When you get to know us it can be surprising to
hear the Kingdom of God talked about on earth. It’s written into our values, we
talk about it in classes and in sermons and in our children’s curriculum. We
talk about it when we train people to be on the prayer ministry team. We talk
about it when we give away food or minister to people on the streets. So why is
this so important? Why do we need to keep teaching and talking about it?
1. Jesus couldn’t stop talking
about it.
The kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary message during his
ministry on earth. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” “The kingdom of God has
come upon you.” “The kingdom of God is like…” But it wasn’t just all talk for
Jesus. Yes, Jesus talked about the kingdom, he also demonstrated its power.
People were healed. The demonized were set free. The poor, enslaved, and
marginalized heard the good news. He taught about it, but he expected people to
experience it when they met him, too. He taught about it, but he expected
people to experience it when they met him, too. And that’s what we want, also.
We want to teach about the kingdom so that people will start to experience it
in their everyday lives.
2. The Kingdom is the overarching meta-narrative of
Scripture.
The story of the Bible makes the most sense when you read it
through the lens of the kingdom of God. God’s plan is first hinted at in
Genesis 3:15—Satan will be crushed and the Son of Man will be wounded. From
that moment, God’s Kingdom was amassing to break into Satan’s kingdom and to
restore God’s good rule and reign to the earth. Everything in the rest of
Scripture relates to the promise of God’s Kingdom arriving on earth and
advancing until the end of Revelation when “God’s dwelling place is now among
the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God.” Once we get this, everything else
in scripture makes way more sense.
3. The Kingdom of God is the basis for our values.
All the things we care the most about—partnering with the
Holy Spirit, worship, reconciliation, compassion, and cultural relevance—flow
from our understanding of the Kingdom of God. We partner with the Holy Spirit
because heaven is present and active here and now. We want to get in line with
what God is doing among us. We talk about encountering God in worship because
we get to experience the kingdom when we worship. We work to bring peace and
reconciliation because those are characteristics of God’s kingdom. We reach out
to the weak and marginalized because we know those people have honor and value
there. And we strive to communicate in ways that people can actually understand
so that everyone gets the opportunity to take part in what God is doing.
4. It helps us minister to people in pain.
The narrative of God’s kingdom helps makes sense of the
broken, painful, fallen world we live in. The already and the not yet of the
kingdom—the fact that we’re in a war that has been won but is not finished yet
between God’s kingdom and Satan’s—helps us minister to broken, hurt, abused,
and grieving people with grace and a clear conscience. It enables us to love
them like Jesus does—compassionately, without assigning blame or giving pat
answers.
What did you make of all this talk of the Kingdom? We’d love to hear thoughts and
stories of how you’ve seen kingdom values and theology play out in your
churches.