When the Bible speaks of the kingdom of God, it is speaking mainly of two entities. A spiritual kingdom, and a physical kingdom. The kingdom of God is, first, spiritual in nature. My kingdom is not physical. It is spiritual. The spiritual kingdom of God has come, and is being built now.
When God redeems a sinner, when the Spirit breathes life into a spiritually dead sinner, there is a new creation that takes place. And that new creature in Christ becomes a citizen in the kingdom of heaven.
Christ is now reigning as King in the hearts of those who follow Him. This reality encouraged Paul when he was imprisoned for the sake of Christ Phil. The physical kingdom , that is, the earthly reign of Jesus, when He is again physically present on Earth, will come later—after the Second Coming. The book of the Revelation describes this kingdom.
As such, he is sent to Masada as the emissary from Heaven in preparation of the apocalypse. Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus had an affair with a woman, giving humanity one final gift - he fathered a child.
His lineage had been heavily been protected by the Grail. In preparation for God's grand plan for the world, Jesus returned to Earth and arrived to Masada as an emissary of Heaven , to discuss the coming apocalypse.
While Tulip was attempting to rescue Cassidy , she was assigned as Jesus' personal valet. After Tulip told him the truth about his identity, he tried to help her break Cassidy out of his cell, but was unable to convince Lara Featherstone to leave her post due to his meek nature. Rather than tell everyone the answer right away, Jesus used the Socratic Method. He led His audience to conclusions by asking a lot of questions.
For examples check out Matthew , or , or look at this resource. Questions are a powerful teaching method, especially when teaching a hostile crowd like unbelievers. Questions stimulate critical thinking. Asking good questions makes the audience hungry to find the answers. If you want to preach like Jesus, ask a lot of questions.
Do not reveal the answer immediately. Help your audience use their own brains. Jesus often used object lessons to communicate to his audience. He washed the feet of the disciples to teach servant leadership John — He called a little child to him to discuss childlike faith Matthew —4. He described unselfish giving after watching a widow drop two small coins into the temple offering Mark — When he told the parable of the sower, there is a good chance he was standing near a field.
In the gospel records, there are 34 direct quotations from the Old Testament and 23 allusions to Old Testament events in the teaching of Jesus. He had learnt the Old Testament at home, in the village school and in the synagogue.
Portions of Scripture had to be memorized by Hebrew boys. His mother must have taught Him too. Jesus accepted the Divine inspiration of the Old Testament without any question. The Old Testament was a formative force in the spiritual life of Jesus.
Jesus lived in a day when everyone blindly followed the opinions of dead scholars. The rabbi was superior to Scripture. Originality and freshness were unknown. In the midst of all this, Jesus was original Matt He interpreted the Old Testament spiritually, replacing the customary ceremonial interpretation, and raised its standards Matthew 5.
He quoted from the Old Testament, but never any long passages. In 29 out of the 34 quotations Jesus used some sign of quotation, such as, "It is written". He made sword-thrusts at times with pointed verses from the Old Testament. The 34 quotations He made were taken from 46 texts in the Old Testament 28 from the first 5 books of Moses, 7 from the Psalms and 11 from the Prophets.
The words of Jesus were filled with the spirit and phraseology of the Old Testament. He used Old Testament examples to rebuke the traditions of the people Matt Controversial Issues.
The Jews were more concerned with their privileges as God's chosen people than with their corresponding responsibility to the nations. Jesus preached the necessity of a personal, vital relationship with God.
The Jews gave undue importance to the historic opinions of dead rabbis. Jesus emphasised the spirit of the Word and rebuked their Bibliolatry. The Jewish Messianic hope included worldly honour and power. Jesus attacked this. His enemies considered Jesus mediocre, because of His humble origin. But His popularity aroused their envy John ; and His giving more attention to the cheating tax-collectors irritated them. So they accused Him of blasphemy and of being in league with Satan.
Six times they charged Jesus with desecrating the Sabbath. Jesus taught that the traditions of the elders were a hindrance to faith and to the true service of God. We read of 22 instances where Jesus argued with His enemies defensively as inJohn ; Matt He refused to show signs, but occasionally used miracles to defend His message Matt ; Luke The records in the gospels mention 26 miracles of healing and 8 miracles of nature that Jesus did up to the time of His death.
The miracles of Jesus were not meant to be spectacular demonstrations. Five times He refused to do a miracle when asked to See Matt ,45; ; Luke ; John ; The miracles of Jesus were not meant to create an audience. Only once Luke did Jesus ask the healed person to tell others; and on that occasion it was because Jesus Himself was going away from there immediately.
Four times, He clearly forbade it Matt ; ; Mark ; The temptation to draw crowds through miracles might have been too strong for one who was less confident in the power of his truth, less consecrated to his sacrificial mission and less acquainted with the vacillating nature of people. Jesus' miracles were a response to human need. He never once failed to respond to real need.
He always acted in the interest of others. The miracles were manifestations of the Divine compassion. The miracles also had an evidential value in that they attested the Person of Jesus John ,23; Mark ,11; but compare John The greatest number of miracles were performed during the middle period of His ministry - the time of maximum opposition. Spiritual truth was always meant to be central see the ascending order in Matt John , Jesus taught that some diseases came through sin John , but not all John Gentleness is the mark of the great soul Matt Jesus could never look unmoved at the struggling masses of people.
His interest in people was a master passion. His heart was full of compassion Matt ; ; ; Mark ; ; John Being tempted like all other men increased His sympathy Heb ; Jesus always maintained a lovable disposition in spite of other pressures. He was never once in a bad mood. There is not one case of rejected requests for healing. He was gentle and friendly towards despised sinners Luke ; Matt He cared for the lowly - the lepers, the insane, the blind and the demoniacs.
He elevated woman to the side of man. He was truly chivalrous. His gentleness however did not prevent him from being firm where the will of God was concerned John ; Matt ; John ; Luke He knew how and when and whom to rebuke and to comfort. He had an appropriate word for each person and for each occasion Matt with John ; and Luke with 48, 50; John His gentleness was reflected in the tone of His voice. He never spoke in harsh, cruel or repulsive tones - though He knew how to rebuke sternly.
Children were attracted to Him, and not frightened by His voice or appearance. Jesus dispelled the shadows and chased away gloom and despair wherever He went. Jesus personal appearance was simple. He followed the manners of His people in matters of dress. The middle-class family to which He belonged normally wore white clothes as men do even today in the villages of India.
The style of Jesus preaching was free from adornment, from complex construction and from obscure thoughts. He did not seek to obtain a reputation for learning either through a mystical unintelligible message or through quoting the great writers of history. The only Book He ever quoted was the Old Testament. His message was clear and simple and He was totally confident of what He taught. There was never any revision of teaching or correcting of earlier errors.
He always spoke in the language of the common man. His illustrations were always from the life that the common people were familiar with. His personal life-style, like His message, was simple. His personal needs were few. He took His rough fishermen-disciples with Him to social functions without the slightest embarrassment. He was humble enough to accept invitations for meals, even when He knew that He could not return their hospitality. He had no desire to be quoted by others or by future generations as a scholar.
His only ambition was to do His Father's will. His motives were crystal clear, and therefore His face and particularly His eyes were clear for a man's face and eyes reflect his inner soul. Jesus was a very observant man - a keen watcher of life around Him. This is evident from His parables and word-pictures. He was well balanced intellectually and emotionally.
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