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130 He teaches about the coming of the Kingdom Luke 17:20-37 LATER, JESUS WAS ASKED by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he gave them this reply: “The kingdom of God never comes by watching for it. Men cannot say, ‘Look, here it is’, or ‘there it is’, for the kingdom of God is inside you. . .” * * * Not so many days later… PETER STEPS OUT THROUGH the doorway into the bright Jerusalem sunlight. The whole crowd below turns and looks up. From this parapet, he can see across the rooftops to the Mount of Olives. The gnarled trees of Gethsemane are visible. The foot-trail that winds up from the Kidron, past that run of untended grapevines, is visible too. He can see the place their feet trod together: he remembers the feeling of going up…and then going back down.
He looks down at the crowd beneath him. A strange, uncity-like silence is ascending. A warm west wind is blowing out of the wilderness, carrying scents he smelled on those days when he and the others once baptized… The silence below awaits… And as he steps to the rail, in harness now to the Presence that lives inside him, clearing his throat, letting the words within him arise and coalesce, Peter is suddenly conscious of one final thought—like a whisper to his spirit on this morning of the day of Pentecost: “The Kingdom of God is within you, Peter.”
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“To anyone who studies the book we call the Acts of the Apostles it becomes quite plain that the Holy Spirit is not a vague influence for good, not even just a powerful Wind of Heaven, but a Person with a purpose and ideas of His own. The earth was once visited for a few years, visibly, audibly, and tangibly, by God in human form, but thereafter it was (and of course is) continually subject to invasions by the Spirit of Jesus. Happily, the Young Church was sensitive, alert, and flexible, and we can read for ourselves to what miraculous triumphs the Spirit led them. Again, if we are to regain the buoyant God-consciousness of New Testament Christianity, we must not only accept afresh the planned Personal Visit, but be ready for any number of subsequent invasions of the Spirit.” J.B. Phillips
New Testament Christianity Remember: The faith that initially led you into relationship with Jesus is the same faith that still encounters Him and will, ever after, lead you onward. The Holy Spirit, within, is the spirit of faith to trust Him ever more; the same Spirit that, day by day, led His own heart in intimacy with the Father. For Jesus Himself told us how this works:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. You see, Jesus, in His desire that you should know Him, asked the Father to send their own Spirit—the Spirit of truth—that you might approach Him from within. When you read of all the miracles and adventures of the Early Church, all the ins-and-outs of their daily exploits “in the Name,” you are reading the tale of never-ending encounter with the Living Jesus--by the Holy Spirit. So may the Spirit who endued those men and women with their unconquerable spirit, and gave them consistent experience of the Risen Savior, give you a heart aflame with love, joy and the passion of Jesus Himself in the conduct of your days! That, as one of its members, you will show the Church the heights and depths of what’s possible in Jesus so that the whole—the Body—will be reanimated and reenergized! Let us, together, open our hearts and minds to so encountering Him! Let us so open our hearts and minds this day! “You cannot know times and dates which have been fixed by the Father’s sole authority. But you are to be given power when the Holy Spirit has come to you. You will be witnesses to me, not only in Jerusalem, not only throughout Judea, not only in Samaria, but to the very ends of the earth!” When he had said these words he was lifted up before their eyes till a cloud hid him from their sight. While they were still gazing up into the sky as he went, suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the sky? This very Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven will come back in just the same way as you have seen him go.” (Acts 1:7-11) * * * One is reminded here of Elisha peeling his eyes to see Elijah taken heavenward: he truly believed that seeing that sight would assure his attaining a spiritual “double portion.” And now I’m reminded that keeping our eyes on the eyes of Jesus—watching His face as He ascends—is thusly knowing the One who sits upon the throne of Heaven. Our own “double portion” is to possess His Spirit (here, within us) and to “know the one in whom I have placed my confidence” (there, seated, forever).
Our eyes are unto your eyes, Jesus! The Kingdom of Heaven is just like Jesus: always looking for the lost. It quickly comes to terms with those ready to be redeemed. They are chosen by Him and sent out to do His work. Out there, they find themselves increasingly surrounded by other rescued ones He’s rescuing. (Some of His choices are surprising in revealing His graciousness: there is seemingly no accounting for His taste in people.)
