We are a people of the kingdom of God - living for a cause

We are a people of the Kingdom of God – living for a cause

The Lord’s Prayer

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, quite an important piece of the curriculum I think, he started with the sentence,

Our Father, your name is holy, your kingdom come. Luke 11:2

It is a strange phrase when you think about it, your kingdom come. We are perhaps very familiar with it but what does it actually mean? How can a kingdom come? Could you say to the Queen, your united kingdom come?

I suppose you could if you lived in a different country and aspired to what was available in the UK. You might say to the visiting Queen, “Please bring your kingdom here so that we can know and experience it in our country, in fact, please be our Queen.”

That is what we are, in effect, saying when we pray the Lord’s prayer, “God, please bring your country’s values and benefits here, please extend your kingship, your rule, to include us in this different country.”

We are speaking about a kingdom which is more than a natural, here and now, kingdom, we are speaking of a supernatural dimension.

Some background theology

We believe that God made everything. Therefore he is in charge of his kingdom. He rules the whole of everything, including the created universe. But within this kingdom there was rebellion. We have it described to us in the bible as Satan deceiving Adam and Eve and became the god of this world.

The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers… 2 Cor 4:4

What are the characteristics of Satan’s kingdom?

• Sin – rebellion against God
• Hunger & poverty
• Sickness
• Demons
• Ruin of nature
• Death

These are the things that go on in his kingdom. We can see evidence of this all around us. When we pray to God, Your kingdom come, we are pleading for a new ruler, a new way of living, one that puts right the awful tyranny of the enemy.

The good news is, God so loved the world that he gave his only son … John 3:16.

He is minded to answer our prayer and has done what is necessary to put it into effect and rescue this world from the rule of the enemy, to re-impose his kingdom.

Primarily, he does that by sending Jesus. Jesus came and through his life, death and resurrection reversed the essence of Satan’s kingdom:

• Where Satan brings sin, Jesus brings forgiveness of sin
• Where Satan brings poverty and hunger, Jesus feeds the poor
• Where Satan brings sickness, Jesus heals
• Where Satan releases demons, Jesus casts them away and imprisons them
• Where Satan ruins God’s created order, Jesus imposes his will and restores order
• Where Satan brings death, Jesus conquers death and brings eternal life

Jesus comes and does this and then commands us to take on the commission of taking this good news worldwide,

This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world. Matthew 24:14

And

All authority (a kingdom concept) in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples… Matthew 28:18,19.

Now is this not a cause worth living for? A cause worth fighting for? A cause worth dying for? We talk, in the “vineyard person”, about the church being an army. Here we have our fighting instructions.

• Where there is sin, declare Jesus’ forgiveness
• Where there is poverty & hunger, feed the poor
• Where there is sickness, pray for healing
• Where there are demons, cast them out in Jesus’ name
• Where nature is being ruined, restore
• Where there is death, call people to eternal life

Eschatological Tension - the conflict between then and now

There is one big question staring us in the face.

Yes we see what Jesus did to advance the kingdom of God, and yes we have witnessed in this day evidence of the same things happening. But - people still sin, go hungry, don’t get healed, are demonised, ruin the world, die. What is going on? Whose kingdom are we living in?

This is where we come to an understanding that is crucial to the way we do church.

Yes, the world was under the rule of Satan.
Yes, the day will come when none of the characteristics of the enemy will be found in the kingdom in which we live – no sin or hunger, no illness or demons, no ruin of nature or death of man.
And yes, Jesus has come and brought the kingdom of God and we have seen it. In fact he has come in such power that he has fatally wounded the rule of the enemy. The snow is melting (remember the story in “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”?), the end of the enemy’s reign is inevitable.
But it has not yet fully happened.

We live in the period between the winning of the crucial battle and the actual surrender of the enemy with declaration of peace. So we see evidence of the coming kingdom but also experience the pain of the enemy’s continuing influence.

The now of the pain and the not yet of God’s partial presence – partial not yet complete.

Which means that this is an ongoing battle. It isn’t just an idea or an interesting theory, it is reality. And understanding this is crucial to understanding the Vineyard’s philosophy of ministry – or the way we do church. It effects many things.

It’s a verb not a noun
I know that it is technically a noun but we must understand it as a verb. The kingdom of God is all about action. It’s an event. It is his purpose and our action. His kingdom on the move and our participation.

So we pray, “Your kingdom come” – yes we pray and intercede and plead with God that he will come and come more and come completely.

But we don’t just pray or talk or listen to sermons, we need to take action.
Don’t just sit there, do something.

I went into the 24/7 prayer room at midnight on Friday and sat there looking at all the pictures and words. It described a community of faith doing the stuff, extending the kingdom of God, a spiritual “house” that was way bigger than any premises we could occupy. I was sitting there praying but I was praying about things that were happening.

What sort of things need to happen?

• Where there is sin, declare Jesus’ forgiveness
• Where there is poverty & hunger, feed the poor
• Where there is sickness, pray for healing
• Where there are demons, cast them out in Jesus’ name
• Where nature is being ruined, restore
• Where there is death, call people to eternal life

This is the cause we have signed up for. This is what we are to DO.

For example

Marriages – has anyone here had cause to forgive or ask forgiveness from their spouse? Of course you have. And when you say sorry and when you forgive, the kingdom comes.

On the Street – the guys who go and pray the homeless on the street see an ongoing battle. Someone has a major issue and they pray and they get healed from addiction or provided with housing. Then a little later something else emerges, alcoholism or being kicked out of a job. The Kingdom of God comes but there is a battle.

Here, every time you stretch out your hand and ask God to heal someone, his kingdom comes.

