KiNGDOM and SPiRiT

If the kingdom of God has come crashing into this present evil age in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection [Mt 4.17, Mk 1.15, Gal 1.4, etc], how do we live as citizens of that kingdom in the here and now?

St Paul's answer is that we live by the Spirit [Rom 8, Gal 5-6, 1 Cor 12-14, Eph 4-6, etc]. 

Paul even says that the Spirit is the "down-payment" and/or "guarantee" of the life with God that is to come [Eph 1.14]. This Greek word for "guarantee" is only used several times in the NT. In his excellent book SIMPLY CHRISTIAN, Tom Wright says that this word "in modern Greek means an engagement ring, a sign in the present of what is to come in the future" [pg 125].

DANiEL, THE LiON'S DEN, GLOBAL EVANGELiZATiON, & iNAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY

I've been reading Daniel lately. It's incredible. It's all about world politics and YHWH's faithfulness as the true King.

Remember, Daniel and his pals are in captivity under world superpower Babylon, which is then overthrown by the Persian empire. YHWH's covenant people are under His hand of judgment because of their whoredom and stubbornness to His covenant love while they were in the land He promised them. Within this context, I love the two snapshots of trial some of these young Jews face while under foreign kings:

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah [affectionately Rack, Shack, and Benny] in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lion's den.

These little stories have snuck their way to flannel graphs and cartoons for 40 years, but there is something extra in them that is sweet to see.

• In both stories, the young guys find themselves in their respective predicaments because they refuse to bow the knee to the temporal religious-political systems above them. This results in their execution.
  
• In both situations, their executioners are slain, showing that there is a justice that transcends worldly authority and empire.
  
• In both situations, the Jewish fellows being killed seem to be somewhere in between "minimal" to "not-at-all" on the nervous scale. But the text gives us the reason behind this.
  
• Both stories show that they TRUSTED their God [3.28, 6.23]. Strange that this is what Abraham did before torah and Jesus [Gn 15.6], what the people did when they were redeemed from Egypt [Ex 14.31], and what we're called to do as well [Rom 4.5] - just trust.
  
• At the end of both stories, the kings in charge each sent forth a decree. Each decree was addressed to "all peoples, nations, and languages" [4.1, 6.25]. Why in the heck does that sound so familiar? Oh, maybe it's because the whole story ends with God's covenant people under different religious-political systems, far from their promised land, knowing that they get to be a part of God gathering people from "every tribe, tongue, and nation" [Rev 5.9, 7.9].
  
• This decree went out from two different pagan kings, from two different passing empires, at two different periods of times. But somehow, both decrees said essentially the same thing: "Peace and Shalom is multiplied! There is a God Most High - the God of Daniel! He works signs and wonders! And His kingdom and dominion are everlasting!"

So, here's the deal. The fiery furnace and lion's den are marginal kids' stories at best. They might be able to entertain because kids know that fire is hot and lions are scary. BUT, and this is a huge BUT... If you walk away from those stories without seeing God as the faithful and true King, then your blind to the Bible and only have a half of one eye opened to decent kids' entertainment.

The God of Israel is the King of all kings. His kingdom has been brought nearer to us in Jesus to include peoples from every tribe, nation, and tongue. If that is not the seasoning that flavors Daniel, we might just miss it elsewhere.

THE KiNGDOM OF GOD

I love tracing the kingdom of God through the OT with my Redemptive History students [10th grade]. Some of them totally get it and others just write stuff down to pass the next test. We've talked about how important this idea of the kingdom is to the God's story and the storyline of the Bible.

In creation, man is described in kingly terms; creation is about the kingdom [Gn 1.26-31].

When the people sing and dance after being freed from the clutches of Pharoah, the last line of their song is about YHWH as the King of the kingdom [Ex 15.18].

The covenant YHWH makes with them at Sinai is about them becoming a kingdom of priests [Ex 19.4-6].

When they finally get into the land and struggle through 200 years of deliverers [the book of Judges], the last verse in Judges is about them lacking a king and how problematic this is for them as YHWH''s people [Jdgs 21.25].

The people then beg Samuel for a king so they can be like the other nations. YHWH tells Samuel that this is because they have rejected Him as king and have lost their vision of His call to them to be a kingdom of priests [1 Sam 8.4-7].

YHWH then initiates an unconditional covenant with David in which He promises David that one of his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids will be YHWH's king over His kingdom forever [2 Sam 7.8-16].

David finds these promises so sweet and good that he won't shut up about it. He wrote scores of songs rejoicing that God is King and will prove it one day in a HUGE, covenantal way! Some of these are: Ps 24.7-10, 47.5-9, 93.1-2, 95.1-5, 97.1, 99.1, 100.4, 103.19-22, 145.8-13, 149.1-14, and others.

After the kingdom split, the prophets continued to declare that God's kingship was coming in the same way David sang about. However, for those who were rebellious and did not delight in YHWH as king, His kingly coming would be judgment for them. Some of these prophetic texts are: Is 6.1-3, Is 9.6-7, Is 44.6-8, Is 52.7, Jer 23.5-6, Ezk 1-2 [the throne imagry], Ezk 34.23-24, Dan 4.34-35, Dan 7.9-22, Obad 1.21, Zeph 3.14-17, Zech 14.9-21, and others. And, like Jesus said, all the prophets prophesied until John [Mt 11.13].

But then.

He arrives.

YHWH's King. David's Son. Isaiah's Servant-King. Ezekiel's Shepherd-King.

In the NT, the first thing we have recorded from the mouth of John the Baptist and from the lips of our Lord is shattering: "Repent! The kingdom is at hand!" [Mt 3.2, Mt 4.17]

This changes everything. Roman oppression will die. YHWH's people will finally be a kingdom of priests. All covenants will be totally fulfilled. All wrongs will be righted. Justice will finally be served!

