Recently I have been dipping into Wolfgang Simson's "Starfish Manifesto" and watching some of the related Starfish Serie on YouTube. I shared some thoughts about the Kingdom of God with our gathering of saints today. These are my notes:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
v3 "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"
v5 "no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit'
Can we see the kingdom of God? Can we enter the kingdom of God? What does it look like? What is the kingdom of God? How do we live there?
What is a Kingdom?
Our ideas of what a kingdom is like have become rather watered down. When Jesus spoke about a kingdom he, and the people hearing him, had a different concept in mind. It was very clear to people then that in a kingdom the king had full authority. He was in charge of everything. If he was a good king he would look after his people and his territory and the people could feel safe under his authority. If he was a bad king, an unpredictable self-centred tyrant, the people would suffer. But either way, the king is in authority and the people have to deal with that.
In the kingdoms that we experience it is very different. Over the course of history we have evolved kingdoms where the king is only nominally in charge and the power is with the people. We do this by electing a parliament who takes authority on behalf of the people and appoints a government to rule. For the form we say the government is acting on the authority of the crown, but actually it is on the authority of the people. So the king is a figurehead, playing a part. He/she may be respected if he/she plays the part well. But no one lives in fear of the authority of the king.
But when Jesus talked about a kingdom he meant a place where people would respect, fear, be in awe of, the authority of the king - and they would experience the power, authority and influence of the king in their daily lives in the kingdom.
And the church?
In many of our church systems, I think we have done something similar to what we have done with democratic kingdoms. We have taken the Kingdom of God and organised matters so that God is no longer in real authority. We the people have set up hierarchies and organisations, rules and rituals so that the we are in control and God becomes only a figurehead. We make buildings and dedicate them to God. We go there and offer our worship. But the whole system has been created by men, it has no real fear, or respect, for the authority of God.
We have taken control and reduced God to a symbolic figurehead.
And then we wonder why God does not come to our services and prayer meetings and join in.
But of course, the true living God, creator of the universe, Father of Jesus Christ, is not going to be reduced to playing a part in a game that we have designed. He is not going to act with power just at the moments we call on Him in our rituals.
I think that if we really want to know the power of God, if we really want to know God, we have to find our way back to His Kingdom. We have to shed all our ideas of a church system and theology that we control. That was the kind of system that Nicodemus knew. The Pharisees had built a system of law and rules to get God under control. Jesus said to Nicodemus: "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Jesus was surprised that Nicodemus didn't get this - you are Israel's teacher and you do not understand these things?
But I think Nicodemus had the same problem that we may have. We are too rational. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual reality - not to be contained in rationality and logic. The re-birth Jesus talks of is a spiritual rebirth. If we are born of water and the Spirit then we can see the Kingdom of God and enter it.
So what do you think?
Can we see the kingdom of God? Can we enter the kingdom of God? What does it look like? What is the kingdom of God? How do we live there?
