Dr. Rodney Plunket

Last week our lesson was entitled the “Jesus Is King!”  That lesson gave us the opportunity to look together at some of what the New Testament (NT) teaches about the Kingdom of God.  I noted that the Kingdom of God is a phrase used to refer to the reign/the rule of God.

This morning I want to look further at the presentation of the Kingdom of God in the NT.  Please open your Bible to Matthew (Mt) 12:22-28 and follow along as I read: 

Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see.  All the crowds were amazed and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.”  He knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.  If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?  If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out?  Therefore they will be your judges.  But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

Notice again that last statement from Jesus:  “ . . . if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”  We know that it was “by the Spirit of God” that Jesus was casting out demons, so we know that Jesus is here declaring to those at that time who had ears to hear that indeed “the kingdom of God has come to you.”  What I want you to see is that the Kingdom of God was present in the life and ministry of Jesus.  In a very real way the Kingdom was back there through the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit by which Jesus Christ cast out demons.

Now please turn to Mt 16:28 and again follow along as I read.  Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”  People will debate the meaning of this saying for a long time to come.  Some argue that these words refer to Christ’s Second Coming and that, since Jesus did not come during the time of any of those alive at the time, He was mistaken.  It likely will surprise no one to hear me say that I think that is the wrong interpretation, so let’s look at some others.  Some students of Scripture think Jesus is referring to His Transfiguration which is actually reported immediately after this saying in all three of the Gospels that record this saying of Jesus.  Other interpreters think Jesus is referring to His death and particularly to the temple veil being torn in two and the centurion saying, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Mt 27:54).  Since Jesus connects the Kingdom to the power of the Holy Spirit, I wonder if He is referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost.  However, I think there is room for disagreement about the actual event to which Jesus is referring here.  The point I want to make is that Jesus in Mt 12:22-28 indicates that the Kingdom already “has come”; but here, four chapters later, it is coming; its arrival is in the future.

So where is it?  Is it in the past, the present, or the future?

Please look with me at two more verses.  Turn first to Colossians 1:13 and follow along as I read:  “[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, . . .”  Here Paul is making clear that the Christians to whom he is writing have already been transferred into the kingdom.  So again we hear the NT referring to the Kingdom as something Christians were already a part of way back in the First Century.

Now turn please to 2 Peter 1:10-11 and follow along as I read:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.  For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Through this passage we hear what we heard in Jesus’ statement in Mt 16:28.  The kingdom is still to come.

What I want you to see is that in the NT the Kingdom of God has come, is present, and is coming.  You see, the reign of God has exerted itself in the past, is showing itself in our present, but will not come in all its sovereign glory until the Return of Jesus the King.  So we experience and rejoice in the reign of God now, but we long for the fullness of that Kingdom when our Savior returns.

Now I want to note an article in the magazine of the Christian relief agency, World Vision.  That magazine is called World Vision Today, and the article I want to draw your attention to is a guest essay by Amy L. Sherman entitled, “The gift of Agitation.”  The first few paragraphs of that magazine read as follows:

John Piper, in his book A Hunger for God, very helpfully reminds us what the appropriate posture of the Church should be.  It is the posture of a longing bride, waiting at the altar for the appearance of her bridegroom.  She is tapping her foot and glancing at her watch.  The bride is filled with a “holy discontent” over the absence of her bridegroom and is crying out, Maranatha!  Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!”

The New Testament Church exhibited this posture because it was a persecuted church.  They could recall Jesus’ promise:  “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:7, 8).  These Christians were intimately acquainted with suffering, poverty, and injustice.  They cried out, loudly and often.  They were eager for Christ to consummate his kingdom, because they knew that things on earth were not as they were supposed to be.

Unfortunately, this agitated posture is not the posture of the typical American congregation.  We do not long fervently for the consummation of Christ’s kingdom because we’re really rather happy just the way things are.  American abundance and affluence anesthetize us.

We are comfortable.  We are not crying out night and day for God to bring justice on earth.  We forget to shout, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Sherman’s point is convicting.  We should be longing for Christ’s return.  We should eagerly longing for the fully consummated Kingdom of God.  This holy agitation of which she writes is so important to our faith.  It keeps us from being tied to this world and its sinful pleasures.

The author of this article points out that working with and ministering to the poor, the hungry, and the hurting of this world can keep alive within the Church this holy agitation.  As we feel their pain, we long again for Christ to come quickly and deliver righteousness, peace, and joy to all those who suffer.

This author puts it well when she writes:

Christ calls us to entangle our lives with those who suffer, and as we do so, we can become rightly agitated with the way things are and more eager for Christ to deliver on his promise to “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

I have come to realize that one of the purposes of Carpenter’s Kitchen is to make sure that we “become rightly agitated with the way things are and more eager for Christ to deliver on his promise to ‘make all things new.’”

Now there are biblical passages that make very clear that persons of God are to respond to the needs of those who are hungry.  For example, please listen as I read Isaiah 32:6:

. . . fools speak folly,

                    and their minds plot iniquity:

          to practice ungodliness,

                    to utter error concerning the Lord,

          to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

                    and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

Later, in that same book, we read of God’s desire that the people of Judah respond to the needs of the poor, the homeless, and the hungry.  Please follow along as I read Isaiah 58:1-9:

          Shout out, do not hold back!

                    Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

          Announce to my people their rebellion,

                    to the house of Jacob their sins.

          Yet day after day they seek me

                    and delight to know my ways,

          as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

                    and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

          they ask of me righteous judgments,

                    they delight to draw near to God.

          “Why do we fast, but you do not see?

                    Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

          Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

                    and oppress all your workers.

          Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

                    and to strike with a wicked fist.

          Such fasting as you do today

                    will not make your voice heard on high.

          Is such the fast that I choose,

                    a day to humble oneself?

          Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

                    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

          Will you call this a fast,

                    a day acceptable to the Lord?

          Is not this the fast that I choose:

                    to loose the bonds of injustice,

                    to undo the thongs of the yoke,

          to let the oppressed go free,

                    and to break every yoke?

          Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

                    and bring the homeless poor into your house;

          when you see the naked, to cover them,

                    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

          Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

                    and your healing shall spring up quickly;

          your vindicator shall go before you,

                    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

          Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

                    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

So it is easy to find passages that clearly call upon God’s people to feed the hungry.

But this morning I want us to help feed Lubbock’s hungry out of hearts that are motivated by a holy agitation.  I want us to give generously because of a holy agitation, a desire for God’s Kingdom and a desire to display, right now, that the Kingdom will forever eradicate poverty, homelessness, and hunger.  The people in whom God’s will reigns display that reality by responding generously and lovingly to the needs of those who live on the bottom rung of the ladder of life.

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