CHAPTER 7
The Wisdom of Jesus
The topsy-turvy Kingdom
If the Blessings of the Kingdom-of-God are to flow from source out to the world, and the world kingdom is blocking that, then you bypass the system by starting at the bottom. Once there, it may block going upward, but it will have achieved its aim.
No need to find a single verse here, The Gospel is the story of working from bottom up. Born in Bethlehem and not Jerusalem, working from Galilee and not the Jerusalem Temple. Preaching outside insular synagogues, by the riverside, where the poor earned their living and foreign merchants passed by.219 Eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. You can find them on every page of the gospels. That is not how to start a world religion, let alone establish a World-Kingdom. It is a topsy-turvy kingdom, and it meets the first Kingdom-of-God objective principle, of blessing the whole, not the few.
Beware, This tactic has been seen by World-Kingdom powers, and they do not like it. It has assets they can use to their advantage. It means they do not have to feed the poor while Kingdom-of-God citizens do it for them. It means World-Kingdom politicians and leaders can trumpet it as their initiative, and claim self-righteousness with a selfie on a special two-minute stop-off. It means more wealth can be kept at the top of the triangle. It means World-Kingdoms will try to persuade Kingdoms-of-God to do the good works but not attribute the glory to the rightful king. But the ‘not yet’, will take care of that. The ‘not-yet’ will separate wheat from tares. Kingdom-of-God heart and motivation, Kingdom-of-God culture and joy, will be the fruit God is looking for within His Kingdom-of-Eternity, which, leads us on to another principle.
Communities not churches
Understanding the Kingdom-of-God starts in the garden of Eden. ‘Be fruitful and replenish the earth’, is not , ‘Have sex and reproduce all over the earth’, as many modern readings suppose, since Eros replaced love. ‘Bear fruit and fulfil your purpose throughout the world’, is the Hebrew intention. What was the purpose again? To be ambassadors for the Kingdom-of-Heaven on the earth and bless the earth to its ends.
How was that to be done again? Starting in families, and people-groups. Or in New-Testament terms, Homogeneous-groups in Jerusalem, Kingdom-of-God cultured groups into Judea, and Kingdom-of-God cultured groups beyond. That is bottom-up kingdom culture. World-Kingdom will get in on the act, but you will know them because of their top-down strategy. World-Kingdoms, reverse the order to dilute the purpose and take out the heart motivation. Paul fought hard against the Judaizers, not only because they wanted to devalue the work of Christ’s sacrifice, (by returning to a hierarchy structure of priests and sacrifices), but because they misunderstood the nature of this new movement called Church. Before he could be commissioned as the apostle to the gentiles, Paul had to recognize the nature of Church was to evolve, (away from a top-down structure with a common national culture), into a commonwealth of assemblies, as a body, having different local functions.220
Top down strategies never reach the parts of the world God wants to reach, because World-Kingdom motivation and structure prevents it. Kingdom-of-God Communities having one intrinsic heart, to Bless, are not hampered by such things. We can see that fruit manifest itself, in the collection response for the Jerusalem assembly when they were in need.221
World-Kingdom motivation, present in Babel, ‘We will make our selves a name’, is akin to take. God had to disperse them by language to divide the kingdom lest it should succeed. Kingdom-of-God motivation was recaptured by Abraham, when God told him to leave Ur and become a nomad. The question as to which motivation the Children-of Israel preferred, raised its head again in Israel when God said to Moses, ‘Now is the time for me to come down and dwell in the midst of the tribes to be accessible to all’222. But they cried, ‘No, we would rather keep the hierarchy, ‘You tell Moses, and we will do what he says’223. So Moses was forced to set a Top-Down hierarchy of seventy leaders. But, when people came to him complaining about prophesying in the camp, God was working his bottom up strategy among them. Moses understood it. Moses declared his heart:
Are you concerned what this might do to me? I wish the LORD would give his Spirit to all his people, so everyone could be a prophet. Then Moses and the seventy leaders went back to camp.224
They rejected the bottom-up strategy again when they wanted a king, preferring Saul to Samuel’s ministry of speaking to everyone. Now Samuel would have to spend all his time speaking to the king who would reinterpret it for the people. When they laid the foundations of Solomon’s temple, they put the foundations at the top. David’s heart was for a house for God, in the midst of the people. Solomon turned it into a hierarchy of priests and officials, rules and boundaries, ceremonies and rituals, an inward not outward looking organization. In the fullness of time, when its fruit was full-grown, God came down again, as he had done at Babel and scattered them into Synagogues, (small communities of clans), using Babylon as His instrument. Jesus came, not to preach from the new Roman Temple, but in Synagogues.
