Life in the Kingdom is not of this world
Life in the Kingdom is not of this world.
That may seem obvious. Heaven and earth are not the same thing. Jesus Himself said that He is indeed a King, but that His kingdom was not of this world. So, I feel pretty confident that life in the Kingdom is not of this world.
Welcome to 100 Fold Ministry’s Backyard Conversations. This is the blog format of 100 Fold Ministries. You can also find some challenging thoughts on our podcast environment, Kingdom Offerings. These, along with our Kingdom Parable page “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”are also on our homepage at 100foldministies.org.
We will be kicking off a three week series here at Backyard Conversations exploring three great Kingdom themes of the Scriptures: the characteristics of the Kingdom Life, Love and Light.
Let’s go back a little before we move forward with the idea of Kingdom life!
Here at100 Fold Ministries we affirm that the Kingdom of Heaven has indeed broken into our world with the coming of the King Himself, Jesus Christ. Still, there is the, “Now but not yet” idea. The spiritual and moral laws of the Kingdom of God are quite different when contrasted to the Kingdom of This World sensitivities that have evolved through the centuries of doing business as broken and lost humans in society. In this world, power, personal pleasure and the collecting of things seem to be the priority values whereas the Kingdom serves Christ, and all things are His for His Glory. So, when we lay claim to life in the Kingdom of God while still living here, we will always be in conflict with people and powers of this world. We know that by experience. And we also know that because Jesus said so.
So, understanding life in the Kingdom of God here on earth is a tough task. Maybe impossible given our obvious finite limitations. Still, it was important to Jesus that we have some hints. He used parables about the Kingdom to help us understand, but they were veiled in mystery. For those who were hungry for the Kingdom, they whet the appetite, and many would find themselves following after Christ for more answers. For those who were barely curious, whose eyes and hearts were closed to the Kingdom, these parables were stumbling blocks to the sightless.
Jesus had much to say about life in the Kingdom. The central point of course was that He was life. Not merely that he gave life, or made people feel alive, or gave purpose to life or even that he brought life from death. The main point was that He was ‘life’ itself!
Let’s tackle the first word of our series – ‘Life’! For our purposes right now we are going to see that Life in the Kingdom can be spelled three different ways:
Let’s start with the Kingdom value of Life – real LIFE is to be FREE to be yourself!
In the Kingdom, you are free to live – truly live. Free to be the God created self that you were always intended to be. The True Dave. Or in your case, the True You. The authentic and unvarnished You. The bold You that does not need anything added to make him or her more special and can’t be improved by removing something. Life spelled F R E E D O M! To live as God sees you living with Him in eternity. To live like that now. That is an abundant life.
Unmoved and uncaring about the opinion of those of the world who judge you by fallen and evil standards. No longer doubting and judging yourself as an underachiever or a weak sheep at the back of the herd.
Our lives in Christ are brand new! No longer the broken, finite, troubled life that is so tainted by the liar’s song of self-doubt and shame and temptation and pride and selfish longings. No more need for self-promotion and stubborn grudges and nagging bitterness and lost thoughts and broken dreams and broken promises. No, this world offers only the shadow of what life in the Kingdom is like.
Don’t get me wrong, there are wonderful things given to us by the Father of Lights that are indeed blessings. But they are temporary and fleeting, because life is relentless, and this world is passing away. But I am talking about the abundant life we spoke of. The poured into your lap good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over kind of life.
Real LIFE is to be KNOWN and still loved.
We will talk a bit more about this next week when we talk about Love in the Kingdom of God, but the sad truth is that we live here and now in a performance-based world. Respect, love, influence – all are bought and sold like furniture. Like secondhand clothes. Respect is given and taken away by simply leaving one room of people and entering another. So, we live fearfully. We live clutching our tired, tattered self-esteem like a child’s old security blanket hoping no one will snatch it away and leave us exposed.
