Loved the series. Check your email for the Word doc of the series.

Scot,
Would you be willing to share that word doc?

I have saved your notes into a MS Word document, with the key number as a header. It is nothing fancy and I did not preserve the exact Web formatting style. I wanted to collect your comments into one place, so I can review them as I go over Matthew again.
If you want, I can send them to you when you finish the series or I can send you what I have to date.
Let me know what you want and what email address to send the file to.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Paul J

Justin, and anyone else interested, send me an email at jimbaker2006@yahoo.com and I’ll send you the word doc; I too have them numbered like Scot did.

You know what, I should get Scot’s permission before I send out that word doc to those who request it, so I’ll wait to see his post first if that okay. Sorry, should have thought of that.

I agree that Jesus was likely referring to the kingdom after death, but, like many of the other references to kingdom, I can see a present element in this passage. Although the one thief did not have the benefit of living most all of his life with God, he got to spend a few hours hanging next to Jesus with the recognition that you describe and the comfort of the words of life spoken to him by Jesus. I can think of worse ways to spend hanging on a cross. This aspect of the kingdom apparently was missed by the other thief.

Keys of the Kingdom is now available in complete form on pdf if you scroll down my Sidebar to Stuff online.

Scot – you are quite the jet-setter!
Let me know which Word doc. will be used. I would like a copy of it also.
” . . . then clearly this kingdom reference refers to a post-death eternal reality.”
This passage has special meaning for me. I was able to share it with my dad, who was not a Christian, right before he died. After being diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, he quickly deteriorated in 3 months. Needless to say, he was ready to hear about God and eternity. This passage demonstrates God’s incredible love and acceptance of everyone, and the beautiful reality of an eternal kingdom. What a great passage in which to end this series.

Thanks Scot.

No synthesis? no summary? no wrap-up? no conclusion? no final word? no connection to Paul?
What is the answer? … as we are left hanging looking for guidance and definitive statement. What is the relationship of Kingdom of God(heaven) to the Church?
And most importantly, Professor, will we need to know it for the test?

RJS:
I think he is going to make us wait until the book.

MarkE,
Tee hee.

Thanks Scott, for this great series and thanks to all the thought provoking band of commentators.

MarkE gets a response – I probably just got a sigh of exasperation.
MarkE – I think you must be right.
More seriously though – I would love to see more on the relationship as promised in the series opener; and on the evidence in the Epistles, not just the Gospels. We have explored Kingdom in the synoptic Gospels, but not the relationship between Kingdom and present or post-resurrection reality (Church). The situation is like one dragged from the table after the soup – but before the entr?e arrives …

RJS,
Well, give me some time to think about it some.

Scot-
Thanks for this series. I have enjoyed the insights especially the now versus not yet aspects, kingdom as being a society, and how it relates to the person of Jesus. I felt the 70 A.D. comments were forced. I will definitely follow a series on the wrath, but would echo above comments calling for some overall conclusions.
Have fun and stay busy – Luke 19:13
-The Orange Mailman

Thanks for doing this series Scot. I’ve really appreciated your thoughts on the Kingdom.