This Good News (19)

Does any of this have a bearing on what we do in the 21^st century and how we do it?

My answer is, how can it not?  I began this journey by wondering if maybe the end has not yet come because “this good news of the kingdom of God” has not in fact been proclaimed, announced and spread abroad in all the habitable world as a testimony to all the nations.  What if we think we have been doing that when, in reality, we have been preaching a church gospel that Paul would describe as “another gospel” that is not the original at all but a poor replica and facsimile?

What if John was right and we, like the Laodiceans of his day, are “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” while all the time deluding ourselves that we are “rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing”?

Well, personally, I believe we are very Laodicean; and that we have been neglectful and arrogant concerning this matter of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.  As a teacher and prophet in ecclesia, I have a responsibility to “do what I know”.  This was God’s challenge to me in 1983 when I was struggling to function as a rural Baptist pastor.

For a while I was like a character in a popular song: That’s me in the corner, losing my religion.  But, like Greg Boyd said, “Religion just isn’t my thing.  Some religious folk consigned me (and still consign me) to the fire.  But over time I’ve come to see my religious failure as a tremendous blessing.  Because, when I lost my religion, I discovered a beautiful revolution.”

And that revolution is the kingdom of God, the good news of the kingdom of God and proclaiming, announcing and spreading abroad the good news of the kingdom of God.  That is my gifting, calling and commission; and whether anybody joins me or not, this commission is where I find the freedom and the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Does it have a bearing on what we do and how we do it today?  As far as I’m concerned it changes everything and that puts me in mid of Brian McLaren’s book, Everything Must Change.

The official spiel for this book says:

Acclaimed author and emergent church leader, Brian McLaren states, "More and more Christian leaders are beginning to realize that for the millions of young adults who have recently dropped out of church, Christianity is a failed religion. Why? Because it has specialised in dealing with 'spiritual needs' to the exclusion of physical and social needs. It has focused on 'me' and 'my eternal destiny,' but it has failed to address the dominant sociological and global realities of their lifetime: systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction."

McLaren asks, "Shouldn't a message purporting to be the best news in the world be doing better than this?" What he sets forth in this provocative, unsettling work is a "form of Christian faith that is holistic, integral, balanced, that offers good news for both the living and the dying, that speaks of God's grace at work both in this life and the life to come, both to individuals and to societies and the planet as a whole."

Praise God for Brian McLaren; praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit in the world through willing bond-servants of Jesus.

Christianity the religion has failed; first because it could never succeed because it is an oxymoron.  But it also failed, as McLaren says, because it has specialised in dealing with ‘spiritual needs’ to the exclusion of physical and social needs, something Jesus and the first apostles never did.  The kingdom of God is nothing if it is not about the whole person, body, soul and spirit.

Church and its ‘gospel’ focus on me and my eternal destiny, but they have failed to address the dominant sociological and global realities of our lifetime: systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction.  The good news of the kingdom of God goes to the heart of these issues with a two-edged sword.
 

I sincerely hope that this discussion thoroughly changes what we believe.  And I sincerely hope and pray and work towards the reality of the people of God becoming much more integrative people who closely align beliefs with their words and actions.  If we do, the world will change because what we do and say and how we do and say it will be transformed by the Holy Spirit from church-gospel-preaching-heaven to ecclesia-good news-announcing/ sowing-kingdom of God.

 

Cheers,

Kevin.

This Good News (18)

What is Proclaiming?

B.  What response does the good news call for?

When Peter proclaimed the message the Spirit of God gave him on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, at the critical point, the people respond with an urgent question. Luke records, "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

When the good news of the kingdom of God was announced and sown, what response does it call for from those who hear and experience it?

Well, to a significant extent, that depends on the recipient and the situation he or she is in.  The first example is the very first ‘miracle’ of Jesus recorded in John 2.

At Cana in Galilee Jesus’ mother was attending a wedding and Jesus and his disciples were invited.  They ran out of wine so Jesus’ mother says to Jesus, “They have no wine.”  It’s possible Mary was in charge of catering for the event.  I’m not sure what she was expecting, but I guess Jesus was her firstborn, so he would be the obvious choice to solve this problem.  In our English translations, his response sounds terrible to us, but he used a Hebrew idiom that only has cultural translations.  Today, we would probably say something like, “What’s that got to do with you or me?”

