Lookahead:  Surrendering might be a simple thing for some people, but I was a total control freak back in ye olden days (strenuously trying to maintain control over a life that was ironically out of control).  It took me ten years to fully surrender! During that time, God beautifully woo’d me—and He never gave up even on the occasions when I spit in His face.  I finally turned my life over to Jesus, and allowed His Wonderful Holy Spirit to set up permanent residence in my heart.  Based on my personal born again experience, I believe that these verses mean that the Holy Spirit is essential in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven-come-down-to-earth.  

My speed reading excursion started with the book of John but the two earth shattering verses in John that refer to the Kingdom of God will need a frame of reference.  So we will start by going into the synoptic gospels to see what else the King had to say about the Kingdom.

I should caveat that this series is really not about trying to define exactly what the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is; to fully understand and appreciate it, I would probably have to drop everything and study nothing but the Kingdom until Jesus returns; and even then I could still not claim to be the final authority on the subject.  Suffice it to say that (1) the Kingdom is the place where the King lives; (2) the Kingdom of God is GOOD because God is good; (3) the Kingdom of God is something people typically would be hungry for; (4) the Kingdom of God is available now, i.e., we don’t have to die and go to heaven to enter (in other words, it’s a heaven-come-down-to-earth kingdom) and (5) the terms “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are synonymous. 

Note on synonymous talking point:  By way of explanation, some scriptural passages are otherwise identical except that “Kingdom of Heaven” is used by Matthew, and “Kingdom of God” is used by the other authors. (Matt 19:23-24 and Luke 18:24-25; Matt 13:31 and Mark 4:30-31; Matt 13:33-35 and Luke 13:20-21.)  Matthew, as an observant Jew who revered God, wasn’t comfortable saying His Name aloud, or putting it in print; so he sub’d “Heaven” in for “God.”

So here’s what the King had to say about the Kingdom:

• It’s imminent:  When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee (Capernaum). From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Matthew 4:12,17.  The term, “has come near” is eggizó in the Greek.  Eggizó means to draw or come near, to approach; to be in a state of nearness; to be at hand. 
• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Matt 5:3; Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. Matt 5:10  One time my pastor beautifully defined “poor in spirit” as having a shattered heart. The good news is that the Kingdom is for people whose hearts have seemingly been broken beyond repair!  Also, it belongs to anyone who has been persecuted for His righteousness’ sake.  And, it goes without saying that if there is a union/intersection of the two sets of people (e.g., the persecution resulted in a damaged heart), blessings are assured.  Also, this underscores that the Kingdom of Heaven is GOOD, because it results in blessings for the eligible.
• Jesus said in Matt 6:33 that we should seek the Kingdom/His righteousness for our daily needs.
• Matthew 11:12 says that many people were seeking the Kingdom aggressively (violently) hence it was something definitely worth pursuing.
• Jesus elaborated in Matthew 12:28 (immediately after the incident of John the Baptist’s possible faith crisis in prison) that if He cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God had come upon them (Greek verb is past tense, i.e., done deal).  He was frequently casting out devils at this juncture ergo the Kingdom had arrived.
• Jesus also talked about how we gain entrance to the Kingdom—by becoming as humble and trusting as a little child (Matthew 18:34).  I believe that He also compared the Kingdom itself to a little child and how wonderful is that! (for of such, of such a one, of this sort is the Kingdom, Matthew 19:14 Interlinear).  So the response that I would have in encountering a beautiful little child is how I would respond to a Kingdom encounter?
• He said that the Kingdom of God would be given/available to the gentiles in Matthew 21:43.
• And He additionally clarified that the Kingdom was in a state of continual growth although humans did not know how this occurred (Mark 4:26)…concurrently defining our role in Kingdom Building to be…scratching our heads in amazement. 🙂  And therefore, by implication—God builds the Kingdom.
• Jesus said that the Kingdom of God would come with power (some will not taste death until they see the Kingdom having come with power. Mark 9:1).
• Jesus said in Mark 10:25 that rich people will have trouble getting into the Kingdom of God. 
• In Mark 12:33 and Luke 18:29 we learn that the Lord has always wanted us to be Kingdom Occupiers since Day One.  It was God’s intention that we occupy and dwell therein. 
• Finally, Luke 17:21 provided the incredible revelation that the Kingdom of God is within us. 

I think that most of the people during the time of Jesus’ earthwalk were waiting for an all-powerful earthly Kingdom to arise–another Davidic Kingdom in which the Messiah would destroy the enemy and bring (everlasting) peace and prosperity to the Jewish people.  But we also know that the people got it wrong:  from a natural perspective, things didn’t change at all on the socio-political level as a result of Jesus’ visitation.  But from a supernatural perspective, He rocked the universe.

However, what about these different verb tenses that Jesus kept using in His Kingdom references—it was near, it would come with power, it had come to us, it was already within us, it was at hand, it would be given to gentiles?  Why the different verb tenses?  I have been reading a book called Imagine Heaven by John Burke.  It is an amazing compendium of Near Death Experiences (NDE’s), many of which I have read about over the last 25 years or so.  The thing that makes the book so amazing is that it crystallized for me that there are major similarities between the accounts—and they line up with scripture. I believe that Heaven is the template and the ideal of what we should seek in terms of Kingdom attributes on earth.  So I believe we can learn a lot from the NDE’s.   There is an interesting chapter that discusses the timelessness of heaven.  And as someone who was experiencing the Kingdom on earth, Jesus may have been expressing this same timelessness. “Picture a line (earth’s horizontal timeline with points A, B, and C labeled along it as functions of time)…if in Heaven we experienced a second dimension of time, at each point along earth’s timeline there would be another (secondary timeline) perpendicular to each point (A, B, and C) in time, so you could spend all kinds of time enjoying a moment in A—nothing would ever be rushed.”¹

And now that we’ve perused through the other gospels, we are ready for the capstone verses in the New Testament Book that kicked off the Bible Challenge: 

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again… no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3,5

I recommend taking the time to run down the multitudinous Bible Hub, Blue Letter Bible, BibleGateway, etc. translations to achieve an understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in making a person eligible, for the Kingdom. My comprehension of the “born again” terminology is that it means surrendering our lives to Jesus and His Lordship, having accepted the matchless gift that He gave us by being the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Surrendering might be a simple thing for some people, but I was a total control freak back in ye olden days (strenuously trying to maintain control over a life that was ironically out of control). It took me ten years to fully surrender! During that time, God beautifully woo’d me—and He never gave up even on the occasions when I spit in His face. 😦 I finally turned my life over to Jesus, and allowed His Wonderful Holy Spirit to set up permanent residence in my heart. Based on my personal born again experience, I believe that these verses mean that the Holy Spirit is essential in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven-come-down-to-earth.

To be continued….

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¹John Burke, Imagine Heaven (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 122