The Kingdom Gospel

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Sudsy
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

Post by Sudsy »

I think if one takes a close look at what the apostles preached and said of the Gospel that saves us, they focused on Jesus and not the Kingdom. The Kingdom Gospel is first and foremost about the King. Once we put our faith and trust in the King we are able to begin to understand the sanctifying dimension of living a Kingdom life.

Jesus came to His own (the Jews) and they were all taken up with establishing an earthly kingdom. His message then was to challenge their views of an earthly kingdom and He told them that this long awaited Kingdom was now in their midst. God's Kingdom power was being demonstrated among them. And when He talked about Himself and being able to forgive sins, they got pretty upset.

Thinking about this further, I believe that just because Jesus focused on the Kingdom to that audience, to be His follower we do not need to preach about the Kingdom to unbelievers. To believers, yes, as this is how life is lived in this Kingdom. I would disagree with John Martin here that this is the message of the Gospel we are to proclaim today. The Gospel is a 'save me' Gospel and as an entry point to becoming a citizen of the Kingdom. Main reason is that the apostles, although there is some mention of the Kingdom in Acts, their primary message was about Jesus, His death and resurrection and the need to repent of sin. That is why so many Gospel tracts focus on first becoming a Kingdom citizen.

Here is one explanation of what the apostles preached - https://www.gci.org/gospel/badpeople2

and an invitation to that Kingdom - https://www.gci.org/gospel/invitation1
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Sudsy
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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In my previous post I referred to a source that some Anabaptists might not care to read so I will give something similar from a Mennonite Brethren source on the mission of Jesus. Basically, the focus of Jesus ministry was in saving people from their sins. What I think perhaps John Martin was getting at is that the Gospel is not a 'save me' Gospel in the sense that it is just a means of avoiding hell ( a get out of jail free card, for those allowed to play monopoly :) ) And I agree. I think too much emphasis in some evangelism is in the future avoidance of hell and eternity with the Lord than it is about the here and now regarding how we are saved from current sinning. And if you look at Acts as an example of how to proclaim the Gospel, hell as a place of unending torment, is not preached.

When the crowd asked Peter in Acts 2, "what shall we do ?" Peter said what they should do was 'for the forgiveness of sins'. And in the following verses says that this is for every generation to come and goes on to say - 'Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation!" ' The saving from sins was very strong on being saved from the current sinning at that time. That example, I think, could be much more emphasized today. We are set free from the bondage of sinning. We are no longer slaves to sin. The same power that raised Christ from dead has set us free from the power of sin and death. That is "good news" !!!!

So sharing the concept of the Kingdom Gospel, from what I can see as demonstrated by the apostles, is primarily focused on being saved from sin - Jesus the Saviour of the world. I suspect that in Acts when it mentions teaching about the Kingdom, it was more for a Jewish audience that were expecting and hoping for a deliverer at that. A new Kingdom concept was quite a challenge, especially to consider the meek and lowly Jesus as the King.

Here is that MB link and I think it explains well Jesus mission - http://www.directionjournal.org/41/2/mi ... ng-to.html
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cmbl
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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Today I began to read William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. As a young man brought up in the contemporary evangelical milieu, I was astounded by Law's use of the term Gospel in such phrases as...

"there is not one command in all the Gospel for public worship"
"these common duties of our ordinary life [which are] commanded in every page of the Gospel"
"the rich man in the Gospel was clothed with purple and fine linen"
"are you not therefore as much condemned by the doctrines of the Gospel, as the swearer is by the third commandment?"

It seems that Law took "the Gospel" to mean the Gospels, or perhaps the NT. What a difference a few centuries make.
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Josh
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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A lot of people don't believe in hell or an afterlife, so finding out they can be saved from hell isn't the good news since they don't even believe in it.

Jesus offered to save people from something else: he offered to forgive people of their sins. Every person knows deep down inside when they have done wrong. He offered good news to the oppressed: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Every person has felt oppressed on some level. He offered a promise of resurrection and eternal life.

That's very different from just "get out of hell free".
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Sudsy
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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cmbl wrote:Today I began to read William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. As a young man brought up in the contemporary evangelical milieu, I was astounded by Law's use of the term Gospel in such phrases as...

"there is not one command in all the Gospel for public worship"
"these common duties of our ordinary life [which are] commanded in every page of the Gospel"
"the rich man in the Gospel was clothed with purple and fine linen"
"are you not therefore as much condemned by the doctrines of the Gospel, as the swearer is by the third commandment?"

It seems that Law took "the Gospel" to mean the Gospels, or perhaps the NT. What a difference a few centuries make.
We still refer to the first 4 NT books as Gospels as they are the 'good news' about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Paul also points out what is of first importance about Jesus that is the core belief about Jesus and His mission to save His people from their sins - 1 Cor 15:1-7. Without a belief in Jesus death and resurrection there is no "good news" that we can be saved from our sins and become a Kingdom citizen.

In what way do you see this as different today ?
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cmbl
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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Sudsy wrote: In what way do you see this as different today ?
Today we have people defining the Gospel as 1 Corinthians 15, or Ephesians 2. We have a "Gospel Coalition" that defines the gospel as "justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone." Each of those is different from Law's use of the term.

