The Kingdom of God in the Beginning

These posts will deal with the revelation of God as a King establishing His Kingdom. In this post we will survey this claim tracking it through Genesis 1-11. You should read your bible before reading this and see if these things are so. The (much shorter) audio for this story can be found here (download or listen) starting around 1:02:50.

We know and we worship a very powerful God. He created the vastness of our universe and governs the infinitesimal parts (Hebrews 1:3). He is a King and his throne is in the heavens (Psalm 103:19). He made everything, and then hovered over its formlessness.

He spent the first seven days of Creation on the throne giving the edicts of a King to His creation. He has established right and rule over all of it. He assigned its functions and deemed their worth. He tested and judged it. He saw that it was good.

Yet in all of God’s creative power, He saw fit to create a being that would share in His likeness. A being that, like Him, would maintain some degree of rule and reign. A being that would also be an “us.” He made man in His image, in His image He made them. And He gave them dominion by the blessing of His word. And He showed them love by His blessing. And He established their steps in front of them. He loved them with an everlasting love. He walked with them.

He showed them that He is to be trusted, that His Word is true and powerful. That He is a King to be honored and revered. He was a King that was with them in the Garden, in His Temple.

He displayed His Kingship over man by giving them a word of warning. More like a command. Eat anything and do anything. Just don’t eat that. Trust Me.

His Word is truth. His Word is steadfast. His Word is right. His Word was challenged.

A snake. It was a snake that uttered the first lie. He first perverted God’s eternal Word, and then He craftily contradicted it. He appealed to that side of man that was hungry for more power, more control, more rule. That side of man that is suspicious of his King. That side that is prone to doubt, and prone to leave the God he loves. Then man fell in. And great was that fall.

The fall into the ocean of doubt left a mountainous wake. We no longer trust God. We don’t know Him. We don’t see Him. We hurt. We labor. We do it all in vain. We go back to the dust from which we were created. And yet we continue, by the sweat of our brow and by the pain of our love.

God could have destroyed them there. He has the power to un-make them. Instead, He made them a promise and some coats. They didn’t realize it, but this was designed to point to a better Man. A faithful Man in whom there is no deceit nor shadow of change. A Man tempted, but a Man who would prevail. A Man that would suffer bruises, but would not neglect to administer the final blow. A Man whose covering would truly shield us from our frigid shame. A Man who was there in the beginning. A Man who not only trusted the Word, but who is the Word.

And so they were exiled from the presence of God. They suffered the murder of their own son, not realizing that this, too, pointed to a better Son who also was going to be murdered. A Son that will one day put an end to all murder. A Prince of Peace, as it were.

And so evil continued. It went from nonexistent to the status quo in the matter of a generation. And it increased. It was pitiful. Sorrowful, even. So terrible that if you could have seen it, or if you could really see it today, you’d have wished there was nothing there. Nothing is at least better than this. The King took note, and then He acted.

Not a faithful subject among them. They had all neglected the King. Yet He liked one of them. And because He liked him, He spared him. A big boat would carry him to safety. Noah could even take his family, and a few thousand animals.

And God uncreated the world. Where once land had emerged, it was now covered again with water. And a dove hovered over the face of the deep. And then land emerged. The dove returned with a message of peace.

The earth was allowed to teem again. Noah was given rule over it. There was freshness in the air. A new thing had been done. A new promise had been made. The spectrum in the sky had been assigned its function. The Warrior King had set down His bow in a symbol of amnesty.

Still, in all its drama, the “recreation” was a disappointment. The boat couldn’t have been the King’s true vehicle of deliverance. Surely there must be a better and more sufficient device in which we can find refuge from His wrath. There must be something better emerging from the water than the same old land, any dove could find that. Show me the Dove who can locate where the truly new life is found. Show me the Dove who descended on Him (Matthew 3:16-17).

And because it was insufficient, the earth’s underkings quickly went back to what they did best. They sought power, fortune, fame, and status. Tall things have always been impressive, so they constructed a city and manufactured a tower. One tall enough to even withstand a flood of biblical proportions.

Yet the cities of man have never compared to the Garden of God. The kings of this world can only think of height when the Kingdom of God demands that we lay ourselves low. And so the true King confused them. He gave them over to themselves, that they might seek their own glory, confusing their own languages, starting their own wars, and creating their own misery. Zealously sitting upon their own thrones.

