Dream

1
Dream

• 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.

2
THE KINGDOM

• Of GOD

3
The 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.

4

• 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.
  

5

• 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.

6
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 Gods 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.

7

• Many people thought that Gods 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.

8
Signs of the Kingdom

• Every page of the gospels shows Gods love and
  Gods 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 627-36- 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.