When you think of Heaven, what do you think of? A physical place in the sky? When we think of Heaven, we tend to think of it as a place we go to when we die. I’d like to propose to you that Heaven is also a spiritual dimension that you can experience here, right here, today AND in the future. I’d like to tell you about the Kingdom of God. But first, we’ll go on a journey to one of my favorite prophets in the Bible. His name is Daniel. Remember Daniel in the lion’s den? That Daniel. He saw an amazing vision, the same vision that the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, and I’d like to use his vision/dream as a setup for this teaching on the Kingdom of God.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

Daniel 2:31-45 (ESV) “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 

As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel’s Interpretation

 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all–you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.

And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. As you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.  And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.  

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,  just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

The Result

We know from history that the Babylonian empire fell to the Medes & Persians. Then Alexander the Great and the Greeks took over, and then the Romans. Isn’t it amazing how God used prophecy from a dream to show what would take place in the future? Jesus showed up during the rule of the Romans, and He declared another Kingdom had come.

Spiritual Precedes the Physical 

First, let me describe a principle that you’ve experienced every day of your life.  I want to call it out to make a point. The spiritual precedes the physical. For this example, I’m calling our thoughts as spiritual things, like love or friendship or peace or comfort. These things are hard to measure, but you can see physical evidence of these things.

So our thoughts are spiritual things. When we think about, for example, a Dairy Queen Reese’s Blizzard, when we crave it and think about how cold and sweet and yummy it is, a physical response happens in our bodies. Our mouths start to water, and our resolve is set. At the next opportunity, we’ll get our families in the car, run through the drive-thru, and order a Blizzard! Wow, look at that. The thing that we thought up in our heads became a physical action leading to a physical fulfillment of that thought.

This principle is used in a grand scale inside the heads of those entrepreneurs and dreamers, who have a dream about a technology or product that can enhance our lives. And they start companies and gather teams together to make the thought become a reality. God used this same principle when He thought up the world, then spoke it into existence at Creation. 

Jesus Fulfilled the Prophecy

So when Jesus showed up during Roman rule, He was that giant stone cut from the mountain, striking the statue of governmental rule of the empires. He came to show us a new and different way, and He came to show us a different kind of Kingdom. It was a spiritual Kingdom that He introduced.

Now, when Jesus showed up on this earth, one of His first messages was this, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 (ESV). Now, if something is “at hand,” that means it is close to you. If I stretch out my hand as far as it can go, it’s only about 25 inches from me (at least that’s the average human arm length according to an internet search). And we know from this past year that anything within 6 ft is considered “close.” So the Kingdom of Heaven is not socially distancing. It’s in your space; it is near; it’s at hand. Do you believe it?

The religious leaders of the day were wondering about this very thing, likely thinking about the prophecy in Daniel, hoping that the Messiah would come and conquer Rome, and they asked when the Kingdom of God would come. We learn in Luke 17:20-21 (ESV) Jesus’ answer, “The Kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (or within you or within your grasp.)

The Spiritual Realm

Now, you may be wondering, “If I can’t observe the Kingdom of God, if I can’t scientifically test it, with a hypothesis, an experiment, and get a result, how do I know it’s there? How can I be certain it even exists?” Well, let me tell you, there is a realm called the spiritual realm. It’s real. It exists, and I personally believe that scientists have proven its existence, calling it the “quantum realm.” Now, we could go into quantum mechanics and start talking about quantum entanglement and electron states, but I’d rather go to the words of Jesus, because those words are spirit and life.

So here’s the question, “How do we see the Kingdom of God?” Do you remember one of the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16? I’m sure you’ve seen the signs being held up at football games or other sports events with “John 3:16” written on them. 

John 3:16 (NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Ok, so we remember John 3:16, good! Do you remember who Jesus was talking to when He uttered these famous words? Yes, it was Nicodemus. This man Nicodemus was high up in the religious system. Also, just a plug for a fantastic TV series called, “The Chosen.” You can find it on YouTube or the The Chosen app. They did a wonderful job portraying the scene of John chapter 3 in that series (season 1 episode 4). Anyway, in John chapter 3, Jesus explains to Nicodemus about the Kingdom. Want to know what Jesus tells him? Let’s read:

You Must Be Born Again

John 3:2-8 (ESV) This man (Nicodemus) came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, 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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (words in parentheses mine)

The Answer to the Question

So, did you catch the answer to the question? Do you remember what the question was? “How do we see the Kingdom of God?” Jesus answered this question for us, saying, “Unless one is born again, he or she cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Or, perhaps we can rephrase it like this in the positive sense, “A person must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God.” 

