Entering God's Kingdom in Humble Dependence

was a

success? What would make God say, that person, made their life matter.

That's actually what Jesus talks about in the passage that Brad just read for us.

Pick it up with me.

We're in Matthew's biography of Jesus.

And it's a bit like Jesus is conducting a restructure.

Have you been part of an organization that's been restructured? If you've ever been through that, you know that everyone's running around asking the same questions.

Where do I fit? Is there still a place for me? You know, who are the winners? Who are the losers? Which group am I in? You can imagine that at the level of your workplace.

But can you imagine that on the scale of the whole world? The whole world is changing.

And God has sent his son in charge to change the fabric of how the world relates to him.

He's conducting a restructure.

And those questions take on an entirely new intensity.

Jesus is bringing about this restructure.

His crew of disciples has been with him at this point in Matthew 18.

They've seen him perform miracles that no one else has performed.

They've seen him take on leaders that no one has taken on before.

They've heard him teaching about this restructure.

And the name that he gives to this restructure that he's working towards is the kingdom of heaven.

You see, Jesus' kingdom is radically different from any other kingdom.

We've heard about it in Matthew's Gospel so far, the kingdom is attractive, it's like a treasure, it's like a pearl, it's valuable.

We've heard that the kingdom is near, not far.

We've heard that it's hard to enter.

And so for this group of disciples, very natural questions arise.

In fact, they're the same questions that we ask in a restructure.

What does success look like in this context? Where do we fit? Who are the winners? Who are the losers? Follow along with me.