Written by David Rebel, Sarah Grimshaw, Johnny & Julie Douglas April & May 2020

Quoteable quotes

"The reign of God has indeed come upon us, and its sign is not a golden throne but a wooden cross." Lesslie Newbigin

“If the kingdom of heaven is at hand, as John the Baptist says, then all our other kingdoms

are called radically into question, including my own private kingdom, and yours.” Fleming Rutledge

Jesus wasn't thinking about miracle when He performed it. He's just doing normal activities as He did in His heavenly kingdom. The call of the Lord is to the kingdom not just the church! JWD

“The kingdom is not an exclusive, well-trimmed suburb with snobbish rules about who can live there. No, it is for

a larger, homelier, less self-conscious caste of people who understand they are sinners because they have experienced the yaw and pitch of moral struggle.” Brennan Manning

“No church without the reign of God…

No reign of God without the church.” Miroslav Volf

“The Kingdom of God is already here but not yet fully realized.” Alan Woods

“Joy is an abundant currency in God's kingdom!” Rod Larkins

"The first question is not 'What did Jesus do and how do we do it?' but what does Jesus offer and how do we put ourselves in a position to receive it?” John Starke

"Disciples of Jesus...apply their growing understanding of life in the

Kingdom to every aspect of their life on earth." Dallas Willard

Jesus didn’t speak about starting a new religion or founding a church. He spoke about the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. His first public announcement was “the time has come, and the Kingdom of God is near”.1 John the Baptist, in preparing for Jesus, had said, ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ The term, “the kingdom of God” was well known to the Jews.

The Kaddish, traditional Jewish prayer, says “May God’s kingdom rule in our lifetime and come quickly.” The Kingdom of God is spoken about 122 times in the Gospels. Jesus spoke about entering the kingdom- Matthew 5:20, praying for the coming of the kingdom, - Matthew 6:10. He preached the kingdom, Matthew 9:35. He demonstrated the power of the kingdom - Matthew 12:15, and He promised the future blessing of the kingdom - Matthew 12:35. This further dimension of the kingdom with us now, but coming in its fullness in the future, is embodied in the Lord’s Prayer...’Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven’. Tim Keller describes the Kingdom of God as the power of God in heaven, entering the world to heal every brokenness in every dimension of human life - emotional, social, physical, spiritual and psychological. When kingdom power comes it will assault all brokenness in every aspect of life. Yet withal, the Kingdom of God is a tricky concept. It’s about the church yet so much more. It’s the dream God has for the wholeness of the world, a dream being made true little by little among us right here, right now. The Kingdom of God is the order of things in which God is King and His will is supreme and sovereign; it’s part of the reason we sing the song, ‘All hail King Jesus!’ Isaiah 61:1-2 declared what the kingdom would be like and it is this passage that Jesus read in the synagogue - Luke 4:18. These happenings were the sign that the kingdom of God had come. In Matthew 11:4-5 Jesus told his disciples to tell John the Baptist what they had seen ... the blind healed, the lame walk ...... as proof that the kingdom had arrived and that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The Jews of Jesus day chose to misunderstand, and could only imagine God’s kingdom as a physical, worldly kingdom where a mighty leader or king would come in power to overthrow the Romans and establish a Jewish nation. Even the disciples, after the resurrection, asked whether the time had now come for the establishment of an earthly kingdom of power? Jesus often spoke about entering the kingdom of God and coming under God’s rule. It would mean changing the direction of one’s life radically, becoming humble and totally committing to God. The Sermon on the Mount sets out the lifestyle of those who are citizens of God’s kingdom. Jesus spoke in parables about the kingdom; these were accessible stories with layers of meaning, which His listeners could identify, and were a common way of teaching amongst rabbis. In most cases a parable has one main teaching point and can be used to think further about a certain teaching as long as you remember the enduring maxim “the plain things are the main things and the main things are the plain things”. In Matthew 13:10 the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables and His answer was very interesting. He was not trying to hide the truth from those who were seeking and had faith. However He was not going to let His opponents and those with stubborn, hardened hearts misunderstand His message. The key to understanding the parables is to have faith. We long to become more and more God’s Kingdom people, so our desire is that we pattern ourselves on the way of Jesus, through the words and way of Jesus.

