What is the Kingdom of God? Sunday Aug 28th 2022

Introduction
What is the Kingdom of God, and what bearing does it have on society? To highlight this, suppose someone told you today, “the kingdom of North Korea has come to you!”; assuming this were a true statement, would this not be something completely surprising and likely demanding our full, immediate attention? In our passage today, Jesus demonstrates casting out a demon and credits this as the work of the Holy Spirit. He speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven and goes into detail to illustrate that this Kingdom is the joining of the Authority of God and the Power of God, and goes so far as to say that this Kingdom is now being actively lived out on the Earth.

Before we jump in, let’s take a moment to see the leadup to this passage. In Luke 10:38, we see the famous exchange between Martha and Mary where Jesus chides Martha for all of her DOING and affirms Mary for ABIDING with him; “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her”. Luke then immediately writes about Jesus’ famous teaching on prayer after his disciples ask him “Lord, teach us to pray”, and this passage is ended by Jesus saying how much Father God wants to give the Holy Spirit to us, saying, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We are going to read our key passage in just a moment, but we didn’t want to overlook the context Luke has set for the reader. Notice:
• A demonstration about the importance of BEING and ABIDING with Jesus
• Followed immediately by a teaching on prayer, which is COMMUNICATING with God
• Followed immediately by the availability and need of the Holy Spirit
With that in mind, let’s read our passage: