Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven, not just pie in the sky after you die.
The kingdom of heaven is another world that can start right now.
Jesus taught to turn away from the world's values and seek God's kingdom.
Living by faith in obedience to Jesus is the key to experiencing the kingdom of heaven.
The message of Christianity What is it that is missing from the message of Christianity that is being preached everywhere today? What is the difference between that message and the message that Jesus preached? What is it that has made Christianity, even in its most fervent manifestations, an insipid, lukewarm counterfeit of what we read about in the New Testament? I believe it is the absence of something Jesus called the kingdom of heaven, another world one that makes everything in this present world pale by comparison. Jesus said to Nicodemus, who had been schooled in the doctrines of his religion that Nicodemus would never even be able to SEE this other world until he could let go of all that he clung to so strongly in his own limited religious experience and vision. And everywhere you look today, there are people like Nicodemus. People who are totally trapped in the traditions and respectability of this world. They have shown themselves to be unable to turn loose of all that this materialistic world offers them long enough to experience that other world, the one that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven. There are places in the world where just baptism in water can mean the end of any communication with your non-Christian family, where conversion to Christianity can get you arrested, and where any public display of faith in a God who is greater than the system can get you tortured and killed. But for the most part, Christians around the world, even in those countries where they are being persecuted have not been given a vision of this other world which is clear enough for them to live it out right now, even before the persecution comes. Oh yeah, churches everywhere talk about going to heaven when they die and they spew out ritual formulas for how you can be assured that it will happen, but always after you die. Even in countries where genuine faith can result in death, what the church has officially preached is not the kingdom of heaven It is conformity to the values of the world getting a job getting a good education becoming upstanding citizens and just say that you a Christian on top of all of that Now, the persecution itself has sorted some people out, but how much more effective would we be as a body if we all started living the way that Jesus and the early Christians did? What if we did as Jesus instructed, and we started teaching others to obey all that he has commanded us to do? You see, life, as usually epitomized by conformity and suburbia, is not what Jesus taught and it isn't what the early Christians practiced either. If we are eventually going to have to die for our faith, then at least let it be clear what our faith really is. Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom of heaven right here and now not just pie in the sky after you die, although that is a part of it But his message from day one was, "'Turn around! The kingdom of heaven! Another world is here! Here! Now!'' And turning around involves totally turning away from all of our former beliefs about life in the world as we now know it. It means becoming like little babies, starting all over again, building a new world of faith and love, where God is the King and where He feeds and clothes His subjects, while we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness going into all the world to preach this good news. I grew up in a church where we understood that Christians could not have jobs where we sold or promoted alcohol or where we sold or promoted lottery tickets. We definitely couldn't sell or promote girly magazines, or anything associated with witchcraft or Satanism. But other than that, according to my church, the world was full of hundreds of good, respectable jobs where we could become successful, popular and even famous. All of this was seen as totally consistent with what we believed as Christians and all we had to do was be a witness on those many lovely jobs. And how did we do that? We did it by being the best little workers that any employer could ever hope for We did it by serving the system with our whole hearts Sure we occasionally invited some of them to church with us and we tried to be honest and kind as well but primarily, we did it by being good, hard-working employees. There was no talk of a better world right now. No talk of a God who could provide for our material needs right now if only we would stop working for money ourselves. There was no talk of a saviour who requires that kind of faith from his disciples. We were firmly rooted in this present, temporal and ultimately godless world. Everything about life was pretty much the same as all our other neighbors in suburbia, with one exception. We were going to go to heaven after we died, whether that was consistent with what Jesus taught or not. But what Jesus really taught is that there is another world out there. Another world that can start right now as we step outside the comfort zone that the present religious, political and economic system offers us. Until you see that world, you must know that you will never stumble upon it nor will you ever be able to claim it after you die. It is the job of all the false religions of the world to tell you that you can have some kind of immortality after you die, always after you die. But the sad truth, brothers and sisters, is that none of them can make good on that promise. Not even one. And that includes every so-called Christian denomination and preacher in the world as well. Forget their insipid formulas for salvation and listen to the only one who has ever been to that other world and come to earth to tell us about it. Churches everywhere are singing the praises of human governments, of their own religious organisations, of mammon and all that it can buy. They have no idea about that other world that Jesus preached. A world where we totally let go of the world that we now have, the one that we've all been raised to believe in. This other world that Jesus introduced is so much more real than the one we all hang on to at the moment There are two words that come to my mind when I think of it fantastic and unbelievable I like those words, because they both have literal meanings that appear to contradict the way that we usually use them and yet both meanings are true when it comes to the kingdom of heaven. This other world, whether you are talking about it here and now or whether you're talking about it after we die, comes across to the most unbelievers as fantasy from which we get the word fantastic. And sadly, if you're not experiencing it now, it is little more than fantasy. It's wishful thinking, for which you have no real evidence. But when we're prepared to really repent, really turn away from our faith in money from our faith in the system, from our faith in our religious leaders, and listen to Jesus that fantasy starts becoming a fantastic reality. In the same way, this is all quite unbelievable, until we let go of all that we hang on to now. Belief in what Jesus said, and what his first followers did in response to what he said, is what makes all the difference. But there is hardly one person in a million who would do that today. For them, this other world is unbelievable, in the worst context. Yet when you start to believe what you hear Jesus saying it becomes both unbelievable and fantastic in the most positive and overwhelming sense. Would you like to become a part of this unbelievable and fantastic other world today? Would you like to experience a little bit of the kingdom of heaven right now? Please write to us and tell us what country you live in, and we'll do our best to put you in touch with someone in your area of the world who is doing this, living by faith in obedience to Jesus right now, having dropped out of all man's systems and trusting only in God for our provision. The address is on screen now. We look forward to hearing from you today. The
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