Dear Ones,

I understand we may have different walks of life and share different views of things. I deeply respect that. With a heart of peace and goodwill, I feel led to share some writings of mine conerning some fundamentals of my faith in God and Christ Jesus.

I hope it will lend some help to those are in search of truth, love, and faith in Christ Jesus, even life eternal, also bring a bit clarity to who share my faith and enjoy to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ or to just be refreshed with the things they already knew. I myself always enjoy other's sharing of such things.

Here is the first chapter. And I will continue to share other chapters in the coming days as I am still in the process of revising and editing them.

Your Humbly and Sincerely
Immanuel
   

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CHAPTER 1: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

In this section we will give a brief presentation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God:

•        The abnormal phenomenon of the “Normal” Gospel-The Good News of Salvation.

•        The Gospel in the New Testament is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

•        Essence of the Gospel of the Kingdom.


Presentation


The Gospel of Salvation

Is it strange that most Christians, being around for some years, especially in western Christian circles, seldom heard the Gospel preached as good news of the Kingdom of God? Surely sin, hell and heaven are often the topics, thus repentance and the Cross being presented, but I have seldom heard a sound message preached in the context of the Kingdom of God in my years of Christian life.

What we often hear is a message of salvation. To offer a brief version of it:

Man fell by willfully disobeyed God when lured by the serpent (Satan), thus sinned against and was expel from the Garden of Eden and lost our place in heaven (paradise). Everyone who is born of Adam will end up in hell. Only by God’s grace that He sent His only begotten Son to become a man, born of a virgin and died on the cross, paid the penalty of our sins and made atonement for them. If we believe Him and repent of our sins, make a good confession and receive Him as our Savior and Lord, then being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, we then are saved from hell and will be with Him in heaven. He will give us eternal life and come back from heaven and raise us up or rapture us when He appears. We then will have eternal life and enjoy His love as a family forever, free from pain, sorrow and illness. Some even boldly state that our beloved one will be with us in heaven and live with us forever.

To speak the truth, this is almost like folklore rather than the Gospel.  The life we are given through our faith in Christ Jesus is never intended, in God’s mind, as an extension of our earthly life, even with its best wishes and ideals. Yes, we are saved from hell, but not reserved for heaven. Yes, we will be resurrected and have a new body, but it will be a spiritual body. Yes, Christ will come and free us from pain and sorrow, but more than that, we will also reign with Him. And we will more than belong to God’s family; we will also reign with Him in His kingdom, as priests and kings.

To be saved is but the first step of our Christian walk; to grow in maturity, or His image and likeness is what truly God intended, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

In this sense, the Gospel of Salvation amounts only to “half of the Gospel”. There is much more.


The Gospel Preached by Jesus and His Disciples is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

If the Gospel is not merely about salvation of human souls, then what is it about? Well, the New Testament states it clearly: it is about the Kingdom of God. Let’s take a look at the Gospel preached by NT characters to give a clear picture of this.


John the Baptist

1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
--- Matt. 3:1-2 [NIV]

In the OT prophecies (Mal. 3:1, Isa. 40:3-5), a forerunner of the Messiah is mentioned and designated as the massager who will announce the coming of His Kingdom.  

In Matthew chapter 3 and John chapters 1 and 3, we can see that John the Baptist intentionally preached a message of repentance and baptized people so they would receive the King, who was coming with His Kingdom. When the dazzled rulers and scholars of the day sent messengers to ask him who he was, he plainly denied their imagination to treat him as the Prophet mentioned by Moses .  However, he pointed people to Jesus, declaring that He was both the Lamb of God and the Son of God, or the Messiah.

Jesus Christ

“43I must preach the good news (Gospel) of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”
---Luk. 4:43 [NIV]

After He was baptized by John and tested by Satan in the wildness for 40 days, endowed with the Holy Spirit, Jesus first preached in His hometown at the synagogue where he was brought up.  While reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, he declared that He fulfilled the scripture he was reading (Isaiah 61), implying that He was the Messiah (the Anointed One after David).  Because of such bold and unconventional preaching, these people, who knew His family and His upbringing (in the flesh), refused to accept His testimony. They actually ended up trying to push him off a cliff and tried to stone him.  From there, He went to the region of Zebulun and Naphtali to fulfill another portion of scripture recorded in Isaiah 9:1-2.   

