On this Giving Tuesday (or whatever day you find us), please read to the bottom of the post to learn of a way you can help the hurting right now. I will never ask you to pay anything for this Bible Study, but if you feel led to give to those who need hope right now, I’ve posted information about a ministry that is close to my heart.

Thank you for joining us in this ongoing study on the Kingdom of God. For the introduction to this study, read the blog here. Follow this link to find the workbook for this study. Follow each of these links to see Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7. Visit the YouTube Channel for teaching videos.

I highly recommend completing the worksheets for a week before reading the blog or watching the teaching video – listen to what God has to teach you through His Word.

I love that we are posting this on December 1, the beginning of the Advent season – of looking and waiting eagerly for the arrival of the King. In this season of Advent we join with the people of Israel in eager anticipation, with bated breath.

We turn the page on the Old Testament – a single page that represents 400 years of silence in the Word of God. 400 years of waiting with breath held. 400 years while the pendulum swings from a people that were so set in their ways of rebellion God sent armies to conquer them. Their time-out seems to have worked as the remnant that returns home dedicates themselves wholly to the Law of God. By the time we get to the New Testament, we see an entirely new Israel. They have not had a king on the earthly throne since the time of exile. They are living under Roman rule in their own Promised Land. The religious leaders have developed into sects devoted entirely to the letter of the Law, though disagreeing on some minutiae of theology. They have done little to shepherd the people, concerned most with their own legality – interested most in keeping the people in line with the law of God and not in the least interested in keeping the people in line with the heart of God. They have chosen justice without kindness.

This is the Israel into which a baby is born. The king that was promised enters the world as an unassuming child born into an unassuming family. From most appearances, he is just another carpenter’s son. But God has chosen a few to see and understand that the king has come. He began with the announcement of His birth to Mary. The angel Gabriel says it pretty clearly, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). God promised a king on David’s throne and Gabriel has declared, this baby is that king!

To further underline the point, even wise men from a distant land looking into the night sky see and recognize that this new star is the indication of greatness – they have read and understand the prophecies and see that a king has come to the Jews. They travel a great distance to carry to the child gifts befitting a king – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They never expected that He wouldn’t be living in the palace. And this contrast between what the wise men expect and what they find is our first indication that this was no ordinary king.

God had originally established His Kingdom in a manner fitting to what the people would expect, so they could see and recognize what He was doing, but His Kingdom was never meant to look like an Earthly kingdom. It was never meant to have a human on the throne. It wasn’t meant for palaces and grandeur. This is a Kingdom that focuses on the heart.

And so great was this task of establishing the true Kingdom of God, we weren’t sent another man for the throne of Israel, as all the people expected. We were sent the Son of God. And more than that, when we look at John 1:1-4, we read, “In the beginning was the Word [that is Jesus], and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” This wasn’t a man to rule over the kingdom, this man, Jesus, the Son of God, wasn’t just with God, He was God, and through Him everything was made. We don’t have merely a ruler for the Kingdom, we have the founder of the Kingdom come in flesh!

We have as a declaration of His coming, a voice crying out in the wilderness – John the Baptist proclaiming, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Kingdom the people were promised has come – but not in its entirety. As we will see over the course of Jesus’s time on Earth, His coming only indicated the beginning of God’s Kingdom Restoration.

And so Jesus, the Son of God, God Himself, comes to earth. In the beginning, at the point that sin entered into the world through Adam and Eve, authority over the kingdoms of the world was handed over to the Enemy – we see that when Satan is in the desert tempting Jesus in Luke chapter 4 – but now the new king for the throne of David has entered to reclaim what has always been rightfully His. He starts by reversing what was done in the garden. He, too, faces the craftiness of the Enemy, tempting Him to doubt and deny God. But this time, Satan is denied the victory. Jesus stands firm. And so begins his time on Earth bringing others into the Kingdom of God.

And what He does is not anything we would have expected. In the past, the kings on the throne have worked to establish dominance. To make a name for themselves. To overthrow oppression through a mighty arm.

This king – the one meant for the throne of David – lives a very different life from a king. He doesn’t seek to surround Himself with men of fame, with the elite. He chooses humble fishermen to be His closest friends. He is surrounded by throngs of the sick and the spiritually oppressed. He declares that He has come to bring freedom to the captives, but He does not do this by overthrowing armies. Rather His work is done on an individual level. One sickness, one disease, one demon, one person at a time. He is accessible and He is like a shepherd. He gathers the people to Him with tenderness, like a shepherd gathering His flock into His arms.

