The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God

The next passages are taken from the Sermon on the Mount in what is called

the Beatitudes which starts in chapter 5 and runs through to the end of chapter
7 of Matthew. 

Matthew 6:24, 25-33, 34 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the world, it's riches and Religion that oppose God, as noted in Genesis 3:15 and elsewhere in both testaments).

Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (parallel passages Luke 12:22-34, 16:13; Philippians 4:6, 1Peter 5:6-11)

I want to look closer at John the Baptist and the prophesies spoken over him both while in his mothers womb and after his birth. All this because of what Jesus said about him when He said, "because he come in the spirit of Elijah". Luke covers his birth and the prophetic words spoken over him and Jesus made many references to his coming in the spirit of Elias. If we listen closely and with good attention we will pick up on this one fact, John the Baptist came as a sign of the end, (the close of a purely Israel dispensational period, and he was instrumental in the inauguration of the promised New dispensation) before (ahead of) the for ever, or the ever lasting one of prophecy. Because he also introduces Jesus as the "ever lasting one", and as the "restoring of all things" one. When he said, "I have need to be baptized by You, I am unfit to untie Your sandals". There is one other thing hidden from open view and it is this, John is the last son in the line of Aaron and the course of Abia through both of his parents. This made him a priest of the purest kind and when he and Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, his position of inheritance was passed to Jesus, who became the anointed one when the Holy Spirit ascended and sat (rested) on Him. Even though both had been filled with the Holy Spirit while in their mother's womb, Jesus in effect received a double portion.

Matthew 11:14 If you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. (Ezekiel 2:5, 3:10-11)

Matthew 17:10-13 His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? Jesus answered them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say to you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done to him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist. (parallel passages Malachi 4:5-6, 3:1, 5 in these passages reference is made to the day of the Lord which is day of judgment; Mark 9:10-13)

Luke 1:5-25, 57-80 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were well stricken in years. 

It came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. There appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, Fear not, Zacharias: for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son, and you will call his name John. And you shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Zacharias said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. The angel answering said to him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak to you, and to show you these glad tidings. And, behold, you will be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believed not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.