The kingdom of God, where did it begin?

Steve Brown:
The Kingdom of God, where did it begin? Let’s talk about it, on 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, how you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing really good. Usually I say hi Pete to you on Friday. But we decided we’re going to sit down and talk about something that a lot of people don’t talk about much.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly why we’re bringing it up, because it’s not talked about that much.

Steve Brown:
It’s the Kingdom of God, and you’re going to be surprised at what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God. You’re a part of it, I’m a part of it, and we got a king that nobody ever elected and nobody will ever depose, and that is good news for Christians. It is our, I hope you had a great week-end, and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. Having said that, let’s pray and then we’ll study. Father, we come into your presence thankful, especially when we look at your word that you’ve made us a part of a kingdom, that you’ve made us a citizen of a kingdom and that you’re our king. Father, you know everybody who’s listening to this broadcast, you know stuff that’s hard and stuff that’s easy, you know about the tears and the laughter, you know about the joy and the pain, and you’re sovereign over all of it and we worship you. Father, as Pete and I talk about this big, big subject, oversee what we see and what we say and glorify yourself and teach your people in it. Forgive Pete his sins, and me my sins. We would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Pete, you recently, that’s how we got on this, Forge. By the way, go to ForgeTruth.com if you want to know what Forge is. But it’s a very growing men’s ministry and exciting. And you decided to do a series on the Kingdom of God. What brought that up?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. You know, as we pray about what our focus is going to be for Forge men every year. Last year, kind of our focus word was a character word, courage. And as I’ve been praying about this year, 2024, the word kept coming as I was reading through the New Testament kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. And so, I couldn’t get away from it. And so, we have a core curriculum, you know, we talk about the five marks of manhood, which are, which is really the intellectual, theological, Biblical base for how we approach manhood studies. But this idea of the kingdom, just is overriding all of that. And it really fits in amazing ways in the whole subject of grace, which of course we’re all about and the gospel. And so, we’ve been studying it. We started out doing a series called the majestic masculinity of King Jesus, who is our model. He’s our Savior, but he is our model for manhood. And so, that kind of got me thinking about this whole subject of kingdom.

Steve Brown:
And how long did you go teaching on the kingdom?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, we’re still in it, man. This is, you know, we’re going to bring it up in a lot of different ways.

Steve Brown:
You probably know more about the kingdom than anybody in the universe, except Jesus. So, that’s what we’re going to do this week. It really is a subject that isn’t approached very often, certainly not in details, and it is so very important. It also has some, there’s some conflict that goes on when you start talking about the kingdom.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
About a future, about present, and arguments. Now, we’re not going to do that on this broadcast. We’re going to speak truth.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. We’re going to look

Steve Brown:
If you disagree, it’s your problem.

Pete Alwinson:
Come and drag Steve out of his office and take him back out in the alley. I won’t be around.

Steve Brown:
All right. Tell us about, I guess you want to start by talking about the King, that’s kind of where you started.

Pete Alwinson:
Sure, let’s jump into this. It really, we started doing a study in the gospel of Luke. And as we think about the idea of Jesus as King, it makes us think about theologically the three offices of Christ, right? Prophet, Priest, and King. And as we think about it as Protestants, and most of us are Protestants, not all. But since the time of the Reformation, most of us think in terms of the offices of Christ as Prophet. Hebrews chapter 1: verse 11.

In these last days God has spoken to us preeminently in His Son.

And then we think of Jesus as the Priest, as the great high Priest, again the book of Hebrews. But we don’t often emphasize this idea of kingship, and we’re not sure what to do with that idea of Jesus as King, and yet it’s prevalent in the New Testament. And so, I was thinking, why is it that we Protestants struggle with this idea of the kingship of Jesus, even that it doesn’t stand out to us? And I was reminded of a story that John Guest told once, the British pastor, when he came to the United States, he said he was in an old, what are they called? My mind has gone blank.

Steve Brown:
That’s what happens when you get old.

