This will be the first in a series of sermons on the important subject of the kingdom of God, otherwise known as the kingdom of heaven; they are the same thing. Don’t be confused over the two phrases, the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God.
When you begin to look at this in the Bible you will probably be amazed and overwhelmed as I was when I began to notice the importance of the kingdom of God in the Bible. The phrase is used many times to express it’s important to God. I am going to read several scriptures to show you what I mean.
But first let me define the Kingdom of God/heaven. What is the Kingdom of God? First, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same, just two different names for the same thing. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God. And it’s not just something that is in heaven. The kingdom is everywhere, and it includes every place Jesus is King and He is king of the universe, heaven and earth, things physical and spiritual. In essence, the kingdom of God is reality. It includes everything that exists. It includes all of reality. You can’t really know all of reality by observing with our natural senses, and even our spiritual senses need information from the Holy Spirit. God must reveal reality. Jesus came to bring the kingdom (He is the king.) and to explain it by His preaching and teaching. As we go through this series of parables you will see this repeatedly. The Kingdom of God includes everything that Jesus is king of, and that is everything and everyone.
The first mention of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament is found in Matthew 3:2 where John the Baptist comes on the scene to introduce the King of the kingdom. So, what did John preach when he came out of the wilderness to the Jordan River to preach to Israel. This is what he preached, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The phrase at hand means it is here. The kingdom of heaven is here! As your hand is here in your presence, so the kingdom of God is here. When you meet someone, you shake hands, or you give them a knuckle bump. That means you have met him, he is here. The king has arrived, so therefore repent. Repent means to change your mind about God, to change your mind about yourself in such a way that it changes your life, it changes the way you live.
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