As an aside, those of us who have kids do this all the time, “Unless you eat your vegetables, you cannot get dessert later.” Or, to rephrase, “You must eat your vegetables to get dessert later.”

So it is with Jesus’ statement, “A person must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God.” Are you tracking with me? There are two big things in this statement: 1. this idea of being born again, and 2. seeing the Kingdom of God. I’m going to cover number 2 first and and number 1 second. 

Seeing the Kingdom

So, Number 2 first, seeing the Kingdom. Seeing the Heavenly realm. How do you see Heaven around you? How do you see the Kingdom of God around you? Well, we learn from Romans 14:17 that the Kingdom consists of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Do you see evidence of righteousness around you? That’s the Kingdom. Do you sense the peace of God instead of anxiety and worry? That’s the Kingdom. Do you experience unspeakable joy from God, found in the Holy Spirit? That’s the Kingdom. 

Or do you see evidence of evil around you? That’s actually another kingdom, the dominion of darkness. Do you see anxiety, worry, depression, control, abuse around you? That’s the dominion of darkness, of evil. Do you feel guilt, shame, hear negative voices in your head or around you? That’s the kingdom of darkness and evil. 

Two Kingdoms

There are two kingdoms at war with each other in the spiritual realm. God’s kingdom is light; the devil’s kingdom is dark. When light comes, darkness goes away. When you flip on the lights in your house at night, it’s no longer dark. The dark doesn’t stick around and puts up a fight with the light bulb. It just goes away. It has no power except what we give it.

Now you may say to me, “Brett, I can’t see peace.” Are you sure? You know what a worried look on someone’s face looks like. You can take a half second glimpse of a person and sense whether or not they are at peace or whether they are worried about something. Therefore, you can sense what’s happening spiritually. You can sense the Kingdom of God because you can see the outward expression of that Kingdom. 

Can you See Joy and Righteousness

Can you see joy? Uh, yeah, even if someone has a mask over their beautiful smile, you can see the joy; you can see the smile in their eyes. Don’t you love looking at an old person, (I’m sorry, maybe I should use the term “seasoned”) a seasoned person’s face and see the crow’s nest, the lines around their eyes caused by decades of smiling? You can see how their joy, their smiling is permanently creased into their face. That’s the outward expression of the Kingdom. Joy is part of the Kingdom of God. By the way, did you know that God is the most joyful person that has ever existed? Have you thought about that before? Joy is found within the person of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit enters your life, you get the joy of Jesus. 

What about righteousness? Can you see the evidence of righteousness? When someone spends their hard-earned money on a gift to give to someone in need who can’t reciprocate that gift, that’s a work of righteousness. Or when someone selflessly lays down their life for another person, like our fine military does, that’s a work of righteousness.

You Must be Born Again

Speaking of which, there is someone who laid down His life for you, and that leads me to Number 1. We just talked about Number 2, seeing the Kingdom and the physical evidences of the Kingdom. Now we’ll talk about Number 1: being born again, because, as Jesus says, “You must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God.” So we must know what being born again means.

To understand what it means to be born again, you have to know a bit about how our beings are created. Since you are made in God’s image, and He is 3-in-1, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, so you are also 3-in-1, consisting of a body, a soul, and a spirit. The body is the physical expression of you, which you and everyone else can see. The soul is made up of your mind, your will, and your emotions – things which everyone else can’t see as well unless they get to know you and talk to you. The spirit is part of you, deep inside your soul or heart, that is dead until the Holy Spirit makes it alive again. 

Before the rebirth or born-again experience, people are walking around with a body or a soul in control. Their spirits are dead. And so their bodies or their souls rule over their lives. Let me give you some examples. 

Ruled by Your Soul: the Mind

Someone who is ruled by the part of the soul we call the mind will seek knowledge. The mind loves knowledge and wants more of it. Those ruled by the mind will likely get at least one degree in college, but most likely multiple degrees. These are typically scientists, intellectuals, and those that prize the gathering and collecting of more knowledge. Knowledge trumps everything in their world, and they’ll even logic their way into a proof that God doesn’t exist.

They don’t realize that this statement, “There is no God,” has deceived them. Why, you ask? Because out of all the knowledge that exists in the universe, of which we know very little, they say with certainty that they know absolutely that no God exists. It means that they themselves have all knowledge, knowing everything. Except in this statement, they have just declared themselves to be God, because only God knows everything (we call this omniscience). Therefore, this person doesn’t believe in their own existence. The Bible says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1). It’s foolishness.

Ruled by Your Soul: the Emotions

Ok, moving on to those who are ruled by the part of the soul we call the emotions.  These are the “if it feels good, do it” sort of people. They seek after pleasure at all costs. This pursuit of pleasure can even be to the detriment of their own bodies. Have you ever met someone addicted to drugs? Their pursuit of the next high from the drug comes at the cost of their physical health, their relationships, even their very life. An emotion-led person says, “Things that make me feel good are good; all else is evil.” Those ruled by emotions can do very evil things to other people in pursuit of their own pleasure.

Ruled by Your Soul: the Will

What about being ruled by the will? We actually really love these people in America. Those that pull themselves up by their own bootstraps are applauded. Those who are experts, who never stop, who continue to perform and get better and better – they have iron wills. They will something to happen, and they work their butts off to make it happen. Even to the deterioration of their own body, their families, their friends, they will keep going at it. These are led by the will, and nothing or no one can get in their way, even if they have to step on others to get their will done. These people impose their wills on others, using their past successes of accomplishing what they have willed as proof that they are themselves the ultimate standard.

Ruled by Your Body

We’ve covered those who are led by their souls, their mind, will, or emotions, and now we’ll look at those who are led by their bodies. These are people who will do anything to satisfy their craving. They might give their stomach anything it wants, every time it wants something. Even when satisfying the every want of their stomach leads to an unhealthy and overweight body, they will continue in it. 

Or those led by the body might consistently satisfy the sexual cravings. The mindset becomes, “I must get sex at all costs. I must look at pornography. I must have sexual experiences, those categorized as traditional and those that are not. Even if it hurts people around me, I must get sex.” And we see marriages torn apart, families disintegrated, even people who we thought were good and upright – we see them fall into sexual sins. 

We’ve All Sinned

Now listen, I don’t mention all of these things to try to make you feel guilty or put you down. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all done things we regret. We have all sinned. Some of us, me included, are just really good at intellectualizing it: “Oh I won’t let my emotions rule over me. Look at how mindful I am. I am intelligent and won’t be deceived by emotions.” Yet, I’ve been deceived by my own mind in the pursuit of knowledge. Or worse yet, my mind and body will team up together to get what they both want. We can all relate to one of these, being ruled by the body or the soul.

Being Saved

Now back to what Jesus says, “You must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God.” Being born again is a spiritual experience that happens when we confess we can’t save ourselves. However smart we are, however talented, however willful, however skilled – we can’t do the work of saving our own souls. But, here’s what you do. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord; you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and the Bible says you will be saved. “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10 (ESV). And guess what happens to your spirit? It comes alive! 

Do you remember someone else who rose from the dead, bodily? Yes, it’s Jesus. Well, He comes in and raises our spirits from the dead, giving us a brand new life. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17(ESV). 

It’s Your Choice

Now you and I, all of us, get a choice. We get to choose who rules over us. You and I get to choose which kingdom we want to be a part of. We get to choose if we want our souls or bodies to rule over us, leading us into the kingdom of darkness and evil, or we can let Jesus Christ come into our lives, revive our spirits, and rule over our lives as King. 

Jesus leads us into the kingdom of light, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom that He said was “at hand.” When Jesus rules over us, we experience His Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We experience a love so deep and so rich, many people have died for it. Other people, who have once been in it for themselves, steeped in sin, in darkness, have accepted Jesus in their lives, had their spirits reborn or born again, and then they have completely changed. I’m sure many of you have experienced this or know someone who has.

What is Your Choice

Now, some of you have made this decision as I’ve been talking. You’ve given your life to Jesus just now or you are ready to do that now. It’s the best decision of your life, and I’ll lead you in a prayer in just a minute. Another group of people are wondering, “What’s in it for me? I mean, if I give up control of my very own body, won’t I cease to be who I am?” And it’s a good question. Even Jesus said to “count the cost” of following Him.

But here’s the thing: when you give up your life to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you will find that you have gained real life, true life. Life will become richer, more meaningful; love will be deeper, emotions expressed correctly, a renewed mind to think differently. You will experience such love, such joy, such peace as you have never imagined. Let me just say from personal experience: it’s worth it! It is so worth it.

For those ready to be born again right now, why don’t you close your eyes and repeat this simple prayer after me. I’ll say a phrase, and you just repeat it if you mean it. Prayer is simply talking to God. Ok, let’s pray.

Prayer

Lord, You are the One True God. I believe Jesus is Lord of all and Lord of my life. I believe You raised Jesus from the dead after 3 days, and I believe that same resurrection power is available to cause the rebirth of my spirit. Jesus, come into my life and make me new again. I believe this with my whole heart. I believe you are saving my entire being: body, soul, and spirit. Holy Spirit, come into me and fill me up with love, joy, and peace. Help me to see the Kingdom of Heaven right here, right now. In the name of Jesus, Amen!