October 18th, 2026
by Pastor Matt Vandeleest
by Pastor Matt Vandeleest
Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. History makes this plain. Every empire, every dynasty, every nation that has ever claimed dominion over people has eventually seen its authority erode, collapse, or be seized by another. Power expands and contracts. Thrones are won and lost. And the people caught beneath those shifting powers experience the consequences — sometimes to their great harm, sometimes to their great liberation.
Few images capture this reality more powerfully than the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For 28 years, that concrete barrier divided a city, separated families, and claimed the lives of those who dared to cross it in search of freedom. It stood as a monument to the authority of a regime that demanded total control. But on the night of November 9th, 1989, something remarkable happened. East German officials made a mistake and announced that the border crossing would be open. Within hours, thousands flooded the gates. People climbed atop that wall and celebrated. Then they began to chisel it apart, piece by piece, until it was gone.
No army brought that wall down. What brought it down was far simpler and far more profound: the authority behind it had already collapsed. When the authority was gone, all that remained was concrete — a relic of a power that no longer existed.
This is the nature of every earthly kingdom. Their authority is borrowed, temporary, and always subject to decay. But there is one kingdom that operates by an entirely different set of rules.
A Kingdom Built by Death
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the crowds who heard Jesus teach were astonished because he spoke as one who had genuine authority, unlike their religious leaders. Mark's Gospel records that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins and even to command the wind and waves to be still — and they obeyed. This was not the authority of a general or a politician. This was something altogether different.
And yet Jesus never raised an army. He never seized a throne by force. Standing before Pilate, the Roman official who would condemn him to crucifixion, Jesus declared plainly that his kingdom was not of this world. If it were, his servants would have been fighting (John 18:36).
Instead, Jesus established his kingdom the way no king in human history ever had — through his own death.
Hebrews 2:14-15 explains that Jesus took on flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the one who holds the power of death, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death had been held in lifelong slavery. Every other kingdom in history has its authority threatened when its king dies. When a ruler falls, the kingdom trembles. But Jesus won his kingdom through death. The cross was not the end. The cross was the beginning.
God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, far above all rule and authority, giving him as head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:21-22). And risen, Jesus declared to his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him (Matthew 28:18).
This is a king whose authority cannot collapse. There is no iron curtain behind his rule that will one day give way. He will never grow tired. He will never leave his throne. He will never be overthrown.
What the Kingdom Looks Like Now
It would be a mistake to assume that because Jesus reigns, the kingdom of God is fully visible in the world as it stands today. Hebrews 2:8-9 acknowledges this tension honestly — not everything is yet in subjection to him. Sin and death still run free. People still rebel. The world still resists.
But the kingdom is not absent. It is advancing, and its advance looks different from any earthly conquest.
We see the kingdom when sinners are rescued from darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). We see it when lives are made new, when people who once chased sin with their whole hearts find themselves transformed, loving what they once hated and turning from what once enslaved them. We see it when churches are planted in dark places, when small fires are lit in the middle of the night, drawing people toward the light of the gospel. Jesus himself promised this in Matthew 16:18 — he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Not "you will build it." He will build it.
The Church's Role Under the King
Understanding the nature of Christ's authority shapes everything about how the church is to operate. The church is not the kingdom, and the kingdom is not the church. The authority of the kingdom belongs to Christ alone — not to any pastor, denomination, institution, or government. The church does not possess that authority. It lives under it.
This means the church is best understood as a community of ambassadors. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that believers are ambassadors for Christ, with God making his appeal through them. An ambassador does not write the laws of the country he represents. He does not speak for himself. He carries the message of the king and delivers it faithfully.
This shapes the mission of the church in practical and non-negotiable ways.
The church makes disciples. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is not a suggestion. It is the command of the king to go into all nations, baptizing and teaching. No government, no employer, no institution has the authority to forbid this, because all authority flows from God and no authority given by God can be rightly used to silence God's message. When rulers demand silence, they exceed their authority. The response of the early apostles in Acts 5:29 was clear — we must obey God rather than men.
The church devotes itself to the Word, to fellowship, and to prayer, as Acts 2:42 describes the early believers doing. But these are not ends in themselves. They are the foundation beneath the outward mission. The moment Bible study and fellowship become disconnected from the spread of the gospel, the church has lost its focus.
The church preaches the Word. Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 — to preach the word in season and out of season — is not time-bound or culturally negotiable. Regardless of trends, regardless of what is considered acceptable, the gathered church opens the Word, explains it, and calls people to obey it.
Faithful, Not Flashy
The call upon the church is not to reinvent itself with every cultural shift or to soften the gospel until it offends no one. The call is faithful endurance. Week after week. In the same mission, with the same message, under the same king.
Jesus never called his followers to be flashy. He called them to be faithful. He called them to take up their cross daily and follow him. He called them to go into the world as his representatives, calling people to repent and believe.
Every believer has a part in this. The parable of the talents makes clear that burying what God has given you is not humility — it is disobedience. The skills, the relationships, the opportunities — all of it belongs to the king and is to be used for his glory.
