The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of the Church

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of spending a day with Tony and Marilyn Fitzgerald from Church of the Nations International.  Apart from being an incredibly encouraging day, it was good to be reminded of our starting point in our work as kingdom agents.

Tony shared with us that all too often we begin with a ‘gospel of the Church‘ into which we attempt to squeeze a ‘gospel of the Kingdom‘ Whereas we should begin with the ‘gospel of the Kingdom‘ out of which the ‘gospel of the Church‘ makes sense.  Jesus spoke on many occasions regarding His kingdom even going to the extent of teaching his disciples to pray ‘Your kingdom come your will be done‘.  Comparatively, he only spoke twice on the Ekklesia-church and even then he says ‘I will build it!’ As if to say ‘keep your sticky hands off it!’  So on one hand, King Jesus invites his disciples to co-labour in bringing Jesus rule and reign to earth, and on the other He let’s them know He is the chief architect of his Ekklesia (legal assembly of government officials) This is quite profound when you think of what we have attempted to do in recent times.  So often we have strategised, planned, studied and worked at building a ‘church’ that most often has a franchise denominational badge on the outside.  Then when we gather with our brothers and sisters from other church outlets to say ‘let us stand in unity with King Jesus’!  As if Jesus has a harem instead of a pure bride!  In my experience it has been nigh on impossible to gather churches as we know them together for an authentic kingdom unification.  Not to say good things haven’t happened but we are keeping ourselves from the best.

But what if we started with Jesus benevolent rule over a real kingdom?  That as we have Christ in us the hope of Glory, and respond in loving obedience to His commands, we then form his ‘legal assembly of government officials’?  A people who are the church as a result of being called into this kingdom reality through Jesus.  A way I can help digest this is by using a hypothetical example.  If I was an obedient subject in a monarchy with a benevolent King and I was placed in a foreign country to bring in the rule of my king to that new geographic area what would I do?  Would I start with a public rally which attracts the attention of the current government?  Or would I buy a media license to influence through popular channels? Or could I go ‘underground’ and influence one person at a time with the reality that my King has a concern for them which is perfect and cannot even compare to the rule they are currently under.  That one by one, and progressively in a multiplying ground swell, a new kingdom is ushered into a foreign land.

So, if that is the starting point what does it mean to operate as ‘church?’  It doesn’t matter how you currently express your life as a part of the church, ask yourself ‘is the kingdom coming through who I am and what I am doing?’  Anything that is not fruitful for this outcome and is not a command of Christ, must be scrutinized as to it’s relevance for our mission.

So in the gathering of the church in our home, we are now seeking to see things through the lens of ‘the gospel of the Kingdom’.  ie, if we are agents of a heavenly government, what will we do to infiltrate a government of conflicting values with love?

Tony’s teaching in The Glorious Church teaches some important fundamentals as we re-discover what it means to be the church.