Introduction:
This Sunday we celebrate St Luke. Luke and the other Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and John are all known as Evangelists.
As you know Gospel means 'Good News'. This morning I want to look a bit closer at what exactly that 'Good News' was for the four Gospel writers.
Later in this service we will say together one of the Creeds. The Nicene todays' is called and it was formulated around 325AD+. But have you ever wondered why so much of Jesus' 3-year ministry is missing in the creeds – most of it really. The Creeds talk of God the Creator, of Jesus birth but then jump to His death, burial and resurrection.
Don't misunderstand me, the Creeds are in no way wrong, but we need to remember why they were written. The Creeds were formulated to preserve the early church's unity in the truth and to protect the church from heresy (false teaching) and they also provide instruction. Unlike the Bible they are not 'inspired'. To know them is not essential but to know Scripture is a divine imperative.
Sometimes I feel we are slightly misled by the creeds. Let's see why.
Sermon:
We all know that some kinds of news have the power to change our lives overnight – the arrival of Covid-19 is a good recent example. But it could be the birth of a baby or end of a war. I can remember when the Saddam Hussein statue was brought down. But it was the fact that people who had lived in fear of torture and murder for decades who talked of how they felt they had been 'reborn' that was so moving. It was as if a nightmare was suddenly over and a new day had dawned.
The Hebrew word besorah, which we translate as 'good news' has exactly that meaning. It is news of national importance: a victory in war, or the rise of a powerful new king. Isaiah used it to describe the end of the exile and of the coming of the messianic King.
Often it is news that means enormous life-change for the hearer. The equivalent word in Greek is euangelion. When a new king was crowned, the euangelion was the announcement that the monarch had taken the throne, that a new kingdom had taken power. Why is this called 'good news'. Because an announcement of euangelion was good news to the empire and its cheering citizens, although enemies and dissidents would not probably agree! But the point is the news is good for the king and his kingdom.
We also translate euangelion as 'good news'. It, too, describes historic news of national importance. Amazing when we realize that the news the angels brought the shepherds at Jesus' birth was a similar announcement but in a much greater and much more far-reaching way - an official proclamation to ALL nations about the birth of the TRUE KING of Kings and the arrival of a new kingdom on earth.
So strictly speaking the, the good news, the euangelion, is simply that God had appointed Jesus as his chosen King. This was also why Paul was utterly focused on preaching the 'euangelion of Christ – the anointed, the King' and spoke of himself as an Ambassador to the Gentile world.
So why did the 4 Gospel writers put so much emphasis on Jesus' three-year ministry?
Basically, the reason is that they came to understand that not only had Jesus indeed fulfilled all of the Scriptures – that is what we call the Old Testament, by becoming 'King' and by ushering in his Kingdom. But
also, that he fulfilled it in a completely different way to what many had been hoping for, i.e. someone who would come with vengeance and wipe out their enemies!
Jesus' Kingdom-message wasn't about national and political liberation, nor was it purely a spiritual message – of timeless and eternal truths of personal salvation. If it had been just the latter then what does the phrase - Thy Kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven mean?
Jesus' Hebrew name was Yeshua which means 'God's salvation'.
The whole of Jesus' ministry was a visible demonstration of His name and His Kingdom message. In his teaching, preaching, and healing ministry, especially among the outcasts of society, he demonstrated visibly that God's salvation had come.
He came to this earth on a rescue mission, but not to help people escape this world. Instead, he came to free them from the clutches of sin, self, sickness, and oppression that they might be prepared for the 'age to come'. Jesus came to serve, not to be served, to reconcile human beings to God, to each other and to the whole of creation. By his example he taught his followers how to be involved in the lives of people in order to make them whole. Jesus' concern with social justice and human need falls precisely within the historic Jewish tradition. Likewise, as Otto Piper in his book Church and Judaism in Holy History states; it serves to Christianity as a corrective against the temptation to be carried away by dreams of an apocalyptic glory, and it reminds us that we are to live the life of faith under the conditions of this world.' This was the work of Yeshua, and this is the work of his people – to bring salvation down to earth. And that is the message the Gospel writers want us to hear in their accounts of Jesus' life.
This new King, Yeshua, came extending an invitation to everyone to enter his kingdom and live under his reign. 'Good News' seems an understatement!
And as the reign of God broke into human lives, the power of the kingdom was unleashed. (Luke 11.20). In Hebrew thought, the kingdom is wherever God sovereignly takes charge and rules in human affairs. For example, in the OT God's reign is associated with the crossing of the Red Sea. In the case of Jesus, as the power of God penetrated lives through him by breaking apart the fetters that bound and chains that oppressed, God's salvation had come.
Certainly, Jesus' followers didn't think that the Kingdom meant simply some new religious advice or a better code of morals. What they believed was far more dramatic and for them, dangerous. They believed that in Jesus' unique life, death and resurrection, the whole cosmos had turned the corner from darkness to light. The Kingdom was indeed here but not at all as they had imagined nor what kind of a king.