But it didn't happen exactly like they thought.

However, there is still hope [this is where it clicked for a lot of my students]. We went to Gen 1-2 and saw that in creation, the kingdom is seen in its perfection - man reigning with God, like God and for God over His created order. Then, we flipped to the end of the story in Rev 21-22. Can we see anything in the New Creation that was similair to the creation in Gen 1-2? Yes. We see man reigning and ruling with God, like God, and for God over the new heavens and the new earth.

If we know that this snapshot will be the fruit of God's gracious promises in Jesus, we must have humility and confidence to live as His kings and priests right now. This hope is the lens through which we must view the word of God and the world around us, serving the King of all kings.

driscoll on gospel, church, and culture

I love these little paradigms Driscoll has. They're helpful when attempting to synthesize American Christianity. He explains them all in further detail in his books, but you should get the picture.

Gospel + Church - Culture = Fundamentalism

Culture + Gospel - Church = Parachurch

Church + Culture - Gospel = Liberalism

Of course, the conclusion to these is that Gospel + Church + Culture = the Kingdom [or biblical Christianity or whatever you'd like to call it]. Read his "Confessions" book. It's insightful and hilarious.

NT Wright prying into the mind of a 1st century Jew regarding the kingdom

What then is central to the understanding of the kingdom? That which we saw a moment ago: the Jewish expectation of the saving sovereignty of the covenant god, exercised in the vindication of Israel and the overthrow of her enemies....

If Pilate was still governing Judea, then the kingdom had not come. If the Temple was not rebuilt, then the kingdom had not come. If the Messiah had not arrived, then the kingdom had not come. If Israel was not observing the Torah properly, then the kingdom had not come. If the pagans had not been defeated and/or flocking to Zion for instruction, then the kingdom had not come....

Most modern scholars who have attempted redefinitions of the kingdom have considered such essentially Jewish ideas to be already moribund, and have passed them by on the other side, anxious to avoid contamination as they hurry to worship at the shrine of intellectual respectability.

beautiful and hilarious

am i an anarchist or a libertarian?

My wife and I are in the library right now taking political quizes online to see who we should vote for for president. We have found out that Mitt Romney and his wife Ann are the best looking. John McCain is the oldest and thus the most likely to die from natural causes. Hillary gets hype because she's a woman and used to sleep with a former president [Bill, of course]. Mike Huckabee is an excellent bassist and is a Southern Baptist with his head on his shoulders. Obama was born in Hawaii, has a winsome personality, and has morbid thoughts on abortion. And I guess John Edwards is just a good ol boy [he grew up in Seneca, SC!] who ended up rich as snot.

All of this is just to put in perspective how much I'm looking forward to kingdom consummation and Jesus reigning eternally and unhindered. And maybe, just maybe, this book will help tide me over. And if its contents don't, its title will. It's due out in March 2008.

isaiah 9 [my vote for president]

The Apostle John understood that he was wonderful counselor [Jn 14.16, 1 Jn 2.1], mighty God [Jn 1.1-3], everlasting father [Jn 10.30], and prince of peace [Jn 16.33].

These Messianic promises from Isaiah 9 are hugely trinitarian. The Holy Spirit is likewise our counselor and God is our Father. Isaiah said this because he knew that all of God was going to redeem all of his people by giving them all the fullness of himself.

And this child, this kid – the government is going to be on his shoulders. It is a government of peace. It is a government that cannot and will not end. It's not that his government will just not stop, but it will always increase. I'm voting for him. "His truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever."

how to read the NT [future]

Jesus’ first recorded words in the NT are that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Mt 4.17]. Shortly after this, Jesus is found teaching that we should pray for the kingdom to come [Mt 6.10]. So, is the kingdom here or is it coming? Jesus and all the other NT writers would say “yes.” It is both here and coming. This “already/not yet” tension is a unique, but vital lens with which to read the NT.

Those under the old covenant thought that the Messiah’s arrival would immediately right all wrongs, usher in shalom, and bring justice to the world’s chaos. How surprising though that He is doing this in a two-fold way: inaugurating the kingdom at His first coming and consummating the kingdom at His second coming.

This is not simply seen in the use of the word “kingdom” in the NT, but in various other ways. One example is how Paul encouraged and challenged his friends in Rome. He told them that they were dead to sin [Ro 6.2] and then turned right around and told them to consider themselves as dead to sin [Ro 6.11]. Moreover, Paul sometimes says that we have been saved and on other occasions he says that we will be saved. This language can partially be rooted in this “already/not yet” tension.

So, in Christ we currently experience some of the blessings of the future kingdom. With these blessings, we should also be looking for that day in which He will return to gather His saints, judge the nations, and restore all things for His sake.

[summit church]

My friend Jason, along with his trusty sidekicks Dave and Kyle, are planting a church on Woodruff Road. This is the dead center of all Bible-belt-ness. So, why the heck is he doing it? The trend is that church-planting is an end in itself. Church planters would never say that, but a bunch of them probably think it. I thank God for Jason's articulation of their vision. Their vision is not to plant a church or churches. Their vision is of the kingdom of God and it happens to include church planting.

Several Sundays ago, their people divided up and went to several local churches, worshiped there, and gave them money in attempts to weld to kingdom partnerships. That is beautiful to me. That feels biblical to me. God has given him the gift of seeing the big picture and for him, that's the upstate of SC. Because of this, Jason has done his homework. He's not flashy. He's not over the top. He hasn't succumbed to sacrificing truth on the altar of relevance. He has, through great mercy, heard from God. Support a brother.