THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND

#1 · May 5, 2006, 10:18 am

Quote from Forum Archives on May 5, 2006, 10:18 am
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
'SERMONSONTHENET'

THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND

Mark 1:4-11

     There came a voice crying in the wilderness: "Repent! for the Kingdom of God is at hand." And at the sound of this voice, a responsive chord was struck throughout the land. For once, every distinction was leveled. Pharisee and Sadducee, outcast publican and semi-heathen soldier, met on common ground. Their bond of union was the common hope of Israel--the only hope that remained for this oppressed people--which was the coming of the Kingdom of God. The long winter of disappointment had not destroyed, the storms of suffering had not swept away, and the overpowering might of Rome had not overshadowed this hope that had struck its roots so deep in the soil of Israel's heart.

     The Kingdom of God had been the last word of the Old Testament. Yet the `root of Jesse,' from which this Kingdom was to spring, was buried deep underground. Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks and Romans had trodden it underfoot. The Maccabees had come and gone, and the Kingdom was not in them. The Herodian kingdom had risen and fallen. Yet the hope of that kingdom--springing from the seed of David--of which there was not a single trace or representative left, was stronger than ever before. This hope of all believing Israelites through the long night of the ages had been like the eternal lamp which burns in the darkness of the synagogue.

     Now the cry had suddenly been raised: "The Kingdom of Heaven is is at hand!" It was heard in the wilderness of Judea, just a few hours' distance from Jerusalem. No wonder Pharisees and Sadducees flocked to the spot. We do not know how many of them came to inquire, how many stayed to be baptized, or how many turned away in disappointment. (I am indebted to Alfred Edersheim's JESUS THE MESSIAH (1886) for much of this section. )

     But we do know that multitudes did respond to the message of John the Baptist as he proclaimed God's word along the winding Jordan river. Rapidly the tidings spread from town and village to distant homesteads, until finally it reached Nazareth. There was a young man there, thirty years old, working in a carpenter's shop in Nazareth, for whom the message of John had a special significance. The words that had been the principle of Jesus' life in Nazareth were, "I must be about my Father's business." But now the Father was calling him to a greater business--the business of helping people realize the advent of the Kingdom into their hearts and lives. Jesus made his way to the river Jordan to yield himself to the baptism of John; to begin his ministry of love and compassion which would demonstrate, in his life and in his death, the reality of the Kingdom.

     So what are the characteristics of that Kingdom, which John proclaimed and Jesus portrayed, that are important to our lives today? Why should John's words strike a responsive chord in our hearts as it did in the hearts of men and women 2,000 years ago?

THE FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF THAT KINGDOM THAT IS IMPORTANT TO OUR LIVES IS ITS NEARNESS.

God's Kingdom is at hand. Here. It is not somewhere far off. It is not something remote and unreal. It is as near as the air we breathe.

     In his fascinating book, MORE OF PAUL HARVEY'S THE REST OF THE STORY, Paul Aurandt tells the story of "The Missing Bullet." At one point during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, the victim of a shooting was brought in whose name was Bill.

     Fortunately for this fellow, the first-aid station at the Exposition was a large one, sort of an emergency hospital. They even had an operating room. And Bill was going to need it! He had taken two bullets at close range. It was about four-thirty in the afternoon when Bill, conscious, yet in severe shock, was taken inside, hoisted to the table and undressed. It looked bad. The first shot had grazed a rib, and had obviously deflected. The bullet was still inside.

     The doctors, realizing there was no time to waste, decided to operate. Anaesthesia was administered. At that point, Bill began, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. . ." In moments he was under. An incision was made, the abdomen opened. The bullet had indeed slashed through the stomach, both the front and rear walls. The holes in the stomach were closed, but the doctors couldn't find the bullet. It was as though the projectile had vanished, although it was probably lodged in the muscles in his back.

     Cleansing a wound of this kind was imperative, and obviously more than the abdominal cavity was involved. The doctors really wanted to find that missing bullet, if only to trace its path. Yet this patient, by now dangerously weakened, might not survive a prolonged probing. So they closed him up--with no drainage--and hoped for the best. Bill was taken to a private residence in Buffalo to recuperate. But he did not. A week later, he was dead. Bill had a few things going against him--he was overweight, and nearly sixty; but mainly it was that wound, insufficiently cleansed and untraced, that caused him to die.

     "If" is a big question here, but if the doctors had been able to locate and remove the missing bullet--Bill might have lived. And now, as Paul Harvey might say, this is THE REST OF THE STORY.

