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The Gospel of the Kingdom is the mission of the Church

We need to re examine what we have been taught or have just grown up to believe through the process of church and life in general. Our own world view regarding God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, regarding ourselves as His church and what His purpose for us being here on this earth is. I previously posed the question; Is your religion real? Is what we presently believe real?( Daily lifestyle topics) It is our present belief system or our worldview regarding Christ and His church that will determine our walk (Behaviour), our reality, what is true to us and what is our value system we live by through life on earth.

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The question is: Is my present world view a Kingdom biblical world view or not.  AND Do I need to realign  my mindset regarding the Kingdom and the gospel I share with others?

   From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mat 4:17

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Mat 24:14

An initial manifestation of God’s Kingdom is found in the mission of our Lord Jesus on earth. The Kingdom of God has entered into this present evil Age here and now in the person and work of Christ.  We may therefore now experience its power; we may know its life; we may enter into a participation of its blessings.

Heb.6; 5 speaks of those who “Tasted … the powers of the age to come.”  The powers of the Age to come have penetrated this Age.  While we still live in the present evil Age and while Satan is still the god of this Age, we may taste the powers of the coming Age. Now a taste is not a seven-course banquet.  Yet the taste is real.  It is more than promise; it is realisation; it is experience.  “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (1 Pet.2; 3)

If we have entered into the enjoyment of the blessings of God’s kingdom, our question is;

What are we to do as a result of these blessings?

Are we passively to enjoy the life of the Kingdom while waiting for the consummation at the return of the Lord?  Yes, we are to wait, but surely not passively.

Perhaps the most important single verse in the Word of God for His people today is the text for this study; Matthew 24; 14. In fact, the Kingdom of God, in Christ, has created the Church, and the Kingdom of God works in the World through the Church to accomplish the Divine purpose of extending His Kingdom in this world.

    A.    THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM IS THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH.

In this verse we find three things.

·         We have a message,

·         We have a mission 

·         We have a motive. 

We clearly discover that the Gospel of the Kingdom is the message, which was proclaimed by the Apostles in the early Church.

We must first, however, notice a close connection between this verse and the Great Commission. (Matt.28; 19, 20.)  When one compares these two verses they speak for themselves.  “What shall be the sign of Your Coming, and of the close of the Age?”

This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations … and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the Age.”  Both verses speak about the same mission; worldwide evangelisation until the end of the Age.  This fact ties together Matt.28; 19 and Matt.24; 14.

The book of Acts relates that the apostles set out upon the Fulfilment of this mission.  In Acts 8; 12 Philip went down to Samaria and preached the Gospel.  The Revised Standard Version accurately describes his mission in these words; “he preached good news about the Kingdom of God.”  Literally translated, the words are, “Gospel ling concerning the Kingdom of God.”

  • So to evangelise excluding the Gospel of the Kingdom and the demonstration thereof is not a complete gospel or should we be more honest and say it as it is. It is not the gospel Jesus nor Paul preached:  “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”. (Act 28:30-31)

B.      THE KINGDOM CREATES THE CHURCH

The inseparable link between the church and the kingdom is shown in Matthew 16:18-20. The building of the church is discussed in terms of the keys of the kingdom of God.

Some of these keys can be stated as:

  • Those who enter the kingdom automatically enter the church. As the reign of God breaks into this world, men are confronted with the demands of God the King.
  • The life of the kingdom brings the church into being; the resulting network of human relationships must seek to contain, express and transmit the presence of the kingdom.
  • They who are called to give their allegiance to Jesus. The moment they accept his Lordship, they become part of the company that has already accepted his Lordship, in the Church.
  • His obedience was for the sake of God’s Kingdom. This was the aim of redemption.
  • The church is a structure of human relationships: brothers and sisters, shepherds and sheep, teachers and pupils, servants, exhorters, leaders and followers. This structure is created wherever the kingdom breaks into society.
  • The kingdom can be illustrated by the metaphor of a snail and its shell whereby the shell represents the Church. The secretions of the snail create the shell, which the snail inhabits. Many shells lie empty and lifeless. As church history has progressed, God has given successive interventions of his kingdom. Each time a shell has been created, appropriate to the life of the church. But Church history is strewn with empty shells where the structure remains but the life has disappeared. The kingdom perspective should cure us from a preoccupation with shells.
  • Our interest in the shells should be functional. The shell is holy while the snail is there. The shape of the shell is not holy and neither is the shell once the snail has disappeared.

C.      THE CHURCH HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM

One of the most dangerous doctrines is the separation of the gospel of the kingdom from the gospel of the Church. The result is that the gospel of the church becomes something less than the gospel of the kingdom. The former is usually limited to the Pauline concept of justification while the latter includes the miraculous powers of the kingdom. We must stress that the New Testament knows only one gospel. The gospel of the church is the Gospel of the Kingdom, the same gospel that Jesus Christ proclaimed.

  • According to the Great Commission, the Gospel will be preached to all nations – the message of the cross and the resurrection, the offer of forgiveness and the call to discipleship – by the power of the Holy Spirit, with signs and wonders.
  •  All these elements constitute different parts of one commission, which is effective for the entire period of church history. Discipleship must involve conveying all that Jesus taught and commanded throughout the entire course of His ministry: the message of the kingdom. The church is to preach the full kingdom message right to the end.
  • Jesus chose twelve disciples to advance the Kingdom. Most commentators agree that this figure was deliberately chosen to indicate that the new people of God supersede the twelve tribes of Israel. Christ’s disciples are now the ‘Israel of God’  (Galatians 6:16).
  • Jesus also chose seventy men to proclaim the kingdom. In Jewish tradition the number seventy represented all the nations of the world. This figure therefore symbolizes the universal scope of the proclamation of the kingdom.
  • The principles of the kingdom have permanent application. The fundamental commission of Jesus to the twelve and to the seventy is the same as the commission given to the church of all ages.
  • The church has been entrusted with certain powers and privileges as the Pro claimer of the kingdom. It has the right of representation; the keys of proclamation and revelation; the power of excommunication and reconciliation and the impartation of peace or judgment.

D.      THE CHURCH MUST DEMONSTRATE THE PRESENCE OF THE KINGDOM

The church is the people who live simultaneously in two ages, experiencing the age to come, yet living out that experience in this age. In the age to come God will have his way in all things. It will therefore be an age of total order, wholeness and peace. The church’s witness is that the age to come has become real here and now.  Why do you think we pray “Your Kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven”

What are the implications of this statement to the Church?

  • The church must therefore demonstrate now the quality of life  as a present reality that will be expressed in the future kingdom.
  •  When the church rejoices, men must catch a glimpse of the unseen and supernatural Kingdom. As disciples love one another, the world must see what eternal relationships are like. The inclusiveness of the church must express something of that great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and tongue.
  • The order of a disciple’s life as Christ reigns over every part of it must express the wholeness of the world to come, where faith, hope and love will abide.( Not a humanistic interfaith concept of faith but “faith in Christ Jesus”)
  • The Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit fills the church period. The ministry of the Spirit links what began in Jesus with what continues in the church as one extended event, undivided and yet manifest in repeated waves of divine intervention. No portion of Scripture explains this better than the book of Acts.

E.       THE KINGDOM IS A DYNAMIC EVENT IN THE CHURCH

God breaks into human history and interrupts it. The Word becomes flesh. God’s rule collides with the powers of this age. There is confrontation, invasion, warfare and power. The stone falls from heaven and crushed the image. Satan is defeated. (Dan.2; 44.) God transforms people. Society is transformed. All this is the act of God, which is the intervention of His kingdom, is expressed and embodied in his Son, Jesus Christ.

  • To speak of the act of God is therefore to speak of the coming of Jesus Christ. Acts helps us to follow the way in which the act of God is the event of the kingdom in Jesus. It is manifest in the acts of the Holy Spirit and becomes, in turn, the Acts of the Apostles, which in practice become the acts of the church.
  • Luke introduces the book of Acts as the record of the continued acts of Jesus. He reminds Theophilus that his Gospel was the record of what ‘Jesus began both to do and teach’ (Acts 1:1)
  • His second volume is the record of what Jesus continued to do and teach.
  • ‘God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil’ (Acts 10:38).
  • Jesus is God’s anointed king. The presence of the kingdom is personified and manifested in Him. The coming of the kingdom is the acts of Jesus Christ. This is illustrated time and again.
  • Pentecost happened because Jesus ascended and poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. Within a very short time thousands of them were born into the Kingdom of Christ.

