Building Kingdom #3: God’s Love Through Every Administration (Easter Message)

Building Kingdom #3 is an Easter message about the love that drives God’s whole plan: in every age of history God worked hard to show His love, and in Jesus’ death and resurrection He finally made people righteous so He could give them everything. The pastor teaches that Jesus is both the Lamb slain for us and the Good Shepherd who laid down His life, and that the resurrection is God’s proof that you have been declared righteous.

This continues the building kingdom series from Building Kingdom #2: Seek First His Kingdom & Righteousness. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for receiving God’s love this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached on Resurrection Sunday at NTC Ministries and posted on April 23, 2025. The pastor explains that he had started a series on building God’s kingdom a couple of weeks earlier and had spoken on Good Friday about the suffering and death of Jesus. On Easter he continues the same theme, reminding the church that the whole Bible is about a King, a kingdom and a royal family.

From there he walks through the ages of history, the cross and the empty tomb, and closes with an invitation to receive God’s love through Jesus Christ.

Building Kingdom Through Every Administration

The pastor begins with the idea of dispensations. He explains that a dispensation is the same as an administration, a way the kingdom is run, and that it is related to our word economy. The very first thing God did with Adam was give him everything. But Adam turned to iniquity, his heart changed toward God, and he was condemned within himself. From then on, he says, life came to be run by the five physical senses, what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell, which is why so many people today are told to live by their feelings.

After the flood, the kingdom was administered by human government. Then God called Abram out of the land of the Chaldeans and told him to go to a place he would only know when he arrived. God promised descendants as many as the stars and the sand, though Abram and Sarah were old and childless, and they laughed. The child came anyway, and God told them to name him Isaac, meaning laughter. From then on, the pastor says, God administered by promise.

He retells the test on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22:1–13. Isaac was a young man, not a little boy, and he carried the wood himself. When he asked where the sacrifice was, Abraham answered that God would provide. An angel stopped Abraham’s hand, and a ram was caught in a thicket nearby.

As hearts grew harder, God sent Moses to deliver Israel and gave the law. In effect, the pastor says, God was telling people: if you think you can live without Me, here is the law, go ahead. Israel promised to do everything and fell into sin that very day. Then came Jesus. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). That is what Easter celebrates.

The table below follows the administrations as he lays them out.

Love That Never Stopped Working

Under grace, the pastor says, God’s kingdom is administered through hearts open to Him. Jesus told the woman at the well that true worshipers worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). And in every administration, God worked hard to show people His love.

His example is Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18:20–33, God says He will go down to see for Himself, and His intention was not to destroy. He told Abraham because He knew Abraham would teach his children to follow Him. Abraham interceded, asking about fifty righteous people, then forty-five, forty, thirty, and finally ten. The pastor notes that Abraham was also praying for his nephew Lot and his family.

There were not even ten. Still, God sent angels to bring Lot out, and Lot argued about going to the mountains, so they had to drag him out of the city (Genesis 19:15–26). God allowed him to flee to a small town instead, and when the smoke rose, Lot ran to the mountains anyway. No matter what people’s hearts were like, the pastor says, God worked to show His love. It is not our job to drum up love for God; we simply receive His love, and then we love Him.

That love is hard to grasp. It is easier, he says, for people to accept religion, because they can picture earning a thumbs-up from God. To simply receive His love and have every sin forgiven feels unimaginable. Even after the resurrection, not one disciple believed until Jesus revealed Himself.

Once He did, the kingdom of heaven took off. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and if He did not spare His own Son, He will freely give us all things (Romans 8:32). He reads Luke 16:16: since John, the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. When the real good news is told, with nothing to qualify for, people come. As Jesus said, if He is lifted up, He will draw all people (John 12:32).

Because of Adam, all creation was corrupted and is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed (Romans 8:19–21). God created man in love, came to fallen man in love, and so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

The Lamb and the Good Shepherd

When a priest received a lamb for the people’s sins, the pastor explains, he inspected the lamb for any spot or blemish. He never inspected the person who brought it. Religion reverses that and tells you that you are not good enough. But the priest simply said, thank you for the lamb, you are good, because of the lamb. Everyone was a basket case, he jokes, and even as believers we are heaven’s special-needs class, and God just keeps loving us.