• Session 1 Introduction & overview • Session 2. Seeking: Matt 6:25-34 • Session 3. Sowing: Matt 13:1-9 and 18-23, The parable of the sower • Session 4. Weeding: Matt 13 v 24-30 & 36-43, The parable of the weeds • Session 5. Growing: Matt 13 v 31-35, The parables of the mustard seed and leavened bread • Session 6. Finding: Matt 13:44-46, The parables of the pearl and the hidden treasure • Session 7. Rewarding: Matt 20 v1-16, The parable of the workers in the vineyard

1 Matthew 4:17

Session 1 – Overview What does the word ‘Kingdom’ bring to mind when you hear it? The Bible speaks of believers ‘fighting’ a battle for the Kingdom of God to be reinstated in the hearts and minds of all people.2 The Bible talks of Kingdom - specific to the Old Testament and differently in the New Testament.3 In the old Testament ‘Malkuth’ is a word used in Hebrew to mean the attributes of God seen in nature and creation.4 It can be called

God’s ‘Shekhinah’ the Glory of God, which we see in nature, all around us and in us. The New Testament talks of the Kingdom in different specific ways and the studies that follow will take us into these deeper. Psalm 145 v13 says God’s Kingdom lasts forever, it is everlasting, notice the present tense, the Kingdom is now as it was then. Daniel 4 v 34 says, the Kingdom lasts from ‘generation to generation’. This is a great promise to us when we worry that faith in Jesus is dying out, the promise is to the world that God’s Kingdom will never change and will always be until the end of time. E Stanley Jones once wrote, "I saw as in a flash that all man-made kingdoms are shakeable. The kingdom of communism is shakeable. They have to hold it together by purges, by force; they cannot relax that force or it will fall apart. The kingdom of capitalism is shakeable. The daily fluctuation of the stock market on account of the course of events, shows that the kingdom of capitalism is shakeable. The kingdom of self is shakeable. Centre yourself on yourself as the centre of your kingdom and the self will sour and go to pieces. The kingdom of health is shakeable. Media blares constantly with supposed health remedies to hold this physical life together, but in the end the grim reaper gets us all. Everything is shakeable except one--the Kingdom of God, the one and only unshakeable kingdom!" FOCUS SCRIPTURE:- Luke 17:20-21 With Acts 1-3, Revelation 11:15, Matthew 12:28, John 3:3, Psalm 97:1 1. Why did Jesus use the term ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ to talk about His message? 2. If the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come, why do you think they did not understand Jesus’ message? 3. Can you summarise what ‘the Kingdom of God’ is. How can we recognize it? 4. Is the Kingdom of God ‘pie in the sky when you die’ or ‘cake on the plate while you wait’? How do we become members of the Kingdom? 5. In the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew ch 5-7 Jesus taught us what was expected of us as citizens of the kingdom. Do we really accept this or do we just make excuses for our failing to live up to high calling of God in Christ Jesus? 6. In what ways were Jesus’ teachings about His kingdom revolutionary? 7. If power, authority, position and money are not important in Christ’s Kingdom, what is? 8. Loisy said it challengingly, “Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, and what we got was the Church.” Is this the new society that Jesus had in mind? 9. How can the Church fully represent the Kingdom of God on earth? 10. When we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come‘ in the Lord’s Prayer, what are we actually asking for? Point to ponder: There can be no Kingdom of God in the world without the Kingdom of God in our hearts!

2 Ephesians 6 v 10 -20 3 Scott Lencke 4 George Eldon Ladd, Methodist; ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom’

Session 2 – Seeking: Matthew 6 v 25-34 Seek first the Kingdom of God This passage follows the Sermon on the Mount where the 10 commandments have been expanded and rebranded by Jesus to be freshly relevant and challenging to all listening to Him and for all who would live after His ascension. As humans we are

prone to worry and anxiety; God knows all about our worries and knows what we need. This passage encourages us to seek first the Kingdom; what does this mean to you? How do we do this?

1. Read the passage in several different translations. What strikes you from these verses?

2. Matthew 6:33 is probably the most important verse in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount: What should we do with the passage and key verse?

3. What does it mean to ‘seek’? The Greek suggests that it is ‘seeking in order to find, to aim at, or strive

after; to look for, to go after’. What do you and I ‘seek’ in this life?

4. What does Jesus encourage us to ‘seek first’ and why? ‘You only have one life, and it will pass. And only what you do for Christ will last’. Is this good advice for living?

5. Seeking first is Jesus antidote to worry and anxiety; how are we to counter our worries and anxieties, keep an eternal perspective and refuse to worry? Psalm 77. 6. What is God’s righteousness? Read Proverbs 2 – what clues are there here about righteousness?