Pete Alwinson:
I know, I know. He was looking for old artifacts and furniture. He was in an old

Steve Brown:
antique store

Pete Alwinson:
antique store. Thank you, Steve. He was in an antique store in New England, and he came across a sign that was from the revolutionary war days that people put in their front yard. And the sign said, we serve no sovereigns here. And he was just going to become a pastor in America. And he goes, now I understand the American mind that in, really in recent history, we as a country, we’d never had a sovereign. We had a sovereign before the revolution, but since the revolutionary war days, we’ve never had a sovereign. We don’t understand this idea of kingship, really, in the American psyche and in the American mind. So, we read about kingships. I mean, the word kingdom is found 353 times in the Bible.

Steve Brown:
You sit down and count all of those?

Pete Alwinson:
Google. And, and in the New Testament, it’s found 154 times. And so, that’s a lot of times, Matthew, Mark, and Luke talk about kingdom more than anybody. Now, Matthew talks about it and what he calls it is the, you know, the answer to this, he doesn’t call it kingdom of God. He calls it the kingdom of heaven. And why does he call it the kingdom of heaven?

Steve Brown:
I don’t know?

Pete Alwinson:
Yes, you do. You’re saying you’re teaching this Pete, not me.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
You know that the Jew is very, very concerned, of course, for the name, the deity, the identity of God and protecting it as Holy, Holy, Holy. And so, they would often speak of the kingdom of heaven, so as not to use the divine name. So, Matthew speaks about the kingdom of heaven.

Steve Brown:
Oh, I see.

Pete Alwinson:
Luke talks about the kingdom of God, but it’s the same thing. And when we think about the kingdom, we Christians need to kind of think of this idea of the realm, the powerful realm of God. Because when we think of a kingdom, we tend to think of an area with geographical boundaries. And so, this will change our lives if we grasp this idea of the kingdom of God.

Steve Brown:
You have some Scripture?

Pete Alwinson:
Let’s start off, in Luke chapter 1, I love this because saying to Mary he says.

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb Mary and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And he’ll be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne

and there’s a kingly aspect

the throne of his father David,

who was the king

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.”

So Jesus, we see the initiation of Jesus’ role. The baby will be, we think Christmas, we think Messiah, we think yes, he’s going to be the Savior to take my sins away. We think the priestly role or the prophetic role, here’s the kingly role that’s focused on at the very beginning. At the very beginning of Jesus’ life, before he was born.

Steve Brown:
Changes everything.

Pete Alwinson:
Changes everything. And if we will get, begin to get that in the forefront of our minds, it’ll shape who we’re following and how that makes a difference. Well, the next emphasis where we come to the teaching of Jesus is his motivation and his strategy. Real quick, by the time you get to Luke chapter 4, Jesus goes out and he’s roaming around. You know, Jesus is interesting and fascinating because he’s the one that went to people versus people coming to him. He didn’t stay in one place. He was the itinerant king who was presenting himself to people up close and personal so they could see him. And then he comes to his home city of Nazareth. Remember that account?

Steve Brown:
Absolutely

Pete Alwinson:
And he sits in there and he reads from Isaiah. And then he says, it’s the text of Scripture, and Luke says.

He begins to say to them, this is fulfilled in your presence.

Steve Brown:
Oh man.

Pete Alwinson:
And he just lets that sit.

Steve Brown:
You don’t want to miss a single day in this series on the Kingdom, because it’s life changing, because when you recognize that Jesus is Savior, and he is Lord, and he is Prophet, and he’s Priest, that’s good. When he’s King, that’s something else. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. And thank you Pete Alwinson. Always great having Pete with us and great news, he’ll be with us all this week, teaching on the topic of the Kingdom of God. Be sure to join us for that. So, Brant Hansen, maybe you’ve heard of him on the radio or seen his interview on Good Morning America. He’s a national radio host and he’s an author. And most of all, he’s a really fun guy to hang out with. We recently spoke with him on Steve Brown Etc. about his latest book, Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance. It’s all about finding joy and peace in a world that just seems bent on being angry. We put that whole episode on a CD and we would love to send it to you absolutely free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD featuring Brant Hansen. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your giving? You can 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. And listen, if you can’t give right now, or maybe you’re not called to, no worries, but if you think about it, please do pray for us, would you? 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.