     Bill was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. On exhibition there--apparently unknown to the doctors, and not far from the scene of the shooting--was a new invention, a revolutionary device that could have helped--called the X-ray machine. That machine--so near yet so far--was operable and would most certainly have located the fatal bullet. But instead, Bill--President William McKinley--died with that assassin's bullet still inside him. (Paul Aurandt, MORE OF PAUL HARVEY'S THE REST OF THE STORY, (New York: Bantam Books, 1980) pp. 53-54)

     Help had been near at hand, but no one knew. But thus it is with all our lives. The Kingdom of God--His power, His promise, His purpose--is near at hand. So why do we live as practical atheists? When we face the loss of a loved one, or a failure in our business, or a problem in our marriage--why do we give up so easily? Why do we face the future with such fear? We are not alone in this universe. We do not have to rely upon our own frail resources. The Kingdom of God is at hand! It is here!

BUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT JUST `HERE,' IT IS `NOW!'

Contrary to the teachings of many, Christianity is not a religion concerned with the future--but with the present. It's message is not about dying, half so much as it is about living. Christianity is not nearly as concerned about the Last Day as it is this day! "This is the day that the Lord hath made." Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow. And that is because it is today that really matters.

     It is amazing how many people seek to avoid living in the today. Some people want to live in the past. Some people want to dream of better days to come. But this is the day of ultimate importance.

     Some people live in dread of today. Motivational speaker "Zig" Ziglar has a clever way of pointing this dread out to us. He asks, "What do we call the clock that wakes us up to a new day?"

     Well, what do we call it? We call it an `alarm' clock, don't we? And for many of us it is alarming to face a new day. Ziglar suggests that we call such a timepiece an `opportunity' clock, rather than an `alarm' clock, because today is a new opportunity for us to learn and love and grow and experience. The Kingdom is at hand right now, so don't put off your living until tomorrow. Experience His love in your life right now.

     The Kingdom is near, and the Kingdom is now. And something else:

THIS KINGDOM IS ABOUT A SPECIAL QUALITY OF LIVING.

"Repent!" John the Baptist declared, "For the Kingdom is at hand." The reason so many people do not know the joy of Kingdom living is that they have never repented.

     The story is told of a lamb and its mother. It seems that the lamb passed a pig pen each morning on the way with its mother to the pasture. Watching the pigs wallow in the mud seemed like fun, and on an especially hot day the lamb asked his mother if he could jump the fence and wallow in the cool mud.

     She replied, "No." Then the lamb asked the usual question, "Why?" the mother just said, "Sheep don't wallow." This did not satisfy the lamb. He felt that she had put him down, exercised force which she shouldn't have, etc. So as soon as the mother was out of sight, the lamb ran to the pig pen and jumped the fence. He was soon feeling the cool mud on his feet, then on his legs and soon on his stomach. After a few moments he decided he had better go back to his mother but found that he couldn't. He was stuck! Mud and wool do not mix. His pleasure had become his prison. He was hopelessly bound by his own folly. He cried and was rescued by a kindly farmer. When cleaned and returned to the fold, the lamb's mother said again, "Remember--sheep don't wallow!"

     Sin is like that. It looks so nice--so easy to escape whenever we wish, but it is not so! Pleasures become our prison. The Kingdom life is a life in which we have turned our back on sin. It no longer has dominion over our lives. The Kingdom is near. It is here. It is a quality of life.

AND FINALLY, IT IS EMBODIED IN A PERSON.

Jesus could speak with authority about the Kingdom because people could see the Kingdom in his life.

     We are told that the first great Ferris Wheel was built for the Chicago World's fair over a century ago. It was an engineering marvel, and astounded all those who saw it. But for several days after it was opened, no one would get on it. Everyone was afraid of the `newfangled contraption.' Finally, Mrs. Ferris, the wife of the man who had invented the thing, rode on it several times herself. Then people started riding it. Once they saw her entrust her life to it, the multitudes were no longer afraid: they knew it was safe.

     There is another story, more recent, about a man in Wales who tried for forty-two years to win the affection of his lady. For more than forty years, the persistent but shy man slipped a love letter under his neighbour's door every week. But she refused to speak to him, declining the invitation to resolve the argument which had originally driven the two lovers apart.

     But after writing over 2,000 love letters with no response, the man finally summoned enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked at the door of the reluctant woman and asked for her hand when she answered. She accepted. The couple, now seventy-four, were finally married. (Richard Armstrong, MAKE YOUR LIFE WORTHWHILE, (New York: Trident Press, 1970) p. 222)

     Now imagine God's dilemma. Time and time and time again He had tried to get the message through to human hearts--hearts He had fashioned from the dust--about life in the Kingdom. But finally there was no other way. He sent His message in a person. And now we can see the Kingdom in action, bringing love, forgiveness and healing into every human situation.

     When we know Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lives, then we begin living in the Kingdom. We don't have to wait for the last day. We don't have to wait until we die. The Kingdom of God is here! and now! It can be ours today!