The wall has already fallen. The authority behind everything that once held you captive has been broken at the cross. In Christ, you have been given everything needed to live faithfully. The question is simply whether you will use it.
Storm the gates.
Few images capture this reality more powerfully than the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For 28 years, that concrete barrier divided a city, separated families, and claimed the lives of those who dared to cross it in search of freedom. It stood as a monument to the authority of a regime that demanded total control. But on the night of November 9th, 1989, something remarkable happened. East German officials made a mistake and announced that the border crossing would be open. Within hours, thousands flooded the gates. People climbed atop that wall and celebrated. Then they began to chisel it apart, piece by piece, until it was gone.
No army brought that wall down. What brought it down was far simpler and far more profound: the authority behind it had already collapsed. When the authority was gone, all that remained was concrete — a relic of a power that no longer existed.
This is the nature of every earthly kingdom. Their authority is borrowed, temporary, and always subject to decay. But there is one kingdom that operates by an entirely different set of rules.
A Kingdom Built by Death
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the crowds who heard Jesus teach were astonished because he spoke as one who had genuine authority, unlike their religious leaders. Mark's Gospel records that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins and even to command the wind and waves to be still — and they obeyed. This was not the authority of a general or a politician. This was something altogether different.
And yet Jesus never raised an army. He never seized a throne by force. Standing before Pilate, the Roman official who would condemn him to crucifixion, Jesus declared plainly that his kingdom was not of this world. If it were, his servants would have been fighting (John 18:36).
Instead, Jesus established his kingdom the way no king in human history ever had — through his own death.
Hebrews 2:14-15 explains that Jesus took on flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the one who holds the power of death, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death had been held in lifelong slavery. Every other kingdom in history has its authority threatened when its king dies. When a ruler falls, the kingdom trembles. But Jesus won his kingdom through death. The cross was not the end. The cross was the beginning.
God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, far above all rule and authority, giving him as head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:21-22). And risen, Jesus declared to his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him (Matthew 28:18).
This is a king whose authority cannot collapse. There is no iron curtain behind his rule that will one day give way. He will never grow tired. He will never leave his throne. He will never be overthrown.
What the Kingdom Looks Like Now
It would be a mistake to assume that because Jesus reigns, the kingdom of God is fully visible in the world as it stands today. Hebrews 2:8-9 acknowledges this tension honestly — not everything is yet in subjection to him. Sin and death still run free. People still rebel. The world still resists.
But the kingdom is not absent. It is advancing, and its advance looks different from any earthly conquest.
We see the kingdom when sinners are rescued from darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). We see it when lives are made new, when people who once chased sin with their whole hearts find themselves transformed, loving what they once hated and turning from what once enslaved them. We see it when churches are planted in dark places, when small fires are lit in the middle of the night, drawing people toward the light of the gospel. Jesus himself promised this in Matthew 16:18 — he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Not "you will build it." He will build it.
The Church's Role Under the King
Understanding the nature of Christ's authority shapes everything about how the church is to operate. The church is not the kingdom, and the kingdom is not the church. The authority of the kingdom belongs to Christ alone — not to any pastor, denomination, institution, or government. The church does not possess that authority. It lives under it.
This means the church is best understood as a community of ambassadors. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that believers are ambassadors for Christ, with God making his appeal through them. An ambassador does not write the laws of the country he represents. He does not speak for himself. He carries the message of the king and delivers it faithfully.
This shapes the mission of the church in practical and non-negotiable ways.
The church makes disciples. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is not a suggestion. It is the command of the king to go into all nations, baptizing and teaching. No government, no employer, no institution has the authority to forbid this, because all authority flows from God and no authority given by God can be rightly used to silence God's message. When rulers demand silence, they exceed their authority. The response of the early apostles in Acts 5:29 was clear — we must obey God rather than men.
The church devotes itself to the Word, to fellowship, and to prayer, as Acts 2:42 describes the early believers doing. But these are not ends in themselves. They are the foundation beneath the outward mission. The moment Bible study and fellowship become disconnected from the spread of the gospel, the church has lost its focus.
The church preaches the Word. Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 — to preach the word in season and out of season — is not time-bound or culturally negotiable. Regardless of trends, regardless of what is considered acceptable, the gathered church opens the Word, explains it, and calls people to obey it.
Faithful, Not Flashy
The call upon the church is not to reinvent itself with every cultural shift or to soften the gospel until it offends no one. The call is faithful endurance. Week after week. In the same mission, with the same message, under the same king.
Jesus never called his followers to be flashy. He called them to be faithful. He called them to take up their cross daily and follow him. He called them to go into the world as his representatives, calling people to repent and believe.
Every believer has a part in this. The parable of the talents makes clear that burying what God has given you is not humility — it is disobedience. The skills, the relationships, the opportunities — all of it belongs to the king and is to be used for his glory.
The wall has already fallen. The authority behind everything that once held you captive has been broken at the cross. In Christ, you have been given everything needed to live faithfully. The question is simply whether you will use it.
Storm the gates.
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