So why is part 1 of this blog important?
Good question.
The idea of Kingdom Evangelism elevates the evangelism discussion to new levels of importance in the life of Christ-followers. It's a mental shift from attempting random acts of Christian communication to a much larger and intentional endeavor: the demonstration of the King's authority and power. In effect, evangelism becomes a yearning for people to meet Jesus, the King. This is a far more than bringing people into a church building, or asking them to parrot some spiritual sounding mantra, or requesting them to adhere to some staunch denominational doctrine or position. All such things easily become empty platitudes and/or religious systems that may be totally devoid of the main thing: JESUS.
What do I mean? Imagine a Kingdom without a King. It is non-sensical. In the quest to make sense of Christianity to a lost and hurting world could it be that we have effaced "Christ" and developed a complicated system around the "ianity"? The Kingdom has often been superseded by the building. Church activities focus on systems and procedures for practicing Christianity. In so doing it's entirely possible to completely miss Christ. The whole process becomes nothing more than an empty religious system full of do's and don'ts based on external criteria, but totally overlooking the necessity of the internal: the depraved heart and mind of a world in desperate need of heaven's regeneration. The Kingdom always starts from the inside out. Religion from the opposite perspective, but lacks any real power to transform the interior.
No wonder religion is mocked in the 21st century. Man's best efforts can never change the heart of man. Nice sounding messages and religious activity lack any intrinsic power for transformation. It is mere external conformance to a predetermined human model. This is a legalistic system based similar on what is found in the Old Testament. Such teaching only reveals how far we have fallen short, but never deals with the power necessary to recover. The Kingdom, however, is never about human conformation to religious structures and systems; it is about core transformation by the power of Christ's Spirit in our lives. Once this has been accomplished we are then invited to be conformed to Christ Jesus Himself. This is a glorious calling. Instead of making people replicas of each other, mere copy-cats with no originality; we are forged as individuals with limitless creativity of expression and personality after the Creative God who spoke the cosmos into existence.
Kingdom evangelism as such refuses to allow our world to conceive of Christ , the glorious King, as an empty philosophical position or an antiquated historical figure with no relevance for a post-modern world. Instead it presents the King, full of power and might, a God fully able to handle the most difficult of situations, able to heal the most sordid of sicknesses, to deliver from the heaviest of oppressions, and forgive the darkest of deeds. This is Jesus alive- touching, healing, breathing, cleaning, cleansing, liberating, forgiving, and transforming in the 21st century. Let the scoffer and mocker of this current age resist His claims and balk at His person, but let them never think Him impotent and irrelevant. He is not a relic from some past iconic religious monument. He is alive and active in an ever accelerating movement. He longs to reveal Himself and transform lives.
This isn't a religious endeavor; its a relational one. This is heaven's invisible Kingdom colliding with the human soul. The King becomes more than cultural expression: attached to a foul-mouthed four-letter swear-word. This is Jesus up close and personal with the inevitable result of a wonderful and glorious transformation. This is Jesus enthroned in the darkest of places- the human heart where the heavy weight of a guilty conscience is forever cleansed. Sin's chains and vices banished, permanently.
So, the question boils down to this for me: if Kingdom Evangelism is so vitally important and so intricately necessary in seeing people personally encounter Jesus in a tangible fashion, then why is it that so few believers actually participate in this endeavor?
There are probably more reasons that I can enumerate, but for now lets talk about motivation for Kingdom Evangelism. What is our motivation? Is it so that we can laud ourselves for being such important people? Or check off a spiritual to do-list? Never. For sake of brevity, let me elaborate on three.
1- The Value of Christ's Sacrifice: Kingdom evangelism centers around Jesus not man. We often consider ourselves first and Him second. A special outreach, a mission, a program, a strategy, but all such thinking originates in us. Such thinking will never do. Our starting point must be Him. The beautiful Son of God sacrificed everything to die a criminal's death. Innocence ignored. Justice spurned. Jesus, fully God, fully man, hangs between two criminals on a tree, the death that merited a curse according to the Old Testament. Why? To pay the price of admission into the Kingdom. The Bible refers to this salvific act as the perfect sacrifice. Heaven's Lamb slain to pay for sin. Blood had to be spilled to cover humanity's treason against God.
What kind of response does such love deserve? What compensation or reward is equal to such a sacrifice? Only one: coined by the Moravians hundreds of years ago. "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His sacrifice." Hundreds of young men and women literally abandoned everything to take the Gospel to a world that had never heard. Have we truly understood the sacrifice of the Lamb of Glory? Do we understand His mission by death? Or see the promised reward prophetically pronounced in the scriptures? He will receive worshippers from every tribe, tongue, people, and language. We must start with the sacrifice in full view.
2- The Potential Kingdom Impact of a life: Each life has significance. Each life a heavenly purpose, a God given direction. Each person has influence and opportunity to impact a sin-cursed earth with the order of the Kingdom. I often think of my friend Sach. Many know the story. A raging drunkard and criminal of a man when I first met him. By his own admission, his life was spent and his destiny determined, hell. Then one day the King grabbed his heart. He met Jesus up close and personal The Kingdom invaded his life and nothing has ever been the same.
He now has a beautiful wife and two wonderful children. The transformation is so astonishing that hundreds of others who knew him before have followed suit in making a decision to enter this invisible Kingdom and surrender to this glorious King. Today, he is an agent of hope, a broker of peace and life in a turbulent Kenya fraught with terrorism. What if he hadn't entered the Kingdom? What if the King had never been introduced to Him? The eternal destinies of hundreds and thousands have hinged on this one life. It is no different for anyone else. Do we see this? Do we understand the potential Kingdom impact of just one life?
3-The Role of the Believer: Many people would never darken the door of a church- too many fears, hurts, and past pain. They have no interest in Christian movies, videos, or Television. Before we lose heart let's not forget that the King is actively pursuing them. How then can they experience the Kingdom? Only one way- you and me. Our lives must contain authentic Kingdom witness. St. Francis of Assis once said, "preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words." I disagree with his statement for a Gospel without words is no Gospel at all. Obviously, there must the corresponding actions and transformation of life that Assis highlighted. Let us never be so deceived as to think that people are going to blindly stumble their way to the feet of Jesus. They need friends who have built relationship to point them to the cross. Are you available? Is your life vibrant with the Kingdom?
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