There is a whole universe of thought in Matthew chapter 4. I hope you read through it and get lost for while. Hopefully not 40 days. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t split this teaching up into multiple weeks and, admittedly, the message is pretty thick.

After his baptism, Jesus enters his ministry as the Spirit-anointed and Father-confirmed messianic deliverer. Humans have been unleashing sin, darkness, hell on earth for millennia and God loves his creation and Jesus arrives on the scene saying the time has come to bring the reign of God, the kingdom of heaven to invade earth and confront evil.

The first test of what kind of king Jesus will be comes in the wilderness. Will Jesus lord it over people as the nations do? Just how will he rule his people and destroy the power of the devil? We have a knee-jerk reaction to power as it is so often used against the poor.

After the testing in the wilderness, Jesus forms a new people who will be in his kingdom with him. They ARE the poor, the marginalized, those without a voice. This new people take their identity from Jesus and learn from him how to do what he was doing (discipleship). With his disciples, he shares the euangelion, the royal announcement, the Gospel.

As the kingdom advances, the territory in our hearts becomes his and we have the opportunity to be partners in his kingdom advance.

What is his kingdom like? What was the message Jesus shared? How did he show and tell the message? The messianic deliverer teaches the crowds, confronts evil powers (demons) and heals the sick. Follow along in the teaching series with this message “Do You Follow? The Kingdom Advances” here.