Building God’s Kingdom Like Jesus // Becoming a Kingdom Builder, Part 3

The reason Jesus came to earth was to usher in the Kingdom of God – to show us what God’s Kingdom is like and to open the door for us. In short, Jesus was, and still is, a Kingdom builder. So – what can we learn about that important task from Him?

A Whole New Focus

For the last couple of weeks on the program, we’ve been taking a look at what exactly it means to become a kingdom builder on this earth. You see, I’m convinced that God has a plan for your life, just as He has a plan for my life, and I strongly suspect the main focus of that plan is not to make ourselves wealthy and comfortable. I strongly suspect that God’s plan for me and His plan for you is not that we should get out there and build our own little empires, but rather, to roll our sleeves up and be about the business of building His kingdom.

See, our empires, man-made empires are so vastly, profoundly different to God’s kingdom. We want to build things that we can see: A business; a reputation; success, that’s an empire. God wants to build a spiritual kingdom on this earth, that involves winning over the hearts of men and women and children with His love, through Jesus His Son. And I think that in this age of affluence and wealth, whether we’re partakers of that affluence and wealth or whether we simply aspire to it, it’s all too easy to get these two confused.

Of course, there’s nothing new in that. People had it all confused back in Jesus’ day too. Jesus was out there talking about the kingdom of God coming, and the religious leaders who just quietly had been feathering their own little nests, making themselves wealthy and powerful at the expense of God’s people, well when they heard Jesus talking about the kingdom of God, the picture they had in their heads was the picture of a worldly empire: Their own despotic little empires; the empire of Rome, that was their world-view, and so this is what happened. Luke 17:20-21:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and He answered: ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say ‘Look, here it is’ or ‘There it is’, for in fact, the kingdom of God is within you’.

In other words, this is not a physical kingdom – a worldly empire like the Roman empire, which was at the forefront of people’s minds back then, but the kingdom of God is something else entirely. The kingdom of God lives in our hearts. It’s the relationship we have with Jesus. It’s all about the glad submission of our hearts to the will, and to the rule, and to the plan of God.

And so that brings us back to the question that I asked a few minutes ago: Why are you on this earth? What’s the purpose that God has in mind for you? There are many who don’t have answers to those questions. Maybe you’re one of them.

I want to introduce you to a couple of men, one young and one not-so-young, that God’s brought across my path recently. Let’s start with the not-so-young man. He’s in his early fifties, very much in the prime of his life; he’s about to build a new house and he’s very successful in his chosen field; works for a large, corporate organisation. I was asked to speak at a men’s breakfast at his church not so long ago. The organiser of the men’s breakfast was really disappointed that not as many people turned up as he’d expected. I smiled, because you know, I never worry about numbers; they belong to God. I had a sense that morning that God had something to do in people’s lives.

It turns out that the theme that I was led to speak about, Psalm 139 (all about God’s purpose for our lives), really touched this man. It brought something to the surface that had been there for a while: God stirred him up. Despite all his apparent success, and by the way he’s also an elder in a very large and prominent church, this man had a feeling deep inside that God has something else for him: Some plan, some purpose, that hasn’t quite yet been revealed. I’m catching up with him shortly for a cup of coffee to talk about it.

The second man, a younger man, a very successful author and speaker. He travels all over the world as a speaker and gets paid a bundle of money just to show up. Often you see him on the news at night on TV, being interviewed about this and that. He’s the emerging go-to guy in the media whenever something in his particular area of expertise pops up.

I mean, this young guy has the world at his feet. He has talents and abilities that I will never have. He felt to seek me out after we met at a conference, and ask me if I could spend a little time each month mentoring him. Now the guy is full on for Jesus. He’s successful, everything’s going really well, and yet again something inside, prompted by the Spirit, told him there has to be more. As I sat having coffee with him, I know in my heart of hearts that God has the most amazing plan for this young man’s life, beyond anything that he can even imagine right now. Two men in the space of a couple of months come across my path, and just at a time when God was prompting me to write about becoming a kingdom builder. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I don’t believe in coincidences anymore.

I remember almost twenty years ago when I’d given my life to the Lord, and it was the same pattern. My worldly empire was pretty successful, but my heart yearned for something. I couldn’t put my finger on it back then. I couldn’t have said to you: ‘You know, I think the Holy Spirit was starting to get me to step out on this journey to discover God’s call on my life’, but that’s exactly what it was, and I know that as I speak about this right now there are many, many people quietly nodding their heads. I know that God is touching people (maybe you) with this same realisation that no matter your circumstances, your age, what’s going on in your life, He has more for you.

