Kingdom Activity Jesus Kingdom Activity Throughout Christ\'s

Kingdom Activity

Jesus Kingdom Activity

Throughout Christ's ministry on Earth He was engaged in promoting the kingdom from which He came. Many passages can be used to demonstrate this, but there are those which seem to tell the story better than other. Often, these will be marked by Christ himself as having something to do with His home in heaven. At other times, these activities demonstrated a principle that he had taught to the multitudes and wished to enforce with a personal action. In all of His ministry he taught the people first to fill their human needs, then to fulfill their obligations to the kingdom, and finally He demonstrated the character of the kingdom.

The greatest need of any human is that of salvation, but people did not follow Jesus just because they knew He spoke the truth. Many did, but most also wanted to be a part of the great movement that was taking place. Charles Stanley (2011) says that "They came for all sorts of reasons-some noble, some selfish." The same, Stanley says, can be said of people today, and it can. But, no matter why the people followed Jesus saw a need and filled it. This is illustrated beautifully in John 6:9-11. The passage relates;

9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Christ was able to look at the people, see their hunger, which he, as a man, felt, and He sought to deliver them from that need. The feeding of the 5000 is one of the most famous miracles in the Bible, but besides the amazing fact of the miracle it shows another aspect of Christ; He taught through example as well as word. This reason for accomplishing this deed was echoed by something he said in Matthew 25:35,36;

35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

The people were hungry, so Christ fed them. he demonstrated both the compassion of the Father, and the lesson that they should notice the suffering of their fellow humans and address them. This also demonstrates to Christians how they are to demonstrate the love of the Father when someone "hungers and thirsts after righteousness" (Matthew 5: 6).

Once a person accepted who they were in relation to the kingdom, they were then to demonstrate the change to the world. Christ tried to make the disciples and the crowds aware how they were to conduct themselves as His followers. He was given this opportunity while observing a widow in the temple one morning.

42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. (Mark 12: 42-44.)

The widow did not think of her poverty, she thought of her need to obey Him. She could not tithe much, but she did because the temple was the house of God. In another passage Christ shows where this woman and others like her will be in the kingdom of God when He says "30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Matthew 19:30). The inconsequential acts of widows and orphans are trumpeted by God in heaven.

After a person accepts the kingdom as reality and shares its fruits, and they are obedient to God in their humility, He has one more lesson to teach. God is supreme, and His Son showed the disciples that with His actions on Earth. During one lesson, in which Jesus restores the sight of a blind man, they have a conversation.