My Kingdom

John 18:34-36 – “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Matthew 3:1-2 – In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Luke 17:20-21 – Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Application:

• ·         Jesus agrees that He has a kingdom but asserts that it is not the kind of kingdom that has soldiers to fight for it. It was not built, nor is it maintained, by military might.
• ·         The “kingdom of heaven/God” in the preaching of Jesus as recounted in the Gospels is the reign of God that He brings about through Jesus Christ—i.e., the establishment of God’s rule in the hearts and lives of His people, the overcoming of all the forces of evil, the removal from the world of all the consequences of sin—including death and all that diminishes life—and the creation of a new order of righteousness and peace.
• ·         The kingdom is present in the person of King Jesus.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV