"HeavenlyKingdom" Tagged Sermons
Israel’s restoration to Judea after the exile was never final, because the heavenly kingdom is final. Christ comes into the world under Caesar’s decree, in a land still under Rome’s rule. His birth carries three things with it.
Heaven is a comprehensive category that shapes all of theology. Believers enjoy the blessings of the kingdom even now. Paul sets our earthly bodies beside Christ’s heavenly body, and his heavenly-mindedness holds the two together.
Jacob and Esau’s deal over the birthright has real consequences, and Matthew 11:12 speaks of the kingdom being seized. In Philippians 3:7-14 Paul gives up everything to seize Christ, the church’s true inheritance. What Esau traded away carelessly, Paul pursues with everything he has.
Modern narcissism keeps us fixed on ourselves, and heaven drops out of view. Popular teaching says God means to restore the present world, but Haggai 2:6-9 and Hebrews 12 say otherwise. God shakes heaven and earth to bring in a kingdom that is new.