(It should be noted that as an Anglican, Law probably didn't explicitly hold to what Anabaptists would call the gospel of the kingdom. But neither, it seems, did he hold to one of the modern ones.)
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cmbl
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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Josh wrote:A lot of people don't believe in hell or an afterlife, so finding out they can be saved from hell isn't the good news since they don't even believe in it.

Jesus offered to save people from something else: he offered to forgive people of their sins. Every person knows deep down inside when they have done wrong. He offered good news to the oppressed: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Every person has felt oppressed on some level. He offered a promise of resurrection and eternal life.

That's very different from just "get out of hell free".
I would extend this line of thinking to people who already believe in Jesus, and who want to get set free from besetting sin. It wasn't good news for me to hear that I was (supposedly) saved. It was good news to find people who believed and practiced overcoming sin.
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Josh
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

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cmbl wrote:I would extend this line of thinking to people who already believe in Jesus, and who want to get set free from besetting sin. It wasn't good news for me to hear that I was (supposedly) saved. It was good news to find people who believed and practiced overcoming sin.
I eventually stopped believing in Jesus since I have been a sinner since I was a child, knowing I was doing wrong things, and I never had any long term victory over that. The older I got it just got worse and worse. And all I kept hearing was if you truly believe in Jesus you will magically not sin anymore.

In the Anabaptist world I learned something different. First, the most important thing is love. People at church loved me despite me being an unlovely person, and they also loved each other and it was visible. I could see it.

Secondly, I learned victory over sin starts with choosing to love others, and with learning to accept being wronged / cheated / hurt. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." "Blessed are the meek."

Once you try out loving your enemies, letting other people love you, and trying to obey a few things Jesus said, sin starts to lose its grip on you. Outside rules help a little bit too. When we dress a bit differently, I'm always reminded I am a Christian even when it's been days or weeks since I have been around my brethren. Likewise with speaking differently. And those are relatively easy things to do - a good place to start. Trying to overcome pride, anger, lust, vanity all at once is very very hard.

As time goes on, my belief in Jesus gets stronger and stronger. It just seems like he really is real, and that he really does exist in this thing called "church"--all the Christian people in the world put together, loving each other, and then loving their enemies and loving people who don't deserve it.
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Sudsy
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

Post by Sudsy »

Josh wrote:
cmbl wrote:I would extend this line of thinking to people who already believe in Jesus, and who want to get set free from besetting sin. It wasn't good news for me to hear that I was (supposedly) saved. It was good news to find people who believed and practiced overcoming sin.
I eventually stopped believing in Jesus since I have been a sinner since I was a child, knowing I was doing wrong things, and I never had any long term victory over that. The older I got it just got worse and worse. And all I kept hearing was if you truly believe in Jesus you will magically not sin anymore.

In the Anabaptist world I learned something different. First, the most important thing is love. People at church loved me despite me being an unlovely person, and they also loved each other and it was visible. I could see it.

Secondly, I learned victory over sin starts with choosing to love others, and with learning to accept being wronged / cheated / hurt. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." "Blessed are the meek."

Once you try out loving your enemies, letting other people love you, and trying to obey a few things Jesus said, sin starts to lose its grip on you. Outside rules help a little bit too. When we dress a bit differently, I'm always reminded I am a Christian even when it's been days or weeks since I have been around my brethren. Likewise with speaking differently. And those are relatively easy things to do - a good place to start. Trying to overcome pride, anger, lust, vanity all at once is very very hard.

As time goes on, my belief in Jesus gets stronger and stronger. It just seems like he really is real, and that he really does exist in this thing called "church"--all the Christian people in the world put together, loving each other, and then loving their enemies and loving people who don't deserve it.
Good to hear that testimony Josh of how God is at work in your life.

I suspect you are using hyperbole when you said ' all I kept hearing was if you truly believe in Jesus you will magically not sin anymore.' But if not, your experience is quite different than mine as I have not run into those who believe a believer can 'magically not sin anymore'. Even those I know who believe in entire sanctification say we still do sin.

I agree love is the essential and a powerful witness to being born of the Spirit. It is the way Jesus said we would be known as one of his followers, our love for one another. A Jesus kind of love. This love reaches beyond fellow believers to the world of not yet believers. Regardless of how they respond. A church without a strong interest and orthopraxy in saving the lost does not reflect the love of Jesus anymore than a church who does not speak truth to a fellow believer when they stray. Where Kingdom living is active, love is obvious. 1 Cor 13:13 - Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
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Joy
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Re: The Kingdom Gospel

Post by Joy »

It is surprising to me how many people have rationalized to the point where they think they have never sinned. Sometimes it is wise to kindly ask if they have ever told a lie, etc. Or not forgiven someone. If they do not see their sin, they see no reason why God would not welcome them into Heaven.

The last lady I dealt with who said she'd never sinned, I returned again and again to visit her, with the same message of sin and need. I admit that I wondered if I was coming on too harshly, although I didn't think so. Then I ran into her daughter, who although she is not a believer as far as I know, told me her mother was grateful for my kindness. But whatever the lady had thought, there is no salvation if we do not admit our sinfulness and need.
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