson during the Pride Festival because he was doing such a good job
telling anybody about how we love each other here. So,
Praise the Lord. Amen.
In all of that we view love is a central focus there.
Because of John 3:16 which we'll study about. Besides, We'll get through the
16th verse. And Leslie, let's remind us of what that is.
"For God so Loved the word that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life."
So with that, God is inviting us to be a part of the
kingdom of Christ. Now, it's a kingdom governed by love. There's a verse in a
Christmas hymn "Oh Holy night," and it says "Love is his law and
peace is this...something" [Love is his law, and his gospel is peace.] Love and peace. and our famous hymn, Oh! for A Thousand Tongues to Sing, a big Wesleyan hymn, has that
final stanza that says "Anticipate your heaven below and own that love is
heaven."
Just think if everybody loved each other in our whole
community around Mashall County the way we love each other here in this room
right now. Don't you think the world, at least in Marshall County, would be a better place? And what about our whole country? And our world? So, we
want to stand on that. And we don't want to give up a world that we love one
another as Christ loved us. How important is that? It makes the difference
between the joy and sorrow in the whole world right now.
And certainly we're not the only room where loves is being
preached in Marshall County, or around the world. But we're one of them and we
believe in it. Amen? And through that love we are becoming
more than we are, even just as we reflect on that and think about God's love
for us, in practice that love for each other and the world around us, it
changes us and it changes the world. Maybe not a whole world overnight-- maybe not
us overnight. But it changes things for us to love one another. To try to love one
another, even if we're not very good at it. To practice it, and get better. And
it brings us into a oneness. That nothing else can bring us into. You can't be
one with people you don't love.
So, Paul talks about how we are growing into the stature of
the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And he talks about how that is the work of Christ on the cross, reconciling all things to himself. All that unity and
oneness can only really come about by love. Any other attempt to do that puts
us at odds with each other somewhere, but love brings us into harmony with each
other.
We still will be all different, and we celebrate that and
go in and instead getting rid of that we celebrate all of our uniqueness. Just
think of how that keyboard would sound this morning that there was only one
note. It would get a little monotonous if all the keys only had one
note. But because it has many and they're all played softly, they come into
harmony and you give us some beautiful music. That's what God invites us to.
When he invites us to the Kingdom of God. So, he says the Kingdom of God has
come nigh until you. The Kingdom of God is near at hand. The kingdom of God is
within you. The kingdom of God is among you. In a way they
seem like separate concepts but they're not. The word that is translated in some translations as "within" says "the Kingdom of God is within
you," is translated in other translations "the kingdom of God is among you."
Because that's the definition of word. It's got two definitions "within" and
"among" and they're not that quite different. They're part of the same
concept that Jesus is talking to us about. But we do have a tendency to think
of our relationship with God, and our religion, and our views about the faith,
in very personal terms. And we should, it is personal and there are aspects of
that that are just very personal. But when we enter into our personal saving
relationship with Jesus Christ, we each claim Him as our Lord and savior and
some of the things we had in the affirmation faith, we used to walk out from
the baptismal covenant.
We see him as our Lord and Savior. It's a very personal thing. It means personally studying the scriptures,
learning how to write with the divine word of truth. Going through the feelings
that we have, sorting out the thoughts that we have and hearing God speak to us
and call us as individuals to "follow Him."
But it's also a "we thing." I'm not the only one
that is doing that in this room, am I? Each and every one of us is doing that.
Each and every one of us has our personal relationship with God in Christ. Each
and every one of us in this whole room has our own experiences and
understandings and views and questions, and challenges, and affirmations, and
doubts and all the things that go into being a person of faith. Each one of us
has those and we share that.
Jesus said, "I am the light." Jesus was talking
about that he was light of the world, but then he told everybody in sermon of
the mount, "You are the light of the world." Collectively and
individually, whether we are together and whether we are apart, the light of
God shines through us and into us and we share that.
We share the relationship that we have. That's why I love
about the testimony at time and we say about things that God has blessed us
with. Then we get to share those joys or while I'm about to pray at times when
we share the concerns that are on our heart. Then we share those. It's more
than just saying what they are. It's a sharing. Don't we feel that? When
somebody tells us about something that's painful going on. We feel that, don't
we? We empathize with that and it becomes part of our suffering as well. And
when somebody has the blessing and the joy and Knox [newborn baby in our congregation] is born, we feel that joy,
we get to share that joy. It becomes as part of our joy, we empathize with that
joy, and there's a unity there, isn't it? There's a oneness there. Like family.
Like being the family of God. Like being a family. Together.
I think that's part of what Wesley is trying to capture
in writing that stanza, "Anticipating you heaven below and own that love is
heaven." Because we're already entering into that heaven.
When we feel those joys, when we share those. That's why
we sing Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love." We're all entering into heaven. We've already entered in. When we have
that little spark and the leap of faith that makes us, let us jump over that
chasm of doubt and just believe, and just love and trust. And as we
grow in that, then the kingdom grows within us. And as we all grow in that, the
Kingdom grows among us.
And we go out the door in a few minutes, the kingdom -- we'll
spread it around wherever we go because everybody we love, everybody we
smile at, and everybody we shake hands with gets a little piece of the Kingdom
through that contact.
We take Christ, we take his life and take his love. We
take his friendship and joy, acceptance and nurture and support and encouragement and all the things that we are experiencing right now in these moments, and we share it with everybody we know in all kinds of little ways.
Most of them are not even words. Most of them just the way we connect with
family, friends, strangers, whoever else whose paths we cross this week.
Behold, the Kingdom of God is within and among you. In the
name of Jesus. Amen.
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