Tweaking Our Style, Keeping the Message

While watching this video, I was struck by the idea that we, as pastors, need to tweak our presentations, not change the message .  Through singing "Old MacDonald," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Humpty Dumpty," and "If You're Happy and You Know It" in a different style, Edward Reid connected with the audience despite the fact that they already knew all these songs and are familiar to death with them. 

It's similar to the great, life-changing gospel message that we share with churchgoers week in and week out.  They know the gospel inside and out, backwards and forwards.  But knowing it is different than having it connect and allowing it to transform.

What Edward Reid did could have completely flopped.  The crowd could have sat there bored, thinking that this is utterly ridiculous, while mocking him.  At the :22 mark, you can see a lady look completely disgusted.  But by the 3:10 mark, when they show her again, she is thoroughly enjoying it.  The same happened with the hosts.  Confused at first, and then completely into it.

These songs provided the joy they were intended to bring about.  The audience enjoyed thesm like they hadn't since they were little children being sung to by fun, dancing parents.  But if they heard the songs in the old traditional way, it would have produced boredom.  It would not have the intended effect.

When we tweak our style, it could also completely flop.  But it might not, and the reward if it doesn't far surpasses the risk.  What we see is that when the songs were presented in a different style, it connected and allowed the audience to enjoy the moment.  Our message can do so much more than that, yet we continue to present it in the same, boring way.  The Gospel deserves so much more than that. 

How I long for the message of the gospel to connect with everyone we present it to and to transform lives for His glory and the growth of His kingdom.  Maybe we just need to tweak our style because we are ignored when we share the great message in the same old way.

A Hell of Good News

Among Christian circles there has been much debate over a book called “Love Wins” by Rob Bell.  I’m not going to get into the book here but examine the controversy surrounding the book.  

Adrian Warnock, a British blogger and critic of the book wrote, "My concern is that without the bad news the good news is not really good!" My initial thought was, "This guy must have never been lost." The good news, even without hell, is still great news for the lost. It was for me, and I don't remember the people sharing the good news with me mentioning hell.   I was mired in sin, lost in the pursuit of success, and drowning in the pleasures of this world.  From this wasted and fruitless life, Jesus freed me, freed me to a life of loving God and loving my neighbors.  That might seem somewhat superficial and meaningless, but, at its core, it changes everything.  It brings hope into hopeless situations.  It brings meaning to the meaningless.  It brings redemption to the irredeemable.   

When Jesus walked the earth he taught, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Matthew 4:17 (ESV)].  Following Jesus is more than just having right doctrine.  It’s about making the right choices, right now.  It’s about turning from the mistakes we are making and living in the right path.  That’s what repentance is.   This message is urgent.   Every day that we live for ourselves we continue to damage ourselves and the world around us.  The great news is that Jesus’ message makes our life better now, not just in the future of eternity.  Don’t confuse this with a message of health and wealth; it’s one of joy, peace, and security.  

This kingdom that Jesus said was at hand is the place where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  As Christians, we believe the kingdom is here now, but not fully here.  It’s a paradox.  In practice, this means that we, as followers of Jesus, attempt to bring about the perfect kingdom as much as we possibly can into the here and now while understanding that which we strive for will not be fully realized until after our deaths.  Living in this paradox should make Christians live differently than those around us.  The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and we want, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, God’s will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.    

This idea of bringing about God’s will here on earth rather than just pursuing our selfish interests reminds me of a story.  Parade magazine told the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Lang.  In 1981, Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 61 sixth-graders in East Harlem.  The principal told Lang that statistics showed that three-quarters of the students he was to address would not graduate high school, let alone go to college.  What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school?  Being an older white guy, he wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. One student said, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.  60% pursued higher education.  Instead of just using words to motivate, Lang used his wealth to do great things.  He brought hope.  He made a difference.   

Back to Love Wins and Warnock's comment, "My concern is that without the bad news the good news is not really good!"  I searched further on his website to see if my assumption about him not ever living without God was right. And it was. He became a Christian at the age of four and was kept on a "short leash." That doesn't discredit his faith, but he does need to realize that the good news is even good news without hell.  This is something that all of us who have lived in the dark but now live in the light realize.

In the end, the good news is great news, right now. Not just in some future after our death.  This needs to be part of the message we proclaim as followers of Jesus.  We don’t endure a faithful life wishing that we could live like the world.  We live a message of hope that redeems this world through the message and life of Jesus.  We, like Mr. Lang, need to make sacrifices for others.  In living for others rather than ourselves, we will see glimpses of what eternity in heaven will look like.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”[John 10:10 (ESV)].

If you want to read my review of Love Wins by Regan, you can check it out here:  Freedom Wins.

Jesus vs. Paul - The Debate Over the Gospel

Scot McKnight wrote an article trying to take a new approach to bridge the divide in the Christian community between those who teach Jesus' gospel of the kingdom versus the Paul's gospel of justification: Jesus vs. Paul.  For those who are Pauline, the focus is completely on justification.  For the other camp, the gospel is about the kingdom of God.

Paul's teachings on justification are often pitted against Jesus' teachings of the kingdom.  This does an injustice to Paul's writings.  Paul directly mentions the kingdom fourteen times, but for some that is not substantial enough.  Along with the direct references, the kingdom is alluded to through other imagery.  When Paul mentions "Christ", he is indirectly referencing the kingdom.  Jesus, in being called the Christ, is being proclaimed the messiah and ruler of the Old Testament kingdom of Israel.  He is the ruler who will reign forever. So Paul might not mention "kingdom" explicitly enough for the Paulinites, but why should he?  He is writing to churches filled with people already in the kingdom who should be able to pick up the kingdom imagery, especially after having been taught the Gospels.  Paul's letters were not written to tell people who Jesus was; they were written to specific churches for specific purposes.  

McKnight makes this debate between the teachings of Jesus and Paul more complicated than it needs to be.  Although he is not alone in that.  He attempts to reconcile John Piper's view of justification against N.T. Wright's view, of whom he does not mention.  These two have been going at it for a while now.  In 2007, Piper wrote an entire book directly attacking the thoughts of N.T. Wright:  The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright.  Wright responded in 2009 with Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision.  

Paul's and Jesus' teachings don't have to be at odds with one another.  How do we enter the kingdom? Through justification. What is the purpose of justification? To bring about God's kingdom here on earth. They don't conflict. You cannot have one without the other.  Nor do we have to shoehorn justification into kingdom theology; it naturally fits.   But we must be careful, because Jesus' teachings of the kingdom do not easily fit into an individualized justification theology.

The more I have been reading and teaching Paul writings, the more I am falling in love with them. His writings do not conflict with the good news of the kingdom; they elaborate how to live out the life one should live as a citizen of the kingdom. The problem with most teaching on Paul occurs when people take a single verse or section and go nuts on it rather than take the whole book and focus on its larger point.

Even in Galatians, one of the Paul's books on justification, he wrote that people who live by the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21).

1 Corinthians 15, the section that McKnight references in his article as Paul's gospel, does mention the "kingdom" in 15:24. McKnight just stopped his discussion of Paul's teaching of the gospel before getting there.  I guess Paul is expected to be concise. 

It appears that Paul wrote his letters to the Galatians and the Romans to explain justification. Justification is not a thought that pervades his other letters. It baffles me why having a few letters explaining justification somehow pits Paul against Jesus.  There should be nothing wrong with explaining how we are justified. That's good to know, but that does not counteract all of the teachings of Jesus on the kingdom.

McKnight chose to go to Paul's definition of the gospel, but I prefer to start with Jesus' gospel. The good news, according to Jesus, was the kingdom. It seems simple. I guess I might just oversimplify it. But the purpose of our justification is to be the kingdom.

