Peter looked at the Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, and asked us whether our vision was big enough.
Peter referred to Georgia's artwork "Is Your Vision Big Enough?", which is reproduced with her permission below.
To download a PDF copy of the picture, click here.
To view Peter's slides (in PDF format), click here.
Peter played the introduction from Mr Topsy Turvy. You can watch it online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnps4icKapg.
The Kingdom of God is a topsy turvy kingdom.
Steve Oliver - We are in a kingdom that is the right way up. The world is upsidedown.
Graeme Goldsworthy has summarized a definition of the Kingdom of God as "God's people in God's place under God's rule."
Intro to Beattitudes from Phil Moore. P56
I was converted by reading the Sermon on the Mount. Actually, let me be more precise. I was converted by reading the Sermon on the Mount, and by seeing people try to live by it. I was an arrogant, self serving, self centred hypocrite, but this sermon in Matthew 5-7 brought me to my knees. I caught a glimpse of God's Kingdom way of life, and I was captivated by its beauty. It was so different, so shocking, so frightening, and yet so compelling, that I gave up everything to follow him. I spent the first 3 weeks of my Christian life reading this sermon every day and asking God to help me live it. It crippled me, healed me, and empowered me in a thousand different ways.
Mahatma Ghandi. I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teaching of Christ, as found in the bible, all of India would be Christians today.
Rom 12:1-2
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
John Piper - Desiring God
This is the mystery (the secret) of the kingdom—the arrival of the kingdom in a preliminary, small way in advance of the final consummation when all the enemies would be defeated and all sin and satanic power and sickness and suffering would be gone forever. The mystery, as George Ladd puts it, is "fulfillment without consummation." Fulfillment of the kingdom is here; but consummation of the kingdom is not. Many kingdom blessings can be experienced today; many are reserved for the consummation and the coming of Jesus.
Now I want you to see this clearly in the New Testament because it is extremely important for your faith. It will inspire you with hope that there is a great and glorious future yet in store for all believers. It will deepen your confidence that the glory of your future in the kingdom is secured by precious past down payments of that very kingdom (Romans 8:32!). It will give you a handle on why so much amazing kingdom power is being unleashed in the world, and yet why so much of sin and Satan and sickness and suffering remains. If you get a handle on the presence and the future of the kingdom of God, you will find yourself on a pathway of spiritual power, which might include the power to perform signs, and will definitely include the equally remarkable power to suffer patiently the cross of grief and pain (Colossians 1:11).
And finally the encouragement: the kingdom really has arrived. Unprecedented fulfillments of God's purposes are in the offing. The King has come. The King has dealt with sin once for all in the sacrifice of himself. The King sits at the Father's right hand and reigns now until all his enemies are under his feet. The King's righteousness is now already ours by faith. The King's Spirit is now already dwelling in us. The King's holiness is now already being produced in us. The King's joy and peace have now already been given to us. The King's victory over Satan is now already ours as we use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. The King's power to witness is now already available to us. And the King's gifts—the gifts of his Spirit—are now already available for ministry.
And now with a sober awareness of the mystery of the kingdom—present yet future; fulfilled but not consummated—let us go
