Do you like Riddles?   

See if you can figure these out, no Google searching… 

  

I have cities, but no houses. 

I have mountains, but no trees. 

I have water, but no fish

What am I?    

I have keys, but no locks. 

I have space, but no rooms. 

You can enter, but you can’t go outside. 

What am I?   

What English word has three consecutive double letters?     

Did those make your brain hurt?   

Do you like thinking about things?  

The Old Testament is full of language of establishing the Kingdom of God.  Some of that prophecy was said 700 years before Jesus came to earth.    

Both John the Baptist and Jesus said the Kingdom of God is near.    

Isaiah 11:6-9           

The Message 6-9 The wolf will romp with the lamb,    the leopard sleep with the kid.Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,    and a little child will tend them.Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,    their calves and cubs grow up together,    and the lion eat straw like the ox.The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,    the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill    on my holy mountain.The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,    a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.

Matthew 3:1-3                  

New Revised Standard Version 3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:‘Prepare the way of the Lord,    make his paths straight.’”

Matthew 4:12-17             

New Revised Standard Version 12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—16 the people who sat in darkness    have seen a great light,and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death    light has dawned.”17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”   

The phrase “Kingdom of God” is used over 130 times in the Bible.    

What does it mean that the Kingdom of God is near?  The Old Testament provides some imagery of what that means and what it looks like.  I think we would all agree that the imagery we read about is not quite our reality in our daily lives.    

So what does it mean for us that the Kingdom of God is near.    

Let’s talk about it on Sunday.