Such Is the Kingdom

By Jimmy D. Davis

Have you thought about death and the concept of heaven lately? Have you wondered just what the Kingdom of Heaven really is or what the Kingdom of God really means? Would you like to discover the truth for yourself? Would you like to know what heaven is like? Would you like to know how you can actually be a part of the Kingdom of God? The author leads you in your discovery as he gives you this dynamic supplement to your in-depth understanding of the remarkable and astounding truth of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973621348

Jimmy D. Davis

Jimmy D Davis is a retired public school Superintendent and active Pastor and Teacher. He has earned both BS and MEd degrees from Texas State University, with advanced work at The University of Texas and West Texas A&M University. He also holds an earned Doctorate of Theology. He has served as a Bi-vocational Pastor and Minister for over 40 years and is the founder of Healing Gospel Ministries, and has authored and published four books. He and his wife Darlene have been married 51 years are the parents of 2 daughters and a son, and have 6 grandchildren and a great grandson.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Jimmy D. Davis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2135-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2134-8 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/22/2018

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Being in the Spirit

Chapter 2: Speaking in Parables

Chapter 3: The Kingdom

Chapter 4: The Old Testament Kingdom

Chapter 5: The New Testament Kingdom

Chapter 6: Mysteries of God

Chapter 7: The Kingdom is At Hand

Chapter 8: Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven

Chapter 9: Like a Little Child

Chapter 10: The Parable of the Sower

Chapter 11: The Parable of the Tares

Chapter 12: The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Chapter 13: The Parable of the Leaven

Chapter 14: The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

Chapter 15: The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

Chapter 16: The Parable of the Net

Chapter 17: The Parable of the Householder

Chapter 18: The Parable of the Laborers

Chapter 19: The Parables of the Two Sons, the Householder, and the Wedding Feast (Matthew 21:28 – 22:14)

TWENTY: The Kingdom of Heaven Summary

Dedication

I dedicate this work to my precious grandchildren: Kylen, Kamron, Kadi, Ty, Kyson, and Krista. My greatest prayer is that each of you will grow in God’s grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who said:

Encourage the children to come unto Me, and don’t hinder them, for of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

PREFACE

Have you ever wondered; just what is The Kingdom of Heaven? What is meant by Kingdom? Does Heaven really exist? Is there really a true Kingdom of God? What is The Kingdom of Heaven really like?

Some people don’t even believe in God, much less in a kingdom ruled by God. In fact, in our world today, a very large percentage of people either don’t believe in God, or go through life ignoring Him altogether.

Well, ignoring or rejecting God is to ignore or reject the Truth. In fact, regardless of what people choose to believe or make a priority in life, nothing whatsoever can change the real Truth. God is the One True God, and He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. God is the Almighty Ruler of His Kingdom, which is made up of His entire Creation. In other words, God is the Almighty Ruler of the entire universe, including our world and everything in it. That is the Truth, and denying or disagreeing with it won’t change it one bit.

In this writing, I am going to share God’s real Truth with you regarding His Kingdom: What it is, and what it’s like. In fact, as you consider this great Truth, you can discover the Kingdom of Heaven for yourself. You can become a personal part of the Kingdom of God. You see, The Kingdom of Heaven is much more than just a concept: It is a very real place. The Kingdom of God is much more than just a concept: It is a very real existence. And the real truth is: You can either be a part of it, or apart from it. It’s your choice.

INTRODUCTION

By far the greatest authority on the subject of The Kingdom of Heaven is the one person who came directly from there to be on this earth and live a life as a human being, while being fully Divine and Holy in His Nature. Of course, I’m speaking of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Who came from Heaven down to earth to dwell among us and to teach us Spiritual things. While teaching and preaching the good news of eternal life and salvation being available to anyone who just accepts it, Jesus taught about the specifics of The Kingdom.

For anyone willing to listen and learn, Jesus clarified just what Heaven really is, and what it is like. He spoke of heavenly, or spiritual things, which requires a spiritual nature just to understand it. Therefore, it is going to be critical to understand one extremely crucial point: YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!

What do I mean by that? Well, as we get into the Truth and profound wisdom of God’s Word, you will learn this one great secret of ETERNAL LIFE and THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!