7. How might praying - I Thess 5 v 17, reading scripture - Psalm 119 v 105, praise and worship - Psalm 100 v 4;

Psalm 22 v 3, repentance - John 3 v 16 help?

8. What are ‘all these things’ that God has promised to provide? Do we trust God to supply our needs?

9. Reading scripture and ‘hiding it in our hearts’ - Ps 119v11 are different things. How does memorising scripture help us? What have we memorised over the years and why?

10. What might you do differently as a result of this focus in God’s word?

Point to ponder: If we are taking care of Gods business as a priority – seeking His salvation, living in obedience to Him and sharing the good news of the Kingdom with others – then He will take care of our business as he promised! What’s to worry about if that’s the case?

Session 3 – Sowing: Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 The parable of the sower This is one of the best-known parables and is one that conjures up a familiar biblical scene of the sower in the fields. It is one that Jesus interprets for us and is often

preached on. What does it mean to sow the seed in todays culture and generation? Is being a good neighbour, for example, sowing the seed? Can we sow bad seed?

1. Read the passage in at least two different versions of the bible – what immediately strikes you from them?

2. This is a familiar parable – when we are honest what is the soil that currently characterises me and my

life? What defeats the ‘seed of the Saviour’ in the soil of our lives?

3. V4, what does the seed on the path tell us? Why does this person in the story not understand the

message? In what way does this encounter with the Christian message have any affect on a person? t

4. V5 We are told that the plant on stony ground had no roots & so eventually dies. As a church family how can we help to produce good healthy roots for new Christians? V4. Tells us that the sun scorched the young plants on rocky soil. What does the sun represent? See I Peter 4 v 12-14.

5. Paul talks about ‘growing to maturity’ -Hebrews 6 v 1, ‘keeping hold of the deep truths of the faith’ 1

Timothy 3 v9, and being ‘rooted and established in love” - Ephesians 3 v 17. How are our roots? v5-6 and 20-21?

6. v7 What do weeds do and why? What are the ‘weeds’ you and I have allowed to grow? How do we protect ourselves from those weeds going forward?

7. v8 What is the harvest of your life and mine? Jesus talked of a harvest being 100, 60 or 30 times what

was sown but at that time a seven-fold harvest as a good harvest so even a 30-fold harvest would have been miraculous! What type of harvest is seen in our lives and why?

8. Read the passages again in The Message how does this help us better understand the different paths?

9. This is the parable of the sower, not the seed. What does it mean to ‘be the sower’ today?

Point to ponder ‘Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they resolve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it’. Harold Kershner.

Session 4 – Weeding: Matthew 13 v 24 – 30 & v36 – 43 The parable of the weeds. 1. Read the passage in at least two different versions of the bible – what immediately strikes you from them?

2. What is the kingdom of heaven like in these verses? What is the good seed (v24) and how and why does

it become indistinguishable from the weeds (v29)

3. ‘Whenever God plants a true child of the Kingdom, the devil plants a counterfeit’ Discuss.

4. Who are the ‘sowers of the good seed’ in today’s society?

5. Look at each of the elements of this parable – the good seed, the enemy, the field, the harvest? What are the examples of these that we can see in our own families, workplaces, church?

6. v25 ‘But, while everyone was sleeping’ … how do we protect ‘good seed’? It is interesting that Jesus

doesn’t blame the servants for sleeping compare this with Matthew 26 v40, I Thess 5 v 6, Mark 13 v 35, Mark 13 v 36. What is the difference?

7. v 26The enemy of the farmer seeks to disrupt the growth of good wheat by sowing ‘zizanion’ a weedy

rye grass with poisonous seeds but which looks the same as the wheat during its early stages of growth. How, therefore do we easily distinguish between the wheat and the weeds whilst they are growing? Is there a clear difference between those in the kingdom and those outside?

8. In Philippians 1:15-18, Paul suggests that even if the gospel is preached out of selfish ambition, it doesn’t

matter because the gospel is still being preached. How does this actually work out in practice?

9. At what point do the wheat and the weeds become distinguishably different and why?

10. How does Hextable and Swanley Village know that we are good wheat? See Galatians 5 v 22-23. Point to ponder: If the Kingdom of God is in you, you should leave a little bit of heaven wherever you go.

Session 5 – Growing: Matthew 13:31-35 The parable of the mustard seed and yeast. 1. Read the passage in at least two different versions of the bible – what immediately strikes you from them?

