We investigated the development of the New Covenant of Christ and witnessed through Scripture how Moses (The Law) and Elijah (The Prophets) spoke to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration regarding His death which would enforce His New Covenant. We discovered the righteousness of God without the Law manifested and being witnessed by the Law and the prophets.
We learned that our salvation came at great cost to Jesus and as a result it is most reasonable that we offer our bodies as living sacrifices due to the lavish love, mercy and acceptance made available through Christ.
So, with the priceless blood of Christ in view and the call to be a living sacrifice, today I want to consider something Jesus stated that is very profound and worthy of our consideration and acceptance.
(NKJV) Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
In this statement Jesus has promised something. “All these things shall be added to you.”
What are the “all these things” He is referring to?
(NKJV) Matthew 6:31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Jesus has declared how well God cares for the fields and clothes them, how well God cares for the birds and feeds them, thus demonstrating His ability to care for His own. He is demonstrating that God is able.
In this same declaration in Luke 12 Jesus compares the lilies of the field to the glory of King Solomon. A Jewish King who was believed to have been the wisest, wealthiest, best dressed man in Jewish history up to that point. Jesus says not even Solomon was a well adorned as the fields of lilies.
This comparison Jesus uses demonstrates that man’s best effort to cover himself cannot compare with the clothing that God can supply as is evidenced in nature itself. What is the promise Jesus made?
He has promised to feed and clothe us. It is a very profound promise. But how is it released?
"But seek first the kingdom of God”
I want to take a look at this word “seek” for a moment because some may read this as saying we are to make something happen by some work we do. But is that the correct way to see the word seek here?
The word seek in the Greek is: ζητεω zeteo dzay-teh’-o 1) to seek in order to find 1a) to seek a thing 1b) to seek [in order to find out] by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to enquire into 1c) to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after 2) to seek i.e. require, demand 2a) to crave, demand something from someone
It actually fits right into what I have desired to see as a result of preaching the gospel concerning God’s righteousness. My desire in saturating you in the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it will stir meditation, consideration, thoughtful reflection and a yearning for what is offered freely through Jesus. By this occurring eyes are opened in the power of the Holy Ghost and lives are transformed. The gospel works in us to generate a genuine faith that produces hearts for the kingdom and a people who are diligent to be about His purposes and matured in the faith.
But we began by considering the instruction to seek after something. So let’s examine more closely what it is specifically that we are to seek. There are two specific things mentioned.
First mentioned is the Kingdom of God. Too often the phrase “the kingdom of God” is ambiguous to us because the concept is so foreign in our modern culture. So we need to define it.
The word Kingdom here, is the Greek word - βασιλεια basileia bas-il-i’-ah
1) royal power, kingship, dominion, rule
1a) not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom
1b) of the royal power of Jesus as the triumphant Messiah
1c) of the royal power and dignity conferred on Christians in the Messiah’s kingdom
2) a kingdom, the territory subject to the rule of a king
3) used in the N.T. to refer to the reign of the Messiah
In essence Jesus is saying we should greatly desire, meditate on, and crave to be under, the rule and authority of Jesus Christ. We should greatly desire to see Him as the object of all authority to us and we should walk in the royal power and dignity conferred on us in His Kingdom as we seek to become more and more yielded to His rule and reign in our hearts. Jesus has a right to occupy a place of preeminence in our lives.
What is preeminence? It is superiority and authority.
This is why on the mount of transfiguration when Peter asked to build three monuments one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus to commemorate the moment, the Father spoke from Heaven in a loud voice and said concerning Jesus, “this is my beloved Son, hear Him!”
If Moses could have spoke up he would have said, Acts 3:22 Moses said, ’The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’
Jesus stated, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me, go therefore”
Jesus is more than just a Savior, He is both King and Lord over those who confess to be His, and as such, He has established His Kingdom which is the Kingdom of God in the hearts of those who actually put their faith in Him. The proof of being a part of His kingdom is our submission to His rule and reign in our lives.
So when Jesus says seek first the Kingdom of God it is a very profound statement.
This leads us to ask: who are we living for in this life?
Do we live to please ourselves and achieve our best life now, or do we live to manifest His rule and reign in our lives?
Are we offering our bodies as living sacrifices as a reasonable act of worship to Him?
