Gospel of the Kingdom 2: The Kingdom of Jesus
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Jesus Introduces the Kingdom
So, after a long, long time, God sent his Son to reveal and get everything straight. Nobody knew exactly what God was up to and what He and His Kingdom was really like. Well, the prophets and righteous men of old had vague ideas about it. In fact, Jesus said, "many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
Not even angels had a good grasped of it all ("Even angels long to look into these things," says 1 Pet.1.12), though they've been in heaven since time immemorial. But when Jesus came, he showed what it was all about. This is the Kingdom, showing it by his life and ministry. And the idea is to bring down this Kingdom on earth. Second to salvation, this is why we are saved by grace.
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Remember? Church should stick to this. Otherwise, they'd be lost and completely deceived doing their own thing and building their own empires. We should join Jesus in his ministry and mission, not invent our own. One ministry, one task, one body, one faith, one church. This is why I often say our church was founded about 2,000 years ago when asked, "When was your church founded?"
Many local churches and denominations celebrate their foundation or anniversary day on this or that day and spend a lot. And I mean a lot. I don't. Because the church I handle is just a small part of what Jesus started about 2,000 years ago. HE is the founder even of our local church. NO ONE else is founder. That's what you realize when you're genuinely apostolic and prophetic. Genuinely of the Kingdom.
So, Jesus finally introduced the Kingdom and showed us all how it operates. How we ought to live and move and have our being. There's no other life and no other way. No other ministry. Jesus makes us complete and the ministry he showed us in the Gospel is likewise complete. We need not add anything to it. Some foolish church people said what Jesus did was relevant only in his time and we should adapt to the changing times of modernity. It's almost like saying that the salvation he provided is also only relevant in his time---that it was incomplete---and we have to add something to it.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Remember?
So we don't have to do new things. We just have to do what Jesus did. Do things HIS way. "Anyone who has faith in me will do the same things I'm doing," he said in John 14. It's so simple. But we like to complicate things. We love it when we "make things happen" instead of just watch God do them in us. We have enshrined man in church and got rid of God.
You know how Jesus did things? He said, "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" [John 5.30]. In another breath, he said more plainly that "the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed." [John 5.19-20].
This is the Kingdom formula the church should be seriously doing. No need to meet to make plans or do 3-year or 5-year plans. Just seek the Father and do what he bids us. Period. If we don't do it Jesus' way, this is what happens to us, according to John 5.19-20:
- Our decisions will lack wisdom (though they sound smart) because our judgments will not be just.
- We will only please ourselves, though we claim what we do is all for God.
- We will not be operating in the Father's love.
- We get no revelation from the Father.
- No vision of the Father's greater works.
It will all be man's work---effective, yes, but garbage in the Father's eyes. Trash in the Kingdom. Only man and his church is glorified.
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