Week 4 - Citizens of God's Kingdom
This week in summary| Day 1 : Identity and the King | Isaiah 1 |
| Day 2 : Citizens and God’s Kingdom | Isaiah 2-3 |
| Day 3 : Authentic | Isaiah 4-5 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Isaiah 6-7 |
| Day 5 : Planning | Isaiah 8-9 |
| Day 1 : Identity and the King | Isaiah 1 |
| Day 2 : Citizens and God’s Kingdom | Isaiah 2-3 |
| Day 3 : Authentic | Isaiah 4-5 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Isaiah 6-7 |
| Day 5 : Planning | Isaiah 8-9 |
The big questions of life like “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” are at their core basic questions of identity. Fortunately, God as our Creator understands our need to know who we are and how we are to live. He graciously gives the gift of identity to His people through both his promises and His laws. What we sometimes mistake as moral checklists carry with them the intention of providing definition for the people of God. These laws and promises describe who we are, what we do and why we do it.
Even greater, these promises and laws reveal to us the nature and character of God. Through this identity, we are invited to understand who we were created to be and who God is.
When Jesus came to earth, he came as God among us; the living, breathing demonstration of the will of God and an exact representation of His identity. King Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God, to fight for the true identity of God’s people in the face of centuries of that identity being corrupted and misused. The call of Jesus to those in His time, just as it is today, is for us to join him as citizens of the Kingdom. This call is so radical that we are to think of it as nothing short of a rebirth, where everything starts again and we live in a whole new way and with a whole new purpose. In the Kingdom of God, we get a new identity that comes from the King.
We are not left to guess how a citizen in Jesus’ Kingdom acts. Both the teachings of Jesus and the very example of His life are meant to help us understand our identity as citizens of the Kingdom. The answer of who we are meant to be, then, is a simple one…we are meant to be like Jesus! We love like our King loves, we are merciful like our King is merciful, we fight the way He fights (and for the same reasons) and hunger and thirst for what is right, just as He does. As citizens of the Kingdom, we are called to live and faithfully serve King Jesus in the same manner that he has faithfully served and died for us.
Of course, there a perks to living in God’s Kingdom. We fall under the protection of our King, who has sacrificed Himself that we may live forever in peace within His Kingdom. Jesus defeated Satan, sin and death leaving us nothing to fear. We also share in our King’s family, gaining a Heavenly Father who loves us. And as we face the very daunting prospect of trying to live up to the identity our King has given us, we are given the Holy Spirit who resides inside of us to help us live up to the people we were truly created to be.
When we become citizens of the Kingdom of God, we inherit not only the benefits of the Kingdom but the work of the Kingdom as well. When the first humans made choices that separated them from God, it ruined both the relationship between God and humanity and the state of the rest of creation. Ever since then, God has been taking steps to set those wrongs right, reorienting humanity back to Him and ultimately restoring creation to what it always should have been. As citizens of His Kingdom, bearing His image and the identity of King Jesus, we are part of God’s plan of setting the wrongs right.
The life and teachings of Jesus do not exist to give a set of moral guideposts so that we may hit them as a “thank you” to God for letting us into the Kingdom. The life and teachings of Jesus exist to show us the mission we have inherited and how it is to be undertaken; how those that are captive are to be set free and how the wrongs are to be made right.
That mission and our submission to the authority of Jesus on that mission, is not aimed to merely tell us what to do, it is to show us who we are. What we do in the Kingdom is a natural outflow from the identity we’ve been granted.
On a daily basis, then, we don’t do the things that Jesus did in order to be citizens of the Kingdom. We do the things that Jesus did because we are already citizens of the Kingdom. It is simply what those that live in the Kingdom do. It is not the “good” citizen of the Kingdom that cares for the poor, brings hope to the hopeless, shines light into darkness and forsakes the things of this world to do so. That is the cause of every citizen of the Kingdom. It is not the “chosen” citizen of the Kingdom that is willing to lose her life that another may live. That is the example of our King and part of the identity of every citizen to do so. It is not the “special” citizen of the Kingdom that seeks to share the truth and grace with others. That is the reality under which we all live and as we truly seek to love others it simply cannot be helped but to share the root of our identity with them.
We have been reborn as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are called to a free and abundant life under the loving protection of King Jesus as willing soldiers in the mission to call as many as will come to that same love and protection. It is a day by day, person by person call to fight to right the wrongs, and as citizens of the Kingdom it is indeed now our fight.
In movies there are people who talk and act like people they are not in order to tell a particular story. We accept this even though we have seen those actors in other movies or have heard details about their true lives and know for certain that how they are acting onscreen doesn’t really represent who they are.
Although this is an acceptable practice when it comes to acting, the Kingdom of God doesn’t work that way. God is not looking for worked over, painted up, gilded citizens to falsely inflate the size of His Kingdom (who wants to spend eternity in the Kingdom with that guy?) He is not looking for those that are willing to play the part. God desires those that are truly willing to give up their old identity and their own kingdoms to accept the identity and Kingdom that God is offering. This is why both John the Baptist and Jesus join repentance, the changing of allegiances, with the announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom.
Sometimes in our effort to be working citizens of the Kingdom we end up just playing the part. How does this happen? Primarily this occurs when we separate the words of Jesus from the actions and person of Jesus. We do this when we take his words and make them a checklist, a simple indicator as to whether we are good or not. We quickly come to the realization that not only can we not live up to that standard but things just don’t feel right. This is because we have not accepted our change of identity as forgiven and empowered through the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom.
Often we have just kept our own identity, our own kingdom, and tried to borrow Jesus’ morality to clean it up a bit. This is being a play actor, or as John the Baptizer might say, a hypocrite. This is not what Jesus is calling us to and it’s not what the Kingdom is fighting for. Jesus’ is the Kingdom of freedom, not division and confusion. This is why he doesn’t ask us to keep our identity and clean it up to be a citizen, He requires that we give up our old identity so that we may live freely in our new one.
This does not mean, of course, that we will live perfect lives. Our pursuit to live rightly within our new identity as a citizen of the Kingdom will sometimes fall short. But grace and forgiveness are part of the benefits of the Kingdom. Our shortcomings do not surprise our King, He is the source and provider of grace precisely because He knows that the citizens of His Kingdom need it!
Ultimately we avoid being thrown off of our mission or relying on measures that God is not interested in when we focus on and follow the lead of our King. He will guide the mission to its right and appropriate end; the end result is not our business. As we follow Jesus, do what He does in the way that He does it, the work of the Kingdom will be done and the wrongs will be made right and we will share in an eternity of creation and humanity being in right relationship with our Creator.
Identify 3 opportunities facing you right now that may advance your purpose and vision
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Identify 3 threats facing you right that hinder your purpose and vision
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| Strengths | Weaknesses | |
| Strengths - Opportunities | Weaknesses - Opportunities | |
|---|---|---|
Opportunities | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |
| Strengths - Threates | Weaknesses - Threats | |
Threats | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |