CHILENJE MISSION DISTRICT
DISTRICT ANNOUNCEMENTS
8th MARCH, 2014
ADMINISTRATION
There will
be a Lusaka Conference Music Worship at Libala Church on 12th March, 2014.
FAMILY LIFE
There will be a meeting for all Family Life
Leaders today Sabbath, at Njanji Church at 14:00 hours.
SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
There will be a meeting for Spirit of
Prophecy tomorrow Sunday, 9th March, 2014 at Chilenje Main Church. To attend are all Spirit of Prophecy Local
Church Leaders and the Elders – in charge. Time: 14:00 hours.
MUSIC
There will be a District Music Fellowship tomorrow
Sunday, 9th March, 2014 at Chilenje Main Church. Participation fee is K2.00 per
singer. Time: 08:30 to 16:30 hours.
Kindly carry packed Lunch.
CAMP MEETING
There will be a meeting for all Camp Meeting
Chairpersons on 9th March, 2014 at Arakan Church. Time: 08:30 hours. Kindly observe time.
YOUTH
(a)
There will be mini Crusades
in all Churches and Companies for Youth starting on 16th to 29th March,
2014. THEME: THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS
NEAR. THEME SONG: COME, THOU FOUNT OF
EVERY BLESSING. (52 Local hymn/334 SDAH)
Kindly find attached the sermons.
(b)
Registration for S.I.D.
Camporee which will be held in Livingstone from 14th to 21st
April, 2014 for the Pathfinders is still going on. Registration fee has been reduced from
KR430.00 to K400.00. The deadline for
payments has been moved to 20th March, 2014.
COMMUNICATIONS
(a)
There
will be a Communication Training on the 16th of March 2014. To attend are all
Communication Leaders Communication, Committee Members, Web Site Administrators
and Elders in charge of Communication. Venue: Chilenje Main Church. Time
08:30-1300 hours.
(b)
All Churches are being requested to submit
news articles for the District Newsletter.
Deadline for submission is 29th March 2014.
HEALTH
(a)
There will be a Health Expo
at Chilenje Spar on 23rd March, 2014 where Medical Check-ups will be
done. Before the Health Expo begins
there will be a march past from Inter-land to Chilenje Spar. We are inviting
Adventist Youth (Senior Youths, Ambassadors, and Pathfinders), AMO and Dorcas.
(b)
There will be a Medical
Missionary Training from 1st to 31st May, 2014.
The fees will be announced in due course.
LUSAKA
CONFERENCE
YOUTH
MINISTRIES DEPARTMENT
2014
Youth Week of Prayer
Theme:
“The Kingdom of God is Near”
15-22
March 2014
Theme
Song: “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” 334 SDAH
Dear Brethren,
The 2014 Youth
Week of Prayer is just around the corner. This years’ youth week is scheduled
for
15-22 March 2014. It is advisable that no other program be given priority. It
is expected that at the end of this scheduled time, we will conduct mass
baptisms around Lusaka Conference. Therefore, you are encouraged to utilize the
week culminating to 15th March 2014 for invitations, promotions and
even evangelistic endeavor.
This year’s
theme is: “The Kingdom of God is Near.” The original materials were bulky (100
pages) but I have attempted to reduce the work to a bare minimum without
altering the original message. The readings have been compiled by Pr Japhet De
Oliveira they include authors such as Dilys Brooks, Eddie Hypolite, Tim
Gillespie and Kessie Reyne Bennett.
Pastor
Gilbert Cangy, World Youth Director says: Writers will draw from the
proclamation and demonstration of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, Parables and
Miracles. The emphasis will be "you can enter the eternal kind of life now
until time gives way to eternity." Enter today, be transformed, be an
ambassador of reconciliation, seek justice and mercy, and may our communities
of faith be windows—previews of the soon coming of the glorious kingdom of God.
Remember that
Sabbath 15th March is Global Youth Day. It is a day designated for
the youth of our church to go out into the streets and neighboring homes not to
preach but “to be the sermon”. Use the afternoon for this exercise. Remember to
submit a report for this activity.
May God bless
you as you take part in this week of spiritual emphasis.
Yours truly,
Highten
Hamweene
Youth
Director, LC
LUSAKA
CONFERENCE
2014
YOUTH WEEK OF PRAYER REPORT FORM
Name of Church/District
Reporting _______________________________________
Date Report Sent & Name of
Reporter __________________________________________ Phone No.
_____________________
Week of Prayer Dates
______________________________
A. GENERAL STATISTICS
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B. EVANGELISTIC & COMMUNITY SERVICE STATISTICS
DAY 1 | MARK 1:14-15
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
It Has Begun
We live in a crazy, conflicted
cosmos. Our world bears witness to the controversy raging all around and within
us. The powers of good and evil battle for human hearts and earthly affairs.
This world is a bloody battlefield of war zones and bro- ken homes, of debates
and earthquakes, of poverty and anxiety, of deforestation and human
exploitation.