N.T. Wright wrote in Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision:

Yes, say the scoffers, ethnic divisions are broken down, we know that, but why make such a fuss about it? The answer is that the church, thus united through the grace of God in the death of Jesus, is the sign to the principalities and powers that their time is up. Ephesians is not about the ordering of the church by the gospel for its own sake. "Ecclesiology" may sound secondary and irrelevant to some ardent enthusiasts for the old perspective, but that could just be because they are unwilling to face the consequences of Paul's ecclesiology. For him, the church is constituted, and lives its life in public, in such a way as to confront the rulers of the world with the news that there is "another king named Jesus" (Acts 17:7). Paul says it again: this was the grace given to me, this was the mystery revealed which I became a servant, the mystery lodged since all eternity in the creator's single plan: "that now the many-splendored wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, through the church, according to the eternal purpose which he has accomplished int he Messiah, Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:10-11). How can "ecclesiology" be a secondary topic, unworthy to be associated with the great doctrine of justification, when Scripture itself gives this high a place? Why should not the point of justification itself be precisely this, that, in constituting the church as the single family who are a sign to the powers that Jesus is Lord and the they are not, it servers directly the mission of the kingdom of God in the world? It cannot be, can it, that part of the old perspective's reaction to the new is the tacit sense that once we associate ecclesiology with the very center of the gospel we will have to go all the way and rethink the political role and task of the church? Surely the wonderful "objective" scholarship of so many old perspective exponents would not allow such a motive to affect exegesis! And yet: Luther's "two kingdoms" theology may have more bearing on this than we might like to think. Not to mention the deep resistance, in some of the same circles where the old perspective still flourishes, to any attempt to articulate a gospel-based "kingdom" theology to complement and illuminate Paul's soteriology." (173-174)

Wright went on:

There seems to be something about the joining together of resurrection and justification which some of our Western traditions have failed to grasp. Justification is more than simply the remitting and forgiving of sins, vital and wonderful though that is. It is the declaration that those who believe in Jesus are part of the resurrection-based single family of the one Creator God. Any preaching of justification which focuses solely or even mainly on Jesus' death and its results is only doing half the job. Justification is not just about "how I get my sins forgiven." It is about how God creates, in the Messiah Jesus and in the power of his Spirit, a single family, celebrating their once-for-all forgiveness and their assured "no condemnation" in Christ, through whom his purposes can now be extended into the wider world. All this, of course, might have been clear from a reading of the Gospels, but, alas, the same Western tradition that has highlighted the cross at the expense of Paul's full theology of resurrection has also highlighted a supposed Pauline soteriology at the expense of the Gospels' theology of the kingdom of God." (248)

The Satellite Sheik "Ahmad al-Shugairi" - On Fundamentalism

Although he claims to not be a sheik, Ahmad al-Shugairi teaches religion over the Arab networks. His show attempts to express moderate Islamic views to the fundamentalist culture in the Middle East. The glimpse that he gives us into the struggle between the moderate and fundamentalist Muslims sounds very similar to the struggle within Christianity.

For his fifth season, all of the episodes have been filmed in Japan. He wants to show the Arab world that the Japanese "are implementing a lot of the things that we are just preaching." He claims that the Muslim culture focuses only on "alcohol and sexual issues." If they abstain from impropriety in those two areas, then they think they think are right with Allah. Beyond that, they are not focusing on the teachings of Islam. It sounds a lot like the problem facing many American Christians. Focus on a few true points and lift those up to the place where your adherence to them makes you presume you are right with God. Forget that God desires your whole heart and not just a handful of actions and abstentions.

Here is a portion of the On The Media interview between Brooke Gladstone and Ahmad al-Shugairi:

I'm just trying to make the Arab world feel jealous from the Japanese streets. I mean, I ask the Arab world, if the Prophet Muhammad came today, who will he see implementing his teachings more, the Japanese or the Muslim world? A big question mark.

And I say that, by the way, also about the U.S. Most of the prophetic teachings are practiced in the U.S. much more than they are in the Islamic world. Our problem is we focus on two major things and we just shove everything else aside. We focus on alcohol and sexual issues.

So we see the U.S. — they're open in these two arenas, so we say we're better than them because we don't have those. However, we forget that these are two out of a hundred. Barack Obama’s presidency is a great implementation of a human virtue that Prophet Muhammad and Jesus before him promoted, which is all humans are created equal.

When you see an African American leading the most powerful country in the world, out of election, not out of force, and this cannot be implemented anywhere else in the world, anywhere else, this needs to be acknowledged.

This made me examine myself, the church I am in, and Christianity as a whole. Are we living out the gospel more than those who do not even claim to be part of Jesus' Kingdom? Do we just cling to a few practices, albeit true practices, and claim that those practices or abstentions make us right with God? Do we preach doctrines so often that they become hollow and meaningless? Are we living out life as the body of Christ here and now; are we Jesus' hands and feet in this world?

A Response to "Intro and Question #1: Good News?" - The Struggle of Two Gospels - The Message of Jesus and Paul

A link to another article, Intro and Question #1: Good News?, was posted on my post, What Is Really The Good News Taught By Jesus? - The Gospel Is The Kingdom, and I just never noticed. Today, I began looking through old posts for a class I am teaching, and I saw the link in a comment. The timing of this discovery was great, despite nearly three years after it being written. It appears that Kelvin has since become a missionary in Venezuela to help bring about the Kingdom of God.

These are the thoughts I had while reading the article. They might not be disagreements; they are just my stream of consciousness. The thoughts are written in reply to his article and to him; hence the use of the word "you."

Romans 1-3 (especially when it states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God) is a proclamation that we can only be saved by grace. When you wrestle with whether we can be righteous or not, that is a different wrestling match than whether we can be saved by our own works or not. The latter is what Paul addressed in Romans when he wrote about us all being sinners. Jesus, at the end of Matthew 19, also touched on it when he was asked by the young man what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus pointed out that salvation was impossible for man yet possible with God. There are no works that we can do to be right with God; it is purely through his grace. As Paul said in Romans 3, God's grace is a gift.

Galatians 3 states that we were initially saved by grace and are continually made right to God by grace. When we think our works are what makes us right, even after we have been a Christian for many years, we run into the problems of pride and losing the blessing of God working among us. God does great things through the willing, not the prideful or "perfect."

You explained the two approaches to the Gospel in the following:

To sum up for side A, I see this as the message of salvation, which is true but not necessarily the gospel. Where I see it falling short is although there is a promise of love, peace, joy and new life, the emphasis is on snatched from Hell, wait for Heaven and don't do anything really bad till you die.

And what of Side B, pray tel? Side B relies heavily upon the life and teachings of Jesus, and not so much His death. After all, Jesus did do much more than just die. He lived: He was a little kid, He was a teenager, He worked, He learned a trade. Before He started His ministry, you probably wouldn't even have given Him a second look. In fact, He wasn't even physically handsome. (Isaiah 53:2). Once He began His ministry, He began with the poor. Many of the people that came to Him were broken, either poor, physically ailed, someone in their family had problems, etc. And, never, never once does Jesus ever turn away someone who is desperate for Him. He does turn away the pride and arrogance of the pharisees. Jesus even forgave sins of the people that came to Him . . . and He had not died yet to forgive them. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God while on Earth, and He said the prostitutes and charlatans were entering before the pharisees. He came to establish the Kingdom and He did. Its not something you can point to and say there it is, or here it is, rather it is within you. (Luke 17:20-21).

I’ve been wrestling with the two approaches toward the Gospel that you address, and I think it is a blending of the two that is true. Jesus is the entry to the Kingdom, but within the Kingdom is where disciples are made. You can substitute the word community for Kingdom, but Kingdom is great, albeit archaic, in that it signifies a community with Jesus as the ruler. The problem with the two gospels you address is that the one is good at making converts but not in shaping disciples. The other is good at shaping disciples but not good at making converts. That does not mean that disciples are not made in the one and converts are not made in the other; it just means that those two Gospels, when purely approached, do not naturally lend themselves to making converts in one case or disciples in the other.

If your goal is to transform the world, then many systems need to be transformed as well. If you are going to bring peace to the world, then wars need to cease; oppressors need to see the slave as their brother, not an object of hatred. If you aim to end poverty, you need to establish a just system of wealth and economics. How does Jesus address these issues? He doesn't.

I could not agree more. The goal of the Gospel is not to transform governments. Although I do believe a nation that consisted of Christians would steer toward being Christian in its policies, but that is not the goal of the Christian. We are focused on our citizenship in God’s Kingdom and the opportunities that being a follower of Jesus entails. In our life and our circle of ministry, we need to strive to bring about peace, justice, and an end to oppression. I am not worried about systems but hearts, mine included. I need to live at peace with those who attack me. I need to make purchasing, employment, and consuming decisions that do not proliferate this economy of oppression that we live in (and I am terrible at this). I need to live my life in such a way, along with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are an adequate representation of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is such an amazing analogy. That means Christ is our head, but we are the body. The head sends us signals, and we are to do them. We are his hands and feet in the world. We bring about his will. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I think we do a disservice when we get this message confused with political activism rather than on the street love. I am not going to make a legalistic rule that there is never a place for political activism. I know that is not what I am called to. If someone else is called to political activism, who am I to say that they were not really called to that.

Transformation or peace corps can look the same.