In seventyAD , Daniel’s, ‘abomination’, was the setting up of idols in the temple, but the ‘desolation’, was God’s act to reverse a top-down kingdom by destroying the Temple.225 Now synagogues would spring up wherever families and clans with more than ten Jewish men settled. While Paul fought hard and long against Judaizers on doctrinal grounds, God was holding at bay a top-down influence upon His Kingdom.
Constantine was the next to reverse God’s intentions, nationalizing Church, the organized it on a World-Kingdom model. The Roman church using Roman tactics of the Sword and Crusades to establish a top-down structure, destroyed Kingdom-of-God principles.
Every time, God had within those structures a remnant of ambassadors who would one day arise and see the collapse of the structures and the rise of the Kingdom-of-God within the World-Kingdoms.
Which leads on to another principle.
The Servant-King principle in the kingdom.
Have you learned yet, if you want to find Jesus, you will have to go where sinners and outcasts are? Solomon’s lover thought she could have Solomon all to herself, she lay in her room with her perfume, waiting for him to turn up. But he did not! I guess she thought he had gone off her or something. Then she was told, he is out in the fields with the servants, if you want to find him you will have to go where the harvest is.
It started in Cain and Abel. Abel had the servant drive, putting his heart and soul into keeping sheep. Cain had the selfish heart, he looked after 
the flowers and veg. Cain, (like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal), was in it for the inheritance, not the service. His heart sought recognition in the biggest and best vegetables. When the fruit was fully formed in the hearts of these two brothers, it revealed itself, not in the offering but the attitude. The religious, can’t handle a principle like that.
In the parable of the daily dollar, the master brought the last first and paid a days wages for one-hour’s work. The others expected more but got only the same. ‘You have made them equal to us’, was their complaint, that is what they could not handle! Who wants a King like that? That makes tax collectors and sinners equal to us.
A World-kingdom structure, puts distance between them and me. But it puts distance between the king and me also. Pharisee thinking had three group levels in their hierarchy, Holy, Common and Unclean. They thought themselves holy, they could tolerate the common at a distance, but a prophet that moved among the unclean cannot possibly be the Messiah. The upside down principle became the veil over their eyes.
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. 226
Standards of Piety
Pharisees could accept a statement like that because it meant. ‘You are ok, just try a little harder’. To everyone else in meant, ‘You don’t stand a chance’ in the Kingdom-of-God’. But it is not translated correctly. Except your righteousness goes beyond that of… It is the ‘righteousness’ that must go beyond theirs, not the piety of the Pharisee. The piety of the Pharisee consisted of alms giving once a week, prayer three times a day, and fasting once a week, not touching dead things, not eating certain meats, and keeping the commandments. So the pass bar was set here. Effectively saying, ‘I am righteous if I live within these boundary fences’, Jesus reverses the argument saying, ‘You have fenced everyone else out’227. Paul also confronts this:
Why then do you still submit to these things as if they are the smart thing to do. They outwardly appear to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don't really have any power over inner desires.228
To go beyond the pass mark means to go deeper in the character. The character does not look for pass marks, it looks for motivation. God pronounces righteousness in the character motivation not in the action. World-Kingdom, works on the sub-conscious learning, ‘I am higher in ranking, so I am better than you’. Everything gravitates to the top. The top sets the laws and lower levels obey. World-Kingdom values are based on, ‘If you do… Then you might’. Because it is a hierarchy, you have to climb. If you reach this standard then you can move up one rung. Pharisees, preferred this structure because they were at the top.