Something better is coming––and
coming soon! Soon Jesus is coming to make all things all new. “We have this
hope that burns within our hearts, hope in the com- ing of the Lord.” On the
great day of Jesus’ return, God will enact a renewal and recreation that cannot
be stopped by any power. All the chaos will be calm, all the conflict will be
cured. Heaven at last! Hallelujah!
But in the meantime, we live “in the
meantime.” We live in the meantime between the perfect Eden of creation and the
restored Eden of recreation. In this meantime, though our hearts long for
heaven, our feet are planted firmly in the dirt of this crazy, conflicted
cosmos.
If only heaven could begin now . . .
Could it? Would it be possible for God to bring heaven to earth just a little
ahead of schedule and for us to enjoy that kingdom now? Imagine if heaven could
begin here. That’s what we want, isn’t it? That’s why, following the example of
our Lord, we pray, “May Your kingdom come, may Your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.” If only we could live in heaven now!
Turn with me to Mark 1:14-15. Listen
for the good news of God! “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into
Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The
kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14,
15 NIV). Jesus was proclaiming, preaching, announcing the good news of God. And
what is that good news? “The time has come” and “the kingdom of God has come
near.” The good news of God that Jesus was proclaiming is still good news
today! “The time has come” and “the kingdom of God has come near.”
The Time Has Come
Jesus said the time had come. What
clock was He reading? A fancy, first-century wristwatch? Maybe He pulled out
His mobile phone to check the time? The time that Jesus is talking about can’t
be read off of a screen or found on a wall calendar. This isn’t the kind of
time that tells you that you need to go to your next class or the kind of time
that tells you that you really, really, really need to get up because you’ve
hit the snooze button three times and you’re going to miss your bus! No, this
is the kind of time that’s woven with hope, the kind of time that God had
marked out in ages long ago, the kind of time that gives tempo to the plan of
redemption––it is prophetic time.
And that prophetic clock began to
tick and tock as soon as Eve and Adam ate
that forbidden fruit and opened the
world up to an inconceivable darkness. Right there, in the desecrated Garden of
Eden, the Lord made a promise, telling Eve that her offspring would crush the
enemy, Satan (Genesis 3:15). When Eve first became pregnant, she hoped the time
had come, that Cain was the promised one. But the time had not yet come. And
God kept the hope alive, kept making these wild promises of a child who would
save the world and promises of God dwelling with humans and promises of God’s
kingship at last! Promises of peace and abundance and healing and never-ending
life.
In Abraham’s day, the time had not
yet come. In Moses’ day, the time had not yet come. In David’s day, the time
had not yet come. In Isaiah’s day, the time had not yet come. In Daniel’s day,
the time had not yet come. In Malachi’s day, the time had not yet come.
But one day, the time had come. A
virgin conceived, a baby was born, poor and lowly and perfect, a child grew, a
man appeared, and that man Jesus started shouting out, “The time has come!” The
time is fulfilled. The hope of the ages, the desire of the nations, the longing
of every human heart from Eve to Mary to you–– He has come. Immanuel: “God with
us.” Jesus, “Salvation.” The time has come! The wisdom of the sages and the
words of the prophets are fulfilled. The time has come! In Jesus, God fulfills
every promise to humanity for His presence, for His ac- tion, for His Kingship.
The rich beauty and deep goodness of the kingdom of God had, up to this point,
been only promise. But now, the time had come! In Jesus, God moved from promise
to fulfillment. The kingdom of God had come near.
Yes, the kingdom of God has come
near. A little bit of heaven shining through to earth, the heavenly dimension
breaking into our earthly realities. In Jesus, the kingdom of God has come
near.
The Kingdom of God
When we hear Jesus announce something
as remarkable as the kingdom of God, we want to know some specifics. What is
this thing? What is it like? Mark doesn’t give us a table of contents for this
kingdom; he doesn’t give us the ingredients like a recipe sheet. Masterfully,
instead of telling us what the kingdom of God is, Mark writes his gospel to
show us.
On and on and on it goes, the story
of Jesus enacting the kingdom of God in the world. And what is it? It is
community, it is outreach, it is freedom from demonic power, it is physical
healing, it is sins forgiven, it is true doctrine, it is a Sabbath experience,
it is liberty from fear and it is hope beyond disease and death, it is
communion with God and dinner with sinners. In Jesus, the kingdom of God has
come near. A little bit of heaven shining through to earth, the heavenly
dimension breaking into our earthly realities. In Jesus, the kingdom of God has
come near. Heaven has begun here. “The time has come. The Kingdom of God has
come near.”
If only we could begin to live in
heaven now... And we can! Because in Jesus, heaven has begun here. So, how can we live in heaven now? Jesus tells us that
too! Mark 1:15. “’The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come
near. Repent and believe the good news!’” How can we live in heaven now? Repent
and believe the good news!
Living in Heaven Now
To repent is to turn around, to let
go of sin as we grasp the Savior. We walk no longer in our own ways, but in the
ways of the Lord. We are no longer master of our plans, but we choose Jesus as
our Lord. In the light of Christ’s goodness we see our badness and we cast
ourselves on His mercy. We ask for repentance and He gives it to us: a change
of mind, a change of heart, a change of life.
