The Gospel And The Kingdom Of God

   In this mornings sermon I will be speaking about Jesus and particularly about how certain Jesus was about a great many things. It is always a good thing to be certain of something, in fact when faced with a decision to make or course of  action to take who doesn’t want to be certain that it’s the right thing to do?

One of the things that Jesus was certain about was His mission. There was never any doubt in His mind why He came to this old world. As we have recently studied on Sunday mornings in John, Jesus came not to condemn but to save the world.

As I studied more closely Jesus’ mission and teaching it wasn’t hard to see the correlation of the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ teaching always gave a close relationship between the gospel and the kingdom. “And Jesus went about in all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” (Matt 4:23) and again in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

   There are many more occasions where Jesus taught with similar words, but these scriptures are sufficient to show the close relationship expressed by Jesus when He referred to the gospel and the kingdom. Matthew says, “the gospel of the kingdom” and Mark says “He preached the gospel of God, and the kingdom was at hand.” This one thing is true and will never be questioned by those seeking the truth, and that is that God has never been without a kingdom, government or rule!! As the Psalmist has said; “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” (Psalms 45:6)

On the Day of Pentecost immediately after receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached to the multitude in Jerusalem. He proved Jesus to be the Son of God. In conclusion to that sermon he said very emphatically, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain, that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36) Peter declares Him to be Lord, or the one with authority, and you will notice there in his words that Peter is certain of this.

There is something here worth thinking about. That Jesus fulfilled His mission and all scripture in perfect obedience to the Father. As Peter states for certain in that sermon, that the Father has made Jesus Lord and Christ, and ruler! Therefore Jesus is our Lord and Savior and let it be remembered that the Lord knows our works no matter where we are in this life. But praise be to God! That we should be made to rejoice in the fact that we are priests in this glorious kingdom of which Jesus is head. It should prick our hearts just as it did on that Day of Pentecost. It should stir us into action and cause us to give our all to Jesus, and not just the scraps of our time and effort.

Eric