welcome to the conversation with dr. marks Rona my name is Olivia we are continuing an ongoing conversation that discusses topics and questions that millenials are facing regarding Christ the church and the culture this is an absolutely important conversation to have as a millennial so without further ado let's get started with the conversation [Music] [Music] so let's dive right in so something that I really have been wanting to ask is um you know depending on who you're listening to you're gonna get many perspective these days of what the kingdom of God is and I just kind of remember sitting throughout college you know going to chapel services and whatnot and a lot of what was being taught about the kingdom of God had a lot to do with your purpose in it and it kind of just felt to me that we were focusing so much on our individual purpose in the kingdom of God and I was thinking it must be bigger than that right bigger than my own role what's the grand scheme of things in the kingdom of God so you know I just kind of want you to share your own perspective and of course the biblical perspective of what the kingdom of God is and how should we walk and operate in it in today's age as a millennial or or just anyone who's living right now so the big picture of the kingdom of God if you were to ask a theologian what is the kingdom of God the generic answer from a theologians perspective would be the reign the realm and the rule of God so the reign the realm and the rule of God well that's a pretty expansive the reign of God well you know God reigns and the realm of God where is God's reigning well it's everywhere it's it's ubiquitous there's no place where God isn't king and then the rule of God is the government of God so oftentimes when we speak of the kingdom we want to think in terms of the way the biblical narrative talks to us about God and his governing of our lives and his governing of creation with us because we share with him in the governing of creation if we understand the primary narrative from Genesis one two and three it's a narrative that reveals that God has made us to be royal and to bear His image we know there was a fall and that all the work of redemption which begins with Abraham and the new community is designed to reveal to others what a community that is governed by God through Christ as it relates to the gospel looks like on the earth what God's original intention was what God's ultimate intention is so the kingdom is really the rain when at a personal level the rain the realm and the rule of God in our hearts and lives thy kingdom come Thy will be done in these earthen vessels as it is in heaven now the church is the ecclesia the God's political body the called out company the congregation the Assembly that God calls through Abraham out of darkness into his marvelous light Abraham as the father of faith so if we look at the community God began to create there there was a congregation and assembly in the wilderness under Moses so the term ecclesia that Jesus uses in Matthew 16 as it relates to the church it's also the word congregation but it doesn't appear all of a sudden in Matthew 16 so it has its roots in the Septuagint and in Moses the congregation under Moses so when we hear about Stephen making his defense when he's stoned about the church in the wilderness we're dealing with this body of people that are the visible expression to others of how God governs in the earth through a company of people that are to be a company of royal priests prophets and kings so if you got a kingdom you got to have a king so the question is who's the king well we know who the king is it's Jesus and then the question becomes what is that King require of those who are his subjects and that is the obedience of faith and so the church God's congregation God's Assembly God's political called out company that ecclesia is God's visible expression in the earth of the kingdom now the kingdom is bigger much bigger than the church but in the earthly arena the church is the visible expression of that kingdom and that kingdom if we want to make it really practical is all about relationship and relationships involve face to face they involve conversations and dialogues and engaging one another and admonishing one another and growing together under the lordship of Christ who is the king so that he is king by virtue of not only his work but by virtue of his essence who he is because we are being fashioned into His image and likeness and so he's not like any earthly king at all he's he didn't build his empire on shedding other people's blood he shed his blood as an act of prophetic awareness not only am i becoming sin I'm letting you know I'm gonna end violence in what I assume in my person to say this is not the way the father and I intended for earth to be so I want to raise up a company of men and women that are governed by my spirit so that they understand this is how life is done in the kingdom of heaven [Music] stay tuned for another segment of Christ the church and the Millennial on the conversation