The Gospel is... Part 2

Part 2 – What is the Kingdom?

Let me start this section by saying that there are volumes written on this topic.  And there is no way that in the short amount of space given here that I would ever be able to fully exhaust this topic.  So as I am writing this, I am sensing that whomever actually gets this far in reading this will be full of contingencies and questions that I will not address here.

That being the case, my intent is to open the conversation, not to close it.  For many reasons, this needs to be looked at as a conversation opener.  It is my conviction that the ultimate definition of the Kingdom needs to happen within the Christian community of which you are a part. “What is the Kingdom?” and “How are we taking the Kingdom to the community?” should be fundamental questions that your church is asking everyday.  This conversation is at the core of the Gospel message.

Jesus has an interesting conversation with the Pharisees about the Kingdom in Luke 17.

Luke 17:20-21 New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

Perhaps a better rendering of the phrase “within you” is “among you” or “in your midst.” The “you” here in Greek is plural.  Gerhard Kittle in his Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says that when a plural form of “you” is used with the Greek word for “within,” it is about a thing that is within the midst of the group.  Not internally, or within a person, but a better idea would be the culture at work around us.  Jesus is saying that the Pharisees are seeing the Kingdom right in front of them because of the “vibe” being given off by Jesus and His disciples.  It doesn’t come with careful observation because it isn’t about space or time.  The Kingdom is a culture governed by the principles that God gives us in Scripture.

This would be an important time to say that much of the discussion around the Kingdom centers on eschatological timing and process.  I would suggest that when Jesus taught on the Kingdom, His message was not about how things were going to end.  It was an invitation to see the world from God’s perspective – to understand God’s principles and live them out among people who desperately need the peace and hope that God’s faithfulness and love provides. 

Jesus’ message to people is that the Kingdom of God brings peace to this life.  Not only to the life after this one, but right here and right now.

I cannot stress this strongly enough.  God is not somewhere else doing other things until Judgment Day when He all of a sudden takes a more directed interest in us here on earth.  God is fully present everywhere all the time.  And He is fully engaged in my life whether I acknowledge Him or not.

I believe that over time, people have a tendency to pick up on the larger story we are telling based on the bits and pieces that they hear us talk about. Too many preachers are talking about looking forward to heaven and their people see only the hereafter.  We are missing God’s Kingdom at work around us right now.  The Kingdom is not in a holding pattern. 

One of my major concerns with reducing the Gospel to a salvation message alone is that too many people say yes to Jesus in order to get out of hell.  I have heard and have even said in the past that as long as they say yes, who cares why they say yes.  Well, I think God does.  Because when we tell people about a God that is separated from them and needs to be appeased before He will “let them in,” those that hear the message say yes to being “let in,” but they don’t say yes to the Gospel – which is about living in God’s Kingdom. 

I am not suggesting that we don’t talk about salvation, nor am I attacking or critiquing penal substitutiary atonement. I am simply saying that an accurate picture of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God doesn’t call people to the altar week after week to get them to say yes to Jesus so that they can get out of hell.  An accurate Gospel message tells the story of an amazing God who is actively and intimately at work in this world right now and because of His great love for us, He is inviting us to be a part of His working in the world.  This is the only true source of peace and hope and fulfillment because not only does God knit us together in our mother’s womb (Ps. 139), but He marks our steps (Proverbs 16:9; 20:24).  If God is as smart as the Bible teaches, then I believe that these two truths are connected.  God marks our path and then designs us to be the perfect person to walk that path out – in every sense. 

The Kingdom, then, becomes the unhindered expression of my design and my path (me being the best version of me) aligning with God’s agenda and His principles (doing His things His way).  This brings about a need for me to absolutely trust His story (faith), and it also brings about complete and total fulfillment in the truth of everything being as it should be (peace).  The culture created by a faith community that is wholly committed to this way of living would be the purest expression of the Kingdom of God that the world has ever known.

So then, the answer to the question, “What is the Kingdom?” is best handled in looking at the teaching the Bible already gives about the Kingdom of God and deciding how the community of faith best applies those principles within the context and influence that God has already given them.

For you, the discussion of the Kingdom should revolve around how the faith community can apply the principles given to us in Scripture.  In my opinion, this is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in Hebrews 10 when he writes that we should consider how to spur one another on towards love and good deeds.  And don’t neglect the assembling of yourselves together as some are in the habit of doing. But encourage one another more and more (Hebrews 10:24-25 paraphrase). 

It would seem that already, very early on in the life of the church, there are folks who are trying to pull out of relationships with other believers for all kinds of reasons. This passage calls us to not only make sure that we are fully engaging these relationships, but also that we are leveraging those relationships to inspire one another towards 2 things: love and good deeds.  This it would seem would be at the core of Kingdom living.  What is the reputation of your church in your community?

So the Kingdom is foundationally built upon love and good deeds.  These deeds should be measured by the principles taught to us in Scripture.  And this creates a culture that helps people find out how to make sense of this life and the life after we die.  This culture that is created is in fact the Kingdom “in your midst.”

Hopefully, we have started a very important conversation in your head and with your friends about how the Kingdom gets expressed in your community.  At this point, further expansion on what the Kingdom is without conversation on the application of that reality would only serve to muddy the waters so I want to move to what the implications might be for us as the church in the contexts where we live.