If not, perhaps we should ask if we have truly met the majestic and wonderful Savior described in Scripture.
When we come to Jesus something is supernaturally altered in our hearts and our affections are turned towards Him, the Bible teaches us that, “we love Him because He first loved us.”
Jesus rules the kingdom of God, this rule is established in men and women who by faith have been reconciled to God the Father through Him, and are now being led by the Spirit. They represent Christ in the earth.
This evidence of the work and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives guiding them and sanctifying them is the seal of their inheritance in Christ, and it’s the proof of the work of grace that identifies those that are His. This is what we are to crave to know, to live, to own!
But there was a second thing Jesus said we were to seek.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”
This is where some people can easily get tripped up. This is where many have launched themselves back under a self imposed best effort to attain righteousness and whether they are willing to admit or not, have miserably failed. Scripture declares that in our flesh there dwells no good thing.
The righteousness Jesus speaks of is not, “man produced” righteousness. It is God’s own righteousness.
Romans 3 reveals how man has failed to attain to such a high standard of righteousness. Last Sunday we heard how that even the most righteous men we know in history apart from Jesus Christ had to have sacrifices offered for their sin due to their unrighteousness.
God has declared that His righteousness can only be achieved through what Jesus has made possible as a result of His perfect obedience and sacrificial death on the cross for us. There is nothing to add to it.
Therefore, if someone rejects the solution provided in Christ alone they are refusing to be submitted to the rule of God’s kingdom and they are rejecting the offer of His own righteousness through Christ by faith.
God, under the installment of the New Covenant, has established the manner by which men are to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. He has determined how men are to be brought under the rule of Christ and declared accepted by God having their right standing with Him maintained through faith in Christ.
This offer from God can be rejected by sincere, zealous, but ignorant men who seek to establish righteousness through their own efforts and according to what they declare is the way. This is very clear in the Bible.
(NKJV) Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Notice, they did not submit to the righteousness of God because they sought to establish their own righteousness.
How were they doing this? They did it by observing the Law in order to achieve righteousness.
What does it say Christ is the end of? He is the end of the Law for righteousness.
Who does this apply to? It applies to those who believe.
This serves as an instruction for anyone whether Jew or Gentile who would seek to establish righteousness through placing their trust in the Law for receiving righteousness, or maintaining it. The principle conveyed here in this body of truth still applies today.
I can just imagine Paul remembering how his own zeal for God and for the Law led him to persecute the church even putting to death those who had embraced the New Covenant of Christ because in his zeal he was thinking they were against God. Paul boasted in his devotion to the Law and his deep discipline as a Hebrew before he met Christ. But after he met Christ all this perception changed, his eyes were opened to the truth of Christ and the reality of grace. After coming to Christ he made his boast in the cross of Christ and attributed his righteous living to a living by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for him. This bold message of grace caused problems for Paul, and led to Jews seeking his death due to claims that he was breaking the Law and profaning their synagogues.
Although Paul preached grace made possible through Christ he lived the reality of the kingdom he was not devoid of self control and discipline. He lived by the Spirit and thus manifested obedience to Christ in how he lived.
This is what James was getting at when he stated works without faith is dead and so also faith without works is dead. James was not trying to get people focused on works for works sake. He is trying to demonstrate that genuine faith produces good fruit. No fruit no faith, but in James’ argument is the idea that a self imposed fruit can just as much be without faith as the man with no fruit. He is not promoting self imposed works and a greater effort, he is promoting a true faith. Faith will always have an object or a source to it. In this case it applies to the righteousness of God that we are told to seek after first.
So how do we seek after and attain God’s own righteousness?
(NLT) Galatians 3:15 Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case. 16 God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,’’ as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child’’ — and that, of course, means Christ. 17 This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. 18 For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. 20 Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham. 21 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
This righteousness of God spoken about by Jesus can only be realized through faith in Christ. Jesus is the child spoken of regarding the promise given to Abraham even before there was a Law in existence. The ongoing realization of the promise of life and our experience of it continues to be by faith in Jesus.
Why? It is how God established it to be and if I truly want to be under the rule of His kingdom I must do so according to the way He has declared I should. Genuine faith is how the very life of Christ is received by us.
