The King and His Kingdom with Sam Emadi
Today’s episode is with Sam Emadi about a theme in Biblical theology that you may think you know a lot about: the kingdom of God. Sam gives us a masterclass in both the theological and practical ways we see God’s kingdom in his Word and here on earth, and this is such an amazing conversation. We hope this episode moved your heart to praise our King Jesus and to desire to tell everyone you know about him and his kingdom.
Time Stamps from the Conversation
4:00 Defining the Kingdom
7:15 Tracing the Kingdom
11:30 Kingdom Fulfilled in Christ
19:00 David in God’s Kingdom
26:00 Jesus in God’s Kingdom
30:00 Living in the Kingdom
35:00 The Church in the Kingdom
40:30 The Hope of the Kingdom
NOTES & QUOTES
“The kingdom of God is anywhere where God’s reign is present—not just his general sovereign omnipotent reign, but his redemptive visible government reign.”
“Graeme Goldsworthy describes God's kingdom as ‘God's people in God's place under God’s rule.’”
“We see those important promises that are given to Abraham—land, seed, and blessing. Consider what it is that we lost in the Fall. We lost land (the dwelling place of God), and then there's the curse on the seed (God's going to multiply pain and childbearing), and then we're under God's curse and no longer under his blessing. So the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 are a direct response to the curses of Genesis 3. Through Abraham, this is how God is going to reestablish his kingdom on earth. Think about those elements again—land, seed, blessing. How are we defining the kingdom of God? God's people (seed) in God's place (land) under God's rule (blessing). So there it is right there in the promises given to Abraham.”
“[At the cross] is where we see the nature of what the kingdom of God looks like. It is a suffering king who dies for his people.”
“We need to remember that the Christian life is not trying to become something that we're not. The Christian life is being who God has already made us in his Son. We're not striving to become this and become that by our own power or to make ourselves into something that we are not. No, no, no, the Lord Jesus through his spirit has already made us new. He's already brought us into his kingdom. We are already new creations in Christ. And we live the Christian life by responding to that, by trusting Jesus, not setting up a bunch of to-do lists.”
“The way we follow the Lord is by trusting him. That trust is the only thing that can shape the human heart. That trust is the only thing that can rewire all of the motivation structures in our life.”
“Christianity is not about what we do for God; it's about what he's done for us. And if that's true, then the Christian life is a constant response to God's grace. It is a constant turning from our own strength and our own ambitions. And it is reminding ourselves of what God has done for us, what he is doing for us, what he promises to do for us, and then living in light of those promises.”
“Our faith is cultivated in the context of his people. Our faith is cultivated in the context of the church. And this brings us back to kingdom. So now, if Christ is the king and we have become subjects and servants of the king, well, what is a kingdom? A kingdom is God's people in God's place under his rule and blessing.”
“When the church gathers, that's the geography of the kingdom of God showing up on planet Earth. The geography of the kingdom shows up and the citizens of the kingdom inhabit that geography. And what do we do? Well, hopefully what we're not doing is just looking at each other saying, ‘hey, everybody do better.’ What we're doing when we gather is we're rehearsing through our songs, through our prayers, through the preaching, what it is that the King has accomplished. And then we're cultivating in ourselves and each other faith in what King Jesus has done so that when we turn to the commands of Scripture, when we turn to how it is that we are supposed to follow Jesus, we actually have power to do that because we are reminded constantly that we can do these things by trusting in Jesus and by relying on him and from the fact that he's given us the Spirit and not from our own efforts.”
“When we sit under the preaching of the gospel, in the context of our local church, what's happening? The king is addressing his people. These are the edicts of the king that are going forth and his Word is raining over the people of the kingdom. This is a glorious picture of what happens on Sunday morning. We are not gathering as consumers. We certainly shouldn't be gathering as critics. We're gathering as citizens of a kingdom to hear the declarations of the king, to hear what the king has done for us, and then to fulfill our responsibilities as citizens of that kingdom to one another.”
1 Samuel 16 & 17
Psalm 72:8
Psalm 110
Hosea 11:1
Matthew 28
Colossians 1:15
Colossians 3:10
Galatians 2:20
Ephesians 2:17
Revelation 5
Matthew 6
Genesis 1-3
Genesis 3:15
Genesis 5
Genesis 11
Genesis 12
2 Samuel 7
Genesis 17
Genesis 22
Genesis 35
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What part of this episode did you find most interesting? Were there passages of Scripture that Sam helped you understand differently? Perhaps read those passages more deeply this week.
What sticks out to you when you think about how Jesus spoke about his “upside-down” kingdom?
How does thinking about sharing in Christ’s rule change how you go about your daily life?
How did listening to this episode grow your affection for God’s Word?
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
RECENT CONVERSATIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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