Kingdom Disciples

In Romans , Paul presents his most detailed explanation of the “Good News of God,” a message centered on His Son, Jesus Christ. He was dealing with conflicts between Gentile and Jewish believers in the Assembly of Rome and preparing the ground for taking the Gospel to the western regions of the Roman Empire. In the process of doing so, he addressed several related topics, including death, redemption, the Law, resurrection, and the New Creation.

Jesus sent his twelve disciples to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom throughout the region. In the Gospel of Mark , this incident is followed by the execution of John the Baptist. His death serves as a warning to the would-be disciple that rejection will inevitably follow his or her decision to follow Jesus of Nazareth no matter where he leads. To walk in his footsteps, one must first COUNT THE COST to have any hope of seeing the journey through to the end.

When the subject of the Second Coming is raised, quite naturally, the question of what “sign” or “signs” will precede it is asked, and invariably, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, and similar catastrophes are proposed as harbingers of that day. Yet Jesus himself gave us the  definitive answer  to this question, namely, the  completion of the mission of the Church  to proclaim his salvation and lordship to all nations.

Human society and institutions are part of Babylon’s domain, but God is summoning His children to separate from her . Scripture teaches the followers of Jesus to live as people who are distinct from the world. Not physically, but morally and spiritually separate from the “ forms ” and ideologies of the present evil age. They are to be “ in the world but not of it .” Their mission is to call other men and women to “ save themselves from this crooked generation ” before Jesus arrives in glory and judges the world.

The description of the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost stresses the theme of fulfillment. On that day, what was foreshadowed by the ancient feast began to receive its promised substance. The bestowal of the Spirit was an epochal event that marked the start of the Age of the Spirit, and the Gift of the Spirit fulfilled what the annual Levitical feast symbolized.

The Bible speaks of the “ mysteries ” of God, His ways that are hidden from this world’s “wisdom” and defy human expectations. In his teachings, Jesus declared that not everyone can understand the “ mysteries of the kingdom .” It is God who reveals the deep and obscure things to whomever He pleases, and in His Son, He has done so for all the world to see. In the death and resurrection of the Nazarene, God has disclosed His true nature and the salvation that He now offers to all men and women.