----------------------------------------------

...
  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Cartoon Site"  www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod/  *************************************                                                                            --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: sermonsonthenet-unsubscribe@welovegod.org  

Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

'SERMONSONTHENET'

THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND

Mark 1:4-11

There came a voice crying in the wilderness: "Repent! for the Kingdom of God is at hand." And at the sound of this voice, a responsive chord was struck throughout the land. For once, every distinction was leveled. Pharisee and Sadducee, outcast publican and semi-heathen soldier, met on common ground. Their bond of union was the common hope of Israel--the only hope that remained for this oppressed people--which was the coming of the Kingdom of God. The long winter of disappointment had not destroyed, the storms of suffering had not swept away, and the overpowering might of Rome had not overshadowed this hope that had struck its roots so deep in the soil of Israel's heart.

The Kingdom of God had been the last word of the Old Testament. Yet the `root of Jesse,' from which this Kingdom was to spring, was buried deep underground. Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks and Romans had trodden it underfoot. The Maccabees had come and gone, and the Kingdom was not in them. The Herodian kingdom had risen and fallen. Yet the hope of that kingdom--springing from the seed of David--of which there was not a single trace or representative left, was stronger than ever before. This hope of all believing Israelites through the long night of the ages had been like the eternal lamp which burns in the darkness of the synagogue.

Now the cry had suddenly been raised: "The Kingdom of Heaven is is at hand!" It was heard in the wilderness of Judea, just a few hours' distance from Jerusalem. No wonder Pharisees and Sadducees flocked to the spot. We do not know how many of them came to inquire, how many stayed to be baptized, or how many turned away in disappointment. (I am indebted to Alfred Edersheim's JESUS THE MESSIAH (1886) for much of this section. )

But we do know that multitudes did respond to the message of John the Baptist as he proclaimed God's word along the winding Jordan river. Rapidly the tidings spread from town and village to distant homesteads, until finally it reached Nazareth. There was a young man there, thirty years old, working in a carpenter's shop in Nazareth, for whom the message of John had a special significance. The words that had been the principle of Jesus' life in Nazareth were, "I must be about my Father's business." But now the Father was calling him to a greater business--the business of helping people realize the advent of the Kingdom into their hearts and lives. Jesus made his way to the river Jordan to yield himself to the baptism of John; to begin his ministry of love and compassion which would demonstrate, in his life and in his death, the reality of the Kingdom.

So what are the characteristics of that Kingdom, which John proclaimed and Jesus portrayed, that are important to our lives today? Why should John's words strike a responsive chord in our hearts as it did in the hearts of men and women 2,000 years ago?

THE FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF THAT KINGDOM THAT IS IMPORTANT TO OUR LIVES IS ITS NEARNESS.

God's Kingdom is at hand. Here. It is not somewhere far off. It is not something remote and unreal. It is as near as the air we breathe.

In his fascinating book, MORE OF PAUL HARVEY'S THE REST OF THE STORY, Paul Aurandt tells the story of "The Missing Bullet." At one point during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, the victim of a shooting was brought in whose name was Bill.

Fortunately for this fellow, the first-aid station at the Exposition was a large one, sort of an emergency hospital. They even had an operating room. And Bill was going to need it! He had taken two bullets at close range. It was about four-thirty in the afternoon when Bill, conscious, yet in severe shock, was taken inside, hoisted to the table and undressed. It looked bad. The first shot had grazed a rib, and had obviously deflected. The bullet was still inside.

The doctors, realizing there was no time to waste, decided to operate. Anaesthesia was administered. At that point, Bill began, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. . ." In moments he was under. An incision was made, the abdomen opened. The bullet had indeed slashed through the stomach, both the front and rear walls. The holes in the stomach were closed, but the doctors couldn't find the bullet. It was as though the projectile had vanished, although it was probably lodged in the muscles in his back.

Cleansing a wound of this kind was imperative, and obviously more than the abdominal cavity was involved. The doctors really wanted to find that missing bullet, if only to trace its path. Yet this patient, by now dangerously weakened, might not survive a prolonged probing. So they closed him up--with no drainage--and hoped for the best. Bill was taken to a private residence in Buffalo to recuperate. But he did not. A week later, he was dead. Bill had a few things going against him--he was overweight, and nearly sixty; but mainly it was that wound, insufficiently cleansed and untraced, that caused him to die.

"If" is a big question here, but if the doctors had been able to locate and remove the missing bullet--Bill might have lived. And now, as Paul Harvey might say, this is THE REST OF THE STORY.