We live as though no one really knows us (because they don’t!) and suspect that if they did really know us, we would not measure up to the standards that the world uses to be considered worthy enough to be called “friend.” So, we settle. Better to be only meagerly known and artificially liked than to be fully known and shunned.
But God has offered us a third option with life in the Kingdom. It is to be fully known by a Holy God, known for all our faults and broken places, shameful deeds and selfish thoughts and still be radically and lavishly loved. So much so that scripture can declare that “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us!” And now that we are known and loved, it frees us and even requires us to love others in the same manner.
This is a majestic truth and a profound reality. God knows us perfectly, loves us fully and invites us to know Him and His love. The truth is that “While we were yet sinners Jesus loved us enough to die for us. He knows us and still loves us and that gives us the power to live without fear! This is life – real life!
So, we have life with F R E E D O M! And finally, we find that to live in the Kingdom is to be at peace. Jesus says:
Here Jesus is saying ‘The world is relentless, troubled and hard. You will not find peace living by the moral and spiritual fantasies of this fallen world. It can’t happen, it can’t be done. There is no “there” here. The peace we long for comes by being so loved by someone so powerful that our earthy forms simply do not matter anymore.
Do you know the old children’s story of the Velveteen Rabbit? It is the story of a stuffed toy rabbit covered in velveteen. The rabbit is the possession of a little boy who loves the rabbit very much. Eventually the toy, infected with scarlet fever germs, is about to be destroyed. The rabbit is given hope about becoming real in life by the old Skin Horse . . .
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”– The Skin Horse, Velveteen Rabbit
There is a transforming reality in the life of the Kingdom that changes us from the inside through a love outside of us. It sets us free to fly, to be fearlessly known and finally, at last, to live at peace with our world and ourselves.
I will see you here again at 100 Fold’s Backyard Conversations in a couple of weeks to look at the Kingdom themes of Love and Light! They are deeper and wider than you can imagine!! Thanks for connecting here. This is Dave Scherrer. Peace!
That may seem obvious. Heaven and earth are not the same thing. Jesus Himself said that He is indeed a King, but that His kingdom was not of this world. So, I feel pretty confident that life in the Kingdom is not of this world.
Welcome to 100 Fold Ministry’s Backyard Conversations. This is the blog format of 100 Fold Ministries. You can also find some challenging thoughts on our podcast environment, Kingdom Offerings. These, along with our Kingdom Parable page “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”are also on our homepage at 100foldministies.org.
We will be kicking off a three week series here at Backyard Conversations exploring three great Kingdom themes of the Scriptures: the characteristics of the Kingdom Life, Love and Light.
Let’s go back a little before we move forward with the idea of Kingdom life!
Here at100 Fold Ministries we affirm that the Kingdom of Heaven has indeed broken into our world with the coming of the King Himself, Jesus Christ. Still, there is the, “Now but not yet” idea. The spiritual and moral laws of the Kingdom of God are quite different when contrasted to the Kingdom of This World sensitivities that have evolved through the centuries of doing business as broken and lost humans in society. In this world, power, personal pleasure and the collecting of things seem to be the priority values whereas the Kingdom serves Christ, and all things are His for His Glory. So, when we lay claim to life in the Kingdom of God while still living here, we will always be in conflict with people and powers of this world. We know that by experience. And we also know that because Jesus said so.
- John 15:18-20
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
So, understanding life in the Kingdom of God here on earth is a tough task. Maybe impossible given our obvious finite limitations. Still, it was important to Jesus that we have some hints. He used parables about the Kingdom to help us understand, but they were veiled in mystery. For those who were hungry for the Kingdom, they whet the appetite, and many would find themselves following after Christ for more answers. For those who were barely curious, whose eyes and hearts were closed to the Kingdom, these parables were stumbling blocks to the sightless.
Jesus had much to say about life in the Kingdom. The central point of course was that He was life. Not merely that he gave life, or made people feel alive, or gave purpose to life or even that he brought life from death. The main point was that He was ‘life’ itself!
