Touré Roberts - Your Forgotten Inheritance

I want to talk tonight, and I guess the theme is your forgotten inheritance. This is a message, and it is a message about the kingdom of God. If we are to be honest, there is a lot of ambiguity around what the kingdom of God is. We think the kingdom of God—well, I’m saying I’m in the kingdom of God—and we think the kingdom of God is, you know, there are a lot of different interpretations. But what we are going to do today and over the next several weeks is unpack our understanding of what the kingdom of God is because it was the only message that Jesus preached. It was the only message; Jesus had one overarching message, and it was the kingdom of God. You know, believe me.

Okay, let’s go to Matthew 4, verse 23. This is when Jesus shows up on the scene, after he has been baptized and has been tempted and overcame that temptation. He comes out in the power of the Spirit, and the first thing he does, verse 23, Matthew 4, says, «And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases among the people.» All right, so maybe that’s where he preached, but maybe that’s not necessarily all he preached. Let’s go to Matthew 9, verse 35. It says, «Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every single glory.» There’s so much here already—every sickness and every disease among the people.

Let’s jump down to Mark 1. Maybe Matthew’s interpretation is only that—let’s see what Mark had to say about Jesus and the one message that he preached. Everything that he preached could be summed up in one message; we must understand that message. Mark 1, verses 14 and 15 says, «Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.’» We’ve got so much ground to cover.

Matthew 24, verse 14, I referenced it earlier. Jesus says, «And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.» Notice in Matthew 24:14, he doesn’t just say, «And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached.» What does he say? «This gospel.» Could it be that we are preaching a gospel but not the gospel—not because we are heretics, not because we are evil, but simply because we don’t understand? In fact, you may have seen—in Matthew 13, and we’ll get to it in the coming weeks—he basically says that when a person hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the enemy comes immediately and takes it away. This was the only message that Jesus Christ preached.

He’ll say, «I’m a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.» That’s wonderful! Do you know, first of all, what the gospel of Jesus Christ is? Because Jesus didn’t preach the gospel of Jesus Christ; he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Are you tracking with me? And it’s going to take this gospel to reach the ends of the earth—it’s this gospel that has an understanding.

So let’s talk about it. He said he preached the gospel; he preached one gospel, and it was the gospel of the kingdom. He had one message. First of all, let’s talk about the word «gospel.» What does the word «gospel» mean? It means good news. It does not mean bad news; it means good news. It is exciting! So imagine Jesus showing up on the scene; he was not sad; he was happy, he was excited, and he had a whole bunch of joy because he was carrying this good news—the gospel of the kingdom—and he was basically saying something is here. He spoke about the kingdom in such a way that he revealed that the kingdom had value.

Let’s look at something else. Y’all need to stay with the notes tonight for sure—foreshore notes—because we are going to understand it. Remember, if we don’t understand it, what’s going to happen? You came here tonight, and if you don’t gain understanding, you’re going to leave as if you didn’t come. Is anyone committed to getting an understanding tonight? With all that getting, I’m going to get an understanding. If this is the only thing Jesus preached, if this was his one message, I need to grasp this thing and get it again and again and again.

He also talked about how this kingdom that he was preaching had the utmost value. If you look at Matthew 13, verses 44 through 46, as Jesus teaches about the kingdom—and we’ll explore some of the other parables—this one speaks to the value of the kingdom. It says, «Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.» So, so, so…