The Kingdom of Heaven pays out what He offers: His personal presence; a calling throughout life; eternal life as the final reward. Our work for Him will be as valuable to us as our present awareness of His presence is: we may experience eternal life, not “someday,” but right now. Alas for the ones who waste their lives in gradating royal brothers and sisters! Blessed are they who enjoy that particular wealth of the Kingdom today! (from Mt. 20:1-16) “We must understand that God does not ‘love’ us without liking us—through gritted teeth—as ‘Christian’ love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core—which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word ‘love’.” Dallas Willard The Divine Conspiracy * * * * “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (John 13:34, NLT)
X.269 Nothing can compete with the splendors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let nothing compete with the splendors of the Kingdom of Heaven!
X.270 The Kingdom of Heaven is an attaining unto joy; attaining to the Kingdom of Heaven is to be possessed by its King’s joy. X.271 The Kingdom of Heaven is its seekers seeking it—then finding that they were already found before they found it. X.272 Only one “selling of a soul” is needful here. X.273 The Kingdom of Heaven is broader than you can imagine; yet narrower, and narrowing, as its catch is drawn, hand over hand, toward shore. X.274 (We will never understand all that Jesus meant; means. And this is alright.) Today our Anchor Gathering community considered the ongoing qualities of Pentecost: the fact that, in our day and age, you and I are the bearers of the very same Spirit of Jesus. So, with that, it's always inspiring to remember the fruits which immediately followed that first Pentecost: how the life of Jesus continued transmitting via His friends, disciples, and the ever-growing, never-ending Body.
Then those who welcomed his message were baptized, and on that day alone about three thousand souls were added to the number of disciples. They continued steadily learning the teaching of the apostles, and joined in their fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer. Everyone felt a deep sense of awe, while many miracles and signs took place through the apostles. All the believers shared everything in common; they sold their possessions and goods and divided the proceeds among the fellowship according to individual need. Day after day they met by common consent in the Temple; they broke bread together in their homes, sharing meals with simple joy. They praised God continually and all the people respected them. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were finding salvation. (Acts 2:41-47) My friends, let's go live this week from the "spirit of that Spirit!" “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Consider the import of these oft-quoted words: When a man or woman comes to Jesus of Nazareth, takes the rest He is offering, finds His yoke to be light and easy, learns from Him, that man or woman then enters into a load-sharing, mutually-yoked work that is ALL Jesus, ALL the time, along His RESTFUL Way. No longer does that man or woman require the self-justification of pointing to their religious exhaustion as proof of their self-salvation. They can simply turn their head a little—under the yoke with Jesus—and absolutely delight that He is actually doing it all. He is pulling the whole weight of the whole Christian life. He is carving out new fields for simple planting of seeds. He is showing us how to plant those seeds most fruitfully. He is teaching us to take our noonday meal in the shade of yonder tree. He instructs us as we take each step-by-step. He is laughing at the mistakes we make along the way. He is pointing back over our shoulder at the work almost unconsciously done. And He’ll turn us for Home when the work is, at last, completed. In other words, Thank You, Jesus! Then, in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a deserted place, and there he prayed. Simon and his companions went in search of him, and when they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” “Then we will go somewhere else...” (Mark 1:35-38a, Phillips) * * * Did you know: it really is a fool’s errand to try to manage people’s response to your life? to try to “game out” what just might happen—in your absence—to your reputation? Here’s what I mean: Watching the life of Jesus, it becomes abundantly clear that He kept no eye on the “effect” produced by His life: on the way He was being, by others, perceived/received. In the Present, He simply did the will of the Father… and then, really and truly, left it at that. He wasn’t constantly preparing for potential ways the Future’s understanding might attach to Him: He hardly ever seemed interested either in His own reputation or, really, much in the Future.