But Jesus adds, “My hour has not yet come.”  I suggest this shows that Jesus’ mother, knowing her son as she did, was expecting a miracle and Jesus was not that keen to launch into his miracle ministry yet, so he deflected the issue to something like, ‘what’s that got to do with us, let them sort it out.’
 

But Mary didn’t leave it there.  I suspect she turned and walked away with a subtle smile on her face – and a clear strategy in her head.  As she leaves, she says to the servants, “Do whatever he says to you.”  She knows her son.  She knew he would do something – just what, she wasn’t sure.

Jesus looks around and sees 6 large water pots used for washing ceremonies.  He instructs the servants to fill them with water, which they did – to the brim, we are told.  His next instruction was to draw some out and take it to the head waiter, which they did.  The groom was praised for leaving his best wine until last!

The kingdom of God came near that wedding on that day.  It was there in the person of Jesus and Jesus took the opportunity to sow the seed of the kingdom by turning water into the best wine.  What response was called for?  “Trust me and follow my instructions.”  The bible calls this “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5 and 16:26).

Faith is never the simple act of believing – at least not in the Hebrew mind.  Faith is a composite of background knowledge, mental assent to that knowledge and commensurate action that fits with the belief and the knowledge.  That’s the faith that gets results.  The servants knew Jesus and his mother and his disciples and decided he was worth trusting, so they did what he said.

In this case and in all cases the response called for is living faith – faith that takes action commensurate with what is known and believed.  It’s a little bit like the circles illustration earlier:  Believing is one circle of three; faith is all three circles converging – knowledge, belief and what I call trust: the obedience of faith.

Listen to how Paul concluded his letter to the Romans: “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my good news and the proclaiming of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”

All the elements I’ve been discussing are here in a simple farewell message.

But go back to the servants for a moment.  Imagine if you will Jesus calling some Pharisees and Sadducees to carry out this crucial miracle – after all, they are the equivalent of our Pastors today.  Do you think they would have done what Jesus asked the servants to do?  Personally, I doubt it.  They probably would have expected to be the ones issuing the instructions, and I doubt their religious sensibilities would have allowed them to use the ceremonial washing urns for the job.

Somehow, the servants had changed their minds about Jesus.  As I said, they decided Jesus could be believed and trusted, probably because of the integrity I spoke about earlier radiating from his person.  Note I said they ‘changed their minds’ from one of unbelief or scepticism to one of belief and trust.  That’s repentance.

The response called for, as always, is repentance and faith – but not a religious charade or show like the Pharisees (and many today) too easily fall into.  No religious fanfare and no public displays of remorse and devotion; just change your mind and act accordingly.

Search this out for yourself if you don’t believe me.  In each case of so-called miracles, the recipient of the good news of the kingdom had to change their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust and then put that trust into action – the obedience of faith.

Then of course there’s the proclamation events.  Perhaps the best example of this is the event of Acts 2 and the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

I reckon it is very difficult to imagine the extraordinary events of this one moment in history.  Try to imagine it.  Luke records that there were about one hundred and twenty persons gathered in an upstairs room of their accommodation in Jerusalem.  They were there to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  They were also there because Jesus had instructed them to gather together and to wait in Jerusalem until they received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The eleven disciples and their women, Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Jesus’ brothers, and the first clutch of disciples they had made.  They trusted Jesus and they followed his instructions.

The first thing they did was elect a replacement for Judas Iscariot: Matthias.  Then the unimaginable happened.

The noise of a violent rushing wind filled the whole house; tongues of fire distributed themselves to rest upon each one present; the Holy Spirit filled all of them and they began speaking in the languages of the many visitors to Jerusalem – Jews who had come from every region around to celebrate Pentecost; from every nation under heaven it says.

This is not about ‘speaking in tongues’ as many would have us believe.  The speaking in tongues was the means to the end.  The end in view here was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God to an audience that spoke many different languages.  Supernatural ability to speak those languages was God’s idea and God’s gift for the occasion.  The kingdom of God came right into that room, into those 120 people, then, by their proclamations, out into the 3,000 other people – all without any fanfare or fuss.

We’re not told if the 120 moved out of their room into a larger space when this happened, but sound of this cacophony drew the crowds and they came together in wonder and amazement.  Here were ordinary Galilean Jews recounting a story – a history in fact – in all the languages of their homelands.

