Let’s talk about the sermons of Jesus the King.

Steve Brown:
Hey, let’s talk about the sermons of Jesus the King, on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend Pete Alwinson to do the teaching this week. Pete is a former pastor, founder of ForgeTruth.Com, and the author of Like Father Like Son.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man.

Steve Brown:
Hey, we are, in case you’re just joining us, Pete Alwinson, who always joins me on Friday when we answer questions together, he came into the studio and we asked him to talk about a subject he’s been teaching the last few weeks at Forge. And it’s the idea of the Kingdom. Now, we all know something about the King and the Kingdom, but we don’t talk about it much. And it’s life changing when we do. And so yesterday, if you were listening, and if you weren’t, you’ll get the fever and die, or at minimum, the hives. And I’m joking, don’t send me letters. But yesterday, we talked about the King. The Kingdom has a King, and we saw at the very beginning, when Jesus was born, the gospel of Luke calls him the King. Now today, when we talk about the Kingdom, I said at the beginning of the broadcast, we’re going to talk about the sermons of Jesus. It’s going to surprise people what Jesus preached about a lot. Tell us.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. You know, it really is fascinating. We ended last time talking about how Jesus was the King that wandered around in a very strategic way all over Israel, going face to face with the people. And we often think, well, what are the sermons of Jesus? Matthew, of course, as a gospel, is shaped around the five major sermons of Jesus. But Luke tells us something that’s absolutely fascinating, that after he goes out there and starts wandering around and preaching to people and doing miracles, because those miracles substantiate that he is the King who has come to earth. So, all the healings and all of that. And then, because he did all these healings, people are saying, Jesus, come over here. My mother in-law is sick, you know, and so he’s trying to get him and then he gets up one morning and they’re coming to him and they said, come over here, Jesus. And he says, Nope. He says, I must preach

Steve Brown:
Where’s this?

Pete Alwinson:
This is Luke chapter 4: verse 42. It says.

When they came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place and the crowds were searching for him.

I love this.

And they came to him and tried to keep him from going away. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

Steve Brown:
Oh man, to preach the Kingdom of God.

Pete Alwinson:
To preach the Kingdom of God. And so, what we often think Jesus was trying to do is be a moralist or to get people to walk an aisle, turn or burn. He’s going to do a great evangelistic sermon. And yet that’s not what we see Jesus doing. We see Jesus going from place to place. And in general, this is his theme, his theme and John the Baptist’s theme to when they first started their ministry, both of them.

Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

And as a kid, I used to always struggle with at hand. What do you mean at hand? Well, if you stick your arm out, you can, I can see my hand. It’s right there.

Steve Brown:
It’s right there.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s right there. And then you can move it really up close and personal. And so, what Jesus in a shocking way was doing was even more than any of the older prophets in the Old Testament. He was saying, you know that God is sovereign. You know that God is the King ultimately. But I want you to know that his Kingdom is here right now in me and through me.

Steve Brown:
Oh man.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, that was the general tenor of what Jesus was teaching to people. So, when you come to Matthew’s first major sermon series, that he recounts of Jesus, which is the Sermon on the Mount, we often call that the Kingdom Manifesto of Jesus. Because this is how Kingdom people live, once they’ve met the gracious God and have repented of their sins, this is how they seek to live in light of the grace calling of God, the Sermon on the Mount. But it’s Kingdom living now, not in the future, not way down the road. Now.

Steve Brown:
Oh man, that’s so good. And we didn’t get a vote, we’re not the King, this is the King that’s saying these things.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
The King who’s giving the commandments, the King who’s setting the parameters, the King who’s setting up the Constitution, the King gets to do all of that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s exactly right. And so, when you keep Kingship in mind, when you get to the Sermon on the Mount, all the sermons and the Sermon on the Mount is extensive, right? And Luke has his version of it too. It’s stunning. Steve, I love Key Life and I love grace. You do too. You have changed my life by teaching grace to me. One thing that we can be in peril of is when we think about grace minus the holiness of God or the Kingly role of God. If we leave Christ’s Kingship and his holiness out of it, then grace makes Jesus into our butler or table server.