So, the further and further we go into normalizing our current culture—where it’s thought normal to “curate” one’s daily life, as well as others’ perception of that life—it’s important that, every once in a while, we remember that it’s not particularly helpful to our hearts. It’s an attempt to stage-manage others’ understanding of one’s life, while actively mortgaging one’s own Present against some potential Future—but in other people’s minds! It’s a funny little thing that we’ve gotten very used to. Let us, instead, together, “go somewhere else...” “It is not we who can sustain the Church, nor was it our forefathers, nor will it be our descendants. It was and is and will be the One who says: ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ … For us, the Church would perish before our very eyes, and we with it (as we daily prove), were it not for that other Man who manifestly upholds the Church and us.” Martin Luther
as quoted by Barth “Come now, insignificant man, fly for a moment from your affairs, escape for a little while from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside now your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon yourself for a little to God and rest for a little in Him.” Anselm of Canterbury Proslogion I was moved by this, this week, because in it are combined: a gentle self-deprecation, an awareness of the “pull” of our thoughts/busynesses, the reminder that we may choose to set aside any number of our anxieties in order to simply rest; to be.
The secret is abandonment. The destination is the heart of the Lord. And, the result is less self-seriousness, greater depth of mindful joy, the peace that passes all understanding, and the “being and becoming” which only He can offer. Sounds pretty lovely to me! His Kingdom is a kingdom of glorious suffering, unrecognizable to the world whose broken ways He came to right: He will spread His arms to call all, to embrace all, to welcome all into the arms of the God who has always loved them.
His yoke, light and easy, rests upon His shoulders just as perfectly naturally as did the crossbeam which He carried up Golgotha’s hillside. He staggers not under the weight of your sin. He walks upward, heavenward, carrying it. His Holy Spirit trails along behind Him wherever He goes. Joy lights the path of this conquering King. His Kingdom conquers the world by His own perfect adherence to the will of the Father. In other words, “It is finished.” God, in his foreknowledge, chose us to bear the family likeness of his Son, that he might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose us long ago; when the time came he called us, he made us righteous in his sight, and then lifted us to the splendour of life as his own sons.
In face of all this, what is there left to say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need? Who would dare to accuse us, whom God has chosen? The judge himself has declared us free from sin! Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us! Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, pain or persecution? Can lack of clothes and food, danger to life and limb, the threat of force of arms? Indeed some of us know the truth of the ancient text: ‘For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter’. No, in all these things we win an overwhelming victory through him who has proved his love for us! I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither messenger of Heaven nor monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 8:29-39, Phillips) This week, at Anchor, we considered how the Vineyard-owner from the parable of Matthew 20 might be hinting at something like the following:
“Isn’t it wonderful,” Jesus asks, “that just as I was wonderful to you, I’m always choosing to be wonderful… to everyone?! Look around,” He says. “Look at all the people I’ve got you rubbing shoulders with, every single day: these are the highest work of your work in my fields.” He smiles even more broadly. “Or were you starting to think that the moral-of-this story was only your personal morality, your self-righteous hardwork, or, even worse than that, promise of eventual reward. Oh, my friend—it is so much more than that! Back when I called you—back when you and I understood together where all this was going—did you misinterpret what we were doing? Yes, I sent you into the world; yes, I sent you into my vineyard—but what did you think we were doing there together? We were in the vineyard—you and I, together; shoulder to shoulder—not to talk about its fruit, not to be knowledgable about its potential eventual crops; even to constantly point to the fruit as if the fruit was the thing. The fruit is a part of the thing, yes. But the fruit, my dear friend… is not the thing. “The thing… is my calling you… your coming along with me… our going-together into the fields of this vineyard. The thing… is us… together. Just you and me, as we’re walking out every single moment of the moments that are making up your life: the thing… is our life together… together. “And do you wanna know what’s especially wonderful? “That the more you come to terms with just how wonderful what we’re doing together is…the more you’re celebrating being part of this glorious work-with-me… well… in the midst of enjoying the work, delighting in me, doing this together… that’s the moment when others start to wonder--these people doing their lives around you--why YOUR life is so full of wonder. As you’re walking around with me… learning to see the world like me… you’ll start to look, to others, like me. “And, you see,” He smiles now with the greatest affection it is possible to conceive of, “that is the thing. That’s why I called you in the first place. That’s the whole of the Kingdom of Heaven. My friend, that’s what we’re doing, here, together: living our whole lives together, so that everyone may have life in me.” We ask: How many times does Jesus call us to repent: to return to Him?
