As a Christian, do you ever feel like you and your faith are being totally marginalized by the mainstream social media? So many of the great things Christians are doing around the world are never mentioned. When Christianity is mentioned the message from our culture is often: Your views about homosexuality are archaic and dangerous. Your ideas about male leadership in the home are a virulent form of abusive paternalism. Your belief that Jesus is the only way to God is the extreme of the religious intolerance, the kind of intolerance responsible for most of the wars in this world. It is easy to feel like Christianity has been deliberately marginalized and is irrelevant to what happens in the everyday world of the 21st century, especially when you live in the DC suburbs, as I do.
For me, it took the words of a Christmas essay, written almost a century ago to pull me out of such disheartened, mistaken thinking. Here are words, from the essay, entitled, One Solitary Life. Perhaps you’ve heard it.
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is the centerpiece of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
No one has affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as Jesus Christ. Though modern day secularists want to push our Christian faith out of mainstream life into a closet marked, “religion,” and many Bible-believing Christians today believe that Christ’s primary mission was to rescue us FROM this evil, sin-sick earth to take us AWAY to heaven, historic Christianity has radically transformed the face of Planet Earth. Here are just two reports from two periods of history taken from Jack Davis’ book, Christ’s Victorious Kingdom:
Regarding the impact in the Roman world: Christians demonstrated love for their fellow men and women by caring for widows and orphans, helping the sick, infirm, and disabled, reaching out to slaves, prisoners, and those languishing in the mines, helping to find work for the unemployed, assisting in time of natural disasters, and showing hospitality to strangers and travelers.
Regarding the world-wide impact of Christians in the 19th century: The fact that at times missionaries were not successful in separating the gospel from its Western colonial form…. should not obscure the tremendous spiritual and cultural contributions to the lands in which they worked. Missionaries were active in the fight against slavery. Medical services and education were hallmarks of the missionary presence. Notable contributions were made by missionaries in the areas of linguistics, ethnography, and comparative religion. Cannibalism and infanticide were checked, and new respect for the dignity of women was taught. The introduction of new products like cocoa into Ghana (1857), together with new farming methods, dramatically improved native economies. Countless lives were transformed by the power of the gospel.
No one has affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as Jesus Christ because his followers understood Christ’s mission for them on planet earth. Many times, today’s Christians don’t. In fact we can easily think Jesus’ mission was to rescue us FROM this evil, corrupt earth—that he has given up on—to take us AWAY TO heaven. But the gospel Jesus proclaimed was not just the good news for the afterlife--that an individual could be delivered from an eternity in hell. It was not just good news about what could happen to them after they died and went up to heaven. Rather, it was the good news that heaven itself had come down to earth in the form of the Messiah to transform Adam’s earthly kingdom that had become the kingdom of darkness, sin, and death into the kingdom of light and righteousness. The true gospel is that the Messiah has come to establish the kingdom of God on earth.
All the gospel writers are clear that the gospel is about the coming the kingdom of God. Mark tells us that Jesus opened his public ministry with the words, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (1:15). Matthew writes, Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction (9:35). Luke records, Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God (8:1).
We must understand the term kingdom of God if we are to understand our mission in following King Jesus. But this term is unclear to most Christians today. Let’s try to understand its meaning.
The Messianic Kingdom Is Promised But Misunderstood
From Genesis to Malachi, the pages of the Old Testament promise that one day the Anointed One (Messiah) would come to liberate God’s oppressed people and establish his messianic kingdom. Here is an example from Isaiah 9:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined….For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian…. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isa 9:2-7).
The king, who would overthrow Israel’s oppressors and establish this new order, was understood by most Israelites to be an earthly ruler who would overthrow the enemies of Israel who routinely oppressed her. Geographically located at the crossroads of the world, the Israelites had been subjugated by the Egyptians to the south, the Assyrians to the north, the Babylonians to the east, and in Jesus’ day by the Romans to the west. No wonder they expected the messiah to bring a national kingdom that would bring Israel supremacy and glory.
Despite the widespread notion that the kingship of the Messiah would be in the form of a political/military state, the messianic prophecies had always contained clues that the oppressors of God’s people to be overthrown were more deadly than earthly rulers. The real oppressors the Messiah would come to overthrow would be the triumvirate that had usurped Adam’s kingdom and enslaved his race—Satan, Sin and Death. For example, in the messianic prophecy mentioned above (Isaiah 9) the Messiah sets up a kingdom of peace, righteousness, and justice. For such a kingdom to be set up Satan and Sin must be overthrown. Furthermore, since the Messiah will rule an everlasting kingdom, he must overcome Death. So the real oppressors to be overthrown were sin and its allies.
The OT prophets consistently made it clear that Israel’s subjugation to foreign tyrants like Assyria and Babylon was not because they lacked MILITARY might but because they lacked the MORAL might to overcome sin. Such servitude to foreign powers was God’s judgement upon them for their sin. For example, here is just one snapshot of Jeremiah’s message to Judah, just before Jerusalem was laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar.
Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation (Jer 22:3-5).
It was ther sin that led to their slavery to Nebuchadnezzar.
When King Adam rebelled against the High King, aligning himself and the human race with Satan’s rebellion, he brought God’s curse upon his race—slavery to Satan, Sin, and Death. The promised Messiah, then, comes into the world to vanquish these foes of the human race and to establish the righteous rule of The High King. Let’s observe how Jesus deliberately highlighted that it was these three foes—the usurpers of Adam’s kingdom—that he came to overthrow.
King Jesus Demonstrated the Overthrow of Satan Sin and Death
1. First, let’s note that this king overthrows the corruption of the created order caused by Adam’s sin in all that he does. By his healing power, he shows that the kingdom of God reverses the curse on Adam’s race and kingdom brought about by their sin. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. Human bodies, broken by paralysis or disease, are made whole. Even destructive forces of nature are overpowered as the wind and waves obey the voice of Jesus. The curse upon them, because of Adam’s sin, is temporarily overcome by the command of earth’s rightful king. He empowers his disciples to heal and commands them to explain that such healing is a demonstration that the kingdom of God is near (Lk 10:11). The ultimate vanquishing of the destructive effects of sin’s reign over the earth is Jesus’ overthrow of death. He raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead, the widow’s son, and his friend Lazarus. In so doing, Jesus demonstrates more than his divine power. He shows that he has come to overthrow the brokenness and havoc spread through all of creation by sin. Every part of human culture and the created order are to be redeemed by his power and rule.
2. The arrival of the new order brought to earth by King Jesus is further manifest by his power over Satan’s kingdom. In Matthew 12:26-29 Jesus interprets his own mission to be the invasion of Satan’s kingdom. The strong man is being bound so his house may be plundered. Not only does Jesus repeatedly cast out demons, but he empowers his disciples to show that the kingdom is near, by casting out demons. The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven’ (Lk 10:17-18). Satan’s fall from heaven is the beginning of the end for the devil’s kingdom. The kingdom of God has come. Jesus’ exorcisms are not merely proof that Jesus is God come in the flesh. Jesus himself said their significance was in proving that the kingdom of God had come.
3. Christ’s kingly rule in human history also requires the defeat of sin and establishment of righteousness. Just as Jesus’ healing gives us a glimpse of the ultimate overthrow of disease and death, and his exorcisms foreshadow Satan’s eventual destruction, his ethical teaching gives us a picture of righteous living in the kingdom. Matthew 5-7, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, is a portrayal of the righteous life to be lived by the new humanity. It is a picture of Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness. Kingdom living begins with a change in heart attitudes. Jesus identifies eight such attitudes (what we call the beatitudes) that reveal redeemed humanity.
God’s covenant people are to live out these kingdom attitudes, as a window display of kingdom life, a movie trailer of coming attractions for all the world to see. Not only that, but Jesus’ kingdom disciples are to transform the world around them through their influence. They are salt and light for the world, both of which transform whatever is near them. Kingdom people are to seek to redeem every part of the culture around them, exercising dominion, seeking to bring about Christ’s agenda (kingly rule) in every sphere of life.
King Adam was to develop the people and resources of the garden (earth) FOR God, i.e. shaping a culture that was righteous, pleasing to God. In that way, God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (where there is perfect obedience to God) But the first Adam, in his rebellion, lost his kingdom to Sin and its allies. Now the Second Adam has come. Jesus teaches us to pray for HIS KINGDOM to come meaning that God’s righteous will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not only is this to be our prayer, but pursuing the spread of righteousness over earth is to be our highest priority: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, said Jesus (Matt 6:33).
Many in today’s church have been harmed by a view of the kingdom of God that interprets passages about the kingdom as relating primarily to the final return of King Jesus when he puts all things under his feet. Since the kingdom is future, their view of the present sinful culture is to separate from it rather than transform it. Fortunately, such a separationist view of the culture, though rampant in the 20th century, has been a minority view. Throughout history Christians have understood that Christ reigns right now and that we are called in this life to follow king Jesus in the establishment of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness, pressing the battle spiritually to the gates of hell and geographically to the people groups of every tongue and tribe, and nation.
The coming of the kingdom of God brings restoration to earth. Jesus has begun to fix everything broken by sin and establish righteousness over the earth. Through-out history, Christians have understood the restoration component of the kingdom to be a calling to mercy ministry—to the poor, homeless, abused, sexually wounded and broken, addicted, mistreated, hungry, enslaved, all those who are hurting because of sin’s corruption of our world. Engagement in such ministry is not just to perform good works, but to point to Jesus the only one who restores wholeness, a wholeness that begins in this life and is finally realized at Christ’s return.
The fullest work of the kingdom takes place in the human heart. In the next episode, we move away from a general overview of our mission to begin a four-part series, looking at four kingdom attitudes that mark the work of King Jesus in our hearts restoring us to be the men God designed us to be.