I could not agree more. That is why we need to make sure that our transformative actions are rooted and expressed in and through Jesus. Many loving things can be done because of our love of Jesus, but we need to make sure that Jesus is proclaimed through our loving actions. Hmmm…I might even disagree with what I just wrote. Because if I love to just transform others’ hearts, then that love is manipulative. I need to make sure the love I express is an overflowing of the love that God has for me. It is not manipulative, despite proclaiming Jesus, because it is an overflowing of God’s love through me.

The Gospel that the Galatians had strayed from was a Gospel that included grace. As I previously mentioned, they were trying to say that works made a person right with God. Grace was the key omission of the Gospel in the case of the Galatians.

I think you wisely discern a difference between the Gospel Jesus taught to the Jews and the Gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles. The Kingdom analogy only works when one has a good grasp of the Old Testament Kingdom and God’s transition of that Kingdom from one of the nation of Israel to Cross-Nation Kingdom of people whose hearts are surrendered to God. In one sense, the Kingdom really is useless as a message to the non-Jew. However, it is still the concept that Jesus taught. To his audience, it was easily understood. The Jews were waiting for that new Kingdom to be ushered in by the Messiah. Jesus was at work transitioning the Old Testament Kingdom into a new Kingdom that had no partialities, hierarchies of leadership, boundaries, and concern in regard to the economic and political standing of the people that are part of it.

In the end, the key is that people surrender their hearts to God. The rest will fall into place after that. Although useful, whether a person understands the teaching of the Kingdom does not really matter. Teaching about the Kingdom is beneficial in that it focuses on us being a community under the King along with having a citizenship that is higher than our earthly citizenship. We are in relation to one another; that is an essential part of following Jesus. Too often, the gospel of just giving your life to Jesus for eternal salvation never really entails being part of the fellowship of believers. Teaching the Kingdom inevitably emphasizes that. Also, we must never compromise the Kingdom for our earthly nation. That is also an inevitable teaching of the Kingdom.

In the end, I find myself somewhere between a social gospel and a gospel of personal salvation. It is still working itself out. Thanks for your thoughts.

Joseph Prince's Destined to Reign - A Brief Response to the Health and Wealth Gospel - How Should a Christian React to Tragedy

Right now I am reading through Joseph Prince’s Destined to Reign: The Secret to Effortless Success, Wholeness and Victorious Living.
I have a general policy to never live in a nation where the leader’s face is plastered all over the place. That policy extends to reading books. I really do not like books with a picture of the author on the cover. It creeps me out. Anyway, this book came highly recommended by a good friend and I am currently reading through it. It’s an encouraging book that deals with the grace of Jesus and living in that grace, a concept that we will be exploring more as we explore the teachings of Jesus and the Gospels in the next year. I would definitely pass this book on to anyone that needs encouragement, but with this caveat. Like many teachers of the health and wealth gospel, Prince, despite all of the positive teachings he brings to the table, does his readers a disservice. I agree with him that we need to be more positive in life, filled with the joy of the Spirit, live in grace rather than works, and that God desires to bless his children. What parent does not want to see the best for their children?

But we live in a fallen world with free will. The world is no longer what God intended it to be and we continue to live in sin.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Notice that Paul did not write that all things will be good, that there will be no bumps in the road. No, Paul wrote that all things, whether good or bad, will work together for good. God is in the business of making good things out of bad. If he can have the earth squeeze coal and make diamonds, he can turn your difficulties into a better you.

Life is not a bed of roses, even for the most faithful. Our ministry at the Manor House, the only nursing home in Antwerp, reminds me of that truth every week. We might believe that the spiritual realm is more important than the physical, but that does not mean we can escape the physical without being physically destroyed. No matter how much we focus on the spiritual reality of the victory that we have, we will each physically die. If we live long enough, we will also have loved ones die.

I believe that God still heals; I believe that a positive attitude can get us through most obstacles, but I am also a pragmatist. Tragedy strikes everyone, and it is a disservice to the gospel to not temper the blessings of God and following him with the tragic reality we are all faced with. What makes a Christian is not living in this physical world without any strife or trouble. What makes us like Jesus in our approach to the world in responding to those difficulties with perseverance and seeking out God’s will through the troubling times. We can control, through the grace of Jesus, whether we let the world’s difficulties tear us down or whether we keep focused on living in his grace and his ultimate reality. The question we each face is how will we respond when loneliness, financial difficulties, broken relationships, health problems, or tragedy strikes. I pray that I will face those times with Jesus leading the way through.

Love - What We Need to Change the World -- or at Least Our Neighbors

The reason most churches in America are struggling is not because the culture is hostile to the gospel but that we have yet to really live the gospel in their midst. We like to speak the gospel, but words are cheap. Most people reject intellectual propositions rather than Jesus Christ. We need to live the gospel, not just speak it.

The key to loving is that the change that Jesus brings has to have already happened in us. Love begins with us accepting Christ's love and reflecting it to others. We cannot love the unlovable unless our hearts are changed from a worldly, selfish state to a Christ-like, giving, sacrificial state.

When we see the hurt, the oppressed, the hopeless, are we hurt? Do we sympathize? Or do we echo the words of the Pharisee who prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people" (Luke 18:11). Are we haughty in our position of wealth, education, or any other part of our life we hang our pride and success on? The tax collector prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). Jesus followed that up by saying, "I tell you, this man (the tax collector) went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

A chart in the book UnChristian, which deals with what the younger generation thinks about the church and what the church has done to foster that thought, explains the call to a radical, sacrificial and loving life through the following verses.

Genesis 12:2-3—God wants the lives of his people to bless others.

Isaiah 58:10—God followers should spend themselves on behalf of the poor.

Micah 6:8—We should be known for living humbly and pursuing justice and offering mercy.

Matthew 5:44—Love people who seem to be ‘enemies’ and pray for them.

Matthew 25:35-40—Whatever people do for the ‘least of these’—forgotten and overlooked people in society—they do for Jesus.

Mark 9:35—The greatest role in life is to serve others.

Luke 4:18—Jesus’ ministry was first introduced as freeing captives, serving the oppressed, and healing the sick.

Luke 15:3-7—God pursues people like a shepherd would search for even one straying sheep.

Luke 15:11-32—God is described as a father who patiently waits for the return of his child.

John 3:17—Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it.

John 15:13—You cannot love a person more than by giving your life up for him or her.

Galatians 5:13—Christians have freedom to love unconditionally as Christ loved people.

Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6; 1 John 3:16-19—Our lives are to be ‘poured out’ and spent to serve God’s purposes.

Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:21-22—Our attitude should be like that of Jesus, who loved and accepted humans even though they were ‘enemies’ of God. The he changed their status from enemies to friends, even sons and daughters of God, when they commit themselves to him.

1 Timothy 3:1-7—One of the qualifications of Christian leadership is to have ‘a good reputation with outsiders’ (v.7 NIV).

Titus 3:2—Christians should be peaceable and considerate, showing true humility toward everyone.

2 Peter 3:9—God wants everyone to repent and turn to him.

Would other people describe your life as a Christian in these terms? Do these principles guide your relationships with outsiders? Are you a Christ follower who seeks to live out this picture of Christianity as you interact with others?

Quote from unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters
by David Kinnaman (213-314).

Undistorting the Distorted Good News - The message of the kingdom of God

Once a young boy had finished attending his very first wedding. His cousin came up to him, after the wedding and asked the question, “How many women can a man marry?”

And without batting an eye, the little boy said, “Sixteen.”

The cousin was surprised by his quick answer and asked, “Where did you get that from?”

The little boy said, “Didn't you hear the pastor? The pastor looked at the groom and said, 'You are to marry four better, four worse, four richer, and four poorer.' You do the math and it adds up to sixteen.

Words are sometimes confusing. And when we have a misunderstanding like the young boy in the story did, it can lead to all sorts of strange beliefs.  Bad practices are often the result of bad thoughts.

I want to start this message out today with a question. What is the gospel? Or should I ask what is the good news? The word “gospel” and “good news” are translations of the same Greek word; they're just translated differently depending on the version you are reading. The words are interchangeable. So I ask again, “What is the good news?” What is the Gospel?

The Restoration Movement has a principle that I am quite fond of which states we are to call Bible things by Bible names. Essentially, this principle states that we should keep the biblical meaning with the biblical term. For instance, if I use the word elder, I mean the person in a local church that oversees that church because that is the way the Bible describes the role of an elder. I should not use the word elder to describe someone who serves only as a Sunday School teacher or someone that is a greeter at the door unless they are also an overseer in the church. An elder is a person in a position of oversight. That is what the Bible says it is, and that is the way we use it. That is an example of calling Bible things by Bible names.