- John 14:6
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
- John 1:4
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.
- John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Let’s tackle the first word of our series – ‘Life’! For our purposes right now we are going to see that Life in the Kingdom can be spelled three different ways:
- F R E E D O M
- K N O W N
- P E A C E
Let’s start with the Kingdom value of Life – real LIFE is to be FREE to be yourself!
In the Kingdom, you are free to live – truly live. Free to be the God created self that you were always intended to be. The True Dave. Or in your case, the True You. The authentic and unvarnished You. The bold You that does not need anything added to make him or her more special and can’t be improved by removing something. Life spelled F R E E D O M! To live as God sees you living with Him in eternity. To live like that now. That is an abundant life.
Unmoved and uncaring about the opinion of those of the world who judge you by fallen and evil standards. No longer doubting and judging yourself as an underachiever or a weak sheep at the back of the herd.
Our lives in Christ are brand new! No longer the broken, finite, troubled life that is so tainted by the liar’s song of self-doubt and shame and temptation and pride and selfish longings. No more need for self-promotion and stubborn grudges and nagging bitterness and lost thoughts and broken dreams and broken promises. No, this world offers only the shadow of what life in the Kingdom is like.
Don’t get me wrong, there are wonderful things given to us by the Father of Lights that are indeed blessings. But they are temporary and fleeting, because life is relentless, and this world is passing away. But I am talking about the abundant life we spoke of. The poured into your lap good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over kind of life.
- Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Real LIFE is to be KNOWN and still loved.
We will talk a bit more about this next week when we talk about Love in the Kingdom of God, but the sad truth is that we live here and now in a performance-based world. Respect, love, influence – all are bought and sold like furniture. Like secondhand clothes. Respect is given and taken away by simply leaving one room of people and entering another. So, we live fearfully. We live clutching our tired, tattered self-esteem like a child’s old security blanket hoping no one will snatch it away and leave us exposed.
We live as though no one really knows us (because they don’t!) and suspect that if they did really know us, we would not measure up to the standards that the world uses to be considered worthy enough to be called “friend.” So, we settle. Better to be only meagerly known and artificially liked than to be fully known and shunned.
But God has offered us a third option with life in the Kingdom. It is to be fully known by a Holy God, known for all our faults and broken places, shameful deeds and selfish thoughts and still be radically and lavishly loved. So much so that scripture can declare that “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us!” And now that we are known and loved, it frees us and even requires us to love others in the same manner.
- 1 John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is a majestic truth and a profound reality. God knows us perfectly, loves us fully and invites us to know Him and His love. The truth is that “While we were yet sinners Jesus loved us enough to die for us. He knows us and still loves us and that gives us the power to live without fear! This is life – real life!
So, we have life with F R E E D O M! And finally, we find that to live in the Kingdom is to be at peace. Jesus says:
- John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Here Jesus is saying ‘The world is relentless, troubled and hard. You will not find peace living by the moral and spiritual fantasies of this fallen world. It can’t happen, it can’t be done. There is no “there” here. The peace we long for comes by being so loved by someone so powerful that our earthy forms simply do not matter anymore.
Do you know the old children’s story of the Velveteen Rabbit? It is the story of a stuffed toy rabbit covered in velveteen. The rabbit is the possession of a little boy who loves the rabbit very much. Eventually the toy, infected with scarlet fever germs, is about to be destroyed. The rabbit is given hope about becoming real in life by the old Skin Horse . . .
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”– The Skin Horse, Velveteen Rabbit
There is a transforming reality in the life of the Kingdom that changes us from the inside through a love outside of us. It sets us free to fly, to be fearlessly known and finally, at last, to live at peace with our world and ourselves.
I will see you here again at 100 Fold’s Backyard Conversations in a couple of weeks to look at the Kingdom themes of Love and Light! They are deeper and wider than you can imagine!! Thanks for connecting here. This is Dave Scherrer. Peace!