Key Passage: John 3:3
Key Text: John 3:3 – “…he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Have you ever travelled to a foreign country and having settled into your accommodation, you then decided to take a sight seeing stroll around the area. Then after the walk around, you suddenly discover you did not take the address and you are now very lost. You start to ask people for directions, but most of the people can’t speak your language, so you just wander around looking for landmarks and places you can identify, so as to get back to base.
Suddenly, you spot a couple walking on the other side of the road, you suspect they speak your language and you definitely spotted them at your apartment lobby earlier on. You quickly go across to them and introduce your self and ask them for the directions back to your residence. They are courteous and agree to take you back. Whilst you are walking back, you discover that they normally visit this location and they are quite familiar with the terrain, but they also had gotten lost the first time they came there.
Finally, you are back at your residence. Can you really capture the feeling once you get into your apartment and back on familiar territory? Getting lost can be quite scary.
John 3:3 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Today, I want to state quite unequivocally that most of the people in the Church and the world are somehow like this fictional lost person I described above. I know this sounds extreme. Well, give me a few moments to explain my thoughts. Jesus never came to begin a religious movement on earth. He birthed the Church as an extension of Himself to continue His work, not to morph into a religious organisation. Jesus came to re-establish the Kingdom of God on earth and to invite all who would believe in Him to be Kingdom citizens, enjoy Kingdom privileges and live Kingdom lives. He established the constitution of the Kingdom and expects the Church, His body to propagate and share the gospel or good news of the Kingdom.
In actual fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 (NKJV) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
So the end will not come until we the Church have fully embraced the message of the Kingdom and propagated it in all the nations of the world.
What has happened is that we do not focus on being Kingdom citizens, we do not appreciate the potency, dominion and limitlessness of our Kingdom, because we have all become church centric and denominated. We are more interested in preserving our denominational values than projecting the Kingdom ways. Somehow we end up with a shadow of what we really have been promised.
The first message Jesus preached and all He really ever taught was on the Kingdom. Mark 1:14-15 (NKJV) Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”.
Repent means change your mind, your manner of thinking. I think this message needs to ring out to the entire body of Christ again. Repent and rediscover the Kingdom.
We have been born-again into a Kingdom. We are citizens of another Kingdom. We are empowered by the King to be His emissaries and ambassadors here on earth, manifesting and teaching the nations about His Kingdom.
As a Christian, I challenge you to open your New Testament and read the words of Jesus and see how much He taught on the Kingdom of God. If you are not a christian, I invite you to come and discover the realities and joys of the Kingdom of God.
There is an unusual joy and excitement when we rediscover and embrace the Kingdom message and mandate. There is an unusual feeling of liberty. There is a sense of purpose and destiny. You just know you are home. This is what you were born for; created for; and will gladly live for.
There is much more to say about this Kingdom, please look out for more posts on this.
Let’s Pray: King Jesus, please open our eyes and hearts so we can rediscover the message of your Kingdom and start to live truly as Kingdom citizens, not just as Christians who are part of a religious movement. Please help us to make all the adjustments that we need to make, so we can fully enjoy the privileges of citizenship and be a witness to others, so they can also come and become fellow citizens with us. Amen.
