What does the Kingdom of God look like?

I recently read an article concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God that was posted in Christianity for Today  (January 2006). [Full reprint of the article can be found at How the Kingdom Comes ]

For some time we have been seeking to bring to the forefront pertinent thought concerning the coming of the Kingdom in these turbulent and exciting days we live in. I am sure that you, like me can easily identify with the dilemma faced by Michael S. Horton the author as follows:

“It was confusing to grow up singing both “This World Is Not My Home” and “This Is My Father’s World.” Those hymns embody two common and seemingly contradictory Christian responses to culture. One sees this world as a wasteland of godlessness, with which the Christian should have as little as possible to do. The other regards cultural transformation as virtually identical to “kingdom activity.”

Certainly the answer does not lie in any intrinsic opposition of heaven and earth. After all, Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Rather, the answer is to be sought in understanding the particular moment in redemptive history where God has placed us. We are not yet in the Promised Land, where the kingdom of God may be directly identified with earthly kingdoms and cultural pursuits. Yet we are no longer in Egypt. We are pilgrims in between, on the way.

In Babylon, God commanded the exiles to “build houses and settle down,” pursuing the good of their conquering neighbors (Jer. 29). At the same time, he prophesied a new city, an everlasting empire, as the true homeland that would surpass anything Israel had experienced in Canaan.

So both of my childhood hymns tell the truth in their own way: We are pilgrims and strangers in this age, but we “pass through” to the age to come (not some ethereal state of spiritual bliss), which, even now in this present evil age, is dawning.

The challenge is to know what time it is: what the kingdom is, how it comes, and where we should find it right now”.

The gospel proclaimed by Jesus was foremost a call to become part of God’s Kingdom, a call to live under God’s rule and reign. “Christianity is more than a matter of having a new understanding. Christianity is an invitation to become part of an alien people who make a difference because they see something that cannot otherwise be seen without Christ.” The unbelievers who first responded top Christianity did not view it as a new philosophy or another national religion. They saw a community of people who lived counter-culture to the world of which they were a part of at that time. The church of the first century was identified not by its theological teachings or its mystical revelations – in the beginning Christianity was a different way of life.

To become a Christian required a second birth (John 3:1-3), which created a totally new way of life (2 Cor 5:17). Christian conversion meant radical change, a redirection of life, characterized by a new allegiance at the center of the personality and by a new direction in social relationships.

When Zaccheus the Tax-collector was converted, he immediately responded by resolving to redistribute his wealth to the poor and those whom he had cheated. Jesus consequently declared when he saw the evidence of the inner change with Zaccheus “Today is salvation come to this house” (Luke 19:9).

In that Graeco-Roman world of vicious immorality, where wealth was worshipped, life was cheap, and purity and chastity were vanishing virtues, came a new moral influence. The extraordinary life of the Christians was a blazing torch of attractive moral witness that appealed to the tired world of its day.

Perhaps the most striking quality of the early followers of Jesus was their “agape” love, especially towards the most neglected of that day – the orphans, the aged, the sick, the prisoners, the slaves, and the abandoned. Tertullian once defended the Christian Faith from false accusations when he wrote in his “Apology” – “as a people we are one in mind and soul, and we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us, but our wives!”

In the beginning, the Christian faith was profoundly ethical. The earliest community of believers became known for their love for God, their love for their neighbor, just as Jesus had taught them (Matt 22:37-39), but sadly this truth was soon to be corrupted as the worship of the world and its systems became paramount to a persecuted church.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote in his journal “I want a truth for which I can live and die.” He found that truth in Christ and the Word of God concerning God’s Kingdom being established in the hearts of men and women here on earth.

Have you found the truth worth living and dying for? We have free studies for those who are interested in pursuing the subject of the challenge of the two kingdoms and how to live a new way of living. Simply write and request a set be sent to you via email file attachment.

God bless, and have a great day loving Jesus, and of course those in your most intimate sphere of life,

Kevin Dyson

Bridging the Sunday – Monday Gap

By Derek Brown

For many Christians the highlight of their week is the Sunday service. Sadly many believe this is where the Kingdom of God is primarily expressed. Ministry is confined to that which is done within the church. This is demonstrated in the true story of a young lawyer who was asked what her ministry was. She replied “I teach Sunday school at my church” What a travesty!! Nothing she did during the week in bringing justice, compassion and resolution to the world in which she worked counted, in her mind, as having any spiritual value. How can we change people’s thinking to break free of this Sunday/Monday dichotomy?

