In preparing for the sermon this past week, there was much more that I planned to say, but time would not allow. I may include some of this in next week's sermon, but it is good "stuff," and I wanted to go ahead and share it with you.
One of the best Christian books I have ever read is Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. It is essential to anyone who sincerely desires to understand the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom of God, or the meaning of discipleship.
One of the points he makes in the book is that we are designed by God to be significant. Significance has no relationship to egotism or self-esteem. Significance is determined by how readily available a person is to the will and the work of God no matter where that person lives.
"We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill. We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny." (The Divine Conspiracy, Harper: San Francisco, 1997, p. 15)
Other than sin, the circumstances of our lives – our residence, our family, our job, our environment, our education, our time – are no hindrance to the work of Christ.
"None of this would be the least hindrance to the eternal kind of life that was his (Christ's) by nature and becomes available to us through him. Our human life, it turns out, is not destroyed by God's life but is fulfilled in it and in it alone." (The Divine Conspiracy, Harper: San Francisco, 1997, p. 14)
The kingdom of God is everywhere that God has effective rule. He granted men the power to choose, but man chose wrong. Man chose to have the knowledge of what is right and wrong – knowledge reserved for God – as opposed to having life – to living in the kingdom of God as God's friend. Thus, man's choices – even when they are right – always lead to death because that is the realm in which man lives.
That is what God meant when He told Adam, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Gen. 2:16-17)
Because man has choice, there is a realm among men where God's will is constantly being challenged. Such a challenge to God's will does not occur anywhere else in the universe except within the dimension of man's free will – in the social, political, cultural, and domestic realms of man.
Some would say that God's kingdom resides within the hearts of men, but that cannot be because men's hearts are, by nature, in rebellion against the very kingdom of God. The kingdom of God exists where God has effective rule, and a heart that is not transformed by the grace of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit is not in the kingdom.
In His very first sermon of record, Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is "at hand." (Matt. 4:17) The kingdom of God is not something that will one day arrive on Earth – it is here now because God is imminent in His creation. And it is attainable because Christ has come into the world to bring us the kind of life that allows us to live in the kingdom of God.
When we pray "thy kingdom come," we are not praying for God's kingdom to come into existence, but for His kingdom to take full power and authority in the lives of men and in the present world in which we live.
And it is our prayer that God's kingdom – God's effective will – will rule "on earth" – the realm where man has claimed sovereignty – in the same manner "as it is in heaven" – where God's will reigns supreme and without conflict.
That is why Jesus commanded us to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." (Matt. 6:33)
Another significant point concerning the kingdom is that it is most effective when it is face-to-face with sin and persecution.
Just before his death, John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him one final time if He was, in fact, the Messiah. Jesus replied, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them." (Luke 7:22)
"In the ministry of Jesus himself the divine power is released in effective conflict with evil." (Quotation from C.H. Dodd in The Divine Conspiracy, Harper: San Francisco, 1997, p. 29)
Where did the psalmist say "I will fear no evil"? In "the valley of the shadow of death."
Where did he say, "You prepare a table for me"? In "the presence of mine enemies."
So we are called by God to be effective in the place we are now, to be aware that His kingdom has priority over all aspects of our lives, and that persecution is a natural part of the kingdom – in fact, the kingdom of God, as well as its members (Christians), thrives in the face of adversity and persecution.