Sometimes we have the mistaken idea
that we must repent before we can come to Jesus. We think, “FIRST, I must
sorrow for sin and reform, THEN I will turn to Jesus and will receive His
grace.” But nothing could be more useless than this! Repentance does not stand
between the sinner and the Savior; it is not an obstacle we must overcome
before we reach Jesus. No, no! It is a gift we receive only from His hand. We
must go to Jesus to receive repentance! He says, “Come to me, all you who are
weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). So let us come to
Jesus, weary and burdened, and ask for the gift of repentance. “Make us see our
sin as You see it, Jesus. Make us see the beauty of holiness as you lived it,
Jesus. Make us repentant.”
The second condition for experiencing
heaven on earth is to believe the good news, to trust in the message of Jesus.
Believe and trust. Sounds too simple, doesn’t it? But it really is that simple!
Believe and trust the message and experience heaven on earth. When we put our
trust in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, we have opened the
door for them to enter our lives in deep and mean- ingful ways. In place of
loneliness, we find companionship. In place of restless- ness, we find rest. In
place of emptiness, we find abundance. In place of confu- sion, we find
purpose. In place of sickness, we find healing. In place of error, we find
truth. In place of selfishness, we find love. In place of despair, we find
hope.
In Desire of Ages, the
inspired writer Ellen White put it well: “As through Jesus
we enter into rest, heaven begins here. We respond to His invitation, Come,
learn of Me, and in thus coming we begin the life eternal. Heaven is a
ceaseless approaching to God through Christ. The longer we are in the heaven of
bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we
know of God, the more intense will be our happiness. As we walk with Jesus in
this life, we may be filled with His love, satisfied with His presence. All
that human nature can bear, we may receive here” (331).
The Kingdom in Action
“The time has come. The Kingdom of God has
come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Will you? Will you enter the
Kingdom now? Will you say yes, lay down your weapons, and enter the delight of
His fellowship? Jesus and I are both praying you will.
And this crazy, conflicted cosmos
needs you to. This world is full of hurt, full of people in error and
confusion, full of people broken by sin and weighed down with despair, full of
people bound by the enemy and full of people lost in loneliness. They need you
to say yes to Jesus and to become an agent for this Kingdom come near. Help
them also to come into heaven begun here.
When we look at Jesus’ life, we see
the Kingdom in action. It is community, it is out- reach, it is freedom from
demonic power, it is physical healing, it is sins forgiven, it is true doctrine, it is a Sabbath experience, it is
liberty from fear and it is hope beyond disease and death, it is communion with
God and dinner with sinners.
One day, soon, what Jesus started
here He will return to finish. He’ll break through the sky and come with the
trump of the archangel. He’ll resurrect the dead, He’ll bind Satan for one
thousand years, He’ll recreate the earth, and He’ll make God’s permanent home
here. Choose to be part of that kingdom. Amen
DAY 2 | MATTHEW 11:4, 5;
PHILLIPPIANS 3:4-8
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Fable, Fairytale, or Reality
Did you know that at the end of April
2011, one of the biggest events in history occurred? In fact, it is a moment
that I’m sure everyone in the world well remembers. It was one of those moments
that we’ll be talking about twenty years from now with the phrase, “Do you
remember where you were when...?”
What was that event? It was the day
when one Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, was joined in holy matrimony to one
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton. The royal wedding was the most watched event in
history, like the wedding of William’s father before him, back in the 1980’s.
According to statistics, the royal wedding was watched by nearly 2.5 billion
people, approximately 35 percent of the world’s population; that’s one out of
every three people on the planet.
Created for a Kingdom
As an observer of life I am forced to
ask, what was it about this event that drew the attention of so many? As I
thought about this over several weeks, the conclusion that I’ve come to is that
we as a human race desire to live in the pages of our own fairytale. We have
written inside of us, maybe on our DNA, this hunger to be a part of another
story. We all, at one point or another, have longed to live as a part of these
fantastical stories. C.S. Lewis once said, “If there are longings in our hearts that nothing in this world can satisfy, it can
only mean one thing. We were meant for another world.”
When we were kids, we believed in this
other world, this other story, and it sounded an awful lot like a fairytale.
Webster defines fairytales as “stories (as for children) involving
fantastic forces and beings - a story in which improbable events lead to a
happy ending.”
Many people believe in all manners of
fairytales e.g. Santa Claus. No one lives happily ever after—fifteen minutes
watching the news will tell you that—famine, disease, sex trafficking, natural
disasters, terrorism, divorce. The world is a pretty awful place, and the fairytales
of our youth have all but faded away.
A Tale of Two Stories
I am going to tell two stories. The
first is about the reality of this world—the life we face every day—the life of
the seemingly mundane, the incredibly stressed, the constant disappointments,
and the painful predicaments that fill our days. But then there’s this other
possibility, this other story, maybe even another reality—one that may seem,
for all intents and purposes, like a fairytale, but one worth believing in
because it is true. My hope, my wish, my prayer is that through the telling of
these two stories your eyes will be opened and you will choose to live out the
other story, what we will call the “Kingdom Tale.”
Actor Brad Pitt responded to the
question of having achieved the American dream by saying, “I know all these
things are supposed to seem important to us – the car, the condo, our version
of success – but if that’s the case, why is the general feeling out there
reflecting more impotence and isolation and desperation and loneliness? If you
ask me, I say toss all this – we gotta find something else. Because all I know
is that at this point in time, we are heading for a deadend, a numbing of the
soul, a complete atrophy of the spiritual being. And I don’t want that” (Rolling
Stone magazine).
Well, what if the reality that we can
see with our eyes, the famines, the diseases, the meaninglessness, the
pain...what if it isn’t the real story? What if the life so many are
living is simply a fable...a falsehood, a lie, a result of the curse? What if
the answer to our search for meaning depended on our ability to believe in the
Kingdom tale?
In order to explore this other
reality, this other kingdom, we have to go to an ancient book. It is, to say
the least, one of the most controversial books ever written. Some, in fact, would
label it a fairytale: full of “out of this world stories” and far- fetched
teachings. Some would say they are simply too smart and too educated to believe
in such ridiculous ideas. Nineteenth-century agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, once
said this book was “a fable, an obscenity, a humbug, a sham and a lie.” Famous
actor Sir Ian McKellan said, “I’ve always thought [this book] should come with
a disclaimer at the beginning announcing to the reader that it is fiction, not
fact.” But truth be told, hundreds of thousands have died to make sure this
book, and its stories, have been passed on from generation to generation for
thousands of years. No other book has been so carefully preserved and so
tediously reproduced. And to many around the world, this book is believed to be
much more than a fairytale. Instead, it holds the secrets to the meaning of
life.
I’ll give you the really condensed
version of the story.
Once upon a time, in a land of
darkness, a Creator full of love to share came and created light and life. He
spoke the world into existence. He then created His most beloved creation; in
His own image He created them, male and female, and He gave them a most amazing, albeit risky, gift. He gave
them the gift of freewill: the ability to make their own choices and to choose
to either follow the Creator,
or reject Him. It was the only way they could
love Him freely. Things were great and life was full of love and purpose and
meaning, until a talking serpent entered the scene. He lied to the creation and
caused them to question the Creator’s intentions. They began to doubt in the
goodness of the Creator, and so they bit the fruit, sweet on the outside but
bitter on the inside, and brought a curse upon themselves and this world. The
curse brought with it pain, toil, hardships, disease, rejection, and death.
Lost was the ability to commune with the Creator in the garden in the cool of
the day. Lost was paradise. Much happened along the way, but the Creator never
abandoned His creation; never. His love for them wouldn’t allow it. In fact,
the Creator eventually did something even more amazing than that first gift of
freewill. At just the right time, while the creations were still powerless to
save themselves from the curse, the Creator came down to this planet and became
one of His creation. He gave up paradise, sacrificed His own life, to enter the
world of the curse in order to introduce us to a new story.
“When God gave His Son to our world,
He endowed human beings with imperishable riches—riches compared with which the
treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to
the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of
eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we
are to receive, to reveal, and to impart” (God’s Amazing Grace, 16.6).
The four Gospels, along with modern
scholars, all seem to agree that Jesus’ central theme in all His teaching was
to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God, a new reality. This kingdom is
mentioned more than 120 times in the New Testament, mostly by Jesus Himself.
Jesus talked about three kingdoms; the first was the kingdom of this world; the
second was the kingdom that is at hand, near, in our midst; and the third is
the kingdom that is to come. We’ve already talked about the kingdom of this
world and what it has to offer, and in order to cut to the chase, we’ll talk
about the kingdom that is already here, for it is a taste of the kingdom that
is to come.
What is this kingdom? Well, first of
all, it’s not what you’d expect. It never is. You see, God likes to show up in
ways that you’d never expect: a burning bush, a whisper, a talking donkey, a
boy with a sling, a baby in a manger, a carpenter, a cross. God loves
surprises. And so in order to be open to this kingdom reality, a change must
first occur. We must, as Jesus said, repent.
The True Kingdom Reality
Jesus began His ministry with the
words, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven, or God, is at hand.” Some of us have
heard that the word repent means to turn or change, and we associate it
with a turning from our sin. If we sin, we need to repent or turn away from it.
This is true, but the word for repent in Greek is the word, metanoeō
and, like many Greek words, it has multiple meanings. Metanoeō can also
mean to think differently. In other words, Jesus is announcing that it’s time
to begin thinking differently because the kingdom of God is here.
Repentance is associated with faith
and is urged in the gospel as essential to salvation. Paul preached repentance.
He said, “I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed
you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to
the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20, 21). “There is no salvation without repentance”
(Ellen G.White: Selected Messages, Vol. 1, page 365.2).