Simply put we need to disavow the concept that divides the world into secular vs sacred, private vs public, faith vs work and charity vs justice.  When we understand the Kingdom of God it is evident that everything is sacred because God is the creator of all things and nothing exists outside of His love and compassion. Our faith makes us responsible to bring the Kingdom into every area of life. In the words of Justine, a Burundian living in Rwanda, “I see what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God. I see that it’s about changing this world, not just escaping it and retreating into our churches. If Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. Everything must change.”

What a profound insight – when the Kingdom is expressed – everything must change. The change begins in us and then it finds its expression in the world in which we live and work. It is about bringing God’s mercy, compassion, justice and righteousness into every sphere of His creation. So our lawyer friend has the opportunity and responsibility to bring about change in her chosen field of endeavour by using her gifts, training and experience to be an agent for change – an agent for the Kingdom.

One of the reasons many people switch off from Christianity is that we represent a faith that has no relevance to them. Henry Drummond, writing to his own generation many years ago put it powerfully. “It is because to large masses of people Christianity has become synonymous with a Temple service that other large masses of people decline to touch it…..what they cannot follow, and must evermore live outside of, is a worship which ends with the worshipper, a religion expressed only in ceremony, and a faith unrelated to life.”  What a challenge – our faith has become self-centered and irrelevant to the real world.

What we are looking at is a rediscovery of Kingdom theology. This has many aspects but one of the starting points is the doctrine of the Trinity. In a recent Lausanne paper on ‘Market Place Ministry’ the following conclusion was presented. ”To bridge the gap in our partial perceptions of God’s work we need to be more thoroughly trinitarian instead of having in practice a unitarian (one person) theology playing favourites with the Trinity. We need to develop a three mandate/commission theology (see diagram)”

In these three commissions we see that the breadth of the Kingdom. “We are called to be part of God’s new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now. We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting.” (Wright) The Kingdom is expressed in a wide variety of passions. Once we see the vastness of the Kingdom it helps understand how other people can be equally passionate about a range of issues that may not stir our hearts. This passion is an expression of the heart of God for His creation. We are to pursue the passion God has given us but equally to validate and appreciate the passion He has put in others.

When it comes to the church we can think of Sunday as the church ‘gathered’ and Monday as the church ‘scattered’. Sunday then becomes a time to strengthen, encourage and equip Christians to take the Kingdom into their world. As church growth expert, Eddie Gibbs says, churches should shift from an invitational, ‘Come’, seeker service strategy (which works in largely churched suburbs) to a ‘Go’ strategy of dispersal, with a sustained commitment to infiltrating each segment of this fragmenting world. The work place becomes a focal point for producing the Kingdom. As Kevin Costa, a London-based investment banker, states: “If the Christian faith is not relevant in the work place, it is not relevant at all.”

So from a Kingdom perspective there is no difference between Sunday and Monday. It can be argued in fact that what happens on Monday is more important.

So then, would you like to dialog more on these issues raised?  Well why not write direct to Derek Brown newsletter@usingthenet.com.au and discuss your point of view.

Wednesday 21st October ,2009

Have you ever thought – Why do I exist—why was I born?

What is the meaning of my life?

Were you put here for a reason? You can know—you must know!

Why were you born? Is there a reason—a meaning—for your life? Is your existence part of a divine plan?

Was mankind actually placed on earth by an all-wise Creator as part of a great Purpose—a MASTER PLAN?

Knowing the answer is supremely important!

Think for a moment. What could be more important to understand than the purpose for your life?

Ecclesiastes 10:1-12:14 – Ecclesiastes is a rather negative book written by one of the wisest men who ever lived. Solomon, however, saves his wisest words for the conclusion of Ecclesiastes. After sharing that all of life is vanity, Solomon does give the major priority of life. If we lived our lives on earth with what he shares as our first priority, the conclusion of our lives would not be vanity. The conclusion of our lives would be lives lived to the glory, honor and praise of God.

What is this priority? Solomon speaks these words of wisdom: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Eccles. 12:13).

This admonition sounds very much like the statement made by the One who is all wisdom, Jesus Christ.

Jesus replied to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?” with these wise words: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:37-39, KJV).

Each day that we live we are challenged to keep the main thing central in our focus and not get distracted by events happening around us. Interestingly both Solomon and Jesus shared with us what the main thing is.

What is the main thing? The main thing is to love God and love your neighbor.