Through the prophets, the people were told this is what their King was meant to be, but they didn’t understand. The kingdom ushered in by the heir to the throne isn’t an Earthly kingdom at all. It is the Kingdom of Heaven come to dwell on Earth. It’s an Upside-Down Kingdom, where the Most High has come down.

I love the moment of the Transfiguration we see in Luke chapter 9 – that for one brief moment the curtain is lifted and we can see this man in His full glory. The glory of God dwelling on Earth, sent to rub elbows with the dirty, the sinners, the downcast.

Multiple times in His teaching, those around Him marvel, as they do in Matthew 7:28-29, that “he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” The “scribes” studied Scripture and taught the people how to live according to what Scripture said. That is still what a good teacher does today. But Jesus was not simply a good teacher. His teachings were aligned with Scripture, but the instructions He gave were entirely new. He gave these instructions for kingdom living with confidence because He had the authority, as King, to re-establish what was expected for those in His Kingdom.

Thus, He doesn’t gather to Him all those who have been perfectly enforcing the rules – the ones found in the Old Testament law code. He doesn’t give them high fives or pats on the back for a job well done. This is what they’ve worked so hard for – they didn’t want to mess up again, so they have been keeping the law. But they have missed the heart of God. Jesus comes to show them the heart of God – the heart that follows the rules not from fear of judgment, but because this pleases God. They have mistaken the law for the king itself and have bowed down to the creation – the law – rather than the Creator – their King. But this is the new law – not an abolishment of the Old, but a complete fulfillment, a new understanding that everything they were given wasn’t so they could look good on the outside, but so that they could live well, from the inside out.

And all of this comes to a head when they, the religious elite, the rule followers, finally decide they have had enough. They crucify the very king they had been waiting for. In this process, while He is awaiting judgment, He is sent to a high-ranking government official – Pontius Pilate. Pilate begins his interrogation of this man the Jews have risen up against with a very interesting question. “Are you the King of the Jews?” And in response to his questioning, Pilate gets a more direct answer than any other man on Earth has been given regarding the purpose of his coming. “My kingdom is not of this world. . . . You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:33-37). Jesus came to lead the way to His true kingdom – not one on this Earth, but one that is and remains in Heaven. He came to usher in the now kingdom while encouraging us to live for the not yet kingdom – the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is the essence of Jesus’s ministry on Earth – to point the way to an Upside-Down Kingdom. To teach us how to live for the Kingdom now while living in the midst of the ruler of this world. And to rescue the captives – through His death He makes all those who would choose the Kingdom of Heaven worthy to enter the presence of the King.

And after He is crucified, He makes one last victory lap by coming back to life. In an unexpected twist, He has conquered the greatest Enemy – greater than Rome, greater than Caesar – He has conquered death. In His final 40 days on Earth, after the Resurrection, He gives final instructions to His followers – those who will carry the message of this Kingdom where it was always intended to go – to the ends of the earth.

In John chapter 21, we see Jesus talking with Peter and He gives Peter the instruction three times. “Feed my lambs. . . . Tend my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep.” The Shepherd King is leaving His sheep, for now. He has given the task to what would become the Church to care for His people and lead them closer to the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us live as cherished lambs of the King while we await His eternal Kingdom.

Now, in Jesus’s time on Earth He had plenty to say about this Kingdom of Heaven, and we will be looking into what He taught regarding the Kingdom next week. We will see that while Jesus was living the example of this Upside-Down Kingdom, His teaching was pointing the way as well, for those who had ears to hear. I look forward to looking into that with you!

In addition to being December 1, at the time of posting, it is what is known in some circles as Giving Tuesday. While this Bible Study is and will always be available free of charge, with no expectation of any kind of monetary exchange, I would love to humbly point you on this Giving Tuesday toward a ministry with which I work closely. EVE Sisterhood in Oklahoma City reaches out to women working in strip clubs througout our city to offer hope and relationship. Through monthly gifts taken into the clubs, right into the heart of darkness where they find themselves looking for provision, we offer a tangible demonstration of a love, a gift, without strings, without boundaries. If you feel at all inclined to give, we would be so grateful for your financial support, but even more so, for your prayer support. Please join us on our Facebook page for regular updates and announcements, and/or visit our website to give financially. Thank you so much!

Find the companion teaching video for this week’s lesson here.

For the introduction to this study, read the blog here. Follow this link to find the workbook for this study. Follow each of these links to see Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7. Visit the YouTube Channel for teaching videos.