When Jesus said his Kingdom is not of this world, he didn’t mean it had no place in this world. In eternity Jesus made heaven, inhabited its perfections, and ruled supreme there. In history he came to earth to show us what perfection looks like and taught us how to emulate him while living here as citizens both of earth and of his home country.
Our job is to provide the best possible preview of the future when Christ will return and reign as King over a new heaven and earth. After all, more times than not, Jesus calls his Kingdom the “Kingdom of Heaven,” and then teaches to pray and act for this Kingdom that permeates heaven to invade the earth.
Just as a good movie’s preview makes you want to go see the rest of it, we are tasked with demonstrating what we can imagine from Scripture of the heavenly reign of Jesus in hopes that people will accept the invitation to come for the rest of the show and partner with us to make a better and better preview for all the world to see.
This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.
barney wiget 