Freedom is Good News Part 199

Good news is the overall theme of these articles.  Lately we have been considering the topic ‘The Kingdom of God’.  We know that as Jesus began His ministry, His first words were, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  Shortly thereafter Matthew writes that Jesus went around preaching ‘the good news of the kingdom’. 

One of the things that I know to be true is that we all need good news from time to time.  Good news can be hard to find in our secular lives.

What would it be worth to be a part of this kingdom of good news?  Here is what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul, before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, had a lot going for him in his life as a Jewish religious leader, but he now considered them to be rubbish!!  More than anything else, He wanted to know Jesus Christ.  More than anything else, He wanted to be a part of the Kingdom of God!  You see, Paul had a taste of that kingdom, when he spent time, at the beginning of his ministry, being taught by Jesus Himself through revelation at Mount Sinai.  He later tells us (through a letter to the Corinthians), “I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.  I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.  And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” (2 Corinthians. 12:1-4)

This was Paul’s way of expressing the awesome vision he had while in the third heaven – the realm of God’s throne room.  But he was not permitted to tell us what he experienced.

Paul was an eyewitness to the presence of the resurrected Messiah.  His word has come down to us through almost two thousand years.  That in itself is an amazing feat.  And yet there are some who do not believe; or who take these things lightly.

What would it be worth to you to be a part of this kingdom of good news?  For me, like Paul, it is worth everything I have in this life, and it costs me nothing.  The salvation that was purchased for us by the blood of our Savior is free; the glory we receive is priceless.

This third ingredient of God’s Kingdom of good news is made up of His subjects; what an awesome gift to be able to serve the King of kings.