| THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM - THE MESSAGE OF THE BRIDAL GENERATION Haavard Sand I AM REVEALED B. Childress Apr 18 2011 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). Our call is to preach the Gospel. But the question is, the gospel of what? The word gospel means "Good News." So now we ask the question "Good News about what?" We used to understand that Good News is just about salvation - Jesus paying the price for our sins. The Good News certainly includes that. But that is not just what the Gospel is all about. JESUS PROCLAIMED A KINGDOM MESSAGE Jesus modeled what message we should preach. What did He preach? He went around preaching the Good News of the Kingdom! That was the heart of His message - that the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus was preaching the kingdom message, and as He preached it He also demonstrated the power of this Kingdom.
healing every disease and sickness among the people (Matthew 4:23). spoke in parables of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. In Matthew 13, an important chapter about the Kingdom, He spoke on kingdom perspectives six times. This was also the message that Jesus called His disciples to preach. In Matthew 10, He sends out the twelve and instructs them to preach the message that the Kingdom of Heaven is near (see Matthew 10:7). And then He commands them to demonstrate this Kingdom through healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing those who had leprosy, and driving out demons (see Matthew 10:8). In Luke chapter 10, we see that Jesus sends out 72 followers, and again He instructs them to heal the sick and to say that "the kingdom of God is near you" (see Luke 10:1,9). When He taught them to pray in Matthew 6, it was for God's Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven (see Matthew 6:9-13). After Jesus' resurrection, this was also the focus of His message:
appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). We also see this focus in the early believers after the day of Pentecost. When Philip went to Samaria, it was said:
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women (Acts 8:12). Ephesus was about the Kingdom. In Acts chapter 19, we read: "Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God" (Acts 19:8). Several years after Paul had said good-bye to the leaders of the Church in Ephesus, he met with them again and reiterated the message he had preached while he was with them (see Acts 20:1-38). In his departure speech, he said, "Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again (Acts 20: 25). The last we hear about Paul in the Bible is from his time in Rome where he met with the Jewish leaders. In Acts 28, it says:
staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets (Acts 28:23). preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 28:31). In his letters, Paul focused mostly on the Gospel of salvation - to establish the important truth that it is by God's grace alone and not the work of man that we receive salvation. But this does not discount the fact that he also preached the kingdom message. John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the greatest man born of a woman (see Matthew 11:11) was a forerunner before the first coming of the Lord. He preached repentance to the people "for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 3:2). FORERUNNERS WILL PROCLAIM A KINGDOM MESSAGE Just as John was a forerunner for Jesus' first coming, God is about to raise up a whole army of forerunners to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. And they will again proclaim the kingdom message - the Gospel of the Kingdom in its entirety! Jesus prophetically talks about this group of individuals in Matthew chapter 24. As He looks down through human history seeing the end and all the dramatic events that will happen, He also foresees a generation rising up during that time of difficulty. They will go throughout the whole world and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. They will not only preach it, but they will also demonstrate it in such a way that it will even become a testimony to all nations. When this happens, then the end will come.
end will come (Matthew 24:14). Gospel as a salvation message to a whole kingdom message. The salvation message becomes the door through which we enter the Kingdom, and the most profound demonstration of the love that permeates this Kingdom. It is the love of the Prince who was willing to leave His Kingdom of glory to enter a fallen kingdom of darkness, so that He could rescue His Bride-to-be who was held captive by the prince of the kingdom of darkness. As He fought to win her back, He Himself died. He was willing to give up His life to save his Bride-to-be. This is the greatest love story ever told, and it will forever stand as a reminder of His absolute love and commitment to us as His Bride. That is the salvation message that paved the way for us to enter the Kingdom. Then as we enter the Kingdom, Jesus wants us to seek further for the treasure in it. He wants us to seek for further revelation of what the kingdom message is all about. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field" (Matthew 13:44). When He taught His disciples to pray He said, "Ask and it will be given to you [prayer for salvation, the free gift of God]; seek and you will find" (Matthew 7:7). We often do the first part, "Ask and you will receive," and then we usually stop there and do not pursue farther. But Jesus is teaching a progression in our spiritual life. He is inviting us not simply to ask but also to seek treasures in the Kingdom. Let me try to explain through C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In that book, we follow the lives of four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. They are characters who enter the kingdom of Narnia through the mystery of the wardrobe. When they first enter, they find themselves in a dark forest during winter. As they find their way through the forest, they fully enter the kingdom of Narnia. But can we say that they found it? They were in it but had no understanding of what they had become a part of. They could have chosen to stay where they first entered the kingdom through the wardrobe and that would have been all they had known. But instead they chose to explore the kingdom of Narnia. And what they found was something beyond their wildest dreams and imagination. In the same way, as we enter this Kingdom Jesus wants us to go and explore this vast and great Kingdom and to discover its treasures and secrets. Finding this Kingdom is really the first step to unearthing what the message of the Kingdom is all about. And who will find it? It will be treasure hunters, and these treasure hunters are forceful.
