Kingdom advance

In my last post I said that church is gathering for war. Today I want to pick up there to see Jesus gathering the troops and sending them into battle.

The scene is a mountain in Galilee, maybe Mount Hermon where he was transfigured, where the disciples gather as he had appointed. Matthew tells us that they worshiped him, but some had their doubts. “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth,” Jesus began. “Therefore, as you are going, make disciples, baptizing them into the kingdom, and teaching them to observe what I have commanded you.”

Jesus had told the disciples his kingdom is to advance against the strongholds of Hades. Paul the apostle reminds us the weapons of our warfare are not human but powerful for pulling down strongholds. That weapon is discipleship. Committed learning relationships formed over time with those who live behind those strongholds, and who need to be set free. How interesting to note that the mission is also the weapon.

I am also struck by the order with which discipleship is carried out. First, we engage people in discipleship, committed learning relationships that are formed and developed over time. Second, at some point we baptize them into the kingdom. This is a point after they express faith in Christ and a willingness to renounce the forces of evil that surround and enslave them and to live for Christ. Third, we teach them to observe and keep all the commands of Christ, his restatements of the law, if you will. In other words, discipleship continues after baptism in a way that is totally focused on Jesus Christ.

At the beginning of his ministry Jesus gave the congregation of his hometown synagogue a peek behind the strongholds he and his church would plunder. Reading from Isaiah the prophet, Jesus declared God’s Holy Spirit was upon him with the unction to preach good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of Jubilee. The conditions addressed are a good description of what Hades, the place of death and hopelessness, looks like.

Now, Jesus tells us the weapon for affecting that is Christian discipleship. Committed learning relationships, developed and nurtured over time, that will address poverty, heal the brokenhearted, announce freedom for captives and affect freedom for the oppressed, and declare a day of new beginnings. It is not too difficult to overlay these descriptions into our respective ministry settings and determine where the strongholds are and what needs to be done to plunder them.

There is another emphasis I cannot over look. The church, agency of the kingdom, is always looking outward and always moving forward. “As you are going,” Jesus said. The forward movement thrusts us into new territory and the making of disciples forces us to cross paths with new people and include them in our forward motion. I am struck by how impossible that is in conventional churchianity, where we hide behind our four walls to do whatever we do on a Sunday morning.

Our job is both simple and profound. Engage the world around us in committed learning relationships that transform lives and bring people into a commitment to Jesus Christ through baptism and obedience of his commands.