People that want to understand “The Kingdom” only from the perspective of the New Covenant are missing the heart, soul, and underlying purpose of God establishing His kingdom on earth. They lose sight of the relationship between kingdom and redemption. It quickly deteriorates into social action, spiritual laws, a Christian cloister, or worse. The Old testament makes up more than half of our Bibles; it’s there for a reason. To disconnect it from the New Testament is to rape the truth of the Bible for the fancy of modern man.

Here is a good and much needed letter to “emerging” believers in America. It is good to remember that re-thinking church is not un-doing Christianity and re-defining the Gospel… but rather it is re-understanding that the mission of Jesus is God’s plan of salvation, and that believers are a part of this work. We should, therefore, live life in such a way that Biblical truth is what people see, not fads and human fancy.

Sometimes we get it right; that one in a hundred thousand shot comes along and we hit it right on the head. With a satisfying “ping”, the nail is driven home. These are the moments that we see clearly. Past the political and cultural causes, past our traditions, through all the opinions and arguments and sayings of men, women, and children around us, we pierce the vale for a moment and speak actual bedrock truth. Even the disciples (whom Jesus called “ye of little faith” for three years as He was walking, talking, and living with them!) saw the truth of the matter on occasion. What they saw was who Jesus actually is.

Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

Luke 9.18-20

Matthew’s account records Jesus as adding, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven….” Peter got it right this time… and then he blows it, just like we all do. I guess we figure that since we finally got our heads wrapped around this truth we have reached a sort of peak in our Christian walk; now we are ready for the “next level”… ready to be mature and closer to Jesus than we have been before.

Only now, Jesus starts saying stuff that we don’t understand, stuff like, “I must suffer many things, be rejected, killed, and raise on the third day.” and “If anyone wishes to truly follow me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross along side of me, and follow me. If you really want to save your life, lose it. Don’t be ashamed of me and I won’t be ashamed of you when I come in the Glory of God with all the armies of heaven. And I’m telling you that some of you standing right here won’t die until you see the kingdom of God.”

Even 2000+ years later, we are left scratching our heads at some of this, going, “Huh…?” Read the rest of this entry