The Kingdom of God
Finding True Happiness in Jesus’ Paradoxical Kingdom
The Sermon on the Mount is, perhaps, the most famous discourse on record from the Lord Jesus. Snippets of this sermon appear in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but the fullest treatment, of course, occurs in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 5–7. Spanning three chapters […]
The Supremacy of Christ and His Present Kingdom
As we look around at the general troubles of the world and at the specific trials we face in our own contexts—ravaging wars, ethnic strife, poverty, pandemic, and persecution—we may wonder if God is really reigning […]
My Kingdom Is Not of This World
When Jesus was brought before Pilate, he was essentially accused of being a kind of rival king, a usurper to the throne. But when asked, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” What are the implications of this statement for us as Christians? For example, should believers separate themselves from the world? The […]
The Speech and Kingly Presence of God in the Old Testament
The book of Hebrews begins with a divine self-exposure in which the God who “spoke to our fathers” by the prophets of the Old Testament reveals himself to be the God who “has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1–2). That is to say, the Christ of the New Testament is not only central […]
A King’s (Palm Sunday) Speech
When our Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday (see John 12:12–33), there was already a plot against his life and a price on his head. From that day on, the Jews made plans to put him to death. . . . The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that […]
