Sunday, January 22, 2023
In the Book of Matthew, the 13th Chapter, the Lord Jesus spoke on a present and future Kingdom and I would encourage you to take time this week to read these verses. In this chapter Jesus introduces parables as a means of teaching “kingdom” truths.
“And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.'” (Matthew 13: 10-11)
Of these 40 parables Jesus gave, He made direct references to the kingdom in 19. These stories clearly relate to different time frames. Some impact the present teaching 1) the need for kingdom people to have hearing ears; 2) the breadth of the kingdom’s spread; and 3) the cost of the kingdom’s acquisition. Others relate to the future teaching 1)the final disposing of the fruit of the Adversary’s hindrance; and 2) the final disposition of the mixed ingathering from kingdom outreach.
In mixing these two aspects of the “kingdom,” Jesus helps us appreciate the kingdoms as both present and prospective. The message of the kingdom is two-edged and relates in two frame of times; First, God, in Christ, is now recovering man from his double loss – relationship with God and of rulership under God. Second, the kingdom will be realized finally in consummate and conclusive ways only at the return of Jesus Christ and by His reign over all the Earth.
What we experience of His triumph now, in part, will then be fully manifest. This complete view allows for our understanding and applying the principles of “kingdom come” without falling into the confusion of expecting now what the Bible says will only be then.
You are loved, Pastor Don
Cornerstone Worship Center 