THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES WITH POWER

Matthew 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Note the words: “The kingdom of heaven has been coming violently,” but “violently” is a poor translation. In the Greek, it really means “pressing forward with great power.”

The kingdom of God has been pressing forward with great power.

Jesus is saying, “The kingdom of God has been pressing forward with great power since the days of John the Baptist until now.”

The point is that when the kingdom of God was preached by John the Baptist and by the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshu, no one could ignore it, because it was delivered with great spiritual power.

John the Baptist and the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua preached with the power of God’s Spirit working in them and through them.

People flocked out to John the Baptist from all over Judea and Jerusalem to hear John the Baptist preaching about the coming Kingdom of God. There was a tremendous power of God’s Spirit in this man. And when the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua preached, the power of the Spirit of God worked through him in an ever greater measure than it did in John the Baptist.

Three characteristics about the kingdom emerge from this verse as the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua preached.

1.The kingdom is distinctive when delivered by the power of God’s Spirit.

A servant of God- Yehovah carries a distinctive power. The power of the Spirit of God- Yehovah.

2. Power only comes from a 100% response to Jesus’ teaching, which God gave him to give to the world.

There needs to be a 100% response to the word of God before one can receive the power of His indwelling Spirit! Every man/woman of God needs to understand and to practice a 100% response to the word of God to obtain the power of His indwelling Spirit working in them and through them.

We are speaking about response on a basic level. From where does the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua- receive this kind of power? The power of the Spirit comes from God, his Father, Yehovah. God has the power, but if you don’t have the power, then how does it come to you? God has the life, but if you don’t have the life, then how do you get that life? God has fullness of joy. Psalm 16:11 says, “At your right hand is fullness of joy,” but if you don’t have joy, then how can you receive it? To receive the power of God’s Spirit is a matter of communication, and communication is a matter of how you respond to God’s word. Where there is no response, there cannot be communication with God- Yehovah..

The lord Messiah Jesus - Yeshua has spoken to us; but the question is: how have you responded?

Where there is the power of the Spirit of God- Yehovah in a man/woman preaching about the coming kingdom of God - there is life.

We, as followers of the lord Messiah Jesus-Yeshua, will receive the power of his Spirit in us when we obey all the words his God and Father, Yehovah, gave to him to give to the world.

The kingdom of God has been pressing forward with power since the days of John the Baptist, and people respond­ either favorably or unfavorably. The greater the power, the more vigorous is the response either for or against.

3. Where the power of God’s Spirit is behind the preaching of the gospel – good news about the coming kingdom of God, people may respond antagonistically.

When people listened to Jesus, there were some who responded and yielded their lives, became totally committed to obeying his words, and others hated him. People just cannot remain neutral when you preach the words of the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua. His words are going to draw them or confront them. That is important to realize.

Matthew 10:24-25: A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a bondservant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the bondservant as his lord.

Two things you must do to become a disciple

1. You must respond 100% by dying to your old way of life to be a disciple of the Messiah.

Matthew 10:38: “And he who does not take his cross [die to self] and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Luke 14:27: “Whoever does not bear his own cross [die to self] and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

It’s either 100% commitment to the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua, or nothing.

What does it mean to die to self?

Note: Romans 6:3-14: … do you not know that all of us who were baptized into union with the Messiah Jesus were baptized into union with his death? Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into union with his death, in order that just as the Messiah was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also can walk in a new way of life. For if we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that our body of sin would be rendered powerless, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now since we have died with the Messiah, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that the Messiah, having been raised from among the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died once and for all with respect to the power of sin, but the life that he lives, he lives in relation to God. So you also must consider yourselves to be dead with respect to the power of sin, but in union with the Messiah Jesus, alive in relation to God. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you then obey its desires, and do not offer any parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but offer yourselves to God as those who are alive from among the dead, and offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin must not have dominion over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

You are either prepared to die with him, or you are not. There is no middle ground between living for yourself or dying with the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua.

Matthew 12:30: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

A disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus-Yeshua accepts the hatred of other people for the sake of righteousness, for the sake of preaching the truth about the coming kingdom of God, which is the message of salvation!

2. Follow Jesus

The lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua said: “Follow me.” You must follow him to be a disciple.

Jesus said: “If any man come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me” (cf. Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34). These words are addressed to everyone.

John 12:26: If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, my Father [Yehovah] will honor him.

If you want to be where Jesus is, you must follow him. There is no other way. That is the Scriptural understanding of what salvation is all about.

It is Jesus who said: if any man serves me, he must follow me.” And the only way you can follow him is to take up your cross [die to self]. It is the end of your self, the end of your whole old way of life.

Believing in Jesus is: Entrusting your life to him

When you say, “I believe,” it doesn’t mean you just believe it’s true that Jesus died on the cross, and it isn’t just to say, “I believe Jesus rose from the dead, or I believe Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father.

To be a follower of the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua means to live the kind of life that he lived, to do the things he did, to say the things he said. That means you become like the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua. When you believe in the lord Messiah Jesus- Yeshua in faithful commitment, you entrust your life to him. Those who prove to be worthy of him on the Day of Judgment are those who have followed him to the end of their lives, or the end of this age. Those who hold fast to the end!

Notice what Paul says in Philippians 3:8: “I have suffered the loss of everything and count it as rubbish to follow him, to pursue the Messiah.

Paul doesn’t just follow; he pursues, running with all his might.

In Philippians 3:15, he goes on to say, “Let those who are mature (perfect) have the same kind of mentality as I have.”

Jesus commands us to “be perfect” in commitment to obey

Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” 

This is not perfect in the sense of sinless, but perfect in our absolute obedience to God’s will; it is perfection of commitment. It means “As your Father, Yehovah is perfect in His commitment to you, you must also be perfect in your commitment to Him.”

Notice that Jesus- Yeshua is not asking for your promise that you will be perfect. It’s a command: Be perfect, be totally committed to obeying the will of your God and Father, Yehovah!

“If you want to be perfect in your commitment to God, follow the lord Messiah Jesus.”

Paul is very careful to say this is not a perfection of sinlessness. He says that in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I am already perfect” in the sense of being sinless, but perfect in my commitment to God- Yehovah.

In 1 Peter 2:21, he says, “You have been called to follow in his steps [the steps of the lord Messiah Jesus-Yeshua.”

Revelation 14:4: “they follow the Lamb [of God] wherever he goes,” which is the definition of a servant of God and of the lord Messiah Jesus.

Ask yourself, “Am I honestly following Jesus?” Don’t deceive yourself.

The followers of the lord Messiah Jesus-Yeshua have God’s-Yehovah’s indwelling power because their lives are Messiah-like. They also have God’s peace and joy. They live the abundant life.