What does First B Jackson teach about kingdom of god?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on the kingdom of God keeps returning to one foundational point: the kingdom is not something a person earns or builds by effort. In the Monday night study on Luke 18, Pastor worked through what Jesus means when he says the kingdom must be received like a little child, and he described it as everything Christians and people are imperfectly striving for, Jesus himself, the fellowship of those being shaped by him, a kind of asylum for the soul, heaven, and eternity all together. The reason Jesus points to a child is not innocence. Children had no special status in New Testament society. The point is simpler: children have not yet had the chance to merit anything. If a child receives something, it can only be as a gift. The Pharisee in the parable just before that scene, standing in prayer and presenting God with a list of his own good deeds, and the rich ruler just after it, asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, show the two ditches on either side of that narrow path.
Pastor Mark, preaching from Luke 19:11-28 on the parable of the minas, pressed into what the kingdom looks like while the king is still away. Jesus told that parable because the crowd around him thought the kingdom of God was about to appear on the spot, right there on the road to Jerusalem. He had already told them the first would be last and the last first, and he had just called a despised tax collector down from a tree and offered him salvation. The parable reframes everything. The nobleman leaves, and the servants are told to put what they have been given to work until he returns. The one who buries his mina and hands it back unchanged loses even what he had. The kingdom, in other words, is not a status to be waited on passively but a reality to be lived out actively in the time between the ascension and the return.
Pastor James, teaching from Luke 17:20 through 18:8 not long after returning from delivering vehicles and supplies in Ukraine, brought out the urgency in Jesus' answer to the Pharisees who asked when the kingdom was coming. Jesus told them it would not arrive with observable signs, no astronomical lineup, no moment where someone could point and say there it is. The kingdom of God, he said, is already in their midst. Pastor James read that as Jesus saying plainly: I am right here. What each person does with Jesus is what determines everything. The second coming will be like lightning across the whole sky, sudden and unmistakable, and the warning has already been given. In the meantime, the parable of the persistent widow at the close of that passage calls his followers not to give up, but to keep bringing their prayers to a God who is far more willing to answer than any unjust judge.
Taught from Luke 19:11-28 · Luke 17:20 - 18:8 · Luke 18:15-17 · Luke 18:18-27 · Luke 18:10-14
The passage taught · 1 Peter 4
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin;
2 that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
3 For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
4 They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming:
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 15, 2023 Do Business With This Until I Come Back Luke 19 parable of the minas, set against the brutal history of the Herodian dynasty, calls us to faithfully use what God has given us until Christ returns.
- August 13, 2023 The Kingdom of God Is in Your Midst The pastor preaches on Luke 17-18, connecting a Ukraine mission trip to Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God, readiness, and persistent faith.
- December 1, 2015 Monday Nights @ First B (18) Jesus says no one enters the kingdom of God unless they receive it like a child. But what does that mean? Luke 18 shows us through the stories around it.
Mentioned along the way
- September 17, 2023 Suffer the Children to Come Pastor Ray walks through Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18 to show why Jesus welcomed children and what it means to receive God's kingdom like a child.
- April 23, 2023 Daughter of Abraham, Set Free A pastor wrestles with his own indignance while preaching on Luke 13, where Jesus heals a suffering woman on the Sabbath and the crowd rejoices.
- February 12, 2023 Hallowed Be Your Name A Wyoming pastor walks through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, exploring why motivation matters in giving, praying, and forgiving, and what it means to live under God's rule.
- December 6, 2022 Monday Night 12.5.22 The Parables of Jesus Jesus teaches four parables in Mark 4 about seeds, lamps, and growth, showing how God's kingdom spreads and what it means to truly listen and sow freely.
- February 15, 2022 My Kingdom Is Not of This World John 18-19: Jesus stands trial before Pilate, speaks of His kingdom, His mission to testify to truth, and where real authority comes from. A study in John.
- February 8, 2022 He Willingly Allowed Himself John 18 shows Jesus willingly betrayed, arrested, and denied, yet determined to finish the Father's work. His faithfulness to the cross is the ground of our faith.
- January 11, 2021 You Didn't Choose Me, I Chose You Jesus warns his followers that the world may hate them as it hated him, but the Holy Spirit walks with us as we bear lasting fruit and testify about Christ.
- March 31, 2019 Kingdom Work - Traditional Missionary Norris Williams shares how God is building disciple-making movements across the Middle East, Nigeria, and beyond through ordinary people willing to pray and obey.
- April 22, 2018 He Who Began This Good Work Will See It Through A worship leader fills in to preach on Luke 13, exploring how God's kingdom grows from a tiny seed into a tree with room for everyone in His family.
- April 22, 2018 A Tree That Cannot Be Cut Down Jesus heals a bent woman on the Sabbath, then describes God's kingdom as a mustard seed: small in its beginnings, growing until every person finds shelter in its branches.