Why do you think it is so hard to do this? Love benefits all concerned. Love benefits the one who gives love and the one who receives love. You sometimes hear people say “Life would be so easy if people would just love one another.”  This does not mean life will be without difficulties and trials, but love will carry us through every trouble.

The reason people find it so hard to love one another is simple –because love never fails. Satan the enemy of our souls knows this, so he works tirelessly to cause division and strife, bitterness, jealousy, pride and anger in our lives.

The cost required from us to love another is exactly the same. It means laying down our pride, the result of worshipping ourselves. Pride causes selfishness, strife and jealousy. Another reason it is so hard for us to love God and others is that we cannot do it in our own strength. We must depend upon God to firstly give the gift of love to us, so we can pass it on to others.

To receive His love demands that we daily submit ourselves to Him for that wonderful work to be accomplished in us. Perhaps you will want to join me this morning in a simple prayer that sums it all up:

Lord, I love You. Help me to love today as Jesus loves. Amen.

**********************************************

Here is something to chew over in your spirit man ….

A very modern theologian from Sheffield, UK, Bishop Tom Wright says all mankind has clear evidence of the Kingdom within us by what he terms “the echoes of the Spirit of God”. These echoes are described by Bishop Wright as our universal desires of

• Longing for justice and mercy among all people
• Quest for true spirituality and intimacy with the Creator of the Universe
• Hunger for meaningful relationships with significant others
• Delight in both natural and created beauty

The Kingdom of God as the Living Body of Christ is predominantly happening outside the gathered church.

Now before you get upset at my statement, simply think about the allocation of available time each week.

There are 168 hours each week.

Usually as Christian believers we only spend 6 to 8 hours in each other’s presence, unless we are living in a community, or Bible College, or a monastery!

But when you read the Book of Acts you find they spent time every day with each other.

Why did they do this?

Most times it was because of persecution and the safest place to be was with each other. Otherwise it was because of the diffculty of being free to serve Christ as we can do today.

If you are employed by an employer, your first obligation to earn your wages is to do what your employer (master) wants done first.

Any spare time after satisfying your boss, or employer would be spent with family and other believers in Christ.

But when you read of the mracles recorded in the Book of Acts, they were the result of men and women who made themselves available to serve God 24/7 in their ordinary life.

Consider the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7)

Consider the conversion of Ethiopian government official (Acts 8),

Consider the Roman centurion Cornelius (Acts 10),

Consider the seekers and religious worshippers at Athenia (Acts 17

All of these events recorded here happened outside the corporate gathering time of the believers, but we are so restricted in our thinking that we only expect God to show up and do miracles at the regular weekly Sunday meeting!

God will not be confined or restricted simply to our regular weekly gathering – He wants to be active in our lives every day, 24/7! But He cannot reveal Himself unless we seek after revelation, and expect Him to do the impossible.

So dear friends, now that you have heard the Good News of God’s Unchanging, Unshakable, Eternal Kingdom” my challenge to you is “Are you living in the expectancy of the unexpected?”

There are three very unusual things that Jesus used to describe His Kingdom.

(a) He said it is “like the smallest seed” – Mark 4:30-32 Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven as being like unto a grain of mustard seed (the smallest seed of all) which when planted grows into the largest tree.  In Matt 13: He also describes the seed as being the Word of God which we first receive, and then we ourselves become transformed by the power of God to become the “living seed” that is planted in the field of God’s world.

(b) In Luke 13:20-21 Jesus says the truth of God’s Kingdom is like “yeast” that is mixed into the dough as bread is being made, built the entire mixture is affected by the yeast that was added.

(c) Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like”salt” that gets either used or lost.  Matt 5:13 “You are the salt of the world. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again? It’s good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by people”

Salt can only be useful if it is mixed into food, or used in other ways, but it must completely lose its identity in order to achieve its purpose.

All of these three elements must die before they can be of useful effect.

If we embrace the truth of God’s Kingdom we must learn that the Kingdom God works first within us, before it works in the world around us.

The truth is no use if it is simply sitting on the shelf like an urn of some dead realtive’s cremated ashes. The ashes speak to us of the person who once was. We honor the dead when we live our lives by the unchanging truth of God’s Word.

The Kingdom of God has the greatest effect when it is taken out of the gathered church and put into the world. That is what God wants from you and me.

Bishop Tom Wright of Sheffield, England said it this way – “For God’s will to be done on earth God’s passion must become our passion” (Bishop Tom Wright).

Is your passion God’s passion? If not, it needs to be. Be blessed today as you seek to live in His Kingdom,  Kevin Dyson