THE RIGHT TIME HAS COME...

THE RIGHT TIME HAS COME…

Let us reflect on Mar 1:15  "The right time has come," he said, "and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!"  With these words Jesus began his first sermon, his preaching and his mission on earth.

 

What was Jesus saying?

He said the time had come.  God’s time had come. The prophecies had been fulfilled. That means the long-awaited time of the Messiah had come for Israel.

 

Brothers and sisters, the long-awaited time has also come for us.  At the beginning of 2016 it is now our right time with Jesus Christ. He wants to speak to us through his word.

What is the content of his message to us? And what is the content of his message to the people of Israel?

Jesus said that the time was right for the kingdom of God. The Kingdom — or reign— of God had come near to the people; BECAUSE He was there as Immanuel, as the Messiah, as the One from God. 

 

He, Jesus, had come to announce, to proclaim and to restore the Kingdom of God on this fallen, sin-infested earth. He had come to reconcile Israel with the God of the Covenant. He had come to bring people from every continent and nation into the right relationship with God. He had come to reign in all who accept, honour and love Him as the only Messiah the world would ever have.

 

What is the Kingdom of God? What does it mean when we use this term ? 

All of us know that every Kingdom has its own king and has its own name.  But we are referring to a spiritual kingdom. As Christians we rely on the Bible as our source of our knowledge and faith. We want to know what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God.

 

The Bible says in: Psa 93:1  The LORD is king. He is clothed with majesty and strength. That means: God is King. Matthew 1:23 says:  "A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel" (which means, "God is with us").

 

We have arrived at one of the greatest truths in the Bible:

God is our King through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

No relationship with Jesus, no acceptance by his Father, the King of the Universe.

 

From our human experience we know that a King is entitled to reign over his territory. The Bible says in  Psa 24:1  The world and all that is in it belong to the LORD; the earth and all who live on it are his.”  That psalmist calls the whole world God’s territory. Yes, every square inch of it.

But God does not only reign over the earth. He rules the universe, because he is the creator of heaven and earth:

Psa 146:6  the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them. He always keeps his promises.

 

The King whose kingdom Jesus came to restore and renew, is entitled to be the King of everything that exists. He is King of the universe and of all the planets.

What a wonderful God we have. He is the Creator of everything.

But Scripture says in Gen 1:26:  Then God said, "And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us.”

The human race was created by God. He is the Creator, Owner and King of the whole human race. He created us to be his pure, obedient, loyal and committed representatives, his serving ambassadors.

But, alas. Our first ancestor Adam was disobedient to God. His disobedience led to a chain reaction, a domino reaction of sin.  So this is what Jesus addressed in his very first sermon. He highlighted the deadly flaw in every human being.  He spoke about sin to the people of Israel.  And his words are forever applicable to every human being, to every single person who listens to his words:  Jesus said: Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!"

 

 

 

Yes we believe in Jesus Christ, but as Jesus said,  it now the right time to reflect on our relationship with regard to God and our neighbor. It is in the beginning of 2016 the right time to turn to the Good News again.

Let us reflect on our relationship with God:

Do we adore God? Do we love him whole heartedly? Is there any obstruction in our relationship with God? Am I the obstruction? Because my plans, my needs for wealth, my needs for joy, my needs to boast, and my concept that my time belongs to me, can be an obstacle in my relationship with God;  and therefore I spent less time with God, I pray less, I read the Bible less, I witness less about the goodness of God, and all other things are more important than God.  Therefore I need to turn to God and to pray to God to cleanse me from within. I must pray that God will help me to concentrate on my relationship with Him in 2016.    

 

Let us reflect on our relationship with our neighbour: my spouse, my children, children-in-law, parents, members of this congregation, people outside the church.

Do I love my neighbor WHOLE HEARTEDLY? Or do I feel irritated when I see my neighbor? Or do I feel irritated when I see my neighbor progressing in life? Do I feel irritated with myself, because I am always struggling to survive? Do I have a lot of questions about the affluence and wealth of unbelievers? Do I feel dissatisfied with life? Have I lost confidence in life and my neighbor?

 

It is in the beginning of 2016, the right time to turn again to the Good News.

 

Let us turn to God and pray that He will help us to reflect. Let us turn to God and pray that he will help us to change our attitude towards Him and our neighbor, for in doing so, we, too, will turn away from sin .

 

If we turn back to the Good News and obey the Lord, He will reward us in ways we cannot even begin to express:   

Because Christ sits at he right hand of God He will do for you what is promised in Eph 1:13.

 

“ You also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. ”You are his children; you are blessed with the Holy Spirit.

 

As a believer you will enter into a new dispensation with Him according Matthew 13: 40-43:

 

Mat 13:40  Just as the weeds are gathered up and burned in the fire, so the same thing will happen at the end of the age:

Mat 13:41  the Son of Man will send out his angels to gather up out of his Kingdom all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things,

Mat 13:42  and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and gnash their teeth.

Mat 13:43  Then God's people will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Listen, then, if you have ears!

 

 

We as believers will receive a place and task in the body of christ, his church according to

Eph 1:23  The church is Christ's body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere.

 

Those who turn to God  will be given full life, a meaningful, rewarding, joyful, fearless, triumphant life in Christ.

 

Col 2: 9-10:

 For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity,

and you have been given full life in union with him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority.

 

In Him we will have much more than we can expect:   

He will give us strength, endurance, perseverance.  In Eph 3:18 and 19 we read:

 

Eph 3:18  so that you, together with all God's people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love.

Eph 3:19  Yes, may you come to know his love---although it can never be fully known---and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.

 

   

Are you worried about the future?  He will provide fully in the needs, in every need of those who turn to Him and choose His Kingdom as their dwelling-place, their focus and their passion.  Matt 6:33 says:

 

Mat 6:33  Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

 

And He will reward us with the greatest reward on earth. He will reward us with the privilege we do not deserve.   

We will receive the priveledge to live in a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ.

 

Joh 5:18  This saying made the Jewish authorities all the more determined to kill him; not only had he broken the Sabbath law, but he had said that God was his own Father and in this way had made himself equal with God.

Joh 5:19  So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth: the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does.

Joh 5:20  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show him even greater things to do than this, and you will all be amazed.

 

 

We will receive the priveledge to be led and comforted by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ according Joh 14: 17, 26.

 

Joh 14:17  He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

 

 

We will receive the forgiveness of sin, and a new life in Christ Jesus according

 

2Co 5:17  Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

 

 

It is the beginning of a new year. Why wait; turn again to the Good News.  The Good News is that the Kingdom of God, the reign of God in you and me, has come. 

Kingdoms must fall to make way for the Kingdom of God.

Our Kingdoms must fall, so that God may reign through Jesus Christ.

Are you willing to abdicate, to become less, so that Jesus Christ may become more?