Portraying the Gospel of the Kingdom
November 10, 2009
What does it mean to “portray” the gospel of the kingdom? This may not be a pressing question on your mind, but I hope it becomes one as we consider what it means to minister the gospel in our neighborhood, city, and world. Portraying the gospel goes hand in hand with proclaiming the gospel as two of our core values under the “reaching out” portion of our mission statement. We take this proclaim/portray pair from Jesus’ own ministry, who went from village to village both preaching the gospel and healing the sick, calming storms, and casting out demons. To put it differently, Jesus not only declared God’s rule, he displayed it through his mighty deeds.
Such portrayals of God’s kingdom are not only for Bible times. Consider this account below of God’s displays of his rule through his people. This is from a good friend of ours who was part of a team that went to a small Indonesian island where the inhabitants practice a mixture of Islam and animism and have never heard the gospel.
“On the island we were given opportunities to share truth and pray for people. The father in my husband’s host house had spent the day unloading 50lb bags of cement for the next day’s work project. The next morning he woke up unable to move his neck. This man, Pak C, was the one in charge of the work project. The men staying in his house asked if they could pray for him in Jesus’ name. The guys then laid hands on him and prayed bold prayers for the Lord’s healing. When they finished, Pak C could move his neck and was no longer in pain. He then went around telling his friends and family what had happened. Good news spreads fast. Pray that the Lord who healed Pak C’s neck would heal him of a far worse ailment, his sin, drawing him into His Kingdom. Pray that just as Pak C declared boldly of his physical healing, he would declare boldly the gospel of grace.
“The women in my house also had the opportunity to pray for the healing of a little two-year-old boy in our house. He was quite sick the first day we were there. The mother and grandmother kept apologizing to us and telling us of what a happy, talkative boy he is when he is well. The next day, the great-grandfather of the boy came…to pray over water, have the boy drink it, and then dump the rest over the boy’s head. When the mother was telling me of this ritual, I immediately stopped and asked the Lord to thwart this man’s plans, cause the boy to become worse on account of it, and give us an opportunity to pray over him in Jesus name. Later that day, the mother told us the boy was doing worse. We asked if we could pray for the boy in Jesus’ name. So, we laid hands on him and had the opportunity to not only pray for his physical healing and wholeness but for his spiritual as well. The boy was running around laughing and smiling later that day. Praise the Lord for His kindness in revealing Himself to the Sea Tribe, and us, in such a way!”
By God’s grace we are already portraying the gospel of the kingdom in numerous ways, such as teaching our neighbors English, showing hurting neighborhood children the love of Christ, and sending gift boxes to Abby Tracy’s boys in Uganda. But these stories challenge me to expect more! Let us continue to look for opportunities for God to display his kingdom through us; perhaps he will use us to bring a miraculous healing that will give more force to our gospel proclamation: Jesus is Lord!
Pastor Chris