BIG IDEA: Upgrading our perspective activates our faith.
Matthew’s gospel aims to expand our concept of heaven’s location and the blessed life. It upgrades our perspective from heaven as a “distant, after-death destination” to heaven as a “peaceful atmosphere pressing into the present, petitioning us to breathe in its blessed air and live by its laws.” It’s less a place to escape, and more an invading regime.
“Can you think of ways your far-off visions of heaven are producing a mostly passive faith?” Well, Jesus has wonderful news for everyone: God’s right-side-up kingdom has begun turning the tables on an upside-down world. Friends, this is a powerful gospel worth believing in! Just imagine how His kingdom could engulf earth and unseat the unjust ways of broken kingdoms if only we lived like it were true!
