In church circles we often hear the phrase ‘the kingdom of God’ used in conversation. But there seems to be a lot of ambiguity about exactly what ‘the kingdom of God’ is. As I mentioned last week, the purpose of this short series of sermons is to identify what is meant by ‘the kingdom of God’ as it is used in various statements in Scripture. I am convinced that it will be helpful if we begin by examining the fact that one of Jesus’ parables reveals that there are four distinct stages or phases of the development of ‘the kingdom of God. He said, “…This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground…the seed sprouts and grows…first the stalk [The Nation of Israel], then the head [The Predominantly Gentile Church], then the full kernel in the head [The Millennial Reign of Christ on Earth]. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. [The eternal Kingdom on the New Earth]” (Mark 4:26b…27b…28b-29, NIV). Obviously, in these verses Jesus indicated that just as there are four distinct stages of development in the life of grain from the production of ‘the stalk’ till the ‘grain is ripe,’ there are also four distinct stages of development in ‘the kingdom of God.’ He started by saying, “…This is what the kingdom of God is like…” (Mark 26b, NIV). Three weeks ago we examined the first of these four stages of development of ‘the kingdom of God’—The Nation of Israel. Two weeks ago we looked at the second of these four stages of development of ‘the kingdom of God’—The Predominantly Gentile Church. Last week we examined the third of these four stages of the development of ‘the kingdom of God’—The Millennial Reign of Christ on Earth. Today we will look at the final stage of development of ‘the kingdom of God’—The Eternal Kingdom on the New Earth!