You see, being born again means being born of the Spirit. In order to understand the things of the Spirit, you must be able to relate to things of the Spirit. In order to relate to God and His Spirit, you must be born again of the Spirit of God. As Jesus Christ Himself tells us in His Word: God is a Spirit, and anyone who wants to worship Him must worship Him in Spirit, and in Truth (John 4:24). I’ve heard about Quantum Physics but I really can’t relate to it, because I don’t have a mind for it and really can’t understand it, so I don’t even try.

So, in order to understand the Truth about the Kingdom of God and The Kingdom of Heaven, you must understand the things of the Spirit. In order to understand the things of the Spirit, you must have a Spirit. In order to have a Spirit, you must be born of the Spirit. That is what is meant by being BORN AGAIN. Once you have your Spirit, you will be able to fully understand the secrets of the Kingdom.

Much of what Jesus Christ teaches us about the Kingdom is presented in the format of parables. A parable is a story using real life examples and illustrations to relate Spiritual Truths. Christ was the true Master of using the parable in His teaching. He would give a true life example or relate a true life incident, and then use it to illustrate the Spiritual Truth of the Kingdom. Christ even declared that the reason He used parables was to present Spiritual Truth to those who were Spiritual and not worldly or of the flesh. The people of the world, who were not born again of the Spirit would then not understand the Spiritual Truth Christ presented. In fact, on one occasion, the Apostles who followed and learned from the Lord Jesus, asked Him why He taught in parables. Jesus told them that He spoke in parables so that those rejecting Him wouldn’t understand (Matt. 13:10-17).

Do you really want to understand about the Kingdom of God? Do you really want to understand the truths about the Kingdom of Heaven? It’s readily available to you: just listen, understand, and believe.

ONE

Being in the Spirit

Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. (John 3:7)

Perhaps the most important Truth ever shared with mankind came from these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate authority on salvation and eternal life. His words were very direct and specific: You must be born again! This great Truth comes to us directly from an encounter Christ had with a religious leader of the Jewish people named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was one of those religious people who really thought he was right, when he was actually far from it. Like his fellow Pharisees and pious religious colleagues, Nicodemus lived a religious lifestyle, but had a heart of unbelief and rejection of the Truth of God. He just didn’t understand the things of the Spirit. Why: Because he had no Spirit. He had never been born again of the Spirit; an absolute requirement for any individual desiring to have eternal life and an on-going relationship with Almighty God as Heavenly Father.

To look back for just a moment: When Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying Him in the Garden of Eden, their punishment was death. Their Spirit, that God had given them from the beginning, died. Later, they died physical death also, but the important matter to consider is that they suffered Spiritual death first. Then, every person born into this world following this Spiritual death is born without a Spirit. But the good news is that each and every one of us is able to regain that lost Spirit by being born again by way of our repentance of sin and faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our sacrifice and means of forgiveness.

This is what Jesus means when He tells us, along with Nicodemus: You must be born again. Well, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night so that his religious colleagues wouldn’t see him talking to Jesus. Remember that the Jewish people did not accept Jesus as being the promised Messiah sent from God to offer salvation and Spiritual life to the world. So, Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night and spoke to Him in order to get to know more about Him. Nicodemus said, We know you are a teacher from God; because no man can do the miracles you do, unless God is with him (John 3:2)

When Nicodemus spoke to Jesus, the Lord saw him for what he was, just as He sees every person for who and what we really are. There is no fooling God. So Jesus got right to the point. He knew Nicodemus was a false religious leader and had a heart of sin and hypocrisy. When Nicodemus said that he could tell Jesus was a man from God, Jesus said essentially that there was no way Nicodemus could even understand the things of God, much less know anything of the Spirit. Jesus said, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3), meaning that the person will not be able to see or understand it, and also, will not be able to see or be present in it.

Showing his true ignorance, Nicodemus said, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? (John 3:4) Jesus then goes on to explain this amazing Truth to Nicodemus, and to us.

Christ said, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again (John 3:5-7).

Jesus then continues to reveal great Spiritual Truth to anyone who is willing to listen and apply God’s Truth to their life. Christ says, The wind blows wherever it will, and you can hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Here is another great example of Christ using a real-life illustration to explain and reveal Spiritual Truth.

But, Nicodemus revealed his true lack of spiritual insight when he said, How can these things be? Nicodemus, like so many people today,