Steve Brown:
That’s good. That’s, and I agree with that. I agree.

Pete Alwinson:
And you’ve always taught that.

Steve Brown:
And the King also, when he gives his constitution, this is how we should live. He lives it through us.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s exactly right.

Steve Brown:
The first thing that hits you when you read the Sermon on the Mount is I can’t do this. You know, nobody can do this. This is crazy. And then you realize that’s what the King says. And the King doesn’t, he wanders around, he comes to us, he leads us in the paths of what it means to live in the Kingdom as a citizen.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. And that’s how he starts out the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the poor or yours is the

Steve Brown:

Kingdom of God.

Pete Alwinson:

Kingdom of God.

Now, that’s Luke’s version. In Matthew, it says.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Which was really probably the idea that he’s trying to get across. And so, he promises us. And then the last one also in the Beatitudes gets back to the Kingdom of God. And so, he’s constantly helping us to see that true blessedness and true joy comes when we understand the Kingdom of God. We come to Luke chapter eight. Here it is again.

Soon afterwards, he began going around from one city and village to another proclaiming and preaching the Kingdom of God.

Now, you and I’ve read that for years.

Steve Brown:
A hundred times.

Pete Alwinson:
A hundred times, but it struck me this year in a unique way, that was such a big issue for him. And then he gets down to the disciples and they, he says in verse 9.

To you it has been granted

When he says things in parables, he says.

To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest, it is in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

So, there are mysteries to the Kingdom.

Steve Brown:
What are they?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. What are some of those mysteries? Well, one of them is God taking on human flesh to be the Lamb and the Redeemer? That’s one of the mysteries. Another one of the mysteries is that Jesus is, his Kingdom is here now. He rules now and he will rule forever. And so, that’s such an important point for us to understand as Christians living at this moment in history in America, it’s hard, it’s very hard.

Steve Brown:
It’s hard to think. I mean, even to believe this stuff is hard and we wouldn’t if it weren’t true. But you know, you look around and you cry out with a Psalmist, you know, how come the bad guys are winning? How come we don’t get the vote? How come there is no standard of right and wrong? How come they make fun of you and don’t like Christians and we go, Kingdom, you’re crazy.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. That’s exactly right. And so, this is why this is so practical to us. This is a leap year, but it’s an election year. And our world is as equally in as much chaos as it was in 1857, just before the Civil War, when a huge revival broke out in New York City. But our world is in economic chaos, all these things that you said. So, how does it help us if we understand that the Kingdom of God is here and it’s coming, how does that help us be good citizens of the United States of America? Or whatever country we happen to be citizens of. There are many, many applications on this. One thing is that we know that Jesus is the King now, the King tomorrow, and the King forever. And his Kingdom, so his Kingdom is here. And so, that reminds us that there are two major phases of the Kingdom, right? There’s the Kingdom in its present form, and then the Kingdom in its future form. And a Christian who is going to maintain joy is going to keep both of those Kingdom aspects in mind. Otherwise, you’ll become angry and depressed and negative about everything that you see going on around you.

Steve Brown:
You know, this is kind of what Augustine taught in the City of God. There was a city that wasn’t the City of God and then the City of God. And he wrote it after the fall of Rome because of what you just taught us about the Kingdom of God. Guys, you don’t want to miss a bit of this, and we’ll continue it tomorrow when we talk about the King, King Jesus, the King of everything. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And that was Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson and continuing to teach us about the Kingdom of God. Today they reflected on the sermons of Jesus and what they revealed to us. Good, good stuff. And yet still more to come the rest of the week. So, hope you’ll join us again tomorrow. Well, Father’s Day was two days ago. Hope it was a good one for you. But while the holiday comes and goes, the challenge of understanding the role of our fathers remains. Well, Steve spoke about this in a sermon called, The Best Father You Ever Had. If you’re a dad, if you know a dad, if you had a dad, and I think that covers all of us, this sermon is for you. So, call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE and we’ll send you that entire sermon on CD for free. Again, that number is 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Again, just ask for the free CD called The Best Father You Ever Had. And last thing, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.