Seek the Kingdom of God: Introduction to the series
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Important messages
We just finished posting the last chapter of the book, “Seeking the Truth of the Kingdom”. That was actually the second in a series of three books entitled, “Seek the Kingdom of God”. The first in the series is, “Seeking the King of the Kingdom” and the third is, “Seeking the Spirit of the Kingdom”. Here is the introduction to all three. Read it to see if the subject interests you. Perhaps you would like this series in book form for your own study or perhaps you have someone in mind, who could benefit from it. Please feel free to contact us by dropping a note in the comment space.
SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Three basic studies for the Christian life:
● Seeking the King of the Kingdom
● Seeking the Truth of the Kingdom
● Seeking the Spirit of the Kingdom
Introduction to the three studies
In just one afternoon, Jesus revealed three immense truths concerning Christianity to a Samaritan woman. First of all, He caused her to understand that the way to give glory to God the Father is by worshiping in spirit and in truth. Worship requires these two necessary ingredients: “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:23-24). Then she received the revelation above all revelations; it is the revelation that transforms lives and brings them into a whole new sphere of living. She was shown that the One, who personally met with her that day, was the promised Messiah, the eternal Christ. She confessed her conviction that He was the one, who could teach her and everyone else all that there is to know about the Kingdom of God: “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He” (vs.25-26). Anyone, who is searching for the significance of his existence, must experience what that woman experienced.
Here, then, are three very important areas that we must seek, which are essentially tied to the Kingdom of God: 1) We must seek the One who is King over this kingdom, who is Christ, the Messiah. 2) We must find the truth that governs the kingdom. 3) We must seek the ability to be able to walk and function in the kingdom by His Spirit. Clearly, there is a limitless universe of material to uncover over any one of the three subjects, but we will have to be content in these small volumes to discover a few samples of spiritual gems, as we study. I hope that they will prove valuable and inspiring to those, who enter the biblical mine to enjoy them with me.
When Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33 and Lk. 12:31), He presented a theme that not only applies to Christians, but is a fundamental principle for human existence in general. The significance to life is found in the commandment. It is basic and essential; it is not a suggestion, an option or simply counsel. The unacceptable alternative is to be abandoned to our own ways. The past history of the human race, that which we observe presently in society every day, and what we see or read in the news, confirm the fact that the ruin of civilization, as well as that of every individual, is the result of not seeking the Kingdom of God above all else.
Obviously, a Christian can never expect to obtain good results in his spiritual walk, if he does not accept and fulfill this commandment of Christ. If he disobeys, he will walk according to his ego, confiding in himself to struggle with life’s necessities and to fulfill the desires of his own will. Jesus taught us well in the Parable of the Sower that he who occupies himself in cares and riches (Mt. 13:22), the desires (Mk. 4:19) and the pleasures of this life (Lk. 8:14), will not bear fruit for God. When he begins to seek first the Kingdom of God as a fundamental purpose in life, the individual automatically enters an atmosphere of faith, trusting Him to supply all his human, provisional needs, while he concentrates on that which is divine and eternal.
Nevertheless, there is a world of Christians, almost totally preoccupied with their daily cares and plans for the future, which they have conceived in their own hearts. For them, spiritual life is a leisurely activity, reserved for their free time and consisting in a few hours on Sunday and, possibly, another few on workday evenings. It is the time left over, after they have provided food and clothing for themselves and prepared for their earthly future, as well as the future of their children. Are these people really Christians? That is what they call themselves, put are they in practice? It seems to me that they are no different from the people in Noah’s day, who were “eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage” or from those in the days of Lot, who also were “eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building.”
The Old Testament tells us that the intent of the heart of man was totally and continually evil in the time of Noah. I don’t think that I have to write about the perversion and violence of Sodom in the days of Lot, because that should be familiar to most of us. However, when Jesus compared these two situations with those of the last days, He did not mention the evil and the perversion, but only a certain normality that would continue until the end. An extraordinary evil is not mentioned in Ezekiel either, where God said that the sin of Sodom was arrogance, abundant food and careless ease (Ez. 16:49).
Jesus said that before the flood, the people of Noah’s day did not understand (Mt. 24:39). It suggests that they were not disposed to receive God’s word; therefore they could not comprehend it. As we see in the parable of the sower, the cares of life, which is to say, the worries over legitimate and necessary things, were in the same category with the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of the world and the lust for many things. These also choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.
During the last presidential campaign in the United States, society, as we would expect, was very preoccupied with the financial crisis. Jesus said, “All these things the nations of the world eagerly seek” (Lk.12:30). However, when the reporters entered Christian churches, it was disconcerting to hear their members express the same unrest and preoccupation as the unbelieving world. In many cases, there seemed to be no difference between their thinking and concerns from those of the secular world.
Causes and effects
If we go to Romans 1, we will see Paul writing three times consecutively about the principal cause of man’s biggest problem, followed by its consequence. In verse 21, we have the cause: “Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God…” They were not atheists. No sir! It states that they knew God, but they denied him the place that he deserved as Creator of the world. In verse 24, the word therefore indicates the result: “therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity”. He abandoned them to do their own thing. Again in verse 25 we see the cause, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator... and in 26 the effect, “for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions…”. Then, finally in verse 28, “as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind…” Depravation is the consequence for not giving God the place that he deserves in our lives!