It may not be a change of job or career. For most people it isn’t. Maybe it does involve that; I don’t know, but if your heart longs to follow Jesus, if deep in your heart you want to be a kingdom builder (not just an empire builder) then perhaps, perhaps today’s a turning-point. Maybe today God’s speaking to you. Maybe today is the start of something new.

Jesus The Kingdom Builder

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, it’s a strange concept to you and me. You know, I’ve read a lot of my Bible, particularly the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). It’s only in the gospel of Matthew that you find the term ‘The kingdom of heaven’ used. Mark, Luke and John record only that Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. At various times Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven being here, and at other times as something that’s way off there in the future. Sometimes it’s something we enter into now; sometimes it’s something that we have to wait to enter into. It’s this idea of here already, but not quite. Have a listen to Matthew 3:2:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Matthew 5:3:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And then at other times, He talks about the kingdom of heaven as being something in the future. Matthew 7:21:

Not everyone who says to Me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 8:11:

I tell you, many will come from east and west, and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But this whole kingdom-of-heaven/kingdom-of-God thing was and is a big deal for Jesus. Those two terms together are mentioned ninety-eight times in the New Testament, mostly by Jesus, and often you find Jesus saying things like: "Look, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a man sowing seed in a field", or "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed", or "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field". They’re all out of Matthew 13, or like a merchant in search of pearls or like a net thrown into the sea, or like … On and on He goes about the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus came not just to open the door for you and me into the kingdom of heaven through His death and His resurrection, but also to show us what the kingdom of heaven actually looks like. Think about that. Jesus came to this earth to bring the kingdom of heaven near; to tell us about God’s kingdom; to open the way for us to enter God’s kingdom. His whole purpose, His whole mission, His whole focus was on inviting you and me into His kingdom.

Why am I rabbiting on about this? Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because it is a big deal. Because it is a big deal for Jesus – the King inviting you and me into His place; into His palace; into His kingdom; under His protection; to receive all the benefits of being one of the King’s kids.

When I was a child, I lived in my parents’ house. I didn’t really appreciate the benefits of that, but looking back on it now, I totally get it. My parents brought me into this world. They sacrificed a lot to clothe me and to feed me and to educate me. They put up with all my childish ways and my teenage tantrums. Of course, I didn’t always like the discipline they dished out and the rules that they imposed, but I was endowed with considerable benefits and blessings simply by living in their house.

Now, imagine that you get to live in God’s house – in God’s family, here and now, and for the rest of eternity. The kingdom is like a man who found a treasure in a field, and he was so overjoyed that he sold everything that he had to buy that field so that he could have the treasure. That’s what Jesus said. That’s what the kingdom of heaven is like. The benefits are vast! Back in union with God; forgiven; peace; power; provision; plenty; God’s love, and the whole purpose of Jesus coming to this earth was to usher in the kingdom of God – to open the way into His kingdom to you and me.

Then He calls His disciples to be His followers, His family, His people, and He says to them. Matthew 28:18-20:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.

See, He builds His kingdom here and now on this earth in the hearts of these disciples, and then calls them to go out and build the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of people all over the world. In other words the Great Commission, handed on from Jesus to His disciples, is to go and build the kingdom of God so that one day, all those who have entered it will spend eternity in it and receive all the glorious riches of their inheritance in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, they’re not just terms that slide off our tongues unthinkingly; God’s kingdom is everything. It’s the most important thing. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

That’s how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Jesus was and is a kingdom builder. Ok, a whole bunch of people didn’t get that. They thought His kingdom was there to compete with the Roman empire, but that wasn’t it at all. Jesus came to usher the kingdom of God into this world, to show us what it’s like, and through His death and His resurrection on the cross, to fling the door wide-open so that you and I can enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was and is a kingdom builder, and He’s calling His disciples (you, me, anyone else who believes in Jesus) not just to sit in the pews of a church; not just to complain about the sermon the pastor preached or the music, but to be exactly the same as Him – to be imitators of God, to be imitators of Jesus, to be a kingdom builder; nothing more, nothing less. So, the question is: What are you going to do with the rest of your life?

A Man on a Mission

Over these past few weeks on the program, we’ve been talking about how to transition between being someone who’s all about building your own empire to someone who’s first and foremost about building God’s kingdom on this earth. Empire building comes very naturally to you and me because sin is engrained in our very DNA. It’s something that King David knew all too well when he came to God to confess his sin of adultery and murder. Psalm 51:3-5:

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and blameless when You pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, and a sinner when my mother conceived me.