Once we start redefining terms and applying them to things that the Bible does not apply them to, the Bible becomes devoid of any concrete meaning and just becomes a book of words that we can manipulate to fit our own thoughts and beliefs rather than it being the source for our thoughts and beliefs. It is important – if we are to use Bible terms – to actually connect them with the Biblical concept the Bible associates them with.

One such word that has been the victim throughout the years of redefining is the word “Gospel”. The Bible gives the word a clear meaning; however, that clear meaning is not what the Christian culture says that the good news is.

So I ask again – what is the good news? What is the gospel?

Chances are that you came up with a definition that sounds similar to this: The good news is that Jesus died on the cross so that we can receive forgiveness of sins and attain eternal life. There is nothing false in the statement.  Jesus did die on the cross so that we can receive forgiveness and eternal life. It is a true statement. Nothing is more true. And it is good news, but it is not the biblical Good News. When the Bible talks about the good news or when Jesus talked about the good news, he did not mean what the phrase has come to mean. The good news is not limited to the belief that Jesus died on the cross so that we can receive forgiveness of sins and attain eternal life. The core central teaching of Christianity is so much more than that and, sadly, it is often overlooked in Scripture.

It is essential to being a healthy church and healthy Christians that we believe and teach the same good news that Jesus believed and taught. Let us examine the Scriptures and see what the good news actually is.

We'll start our journey with Matthew 4:23. We're going to be going through a lot of Scripture. I felt that would be the most appropriate way to learn what the Bible means when it mentions the good news.

We see in Matthew 4:23, the message that Jesus proclaimed. It reads: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

Jesus' message could have so easily been the message of his death and the forgiveness of sins that death would provide, but that is not the message that Jesus was teaching. He focused on the good news of the kingdom.

In Matthew 9:35 we see again that “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues preaching the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” Did he go around preaching grace? At times. Did he go around preaching faith? At times. But this section of Scripture along with others emphasizes that Jesus' core teaching was preaching “the good news of the kingdom”. Up until five years ago, I had never heard, or at least consciously understood, the message of the kingdom of God that is clearly written throughout the Scriptures. The good news to me was that Jesus gives us forgiveness of sins and entry into heaven. However, that is not what the living and breathing Jesus taught when he walked among the earth and that is not the witness that the written word of God leaves us with. We seem to (maybe just subconsciously) think we have a better message than the one Jesus taught, a message that might be more relevant or palatable to the souls of those around us. We need to get back to discovering the message of the kingdom that Jesus preached and start living it and proclaiming it from the rooftops, our position on the assembly line, or behind a desk or a counter. Wherever we find ourselves, we need to teach the message that Jesus taught.

Not only did Jesus teach the message of the kingdom. It was also the message that he sent out his apostles to teach. Matthew 10:7-8 reads “As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”.

I imagine this moment was like the final huddle in the lockerroom before a big game. Imagine a championship game and a coach has the opportunity to give a motivating speech before sending out his players to play what will be the final game of the season. They will come out either champions or losers. A coach would emphasize all that he feels is important. For Jesus, his ministry of teaching rested in the hearts and minds of those twelve that he was talking to, the ones he was sending out. His training of them was crucial. What did he tell them to preach? It was the message of the kingdom. Maybe we should follow suit and preach that same message.

Some will say that the kingdom is not here yet, that it is something that will still come about in the future when Jesus returns. Jesus disagreed with that strain of thought in Mark 9:1 - “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Jesus told the people that the kingdom of God would come before some of those people standing in that crowd tasted death. Either Jesus is a liar, which I see no reason to believe; some of those people are still alive now 2000 years later, which I have never heard about; or the kingdom Jesus was talking about and centered his preaching on came about during the lives of those listening to him at that time.

For us, on this side of the cross and the day of Pentecost, the kingdom has come. Jesus ushered in the kingdom of God to earth throughout his ministry and it seemed to have culminated at the establishment of His Church. The Church and anywhere that God's will breaks through into our world is where the kingdom of God resides. We are part of His kingdom when we surrender to Jesus' kingship and become active members in bringing His will into reality.

Jesus went so far as to state that teaching the good news of the kingdom is why He was sent. In Luke 4:43 Jesus states, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also because that is why I was sent.”

Jesus clearly states that the reason he was sent was to preach the good news of the kingdom. We are often taught that the reason he was sent was to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins; however, that is not what he said here. He said that he came to preach the good news of the kingdom. His death on the cross is part of that bigger framework and it was part of his work when he came, but it is not the goal. We should make the kingdom of God the framework or else we will miss the larger picture. The death and resurrection are glorious events indeed, but they are not why Jesus says that he was sent.

If I held up a small picture frame to my chest and said that this is a picture of Regan, it would be true but you would only be seeing a small part of me. If I held up a large picture frame that showed my whole person and said that this is a picture of Regan, it would be a much more accurate picture. Without what was contained in the little frame, it wouldn't be a complete picture.

I envision the message of the good news the same way. The message that Jesus came and died for the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life is like the smaller picture frame. It is part of the larger picture. However, the good news of the kingdom is the larger picture frame that contains that important message of forgiveness and eternal life within it, yet it contains so much more.

Jesus was sent to preach and bring about the kingdom.

Imagine if you would, that you received an invitation from the President to be his vice-President. The President wants you to be with Him all of the time helping Him do His work. The President wants your input on his decisions. He wants to share meals with you. He wants you to be involved in His life. Now you have this invitation to share your life with the President. You get packed up, dressed up, and ready to go to Washington. You arrive at the White House. You become fascinated with the doorway to the White House. You decide you want to stay in the doorway because you love the doorway so much. The President feels you are valuable and comes and visits you rather than just dismissing you for your eccentric love of his doorway. You would still have a relationship with the President, but you would miss out on all of the life of privilege that the President wants you to enjoy with Him.

In the Christian culture in America, the doorway is awfully crowded. Too often that is where we choose to stay and many churches stop their teaching right there. When the message that churches share is a message of salvation and forgiveness rather than the complete message of life in the kingdom, we are destined to have crowded doorways rather than festive celebrations in grand banquet halls.

This is the difference between focusing on salvation and the essentials of salvation compared with focusing on the Kingdom. It's the difference between conversion and discipleship. The kingdom is about discipleship. It is about living a complete life of devotion for Christ. The message of the kingdom encompasses all of the teachings of Scripture. The essentials of salvation are important to entry in the kingdom, but they are not the goal. They are not a sufficient framework. They are not the message Jesus came to teach. He came to teach the kingdom, not just focus on the entryway into the kingdom.

Acts 1:3 reads “He (Jesus) appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

Right before his ascension into heaven, Jesus focused on teaching His disciples the message of the kingdom of God. This is what He taught about during His the final days He physically spent with his disciples. The message of the kingdom was so important that it was central to his final address, yet that very same message is scarcely heard from pulpits throughout this land.

A few other verses before we move on. We will see that the message of the kingdom is not only the message that Jesus taught; it is also the message that those who were here after the establishment of the church also taught.

Acts 8:12 – He (Philip) preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus.

In Acts 19:8 we see “He (Paul) entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God.”

Acts 28:23 reads “From morning until evening he (Paul) explained the matter to them (the local Jewish in Rome), testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.”

Acts 28:30-31 reads “And he (Paul) stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”

The message of the kingdom of God was central to the teachings of Jesus during his ministry here on earth, and we see that it was also central in the evangelistic messages that Paul shared during his time establishing churches.

The Greek word that is used for “good news” or “gospel” is evangelion. You might notice the similarity between the word “evangelion” and the words we have today of evangelist and evangelism. An evangelist is one that is the share the good news. Evangelism is the act of sharing the good news with those that need to hear and see it. However, evangelists and evangelism have been using a good news that is not the good news of the Bible. Let us not make that same mistake. For us, when we share the gospel, let's share the good news that Jesus and Paul shared – the good news of the kingdom.

Now, I want to move onto some of the practical implications of the kingdom being the good news and explore exactly what the kingdom is.

Luke 18:28-30 - “I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

As members of the kingdom, as people whose lives of self-surrender to the Kingship of Christ, we do not have to just look longingly to perfection and peace in the age to come. Jesus says that those who are part of his kingdom will get back very much more even in this age. An unhealthy emphasis on salvation only leads to an unhealthy emphasis on eternal life only. We see this passage of Scripture emphasizes both our life now and our life in the age to come. The kingdom is here now, and being a member of the kingdom will be a blessing for us.

