|
The Message of the Kingdom
When Jewish people heard Jesus preach, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe!” they did not understand it to mean, “Believe in Jesus and when you die your soul will go to heaven.” That was not their understanding of the Kingdom of God. Nor did they think Jesus was teaching that the end of the world was near. They didn’t understand him to mean that he was creating a new institution called the church. The Kingdom of God meant more to them than all of this. What Jesus was talking about was an old, old story that the Jews told in the synagogues each Saturday. Here is that message, “God is coming as King to free his people from his enemies, to bring about an age of prosperity and blessing, creating a community of worshippers of the King who will live wholly for his glory.” These are the three aspects of the Kingdom of God. In his teaching Jesus explained and demonstrated to his hearers that he was ushering in this Kingdom.
 What was maddening for these Jews about this messages is that Jesus told the old, old story in a very fresh way. He said, “Yes, God is coming to free His people from their enemies. The question is who are God’s people?” The Jews thought that it was those who were strictly observant to the law and follow the oral traditions. But Jesus taught that those that God was forming into community included the lepers, the prostitutes, the tax collectors and even the Gentiles. Jesus even redefined who the enemies of God were. Instead of it being the Romans and pagans he included those who thought they were automatically a part of God’s family by their birthright.
Jesus told them the old, old story, but with the twist that the Kingdom that was being ushered in was one of welcome. The circle of God’s inclusion was a very large circle and would one day include all of the nations of the world, every people group, every ethnic group.
The way that the enemies of God were to be defeated also shook up Jesus’ listeners. It was not by the people of God killing their enemies, but by their enemies killing them. The Kingdom of God is not ushered in by a triumphalism of the church or by us crushing and humiliating our enemies. The way the Kingdom of God is ushered in is through the redemptive suffering of God’s people – by turning the other cheek.
Exodus chapter 6 illustrates these three messages of the Kingdom of God:
(6) “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. (7) I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. (8) And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’”
Verse 6 describes element #1, God is coming to set his people from their enemies. Verse 7 describes element #3, God is creating a community of His people. Verse 8 describes element #2, an age of blessing and prosperity.
A Collision of Kingdoms
Any time that we start talking about the Kingdom of God we need to remind ourselves that there is a opposition that comes against the Kingdom. This is not a battle of equal Kingdoms – God is more powerful than his enemies, but you can’t be involved in the extension of the Kingdom without occasionally experiencing a perfect storm. As the Kingdom moves forward it is always strongly opposed.
Understand what the world doesn’t understand. There is a cosmic enemy behind all the warfare that we see in the world. The real war is not the war against terrorism, or Christians versus Muslims. It is not a collision of culture or a battle of the Christian right against the cultural left. The real war is not any of the dividing lines that much of the church makes them out to be. The real war is the Kingdom of God strongly coming against the kingdom controlled by Satan. And when you are involved in the work of the Kingdom, whether you like it or not, you are plunged into a perfect storm.
If your life feels like it has been part of a perfect storm then rejoice! That is the biblical message! If everything is always smooth sailing, all of the time, you are probably not much of a threat at all.
You can experience a perfect storm in so many different ways. It will happen if you decide to get rid of your television. You can take a little step of faithfulness and experience a major reaction. Pull the plug on the TV and people will come against you. They will even buy you a new television! Do anything that cuts across the cultural grain and you will make a lot of people upset.
What happens if you decide to become downwardly mobile on the ladder of success while everyone else is on the escalator to the top? Get on the down escalator and people get very concerned – particularly parents! Try shifting from two incomes to one. How many of you ladies have experienced the perfect storm when you gave up your career to stay home and raise a child?
Try telling the truth in a dysfunctional family instead of dancing around and pretending. If you do, all the guns in the family will turn towards you. You become the unsafe person.
The Kingdom of God goes forward, and it is always in opposition.
The three legs of the Kingdom.
We Vineyard people have taught most on two points of the Kingdom – the words and the works of Jesus. But the Kingdom doesn’t only move forward with proclamation and demonstration, but also throught he suffering of God’s people. It is the words of Jesus, the works of Jesus and the wounds of Jesus. Over and over again in the Gospel Jesus tells us this. This was the understanding of the church up until the 20th century. The Gospel can not go forward without a grain of wheat falling to the Earth and dying; some redemptive suffering has to take place.