And that question that I asked you just a moment ago: ‘Are you an empire builder or a kingdom builder’ is not just a question that I’m hurling in your face; it’s a question I ask myself constantly, over and over again, because I know that there is such an incredibly fine line between being an empire builder and a kingdom builder.

I see it in the ministry of Christianityworks all the time. Here’s how it plays itself out. As well as you on your local station, these programs that we produce are heard all over the world on well over a thousand radio stations, so as you can imagine, our team interacts with lots and lots and lots of other ministries. What do we want to achieve? Well, we want as many radio stations as possible to broadcast these messages because the more stations that air them, the more people are going to hear about Jesus, and the more lives are going to be touched and transformed by the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s that simple.

Some organisations we interact with, in the name of our Lord Jesus, are open and collaborative. They deal with us in love, and after all, whether they choose to air these programs or not, it’s acting in love that matters. Right? Others … well, let’s just say others aren’t so much like that. I remember one station that I dealt with in particular a few years ago; no names, no pack-drill. For them it was like … it was like this was a business that they were in – a business: Tough, brutal, dismissive, and yet others are more concerned that the gospel is preached rather than the business side of things.

But it’s not just other people: I’m not just pointing the finger here. You see, this is the important bit. I have to constantly be asking myself: What are my motivations? What are the intentions of my heart? Is our team out there doing what we’re doing in order to grow the kingdom of God in the hearts of men and women and children around the globe, or are we just in the business of growing our own empire, so that we can boast and say: ‘Look! Look at how successful this ministry is. Look at how successful we are’, because I don’t care who you are or what you do: Pride will always try to raise its ugly head, and so I put checks and balances in place in the ministry to ensure that we deal with that all-too-natural sin of pride.

Why am I talking so openly and bluntly about my own experience? Because this, my friend, is right where the rubber hits the road. We can be like those people I talked about earlier – the wolves in sheep’s clothing; people that talk the talk and pretend to walk the walk, but in the end they’re only interested in their success, not the growth of God’s kingdom. It’s all about what’s going on in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12-13:

Indeed, the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow. It’s able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, and before God, no creature’s hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the One to whom they must render an account.

As you live out your day-to-day life, how much are you driven and motivated by what’s in it for you, as opposed to what God wants you to do? And how often do you get the two mixed up? I know just how easy it is to rationalise your own comfort as being God’s will. We trot out passages like Psalm 37:4:

Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

And we decide, ‘Sure. God wants me to have more of this, or a bigger one of those, or a flashier one of these or’ … We all do it, don’t we? We want the benefits without the sacrifice when all along, the first part of that verse says: ‘Take delight in the LORD’. What does that mean? It means to delight in His Word; to delight in Him; in His will; to delight in His commands; to delight in following Him wherever He calls; to delight in sacrificing our lives for Him

That comes first; all the other stuff gets added later. That’s why Jesus said (let me come back to it again, because we’ve visited this passage a few times in this series), Matthew 16:24-26:

If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul? What shall a man give in return for his soul?

My friend, that’s the language of sacrifice. It’s the language of losing. It’s the language not of success, but of giving everything up – everything, even your life if needs be, to follow Jesus and to do His will. Do you enjoy losing? Do you enjoy being misunderstood? Do you enjoy people talking about you behind your back, and reviling you for Christ’s sake? Me neither; none of us do, but let me suggest to you that unless you and I are experiencing those losses and those sacrifices on a regular basis, then that’s probably a pretty good indicator that we’re more into empire building than kingdom building. If you want to be a kingdom builder really, then you have to ask yourself these tough questions over and over again.

But it’s not all down side, because Jesus knows what it’s like to be persecuted and reviled. Jesus knows what it means to hang there on that cross, looking like the biggest failure in all of history, in order to do His Father’s will, and He has something to say about that to you and to me, when we find ourselves dangling in the wind, because we’ve decided to forsake this idea of building our own empire for the sake of His kingdom. Matthew 5:10-12:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Did you pick it? Blessed are you when you’re dangling in the wind for My sake. Blessed are you when they talk behind your back, and point their finger at you, and laugh at you, just as they did with Me. Blessed are you, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people precisely like you.

It’s completely opposite to our worldly view of success, isn’t it? It totally defies the man-made wisdom of comfort and wealth and reward. My friend, we’re talking about this precisely because this is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to be a kingdom builder, and that’s exactly what Jesus wants you to be – a disciple of His; one who is reviled just as He was; one who has an eternal impact in the lives of those around you, just as He did. Are you ready? Are you ready to be a kingdom builder?