Welcome to the Kingdom of God series! In this series David examines one of the most important, yet misunderstood concepts in the teachings of Jesus: The Kingdom of God. If you scroll down, you will see that each audio teaching has a title and a brief description followed by an audio file where you can either listen to the teaching from our website or download the Mp3. Please note that if you choose to listen to the file, it sometimes takes several seconds to start playing the audio after you click on the play button. To download the file to your computer, simply click where it says "download" at the bottom right hand corner of each audio file. Hope you enjoy this series!
David Cwir - What is the Kingdom of God?
Everything about Jesus’ teaching and ministry has to do with the Kingdom of God. He speaks about it in every kind of saying (parables, admonitions, apocalyptic, beatitudes), and whenever the gospel writers summarize the ministry of Jesus they do so in terms of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 4:23; Luke 4:43). Yet the Kingdom of God is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the teachings of Jesus. If we are to “seek first His Kingdom” (Matthew 6:33) then it is essential that we understand what His Kingdom is. If you would like to hear more about the Kingdom, you can download David's message at the following link:
David Cwir - The Time of God’s Rule is at hand
Understanding the Kingdom of God is absolutely crucial for understanding the teaching and ministry of Jesus (Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 4:23; Luke 4:43). Since that is true, it becomes imperative for us to understand what the Kingdom of God means. Scripture tells us that Kingdom of God is in some way related to Jewish end time expectations and must be understood in terms of Jewish Messianic hopes. In this week’s message, David talks about the end time expectations that had arisen in Judaism before the time of John the Baptist and Jesus to provide a framework into which the New Testament concept of the Kingdom of God fits in. If you would like to learn more about the Kingdom of God, you can download this week’s sermon at the following link:
David Cwir - Where the King is, The Kingdom is
All of the gospels highlight Jesus’ baptism at the river as the absolute turning point in Jesus life. It is in that great event that we are told that there was the coming of the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven. The voice from Heaven declared Jesus’ messianic destiny and reaffirmed for Him who He was and what He was about. The descent of the Spirit at His baptism marked Jesus off for His Messianic destiny and equipped Him for His Messianic task. What happened that day is the key to understanding Jesus' ministry, including His own radical message of the Kingdom of God. If you would like to hear more about how this day in the life of Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God, you can download David's message at the following link:
David Cwir - Reconciling the Present and Future Reality of the Kingdom of God
What is the Kingdom of God? All the scriptures on fulfillment (e.g., Mark 1:15) suggest that for Jesus Himself, the Kingdom of God was a present reality in His own ministry. The problem is that Jesus speaks of the Kingdom in two different ways: On the one hand, Jesus speaks of the Kingdom as a future event, but on the other hand, He also speaks of the Kingdom as a present reality. How can something be both present and future at the same time? Trying to reconcile this is absolutely essential to our understanding Jesus and the whole New Testament! In this week’s message, David addresses this “already/not yet” paradox by going over some of the crucial teachings of Jesus. You can download it at the following link:
David Cwir - How is The Kingdom of God a Present Reality?
All the scriptures on fulfilment suggest that for Jesus Himself, the Kingdom of God was a present reality in His own ministry. “The time is fulfilled” and everything that Jesus is, and did, and said was a proclamation that Jewish Messianic hopes and expectations are coming to realization in His ministry. In this week’s teaching, David teaches about how the future Kingdom is present with Jesus through the blessings of the future that have already come present and through Jesus’ engagement in the Holy War with satan. If you would like to hear more about how the Kingdom of God is a present reality, you can download this week’s message at the following link:
David Cwir - The Kingdom Is Here (Yet Not Yet)
Part of the difficulty people have in embracing the whole counsel of God is that there is often paradox in scripture. One such paradox is that the Kingdom of God is both a present reality AND a future event. The question then becomes, “how can something be both present and future at the same time?” Trying to reconcile this is absolutely essential to our understanding Jesus and the whole New Testament! In this week’s message David addresses how to reconcile that the Kingdom of God is both present and future by looking at what Jesus calls “The Mystery of the Kingdom.” If you would like to hear more, you can download David's message “The Kingdom Is Here (Yet Not Yet)” at the following link:
David Cwir - Back To The Future In The Present
The future has already entered the present age. God has already triumphed; He has already secured our life, and what He is asking us to do now is to live the life of the future in the present. In other words, God’s people are determined not by their present realities but by the coming kingdom, and we are to live the values, the life of the future now (already, but not yet). In this week’s message, David discusses the already/not yet realities of the Kingdom of God and teaches on the parables that served as primary vehicles for confronting people with the Kingdom of God. If you would like to hear more, you can download this week’s message "Back to the Future in the Present" at the following link:
David Cwir - Living Life in the Radical Middle (Between the Ages)
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit, God Himself had set the future in motion, so that everything in the “present” is determined by the appearance of “the future.” We live between the times: Already the future has begun, not yet has it been consummated. As result, we are supposed to live in the radical middle; our lives being so absolutely marked by the realities of the future that we live it in a new kind of way. If you would like to hear more about how we are called to be living the life of the future now in the present age, you can download David's message “Living Life in The Radical Middle (Between the Ages)” at the following link:
David Cwir - The Presence of the Future
The resurrection of Christ and gift of the Spirit marked the beginning of the End—the turning of the ages—and we are called to be living the life of the future now in the present age. The Spirit is the clear evidence that the future “Age of the Spirit” has dawned, and by the Spirit’s presence, believers taste of the life to come so that everything we are and do is the life of the future lived out now in the present. We are citizens of another world and we live in this present world as a colony of heaven by the power of the Spirit. If you would like to hear more about our present future existence, you can download David’s message “The Presence of the Future” at the following link:
David Cwir - The Life of the Age to Come
The Kingdom of God—the life of the future—is made available now through Christ and the Spirit, but is to be fully realized at the Return of Christ. We must be born again of the Spirit to see and enter the Kingdom of God and experience Eternal Life in the present. Although we live between the ages, believers have already been given the life of the coming age. We are stamped by eternity because our lives have been marked forever by eternal realities and we live them out now as we await the final end. Check out this week’s message if you would like to hear more about the significance and meaning of “Eternal Life”
David Cwir - The Age of the Kingdom has Dawned
The Kingdom of God is here! Jesus’ coming set the future in motion, the Coming Age has dawned, and we await the consummation in His Second Coming. In His earthly ministry, Jesus was all about bringing the future realities of the Kingdom into the present. As His disciples, we are to follow His footsteps by living the values and the life of the future now. In other words, God’s people are determined not by their present realities but by the coming kingdom: we are to live the life of the future in the present. If you would like to hear more about Jesus’ primary message—the Kingdom of God—and how we are to live in light of it, then you can check out this week’s sermon at the following link:
