Kingdom #2: Kingdom Humility

Having said last week that I want to talk to you more about the Kingdom of God and urge you to study this subject seriously, I want to make something as clear as I can. I do not consider myself an expert on the subject. I have been seriously studying Jesus’ teaching on this vital subject for the last thirty months. My friend, Steve Brown, and I have written a book on the topic, but I am still very much a learner and a student, and expect I always will be.

The Kingdom of God is as majestic and monumental a topic as you can find in Scripture. One of the key verses that has captured my attention during our study has been Hebrews 12:28-29: “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us worship God will reverence and awe.” Two key insights come from this text.

First, the Kingdom is so magnificent and rich that we have to keep on receiving it. You may have received it, but there is much more to receive. As we point out in our book the Greek word for “receiving” here is a present active participle which indicates continuing action. The Kingdom is something we continue to receive.  But then second, there is something about this Kingdom and its unshakable nature that is awe-inspiring and humbling. The receiving of it is all tied in with worshipping God with reverence and awe.

What we have seen in our study is that the Kingdom is full of paradox—we might even use the word “mystery.”  It is now but is not yet. It is already but it is still coming. It can be known, but in this age we will not fully know it.

Jesus’ main way of talking about it is to tell stories and say “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or king who threw a banquet or treasure hidden in a field or a net let down in the lake.” Each of his stories reveals something about the Kingdom, but this way of teaching about it, and the fact that Jesus never gave a dictionary style definition of it, shows it cannot be reduced to some simple description. May God forgive any of us who ever thought it could be summed up with a dozen passages of Scripture or its dimensions being the sum of the members of any one group of churches.

In our book I describe how I love mountains. I was never a big climber and this point in my life with MS that is not an option. But I love to drive around a mountain and behold its majesty from different angles and at different times of the day. And then I appreciate it even more when I hear the poets write about it and the singers sing about it.

There is something about the Kingdom that is like that. By the grace of God we can grasp this about it or that about it—and those things will be life-changing, but we must stay ever humble before it, because there is always much more to understand.

Steve and I have published Volume one of a three-part series. We are working on volume two which is all about Jesus’ famous sermon on the Kingdom (usually called the Sermon on the Mount), but if we were to write 10 volumes, there would still be much to say or at least much to learn and live.

Jesus told the disciples that unless they humbled themselves they would never enter the Kingdom.  And so the point of today’s message is that humility may just be the most essential characteristic of Kingdom life. And anyone who proudly says “I’ve got it and I can teach you all about it,” doesn’t have it at all.