But in the multiplicity of voices, the King is making for Himself a beautiful song with a harmony of voices that will see, proclaim, and admire His greatness someday in the fullness of peace (Revelation 7:9-10).

And this will start with an old man and his barren wife.

Living the Contradiction

The Living Contradiction of Christ in the Upside Down Kingdom

He was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men, yet he spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at his coming, yet he was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with him, and the little ones nestled in his arms. His presence at the innocent gaiety of a village wedding was like the presence of sunshine.

No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red-hot, scorching words about sin. A bruised reed he would not break. His whole life was love, yet on one occasion he demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell. He was a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions, yet for sheer stark realism he has all of our self-styled realists soundly beaten. He was the servant of all, washing the disciples’ feet, yet masterfully he strode into the temple, and the hucksters and moneychangers fell over one another from the mad rush and the fire they saw blazing in his eyes.

He saved others, yet at the last, himself he did not save. There is nothing in history like the union of contrasts that confronts us in the gospels. The mystery of Jesus is the mystery of divine personality.

James Stewart, quoted in Has Christianity Failed You? by Ravi Zacharias (p.28)

Sermon Notes – Showdown in the Holy City

Betrayal, Desertion, Injustice and the Glory of the Gospel
Mark may seem to have written the most bare bones gospel account that we get in all of Scripture. Unlike the other three gospels, you don’t really see Jesus taking up long discourses with the people, and therefore you don’t get the same directness of the teachings of Jesus that you see elsewhere. However, what you do find in Mark is, what I like to call, a “superhero” Jesus who travels from place to place doing good works and performing marvelous signs. Though implicit to this is that he is preaching the gospel all along the way (Mark 1:38).

About a week ago, Pastor Gary preached on the beginning of what seems like such an odd climax to such a remarkable life as it is described in Mark 14:43-65. For over a year, we have studied the Gospel of Mark and seen and heard about Jesus healing the sick, forgiving sinners, commending the humble, rebuking the proud, and generally stirring things up wherever he goes.

Yet what we see in this passage by all accounts would have been considered merely the abrupt end of this controversial life were it not for the ultimate design of the resurrection. By way of review, we read about how Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples (Mark 14:43-45), arrested by the religious leaders (Mark 14:46-49), abandoned by the rest of his disciples (Mark 14:50-52), and unjustly tried by his own people while they disgraced and mocked him (Mark 14:53-65). Hardly seems like an apt end for our Hero.

And yet what we do have here is a portrait of a Savior who was “tempted as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15).  This is something that sets Jesus apart. He was betrayed, and yet he did not turn to his betrayer in anger (Matthew 26:50). He was abandoned, but he remained faithful to those who deserted him (2 Timothy 2:13). Injustice and evil surrounded him, yet he did not respond in turn (Mark 14:61). Sin upon sin was hurled at Jesus, and he just absorbed it. Sin stops at Jesus, for it was the Father’s good pleasure to make “him to be sin who knew no sin.” But why? “So that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Upside Down Nature of the Kingdom of God

Much like everything else that Jesus did, his way of displaying his power was, to say the least, unconventional. And yet even this is full of glory. We should not expect God to do things the way we would (Isaiah 55:8-9), nor should we expect the way of the cross to make much sense to our natural minds (1 Corinthians 1:18-21); however, this is all part and parcel of what Jesus has been showing us in Mark for many chapters.

The natural ways of man are contrary to the ways of God. This is clearly evident from a brief reading of any of the gospels, and so we must think in an upside down sort of way in order to “get” the gospel. Therefore, we have a Hero that is disgraced, a Savior who is crushed, a Lord who serves all, and a living God who has come to die.

Gary commended us to continue to think and live in such a way so as to vehemently press upon the door of heaven and enter into this upside down Kingdom. In order to do that, we must look to Jesus. It’s why Mark wrote this gospel. It’s why we’re studying it.

So, as we were challenged by Gary’s sermon, let us beware of any blind spots that might keep us from seeing something that would prevent our entrance. Let us beware of the deceitfulness of hardship, so that we might not run from Jesus in times of trial. Let us lay down our lives for one another and for this city, so that we might achieve true greatness, bearing in mind that it is only by the grace of God that we can hope to attain to any of this, and the grace of God is made accessible by what we are reading here in the beginning of Jesus’s most severe sufferings as he prepares for his crucifixion (Hebrews 2:10-11).