It’s a powerful idea, thinking
differently. In fact, one company used this slogan to turn its business from a struggling
company on the verge of bankruptcy, to one of the most successful companies of
all time and the only company in the world market that hasn’t lost value during
the recession. That company? Apple.
So to be open to the reality of the
kingdom of God, we need to think differently, but how? Think how? Fortunately,
Jesus gave us that answer too. Surrounded by a group of educated men and
honestly seeking disciples, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you turn
and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why must
we become like children? Might I suggest that the reason Jesus says we need to
become like children has to do with a child’s ability to dream and imagine and
believe in the impossible; to believe that fairytales actually do exist.
So let’s take that framework, the
challenge to think differently, as a child, about the kingdom of God reality.
Let’s explore how Jesus describes what this kingdom is.
The clearest description of the
kingdom of God was given by Jesus in response to the disciples of John the
Baptist while their teacher sat in prison. Even John the Baptist, the one who
came to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, the one who identified Jesus as the
Messiah, the one who heard the voice of God declare that Jesus was God’s Son,
was stuck in this other reality. After all, if the Messiah had come to
establish His kingdom, then why was John rotting behind bars? Jesus responded to John’s doubts by telling him about the
kinds of things that happen in the kingdom. (Read Matthew 11: 4-5.)
Jesus goes on, throughout the
Gospels, to explain the kingdom as a place where the broken are made whole;
where the worst of sinners are let in first; a place
that invades every aspect
of our lives and can actually bring out the good in us;
a place so amazing that
when we discover it we’d give up everything we have to keep it. It is a place
that is open to everyone who would accept it. It is a kingdom that is not
measured by the letters behind your name or the number of commas in your bank account or the depth of your dimples, but by
the way in which you are loved and love others. It is a generous kingdom, a
grace-filled kingdom, a purpose-giving kingdom, a hope-drenched kingdom, a
love-driven kingdom, and it is available for us to enter into right here and
right now. Don’t miss it.
“Remember that Christ risked all;
“tempted like as we are,” he staked even his own eternal existence upon the
issue of the conflict. Heaven itself was imperiled for our redemption. At the
foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Jesus would have yielded up
his life, we may estimate the value of a soul.” (GCB - The General Conference
Bulletin, December 1, 1895 par. 22)
Jesus risked everything to come and
give us a new story. A third-century theologian, Origen, described the kingdom
of God by saying that Jesus is the auto basilia; which means that Jesus
Himself is the kingdom of God. Wherever the presence of Jesus is on this earth,
the curse from the Garden of Eden begins to be reversed. The deaf can hear, the
blind can see, the lame can walk, the dead are raised, the hopeless find hope,
the lost find direction, and worthless-no-good sinners like me realize that we
are actually worth more to God than we could ever possibly imagine.
The apostle Paul learned to live in
this kingdom. Before Jesus blinded him on the road to Damascus, Paul had it
all: esteem, power, wealth, influence, education. He was high up in the kingdom
of this world. But after Jesus, Paul would come to write this: “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for
the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything [the money, the fame, the
education, the power, the position, the good times...all of it] as loss because
of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have
suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may
gain Christ and be found in Him” (Philippians 3:7-8).
The Message says it a bit more emphatically: “Yes, all the things I once
thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege
of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I
had going
for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so
that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.”
Learning to Live in the Kingdom
Paul learned that the things of this
world, minus Jesus, are meaningless. He learned that the most important thing
is to know Jesus Christ and that everything else, without Jesus, is garbage.
Education, wealth, power, comfort, and the American dream or is there a Zambian
dream as well...it’s all meaningless without knowing Jesus. It was this belief
that allowed Paul to sing God’s praises in prison, to write letters of joy and
encouragement while rotting in chains, and to go to his death singing hymns of
praise because the reality that he lived in was not of this world. Paul’s
reality was the kingdom of God and nothing and no one could take that away from
him. They could strip him of his clothes, but they could never touch his title
as a son of the living God. They could beat him senseless with sticks made of
wood, but they could never extinguish the fire in his eyes. They could spit on
his face, but the only way to stop him from proclaiming the good news of the
kingdom of God was to take his life, which he gladly gave up to be with Jesus.
And so with that kind of passion the
good news of the kingdom of God spread like wildfire in the ancient world.
Merchants and slaves, young people and old people, the sick, the poor, the
diseased, and the outcasts accepted the good news and shouted it from
mountaintops and the street corners. It grew from twelve believers to millions
of believers in what seemed like moments in the pages of history.
What drew so many people so quickly?
It was the story that is simply so good
it just has to be true, the story that
tops all stories, the place where the curse is reversed: the story of the
kingdom of God. It was this story that allowed hundreds of thousands of
followers in the early church to go bravely to their death because they
couldn’t imagine going back to the confines of their previous story. They
believed in and knew the “fairytale” was the only true story and they were
willing to die for the truth. Do you have
something in your life worth living for? Worth dying for? Might I suggest a new
reality? The kingdom of the living God. It is no fable; it is the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life, and its Leader extends His nail-scarred hand to you
tonight, asking you, begging you, to believe. Fable
or fairytale? The choice is yours.