The Great Reversal
Kingdom-of-God principle reverses that. Everyone, enters from the bottom. Everyone must bow low to get through the gate. Everyone must be brought into the kingdom via a Kinsman-Redeemer, and he achieved it for you in the death and resurrection as Jesus Messiah. If, this reaches the heart, it changes the motivation. ‘Because I have… You are’. ‘The last shall be first and the first last’. ‘The least in the Kingdom-of-God is greater than…’
World-Kingdom choose piety to fence behaviour. A sheep farmer from Wales, once went for a holiday to New Zealand, the contrast was enormous. In Wales sheep were limited by paddocks and dry stone walls. In New Zealand, there are no walls or fences as far as the eye can see. He asked, ‘How do you keep the sheep from wandering off into the distance and getting lost’? ‘The water holes’, came the reply. The Kingdom-of-God principle is: water holes not fences. A Kingdom-of-God king supplies wells and the people stay close in gratitude. Now understand what Jesus was about when He says:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”229
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified230.
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”231
Jacob learned that principle. He would dig wells on a vast common and the sheep would not wander far, Then World-Kingdom tricks kicked in. His wages depended on keeping striped and plain sheep apart by fences. World-Kingdoms need fences to measure piety to reward. The Kingdom-of-God blesses with wells and the people are motivated not to wander out of gratitude.
To those that hang on to World-Kingdom lifestyle come the woes.
Woe to you: Chorazin, Bethesda; 232; Scribes and Pharisees;233 Rich in this world's goods; 234 exploiting Lawyers;235 False Witnesses.236
To those who would enter the Kingdom-of-God comes the Blessings: The beatitudes are a pronouncement of blessing upon people who enter the kingdom. To enter the kingdom you will be poor of spirit, you will inherit heaven. To enter the Kingdom you will become meek, but you will inherit the earth when all other kingdoms have been vanquished and wars are no more. To enter the kingdom you will have to receive mercy, which will change the hearts to show mercy. To enter the kingdom you will have purified hearts, which will let you see God. To enter the kingdom will mark you out for persecution, which will confirm your citizenship and reveal any chaff and straw in the heart. You are salt! You are light! These are pronouncements not requirements. It is the basis of the kind of ambassador we are going to be, as we respond to grace.
In the World-Kingdom, your acceptance is dependent on what you do. In the Kingdom-of-God, God pronounces acceptance, and our response is demonstrated in what we become. Faith accepts the pronouncement, our ethics respond in gratitude. The beatitudes start with the pronouncement. You are already blessed and you shall … .237. Knowing the blessing generates the desire to become like it. This is what we meant by living out gratitude.238 Kingdom-of-God methods are not confrontational but demonstrations of grace.
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 239
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. 240
Which leads us on to the question of Kingdom-of-God ethics and behaviour.
219 The main world trade route ‘By way of the Sea’ ran right through Galilee.
220 Romans 12: 10,; 1 Corinthians 12: ff; etc
221 Romans 15:26 Macedonia and Achaia ; Acts 13 Antioch, Galatians 2: 10 ; etc.
222 Exodus 25: 8
223 Exodus 20 : 19
224 Numbers 11:29
225 Mentioned in Daniel 9:27,11:31,12:11
226 Mat 5:20
227 Matthew 23: 13
228 Col 2:23
229 John 4: 14-15
230 John 7:38-39
231 John 4:14
232 Matthew 11: 21
233 Matthew 23: 13-25
234 Luke 6: 24
235 Luke 11: 46
236 Luke 22: 22
237 Matthew 5: ff
238 See Page 45 Motivation and Keeping the Law
239 Mat 4:23
240 Mat 9:35