The multitude marvelled, it says:  “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that we are hearing them speak in our birth languages?”  Even Arabs, it says.  Everybody was perplexed: “what does this mean?” some said; others mocked, suggesting they were drunk.  Then comes Peter – again.

“We are not drunk as you suppose, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning.  What you are seeing is a fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophet Joel.”  He recites Joel and finishes the quote with the verse I looked at earlier: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Peter then, inspired and with great pleading, recounts their recent history regarding this man Jesus the Christ.  “This man”, Peter proclaims, “delivered up by the pre-determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.”

Doubtless there was some uneasy shuffling and probably some muffled protest and scoffing, but Peter is undeterred.  He presses on, declaring their history and the part this multitude present played in those events.  His punch-line is Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified!”  Messiah to the Jews, Lord to the non-Jews.

This cut them to the quick and they called out to Peter …  [imagine that happening in a modern church gathering!] … ‘What are we to do?’  Now here comes Peter – again.

Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ, leading into forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

Luke goes on, “And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation”.  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand persons.”

God chose to call out 3,000 people on that day.  What is ecclesia?  God’s ‘called-out’ company.  Ecclesia got a turbo-boost that day.  Whereas ‘church’ in the form of the Pharisees etc. was staying at a safe distance awaiting its time to pounce.

For this amazing response, there had to be a deep and powerful change of mind (repentance) by the people.  And Peter calls them to be baptized upon the name of Jesus – not in or into, but upon.  For that to happen, there must be faith.  And were the elements of faith present?  You bet.  If the people came to Jerusalem ignorant, they were ignorant no longer.  Peter took care of that.  They had the knowledge; they had changed their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust; they asked the apostles what they should do and when they were instructed, they followed the instructions.  They were added to the number of God’s household and kingdom.

Peter had just proclaimed and announced the good news of the kingdom of God, and people were pressing to get in as Jesus predicted.  Only this time, the other two elements critical to what became ‘normal christian birth’ in the first century became evident.  Previously we saw repentance and faith; now we see baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

As we have seen in scripture and in life for over two thousand years, it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives without his being clearly evident in various ways.  The three main categories of evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit are sanctification (Philippians 1:6), ‘bearing fruit’ (reproduction and the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5) and spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and others).

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was evident in the tongues of fire and the gift of the ability to speak in languages unlearned previously; and in what happened to those who repented and turned to Jesus on that day (Acts 2:43-47).
 

When the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed announced and spread abroad, eternity responds in unimaginable ways and in predictable and unpredictable ways and lives are changed.  The most evident change is the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit as he carries forward the salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification Jesus has secured into new dimensions of the light and love of God and His abundant mercy and grace towards us humans.

Next, my final question: Does any of this have a bearing on what we do in the 21^st century and how we do it?

 

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (17)

What is Proclaiming?

I have only a little to say here.  I have dealt with this question in more detail earlier in this document.

I try not to use the word ‘preach’ any more.  I see no sound reason for or productive outcome from preaching.  The kind of preaching we are used to is a creation of man’s church.  It is monologue, sermon, homily, delivered in a sanctimonious voice from a sanctimonious position.  It’s much more about telling people how they should live than communicating the good news of the kingdom of God.

I do not see preaching or preacher as a Spiritual gift anywhere in the entire New Testament.  Not even “public speaking” appears as a gift or talent among the first century people of God, with the possible exception of Apollos who was regarded as an orator.

In ecclesia, teachers teach, prophets prophesy, evangelists evangelise and pastors pastor.  It is also generally understood that apostles proclaim; they also argue, debate and defend.  And for all of them, the primary piece of equipment is the good news of the kingdom of God and as far as the good news of the kingdom of God is concerned, the New Testament and the apostles – and of course the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus – all indicate that heralding, proclaiming and announcing are the appropriate means of delivery.

To me, what the good news itself demands is a strategy that announces “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – so help me God.”  Paul said, “I become all things to all men that by all means I might save some”, so I suspect he used whatever means accomplished his purpose.  He also said that he and his team were “approved by God to be entrusted with the good news.”  God trusted them.  Can He trust as well?

However, by preaching I mean a one-way oration that bears no criticism and countenances no comments or questions from listeners.  Even lectures are better than the non-communication of preaching a sermon or homily.

Church is largely about preaching; ecclesia is about living and sowing the good news of the kingdom of God.

A.  How was the good news proclaimed in the New Testament?

As I have indicated earlier in this series, the New Testament knows two maid words to describe the propagation of the good news: kerygma which means proclaim, herald, announce and the verb form of the Greek word ‘good news’ itself which means something like sowing or planting seed.

Jesus, Paul and most of the New Testament characters used both of these methods.  And in the first century since Jesus, those who trusted Christ and were born again by the Spirit went out and did plenty of the second as they lived their lives “in the world but not of it.”

But for us, it is not as simple as that.  In one way, I wish it were that simple, but our modern Western paradigm and thought processes which are basically Greek in their origins, often complicate things.  Let me explain.

Pick any subject you like and there will be three facets or approaches to it: what you believe about it, what you say about it and what you do about it.  For some people, there is no connection or overlap between the three.  For others there is an almost total connection and overlap.  Then there is a wide variety of possible positions in between as these simple illustrations show.

Typically, a modern Western approach tends towards A and away from D, whereas a typically Hebrew approach tends towards D and away from A.  We might refer to a D-type person as a person with integrity – he or she is integrative.  We might refer to an A-type person as dis-integrative.

For some people what they believe, what they say and what they do are all separate unconnected things and connections are only made ad hoc to suit the prevailing opinions and circumstances.  Other people might connect what they believe and what they say, but leave what they do in a separate compartment for convenience.  Others again might connect what they believe and what they do, but leave what they say separate so they can say one thing and do another.  Yet others might connect what they say and what they do, but leave what they believe separate because their belief system is poorly developed.

An integrative person is one who places importance on connecting all three to the greatest extent possible so there is consistency in their life and the people they relate to know what to expect and can trust them.

One thing you could say about Jesus is that he was integrative: what he believed, what he said and what he did aligned very closely, perhaps even totally.  It was said of him that, in his humanity, he was made in every way like us except without sin.  So he probably was the most integrative person on the planet then and now.

The good news of the kingdom of God requires announcers and sowers who are tending towards Jesus’ integrity where believing, saying and doing are ‘on the same page’ and are well blended.  Again, Jesus set the standard.  What he believed issued clearly in his publicly discourses, in the way he lived his life and in his treatment of the people around him – his disciples, his immediate family, the crowds, the seekers and the religious leaders.

The good news of the kingdom of God is such that it can be announced, it can be given away in physical, emotional and mental healing and it can be shared through love in fellowship and companionship.  It’s mostly about discerning what is the real need (which is not always what appears obviously on the surface) and using the resources of the good news to enhance life.

For us, if the truth of the good news has taken root in our spirits (as it will when we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit), it is like an evergreen tree that is always available for the benefit and healing of ourselves and the people in our lives.  It is also available to take as seed and sow it into the life of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities.  And I firmly believe that that was exactly what Jesus, Paul, Peter, Philip, Stephen and so many more members of the first generation of ecclesia did.

They did not bury this precious pearl in the ground and hope nobody stole it; they did not hide it under a box to prevent people from seeing the light; they did not turn it into a formula that any Tom, Dick or Harry could buy and sell; they did not turn it into a preaching series for Sunday mornings.

They used every means available to them to live, speak and give away the good amazing wonderful stupendous brilliant news of the kingdom of God – that by all means they might save some.  Attending church meetings, obeying rules, preaching some pathetic pretence of a gospel and going to ‘heaven’ when you die, to me, does not qualify as good news on any level – certainly not good enough news for me to give my life to.

Next we consider what response does the good news call for?

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (16)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?
[Points 12-16]
Twelfth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that Jesus wants for himself a people keen for what he is keen for: righteousness.

Paul wrote to Titus (2:11-14), his disciple in Crete:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory or our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Isn’t this the heart-cry of so many? We want to live a life of denying ungodliness and worldly desires; we want to live sensibly, righteously and godly, looking forward to the hope – not of ‘heaven’ but of the fullness of the kingdom of God and of the appearing of the glory of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

How is it achieved? The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to us all. We stand in Him, we stand in His grace, we stand in His salvation, we stand in His redemption, we stand in His justification, we stand in His righteousness and we stand in the Spirit. In other words, we descend upon this mountain peak from above, we don’t try to climb it from below, half expecting we will never make it to the top.

Some years, on Australia Day, we get up early and travel about 90 minutes to our favourite headland on the east coast to watch the sunrise. It’s southern hemisphere January, so the sun rises around 4:30am. We set ourselves up for breakfast to come a little later, then we settle in to wait and watch for the glory of this new day to appear over the eastern horizon. No two days are ever the same, so every time we do it, the expectation is fresh. The weather, the clouds, the wind, all conspire to make every sunrise different. And then we celebrate what God has given us this day in this country and enter into the fullness of the new day and the new year.

Thirteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that, by the mercy of God, we are declared not guilty and therefore share in the hope of eternal life.

Again, Paul to Titus (3:4-7)

But when the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of righteous deeds which we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour – that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This sounds a bit like a birth to me. When a baby is born, its vitals are checked and it is washed clean and encouraged to cry to get its lungs full of oxygen to kick-start its life outside the womb. In my country, years ago, most babies were given a small slap on the buttocks to make them cry to initiate the oxygen supply.

Our second and spiritual birth – the birth from above – is also the birth from water and the Spirit. Our initiation into the family of God is entirely an act of God and His mercy, whereby we receive the washing of regeneration (literally, born again) and the renewing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us in copious amounts like cleansing, soothing oil. And His grace gives us the justification we so need. Together, the grace and mercy of God combine to solidify us as children of God and heirs to the kingdom of God.

When I was young, I learned the basics of grace and mercy like this: grace is getting the good things you don’t deserve; mercy is not getting the bad things you do deserve. While it is a bit simplistic, it serves to highlight the profound kindness of God towards us. Left to our own, we would die like a baby abandoned by its mother. But in Jesus, we find, as Paul said, “the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind.” So God, in His mercy, steps into the role of mother and midwife, saving our life. Not content with that, His grace follows, pouring His own life – the life of eternity – into our lives, regenerating us, renewing us, redeeming us and justifying us, thereby turning us from abandoned orphan to son of the living God.

How good is that good news?!

Fourteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Paul again – this time to the Romans (10:8-13):

[The righteousness that is based on faith, not law, speaks thus…] What does it say?‘The word (rhema) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ – that is, the word (rhema) of faith which we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same One is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him, so ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’

The apparent simplicity of these verses is staggering. On the surface, neither repentance nor faith seem to be mentioned. How is it possible that one can be saved simply by ‘calling on the name of the Lord’? Is it simply a matter of calling out something to the effect of “Lord, help me!”? Maybe it is. Look at this:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. Luke 18:10-14

When Paul said in Romans 10:9 ‘confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord’, does that mean anyone who simply says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is saved? No it doesn’t. In the Western world of today, one’s word is no longer one’s bond: people lie; people give false testimony; people say what they know is the right thing to say to get what they want, without any thought of its being an honest statement.

Confess is a Latin word meaning to agree with and its use here rules out the possibility mentioned in the above paragraph. Beforeit comes out of the mouth, the thing in question has to be agreed with, assented to, really believed. In other words, what comes out of the mouth has to be a spoken expression of what is truly in the heart. As Paul said, “with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness.”

To confess that Jesus is Lord implies that he is in fact Lord in one’s life: boss, numero uno, the main man. If he is not, to say he is a lie. And Paul himself makes this point to the Corinthians: “…and no-one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).

To be saved necessitates the true confession ‘Jesus is Lord’. But for the words to have meaning, they must be reflecting the about-face in the heart of the person making the confession – an about-face that removes self, sin, the world, the flesh, the devil or whatever from the command centre of one’s life and gives Jesus all rights to rule. And that’s a definition of repentance.

The second part of the salvation plan here is“believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Faith would actually be the better word to use here, but faith is not a verb in the English language – unfortunately. Faith is a much stronger word than believe. Unlike the original language of the New Testament which uses the same word for faith and believe, modern English has to add an extra something to the word believe to make it the equivalent of faith. In today’s English, to believe is to ‘give mental assent to’, whereas faith means to ‘stake your life upon’.

And what does “call on the name of the Lord”mean? Something like this: 1) believe in the complete adequacy of the life and work of Jesus; 2) trust in him enough to agree in your heart that he is now the boss; 3) stand up and be counted among those who will publicly declare their full allegiance to Jesus.

The tax collector knew well that he was a sinner; and he knew only too well that he was at the mercy of God, but he prayed anyway, demonstrating both repentance and faith. Not surprisingly, Jesus said he went home justified before God.