DAY 3 | LUKE4
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Transforming Our World
A Great Disappointment
We are a people who have experienced
a great disappointment. However, our hearts are still longing for this blessed
hope that burns within our hearts; hope in the coming of the Lord. And in the
time of waiting we are keeping our robes clean, as best we can.
Some of us have this idea that the
reason that Jesus came was simply to save us from our sins and, when the time
is right, take us to heaven. However, let’s look at the words of Jesus and see
what He believed was the reason for His coming:
“He went to Nazareth, where he had
been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his
custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to
him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind, to
set the oppressed free, to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in
the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21, emphasis added).
What was Jesus saying? Was it
possible that He was saying that justice, peace, and righteousness were about
to be established forever? His answer: YES!
Breaking Down the Text
And we know that with Jesus we don’t
see a way around the very bold statement that He makes. There are no loopholes,
no sidestepping. If you are like me, you like to make a solid argument, and
then make sure you have given yourself an out, a loophole, a small back door so
that if someone else has a better argument, then there is always a way to “save
face.”
Jesus, however, left no such room.
The time of justice, peace, and reconciliation was now upon us, as He had
ushered it in with His life, death, and resurrection. It was clear that it was
not simply or only for saving us personally, but also to declare the good news
to the poor. But let’s stop for one moment, and ask the
question: “What is good news for the poor?” Is good news for the poor that once
you leave this wretched life the next thing you will see is Jesus Christ and
journey to heaven? Absolutely! That will
always be good news, for the rich, poor, ultra poor, ultra rich, and the middle
class as well. Do you know what else is good news to the poor? Food, clothing,
drink, shelter. These things create in us the ability to continue on.
Sometimes, good news is what can
immediately alleviate a situation. Is our good news to the poor something that
changes their station in life? Helps them live life in the current kingdom of
God? Is our good news only the news of the future, or is it good news for today
as well?
The government under which Jesus
lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses--extortion,
intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms.
He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not
interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was
our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent
to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and
external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and
must regenerate the heart (Ellen G. White: God’s Amazing Grace, page
16.2).
Does our good news only take the form
of a tract or a book, or does it take the form of clothing or bread? Because I
know what I need when I’m hungry—and I mean when I am physically hungry—so do
you.
By kneeling down with bowl and towel,
Jesus redefined greatness.
By proclaiming the good news, and
then making it practical, He reclaimed the good news for the present kingdom of
God. And we needed this redefinition des- perately. ”For the kingdom of God is
not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). The children of Israel had become a poor preview
of the coming kingdom of God.
On television and in media, we make
choices based on the previews that we see for a show, a series, or a media
event. By going to Apple trailers you can see what is on the horizon and what
is currently happening in media experience and pro- ductions. But sometimes,
the previews of what we see make us completely uninter- ested in spending our
time watching whatever is offered.
There are other times when the
converse is true, when the preview far exceeds the experience. We watch a
preview on television for a new series and the two minutes we see makes us want
the experience. Then, when we watch it, we realize that there were only two
minutes worth watching anyway.
Up until Jesus had come, the preview
for the kingdom of God was pretty poor. The children of Israel had not given
the world an expression of the character of God that many were interested in.
The trailer wasn’t making anyone want to see the movie. For how they defined
greatness was by the mere fact that they were the chosen people along with the
“Law,” their tradition and heritage. Poverty and affliction were signs of
divine disapproval; this was hardly good news for the poor and afflicted; the
law wasn’t even good news to those who were striving to keep it without
recourse to the Savior, because the law convicts and points out sin.
So here we have a world desperately
in need of good news, and we have a Jesus who ushers in that good news in more
than simple words. The good news of Jesus went beyond theological argument and
became particular. It became enfleshed.
The good news had skin on it, and had
bread in it, and clothing, and drink. The good news became physical healing and
the good news became a community that told everything, shared everything, and
made sure no one who was around would be hungry, cold, or afflicted if at all
possible.
The good news of heaven became the
good news today, in their lives, in their everyday, waking up and walking
around lives. It was not merely projected to the realm of “someday soon”; it
was TODAY. Today was the day that the good news of justice, peace, sight, and
freedom were proclaimed. “Someday soon,” we will experience the culmination of
all our hopes and dreams in the establishment of the glorious and eternal
kingdom of God; heaven starts in the here and now.
The King and the Kingdom
I start to get excited, because when
the good news is real and present you can’t help but be excited. I think it was
one of the reasons that the disciples didn’t fast when they were around Jesus.
They knew that there was too much good news to be stoic any longer.
But this good news was hard for the
good, churchy folk to stomach. It was too much and seemed too foreign. It was
too inclusive and meant that they had to love the unlovable.
