The New Values of the Kingdom // Kingdom Come

Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God. But it was not the kind of Kingdom anyone expected. Or for that matter, it wasn’t what the religious people wanted. They had in mind the kind of Kingdom and the kind of King they wanted, and this wasn’t it. But God loves us and knows exactly what we need, and Jesus embodied all of it. As he announced the Kingdom of God, it angered powerful people and he ended up dying a sacrificial death on the cross. But in three days he fulfilled his own prediction—he came back to life under his own power, and declared death and sin defeated! He proved that his Kingdom HAS come, and it is an everlasting Kingdom that knows no end. YOU are invited to belong. The Kingdom has come for you.

Message Notes

The new covenant is no longer about what we do to please God—it is about what Jesus has done.
It’s the day of grace.

But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
Hebrews 8:6-7

The old covenant was “What must I do for me to be saved?”

What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Luke 18:8

The old covenant was about rules and ritual.

            The Talmud said there were 613 rules—and then they added over 200 more.

The old covenant was an invitation to loopholes.

If a person hits a manservant or a maidservant in the eye and destroys the eye, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of a manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the tooth.
Exodus 21:26-27

The new covenant says I AM forgiven, and now I follow Jesus.

The new covenant moves the focus away from me, the focus from just vertical to horizontal.

So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
Matthew 5:23-24

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples
John 13:34-35

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Matthew 22:37-40

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 6:14

The new covenant is less complicated but far more demanding.

As Jesus loved me.
As I love myself.
We all know what that looks like…

What if we loved like that?

In the end, it will be the thing the King says that matters.

Matthew 25

We only speak the name above all names when we love the way he loves us.

Bottom Line

Jesus is the King of an upside-down Kingdom, where everything is backwards from the Kingdom of this world. Live to give.

Action Steps

1. Evaluate what I have and who I am, and what may hang in the balance of my obedience.

2. Take appropriate action.