Jesus is that Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Before anything was created, He took that place. Yet here is the paradox: He is also the Shepherd. Normally a lamb gives its life for the shepherd, but the church reads John 10:11 aloud: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”

What shepherd with a hundred sheep would tell the wolves to take him instead? At best he would fight. And what nation sends its king to the front line? It is always the privates, sergeants and captains who fight while the leaders are kept safe. Not God. He fights our battle Himself.

He shows this in Jesus’ trial. The religious leaders could not execute Jesus, so they told Pilate that Jesus claimed to be a king who would take over. In John 18:36–37, Jesus answers that His kingdom is not of this world; if it were, His servants would fight. Then He says, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world.” A King, a kingdom and a royal family, the pastor repeats. This King gave His life for His people.

Raised Because You Were Declared Righteous

Why the resurrection? A king owns everything, the pastor explains, and the only way God could give everything back to mankind, as He first did with Adam, was to make people righteous. If Jesus had not made us righteous, He could never have risen and finished His mission.

The church reads Romans 4:25 from Young’s Literal Translation: He “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous.” The pastor’s conclusion is striking: if you were not declared righteous, He did not rise. He also reads the verse from Weymouth’s translation, which speaks of the acquittal secured for us.

People reject Jesus, he says, because they think it is about what they must give up or commit to. God’s answer is, I know you can’t, and I am not asking you to; I am asking you to receive My love. Jesus promised that whoever comes to Him He will never cast out (John 6:37).

He notes that the Old Testament holds over a thousand verses foretelling Christ’s first coming, and more about His second, but says nothing plain about the age between the resurrection and the millennial reign. That revelation, he says, was given to Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven: what took place legally in the courts of heaven between the cross and the throne.

In Romans 5:7–9, Paul says one might perhaps dare to die for a good man, but God demonstrates His love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Having been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him. Once you receive His love, the pastor says, you will never know God’s anger. He ties this to Isaiah 54:9–10, where God swears, as surely as He promised Noah, that He will not be angry with His people or remove His kindness.

Kings and Priests, Not Performers

The pastor recalls crying out in prayer that he did not want to know the author of a book but the God who made the sun, moon and stars and who can fix the body He put together. That is the God you know intimately when you accept His love: the one who provides, defends, heals and prospers you. It is not a challenge but a privilege.

He recalls hearing Paul Crouch, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, say at a convention that he was not a man of long prayer sessions. He did his part, others prayed, and every day he renewed his mind and heart in God’s love. That, the pastor says, is why the first thing to say each morning is, “Tell me again how much you love me, God.”

It is through Jesus’ suffering that we have redemption, through His death forgiveness, and through His resurrection righteousness and eternal life. Your best day does not make you more righteous, and your worst day does not make you less. Those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life (Romans 5:17). He has made us kings and priests to His God and Father (Revelation 1:5–6; Revelation 5:9–10).

Sin worked like rust. His father-in-law once covered rust on an old pickup with masking tape and matching paint. It looked fine, but it changed nothing. Jesus did not come with a paint job. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). So stop comparing yourselves with one another (2 Corinthians 10:12), and simply love, because God is love (1 John 4:7–8).

To all who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Why would God ever want to destroy or deprive His own child? Like someone who builds a car by hand and loves to hear it praised, God wants us to accept what He has done so that He gets the glory. Religion expects your performance; Christianity accepts the performance of one man, Jesus Christ.

Nothing Can Separate Us From His Love

Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). The pastor explains that saved is an all-encompassing word: to deliver, set free, heal, provide, prosper, bring peace and bring life. It is not only going to heaven one day but bringing heaven into you. The first Adam gave everything away; the last Adam took it back (1 Corinthians 15:45) and holds us in His hand, where no one can snatch us out (John 10:28–29).

He reads Romans 8:31–39 from The Message: with God on our side, how can we lose? No trouble, hard times, hatred or hunger can come between us and Christ’s love, and none of it fazes us because Jesus loves us. He did this, the pastor says, even for those who lied about Him and for the soldiers who beat Him. He was despised and rejected, wounded for our transgressions, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:3–5).

