{"id":800,"date":"2015-11-22T16:06:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T21:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=800"},"modified":"2015-12-11T16:09:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T21:09:33","slug":"understanding-the-kingdom-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=800","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Kingdom of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ The King<\/h2>\n

Dan 7: 13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:33b-37<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

A Kingdom!\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that we can relate to in this country.\u00a0 We have no \u201cKing\u201d; in fact, our revolution occurred because we wanted to escape from domination by a King.\u00a0 And so, as a result, the \u201cKingdom of God\u201d may seem a little fuzzy for us.\u00a0 The closest thing to a king that we can relate to is all the fuss made over other nations royalty.\u00a0 We see them glorified in earthly terms and venerated.\u00a0 But we have no equivalent in our society.<\/p>\n

Yet in Biblical times, Kingdoms were the norm.\u00a0 Everybody understood that a King was the absolute ruler.\u00a0 All Dominion and Glory and Power belonged to the King, or Caesar or Emperor, or whatever he was called.\u00a0 People understood the concept.\u00a0 That is why Israel longed for the restoration of the Kingdom in Jesus\u2019 time, because they were sickened by the corrupt and repressive domination of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.\u00a0 They wanted their own Kingdom with a just ruler, like David of old.\u00a0 But they could only think in terms of an earthly Kingdom<\/p>\n

One thing we know for sure:\u00a0 Heaven is the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 And so, whether we are familiar and comfortable with Kingdoms or not, we need to understand the Kingdom of God and how it differs from kingdoms in this world.\u00a0 All of us have been offered everlasting life in that Kingdom; none of us has been promised everlasting life in this world.\u00a0 Aside from life in the Kingdom of God after our earthly life, there is only the prospect of death.<\/p>\n

So what is the Kingdom of God like?\u00a0 Well, it is not a democracy- none of us gets a vote there, as individuals, we don\u2019t get a say about what happens.\u00a0 It is not a republic either- diverse groups of people don\u2019t matter in its governance, only the King\u2019s will matters.\u00a0 God alone will make the rules, and give the orders, and make the rewards.\u00a0 And the rewards are great- joy and happiness and freedom from all pain and suffering forever. Like all Kingdoms, the head of the Kingdom of God wants loyalty and service from his subjects.\u00a0 Each of us has been given the opportunity to show our loyalty and to serve the King while we live.\u00a0 We are called to respond to that opportunity by accepting the Word of God, Jesus Christ, on faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s the loyalty part.\u00a0 And then by living according to the word of God by following the Gospel as a way of life, and by doing the will of the Father for us.\u00a0 That\u2019s the service part.\u00a0 It is on these criteria that we will be selected for the Kingdom of God or not.\u00a0 Put another way, these are the basis for our judgment.<\/p>\n

Today we hear multiple accounts of the coming of the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Notice how similar the first two accounts are.\u00a0 One like the Son of Man will come, and then everything will change- life as we know it will be different, because God, and His designated Son, will reign forever- with all dominion and glory and power.\u00a0 There will be no more competing kings or earthly powers; no more death and suffering.\u00a0 They also establish that Jesus Christ is that King.<\/p>\n

Now the important point today is the message that this Kingdom is coming-\u00a0 It is coming for all of us.\u00a0 Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.\u00a0 And the Gospel makes it very clear in Jesus\u2019 own words that his kingdom is not of this world.\u00a0 Funny, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Because we have just spent 10 or so weeks in ordinary time on the church calendar hearing about the kingdom of God in parables and stories and other snippets from the Gospel.\u00a0 We hear that the Kingdom is amongst us; that the Kingdom is a hidden treasure waiting to be found right now; and that there is joy in heaven over repentant sinners because they will share in the Kingdom.\u00a0 So how can the Kingdom be amongst us and at the same time not be of this world?<\/p>\n

Well, the joy that we all seek is the joy that is in our hearts when we know that we are in harmony with God.\u00a0 Nobody can take that away from us, no matter how much mental or physical stress or pain we may be under.\u00a0 If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, in other words your King, then the Kingdom of God is already there for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christ The King Dan 7: 13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:33b-37 Dc. Larry Brockman A Kingdom!\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that we can relate to in this country.\u00a0 We have no \u201cKing\u201d; in fact, our revolution occurred because we wanted to escape from domination by a King.\u00a0 And so, as a result, the \u201cKingdom of God\u201d may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155,6],"tags":[381],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":801,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}