Forest Brook Community Church

Jim Chen - June 10th

REmake: June preaching series   “Jesus is coming soon!” said the sign on Facebook. That’s actually been the cry of Christians for over 2,000 years now. You really can’t blame folks for thinking sometimes that we Christians don’t really understand what that word actually means. To be sure, Christians have always lived with a sense of Jesus immanent return. It’s like we were meant to. From the earliest days of the church (after Easter) the disciples wondered aloud, “Will you now restore the Kingdom?”. Jesus’ answer then is the same as today, “It’s not for you to know the times or dates set by the Father … you just get on with being my witnesses” (Acts 1:6-8).   Christian scholars have made sense of this conundrum of the Kingdom using the term, “already, but not yet”. It means that the Kingdom of heaven is indeed here on earth, and has been since the time of Jesus, but that it is not yet present in its fullness. Not all of the earth and creation has been restored to the Father yet. That work is on-going. The

Matthew 10:5-8                    -  Carl Nash Jesus sent out his disciples with both the authority and the ability to do some amazing things for people. As they went about healing, restoring, raising and freeing, they shared with people the source and implications of all these goodworks – Jesus, and the restoring presence of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Listen as Kevin Armstrong launches our new preaching series "Restore". Jesus the Stronger Man:Matthew 12:22-29           The religious leaders accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of thedevil, but Jesus pointed out that a divided kingdom cannot stand. So if he wasn’t setting people free by the powers of darkness – whose power was he using?  Jesus said that His authority was proof that the kingdom of heaven had come to earth.

Jesus had a reputation for many things, one of which was teaching with parables. A parable is like a good joke – you shouldn’t have to explain it for someone to get it. But Jesus’ parables didn’t make everyone laugh. For some, they amounted to a pointed warning and even a rebuke. Among the 65 parables found in the gospels are some specifically given to help reveal the nature of the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus began them by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” These parables teach us essential truths about the kingdom. In this series we’ll look at several of these parables to see what we can learn. But wait – when Jesus finished these parables he asked his disciples if they understood what he was saying. Understanding doesn’t mean getting the point – it means being exercised by it. May these pointed stories of the kingdom change our hearts and our lives as we hear them!

Hear our Easter Sunday Sermon by Kevin Armstrong!