The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 13 (Kingdom and Community, Part 1)

(Wednesday night class, October 27, 2010)

Introduction

My wife and I are big Agatha Christie fans. We love mysteries. Last Christmas, I bought her all the missing volumes for my wife’s collection — and I learned that many of the books are out of print. I had to buy them from used book dealers.

And it occurred to me — and although I’m not like this — I know lots of people who turn to the last couple of chapters to read them first. They just especially enjoy knowing how things turn out. And all mystery readers enjoy the final chapters the most. We like seeing the mystery revealed.

So I’m trying to raise money to buy the publication rights for these books. And I figure I’ll save a lot of money by printing just the last three chapters of each book — because those are the fun chapters, the ones where you found out how it ends, who did it. Those are where the mystery is revealed — so what’s the point of spending money on the first 10 chapters or so, all of which are superseded by the exciting conclusion? I’ll make a fortune!!

And this is, of course, a profoundly stupid idea. After all, the fun is really in seeing how it all unfolds. There’s no point in knowing that the butler did it unless you know what he did and know how hard it was for the detective to figure it out. You can’t be amazed at his brilliance unless you follow the story with him, get fooled by the red herrings and false trails. You have to experience the story to appreciate the ending. Even those who cheat and skip to the end do so intending to read the whole thing. No one buys just the last few chapters.

Except Christians. Christians actually buy Bible’s with the entire Old Testament — except for the Psalms — excised, because they never need the Old Testament. To them, it’s not even part of the story. It’s just children’s stories and a few Messianic prophecies. And this is one reason why they misunderstand the New Testament. You don’t know who the butler is or what he did unless you start at the beginning.

So last week, I was asked to teach a class on the Kingdom. I was handed some lesson notes to teach from. And they started in Matthew. They said nothing about the Old Testament, because, after all, what do the Old Testament writers know about kingdoms?

You know, a couple of years ago, I taught a quarter on Luke, and I noticed this very odd thing —

(Luk 4:42-43 ESV) 42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Oh, wow! I thought. Here we have the very purpose of Jesus being sent — to preach the Kingdom! But nowhere in Luke is the “Kingdom” defined. Really. Neither is “good news.”

So I wondered how all these First Century Jews knew what Jesus was talking about. Did they look it up on Google? Their theological encyclopedias? No — learned about it in Saturday school. The synagogues taught the Kingdom because the Law and the Prophets teach the Kingdom. They knew all about the Kingdom — and they’d been praying for it for centuries.

The Kingdom was a mystery. The Jews didn’t know when it would come or who would be king. They speculated as to the nature of the king — the Messiah — and how he’d honor God’s splendid prophecies. And they were begging God to read them the last chapter.

The lesson

We’ve been considering —

(Gal 5:6 ESV) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

The beginning

I need to expand on the love element of our salvation. And it goes back to Genesis —

(Gen 1:26-28 NAS) 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

This is the first time God is referred to in the plural. “Us” and “Our” are plural in the Hebrew. Therefore, God makes plural man: “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” God exists in community. He is not an autonomous individual. Just so, he did not create an autonomous individual. He created man “male and female.” Community requires at least two.

Just so, in Genesis 2, we read —

(Gen 2:18 NAS) 18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

The human being alone is “not good.” We are not truly in God’s image unless we exist, like God, in community. The self-made, autonomous individual is an unnatural, unhealthy product of Western thought. It’s contrary to the image God wants us to have.

That’s not to insist on marriage. Paul is quite clear in 1 Cor 7 that marriage is not required. But being a part of God’s own community is.

Babel

(Gen 11:3-4 NAS) 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Arrogance led mankind to seek its own name, not God’s, and so they were cursed —

(Gen 11:9 NAS) 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

And thus the world became a multitude of hostile communities, divided and unable to communicate.

Abraham

God called Abraham and made a covenant with him —

(Gen 15:6 ESV) 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

The first element is that faith produces justification — being found righteous.

(Gen 17:4-6 ESV) 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.”

Further, God promised to make Abraham the father of a multitude of nations — which sure sounds like more than Israel and the Ishmaelites.

(Gen 22:17-18 ESV) 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring [seed] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Finally, God promised to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham. This not a comprehensive discussion of the covenant, but just enough to make the point. God’s faith-covenant with Abraham was designed to have worldwide scope and to be a blessing. It includes, of course, the sending of missionaries, but it’s bigger.

The kingdom

Under Saul, David, and Solomon, God established a kingdom on earth, which possessed the land promised to Abraham, but the Jews failed to be the blessing that God had promised. Rather, they fell into idolatry. The northern tribes were carried off by Assyria, and the southern tribes were taken by the Babylonians — all because the descendants of Abraham failed to hold up their end of the covenant. They lacked faith/faithfulness.