DreamDream

How do you want to improve the world?

How could you accomplish those goals and what sort of difficulties you would face?

E.g. end poverty.

THE KINGDOMTHE KINGDOM

Of GOD

The Dream of Jesus: the KoGThe Dream of Jesus: the KoG

All religions/people reflect a human need to hope for a future that is in some way better than the present. – The Dream varies

depending on what the believers ground their hopes in.

Jesus, too, had a strong vision of an ideal future, and he dedicated his life to making that future a reality.– Jesus referred to his

vision as the KINGDOM OF GOD.• His teachings and his

stories revealed his understanding of the Kingdom.

• His miracles were expressions of the fact that God was inaugurating the Kingdom through himself.

The word kingdom can get in the way of our understanding what Jesus meant when he preached about the KoG. – For us, the KoG

can imply a place or a region.

Jesus’ mission

To proclaim the KoG- to preach it as a reality that was coming but also to live the kingdom in the present.

Jesus knew that people would never catch on to the goodness and glory of God’s kingdom unless they experienced it for themselves. – So Jesus dedicated himself to living the

Kingdom in the midst of the people, not just talking about it.

Many people thought that God’s Reign, or Kingdom, meant that the Jews, led by a military or political messiah, would triumph militarily and re-establish the ancient kingdom of Israel, as in the glorious era of King David.

The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and lived was entirely different from what so many people expected. It was kingdom of love, not of political rule or power.

Signs of the Kingdom Every page of the gospels shows God’s love and God’s

Kingdom being manifested in Jesus’ actions. Healing and life-restoring miracles

– Jesus cured sick people- leprosy, hemorrhage, blindness, epilepsy

Nature miracles– The loaves and fish and calmed a fierce storm

Inclusion of outsiders– Ate with sinners, foreigners, women, the unclean, the

insane, the poor, the sick, and those considered “lowlife.” Love of enemies

– Luke 6:27-36- He forgave those who persecuted him and those who put him to death.

The confronting of hypocrisy and religious legalism– Jesus could not stand hypocrisy and injustice– In one occasion, a Pharisee confronted Jesus about healing

on the Sabbath – Jesus loved the Law, but he could not bear to see it abused

as a way to control people and put them down.