Bill was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. On exhibition there--apparently unknown to the doctors, and not far from the scene of the shooting--was a new invention, a revolutionary device that could have helped--called the X-ray machine. That machine--so near yet so far--was operable and would most certainly have located the fatal bullet. But instead, Bill--President William McKinley--died with that assassin's bullet still inside him. (Paul Aurandt, MORE OF PAUL HARVEY'S THE REST OF THE STORY, (New York: Bantam Books, 1980) pp. 53-54)

Help had been near at hand, but no one knew. But thus it is with all our lives. The Kingdom of God--His power, His promise, His purpose--is near at hand. So why do we live as practical atheists? When we face the loss of a loved one, or a failure in our business, or a problem in our marriage--why do we give up so easily? Why do we face the future with such fear? We are not alone in this universe. We do not have to rely upon our own frail resources. The Kingdom of God is at hand! It is here!

BUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT JUST `HERE,' IT IS `NOW!'

Contrary to the teachings of many, Christianity is not a religion concerned with the future--but with the present. It's message is not about dying, half so much as it is about living. Christianity is not nearly as concerned about the Last Day as it is this day! "This is the day that the Lord hath made." Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow. And that is because it is today that really matters.

It is amazing how many people seek to avoid living in the today. Some people want to live in the past. Some people want to dream of better days to come. But this is the day of ultimate importance.

Some people live in dread of today. Motivational speaker "Zig" Ziglar has a clever way of pointing this dread out to us. He asks, "What do we call the clock that wakes us up to a new day?"

Well, what do we call it? We call it an `alarm' clock, don't we? And for many of us it is alarming to face a new day. Ziglar suggests that we call such a timepiece an `opportunity' clock, rather than an `alarm' clock, because today is a new opportunity for us to learn and love and grow and experience. The Kingdom is at hand right now, so don't put off your living until tomorrow. Experience His love in your life right now.

The Kingdom is near, and the Kingdom is now. And something else:

THIS KINGDOM IS ABOUT A SPECIAL QUALITY OF LIVING.

"Repent!" John the Baptist declared, "For the Kingdom is at hand." The reason so many people do not know the joy of Kingdom living is that they have never repented.

The story is told of a lamb and its mother. It seems that the lamb passed a pig pen each morning on the way with its mother to the pasture. Watching the pigs wallow in the mud seemed like fun, and on an especially hot day the lamb asked his mother if he could jump the fence and wallow in the cool mud.

She replied, "No." Then the lamb asked the usual question, "Why?" the mother just said, "Sheep don't wallow." This did not satisfy the lamb. He felt that she had put him down, exercised force which she shouldn't have, etc. So as soon as the mother was out of sight, the lamb ran to the pig pen and jumped the fence. He was soon feeling the cool mud on his feet, then on his legs and soon on his stomach. After a few moments he decided he had better go back to his mother but found that he couldn't. He was stuck! Mud and wool do not mix. His pleasure had become his prison. He was hopelessly bound by his own folly. He cried and was rescued by a kindly farmer. When cleaned and returned to the fold, the lamb's mother said again, "Remember--sheep don't wallow!"

Sin is like that. It looks so nice--so easy to escape whenever we wish, but it is not so! Pleasures become our prison. The Kingdom life is a life in which we have turned our back on sin. It no longer has dominion over our lives. The Kingdom is near. It is here. It is a quality of life.

AND FINALLY, IT IS EMBODIED IN A PERSON.

Jesus could speak with authority about the Kingdom because people could see the Kingdom in his life.

We are told that the first great Ferris Wheel was built for the Chicago World's fair over a century ago. It was an engineering marvel, and astounded all those who saw it. But for several days after it was opened, no one would get on it. Everyone was afraid of the `newfangled contraption.' Finally, Mrs. Ferris, the wife of the man who had invented the thing, rode on it several times herself. Then people started riding it. Once they saw her entrust her life to it, the multitudes were no longer afraid: they knew it was safe.

There is another story, more recent, about a man in Wales who tried for forty-two years to win the affection of his lady. For more than forty years, the persistent but shy man slipped a love letter under his neighbour's door every week. But she refused to speak to him, declining the invitation to resolve the argument which had originally driven the two lovers apart.

But after writing over 2,000 love letters with no response, the man finally summoned enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked at the door of the reluctant woman and asked for her hand when she answered. She accepted. The couple, now seventy-four, were finally married. (Richard Armstrong, MAKE YOUR LIFE WORTHWHILE, (New York: Trident Press, 1970) p. 222)

Now imagine God's dilemma. Time and time and time again He had tried to get the message through to human hearts--hearts He had fashioned from the dust--about life in the Kingdom. But finally there was no other way. He sent His message in a person. And now we can see the Kingdom in action, bringing love, forgiveness and healing into every human situation.

When we know Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lives, then we begin living in the Kingdom. We don't have to wait for the last day. We don't have to wait until we die. The Kingdom of God is here! and now! It can be ours today!

----------------------------------------------

...

  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Cartoon Site"  www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod/  *************************************                                                                            --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: sermonsonthenet-unsubscribe@welovegod.org