Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Guide B)

Intro

These are incredibly rich texts. This guide recommends taking a detour through salvation history to put them in their right context. This helps your congregation expand their understanding of the gospel and ends with a call to discipleship. This guide is deeply influenced by N. T. Wright’s work on the nature of the kingdom, though pretty holistically. I had difficulty pinpointing precisely which parts of his work most influenced this.

Context

What Is the Gospel of the Kingdom?

The context of these passages is critical because there is a term that Jesus and Matthew assume that we understand – but which we might well be puzzled by. What is the “Kingdom of Heaven”?

In…