The way of the Holy Spirit indwelling us is opened to us by this means of faith. The letter to the Galatians is really about how the work of the Spirit is released in the lives of believers so they can bare the fruit of the Spirit against which there is no Law.
(NLT) Galatians 5:22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Those who by faith come to Christ are filled with the Spirit, and as a result of this life change they no longer live for themselves but rather bare the fruit of the Spirit. They will, by their actions and way of life, prove that the Law has been written on their hearts. They will in essence be keeping the Law.
How can we be assured of this?
(NLT) Galatians 5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’’ 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. 16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
Tim Keller in his Book the Prodigal God makes this astute observation:
“(Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance with rules without heart change will be superficial and fleeting. The gospel is therefore not just the ABC’s of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life. Our problems arise largely because we don’t continually return to the gospel to work it in and live it out. That is why Martin Luther wrote, “The truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine……Most necessary is it to know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” Tim Keller goes on to say, “Wait,” I have heard people object. “You mean that in order to grow in Christ, you keep telling yourself how graciously loved and accepted you are? That doesn’t seem to be the best way to make progress. Maybe the motivation of religion was negative, but at least it was effective! You knew you had to obey God because if you didn’t, He wouldn’t answer your prayers or take you to heaven. But if you remove this fear and talk so much about free grace and unmerited acceptance—what incentive will have to live a good life? It seems this gospel way of living won’t produce people who are as faithful and diligent to obey God’s will without question.” But if when you have lost all fear of punishment you also have lost incentive to live an obedient life, then what was your motivation in the first place? It could have only been fear. What other incentive is there? Awed, grateful, love.)”
Most objections to the gospel of grace being the primary body of truth used to equip the saints is rooted in a fear that people will disobey God because of the freedom it declares. But freedom simply reveals the truth. If knowing about freedom in Christ yields the fruit of disobedience in a person it isn’t that the gospel is evil, or that the message needs to change. It simply reveals that the person rebelling has a messed up heart and has not clearly seen the truth as they ought. There are multitudes of people who have discovered this gospel of grace, been set free in their hearts through faith, and who live in obedience to the kingdom of Christ!
If the church is to recapture the apostolic sending mandate by which it is meant to salt the earth she must return to the call of genuine disciple making in the gospel. We must recapture the truth that our lives are not our own because we now belong to Christ and thus we are to be about His kingdom business in this earth.
The equipping ministries listed in Ephesians 4 are given to the church in order to equip her to do the work of the ministry.
What ministry? The ministry of reconciliation made possible through Christ!
We are called as a local church to pastor this city by being a light for the gospel of Jesus Christ in it. We are called to make disciples for Jesus Christ right here in Knoxville TN.
Based on the promise Jesus made regarding our seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness we can rest assured that the time and the resources needed to do this are available to us.
We just need to rise up in faith and embrace His promise to care for our needs as we are seeking His kingdom and His righteousness first, according to the way He has prescribed it should be done.
God’s own righteousness in us is settled in Jesus, we are reconciled to God through faith in Christ, we remain reconciled to God through faith in Christ, we are perfected in our faith by the work of the promised Holy Spirit, and we are made fruitful as we continue to walk in faith receiving the work of the Spirit in our life.
This tells me that we can make disciples for Jesus Christ because His ministry of reconciliation has now become ours as we walk in submission to Him in His kingdom and live out the reality of His righteousness in us.
Do not be fooled into seeking your own kingdom and your own righteousness. If you do you must become your own source for all these things and last I checked you do not possess all authority in heaven and on earth.
Live out what you have been given in Christ by faith, and you will discover you are living as He would in this earth. You too can be about the Father’s business.
Have you been worried about the way things are going in our economy?
Are you killing yourself to make ends meet?
Have been convinced you do not have the time to be doing what you have been called to do as His disciple?
Are you consumed with many troubles as a result of being your own source of provision for all these things?
God’s resources never run out, his kingdom is not experiencing a deficit, he has not been overspending, His power is unlimited, and His love for us knows no end.
He has promised all the resources of heaven to meet our needs when we seek His kingdom first and His righteousness.
The call of the gospel is to get this right God’s way!
(NKJV) Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
It is time to stop seeing things from a natural perspective and start seeing through the eyes of the Spirit.
Seek the kingdom and His righteousness!
Let the King of glory come in!