Apostle James, quoting the prophet Isaiah, wrote,“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” That’s probably what’s in play here in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Fifteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that most famous of verses, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one-of-a-kind son, that whoever trusts in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And that is followed by this: “For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him.”

Probably not necessary, but let me again say,‘eternal life’ is not – NOT – heaven-when-you-die but the life of eternity where God lives and moves and has His being, which we call the kingdom of God. It is life of another order, on another plane.

Jesus is God’s unique first-born and once-born son. And it is because of that fact that he was able to successfully enter our humanity and, in his death and resurrection, successfully lead us out of humanity’s bondage to death and into humanity’s true freedom: life as God intended; righteousness; ‘abundant’ life; life with a capital L.

Sixteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that, while mankind languishes in the pigswill and leftovers of hundreds of years of church and theology, God’s mercy and grace are no less available today than while Jesus walked the earth and Paul served him as a bond-slave.

I have shown elsewhere that the four pillars and the core business of the kingdom of God are a construct of salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification. At their centre is the cross of Christ. As in the illustration here, these four pillars connect the earth where we live and move and have our being to the heavens where God lives and moves and has His being – the eternal realm.

By standing in Christ – by our faith and confession– we are birthed into the eternal family and have a full share in His salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification beginning now and climaxing when time is no more and we no longer live with the restrictions of our time-space-matter existence.

The good news within that is that Jesus is to us the salvation, the redemption, the righteousness and the justification we humans stand in need of. Our salvation is that Jesus tasted death for everyone and his death is sufficient for us all. Our redemption is that Jesus was the price God paid to release us from the grip of the evil one. Our righteousness is that Jesus stands perfectly right before the Father and shares that righteousness with all who fully trust in him. Our justification is that Jesus has borne the punishment for our sin and we are legally pronounced‘not guilty’ – therefore, as Paul said, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

I want to conclude this section with a quote from one of ecclesia’s prophets of last century, T. Austin-Sparks. This excerpt comes from Refiner’s Fire Journal in “The Supremacy of Christ”, page 35-36.

You get a different kind of convert altogether when you carry the work of Christ to its full issue; when it is not only preached that your sins will be forgiven and you will go to heaven and not hell – perhaps a little more than that. But it is infinitely more than that, and if only we preached the fullness of Christ’s work, we would have converts that went ahead apace and reached maturity much sooner than the majority are doing. And we should find that most of our conventions are quite unnecessary, for they are mostly to get us to the place we ought to have come when we were converted.

It is necessary for the believer; may I just say that it is necessary for the worker, the preacher of the gospel, the one who has to do with souls. You will not be a popular preacher of course, if you preach this. You will find, more than ever, that hell will be out against you, and many of the Lord’s people will turn against you, but it is necessary.

If only we could bring to them in the power of the Holy Ghost, right at the beginning, the proclamation of Him “who delivered us out of the power(literally – authority) of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the son of His love”, and get that in, we should see different results. Take that to them.

Under sixteen points I have answered the question‘what is the good news of the kingdom of God?’ Let there be no doubt that this good news is a profound story and an outrageously generous offer; an offer way too scandalous for those who live by the creeds of the Old Testament. The Pharisee sect in Acts 15 found it too scandalous and insisted that religious ceremony and duty be added to the message and to the expectation placed on converts. And it is no different today, the Pharisee sect is still with us as strong as ever and always ready to place burdens on people contrary to Jesus and Paul – and contrary to the very scripture we say we revere.

It’s time now to turn to other questions. My next question is, What is Proclaiming?

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (15)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?

[Points 9-11]

Ninth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that anyone who will, may become like Jesus –that is, like man was meant to be: in relationship to the Father; in service to the world; and in choosing to obey and saying ‘no’ to the urges of the old nature.

Let me ask you, if it is Jesus’ death and resurrection which are the ground and means of salvation, why did Jesus live on earth for thirty years before his death and forty days after his resurrection? Why didn’t he just come as an adult, die, rise again and then leave? I figure these thirty years and forty days must mean something.

This forces me to ask another question: how human was Jesus? I could recite creeds or quote scripture, but for some time, the truth of his humanity never touched me. By the church’s doctrine, I had always to think of Jesus as my ‘example’ and try to model my life on his goodness and so on. But by that teaching, Jesus came to be an unattainable ideal quite removed from me. And I knew instinctively that was not how it was supposed to be.

