The Key to the Kingdom: Your not gonna like this one.

Jesus sent out the 12 with all power. They did the "stuff". Then he set out the 72, they did the "stuff", Kingdom stuff. Luke 10. And they came back to report, to touch base, to reconnect to the source?

Luke 10- ¹⁸He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

We have been given all power to overcome the enemy.
The 72 were given all power to overcome the enemy, but questions where asked. What must we do? What is the work? John 6:25  He said that you had to eat his flesh, the 72 dance around that, kinda weird. Then he said, Ya got to drink my blood; he played the religious card. This was a "hard teaching" because eat flesh is ok, but drinking blood, any type of blood is not Kosher! The 72 could not do it, even though they had "heard" the word, seen the miracles from Jesus and even performed them or participated in Jesus's ministry themselves. They could not break with religion...  "I can't swallow that. I want to be "good" I want a better Life,  I want to turn from my wicked ways, I want to follow truth, but I just can't get this down, It's a hard teaching.

To drink the blood is a big deal. The blood is the life force. All cultures view blood the same way, our tradition (Jew/Christian) call for a "blood" sacrifice. Other cultures.....____________

Since we have started the series on the Kingdom Pastor, Jeffrey, Meko, Niran and myself have all danced around one major element, one very important issue, the key to the Kingdom: Repentance, "Repent, for the Kingdom of is Near", the Kingdom is conditional. It is the key to having the Kingdom in you! Repent means to turn and go the other way. Some of you are in this place because you have messed  up your life, and you're only hope is to turn around. John the Baptist whole ministry, His message was one of repentance (thats why he didn't want to baptize Jesus, because Jesus didn't need to repent of anything. John message was repentance to to make a way for a miracle. Jesus's ministry, His message was the Kingdom. You can turn from your wicked ways, the opposite of which is morality; Morality is not Jesus. You can turn from your your life of abuse; the opposite of which is righteousness (or justice), righteousness in not Jesus. You have been serving the devil, you need to head in the other direction so you head towards god (notice a small "g"). God is not God with out Jesus. Coming to terms with Jesus means we come to terms with his blood and drink it. His life force is in us, he is lord over our kingdom! You can repent towards morality, righteousness, justice, legalism, but you can't get that confuse with repenting towards Jesus and His blood. The Gate is narrow folks. Even his closest followers could not get through it because religion got  in the way, so don't feel bad.

Now here is the Kingdom side of things, the Kingdom is the reign and rule of Jesus here and now, it is God's supernatural power and presence lived out in everyday life. It's the Holy Spirit  breaking into your mundane humdrum life, it's Gods living active WORD being sown into your heart, it's God expressing himself. The Kingdom of this world, Satan and his forces are out to stop this and undo YOU. The enemy of God wants to kill steal and destroy, we give him power to do so...............We sin and say, "oops... sorry God" my bad. We fall into sexual morality and say, sorry God, but  you know how I am. "Oops I just crapped by pants again, you know me"  "We are a children of God who has fell asleep on this and has compromised; We've let our kids have their boyfriends and girlfriend spend the night and we've been "ok" with it, we have let the enemy into our own house through the portal of our TV's and computers, we let or rent satanic horror movies and watch porn ourselves. Blaa blaa blaa. And we wonder why we are not functioning in our gifts and that the Kingdom of God is not being fleshed out, why God is not there, why he is not expressing himself.

Jesus, in the Gospel of Mathew rebukes Bathesdia, because he gave his message and performed miracles, yet they did not believe and would not repent (Mathew 11:20). In the Gospel of Mark (8:22) he is begin led through Bathesdia and people want him to heal a blind man. Jesus leads the man out of the city and heals him on the other side of the city limits... Jesus can (is able), but will not do miracles in your life if you do not repent. But if you repent, you have to repent in the right direction, can you get it down?

The first word out of Jesus's mouth in his ministry is "REPENT, for the Kingdom of God is near"Are you repenting because you've screwed  your life up and you want it to get better, or are you repenting because you have offended a Holy God. Sackcloth and ashes verses, "ooops , my bad". Repentance is only the key to the Kingdom. If you can get  yourself to the point where you can swallow that blood then "you can do all things, because it is Christ in you".



^{Luke 23}Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)
 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.




John 6:25  Jesus the Bread of Life