Bentley Baptist Church Sermons

The Gospel of the Kingdom

• Bentley Baptist Church

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12.1.2025 | Ps Alex Huggett
Part of a series on Local Houses of Prayer

© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org

Speaker 1:

So Jesus taught us to pray your kingdom come. Over the last few months you might have heard me talking a bit about blessing and speaking blessing to our communities and to the people in our lives. As a follower of Jesus, did you know that when you bless someone in Jesus' name, they are really blessed? You are doing something in the spiritual realm. How can we make such an audacious claim as that, to say that the words we speak will have an effect on people? Well, it begins with the gospel of the kingdom. Gospel is just an old English word for good news of the kingdom. Gospel is just an old English word for good news.

Speaker 1:

When you think about the gospel of the kingdom, what comes to mind? When you think, particularly in terms of Jesus' ministry, what comes to mind? I'm going to give you a chance. Does anyone want to yell something out? The next few weeks I'll be getting a little bit of interaction. Probably. Anyone want to be bold? What do you think of when you think of the kingdom of God, freedom, acceptance, power, love. Sorry, I missed that. Peace, power, love. Sorry, I missed that Peace. Yeah, you're preaching my sermon for me now is that that's good, they're good, they're great responses.

Speaker 1:

You know in Matthew, chapter 4, jesus began to go all over Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and healing every disease and sickness among the people. They brought to him, all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains. The demon possessed the epileptics and the paralytics and he healed them. So the kingdom of God is good news. It's especially good news because there's bad news. I don't know if you sort of noticed, but the world's in a bit of a mess here. God created us to live in right relationship with him, with each other and with the world, but humanity turned its back on him and we decided to go our own way. Now, one of Jesus titles is Prince of Peace. When you turn your back on the Prince of Peace, what do you think is going to happen? Yeah, but the good news is that Jesus has come to restore peace to his world. He was unjustly put to death. He took our evil and sin and crucified it with himself, so we and our world can have his goodness and life and ultimately, eternal life. That's the good news of the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1:

But what do we mean by the kingdom of God anyway? Well, zach sort of mentioned it before A kingdom is a realm that's subject to a king or ruled by a king, and so the kingdom of God is that realm subject to God and specifically subject to his appointed king, jesus Christ. Now I don't know what you think of a kingdom. It doesn't necessarily sound like good news today, does it? But kingdoms, or modern kings and queens, either tend to be weak and powerless figureheads, or they're tyrannical dictators. So how is the kingdom of God good news, although God is king of the whole world, unlike human nations, god's kingdom isn't political, it's spiritual. And so in John 18, jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I wouldn't have to be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

Speaker 1:

And in Luke 17, when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them the kingdom of God is not coming with something observable. No one will say see, here or there, for you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst. So the Pharisees were looking for a future kingdom, but Jesus said no, it's here now, because the king was standing in front of them having a conversation. And still today God's kingdom is found everywhere. Jesus is present by the Holy Spirit. He is present with you, his people with you and me, his church. So the question is do we recognize that God's kingdom doesn't conquer nations, it conquers hearts? Jesus proclaimed the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. I really like that to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. So the good news of the kingdom is that the king has come to set people free. He sets people free from demons and every kind of oppression, from sickness and disease, from fear, bitterness, hatred and strife. He came to teach us a better way to live a life full of grace that flows from the Father's heart, following Jesus' example, in giving and receiving forgiveness, love, life and in serving others. And although the kingdom doesn't conquer nations, it can transform them.

Speaker 1:

You know, many years ago I met a doctor from India. She was from a small state up in the Indian Himalayas called Nagaland. Now India overall is less than 2.5% Christian, but Nagaland is 90% Christian. 90% of people in Nagaland follow Jesus Back then. I presume maybe still is. But the chief of police was Hindu. Do you know what his biggest complaint was? Boredom. There was so little crime in the state. Police had nothing to do. And that's what happens when the kingdom of God rules enough hearts, it changes whole communities. Friends, the kingdom is still breaking in. Do we see it? Will we seek it?

Speaker 1:

Well, jesus didn't just come to declare the news of the kingdom himself. As people followed him, he sent them out as well. And in Luke 10, the Lord appointed 72 others and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he told them when you enter any town and they welcome you, eat the things set before you, heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you. And he said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. The good news is the king is still proclaiming God's favour for you and me, for your family, for your neighbours, for your community, and now he uses you and me, his spirit-filled and spirit-led people, to do it. You see, where God's people are, there is God's kingdom. Where people who are subject to the king go, there goes his kingdom with them, and where you go, you take God's power and potential for transformation of lives and of communities.

Speaker 1:

How do we see a breakthrough like that in our world? How do we see the kingdom of God manifesting in In our church? There's a bunch of Christians here today. The kingdom is here. Well, jesus said I am with you. And so it begins as we sit in the presence of the king and are with him. He said all authority has been given to me, therefore go. So it begins as we go in the authority. You have authority, the authority of the king. He said teach them to observe what I have commanded you. It begins as we go with the message and the ministry of Jesus the King. Let's watch a short video. So the power to change life and communities where we are today.

Speaker 1:

I've got another question for you what would it look like if God's kingdom broke out in our communities, in your community, on your street, in your neighbourhood, at your workplace in Bentley, in the surrounding houses and streets, in the suburb around us? What would it look like? Dream a little Kingdom of God breaks out in Perth. What happens? What might start and what might stop. Let's cry Yep More sharing, more sharing, less homeless people, more sharing, anything else? I think all those things and more.

Speaker 1:

So over the coming weeks we're going to look at how we can bring the kingdom of God practically today. But if you follow Jesus, you carry God's kingdom. You carry his presence, his authority and his power with you. So don't underestimate what you have. You have Jesus by his spirit. You have the king. The kingdom with all its power is among us, but we've got to take hold of it by faith. So the question, the challenge for us will we do that? Will we seek it? Will we take hold of it? Let's pray Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Father, help us to seek your kingdom. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.