I learned a lot from Psalm 8. In verses three and four, David the Psalmist says, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him; the son of man that you care for him?” What is man? No particular man in mind or perhaps he was thinking about himself. No real issue here.

But when we come to verses five to nine, church and theology have taught us that they refer to Jesus – that is why the psalm is sometimes called a ‘Messianic’ psalm. It goes on to say, “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [angels] and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the bests of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

If we think back to Genesis, these words ring true as the original charter given to man as the custodian of God’s earthly creations.

The New Testament writer to the Hebrews (2:7-9) quotes this psalm and makes a direct application to Jesus. Often Psalm 8 is interpreted by Hebrews 2:9 and while it is right and proper to do so, sometimes it obscures an important truth. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons ecclesia needs teachers!

The truth is, Psalm 8 applies to Jesus primarily because he is a man! Man was special from the start: a little less than God – any closer and he would have breached the trinity; crowned with glory and honour; ruler of creation; in authority and dominion over the living creatures. In other words, a lesser king.

That’s what man was and that’s what David was meditating about – and that is what Jesus became. He laid aside all that set him apart as Divine and took on the form and the limitations of mankind. However, before that happened, mankind had been living on a much lower level – living as very much less than he was meant to be. Hebrews 2:8 confirms that reality when it agrees that, at present, we do not see “everything subject to him [man].”

What we do see, the writer goes on, is Jesus. And how do we see Jesus? He was, “…made a little lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honour…” because he suffered death. This is the glory and honour I spoke about earlier. As humans, we ‘suffered death’and ceased to be who and what God made us to be because of sin. Jesus entered into our humanity and went down with us to death – even death on a cross. He did this even though he himself “knew no sin, nor was any guile found in him.” But, “By the grace of God he tasted death for everyone” and by so doing, opened the way for man to be restored to humanity as God intended humanity to be.

And what is humanity as God intended? The answer is here in Hebrews 2:9 – “but we see Jesus…” Jesus is humanity as God intended. God in His wisdom knew we would discover the question, and the answer is the thirty years and the forty days of Jesus. That is, Jesus’ earthly life!

I will not subtract anything from the importance of Jesus death and resurrection; I will simply add to that the importance of his life and his ascension. We understand how we are to live as christians in the world by the life of Jesus. We understand how we can live as authentic christians in the world by the life as Jesus. That is why Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cortinthians 5:21)

In short, we live as Jesus lived – AS A MAN FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is as God intended and that is how we can live as an authentic christian in the world – as Jesus himself said, “in the world but not of it.” By second birth, we are born ‘from above’, ‘of the spirit’ and the Holy Spirit is given to make it all possible and to make it actually happen. Without the Holy Spirit, living as an authentic christian in the world is just not possible – it is a pipe-dream. With the Holy Spirit, “all things are possible”.

Of Jesus, it can be said, ‘there was a man on earth; there is a man in heaven.’ He followed us into our fallen humanity so that we might follow him into his resurrected and ascended humanity. In Jesus and Philip – and others – we have seen, we have heard and we can conceive what real humanity filled with God looks like now. And the good news is, that is ours in Christ.

But wait, there’s more! Spirit-filled life on earth now is only a foretaste of “real life”. Paul wrote,“…as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived’ what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

In a nutshell, to be saved is to be “like Jesus” –that is why I say emphatically that salvation is Christ-likeness. We join the family by faith; we live as he did on earth – a man filled with the Holy Spirit; and, like Jesus, “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus is our fore-runner. Where he went, we can and do and will go. Guaranteed! Surely that is good news indeed.

Tenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is the story of Jesus. Talk about stating the obvious! But perhaps for some, stating the obvious is necessary.

Romans 1:1-5

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son; who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh; who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness: Jesus Christ our Lord – through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake.

Whatever else our heralding the good news of the kingdom of God does, it must declare the historical facts of the story of Jesus. We can no longer assume that our audiences know that much. The most many of our fellow-countrymen ever hear is the expletive, ‘Jesus Christ!’ – almost spat out like a used piece of gum.

The first thing we see about the good news here is that it is God’s. It starts and ends with Him and it belongs to Him. It is part of the ‘household tradition’ of the family of God. It is also the good news about God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about His grace, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His eternal salvation, His plan of redemption and His act of justification.