men lay hold of it (Matthew 11:12). Jesus is talking about a group of people whom He describes as forceful. What are they doing? Laying hold of the Kingdom. And what does it mean to be forceful? Is it to pray the loudest in a prayer meeting? One way to be forceful is to live a fasted lifestyle. As you fast, you become forceful. You are forceful with your own body, telling it who is in control. In Matthew chapter 13, it states: Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old (Matthew 13:52). And we find this Kingdom and receive instruction and teaching about it, we become like the owner of a store house of treasures - both old and new - that we can share with others. Some are old treasures that others have found and instructed and told us about, and some are new that we went out and found all by ourselves - revelation given to us straight from Heaven not through some of His other vessels. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM MESSAGE? So what then is the message of the Kingdom? Rick Joyner answers that question in his book, A Prophetic Vision for the 21st Century:
Neither was His message about the church. In all of His messages, He only made a few brief references to the church. His message was the kingdom, and this is the message we have been given to preach. This does not belittle the importance of our salvation, nor negate the high place of the church in His plan. However, the message of the kingdom is bigger than these. Great truths are included in the message of the kingdom, but they are never intended to eclipse it. The message of the kingdom is essentially one basic but all encompassing truth - Jesus is the King! He reigns, and His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. He rules and that He wants to offer His Son. But it also includes His dream, to give His Son a Bride who can join Him on the throne so that they can rule and reign this Kingdom. It's an eternal Kingdom, and there is no place in this vast universe that His Kingdom is not ruling, except one tiny planet on the outskirts of the universe - earth. The Bible tells us that the earth "is under the control of the evil one" (I John 5:19). This world has rebelled against the King and His Kingdom and is now being ruled by the king of darkness or the ruler of the kingdom of the air. He has taken the inhabitants of this world under his control. As it says in Ephesus:
of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:1-2). We were the slaves of this evil ruler and the evil principalities of his kingdom. But then, like the inhabitants of Narnia - who whispered to each other that one day the Lion Aslan would come to restore his righteous reign, and the winter would be over and gone - we also now share the Good News of His coming Kingdom, which will soon fully come to this dark and fallen world. As it says in Colossians, we will be:
light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:12-14). of darkness to the Kingdom of light. Now, we are being prepared for the ultimate battle of these two opposing kingdoms. This is our hope and glory: for the day when His Kingdom of light will fully reign forever and ever.
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11: 15).
near...Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near (Luke 21: 28,31). So the Good News of the Kingdom is the Good News of the all powerful, beautiful King - who has an everlasting Kingdom of light, and who did not leave us in darkness. He sent His only Son to this world that had rebelled against Him, so that people could enter His Kingdom now, even if it had not yet fully come. The Good News is that one day His Kingdom will come in its fullness - to return peace, order, and harmony to the world. Jesus did not only come to restore us to fellowship with Him, but also restore us to our original mandate in ruling the earth - His Kingdom. If Adam and Eve had not failed in the garden, life would have continued as designed, and they would have filled the earth and ruled over it. The world then, would have developed and grown in all spheres of life. God's eternal plan for man is still for Him to rule the earth for all eternity. Then we will not just be children of God, but also be the Bride of Christ. And when His Kingdom has been fully restored and the winter of this fallen world has come to an end, we will be sitting on thrones ruling with Him over His eternal Kingdom. That certainly is Good News. That is the Good News of the Kingdom. Source: BECOMING THE BRIDE OF CHRIST IN THE LAST DAYS, by Haavard Sand, Copyright 2009, Destiny Image - Europe. |
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