God’s Kingdom – Embracing the Mission

God’s power has broken in on our world. God’s presence is once again in the midst of human beings. God’s new creation has been inaugurated and will one day be consummated in all of its glory.

All of these realities find expression in and are confirmed by the resurrection and enthronement of our man, Jesus.

Jesus was raised from death. He was not merely resuscitated–brought back to mortality, only to die again. He transcends mortality, he has vanquished death, he has removed sin, he has gone before us into God’s new world as the first-fruit of many more to come. He restores all that was lost in the fall of humanity.

For this, and for so much more, Jesus is Lord.

As a glorified human being, the prototype of what all believers will one day be, Jesus is reigning over both heaven and earth. He has once and for all assumed the role that all human beings were supposed to assume in God’s first creation.

From his glorified and empowered position in heaven, his presence is with us on earth. He sustains us through every difficulty.

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁶ So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The first disciples learned that the Lord’s power and presence are mediated through God’s Holy Spirit. In order to access that power, that divine presence, human beings must sometimes act in ways that are counter-intuitive:

• Instead of speaking, we must listen.
• Instead of doing, we must wait.
• Instead of planning, we must pray.

When we assume this posture before God—humbly listening, patiently waiting, obediently praying—his Spirit comes to us and fortifies us, strengthens us, empowers us, encourages us. It is then—and only then—that we are ready to engage the mission to which God has assigned his church.

Any action on our part without this preparation will result in human results rather than divine.

Look around and see that this is true. Some churches can attract huge crowds with spectacular events. I have nothing against huge crowds. But, I would rather have a small group of committed disciples who are filled with God’s Spirit than a multitude operating on a secular agenda.

The latter may be able to “get more done” but the former are able to make God smile. Through these who are willing to embrace God’s mission on its terms, God can, is, and will accomplish the mission.

And all the glory will be his.

 

God’s Kingdom – Experiencing the Divine

Christianity had a humble beginning indeed: from 12 to 120 to thousands upon thousands. And now? The largest religion in the world.

But when we take a close look at its beginning we ask, “How did it even get off the ground?” And when we look at its internal problems we ask, “How has it survived and flourished for 2000 years?”

Resurrection power, that’s how. The power of God that was not expected has been unleashed. And it changes everything.

It changed the first followers:

• Prior to their experience of the resurrection, some of them had vague notions of a bodily resurrection someday far off in the future but they had no idea of how a future resurrection and judgment radically alters one’s life here and now.

• Prior to their experience of the resurrection, they may have had a conception of another world “out there” but they did not fully appreciate the implications of another world, a New Creation, breaking in on and radically changing this one.

Once they experienced that in-breaking, once they witnessed the empty tomb, after they had handled the resurrected Lord of Heaven and Earth, their new perspective changed them and they changed the world.

Take Peter and John for example. In Acts 4 we read,

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” 18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Act 4:13-20, NIV).

Peter and John had been radically changed by their experience. After their brush with the resurrection, when they had seen God’s New Creation in action, they knew that the so-called rulers of this realm are as illegitimate as the leader of the rebellion in that world, Satan.

And this new knowledge organized their new life in Christ. It allowed them to conquer this age, even if that meant being put to death.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame [conquered!] him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

In Christ we are all “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). May God empower us to live as such!