Missions and The Kingdom

For a long time in my life, I glossed over the many, many verses in the Bible that refer to the Kingdom of God. I guess I thought that it was always referring to Heaven or some distant place in the future, and as long as I was going there it really didn't matter to me at this point what it was like. 'The kingdom of God is near' never made a lot of sense to me. Why was Jesus saying it was near when it's been 2000 years and it still isn't here?


Then I came across a book titled 'The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard and the idea of the Kingdom began to come alive to me. I realized that the Kingdom is a present reality just as much as a future one. This new way of looking at things became very important in the way I thought about missions. I came to realize that at it's core, missions is about the present time expansion of the kingdom of God.



So what is a kingdom ...
Very simply, a kingdom is a place where a king rules. The extent of the rule determines the size of the kingdom. Anywhere the king's will is followed is part of the kingdom; anywhere the king's will is not followed, is not part of the kingdom.


Translating this into Christian terms ... the kingdom of God exists where the will of God is done. When Jesus teaches us to pray 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven', He is telling us what 'thy kingdom come means.' The second phrase is simply a clarification or restatement of the first. This is the 'missions' portion of the Lord's prayer.


If you think about it, there are really only two ways for the kingdom to come to earth or to expand. First, it can expand in our lives as we become more and more people who do what God wants us to do. Second, it can expand as it enters into the lives of more and more people. This internal and external kingdom expansion is why we are here. This is the good news. It is why Jesus came.


The Significance to Missions ...
I had always felt that the sole purpose of missions was to glorify God. I still believe this to be true, but I had to reconcile it with this idea of missions being defined as Kingdom expansion. John Piper says that missions exists because perfect worship does not. He views missions as the path to extend the worship of the one true God (for the joy of all peoples). If we couple this with the definition of worship given to us by Paul in Romans 12:1 (being a living sacrifice), Piper's statement becomes 'missions exists because perfect, living sacrifice does not'. A living sacrifice is nothing more than a person submitting his or her will to God's will. So I was able to reconcile the two ideas - Romans 12:1 showed me that the goal of worship (or glorifying God) is really one in the same as the goal of God's will being done on earth (or Kingdom expansion).

So when Jesus tells a story and says 'the kingdom of God is like ...', he is often talking missions. When strategizing about missions, we must use a kingdom view, and our main goal must be Kingdom expansion. If we think of any other structure or goal other than the Kingdom of God, we will get bogged down by organizations, rules, and human limitations. If we think in terms of kingdom expansion we can see it expand like yeast through bread or like a mustard seed as it turns into a tree. CPM strategies (which I will describe in future posts) take a Kingdom expansion view and that is why they work.



And I just happened to be reading ...
I just happened to read Luke 11:20 this morning so I'll throw it in free of charge. :) Jesus says "If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you." There is the 'Kingdom' word again. Jesus is saying here that if God's will is entering a person's life and a demon is being driven out, it means the Kingdom has come. He is once again clarifying for us what it means for the Kingdom to come! I'm telling you - once you grasp this concept you will see it everywhere.