But our life in the kingdom does not just stop at us receiving blessings. We are to join in the work of God. This kingdom we are part of is the kingdom that was promised to Abraham by God in the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 12:1-3: “Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This kingdom was to blessed, and this kingdom was to be a blessing. We are part of this kingdom that is supposed to be a blessing to the whole world. This is the kingdom that the people of Israel were anticipating.  Jesus proclaimed that it was near; now we know that it is here. This is good news. To an Israelite there could have been no greater news. They were waiting for a Messiah, a Christ, and this Messiah would bring about this kingdom.

We see in many of the verses concerning the kingdom that they were linked with the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, the oppressed being liberated, and the like. Jesus came doing miracles because those signs were to accompany the kingdom of God. I might not be able to do the same miracles as Jesus, but I can continue the work of the kingdom. I can feed the hungry. I can house the homeless. I can spend time with the lonely. When we do these things together, we are being the kingdom that God intended for us to be. As much as it is possible for us, we need to bring the kingdom to full realization here on earth now.

St. Patrick, the one who is remembered yearly by everyone wearing green and for others by drinking green beer, has a tremendous story, which I think exemplifies what the kingdom is. Patrick was taken prisoner by the Irish in a raid on England. One night, he escaped his prison and fled back to England. While back in the safety of England, he felt the call of God to go back to Ireland and share the gospel. His ministry to the Irish was an amazing success, and Ireland became a nation filled with Christians.

These Christians then moved on to evangelizing mainland Europe. They evangelized much differently than we do; they set up a community right outside of the town that they planned on witnessing to. Then this community would be filled with love for one another and that love would overflow into the neighboring town. It was through them establishing healthy communities outside of towns that mainland Europe was brought to the Lord.

The good news of the kingdom of God is about us being a healthy community that will focus on using our blessings from God to be a blessing to the people around us.

Instead of a physical empire to conquer the world, Jesus established a kingdom that was to consist of communities of believers who would love the world.

In Luke 17:20-21 “Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, 'The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look here it is!' or 'There it is!' For in fact, the kingdom of heaven is among you.”

The kingdom of God, the kingdom we are residents of, is “not coming with things that can be observed.” This was strange to the original listeners. The Israelites were not expecting that sort of kingdom. They wanted a kingdom that would free the nation of Israel from the hand of Rome and establish Israel as a physical power in the world again. Jesus' take on the kingdom was a completely different take on the traditional concept of kingdom or nation, and it still is today. When we think of a kingdom or nation, we think of a place with physical boundaries, a capital, a military, a human leader, laws to the keep the peace and the like. But God's kingdom is not what we would consider a normal kingdom. His kingdom has no boundaries. It has no capital. It has no military. It has one high priest. His kingdom is not in the process of taking over the world and bringing about its will by force. His kingdom will conquer the world by love and truth.

God does not always do what we view as the normal way of doing things. He had Gideon lower the amount of soldiers in his army from 32,000 to 500 before invading another nation. He had Joshua march around Jericho blowing trumpets in order to defeat them. He saved the world by having Jesus die on a cross. In hindsight, his acts are glorious, just like his kingdom. But at the time, they seem to our mortal comprehension to be a little off.

Who would have ever thought that a kingdom could conquer the world with love and truth? Yet that is God's seemingly irrational plan. In hindsight, we can see that the plan has been very effective. And it will continue to be effective as long as people are faithful.

The kingdom of God was there among the Pharisees although it could not be seen in a physical and tangible way. And it is here among us. Although I live in America and am an American citizen, my true residence and citizenship is in another kingdom. All of us who profess to follow the lordship of Christ need to realize that we are part of a kingdom that is among us. Our nationality belongs to the kingdom of God, not to any of the kingdoms of this world. When the will of God contradicts the will of our nation, we gladly submit to the consequences of our nation while we continue to do the will of God. We see this in the lives, and especially a statement, of Peter and John to rulers in Jerusalem who forbade them to continue sharing the gospel. In Acts 4:19-20 they stated: “Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Jesus' kingdom might not have physical borders or a common language, but it is the longest lasting kingdom in the world with the same ruler. It is a kingdom like no other.

Revelation 1:5-6 states “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

God has freed us from our sins, made us into a kingdom, so that we can be priests.

In preparing for this sermon, I looked up what jobs American workers do. In America there are 130,307,000 workers. 8,078,000 are employed in education. 8,900,000 are in health care. Only 443,070 are in farming and fishing. 10,249,000 are in factory jobs. 3,056,000 are in protective services like police and firemen. 1,683,310 are in entertainment, media, and the arts. And the most workers are in office and administrative jobs at 22,784,000.

That is not a complete list. There are so many different types of jobs in America. However, if you were to look at the employment in the kingdom of God, 100% of the workers would be priests. The primary occupation of citizens in God's kingdom is priesthood. As priests, we might have other jobs that we are involved in. For me it is retailing. For you it is something else. But our primary jobs are all the same. We are priests.

Catholics have the concept of what a priest is down. In their church the priest is a person that is Jesus to the people when they gather for mass. He is the intercessor for their confessions. The priest is responsible for bringing those around him into a right relationship with God. The priest has more of a direct link to God.

Catholics might have the concept of what a priest is down, but sadly, they do not have the concept of who a priest is down. Revelation 1:5-6 states that we are all priests. We also see this is in 1 Peter 2:9 - “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.” Every Christian is a priest and with that comes the responsibility of being a priest.

We are to be offering a sacrifice of our life for the salvation of others. We are to be interceding in prayer on behalf of others. We are to be Jesus to others. We are the priesthood of believers.

Through this study, we have touched on a few things that are elements of the kingdom of God. The priesthood of believers, the home of true citizenship, life of loving community and being a blessing, but the kingdom doesn't just stop there. It weaves its way through the Bible. For me and my wife, reading the Scriptures and discovering that the good news was the message of the kingdom and not just individual salvation was invigorating. Everything began clicking together in a way that it had not before. The Scriptures seemed to become more alive and make more sense. I hope that it will do the same for you.

I invite you, if you are skeptical that the Good News is the kingdom, to open up your Bible and search for the truth. The good news of the kingdom is there throughout the New and Old Testament.

If you already believe that the good news is the kingdom, it is my that my hope that we will work together to be a more loving community, to be the priests to those around, and to be a blessing to the world.

And I invite you, if you have not surrendered your life to the kingship of Christ and joined the community of believers, to make that decision and become a fellow priest in the kingdom of God. There is always room in the kingdom for another priest.

What Is Really The Good News Taught By Jesus? - The Gospel Is The Kingdom

What is the good news of the New Testament? That is a question I always thought had a simple answer: "Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so that we might have a proper relationship with him." Although, that statement is true, it is not the good news as it is described in the New Testament. I have compiled the relevant Scriptures here so you can decide for yourself. If I'm wrong, let me know because I like to know the truth.

I will post a verse and then follow that up with some commentary when I feel the need. The asterix marks more "relevant" verses.

Matt 4:17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near”

Early in his ministry Jesus started talking about the coming kingdom. This kingdom had been what people throughout the Old Testament had been waiting for. This kingdom would be a blessing to the world. It would finally be the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3: "Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The kingdom that would bless the whole world was near! The people of Israel were expecting this, and Jesus’ proclamation that it was near was good news.

Matt 4:23 “Jesus went…preaching the good news of the kingdom”

Jesus' message could have so easily been the message of his death and the forgiveness of sins, but that isn't what he focused on. He focused on the good news of the kingdom.

*Matt 6:33 “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”

Our striving needs to be for things of the kingdom, not for selfish spiritual things or our own enjoyment. Our lives should not be about us but about God’s kingdom.

Matt 9:35 “Jesus went…preaching the good news of the kingdom”

Did Jesus go around preaching grace? Maybe. Did he go around preaching faith? At times. But what does this section of Scripture show that he preached - "the good news of the kingdom." Up until four years ago I had never heard, or at least consciously acknowledged hearing, the message of the kingdom of God. The gospel focused on Jesus giving us the forgiveness of sins and entry into heaven. However, that is not what the living and breathing Jesus taught. We seem to (maybe subconsciously) think we have better messages than the one Jesus taught, ones that might be more relevant or palatable to the souls of those around us. We need to get back to discovering the message of the kingdom that Jesus preached and start living it and proclaiming it from the rooftops, soapboxes, and pulpits.