That was the essence of Jesus' message during his 3 year ministry – to explain that God was different to any other King they had ever seen or imagined and that his Messiah was also different. And that was the aim of the Gospel writers, too – to reveal how God became King and what that meant for the whole of his creation. The Good News was the Kingdom news.
A quick word about the phrases: 'the kingdom of heaven' and the 'kingdom of God'. They are in reality one and the same but why the difference. In Jesus' day and even now, Jewish people showed their reverence for God's name by not pronouncing it. Instead they substituted a respectful euphemism like 'heaven'. Similarly we say 'thank heavens' or 'goodness knows'.
Matthew, writing for a mainly Jewish audience, by using 'kingdom of heaven, was keeping the culturally correct expression but the other 3 gospel writers used 'kingdom of God' in order to communicate more clearly with their Greek audiences.
But there is more... the Hebrew phrase that Jesus probably used – mahl-KOOT shah-MY-eem is a common idiom in rabbinic teaching. Mahl-KOOT which we translate Kingdom sounds like a place or a government of some sort. But it actually refers to an ancient sense of the word that describes the actions of a king – his reign and authority – and anyone who is under his authority. Shamayim is Heb. For 'sky' or 'heavens' so the 'kingdom of heaven would be God's reign, or how God reigns, of those whom God reigns over.
The great debate of Jesus' time was when and how God would establish his reign over all the nations. It was thought that when the Messiah came, the Kingdom of God would arrive all at once with great glory. But Jesus dismissed this idea:
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, 'The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, here it is, or there it is, because the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU. Luke 17.20
Jesus meant that a person is brought into the Kingdom of God when that person repents and decides to 'accept' God as his/her King. It is something that happens in a person's heart and not a political movement or visible display of God's power.
Tom Wright writes of the gospels telling the story of the launching of God's renewed people. And thus we can say that the Kingdom grows as more and more people recognize Jesus as King over their lives - over all of their actions and thoughts.
'Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth' – IN and THROUGH US!
May everyone on earth know your will and do your will....
But you may be asking yourself now, how can Jesus both bring God's reign to earth and yet speak of it as coming in the future? Charles Colson explains it like this:
'Probably the most significant event in Europe during WWII was D-Day, June 6. 1944, when the allied armies stormed the beaches of Normandy. That attack guaranteed the eventual destruction of the Axis powers in Europe. Though the war continued with seeming uncertainties along the way, the outcome was in fact determined. But it wasn't until May 8, 1945 – VE Day – that the results of the forces set in motion eleven months earlier were realized.'
He continues: Christ's death and resurrection - the D-Day of human history – assures His ultimate victory. But we are still on the beaches. The enemy has not yet been vanquished, and the fighting still ugly. Christ's invasion has assured the ultimate outcome, however- victory for God and his people at some future date. The second stage, which will take place when Christ returns, will complete God's rule over the all the universe, His Kingdom will be visible without imperfection."
So, what about us today?
When Jesus spoke about receiving the Kingdom of God (lk 18.17) or entering the Kingdom of heaven, (Mt 7.21) he wasn't talking about how to get into heaven when we die, as many have thought. He was speaking about enabling people to live, NOW, the greatest life possible by living under his reign through the power of his grace.
And so, Evangelism is not simply about converting people to a certain system of belief. Jesus' Good News of the Kingdom is a dynamic call to a WAY of life – nothing less than the practice of the presence of God in our lives. This is the Kingdom of God – the awareness of Immanuel – of God with us.
Belonging to the Kingdom means to see the world with the love of the creator for his spectacularly beautiful creation; and to see it with the deep grief of the creator for the battered and battle-scarred state in which the world now finds itself.
Belonging to the Kingdom means pledging our obedience, too. Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.' Matt.7.21 Once again Jesus wasn't talking about a heavenly afterlife. He was talking about enthroning God here and now, showing our love by doing what he asks. We long to experience God in deeper ways but we forget that obedience is the key to spiritual vitality.
The way we understand Jesus' words about the Kingdom is critical to the kind of life we will live. If we think that the 'Kingdom of heaven' is simply about Christ's second coming or about going to heaven when we die, we'll be tempted to become passive and complacent.
But if Jesus' Kingdom is a living, dynamic reality – a reality that is right now steadily advancing against the Kingdom of darkness – that's a different story.
As followers of Christ, our obedience is vital because it is a catalyst for the Spirit's work, making us more like Jesus so that his reign can spread across the whole earth.
And so we see that Jesus' message of the Kingdom which the Gospel writers were so intent on communicating – is not only Jewish to the core – it is also at the very heart of the Gospel, revealing a God of tenderness and mercy, who postpones final judgement until as many people as possible can be gathered into the Kingdom of his Son.
I'd like to end with a prayer: the Rabbis taught that anyone who prays this prayer with a sincere heart 'receives upon him/herself the kingdom of heaven – because they understood that people who made this daily commitment were mentally bowing down before God, 'enthroning him as their King. Such people they said, were proclaiming their faith in God and pledging to live under his reign.
Deut. 6.4-5 'Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. May we Love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul and with all our strength. Amen'
Revd Elizabeth Bussman