THIS Gospel of the Kingdom

Why did Jesus, when sending His disciples, say, “As you go, preach THIS Gospel of the Kingdom?” (Mt 24:14). He didn’t send the disciples to announce a new religion, but His Kingdom.

If we label Christianity as a religion, we lower Christ to the level of Muhammad, Buddha, and all the gods of Hinduism and so many others. Christ is a king, not a religious leader. He is the King of kings. And He told Pilate before His crucifixion, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  He didn’t talk about religion. He talked about an actual kingdom. The Kingdom of God has returned to earth and Christ has empowered man to have dominion on earth through the Holy Spirit.

I had a misconception of what Christianity was all about. God said, “My people are destroyed because of their lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6). The message that Jesus preached was simple. “Repent, turn away from the world, because the Kingdom of God is here. I am bringing back the rulership of man on earth.” In other words, through His sacrifice, Jesus restored mankind into full sonship, and we now have access to the full inheritance of Jesus, and we are given His authority and power to be rulers and ambassadors of God on earth.

Only in recent years did I understand the revelation about the kingdom. I was saved, and my forte was to lead souls to Jesus, but I was not really introducing people to the Kingdom of God, but to a religion. I was not aware of the essence of the “new identity in Christ”, the authority that comes with it, and especially not that the “dominion on the earth” was restored to believers.

Of course I knew about joy and peace and all the gifts of the Spirit, but was not aware of the full commission that comes with the “born again”  experience. Jesus said, “As My Father has sent Me, so send I you.” (Jn 20:21). In other words, all believers are appointed and commissioned to bring the Kingdom of God on earth, the same as He did.

We may not all walk in all the gifts of the Spirit as soon as we’re born again, but as believers, we have truth and light and that makes us accountable to share it. “Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” (Jn 12:24).

We’re all called to deny ourselves in order to save the world. And while we may all go about it in different ways, our responsibility is to preach and teach the Kingdom of God. We’re all made ambassadors of the kingdom.

Our life on earth, in some ways, has ended the day we were born again. We died that day. We were crucified with Christ, and He now lives through us. (Gal 2:20). We changed nationality when we were born again. We now carry the passport of the Kingdom of God. Not only our identity is different, but we live under a different constitution, and because of the inheritance we’ve been given as sons, we have God-given rights that empower us to destroy the works of the devil in order to enforce the Kingdom of God on earth.

Jesus rose as the conqueror in a war against the devil by recovering the stolen rulership of the world. He came to reinstate eternal life and righteousness as it was intended from the beginning of the world. He came to restore the Kingdom of God on earth. And after His resurrection, He said, “All power is given unto Me,” (Mat 28:18) and in the same sentence, He empowered the believers and commissioned them to go preach and teach the Kingdom of God and make disciples.

Let’s face it, in the heart of every human on earth is a hope that utopia will come, either through religion or some form of government; But in the process we created a mess. The Bible says, “It’s not in man to direct his steps.” (Jer 10:23). We’re all looking for something better. We’re not happy with the life we’re living. We face sickness, debts, broken homes, depression, suffering, crime, prejudice, violence and divorce. We find all these ills even under democracy, which we think is the best form of government. The best we have ain’t good enough. We’re all looking for the one solution that will resolve all these problems. We’re looking for “that which was lost”.

But Jesus actually came to redeem THAT which was lost. And He introduced laws that are very different from the laws the world system was living by. We’ve tried all sorts of solutions through religion and government. We’ve even tried to separate religion and state. We don’t want morality imposed on the government. But how can you separate your values and convictions from your mode of operation? How can you tell your kids to be good without instilling good values in them? They won’t be able to stand on their own.

We tell the younger generation to not take drugs, but we tell them to not believe in God. We tell them not to have promiscuous sex, but don’t teach them the value of marriage. They have no moral compass to base their behavior on. To tell a young person to be celebate without moral conviction is abusive. That is demanding something the child cannot deliver.

In actual fact, the greatest of all human desires is power. To have the power to control our circumstances and our future. We want control over our money, our health, our education, our families, even over our government. We’re constantly in search of solutions. We want POWER over our circumstances because we see circumstances have power over us.

Let’s go to the gospels and look at Peter and John and the early disciples who were fishermen. When Jesus asked them to follow Him, what was it that made them drop everything and follow Him? Actually, they were businessmen; they caught fish to sell at the market. And that night, they had fished all night, and they caught nothing. Business was in trouble. The circumstances ruled over their business. The Bible says, they were depressed…

So Jesus said, “Let’s go back out.” And He said, “Cast your net on the other side.”  And they caught so many fish.

They saw the power firsthand. He had solutions. What they didn’t know is that Adam had shown up again. They saw a man who had the same power as Adam. Remember the first thing, when God gave Adam dominion, He said, “Have dominion over the fish of the sea.”  (Gen 1:20). For the first time in 4000 years, the fish heard the authoritative voice of Adam.

Jesus demonstrated power. Not just in commanding the fish to rush into the nets, (twice), but in healing the sick, in feeding the multitude, in turning water into wine, in stopping the wind and the storm. What kind of man can do this sort of thing?? They said, “What manner of man is this? The winds and the storms obey Him, evil spirits depart at the sound of His voice.” Even His preaching was so powerful that they said, “No man has ever spoken like this before.”

So, when Jesus called Peter saying, “Follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men.” It wasn’t just mushi-gushi love that motivated Peter. He saw power.

Jesus said, “I’m gonna teach you to do this with men.” Peter said, “I’m in…” And James said, “Me too.”  They saw that He was not just a Rabbi like any other, He had to be the one Messiah. And when Mary Magdalene became a devout follower of Jesus, she knew Jesus had power; she had been delivered of seven powerful devils.

The apostle Paul explains that Jesus was the second Adam (1 Cor 15:45-49). “As was the earthly man (the first Adam), so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven (Jesus), so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”  In the born again experience, we are made like Jesus, “in the likeness of the Man from heaven”. That’s so intense…

And that authority, that identity and the power of Jesus is passed on to us who believe. By being born into the Kingdom of God, we are empowered to enforce the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. The same as Jesus did.

(To be continued)