Backwards Kingdom
We are in a contentious election season in a year of historic crisis and chaos. Rival voices claim competing truths. The kingdoms of the world dangle the trinket values of power and popularity. How are we being influenced by the voices around us? Are we shaped more by a party platform than the ways of God?
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ “Kingdom of God manifesto.” He proclaims the values and virtues of God’s Kingdom. In our world, these ways of God appear backwards. Disciples who follow the crucified King will look foreign, even strange. Christians live in this tension, citizens of God’s Kingdom who live among the kingdoms of the world. In this season we want to be formed more by the Kingdom of God than the kingdoms of the world. We ask Jesus, “Teach us your backwards ways.”
What is the Kingdom of God? What does it look like?
What are the norms and values of this Kingdom?
How do citizens of God’s Kingdom, his disciples, live differently?
What do we do when Kingdom virtues put us in opposition with popular norms?
How is the Kingdom of God distinct from any political platform?
How do we live faithfully when Kingdom ways are backwards?
Goals: That God’s people are transformed by the Kingdom values taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
- The Kingdom is activity and event, and less a particular place. The kingdom of God is not so much a time or a place, but the reality of God ruling in any time or place.
- If you want to know what the Kingdom looks like, look at Jesus. Jesus speaks of the Kingdom, but he doesn’t clearly define it. Rather, he does it. So that simply by reading the rest of the gospel, but following Jesus’ life, you can say, “This is what it looks like when the Kingdom of God comes.”
- The other dimension of the kingdom is that is both now in the present, and fully in the future. The reign and the rule of God is active right now. And there is an ultimate fullness of his rule yet to come.
“The Kingdom of God for Jesus is less a happy state of affairs in the first place than God in his evident rulership . . . Many of Jesus’ most radical statements are not closely connected at all with expectancy of the coming kingdom, but rather with the realization of the present rule of God in the course of daily and natural events.”
– Richard Niebuhr
The Backwards Kingdom – October 3/4
Matthew 5:1-11
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
Distinct (Not the Same) – October 11 (Unified Worship)
Matthew 5:13-16
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)
Peace (Not Anger) – October 17/18
Matthew 5:9, 21-26, 38-48
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
Truth (Not Deceit) – October 24/25
Matthew 5:8, 33-37
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
Hidden (Not Broadcast) – Oct. 31/Nov. 1 (All Saints)
Matthew 5:5; 6:1-18
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5)
Focused (Not Scattered) – November 7/8
Matthew 5:3; 6:19-24
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
Carefree (Not Anxious) – November 14/15
Matthew 5:6; 6:25-34
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)