2. These are familiar parables to us but Jesus does not interpret them – why is that?

3. The smallness and seeming insignificance of the mustard seed is in stark contrast to the expectation

that when the kingdom of God came, it would be great and powerful; how does God use the ordinary to become extraordinary in your life and mine?

4. Think of other examples in Scripture of the small things being used…

does size matter in the eyes of God?

5. What is needed for the mustard seed to grow? What is needed for yeast to do what yeast does? How are these ‘conditions’ the same or different?

6. Think about how seeds or plants in the garden grow – what is the preparation that needs to take place?

How is my heart being prepared for more of the Spirit of God?

7. Preparation and planting come after plowing. How are we preparing our lives and what is being planted in them and by what?

8. Think about making bread – what is the point of yeast and how significant is the kneading?

9. After kneading comes the proving, a rest period, what does this look like in your life and mine and why

might this be important to the Kingdom of God growing within us?

10. What is God saying afresh to you and I through this passage?

Point to ponder: “May God give you - and me- the courage, the wisdom, the strength always to hold the kingdom of God as the number one priority of our lives. To do so is to live in simplicity.” Richard Foster.

Session 6 – Finding: Matthew 13 v 44-46 The parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl merchant Here are two similar short parables, which are worth looking at together; these are parables that Jesus tells only to His disciples and again He does not offer an interpretation or explanation. Treasure was often hidden in a field because there

were no formal banks as we know them today and it was therefore not uncommon for valuables to be hidden when marauding armies approached. If the landowner did not survive the invasion the treasure would be forgotten and unclaimed. The land could therefore change hands numerous times before the treasure was discovered.

1. Read the passage in at least two different versions of the bible – what immediately strikes you from them?

2. So, what is the kingdom of heaven like in this passage; how is it relevant today?

3. The hidden treasure lies unnoticed and was therefore found by accident – what are the divine accidents

that have happened to us?

4. The pearl on the other hand is deliberately sought after by the merchant – what are we consciously

seeking after? Reflect on your experience of becoming a Christian – did you happen on the gospel or were you deliberately seeking God?

5. Compare vs 44 & 46 with Matthew 19 vs. 16-22; which are you & I, the rich young ruler, the merchant or

the man?

6. What does ‘all he had’ v44 and ‘sold everything he had’ vs 46 look like for us? What have we given up for

Jesus? What are we willing to give up for Jesus?

7. Look again at Phil 3 v 8. What do we understand afresh about that verse in light of todays reading?

8. In vs 44 the man ‘sold everything with joy’. What is our heart attitude to sacrifice?

Look at Matt 5 v 3-10 – which groups of people gain the kingdom of heaven?

9. How can we help others to discover the treasure of the kingdom? Is it everyone’s job to do this or only

those with a special calling?

10. What is the point of this parable and how can we apply it this week?

POINT TO PONDER: “Greatness in the kingdom of God is measured in terms of obedience.” John Stott

Session 7. Rewarding: Matthew 20 v1-16 The parable of the workers in the vineyard Another familiar parable of the workers in the vineyard; it follows on from the story of the rich young ruler (Matt 19 v 16-24). Peter then asks the question ‘what then will there be for us?’ (Matt 19 v 27); therein lies the heart of man. The parable of the

workers in the vineyard could also be subtitled: ‘The scandal of grace’ as it challenges what we believe (in the human) is fair and just and our understanding of grace.

1. Read the passage in at least two different versions of the bible – what immediately strikes you from

them?

2. Who is the parable about – the owner of the vineyard or the labourers and why?

3. Which one of the labourers are we in terms of our journey of faith?

Do we recognise ourselves in this parable? Are we someone that is picked first, or last?

4. One of the basic elements in the make-up of human beings is envy; envy is clearly seen in this parable.

Where does envy come from?

5. What does the bible say about envy? Where else do we see examples of envy in Scripture?

6. Look again at v 8-16; there is a tragic chain of events that starts with comparing themselves to the

others. Comparing led to coveting, coveting to complaining and complaining to criticising. Do we recognise this ‘chain of events’ at times on our own lives? How might we pray for one another in this?

7. How do we feel about v 15?

8. How does this parable show that the Kingdom of God is an ‘upside down kingdom’?

9. How might we explain ‘grace’ to a non-Christian? What are our ‘grace stories’ even this past week?

10. Listen to ‘Wonderful Grace’ by Lou Fellingham & Stuart Townend; thank God for His grace in our lives.

What is our takeaway from this passage and session?

POINT TO PONDER: “Live in the kingdom of God in such a way that it provokes questions for which the gospel is the answer.” Lesslie Newbigin