As sovereign, He could have chosen to do nothing about the human dilemma – the sin problem. As love, He chose to enter into our dilemma as completely as it was possible without sacrificing either His deity, His sovereignty, His justice or His holiness. He chose to rescue, heal and retrieve His special creation and restore it to its original glory through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

And He knows the limitations and the frailties of human nature stuck in its time-space-matter zone; and He has factored all that in by “helping our infirmities” to the extent that even they were borne by Jesus when he went to the cross. The truth is, there is now no brake on our returning to life as God intended, and there is, as Paul says, “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The church’s gospel puts a brake on this truth; the good news of the kingdom of God in ecclesia declares there is no brake on the truth and there is no condemnation! If you get condemnation, that’s not God and it is not ecclesia; though you can be very sure it is religion and church.

Might I suggest here that you read and digest Romans 5:12-21 and Galatians 4:4-5.

Paul says the result of the first Adam’s one trespass [that’s the Adam of the Genesis creation story] was condemnation and hence death for all men. He then adds, the result of the second Adam’s one sacrifice [that’s Jesus’ death] is forgiveness and life for all men.

Paul explained this to the Galatians in this way:“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth Hi Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Eleventh, the good news of the kingdom of God is what God has freely allocated to those who live their lives in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature: a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages, for our glory; that which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, ‘things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and have not entered the heart of man – all that God has prepared for those who live Him.’ God has revealed them to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

These words of Paul rattle some people to the core. Esoteric mumbo-jumbo to some; New-age philosophy to others. But this is in our bibles. And it was written by the one man to whom was given the revelation of the administration of the new covenant in Christ.

Whether we like it or not, Paul proclaimed ‘secret wisdom’. It was ‘secret’ in the sense that it was hidden – until the advent of Jesus – but now is made known, but only to the mature. In this context, mature refers to those who are in Christ. To them, wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit. But as it was then, so it is now: none of the masters of New-age, or any other master of our age, understand it because, if they did, they wouldn’t be creating totally human facsimiles of the spiritual realities involved.

One of the ways Paul explains this ‘secret wisdom’is Romans 5:17 – “For if by the transgression of the one [the first Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” You want to reign in life? The route is welcoming the abundance of God’s grace and especially of His free gift of righteousness. In like manner, Paul talks about being ‘more than conquerors’ and being ‘lead in triumphal procession’. And it is these things that convince me that the idea of heaven-when-you-die is a furphy – and a cynical misrepresentation of the kingdom of God.

Living in the kingdom of God begins in this life when we are born the second time, from above, from the Spirit, into the family and household of God. For a long time, Western christians have been duped – sucked into believing that there’s no way we’re going to be ‘more than conquerors’ or be ‘led in triumphal procession’this side of death. And those same christians have taken this false gospel all around the world.

The fortress mentality has emasculated many so-called christians and, therefore, much christian teaching, and it’s a lie from the pit; a deception foisted upon us for the specific purpose of stripping the good news of one of its most potent claims.

‘Reigning in life’ is like a distant mountain peak, magnificent to the senses but a painful depression to the soul: out of reach unless you can drop onto it from the heavens. Most of our attempts at ‘pulling our socks up’ or ‘getting our act together’are dismal failures which, strangely, only seem to drive us on to more and more effort. Every attempt at ‘reigning’ ends up with us worn out, depressed and cynical.

We cannot now and never will, reign in life by external compulsion, not even by whipping ourselves. The key is to believe the truth of Romans 5:17 and then act on what you believe. What action is appropriate?

First, stop living as if the truth is not the truth; second, take yourself out from under any condemnation; third, live and rejoice in all the good of what Jesus has already delivered. We have not seen, heard or conceived much of reigning in life like that, yet this is our inheritance now. And ultimately reigning in life here, with all its pain and suffering, will issue into the eternal realm when time is no more.

I remember the days of my engagement to Lesleigh. It was a wonderful time but also a painful time, waiting and waiting for the reality of life together o replace the mere promise of it. In a way it’s a bit like that. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our engagement ring and promise – the divine pledge of the fullness of eternal life. While we wait for the fullness, life is a mixture of good times and bad, of joy and pain, of encouragement and suffering. And the fullness is the righteousness of God in all its glory.

Next: points 12 to 16

Cheers,
Kevin.