The Kingdom of God (Luke 8:1-5)

Luke 8:1-15 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, ^2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, ^3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

The Parable of the Soils

Matt. 13:1–23; Mark 4:1–20

^4 And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: ^5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. ^6 Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. ^7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. ^8 But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

^9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?”

^10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that

‘Seeing they may not see,

And hearing they may not understand.’

^11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ^12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. ^13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. ^14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ^15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. 

The New King James Version. 1982 (Lk 8:1-15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

I have become fascinated with the phrase “Kingdom of God” and “the Gospel.”

Jesus preached the gospel. (See about a dozen or so verses in Matt, Mark & Luke)  That means my definition of “the gospel” and what Jesus preached are likely two different things… given that Jesus had not died or risen from the dead yet (key points in my definition of “the gospel”)… so what is it?

Jesus spent his time preaching about the good news (preaching the gospel) of the kingdom of God.

It was verse 10 that caught my attention… that Christ said the mysteries of the Kingdom of God had been given to us.  This is just the first post.  I have much to dig into…

Chained, But Not Worried

Philipians 1:12-30 is the story of one of Paul’s imprisonments and kind of his mindset about it and what would be accomplished through it. I’m not going to explain the whole thing because it’s pretty long, but if you get the chance I really liked it, you might as well.

Verses 12 and 13 say, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. ¹³As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.”

           – So Paul is in prison and he’s okay with it because He knows it’s advancing the gospel and that he is setting a good example for everyone.

Verses 23 and 24, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; ²⁴but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”

         – I really like this verse, Paul is saying that no matter what happens it’s going to work out good.

I was just really…impressed by this story. It kind of brings things into focus.

The Simple Truth of the Gospel

1 Cor 1:17-18 (Amplified Version)
17 For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but [to evangelize by] preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect).
18 For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.

Having just returned from another Quest, it breaks my heart to see how hurt, how angry, how fearful and how deceived the Body of Christ is. These are the good guys. These are the church going folks. Their story is just like mine was almost 3 years ago. “The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9) I was just as jacked up because I didn’t really understand my own depravity and just what a cesspool that is before the Lord.

I wonder if our “verbal eloquence” has deprived the message of the Cross it’s power in the body of Christ? It’s no wonder the big-C Church is so jacked up. We’ve built denominations and churches and philosophies and beliefs on smooth talk, catchy quips, neat-o illustrations, and persuasive arguments.

The cross of Christ has lost it’s power in the church because not many are willing to speak the simple truth, the confronting truth, the uncomfortable truth, the absolute truth, the politically incorrect truth of God that shows our deceitful and desperately sick hearts, that only Father God can understand and heal. Too many people want to make it palatable and appealing to the masses. God help us.

Verses 18 -31 go on to explain that God’s ways are not our ways. God calls the wise through foolishness, the strong through weakness, the significant through insignificance, and the rich through poverty – in order that as Jer 9:24 states, “…let him who boasts,… boast in.. the Lord…”

So, then the question remains – and I’ll ask it before anyone else does – How do we get The Church back to the simple truth that heals wounds, calms fears, and transforms lives here on earth?

Church study #1

I have so many questions about the Church in today’s time.  Why don’t we live like the Acts church and the churches Paul talks to throughout Timothy and Revelations and Philippians?  So the next little study I will be doing is about the church, then and now.  Today I started trying to find answers throughout scripture about whether or not our time can look like theirs.  Can we really see or experience the things they did.  That is a huge debate among many people.  Some say that church is gone and was only for that time and place.  Others say we are in the age of that style or type of church.  So here we go……

The Bible plainly predicts: “For the time will come when [men] will not endure sound doctrine…” but “they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4).This prophecy has been fulfilled, resulting in many man-made denominations nowhere mentioned in the Bible.  As well all the different teachings that have come across our ears that contradict each other so well.  Since this is true, we ask whether it is possible for the church to exist today as it did in the New Testament; and if so, how?

We can begin by looking at where the church went wrong I suppose.  Tracing a succession of church leaders back to the first century would prove nothing though. For if, as the Bible predicts, a church departed from God’s way somewhere in history, that church would displease God, even if it could trace its leaders back to the first century.  Since our churches have not been corrected, whether our fault or our church fathers, it is still in sin and does not flow with Jesus’ teaching of how we are to live.

There are a lot of options I think we could take to figure out where we went wrong and how we screwed up and whether or not we can ever go back to that and, but actually, God has provided a very simple means to guarantee that His church can exist in any age. That means is the power of the gospel. The New Testament often refers to the gospel as seed. Just as plants and animals reproduce by means of seed, so people become Christians – members of the New Testament church – by means of God’s seed, the gospel.  When seed from a plant is planted into good soil, that seed sprouts and produces a plant of the same type as that from which the seed came. Likewise, 1 Peter 1:23 teaches that we are “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides for ever.” It is by the seed of God’s word, then, that we are “born again” to become children in God’s family, which is the church (1 Timothy 3:15).  The gospel seed is preserved by God’s power so it will exist in every age, having power to make true Christians of those who are willing to obey it. In this way, New Testament Christians can be formed in any age and any place.  All we need is to plant God’s Word in people’s hearts by diligent teaching of God’s true gospel without any human changes.  When people obey, they are born again into God’s family, the one true church (Acts 2:47).

This is the beginning of answering the question of whether or not we even can get back to the Acts time of the church.  The problem then is the teaching of the gospel of Jesus.  It has either been watered down or taught with our own prejudices and opinions.  If we will teach people the way Jesus did I think we will begin to see things we have all wanted to experience and be a part of.  Can it really be that easy?