You see, at this point, God was tired
of righteous acts. Their assemblies had become pageants and their worship was
something that God was awfully tired of consuming. This had happened
before—let’s consider Isaiah 1:10-17and 58:1-10:
This is God calling good church
people out! He wanted more than their pageants,
their offerings, their songs, and their worship. He wanted their lives to
reflect His love tangibly, with skin, with compassion, in real and powerful
ways. LOVE MORE, is always the cry of the LORD to
His people. We see in 1 John 3:16-18 the
function of the church:
“This is how we know what love is:
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for
our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a
brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be
that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with
actions and in truth.”
It is always hard when Jesus defines
something, because He defines it in such a different way. We often think we know what Jesus was going to say. But He
rarely said what people thought He would say. Basically,
Jesus was saying that following Christ was to be downwardly mobile in an
upwardly mobile world.
The good news means a new set of
values, a new trajectory, a new focus, a new orientation, and a new lifestyle.
The good news of the tangible kingdom of God is not a spiritual discipline that
we practice, but a new way of orienting one’s entire life.
The good news means that we are to
believe that there is a kingdom and that that kingdom has a king.
Let me explain what I mean:
For many Christians, there seems to
be this misconception that the journey of Jesus to earth was to simply save us.
But, as we saw in the texts already quoted, He came for more than simply
spiritual salvation, but to create a new economy based on kingdom of God
principles. Ellen White describes the launching of Jesus’ earthly ministry
recorded in Luke 4:18-21 as follows:
He (Jesus) stood before the people as
a living expositor of the prophecies concern- ing Himself. Explaining the words
He had read, He spoke of the Messiah as a reliever of the oppressed, a
liberator of captives, a healer of the afflicted, restoring sight to the blind,
and revealing to the world the light of truth. His impressive man- ner and the
wonderful import of His words thrilled the hearers with a power they had never
felt before. The tide of divine influence broke every barrier down; like Moses,
they beheld the Invisible. As their hearts were moved upon by the Holy Spirit,
they responded with fervent amens and praises to the Lord. (DA 237.2)
And over the years, too often
communities have lost this sense of mission, and have fallen into an expression
of Jesus that is based on intellectual beliefs, rather than compassion. But the
kingdom of God is a kingdom of compassion. It has always been and always will
be.
James says it clearly: “Religion that
God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”
(1:27).
A kingdom of compassion is what we
are asked to live in—and to express. To do this means we must embrace the
kingdom economy, the kingdom way of life, and this is a beautiful thing.
There are many who believe in kingdom
compassion and work actively in it; how- ever, many of them refuse to
acknowledge that this kingdom has a king. And this is where Christianity has
the opportunity to be more than simply a good way to live, or a system of
compassion to the world.
At our best, we believe in the kingdom
and acknowledge and worship its king.
However, too often the case becomes
that Christians begin their faith journey by acknowledging the King, but refuse
to participate in His kingdom. They have ac- cepted the explosion of grace in
their lives, but are never able to make their faith tangible. They have
accepted Jesus as a Savior, but deny Him as Lord. They are baptized in water
for the cleansing of past sins, dying to their past life, but are not
resurrected through the power of the Holy Spirit into the new kingdom life in
Christ.
Accepting Jesus as Savior and denying
Him as Lord leaves many believers with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and they
take their time fixing other people’s sins in the church.
Oh, if we could only put that energy
into being the tangible hands of Christ in the world.
One of the most powerful ways to
overcome a religion that is relegated to the philosophical is to get involved
in a religion that is tangible.
Two stories illustrate this point
well. Let me commence with the first story:
I read an email story this week about
a group of salesmen who attended a convention out-of-town some years back. As
they rushed through the terminal to get to their departing flight, one of them
accidentally knocked over a table that held a display of apples. They continued running for their plane as apples flew
everywhere and rolled along the ground. They made it just in time to get on
their plane. One of them felt a twinge of
compassion for the girl whose apple stand they had knocked over, and told his
buddies to go on without him and to tell his wife he would be taking a later
flight. Then he returned to the terminal
where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The
16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was crying, tears running down her
cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled
produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one caring for
her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor
with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped
organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of the apples had
become battered and bruised, so he put those aside in another basket. When he
had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take
this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?”
The girl nodded through her tears. He
continued on, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.” As the salesman
started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister....” He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.
“Are you Jesus?” she said. He stopped in
mid-stride and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to the later flight
with that question burning in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”
2nd Illustration
Abraham Lincoln went to a slave
market one time, and was moved with compassion to place a bid on a young black
girl. He won the bid and walked away with his “property.” There was a sullen,
angry expression on the girl’s face, because she knew that here was another white
man who had bought her and would abuse her. As they walked away from the slave
block, however, Lincoln told the girl, “You are free.”
“What does that mean?” she demanded. “It means, you are free.” “Does
that mean that I can be what I want to be?” “Yes--you
can be whatever you want to be.” “Does that
mean that I can say what I want to say?” “Yes--you
can say whatever you want to say.” “Does
that mean that I can go where I want to go?” “Yes--you
can go wherever you want to go.” “Then ...”
said the girl, “I’ll go with you.”