*Matt 10:7 “Preach this message: ‘the kingdom of heaven is near’”

Jesus has the twelve and he is getting ready to send them out for the first time. It was like the moment before the big game where the coach would make or break his legacy by giving his team a motivational speech and instructions for the game ahead. During the pregame locker room speech Jesus recapped the important stuff for their first journey out. His mission on earth rested in the hands of those twelve that he was talking to. What did he tell them to preach? He tells them to preach the message of the kingdom of heaven. Maybe, we should follow suit and preach that same message.

Mark 1:14-15 “Jesus went…proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come…The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.’”

*Mark 9:1 “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

This verse used to be one of those verses that made absolutely no sense to me. Jesus told people that the kingdom of God will come before some of those people standing in that crowd tasted death. If it hasn’t appeared yet, then some in that crowd would have to still be alive or Jesus was a liar.

However, Jesus is not a liar. The kingdom has come. Jesus brought the kingdom of God to earth when he established his Church. The Church and anywhere that God’s will breaks through into our reality is where the kingdom of God resides. We are part of the kingdom when we surrender to Jesus’ kingship and become active members in bringing His will into reality.

The event everyone in the Old Testament was waiting for has happened. We are so blessed to be part of it. Some of those people that Jesus talked to saw the kingdom of God come with power, and it is still here.

Mark 11:10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David”

*Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Here we have a list of some of the elements of God's kingdom. In God's kingdom the poor will hear the good news. The blind will receive sight and the oppressed will be freed. Sometimes we think that we do not see these events happening here on earth as they should in God's kingdom. That is true. God’s kingdom is not fully here, yet it is breaking through. A day will come when God's kingdom will arrive in its complete fullness. Until then, we are left with God's kingdom being one of many kingdoms on earth. We need to bring God’s will and His kingdom into our reality as much as possible. We need to preach the good news to the poor. We need to help the blind see. We need to help free those who are oppressed. We are the people on the ground to bring about God's kingdom.

*Luke 4:43 “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God…because that is why I was sent”

Jesus stated that the reason he was sent here was to preach the good news of the kingdom. We are often taught that the reason he was sent was to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins; however, that isn't what he said. He said that he came to preach the good news of the kingdom. His death on the cross is part of that bigger framework, not the goal. We should not make his death and resurrection the framework or else we miss the larger picture. The death and resurrection are glorious things indeed, but they are not why Jesus was sent. Jesus was sent to preach and bring about the kingdom.

Luke 8:1 “Jesus traveled…proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God”

Luke 9:11 “He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God”

Luke 9:60 “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Another example of Jesus telling another person to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:62 “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Being part of the kingdom of God is the goal. That is what people were worried about being part of.

Luke 10:9 “Tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’”

Luke 10:11 “The kingdom of God is near”

Luke 16:16 “The good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”

*Luke 17:20-21 “Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact the kingdom of God is among you.”

The kingdom of God, the kingdom we are citizens of, is "not coming with things that can be observed." This physical, yet invisible kingdom is not what the Israelites were expecting when the Messiah would come. If I was a Pharisee, I would’ve replied to Jesus, "You mean to tell me that you're going to start a kingdom but that kingdom isn't going to be visible. That is not a kingdom. You say it is already here? I see Roman soldiers just down the street. How can you say the kingdom is here among us when I see the Roman kingdom all around me?"

God does not always do what is viewed as "rational". He had Gideon lower his army from 32,000 to 500 before invading another nation. He had Joshua march around Jericho blowing trumpets in order to defeat them. He saved the world by having Jesus die on a cross. In hindsight his acts are glorious, just like his kingdom. But at the time, they seem to be a little off.

The kingdom of God was there among them and is here among us. Although I live in America, my true citizenship is in another kingdom. All of us who profess to follow Christ need to realize that we are part of a kingdom that is among us. Our nationality belongs to God, not to any of the kingdoms of this world. Jesus’ kingdom might not have physical borders or a common language, but it is a kingdom nonetheless, a kingdom unlike any other.

Luke 18:28-30 “I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

People will do things for the sake of the kingdom of God. By this point I'm sure that you are realizing that the kingdom of God is a message of importance to Jesus.

*Acts 1:3 “He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

Jesus raises from the dead and spends time teaching his disciples. This is really the final huddle. It's the last play in the Super Bowl. The quarterback has only a short time to motivate his players before they have to break and run the play that will decide the fate of the game. Their whole season depends on it. The quarterback reminds them of the most important thing. What did Jesus remind them of in a similar case? It wasn't the theological significance of his death on the cross. It wasn't his miracles. It wasn't his resurrection. Those things all fit in the context of the message of the kingdom of God. One last moment with the people he placed the future of his mission to, and the Bible records that he spoke about the kingdom of God.

Acts 8:12 “He (Philip) preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus.”

The message of the kingdom begins to be preached by those who are the early Christ followers.

Acts 19:8 “Paul…arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.”

Paul preached about the kingdom of God.

Acts 28:23 “From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.”

Acts 28:30-31 "And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered."

We see more examples that Paul preached the kingdom of God. That was the goal of all the stories of Jesus' life. That is the good news that Jesus himself preached, and Paul continued to preach it.

Rom 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

*I Cor 15:24-25 “Then comes the end, when he (Christ) hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put al l his enemies under his feet.”

It's at the time when the kingdom is handed over to the Father that the kingdom will be fully and completely here. Until then, we will live in a kingdom that has no boundaries, a kingdom that is just a foretaste of the greater kingdom to come, yet it is still the kingdom.

*Rev 1:5-6 “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.”

We are priests in this kingdom. There are no soldiers, no union workers, no corporate executives, no janitors, no policemen, just priests.

Rev 11:15 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.”

What a glorious day that will be!

Good News of God's Kingdom - Guest Post by John Nugent

We're in for a treat today. John Nugent provided me with his non-trimmed down article on the Kingdom of God. A shortened version was published in the Christian Standard last year. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Also, I recently preached a sermon on this topic.

KINGDOM-DRIVEN CHURCH/GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S KINGDOM

Part One: The Good News

Marriage Analogy

Marriage has fallen on hard times as of late: divorce rates are soaring, children are being born out of wedlock, Christians are marrying unbelievers, and same-sex unions are escalating. Indeed, there is widespread confusion as to what marriage entails. Such confusion stems partly from our culture’s tendency to mistake the benefits of marriage with marriage itself. It is true that after marriage a man and woman are properly positioned to have children, whether the goal is to enjoy their company, pass on the family name, or ensure care in old age. It is equally true that spouses may savor romantic moments, experience guilt-free intercourse, share material possessions, and enjoy certain economic privileges. These benefits of marriage cannot and should not be denied; but neither do they define what marriage is.

From a Christian standpoint, marriage is a lifelong commitment that a man and a woman make before God and His people, and consummate in the marriage bed. By these actions they bind their lives exclusively to one another out of the conviction that they can best serve God together. Apart from this context, marriage can degrade into a contractual relationship by which two individuals, still independent, seek to secure the benefits of marriage while the investment potential is still promising. The sad but inevitable result of this kind of agreement is that it is easily dissolved when the benefits wane and the arrangement becomes less convenient or is seen to be less advantageous.

Insightful Christians have claimed that a similar fate has befallen the Gospel message. [fn. 1 See the numerous writings of the Gospel and Our Culture Network.] They believe that a good number of Christians have confused the benefits of the Good News with the Good News itself. I have to admit that I was skeptical of these claims at first, but recent experiences in local churches, seminars, and college classes have convinced me otherwise.

Good News Exercise

When teaching about the nature and mission of the Church, I typically begin with a simple exercise. I hand each participant a blank index card. On that card I have them answer the following question: “What is the Good News that Jesus and his followers proclaimed?” Then I collect the cards, mix them up, and read through the stack. The answers are much the same: “Jesus loves me as a friend and will help me through the tough spots in life,” “My sins are forgiven and my guilt is removed,” and “Jesus died so I may be raised from the dead to receive eternal life.” Though these statements reflect important components of what Jesus has done and what benefits we may receive through him, participants are often surprised to learn that these benefits by themselves are not the gospel message that Jesus and his followers preached; that is, according to Scripture.