“From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ ” (Matt. 4:17)

He would now call his disciples and begin to teach them about the Kingdom of God.  This was to fulfill Isa. 52:7.  He did many miracles, and signs and wonders accompanied His preaching.  Yet not many believed Him, even His own mother and brothers refused to do so.  This is why Jesus was distressed and sorrowful for the blindness of His own people, even the ones closest to Him.  

It is evident that Jesus began to instruct others of the Kingdom.  He selected 12 men and imparted unto them spiritual authority and power and sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God.  It was recorded in the Matt 10 and Luke 9. After this, Jesus sent out his 72 disciples as recorded in Luke 10 with the same task.

Jesus’ purpose in sending out the disciples was beyond the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Rather, He wanted them to experience the power of the Holy Spirit themselves, thus being strengthened in their faith to continue learning as disciples of the Kingdom.  Today many people confuse this purpose of the working of the power of the Holy Spirit, treating it as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end. This is a very sad and misleading way to treat the Holy Spirit. Jesus actually offered severe warnings against such things when he taught His disciples.

With the preaching of the Gospel, the advancement of the Kingdom raged in more conflicts in heaven and on earth. Yet the disciples were not necessarily aware of it, sometimes they were even used by the evil one to hinder the work of Jesus who was in obedience to the will of the Father.  Thus, Jesus was facing resistance not only from outside of his camp, but also from within.  Later, even among His disciples, those whom He called friends and brothers, one (Judas Iscariot) betrayed Him; and others either abandoned Him or denied Him. This fulfilled what was prophesied in Psm. 69:19-28, only in His case He prayed for those persecuted Him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what are doing.” Our Lord chose to fulfill the will of His Father and the truth of His Message unto the utmost, even to the point of death on the cross, as one who was cursed. This is the complete opposite of what man had perceived the Messiah (the Anointed One) would be.

Jesus taught His disciples about the Kingdom of God. He commissioned them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and to make disciples in all nations after they were “clothed with power from on high”, in the same way that He had discipled them.

Acts 1:3 [NIV]
3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Luk. 24:45-49 [NIV]
45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Matt. 28:16-20 [NIV]
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Apostles

Recorded in Acts and the epistles of the Apostles, we can easily indentify the message that they preached is also the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

As they waited in Jerusalem, following instruction of their Lord, they received the out-pouring the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The church was thus born and the Kingdom came to be true upon the hearts of man. That very day, Peter, in face of false accusation and great confusion, by the Holy Spirit, preached the Gospel (Acts 2). The core of the message is that the Jews had crucified their Messiah as they were not able to perceive the nature of the Kingdom of God, thus could not recognize who Jesus was.  With this message, three thousands in Jerusalem were converted that day.

Peter and other apostles worked many miracles as they continue to preach their Lord and His Kingdom in face of great opposition from the religious leaders of the day. But they never shrieked or became afraid from that day on. However, their ministry was mainly among the Jews.

Meantime, God raised a very unique personality to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Gentile. Saul was a devout Jew and well educated as a Pharisee. He was very zealous of the tradition of his forefathers, so much so that he volunteered to persecute the followers of Jesus.  The Lord “ambushed” him on his way to Damascus as he determined to carry out the persecution there as well.  He was put to blindness for three days, only to be restored by the prayer and the laying on of hands of a follower of Jesus, Ananias. Then he was baptized and became a disciple of Jesus himself. Never did Paul turn back. He fulfilled his life mission. In his one decade’s hard work, preaching and teaching the Gospel wherever he was sent, he laid the foundation of 10 churches in the major cities of the Roman world, especially in the area of Asia Minor.

These works of the faithful servants of God spurred a movement of such magnitude and impact that the Roman world, the most powerful and civilized Empire till that time, endorsed Christianity officially within 300 years after the Gospel was firstly preached by Peter. What an amazing God! And how wonderful His ways!

Essence of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God

Now, we will briefly discuss about the essence of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
In the beginning God created man in His own image and likeness. His intention is that He would have many sons to be His Family and share His Glory. For this very reason, He created heavens and earth and everything in it and gave Adam and Eve, the first couple He created, the role to rule all creation on His behalf, multiply their own kind and subdue everything. He walked with them and instructed them of His wisdom, in hope that they would learn of His character and mature into His nature as they fellowship together. But man rebelled and was lured by the serpent or the Devil. They failed the test and partook of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were thus expelled from God’s presence and was not able to eat from the tree of life. Sin entered the world through Adam, thus death.  At just the right time, God, by His foreknowledge, sent His only Begotten Son, born of a woman, became a man of flesh and blood, the last Adam, tasted our pain and sorrow as a man. More than that, He would willingly die as sin on our behalf. He took our sin upon Himself and was crucified on a cross, at the persecution of His own, the Jews, and Gentiles, the Romans. Thus He could forgive the sins of those who repent and receive baptisms in His name. After He died, He went to the Deep, took of the Key of hade and death, once for all, restored unto those who put their faith in Him, the hope of eternal life. More than that, He also ascended to God’s presence and sat down His right hand, thus He could grant authority and power, as it was given to Him by the Father, to those who would become His church to subdue everything under Him in face of the opposition of the Evil One and his agents. Whoever believes Him and His Kingdom, would be given the gift the Holy Spirit, thus eternal life and be included as citizens of His Kingdom and members of the Family of God.

And through His church, the embodiment of His Kingdom and Family of His Father on earth as well as in heaven, He would subdue everything under His feet. When He has done this, He would hand His kingdom back to the Father, who would fill Himself all in all.

In the following sections, we will expound on this more.

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Scriptures


The Preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God

•        Matt. 4:17  [NIV]
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”,

---In the Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry.

•        Matt. 10:7  [NIV]
As you (the disciples) go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

---When Jesus first sent out His 12 disciples.

•        Acts 28:31 [NIV]
Boldly and without hindrance he (Paul) preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

---In the midst of the first wave of Christianity.

•        Matt. 24:14 [NIV]
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

---In the End Time.


The Essence of the Gospel

Eph. 1:3-14 [NIV]
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

1 Cor. 15:20-28 [NIV]
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.


Questions for Reviews

1.        What stands out to you when you read this session’s presentation?



2.        What kind of Gospel you have heard before? Have you ever heard anyone concentrate on the Kingdom of God in their presenting the Gospel to you?



3.        What Gospel Jesus Christ and His disciples preached? Can you give a brief presentation of it yourself here?  







Questions for Mediation and Application

1.        You surely have learned the basic questions of every world view, religious or philosophical. What are your answers to these “tough” questions?

a.        Where are you from?


b.        Who are you?


c.        Why are you here?


d.        Where are you going?



2.        Now read this verse:

Gen. 1:28 [NIV]
28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Can you give a brief explanation of what God means when He talking about subduing and ruling?




3.        Continue to pounder on the above verse:

Now, do you think man as in general enjoy the position and power to do what God commanded in this present age?



Why not?



4.        Now you have briefly dived into the concept of the Kingdom of God. Please give some contemplation on how it will impact your life in these areas:

a.        My Spiritual Life



b.        My Life in the World



c.        My life in the Body of Christ

Dear Immanuel, your English is excellent. You sound very kind, modest but noble.

I read this chapter. It's very guiding and affecting.

I am spiritual but not religious. I stepped into church a few times and were welcomed, I encountered polite missionaries and they were nice and friendly, I had friends who are profoudly religious and cared about me, I also encountered a few people who belligerently hurt me in the name of religion, which I found very troubling...

I never found a "comfortable seat" in a "religious bench". Not because I worry about or feel inferior due to my "sin"s(I am not trying to be scornful or disrespectful, but I just don't think people should dedicate so much time and effort to make each other and themselves very guilty all the time), it's the natural doubt and reasoning that make me wonder what I was doing there(a bible study group, and so on).

There are other reasons, among them, my unfamilarity with Western religion makes it less appealing to me.

That being said, I am still quite curious that, in your mind, does God have a clear or specific image? Is he/she perfect(I don't know God is male or female or if he/she looks like us at all. I would like to believe he/she is very goodlooking because so many people fall for him so deeply), if God is not perfect, who is the figure chatting/communicating with him/her to help him/her turn into a better God?

In the first year in US, I went to the Bible study group on Weekends. People helped each other and the atmosphere was amiable. But, I saw other dark sides too. I witnessed some of them hate, say one thing doing another, sometimes, they even smear and distort facts purely to deprive, degrade and attack other humans...Are they God's good children, or did God instruct them to behave so?...I am not religious but those puzzled thoughts often hover in my mind.

... ...

... ... ...

I believe you can feel God's existence.
But, do you (often) question the Bible?

山豆凡,

My dear friend. I feel honored to have you share with me your life, esp. your experiences with Christainity. Like many things in this world, a pure and noble thing often would be corrupted and distorted when imperfect men abuse it to satisfy their own interests.