Mark some of the extraordinary supernatural incidents, which gave ample proof that the Kingdom has come:

  •  The lame man was healed through faith in Jesus’ name.
  • The early church prayed for signs and wonders to be done through the name of Jesus, and this is exactly what happened.
  • Crowds gathered as people were healed.
  • While Stephen was being stoned, he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
  • Paul was converted because Jesus appeared to him in blinding light and called him to His service. The Spirit of Jesus guided Paul in his missionary strategy.
  • The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Samaritans, on Paul, on the Gentiles and on the Ephesians.
  • It was the Spirit who directed Peter to preach to Cornelius.  The Spirit came on the household, taking Peter by surprise and forcing him to accept them into the family of God.
  • The Spirit directed the church at Antioch to launch its mission to the Gentiles. Cities like Ephesus were drastically altered.
  • They could no longer obey the Sanhedrin because of their obedience to a higher power. They no longer feared the Roman authorities but called these authorities to account for their administration of justice.
  • Prophets like Agabus and evangelists like Philip testified to the kingdom, bringing the powers of the kingdom to villages, towns and cities. Young men saw visions and old men dreamed dreams, all of them together receiving the prophetic anointing of the Spirit.

The book of Acts:

  • Acts is therefore a record of the continued presence of the risen Lord in His church. From the moment that they were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, everything God had done through Jesus continued through the Apostles. The result was that when they preached Jesus as King, they turned the world upside down. Wherever they went they caused a social upheaval.
  • Just as Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom caused it to break through, when the apostles proclaimed the kingship of Jesus, the kingdom came. The apostles were the leaders and representatives of a kingdom people.
  • The church announces the kingdom in the continual expectation that it will come, finally, at any time. God has fixed a day when he will judge the world through Jesus Christ.
  • The church does not announce a probable hope but an accomplished fact: Jesus is King. The kingdom has come, Satan is defeated and Jesus is Lord of all. Because all this has already been accomplished, the church can heal the sick and drive out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • Wherever the Holy Spirit moves, the kingdom breaks through. There is no vacuum or waiting period. It is a period of Spirit-filled kingdom interventions.
  • The spreading of the gospel in this period of history takes place through the missionary strategy of the church. The kingdom is not a vague universal principle. It breaks through as believers proclaim Jesus as king. Jesus gave a clear set of priorities: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the ends of the earth.
  • The book of Acts records the fulfilment of this strategy. Particular cities experience the coming of the kingdom: Cyprus, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, etc. The record of the coming of the kingdom becomes a travel narrative. Where the apostles go, the kingdom comes.

BECAUSE THE KINGDOM IS AN EVENT, NOT A PRINCIPLE OR A SOCIAL SYSTEM, IT CAN ONLY BE FOLLOWED AS A SERIES OF ACTS.

F.     KINGDOM EVENTS ARE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The nature of the kingdom has not changed; therefore the manifestation of the kingdom cannot change.

  • Where the Word is proclaimed, light collides with darkness, people bow to Jesus the king, their lives are transformed, cities and villages are turned upside down, communities of kingdom people are born, bodies are healed and demons are put to flight, and world rulers are disturbed by the competing claim of the kingdom.
  • The breakthrough has many implications: but the implications are not in themselves the event. The coming of the kingdom has to be a continued record of acts. Study the history of missions, revivals, the ongoing reformation and you will be studying the continuation of Acts.
  • Luke’s story is deliberately unfinished. As I shared with you earlier, the last verse of Acts has Paul ‘… Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things, which concern the Lord Jesus Christ,’ (28:31)
  • Acts 29 and beyond was to be written by other believers, chapter after chapter of the one, indivisible breakthrough of the kingdom from City to City, from Nation to Nation and from Continent to Continent, merging into the history of revivals.

Our final observation: “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36.

The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life or should I say intimacy with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; . . . for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of this life.

We have to get rid of the popular view of this religious age in which we live. In Our Lord’s life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as his Master. The central focus in the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Him, not public usefulness to men.

DOES YOUR CHURCH OPERATE ON THE KINGDOM AGENDA?

* What was Jesus mission while He was on earth?          *Has that mission changed?                        * What is your mission?  (Matt. 9; 38-10; 6.)

* Kingdom citizenship changes every part of life, especially marriage,     – from self-interest to Kingdom interests? 

* Where do your interests lie?  (Luke 16; 18.)

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