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| Living Word Community Church |
The Kingdom of God
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness ... and all these things(food to eat, clothing to wear, shelter to live in)will be added to you as well”Matthew 6:33“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking;but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”Romans 14:17“In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a Kingdomwhich shall never be destroyed; it will stand forever and ever”Daniel 2:44Contents:An introduction and overview is followed by a series of sessions dealing with different aspects of the Kingdom of God and its significance in our Christian lives both individually and together.
As each session is delivered the materials available will become available by clicking on the links below.
Introduction and Setting the scene – “Why the Kingdom of God?”
One of the main reasons why we are taking the theme of the Kingdom of God in our teaching programme in the coming months because it is such a vital theme in Jesus’ own teaching. In fact, if we take a look at the Gospels and the first chapter of Acts we find the Kingdom is a recurring theme. For example:
Matthew 4:17 immediately after His baptism, Jesus begins His preaching ministry with the Kingdom
Matthew 13:24-51 this series of parables is all with reference to the Kingdom
Acts 1:1-3 in the forty days between His resurrection and ascension Jesus taught the disciples on only one topic – the Kingdom of God!
However, the Kingdom of God is not just a theme of the New Testament, but is also strongly referred to in the Old Testament too. Many examples of references to the Kingdom of God come in the prophetic books; but we can also refer to the nation of Israel, and especially under King David as a type or example of what the Kingdom of God is like.
Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream concerning Kingdoms and Governments and in the conclusion (Daniel 2:44) shows that God will set up a Kingdom that will not be destroyed, but will grow from small beginnings to fill the whole earth – surpassing all previous Kingdoms, but being of a different nature.
We will return to all of these themes in the coming months as we go through a programme of teaching about different aspects of the Kingdom of God.
[NOTE: in the course of this teaching we will take the terms Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, etc. which are used by the Gospel writers as synonymous]
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Keith Brockbank and Tim Blake, 22/11/2008 |