I hope you know I don't say this lightly: I also understand deeply the hurt you might feel. I am so sorry that this was brought about by others. How I wish I could brush that from your heart with a simple statement! But you know well, I can't do that. To share this with you as well: I have been disappointed many times of my fellow belivers, esp the institutional church or you would call it, the religion of Christianity. But God, who is perfect, enjoys a way far beyond our imagination to claim and use imperfect people, people like me. When man failed to represent him in the right light, that won't affect a bit His being and His nature, His existence and truthfulness. How I hope you understand this! Each day, I find imperfection in my own life, it is not because of merely the awareness of sin, rather that I am not always willing and obedient in His ways, be it about relationships, or my own thoughts and desires. However, that can't and has never hinder His love to me and my life in Him.  

Now, before I address the questions you raised above. I want to share something of my personal life with you. Shortly after God spoke to me, at which time, I was quite ignorant of His existence, and actually thought myself mad with this strange voice talking to me. I was brought to a Bible next to me on the bench. I openned it to find out whether the voice was from the God that was mentioned in the Bible or not. It was the first shock-wave of many that began to undo my own "intellect". You have to understand I didn't know the Bible very well at the time. I was able to read things that I just heard through a soothing and peaceful voice in the most comfused and painful time of my life. The words jumped out of the pages with golden light. How confusing that moment was to me! This puzzled and humbled me greatly, for never had I read anything in my life like that. I thought to myself:"I can't read this book. It has power."

Now, allow me to offer you a bit of a context. Prior to that, I had stuck myself in a university library, read day and night for about two years, practiced fast and meditation, tried very means with the sole purpose to see if there is truth in this world, if there is anything that still is pure and unseflish. I was disappointed. All my readings ended up with a single word, "nothingness". I was so disappointed with the world and human race, that I lost all joy and hope. I gave up everything, my education, my dilligence, my effort in anything, wondering like a walking corpse.      

You can imagine the spark of hope my strange experience had offered me. Now knowing that I can't read this book-I tried, but it looked all nonsence to me-I thought, maybe the church people, who suppose to know the secret, could help me. I went to 7 churches, only to be disappointed again. I have to confess to you, it was not an encouraging thing to see the coldness and hypocrasy in the people I encountered. I decided that I would have nothing to do this.

But the voice was still bugging me. And I had nowhere to go for direction of life. So I challenged it again:"I read in this book, that you can show signs to people. Now I give you two days. If you won't give me a sign, I will disregard what happened to me and go back to my own way". And He did give me an unmistaking sign, I won't get into the detail of that for the sake of your time.

Now I was left alone, with no one to help me to read this mystical book. I decided to do it myself. I began to ask the voice that had been speaking to me to tell me where to start. 7 Times in one day I was informed that if I want to read the Bible, I need to start with the Gospel of John. So I did, and then I had to stop at the very first few verses.

"In the beginning is the Word. The Word was with God, the Word is God." What? who would buy into this kind of nonsense? I reasoned with myself:" If the word is with God, surely it can't be God." You see, I enjoyed at least some common sense that here is not talking about the Bible.

Now, I couldn't proceed. I then asked Him to gave me the most sincere, truthful and pure hearted man of His to come to me and teach me. Next day, I was invited by two brothers to attend their Bible studies. All just started to teach and they all began with the Gospel of John. So for next few months, I sat there, bad with English, and had no clue most of the time what they were talking about. I did not learn much of the Gosepl of John with all these. But I was given two beautiful friends, they have been in my life ever since. One actually is now planning to move with his family to my location, so we can live together.  

Paul in one of His epistles shared that He was taught by no man, but by Christ Himself. This seems to be a bost on my part, but I can confidently to share you, my friend, I was taught of the Bible in this way. However, this does not mean I do not sin or walk in the flesh time to time, or always be able to hear and understand things rightly. That is no the case. And I hope you would have the patience to read the coming chapters to find out why.    

I shared too much of myself. With this, I just want to share with you that I was gaven no room to question the Bible. And that if you want to know the Bible, you should firstly know God and have Him to teach you. Others can only help. That being said, I can confidently testify that the Bible is a book given by God through spirit-filled people of the past.

Now, the God in the Bible has no image, His image is us. Actually this  is the very topic of our next chapter. Hope you would enjoy reading it.

Now, do bring my best to yours.