I read this story to illustrate a
further point. When you meet Jesus, you stay with Jesus. For Seventh-day Adventists, there is a King, and He has a
kingdom. It is not the church’s job to do
the service for you, but to facilitate opportunities for you to get involved.
Regardless of your passion, your
church should help you live it! Ministering in your passion is a huge part of
living in the kingdom of God.
The worship service should be a time
to come and celebrate the God moments that we have had as we witness and serve
the greater community.
But for far too long, church
attendance has been the spiritual high point of our week; great words are
spoken, great music leads to the presence of God, but often there is too little
or no time to express our gratitude for what God has been leading us to
discover and do in our kingdom living all week, all month, all year, every
second of every day.
But if we sit and do nothing, God
will grow weary of our assemblies.
Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells
about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in A.D.
109. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to
the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow.
Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, “This aqueduct is so
great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our chil- dren, as a museum
piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor.”
They did; they laid modern iron
pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the
aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to
crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of
service could not destroy, idleness disintegrated.
And this is what can become of a
church that does not invest in the service of others.
“The great violinist, Nicolo
Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa -- the city of his birth -- but
only on the condition that the instrument never be played upon.
It was an
unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is
used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins
to decay. The exquisite, mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its
beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a
reminder that a life withdrawn from all service to others loses its meaning”(Bits
& Pieces, June 25, 1992).
So this is the truth: there is a
kingdom, and that kingdom does have a King. And that King, in Luke 4, made it
very clear what He was about. It makes sense that we be about the things that
Jesus was about: mercy, justice, compassion, favor, and healing. If our faith
communities show these characteristics, they will not only be full – they will
be overflowing.
DAY 4 | MATTHEW 5:1-16
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Counter Culture Values
The Kingdom of Heaven is
Significant
The kingdom of heaven was—and is—a
very important subject for Jesus.
In fact, some say while on earth He
spoke of the kingdom of heaven more than any other topic. The kingdom,
apparently, was the most important reality. Jesus told many parables
about the kingdom (Matthew 13). He contrasted the kingdom of heaven (His
Father’s kingdom) with inferior kingdoms of this world (Matthew 4:8-10). He
even described His mission as bringing the kingdom of heaven to the earth
itself (Matthew 4:17). The prayer of Jesus, “Your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) shows us that God wishes for
the ways and means of His kingdom to conquer the ways and means of the kingdoms
of this world.
The kingdom of heaven was—and is—a
very important subject for Jesus.
A kingdom, of course, has a king. God
is the king of His kingdom – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are on the throne.
They are in charge. They make the rules. The life of Jesus describes what the
kingdom is all about. We find in His life compassion, holiness, purpose, truth,
and love. We see in His interactions with people how kingdom people are
supposed to live. From His miracles of healing to His practical teachings about money to His sacrificial death
on a cross we understand the values of the kingdom. Jesus came to reveal God,
to show us how God wants the world to work. Christ brings us “the law of the
land,” which is, of course, built upon the law of love (Matthew 22:37).
Our purpose here, however, is not to
identify the king, nor the kingdom’s rules and regulations. Instead, we will
explore kingdom citizenship. Who gets to be a part of this kingdom? In an
attempt to answer this question we will explore Matthew 5:1-14, which is the
beginning of Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount.” You may know that this
teaching is the great discourse on ethical living in the way of Jesus – life
lived in harmony with the kingdom of God. But in these first several verses,
Jesus first wishes to explore the question of “who” actually qualifies for
kingdom membership.
Qualifications for Kingdom
Membership
Let’s begin reading in Matthew 5:1-2.
“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he
went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began
to teach them.”
A quick and casual reading of these
verses might leave us feeling as if there isn’t much to reflect upon other than
some basic, uninteresting facts. “Jesus was teaching people on the side of a
hill.” But there is much more to the story! Yes, Jesus
is teaching. He was a
rabbi, a teacher. And yes, the fact that He sat down was a common teaching
position for rabbis. And yes, the word disciple means “one who is
learning from a rabbi,” and the great outdoors was a common place to teach and
a natural slope would have made for a nice classroom environment. All this
makes sense. What doesn’t is this: Jesus was teaching the crowds.
Here’s the problem: rabbis were
traditionally very selective about who they would teach. Only the best and the
brightest entered their classrooms. Only the politically well-connected found a
chair in their amphitheaters. Only those who were holy, righteous, of the right
bloodline, only those who were Jewish, and only the boys were allowed to enroll
in their schools. If you were female, you would not be taught. If you were the
son of a poor man, you would not be taught. If you were diseased, you would not be taught. If you were a Gentile
you would definitely not be taught. If you did not meet a very select standard,
you were simply out of luck.
Jesus is teaching the crowds.
Jesus is treating the masses as those worthy of being taught. There is
no “mettle” detector, testing the spiritual worthiness of those who would
listen. This crowd is diverse: rich, poor, male, female, young, old, high IQ,
low IQ, those who knew the doctrines and those who knew nothing of them. Jesus’
decision to teach the crowds–come one and all&mda