Marriage
Jesus said that in Noah’s day they were marrying and being given in marriage. Please turn with me to Genesis 2:18, 21, 22, so that we can see God’s will in matrimony. After He looked at all that He had created, God declared everything to be good, until He pointed to one incomplete work. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone”. Then God performed surgery on Adam, anesthesia included: “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man… then He took one of his ribs”. Always remember that God never takes something away from us, without intending to give us something better. From the rib, He formed a woman and “brought her to the man”. Adam did not have to look for her. Before the thought even entered Adam’s mind and before Eve had been created, He planned the very best for both of them. It was the purpose of God, not Adam’s, and His plans are always right and wise.
From this ideal situation, with God in total control of man’s affairs, we go to Genesis 6, in order to see the kind of marriage, to which Jesus referred, which was a contributing factor to the flood: “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose”. Here we observe the root sin, of which Paul wrote in Romans 1. They exalted the creature and ignored the will of the Creator. They chose for themselves, independent from God, and that is fatal for the human race. Only the birth of Noah and the flood that followed alleviated the weight of the curse upon the human race and, in truth, saved it from self-destruction: “(Lamech) called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed” (Gen. 5:29).
The curse of living for self
After Adam had fallen into disobedience, God cursed the ground, from which man had been taken, and it began to produce thorns and thistles. Adam became deeply enslaved to his own necessities, working the earth until he returned to it in death. Society was built on this foundation, because agriculture is the breadbasket that sustains all human business. He lost the supreme calling of life, which is to please God, having to serve under the curse of an egotistical existence.
The following generation fared no better, because Cain picked up where Adam left off. He brought to God an offering from the ground that he had worked and that had been cursed. Instead of living for God, he lived to supply his own needs and gave God a tip from his surplus. God refused it and jealous Cain killed the man, who by faith had seen the spiritual need of renewing a relationship with God by offering a blood sacrifice.
An additional curse was pronounced. The ground had been cursed by the sin of Adam, but now the ground cursed Cain for his sin and things went from bad to worse. The earth refused to produce, so Cain abandoned agriculture and became “a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth”. Adam was a hard worker, but his son became a bum. Now, tell me if anything has changed over the course of time. Think about the root of the problem. It is evident throughout human history that the truth expressed in Romans 1 continually repeats itself. A man ignores God, commits himself to serve his own needs and the following generation becomes a slave to passions and a worthless and vagrant lifestyle.
Salvation from slavery to self
Fortunately, this is not the only story we are going to relate. God has an eternal purpose that He will carry out without a doubt. Eve gave birth to another child and all significant genealogies filter back to this ancestor, Seth. Enosh was the son of Seth and something wonderful began to take place: “Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD”; these words are repeated often in the Old Testament. There were individuals, who recognized the supreme need to live their lives under God’s lordship.
Near the end of the Old Testament, Joel added something significant to that old saying (2:32) and he is quoted by Peter in the first apostolic message and by Paul in the heart of his teaching about saving faith: “It will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered”. There is an escape from the slavery to self, to which sin has driven us. There is an escape from that, which the entire world pursues, in order to enter into the purposes of the Lord. It begins very simply, and yet very decisively and firmly. It comes through a cry from the depths of the human heart, begging Him to take the place that He deserves, saving us from sin and self.
Consider Colossians 1:13, to see how Paul expressed this salvation: “He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”. Now, the kingdom of darkness is an invisible, spiritual kingdom, just as is the kingdom of light. Therefore, it is a kingdom that we must find in a spiritual manner. The truths of the kingdom of Jesus Christ are mysteries. They are very different from the principles that we have lived by human experience throughout the length of our lives in the world’s ambience. Therefore, we must dig until we arrive at unknown depths in order to be able to see things as God sees them. A search is required, to which we must give top priority.
Then, we have to pay utmost attention in order to find and preserve the way to walk in the paths of the kingdom. In the Gospels, we read of Peter walking on the water. The waves and the wind demanded his attention and he took his eyes off Jesus. The immediate consequence was that he began to sink. The way of walking in Jesus’ kingdom is supernatural and the Bible calls it “walking in the Spirit”. But to do so, we have to remove the old shoes from our feet, with which we have learned to walk in this world, and come into direct contact with the Holy Spirit. It bears no resemblance to the steps that we have taken in our past experience; therefore it requires a single-minded concentration on the new things of the kingdom. We must seek the way of walking in the Spirit and dedicate our lives to that search.
The Son is the King of this kingdom and, in order to find His kingdom, we first must seek the King. Perhaps, we have listened to some, who tell us that God is not lost, so that we have to find Him, but we are lost and He is the One, who has to find us. Of course, it is true, but like many things that are true, it does not contain the whole truth. It is only one way to see the matter, but does not cover all the aspects that the Bible teaches us, which cannot be ignored. We have before us the order, from the mouth of Jesus Christ, to seek the kingdom. It would be meaningless to find the kingdom without finding the King. We have other verses, for example the following, which is often quoted: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). God is not lost, but He does hide Himself and He will never be found through a careless and superficial search. May we not be like the five foolish virgins, who started their search too late!
If you are among the great number of Christians today, who to be honest, are not obeying this commandment of Jesus in practical living, I hope that through reading this book, you will see the need to begin to do so immediately. This search requires your complete devotion and commitment.
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