Today I didn’t wake up until 10:30am and didn’t get up properly until lunchtime. Such decadence. I have something of an excuse other than laziness, because I was up late last night – and no, not a wild night partying, but a wild night praying!
The CU had a half-night of prayer. We met in Gabalfa Baptist Church, armed with our Bibles and supplies of food (we weren’t going in for fasting as well!) Ben Carswell gave a talk about mission – sadly, Dick Dowsett, our mission speaker, wasn’t able to make it because his daughter is very ill, so that was something else to pray about too. We had “prayer walks” around Cardiff in four groups, before returning to the church for prayer with various different aids in different rooms (verses up on a Powerpoint presentation, music, a room for “creative prayer” and the like). It was a really good, and helped enthuse me and give me more of a sense of vision, as well as a good time to think about ideas for the mission.
So what was it that was getting me excited? The Revolution, that’s what.
The Revolution is coming, it is here and it is unstoppable. This revolution will sweep through all creation, changing it forever. What am I talking about? The Kingdom of God, begun at the Resurrection of Jesus, born in our hearts, and changing the world.
Christianity isn’t just about the salvation of individual souls. God’s plan is to redeem all of creation. The kingdom of God is present when we follow God as king, as he deserves. But it is far more than that – it is also “the sphere of influence” of his rule and all its benefits. The influence of his love and goodness should spread through every area of life. God’s rule isn’t something just for our private lives, but for everything: art, culture, politics, science, relationships – you name it! God’s big plan is to bring all things under one head, Jesus Christ.
The revolution is both here-and-now and coming-soon. This is a present reality, and through the power of God, there can be real and substantial progress. We can’t make heaven now, but we can work towards that with real progress, and that process will be completed and consummated at the return of Christ.
Whether you enter the kingdom free and willing citizen or resist it as an unrepentant rebel is up to you. But God’s plan is that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
God involves us in the revolution – he chooses to work through us being his disciples, living and proclaiming his good message of love and grace to the world. That’s an awesome and exciting responsibility, and we need to be working out what the kingdom of God means in all that we do, from shopping to studying, from our money to our relationships to our work to our hobbies.
This means the total overthrow of our habitual ways of thinking, our self-centredness and pride. Saying we should follow God as king goes right against the grain of the current individualistic, independent culture. But God is a good God, a God of love and justice, the servant-king who laid down his life for us – he is so amazing he deserves to be followed as lord and king! The revolution means a revolution in our attitudes. It’s a revolution in society: a change from isolation to community, from selfishness to contentment, from apathy to action. Many people despair of changing the world, but we know that through the Kingdom change is not only impossible, but inevitable!
Today I was watching some of the Doctor Who boxset. The extras include trailers, including the one where the Doctor asks the viewer “Do you wanna come with me?”. Jesus says something similar, only it isn’t just a question, but a command – “Come follow me”. The Doctor gives a warning and a promise, and what he says is true of the Christian life as well: “It won’t be quiet, it won’t be calm and it won’t be safe. But I tell you want it will be – the trip of a lifetime.” Are you excited?
That coming kingdom is something to be excited about. The Bible tells us something of Jesus’ resurrection body – it could appear and disappear, walk through walls. If his resurrection body was so transformed, then what will the resurrection creation be like? Our ultimate destination is not some disembodied afterlife, but a new physical creation, the marriage of heaven and earth. Our ultimate fate is resurrection, not mere afterlife!
There’s no Biblical grounds for supposing that in heaven we’ll just sit around singing “You’re so great God” over and over. How tedious that would be! How could we ever be content with such paltry worship? No, just as God gave Adam and Eve meaningful work and activity to do in filling the Earth, building civilization, learning and exploring, all as service to him, we will have new and exciting things to do in the new creation. Just look around at all the achievements of mankind. That’s the result of being made in the image of God, even when that image is corrupted. Just imagine a civilization built by a people perfect and uncorrupted – the great art and achievements and wonder of a world built as an act of worship to God. Are you excited?!
Join the revolution: love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. Work this out in the wholeness of life, and this will transform both you and the world. The church has been so ineffectual in many ways – let’s get in there, working towards the coming kingdom.
The revolution cannot be halted – are you ready for it?
