SERIES SUMMARY
As Jesus steps onto the scene of history, Matthew paints a picture of him that invites our participation in what Jesus is doing. The portrait is that Jesus is the True King who is bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. This good news is not reserved for especially religious people in a distant future; it’s good news, right now, for ordinary people who come to Jesus in faith.
And while Jesus inaugurated the kingdom among us through teaching and serving in dozens of ways, he ultimately brought heaven to earth by embracing the cross as his throne and wearing thorns as his crown. In doing this, he broke the powers of the kingdom(s) of this world and opened up God’s new world through his resurrection. Now, because of these things, discipleship to Jesus is about praying and living “Your kingdom come, Your will be done.” It is about whole-life transformation and embodying kingdom realities. It is about becoming people who naturally live out what Jesus taught. Today, because of Matthew’s witness and Jesus’ ministry, the kingdom is coming in our own lives, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
PASSAGE GUIDE
Ultimately, Jesus brings heaven to earth by walking (on the two legs of grace and truth) to death, through death, and out the other side. This gospel of the kingdom offers forgiveness, secures hope, binds us together, gives us a mission, and models how to live as God’s kingdom people today. In the Kingdom Introduction (1:1–4:16), Matthew shows that heaven is not distant or merely future, but has drawn near in the person of Jesus the true King, Son of David, and Son of God. When Jesus announces, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17), he’s declaring that God’s reign is now present and accessible, even as we still live in the “already not-yet” tension of a kingdom truly arrived but not yet fully arrived.
In the Kingdom Inauguration (4:17–16:20), Matthew then shows what it looks like when that kingdom goes public. Jesus travels through towns and villages “teaching… proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction” (4:23; 9:35). Between those two bookends, he proclaims kingdom truth in his teaching (Matthew 5–7) and enacts kingdom grace in his healings and merciful actions (Matthew 8–9). He is bringing heaven to earth by walking through the world on two legs, grace and truth, declaring the kingdom’s arrival and acting it out toward others, and then inviting his disciples to join his kingdom mission by following in those same footsteps.
Finally, in the Kingdom Consummation (16:21–28:20), Jesus turns decisively toward Jerusalem and the cross, showing that the climax of his kingdom mission is not avoiding suffering but embracing it. The cross is not a tragic interruption; it is the throne of the King and the pinnacle of heaven coming to earth, where grace and truth meet in sacrificial, self-giving love. By walking on the two legs of grace and truth to death, through death, and out the other side in his resurrection, Jesus defeats sin, death, and hell and opens God’s new world in the midst of this old one. In this in-between time, we receive this gospel of the kingdom by faith and repentance, and we are sent to live as a kingdom people embodying his grace and truth, bound together in hope, and carrying out his mission as we pray and practice, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COMMUNITY GROUP QUESTIONS
Remember, these are “suggested” questions. You do not have to go through every single one of them. You do not need to listen to both sermons at both campuses to participate in the discussion.
OPENING PRAYER
Pray the Lord’s prayer from Matthew (Matthew 6:9-13).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What stood out to you from the message today?
- Do you find that you lean more towards grace or more towards truth? How do you then walk with grace and truth as Jesus did?
- How does Jesus’ announcement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” confront our common assumptions that heaven is only future, only spiritual, or basically inaccessible?
- Where in your life right now do you most feel the tension of the “already not-yet” kingdom places where you can see God at work, but also feel how unfinished things are?
- Where do you tend to lean more toward truth without grace (harshness, criticism, cold correctness) in your relationships?
- Where do you tend to lean more toward grace without truth (avoidance, people-pleasing, vague niceness)?
- The gospel of the kingdom “binds us together.” Where are you living independently, as if discipleship is just “me and Jesus,” and what is one step you could take toward deeper kingdom community?
- In what specific area of your life right now do you most need to receive Jesus’ grace (instead of striving, hiding, or self-condemning), and what would receiving it actually look like this week?
- In what ways does seeing the cross as the climax of Jesus’ kingdom mission (not a tragic interruption) reshape how you think about power, victory, and what it means for God to reign?
- If someone watched your life for a month, what would they learn about your functional view of the kingdom of heaven, distant and theoretical, or present and active? What one change would you want them to see?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CLOSING PRAYER
Pray the Lord’s prayer from Matthew (Matthew 6:9-13).