Kingdom Ready

It should be evident, even to the most oblivious and uninformed person on the earth that the world is in trouble. Every sort of evil – abortion, child abuse, adultery, rape, murder, selfishness, hatred, greed, sexual immorality, and divorce, to name a few–abounds, and in some cases are looked upon favorably or as an acceptable social norm.

With all of this corruption and immorality, it has been the response of many Christians to fear the world and its evils and retreat into the safety of the Christian subculture that has emerged as a result. We have our own music, our own movies, our own books, our own colleges, and our own social groups to shield us from the world around us. We have created a Christian bubble, and few dare to step out of it.

It’s great to have knowledge, especially the true knowledge of the kingdom of God! However, it is also important to ask ourselves – what are we doing with this knowledge? Are we holding it to ourselves, stuck in our own little “Christian bubble,” or are we actively sharing it? If we’re not sharing it, we are not obeying Jesus’ command to preach the gospel and make disciples! We will be held responsible for what we know and what we’ve done with it. So I wanted to share an assignment from my evangelism class this year, to write a letter to someone explaining the gospel to them, and encourage you to think about how you can be proclaiming this live-saving message! How would you share it, and what are the necessary “ingredients” of the message? (If you think this letter would be useful to share with someone, by all means copy it and adapt it to your situation!) Let’s get busy sharing this amazing truth!

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and How it Died by Philip Jenkins is a fascinating book outlining the history of Christianity outside of Europe, especially during the first thousand years. This is an extremely important perspective on Christian history that is strangely absent from most books of Christian history, which focus solely on Europe.

A Witness Unto All Nations

Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

There are about 200 nations in the world today, and there are Christians in every one of these nations. But Jesus was not talking about today’s political entities, nor was he talking about the kingdoms of his day, most of which no longer exist.

The Greek word for nations in this verse is ethnesin, derived from ethne, which is the root of the English word “ethnic.” This word means more than simply “nations” in the political sense. It refers to ethnic and cultural groups – groups of people who share a distinct ethnicity, language, and/or culture. Anthropologists simply call these groups “people groups.”

Lately I have been thinking about the word “whosoever.”

The Bible says “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Whosoever means whoever. It means anyone. It means everybody.

Jesus died for the sins of all people… all 7,000,000,000 of them. He loves all people of the world and is working to draw all people to himself. His death on the cross tore down all racial, national, and cultural barriers. So why do I put limits on whosoever? Why do I think “whosoever… except that guy”?

Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  

Sometimes, we are so focused on what God is going to do in the future that we miss what God is already doing right here and now.  We often think, “Someday, God will call me to be a missionary,” or “after I retire, then God will use me for the Great Commission.”  But the truth is, God has already called us.  Jesus has already commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations. So what are we waiting for?

Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Recently I have been driving down some country roads at night. It always amazes me when I come across people riding a bike along a busy road in the middle of the night, without any lights or reflectors to make themselves visible. One guy was skateboarding at night in a t-shirt and shorts despite below-freezing temperatures, and wearing all black. Fortunately my car headlights always enabled me to see (and avoid) these travelling daredevils.

The church’s mission is to go, with the gospel, and make disciples of all the nations – teaching them to observe the things that Jesus commanded.  In doing this we make new disciples of  Jesus who will in turn make disciples themselves.

But sometimes it seems that churches are focused on anything other than the primary thing Jesus called us to do.  So what should you do about that?  David Platt, (who recently began a discipleship-making focused group with Francis Chan known as Multiply) has some great advice:

What do you think about what he’s saying?  Do you have any other suggestions?

101 is a slang term that means “basic introduction”. Many in our society use the term, especially in academics, when designing short courses to introduce students to the basics of a given subject.

Eg. “Geometry 101, Physics 101, Chemistry 101, Biology 101, etc…”

Within Christendom, there are many evangelists, preachers and pastors who are trying their very best to present Christianity and the Bible’s primary message to a lost world and to those who have questions and are seeking to know about God. Sadly, many of these ministers have failed to accurately convey, even the simple facts of the faith. The results are half-converts, living without any sense of purpose, lacking vision, ignorant of God’s plans; they live without a spiritual compass in their life.

I think the title says it all. The world as we know it is battling with hopelessness. Everything in our society these days has become uncertain. Nothing is guaranteed. Hence many are living in fear and misery. All they see is a pitiful life with no end in sight. Sometimes they wish death would take them and be rid of this little existence. How about when this begins to creep into the church? Today, I want to speak on the subject of hope and its importance in our life. Hope is an integral part of Christianity and each of us must learn about it and live it out.