New Covenant- Repentance & Heavenly Kingdom -6

The second thing I want to show you here is repent and the kingdom of heaven. That's the second thing I want to say about the new covenant. The new covenant is about the kingdom of heaven and not the kingdom of earth.

So when John the Baptist got up and said, turn around, he was talking to people who for 1500 years from the days of Moses had heard about the kingdom of earth. You got it? 1500 years, every preacher they ever heard, every prophet they ever heard had told them, you follow God, you get a land for yourself. I know you are all slaves in Egypt, but you'll get a land.

And when you get into that land, God will give you plenty in your fields. You'll prosper in your fields. And you'll get plenty of money.

And all your earthly enemies will be killed, whoever they are. And you'll have... These are the things people want. All my earthly enemies should be killed.

Or they should suffer at least. And I should have plenty of money and a land and a house. That's what they said.

You'll have all this and you'll also have plenty of children. But people don't ask for that nowadays. But that is also part of the promise.

Many things like this. Earthly, earthly, earthly, earthly. And then John the Baptist comes in.

A new prophet with a new message. Turn around from this kingdom of earth pursuit for the kingdom of heaven. It hasn't yet come, but it is near.

It is near. It hadn't come. They locked up John the Baptist.

They usually lock up people who preach like that. It says in chapter 4 verse 12. People don't like that type of preaching.

If John the Baptist had gone to Herod and said, God will make you rich brother, Herod. God will give you health and bless you. Boy! Do you think Herod would have locked him up? He preached against his sin.

It's not popular to preach against sin, neither then nor now. So when he got locked up, you know what Jesus did? Jesus said, okay. Verse 17.

I'm gonna preach the same thing. Verse 17. Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

As soon as one voice is silenced, there's another voice. All these 2000 years it's been like that. Every voice that tells people to seek God's kingdom is silenced either by death, because nobody lives forever.

Somebody preaches it for many years and dies. God raises up another voice somewhere. Maybe just one voice.

Saying, turn around from the kingdom of earth. Everybody's preaching the kingdom of earth, kingdom of earth, kingdom of earth. We have floods of voices today that telling us about earthly experiences and earthly blessings and earthly things.

Christendom has got no shortage of it. If you don't believe it, go and turn on Christian television and see every single preacher is preaching that. Or they're asking you for your money.

One of the two. Where are the people who are telling you to turn from that and seek holiness first? Where are the John the Baptists? But God will always have a voice. I'll tell you that.

In every generation. You can silence it, or it may be silenced by death, but God will raise up somebody else. It'll always be true.

God has never left himself without a witness in 2,000 years. And those who have ears to hear will respond to that voice. So remember these two things about the new covenant and they're both linked to each other and we'll think more about it further this week, in the coming weeks.

It's a turning around from the earth and having one in my own way to seeking God's will and seeking the kingdom of God first and His holiness. And those who were interested in it responded. There were very few.

Remember at the end of the preaching of the greatest preacher that ever walked on this earth? Jesus Christ. He did not have a mega church of 30,000 people. He had 120 people waiting for the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

That was the coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God came on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said that.

Let me show you that verse. In Mark chapter 9. We'll close with that. Mark chapter 9, verse 1. Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there are some people standing here.

Not everybody. Some will die. But some who are standing here will not die until they have seen the kingdom of God after it has come with power.

That's not referring to the day when the kingdom of God floods the whole earth. No. It was the day when the kingdom of God first came to earth.

And some of those people standing there did not die till the day of Pentecost came couple of years later. Within those two years some people died but not everyone. That's what He was saying.

That came on the day of Pentecost. That power which is mentioned here is the same power that Jesus spoke about in Acts 1.8. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will receive power. When you connect it with Mark 9.1 you realize it is power to live for the kingdom of God.

Power to seek the kingdom of God. Not power to get a name for myself as a preacher or a healer or any such thing. No.

But to enter God's kingdom and to lead others into God's kingdom. Do you want this life? I hope you do. Well, you are all invited if you are willing to pay the price.

Let's bow our heads for a moment of prayer. Please be reverent in God's presence and if God has spoken to you I want to invite you to respond to what you have heard. Respond to what you have heard.

We shut our eyes only to avoid being distracted. So that you can concentrate on things that God wants you to deal with in your life. Lord, I want to live a worthwhile life on this earth.

I have only one life. And a lot of that life is already over. At least of the years that are left to me.

Lord, help me to live for the things that are eternal. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.