I believe that as the Vineyard matures as a movement, especially in missions and unreached people groups, we ourselves will personally know some amongst us that will suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Every church movement that has ever advanced the cause of Christ has known the suffering and the death of some of their most beloved people. We will know that in the Vineyard. That will be part of our story- because the gospel goes forward through words, through works, and through wounds
The Words of Jesus
There is great value in preaching! It is the primary way that God uses to save sinful people. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 10:
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
So faith comes by what is heard and what is heard comes from the preaching of Christ.
You will hear mention of Postmodernism in this or that circle. What I find particularly helpful about Postmodernism is the emphasis that is placed on telling a story- what they call a meta-narrative. Most Christians don’t think in terms of a “big story,” but that is what we need to do, communicate over and over the “Big Story” of the gospel.
A Christian needs to understand how to tell the “Christian story.” It is the story of God’s love. It is a story of man’s fall and of sin, of turning away from God to idols (like food). The Christian story is a story of forgiveness, redemption through Christ, and the grace of God that can set us free from all of the ways we are involved in idolatry. The Christian story is one of repentance from sin.
There are a lot of competing stories in the world, even in the church, but the big story of Christianity is not going to be found in most Christian self-help or recovery books. The big story is found in the Bible and we must reacquaint ourselves with it.
How then will the Kingdom go forward? - As we gain confidence in the Gospel and really believe that this message will save people.
The Works of Jesus
All five of the great commission passages in the New Testament describe power (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:45-49; John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8).
The person who believes in Jesus Christ does not just do what he can do, but what he cannot do. They attempt and accomplish the impossible. Christianity is reaching beyond what we can do on our own because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.
How is it that we are going to pull down the strongholds of darkness that we find in our culture? It won’t be by being smart or by being able to argue theological points. It has to come by the power that is accomplishing the message.
In Romans 15:18-19 Paul says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit.” We cannot be focused on our own lives, by our limitations. We need to focus on Jesus and accept the power that is at work on our behalf for the sake of reaching the world. There is a great power that God has put at our disposal to do what he has called us to do. He has not left us without resource. The Lord has given us His accompanying power.
Our communities are going to be reached as the power of God goes forth in power and wonders.
The Wounds of Jesus
As you read through the scripture you will discover a third leg of the gospel besides proclamation and demonstration – it is suffering. The suffering church is the theme of the book of Revelation, not “the rapture.” What we find when we read Revelation is the story of the suffering church that triumphs through redemptive suffering.
Jesus predicted that the Gospel message is going to be opposed. He taught that there would be a clash of kingdoms. You don’t have to read the Gospels very long before you can see this theme. Here is what Jesus taught:
Matthew 10:17-20 17“Be on our guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
The coming of the Kingdom brings conflict- conflict between Jesus and Satan, light and darkness, the children of God and the devil’s children. A perfect storm happens with the onset of the Kingdom - Jesus was crucified, most of his followers were killed, Stephen was stoned, Paul was beheaded. Most of the followers of Jesus spread the Gospel through redemptive suffering.
The enemies of God are not defeated by us crushing them under foot. The idea that we are going to crush a cultural opposition by gaining worldly power is not the history of the church. The history of the church is that we receive suffering and triumph through it. That is how we defeat our enemies.
In 1 Peter 2:21 we are taught, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” He suffered not only as our substitute, but also as our example. As our society becomes increasingly post-Christian I think that it is going to come home to us even in this country. We are going to experience more and more that the Gospel and its servants are opposed.
We can’t ask the question – “How can I serve Jesus and have it not affect my job?” or “How can I lead people to Christ in my workplace or community but not be thought of as weird or encounter any negativity from others.” Our lives will be affected.
We have to remember that behind all of the opposition is the sovereignty of God. At no time, even with this clash of the kingdoms, is the Lordship of Christ challenged. We are not talking about two equal opposing Kingdoms. We are talking about Jesus as King. God uses Satan and his opposition to work His will wonderfully in the world. With this our hearts should take courage.
This is real Christianity, nothing that is watered-down. We need to embrace the whole ministry of Jesus – the proclamation, the power, and the suffering.
|