It does not mean dropping your jobs and friends and becoming an evangelist. It means living lives filled with the Spirit of God and, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year … forgiving, extending Jesus forgiveness, looking out for the hungry and poor, praying for the sick, casting out demons, looking after our world, telling people the good news about life rather than death.

Doing this within our families and friendships, within this community of faith, at work, at the school gate, in the neighbourhood. The Kingdom of God comes in the run of the mill of our daily lives.

If we do this, if we live lives that bear the likeness of the God who created us and loves us we are becoming true followers of Jesus. In the deep sense of what we believe in the Vineyard we are becoming people of the Kingdom of God, Vineyard people.

Is this not a cause to get stuck into? Do you not want to be part of a community of faith that fights this battle? One that pushes back the kingdom of the enemy and brings the Kingdom of God to your family, your neighbourhood, your workplace, your country, to the world?

So we are a people of the kingdom. What does that look like beyond the way I live my life and the way you live yours?

We experience God’s heart for the poor and the lost (the vineyard person's legs)

God so loved the world that he gave his only son … John 3:16.
If we come close to God or he comes close to us we will experience his heart and we will long to see the poor and the lost reached for the Kingdom of God. This heart will therefore come as we worship and draw close to him. If you are praying to God to reveal himself to you, to fill you with his Spirit, then the answer to your prayer will be a compassion for the lost and the poor.

Conversely, if you find that you struggle to know intimacy with him. God seems far away and not interested in you. The bible is hard to read and prayer is boring. Then you need to get close to the poor because that is where Jesus is.

Mother Theresa said, We find Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor and the needy.

So we will worship and pray and devote ourselves to the word of God.
We will also put money, time and energy into coming alongside the poor and the lost.

We will work with others

There are many other people following Jesus or just responding to a deep seated identity with this kingdom cause and who are ahead of us in working with the poor and needy and lost. We will seek to support and partner with them. We won’t just do our own thing but we will be prepared to work alongside others who may be different in some of the ways they do things but who are reaching out already.

So we give money to and support in prayer and publicity many activities going on around Leeds and Yorkshire and further afield. For example, working with Mission Direct sending people to work in the developing world or supporting people working in local youth organisations.

We will plant churches (the vineyard person's arms)

In the Vineyard we understand the bible to demonstrate the planting of new churches as the most effective way in which to extend the Kingdom of God.

Although we will develop new models of church planting to cope with current legislation and culture, we will be training leaders and releasing resources to start and grow community of faith of one sort or another around our region and further afield.

These may be little more than housegroups or clusters or projects, they may grow into fully fledged independent churches. But it is a highly effective way of growing the Kingdom of God.

Renewal Ministry – Give away what we have been given (the vineyard person’s arms)

We love what God loves and he loves his church.

We will avoid language that implies that other churches are not right. We will not entice people to come to us from them. On the contrary, we have been given so much in the Vineyard that we will freely give and share with other churches. Without comment on their institutional nature, without strings attached.

Where we have opportunity to share with those from other churches about how worship and praying for the sick is important to us, for example, we take that opportunity. When I meet with other leaders in particular, I always try and pray for them and bless them – even when I disagree profoundly with them.

Although we may only be the turnip in the stew, we can share our unique flavouring where it is welcomed. In fact, as with the poor, we find that when we climb out of our little pot and seek to bless others, we end up being renewed. God chooses to bless us at times like this.

So as you have opportunity to meet people from other churches, pray for them, share with them what God has given you, but don’t call them out or entice them from their churches.

Equip & Train (the vineyard person’s school)

An important and somewhat unusual element of church practice and philosophy. But when you read,

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church … until fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. Ephesians 4:11.

When you read that, alongside Jesus’ commission, you have to conclude that that training is important.

Most churches require their people to attend services, assent to a creed of some sort, serve somewhere in a voluntary capacity, give some money – gather, believe, serve, give. Those are all good things but they don’t address the main purpose facing us: this is to tell people about Jesus and then train them in how to live and tell others the same thing.

This is where we are going in 2007, to try and fulfil the great commission of Jesus. We aim to draw people; to gather, to believe, to serve and to give but our particular emphasis is to train and equip also. So much of our teaching is very practical and life-craft orientated.

Being equipped to do this is one of the pre-occupations of my life and is one of my main responsibilities as a pastor - to teach and train you how to do this.

Apprentice Model

Generally we adopt the apprentice model of training – watching and doing.

So, if you want to learn (or conversely train) get alongside someone and watch what they do and then have a go yourself: teaching, worship, serving coffee and tea, setting up for the Vine or weekly worship, pastoring a housegroup, car-parking, praying for the sick, casting out demons, ministering with the poor.

Example: To minister on the streets, arrange with Matt and Anne to join them on Saturday morning, maybe they will give you a lift. They will understand your fears and uncertainties. Stand slightly behind them and watch and listen. Then when the opportunity arises let them watch and listen as you serve one of the homeless guys a coffee. Then you are off.

I encourage you to read magazines (Christianity or Third Way for example) books, listen to talks, go to conferences and meetings. Learn as much as you can, continually push yourself further out on the ministry edge by learning. Take risks. Jesus is a risk taker.

We are a people of the kingdom, we have a cause to live for

If we do this, if we live lives that bear the likeness of the God who created us and loves us, we are becoming true followers of Jesus. In the deep sense of what we believe in the Vineyard we are becoming people of the Kingdom of God, Vineyard people.

Is this not a cause to get stuck into? Do you not want to be part of a community of faith that fights this battle? One that brings the Kingdom of God to your family, your neighbourhood, your workplace, your country, to the world?

21 January 2007

David Flowers