I expose them to the biblical message in the most straightforward way I know. I hand the participants another index card. Each one contains a different verse from the Synoptic Gospels and Acts in which the Good News Jesus or one of his followers preached is summarized in a sentence or two. One by one they read the verses aloud and by the time they are done the message is clear. According to Scripture, the Good News that John the Baptist preachecd, [fn. 2 Matt 3:1-2] [fn. 3 Matt 4:17, 23; 9:35; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43; 8:1; 9:11; 16:16] Jesus commissioned his followers to preach, [fn. 4 Matt 10:7; Luke 9:2, 60; 10:9-11] Jesus said would be preached until the very end, [fn. 5 Matt 24:14] Jesus preached after his resurrection, [fn. 6 Acts 1:3, and Jesus’ followers preached in their earliest mission work [fn. 7 Acts 8:12; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23; 28:31] was the Gospel of God’s in-breaking kingdom. Here are a few representative verses: Jesus preached,

• “John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’” (Matt 3:1-2)
• “Jesus went…proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said, ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.’” (Mark 1:14-15)
• “…[T]his gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14)
• “I (Jesus) must preach the good news of the kingdom of God…because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:42-43)
• “[Jesus] appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)
• “[Philip] preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus.” (Acts 8:12)
• “[Paul] declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus.” (Acts 28:23)

Implications

From these verses we may trace a kind of evolution of the Good News. John the Baptist preached about the kingdom of God, Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, and Jesus’ earliest followers preached about the kingdom of God and Jesus. Today, however, many Christians retain Jesus’ central place in the Good News, as they should, but then they omit all reference to the kingdom of God or replace it with the latest trend, such as, liberation, enlightenment, or individualistic salvation.

My aim in this essay is not to trace the complicated history of how “kingdom” language has slipped out of many Christians’ explanation of the Good News, nor to claim that those who do not use such language do not understand the Good News. People may certainly comprehend the same Gospel but use different terms to discuss it. I only want to raise awareness of kingdom language, clarify its meaning, and suggest a few reasons why recovering such language can empower churches to a fuller witness today. Having fulfilled the first of these tasks, I now turn to the second.

Part Two: What is the Kingdom of God?

Common Misconceptions

This essay is not the place for an exhaustive introduction to the kingdom of God, so I will briefly address some common misconceptions and then suggest a more biblical view.

First, the kingdom of God is not simply “heaven,” as in the place where God currently resides. Whereas Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” more than “kingdom of God” (as opposed to Mark and Luke), the reason has nothing to do with location. Instead, Matthew, being a respectful Jew writing for a Jewish Christian audience, is honoring God’s name by not overusing it. He uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” as a circumlocution—that is, a roundabout way of conveying “kingdom of God” without saying “God.” Furthermore, as the Lord’s Prayer indicates, God’s kingdom entails God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven.” So whereas heaven is and has always been under God’s reign, the Good News is that God’s rule is extending beyond his heavenly abode.

Second, the kingdom of God should not be confused with the person of Jesus. Some surmise that because the kingdom existed in Jesus, he must be the kingdom. For them, to say that the kingdom has come is the same as saying that Jesus himself has come. More accurately, Jesus inaugurated the kingdom, taught authoritatively what that kingdom is like, and reigns now over that kingdom—but he is not the kingdom itself. As we will see, the kingdom of God is a social reality ushered in by the first and second advents of Jesus, but Jesus himself is not the sum total of that reality.

Third, the kingdom is not simply inner spiritual experience of the divine, as in “Jesus reigns in my heart.” Support for this understanding is gleaned from Luke 17:21, where Jesus says, “the kingdom of God is within you” (NIV). However, the word translated “within” here is better translated as “among”—a translation supported by the plural “you” in the Greek. The strictly internalized reading may be prevalent in certain kinds of popular Christian writing, but it is not supported by other Scriptures and misses Jesus’ point in this verse. This verse is better understood as referring to the reign of God that broke out amidst the lives of first century believers. No other passage locates the kingdom with the individual alone.

Fourth, many have identified God’s kingdom with human liberation in history gained by overtly or covertly replacing pagan governments with Christian ones. This was the position of the zealots of Jesus’ day, many of Jesus’ disciples, some contemporary streams of liberation theology, and certain circles lobbying for a Christian America. Yet Jesus rejected those means for carrying out God’s will. Instead, he began forming a non-territorial people whose mission required seeking first God’s kingdom in every land and was not contingent on one particular government.

Finally, we should avoid equating God’s kingdom with the Church. Though the kingdom is sometimes made manifest in the Church, God also exercises his reign beyond our “walls.” Though the reign of God operates in and through us, it also pioneers ahead of us and cleans up after us. God is sovereign not only of the church but of all creation. More precisely, the church is a sign, foretaste, and herald of the kingdom. It is a sign to the extent that it points others toward the reality of God’s kingdom. It is a foretaste insofar as one may partially experience the kingdom in the church’s life. It is a herald when it proclaims the kingdom’s nearness and nature.

Jewish Narrative View

How, then, should we understand the kingdom of God? Though they did not get all the details right, let me suggest that we see it similar to how the Jews of Jesus’ day did: an age in history to be ushered in by the Messiah in which God’s reign over all of creation would be made manifest. To understand this view, we must briefly review the broad scope of the biblical narrative. We must ask both what God has been doing since the beginning and how he is working toward the end. In presenting this narrative I must speak in general terms and paint in very broad strokes. More could be added about Old Testament laws and the significance of Jesus’ life and death, but I have chosen to narrate only enough details to help the reader gain a basic grasp of the nature of God’s kingdom.

In the beginning, God created humanity that we may enjoy his generous gifts to us: gifts of living, shaping our own lives, enjoying others, enjoying God’s creation, and enjoying God. Human sin has distorted these gifts and prevented our full enjoyment of them. It has alienated individuals from themselves, each other, creation, and God. This has resulted in reckless living, strife among people, separation from God, and death itself. God was not content to leave his creation in this condition. He chose to form a people, Israel, whom he would teach what it means to live according to God’s design and through whom He would show the world what that living entails. God does not mandate such living for his own benefit, but that his creatures may fully enjoy his gifts to us. Israel struggled throughout its life to fulfill its calling. God comforted Israel through prophets by proclaiming a future Israelite who would inaugurate an age when all people would be obedient to God and God’s original intentions for creation would become reality.

This promised age, the kingdom of God, began with the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God became human. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus made possible the way of life God intends for all creation. In living, Jesus showed us what it means to live rightly. In dying and rising, he released the stranglehold sin and death formerly held on our lives and creation. In forming a people, the Church, and inhabiting them through his Holy Spirit, he furnishes us the place and power to embody and bear witness to God’s kingdom. However, God’s reign has not yet been fully realized. Out of love for all humans and desire that more may enjoy his reign, God has allowed the kingdoms of this world to continue for a time. Their perseverance and resistance to God’s reign diminishes our experience of God’s gifts and stands as a reminder that his kingdom has not come in its fullness.

Yet opposition to God’s reign is not the final word. Christ promised to return. When he does, the counter-kingdoms of this world will be vanquished permanently. God will raise his faithful who have died and gather them unto his faithful who are alive and he will dwell among them forever in the new heavens and earth.

Now, But Not Yet

One of the most puzzling aspects of God’s kingdom is its “now” but “not yet” status. By this I mean that, although the kingdom began in Jesus, it clearly has not come in its fullness. As a result, we experience it only partially now and we await its fulfillment when Christ returns. This tension has often been explained by comparing two critical moments of WWII, D-Day and V-Day. On D-Day Allied forces delivered the fatal blow to Axis powers that secured their eventual victory. Though the Allies could confidently celebrate their victory, the war did not end that day. Axis powers continued to fight for a loosing cause before finally surrendering on V-Day. Similarly, Christians know that the death and resurrection of Christ are the defining moment in the establishment of God’s kingdom. Yet the lame duck opponent of God’s kingdom will endure until Christ returns to consummate his reign and subdue his enemies permanently.

So from a Christian standpoint, history may be understood as two overlapping eras: the old and the new. The old era is the age of “the world,” which stretches backward in human history before Christ. The new era began with the ministry of Christ and extends forward to the fullness of God’s kingdom and serves as a foretaste of it. The old era, however, did not end with the ministry of Christ. It persists as a “lame duck” regime and will continue to do so until Christ returns and God places all things under his feet. [fn. 8 1 Cor 15:20-28] The overlapping of these two eras has created, in effect, a third era that stems from the beginning of the new until the end of the old. This era, from Pentecost to Parousia, is that of the church. During it we experience the kingdom of God in part, but not in full.

By this we see that the Good News of the kingdom and the Gospel of Jesus are one and the same. They are fused so tightly together that one cannot be properly understood without the other. The Good News is that Jesus the Messiah has come, that he has inaugurated God’s kingdom, and that through his death and resurrection we may inherit this kingdom. This inheritance is not something we must die to experience, though we will likely die and be raised before we experience its fullness. New life in Jesus begins when we are baptized into his body, the Church, whose mission is to seek first God’s kingdom.