He answers: One more time than the number of times you’ve walked away! “The kingdom of God never comes by watching for it. Men cannot say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘there it is.’ For the kingdom of God is inside you.” (Luke 17:20,21)
Over this last week, I had the pleasure of going through all four Gospels and then simplifying, then collating, every single thing that Jesus ever said about the Kingdom of God. So, by way of reminder, everything you're about to read is, according to Jesus, now, permanently, today-tomorrow-forever, temporally and eternally, IN YOU. WITHIN YOU is a Kingdom that Has arrived; is the Good News; is still, and always will be, arriving; is a perpetual feasting; is pure power; and pure potential kinetic energy. INSIDE YOU is a Kingdom that is subtle and yet always growing; small but destined to become mighty; proven out by its final outcomes: a Kingdom of goodness, immeasurable value, the intensive seeking of which is also its joyous finding. THE KINGDOM WITHIN YOU is after every single person upon the earth; is the best of all that’s been—currently is—and all that’s to come; is utterly gracious; wide-WIDE-open; extremely intense; but also generous—like a living-breathing invitation. (An invitation to what, you might ask? Oh, I’m so glad you did!) Because WITHIN YOU is a Kingdom—a Kingdom of Heaven, don’t forget!—that is the wildest, most joyous, sort of PARTY! This KINGDOM INSIDE YOU is a perpetual call to attention; the pointing-to and arrival upon God’s secret; pure growth and pure growing, at one and the same time: it is right here, right now; a message entirely its own; requiring of your all; a worthy place to set one’s heart and closest focus. And, almost best of all, this KINGDOM WITHIN YOU has been given-to-you for your real-time experience—that is given to you; never, ever earned!—it is Paradise RIGHT NOW; it operates from the freshness of a twice-born spirit; brought to bear, in fact, by the Holy Spirit; meaning you yourself are holy, otherworldly, even as you live within this world! My friends, today, and all week along, and every moment until you draw your final breath, the Kingdom of God is inside you! “The new revelation of God in Jesus Christ, the new way of approach to the Infinite Father manifested in the appearance of the Son, had created for the primitive Christians a new life and had illumined them with a new light. It gave them a new insight into the relations between God and man, and a fresh manifestation of the bonds uniting our Father in Heaven with His children on earth. It made them see with new vividness the way of God’s salvation and the duties which God required of man.” Thomas M. Lindsey The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries I love these descriptions of the “early days” of the Body:
Jesus was their new revelation; the new way of approach to the Father; their new life; their new light; a new insight: He was the fresh manifestation of the new vividness of the way of God's salvation. What if you and I lived that new, new, new, new, new, fresh newness all week long, this week, so that others might get a glimpse of Him? Sounds to me like quite an adventure! “Now if Christ does live WITHIN YOU his presence means that your sinful nature is dead, but YOUR SPIRIT becomes alive because of the righteousness he brings with him. I said that our nature is 'dead' in the presence of Christ, and so it is, because of its sin. Nevertheless once the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives WITHIN YOU he will, by that same Spirit, bring to your whole being new strength and vitality.