He then asks whether listeners have truly embraced God’s love. You can know the Bible stories and have been through every religious rite and still never have said yes to His love. Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you live by your own running, you will grow weary, but those who wait on the Lord mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31). He closes by leading everyone in a prayer to receive God’s love and become a new creation.

Receiving His Love This Week

These steps from this building kingdom message are about receiving rather than performing:

• Start each day with His love. Ask first thing in the morning, “Tell me again how much you love me, God,” and let that renew you.
• Look at the Lamb, not at yourself. When you feel unworthy, remember the priest inspected the lamb, not the person who brought it.
• Stand on the resurrection. Your worst day does not make you less righteous; Jesus rose because you were declared righteous.
• Stop comparing. Refuse to measure yourself against others, and simply love God and love people.
• Pray for your family. Like Abraham interceding for Lot, keep asking God to reach those you love.
• Say yes today. If you have never personally received God’s love through Jesus, do not put it off.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Easter and a King, a kingdom and a royal family
• 1:08 Dispensations: Adam was given everything
• 2:31 Human government and the call of Abram
• 4:44 Isaac on Mount Moriah
• 6:57 The law, and grace and truth through Jesus
• 8:11 Worship in spirit and truth
• 9:30 Abraham intercedes for Sodom
• 11:31 Lot rescued: God’s love always worked
• 12:37 Why religion is easier than receiving love
• 14:09 Luke 16:16: everyone presses into the kingdom
• 16:43 The priest inspected the lamb
• 19:31 The Lamb slain and the Good Shepherd
• 22:18 Jesus before Pilate: my kingdom is not of this world
• 24:42 Why He had to make us righteous
• 26:10 Romans 4:25: raised because we were declared righteous
• 29:02 Romans 5: while we were still sinners
• 31:24 Never under God’s anger: Isaiah 54
• 33:41 A privilege, not a challenge
• 36:07 Kings and priests: Romans 5:17 and Revelation 1
• 37:21 Rust, masking tape and a new creation
• 40:55 Sons of God, not performers
• 43:28 What saved really means
• 44:33 Romans 8:31–39: nothing can separate us
• 47:15 Invitation and prayer of salvation

Building Kingdom Series

This message is part of an ongoing series at NTC Ministries on building God’s kingdom. Continue from the previous message or go on to the next:

• Previous: Building Kingdom #2: A King, a Kingdom and a Royal Family
• You are here: Building Kingdom #3: God’s Love Through Every Administration (Easter Message)
• Next: Building Kingdom #6: Mother’s Day — Women’s Full Place in the Kingdom of Heaven

Frequently Asked Questions

Does God punish believers in anger when they fail?

Not according to this message. The pastor teaches that once you have been justified by Christ’s blood, you are saved from wrath through Him, and he connects this to Isaiah 54, where God swears, as surely as His promise to Noah, that He will not be angry with His people. Your worst day does not make you less righteous, because righteousness is a gift received through Jesus, not a reward for performance.

Why does the pastor say religion is easier to accept than God’s love?

Because religion gives people something to do. They can picture themselves working until God finally approves of them. Simply receiving His love, having every sin forgiven and being given all He has, is so extraordinary that it is hard to wrap the mind around. He says this is why even Jesus’ disciples did not believe the resurrection until Jesus revealed Himself to them.

Do I need to pray for hours to be close to God?

The pastor shares Paul Crouch’s comment that he was not a man of long prayer sessions but did the part God gave him and renewed himself in God’s love every day. The point is not that prayer is unimportant but that intimacy with God does not come from your effort. It comes from receiving His love daily, beginning with asking Him to tell you again how much He loves you.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 4:25 — raised because of our justification
• Romans 5:7–9 — while we were still sinners
• Genesis 18:20–33 — Abraham intercedes
• John 10:11 — the Good Shepherd
• Revelation 13:8 — the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world
• John 18:36–37 — My kingdom is not of this world
• Romans 5:17 — reigning through the gift of righteousness
• Revelation 1:5–6 — kings and priests
• Romans 8:31–39 — nothing can separate us from His love

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

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