Part Three: Kingdom-Driven Church

Introduction

As leaders in the Restoration Movement have rightly sought to restore key practices of the early church, it may now be time to revisit the way the early church articulated the Gospel message. The most pressing reason for this is faithfulness to the teaching of our Lord and his Word. This does not mean that those who omit kingdom language are being unfaithful, although it may suggest that we think that our way is better. Of course one may point to the letters of the New Testament where kingdom language is employed less often. It is important to remember, however, that whereas the Gospels and Acts focus on the Gospel message and its delivery to new hearers, the NT letters were written to converted believers and thus presuppose an audience who has already heard and accepted the gospel message, even if imperfectly. Their concern is how churches should order their lives according to this message in particular times and places over and against challenges to this message within and beyond the body. Nevertheless, even when they do not employ “kingdom of God” language, the teachings of the NT letters are based on the truth that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have changed the course of world history, that this change is the fulfillment of Israel’s expectations, that it means new life for believers now, and that it will be fully consummated after Jesus returns.

Take the Apostle Paul for example. Although he seldom employs kingdom language in his letters, he often speaks about the Gospel in ways that highlight the Jewish narrative view of God’s kingdom—that is, the re-alignment of time and life signaled by the coming of the kingdom in Jesus. Below I paraphrase a few of the most obvious passages:

• Ro 6:4, 13; 7:4, 6; 8:5-17, 23 Newness of life and first fruits of the Spirit,
• 1 Cor 7:31 Present form of this world is passing away
• 1 Cor 10:11 The end of the ages has come upon us
• 1 Cor 13:8-13 Now we know in part, then we will know fully
• 1 Cor 15:20-28 Christ as first fruits, then we follow, then the kingdom is handed over to God
• 2 Cor 6:2 Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation
• 2 Cor 5:16-17 In Christ creation is new, everything old has passed, everything has become new
• Gal 1:3 Christ set us free from the present evil age
• Gal 4:4 God sent Christ when the fullness of time had come
• Gal 6:15 New creation is everything
• Eph 2:11-22 In Christ there is a new humanity

So whereas there is biblical precedent for talking about the Gospel without using the phrase “kingdom of God,” such alternative language should at least reflect the narrative structure of the Good News about Jesus and the kingdom, as do the NT letters. “So what?” you may wonder, “What are the practical implications of this adjustment in how we articulate the Good News?” Let me conclude by suggesting two ways that restoring kingdom language might empower the witness of local churches.

New Life in Christ

One way restoring kingdom language can empower the church’s witness is by emphasizing the new life of the kingdom that Jesus offers believers now. I have been preaching the Good News of Jesus and the kingdom of God for over a decade now and, frequently, many who hear it for the first time flood me afterwards with appreciation. The reason is almost always the same. Many Christians think that, although Jesus came to fix their afterlife, he left their miserable everyday life mostly intact. Of course, they have heard preachers talk about repentance and new life (most preachers understand this quite well), but for some reason it never clicks for many believers that their life now is supposed to be radically different from that of non-believers. They assume that this life, even in Christ, is meant to be a drag, whereas abundant life begins in the hereafter. They believe that now we live in Christ’s suffering and only then we will enjoy his resurrection.

This results, at least partially, from well-intentioned Christian communicators (whether popular authors, radio personalities, or local church teachers) preaching Jesus without emphasizing the narrative framework of the Gospel. [fn. 9 An example of this is chapter three of D. James Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion, 4^th ed (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1996), 31-36. Kennedy presents the gospel as follows: (a) Grace: heaven is a free gift that cannot be earned; (b) Man: man is a sinner who cannot save himself, (c) God: God is merciful and doesn’t want to punish us but just so he must punish us, (d) Jesus Christ: Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place in heaven for us, and (e) Faith: we can we receive this by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.] From the hearer’s perspective, there is a big difference between “Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead so you may inherit eternal life after you die” and “In his life, death, and resurrection Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom so that you may live in newness of life now and may experience the fullness of that life when Jesus returns to finalize God’s reign.” This does not invalidate other, more familiar elements of the Good News, but it does put these other important things–how the cross of Jesus pardoned our sins, vanquished God’s enemies, and so on—into the narrative framework shared by the Gospel’s earliest advocates.

When people hear this for the first time, they often receive it as good news. It means that old self-abusive habits need not remain with them until death. It means never again being alone. It means not being judged according to social status, talent, biological relations, or academic credentials. It means there is a real-life body of believers who value them as Jesus does. It means that this kingdom-seeking, spirit-empowered, cross-patterned body will be with them each step of the way to warn them of dangers, pick them up when they fall, appreciate and incorporate their unique gifts, and love them tirelessly. This is why Jesus could say of Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9), and of his followers, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

One of the reasons God raises up leaders is to cast a vision of the possibilities of life under God’s reign. Unfortunately, people seldom rise above the vision that is set before them. We all view and experience life within certain parameters that we have inherited, developed, or learned from others. It is difficult for us experience life beyond these parameters. We come to expect from life and ourselves only what our imaginations have been formed to perceive. When all we expect from faith is a happy ending, we may only live a mediocre life. But when a vision of the abundant life of God’s kingdom is set before us, we may blossom with the new life Christ intends for us.

To Do and To Be

A second way restoring kingdom language can empower the church’s witness is by elevating the “to be” of the church’s mission alongside the “to do.” Put differently, the kind of corporate life believers share is just as important as the tasks they carry out. In the past decade or so, visionary leaders have sounded something of a rallying cry among our churches to clarify our purpose. They have directed us to church growth books and encouraged participation in seminars aimed at getting churches to ask the same kinds of questions that successful businesses ask, namely: What is our purpose? What is our mission? What do we exist “to do”? If we could only focus on such questions, they propose, we can streamline our life together so as to major in majors and avoid time-consuming distractions.

We were right to recognize the truth in this cry, that if we as God’s people are not intentional about our mission, we may unknowingly drift from it and fail to bear fruit. The problem, however, is when the church’s mission is driven by a truncated gospel message. If the Good News is that Jesus died for our sins to secure us a pleasant afterlife, then the purpose of many streamlined churches becomes, in practice, to get as many people as possible to fulfill the bear minimum necessary to share in the resurrected life. However, if the good news includes, among other aspects, immediate newness of life according to God’s kingdom, then the “to be” of the church’s mission is just as important as the “to do.” Our job is not simply to spread the Good News about Jesus and his kingdom; we must embody that Good News in our life together.

Jesus’ parables about the kingdom were not pie-in-the-sky visions of the distant future; they were pictures of the new reality Jesus was making possible—a reality which demanded an immediate response that would transform how his followers viewed the world and lived their collective life. This new life is central to Christian witness. It is what makes us savory salt, bright light, infectious yeast, and a city on the hill worth noticing. The kingdom of God must serve as the rudder that guides Christian decision-making. We must always ask how this or that course of action will both lead others to Christ and give them a glimpse of what God’s kingdom is like. A decision that accomplishes the former without the latter is deficient because if it fails to reflect God’s kingdom, then it is not Christ to whom we are leading them.

For example, unbelievers may be drawn to Christ more easily if we were to give up on racial or social reconciliation and choose to be churches that focus on only one particular race or economic class. This choice would remove one possible barrier that would prevent a closet racist from joining that church. However, that decision would also shape that church’s life so as to bear witness—not to the kingdom of God, where ethnicity and net worth do not segregate—but to the old era of the world where they do. The ‘to do” and the “to be” should not be separated. For a long time the world has noticed a strong break between what Christians preach and who Christians are. For this reason many have rejected the faith altogether. Emphasizing the church’s mission to embody the kingdom in its life together may therefore strengthen our witness.

Conclusion

In Matthew 24:14, Jesus said, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Most Christians agree that the end has not yet come. So we must continue to preach the good news Jesus preached, though perhaps with one significant difference. Following the example of the early evangelists in Acts, we must never proclaim the kingdom of God independent of the Jesus who died, rose, and now sits at the Father’s right hand. Emphasizing the kingdom does not mean downplaying Jesus’ death or ignoring the various benefits of the good news that are often mistaken for the full gospel message. Rather, it means preaching the entire gospel as best we understand it, fully aware that now we know only in part, but when Christ returns to bring the kingdom in its fullness, then we will know fully, even as we are fully known.

Watch out for the potholes.