“So then, my brothers, you can see that we have no particular reason to feel grateful to our sensual nature, or to live life on the level of the instincts. Indeed that way of living leads to certain spiritual death. But if on the other hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying THE SPIRIT, you are on the way to real living. “All who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are God’s own sons. Nor are you meant to relapse into the old slavish attitude of fear—you have been adopted into the very family circle of God and you can say with A FULL HEART, 'Father, my Father.' The Spirit himself endorses our INWARD conviction that we really are the children of God. Think what that means. If we are his children we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as his will belong to all of us as well! Yes, if we share in his suffering we shall certainly share in his glory.” (Romans 8:10-17, Phillips) Remember, as you encounter this week: Jesus lives WITHIN YOU. He has already made YOUR SPIRIT alive. The power of the Resurrection is likewise WITHIN YOU. THE SPIRIT of Jesus is your ever-available Guide through life. By the Lord's work, you, right now, may enjoy A FULL HEART. For your INWARD sense, of His perfect love, is perfectly correct! “Jesus Christ signifies God, not without man or—which would be even worse—against him, but God with man, and indeed for him, as his Friend and Helper and Saviour and Guarantor. Jesus Christ signifies God Himself becomes man’s Neighbour and Brother, akin and alongside in order in his stead to redeem his ruined cause. Jesus Christ is in person the faithfulness of God which draws near the unfaithfulness of man and overpowers it as God Himself not only confirms and maintains His covenant with His creature but once and for all leads it to its goal and secures it against every threat. He is the reconciliation of the world to God which does not merely look and go beyond the sin of man but sets it aside. He is the effective justification and sanctification of sinful man, and indeed his honorable vocation to the service of God. He is the kingdom of God which with its comfort and healing has approached and invaded torn humanity suffering from a thousand wounds, and put an end to its misery. He is in the deepest sense the reformation, i.e., not merely the restoration but the disclosure or manifestation of the purpose and glory of all creation. He is the gift of what it has not merited, its liberation by the free love, the free grace and the free mercy of God in the purity of His will and with the superiority of His power. In a word, He is the goodness of God…” Karl Barth
Church Dogmatics IV.3.2 The key to the “Great Commission” (Mt. 28:18-20) is imagining that you’re the only person to whom He spoke it: that its fulfillment is entirely contingent upon your obedience. All at once, then, all of life becomes the most marvelous adventure alongside Him: He daily hands you His authority, sending you places for His purposes, calls up your courage, allows you to be the hands and feet and lips of His glorious Gospel.
The Holy Spirit--His own Spirit—will empower everything you do! And He Himself will be with you; beside you; within you! Never forget: Your witness for Him lacks for nothing. “To you whom I love I say, let us go on loving one another, for love comes from God. Every man who truly loves is God’s son and has some knowledge of him. But the man who does not love cannot know him at all, for God is love. To us, the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us has been his sending his only Son into the world to give us life through him. We see real love, not in the fact that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to make personal atonement for our sins. If God loved us as much as that, surely we, in our turn, should love each other!” 1 John 4:7-11, Phillips * * * * “The primacy of love in the spiritual life is not an arbitrary, imposed condition; it is inherent. If you have the Spirit, you have love, and if you do not have love, you do not have the Spirit.” E. Stanley Jones
Growing Spiritually 54.21 We labor and strive because of our hope; not toward it. Our living Hope is already beside us; with us; within us.
54.22 The Kingdom knows no hierarchy, no classes, no ages, no statures; only abiding in Jesus, union, unity, oneness. 54.23 Let your speech, life, love, faith, and purity be His, for His are what our Heavenly Father recognizes. 54.24 We end by absorbing what absorbs us. 54.25 The salvation of Jesus rides out upon my day today. 54.26 Give a great and growing attention to yourself, and you will quickly learn how fleeting are these particular diminishing returns. 54.27 Give only a sliver of the same, offering the rest to anyone/everyone: how great shall be your days! 54.28 Caring even a little leaves room for infinite growth. 54.29 (Not caring: a choice for death.) 54.30 Speak seldom of what you somewhat know. Speak never of what you know not. 54.31 Be reasonable. 54.32 Don’t be less fun than Jesus. “There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. It is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother's confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people... But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Life Together “Abandonment to God is the fruitful way to experience good under God. It means relinquishing ‘our way.’ It means not being angry or resentful when things do not go our way. It means that in God’s hands we are content for him to take charge of outcomes. And in that posture we make way for him to occupy our lives with us, and achieve what is best for us and for others far beyond anything we can even imagine.” Dallas Willard from the collection, Renewing the Christian Mind * * * Now to him who by His power within us is able to do far more than we ever dare to ask or imagine—to Him be glory in the Church through Jesus Christ for ever and ever, Amen! (Ephesians 3:20-21, Phillips)
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