Our Story
and God’s Story

Jesus began his public ministry with a Gospel (good news) announcement, that the Kingdom of God had arrived. In summary the Kingdom of God can be expressed as “God’s rule over God’s place through God’s people as they experience the blessings of His presence”.

While not mentioned explicitly; its roots are located in the very beginning of the Bible story. God created the heavens and the earth and He rules over it. His intention was to express that rule through human beings and so He created mankind to rule and take care of creation under Him. They were to be His image bearers, serving as kingly priests reflecting Him into creation. While doing so they were to reflect creation’s praise back to God as they worshipped Him and lived in loving and obedient relationship with Him. All of this was very good, and so God pronounces His blessing on all of creation.

However, that sadly was not the way things remained. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, deciding for themselves what was right and wrong (the Fall). In rejecting God, they found themselves becoming worshippers of the creation. As a result, the image of God in them was broken, every aspect of their lives became distorted by sin. They lost their role of priestly kings, they were driven from the presence of God and God cursed creation so that it no longer serves as a safe home. Sickness, suffering and death entered our world.

God did not give up on His plan. His purposes would still prevail. He starts the process of ultimately restoring humanity and creation to what He intended it to be. This process started with God calling Abram in Genesis 12. He covenants with Abram to undo the effects of the Fall, promising to make his name great, to give him many descendants, to bless Him and through him to bring blessing again to all the peoples of the earth. It is a promise to re-establish the Kingdom of God. This promise is unilateral, without conditions attached. In other words, God is absolutely committed to doing what He promised.

God starts to fulfil that promise in the nation of Israel. As He rescues them from slavery in Egypt, and brings them to Himself. He declares that they will now function as His kingly priests (Cf. Ex 19:6), provided that they walk in obedience to Him. Like with Adam, they fail almost immediately, but again God does not give up on them, but continues to dwell amongst them. He eventually gives them a king and promises that one of King David’s descendants would rule eternally and His Kingdom will never be opposed.

Israel however, fails as a nation, and instead of worshipping God and reflecting Him to the nations, they worship idols and become worse than the nations. Eventually God drives them from His presence. But again, He has not given up on His plans and purposes. The prophets start to look forward to God graciously coming back to His people, rescuing them from their exile, forgiving their sins and establishing His Kingdom through the reign of His King, a king who would be God with them and who would rule with justice and righteousness. Under Him, the effects of the Fall would eventually be done away with: sin would be dealt with; the curse would be removed; death destroyed, blessing restored, not just to Israel, but to all the nations of the earth.

So when Jesus makes the announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom, He is essentially saying that the time has come for God’s promises to be fulfilled. And immediately He starts to demonstrate that through His ministry:

• He calls his first followers, the first of His Kingdom people
• He drives out demons, the spiritual enemies of God’s people
• He teaches with absolute authority especially concerning the nature of the Kingdom and life in the Kingdom
  
• He heals the sick
  
• He restores the outcast
• He forgives sin
• He subdues creation
• He raises the dead
• He lavishly provides for God’s people in the wilderness

When the disciples finally recognized Jesus for who He is – the Christ (Messiah, the anointed King of God’s Kingdom (cf. Mark 8:27-30)) they expected that the next thing on his agenda would be to overthrow all the enemies of God’s people and restore everything to the way it was meant to be! But Jesus had other plans. The Kingdom would come not in overwhelming power as its King triumphantly conquers everything in its path. Rather it would come through weakness and apparent defeat. It would come through the King dying on a cross!

And that is exactly what happened. While the disciples failed to grasp this, Jesus made it clear that He had to suffer and die. So He ends up being rejected by all people and goes to the cross. It is as the King of God’s Kingdom that He hangs from the cross and dies, but it is in His death that He achieves the greatest victory. There on the cross He defeats the devil There He pays the price for our sin (cf. Colossians 2:13b-15), securing our forgiveness and making it possible for people from all nations to enter the Kingdom of God and enjoy the blessing that God promised to Abraham all those years ago.

God, in raising Jesus three days later from the dead, unequivocally declares that Jesus is the King and that the Kingdom of God has been established on earth (in part, but not yet in full). Jesus, the King now reigns over all people and all the earth. All people are now called to come bow the knee to King Jesus (cf. Matthew 28:18-19b).

But for now, Jesus doesn’t enforce this. Following His ascension, Jesus declares a grace period that will last till he returns. This is a period that gives people the opportunity to submit to Him willingly, to have their sins forgiven by Him, to enter into relationship with Him and to live as His Kingdom people in the world. They receive all these blessings by grace through faith, that it, by trusting that Jesus is indeed the Lord and Saviour of the world. These Kingdom people, referred to in the New Testament as the Church were given a particular task: that of bearing witness to Him in their being, in their words and in their actions. The goal of the church’s witness is to gather more and more followers of Jesus from across the entire world. To empower them to do that Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit.

One day this period of amnesty will come to an end. Jesus will return to judge the world, that is, He will rid it of all evil, all sinful distortions, and brokenness, and restore it to what it was meant to be. Eventually, all God’s plans and purposes for humanity and his entire creation will be accomplished in the renewed heavens and renewed earth.